Slashdot Mirror

• On September 11, someone allegedly threatened the president with codes indicating inside knowledge of the president's whereabouts. If this story true, it means there is a traitor somewhere at a high level in the administration. If it's false, it means that the government is deliberately leaking false information, in an attempt not to make the president look bad.
• There is some evidence that there were warnings of the attack:
  Security heightened at WTC, Bin Laden warnings, State Dept. advisory
  Echelon warnings
  Israeli intelligence
  San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown
  A crazed Iranian in Germany
  A US army base in New Jersey
• Circumstantial evidence of the US training terrorists.

So why is it unreasonable to speculate about the US government?

• On September 11, someone allegedly threatened the president with codes indicating inside knowledge of the president's whereabouts. If this story true, it means there is a traitor somewhere at a high level in the administration. If it's false, it means that the government is deliberately leaking false information, in an attempt not to make the president look bad.
• There is some evidence that there were warnings of the attack:
  Security heightened at WTC, Bin Laden warnings, State Dept. advisory
  Echelon warnings
  Israeli intelligence
  San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown
  A crazed Iranian in Germany
  A US army base in New Jersey
• Circumstantial evidence of the US training terrorists.

So why is it unreasonable to speculate about the US government?

I call your bluff...

I'm re-posting this because I think it has some important points.

The following article was written by Rick Giombetti, from Seattle, WA. Posted with the author's permission.

Why The Surprise?:

"I Want To Be A Pilot So That One Day I Can Bomb Americans!"

Who saw it coming?

There is nothing more ridiculous than listening to people express "shock" and "surprise" at the multiple airplane hijackings and terror attacks on September 11. I'm surprised an attack against the U.S. of this magnitude hasn't happened sooner. One nation can only treat the world as a slave plantation and its peoples as slaves for so long, before the slaves finally rise up. There isn't a region of the world the U.S. hasn't pillaged and raped to some degree over the past 150 years. In a world with 6 billion people, there are always going to be a few who resort to individual and group terrorism to protest the policies of a global empire like the U.S.

Could there have been a better selection of targets to protest U.S. financial hegemony and military violence? First, it was Scam Central: The two 110-story World Trade Center towers, the most prominent symbols of U.S. multinational corporate capitalism. Then it was Violence Central: The Pentagon, home of the badly misnamed Department of "Defense." These attacks are being called "cowardly" by U.S. politicians and media pundits. Cowardly? Compared to the U.S. pilots who dropped bombs from over 15,000 ft. above Serbia for 78 days in 1999, safely out of the range of Serb gunners on the ground and against a nation with no air force to counter the U.S.? I don't think so.

"What balls," is all I have to say. These terror attackers risked being caught and possibly beaten and tortured while in custody. They sacrificed themselves in what may have been the boldest terror attacks in history. And who has ever turned airplanes into bombs for taking out office towers and government buildings? Yeah, it was a group of mean fuckers who did what they did on September 11, but they sure as hell weren't cowards.

Don't get me wrong. I despise individual and group terrorism not only because it causes loss of life. It also represents the ultimate rejection of mass struggle. Now the job of well-meaning U.S. activists just got a whole hell of a lot harder. We can expect some more Bill of Rights shredding legislation and more violent crackdowns on protest because of the terror attacks. We can also expect people to not want to hear peace activist's demands for an end to the destructive and violent policies of the U.S. all over the world. "Show some respect for the victims and victim's families," some people will tell us. If now isn't the time to demand an end to U.S.-backed violence around the world, then when will it be a good time to do so? With the U.S. government preparing(and most likely already carrying out) a fresh round of bombings around the world in retaliation for the terror attacks, now isn't the time to be quiet about U.S. violence against defenseless people. The eleven year U.S.-led war of bombs from the air and draconian sanctions via the U.N. against the people or Iraq is just one example of the kinds of policies we shouldn't back down from denouncing.

When I was still living Fort Collins, Colorado two years ago I attended a talk by the wonderful peace activist Kathy Kelly of Voices In The Wilderness(VITW). VITW has been campaigning against the bombing and U.S. imposed sanctions regime against the people of Iraq for about a decade now. VITW has courageously and openly defied U.S. government enforcement of the unjust U.N. sanctions by smuggling badly needed humanitarian aid into Iraq over the past decade. Kelly offered the small audience who came to see her speak that October evening a chilling anecdote about an Iraqi boy she met while making one of her many humanitarian tours of Iraq. The single digit aged boy described to a crowd at a gathering what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said, "I want to be a pilot so that one day I can bomb Americans!"

That anecdote has haunted me ever since and I knew it was only a matter of time before that angry Iraqi boy's apocalyptic wish would come true. It's a chilling sentiment but it's completely understandable. The only world that poor Iraqi boy and countless other children his age have ever known, if said boy is even alive today, is one of U.S. bombings and sanction's imposed misery. Yet this pre-adolescent boy is(was?) sophisticated enough to figure out that it's the U.S. government that is ordering the bombings and imposing the devastating sanctions against his country, not Saddam Husein. Perhaps it's time for the majority of the U.S. adult population to match this Iraqi boy's sophistication and start demanding that their government end the bombings and the sanctions regime.

