Category: Corruption

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9/11 Questions Linger Ten Years Later

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Secrets, Military

For Activists, Architects, 9/11 Questions Linger Ten Years Later

GLORIA TATUM 4-30-2011 Atlanta Progressive News

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With additional reporting by Matthew Cardinale, News Editor.

[The purpose of this article is not to hypothesize what the real story behind the Towers' collapse is, but to address what we find to be reasonable and compelling questions about the government's official account.]

(APN) ATLANTA — It will be ten years since September 11, 2001, in just a few months.  And yet some of the most basic and fundamental questions about what happened that day–based upon physics and the forensic science of structural engineering–in the collapse of three towers at the World Trade Center in New York, still linger.

Groups such as Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (A&E), founded by Richard Gage; and We Are Change Atlanta want to re-examine the evidence regarding the collapse of all three buildings.

Continue reading “9/11 Questions Linger Ten Years Later”

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Bin Laden Show 75: Bin Laden Transfigured

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency

Phil Giraldi

Osama bin Laden Transfigured

by Phil Giraldi, 12 May 2011

AntiWar.com

The execution-style slaying of Osama bin Laden has been touted as a great success for United States intelligence operatives and also for the special operations soldiers, sailors, and airmen who executed the plan. But it also leaves one feeling a bit uneasy about where this is all going now that the world’s most wanted fugitive is dead. A retrospective look at the fifteen year manhunt mounted by the US government estimates that it cost something like $3 trillion to kill him. An effort is being made to confirm that bin Laden was still a very dangerous man, plotting with his associates and “coming up with ideas” about attacking transportation hubs in the US, but there is little to suggest that the aging terrorist was well positioned to mount any effective operations against anyone. As he relied on couriers to communicate his wishes he was not even able to send instructions or advice to his remaining associates in under a week, hardly qualifying him as a hands-on master of terror.

. . . . . .

But what is particularly disquieting about the bin Laden story is how it is being used by some media commentators and politicians to support the reactionary war on terror policies of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. In the press and on Capitol Hill there have been suggestions that the successful tracking of bin Laden came about because of torture, that the key information that led to his hideout in Pakistan was developed in a CIA secret prison. Demagogic politicians like congressman Peter King are extolling the virtues of enhanced interrogation and calling for more of it.

Read full article….

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D. is a contributing editor to The American Conservative and executive director of the Council for the National Interest He is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served 18 years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain.

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Bin Laden Show 74: More Doubts

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Military
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AP Sources: Raiders Knew Mission A One-Shot Deal

By KIMBERLY DOZIER

Sacramento Bee, May 17, 2011

WASHINGTON — Those who planned the secret mission to get Osama bin Laden in Pakistan knew it was a one-shot deal, and it nearly went terribly wrong.

The U.S. deliberately hid the operation from Pakistan, and predicted that national outrage over the breach of Pakistani sovereignty would make it impossible to try again if the raid on bin Laden's suspected redoubt came up dry.

Once the raiders reached their target, things started to go awry almost immediately, officials briefed on the operation said.

Read full article….

Phi Beta Iota: None of this makes sense and it includes some deliberate lies–for example, the military phonetic for G is Golf, not Geronimo, these people are making stuff up as they go along.  We still do not understand the five helicopters when five special operations officers with silenced weapons coming in through  the front door would have been more than enough, using a single stealth helicopter for extraction only.  The CIA observation post combined with micro-drone surveillance was more than enough to get to an accurate assessment of numbers and weapons.  With Blackwater blown in Abbottabad a full year prior to this operation, it all simply does not add up.

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Bin Laden Show 71: Bin Laden Won (Daily Beast)

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency
Osama Bin Laden

Osama bin Laden: Why He Won

by E.J. Graff

The Daily Beast, 15 May 2011

As celebrations over Osama bin Laden's death wind down, a starker reality is emerging: the terrorist bogeyman succeeded in destroying key American values, not to mention our economy and global influence.

At long last, Osama is dead. The U.S. has finally found and killed an enemy commander who was devoted to destroying my country. Although I oppose the death penalty and feel passionately about the rule of law, about this I have no ambivalence: killing bin Laden was entirely justified.

And yet to my surprise, Bin Laden's death left me deeply sad. It has taken me until now to fully understand why: I feel profoundly grieved for my country. Had his death come nine years ago, perhaps I'd feel as relieved and even celebratory as many others. But in the ten years it took to find and kill him, bin Laden won.

