The Progressive Mind is a collection of articles and annotated links to sites, articles, publications and editorials expressing progressive and humanistic viewpoints. The editor is an active supporter of efforts to uncover the truth about the horrible events on Sep 11, 2001
Just because I post something, do not assume that I agree with it. I try to provide a diversity of opinion lacking in the main stream media. I post material that in my view may have some element of truth, and is important to the extent that it is true. The authors I link to disagree among themselves; they can't all be correct! All of us, without exception, believe a mix of truth and misinformation, and often enough, disinformation. We must strive to understand the world as it is, and not how it looks only according to our preconceptions, which are shaped by a multitude of forces, embedded as we are in our cultural matrix.
Sometimes, the most unlikely seeming explanation turns out to be the correct one. Consider alternative views, but question everything!
"Neither is it that US foreign policy is cruel because American leaders are cruel. It's that our leaders are cruel because only those willing to be inordinately cruel and remorseless can hold positions of leadership in the foreign policy establishment; it might as well be written into the job description. People capable of expressing a full human measure of compassion and empathy toward faraway powerless strangers - (let alone American soldiers - do not become president of the United States, or vice president, or secretary of state, or national security adviser or secretary of the treasury. Nor do they want to." From 'Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower' by William Blum
From "9-11, Six Years Later": "If one looks at the credentials of skeptics compared to the credentials of defenders of the official line, it is impossible to dismiss skeptics as kooks. There are many people with strong imaginations on the Internet, but serious skeptics stick to known facts, known violations of standard procedures and the laws of physics. The vast majority of the people who call skeptics "kooks" are themselves ignorant of physics and have little comprehension of the improbability that such an attack could succeed without either the complicity or complete failure of government agencies. "Paul Craig Roberts
"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular? But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right." Martin Luther King, Jr.
Just because I post something, do not assume that I agree with it. I try to provide a diversity of opinion lacking in the main stream media. I post material that in my view may have some element of truth, and is important to the extent that it is true. The authors I link to disagree among themselves; they can't all be correct! All of us, without exception, believe a mix of truth and misinformation, and often enough, disinformation. We must strive to understand the world as it is, and not how it looks only according to our preconceptions, which are shaped by a multitude of forces, embedded as we are in our cultural matrix.
Sometimes, the most unlikely seeming explanation turns out to be the correct one. Consider alternative views, but question everything!
The NATO Afghanistan War and US-Russian Relations: Drugs, Oil, and War
by Peter Dale Scott
Peter Dale Scott continues his analysis of the U.S. system of domination. In a conference held in Moscow, this former Canadian diplomat summed up the findings of his investigation into the funding of the system with money deriving from drug trafficking and hydrocarbon deals. Although widely known, such facts are nevertheless difficult to accept.
I delivered the following remarks at an anti-NATO conference held in Moscow on May 15, 2012. I was the only North American speaker at an all-day conference, having been invited in connection with the appearance into Russian of my book Drugs, Oil, and War. [1] As a former diplomat worried about peace I was happy to attend: as far as I can tell there may be less serious dialogue today between Russian and American intellectuals than there was at the height of the Cold War. Yet the danger of war involving the two leading nuclear powers has hardly disappeared.
Unlike other speakers, my paper urged Russians — despite the aggressive activities in Central Asia of the CIA, SOCOM (US Special Operations Command), and NATO — to cooperate under multilateral auspices with like-minded Americans, towards dealing with the related crises of Afghan drug production and drug-financed Salafi jihadism.
Since the conference I have continued to reflect intensely on the battered state of US-Russian relations, and my own slightly utopian hopes for repairing them. Although the speakers at the conference represented many different viewpoints, they tended to share a deep anxiety about US intentions towards Russia and the other former states of the USSR. Their anxiety was based on shared knowledge of past American actions and broken promises, of which they (unlike most Americans) are only too aware.
This is information that you really must have to begin to understand the events of our time. This is solidly researched, factual material from a superb scholar, Peter Dale Scott.
Editor
Scholar and former diplomat Peter Dale Scott compares the events of September 11, the JFK assassination and the Oklahoma City bombing. He exposes the existence and continuity of a “deep state” behind the facade.
