A.R. Torres writes in Salon, "I used to know whose fault it was.
At least I thought I did. The loss of my beloved Eddie hurt badly enough
when 9/11 was a story about a secret plot that was so fantastic, so
sophisticated and hidden, that it escaped our mighty intelligence
network... But now the story has become one of incompetence vs. evil.
There had been knowledge, hints, warnings - shared at the highest levels -
and yet no action, not a peep. How was that possible? Suddenly the
diabolic geniuses behind this plot weren't that smart. Instead they were
just a few fundamentalist lunatics with box cutters and a dream, who could
have - should have - been stopped at so many points before 8:46 a.m.,
Sept. 11." Eddie Torres died on Sept. 11, his second day of work in
the World Trade Center.

Marie Cocco writes in Newsday, "In all the verbiage that has
rained down since word leaked that President [sic] Bush was warned that
Osama bin Laden's crew might hijack a plane and strike at the United
States, two words count: 'No warnings.' That is what White House spokesman
Ari Fleischer told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sept. 11. He said it
as the flames from the World Trade Center and the Pentagon lit the sky and
the office workers and firefighters and deli-counter men were buried
beneath the molten steel. It was a lie... Since word leaked about the
infamous memo Bush received on Aug. 6, the White House has spun another
web of lies... Now there is an unnerving shadow that will follow Bush
through his presidency... Bush lied to us, and covered up." Impeach
Bush NOW!

John Ashcroft played "down the terrorist threat in the first
months of the Bush administration. [He accused] his critics of undermining
the fight against terrorism. But it is becoming clear that before
September 11 he had little interest in counter-terrorism, and diverted
resources from measures to prevent terrorism... He also sent a
memorandum... stating his seven priorities. Counter-terrorism was not on
the list. He turned down an FBI request for hundreds more agents to be
assigned to tracking terrorist threats. Nevertheless, he began using a
chartered private jet to travel around the country, rather than take
commercial airliners. [Ashcroft had a showdown with FBI director Louis
Freeh last spring on counter-terrorism. When] Mr Freeh began to talk about
his concern about the terrorist threat facing the country, 'Ashcroft
didn't want to hear about it'... But even since September 11 Mr Ashcroft
has been accused of putting ideology before the battle against
terrorism."

Robert Scheer writes, "Until Sept. 11, the Bush administration was
simply too distracted and/or incompetent to maintain the American pressure
on Osama bin Laden begun in 1998 under President Clinton. [Sandy Berger
was totally preoccupied with the prospect of domestic terror attack. He
warned Condi Rice]: 'You will be spending more time on this issue than on
any other.' Problem was, she didn't. [She wasn't alone. John Ashcroft also
downshifted anti-terrorism efforts, and] Rumsfeld blocked an attempt to
move $800 million from his pet missile defense program into
counter-terrorism... We already know enough... to raise strong suspicions
that executive privilege is now being invoked to conceal enormous
incompetence on the part of the [Bushies. But] we as a nation have long
believed that it is the truth--full, complex and unsanitized--that shall
make us free. We should continue to act accordingly."

MediaWhoresOnline writes, "At the end of August, in disgust, [FBI
terrorism expert John] O'Neill left the FBI to take what he somewhat
ruefully regarded as his 'retirement' job - as head of security at the
World Trade Center. There, on September 11, [he] died at the hands of his
arch-enemy bin Laden's fiendish followers. Connect the dots? Well, duh!
O'Neill got the Phoenix message. No one would listen... The Bushies had
backed off bin Laden. So O'Neill changed jobs - and went on to die a
martyr's death. While all the people who ignored him, on up the chain to
the Oval Office, live on - ghoulishly making political hay out of his
sacrifice and their own incompetence - and... their own perfidy. But
here's the really amazing thing - having unearthed this blockbuster, NY
Times reporters David Johnston and Don Van Natta, Jr. simply bury it in
their story. They report, incredibly, that O'Neill simply 'retired' back
in August - ignoring the well-known background, leaving the dots
unconnected!"

