Lawmaker Takes 9/11 Doubts Global

By JOHN SPIRI / Special to The Japan Times

In a September 2003 article for The Guardian newspaper, Michael Meacher, who served as Tony Blair's environment minister from May 1997 to June 2003, shocked the establishment by calling the global war on terrorism "bogus." Even more controversially, he implied that the U.S. government either allowed 9/11 to happen, or played some role in the destruction wrought that day. Besides Meacher, few politicians have publicly questioned America's official 9/11 narrative — until Diet member Yukihisa Fujita.

In January 2008 Fujita, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, asked the Japanese Parliament and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to explain gaping holes in the official 9/11 story that various groups — including those who call themselves the "911 Truth Movement" — claim to have exposed.

Fujita, along with a growing number of individuals — including European and American politicians — are leading a charge to conduct a thorough, independent investigation of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Three or four years ago I saw some Internet videos like 'Loose Change' and '911 In Plane Site' and I began to ask questions," Fujita said in an interview, "but I still couldn't believe this was done by anyone but al-Qaida.

"Last year I watched more videos and read books written by professor David Ray Griffin (a professor emeritus of philosophy of religion and theology at Claremont Graduate University who wrote the most famous Truth Movement book, 'The New Pearl Harbor') about things such as the collapse of World Trade Center No. 7.

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D.C. Police Chief Defends Checkpoints Before Council

The District of Columbia's police chief on Monday defended vehicle checkpoints in a neighborhood struggling with violence, saying the measure was a success and that no shootings occurred while they were in place.

Police Chief Cathy Lanier, testifying before a D.C. Council committee, also refused to refrain from using the controversial checkpoints again, despite those who said the tactic had brought the city a rash of bad publicity.

``We are trying to do the right things for the right reasons,'' Lanier said.

Under the initiative in the Trinidad neighborhood for six days earlier this month, officers checked drivers' ID and turned away those who didn't live there or have a ``legitimate purpose'' for visiting, such as a doctor's appointment or a church visit.

The measure has been criticized by civil liberties groups as a violation of citizens' constitutional rights.

Johnny Barnes, executive director of the D.C. branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, has warned that police ``are on a collision course with the courts'' if the checkpoints continue.

At the hearing before the council's public safety committee, council member Mary Cheh asked Lanier to consider backing down.

``I think the costs here are extraordinary and the benefits are either marginal or nonexistent,'' Cheh said.

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Big Brother Expo

By W.J. Hennigan / Washington Times

Dozens of security companies gathered in the District last week to show off their newest products in hopes of snagging government contracts. But their cutting edge technology may also be cutting in on citizens' privacy, civil liberties groups say.

The ADT SecTech Expo celebrated its 10-year anniversary June 6 at the Atrium Hall at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center. The vacant space was transformed into a top-secret command center as ADT Security Services unveiled the latest in security technology. Many big-name security companies were on-hand, including: Honeywell Security, Bosch Security Systems, and General Electric Security.

Products varied widely. There were identity management tools like LG's eye-scan technology, IrisAccess. Security platforms were also on display, such as Comtrak Technologies' video surveillance and digital recording systems and Cisco Systems' card access control.

But at the center of it all, the crown jewel of the show, was the SecTech Control Center. A collaboration from multiple vendors, the control center linked up cameras and security systems from around the nation. On multiple monitors, visitors could witness what was going on around the corner, or in a bagel shop in New York with just a simple click of the mouse.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center weighed in on the matter, saying the technology impeded on individual's right to privacy and did not ensure a drop in violent crime.

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State of Emergency: The U.S. in the Final Six Months of the George W. Bush Administration

In short, we are living in an on-going state of emergency whose exact limits are unknown, on the basis of a controversial deep event — 9/11 — that is still largely a mystery. - UC Professor Emeritus Peter Dale Scott

By Lewis Seiler and Dan Hamburg

Unhindered by a neutered Congress and a compliant Court, President Bush has six months remaining to pursue his agenda of expanding the war in the Middle East and ensuring the continuation of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) beyond his tenure in office.

The current administration has taken unto itself unprecedented, nearly hegemonic powers since the events of 9/11. On that day, George W. Bush issued his “Declaration of Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks” under the authority of the National Emergencies Act. This declaration, which can be rescinded by joint resolution of Congress, has instead been extended six times. In 2007, the declaration was strengthened with the issuance of National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51) which gave the president the authority to do whatever he deems necessary in a vaguely defined “catastrophic emergency” including everything from canceling elections to suspending the Constitution to launching a nuclear attack.

