Ya Basta!

If you’ll remember, this was a country the US liberated, not just to get revenge because the Taliban offered to hand over Osama bin Laden if presented with evidence of his guilt in 9/11, but to liberate their poor oppressed women. Yes, with capitalism comes freedom. If these ladies don’t prove mission accomplished, nothing does.

via: Independent

In Lashkar Gah, the majority of female prisoners are serving 20-year sentences for being forced to have sex. Terri Judd visited them and heard their extraordinary stories

Monday, 18 August 2008

Beneath the anonymity of the sky-blue burqa, Saliha’s slender frame and voice betray her young age.Asked why she was serving seven years in jail alongside hardened insurgents and criminals, the 15-year-old giggled and buried her head in her friend’s shoulder.

“She is shy,” apologised fellow inmate Zirdana, explaining that the teenager had been married at a young age to an abusive husband and ran away with a boy from her neighbourhood.

Asked whether she had loved the boy, Saliha squirmed with childish embarrassment as her friend replied: “Yes.”

Ostracised from her family and village, Saliha was convicted of escaping from home and illegal sexual relations. The first carries a maximum penalty of 10 years, the second 20. These are two of the most common accusations facing female prisoners in Afghanistan.

Two-thirds of the women in Lashkar Gah’s medieval-looking jail have been convicted of illegal sexual relations, but most are simply rape victims – mirroring the situation nationwide. The system does not distinguish between those who have been attacked and those who have chosen to run off with a man.

Sitting among the plastic flowers around his desk, where an optimistic United Nations scales of justice poster competed for space with images of Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, Colonel Ghulam Ali, a high-ranking regional security officer, explained sternly that he supported the authorities’ right to convict victims of rape. “In Afghanistan whether it is forced or not forced it is a crime because the Islamic rules say that it is,” he claimed. “I think it is good. There are many diseases that can be created in today’s world, such as HIV, through illegal sexual relations.”

via: Infowars

Amazing revelations have emerged concerning already existing government plans to overhaul the way the internet functions in order to apply much greater restrictions and control over the web.

Lawrence Lessig, a respected Law Professor from Stanford University told an audience at this years Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, California, that “There’s going to be an i-9/11 event” which will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law pertaining to the internet.

Lessig also revealed that he had learned, during a dinner with former government Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke, that there is already in existence a cyber equivalent of the Patriot Act, an “i-Patriot Act” if you will, and that the Justice Department is waiting for a cyber terrorism event in order to implement its provisions.

During a group panel segment titled “2018: Life on the Net”, Lessig stated:

There’s going to be an i-9/11 event. Which doesn't necessarily mean an Al Qaeda attack, it means an event where the 

instability or the insecurity of the internet becomes manifest during a malicious event which then inspires the government into a response. You’ve got to remember that after 9/11 the government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was passed.

The Patriot Act is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department official how did they write such a large 

statute so quickly, and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event where they would pull it out.

Of course, the Patriot Act is filled with all sorts of insanity about changing the way civil rights are protected, or not protected 

in this instance. So I was having dinner with Richard Clarke and I asked him if there is an equivalent, is there an i-Patriot Act just sitting waiting for some substantial event as an excuse to radically change the way the internet works. He said “of course there is”.

via: Think Progress

This revelation is both noteworthy and totally unsurprising.

Seymore Hersh: There was a meeting. Among the items considered and rejected — which is why the New Yorker did not publish it, on grounds that it wasn’t accepted — one of the items was why not…

There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don’t we build — we in our shipyard — build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up. Might cost some lives.

And it was rejected because you can’t have Americans killing Americans. That’s the kind of — that’s the level of stuff we’re talking about. Provocation. But that was rejected.

and an update to the article

In one of David Manning’s famous memos describing a prewar meeting between George Bush and Tony Blair, he says that Bush admitted that WMD was unlikely to be found in Iraq and then mused on some possible options for justifying a war anyway:

"The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours," 

the memo says, attributing the idea to Mr. Bush. “If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach.”

Oh and 9/11. That was one of the false flag events they decided to run with. And the USS Liberty, and Gulf of Tonkin. And Pearl Harbor and the Lusitania to a slightly lesser degree. Standard operating proceedure

Here’s a few related articles, about the rise of our Amerikan stasi. Chalmers Johnson offers a solid synopsis of the current privatized intelligence apparatus, but he glosses over the most important point, instead focusing on incompetence and greed. Johnson quotes from Yale professor David Bromwich who wrote,

Privatizing the US intelligence network is just one (of many) recent moves towards this goal. All subsequent presidents, Democrat or Republican, will wield these new Executive powers and whether through manufactured catastrophes like the Great Depression of 9/11 or through subterfuge, like under Clinton, subsequent presidents will try to tighten their grip on America. How far the authoritarians will get depends on whether the American public begins to recognize the pattern, and stand up to authoritarian ambitions.

via: Common Dreams

The Military-Industrial Complex: It’s Much Later Than You Think

by Chalmers Johnson

via: Washington Post

Travelers’ Laptops May Be Detained At Border - No Suspicion Required Under DHS Policies

by By Ellen Nakashima

Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

via: The Raw Story

Scahill: Blackwater now in the private intelligence business

Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, is worried about the giant mercenary firm’s latest foray into private intelligence. “They’re marketing their services to not only foreign governments, but to Fortune 500 corporations,” he recently told an interviewer.

