1. “New Information on the Death of 911 Eyewitness Barry Jennings
Barry Jennings, a key 9/11 eyewitness who was an emergency coordinator for the New York Housing Authority, passed away last August 2008 at age 53 from undisclosed circumstances. Mr. Jennings was an eyewitness to the devastation of the World Trade center towers on September 11th 2001.
…
Barry Jennings passed away shortly thereafter and coincidentally just a few days before the long awaited NIST report on Building 7 was released to the public. It is quite possible that Jennings would have exposed the cover story of NIST, and their overall excuse that the 47 story building was the first and only skyscraper felled by fire. He never got that chance.
Yesterday, April 15th 2009 I was contacted by “Loose Change” director, and narrator Dylan Avery who said that he had recently begun investigating the death of Barry Jennings, and had found some new information relating to his death.
It seems that there is a very good possibility that Jennings’ death could have been due to foul play. Though the investigations are on going, initial findings are somewhat alarming. The conclusion is still forthcoming, but I was shocked by what I heard.
It seems that Dylan had hired a private investigator to look into Jennings death which remains shrouded in mystery. His motive was simply to bring some closure to the life of Barry Jennings, and in doing so to honor the memory of this brave American. The Investigator ended up referring the case to Law enforcement before refunding his pay, and told Dylan never to contact him again. Very unusual to say the least. Dylan also paid a visit to the Jennings home. He found it vacant and for sale.
Personally, something is really beginning to stink here. Why would a highly paid PI refuse to continue his investigation? Why did he refer the matter to police? He is not talking. What is he afraid of. Was he warned to cease and desist? If so by whom?
These are some of the new questions revolving around the Jennings case.
In every major cover up from the JFK assassination to Iran Contra, we can see one common thread. The untimely death of eyewitnesses. Barry Jennings was not only an important and most credible eyewitness, but he openly refuted much of the government, and media version of events. He was a liability.“
2. “So….Silverstein Can Take the Money and Run?
If I am reading this correctly, Larry Silverstein never has to re-build the buildings at ground zero. If he does not comply by 2013 he simply forfeits the rights to the property? This is astonishing to say the least. The Port Authority is footing the bill for re-building the WTC and Silverstein is taking the money and running…. but not before he delays the progress until 2013. He is also asking for public funds to start his part of the project of which we have absolutely no guarantee that he will finish it.
ummm…. NO!!”
http://www.911blogger.com/node/19849
3. “Non-Interventionism is Not Isolationism
A non-interventionist supports commercial relations. In fact, in terms of trade, many non-interventionists share libertarian proclivities and would unilaterally obliterate all tariffs and custom duties, and would be open to trade with all willing nations. In addition, non-interventionists welcome cultural exchanges and the exchange of ambassadors with all willing nations.
A non-interventionist believes that the U.S. should not intercede in conflicts between other nations or conflicts within nations. In recent history, non-interventionists have proved prophetic in warning of the dangers of the U.S. entangling itself in alliances. The U.S. has suffered deleterious effects and effectuated enmity among other governments, citizenries, and non-state actors as a result of its overseas interventions. The U.S. interventions in both Iran and Iraq have led to cataclysmic consequences.
…
There is an authentic and stark difference between non-interventionism and isolationism. Isolationism as a political philosophy or political strategy is not only impractical but probably suicidal. In a global economy, no industrialized nation can successfully sustain itself on the resources that it controls. Isolationism is a political philosophy that discourages relations with other countries. Alternatively, non-interventionism maintains that foreign relations should be encouraged, but that nations should not become so involved with each other’s affairs that they become entangled with each other. Non-interventionists assert that intervention into the affairs of counterpart nations all too often results in unintended deleterious consequences and blowback, such as the U.S. learned when it intervened in the Middle East.“
http://original.antiwar.com/rubino/non-interventionism-is-not-isolationism/
4. What a coward:
“Spain’s attorney general rejects torture investigation of US officials over Guantanamo”
http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/04/16/spanish-ag-no-torture-probe-of-us-officials/
5. Pirates:
“Of course, there is an obvious and simplistic answer: the ships should arm and defend themselves. Yet, we all know that that’s not the solution that most of the ships have come up with. Instead, they have intentionally remained disarmed. Why is that?