The combination of bombings and sanctions has led to a death toll in Iraq over the past decade that easily tops 1 million. I haven't seen much, if any, concern in the mass media about this horrible U.S. caused suffering in Iraq. This is the same mass media that treated the intense six week bombing campaign against Iraq at the beginning of 1991 like it was a video game where no Iraqis were being injured or killed(talk about disrespecting the victims of massive military violence!). The bombings have never stopped. Yet about the only time the media covers new bombings is when the president is looking for a boost in his poll numbers and holds a press conference after the fresh round of bombing begins.

The sanctions aren't even a topic of debate in the mass media. Try to find some commentary anywhere about Thomas Nagy's September Progressive article, which demonstrates how the U.S. government intentionally used the U.N. sanctions against Iraqi to degrade the country's water supply. Meanwhile, peace activists like Kathy Kelly are hardly mainstays in the media pundit circus. However, every time a U.S. president orders bombings of countries like Iraq or Serbia the mass media gives plenty of airtime to retired military officers for the purpose of fanning the flames of war.

Now peace activists are going to be asked to shut their mouths about U.S. violence around the world out of respect for the thousands of victims of the September 11 terror attacks. What a bunch of bullshit. I say, honor the memory of the victims of September 11: Denounce and oppose U.S. violence everywhere.

The following article was written by Rick Giombetti, from Seattle, WA. Posted with the author's permission.

Why The Surprise?:

"I Want To Be A Pilot So That One Day I Can Bomb Americans!"

Who saw it coming?

There is nothing more ridiculous than listening to people express "shock" and "surprise" at the multiple airplane hijackings and terror attacks on September 11. I'm surprised an attack against the U.S. of this magnitude hasn't happened sooner. One nation can only treat the world as a slave plantation and its peoples as slaves for so long, before the slaves finally rise up. There isn't a region of the world the U.S. hasn't pillaged and raped to some degree over the past 150 years. In a world with 6 billion people, there are always going to be a few who resort to individual and group terrorism to protest the policies of a global empire like the U.S.

Could there have been a better selection of targets to protest U.S. financial hegemony and military violence? First, it was Scam Central: The two 110-story World Trade Center towers, the most prominent symbols of U.S. multinational corporate capitalism. Then it was Violence Central: The Pentagon, home of the badly misnamed Department of "Defense." These attacks are being called "cowardly" by U.S. politicians and media pundits. Cowardly? Compared to the U.S. pilots who dropped bombs from over 15,000 ft. above Serbia for 78 days in 1999, safely out of the range of Serb gunners on the ground and against a nation with no air force to counter the U.S.? I don't think so.

"What balls," is all I have to say. These terror attackers risked being caught and possibly beaten and tortured while in custody. They sacrificed themselves in what may have been the boldest terror attacks in history. And who has ever turned airplanes into bombs for taking out office towers and government buildings? Yeah, it was a group of mean fuckers who did what they did on September 11, but they sure as hell weren't cowards.

Don't get me wrong. I despise individual and group terrorism not only because it causes loss of life. It also represents the ultimate rejection of mass struggle. Now the job of well-meaning U.S. activists just got a whole hell of a lot harder. We can expect some more Bill of Rights shredding legislation and more violent crackdowns on protest because of the terror attacks. We can also expect people to not want to hear peace activist's demands for an end to the destructive and violent policies of the U.S. all over the world. "Show some respect for the victims and victim's families," some people will tell us. If now isn't the time to demand an end to U.S.-backed violence around the world, then when will it be a good time to do so? With the U.S. government preparing(and most likely already carrying out) a fresh round of bombings around the world in retaliation for the terror attacks, now isn't the time to be quiet about U.S. violence against defenseless people. The eleven year U.S.-led war of bombs from the air and draconian sanctions via the U.N. against the people or Iraq is just one example of the kinds of policies we shouldn't back down from denouncing.

When I was still living Fort Collins, Colorado two years ago I attended a talk by the wonderful peace activist Kathy Kelly of Voices In The Wilderness(VITW). VITW has been campaigning against the bombing and U.S. imposed sanctions regime against the people of Iraq for about a decade now. VITW has courageously and openly defied U.S. government enforcement of the unjust U.N. sanctions by smuggling badly needed humanitarian aid into Iraq over the past decade. Kelly offered the small audience who came to see her speak that October evening a chilling anecdote about an Iraqi boy she met while making one of her many humanitarian tours of Iraq. The single digit aged boy described to a crowd at a gathering what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said, "I want to be a pilot so that one day I can bomb Americans!"

