Washington's Blog: Three Months after 9/11: US and NATO Worked with Bin Laden

and his top Lieutenant. Former FBI Translator Alleges that Bin Laden and His Number 2, Worked as Part of Operation Gladio. Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds has been deemed credible by the Department of Justices Inspector General, several senators, and a coalition of prominent conservative and liberal groups. The ACLU described Edmond's as: The most gagged person in the history of the United States of America, and famed Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg says that Edmonds possesses information far more explosive than the Pentagon Papers. Edmond's translated terror related communications for the FBI right after 9/11. In that capacity, she read communications between terrorists and other radicals. Edmonds said last week, that Bin Laden and his number 2 Al Qaeda lieutenant Ayman al Zawahiri, worked with the US government for 3 months after 9/11, to coordinate destabilization in the Caucus region: By way of background, the former Italian Prime Minister, an Italian judge, and the former head of Italian counterintelligence admit that NATO, with the help of the Pentagon and the CIA, carried out terror bombings n Italy, and other European countries in the 1950s, and blamed the communists, in order to rally peoples support for their governments in Europe in their fight against communism. As one participant in this formerly secret program stated: You had to attack civilians, people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security, and see this: Italy and other European countries subject to the terror campaign, had joined NATO before the bombings occurred. This was codenamed Operation Gladio, and watch this BBC special.. And see this for background. Edmond's says that some portions of Operation Gladio are continuing to this day, and Ayman al Zawahiri and Bin Laden worked for NATO and the Pentagon, as part of Operation Gladio: Edmond's told us: For the past 11 years, I have been emphasizing that my State Secrets Privilege & Gag Orders, had to do with the FBI files, covering period 1996-2002 February on covert terrorist operations in the Caucasus and Central Asia backed, managed and armed by US actors. These US NATO directed operations in the region, involved Bin Laden and mainly Zawahiri. The FBI documents, contained damning evidence, audio and written, collected between 1996-2002, tying these terror operations directly to the US persons in the State Department/CIA and Pentagon. Also, how the State Department got Congress to grant huge amounts of funds to front NGO's and businesses, mainly Turkish companies in US listed Members of ATC, to funnel money to the terrorist cells in this region.
  

Noam Chomsky: The Boston Bombings Gave Americans a Taste,

of the Terrorism the US Inflicts abroad every day. April is usually a cheerful month in New England, with the first signs of spring, and the harsh winter at last receding. Not this year. There are a few in Boston, who were not touched in some way by the marathon bombings on April 15, and the tense week that followed. Several friends of mine were at the finish line when the bombs went off. Others live close to where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect, was captured. The young police officer Sean Collier, was murdered right outside my office building. It's rare for privileged Westerners to see graphically, what many others experience daily, for example, in a remote village in Yemen, the same week as the marathon bombings. On April 23, Yemeni activist and journalist Farea Al Muslami,who had studied at an American high school, testified before a US Senate committee, that right after the marathon bombings, a drone strike in his home village in Yemen killed its target. The strike terrorized the villagers, turning them into enemies of the United States, something that years of jihadi propaganda had failed to accomplish. His neighbors had admired the US, Al Muslimi told the committee, but Now, however. when they think of America, they think of the fear they feel at the drones over their heads. What radicals had previously failed to achieve in my village, one drone strike accomplished in an instant. Rack up another triumph for President Obama's global assassination program, which creates hatred of the United States, and threats to its citizens more rapidly than it kills people who are suspected of posing a possible danger to us someday. The target of the Yemeni village assassination, which was carried out to induce maximum terror in the population, was well known, and could easily have been apprehended Al Muslimi said. This is another familiar feature of the global terror operations. There was no direct way to prevent the Boston murders. There are some easy ways to prevent likely future ones, by not inciting them. That's also true of another case of a suspect murdered, his body disposed of without autopsy, when he could easily have been apprehended and brought to trial: Osama bin Laden. This murder too had consequences. To locate bin Laden, the CIA launched a fraudulent vaccination campaign in a poor neighborhood, then switched it, uncompleted, to a richer area, where the suspect was thought to be. The CIA operation violated fundamental principles, as old as the Hippocratic oath. It also endangered health workers, associated with a polio vaccination program in Pakistan, several of whom were abducted ad killed, prompting the UN to withdraw its anti polio team.