The ship-owner apparently feels that the odds of a successful pirate attack are relatively low. The chances are that most of the time, his ship is going to make it through successfully. He has obviously weighed the cost of violent resistance if the odds go against him and the pirates successfully board his ship. A shootout will likely result in death or serious injury to crew members, which could mean millions of dollars in lawsuits, damages, and attorney’s fees.
Ship-owners might well figure that compared to that risk, they’re better off simply paying the one or two millions of dollars in ransom to the pirates, especially given that pirates haven’t been harming the crews they kidnap.
Why don’t the ships hire private security forces to guard them? Possibly because the costs of such forces are much higher or about equal to the amount of the ransom they have to pay the pirates. Moreover, there’s always the possibility that the ship will make it through without being hit. Thus, the company might figure that the risk of being hit by the pirates is too low to justify the hiring of a permanent security force.
Moreover, many countries do not allow armed ships to enter their ports. Thus, it’s possible that ship owners do not wish to forego the benefits of landing in those ports by arming their ships.
By intervening in this process, it appears that the U.S. government has done a wonderful thing. But has it? The implication is that it saved Phillips’ life, but that’s nonsense given that the pirates have not been killing the crews they’ve been taking captive. As soon as they’ve been receiving the ransom money, they’ve been releasing the crews unharmed.
So, what the U.S. Navy has actually done is simply save the ship-owner one million or two million dollars. Yet, the entire Navy exercise wasn’t itself a cost-free endeavor. I’m willing to bet that sending all those Navy vessels to free Phillips cost much more than the one or two million dollars that would have had to be paid in ransom money. Thus, the substantial cost of saving the ship-owner one or two million dollars has simply been transferred to the backs of the American taxpayer.”
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2009-04-16.asp
6. “
Book tells of female US soldiers raped by comrades
Female U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have more to fear than roadside bombs or enemy ambushes. They also are at risk of being raped or sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers.
“The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq,” a book based on 40 in-depth interviews, recounts the stories of female veterans who served in combat zones and tells of rape, sexual assault and harassment by male counterparts.“
http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/04/16/book-tells-of-female-us-soldiers-raped-by-comrades/
7. “The Afghan government says that it will amend a recently passed law that puts Afghanistan’s Shiites under the law of their branch of Islam for personal status purposes. The law allowed marital rape and detracted from the rights of women in other ways, as well.
The government’s pledge to amend the law so as to forbid marital rape misses the point. Afghanistan has a civil code on personal status, and all citizens should be under it. If the state farms out personal status law to a Shiite court, then a conservative interpretation of Shiite law (sharia) will become the de facto law of the land for Shiites. Moreover, there is the issue of the state creating the Shiites as a separate group not under national law.”
http://www.juancole.com/
8. How funny:
“New Poll Finds American Workers Turning Massively Towards Socialism: Unbelievable but True
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13226
9. “
Beyond those generalities, I think the significance of Obama’s decision to release those memos — and the political courage it took — shouldn’t be minimized. There is no question that many key factions in the “intelligence community” were vehemently opposed to release of those memos. I have no doubt that reports that they waged a “war” to prevent release of these memos were absolutely true. The disgusting comments of former CIA Director Mike Hayden on MSNBC yesterday — where he made clear that he simply does not believe in the right of citizens to know what their government does and that government crimes should be kept hidden– is clearly what Obama was hearing from many powerful circles. That twisted anti-democratic mentality is the one that predominates in our political class.In the United States, what Obama did yesterday is simply not done. American Presidents do not disseminate to the world documents which narrate in vivid, elaborate detail the dirty, illegal deeds done by the CIA, especially not when the actions are very recent, were approved and ordered by the President of the United States, and the CIA is aggressively demanding that the documents remain concealed and claiming that their release will harm national security. When is the last time a President did that?
Other than mildly placating growing anger over his betrayals of his civil liberties commitments (which, by the way, is proof of the need to criticize Obama when he does the wrong thing), there wasn’t much political gain for Obama in releasing these documents. And he certainly knew that, by doing so, he would be subjected to an onslaught of accusations that he was helping Al Qaeda and endangering American National Security. And that’s exactly what happened, as in this cliché-filled tripe from Hayden and Michael Mukasey in today’s Wall St. Journal, and this from an anonymous, cowardly “top Bush official” smearing Obama while being allowed to hide behind the Jay Bybee of journalism, Politico’s Mike Allen.
