News stories and opinions kept quiet by the mainstream press
Editor's Note: Even during a war, TV news organizations
seem to miss [or actively suppress] a lot of material
that pops up on the internet. Perhaps that is one reason for the steady decline
in network TV ratings since the internet became popular as a news source for the
average American. Please be sure to visit
The Media Bias Page,
where there is even more material you're sure to find interesting.
In general, I've noticed that the Fox News Channel tends to report cheerfully about the great improvements
in Iraq, post-Saddam: People have electricity, schools, the right to vote, and a number of things
they didn't have before. CNN, on the other hand, seems to constantly whine about the casualties, the
cost, and the sluggishness of the war. CNN has an infectious pessimism unmatched by any other "news"
source, at least when there's a Republican in the White House.
More examples of spiked news stories can be
found here.
Information about World Trade Center Building 7 is
located here.
Lately there have been a number of terrorist attacks reported as "isolated incidents", and that
subject is now covered on this page.
Commentary: Occasionally TV news programs
feature black and white video clips from a successful operation in Iraq. You
may recall seeing aerial footage of a missile hitting a bridge or a building, right on target. But
the video is always very fuzzy, there's no color, no detail, it's shown in reverse polarity (white = black),
and it always looks like night-vision video. Very obviously the pictures released by the military
have been intentionally blurred. We saw clearer pictures from the Moon in 1969 than we see from Iraq
today. We can see clearer aerial footage of the bombing in World War II than we see from this year's
military action. The first Gulf War, ten years ago, should have been the first war shot in hi-definition
TV. The technology is available, so why does the news media settle for scraps of substandard
video when the military could do much better? Would it jeopardize our ability to win the war
if the enemy found out how clearly we can see them?
Watergate(s)
on Steroids. Agents had a friendly conversation with General Michael Flynn and later
charged him with felony lying to the FBI. I don't see how this law passes constitutional muster and
the Fifth Amendment. The FBI then leaned on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused
himself from Russiagate, allowing the appointment of an unconstitutional special counsel named Bob
Mueller who (dramatic pause) was the FBI director (another dramatic pause) on 9/11. Apparently
the intelligence community has six ways till Sunday to get back at its critics but cannot stop 19
hijackers. Why Bush kept Mueller and CIA Director George J. Tenet on after the deaths of
nearly 3,000 Americans is beyond me. I will note that the first thing the government did in the
wake of 9/11 was to create a new bureaucracy. Never let a serious crisis go to waste.
The
Communist Plan That Has Subverted Our Intel Agencies. [Scroll down]
According to [former CIA agent J. Michael] Waller, two "cultural revolutions" took place in the
intel agencies after 9/11. The first, born of necessity under President George W. Bush, started
by watching and listening to the public. The 9/11 attack was seen as the result of intelligence
failure, justifying more aggressive intelligence gathering. The Patriot Act, the expanded
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and the new Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) made this possible. Financial transactions came under greater scrutiny to detect
terrorist funding. Intel coordination was centralized under the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence (ODNI), Big Tech was drawn in to help, and the FBI was doubled and armed to
paramilitary proportions. Strangely, while Americans were subject to increasing scrutiny and
inconvenience, Bush took pains to choose an anodyne name — Global War on
Terror — for the fight against the jihadists and to insist that Islam was "good and
peaceful" and that Arabs and Muslims should not be harassed.
New
Video Shows Saudi Official Plotting 9-11 Attacks in Washington DC Prior to the Massacre of 3,000
Americans. Chris Cuomo played video on Friday night that shows a Saudi official
plotting the 9-11 attacks that killed 3,000 Americans. The video aired on News Nation and
shows a Saudi official plotting the attack in Washington DC. [...] In the CBS video, Omar
al-Bayoui, whom the FBI says was a Saudi operative. In the video al-Bayoui is seen casing the
US Capitol in Washington DC, the likely target of the Flight 93 operation that was thwarted that
day by American passengers and heroes. The video was found by British police during a raid on
Bayoumi's UK apartment days after the 9-11 attacks.
The
Phony War. Back in the last century (the 1990s), we "old-timers" in the armed forces
wore uniforms of blue, green, khaki, or white slacks, skirts (for women only) and pressed shirts,
complete with jackets and ties. Most of us worked side by side with civilian office workers,
especially at the Pentagon. [...] All of that changed after September 11th, 2001. [...] If we
weren't sent to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq, we would be prepared to do so from our
cubicles. Massive spending went into protecting federal facilities. Where I worked, a
building full of defense contractors stood next to an identical building full of government
employees working on the same projects. But only the government-occupied building received
the protection of high fences, turnstiles, armed guards, and barriers to stop suicide bombers in
cars. Government always protects itself first, despite the fact that terrorists almost always
choose to attack vulnerable citizens because it creates the most terror among the population, which
is the whole point.
The
Benefits of Hardship. While the Patriot Act broadened the toolkit for tracking down
foreign threats, its nefarious use as a domestic surveillance weapon took a sledgehammer to
Americans' privacy. Rhetorical battles against Islamic supremacy morphed into another
"politically correct" surrender in which Americans were required to speak of Islam as a "religion
of peace." Fighting the terrorists overseas somehow meant we were also expected to open our
doors to millions of new refugees. What originally felt like a robust offensive strategy for
eliminating hostile threats transformed into an endless military occupation on the other side of
the world with little in the name of long-term strategy. Why were Americans fighting in
Afghanistan and Iraq? If you asked a warrior, he was there for 9/11 payback and to end the
threat of Islamic terrorism. However, the official line from the White House evolved into
some inscrutable notion that Americans must put themselves in harm's way, so that ancient tribal
cultures could magically become stable democracies that valued human rights. That strange
vision didn't make sense to anybody but the politicians in D.C.
Joe
Biden's Foreign Policy: A Series of Failures. [Scroll down] The
withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan marked the end of the twenty-year "War on Terror,"
declared by President George W. Bush after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Afghan operation
aimed at destroying the Taliban terrorist group ended completely at the wrong time — the
agreements with official Kabul and the Taliban reached during Trump's presidency were multiplied by
zero. In consequence, the Taliban seized the entire country. The withdrawal of troops
was long overdue. The twenty-year presence in one of the most problematic regions of the
world cost at least $825 billion since 2001 (several experts say that these numbers are
seriously underestimated), and the lives of 2,300 soldiers. Our troops left the country at
the time of a Taliban offensive, removing the last shield protecting Afghan civilians, while also
leaving the Taliban weapons worth billions of dollars, including helicopters, armored vehicles,
artillery systems, rifles, and much more.
Saudis
Accused of Masterminding 9/11 in Bombshell Court Filing. Saudi Arabia's involvement
in 9/11 has been public information for decades, with numerous sources documenting how Saudi
officials Fahad al-Thumairy and Omar al-Bayoumi allegedly assisted at least two of the hijackers
ahead of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But were Thumairy and Bayoumi rogue
criminal religious zealots, or were they operating under the direction of the Saudi Arabian
government? A bombshell court filing in a long-running 9/11 lawsuit makes the case for the
latter argument. Families of 9/11 victims argued in a 71-page brief filed on May 7 that
Thumairy and Bayoumi operated under the directions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. [Tweet] [...]
The 71-page, partially redacted court filing compiles evidence that has been trickling out over the
last several years about Saudi's involvement in 9/11. That includes a 2017 FBI report that
said Bayoumi was operating directly under then Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan
Alsaud — a close friend of the Bush family.
How
To Waste Two Trillion Dollars. Brown University's cost of the Afghan war project just
concluded that America's longest war cost an estimated $US 2.2 trillion dollars —
that's 'trillion dollars." If we add in George W. Bush's fake `war on terror,' Brown's scholars
estimate that the cost rises to US $8 trillion! Most of this huge amount was financed by
loans, not through taxes. Meaning that every dollar spent must be paid for by borrowing.
That means paying interest (raised by taxes) on the borrowed money — $95 billion
dollars of taxpayer money that Biden just gave to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine in a desperate attempt
to buy the November election. Interestingly, the much-ballyhooed war in Afghanistan has all but
vanished from the media. All the CNN generals who postured on TV about the Afghan War have
fallen into silence. They were dead wrong about the war. The minute Donald Trump ended
the Afghan War by cutting off the billions in US money that kept the corrupt US-backed Kabul regime
alive, the war ended and the blizzard of propaganda against Taliban abated. The
$2.2 trillion war abruptly became unimportant.
5
lies our government wants us to believe. [#2] "Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." This
whopper led to endless Middle East wars, resulting in huge human and material losses, as well as the
rise of ISIS. According to the Brown and American University research document "The Costs of War,"
it led to over 940,000 deaths due to direct war violence and an estimated 3.6 [to] 3.8 million
people who have died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones, plus 38 million war refugees and displaced
persons. The U.S. federal price tag for the post-9/11 wars is over $8 trillion.
There's
New Information About The CIA's Involvement With Two 9/11 Terrorists. [Scroll down]
The graduate student claimed the encounter happened "randomly," after which he "takes them to his
house, spends lots of time with them [and] integrates them into them into the community." On 9/11,
the two young terrorists killed themselves and everyone else on board a commercial jet they
hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon. [...] The Saudi man who "randomly" encountered the two
young terrorists is al-Bayoumi, and it turns out that he was working with Saudi intelligence.
Nevertheless, neither the FBI nor the 9/11 Commission found anything suspicious about this "random"
encounter or the prolonged contact between al-Bayoumi and the two young terrorists. We
learned about this only because, after 20 years, the FBI declassified a tranche of 9/11
files. The "random" airport encounter happened in January 2000.
Bombshell Military
Commission Report: 9-11 Hijackers Were CIA Agents. An explosive court filing from the
Guantanamo Military Commission — a court considering the cases of defendants accused of
carrying out the "9/11" terrorist attacks on New York — has seemingly confirmed the
unthinkable. The document was originally published via a Guantanamo Bay court docket, but
while public, it was completely redacted. Independent researchers obtained an unexpurgated
copy. It is an account by the Commission's lead investigator, DEA veteran Don Canestraro, of
his personal probe of potential Saudi government involvement in the 9/11 attacks, conducted at the
request of the defendants' lawyers. Two of the hijackers were being closely monitored by the
CIA and may, wittingly or not, have been recruited by Langley long before they flew planes into the
World Trade Center buildings. [Video clip]
Crew
of United 23 reveal their 767 scheduled to takeoff on fateful day was raided by FBI.
The captain of a United Airlines flight due to take off from New York's JFK airport on the morning
of 9/11 has said he believes his plane was intended to be a fifth aircraft in the terrorist
plot. Tom Mannello was sitting on the tarmac in the cockpit of United Flight 23 at 9 am,
waiting to take off, when air traffic control ordered all flights back to their gates.
Mannello later learned box cutters were found on a plane parked at the neighboring gate, and
believes a ground crew assisting the terrorists got the wrong plane, thwarting any attempted attack.
The
EPA Has No Credibility. In 2016, Christine Todd Whitman, who was the head of the EPA under President
George W. Bush at the time of the 9/11 attacks, issued an apology for having falsely asserted the air quality in
New York City was "safe" following those attacks. In the days following the collapse of the Twin
Towers — which sent dangerous plumes of debris and toxins into the air over Manhattan — Whitman
issued a statement assuring New Yorkers that they had nothing to fear. "I am glad to reassure the people of New
York ... that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink," the statement read. Whitman's
assurances in 2001, of course, were based on the information that "government scientists" were telling her. "The
good news continues to be that air samples we have taken have all been at levels that cause us no concern," she
professed. Even while Whitman acknowledged that it was known that asbestos, lead, and other toxins had been
released from the wreckage in 2001, she maintained that beyond the immediate vicinity the air did "not pose a public
health hazard." Fifteen years later Whitman did a 180.
9/11
and the Twin Towers. [Scroll down] For example, when the towers collapsed, it was theorized that
it was because of the intensity of the fire. However, there have been many investigations (even today) that
suggest that was not the case. The towers were constructed of a high caliber steel, and to propose that fire could
melt and destroy such material is preposterous, as pointed out by physicist Steven Jones. As a matter of fact,
after the buildings fell, there were photos taken of the steel beams. They had broken, but they were almost cut
clean through diagonally. This kind of break could only be done by a particular bomb that had been placed
there. If that's not enough evidence to change your way of thinking, when the towers were built, there was concern
for an airplane attack. So the people that constructed it made it specifically to withstand such an event.
An airplane crash might have led to a huge fire inside the building, but it would never bring the towers down.
The Years We Wasted.
The war is lost, at home and abroad. On the domestic front, we doubled the rate of Muslim immigration to the west and
began assimilating ourselves with Islam's strictures on freedom of expression and the like. [...] In the broader society, our
rulers quickly determined that it was easier to punish us than our enemies. The post-9/11 security state surely helped
soften up western populations for the Chi-Com-19 lockdowns, in which entire nations have been reduced to TSA-administered
airports. As for the war overseas, it ended with a military that can do everything except win handing the keys to
Afghanistan back to the guys who pulled off 9/11 — and apologizing for the two-decade inconvenience by gifting the
mullahs with some of the most expensive infrastructure on the planet plus an air force, approximately five assault rifles for
every Taliban fighter, and express check-in for the forty-seven per cent of the Afghan population that apparently served as
US translators. The position of the United States is far weaker than it was twenty years ago. Around the planet,
the assumption of friends and enemies alike is that the American moment is over and the future belongs elsewhere.
Biden
signs executive order demanding the DOJ declassify FBI's 9/11 investigation documents. President Joe Biden
signed an executive order Friday [9/3/2021] that ordered a review of the classified documents related to the 9/11 terror
attacks — with the promise of releasing more information to the public. Biden had been told by nearly 1,800
Americans impacted by the terror attacks last month — including victims' family members, first responders and
survivors — not to come to any of the 20th anniversary events unless he declassified documents that potentially
show Saudi government links to the September 11, 2001 hijackers. The order makes no mention of Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. Government
Lied For Two Decades About Afghanistan. "The Taliban regime is coming to an end," announced President George W.
Bush at the National Museum of Women in the Arts on December 12, 2001 — almost twenty years ago today. Five
months later, Bush vowed: "In the United States of America, the terrorists have chosen a foe unlike they have faced
before. ... We will stay until the mission is done." Four years after that, in August of 2006, Bush announced: "Al
Qaeda and the Taliban lost a coveted base in Afghanistan and they know they will never reclaim it when democracy succeeds. ... The
days of the Taliban are over. The future of Afghanistan belongs to the people of Afghanistan." For two decades, the
message Americans heard from their political and military leaders about the country's longest war was the same. America is
winning. The Taliban is on the verge of permanent obliteration. The U.S. is fortifying the Afghan security forces,
which are close to being able to stand on their own and defend the government and the country. [...] Similar assurances have been
given by the U.S. Government and military leadership to the American people since the start of the war.
Our
Afghan War Began as a Revenge Op, Now Ends as Another Defeat. [Scroll down] Less than one month after
Bush's remarks, following a night of air bombardment and Tomahawk missile attacks, the first commandos — American
Green Berets and Delta Force with the British SAS — were on the ground in Afghanistan foraging for Osama bin Laden
and Taliban leaders. To be followed at one point by more than 100,000 American troops and thousands more from NATO
allies. Nearly 800,000 Americans served at least one deployment in that God-forsaken land. No one knows how many
suffered PTSD. Now — 7,206 days, 3,596 allied deaths, more than 20,000 wounded, and three presidencies
later — the withdrawal of the last 1,900 U.S. troops is underway, scheduled for completion by Sept. 11th, the 21st
9/11 since the first and the tenth since Benghazi. The troops' original goal was to destroy terrorist training camps,
oust the Taliban, and capture bin Laden. The first two came easily and quickly. Then arrived the temptation to
ensure that Afghanistan never became a terrorist haven again by building a new nation in a place that is not a nation.
And what has all that time, ammo, money, lives, blood, materiel, shattered hopes accomplished?