Voltaire Network | Los Angeles (United States) | 27 April 2013
Introduction: Structural Deep Events and the Strategy of Tension in Italy
From an American standpoint, it is easy to see clearly how Italian history was systematically destabilized in the second half of the 20th century, by a series of what I call structural deep events. I have defined these as “events, like the JFK assassination, the Watergate break-in, or 9/11, which violate the … social structure, have a major impact on … society, repeatedly involve law-breaking or violence, and in many cases proceed from an unknown dark force.” [1]
Piazza Fontana bombing
Bologna bombing
The examples in Italy, well known to Italians, include the Piazza Fontana bombing of 1969, the Piazza della Loggia bombing of 1974, and the Bologna railway bombing of 1980. These bombings, in which over one hundred civilians were killed and many more wounded, were attributed at the time to marginal left-wing elements of society. However, thanks chiefly to a series of investigations and judicial proceedings, it is now clearly established that the bombings were the work of right-wing elements in collusion with Italian military intelligence, as part of an on-going “strategy of tension” to discredit the Italian left, encourage support for a corrupt status quo, and perhaps move beyond democracy altogether. [2] As one of the conspirators, Vincenzo Vinciguerra, later stated, “The December 1969 explosion was supposed to be the detonator which would have convinced the political and military authorities to declare a state of emergency.” [3]
Vinciguerra also revealed that he and others had also been members of a paramilitary “stay-behind” network originally organized at the end of World War II by the CIA and NATO as “Operation Gladio.”
…. he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” ….General Wesley Clark:
Uploaded on Sep 11, 2011
General Wesley Clark:
Because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, “Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second.” I said, “Well, you’re too busy.” He said, “No, no.” He says, “We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq.” This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?” He said, “I don’t know.” He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.” So I said, “Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?” He said, “No, no.” He says, “There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.” He said, “I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments.” And he said, “I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.”
So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office — “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”
Abby Martin calls out Bill Maher, host of HBO’s ‘Real Time’, for his evolution from being a controversial commentator to being an arrogant lackey for the democratic party, citing his rampant Islamophobia, support for drones, and defense of the NSA’s wiretapping program.
Many mainstream media outlets are telling us this is all about the “bus fare”. It is not! This is what they want everyone to think. This is against a bill called ‘Pec 37′ which gives immunity against the law to every congressman in Brazil. This is also about the poor educational system, nearly non-existent healthcare, and for the corruption in the country which got sky high. A great deal of the nations residents are also fed up with the lavish spending on upcoming global sporting events in the form of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, while the plight of the common people across the country is being systematically ignored.
Mass protests continued throughout Brazil on Monday, with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators converging in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, the capital of Brasilia and other cities. Protests initially began last week following a government announcement of an increase in public transportation costs, which brought out students and young workers and led to more than 250 arrests.
- See more at: http://www.ingeniouspress.com/2013/06/18/brazil-bedlam-largest-in-decades-protests-sweep-country/#sthash.tpcAGCK3.dpuf
Many mainstream media outlets are telling us this is all about the “bus fare”. It is not! This is what they want everyone to think. This is against a bill called ‘Pec 37′ which gives immunity against the law to every congressman in Brazil. This is also about the poor educational system, nearly non-existent healthcare, and for the corruption in the country which got sky high. A great deal of the nations residents are also fed up with the lavish spending on upcoming global sporting events in the form of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, while the plight of the common people across the country is being systematically ignored. - See more at: http://www.ingeniouspress.com/2013/06/18/brazil-bedlam-largest-in-decades-protests-sweep-country/#sthash.tpcAGCK3.dpuf
Del Monte, one of the world’s largest growers and distributors of the popular tropical pineapple fruit, has developed a genetically modified pineapple that’s currently being grown in Costa Rica, one of the top pineapple-producing countries. It has just received approval by the USDA for eventual sale in the U.S.