Despite time constraints, there are clear signs that the president, the vice-president and their neocon collaborators are not finished. The constant saber-rattling toward Iran, with strong support from Israel, should send a chill down the spine of any peace-loving American. Military chiefs who oppose the president are “retired,” as observed most recently with the March dismissals of CENTCOM commander Admiral William Fallon and 6th Fleet commander Vice-Admiral John Stufflebeem. Public opinion counts for nothing. In a March 24 interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz, vice president Dick Cheney responded to a question about the war weariness of Americans with a languid “So?”

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Covert Board Has Advised U.S. President's Since the 1950's

Presidents need to rely on a little-known group of intelligence advisers that since the 1950s has helped guide policies and oversee the U.S. intelligence bureaucracy, according to a report by former intelligence officials.

The book-length report to be released today is an exhaustive historical study of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), which was created during the Eisenhower administration and has been used by presidents in different capacities ever since.

"In some instances, the Board has played a central role in advising the president and the intelligence community on crucial issues of substance or procedure and has made a significant contribution to the country's national security," the report says.

"In other instances, the Board has been ignored and treated as a dumping ground for rewarding political cronies."

The report, sponsored by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, a Washington-based research group, represents the first major study of the secretive body that under President Bush has been renamed the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.

Most of the board's work is secret, but one of its most public investigations involved the loss of U.S. nuclear secrets to China from the Los Alamos National Laboratory during the 1990s.

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Detainees May Be Denied Evidence for Defense

By Josh White / Washington Post

When Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other alleged co-conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks seek to represent themselves in military commissions trials in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba they may be barred from reviewing highly classified evidence and might not have access to the intelligence agents who interrogated them, according to the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions.

The Justice Department has argued that the Supreme Court's decision last week granting the Guantanamo detainees the right to challenge their detentions in U.S. courts should not affect the military trials process. The department contends that the government plans to go ahead with military commissions for those who are facing war crimes charges.

Though the top legal adviser for the commissions process, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, has said that the trials would be "fair, just and transparent" and that detainees would have full access to the evidence against them, Pentagon officials have now backed off of those claims. The Office of Military Commissions said last week that defendants representing themselves might not get access to information about their interrogators and that secret information might have to be redacted in order to be shared with them.

If classified information is presented to the jury, the accused will see it, no exceptions," according to the Office of Military Commissions' written responses to Washington Post questions about how the military commissions will deal with classified evidence in the Sept. 11 case.

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Brown ready to rain on Bush parade with Iraq troop pull-out

Gordon Brown is ready to override the misgivings of George Bush by going ahead with a major announcement on British troop withdrawals from Iraq. The US President will sit down to talks with Mr Brown today after their dinner at Downing Street last night sparked anti-Bush protests in Parliament Square.

Gordon Brown is ready to override the misgivings of George Bush by going ahead with a major announcement on British troop withdrawals from Iraq. The US President will sit down to talks with Mr Brown today after their dinner at Downing Street last night sparked anti-Bush protests in Parliament Square.

Before he arrived at No 10, Mr Bush issued a veiled warning to Mr Brown that now was not the right time to be withdrawing forces from Iraq, saying such a decision depended on success of the allied mission. "I am confident that he, like me, will listen to our commanders to make sure that the sacrifices that have gone forward won't be unravelled by drawdowns that may not be warranted at this point in time," Mr Bush added.

But David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, signalled that Mr Brown would go ahead with plans to pull out British forces when the training of Iraqi forces was completed. Brushing aside tensions with the President, Mr Brown plans to make the announcement on the remaining 4,100 troops in Basra before the end of next month, when MPs begin their summer recess.

The Prime Minister had planned to reduce the British deployment to 3,500 but delayed the move following an upsurge in violence. More British troops are needed in Afghanistan and the Iraq withdrawal could help the overstretched military.

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U.S. abuse of detainees was routine at Afghanistan bases

American soldiers herded the detainees into holding pens of razor-sharp concertina wire, the kind that's used to corral livestock.

The guards kicked, kneed and punched many of the men until they collapsed in pain. U.S. troops shackled and dragged other detainees to small isolation rooms, then hung them by their wrists from chains dangling from the wire mesh ceiling.