Daily Brew writes, "It is simply impossible to examine the FBI's
role... prior to 9/11 without examining the work of John O'Neill [who]
quit the agency just two weeks prior to the 911 attacks to serve as
Director of Security at the WTC, where he died in the attacks... French
intelligence analysts Brisard and Dasquie claim to have met O'Neill
several times last summer, and reported in their book, 'bin Laden: Hidden
Truth' that O'Neill had complained bitterly that the US State Department -
and behind it the oil lobby who make up Bush's entourage - blocked his
attempts to prove bin Laden's guilt. They quote O'Neill as stating 'The
main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were US oil corporate
interests, and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it.' They also charge
that shortly after assuming office the Bush administration slowed down FBI
investigations of Al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a
deal with the Taliban for an oil pipeline across Afghanistan."

Even before Bush took office in 2001, he was apparently scheming with
Unocal to force through a deal with the Taliban to put an oil pipeline
through Afghanistan. Thus, in AUGUST 2001, instead of taking steps to
avert terrorist attacks, Bush was holding secret meetings with the Taliban
over the pipeline, threatening to bury them "beneath a carpet of
bombs" if they didn't play ball. Two weeks before Sept. 11, FBI
deputy director John O'Neill - the nation's top Osama Bin Laden expert -
quit in disgust because he felt Bush was placing corporate interests ahead
of national security. This heroic man took a job as head of security at
the WTC, where he died on 9/11. Did O'Neill KNOW the WTC was targeted and
thus tried in his own way to protect the bulding and those in it because
the "President of the United States" REFUSED to?

At a top-level meeting on July 5 2001, 'Something really spectacular is
going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon,' the government's top
counterterrorism official, Richard Clarke, told the assembled group,
according to two of those present. The group included the Federal Aviation
Administration, along with the Coast Guard, FBI, Secret Service and
Immigration and Naturalization Service. Clarke directed every
counterterrorist office to cancel vacations, defer nonvital travel, put
off scheduled exercises and place domestic rapid-response teams on much
shorter alert. For six weeks last summer, at home and overseas, the U.S.
government was at its highest possible state of readiness - and anxiety -
against imminent terrorist attack. That intensity - defensive in nature -
did not last. By the time Bush received his briefing at his ranch in
Crawford, Tex., on Aug. 6, the government had begun to stand down from the
alert." AND WHY DID BUSH LET THEM STAND DOWN??? WE DEMAND ANSWERS!

It's not every day that Bob Woodward calls the National Security
Advisor and the White House Spokesman liars. So read Woodward's article
"Aug. Memo Focused On Attacks in U.S." carefully: "In
earlier comments this week, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and
other administration officials stressed that intelligence officials were
focused primarily on threats to U.S. interests overseas. But sources made
clear yesterday that the briefing presented to Bush focused on attacks
within the United States.... Ari Fleischer told reporters yesterday said
the headline on the document was, 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike the
United States.' But sources who have read the memo said the headline ended
with the phrase 'in U.S.'" We demand that Bush fire Rice and
Fleischer for lying to the American people about 911!

There really is no limit to the despicable things the Bushies will say.
Ari attacked Senators Hillary Clinton and Dianne Feinstein, demanding to
know "What did the Democrats in Congress know? And why weren't they
talking to each other?" Of course, the Democrats only knew what Bush
WANTED them to know, since Bush runs the CIA and the FBI. DiFi hit Ari
right between the eyes with her response: "I was so concerned that I
contacted Vice President Cheney's office that same month to urge that he
restructure our counter-terrorism and homeland defense programs to ensure
better accountability and prevent important intelligence information from
slipping through the cracks. Despite repeated efforts by myself and staff,
the White House did not address my request. I followed this up last
September 2001 before the attacks and was told by 'Scooter' Libby that it
might be another six months before he would be able to review the
material. I told him I did not believe we had six months to wait."