Dr. Kevin Barrett: Al CIA duh exposed!

In yesterday's article Tsarnaev Brothers: 9/11 Truthers, and Obviously Innocent, I argued that pro 9/11 truth Muslims are obviously not a terrorist threat. The 80% of the world's Muslims, who know that 9/11 was a fraud, and al Qaeda a bunch of dupes, moles, and patsies, are hardly likely to carry out al Qaeda type operations on behalf of the neocon enemies of Islam! Unfortunately, a small minority of Muslims still accepts the official myth of 9/11. That neo conned minority includes some who view al Qaeda as the heroic fighters they claim to be, and among that tiny handful of people, some might be tempted to participate in al Qaeda plots, most of which are arranged by the FBI, Craft International, the Mossad, and related agencies. So, in the interest of fighting terrorism, and saving the next gullible Muslim teenager from being set up by the FBI, I am republishing Elias Davidsson's terrific article, pointing out that al Qaeda hardly ever targets the US, and never, ever targets Israel, the real dajjal, the ultimate enemy of Islam. Instead, al Qaeda specializes in killing large numbers of Muslims, while giving Islam as much publicity as possible, and legitimizing the mass murder of Muslims, in imperial and Zionist wars. So look out, Muslim kid, don't follow the al Qaeda leaders, watch the parking meters. Who are Al Qaeda's enemies? By Elias Davidsson, Muslims for 9/11 Truth. In a fatwa allegedly issued by Osama bin Laden in 1998, he called on Muslims to kill Americans and Jews, in order to contribute to the liberation of the Muslim people from US and Zionist oppression. After that date, Osama bin Laden was designated by Western leaders, and media as the leader of the ubiquitous Al Qaeda, and as the prime enemy of Western democracy. Taking Osama bin Laden's fatwa seriously, one would have expected Muslim volunteers to start a world wide campaign of attacks, specifically targeting Americans and Jews around the world. We discover, however, that this did not happen. On the contrary, hardly any Jews and Israelis were attacked by Al Qaeda, And only a few Americans died at the hand of Al Qaeda operatives. Here a brief overview: Al Qaeda does not target Israelis, Jews and Americans. Despite Al Qaeda rhetoric of solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people, and the aforementioned fatwa attributed to Osama bin Laden, there are no recorded attacks by Al Qaeda aimed at Israeli territory, Israeli installations abroad, or Israeli citizens. There are only two or three known attacks attributed to Al Qaeda, that allegedly targeted Jewish Synagogues, Djerba, Tunisia and Istanbul Turkey.

Dr Paul Craig Roberts: The Events of 9/11: Does the Truth Have a Chance?