Paul
Wolfowitz's Iran Connection. It is now generally accepted that the Iraq War came about as a result in large
part of manipulation of intelligence, which skewed the decision-making process. Ahmed Chalabi, the multi-millionaire
confidence trickster who headed the Iraqi National Congress, fed fabricated information to his neoconservative allies in the
Pentagon and White House. The so-called intelligence was repackaged in Doug Feith's Office of Special Plans (OSP) and
stove-piped up to the decision makers, thereby circumventing the normal checks and balances in place at the Central
Intelligence Agency for the vetting of raw information. Alleged "reliable sources" provided detailed descriptions of
drones capable of flying across the Atlantic Ocean, links with al-Qaeda, chemical and biological stockpiles, and hidden
nuclear weapons programs, all of which became the menu du jour for policymakers. Garbage in, garbage out
developed into the standard operating procedure as the United States government willy-nilly began a war of aggression against
an enemy that presented no threat, Washington's complete ignorance of facts on the ground best exemplified by its
post-invasion futile search for weapons of mass destruction that did not exist. Less well known is the role played by
private neoconservative organizations in cooking the books to make the case for war.
The New
9/11: A Global Virus Pandemic. The motivation of those who planned, organized, and implemented the false flag
attack of September 11, 2001, was multifarious. On one hand, around 3000 lives were sacrificed to start a series of
neocolonial wars aimed at restoring and maintaining the superpower status of the US, in terms of economics and
geopolitics. On the other hand, this "New Pearl Harbor" was also carried through in order to bring about draconian
laws. These laws severely limited civil rights while concomitantly giving governments unprecedented powers. For
example, one may be imprisoned indefinitely without charge or trial in several countries; Australia has taken to the extremes
and it is now punishable by five years in prison to reveal if someone is held in prison without charge or trial (e.g. a
spouse). False flag attacks are invariably constructed around a mass mind control stratagem, known as Problem, Reaction,
Solution. This stratagem is effectively used to increase a government's powers and bring about totalitarianism.
Lawsuit
reveals new evidence supporting 9/11 whistleblower who alleged intel failures. An affidavit filed as part of a
lawsuit brought by a 9/11 whistleblower has revealed sworn testimony by a former Department of Defense official claiming that
the whistleblower, a former military intelligence officer, was deliberately sabotaged by a Pentagon review process.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Anthony Shaffer is suing his former attorney, Mark Zaid, in Washington, D.C.'s District Court
over Zaid's alleged failure to "zealously represent" Shaffer in his fight against the government over what Shaffer claims was
whistleblower retaliation. Shaffer is known for his participation in the U.S. Special Operations Command Operation Able
Danger, a program meant to counteract global terrorism. The retired colonel told the 9/11 Commission in 2004 that Able
Danger had, prior to the September 11 attacks, identified two of the three al-Qaeda cells that had planned the attack,
including one to which Mohamed Atta, one of the attack's chief architects, belonged. Shaffer has alleged that the
government subsequently destroyed evidence of its having been aware of Atta's identity prior to the attacks.
The Top 40 Reasons to doubt the
official story of September 11th, 2001. [Reason #14] All the Signs of a Systematic
9/11 Cover-up: (a.) Airplane black boxes were found at Ground Zero, according to two first
responders and an unnamed NTSB official, but they were "disappeared" and their existence is denied in
The 9/11 Commission Report. (b.) US officials consistently suppressed and destroyed evidence
(like the tapes recorded by air traffic controllers who handled the New York flights).
(c.) Whistleblowers (like Sibel Edmonds and Anthony Shaffer) were intimidated, gagged and
sanctioned, sending a clear signal to others who might be thinking about speaking out.
FBI
mistakenly reveals Saudi diplomat suspected of aiding 9/11 terrorists. FBI lawyers accidentally revealed the
identity of a Saudi diplomat who agents have suspected helped deliver crucial support to the al Qaeda terrorists who carried
out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a report. The disclosure came in court documents filed in April that were
unsealed late last week in a lawsuit brought by families of 9/11 victims accusing the Saudi government of aiding the attacks,
Yahoo News reported. The Saudi official, Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah, had his name blocked out in all but one appearance in
the document, with the FBI admitting to Yahoo it was a mistake. Jarrah was a Saudi Foreign Ministry official assigned
to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC, in 1999 and 2000.
Robert
Mueller helped Saudi Arabia cover up its role in 9/11 attacks: suit. After a lengthy investigation, special
counsel Robert Mueller charged Russia made "multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election" and said the incursion
"deserves the attention of every American." But former FBI investigators say their old boss didn't feel the same
concern when they uncovered multiple, systemic efforts by the Saudi government to assist the hijackers in the lead-up to the
9/11 attacks — a far more consequential, to say nothing of deadly, foreign influence operation on America.
As the head of the FBI at the time, they say Mueller was not nearly as interested in investigating that espionage conspiracy,
which also involved foreign intelligence officers. Far from it, the record shows he covered up evidence pointing
back to the Saudi Embassy and Riyadh — and may have even misled Congress about what he knew.
As
Long as Enemies of the State Keep Dying Before Trial, No One Should Trust the State. There is no other way to
say it: It was a political assassination. Osama bin Laden was unarmed. SEALs captured him alive.
Following brazenly illegal orders from Washington, they executed him. "The (Obama) administration had made clear to the
military's clandestine Joint Special Operations Command that it wanted bin Laden dead," The Atlantic reported on May 4, 2011.
[...] As much as the families of 9/11 victims craved justice, it was infinitely more important to the U.S. political establishment
to deny bin Laden an opportunity to publicly expound on his ties to the CIA and the CIA-funded Pakistani intelligence agency
ISI, who were training and funding the "Afghan Arabs" who fought Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan during the 1980s.
Letting people learn that 9/11 would likely never have happened if not for the CIA would have been... awkward.
9/11
Victims compensation fund and what you don't know about it. Inclusions in the Victims compensation fund bill you should
hear about. First, this bill compensates victims until 2092. It is not limited to First Responders and crash site workers,
"Passersby" now qualify. I am not a wizard at math but 9/11 occurred in 2001. We are talking 90 years. In an
unheard of action, there are simply no limitations placed on any amount of money to be paid. This boondoggle is not limited to
First responders and those who worked the clean up sites even now.
The Editor says...
Why is the government using taxpayer money to compensate victims of terrorist attacks? What part of the Constitution
authorizes payments of this sort? (I know — what difference at this point does it make?) Such compensation
could only be justified if the government caused the 9/11 attacks, and was proven to be at fault.
But the official story is that hijackers acting on behalf of the Religion of Peace crashed into the Twin Towers, both of which
collapsed (each one falling straight down onto its own footprint as if professionally imploded) within two hours of
being struck by the airplanes. This happened even though no concrete-and-steel building had ever collapsed before as the
result of a fire. Oh, and World Trade Center Building 7 collapsed, too, the same day, even though no plane had
hit it, and there were only minor fires in progress at the time. But you're not supposed to remember that — and how could
you remember anyway, since that even was barely mentioned in the news media — and if you speak in public about the collapse of
WTC-7, you'll be ostracized as a "9/11 Truther." In the very long term, it doesn't matter who was the mastermind behind the
9/11/2001 events. Those responsible will pay for their sins in a lake of fire — forever.
NYC:
Saudi sculpture to be removed from Ground Zero... but placed at JFK Airport. Somebody thought it would be a
good idea to install a 9-foot-tall statue — paying tribute to Saudi Arabia and displaying its flag —
near the 9/11 Memorial earlier this month, and New Yorkers are not happy. As a result, Port Authority officials have
decided to remove the art exhibit and place it somewhere else after receiving countless complaints from social media users
and local victims groups — who are outraged since 15 of the 19 attackers on September 11 were Saudi citizens.
Saudi Arabian
Flag Candy Statue Removed From Ground Zero Following Backlash. A nine-foot sculpture depicting the Saudi
Arabian flag in the shape of a piece of candy is reportedly being removed from its grounds near the 9/11 memorial in New York
City after facing backlash. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said they'd relocate the installation, which
features the words "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is the prophet" in Arabic, after many felt its proximity to
Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial was insulting and insensitive. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attack
on the United States were Saudi nationalists, although the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has long denied any involvement.
A Sculpture Celebrating
Saudi Arabia Has Been Erected on Ground Zero. A sculpture celebrating Saudi Arabia's place in the G20 Summit
was erected on the World Trade Center grounds last week, a stone's throw away from the 9/11 memorial. Shaped to
resemble a piece of candy, the nine-foot-tall statue bears the Kingdom's emerald flag emblazoned with the Arabic inscription,
"There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is the prophet." It was created by French sculptor Laurence Jenkell in 2011 as
part of the larger installation "Candy Nations" which depicts G20 countries as sugary delights, and has since been featured in
over 25 countries. All 20 sculptures are currently on display outside the Oculus shopping center.
Robert
Mueller's Troubling Ties To September 11th, 2001. Yes, there are layers upon layers of conspiracy theories
still floating out there regarding what did or didn't happen on September 11th, 2001. [...] Since 2001 the United States has
wasted TRILLIONS on global conflicts which in turn initiated a mass migration of Muslim bodies across the European continent and
then into other countries like Australia, Canada, and the U.S. (With a correspondent spike in Islamic militant terror attacks
the clear result[.]) Whether such migration is good or bad will likely remain the subject of debate for decades to come, but
in the meantime it is undeniable that the safety and security of America and the world was made less so following the
horrors of 9-11 and the response that followed. And then there is the part played by Robert Mueller...
Nolte:
Watch the Oh-So 'Sacred' Intelligence Community Lie, Lie, Lie. In 2002, in the lead up to the disastrous Iraq War,
we were told to salute and buy 100 percent into the Intelligence Community's (IC) assessment that of course Iraq was in possession
of weapons of mass destruction, and of course those weapons would end up in the hands of terrorists. Therefore, we had no
choice but to launch a pre-emptive war, and anyone who disagreed, or who even expressed skepticism, was deemed a traitor, suspect, and
un-American. And to my everlasting shame I was one of those shaming others. But at least I learned.
28 Pages Tie 'Moderate'
Muslim Brotherhood To 9/11. Washington has assumed the Muslim Brotherhood is, as President Obama's intelligence
czar put it, a nonviolent group "largely secular" in nature. It has even invited Brotherhood figures into Muslim outreach
powwows at both ends of Pennsylvania. But the newly declassified 28 pages detailing Saudi involvement in the 9/11
attacks casts serious doubt on the assumption that the Brotherhood is a benign organization. In fact, the now-largely
uncensored section of the congressional Joint Inquiry on 9/11 reveals that U.S.-stationed Saudi intelligence officers who aided
the hijackers in the run-up to the 9/11 attacks were in contact with senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood in America,
suggesting the Saudi-funded Brotherhood was part of the support network for the hijackers and involved in the 9/11 conspiracy.
Guantanamo
prisoner says Saudi 'royal' involved in terror plots. An accused Al Qaeda bomb-maker who went to college in
Arizona told military officials at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that he believed an unnamed member of the Saudi
royal family was part of an effort to recruit him for violent extremist acts before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks,
according to a newly released transcript.
Clinton,
Bush Implicated in Covering Up Saudi Terror in U.S.. The 28 pages of the recently-declassified report on the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attack not only implicated the Saudi government and its network on U.S. soil, it implicates the
Clinton and Bush Administrations in covering up that network and stopping the FBI from protecting America from it. Page 11
states: "Prior to September 11th, the FBI apparently did not focus investigative [censored] ...Saudi nationals in the
United States due to Saudi Arabia's status as an American 'ally.'... A representative of the FBI's [censored] testified in
closed hearings that, prior to September 11th, the FBI received 'no reporting from any member of the Intelligence Community'
that there is a [censored] presence in the United States." The censoring of the documents leaves us to wonder what specific
terror-related presence the documents are referring to, but it is very clear that it is a network linked to the Saudi government
and insufficient investigative resources were allotted for it because of those linkages.
The 28 Pages that [Reflect
Badly on] Saudi Arabia. After keeping them secret for 14 years, the White House has finally released the 28 pages
that were removed from the 2002 Congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks and withheld from the final 9/11 Commission Report.
More puzzling than the elusive pages is why Obama released them, and specifically, why now. The administration claims that the
28 pages clear the Saudis because they provide no conclusive evidence of their involvement in 9/11. The media echo chamber
followed the administration's lead: Time, Al Arabiya, NBC, the Associated Press and many others reported that the pages contained
"no smoking guns." But there are smoking guns. Those smoking guns expose the Saudi government as a sponsor of terrorism,
and, by proxy, improve Iran's standing in the Middle East. Author Paul Sperry writes that the 28 pages "show the hijackers
got help from Saudi diplomats and spies."
29
Pages Revealed: Corruption, Crime and Cover-up Of 9/11. First and foremost, here is what you need to know
when you listen to any member of our government state that the newly released 29 pages are no smoking gun — THEY
ARE LYING. Our government's relationship to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is no different than an addict's relationship to
heroin. [...] When CIA Director John Brennan states that he believes the 29 pages prove that the government of Saudi Arabia
had no involvement in the 9/11 attacks, recognize that John Brennan is not a man living in reality — he is delusional
by design, feeding and protecting his Saudi vice.
The Editor says...
The article above comes from the Huffington Post, a web site I've never intentionally visited, and a site with which I rarely agree;
nevertheless, they may have a point here.
House
Intel committee releases classified '28 pages' from 9/11 report. The formerly classified section of the congressional 9/11 report
that was declassified on Friday criticized the U.S. intelligence community for not having any intelligence on Saudi Arabia at all, which
made it difficult to follow up on leads that some of the 9/11 hijackers might have had help from Saudi Arabia. The first page of the
document said some of the hijackers may have received support from people who "may be connected to the Saudi Government." It said FBI
sources and others said at least two of the people who may have provided help were "alleged by some to be Saudi intelligence officers."
28-Page
Bombshell: Saudi With Terror Ties Worked Security At US Border In 1999. A Saudi national who was under investigation by the FBI checked
a security checkpoint on the southwest U.S. border prior to the 9/11 attacks, according to 28 pages from a 2002 joint inquiry released by the House
Intelligence Community on Friday [7/15/2016].
Congress releases secret
'28 pages' on alleged Saudi 9/11 ties. A long-classified U.S. report released Friday found that some of the 9/11 hijackers
were in contact with and received support from individuals likely connected to the Saudi government. Known as the "28 pages,"
the secret document was part of a 2002 Congressional Joint Inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks and has been classified since the report's
completion, despite repeated calls for its release. The document, which the administration finally delivered to Congress earlier Friday
[7/15/2016], actually contains 29 pages of material, plus a letter from then-CIA Director George Tenet. "While in the United States,
some of the September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the
Saudi Government," the document says.
FEMA
Investigator's Shock 9/11 Claim: 'Vault Contents Emptied Before Attack... They Knew It Was Going To Happen'.
The attacks of September 11th, 2001 will forever be mired in doubt and suspicion by millions of people who saw the events
live on their televisions. Almost immediately following the attacks theories began to emerge. Were the hijackers
operatives for a Western intelligence service? How did a passport from one of the terrorists survive completely
unscathed, only to be found later amidst the rubble of the Trade Centers? How did WTC Building 7 collapse even though
it was never struck by an airplane? Why was President George H.W. Bush meeting with members of the Bin Laden family at
the very moment of the attacks? Were the planes that hit the buildings actually commercial airliners or were they remotely
operated drones? Why was the entirety of Ground Zero quickly sanitized and shipped to China for recycling before any
investigation ever took place? And, what are the odds that on the very day terrorists used planes to attack the Pentagon
and World Trade Centers, the U.S. military was holding exercises simulating hijackers crashing planes into buildings, a
circumstance that led to total confusion across the United States and a complete failure of national defense?
Twin
Towers cameraman claims he's got proof the George W Bush administration was behind terror attacks. Kurt
Sonnenfeld was working for the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, an organisation tied to the US Department of Homeland
Security, when the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center took place. After the planes crashed into the building,
Kurt was given unrestricted access to ground zero — the site where the buildings once stood. Armed with
camera gear, the 39-year-old was asked to film everything he saw. His documented evidence was supposed to form part of
a report about what happened — but he never handed back the footage.