Former guards and detainees whom McClatchy interviewed said Bagram was a center of systematic brutality for at least 20 months, starting in late 2001. Yet the soldiers responsible have escaped serious punishment.

The public outcry in the United States and abroad has focused on detainee abuse at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, but sadistic violence first appeared at Bagram, north of Kabul, and at a similar U.S. internment camp at Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan.

"I was punched and kicked at Bagram. ... At Bagram, when they took a man to interrogation at night, the next morning we would see him brought out on a stretcher looking almost dead," said Aminullah, an Afghan who was held there for a little more than three months. "But at Guantanamo, there were rules, there was law."

Nazar Chaman Gul, an Afghan who was held at Bagram for more than three months in 2003, said he was beaten about every five days. American soldiers would walk into the pen where he slept on the floor and ram their combat boots into his back and stomach, Gul said. "Two or three of them would come in suddenly, tie my hands and beat me," he said.

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Gitmo Detainees Had Flimsy Ties to Terror

By Tom Lasseter / McClatchy Newspapers

The militants crept up behind Mohammed Akhtiar as he squatted at the spigot to wash his hands before evening prayers at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

They shouted "Allahu Akbar" — God is great — as one of them hefted a metal mop squeezer into the air, slammed it into Akhtiar's head and sent thick streams of blood running down his face.

Akhtiar was among the more than 770 terrorism suspects imprisoned at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They are the men the Bush administration described as "the worst of the worst."

But Akhtiar was no terrorist. American troops had dragged him out of his Afghanistan home in 2003 and held him in Guantanamo for three years in the belief that he was an insurgent involved in rocket attacks on U.S. forces. The Islamic radicals in Guantanamo's Camp Four who hissed "infidel" and spat at Akhtiar, however, knew something his captors didn't: The U.S. government had the wrong guy.

"He was not an enemy of the government, he was a friend of the government," a senior Afghan intelligence officer told McClatchy. Akhtiar was imprisoned at Guantanamo on the basis of false information that local anti-government insurgents fed to U.S. troops, he said.

An eight-month McClatchy investigation in 11 countries on three continents has found that Akhtiar was one of dozens of men — and, according to several officials, perhaps hundreds — whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.

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"Big Brother" presidential directive: "Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Enhance National Security"

The latest Big Brother police state measure emanating from the Bush administration, with virtually no press coverage, is NSPD 59 (HSPD 24) entitled Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Enhance National Security [Complete text of NSPD 59 (HSPD 24) in Annex below]

NSPD is directed against US citizens.

It is adopted without public debate or congressional approval. Its relevant procedures have far-reaching implications.

NSPD 59 goes far beyond the issue of biometric identification; it recommends the collection and storage of "associated biographic" information, meaning information on the private lives of US citizens, in minute detail, all of which will be "accomplished within the law":

"The contextual data that accompanies biometric data includes information on date and place of birth, citizenship, current address and address history, current employment and employment history, current phone numbers and phone number history, use of government services and tax filings. Other contextual data may include bank account and credit card histories, plus criminal database records on a local, state and federal level. The database also could include legal judgments or other public records documenting involvement in legal disputes, child custody records and marriage or divorce records." (See Jerome Corsi, June 2008)

The directive uses 9/11 as a all encompassing justification to wage its witch hunt against dissenting citizens, establishing at the same time an atmosphere of fear and intimidation across the land.

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Bush warns Brown over plan to cut Iraq force

George Bush flies into London today with a warning for Gordon Brown not to announce a timetable for a British pull-out from Iraq, and expressing deep scepticism about the Prime Minister's high-profile strategy for bringing down world oil prices.

The stern message to the Prime Minister was delivered during an exclusive interview with The Observer, and contrasted with praise for Tony Blair whom Bush is scheduled to meet for breakfast tomorrow ahead of talks in Downing Street. Bush said Blair had never been his 'poodle', but a leader who shared his view that the world is in an 'ideological struggle' and that 'ultimately freedom has to defeat the ideology of hate'.

The President's comments on Brown's Iraq troop plans followed a report last week that a final British pull-out could be announced by the end of the year.

The President revealed that he had already had 'discussions' with Brown on the troops issue and was 'appreciative' that Brown was in frequent touch with the Americans about 'what he and his military are thinking'. But while he said both allies obviously wanted to bring their troops home, this could only be 'based upon success'.

