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I really ought to do a "Fact Of The Day" type of thing. Here is a classic 9/11 fact. And it is just that. It's a fact, a lesser-known nugget of information that has been largely ignored by the mainstream media. I offer no conspiracy theory, no explanation to go along side it, just the cold, hard truth.

The Director of the Pakistani Intelligence Agency (the ISI), Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed wired $100,000 to the September 11th chief hijacker Mohamed Atta prior to the attacks. This directly implicates the Pakistani Intelligence community in the operation. What is of great interest is the fact the Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed visited Washington for a whole bunch of scheduled meetings the week of the attacks. On the morning of September 11th he was in a breakfast meeting with the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Senator Bob Graham (D) and Representative Porter Goss (R) (Goss is a 10-year veteran of the CIA’s clandestine operations wing).

Suitable as the day's meaningful blog, the topic is the widely unaccepted "oxymoron" "fighting for peace." But is it truly hypocritical? Many of you liberals who will be reading this are probably telepathically, if not verbally, expressing your stance. But try to be open minded, as you accuse the Republicans of not being.

The day is September 11, 2001. It's just before 8 a.m. and some 200+ American travelers are preparing to take off, whether it be for business, pleasure, or any other reason. Skip to 8:46 a.m. One of the planes carrying a fraction of these passengers has been hijacked, crashed into one of our leading business and economic buildings. The United States has been attacked. It goes on from there, more deaths involving the second tower, the Pentagon, crash in a small Pennsylvania town. Why? Our President will soon clarify.

The right wing argument might be that it is better to be safe than sorry. Ordinarily I would agree with that statement, however there is something else I like to take into account and it is called the bigger picture. Right wingers, are not without their own bigger picture, but sadly it rarely reaches beyond their own self-interests and preservation of a rather narrowly focused status-quo.

I watch as many people who identify with this group swallow lies whole and glory in their dutifulness to authority in doing so.

In their most private thoughts do they ever question their allegiance? Do their leaders’ cries of wolf always work on them? Or do they accept the economy of truth as a necessary evil? I wonder if one ever really feels safe with a ruthless master. Who knows? I guess only they do.

But what if Bush saying Boo is not enough anymore for the rest of us?

I know I am but what are you.

It’s a playground classic. Accuse your adversary of the very thing you are guilty of.

Fascism is fascism is fascism no matter where it comes from or how it is wrapped. The unbounded greed of corporate America, invading the world one economy at a time. The Christian fundamentalist breaking down the separation of church and state. The Islamic jihadist blowing themselves and others up for Allah. They all want the same thing.

Power.

The power to control the lives and resources of others for their own benefit.

In America we have called it:

Indian Reservations. Slavery. Immanent Domain. Spreading democracy. National Security. The War on Terror. Foreign policy.

The saga of the four Christian peace activists taken hostage by the Iraqi Resistance several months ago, one of whom was killed by the captors, and three of whom were recently “freed” by “coalition” forces under highly suspicious and mysterious circumstances, is a study in the interconnections and the complicity between imperialist propaganda and media distortions.

The media expect the former captives to be grateful to the “coalition” forces. What, exactly, are they to be grateful for? Are they supposed to be grateful to the ultimate causes and creators of their suffering, not to speak of the suffering of millions of Iraqis?

The media have offered a false paradox: Opponents of war have been freed by soldiers. But there is no paradox here. As long as there are wars, there will be active opponents of war, who themselves are more likely than the average non-participant to become a victim of war. Hence providing an opportunity for the warmongers to “rescue” them and try to justify the unjustifiable. Had there been no war on Iraq, would any of this have happened?

Did Israel plan and carry out the bombing of the Askari (Al-Askariya) Mosque in the city of Samarra, possibly through local agents in Iraq? The bombing was reminiscent of the destruction wrought in 1984 on Sikhism's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, in the city of Amritsar by orders from Indira Gandhi (who paid for it with her life less than five months later).

Yes, I know, the appearances are different. Amritsar's Golden Temple was destroyed by regular (foreign/Indian occupation) armed forces, whereas the Askari Mosque has been destroyed by "terrorists." Yet, who are these "terrorists"?

I think a strong circumstantial case can be constructed for Israeli involvement in the bombing of the Askari Mosque.

I would rule out Al Qaeda involvement. Contrary to the White House generated propaganda that has been pounded into people's brains for the last five years, Al Qaeda's targets are not selected at random. Rather, they have included two types of targets, and only two types: (1) American interests, and (2) what I would call "American mercenaries." By "American mercenaries" I mean anyone who works for US interests, whether directly or indirectly. This includes, for instance, all collaborators in Iraq, such as Iraqi police forces and their recruits, Iraqi armed forces and their recruits, and so on, not to speak of members of the Iraqi "government."  (Cont'd)  http://alse.blogspot.com

It had been an unusually mild winter, and as he walked down the street, he noticed the vendors were out in full force, as were the jiggling breasts, and the excessive skin displays were everywhere one looked. It might as well be summer in New York City. He had only to look at them, and he could feel the disgust welling up inside of him. There seemed to be no respect for the sacred vessel anywhere he looked. Everyone seemed to have forgotten his or her proper place in the world.