A
Saudi Imam, 2 Hijackers and Lingering 9/11 Mystery. Inside an opulent palace in Riyadh late one evening in
February 2004, two American investigators interrogated a man they believed might hold answers to one of the lingering
mysteries of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: What role, if any, did officials in Saudi Arabia's government play in the
plot? The man under questioning, Fahad al-Thumairy, had been a Saudi consular official based in Los Angeles and the
imam of a mosque visited by two of the hijackers. The investigators, staff members of the national 9/11 commission who
had waited all day at the United States Embassy before being summoned to the late-night interview, believed that tying him to
the plot could be a step toward proving Saudi government complicity in the attacks.
CIA chief believes
release of 9/11 documents will clear Saudi Arabia. CIA Director John Brennan said in an interview with a Saudi Arabian television station
Sunday [6/12/2016] that he expects the 28 classified pages of a U.S. congressional report into the Sept. 11 attacks to absolve Saudi Arabia of
responsibility. "I think the 28 pages will be published and I support their publication and everyone will see the evidence that the Saudi
government had nothing to do with it," Brennan said in an interview with Arabiya TV, according to Reuters. The classified section of the 2002
report is a key part to a dispute over whether Americans should be able to sue Saudi Arabia for damages.
Saudi
Arabia set to be absolved of responsibility in 9/11 in secret report, CIA chief says. CIA chief John Brennan
said he expects 28 classified pages of a U.S. congressional report into the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States
to be published, absolving Saudi Arabia of any responsibility. 'I think the 28 pages will be published and I support
their publication and everyone will see the evidence that the Saudi government had nothing to do with it,' Brennan said in an
interview with Saudi-owned Arabiya TV. His comments were dubbed into Arabic. The withheld section of the 2002 report
is central to a dispute over whether Americans should be able to sue the Saudi government, a key U.S. ally, for damages.
Suing the Saudis. On May 17, the
Senate passed legislation that would enable private citizens to sue the government of Saudi Arabia and other Saudis possibly
connected to al-Qaeda for damages incurred in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that took nearly three thousand
lives. Predictably, the Saudis took an apocalyptic view of the bill. Before it passed the Senate, the Saudi
foreign minister reportedly threatened to pull hundreds of billions of dollars of investments from the United States.
One Saudi newspaper headlined it as a "satanic bill" that would "open the gates of hell." In truth, the bill would open
a window on the Saudis' involvement in the 9/11 attacks that they, and our government, have made extraordinary efforts to
conceal. President Obama has threatened to veto the measure.
Saudi
Press Just Accused US Govt Of Blowing Up World Trade Centers As Pretext To Perpetual War. In response to the
U.S. Senate's unanimous vote to allow 9/11 victims' families to sue Saudi Arabia in federal court, a report published in the
London-based Al-Hayat daily, by Saudi legal expert Katib al-Shammari, claims that the U.S. masterminded the terror
attacks as a means of creating a nebulous "enemy" in order garner public support for a global war on terror.
Senate
to Obama: Stop hiding the truth on 9/11. It's not often that Democratic lawmakers set out to directly
confront President Barack Obama. So by passing bipartisan legislation Tuesday that would allow families of Sept. 11
victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, Congress has set itself on a collision course with the Obama administration.
And it's got the Saudis so mad, they're threatening Obama. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, approved by voice
vote, had triggered a threat from Saudi Arabia to pull billions of dollars from the U.S. economy if the bill is enacted.
The FBI Has 80,000 Documents
on Saudi Ties to 9/11 It Tried to Suppress. The classified 28-pages of the 9/11 report have made global
headlines lately as a handful of lawmakers battle to release them to the public. Those pages are believed by activists
and members of Congress — who have seen them — to expose the role of Saudi Arabia, including government
officials, in the terrorist attacks. But according to a new report based on years of investigative journalism, it turns
out there are far more than 28 classified pages on Saudi Arabia and 9/11 — there are 80,000 kept secret by the
FBI. And though not all 80,000 are expected to concern the Saudi family — and the FBI insists their investigation
of the documents came up empty-handed — journalists, at least one lawmaker, and heavily-redacted documents suggest otherwise.
U.S.
Discloses Saudi Holdings of Treasuries for First Time. The Treasury Department released a breakdown of Saudi
Arabia's holdings of U.S. debt, after keeping the figures secret for more than four decades. The stockpile of the world's
biggest oil exporter stood at $116.8 billion as of March, down almost 6 percent from a record in January, according
to data the Treasury disclosed Monday in response to a Freedom-of-Information Act request submitted by Bloomberg News.
The tally ranks Saudi Arabia among the top dozen foreign nations in terms of holdings of U.S. debt, and compares with China's
$1.3 trillion trove, and $1.1 trillion for Japan. "The politics has always been secretive, so have their finances,"
said David Ottaway, a Middle East Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, a research institute in Washington.
"It does answer the question of how much they own, which is surprisingly not that much."
US
government hid evidence that Saudi officials supported Al-Qaida in WTC attacks and didn't investigate them fully, 9/11
Commission member says. The US failed to properly investigate Saudi Arabian involvement in the 9/11 attacks and
removed evidence that Saudi officials aided the terrorists from the public version of the 9/11 Commission Report, a commission
member has said. John Lehman, who was secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration, said the 28 classified pages
contain evidence that as many as six officials aided the Al-Qaida terrorists that attacked the US on September 11, 2001.
The
FBI Is Keeping 80,000 Secret Files on the Saudis and 9/11. The Obama administration may soon release 28
classified pages from a congressional investigation that allegedly links Saudis in the United States to the 9/11
attackers. A former Republican member of the 9/11 Commission alleged Thursday that there was "clear evidence" of
support for the hijackers from Saudi officials. But in Florida, a federal judge is weighing whether to declassify
portions of some 80,000 classified pages that could reveal far more about the hijackers' Saudis connections and their
activities in the weeks preceding the worst attack on U.S. soil.
CIA
director says secret 9/11 report pages full of hearsay, inaccurate info. CIA Director John Brennan said Sunday
that 28 classified pages of a bipartisan commission's report on the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks contains "uncorroborated,
unvetted information" that some could seize upon to claim Saudi Arabian involvement in the attacks. Brennan, speaking
on NBC's "Meet The Press," said such claims would be "very, very inaccurate." The Obama administration may soon release at
least part of the secret chapter, which some believe shows a Saudi connection to the Al Qaeda attacks that killed nearly
3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa.
The Editor says...
If the information is inaccurate or demonstrably false, why was it included in the report, and why was it ever classified?
The establishment
is lying about the 9/11 report. As the push to declassify the 28 pages implicating the Saudis in 9/11
intensifies, the Washington establishment is circling the wagons around our Saudi "friends." On Sunday [5/1/2016], CIA
Director John Brennan pooh-poohed the credibility of the chapter of the 2002 congressional 9/11 inquiry dealing with foreign
sponsorship of the attacks that his boss still, despite repeated promises to 9/11 families, refuses to make public.
Brennan told "Meet the Press" he's "quite puzzled" by the mounting bipartisan campaign to release the censored pages, which
are said to tie Saudi government officials to some of the hijackers through financial and phone records, among other
evidence. He dismissed them as a grab-bag of "uncorroborated, unvetted information" and "just a collation of
information that came out of FBI files." In fact, much of the information sprang from Brennan's own files at Langley.
9/11 Commission
Didn't Clear the Saudis. The time has come to clarify some inaccuracies and misleading statements being made in the
media regarding the 28 pages, the 9/11 attacks, the investigation of the 9/11 attacks, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
In doing so, perhaps the American public will come to understand the importance of passing JASTA (Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism
Act) and releasing the 28 pages in their entirety. The 9/11 Commission's mandate was to not replicate, but rather to expand upon
the investigation of the JICI. The JICI was the Joint Intelligence Committee's Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks, headed by Sen.
Bob Graham and Rep. Porter Goss. The JICI is where the 28 pages originated. Furthermore, the JICI made a finding of
fact and final recommendation that further investigation into the role of KSA and the 9/11 attacks needed to be done, immediately.
Massive Amounts of WMDs Were Found in Iraq.
One of the biggest knocks against George W Bush is that he lied about WMDs in Iraq. Even today, liberals still spew
those lies. Before the Iraq War started under Bush, trailer load after trailer load of what is suspected to have
been WMDs were moved from Iraq to Syria. But even with all that movement, large amounts of weapons of mass destruction
were found in Iraq. The CIA was even able to buy 400 Borak rockets filled with pure Sarin gas. And on top of
that, our troops found 5,000 WMDs that the Pentagon kept secret until last year.
The whole 9/11 truth:
Release the 28 classified pages, whatever they may say about Saudi Arabia. Multiple official inquiries have
examined the record of the killing of 2,977 people on that darkest of days, mostly at the World Trade Center. A
bipartisan, bicameral Senate and House intelligence committee investigation released an 838-page report in December 2002.
But the Bush administration classified 28 pages of the document, focusing on potential Saudi involvement in facilitating the
hijackers, 15 of 19 of whom were Saudis. Conspiracy theories abound about why, for instance, three planeloads
of Saudi nationals were evacuated from the U.S. in the days after the 9/11 despite a total flight ban. Truth was sacrificed
for the sake of the supposedly higher good of diplomatic relations with a long-time ally and oil producer. Struggle to
justify secrecy, as you might try to do in retrospect, today there are no grounds for squelching facts for diplo-convenience.
9/11
Commission: No Saudi smoking gun. The men who led the official investigation into the September 11
attacks are fighting back against charges their commission did not delve deep enough into Saudi Arabia's involvement.
More than a decade after the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States filed its report, a new push has
erupted in Washington to force the administration to released the so-called "28 pages. These pages on purported Saudi
involvement were withheld by the George W. Bush administration from a report by a special joint congressional committee
that pre-dated the commission.
Saudi
Influence in Washington Must End. The 28 pages of a Congressional report detailing where the 9/11 hijackers got
their financing have been classified for years, but what they contain is an open secret. Former Senator Bob Graham
explained: "The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11, and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as
being the principal financier. So why keep this information secret? Because the Saudis wield undue influence in
Washington, among both parties — an influence that has deformed our response to the global jihad threat, and
continues to do so. Responding to a bill that would allow 9/11 victims' families to sue governments linked to terror
attacks inside the U.S., the Saudis have acted like neither an ally nor an innocent party: they've threatened to sell
$750 billion in U.S. asserts, vividly demonstrating why their influence in Washington is so detrimental.
America
deserves the truth about the Saudis and 9/11. It's time for President Obama to declassify the 28 sealed pages
of the 9/11 Commission Report — the section that details the Saudi role in the attacks. The main noise in
Washington now is over a bill to let 9/11 families sue Saudi Arabia over its alleged complicity. Obama's threatening a
veto, and there are reasons to keep private lawsuits out of foreign policy. But there's no good reason to continue
keeping the American people in the dark about the report, which dates to 2002. The 9/11 Commission's chairman, Tom Kean,
says the pages should be made public. Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton says he's "embarrassed" it hasn't happened already.
Both Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, refused to declassify them. Yet word of the contents has leaked out.
Fears
of Saudi royal retaliation should not deter the truth about 9/11 attacks. The New York Times reports that Saudi
Arabia, playing the role of Mafia extortionist, has threatened to "...sell off hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of
American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in
American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Saudis are estimated to hold about $750 billion
in treasury securities and other assets in the U.S. and the concern is that they might sell them before American courts could
impose a freeze. The Obama administration opposes the bill, saying it could potentially open the kingdom to lawsuits
from relatives of the dead and injured. So?
Fresh
evidence links Saudi government to 9/11: Flight certificate of would-be bomber found in embassy envelope buried underground.
Fresh information allegedly connecting the government of Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terror attacks has been released. Officials have
revealed that the flight certificate of Al-Qaeda bomb maker Ghassan Al-Sharbi was discovered hidden in an envelope from the Saudi embassy
in Washington when they arrested him in 2002. Al-Sharbi is believed to have learned how to fly with the hijackers but did not take
part in the attacks. Shortly before his arrest, he buried a bundle of documents, which is believed to have included the certificate.
The cache was discovered by US authorities and details, written in a memo known as Document 17 in 2003, were released without fanfare by
investigators last year. They were only brought to the public's attention when an activist discovered them and wrote about them on his
website earlier this week.
Uncovering the Hidden
Truths of 9/11. [Scroll down] At a minimum, the FBI seems to have stonewalled efforts to look into what
some of those Saudis were up to in the months before the attacks. Yet nobody should expect Washington, DC, to come
clean about this anytime soon. Almost 15 years later, admitting that two administrations have kept important facts
about 9/11 from the public would cause political trauma. Not least because bipartisan refusal to admit the full truth
about major terrorist attacks is something of a tradition in our nation's capital. Additionally, Riyadh has reacted
hysterically to recent public comments on the 28 Pages, threatening dire economic pain if Americans start asking pointed
questions about any Saudi angle to the Planes Operation. That they have something to hide is painfully obvious.
Bombshell:
Here's who may have been behind the 9/11 attacks all along. There's a pretty hot topic going about in the
country and I wanted to share my perspective — and by the way, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders weren't
very clear about the issue. I'm speaking about the declassification of the 28 pages of the Congressional 9-11 report
that potentially includes reference to Saudi Arabia. In fact, as Andrew McCarthy writes for the National Review in a
detailed exposé of Saudi connections to the attacks, It is long, long past time... for the United States government
to come clean with the American people, and with the families of Americans slaughtered on 9/11 by 19 jihadists, 15 of them
Saudis. The government must disclose the 28 pages of the 2002 congressional report on the 9/11 attacks that it has
shamefully withheld from the public for 14 years. Those pages outline Saudi complicity in the jihad.
Saudis
On The Ropes. The role of Saudis in the 9/11 attack on the U.S. has hardly been completely hidden: 15 of the 19
hijackers were Saudis, trained in Wahhabi schools. More than that, there is evidence that Saudi officials in the U.S.
aided and abetted them once they were here — people like Omar al-Bayoumi, who met with some of the hijackers on
the very same day he met with someone (as yet not publicly identified) in the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles. Families
of those murdered on 9/11 have been trying to get redress through litigation from the Saudi royal family, Saudi banks, and
Saudi charities, but have been stymied in part because of 1976 law that grants immunity to foreign nations in U.S.
courts. There's an effort in Congress to change that, to deny such immunity to nations that have been culpable for
terrorist attacks, which kill Americans on American soil.
Willful
Blindness and Our Saudi 'Friends'. [Scroll down] Since 1993, the bipartisan American ruling class,
throughout administrations of both parties, has refused to acknowledge, much less grapple with, this central truth of the
threat we face. It has insisted, against fact and reason, that Islam is a monolithic "religion of peace," and therefore
that there can be no causal connection between Islamic doctrine and terrorism committed by Muslims. It has fraudulently
maintained that jihadist violence is not jihadist at all — after all, we are to understand jihad
(notwithstanding its roots as a belligerent concept, as holy war to establish sharia) to be a noble internal struggle to
become a better person, to vanquish corruption, and the like. Terrorist attacks must be airbrushed into "violent
extremism," shorn of any ideological component — as if the killing were wanton, not purposeful. The fact
that the attacks are so ubiquitously committed by Muslims (who explicitly cite scriptural chapter and verse to justify
themselves), is to be ignored — as if all religions and ideologies were equally prone to inspire mass-murder
attacks if believed too fervently.
Saudi
Arabia is fracturing. Depending who you ask, this may or may not be a bad thing. Only days before
President Obama heads to Saudi Arabia, relations with that nation seem to be on the verge of breaking down
substantially. There are a few different items which have reached the boiling point just this year, and the first one
is a bill currently making the rounds in Congress which would allow family members of 9/11 victims to sue the Arab nation for
their (I suppose we should say "alleged") involvement in the attacks. As you might imagine, this isn't making the Saudi
royal family feel particularly warm and fuzzy, and they are now threatening to dump vast American holdings onto the market.
9/11
families furious at Obama administration for 'siding with Saudi Arabia'. The families of 9/11 victims in the US
are reportedly infuriated at the administration of President Barack Obama for 'siding with Saudi Arabia' over a congressional
bill that could incriminate Saudi officials for the deadly attacks on September 11, 2001 in America. The families of
victims are making a renewed push to declassify 28 pages of a 838-page congressional report on the worst terror attack on
American soil, which points the blame towards Saudi Arabia. Until now,the Obama administration has so far refused to
reveal the contents of the missing pages and looks to be leaving the decision to a Congressional vote.