But Obama knowingly infuriated the CIA, including many of his own top intelligence advisers; purposely subjected himself to widespread attacks from the Right that he was giving Al Qaeda our “playbook”; and he released to the world documents that conclusively prove how that the U.S. Government, at the highest levels, purported to legalize torture and committed blatant war crimes. There’s just no denying that those actions are praiseworthy. I understand the argument that Obama only did what the law requires. That is absolutely true. We’re so trained to meekly accept that our Government has the right to do whatever it wants in secret — we accept that it’s best that most things be kept from us — that we forget that a core premise of our government is transparency; that the law permits secrecy only in the narrowest of cases; and that it’s certainly not legal to suppress evidence of government criminality on the grounds that it is classified.
Still, as a matter of political reality, Obama had to incur significant wrath from powerful factions by releasing these memos, and he did that. That’s an extremely unusual act for a politician, especially a President, and it deserves praise. None of this mitigates any of the bad acts Obama has engaged in recently — particularly his ongoing efforts to shield Bush crimes from judicial review by relying on extreme assertions of presidential secrecy powers — but, standing alone, his actions yesterday are quite significant.
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George Orwell mistakenly assumed that obfuscating language designed to glorify criminal acts would be invented and normalized by government. At least in the U.S., that function is outsourced to government’s most loyal and eager servants: establishment journalists. A principal reason why the government has been able to engage with impunity in the extremism and lawlessness of the last decade is because most journalists refuse even to describe it as what it is.“
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
10. So you think Obama’s words about change mean much?
“Hopebroken and Hopesick:
A Lexicon of Disappointment
By Naomi Klein
All is not well in Obamafanland. It’s not clear exactly what accounts for the change of mood. Maybe it was the rancid smell emanating from Treasury’s latest bank bailout. Or the news that the president’s chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, earned millions from the very Wall Street banks and hedge funds he is protecting from reregulation now. Or perhaps it began earlier, with Obama’s silence during Israel’s Gaza attack.
Whatever the last straw, a growing number of Obama enthusiasts are starting to entertain the possibility that their man is not, in fact, going to save the world if we all just hope really hard.”
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22441.htm
11. “Home of the Barricaded, Land of the ‘Fraid
Yes, that’s right. All 200 or so of them. Combined.
According to GlobalSecurity.org, last year, the US dropped about $625 billion in taxpayer dollars on its military, while all the rest of the world together spent $500 billion. (The aggregate global figures come from 2004, but have been steady over the prior decade.) However, if you also add in nuclear weapons costs handled separately by the Energy Department, Veterans Affairs, interest on money borrowed to fund previous wars, and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the total rises to a jaw-dropping one trillion dollars per year.
Think of how astonishing that is.
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And there is another explanation, as well. You don’t need to spend a trillion bucks per year in order to protect the United States from attack by another country. The existing stockpile of nuclear warheads more or less guarantees that that will never happen. You also don’t need to spend that money in order to fight some sort of conventional war on land or sea, as occurred during World War II. No country comes remotely near the United States in terms of battlefield and naval hardware, and even those who possess significant quantities of such materiel almost entirely lack the capability of projecting such military power beyond their borders. Finally, you don’t need all that money to fight ragtag bands of terrorists either. On that front, smarts go a lot farther than dollars (not that we would know, of course).
The only thing that such a seemingly bloated military is good for is power projection. If you want to intimidate developing countries into selling you their natural resources at ridiculously low prices, a giant military is the only way to do it. If you want to force weaker countries into joining political alliances they are otherwise not remotely interested in, some good old-fashioned gunboat diplomacy is the way to make that happen.
Or, at least, was. The United States is no longer very much able to shove around other countries like it used to, and yet, even the so-called liberal Obama administration is now seeking to spend even more on the American military than the monsters of the last regime did.
It was one thing – albeit still a stupid bargain – to forgo health, education, and the good life for an empire.
But what Americans should be asking themselves right now is, whether giving away happiness and prosperity in exchange for a non-empire is finally a bridge too far, even for a country so justly famous for its chronic political immaturity. “