¶ 2:18 PM 0 comments links to this post

Investigator/journalist and former LAPD officer Michael Ruppert is sure
that the CIA, a secret cartel of major corporations and the Bush
administration colluded in the events leading to 9/11. Ruppert has spent
several months trying to reconstruct the significant events leading up to
the suicide attacks. Here he presents 34 separate but connected and
well-documented "steps" that lead to the horrendous disaster of
9/11. After reading them, you will find yourself wondering why ANYONE
would question Cynthia McKinney's call for a REAL investigation of what
may prove to be the most heinous inside job ever pulled off on American
soil.

Online Journal's Larry Chin reports that Jim Pavitt, CIA Deputy
Director for Operations, recently admitted CIA foreknowledge of 911.
"We had very, very good intelligence of the general structure and
strategies of the al Qaeda terrorist organization. We knew and we warned
that al Qaeda was planning a major strike." But Pavitt insists
"We never found the tactical intelligence, never uncovered the
specifics that could have stopped those tragic strikes." Is this the
truth - or a CIA disinformation campaign? There is only one way to find
out - the CIA (and all other agencies, including the FBI, the NSA, and the
White House) must declassify ALL relevant documents, and a Blue Ribbon
Commission must be appointed to demand the truth from those who are paid
over $300 billion each year for "intelligence" and
"defense"!

Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports, "Congressional investigators
believe there are more embarrassing documents to come. Another sensitive
issue: the CIA's failure to aggressively follow up on information provided
by Malaysian authorities in January 2000 about a meeting in Kuala Lumpur
of Al Qaeda operatives—including two men who turned out to be among the
9-11 hijackers. Malaysian officials passed along photos to the United
States, but they never heard back and stopped monitoring the suspects, one
Malaysian official told NEWSWEEK. CIA officials said the significance of
the meeting didn't become clear until much later. But by the time the CIA
alerted the FBI, it was too late." Why did the CIA IGNORE the
Malaysian warnings? We demand a Blue Ribbon Commission!

Here's another explosive 9-11 revelation: the FBI read Zacarias
Moussaoui's e-mail before 9-11 and "found he wanted to learn to fly a
747 from London's Heathrow to New York's JFK. The agents held
'brainstorming' sessions to try to figure out what targets might be en
route. The agents were 'in a frenzy,' 'absolutely convinced he was
planning to do something with a plane,' said a senior official. One agent
wrote that 'one possibility' was that Moussaoui might be planning to crash
into the Twin Towers." According to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, FBI
Director Robert Mueller "referred to this memo by a Minneapolis FBI
agent in testimony before Congress last week, but no newspaper reported
this. Why did the FBI ignore this warning? Why did the FBI ignore similar
warnings from its agents in Phoenix? And were there warnings from FBI
agents in Florida, where most of the hijackers were learning to fly? We
demand a Blue Ribbon Commission!

Here is ANOTHER shocking new fact about the extent of the 911 warnings
that were sent to Bush's top anti-terrorism officials from US and foreign
government agents. As the NY Post reports, "It was previously known
that instructors at a Minnesota flight school warned local FBI agents that
Moussaoui - later described as the '20th hijacker' - might try to fly a
plane loaded with fuel into a building." But FBI Director Robert
Mueller told Senators on May 9 "for the first time that an FBI
investigator took that horrifying threat further - and actually considered
the scenario that occurred Sept. 11." "In one of the notes, the
agent in Minneapolis mentioned the possibility of Moussaoui being the type
of person who could fly something into the World Trade Center,"
Mueller said. Who at the FBI and the CIA reviewed this memo? Did they
simply IGNORE this warning?????

On May 3, John Solomon of the AP revealed that a vigilant FBI agent in
Phoenix was suspicious of local Arab flight students and wrote a detailed
memo urging a nationwide investigation of flight schools. Solomon added,
"The FBI sent the intelligence to its terrorism experts in Washington
and New York for analysis and had begun discussing conducting a nationwide
canvass of flight schools when the Sept. 11 tragedies occurred, officials
told The Associated Press." But on May 8, FBI Director Robert Mueller
told Congress "he doubted that the memorandum was reviewed at a
senior level by agency directors. He said he did not believe that the
memorandum had been sent to the joint C.I.A.-F.B.I. counterterrorism
center." If Solomon's sources are reliable, then Mueller LIED TO
CONGRESS. Once again, we demand a Blue Ribbon Commission!