How US covered up Saudi role in
9/11. In its report on the still-censored "28 pages" implicating the Saudi government in 9/11, "60 Minutes" last weekend
said the Saudi role in the attacks has been "soft-pedaled" to protect America's delicate alliance with the oil-rich kingdom.
That's quite an understatement. Actually, the kingdom's involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of
our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol
basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook.
Secret
28 Pages of 9/11 Report Under New Scrutiny. When the president leaves for a trip to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday
[4/19/2016] an unresolved issue will go with him: did the Saudis play some role in supporting the hijackers responsible for
the attacks on September 11th? The question is being raised in the wake of a renewed push to declassify 28 pages of a
838-page congressional report on the worst terror attack on American soil. The so-called "28 pages" are locked away in
a secure basement room at the Capitol and although they can be read by members of Congress, the pages remain classified.
Report:
Saudis vow to sell US assets if Congress decides gov was involved in 9/11. Saudi Arabia has reportedly told the
Obama administration and congressional leaders that it will sell billions of dollars in U.S. financial assets if Congress
passes a bill to make the Saudi government legally responsible for any role in the 9/11 attacks. The administration has
tried to stop Congress from passing the legislation, a bipartisan Senate bill, since Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir
last month told Washington lawmakers his country's position, according to The New York Times. Al-Juberi purportedly
informed the lawmakers during a trip to Washington that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell as much as $750 billion in
Treasury securities and other American financial assets on the world market, fearing the legislation could become law and
U.S. courts would then freeze the assets.
Pressure
builds on Obama administration to declassify 9/11 report. Pressure is building on the Obama administration to
release information about the 9/11 attacks that has been kept from the public for well over a decade. [...] New York Senator
Kirsten Gillibrand has read the 28 pages that have been locked in a vault under the Capitol for 13 years. "I don't know
how the Saudi government will react to it, but I think it's just information," said Gillibrand. She said the 9/11 families she
represents deserve to read them too — before the president travels to the Middle East next week.
28
Pages: A Full Measure special report about the 9/11 attacks. In October of 2013, [Congressman Stephen] Lynch
went to the secret room in the basement of the Capitol and began reading. The censored material begins on page 395 under the
heading, "Certain Sensitive National Security Matters." Lynch says, "It gave names of individuals and entities that i [sic]
believe were complicit in the attacks on september [sic] eleventh. They were facilitators of those attacks and they are clearly
identified. How people were financed, where they were housed, where the money was coming from, you know the conduits that were
used and the connections between some of these individuals." Individuals, he says, who were never brought to justice. But
who are they? And why would the U.S. government want to keep the information secret?
Iran's involvement with
9/11. The most remarkable aspect of this US surrender to Iran is that the Iranian regime is not some hypothetical
threat. It has been perpetrating acts of war against Western interests for more than three decades — including
playing a key role in the 9/11 attacks on America. That's not just my opinion. It's the view of the United States
District Court for the Southern District of New York. In a judgment that has received virtually no attention, federal Judge
George B. Daniels found in December 2011 that Iran, with the participation of its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was
directly and heavily involved in the 9/11 atrocities.
'28
pages': Sharyl Attkisson dives into still-classified 9/11 intelligence documents. In a preview of her new
Sunday morning news broadcast, five-time Emmy winner and former CBS anchor Sharyl Attkisson will delve into the top-secret
pages of Congress' intelligence report on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which are still kept under wraps 14 years later.
In the report, Ms. Attkisson speaks with current and former lawmakers and family members of victims of the 9/11 attacks to
uncover why the documents, known as the "28 pages" are still undisclosed.
Moussaoui
Calls Saudi Princes Patrons of Al Qaeda. In highly unusual testimony inside the federal supermax prison, a
former operative for Al Qaeda has described prominent members of Saudi Arabia's royal family as major donors to the
terrorist network in the late 1990s and claimed that he discussed a plan to shoot down Air Force One with a Stinger
missile with a staff member at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. The Qaeda member, Zacarias Moussaoui, wrote last
year to Judge George B. Daniels of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, who is
presiding over a lawsuit filed against Saudi Arabia by relatives of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks.
CIA
Declassifies Report On 9/11, Blanks Out Saudi Section. When the 435-page report —
which was finished in 2005 — was dropped on Friday evening [6/12/2015], the section titled "Issues
Relating to Saudi Arabia" was mostly redacted. Just a few sentences remain, including: "[T]he team
encountered no evidence that the Saudi Government knowingly and willingly supported al-Qa'ida terrorists."
Rand
Paul Battles the GOP Over 9/11 Secrets. Back in 2003, 46 senators signed a letter urging President George W.
Bush to declassify the redacted pages in the joint congressional inquiry into 9/11. Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, the
one-time chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and an original author of the report, has said the pages "point a very
strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier" of the 9/11 attacks. But today, more than a decade later,
only a handful of Senate lawmakers are interested in pressing the issue. Of the original 46 senators, 12 remain in
the Senate. Just two of those are publicly supportive of declassifying the 28 pages now.
What
Is the Bush Family Hiding About the Saudis and 9/11? Hard to escape the conclusion that we attacked the
wrong country after 9/11, that a lot of our servicemen needlessly died, and the real enemy of America is still out there,
voiding its Wahhabist poison into the moral water supply of the entire world.
Rand
Paul's New Crusade: The Secret 9/11 Docs. Senator Rand Paul, the man of the hour when
it comes to pushing back against government secrecy, is throwing his weight behind a fresh push to
declassify 28 pages from a 2002 Senate inquiry into the causes of 9/11. The Kentucky Republican
is sponsoring legislation called the "Transparency for the Families of 9/11 Act," which would force
the release of the disputed pages. With his support, an important issue that has languished far too
long may be finally gaining traction. Paul is a big catch for the 28 pages movement, as
advocates describe their effort. Former Florida senator Bob Graham, who has been banging the
drum on the classified pages for years, will appear alongside Paul at a press conference at the Capitol
on Tuesday morning [6/2/2015] to lend his gravitas to the occasion.
How the FBI
is whitewashing the Saudi connection to 9/11. Just 15 days before the 9/11 attacks, a
well-connected Saudi family suddenly abandoned their luxury home in Sarasota, Fla., leaving behind
jewelry, clothes, opulent furniture, a driveway full of cars — including a brand new
Chrysler PT Cruiser — and even a refrigerator full of food. About the only thing not
left behind was a forwarding address. The occupants simply vanished without notifying their
neighbors, realtor or even mail carrier. The 3,300-square-foot home on Escondito Circle belonged
to Esam Ghazzawi, a Saudi adviser to the nephew of then-King Fahd. But at the time, it was occupied
by his daughter and son-in-law, who beat a hasty retreat back to Saudi Arabia just two weeks before the
attacks after nearly a six-year stay here.
Hillary's
Path to 9/11. We will probably never know specifically what was on Hillary's email
server (unless, as suggested by the Wall Street Journal, we subpoena China's military
intelligence). But if the spell is finally and definitively broken, as the willingness of
less-than-right-wing pundits at the New York Times, Time magazine and others to
criticize Hillary without restraint suggests it might be, then we may yet learn many things about
the world in which we live that we had no idea were being suppressed out of rapturous worship, or
mortal terror, of the Clintons. We may emerge into a world of freedom and democracy that we
had almost forgotten existed.
9/11
Link To Saudi Arabia Is Topic Of 28 Redacted Pages In Government Report. Since
terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, victims' loved ones, injured survivors, and
members of the media have all tried without much success to discover the true nature of the relationship
between the 19 hijackers — 15 of them Saudi nationals — and the Saudi Arabian
government. Many news organizations reported that some of the terrorists were linked to the Saudi
royals and that they even may have received financial support from them as well as from several mysterious,
moneyed Saudi men living in San Diego. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied any connection, and neither
President George W. Bush nor President Obama has been forthcoming on this issue.
Claims
Against Saudis Cast New Light on Secret Pages of 9/11 Report. A still-classified section of the
investigation by congressional intelligence committees into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has taken on an
almost mythic quality over the past 13 years — 28 pages that examine crucial support
given the hijackers and that by all accounts implicate prominent Saudis in financing terrorism.
Massaoui
Statement Renews Suspicions of Saudi Involvement in 9/11 Attacks. The man known as the
missing "20th hijacker" in the 9/11 attacks has claimed that members of the Saudi royal family were
financially supporting al-Qaeda, CNN reported. Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to
six terror-related charges, made the statement under oath in October at the supermax prison in
Florence, Colorado, where he is serving a life sentence without parole. It was contained in a brief
filed Tuesday in a civil suit against Saudi Arabia by families of the 9/11 victims. The brief was in
opposition to a motion to dismiss the case. Moussaoui claimed that in the late 1990s Osama bin
Laden put him in charge of creating a database cataloging al-Qaeda's donors and the amount they
contributed, a task he said he carried out daily for two or three months. High-profile donors
included several members of Saudi Royal family, Moussaoui said, including Prince Turki al-Faisal Al
Saud, former director-general of Saudi Arabia's Foreign Intelligence Service and ambassador to the
United States.
Lawyers:
Evidence shows Saudi Arabia aided 9/11 hijackers. Lawyers for victims of the Sept. 11
attacks say they have new evidence that agents of Saudi Arabia "directly and knowingly" helped the
hijackers, including sworn testimony from the so-called 20th hijacker and from three principals of
the U.S. government's two primary probes of the attacks. The Embassy of Saudi Arabia in
Washington said in a statement Wednesday that Zacarias Moussaoui's claims come from a "deranged
criminal" and that there is no evidence to support them. It said Saudi Arabia had nothing
to do with the deadly 2001 attacks.
Saudi Arabia: America's
Frenemy. [Scroll down] Imagine, though, that Moussaoui is telling the truth, and that members
of the Saudi "royal family" took an active role in the planning of 9/11 — something that, given the sheer
size of the House of Saud, smart money would bet on. What would we do about it? [...] Obama, of course,
would do absolutely nothing (and one wonders if this was a topic of conversation during his recent visit to the
sheikdom). But the next president would have to. Wouldn't he?
There's only one problem with this idea:
What is the value of a "pledge" from someone like Barack H. Obama? Every
Presidential Candidate Should Pledge Release of Missing 9/11 Pages. More than 13 years
have passed since al-Qaeda terrorists killed almost 3,000 Americans in al-Qaeda's single-most devastating
attack. [...] And yet, so much remains inexplicably unknown about that day. President George W.
Bush redacted 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission report. A number of congressmen have read the
redacted pages. Thomas Massie, a Republican representing Kentucky's 4th Congressional district, said,
"I had to stop every two or three pages and rearrange my perception of history." He added, however,
"There is nothing in there that would affect our national security," and suggested it was a desire not to
embarrass some states that led the Bush administration to withhold the Commission's findings.
Twenty Eight
Pages of Oil. Petroleum serves as a hydraulic fluid that transmits pressure through
the whole global economic system. Without it the landing gear won't deploy and the control surfaces
droop. It's importance is underscored by the "28 missing pages" of the September 11 report which
reportedly implicate Saudi Arabia in the attack. [...] The 28 pages may tell us whether Bush let the
Saudis walk, and explain to what extent and why? It may indicate why there's bipartisan support for
keeping whatever's in those 28 pages under wraps. Even whether the need to keep oil onside was
responsible for America's retreat from the Middle East or Obama's bow to the Saudi King.
The
Missing Pages of the 9/11 Report. A story that might otherwise have slipped away in a
morass of conspiracy theories gained new life Wednesday when former Sen. Bob Graham headlined a
press conference on Capitol Hill to press for the release of 28 pages redacted from a Senate report
on the 9/11 attacks. And according to Graham, the lead author of the report, the pages "point a very
strong finger at Saudi Arabia as the principal financier" of the 9/11 hijackers. "This may seem
stale to some but it's as current as the headlines we see today," Graham said, referring to the terrorist
attack on a satirical newspaper in Paris.
Still
Secret: 28 Pages That Could Change Our Understanding of 9/11. A bipartisan group of
congressmen joined with 9/11 family members today to renew efforts to declassify 28 pages of a joint
congressional inquiry into the worst terrorist attack against the United States. The information,
redacted by President George W. Bush, is believed to point to allegations that Saudi Arabia may have
assisted in financing the 9/11 terrorists.
Carrying
His Cross to Elam. [Scroll down] Disgust with the thuggishness of the regime, as
well as internal power struggles, have prompted a number of Iranian intelligence officers to break
with their former bosses. I have spent man-years debriefing a wide variety of such defectors, and
have never ceased to be amazed at how often the U.S. intelligence community rejects their information,
at times with deadly results. So it was in July 2001 when a counter-intelligence officer known as
Hamid Reza Zakeri walked into the U.S. embassy in Baku and warned the CIA of impending attacks on America
that were going to be carried out using civilian airliners and Arab pilots. Zakeri identified the
targets of the attacks — the World Trade Center towers in New York, Camp David, the Pentagon
and the White House in Washington, DC — and the date they were to take place.
'Saudi
prince paid for 9/11 pilots to learn to fly'. A jihadist serving life in prison on
terror charges brought in the wake of 9/11 has claimed the Saudi Arabian royal family helped finance
the plot. Zacarias Moussaoui, 46, says an unnamed Saudi Prince paid for flying lessons for him and
the 19 terrorists who hijacked planes in the September 11 attacks in the run-up to the atrocities.
The incredible claims were made in documents filed to a federal court in Oklahoma, in which Moussaoui says a
prince 'was assisting me in my Islamic terrorist activities... and was doing so knowingly for Osama bin Laden'.
Disclosures Pried
From Government Strongly Suggest Terrorist Awlaki Was an Informant. New evidence pried
from the government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) proves the point I have posited here
at Ordered Liberty: The federal government willfully intervened on behalf of al Qaeda
terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki on October 10, 2002, undoing his arrest on felony fraud charges when he
was detained at JFK International Airport in New York, and allowing him to walk away with a Saudi
handler. As I argued over two years ago, the government's story to the contrary —
viz., that it was moved by sheer coincidence on the eve of Awlaki's arrival to pull the plug
on a weak case — does not pass the laugh test.
Inside the president's
'doomsday' planes. [Scroll down] US authorities rarely discuss the doomsday
plane. In particular, they don't mention the fact that its distinctive form was spotted by reliable
witnesses above the heavily restricted air space above the White House on the morning of September 11,
2001, around the time the twin towers were struck by hijacked planes, but before the Pentagon was hit.
Conspiracists have long seen this as evidence that the doomsday plane was in effect a command center for the
9/11 attacks, which they consider an inside job.
The Twenty-Eight Pages. On the bottom
floor of the United States Capitol's new underground visitors' center, there is a secure room where the House Intelligence Committee
maintains highly classified files. One of those files is titled "Finding, Discussion and Narrative Regarding Certain Sensitive
National Security Matters." It is twenty-eight pages long. [...] "There's nothing in it about national security," Walter Jones,
a Republican congressman from North Carolina who has read the missing pages, contends. "It's about the Bush Administration and
its relationship with the Saudis."
Ron
Paul Believes Bush Admin. Had Advance Knowledge of 9/11 Attacks. What was on the 18-and-a-half minutes of tape erased
by the Nixon White House? We'll likely never know. While theories and speculation about the content of that lost material
still resonate, particularly in alcoves of the Internet, there is one contemporary puzzle that is beginning to attract the attention
of lawmakers and citizens. From the day of its release in 2002, 28 pages of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence
Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 2001 — commonly referred to as the 9/11 Commission
report — have remained classified.
28 Pages Later: Shrouding an Act of War. American
blood spilled in wars that do not attack those who attacked us on 9-11. To put this in perspective, fewer died in Pearl Harbor and we nuked the Japanese.
We were told after 9-11, that it was al Qaeda, with no other state sponsors. If the allegations prove accurate, 9-11 was nothing less than an act
of war by Saudi Arabia.