Called “Rosé”, representatives for Del Monte say the GMO fruit is still in a testing phase: “The USDA’s decision does not mean that Rosé is in commercial distribution; it is in a testing phase. Del Monte intends to continue to test Rosé and will communicate more details when appropriate,” Dennis Christou, vice president of marketing in North America for Del Monte said in a statement, adding that, “Del Monte Fresh Produce has a very active research and development program designed to explore new varieties and new agricultural techniques. The results of these research projects may or may not lead to commercialization depending on many factors including regulatory approvals by the relevant governmental authorities where and when applicable.”
According to the website, The Packer, Del Monte submitted its requests for approval from the USDA’s APHIS division (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) in July of 2012, and the agency quietly gave its approval of Rosé in January of this year, but a formal public response was only made in late April.
Del Monte’s request for approval describes the GMO Rosé variety as having “rose-colored flesh”, which the company says comes from the addition of genes from “edible plant species, pineapple and tangerine” genetically modified to change the color of the pineapple.
A “food safety consultation” must be completed with the FDA before the pineapples can be imported to the U.S. The Packer reports that as of April 26th, the agency’s list of approved consultations did not show any results connected with Del Monte’s Rosé.
Image: CIAT
- See more at: http://www.naturallysavvy.com/natural-and-organic/del-monte-s-gmo-pineapple-approved-in-the-u-s#sthash.PC8DWi63.dpuf
Del Monte, one of the world’s largest growers and distributors of the popular tropical pineapple fruit, has developed a genetically modified pineapple that’s currently being grown in Costa Rica, one of the top pineapple-producing countries. It has just received approval by the USDA for eventual sale in the U.S.
Called “Rosé”, representatives for Del Monte say the GMO fruit is still in a testing phase: “The USDA’s decision does not mean that Rosé is in commercial distribution; it is in a testing phase. Del Monte intends to continue to test Rosé and will communicate more details when appropriate,” Dennis Christou, vice president of marketing in North America for Del Monte said in a statement, adding that, “Del Monte Fresh Produce has a very active research and development program designed to explore new varieties and new agricultural techniques. The results of these research projects may or may not lead to commercialization depending on many factors including regulatory approvals by the relevant governmental authorities where and when applicable.”
According to the website, The Packer, Del Monte submitted its requests for approval from the USDA’s APHIS division (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) in July of 2012, and the agency quietly gave its approval of Rosé in January of this year, but a formal public response was only made in late April.
Del Monte’s request for approval describes the GMO Rosé variety as having “rose-colored flesh”, which the company says comes from the addition of genes from “edible plant species, pineapple and tangerine” genetically modified to change the color of the pineapple.
A “food safety consultation” must be completed with the FDA before the pineapples can be imported to the U.S. The Packer reports that as of April 26th, the agency’s list of approved consultations did not show any results connected with Del Monte’s Rosé.
Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East, entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew dictatorships across the region.
For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’ in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites. Breaking all President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East.
The Independent on Sunday has learned that a military decision has been taken in Iran – even before last week’s presidential election – to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against the largely Sunni rebellion that has cost almost 100,000 lives in just over two years. Iran is now fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, according to pro-Iranian sources which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security, even to the extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against Israel.
In years to come, historians will ask how America – after its defeat in Iraq and its humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan scheduled for 2014 – could have so blithely aligned itself with one side in a titanic Islamic struggle stretching back to the seventh century death of the Prophet Mohamed. The profound effects of this great schism, between Sunnis who believe that the father of Mohamed’s wife was the new caliph of the Muslim world and Shias who regard his son in law Ali as his rightful successor – a seventh century battle swamped in blood around the present-day Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kerbala – continue across the region to this day. A 17th century Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbott, compared this Muslim conflict to that between “Papists and Protestants”.
America’s alliance now includes the wealthiest states of the Arab Gulf, the vast Sunni territories between Egypt and Morocco, as well as Turkey and the fragile British-created monarchy in Jordan. King Abdullah of Jordan – flooded, like so many neighbouring nations, by hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees – may also now find himself at the fulcrum of the Syrian battle. Up to 3,000 American ‘advisers’ are now believed to be in Jordan, and the creation of a southern Syria ‘no-fly zone’ – opposed by Syrian-controlled anti-aircraft batteries – will turn a crisis into a ‘hot’ war. So much for America’s ‘friends’.
