March 4, 2009

1.  What an amazing discovery:

“Turner Construction Company, assigned to re-fireproof the steel frames of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers during the late 1990s, who also occupied space on the 38th floor of WTC 1 and was later assigned to quickly collect and remove the wreckage of the WTC towers destroyed during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, also supervised the 2000 implosion of Seattle Kingdome during this same period.
…
The regions of WTC 1 and WTC 2 that had fireproofing materials reportedly reapplied to their structural steel, are also the same regions within which each building structurally failed and that were struck by American Airlines flight 11 and United Airlines flight 175 on September 11, 2001.
…
The CEO for Turner Construction Company appointed in 1999, was Tom Leppert, who joined the board of Turner in 1998, is currently the mayor of Dallas, Texas and who has ties with former president George W. Bush and Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a bureau of the Department of Commerce, was assigned to investigate the collapses of the WTC 1,2 and 7.
…
It appears that not only truthers are a part of a small community, but so are the crooks – while the mainstream public continue as the walking dead.
…
Without Kevin Ryan’s discovery of the remarkable relationship between the common re-fireproofed floors, aircraft impact floors and failure floors, one might not have considered the role that this contract work may or may not have played in the WTCs demise.
…
Turner Construction became subsidiary of Hochtief AG in ’99

“…However, the company’s reputation is tarnished by World War II, when it deployed forced labor on construction projects. It built the Führerbunker in Berlin, scene of Adolf Hitler’s suicide, as well as Hitler’s Berghof retreat and Wolf’s Lair headquarters.
…

Everyone here has seen HBO’s Band of Brothers, right?. Remember in the last episode when Easy Co. captured Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair. It appears that silver and gold plated retreat for Hitler, and Hitler personal Berlin bunker were built by HOCHTIEF AG, the company that acquired Turner Construction. That means that Hitler was so sure of the loyalty of Hochtief AG, he trusted his life in the hands of Hochtief AG AFTER the assassination attempt.

Now there’s something I didn’t expect to see when I woke up this morning. A direct connection between some of Hitler’s most trusted civil engineers, and the World Trade Center 2 years prior to it’s destruction.

I bet you just came across one of the deepest connections of the Bush family to this whole thing. I wonder how involved Prescott Bush’s bank was with these crooks…
…
It’s always a funny coincidence that the fires that did the damage to the buildings are always at the same location where re-fireproofing or construction was taking place. In the case fo the Pentagon, there was construction recently done on the location where the plane impacted…oddly enough several explosions came from the same location which caused the roof to collapse as documented here”

http://www.911blogger.com/node/19516

2.  Assholes:

“In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for the U.S. military to attack apartment buildings and office complexes inside the United States, deploy high-tech surveillance against U.S. citizens and potentially suspend First Amendment freedom-of-the-press rights in order to combat the terror threat, according to a memo released Monday.”

http://www.911blogger.com/node/19508

3.  “John Dean: Bush almost became an ‘unconstitutional dictator’

It was during the Civil War that President Abraham Lincoln became known as a “constitutional dictator,” said former Nixon White House counsel John Dean during a Monday broadcast of MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Responding to the recent release of several legal justifications for President Bush’s most criticized policies, Dean summarized, “Reading these memos, you’ve gotta almost conclude we had an unconstitutional dictator. It’s pretty deadly and pretty serious, what’s in these materials.”

The memos, released by Obama’s Justice Department on Monday, outline possible methods for the president to ignore treaties and International laws, kidnap and torture American citizens and overrule the First Amendment to the Constitution which ensures freedom of speech and of the press.”

All of these things and more could be done exclusively by the president in the name of fighting terrorism.”

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/John_Dean_Bush_terror_memos_close_0303.html

4.  What the hell?

“Author Frederick Forsyth has told the BBC of his surprise to find himself in Guinea-Bissau on the day the president and army chief were assassinated.

The British writer flew in to research a new book as the country was plunged into a drama that could have leapt from the pages of one of his thrillers.

