1. Yee-haw!
“Mainstream Media Questions Inaccuracies in 9/11 Story
Half of Americans still don’t realize that a third building also came down that day, and it wasn’t hit by an airplane. There is a long list of federal investigators who say they were not allowed to do their jobs or complete the investigation, says Tim King.”
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/opinion/?id=37496
2. “What’s In a Name?
Fake identity documents from a country other than one’s own are called “false flag.” The CIA’s office of technical services produces its own bogus foreign passports and other documents. As most Americans normally can only pass as citizens of a handful of foreign countries, mostly in Europe, the false documents traditionally have reflected that reality. The Russians also produce their own documents as do the more sophisticated smaller services like the British, Israelis, and French. For most second and third world intelligence services it has always been much easier to steal or buy whatever foreign document is needed and alter the information to suit.
…
Recent CIA and Mossad operations reveal that much of what goes on in the shady world of spy vs. spy is self-generated with little to do with the national interest of either country. The bungled operations in both Milan and Dubai demonstrate that the two intelligence services are prepared to commit enormous resources against targets that really don’t matter for much. Muslim cleric Abu Omar snatched in Milan was dutifully tortured by the Egyptians after he was rendered home and later released because he wasn’t a terrorist even by the very elastic definition applied by Cairo and Washington. He also didn’t know anything useful. The killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai was meaningless as he will presumably soon be replaced. That ill-conceived and poorly executed operations to kill and kidnap even when the target is not worth pursuing are mounted reveals above all that the intelligence services in Israel and the US are out of control. Unfortunately, there is nothing to suggest that either President Barack Obama or Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu will do anything about it.”
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/02/24/whats-in-a-name/
3. “Hamas founder’s son worked for Shin Bet for years “
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151941.html
4. Traitors:
“Dems Retreat, Senate Renews PATRIOT Act
No Privacy Protections, No Debate”
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/02/24/dems-retreat-senate-renews-patriot-act/
5. “Why Neocons Hate Muslims
While there has been much discussion over why Muslims hate Americans, much less attention has been given to why neocons hate Muslims. While it might be true that some neocons hate Muslims for their religious and cultural values, I think there is a better explanation for their hatred. I think the real reason that neocons want to kill Muslims so badly is that people in the Middle East, who are predominately Muslim, have refused to accept the domination of the U.S. Empire, especially in the aftermath of the Cold War, when the U.S. became the world’s sole remaining empire. That refusal has earned them the everlasting enmity of American neocons.
Think about the U.S. invasions and regime-change operations in Grenada and Panama. Once they were completed, the citizens of both of those countries meekly accepted the new order of things. They quickly embraced the newly installed pro-U.S. regimes. No terrorist attacks. No violent insurgencies in either country. Instead, full and complete acceptance of the new world order.
Not so, however, in Iraq and Afghanistan. In both countries, large numbers of people have refused to do what the people of Grenada and Panama did. Instead, Iraqis and Afghanis have refused to kowtow to the Empire. In both countries, both men and women have refused to accept its invasions, occupations, and regime-change operations. Countless Iraqis and Afghanis have even been willing to sacrifice their lives in resistance to the foreign interference with their countries, much as they did when the British Empire and the Soviet Empire invaded Iraq and Afghanistan in the past.
…
The neocon mindset about Muslims is much like the mindset of plantation owners in the Old South. As long as the slaves were obedient, respectful, and subservient, everything was fine. Oh, sure, slaves would periodically complain about their condition in life but, by and large, such complaints were considered acceptable. What was not acceptable was resistance and opposition to slavery itself, especially when it turned violent. That was when a message had to be sent. Such an uppity attitude simply could not be tolerated.
And that’s the way neocons view Muslims in the Middle East. They’re just too uppity. Like the slaves in the Old South, it was incumbent on the people in those countries to accept the new world order after the fall of the Berlin Wall. When the U.S. Empire spoke, they were supposed to listen, submit, and obey.”
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2010-02-23.asp
6. No kidding:
“
Doubts cloud closing of anthrax case”
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/LB25Aa01.html
7. “Mainstream Media Refuses to Disclose that “Independent” Pundits Are Actually Lobbyists
The corporate media are acting like virtual “escort services” for the powerful, selling access – for a price – to viewers and to powerful government officials, instead of actually investigating and reporting on what those in power are actually doing.”