Its enemies include the Lebanese Hizballah, the Alawite Shiite regime in Damascus and, of course, Iran. And Iraq, a largely Shiite nation which America ‘liberated’ from Saddam Hussein’s Sunni minority in the hope of balancing the Shiite power of Iran, has – against all US predictions – itself now largely fallen under Tehran’s influence and power. Iraqi Shiites as well as Hizballah members, have both fought alongside Assad’s forces.
Washington’s excuse for its new Middle East adventure – that it must arm Assad’s enemies because the Damascus regime has used sarin gas against them – convinces no-one in the Middle East. Final proof of the use of gas by either side in Syria remains almost as nebulous as President George W. Bush’s claim that Saddam’s Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
For the real reason why America has thrown its military power behind Syria’s Sunni rebels is because those same rebels are now losing their war against Assad. The Damascus regime’s victory this month in the central Syrian town of Qusayr, at the cost of Hizballah lives as well as those of government forces, has thrown the Syrian revolution into turmoil, threatening to humiliate American and EU demands for Assad to abandon power. Arab dictators are supposed to be deposed – unless they are the friendly kings or emirs of the Gulf – not to be sustained. Yet Russia has given its total support to Assad, three times vetoing UN Security Council resolutions that might have allowed the West to intervene directly in the civil war.
In the Middle East, there is cynical disbelief at the American contention that it can distribute arms – almost certainly including anti-aircraft missiles – only to secular Sunni rebel forces in Syria represented by the so-called Free Syria Army. The more powerful al-Nusrah Front, allied to al-Qaeda, dominates the battlefield on the rebel side and has been blamed for atrocities including the execution of Syrian government prisoners of war and the murder of a 14-year old boy for blasphemy. They will be able to take new American weapons from their Free Syria Army comrades with little effort.
From now on, therefore, every suicide bombing in Damascus - every war crime committed by the rebels - will be regarded in the region as Washington’s responsibility. The very Sunni-Wahabi Islamists who killed thousands of Americans on 11th September, 2011 – who are America’s greatest enemies as well as Russia’s – are going to be proxy allies of the Obama administration. This terrible irony can only be exacerbated by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adament refusal to tolerate any form of Sunni extremism. His experience in Chechenya, his anti-Muslim rhetoric – he has made obscene remarks about Muslim extremists in a press conference in Russian – and his belief that Russia’s old ally in Syria is facing the same threat as Moscow fought in Chechenya, plays a far greater part in his policy towards Bashar al-Assad than the continued existence of Russia’s naval port at the Syrian Mediterranean city of Tartous.
For the Russians, of course, the ‘Middle East’ is not in the ‘east’ at all, but to the south of Moscow; and statistics are all-important. The Chechen capital of Grozny is scarcely 500 miles from the Syrian frontier. Fifteen per cent of Russians are Muslim. Six of the Soviet Union’s communist republics had a Muslim majority, 90 per cent of whom were Sunni. And Sunnis around the world make up perhaps 85 per cent of all Muslims. For a Russia intent on repositioning itself across a land mass that includes most of the former Soviet Union, Sunni Islamists of the kind now fighting the Assad regime are its principal antagonists.
Iranian sources say they liaise constantly with Moscow, and that while Hizballah’s overall withdrawal from Syria is likely to be completed soon – with the maintenance of the militia’s ‘intelligence’ teams inside Syria – Iran’s support for Damascus will grow rather than wither. They point out that the Taliban recently sent a formal delegation for talks in Tehran and that America will need Iran’s help in withdrawing from Afghanistan. The US, the Iranians say, will not be able to take its armour and equipment out of the country during its continuing war against the Taliban without Iran’s active assistance. One of the sources claimed – not without some mirth — that the French were forced to leave 50 tanks behind when they left because they did not have Tehran’s help.
It is a sign of the changing historical template in the Middle East that within the framework of old Cold War rivalries between Washington and Moscow, Israel’s security has taken second place to the conflict in Syria. Indeed, Israel’s policies in the region have been knocked askew by the Arab revolutions, leaving its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hopelessly adrift amid the historic changes.