That anecdote has haunted me ever since and I knew it was only a matter of time before that angry Iraqi boy's apocalyptic wish would come true. It's a chilling sentiment but it's completely understandable. The only world that poor Iraqi boy and countless other children his age have ever known, if said boy is even alive today, is one of U.S. bombings and sanction's imposed misery. Yet this pre-adolescent boy is(was?) sophisticated enough to figure out that it's the U.S. government that is ordering the bombings and imposing the devastating sanctions against his country, not Saddam Husein. Perhaps it's time for the majority of the U.S. adult population to match this Iraqi boy's sophistication and start demanding that their government end the bombings and the sanctions regime.

The combination of bombings and sanctions has led to a death toll in Iraq over the past decade that easily tops 1 million. I haven't seen much, if any, concern in the mass media about this horrible U.S. caused suffering in Iraq. This is the same mass media that treated the intense six week bombing campaign against Iraq at the beginning of 1991 like it was a video game where no Iraqis were being injured or killed(talk about disrespecting the victims of massive military violence!). The bombings have never stopped. Yet about the only time the media covers new bombings is when the president is looking for a boost in his poll numbers and holds a press conference after the fresh round of bombing begins.

The sanctions aren't even a topic of debate in the mass media. Try to find some commentary anywhere about Thomas Nagy's September Progressive article, which demonstrates how the U.S. government intentionally used the U.N. sanctions against Iraqi to degrade the country's water supply. Meanwhile, peace activists like Kathy Kelly are hardly mainstays in the media pundit circus. However, every time a U.S. president orders bombings of countries like Iraq or Serbia the mass media gives plenty of airtime to retired military officers for the purpose of fanning the flames of war.

Now peace activists are going to be asked to shut their mouths about U.S. violence around the world out of respect for the thousands of victims of the September 11 terror attacks. What a bunch of bullshit. I say, honor the memory of the victims of September 11: Denounce and oppose U.S. violence everywhere.

In the past, you could just turn the radio to another station if the one you were listening to had too many ads. But now of course since every station is owned by a nationwide corporation (such as Clear Channel) you get the same 15 minutes ads / 5 minutes content on EVERY station.

However, I do not think the web will ever be like that. Why? Simply because how cheap it is to create and maintain a web site. On the airwaves there is only a limited space available (87.5 to 108.0 I think), but on the internet there is unlimited space. For example, if slashdot starts putting up 5 ads on a page I can just stop visiting it and go to a similar site like Kuro5hin to get my news. The web offers the user a vast amount of choice, and I don't see how any corporation can prevent it.

Don't say

are you referring to the government itself, or the people residing within the state? the latter seems more likely...

instead go here and read the article itself; it deals with environmental pollution.

And where you say

the tenth point, "The U.S. and NATO Deliberately Started the War with Yugoslavia", just seems pathetic.

it's awful to hear you uncritically buy into the official story, that's the whole point of the article! The NATO assault against Yugoslavia - the aerial slaughter of the Albanian refugees and the Serbian civilians, the precision bombing raids against schools and hospitals, that appalling attack against the Chinese embassy which the CIA still asks us to accept as an accident, the targeting of the Serbian television outlets (which, I'll s-p-e-l-l out for you, was intended to prevent their side from broadcasting bombing-campaign video from the ground to the world; that is, the real target was your consciousness) - the whole deliberate hypocritical exercise in neo-fascism - read the "Project Censored"citation here - was sold to the American public by a systematic program of lies - "PSYOPS" - out of the news media in direct collaboration with U.S. military intelligence.

Think about what you know for a minute: how long ago did you become acquainted with the place name "Kosovo"? and who where and how did "Kosovo" come to your attention? and what "facts" do you know - the more accurate word is believe about the last three years's events in Kosovo? The answer: what the giants of the mass media, under the direct, immediate supervision of Army intelligence specialists in "pychological operations," want you to believe. And on the basis of this paper-thin synthetic "belief," after merely reading the title of the article, you dismiss that article as "pathetic."

As far as what you interpret as left-wing bias at Project Censored: such a bias may exist, but so what? While groping in the ddark-and-fog of nescience, trying to get a handle on what's going on in this farflung world, it's only good sense to take advantage of existing inter-party animosities. I rely on left-wingers to alert me to the follies, excesses and crimes of the right wing, and I rely on right-wingers to do the same regarding the follies, excesses and crimes of the left. So should you.

Yours WDK - WKiernan@concentric.net

Sorry, looks like I messed up one of the links:

Government PSYOPS story from FAIR can be found here, and a second source from counterpunch can be found here. I also note that the PSYOPS officers were working in the CNN Newsroom during the Kosovo War. This does not bode well for objective reporting from conglomerate corporate sources during time of war.

And be ver wary of stories of abusive child care providers. There was a rash of such witch hunts about a decade ago that were based on highly dubious evidence. Its disturbing to see that these insidious cases have left residue of fear and distrust about child care. For a pretty strong view of this issue, read Alexander Cockburn.