60 Minutes reports, "One of the unanswered questions of [911] is
whether there was anything U.S. intelligence could have done to stop the
attacks...The FBI hauled in a French citizen, Zacarias Moussaoui...We now
know that, back in August, Moussaoui's possessions contained evidence that
would expose key elements of the [911] conspiracy. The FBI didn't search
Moussaoui's things because it says it didn't have enough evidence for a
search warrant. Critical evidence was in the hands of French
intelligence...60 Minutes talked with several sources in French
intelligence and they all agree on three points. First, back as early as
1995 French agents traced Moussaoui to Afghanistan on what they believe
was a trip to an Al Qaeda camp. Second, in 1999, the French put Moussaoui
on a watch list of potential terror suspects. Third, in 2000, French
intelligence followed Moussaoui to Pakistan. They believe he went to see a
man named Abu Jaffa - a top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden."
Investigate 911 NOW!

Greg Palast has done it again! Palast has scooped the US (and global)
media by getting the inside story on the failed US-engineered coup in
Venezuela. The US started planning this coup nearly a year in advance; the
plot included funding 3 simultaneous efforts to assassinate Venezuela's
elected President. US efforts gained urgency when Libya and Iraq
threatened an oil embargo to protest Israeli actions in Palestine. The US
needed to control Venezuela's oil to undermine any embargo. The Secretary
General of OPEC, Ali Rodriguez, warned Hugo Chavez of the planned coup, so
Chavez deployed his troops to foil the coup. His "Plan A" -
surrounding the palace with tanks - failed because the tank commander
disobeyed Chavez's orders (no doubt he was paid handsomely to do so). But
his "Plan B" - filling the palace with hidden troops, thereby
taking the coup leader hostage - succeeded brilliantly. We demand Senate
hearings on Bush's illegal coup!

Alexander Bolton writes in The Hill, "In a series of
little-noticed executive orders intended to ease the tax burden on
corporate America, the Bush administration has implemented a number of new
policies that will provide corporations with billions of dollars in tax
relief without the consent of Congress. The actions include new
regulations, notices of new rulemaking, and tax collection policies on
issues ranging from tax-free compensation for corporate executives to tax
deductions for 'intangible' assets to greatly expanded tax accounting
flexibility for small- and medium-sized businesses. Many of the
business-oriented actions taken by the Treasury Department since the
beginning of the year are so arcane that few members of Congress,
including those with jurisdiction over tax policy, were familiar with the
new regulations and revenue procedures."

Bush
Plans Massive Invasion of Iraq WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL DECLARATION OF WAR
- We Must Elect a Democratic Congress to Impeach Bush!

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress - NOT THE
PRESIDENT - the power "to declare war." But George W. Bush is
openly planning to use 70,000 to 250,000 American troops to INVADE IRAQ
- WITHOUT A DECLARATION OF WAR! Has Bush simply scrubbed the
Constitution??? Call your Senators and Representatives (202-224-3121)
and demand immediate hearings on Bush's ILLEGAL plan to invade Iraq. And
get busy registering every young voter in America who will be sent to
fight and die in Iraq to make Bush's oil and weapons puppeteers
infinitely richer. We must sweep ALL Republicans out of office in
November, and sweep in a Democratic Congress that will IMPEACH GEORGE
BUSH.

Carville
Reads Letter from Democrats.com Member Sam Park

Letters from Democrats.com
members are getting results! Here's an exchange from Crossfire on
4-25-02. "CARVILLE: 'I understand the GOP elite has sent out the
word for top GOP leaders to stay off CROSSFIRE because they can't stand
the heat. Waaaa! Da wittle cry babies.' Sam Park, Van Nuys, California.
I tell you something, Sam, about these people. They can give it, but
can't take it. And I found out something about this right-wing crowd.
They all got glass jaws. The good ones that come over here... CARLSON:
They all come on here. And I must say, to think that they're going to be
ignoring to be... CARVILLE: Why is Marc Racicot telling -- he's the
chairman of the Republican party! CARLSON: That is absolutely...
CARVILLE: He's a weenie. From the left, I'm James Carville."
Congratulations to Sam Park!