Only once over the past two years has Israel fully condemned atrocities committed by the Assad regime, and while it has given medical help to wounded rebels on the Israeli-Syrian border, it fears an Islamist caliphate in Damascus far more than a continuation of Assad’s rule. One former Israel intelligence commander recently described Assad as “Israel’s man in Damascus”. Only days before President Mubarak was overthrown, both Netanyahu and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called Washington to ask Obama to save the Egyptian dictator. In vain.
If the Arab world has itself been overwhelmed by the two years of revolutions, none will have suffered from the Syrian war in the long term more than the Palestinians. The land they wish to call their future state has been so populated with Jewish Israeli colonists that it can no longer be either secure or ‘viable’. ‘Peace’ envoy Tony Blair’s attempts to create such a state have been laughable. A future ‘Palestine’ would be a Sunni nation. But today, Washington scarcely mentions the Palestinians.
Another of the region’s supreme ironies is that Hamas, supposedly the ‘super-terrorists’ of Gaza, have abandoned Damascus and now support the Gulf Arabs’ desire to crush Assad. Syrian government forces claim that Hamas has even trained Syrian rebels in the manufacture and use of home-made rockets.
In Arab eyes, Israel’s 2006 war against the Shia Hizballah was an attempt to strike at the heart of Iran. The West’s support for Syrian rebels is a strategic attempt to crush Iran. But Iran is going to take the offensive. Even for the Middle East, these are high stakes. Against this fearful background, the Palestinian tragedy continues.
Oct. 22, 2008 — McGill University researchers have discovered a new state of matter, a quasi-three- dimensional electron crystal, in a material very much like those used in the fabrication of modern transistors. This discovery could have momentous implications for the development of new electronic devices.
At the suburban Chicago laboratory, a group of scientists has seemingly defied the laws of physics and found a way to apply pressure to make a material expand instead of compress/contract.
“It’s like squeezing a stone and forming a giant sponge,” said Karena Chapman, a chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy laboratory. “Materials are supposed to become denser and more compact under pressure. We are seeing the exact opposite. The pressure-treated material has half the density of the original state. This is counterintuitive to the laws of physics.”
Because this behavior seems impossible, Chapman and her colleagues spent several years testing and retesting the material until they believed the unbelievable and understood how the impossible could be possible. For every experiment, they got the same mind-bending results.
“The bonds in the material completely rearrange,” Chapman said. “This just blows my mind.”
Like diamond or graphite, graphene is a structural modification (an allotrope) of carbon, that has many special properties that make it a very useful material with great potential for application in technology. In essence, graphene is an isolated atomic plane of graphite, which is very light (1-square-meter sheet weighing only 0.77 milligrams) and at the same time very strong (graphene has a breaking strength over 100 times greater than a hypothetical steel film of the same thickness). The electrical properties of this novel material are being extensively researched for the wide range of potential graphene applications. In fact, graphene may even provide a basis for the new definition of the SI unit of electric current, the ampere.
Two Women Claim Texas Jailers Ran a ‘Rape Camp’ Behind Bars
By CAMERON LANGFORD
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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (CN) - Texas jailers ran a “rape camp” where they “repeatedly raped and humiliated female inmates,” and forced them to masturbate and sodomize male guards, and one another, two women claim in court.
J.A.S. and J.M.N. sued Live Oak County and its former jailers Vincent Aguilar, Israel Charles Jr. and Jaime E. Smith, in Federal Court.
All three guards were arrested in August 2010 and charged with sexual assault, the Beeville Bee-Picayune reported at the time. The newspaper did not identify the victims.
Smith and Aguilar are in Texas state prisons today, according to the complaint, which says defendant Charles is living in Bee County.
Live Oak is a sparsely settled county in south central Texas. Its seat is George West.
Whistleblower Edward Snowden spoke publicly yesterday for the first time in a week and issued a defiant response to denunciations of his actions by both corporate-controlled parties in the US. He declared, “All I can say right now is the US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming and it cannot be stopped.”