To make matters worse, the sheer excess of their rampant materialism surround him as well, the images created by highly skilled marketing firms, bombarded and overwhelmed his cerebral cortex. Even he was feeling the pressure of the ethic “you must make more, you must buy more,” and he was worried that he may somehow be corrupted by it all.

First post on Two For Tea

Henry "Hank" Crumpton, the newly-appointed head of counter-terrorism at the US State Department, has told the Telegraph that it is simply a matter of time before international terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda
acquire weapons of mass destruction and use them in attacks.

Now I realise it would be a very cold day in hell before a new government appointee went on record as saying “Nope I’m not really that important, halve my budget and shrink my department”. But this “You’re all going to die, slowly and horribly” is getting a bit old.

A far from exhaustive Google on the inevitability of our deaths over the last decade give us

Consequence Management: Domestic Response to Weapons of Mass Destruction

Chris Seiple Autumn 1997

Expert: Massive WMD attack 'inevitable'
Yossef Bodansky November 29, 2004

Al-Qaeda and WMD: A Primer
Tiina Tarvainen June 2, 2005

But there is competition for govenment cash

Asteroid in near miss
Dr David Whitehouse 2 October, 2003

Global warming: Is it too late to save our planet?
Ian Johnston 17 Jan 2006

Hank has a new angle. He tells us

“…if you look at a worst-case scenario or a biological attack, it would be difficult to determine whether or not it was a terrorist attack…”

Which kinda sounds like Hank is getting worried that those bastards over at the CDC might be out doing him in the doom mongering and so is planning to lay claim to bird flu in as his own.

Obviously no one has told these guys the storey of the little boy who cried wolf.

Did anyone see Derren Brown’s “The Heist” on Channel 4?  In just two weeks he turned 3 of his 4 subjects, responsible, middle-management business people, into armed robbers with nothing more than the power of persuasion and suggestion.  It was quite an eye–opener.

Can you imagine what an MI6 team could do in 6 months with a few disillusioned young Muslims from Leeds…?

Link...

Dave.

So, it seems Ambassador Craig Murray's website has been pulled.

It's a record of his correspondance with the UK Foreign Office detailing concerns about policy toward Uzbekistan and human rights abuses. Also, the UKGovernment's legal advice stating that it is not an offence to use 'evidence' obtained under torture, unless it's used in a court of law. What a load of disgusting shameful shite. It's times like these when i am truly ashamed to be a British Citizen today. Read it now, before they use the Official Secrets Act to gag everybody (download it and repost everywhere):

(and if you are a UK citizen, email your MP: don't let them slime their way out of this one. If you're unsure of your MP's contact details, you can get them here.)

Originally posted on Two for Tea
UK blogs are full of the call for a public enquiry into the London bombings
of June. There are many good reasons to have a public
enquiry. See Rachel From North London and BlairWatch for a start.

One thing I would like to see examined is the policing that followed the attacks.

People I know working in central London tell tales of continuous police
sirens, repeat security alerts, helicopters overhead throughout the
day. Central London swamped with Police with automatic
weapons.

I live 30 miles out from central London, on the main line to Kings
Cross. And Kings Cross is where the suicide bombers joined the
London Underground. But there were two armed police standing
outside Stevenage station in the weeks that followed the
bombings. I asked friends why this was necessary and was told
that this was to reassure the public.

Personally I did not find this reassuring, in fact I found it
oppressive and decidedly weird. I know I am not the only
one.
Was this massive police operation an intelligence driven response
to a known threat or a PR exercise? A PR exercise which
did more to spread fear and dislocation than the attacks themselves.

Any one would think the government was trying to scare the population
into support for unpopular restrictions on our civil liberties.

Like many middle aged Londoners I am a veteran of terrorist attacks.

I have vivid childhood memories of sitting in my grandparents flat on a
summer evening and hearing bombs going off in Oxford Street, then
seeing the newsflash 20 minutes later - 1 dead. I can remember as
I student, walking down the shops to buy some cigarettes and
finding the area cordoned off because the IRA had put bombs in
the rubbish bins near High Street Ken.

People would just shrug, life went on. Compared to that, the massive police operation in June seems ridiculous.

Were things really so different then? If so how and why?

The only thing we
have been assured of recently is that many of us will
die unless we stop questioning the judgement of our betters.

If the government is genuine about its desire to reassure the public, then a full public enquiry is the only way open to it.

There is no legitimate excuse to deny us this enquiry into their competence.