Act of
War: CIA Leak Gives "Incontrovertible Evidence" That 9/11 Was State Sponsored. If you have ever questioned the official narrative for the
September 11th attacks then you have, without a doubt, been dubbed a conspiracy nut by the establishment media and those who hang on their every word.
Like the Warren Commission report on the JFK assassination, the 9/11 Report assembled by a Congressional investigation is unraveling and being revealed for what
it really is — nothing more than a cover story. This is no longer a conspiracy theory... it's conspiracy fact.
Inside the Saudi 9/11 coverup. After the 9/11 attacks, the public
was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors. But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress' investigative report on
9/11 dealing with "specific sources of foreign support" for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals. It was kept secret and
remains so today. President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report. Text isn't just blacked-out here and there
in this critical-yet-missing middle section. The pages are completely blank, except for dotted lines where an estimated 7,200 words once stood.
Mainstream Media Censorship Exposed. Flagship news publications in the
United States mainstream media have been forced to admit that over the years they quietly forged partnerships with the federal government
in order to withhold from American taxpayers vital information on such topics as the government's drone-assassination program, torture,
secret prisons and warrantless snooping. Some of the worst cases of collusion and suppression go back 10 years to the early days
of the modern "war on terror."
CIA Veterans Challenge 9/11 Commission Report. Seven CIA
veterans have severely criticized the official account of 9/11 and have called for a new investigation. "I think at
simplest terms, there's a cover-up. The 9/11 Report is a joke," said Raymond McGovern, 27-year veteran of the CIA, who
chaired National Intelligence Estimates during the seventies. "There are a whole bunch of unanswered questions.
And the reason they're unanswered is because this administration will not answer the questions," he said.
Alleged Hijackers Still Alive After September 11, 2001.
Robert Fisk reported that Abdulrahman al-Omari, a pilot with Saudi Airlines, went to the U.S. consulate in Jeddah to
demand an apology for being listed as one of the 19 hijackers. Al-Omari received an official apology from the
United States but coverage of this acknowledgement was not made known by major media outlets in the U.S.
Aerial Photo Shows Towers Were Exploded
Outward, Did Not "Collapse". One of the first things Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who coordinated the
destruction of the steel evidence at Ground Zero, did after the attack was prohibit almost all photography at
the site. Police and FBI agents were ordered to confiscate cameras on the spot, although inevitably, as
can be expected at such a massive crime scene, there were simply too many people swarming what was now viewed
as history for such a stricture to be successfully enforced.
Venturing a Plausible Theory of the Crime. The
very fact that an essay such as this, as well as the sheer volume of 911 research, can be published is
evidence that freedom is still ours to lose, since in any truly dictatorial regime such writings would be
summarily banned and its authors jailed. We do not know beyond reasonable doubt what happened on 911.
'A
weapon of mass destruction was found in the U.S.'. A port official has admitted that a
'weapon of mass effect' has been found by 'partner agencies' in the U.S., raising major questions over a
possible government cover-up.
Dirty
Bomb: Here And Now? An assistant port director says "weapons of mass effect" have been
found on American soil, possibly smuggled in across our porous border. The drug war in Mexico may be
the least of our worries.
Border
officials retract "weapons of mass destruction" comments. The interview played Monday [2/7/2011] on
numerous major television news outlets and on dozens of web sites. But the agency is now stepping back from
that comment. "During a local interview on port security that aired last week, a U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) assistant port director in San Diego made statements that were simply inaccurate,"Kelly
Ivanhnenko, Southwest Border Field Branch Chief, said in an email to The [Washington] Examiner.
Military burns
unsolicited Bibles sent to Afghanistan. Military personnel threw away, and ultimately burned,
confiscated Bibles that were printed in the two most common Afghan languages amid concern they would be used
to try to convert Afghans, a Defense Department spokesman said Tuesday [5/19/2009].
Satellite
Photos Support Testimony That Iraqi WMD Went to Syria. Ha'aretz has revived the mystery
surrounding the inability to find weapons of mass destruction stockpiles in Iraq, the most commonly cited
justification for Operation Iraqi Freedom and one of the most embarrassing episodes for the United States.
Satellite photos of a suspicious site in Syria are providing new support for the reporting of a Syrian journalist
who briefly rocked the world with his reporting that Iraq's WMD had been sent to three sites in Syria just before
the invasion commenced.
An American Victory.
The news is not that American combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities. The news is that American combat troops
withdrew from Iraqi cities in victory — rather than in defeat. Two years ago at this time, few in the
foreign-policy establishment considered that outcome possible.
Bin Laden: A
hoax like the warming he champions. [Scroll down] In fact, no reputable person has seen
bin Laden alive since October 2001 when the photo in question was taken, that on the occasion of an
interview by Al Jazeera. The audio and videotapes that he has allegedly made in the years since have
convinced few outside the CIA. National security guru Angelo Codevilla has argued persuasively that Osama
died of pulmonary infection before the year 2001 was out. It was not until after his likely death that the
so-called "confessional video," the first one in which he actually took credit for September 11, surfaced.
Shoe
bomber and friends getting soft treatment in federal prisons. Regular old U.S. criminals should be so
lucky as to enjoy the devoted legal representation that has rallied to the sides of Islamist terrorists convicted of
plotting the mass murder of Americans. Self-styled human rights champions who made the Guantanamo Bay detention
center a false symbol of barbarism have turned to easing the ultra-secure domestic imprisonments of fanatic jihadists.
Thoughts on the
Hysteria About Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a messy war, but so far it has been conducted with a minimum
loss of American life while achieving some important goals. ... After the initial invasion, the Afghan front was largely
inactive for years. U.S. annual fatalities from 2001 through 2007 (12, 49, 48, 52, 99, 98, 117) averaged about 68.
In comparison, the murder total in Chicago for 2007 was 509.
Guantanamo and the question of terrorist recruitment. In
the next few days, you're going to see an increasingly intense debate on the question of whether the U.S.
detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is a major factor in terrorist recruitment. In that debate, you're
going to hear a name you might not have heard, Matthew Alexander. And you're going to learn that what
you've been told about Guantanamo and terrorist recruitment is not the whole story.
It
was not torture, but it saved lives. CIA agents once played rough with possibly 30 terrorists, and maybe they
shouldn't have, but they saved American lives that way. And if you say no, no, a thousand times no to playing rough
in the future, you may be saying yes to thousands of deaths.
CIA Waterboarding Produced Intel That Stopped
Attack on Los Angeles. "Soon, you will know." That is the ominous statement an uncooperative Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, told his Central Intelligence Agency
interrogators when they initially asked him, after he had been captured, about additional planned al-Qaida attacks on
the United States. In March 2003, KSM became the third and final terrorist ever waterboarded by the CIA. The
other two were Abu Zubaydah and Rahim Al-Nashiri. So few were waterboarded because the CIA was so strict in the
criteria for deciding when the technique could be used.
Reality Knocks. Saying
unsupported piffle is the stuff of campaigns, but the current occupants of the White House seem unaware of their
higher obligation to provide complete and unspun information to the American people. While they may be
determined to throw out whatever hits them as an available political counterattack, neither their own intelligence
officials or the previous ones support the view that a single American was harmed because of interrogation
tactics. The available information suggests the contrary is true.
Bush's 'folly' is ending in victory. 'Markets
without bombs. Hummers without guns. Ice cream after dark. Busy streets without
fear." So began Terry McCarthy's report from Iraq for ABC's World News Sunday on
March 15, one of a series the network aired last week as the war in Iraq reached its
sixth anniversary. A nationwide poll of Iraqis reveals that "60 percent expect
things to get better next year — almost three times as many as a year and a half
ago," McCarthy continued.
Iraq:
Good News Is No News. Preoccupied as it was poring over Tom Daschle's tax returns, Washington hardly noticed a
near-miracle abroad. Iraq held provincial elections. There was no Election Day violence. Security was
handled by Iraqi forces with little U.S. involvement. A fabulous bazaar of 14,400 candidates representing 400 parties
participated, yielding results highly favorable to both Iraq and the United States. ... All this barely pierced the
consciousness of official Washington. After all, it fundamentally contradicts the general establishment/media narrative
of Iraq as "fiasco."
The
Right Standard for Judging George W. Bush: Media accounts greatly exaggerate the human cost of
the war through the failure to provide an appropriate context in recent history. While every military
death constitutes a profound tragedy for the families of the fallen and the nation at large, the level of
sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan has remained remarkably (and blessedly) low when compared to tragic losses
under recent "peace-time" presidents. In fact, measuring the number of annual military deaths (most of
them through accidents and illness, rather than combat) since 1980, the toll for the Bush administration
remains sharply below the 28 year average.
Iraq death toll plummets.
The number of British and US forces who died in Iraq in 2008 looks likely to be the lowest annual toll since the
invasion nearly six years ago, while bombs and gunfire killed far fewer Iraqi civilians than in 2007.
Winning Isn't News. What would
happen if the U.S. won a war but the media didn't tell the American public? Apparently, we have to rely on a British
newspaper for the news that we've defeated the last remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq.
Violence in Iraq down
sharply. The level of violence has dropped dramatically in Iraq in recent days from year-ago levels, a U.S.
military official in the war-torn country says. Army Brig. Gen. David G. Perkins, a spokesman for the
multinational force in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad Sunday that over the past week there had been
an average of 10 attacks each day. That, he said, was a 95 percent drop from the 180 attacks per day being
experienced last year, American Forces Press Service reported Monday.
Reopen
the Statue of Liberty. The disgraceful and cowardly shuttering of the Statue of Liberty may soon
be over. Lady Liberty may shortly be freed to welcome visitors from New York and around the world to her
crown. ... The National Park Service, a unit of the Interior Department, closed the glory in the harbor for
security reasons after 9/11. Today, it stands as America's only national monument that has not been
fully restored to the public.
US records lowest monthly death
toll in Iraq. Eleven US soldiers were killed in Iraq in July, the lowest monthly toll since the
US-led invasion of 2003, according to figures provided by the Pentagon.
U.S. Combat Casualties Back to All-Time Low in
November, Analysis Shows. U.S. combat casualties in Iraq fell to their lowest level last month, with most of
the fatalities concentrated outside of Baghdad in the Ninawa Province along the Syrian border, according to a CNSNews.com
analysis of U.S. Defense Department data.
The Most
Overlooked News Story of 2008. Have you noticed lately that mainstream media are giving less attention to the
war in Iraq, especially concerning our troops' progress? Who doesn't recognize by now that we live in a time in which
there's little, if any, publishing space for positive military stories about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Cyber Attack Shuts Down
Website. It was [Jill] Metzger's claim, not backed up by any evidence, that she had been
abducted and then heroically escaped her captors. Many media organizations in the U.S. trumpeted this
claim. ... If that tale turns out to be false, and there is a lot of reason to doubt it, the military top
brass who have been protecting her — and the mainstream media which have refused to investigate the
matter — will end up looking like fools or worse.
Obama Can't Be Trusted on National
Defense. [Scroll down slowly] The desperation that may have led Obama to engage in this
gross misconduct stems from his belated recognition of the new reality in Iraq: The war there is over.
America has won. It is too late for Obama to surrender, on behalf of his uninformed, misguided,
anti-American netroots. Victory for America in Iraq has meant a disastrous rout for Al Qaeda's
terrorists. ... With this smashing victory in hand, American troops are already coming home. The surge
troops have been withdrawn.
Al-Qa'eda's
American-born propaganda chief may have died in predator attack. Months of attacks by unmanned
US predator aircraft have caused carnage among the middle ranks of terrorist leaders in the lawless lands along
the border with Afghanistan, where al-Qa'eda remains dangerous despite suffering a serious defeat in Iraq.
Their victims have included experienced Arab leaders and, it is now thought, Adam Gadahn, a former heavy-metal
fan and so-called "killer computer nerd" originally from California. Nothing has been heard from him for
months, leading intelligence experts to conclude that he may be dead.
How
General Petraeus Saved the U.S. Economy: With oil prices continuing to plunge — and
they may have a lot further to go — I've started wondering about this "what if" scenario: Where
would oil prices be today had we abandoned Iraq to civil war and al Qaeda? What if President Bush
had announced on Jan. 10, 2007, that instead of surging U.S. troops under the command of General Patraeus,
he was ordering their withdrawal?
General Petraeus Has Not Betrayed U.S..
Here's to General David Petraeus. He never betrayed us. Indeed, he saved America's war in Iraq.
Maybe not single-handily, but there is no doubt whatsoever that without General Petraeus' bold move to push
for more troops to turn the tide against the insurgents, which has paid off handsomely, America would have
been severely weakened both at home and around the world.
Exit
Petraeus, Without Fanfare. General David Petraeus's tenure in Iraq draws to a close at the end of
the month, and it's a measure of his success that he is departing to far less political fanfare than when his tour
began. In September 2007, MoveOn.org called him General "Betray-Us," and Hillary Clinton said his claims of
progress weren't credible. Now those critics are silent.
You heard it here first: We
won the war. Somebody has to write this. The United States has won the war in Iraq.
I'm compelled to proclaim victory because, these days, winning wars has become politically incorrect in Western
societies. So much so that some political leaders opposed to the war refuse to recognize the definition
of victory or to utter the word.
Show
Us The Bodies. Over and over again, terrorists and their sympathizers claim that every
successful American air-strike or raid massacred a wedding party or a family gathering where innocent
infants were quietly fondling their Kalashnikovs. But we never see the bodies. How do they
all disappear?
ABC, CBS, NBC Skip Report of Benchmarks Met in Iraq.
For most of the Iraq war, the national media has suggested to the public that there are two sides of the story on Iraq:
the version painted by President Bush and his spokesmen, and the "reality" that Americans see in the media. But when
things go well in Iraq, do the networks take any steps to acknowledge reality? Or do they keep a lid on the good
news?
Obama, Justice Thomas and
Col. West: On Morality. [Allen] West represents the ideals and the actions of the great majority of our
military. But as usual, the media mob tells us a lot more about their own blinders, than about the reality of
war, when they select the headlines. Lt. Col. West was faced with a supremely difficult moral choice,
and unhesitatingly chose the right and painful course.
A
Look Back: What Democrats Were Saying About The Surge. The enormous improvement in
Iraq's security situation caused by the surge has been so undeniable that even the mainstream press has
started alternating between ignoring Iraq completely and acknowledging, albeit reluctantly, that the surge
has put victory within reach in Iraq. So with that in mind, it's worth taking the time to look back
at what the créme de la créme of the Democratic Party has had to say about the war and the
surge over the last few years.
Surge
Successful By Any Measure, Pentagon Official Says. The surge in Iraq has been a success by any
measure, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said during a news conference July 23. The surge
has allowed Iraq to make improvements from security, political and economic standpoints, Morrell said.
The last of the five surge brigade combat teams recently left Iraq.
So Much for the 'Looted Sites'.
A recent mission to Iraq headed by top archaeologists from the U.S. and U.K. who specialize in Mesopotamia found
that, contrary to received wisdom, southern Iraq's most important historic sites — eight
of them — had neither been seriously damaged nor looted after the American invasion.
The New
Reality in Iraq. All of the most important objectives of the surge have been accomplished in
Iraq. The sectarian civil war is ended; al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has been dealt a devastating blow; and
the Sadrist militia and other Iranian-backed militant groups have been disrupted. Meanwhile, the Iraqi
government has accomplished almost all of the legislative benchmarks set by the U.S. Congress and the Bush
administration. More important, it is gaining wider legitimacy among the population.
Is the War Over?
Security incidents, or attacks, are at their lowest level in four years. Civilian deaths are down by almost
90 percent since General Petraeus' counterinsurgency "surge" strategy went into effect. High profile
attacks, or explosions, are down by 80 percent in the same time period. American and Iraqi soldiers
suffer far fewer casualties than they have for years.
Iraqis lead final purge of Al-Qaeda.
American and Iraqi forces are driving Al-Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination
of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror. After being forced from its strongholds in the west and
centre of Iraq in the past two years, Al-Qaeda's dwindling band of fighters has made a defiant "last stand" in the northern
city of Mosul. A huge operation to crush the 1,200 fighters who remained from a terrorist force once estimated at more
than 12,000 began on May 10.
The Editor says...
That's great news. Too bad we have to read about this in the British newspapers.