Since releasing documents exposing secret spying programs targeting Americans and non-Americans alike, Snowden has been the target of an increasingly vicious campaign in the media and from government officials. The Obama administration is preparing criminal charges, and Democrats and Republicans have denounced him as a “traitor.” Meanwhile, polls show broad public support for the 29-year-old former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA).
In comments posted Monday on the web site of the British Guardian newspaper, Snowden maintained that he is not deterred by the political establishment’s slanderous campaign or the fact that he could be targeted for assassination by US intelligence agencies.
Snowden issued a stinging response to accusations from former Vice President Dick Cheney and others that he is a “traitor.” He said, “[I]t’s important to bear in mind that I’m being called a traitor by men like former Vice President Dick Cheney. This is a man who gave us the warrantless wiretapping scheme as a kind of atrocity warm-up on the way to deceitfully engineering a conflict that has killed over 4,400 and maimed nearly 32,000 Americans, as well as leaving over 100,000 Iraqis dead.
“Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him, [Democratic Senator Dianne] Feinstein, and [Republican Representative Peter] King, the better off we all are. If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.”
Denouncing the role of the press, Snowden noted that the “mainstream media now seems far more interested in what I said when I was 17 or what my girlfriend looks like rather than, say, the largest program of suspicionless surveillance in human history.”
Asked whether analysts can listen to the content of calls without a warrant, Snowden refuted the lying denials of administration and intelligence officials and indicated that he has proof to the contrary.
“More detail on how direct NSA’s accesses are is coming, but, in general, the reality is this: if an NSA, FBI, CIA, DIA, etc. analyst has access to query raw SIGINT databases, they can enter and get results for anything they want. Phone number, email, user ID, cell phone handset ID (IMEI), and so on. It’s all the same…
“The reality is that due to the FISA Amendments Act and its section 702 authorities, Americans’ communications are collected and viewed on a daily basis on the certification of an analyst rather than a warrant. They excuse this as ‘incidental’ collection, but at the end of the day, someone at NSA still has the content of your communications.”
He added: “Even in the event of ‘warranted’ intercept, it’s important to understand the intelligence community doesn’t always deal with what you would consider a ‘real’ warrant like a police department would have to. The ‘warrant’ is more of a templated form they fill out and send to a reliable judge with a rubber stamp.”
Snowden sought to refute government attempts to downplay the profound illegality of the spying operation, as exemplified by President Obama’s interview yesterday with the Public Broadcasting System’s Charlie Rose. Obama claimed once again that if US intelligence agencies want to wiretap a phone, they have to “go to the FISA court with probable cause and ask for a warrant.” He made the absurd claim that the program as a whole “is transparent” because “we set up the FISA court”—a secret court that last year approved every surveillance request submitted by the government.
Obama’s dishonest, meandering words cannot diminish the significance of Snowden’s courageous and powerful statements.
The spying operations revealed by Snowden are global in scope, with hundreds of millions of people swept up in an international dragnet that involves the complicity of other intelligence agencies. As Snowden pointed out, the claim that the programs target only non-US persons—a false assertion—is “a distraction from the power and danger of this system.” He added, “Suspicionless surveillance does not become okay simply because it’s only victimizing 95 percent of the world instead of 100 percent. Our founders did not write, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all US persons are created equal.’”
Snowden wrote that with the campaign of denunciations against him, the US government has “immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason, and that the disclosure of secret, criminal and even unconstitutional acts is an unforgivable crime.”
Responding to claims that the leaks had undermined the “war on terror,” Snowden replied: “Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism…yet we’ve been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it.”
Responding to an online question about the timing of the leaks, Snowden explained that he chose to wait to release the information because “Obama’s campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes.”
He continued: “Many Americans felt similarly. Unfortunately, shortly after assuming power, he closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge.”
The hysterical lies of the ruling class over the past two weeks reflect its growing nervousness over the prospect of an entire generation of young people forming similar political conclusions.
Edward Snowden has dispensed more truth in a few paragraphs than the corporate media has in decades of twenty-four hour news cycles. His actions and words serve as a powerful refutation of the geyser of mud, endless lies and vacuity of the entire political and media apparatus.