The Day of the Jackal author told of the “bizarre” events as renegade troops “rather slowly” killed the president.

He said the drama was “garnish on the cake” that might be in his new novel.

The writer was at pains to point out: “I can assure you I had nothing to do with the coup d’etat.”

Forsyth has previously admitted helping to finance a 1973 coup attempt in another West African state, Equatorial Guinea.

Those events were the inspiration for his 1974 book The Dogs of War, which chronicles a failed plan by a group of European mercenaries to topple the government of a fictional African country.“

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7921847.stm

5.  “The GOP’s Real Strategy Behind the Limbaugh-Steele Drama

Liberals assume that the Limbaugh-Steele drama is a complete meltdown of the Republican party.

But I think it may actually be a devious choreographed play to mobilize racists for the Republican party.

Think about it. No big political plays happen unless they are crafted in advance by Karl Rove or some other political strategist.

Here, if you look below the surface, what is really being played out?

At the most basic emotional level, what is happening is a black man is having to apologize to – and being belittled by – a white man.

For all of the racists who are horrified that a black man – Obama – has been elected to the most powerful office in the world, this is a great thing. The black guy put in charge of the GOP (Steele) is being shellacked by the self-appointed voice for the common white guy (Limbaugh).

Do you get it? Its an attempt to channel all of the anger of the racists into support for the GOP.

It may be disgusting, but it is very clever.”

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/gops-real-strategy-behind-limbaugh.html

6.  “With One Word, Bernanke Reveals Who Actually Runs the Country

Yesterday, in his appearance before Congress, Bernanke revealed with a single word who really runs the United States:

Senator Sanders: “Will you tell the American people to whom you lent $2.2 trillion of their dollars?”

Bernanke: “No”

No?

Indeed, Bernanke and Treasury refuse to provide this information even confidentially and off-the-record to Congress. And the official overseer of the TARP bailout program can’t even get the information of where all the bailout money is going.

With his single word “no”, Bernanke revealed that Congress is impotent and out of the loop. In other words, Congress doesn’t really run the country in the core area of business, finance and the economy. The financial giants and their servants at the Fed and Treasury do.

Indeed, Bernanke’s testimony is related to – and as important as – the fact that the warmongers gave themselves dictatorial powers.

The warmongers and the financial elite run the country. The people and their elected representatives do not, except to the extent that those representatives play ball with the real powers-that-be behind the scenes.”

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/with-one-word-bernanke-reveals-who.html

7.  Cynthia McKinney on Obama:

“I have read and re-read President Obama’s Joint Congressional Address.  All of the “acceptable punditry” have spoken and given the President glowing reviews.  And so, to them and the population that still believes in them, “All is right with the world.”  But for the rest of us, who refuse to swallow the pill that puts us into the Matrix, a good dose of reality is strongly called for.

But reality is not what we’re getting, not even from one of the national columnists whom I’ve met, Maureen Dowd.

I think Maureen Dowd characterized it as “Spock at the Bridge.”  Now, being the Trekkie that I am, that headline grabbed my attention.  I nearly gagged, however, when I got to the line supposedly from President Obama calling President Bush to proclaim, “‘I’m ending your stupid war.’ Mission Relinquished.”

Why write things like this now that it is clear that the Obama Administration is continuing the Bush policies for missile strikes inside Pakistan; torture; rendition for torture; public release of Bush Administration e-mails; illegal wiretaps; status of prisoners at the U.S. base in Bagram, Afghanistan; and workplace immigration raids?

For the record, President Obama is also pursuing Bush policies on Iran and Israel.  As recently as yesterday, President Obama’s Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, responded when asked whether Iran was capable of building an atom bomb.  Admiral Mullen replied, “We think they do, quite frankly.”

Dowd concludes her “Spock” piece by imbuing the President with “a Vulcan-like logic and detachment.”  But I think the detachment of “acceptable” political punditry from the real world is what is totally lamentable.  In the process, they render themselves irrelevant.”