…

“Blackwater started a private intelligence company,” he explained, “a private CIA essentially, called Total Intelligence Solutions. And the man running Total Intelligence Solutions is J. Cofer Black. He’s a thirty-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency. He also was the guy who ran the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program, the government-sanctioned kidnap-and-torture program.”

“His thirty-year CIA career, his network of contacts, his knowledge that was gained through his work in the most sensitive areas of the United States government is now on the open market for hire,” Scahill said sadly.

“This isn’t a liberal or conservative thing,” concluded Scahill. “You have a lot of traditional conservatives who are outraged at what they see as the degradation of the United States armed forces. … This has everything to do with the future of war-making and global stability.”

by David Edwards and Muriel Kane

The ludicrous accusation that GCN and Infowars press credentials are somehow illegitimate will not stand.

Kurt Nimmo Infowars July 25, 2008

On the Alex Jones Show today, Ted Anderson of GCN and Anthony Jasa of Minnesota We Are Change provided details on a campaign of harassment and intimidation by the Secret Service against Jasa and GCN. The Secret Service accused Jasa of forging press credentials, although Anderson told the Secret Service he approved Jasa’s GCN credentials. Jasa told Alex Jones the SS attempted to intimidate his fiancée and enter his residence in order to search his computers. According to Jasa and Anderson, SS agents asked if Jasa believes in 9/11 conspiracy theories, as if this is some sort of criminal behavior.

Obviously, the government is worried about the exponential growth of the 9/11 truth movement, in particular the activism of We Are Change, a nation-wide organization (also active in Britain, Ireland, and Canada) most effective in its persistent questioning of political candidates, members of Congress, and assorted government insiders and NWO minions. In order to shut down this activism, the government has dispatched its agents in addition to sending out its disinfo agents and latter day COINTELPRO operatives, more than a few tracked back to the military and CENTCOM and, if history is any indication, dispatched by the FBI and the Secret Service.

In essence, the SS told Jasa and Anderson that GCN is not a bona fide press organization — never mind it is a nationally syndicated radio network — and its issuance of press credentials amounts to an act of fraud. Only the corporate media, reading from government scripts, will be allowed to attend political events. In order to limit political discourse and muzzle the opposition, at the behest of the neocons and their neolib brethren, the SS will hound, harass, and intimidate the alternative media.

It will not work, however. Short of a total imposition of martial law, We Are Change will certainly not be deterred and will continue to attend political rallies and confront our leaders and their minions in public. The ludicrous accusation that GCN and Infowars press credentials are somehow illegitimate will not stand. It may be time to initiate a lawsuit against the Secret Service for attempting to suppress the First Amendment.

Infowars July 26, 2008

On July 26, We Are Change members Sabrina Rivera and Luke Rudkowski reported the theft of three video cameras from a car in New York. “The only missing property inside the car was three WeAreCHANGE cameras with important video footage,” writes Rudkowski on the We Are Change website. “It is important to note that I myself was receiving harassing phone calls for the past 24 hours prior to the robbery.” The incident occurred following a We Are Change meeting.

“Along with extended batteries and charges the totally amount of equipment stolen was around $2,000 dollars not including the damages to the car and important video footage yet to be publicly released,” Rudkowski adds. “The same situation occurred couple weeks ago to our WeAreCHANGE UK chapter when there video cameras, hard drives and original tapes and copies of Elephant In The Room were stolen.” The Elephant in the Room is an award-winning documentary examining the impact of 9/11 on British and American culture.

Luke Rudkowski believes the incident is related to a public We Are Change meeting held prior to the theft. “The police have notified us that the person who committed the crime must have watched all of our moves before breaking into the car and stealing the cameras,” he writes.

Since the release of Alex Jones’ 9/11 Chronicles; Truth Rising and The Elephant in the Room in the United Kingdom, harassment of 9/11 truth activists has increased, culminating in threats issued by the Secret Service against Anthony Jasa of Minnesota We Are Change and GCN radio network owner Ted Anderson earlier this week (see SS Dispatched to Intimidate GCN, MN We Are Change). Other incidents include the assault of We Are Change activists by police in Louisville, Kentucky, provocateur attacks in New York, Change members arrested for handing out DVDs in Colorado, the arrest of Matt Lepacek for questioning a Giuliani adviser, the arrest and false of charge of assault against Gary Talis for allegedly attacking a girl in a wheelchair at a Laura Bush event, Secret Service harassment of Change activists in Georgia (developing), and other incidents.