Apr. 3, 2013 — The mountain ranges of the North American Cordillera are made up of dozens of distinct crustal blocks. A new study clarifies their mode of origin and identifies a previously unknown oceanic plate that contributed to their assembly.
The Metafrets guitar chord and scale system is documented in a book, "Metafrets Major - The Essential Manual". Download the FREE book, lessons, chord charts and a chord dictionary.
Site Links
** Alter Net: Some progressive stuff, but too much "9/11 Gatekeeper" material.
**** Antiwar.com: Antiwar site by Justin Raimondo. Politics makes strange bedfellows on this one, as in many respects, I have troubles with Raimondo's libertarian views. Right-gatekeeper for sure, but he is almost admitting LIHOP now.
***** Architects and Engineers for 9 11 Truth: ... Architects & Engineers who have joined AE911Truth.org in calling upon Congress for a new truly independent investigation into the "collapses" of the WTC Twin Towers and Building 7 - requesting a specific examination for controlled demolition with explosives. ... Take a stand for Truth and join us!
**** Axis of Logic: Committed to publishing news and commentary that is often not presented in the major news outlets
**** Carolyn Baker - Speaking Truth To Power:... up-to-the-moment alternative reporting of U.S. and international news, articles containing information and opinion, and a venue of support and connection for awake individuals ...
**** Citizen's Circle for Accountability: Public accountability means the obligation of authorities to explain publicly, fully and fairly, before and after the fact, how they are carrying out responsibilities that affect the public in important ways. These explanations, publicly validated, would produce useful information for citizens affected by the intentions, and would produce a beneficial self-regulating influence on the conduct of authorities.
***** Civil Information Blog: The home of those 9/11 Truth Activists who practice the technique of Civil Informationing, as opposed to mass protests and confrontations with media / politicians. We advocate 'being the media', and acting responsibly and civilly (as individuals or in small groups) to inform our fellow citizens about what we have learned about 9/11, the war on terror, and closely related issues. We regard it as our civic duty, and view 60's style activism as outdated in the 'information age', and self-defeating
** Common Dreams: One of the most widely ready progressive sites. Pretty much left gatekeepers.
***** Complete 911 Timeline: This is the home page for the Complete 911 Timeline investigative project, one of several grassroots investigations being hosted on the History Commons website. The data published as part of this investigation has been collected, organized, and published by members of the public who are registered users of this website.
**** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches: Investigative journalist Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches - an unembedded journalist in IRAQ and a man of courage.
**** Desert Peace: Aiming to establish a just and lasting peace between Israel and Palestine, while at the same time continue the struggle against racism and for peace throughout the world.
**** Fascism Anyone?: ... there is one archetypal political philosophy that is anathema to almost all of these principles. It is fascism. And fascism’s principles are wafting in the air today, surreptitiously masquerading as something else, challenging everything we stand for.
*** Green Left: Australian alterative media site - quite good.
** Guerrilla News Network: It seems at first glance to be a fine site, with links to lots of first rate progressive articles. However, there are some indications that the principle actors on the site are "left-gatekeepers" and agents of disinformation. Keep your eyes open.
***** Integrate This: Challenging the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America, the North American Union.
***** Journal of 911 Studies: The Journal of 9/11 Studies is a peer-reviewed, open-access, electronic-only journal covering the whole of research related to 9/11/2001. Our mission is to provide evidence-based, peer-reviewed research that furthers the cause of truth and justice.
**** Labour Start: Where trade unionists start their day on the net.
***** Mad Cow Morning News: Investigative journalist and author Daniel Hopsicker. A must read for understanding certain aspects of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
**** Media Lens : Media Lens is a response based on our conviction that mainstream newspapers and broadcasters provide a profoundly distorted picture of our world. We are convinced that the increasingly centralised, corporate nature of the media means that it acts as a de facto propaganda system for corporate and other establishment interests. The costs incurred as a result of this propaganda, in terms of human suffering and environmental degradation, are incalculable.
***** www.oilempire.us: A primary site for September 11, 2001 terrorist attack researchers. Has a good critique of some of the more suspect claims, and a good discussion of conspiracy denial amongst progressive authors.