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12538

8.  ANOTHER war for the US?

“US plans for military intervention in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times has revealed plans for a US-led military mission into the island’s northern war zone in the guise of evacuating civilians trapped by intense fighting between the army and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

According to the newspaper, the task would be carried out by a Marine Expeditionary Brigade attached to the US Pacific Command (PACOM). The US Navy and Air Force would also be involved. The newspaper reported in its initial article on February 22 that a high-level PACOM team was in Colombo to pave the way for the operation.

No announcement has been made by the Obama administration or the US military, but Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, told the Sunday Times that he was aware of the intended US-led “coalition humanitarian task force”. Last weekend, the foreign minister told the newspaper that France had also offered assistance to evacuate civilians. India, which had made its own evacuation offer, last week indicated its support for a joint operation.

No agreement has been reached between the government and the LTTE on any evacuation. Both sides are using the trapped civilians as political pawns. The army has been seeking to drive civilians out of the remaining LTTE-held territory, in order to allow for the area’s complete levelling. With its back to the wall, the LTTE has called for a ceasefire and talks before any civilians are allowed to leave—a step rejected by the government which is demanding a full, unconditional surrender.

The Sunday Times indicated that the US-led operation might proceed without LTTE agreement—a provocative move that has the potential to precipitate clashes between US Marines and the guerrillas.
…

Concerns about India are not the only factor motivating a US military intervention in Sri Lanka. For years, the Pentagon has been seeking to establish a foothold on the island as a base of operations in South Asia and the Indian Ocean. The deep water harbour of Trincomalee on the eastern coast, to the south of the current fighting, has long been regarded as a strategic prize—a point that was made by a US PACOM team that surveyed Sri Lanka in 2002. Following the devastating 2004 tsunami, the US military sent a battalion of marines to southern Sri Lanka, setting an important precedent for the present “humanitarian” plans.

The long-term geo-political significance of the Indian Ocean, and therefore of Sri Lanka, was underscored by an article entitled “Center Stage for the Twenty-first Century: Power Plays in the Indian Ocean” in the latest issue of the US magazine Foreign Affairs. Veteran journalist Robert Kaplan identified three related geo-political challenges facing the US in Asia: “the strategic nightmare of the greater Middle East, the struggle for influence over the southern tier of the former Soviet Union, and the growing presence of India and China in the Indian Ocean.”

The article emphasised the rising naval power of China and India in the Indian Ocean, the importance of the ocean’s trade routes, the strategic significance of the adjacent energy-rich regions of the Middle East and Central Asia, and the dangers of the relative decline of the US in the region. In relation to Sri Lanka, it noted: “Whereas the prospect of ethnic warfare has scared away US admirals from considering a base in Sri Lanka, which is strategically located at the confluence of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, the Chinese are constructing a refuelling station for their warships there.”

The need for greater strategic focus on the Indian Ocean is undoubtedly a major motivation behind a US military intervention on the island. The last consideration of any US military operation in Sri Lanka will be the plight of Tamil civilians trapped in the North. Like the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, which have led to disasters for the Afghan and Iraqi peoples, an intervention in Sri Lanka would seek to advance the strategic and economic interests of US imperialism and must be opposed by the working class in Sri Lanka, South Asia and internationally.“

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12540

9.  “I’ve written repeatedly and at length about the huge questions that still remain with regard to the anthrax attacks, with a particular focus on the early and quite successful efforts (aided by ABC News’ Brian Ross) to blame the attacks in the public’s mind on Saddam Hussein, followed by the extremely unconvincing FBI assertion last year that it was now-deceased U.S. Army research scientist Bruce Ivins, and Ivins alone, who perpetrated that attack.  The FBI’s case is riddled with glaring inconsistencies and numerous internal contradictions, enormous evidentiary holes, and pretenses of scientific certainty that are quite dubious (my interview with a scientist specializing in biosecurity over some of the scientific holes in the FBI’s case is here).  Doubts about the FBI’s case continue to emerge.