Victory in Anbar? What victory?
In order to find even minimal coverage of the significant victory our forces in Anbar have wrought this day, Saturday, July 5, you'll
have to be quite a lot more specific in your search, which is indeed a travesty for which our mainstream media elites ought to, in my
opinion, feel deep shame.
Success
in Iraq: A Media Blackout. Do we still have troops in Iraq? Is there still a conflict
over there? If you rely on the so-called mainstream media, you may have difficulty answering those
questions these days. As Iraqi and Coalition forces pile up one success after another, Iraq has
magically vanished from the headlines.
Don't mention the war.
How do you know when things are going well for the US and its coalition allies in Iraq? When you see virtually
nothing about it on your television screen or in the papers.
The 550 Tons of Yellowcake:
The recent AP story was not news with respect to the existence of this stockpile in Iraq to those who
follow such things closely. But I'm sure many readers had never been aware of this large stockpile of
yellowcake in Iraq at all. This new AP story, and perhaps my article, helped get that information out.
As Investor's Business Daily more recently put it , "Seems to us this should be big news," but "the
mainstream media find it inconveniently contradicts the story they have been telling you for years."
Saddam's Nukes: It's
a little known fact that, after invading Iraq in 2003, the U.S. found massive amounts of uranium yellowcake,
the stuff that can be refined into nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel, at a facility in Tuwaitha outside of Baghdad.
In recent weeks, the U.S. secretly has helped the Iraqi government ship it all to Canada, where it was bought by
a Canadian company for further processing into nuclear fuel — thus keeping it from potential use
by terrorists or unsavory regimes in the region.
President Bush was Right. If anyone doubts the
need to have ousted Saddam, a news release in the past few days should put such doubts to rest. The report is that the
US has sold 550 tons of yellowcake uranium that had been found in Iraq to Cameco, a Canadian company. The uranium
will now be used as fuel and poses no severe risk if properly stored and sealed.
Yellowcake journalism. [Saddam]
Hussein got the yellowcake from somewhere. He almost certainly got it from Niger, Gabon, South Africa or Namibia,
the four African countries with yellowcake mines. And [Joe] Wilson, who served with the State Department in
Baghdad and Gabon, didn't know (or didn't report in his [New York] Times op-ed) that Hussein possessed 550 tons
of yellowcake at the time of Mr. Wilson's African junket.
Guest Column:
The silence of 'The Times'. The power of The New York Times is undeniable — even in an era
of declining mainstream media influence. What its editors choose to report still influences policymaking, as coverage
of, or silence about, two recent Gaza-related events underscores.
Iraq
could have largest oil reserves in the world. Iraq dramatically increased the official size of its
oil reserves yesterday [5/19/2008] after new data suggested that they could exceed Saudi Arabia's and be the
largest in the world. The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister told The Times that new exploration showed that
his country has the world's largest proven oil reserves, with as much as 350 billion barrels. The
figure is triple the country's present proven reserves and exceeds that of Saudi Arabia's estimated
264 billion barrels of oil.
Why Did These Liberals Lie About Weapons of Mass
Destruction? The left has never adequately answered the following question. If Bush knew there was no
WMD, why would he send 150,000 troops into Iraq since his "lie" would be immediately exposed by invading coalition forces
and reported by a large contingent of media embedded within those forces? Liberals also choose to ignore United Nations
Resolution 1441, which clearly established that Iraq had WMD. That resolution was approved unanimously by the UN
member nations.
Marine Corps
meets 142 percent of recruiting goal. The Marine Corps far surpassed its recruiting goal last
month and could eventually be more than a year ahead of schedule in its plan to grow the force to 202,000
members. All military services met or exceeded their monthly recruiting goals in April, with the Marine
Corps signing 142 percent of the number it was looking for, the Pentagon said.
Air Combat
by Remote Control: The sniper never knew what hit him. As the unmanned plane closed in,
the infrared camera underneath its nose picked up the muzzle flashes from the window. The sniper was
still firing when the Predator's 100-pound Hellfire missile came through the window and eliminated the threat.
The airman who fired that missile was 8,000 miles away, here at Creech Air Force Base, home of the
432nd air wing.
War
on Terror Update: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 47% of
likely voters believe the U.S. and its allies are winning the War on Terror. Twenty percent (20%) say
the terrorists are winning, while 27% say neither.
Progress, Actually.
The word "benchmarks" was scarcely heard last week when [General David] Petraeus and [Ambassador Ryan] Crocker reappeared
before Congress. Crocker testified that the Iraqis have actually met about two-thirds of the benchmarks, including
four or five of the six key legislative benchmarks and all of the benchmarks measuring their contribution to their own
security. In reply, the congressmen who insisted on legislating these benchmarks now say benchmarks are a poor
way to measure progress in Iraq.
Haditha:
The Collapse of a Liberal Fiction. You'd hardly know it if you relied on the mainstream media, but
the government's case against the Haditha Marines took another body blow last Friday [3/28/2008] that may be the
beginning of the end for this whole sorry attempt to severely punish eight heroic United States Marines for
doing what they are trained to do. In a surprise development on the day Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum's court
martial was scheduled to begin, all charges against him were dropped without explanation.
Our Enemy's
Attrition: The majority opinion is that the occupation in Iraq has been so bungled that the
blowback has ruined American efforts at promoting positive change throughout the Middle East. Perhaps.
But for all the justifiable criticism of the Iraqi reconstruction, two truths still remain — the United
States is taking an enormous toll on jihadists, and despite the terrible cost in blood and treasure, has
not given up on a constitutional government in Iraq.
Two
ideas to consider about Bush's war and education. During Bush's presidency, there
has been an average of 1,465 deaths in the military per year (through 2006). Clinton had
an average of 954 military deaths per year. Since Bush has been president, 160 military members
have committed suicide per year. During Clinton's administration, the suicide rate was 190 per
year. During Bush's time, an average of nine service people a year died in non-war related
terrorist attacks (attacks on embassies, ships in a non-war zone, etc.). The average under
Clinton was 16 deaths per year.
Cents of perspective:
Every single combat death and injury sustained by our fighting forces is a deep loss. But those who decry
the 4000 military deaths related to the liberation of Iraq as somehow a disproportionate historic disaster do
not have much perspective.
Death Blow to
Defeatists: Violence continues to plummet, with attacks throughout Iraq down 60 percent
since June and civilian deaths down 75 percent from a year ago. Iraqis are returning home by the
tens of thousands. The incoming flow of foreign fighters have [sic] been cut in half. And despite
a "surge" of troops, American combat deaths are near all-time monthly lows in Iraq. This is all
wonderful news.
The Surge
Worked. After years of mismanagement of the war, many people had grave doubts about whether
success in Iraq was possible. In Congress, opposition to the surge from antiwar members was swift and
severe. They insisted that Iraq was already "lost," and that there was nothing left to do but accept
our defeat and retreat. In fact, they could not have been more wrong.
Iraq Combat
Deaths Down 50 Percent in November. There have been 24 combat-related deaths in Iraq reported
in the current month thus far in comparison with the 48 combat-related deaths reported in the first
28 days of November last year.
Iraq: al-Qaida
75 Percent Gone. Iraq's interior ministry spokesman said Saturday that 75 percent
of al-Qaida in Iraq's terrorist network had been destroyed this year, but the top American
commander in the country said the terror group remained his chief concern.
Top
Story Of 2007: The Surge, The Military, And The Media. There should be no
question what the top story of the year was: America's counterinsurgency campaign in
Iraq, the Democrats' hapless efforts to sabotage it, and the Western mainstream media's
stubborn refusal to own up to military progress.
Turnaround
in US Combat Casualties Began in June, Analysis Shows. As has been widely reported, U.S.
combat-related casualties in Iraq in 2007 were greater than in 2006, but they peaked in May 2007, just
before the troop surge was completed and began a decline in June that continued through the end of the
year.
Iraq
Casualties in December Down 80 Percent From Year Ago. Combat-related U.S. casualties in
Iraq were 82.9 percent less in December 2007 than they were in December 2006, according to an
exclusive Cybercast News Service analysis of Defense Department data. In December 2006, according
to an analysis based on casualty reports released by the Defense Department, 82 U.S. military personnel
were killed in Iraq as a result of enemy action. In December 2007, 14 U.S. military personnel were
killed in Iraq as a result of enemy action.
More
than 4500 Taliban members defect. More than 4500 Taliban insurgents have defected since 2005 and
up to 4000 others have been killed in action against British and Canadian forces in southern Afghanistan,
according to military intelligence sources.
Soldier deaths down
in Iraq. The U.S. military said Friday [12/14/2007] that two American soldiers had died in
separate incidents, but despite the latest deaths, December was shaping up to be the safest month for U.S.
forces in Iraq since 2004.
U.S. Monthly Death Toll in Iraq Could Be the
Lowest in 2 Years. The monthly toll of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq is on track
to being the lowest in nearly two years, with at least 34 troop deaths recorded as of Tuesday [10/30/2007],
but the military cautioned it's too early to declare a long-term trend.
Military
Deaths Lower Now Than in 1980s. American soldiers died in higher numbers during some of the
peace-time years in the 1980s than in recent years when the military has fought conflicts in both Iraq and
Afghanistan, according to a government report on casualty rates. Further, the number of annual U.S.
military deaths for the last three years is just slightly above the average annual death toll in the 1990s.
Iraqi oil exceeds pre-war output.
Iraqi oil production is above the levels seen before the US-led invasion of the country in 2003,
according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA said Iraqi crude production is now running at
2.3 million barrels per day, compared with 1.9 million barrels at the start of this year.
Iraq's revival boosted as oil
production rises to 2.4m barrels a day. Oil production in Iraq is at its highest level since the
US-led invasion of 2003, reaching 2.4 million barrels a day, thanks largely to improved security measures
in the north. The country's Oil Ministry will shortly invite international oil companies to bid for
contracts to help Iraq to boost output at its investment-starved "super-giant" oilfields. Production is
expected to pass the prewar level of 2.6 million barrels by the end of the year, and Hussain
al-Shahristani, the Iraqi Oil Minister, told The Times that he expected production to reach six
million barrels a day within four years.
Let's
hear it for good news from Iraq. The news from Iraq has been so encouraging in recent months that last week even
the mainstream media finally sat up and took notice. Can the Democratic Party be far behind?
How They Did It:
Executing the winning strategy in Iraq. The surge of operations that American and Iraqi forces
began on June 15 has dramatically improved security in Baghdad and throughout Iraq. U.S. commanders
and soldiers have reversed the negative trends of 2006, some of which date back to 2005. The total number
of enemy attacks has fallen for four consecutive months, and has now reached levels last seen before the
February 2006 Samarra mosque bombing.
None Dare Call It 'Victory'. In a
"normal" war, this would be cause for national celebration, but this is not a normal war. Leaders of the
Democratic Party are unwilling to celebrate because they have invested all their political capital in the
notion that America isn't winning, can't win and must not win. Broadcast television has mostly ignored
the Iraq story in recent weeks.
You Just Can't Win.
No matter how much good news the surge brings or what miracles our troops pull off, congressional Democrats
insist we not accept anything short of defeat. What an insult to those in uniform.
Be Intelligent.
The authors of the NIE assess "with high confidence" that Iran "halted its nuclear weapons program" in
2003 — and that's about all you're likely to hear from administration critics and the mainstream
media. But it is a very small part of a very big picture — and when you look at that picture,
the threat is as great as ever.
French
and German foreign ministers sing along with an Islamofascist. If it weren't so
dangerous, the naïvité demonstrated by the foreign ministers of France and Germany
would be almost touching. The two grandees have in effect endorsed a violent Islamist.
You haven't read about it in our mainstream media, of course.
Uncommon
Criminals: Under our system of law, "criminal" is the most advantageous designation a terrorist
can get. It comes with all sorts of rights and rules terrorists can exploit: Miranda, speedy trials,
the right to see classified evidence, the benefit of a reasonable doubt, the right to remain silent, etc.
We did not designate al Qaeda "enemy combatants" to elevate their status but to lower it.
When
Peaceniks Attack, Journalists Snooze. Have you heard about the plight of 22-year-old McGuire Air
Force Base loadmaster Jonathan Schrieken? Probably not. The shooting got no mention in The New
York Times — not even a squib in a back section.
Military
Deaths Lower Now Than in 1980s. American soldiers died in higher numbers during some of the
peace-time years in the 1980s than in recent years when the military has fought conflicts in both Iraq and
Afghanistan, according to a government report on casualty rates. Further, the number of annual U.S. military
deaths for the last three years is just slightly above the average annual death toll in the 1990s.
Why Aren't the Top Media Reporting the New Facts
about Iraq's WMD? "The media have a major responsibility now to report the facts about WMD in
Iraq," said MRC President Brent Bozell. "Those facts now refute the 'no WMD' claim, endlessly reported
by the media and exploited by political left-wingers anxious to ascribe evil motives to the United States. … The top media have a duty to report
on this and not ignore it because it doesn't fit their political agenda."
Serious use for Silly
String. American troops use the stuff to detect trip wires around bombs, as Marcelle Shriver
learned from her son, a soldier in Iraq. Before entering a building, troops squirt the plastic goo, which
can shoot strands about 10 to 12 feet, across the room. If it falls to the ground, no trip wires.
If it hangs in the air, they know they have a problem. The wires are otherwise nearly invisible.
Silly String Shipments Stuck in States.
It may sound silly, but it's saving the life of soldiers. The mother of a South Jersey soldier has been
working for months to send silly string to Iraq, but is now having trouble getting it overseas.
Update: Soldier's mom
finds Silly String shipper. After months of frustration, a mother of a soldier
in Iraq has found someone to ship about 80,000 cans of Silly String to the troops, who use the
foamy substance to detect trip wires on bombs. "I'm just thrilled," said the woman,
Marcelle Shriver. "I couldn't sleep too well this whole weekend thinking about it."
Surprise: Old
media downplay Zarqawi's death. Before you assume liberals are acting in good faith in casually
dismissing the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as "symbolic," don't forget their endless carping about our
failure to capture Osama bin Laden.
More about Zarqawi coverage: Good news is
no news. It can seem the news is always bad. If a river isn't flooding you'll never
see a journalist reporting live saying, "Things are fine here." But let that river creep over its
banks and you'll suddenly have journalists with full rain gear to update viewers inch-by-inch. But
good news deserves to be news, too.
Gun-toting jihadi was
not an angel. In June 1942, German saboteurs landed on a deserted beach on Long Island, New
York, intent on terrorising the US's home front. They were arrested and tried by a military commission.
The US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of that military commission and the penalties (in that case,
executions) it ordered. Last year the US Supreme Court once again upheld military commissions as an
appropriate means for trying those captured and charged with breaking the laws of war, specifically in relation
to the war on terror. The court demanded congressional approval. That has been given. So
that's the law.
Al-Qaeda is 'facing
destruction'. Hundreds of insurgents have been captured or killed as a result
of information gleaned from the hunting down of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda
in Iraq, it was claimed yesterday [6/15/2006].
McCain literally wants comfort
for the enemy. [U.S. Sen. John] McCain — who obviously loves to see his name in
print — cannot seem to stand prosperity within his own political Party. … McCain has opposed
coercive interrogation techniques, including sleep deprivation and other non-lethal methods of
questioning … [which] is ridiculous because, in the case of the war against Islamic
terrorists, these combatants observe no rules.
Libs in Congress, media
defeated. With the extermination of al-Qaeda's number one terrorist in Iraq, there is reason for
great celebration, although one would never know it listening to liberals in Congress, the mainstream media
and the kook fringe of the left-wing blogosphere.
Vietnam
and Iraq: Myth vs. Reality. Having now spent nearly as much time in Iraq as I did on my
first "tour" of Vietnam in 1968-69, it's readily apparent that the parallels between the two wars are
practically non-existent on the battlefield. In the press and politics — it's a different
matter. The barons of bombast have decided that Iraq equals Vietnam. Those who make this argument
are ignoring some very inconvenient facts.
The
American press should count its blessings. In between breathless condemnations of the Bush
administration for stifling its free speech, endless court filings demanding classified and sensitive
information from the military and intelligence agencies, and self-pitying media industry confabs bemoaning their
hemorrhaging circulations (with the exception of the New York Post), my colleagues in the American media don't
have much time to give thanks.