Read full article…

Phi Beta Iota: We agree.  Even the Arab Spring can be credited after a fashion to the intent of Osama Bin Laden, whose core enemy was the corrupt Saudi regime followed the other Middle Eastern dictators.  The US has never been more than the “far enemy” but the US lost both its intelligence and its integrity in Viet-Nam and never regained them; instead, in a frenzy of ideological theatrics, the two-party tyranny and their financial patrons have engaged in a decades long orgy of self-destructive behavior not at all in the public interest.

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Bin Laden Show 69: SNL Mocks Obama Smartly

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency

SNL mocks Obama's bin Laden celebrating

Luke Broadwater

Baltimore Sun, 15 May 2011

A week after picking apart many of the undeclared Republican presidential candidates (including one, Newt Gingrich, who became a declared candidate this week) “Saturday Night Live” turned its attention to President Barack Obama and his perceived showboating over the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

Conservatives have frequently criticized the president over perceived showboating about bin Laden's death. Radio host Rush Limbaugh said Obama used the words “I,” “me” and “my” too much in his first public comments after bin Laden's killing. Then, in follow-up programs, Limbaugh attacked Obama's subsequent public appearances, including one near the Mexican border in which he cracked jokes about Republicans wanting a moat with alligators at the border. Some choice Limbaugh quotes:

Read article & if desired watch embedded SNL video….

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Bin Laden Show 68: Choices & Consequences

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Military
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Osama bin Laden hiding place visited by Taliban

Osama bin Laden received visits from Taliban leaders and wealthy Arab supporters while he was hiding out in a fortified compound in a Pakistani garrison town, it has emerged.

Pakistan may cut Nato's Afghan supply line after Osama bin Laden killing

Senior politicians vow to review ties to America after discord over drone attacks and assassination of al-Qaida leader

Pakistan condemns Bin Laden raid, threatens reprisals for drone strikes

Pakistan's parliament joins its intelligence chief in condemning the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden and threatens to prohibit NATO convoys into Afghanistan if Washington continues its drone strikes against militants.

Phi Beta Iota: Wealthy Arab supporters?  Name three.  This all strains credibility–there is no way wealthy Arabs would make the trip without being detected by Saudi Arabia's paranoid and relatively effective counterintelligence cadre.  The Pakistani reactions would appear to be a mix of theater for their own public, and pre-arranged steps they can take to accelerate our withdrawal from Afghanistan.  There is some question as to whether Petraeus and Panetta are off the leash on drone attacks–emissaries from Pakistan on this issue did not get to the President, they were blown off face to face by Panetta who seems to think he is the “decider” on violating Pakistan's airspace and killing unknown civilians from afar.  Like Tom Hayden, he has our vote for International Tribunal attention.

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Bin Laden Show 67: Paradigm Shift — Bin Laden and the Spring of Arab Revolutions

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, IO Sense-Making

Towards a New Paradigm Shift: Bin Laden and the Spring of Arab Revolutions

By ESAM AL-AMIN

13-15 May 2011

EXTRACT:

Despite the dozens of meetings in the review process, it’s remarkable that the whole premise of the U.S. escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan was not challenged or probed. The U.S. has committed tens of thousands of soldiers, hundreds of billions of dollars, and uncalculated risks of alienating peoples, countries, and regions based on a faulty premise.

Since the early days regional experts warned against the broad brush approach of the Bush administration which led to the catastrophic Iraq war, the loss of civil rights of many in the country, the deterioration of the economy, and the high tension that exists between the West and the Muslim world.

Georgetown University Professor John Esposito and Gallup conducted numerous polls across the Muslim World, which revealed that Muslims across the globe unequivocally reject Al-Qaeda’s ideology and means, though they sympathize with the legitimate struggles of many Muslims battling injustice and dictators.

Perhaps a major part of the problem was the inability or unwillingness of the U.S. government to distinguish between Al-Qaeda networks and others who have legitimate grievances but do not employ its indiscriminate killings, illegal means, or twisted rhetoric. But the recent death of Osama Bin Laden might present a real opportunity for a paradigm shift and course change.

Read full analysis and forecast….

Phi Beta Iota: The US Government is making decisions on the basis of ideology, corruption, and less than 2% of the relevant real-world multi-cultural “true cost” information that integrity would make possible.