These days, as the word "terrorism" is tossed across mainstream media networks with reckless abandon, it brings back vivid memories of September 11, 2001, the day that launched the seemingly endless War on Terrorism. Are we any closer today to knowing the truth about what happened on that fateful day? Now more than ever, let us not only renew our efforts to expose the truth, but also take our awareness a step further, to understand that the wars launched since that autumn day in 2001, in the bitterly ironic name of justice and supposedly to combat terrorism continue to take lives of people across the world. These wars are based on lies, and their costs are staggering. As Dr Paul Craig Roberts wrote: In the US on September 11, 2011, the tenth anniversary of 9/11, politicians and their presstitute media presented Americans with A Day of Remembrance, a propaganda excercise that hardened the 9/11 lies into dogma. Meanwhile, in Toronto Canada, at Ryerson University the four day International Hearings on the Events of September 11, 2001, came to a close at 5PM. During the four days of hearings, distinguished scientists and scholars, and professional architects and engineers, presented the results of years of their independent research into all aspects of 9/11 to a distinguished panel, consisting of the honorary president of the Italian Supreme Court, who was an investigative judge, who presided over terrorism cases, and three distinguished scholars of high renown and judgment. The distinguished panels task is to produce a report with their judgment of the evidence presented by the expert witnesses. The Toronto Hearings were streamed live over the Internet. I was able to watch many of the presentations over the four days. I was impressed that the extremely high level of intelligence and scientific competence of the witnesses, was matched by a high level of intelligence and scientific competence of the witnesses, was matched by a high level of integrity, a quality rare in US politics, and totally absent in the American media. As one whose own contributions to economics, now belatedly recognized, are outside the box, I am responsive to those who can escape peer pressure, in order to advance the truth. Here are some of the important things I learned from the Toronto Hearings. The NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology, a government agency, reports on the twin towers and building 7 are fraudulent. Witnesses at the Toronto Hearings proved that building 7 was a standard controlled demolition and that incendiaries and explosives brought down the twin towers. 
   

Shamus Cooke: Should We Invade Syria? Obama and US Military Divided Over Syria!

Has Syria crossed the red line that warrants a US military invasion? Has it not? The political establishment in the United States seems at odds over itself. Obama's government cannot speak with one voice on the issue, and the US media is likewise spewing from both sides of its mouth, in an attempt to reconcile US foreign policy, with that most stubborn of annoyances, the truth. The New York Times reports: "The White House said on Thursday, that American intelligence agencies now believed, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons Immediately afterwards, Obama's Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, gave a blunt rebuke: Suspicions are one thing, evidence is another. This disunity mirrored the recent disagreement that Chuck Hagel had with Obama's Secretary of State, John Kerry, when both testified in front of Congress, with nearly opposite versions of what was happening in Syria, and how the US should respond. Kerry was a cheerleader for intervention, while Hagel, the military's mouthpiece advised caution. The US government's internal squabbling, over whether the Syrian government used chemical weapons, is really an argument on whether the US should invade Syria, since Obama claimed that any use of chemical weapons was a red line that, if crossed, would invoke an American military response. Never mind that Obama's red line rhetoric was stolen from the mouth of Bush Jr, who enjoyed saying all kinds of similar stupid things to sound tough. But now Obama's 'Bushism' must be enforced, say the politicians, less the US look weak by inaction. This seemingly childish argument is in fact very compelling among the US political establishment, who view foreign policy only in terms of military power. If Syria is not frightened into submission by US military threats, then Iran and other countries might follow suit, and do as they please, and US influence would wane. Only a firm response can stop this domino effect from starting. This type of logic is the basis for the recent Syria chemical accusations, which was conjured up by the US Intelligence service (CIA) and its British and Israeli counter parts, the same people who "proved" that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction, which later proved to be a fabricated lie. All three of these countries intelligence agencies simply announced that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons, provided zero evidence, and then let their respective nations' media run with the story, which referred to the baseless accusations as mounting evidence. In the real world, it appears that the US backed Syrian rebels are the ones responsible for having used chemical weapons, and asked the UN to investigate the attack.    

Jim Fetzer: Mystery Solved: The WTC was Nuked on 9/11!