A Case for
Guantanamo: Largely unreported are the increasing cases of Islamic terrorists
convicted of crimes in the U.S. under the criminal justice system. We are all aware of
high profile cases such as John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban"; John Allen
Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, the "Beltway Snipers"; and Zacarias Moussaoui, the "Twentieth
Hijacker"; but we are less familiar with many, many others that the media chooses to overlook
or pay scant attention.
Gitmo-Obsessed Left Shrugs At
Mosque Bombings. Leftists shriek when a GI forgets to don gloves before touching a Koran, but
snore when Taliban, al-Qaeda, and other terrorists blast mosques to bits.
Iraq is Less Violent than
Washington, D.C.. Despite media coverage purporting to show that escalating violence in Iraq has
the country spiraling out of control, civilian death statistics complied by Rep. Steve King, R-IA, indicate that
Iraq actually has a lower civilian violent death rate than Washington, D.C., Detroit, Baltimore, Atlanta,
St. Louis, and pre-Katrina New Orleans.
The Editor says...
Ask yourself this question: What do those six cities have that other cities don't?
Questions
linger as cans bite dust. The disappearance of 600 relatively new and "bombproof" trash cans from
downtown streets has left some New Orleanians with a few questions. The most common question is:
What happened to the old cans, which cost the city $450,000, and can the city put them in my neighborhood?
But there's another interesting query: How much shorter were the old cans than the ones the city is
replacing them with?
Iraq Announces Info From Al-Zarqawi
Raid. Iraq's national security adviser said Thursday [6/15/2006] a "huge treasure" of documents
and computer records was seized after the raid on terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's hideout, giving the
Iraqi government the upper hand in its fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.
Media mum on new
evidence of Saddam's terror ties. The White House doesn't believe in re-fighting the decision to
go to war, which is painfully logical. But politics isn't logical. Neither are Bush's political
enemies. If the President wants people to trust that he made the right call by toppling Saddam, he needs
to reiterate everyday what we know: Saddam was a threat who could no longer be tolerated. "Blessed
July" and Saddam's terror training camps would be as good a place as any to start.
The Real Story Behind Jill
Carroll's Release. The real story that is being avoided is that Jill Carroll read a script
at the terrorists' gun point that could just as easily been written by Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Nancy Pelosi,
Sen. Ted Kennedy, DNC Chairman Howard Dean, George Soros, Sen. Russ Feingold, or Michael Moore.
'Jihad Jack' walks
free. The [Australian] Government's "war on terrorism" has suffered an embarrassing setback
after Joseph Thomas, dubbed Jihad Jack, walked free after an appeal court quashed his conviction.
The Sixteen Words Were
True — Iraq did seek uranium in Niger. In February 1999, Wissam al-Zahawie
left his Vatican office for a few days and paid an official visit to Niger, a country known for absolutely
nothing except its vast deposits of uranium ore.
It turns out Bush was
right about Iraq's quest for uranium. As columnist Robert Novak once argued, the burgeoning
"Bush lied" mantra was heavily dependent on the uranium claim. So the liar label was most firmly
attached on an issue Bush was right about. Go figure.
American
death toll in Iraq hits a two year low. U.S. casualties fell to their lowest totals in
two years this month as Iraqis increasingly aimed attacks at each other rather than coalition forces,
the U.S. military said yesterday [3/30/2006].
Dispelling
myths about American soldiers. Myths abound when it comes to military personnel in the
modern American armed forces. Most are in some way related to recruiting new soldiers, who's
fighting, and who's dying.
Feeling the Pain
of the Falling Man of 9/11. The mainstream media in the United States has taken the images
of September 11th, 2001 off the television and out of the newspapers. They say that the images
are too disturbing, that they incite a want for revenge rather than allow closure. But they are
wrong to do this. … The people of the United States need to rekindle the flame of emotional
anguish about the attacks of September 11th, 2001. We need to seethe. … Then we
need to take definitive action.
Cries
for help edited out of 9/11 tapes. In releasing the 130 calls, city officials edited out the
voices of those who sought help. But the police and fire dispatchers often repeated the callers' words,
reflecting the fear and chaos of the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
Subordinating
the truth: As I was watching President Bush's latest news conference, I was again struck by
the thought of how different the news climate and public mood would be if the mainstream media (MSM) were
truly as unbiased as they pretend to be.
Steak and ale
soothe ailing soldiers. What [Americans] don't hear much about are the quiet events and
private meetings that often take place in the Oval Office between President George W. Bush and military
families. Or the Friday-night steak dinners local restaurateurs throw for wounded vets from Walter
Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
Iraq's
not-so-good neighbor: The wild pronouncements of the new Iranian president, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, have gotten sporadic press ever since he called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Libs take
credit for Bush's approval climb. It is amusing to watch liberals try to explain away
the recent upswing in President Bush's approval rating, from around 39 percent to 47 percent. Sure
enough, they've figured a way to attribute the turnaround to a validation of their positions rather than his
policies.
Report
says the Russian government had sources inside U.S. Central Command. Russia had a
military intelligence unit operating in Iraq up through the 2003 U.S. invasion and fall of Baghdad,
a Russian analyst said today. A Pentagon report said Russia provided Saddam Hussein with
intelligence on U.S. military movements and plans.
What the captured
documents show. President Bush has made errors, as all humans do, but one thing he has not
been guilty of is bad faith. The same cannot be said of his critics.
More
Damning Documents On Saddam. The Pentagon has obviously been sitting on a treasure
trove of paper incriminations against Saddam's regime. So far, just a minuscule amount of
the more than 3,000 hours of tape recordings of Saddam and 48,000 boxes of intelligence documents
has been translated and deciphered. What has come out so far has confirmed Americans' worst
fears about Saddam's evil regime.
Saddam's
Philippines Terror Connection. Saddam Hussein's regime provided financial support to
Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the
Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq.
Who's Lying Now? Those
Saddam documents are coming out, and there are strong suggestions — not surprisingly
to some of us — that the notion that he had nothing to do with al Qaeda is a myth.
Saddam, Al Qaeda Did Collaborate, Documents
Show: A former Democratic senator and 9/11 commissioner says a recently declassified Iraqi
account of a 1995 meeting between Osama bin Laden and a senior Iraqi envoy presents a "significant
set of facts," and shows a more detailed collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
Electro-Magnetic Pulse: The
Biggest Threat No One Talks About. Scientists and military officials have long known
about the dangers of EMP. In a 1962 test called "Starfish," the U.S. military detonated a
nuclear device some 250 miles over Johnston Island in the Pacific. The EMP wave stretched
700 miles to Hawaii, knocking out street lights.
The EMP Threat: ElectroMagnetic
Pulse Warfare. Concerns are rising about the threat of an Electro Magnetic Pulse attack, aimed
at destroying our electronic guts. What if our computers and other electronics didn't work? What
if electronic records of your bank account were immobilized? What would happen to our technology-dependent
transportation, financial, and production systems?
Little Congressional Interest in EMP
Threat. Once again, a congressional commission is warning that an electromagnetic pulse attack
against the United States could wipe out the nation's electronics-dependent civilization. And again,
hardly anyone is listening.
The EMP Threat:
Imagine you're a terrorist with a single nuclear weapon. You could wipe out the U.S. city of your choice, or
you could decide to destroy the infrastructure of the entire U.S. economy and leave millions of Americans to die of
starvation or want of medical care. The latter scenario is the one envisioned by a long-running commission
to assess the threat from electromagnetic pulse, or EMP.
America is Vulnerable to An Electromagnetic Pulse
Attack. Our enemies are well aware of what an EMP attack is, and just what precisely it would
do. The incentive to attack America through EMP is high because the cost to America would be catastrophic.
The
Electromagnetic Threat. EMP comes from the words "Electromagnetic Pulse," which occurs when a
high-altitude nuclear detonation produces an immediate flux of gamma rays from the nuclear reactions within
the device. These photons, in turn, produce high-energy free electrons by "compton scattering" at
altitudes between (roughly) 20 and 40 km. These electrons are then trapped in the Earth's
magnetic field, giving rise to an oscillating electric current. This current is asymmetric in general
and gives rise to a rapidly rising radiated electromagnetic field called an electromagnetic pulse (EMP).
Because the electrons are trapped essentially simultaneously, a very large electromagnetic source radiates
coherently.
Electromagnetic
attack: Thinking the unthinkable. [Scroll down] A deliberate EMP attack, however, would be
different. If, for example, an enemy detonated a nuclear weapon carried on a ballistic missile 200 miles
or so above Earth, people on the ground might never know an attack occurred. But if the explosion happened high
enough over North America, the blossom of EMP might cover the entire United States.
The Editor says...
The more I hear about EMP attacks and the perdictions of certain destruction of every electronic
device in the country, the more skeptical I become.
Plot to kill Bush gets a
man 30 years. An American Muslim was sentenced yesterday [3/29/2006] to 30 years in
prison for joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush.
The
war you can't ignore: An EMP attack achieved by launching a nuclear-tipped missile from an
approaching freighter could potentially kill millions through starvation, disease, and society's collapsing
into utter lawlessness. According to the book, an EMP attack "could
kill — indirectly — far more Americans than a nuclear
weapon detonated in our most populous city." An unsettling reality indeed.
The
Iraq Story You Haven't Heard. While Senator Joe Lieberman's (D-CT) statements have
been grossly — and deliberately — underreported, they are vital for the
future of Iraq.
Not All
Negative. The mainstream media is failing in its reporting on Iraq. The
American people are being fed a steady stream of negative stories about Iraq that in no way
represent reality, and even if a positive story is reported it can be hard to spot.
All
the news that's fit to ignore: It's not that Murtha doesn't deserve airtime to
voice a point of view many Americans share. It's that Lieberman surely deserves at least
equal time for a point of view that other Americans, as well as most Iraqis, share.
AWOL in the
War of Ideas. "If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out
that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present
one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me.'" It wasn't George Bush who
said that. It was George Orwell.
New York Times Smears Patriots. A
wall of silence by most of the national mainstream media has obscured a Cultural War victory over the
forces of "political correctness." The winners in this David vs. Goliath story are families of 9/11
victims and the heroes and survivors of the police and firefighters who responded to the call after
the terrorist planes struck the World Trade Center Towers.
Stumbling ….
Two pivotal, but underreported, developments are overlooked in the escalating political battle over the war
in Iraq. First, no matter how disenchanted Americans have become about the war to establish a strong,
stable pro-Western democracy in the heart of the Middle East's terrorist breeding ground, a majority still
opposes our pulling out before we have achieved that mission.
Yellow Press Promotes Red Rally. Ms.
Petula Dvorak's Washington Post story about the September 24 "anti-war" rally used a strategy that has been
employed in the past by reporters anxious to avoid any mention of how communists run these events.
The
Democrats' 9/11 slush fund. For the past four years, Democrats have
ceaselessly attacked Republicans for "exploiting" the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks. … But when an investigative reporter exposes Democrats raiding
federal homeland security grants and turning 9/11 money into a party slush fund,
where, oh where, are all the indignant liberal watchdogs to protest such clear
and unconscionable political exploitation?
All
the news that's fit to omit: When you read The New York Times (if you still bother
to read it), always ask: What is the Times NOT telling me? The answers are invariably
more compelling — and newsworthy — than what the paper actually
deems "fit to print."
The Bomb-blowing
Heroes of Iraq: In a war in which most coalition casualties are caused by improvised
explosive devices (IEDs), no unit is more important than Explosive Ordnance Disposal. Perhaps that's
why Steven Bochco felt obligated to smear them as unreliable in his anti-war, anti-reality TV
series "Over There."
Get
it over with: Saddam must die. After 22 months in captivity, Saddam Hussein went
on trial yesterday [10/19/2005] — only to have it postponed to Nov. 28 at the behest
of his so-called defence counsel. A huge error and let's hope it doesn't happen again.
With a Whimper. The
Western media was relatively quiet about the quite amazing news from the recent trifecta in Iraq: very
little violence on election day, Sunni participation, and approval of the constitution. Those who
forecasted that either the Sunnis would boycott, or that the constitution would be — and should
be — rejected, stayed mum.
Media Are Blind to
Islamic Threat. The controversy over the handling of the Koran
at the U.S. Delta Camp at Guantanamo, which detains Muslim terrorists, reveals
an intellectual deficit among some of our academic, media, political and
religious elites. They are missing the most important story at Guantanamo.
Trashing
our history: troops in Iraq. Back in June, this column pointed out
that it is impossible to fight a war without heroism — but that you would
never know that from the mainstream media.
Fatality flaw: The U.S.
death rate in Iraq is indeed rising, but some comparisons are still in order.
The Troops in Iraq, By the
Numbers. [Victor] Hanson compares the approximately 1,700 deaths of
Americans in Iraq, of which approximately 1,300 were combat deaths, to other wars in
American history. In the battle at Antietam in 1862 in the Civil War, between
five and six thousand Americans were killed in one day. On D-Day, 3,000 Allied
troops died, and another 6,000 were wounded. And in the Battle of the Bulge,
approximately 19,000 Americans died and 60,000 more were missing, captured or wounded. The
1,700 killed in Iraq equals about 60 percent of those who died on September 11,
2001. These people aren't just numbers, and can't be reduced to that. But
the price we are paying as a country needs to be kept in perspective and reported accurately.
Are They in the
Army Now? The Marines have suffered disproportionate fatalities in the
war in Iraq. They are about 30 percent of all combat deaths, yet make up
only 11 percent of current American forces. But in May the Marines slightly
exceeded their recruitment goal. The Air Force and Navy likewise met 100 percent
of their requirements.
The
Mother of All Connections. We know from these IIS documents that beginning in
1992 the former Iraqi regime regarded bin Laden as an Iraqi Intelligence asset. We
know from IIS documents that the former Iraqi regime provided safe haven and financial
support to an Iraqi who has admitted to mixing the chemicals for the 1993 attack on the
World Trade Center. We know from IIS documents that Saddam Hussein agreed to Osama
bin Laden's request to broadcast anti-Saudi propaganda on Iraqi state-run
television. We know from IIS documents that a "trusted confidante" of bin Laden
stayed for more than two weeks at a posh Baghdad hotel as the guest of the Iraqi
Intelligence Service.
Despite Media Blackout,
Fallujah Rebuilds. Fallujah doesn't rival Jamaica as a vacation resort. But last
year at this time it was the epicenter of Iraq terrorism, filled with decapitators and bomb-makers. If
progress can be made there, it can be made anywhere in Iraq. Don't listen to the "quagmire"
crowd. This war is being won.
Debunking Three Years
of Media Lies: You don't win wars by coddling the enemy. Let's stop worrying about
Cindy Sheehan or mishandled Korans and win the war. Strength and power is what our enemies
understand, so let's show it to them. And the sooner the better.
Looking the
other way. On August 6, as her 15 minutes of fame was just beginning,
Cindy Sheehan used an odd term in a TV interview with Mark Knoller of CBS. She referred
to the foreign insurgents and terrorists in Iraq as "freedom fighters." Knoller cut those
words out of his report, he told me, because he "really wasn't interested." He should have
left them in. In fact, alarm bells should have rung in his brain.
Beware
of Strange Men With Rocket Launchers. Many readers have e-mailed me about
a recent report floating on the Internet that reveals military concerns about a suspicious
trio of Middle Eastern men who apparently pointed a rocket launcher at low-flying aircraft
near Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma earlier this month. It's authentic.
What's in a Name? "War
on Terror" is Out, "Struggle Against Extremism" is In. Recently, top officials of the
Bush Administration have changed the way that they are talking about terrorism. They have
stopped talking about a "war on terrorism." Thinking it too narrowly defined, Administration
officials now speak of a "struggle against global extremism." Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld
describes America's policies as a "global struggle against the enemies of freedom, the enemies
of civilization."
Just the
facts please. Question: What's the best thing that has happened
recently in the so-called war on terror? Hint No. 1: It wasn't the
White House's decision to re-brand the "war on terror" as the "struggle against
violent extremism." "War" makes "you think of people in uniform as being the
solution," said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who, as the head man in
uniform, has just opted himself into obsolescence.