December
7, 2001 was Another 'Day of Infamy' - Bush Let Bin Laden Escape into
Pakistan!

According to the LA Times, in November 2001 Osama Bin Laden was holed
up in the caves of Tora Bora, and anti-Taliban forces were eager to
capture him, but Bush chose to drop expensive "daisy cutters"
built by his defense contractor buddies, instead of spending a few
dollars for anti-Taliban guns and food. Did Bush REALLY want to get Bin
Laden? One top commander's aide said "I don't think the U.S. wants
to capture Osama. We know where he is, we tell him, and they do
nothing." "Around Dec. 7, the soldiers overheard Bin Laden on
the radio. He was still in Tora Bora, but 'they were getting ready to
move,' said Haji Zahir, another senior Afghan commander. The next
morning, tribal scouts said they saw Bin Laden picking his way over the
hills on horseback. The Saudi exile was flanked by four Al Qaeda guards,
commander Haji Khalan Mir said." Bush let Bin Laden walk into
Pakistan! Was this utter negligence, or does Bush want Bin Laden to live
- to justify a permanent "war against terror"???

Bu$h
Arranges Ransom to Terrorists - Congressional Investigation of Treason
Needed

A. F. Nariman writes: "ABC News has just released a breaking
news story reporting that the Bush Administration was involved in
arranging $300,000 in ransom payments to the Abu Sayyaf rebel group in
the Philippines…to secure the release of an American missionary couple…
What's wrong with this picture?…Abu Sayyaf group is an arm of bin
Laden's Al Qaeda network of terrorists…. in Bush's own words, 'If you
are a terrorist, or you harbor a terrorist, you are a terrorist.'…
these actions can be construed as treason under Article III, section 3
of our U.S. Constitution, which reads: 'Treason against the United
States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering
to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort… Let us hope…that
'giving aid to the enemy' is a greater crime, and one more worthy of
impeachment than having adulterous sex in the Oval Office, or committing
perjury to hide one's shame. Certainly, the Senate and House need to
investigate this matter post haste."

Phil
Gramm Wins Battle for Enronomics, So Every State Can Get 'Enroned' Just
Like California

Sen. Phil Gramm (R- TX) blocked an amendment introduced by California
Democrat Dianne Feinstein that would have closed the loophole that
allowed Enron to hide wholesale prices from buyers and control markets.
"Just because Enron is bankrupt doesn't mean the party's over for
these energy traders. The regulatory framework that allowed Enron to do
what it did is still intact," said Tyson Slocum, a senior
researcher with Public Citizen. "This is a modest attempt at
regaining accountability over our electricity markets, and the Senate
couldn't even muster the votes. The fact that Phil Gramm played a key
role in blocking these reforms illustrates that Enron's legacy is still
strong in the U.S. Congress."

Bu$h
Rule Will Let Coal Miners Fill Valleys and Streams With Debris

Katharine Seelye reports in the NY Times, "The Bush
administration is preparing to allow the coal mining industry to fill
waterways and valleys with the rock and dirt from mountaintop mining,
particularly in West Virginia... Environmentalists oppose the
regulation, saying that filling streams and valleys destroys the
ecosystem of the waterways and forests... and is a serious rollback of
the Clean Water Act. [Christie Whitman says] 'It is not a giveaway to
the mining industry -- It does not allow activity that isn't already
under way.' " Environmentalists say that the permitting process is
illegal, and has already erased more than 1,000 miles of streams in
Appalachia. Hey, Christie -- since George Bush has already stolen an
election, does that make stealing elections legal?

  ¶ 12:37 PM 0 comments links to this post