1. The noose is closing:
“Notice how he referred to the towers being ‘blown up’ on 9/11 as opposed to being knocked down? (On Meet the Press). Of course this totally contradicts the official line….. I guess he’s trying to imply that jet fuel caused the obvious explosions. Too bad the official FEMA report states that most of the fuel was expended in the initial fireball outside the building! And the rest was used up in the next 5 or so minutes. So if the buildings blew up it was not due to jet fuel. He backed himself into a corner there. Where was the reporter?
Cheney also refers only to KSM now in relation to 9/11, while never mentioning former poster boy mastermind OBL. Looks like tricky Dick’s constant cries about how we will be hit again are to provide cover for his own guilt. And not just about torture. The one that smelt it dealt it.
…
Oh yes, they are scared. Witness the multiple recent news events about torture. Torture is used to intimidate the 9/11 Truth movement. The high criminals and their cover-up minions want us to think twice before going public with our knowledge. This strategy will fail. The campaign for 9/11 Truth is compelling because it is borne by a strong scientific foundation and mountains of video evidence. They fear the internet phenomenon of 9/11 Truth will spill over into the “real” world, but hundreds and thousands are waking up every month. The publication of nanothermate in WTC dust will go down in history. The elite controllers of money and information will try to intimidate the brave and confuse the sleeping; however, they are terrified of awakening the masses in the process. There could be nothing worse for their stinking world order.“
http://www.911blogger.com/node/20094
2. “Powell aide: Cheney first approved torture to tie Iraq, al Qaeda
The chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell says that the Bush Administration authorized torture of detainees before even rendering a legal opinion on the practice — and that they sought to torture detainees in an effort to produce intelligence tying Iraq to al Qaeda.
“What I have learned is that as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002–well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion–its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa’ida,” former Powell chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson wrote Wednesday evening.“
3. “Leaked torture photos published in 2006 went largely unseen
A little over three years ago, SBS Dateline, an Australian television program, released leaked photographs from the U.S. prison in Iraq, Abu Ghraib.
It is believed that the pictures being held back by the Obama administration may include some of these shots that most of the US press ignored, although RAW STORY ran them in 2006.
After the posting of the photos, the ACLU released the following statement exclusive to RAW STORY.
“We continue to see undeniable evidence that abuse and torture has been widespread and systematic, yet high level government officials have not been held accountable for creating the policies that led to these atrocities,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “We need to look up the chain of military command, because when the rule of law is not followed all of our personal freedoms are threatened. President Bush should appoint an independent counsel to uncover the full truth about the extent of the abuse and who is ultimately responsible.”
An article in the Guardian said, at the time, that “there were reports today that the US government was trying to prevent the new images being broadcast in the US.”
4. “If that seems a harsh conclusion, consider the one public “blot” we already know about concerning Gen. McChrystal’s war record. An investigation by the Pentagon itself found him guilty of fabricating false information in the drama surrounding 2004 death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, an Arizona Cardinals football player who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. In 2007, McChrystal was held accountable for a Pentagon cover story that Tillman died from “devastating enemy fire,” when in fact he was killed by accidental rounds from his own unit.
What kind of military leader would falsify the details of a soldier’s death in order to create a patriotic legend for public consumption?“
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090525/hayden2?rel=hp_picks
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/05/one-of-main-sources-for-911-commission.html
6. Obama keeping military tribunals:
“What makes military commission so pernicious is that they signal that anytime the government wants to imprison people but can’t obtain convictions under our normal system of justice, we’ll just create a brand new system that diminishes due process just enough to ensure that the government wins. It tells the world that we don’t trust our own justice system, that we’re willing to use sham trials to imprison people for life or even execute them, and that what Bush did in perverting American justice was not fundamentally or radically wrong, but just was in need of a little tweaking. Along with warrantless eavesdropping, indefinite detention, extreme secrecy doctrines, concealment of torture evidence, rendition, and blocking judicial review of executive lawbreaking, one can now add Bush’s military commission system, albeit in modified form, to the growing list of despised Bush Terrorism policies that are now policies of Barack Obama.
I’m obviously of the view that Obama deserves much criticism and, particularly on the civil liberties front, has inexcusably embraced many of the worst and most defining Bush abuses. Those are just facts.
…
Amnesty International USA vehemently condemns Obama and accuses him of “backtrack[ing] on a major campaign promise to change the way the United States fights terrorism and undermin[ing] the nation’s core respect for the rule of law by sacrificing due process for political expediency.” They ask: ”What happened to President Obama’s confidence in the U.S. justice system’s ability to try detainees? He himself said that ‘we need not throw away 200 years of American jurisprudence while we fight terrorism.’” They conclude: ”U.S. federal courts are a perfectly sound system to try any and all detainees. They have brought other terror suspects to justice, and there is no reason why these courts cannot continue to do the same.”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
7. “Excuses You Might Believe In
Democrats Are More Powerful Than Ever. How Will They Justify Doing Nothing?
The defection of Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter and the imminent certification of Al Franken as the winner of Minnesota’s election recount has handed Democrats what they always said they lacked in order to pass a progressive agenda: a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate. Now they face the awful problem of coming up with new excuses for not doing anything.”
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22625.htm