A debate has raged for more than a decade, about what caused the Twin Towers to collapse in approximately 10 seconds each, 9 seconds for the South Tower, 11 for the North. A large and growing percentage of the public has become skeptical of the conclusion of the government's official NIST found no corroborating evidence for alternative hypotheses, suggesting that WTC towers were brought down by controlled demolition, using explosives planted prior to 9/11. Skepticism of NIST's conclusions is well founded. There is eyewitness testimony as well, as abundant video and audio evidence of explosions at the WTC on 9/11. There is also seismic data that demonstrates that high powered explosives were used to demolish the Twin Towers. The gross observable video evidence, if you are willing to believe your own eyes, shows that the Twin Towers were destroyed from the top down  and the inside out. We believe that only mini nukes, which were probably neutron bombs, planted in the center columns of the buildings, detonated from top to bottom, and configured to explode upward, can explain what is observed. If they were used to blow apart one ten floor cube per second, for example, then, since the North Tower stood at 110 floors, that would have taken 11 seconds, while, since the top three cubes of the South Tower were tilted over and blown as one, in that case, it would have taken only 9, which coincides with NIST's own times. This is a controversial contention. Judy Wood, Ph.D. has proclaimed that a Tesla inspired directed energy weapon (DEW) was responsible for the destruction of the WTC buildings, and has vehemently denied nuclear bombs were used. Steve Jones, Ph.D. and his followers promote the theory that an incendiary nano-thermite was the cause of the destruction of the WTC buildings, while they also deny that nukes were used. So these seemingly opposed camps agree on one thing: nukes were not used on 9/11! The nano-thermite hypothesis has been discredited on multiple occasions, in articles by T. Mark Hightower and Jim Fetzer, including Has nano-thermite been oversold to the 9/11 community? Is 9/11 truth based upon a false theory? and Nanothermite: If it doesn't fit, you must aquit. Since it is a principle, meaning law of materials science that an explosive can destroy a material only if it has a detonation velocity equal to, or greater than the speed of sound in that material, detonation velocity equal to or greater than the speed of sound in that material, where the speed of sound in concrete is 3,200 m/s and in steel 6,100 m/s, while the highest detonation velocity that has been attributed to nanothermite is 895 m/s, it should be obvious: You can't get there from here!    

Prof. James Petras: Boston Bombings: Detonator to Mobilize the Entire US Security Apparatus!

May change the world for the worse. The relation between the suspected Boston Marathon bombers and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Massachusetts State Police (BP) is a point of contention and controversy. The FBI, at first, claimed no knowledge of the bombing suspects, but later was forced to admit having received at least two sets of intelligence reports, one from Russian officials, and another from the CIA, identifying one of the suspected bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, as a potential security threat, linked to a Chechen terrorist organization. Testimony from Tsarnaev mother and father indicates that the FBI was active in following, harassing and interrogating the suspect before the bombing. Despite general directives from the US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, mandating US security to aggressively pursue Islamist terrorists, the FBI claims to have made no effort to follow up on the Russian and CIA security alerts, especially after Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned from Russian state of Dagestan last year, where he allegedly met six times with a known Chechen terrorist, Gadzhimurad Dolgatov, in a fundamentalist Salafi mosque. The official government and corporate media versions claim the FBI may have overlooked the security risk posed by Tsarnaev. Congressional critics argue that the FBI was negligent in following up leads provided by the Russians and the CIA. A more likely explanation is that the FBI was actively engaged with Tsarnaev and deliberately encouraged the conspiracy for self serving purposes. The most benign hypothesis is that the Boston office of the FBI had set the pair of brothers up for a sting operation, in order to revive the flagging fortunes of the war on terror, foisted on a war weary and economically depressed American public. The FBI in Boston has a long and notorious history of working with and protecting certain leaders of organized crime, in return for information about targeted rivals: The most notorious example is the FBI's 20 year partnership with one of Bostons most feared gangland killers, James Whitney Bulger, where the mobster was provided with protection and collaboration, in return for his information about a rival crime family and other competitors. In 2012, Bulger was finally indicted for 19 murders, mostly committed under FBI protection, although one of his closest mob partners claim he murdered 40 people in his lifetime.   