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/02/mainstream-media-refuses-to-disclose.html
8. “Targeting Toyota, U.S. Economic War Against Japan
Does anyone really believe that Toyota is being pilloried in the media for a few highway fatalities?
Nonsense. If Congress is so worried about innocent people getting killed, then why haven’t they indicted US commander Stanley McChrystal for blowing up another 27 Afghan civilians on Sunday?
…
Japan’s new liberal government is fighting deflation using the traditional methodology, by lowering interest rates and increasing fiscal stimulus. But that’s not what Washington wants. Neoliberal policymakers and their buddies in the right-wing think tanks want “fiscal consolidation” which means harsh austerity measures that will deepen the recession, increase unemployment, and trigger a wave of defaults and bankruptcies. This is how western corporatists and bank tycoons keep their thumb on the developing world and thrust their economies into perennial crisis. It’s the “shock doctrine” and it’s been the IMF’s modus operandi for over 20 years. Japan is being stuffed into a fiscal straight-jacket by supporters of the Washington consensus whose goal is to weaken government and accelerate the privatization of public assets and services.
The ratings agencies are being used in the same way as the media; to wage an economic/guerrilla war on Japan and force the administration to rethink their economic policies. (Note: There is no chance that Japan will default on its debt because it pays its debts in its own currency and has large foreign exchange reserves of over $1 trillion) The attacks on Toyota are a way of showing Tokyo what happens to countries that fail to obey Washington’s orders. “
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article17492.html
9. “Excessive bipartisanship and other matters
One of the strangest prongs of conventional Beltway wisdom is the lament that there is not enough bipartisanship. The opposite is true: many of the most damaging acts inflicted on the country by Washington are enacted on a fully bipartisan basis — the most destructive political act of this generation, the invasion of Iraq, was fully bipartisan, as were most of the post-9/11 civil liberties abuses and other Bush-era initiatives– and, at least in certain areas, the harmonious joining together of Republicans and Democrats continues unabated
…
I’ll just note one more point about Newsweek. For all their strident claims now that they were merely discussing the reluctance of others to use the term “Terrorism” for Stack, and not their own reluctance, note that they did not, in fact, use the term anywhere in their article about Stark’s attack. By contrast, they classified their piece on Nidal Hasan’s Fort Hood attack — which targeted a military base — as “Terrorism” and used the term in the body of the piece. Newsweek can claim now that they were merely distantly observing the practices of unspecified “others” when it comes to how the term Terrorism is applied, but it just so happens that those descriptions comport with their own conduct. “
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/
10. Each one a war crime:
“UN: 346 Afghan children killed in 2009, more than half by NATO “
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24867.htm
11. “Listen to the Heroes of Israel
“Our children,” said Nurit at a rally last December to mark the anniversary of the Israeli assault on Gaza, “have learned this year that all the disgusting qualities which anti-Semites attribute to Jews are actually manifested among our leaders: deceit, greed, and the murder of children … What values of beauty and goodness can we squeeze into such a sophisticated apparatus of brainwashing and reality distortion?”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24860.htm
12. “How Prime Minister Hotoyama Can Stop The “Japan Bashing”
Japan should not allow itself to be publicly humiliated by the world’s biggest human rights abuser. It has many tools at its disposal which can be used to persuade sanctimonious senators and flannel-mouth congressmen that they need to stop their belligerent grandstanding for the cameras. The new Japanese government–particularly Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama–should be proactive in defending the reputation of its premier car manufacturer and national icon, Toyota. This is more than just a matter of saving face. It’s way to change the fundamental relationship between the United States and Japan by demanding that each partner be treated with respect and dignity. To achieve this goal, the prime minister should convene an emergency meeting of his administration and top members of the business community. They should outline the steps that will be taken if there is not a manifest improvement in the rhetoric and an end to the Japan bashing.
The Japanese central bank (BOJ) presently holds more than $1 trillion US Treasurys and dollar-backed assets. PM Hatoyama should announce that USTs will be liquidated incrementally at 5 percent per week until the balance is zero.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24865.htm