The
War on Terror: Year Five. Like the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004, which
ejected Spain from Iraq, the London terror bombs aim to get Britain out of Iraq and out of its
strategic alliance with the United States. Thus the two chief protagonists in the war,
the United States and al Qaeda, are in complete agreement that Iraq is the central front
of the global war, and that getting the United States' chief ally out of Iraq would thus be
an enormous coup for our enemies.
Jihad Watch Offers Questions for Candidates.
Forty percent of the foreign jihadists fighting against American troops in Iraq come from a putative ally of the
United States, Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom is also one of the world's leading bankrollers of terror. A
Treasury Department official who tracks terror financing, Stuart Levey, recently remarked: "If I could
somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia."
Axis of
Irritation. Sensible Americans understand that, whatever their opinions
about the war's origins and execution, leaving Iraq as a failed state would be
disastrous. They also understand that overreaching now would not be a rational
response to having underachieved so far.
Why war
in Iraq is right for America. Americans are impatient isolationists at
heart. We don't want to be the world's policemen. Gaining Iraqis their
freedom, as good as it sounds, isn't enough of a justification for war. China is a
dictatorship. North Korea is a dictatorship. Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, Pakistan
and Egypt are all dictatorships. We can't overthrow all of those regimes simply to free
their citizens. We have to focus on those regimes that endanger American security.
On the other hand... U.S. Blood
Is Not Buying a Free Iraq. Members of the Bush administration have repeatedly
told Americans that Iraq is becoming a free and democratic society, but that claim is proving
to be false. … In exchange [for American casualties] we see that Iraq, rather than becoming
a free, pro-Western society, is falling into the hands of a radical Muslim government aligned
with Iran, a terrorist state hostile to the United States.
Islamists are serious; are
we? What are the war aims of the United States in the global conflict that
began on Sept. 11, 2001? No one really knows. All Americans, including the
president and Congress, have simply gone about the job of striking back at those who struck
at us, without ever formally debating and deciding who the enemy is and what will constitute
victory.
[Anti] military
operations: Buried in all the mainstream media coverage this week … was
a little-noted item about reenlistments in the U.S. armed forces exceeding expectations. USA
Today offered some prominence to the story, but it was widely ignored by most of the Fourth
Estate. Perhaps that's because it's a "good news story."
Why I went from undecided to 100%
pro-war. Numerous links to news articles about Saddam's atrocities in Iraq. (The editor's
comments are rated PG; parental discretion advised.)
Lost in translation.
The federal Bureau of Prisons is holding 119 persons with "specific ties" to international Islamist terrorist
groups, yet has no full-time Arabic translators or a system to monitor their communications, according to
Congressional sources and a whistleblower who now fears retaliation from inmates.
The curse of the
language corrupters: Nearly four years after the September 11 attacks, the
White House and the press still use the empty phrase "War on Terror" to describe the global
battle against radical Islamist throat-slitters, suicide bombers and hijackers who incinerate
children on their way to Disneyland. … How many times have you heard some cable TV talking
head or political hack urging us to be on "heightened alert" — without having the courage
to spell out exactly what that means?
Guantanamo Bay:
This subsection has moved to another page,
located here.
Death wish: The
real outrage isn't the affront to the "dignity" of suicide terrorists being interrogated and kept
alive against their will by our military at Guantanamo; the greater offense is our mainstream
media's lack of context for what transpires there — and the apparent disregard for the
consequences of such revelations during a time of war.
No
more heroes? Yes, Virginia, there are still heroes in America, and Sgt. Rafael
Peralta was one of them. It's just too bad the media can't recognize them.
The Self-Sacrifice
of Sgt. Rafael Peralta: I saw four Marines firing from the adjoining room when
a yellow, foreign-made, oval-shaped grenade bounced into the room, rolling to a stop close
to Sgt. Rafael Peralta's nearly lifeless body. In an act living up to the heroes of
the Marine Corps' past, Peralta, in his last fleeting moments of consciousness, reached out
and pulled the grenade into his body. LaBelle fought on Iwo Jima and Anderson in Vietnam,
both died saving their fellow Marines by smothering the blast of enemy grenades.
Sgt. Rafael Peralta,
American Hero. You probably don't know Rafael Peralta's name. If we lived in a
country that more fully celebrated the heroics of its men in uniform, you would. He was a sergeant
in Company A, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment for Operation Dawn, the November offensive
to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which had become a haven for terrorists. What he did on the
day of Nov. 15 [2004] was an awe-inspiring act of selfless sacrifice and faithfulness to his
fellow Marines.
How
Arafat's gunmen suppress the news: On Sept. 11, 2001, Americans were
shocked by footage of Palestinians dancing in the streets to celebrate the terrorist
attacks on the United States. But those scenes disappeared from the airwaves soon
after — not because they weren't newsworthy, but because the Palestinian Authority
gave orders to suppress them.
The Editor says...
You have to wonder... what else is not being reported? Wait -- I'll answer that. How about
the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7? No airplane hit that building, yet it collapsed
suddenly on the afternoon of September 11, 2001. We are apparently supposed to forget that it happened,
because it hardly made a blip on the news media radar. More information
here.
Duelfer: "A lot of material left
Iraq and went to Syria". Iraq Survey Group head does not rule out Saddam's
transfer of WMD.
Report shows 3,400 Air
Violations Since 9/11: Pilots flew into restricted airspace 3,400 times across
the country in the three years following the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a congressional
report that says the government needs to better coordinate its response to such violations.
Iraq is
Looking Up. You wouldn't know it from most of the pundits or the evening
news broadcasts, but things are looking up in Iraq. The high-stakes decision to go
on the offensive militarily — and politically — over the last
couple of weeks has made a big difference.
On Iraq, It's
Important To Ask The Right Questions. If we had not invaded Iraq, Saddam Hussein would
still be in power; Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would be in command of an Al-Qaeda army in northern Iraq; the
U.N.'s, 17th resolution ordering Saddam to comply or else would have been successfully defied, the
largest chemical weapons factory in the Third World, in Libya, would still be humming along with an
advanced nuclear weapons plant (both now shut down).
Statements by Iraqi PM at
odds with negative media coverage. While addressing a joint session
of Congress Sept. 23, Iraqi interim prime minister Ayad Allawi said simply, "Thank
you, America." "We Iraqis know that Americans have made and continue to make
enormous sacrifices to liberate Iraq, to assure Iraq's freedom," Allawi said. "I
have come here to thank you and to promise you that your sacrifices are not
in vain."
Pregnant troops
leave the war; Central Command not counting. U.S. Central Command is not
tracking the number of troops who must leave the Iraq war theater due to pregnancy, prompting
military advocates to charge the Pentagon wants to keep secret what could be an
embarrassing statistic.
Columnists'
errors, CNN's treason. A journalistic scandal involving payment of thousands
of dollars has received massive attention in the mainstream media. One concerning the
exchange of 30 pieces of silver has not, so far.
Christians
Flee "Liberated" Iraq. Understandably concerned over the fact that the new Iraqi
constitution designates Islam the "official religion of the state," Iraqi Christians
are "voting with their feet" by preparing the leave their native country.
Oil for
Hussein. As front pages report every bit of bad news on the Iraqi war front
in bold type, newspapers are giving precious little ink to what could be the biggest
kickback scheme in world history. Call it: How Saddam Hussein
siphoned $10.1 billion for his regime — thanks to
the United Nations.
Media
Yawn as Saddam's Torture Victims Thank Bush: American journalists
fascinated with U.S. mistreatment of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison gave
a collective yawn yesterday [5/25/2004] when President Bush played host to seven
victims of genuine torture perpetrated by Saddam's Fedahyeen at Abu Ghraib.
What's
going on in Iraq: To hear the media tell it, virtually nothing in Iraq
is going right. Suicide terrorism, Abu Ghraib, sabotaged pipelines, swelling
anti-American sentiment — the coverage has been focused on almost all bad news, almost
all the time. Which hardly comes as a surprise. As an old journalistic rule of
thumb puts it, "If it doesn't bleed, it doesn't lead." In most newsrooms, good news
is usually no news.
The
awful news CNN had to keep to itself: Over the last dozen years I made
13 trips to Baghdad to keep government permission for CNN's Baghdad bureau and to
arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed
by what I saw and heard - awful things that could not be reported because doing so
would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.
A Justifable, Necessary and
Winnable War. Before the war, the news media failed to reveal the extent of Saddam Hussein's
brutality. Too many journalists cut a shameful deal with the dictator: To keep their Baghdad bureaus
open and unmolested, they refrained from serious attempts to report Saddam's crimes.
This
is History calling — quick, get me Rewrite! The invasion of Iraq has gone
fabulously well, exceeding everyone's expectations — certainly exceeding the doomsday
scenarios of liberals. The Bush-haters' pre-war predictions — hundreds of
thousands dead, chemical attacks on our troops, retaliatory terrorist attacks in the
United States, an invasion by Turkey, oil facilities in flames and apocalyptic environmental
consequences — have proven to be about as accurate as Bill Clinton's "legally accurate"
statements about Monica Lewinsky.
Media's
Selective Outrage, by the Numbers: To the casual observer, the situation
in Iraq is bleak, the Iraqi people don't really want democracy, and the only worthwhile
story is the brutality and intimidation of Iraqi prisoners. To the "casual
observer" of the mainstream media, that is.
Bagram GI
says Troops Waited While Hillary Chowed Down. U.S. Sen. Hillary
Clinton forced U.S. troops stationed at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan to wait for their
Thanksgiving dinner last Thursday while she and her entourage arrived late, then
cut in line and were served first.
US
plans death camp: The US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into
a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber.
CNN — the
Most Untrusted Name in NewsJessica Lynch: Modern
Myth. Is this really the way we want to fight our wars, with young mothers coming home in
wheelchairs? (By the way, has anyone noticed how many of our women warriors seem to be single mothers?)
Setting the Record Straight:
The [Jessica Lynch] legend quickly unraveled … after Lynch returned to the States, recuperated from her
substantial injuries … and began to speak out about what had really happened.
CNN Charged with "Disinformation
Campaign" from Iraq. A media watchdog group is calling CNN to task for withholding information
about the brutal nature of the Saddam Hussein regime in order to keep a bureau open in Baghdad.
Don't be fooled, America is
having success against terror. The moral reality finally burst through the yellowcake fog with the
death of the Hussein Brothers, psychopathic torturers who would today be running Iraq if not for the policy
enunciated by President Bush in [the] State of the Union address.
Not quite so bad after
all. Remember the dire warnings that went well beyond the gloom to come on the battlefield?
We were undermining the United Nations. The European community was mobilizing against us. The Arab
Street would ignite. Et cetera.
Media Won't Report About Pro-U.S.
Iraqis: The media establishment is playing down or ignoring the friendly dealings between U.S.
forces and the people of Baghdad.
Terrorists lifting military base
IDs? A noted military analysis and research organization says a rash of Department of Defense
vehicle window decals have gone missing from vehicles at bases all over the country, raising concerns that at
least some may have been stolen by terrorists.
Major Media Ignores Polls, Rallies Showing
Support for War Effort. Patriotic citizens in the tens of thousands have already attended rallies
to support the troops, but the liberal media has demonstrated a preference for ignoring them and instead
portraying sparsely attended anti-war rallies as the sentiment of most Americans.
Another
Coincidence? The Bush administration has told us for over a year that
there is no known connection between Saddam and Osama. On the 9/11 attacks, Team Bush
has adamantly denied any Iraqi connection — even though there is evidence linking the
hijackers to Iraqi agents. The Bush administration went out of its way a year ago to
discredit reports of a link. Why? We do not know.
Yes, This Is About Islam: "This isn't about Islam."
The world's leaders have been repeating this mantra for weeks, partly in the virtuous hope of deterring reprisal
attacks on innocent Muslims living in the West, partly because if the United States is to maintain its coalition
against terror it can't afford to suggest that Islam and terrorism are in any way related.
Iraq Flashback: Dems Backed
Clinton's Impeachment War. As Congressional Democrats escalate their attacks on President Bush
based on the dubious proposition that he's willing to attack Iraq purely for political advantage in this
November's election, it's easy to forget just how supportive they were when President Clinton actually
did try to start a war with Saddam Hussein in hopes of quashing his own impeachment.
INS to deport Arab aliens on
airliners: No handcuffs, no police escorts for 6,000 Middle-Easterners living in the
U.S. illegally.
FAA memo says hijacker shot
passenger on Flight 11: "One bullet fired," killing 9B occupant, but the agency claims this
report was in error.
Friends think Flight 11 Israeli was
"executed": Daniel Lewin, named in FAA shooting memo, was an officer in an elite unit of the
Jewish state's military.
Shadow Government Is at
Work in Secret: After the 9/11 attacks, President Bush ordered 100 officials to bunkers away
from the Capitol to ensure federal survival.
WTC collapse due to
environmentalism?: Fire, heat weakened asbestos-free steel columns of WTC towers.
Update: Asbestos Fireproofing Might Have Prevented
World Trade Center Collapse. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, I
suggested in this column on Sept. 14, 2001 that many lives could have been saved if asbestos fireproofing
been used in the World Trade Center. Though controversial at the time, my view has gained in validity
since then, according to "Eco-Freaks", a new book by John Berlau.
Bio Threat: Worse
Than You're Told. I am baffled that in the wake of Sept. 11 the major media, and some
government officials, continue to downplay the significance of ongoing events. The media have given
great coverage to such non-issues as racial profiling, Jerry Falwell's comments, how misunderstood
Islam is, and other matters that don't deal head-on with the present crisis. The American people
are very reasonable, as long as they have the facts. But that's not what they are getting from CNN
and the rest of the media pack.
Satellites Tell the Truth:
Apparently the satellite imagery is not being released because it does for TWA Flight 800 what it did for the
Russian airliner. It tells the truth that governments want to hide.
Oklahoma City Bombing -
Mideast Connection: Since the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City,
The New American has published a series of articles
detailing the extensive evidence that Middle Eastern terrorist cells were involved with Timothy McVeigh and
Terry Nichols in that attack.
Americans kept in dark about
WMD: Americans are uninformed and ill-prepared for an attack with weapons of mass destruction,
largely because the government is afraid of causing a panic by issuing more high-profile, publicly available
information on the subject, say experts.
So Where Were The Black
Leaders?: Within days of the attack Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam
vigorously condemned it but I didn't hear anything from Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Both men are
ordained ministers and Al Sharpton lives in New York. I would've expected some public words of comfort
to the families of the victims from both of them. Instead in the first days after the attack there
was silence.
Tennessee bus crash 'very
suspicious': Calling it "very suspicious," Rep. Bob Clement, D-Tenn., suggested the hijacking and
crash of a Greyhound bus in southern middle Tennessee would require more investigation before any connection to
the Sept. 11 Islamic terrorist attacks could be ruled out.
Attacks Against America Are Not
Over: The media are now openly criticizing the President for remaining in Air Force One and not
returning immediately to New York or Washington. The President acted very correctly and very smartly.
As I recall, America has a Constitution. The President's sole real responsibility is to preserve your
Constitutional government — not to hold press conferences. Obviously, the President and his advisors
understood that there was a real possibility of a larger threat — perhaps nuclear — and one the
media doesn't want you to know about.
God Bless Our Assassins, Commandos and
Bombs. An Answer to the Hollywood and other leftist types condeming our war on terrorism.
Bin Laden Planning to Attack
White House, Indian Military Says: The Indian military intelligence have claimed to have intercepted
a message that Saudi fugitive and international terrorist Osama bin Laden was putting in place a plan
to attack the White House some time in the future. Highly placed sources in the Indian Army said on
condition of anonymity that the intercept of a conversation between two supporters of bin Laden indicated that
his attack on the United States may not be over yet.
Expert: Russia Knew in
Advance, Encouraged Citizens to Cash Out Dollars: Russian press accounts and other activities by
the Russian government this summer indicate that the Russian knew in advance that something would happen to
America, including a "financial attack" against the U.S. During the past three months, Russian media and
officials have encouraged citizens to cash out of U.S. dollars pending an economic collapse there after an
"attack."
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Updated August 9, 2024.