On the reported possibility of a formal timetable for major reductions, Bush was unequivocal: 'Our answer is: there should be no definitive timetable.'

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Italy Putting Soldiers On The Street!!

The Italian government defends its decision to use soldiers to patrol cities in an effort to curb crime and rejects any criticism in the matter.

The government has been criticized for militarizing the streets by making this decision.

Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa told Sky Italia television, "There is a strong call from citizens for better control of the streets, for improved safety. My hope is that particularly in the evening, in the cities, these troops can ensure greater safety".

This is while the government announced on Friday that up to 2,500 soldiers, some of whom having served in Afghanistan and Kosovo, would be made available for a trial period of six months to strengthen the police in difficult urban areas.

However, Italy's main trade unions said that instead of using soldiers, the government should make better use of the 25,000 police officers who are doing desk work, and the mayor of Turin said the move was, "populist demagoguery", that would hurt tourism and Italy's image abroad.

La Russa maintained that he didn't understand the criticism but specified that the use of soldiers wouldn't be permanent, with the initial six-month period being renewable just once.

Exclusive: New Batch of Terror Files Left on Train

Secret government documents detailing the UK's policies towards fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering have been found on a London-bound train and handed to 'The Independent on Sunday'.

The government papers, left on a train destined for Waterloo station, on Wednesday, contain criticism of countries such as Iran that are signed up to the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body created to combat financial crime and the financing of terrorism.

The confidential files outline how the trade and banking systems can be manipulated to finance illicit weapons of mass destruction in Iran. They spell out methods to fund terrorists, and address the potential fraud of commercial websites and international internet payment systems. The files also highlight the weakness of HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC) IT systems, which track financial fraud.

The Independent on Sunday has returned the documents, and will divulge no details contained in them.

This latest security gaffe involving top-level government documents is the second breach in the past week and is hugely embarrassing to Gordon Brown. The Government is already investigating the loss of other files by a senior intelligence officer in the Cabinet Office, who is understood to have been suspended. This official also left documents, containing a damning assessment of Iraqi forces and a Home Office report on "al-Qa'ida vulnerabilities", on a train. They were handed to the BBC.

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Tim Russert was Cool But Jack Blood is Cooler

By Alicia Hope / Gangster Government

Tim was a favorite journalist for a lot of people but the main thing I remember about Mr. Russert was the Jack Blood interview! I stopped watching Tim's show shortly after I heard this interview exactly 2 years ago on 6-14-06! I was watching the MSNBC special today on Russert and they never mentioned this verbal exchange! It's a classic!

I watched "Meet The Press" almost every Sunday! Russert should have known better than to talk to Jack Blood!! Tim should have seen it coming! Had he ever visited the Jack Blood website? I guess not! LOL!

9/11 was an inside job, Mr Russert! We know you knew!

R.I.P.

Antonin Scalia and Police-State Rule

By David Walsh / WSWS

On June 12 the United States Supreme Court, by a 5-to-4 vote, ruled that so-called “enemy combatants” held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba have the right to challenge their detention in US courts.

Many of the inmates have been held for six years at Guantánamo, under barbaric conditions. None of them have been found guilty of a crime in a court of law.

The four dissenting Supreme Court justices, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Joseph Alito, defend the right of the Bush administration to proceed in its “war on terror” with utter disregard for the Constitution and elementary democratic rights. They are, in essence, proponents of authoritarian rule. The savagery at Guantánamo is not a source of shame or even concern for them, but the wave of the future.

Chief Justice Roberts, in his dissenting opinion, denounced the majority view, arguing that the “political branches” (the executive and the Congress) had “crafted these procedures [for trials of detainees] amidst an ongoing military conflict, after much careful investigation and thorough debate.” The former—“the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants,” according to Roberts—include interrogation through coercion and torture and kangaroo courts run by the military.

Roberts, in one extraordinary passage, observes that “The majority rests its decision on abstract and hypothetical concerns.” There is nothing “abstract and hypothetical” about the denial of basic rights to the Guantánamo prisoners or the character of their detention.

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9/11: Operation Inform the Soldiers

Also see related: How to properly file an official FCC complaint against Michael Reagan for death threats against Mark Dice

A political activist group is sending letters and DVDs to U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq telling them 9/11 was an inside job!

A group of over three thousand political activists are planning to send letters to soldiers stationed in Iraq telling them that America is largely to blame for the 9/11 attacks.