If anyone has any information about the theft please contact bri.wearechange@gmail.com… immediately.

Addendum: Luke Rudkowski indicates that the cameras and videotapes were the primary target of the theft because a $4,000 Macbook Pro and a $300 GPS device were also in the car and not stolen.

GOOD magazine wrote a fluff piece mocking conspiracy theorists and dismissing the dangers of Bilderberg, Skull and Bones, et al. It was crap journalism and I spent a long damn time composing a response that will probably end up in a spam box. Oh well. I might as well put it here.

The GOOD article

Hello Matt,

I have read and enjoyed your magazine before, but was greatly disappointed by the GOOD Guide: to the Shadowy Organizations That Rule the World. It is the kind of snarky, self-satisfied fluff I expect from hip youth-oriented political-esque media like MTV News or an E! election special, not GOOD. The research is fairly accurate, but the analysis is insubstantial and glossy, letting the reader remain comfortably in his or her smug liberal worldview without really considering the issues presented. This is a weak article and I’d like to discuss some of the flaws I found in it.

History is distended with conspiracies. It’s very simple: those who have some power and desire more seek allies and make clandestine plans to achieve their aims. We all understand that the Iraq War was plotted in secret by a group of political elites, don’t we? That’s a conspiracy. Iran Contra. Watergate. The USS Liberty attack. Bay of Pigs. All well documented conspiracies. Basically everything the CIA has ever done from drug smuggling to assassinations and foreign coups (see the Congressional Church Committee’s findings in 1975) originated in conspiracy. In 1934 Major General Smedley Butler—the most decorated Marine in US history and the author of War is a Racket—warned Congress of the Business Plot, a conspiracy by business elites to overthrow the government and install a fascist regime. Even the Revolutionary War was conceived by a group of men (many of whom were wealthy Freemasons as you point out) meeting in secret. Continue Reading »

via: Infowars

“Bin Laden driver” case contains revealing details

Steve Watson Infowars.net… Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Though the trial the man, dubbed “Osama bin Laden’s driver”, is primarily functioning as a show piece for the Bush administration’s “war on terror”, some interesting information emerged from the Guantanamo Bay naval base yesterday in the form of a direct admission from a US prosecutor that the fourth plane was “shot down”.

The revelation came during assertions from representatives for the prosecution that Salim Hamdan had detailed knowledge of the intended target of the fourth hijacked plane on 9/11.

A Reuters report states:

…prosecutor Timothy Stone told the six-member jury of U.S. military officers who will decide Hamdan’s guilt or innocence that Hamdan had inside knowledge of the 2001 attacks on the United States because he overheard a conversation between bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

“If they hadn’t shot down the fourth plane it would’ve hit the dome,” Stone, a Navy officer, said in his opening remarks.

Continue Reading »

Who can deny that we are falling into a deep fascist hole? If this isn’t 1984 I don’t know what is. Our nation has been hijacked by sadists and perverts, power-mad monsters who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims. They see themselves as the only ones deserving of rights, and we are merely eaters. Even if 9/11 had been committed by Al Queda, even if the War on Terror were a genuine endeavor, this behavior would still be unacceptable. The barbarians are at the gate. Sadly, they’re on the inside.

via: Wikileaks

Photo of a detainee held by the United States, with his face wired, lips sewn, red eyes and torso sacked. According to digital camera metadata the image was taken on Feb 9, 2003 03:49:25. The 6 Aug 2004 is also mentioned in relation to this photo. The facial wiring is clearly non-medical. The location of the detainee is unknown, possibly the US Bagram Theater Internment Facility in Afghanistan. Although there is a resemblance to the US Taliban supporter John Walker Lindh, the connection is superficial. The negative image to the right was created by Wikileaks to draw attention to certain regions of the photo on the left. Wikileaks staff have verified that the photograph came from a US military computer network.

Jonathan D. Salant Bloomberg July 21, 2008

Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said today that U.S. combat troops should be shifted to Afghanistan from Iraq.

“This has to be our central focus, the central front of our battle against terrorism,” Obama said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. “One of the biggest mistakes we’ve made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job here, focus our attention here.”

Obama, who opposed the war with Iraq, said that conflict distracted the U.S. from the task of capturing al-Qaeda leaders and rebuilding Afghanistan after the militant Islamic Taliban regime was ousted.

“We made a strategic error, and it’s one that we’re going to pay for, and unfortunately the people of Afghanistan have paid for as well,” the Illinois senator said. “But we now have an opportunity to correct that problem.”

Obama, 46, was interviewed in Afghanistan, where he arrived yesterday. He is on a six-day tour that also will include stops in Iraq, Israel and Western Europe. He spent last night at Bagram Air Force Base outside Kabul.

Read article