Holt’s skepticism about the FBI’s claims is notable for several reasons.  It was Holt’s Congressional district from which the anthrax letters were apparently sent, and the attacks imposed a serious disruption on the lives of his constituents.  More significantly, Holt, who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, is a trained physicist.  Before entering Congress, he taught physics as a faculty member at Swarthmore College and also headed the State Department’s Nuclear and Scientific Division of the Office of Strategic Forces during the Reagan administration.  Both his interest in this matter and his knowledge of it are at least as great as any other member of Congress.  That he maintains extreme skepticism over the FBI’s case and vehemently believes in the need for an independent investigation should, by itself, be quite compelling to any rational person (I interviewed Holt about the anthrax case in September of last year — here).

…

The importance of full disclosure of all facts surrounding the anthrax attacks cannot be overstated.  This was the opposite of a run-of-the-mill crime.  To the contrary, the anthrax attacks — by design, as everyone acknowledges — had an immense political impact on the country.  Contrary to endless claims from Bush supporters that Bush allowed no more terrorist attacks on “the homeland” after 9/11, the anthrax attack was exactly such a terrorist attack.

For reasons I’ve detailed previously, I actually believe that the anthrax attacks played a larger role than the 9/11 attack itself in elevating America’s fear levels to hysterical heights, which in turn put the citizenry into the state of frightened submission that enabled so many of the subsequent events of the Bush presidency.  The 9/11 attacks appeared to be a one-time extraordinary event, but it was multi-staged anthrax attacks — coming a mere four weeks later — that normalized and personalized the Terrorist threat. As Atrios put it in his inimitably succinct style:

I’ve long been fascinated by the erasure of the anthrax attacks – which, in their own way, freaked out the country more than 9/11 did* – from our collective memory.

*People object when I suggest this, but while the 9/11 attacks were of course The Big Ones, anthrax was this creepy shit which was KILLING US THROUGH THE MAIL. While most people didn’t expect a plane to fly into their building, the anthrax attacks created a heightened sense of OMIGOD THIS COULD HAPPEN TO ME. 9/11 was terrible, but the anthrax attacks were terrifying to people.

And:

Anthrax was what made things like “mobile chemical weapons labs” sound so scary. Not everyone agrees, but I think more than 9/11 the anthrax freaked the country out. 9/11 was horrible, but the anthrax made it seem like we’d reached a new era where some horrible creepy shit was going to happen every day.

And then it was all forgotten.

Whatever one’s views are on the abstract 9/11-anthrax comparison, there is no question that the anthrax attacks were a major political crime.  According to the FBI, the anthrax letters were directed at U.S. Senators (Leahy and Daschle) due to their political views (specifically their opposition to the Patriot Act, their allegedly “soft on terrorism” approach, and their pro-choice views).  And perhaps most importantly, the anthrax attacks — again, according to the FBI itself — came from a U.S. Army laboratory, perpetrated by a U.S. Government scientist.  As the aforementioned Dr. Pearson put it:

If Ivins was indeed responsible for the attacks, did he have any assistance? Did anyone else at the Army lab or elsewhere have any knowledge of his activities prior to, during, or shortly after the anthrax attacks? . . . .

It appears increasingly likely that the only significant bioterrorism attack in history may have originated from right within the biodefense program of our own country. The implications for our understanding of the bioterrorism threat and for our entire biodefense strategy and enterprise are potentially profound.

Re-read that bolded sentence, which few dispute.  The self-evident significance of this case — combined with the extreme doubts being expressed by a wide range of ideologically diverse (and bipartisan!) establishment sources, along with mainstream scientists of all types — should make quick support for Holt’s bill an easy choice.  After all, if Ivins wasn’t the culprit and/or didn’t perpetrate the attacks by himself, then it means that those who did are still unidentified.”

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/