1. “The Mysterious Death of Bush’s Cyber-Guru
The crash would have remained a private tragedy confined to the pages of the local press and the hearts of the pilot’s widow and four children, but within days the blogosphere was abuzz with rumors and conspiracy theories: The plane, it was said, had been sabotaged and the pilot murdered to cover up the GOP’s alleged theft of the Ohio vote in the 2004 presidential election. At the center of this plot was the Saratoga’s pilot, a prodigiously gifted IT expert named Michael Connell, whose altar boy charm and technical brilliance had made him the computer whiz of choice for the Republican Party. Left-wing Web sites openly referred to Connell as “Bush’s vote rigger” and claimed that his fingerprints were on all the most controversial elections in recent history. There were dark whispers of electronic pulses or sniper fire being used to bring down the plane—a black ops attack designed to keep him from testifying against his former cronies. Right-wing bloggers and talk show hosts derided such claims as the twisted delusions of liberal nut jobs and tinfoil hatters. The mainstream press sat on its hands.
But while the rumors, innuendos, and allegations continue to swirl through the ether, evidence has recently emerged that suggests the Ohio vote may have been hacked, and that Connell was involved.”
http://www.911blogger.com/node/22588
2. “Taliban Regime Pressed bin Laden on anti-U.S. Terror
Evidence now available from various sources, including recently declassified U.S. State Department documents, shows that the Taliban regime led by Mullah Mohammad Omar imposed strict isolation on Osama bin Laden after 1998 to prevent him from carrying out any plots against the United States.
The evidence contradicts the claims by top officials of the Barack Obama administration that Mullah Omar was complicit in Osama bin Laden’s involvement in the al Qaeda plot to carry out the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sep. 11, 2001. It also bolsters the credibility of Taliban statements in recent months asserting that it has no interest in al Qaeda’s global jihadist aims.”
http://www.911blogger.com/node/22587
3. “Now that the government is not being challenged in its belief that it can assassinate American citizens anywhere overseas it is perhaps not too much to suggest that killing Americans at home will also become more acceptable to a public that has been properly prepped through fear of terrorism. Indeed, some might argue that Waco and Ruby Ridge demonstrate that that process is already far advanced. Dennis Blair’s comments should serve as a wakeup call for all Americans who care about their liberties, but it is possibly too late. The tepid reaction in the media and from congress reveals that just another few deaths, even if they are American citizens, really don’t matter very much anymore.”
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/02/12/civis-romanus-sum/
4. “Israel is waging a covert assassination campaign across the Middle East in an effort to stop its key enemies co-ordinating their activities.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7025821.ece
5. 4th Amendment, anyone?
“Under plan, intelligence agencies would be consulted before reading of rights”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/12/AR2010021205277_pf.html
6. “John Limbert, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran, is asking the UN to investigate human-rights abuses in Iran by that country’s dictatorial regime. Ever since protests against Iran’s fraudulent presidential elections broke out, the Iranian dictators have been rounding up people, torturing and raping them, and even executing them.
But I wonder if Limbert is going to seek the same type of inquiry with respect to his own government, which for years has engaged in a spree of kidnapping, torture, rendition, rape, sex abuse, indefinite detention, assassination, and execution.
Yes, I know, Limbert would respond that the people that the U.S. government has done these things to are Terrorists while the victims in Iran are Dissidents. But doesn’t the Iranian government also consider its targets to be Terrorists who are using violence to bring down the government?
Moreover, isn’t it the position of both the U.S. government and the Iranian government that all that is needed to go after a Terrorist is a governmental accusation rather than a trial?
…
So, when the U.S. government does bad things to people, U.S. officials are supposed to remain mute. And when U.S.-supported dictators (e.g., the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet, etc) do bad things to people, it’s also important for them to remain mute. But when a dictatorship that is out of favor with the U.S. Empire does these things, it becomes time to investigate. “
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2010-02-10.asp
7. “Torture is a crime, not a state secret
“There is no horror, no cruelty, sacrilege, or perjury, no imposture, no infamous transaction, no cynical robbery, no bold plunder or shabby betrayal that has not been or is not daily being perpetrated by the representatives of the states, under no other pretext than those elastic words, so convenient and yet so terrible: ‘for reasons of state’.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/11/binyam-mohamed-torture
8. “Iceland aims to become an offshore haven for journalists and leakers
<!–
–> On Tuesday, the Icelandic parliament is expected to introduce a measure aimed at making the country an international center for investigative journalism publishing, by passing the strongest combination of source protection, freedom of speech, and libel-tourism prevention laws in the world.
Supporters of the proposal say the move would make Iceland an “offshore publishing center” for free speech, analogous to the offshore financial havens that allow corporations to hide capital from authorities. Could global news organizations with a home office in Reykjavík soon be as common as Delaware corporations or Cayman Islands assets?”
http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/iceland-aims-to-become-an-offshore-haven-for-journalists-and-leakers/
9. “Religious faith in government accusations
In other words, if one hears only the Government’s unchallenged, untested accusations about detainees and others whom it labels Terrorists and Enemy Combatants, it semes clear and obvious that the person is an Evil, Dangerous and Bad Man. But when those accusations are actually subjected to scrutiny by courts, it turns out that — in the overwhelming majority of cases — there is virtually no reliable evidence to support them.
…
Despite those facts, a religious-like faith in government pronouncements continues to dominate debates over Terrorism and civil liberties, virtually always along these lines:
“Of course the President is right to detain dangerous people without charges or trials where they can’t convict them. Of course the President is right to target dangerous people, including American citizens, for assassination. Of course the President is right to order that they be denied civilian trials, that they be rendered to other countries, that they be eavesdropped on without warrants, that they be ‘interrogated harshly,’ that they be put before military commissions.”
“Why is it so clear that the President is right to do these things?”
“Because these people are Terrorists and Enemy Combatants, trying to kill Americans, and they don’t have these rights!”
“Since they haven’t had a trial, how do you know that they’re Terrorists and Enemy Combatants trying to kill Americans”?
“Because the Government said so!”
This is the mentality that persists more strongly and more pervasively than ever — even in the face of the above-cited evidence demonstrating how frequently the Government’s claims in this regard are false. I can’t even count the number of times I encounter this exact “reasoning.” It’s hard to imagine any mindset more impervious to reason and evidence than this, or any thought-process more blatantly tautological and self-negating. And yet, on a bipartisan basis, our entire system of Government, its core safeguard of checks and balances, and basic due process are being rapidly dismantled, all justified by this warped, faith-based reasoning.”
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/02/13/faith/index.html