Liberals may well accuse McCain of having served as a useful tool for the Bushites on the torture issue, in that, by diverting the public's attention away from the real problem — the US Administration’s preposterous definition of torture — he has made it impossible to discuss the issue that really should be discussed. But that is only one part of the story. Yes, it is true that Bush can now simply claim that the US "does not torture," skirting completely around the question of what he means by the word "torture." The Bushites have manipulated the definition of torture so as to make it meaningless. And it is true that, meanwhile, activities that any rational person would consider to be torture will continue as before.  (read more at http://alse.blogspot.com )

This evening we've got a pair of disturbing articles describing far reaching surveillance programs that violate constitutional guarantees against unlawful searches and seizures.

First up...the NY Times (subscription required, sorry) is reporting that, in the months after 9/11, Bu$hCo authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on hundreds of Americans without court orders. Second, reports from NBC shed additional light on a Pentagon program that identifies and monitors anti-war protestors and organizations.

As the b*llshit piles higher and deeper, the question is no longer what this administration will do under the guise of fighting terrorism but rather what Bu$hCo won't do. Read why at Blognonymous.

So now we know how Condeleezza Rice is going to address the growing firestorm in Europe over secret prisons and CIA transport flights. She dropped the bomb this morning just before leaving the US, saying that: "The intelligence so gathered has stopped terrorist attacks and saved innocent lives -- in Europe as well as in the United States and other countries."

Yup. This is going to be a productive trip for the Secretary of State. More at Blognonymous...

Grindstaff Chronicles

Day of the Dead

For Art, today is a day of remembrance; a day in which to remember the dead. Tonight, after dinner, a few of us will join Art and Terry at our only cemetary to remember the dead, both those related to us and of equal importance, to remember all the troops who have died because of an administration that operates in darkness, in tenebris.

Administration Only Knows How to Operate Covertly

We apologized to all the neighbors as they arrived because we’re playing Mozart’s Requiem and our thoughts are both on our dead and on the darkness and immoral subterfuge under which this administration operates. As Schuyler fixed our drink for tonight, called a Horse’s Neck and made with an affordable brandy, he mentioned that it came off as funny to him that this White House, which only operates under cover of darkness, always afraid of playing in the light of day, would get so teed off at Harry Reid for calling a secret Democratic Senate meeting on the investigation into the validity of the administration’s claims that war on Iraq was called for. Schuyler thought Senator Bill Frist had come off as awfully snippy and snide, kind of like everybody else in this administration. Mr. Reid is only interested in getting the admistration to be truthful with the country, something the administration, and especially the president and the vice-president are unwilling to do.

From The Republic of T.

As shown by the war porn story, it's worthwhile to shine a light in some of the less often travelled places in the blogosphere, because things often start there long before they bubble up in to the places where the air is more rarified. Getting these things earlier than the usual suspects is one of the benefits of seeking out bloggers that the vast majority of readers are perhaps just to lazy to seek out. It's just easier to go where everyone else goes.

But you miss a lot of stuff that way, sticking to the well-worn paths. So when Helena Cobban -- where I first found the war porn story back in August, well before it hit the bigger blogs and the rest of the news -- has a post up about an Iraq withdrawal plan proposed by a progressive think tank, I figured it had to be worth checking out.

Adam explores why we're still in Iraq- and it has nothing to do with terrorism.

From the Southern Poverty Law Center, "Terror From the Right (Almost 60 terrorist plots uncovered in the U.S.):

...In the ten years since the april 19, 1995, bombing in Oklahoma City, in fact, the radical right has produced some 60 terrorist plots. These have included plans to bomb or burn government buildings, banks, refineries, utilities, clinics, synagogues, mosques, memorials and bridges; to assassinate police officers, judges, politicians, civil rights figures and others; to rob banks, armored cars, and other criminals; and to amass illegal machine guns, missiles, explosives, and biological and chemical weapons...

And it includes a list of all the plot summaries...

Cross-posted at Cafe Bathos

Just a couple articles further documenting the economic impact of the July bombings in London.

--London retail sales slump in July after July bombings

--London Businesses Suffer After Terror Attacks

I have written about this recently, and I think it is quite worthwhile to follow any data about it, including public and private sector spending as a result of both actual attacks as well as the mere threat of terrorism.

Horrific as their violence surely is, it is nevertheless necessary to recognize that al-Qaida is not primarily interested in casualties so much as they are interested in causing systemic damage to vital infrastructure; systemic because we are not just talking about the destruction of physical infrastructure, but about disrupting the very systems upon which States are based and by which they function.

Cross-posted at Cafe Bathos

There doesn't seem to be a lot of coverage of this guy in the American or European press, plenty in the Turkish press though; I almost hesitate to mention him since, well, he seems to be a bit of a loon.

Luai Sakra was arrested a few days back in Turkey for plotting to blow up Israeli cruise ships. This was based, at least partially, on Israeli intelligence, and plenty of evidence was found at his apartment. Literally a ton of homemade explosives and six fake passports, or so the story goes anyway.