***** Online Journal: Worth the visit. Amongst the best sites for progressive journalism.
***** Op Ed News : Amongst the best sites for progressive journalism. Will publish 9/11 Truth pieces.
***** Pilots for 9/11 Truth : An organization of aviation professionals and pilots throughout the globe commited to seeking the truth surrounding the events of the 11th of September 2001.
**** Richard C. Cook: There is no distinction between spirituality and economics. The economic life of a nation reflects its spiritual state, its spiritual attitudes.
**** Richard Heinberg: Learn about the The Oil Depletion Protocol, one of the world's best policy tools for addressing our societal dependence on fossil fuels. Click on the link below, and sign the Oil Depletion Procotol as an Individual Adopter. Be an example to your local, state, and national governments!
**** Stop the Lie: So let's get right to it: Is it really baseless idiocy that drives people to question the official account of 9/11? Are the millions of Americans (including Senators, FBI agents, Doctors, Lawyers, Professors, Scientists, Engineers, etc.) all paranoid loons for suggesting we need a truly independent investigation of 9/11? The government and media would have you think so. They'd also (to help maintain that perception) need to keep you diverted from the information you're about to read.
***** Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice : This is the new home for a restructured scholars group that welcomes scholars and all persons interested in exposing the truths of the 9/11/01 attack. Care is being taken to present the strongest, most credible research available, some of which is published on our sister site, the Journal of 9/11 Studies.
**** Source Watch: Alternative media site - was Disinfopedia - quite good
***** The 911 Agenda - September 11 and Our Political System: This website will be devoted to political history and the effects of the strategy of tension on our current political predicament. I hope that the articles listed on the Front Page will provide a good introduction.
**** The Authoritarians: "Altemeyer prepared a digest of his research for general readers, ..., which he has posted online for one and all to examine at no cost." John Dean
**** The Canadian Spectator : a single-handed protest at the Canadian Government's contemptible subservience to a corporate oligopoly that is allowed control over virtually all Canadian news outlets. Needless to say, this control serves the interests of plutocratic oligopolists, not those of ordinary Canadians.
**** The Council of Canadians - Nanaimo: We're making a 60 minute documentary about SPP (the Security Prosperity Partnership) and TILMA (Trade Investment Labour Mobility Agreement) and how trade agreements in general are driven by a secretive corporate agenda that excludes civil society, the labour and environmental movements. These agreements escape the scrutiny of our democratic processes, but may alter/remove regulations and institutions that have been put in place by decades of democratically elected representatives of the people.
*** The Independent Institute: Many articles from Ivan Eland and others. Right wing stuff generally, but there were some good anti-war views from Ivan Eland in the past.
*** True Blue Liberal: We’ve taken it upon ourselves to provide news, opinion, and information from off of the beaten path in an effort to keep you informed and up to date.
**** truthdig: Coverage of current affairs as well as a variety of thoughtful, provocative content assembled from a progressive point of view.Probable left gate-keepers.
**** Truth Move: TruthMove is an organization dedicated to personal and social change through the process of truth. We focus on education and direct action, and are actively seeking new allies and volunteers.
**** truthout, News Politics: Maintained by author William Rivers Pitt. Good stuff in general, but probably left gate-keepers.
**** Unknown News: "We believe in liberty and justice for all, so of course, we oppose many US government policies. ... It means we believe in freedom, as more than merely a cliche."
***** We Are Change: We recognize that the world does not function through a left/right paradigm, but a top/down hierarchy that threatens to destroy free society as we know it.
**** WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.COM: Right wing libertarian Michael Rivero has an interesting mix. I have to admit I visit this site first - even though he is way to the right of me. He supports the 9/11 truth initiative and has some good original articles.
**** Winter Patriot: These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. ... Thomas Paine, 1776
World Press: News and Views From Around the World - Read newspapers before they appear on the newstands.
**** World Socialist Web Site: The World Socialist Web Site features daily news and analysis written from a socialist perspective, and commentary on the arts, culture, history, ....
**** http://wtcdemolition.com/blog/: Our desired goal is a provocative and informative resource for those who feel that the issue of 9/11 merits serious and thought-provoking discussion and debate.