“We support the troops in their efforts to protect the Iraqi people, but want them to know the real reason they have put themselves in harms way,” explains Mark Dice, founder of The Resistance, a Christian media watch dog group based in San Diego.

Dice is urging people in his organization and others to write letters to soldiers in Iraq and explain the evidence that the 9/11 attacks were aided by corrupt U.S. officials for political purposes. According to a 2006 Scripts Howard News Service poll, 36 percent of Americans believe that elements within the U.S. government purposely allowed the attacks to happen, or aided the terrorists to ensure the attacks.

“I personally know U.S. Marines who believe 9/11 was an inside job, and they tell me that many Marines suspect that this is the case but are afraid to speak up out of fear of punishment,” says Dice.

“I don’t want the soldiers who are risking their lives in Iraq to be used as pawns in the creation of the New World Order.”

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Critics Study Possible Limits to Habeas Corpus Ruling

The White House and allies in Congress have begun exploring how to limit the scope of this week's Supreme Court ruling that says suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay have the right to challenge their detentions in federal court.

Administration lawyers were digesting the ramifications of a decision they condemned as an unjustified judicial usurpation of federal and congressional prerogatives in waging war. They said the court provided little guidance for the standards judges should use in evaluating the claims of detainees seeking release, and suggested that they might press Congress to spell out new rules.

"We're looking at all options," said a senior administration official who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. "One of those options is to look and see if there is any way to legislatively contain the scope of the decision. The court's language is quite ambiguous. We need to make sure that we are anticipating the questions it raises, and that is what we are going to do in the next few days."

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a key figure in detention policy on Capitol Hill, said he is concerned that detainees will shop for sympathetic judges while challenging issues including their treatment, food and lodging.

"I am hoping that there is some legislative enactments that we can pass that would protect our national security requirements," Graham said.

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Lawmakers Near Deal On Surveillance Bill

By Carrie Johnson / Washington Post

A bipartisan group of congressional negotiators neared a deal yesterday on controversial wiretapping legislation that could be unveiled as early as next week, according to Capitol Hill sources and civil liberties advocates monitoring the talks.

Lawmakers have been wrangling for months over how to extend warrantless surveillance that Bush administration officials consider central to national security. Agreement has proved elusive because of privacy concerns as well as questions about telecommunications companies seeking immunity from lawsuits over their role in helping the government monitor phone calls and e-mail after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey recently told reporters that overhauling the law is among his highest priorities. Not updating the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act could cause investigators to miss important clues to thwart terrorists, administration officials say.

A key element of the new plan would give U.S. district courts the chance to evaluate whether telecommunications companies deserve retroactive protection from lawsuits. A previous proposal floated by Republicans would have put the question to the secret FISA court that approves warrants.

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9/11 - Bombs In The Buildings

A reporter for USA Today stated that the FBI believed that bombs brought the buildings down!

The NY Fire Department Chief of Safety stated there were "bombs" and "secondary devices", which caused the explosions in the buildings!

A NYC firefighter who witnessed attacks stated that it looked like there were bombs in the buildings!

A NYC firefighter stated, "On the last trip up a bomb went off. We think there were bombs set in the building!"

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Key Iraqi Leaders Deliver Setbacks to U.S.

The Bush administration's Iraq policy suffered two major setbacks Friday when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki publicly rejected key U.S. terms for an ongoing military presence and anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for a new militia offensive against U.S. forces.

During a visit to Jordan, Maliki said negotiations over initial U.S. proposals for bilateral political and military agreements had "reached a dead end." While he said talks would continue, his comments fueled doubts that the pacts could be reached this year, before the Dec. 31 expiration of a United Nations mandate sanctioning the U.S. role in Iraq.

The moves by two of Iraq's most powerful Shiite leaders underscore how the presence of U.S. troops has become a central issue for Iraqi politicians as they position themselves for provincial elections later this year. Iraqis across the political spectrum have grown intolerant of the U.S. presence, but the dominant Shiite parties -- including Maliki's Dawa party -- are especially fearful of an electoral challenge from new, grass-roots groups.

"All the politicians are trying to prove that they care more about Iraqis than they do about Americans -- otherwise they know the people and the voters will not support them," said Ala Maaki, a senior lawmaker with Iraqi's largest Sunni political party. "I think we could see al-Maliki and Moqtada Sadr trying to one-up the other today and see who can take the strongest stand against the Americans."

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