E-mails released Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the environmental group Friends of the Earth paint a picture of a sometimes warm and collaborative relationship between the lobbyist for the pipeline company, Trans-Canada, and officials in the State Department, the agency responsible for evaluating and approving the billion-dollar project.
In a stunning conflict of interest, public hearings on federal approval for a proposed tar-sands pipeline are being run by a contractor for the pipeline company itself. The U.S. Department of State's public hearings along the proposed route of the TransCanada Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline this week are under the purview of Cardno Entrix, a “professional environmental consulting company” that specializes in “permitting and compliance.”
by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS, Counterpunch, 4 October 2011
September 30, 2011 was the day America was assassinated.
Some of us have watched this day approach and have warned of its coming, only to be greeted with boos and hisses from “patriots” who have come to regard the US Constitution as a device that coddles criminals and terrorists and gets in the way of the President who needs to act to keep us safe.
In our book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, Lawrence Stratton and I showed that long before 9/11 US law had ceased to be a shield of the people and had been turned into a weapon in the hands of the government. The event known as 9/11 was used to raise the executive branch above the law. As long as the President sanctions an illegal act, executive branch employees are no longer accountable to the law that prohibits the illegal act. On the president’s authority, the executive branch can violate US laws against spying on Americans without warrants, indefinite detention, and torture and suffer no consequences.
Phi Beta Iota: Every single major flaw in the US Government can be connected to the corruption that is made possible by a two-party tyranny divorced from reality and accountable to none. Electoral Reform is the singular demand of OccupyWallStreet movement, and with good reason. It is the “one thing” that can cleanse the government and restore the integrity of the Republic.
CORRUPTION is the common enemy, both in government and in the private sector.
The Russians over-hyped the headline, but otherwise did a superb job of cutting to the chase and presenting a short live (no edits) interview and a compelling transcript.
Fury over corporate power in the US is spreading from New York across the country. Thousands have joined the ‘Occupy Wall Street' movement, angered by the economic slump that may lead to a revolution in the country.
Robert David Steele, political analyst and former intelligence officer, told RT the US right now is much more desperate than people realize.
“We have 22 per cent unemployment and on our way to 30 per cent. We are 16 per cent below the poverty line and on our way to 30 per cent. There is no question in my mind that this is going to be a very dark winter in the United States,” he stated. “Unless the government restores its own integrity and starts paying attention to the public interest rather than to the special interests, I believe that we will have a form of revolution, initially non-violent, but with the potential to become violent,” he added.
Despite the fact that “Occupy Wall Street” protesters have raised everything from lack of jobs to global warming, there is a common cause uniting the activists, Steele believes.
“These are not stupid people. They are very smart and they understand that at root this is about corruption in government and corruption on Wall Street,” he explained. “And until you have electoral reform, you cannot restore the integrity of US government. So there is a common cause, but it is voiced in many different ways,” he maintained.
The protest started out peacefully, but now it is the third week and more than 700 people have been arrested on Brooklyn Bridge. And according to Steele, the NYC police have on the one hand been very well-managed and on the other hand have gotten out of control at lower levels.
“My personal hope is that the general non-violent strike will be used to force the issue of electoral reform,” he concluded.
Core Proposed Program for Occupy Wall Street (Across the Nation):
CORRUPTION is the common enemy, both in government and in the private sector.
Loft in the Red Zone present a pop-up art show, entitled “No Comment,” inspired by the #Occupy Wall Street movement at Liberty Plaza. We will be showcasing multimedia art by activists and artists of New York.
The show concerns the current paradigm shift of human expression and the
emerging social condition.
The show will be held at the historic JP Morgan Building, at 23 Wall Street, across from the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall, Saturday, October 8th, 2011 from 6-9 pm. On Sunday, removable walls with graffiti art will be walked out of the front door of the gallery, at corner of Wall Street and Broad. Silent Auction will be held on Saturday evening.
John Buchanan understands the true spirit of our nation and puts his finger smack on all the ways we've strayed away from that spirit. This is the first social studies volume every high school kid should read. This book is so right on it hurts. Get this book; read it; then go out there and save your nation — these United States — from those greedy insiders who have high jacked it for their own evil gains.
Phi Beta Iota: The Occupy movement in the USA that has emerged in Sep-Oct 2011 is a manifestation of the ideas in this book, and the urgent needs identified but not assimilated in 2005 and earlier.
The Brookings Institution, Stein Room, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC
With the recently observed 10th anniversary of 9/11, questions about the country’s intelligence capabilities and their use by policymakers continue to haunt issues that range from counterterrorism to WMD. Please join the 21st Century Defense Initiative on October 5th at 10:00am as we host Paul R. Pillar to discuss his newly published book on this topic, Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, 9/11 and Misguided Reform.
Paul Pillar is visiting professor and director of studies in the Security Studies Program at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He spent nearly 30 years in the U.S. intelligence field, worked for the George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush administrations as well as the Clinton administration in several senior positions with the CIA and the National Intelligence Council. He is also the author of Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy and Negotiating Peace: War Termination as a Bargaining Process.
Pillar’s new book explores a number of national security issues, and particularly questions the belief that intelligence drives major national security decisions and can be fixed to avoid future failures. Instead, he argues that portrayals of intelligence as critical to U.S. policy wastes resources and keeps Americans from recognizing the limits of obtainable knowledge. It is sure to be a fascinating discussion. Peter W. Singer, director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative, will moderate.
Gets to the very crux of our nation's ills.,September 27, 2009