Alex Kane: Six Horrifying Facts Every American Should Know

about Guantanamo Bay, and the ongoing hunger strike. The hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay continues to grow. The military now admits that 100 prisoners at the camp are refusing to eat. But lawyers for Guantanamo detainees say that more than 130 detainees are on hunger strike. While the claims and counter claims bounce back and forth, the situation continues to deteriorate. Her are 6 facts you should know about Guantanamo Bay, and the ongoing act of protest, most of the prisoners are participating in. 1. US Medical Reinforcements Have Arrived to Force Feed Prisoners. One of the latest news items is that medical reinforcements from the US Navy have arrived at Guantanamo Bay to cope with the growing hunger strike. The Naval nurses and specialists are there to help facilitate the process of force feeding the detainees. We will not allow a detainee to starve themselves to death, and we will continue to treat each person humanely, Guantanamo prison spokesman Samuel House told the New York Times. But the practice of force feeding has been criticized by human rights groups. When detainees are force fed, they are shackled to a restraint chair. Then, US military officials force a tube into their nose, to pump nutrients into their body. The American Medical Association has come out strongly against the practice. Every competent patient has the right to refuse medical intervention, including life sustaining interventions, AMA President Jeremy Lazarus wrote in a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, the Miami Herald reports. In a harrowing New York Times Op-Ed, Guantanamo prisoner Samir Naji al Hassan Moqbel described the process of force feeding. I will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube up my nose. I cannot describe how painful it is to be force fed this way. As it was thrust in, it made me feel like throwing up, he wrote. I wanted to vomit, but I could not. There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment upon anyone. 2. Hunger Strike Sparked By Raids, Fueled By Indefinite Detention. Detainees began the hunger strike in early February, after they said personnel at the camp raided cells, confiscated personal items, and treated the Qu'ran disrespectfully. The military disputes this narrative, but what is clear is that, as the New York Times reported, the strike id being driven by a growing sense among many prisoners, some of whom have been held without trial for more than 11 years, that they will never go home.  

Gilad Atzmon: Pappe's Discomfort!

Ilan Pappe is an important voice. One of those courageous historians, brave enough to open the Pandora box of 1948. Back in the 1990s Pappe, among a few other Israeli post Zionists, reminded Israelis of their original sin, the orchestrated, racially driven ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Palestine, the Nakba. But like many other historians, Pappe, though familiar with the facts of history, seems either unable to grasp or reluctant to address the ideological and cultural meaning of those facts. In his recent article, When Israeli Denial of Palestinian Existence Becomes Genocidal, Pappe attempts to explain the ongoing Israeli dismissal of the Palestinian plight. Like Shlomo Sand, Pappe points out that Israeli President Shimon Peres' take on history is a fabricated narrative. So far so good, but Pappe then misses the point. For some reason, he believes that Peres' denial of the Palestinian's suffering is a result of a cognitive dissonance, i.e. a discomfort experienced when two or more conflicting ideas, values or beliefs are held at the same time. But what are those conflicting ideas or values upheld by Israelis and their President, which cause them so much discomfort? Pappe does not tell us. Nor does he explain, how Peres has sustained such discomfort for more than six decades. Now, I agree that Peres, Netanyahu and many other Israelis often exhibit clear psychotic symptoms, but one thing I cannot detect in Peres' utterances or behavior is any discomfort. I obviously believe that Pappe is wrong here, expulsion, ethnic cleansing as well as the ongoing abuse of human rights in Palestine, are actually consistent with Jewish nationalist supremacist culture, and also with a strict interpretation of Jewish Biblical heritage. Pappe writes, The perpetrators of the 1948 ethnic cleansing, were the Zionist settlers, who came to Palestine, like Polish born Shimon Peres, before the Second World War. They denied the existence of the native people they encountered, who lived there for hundreds of years, if not more. Here Pappe is correct, but then he continues: The Zionists did not possess the power at the time to settle the cognitive dissonance they experienced: Their conviction that the land was people less, despite the presence of so many native people there, But Pappe fails to point at any symptom of such a dissonance. Could it be that the Director of the Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter is just ignorant? Certainly not, Pappe is far from being ignorant. Pappe knows the history of Zionism and Israel better than most people. He knows that Zionist settlers like 'Polish born Shimon Peres' were ideologically and culturally driven.   

Tomgram: Rosner and Markowitz, Your Body is a Corporate Test Tube!

Just over three years ago, an explosion on the Deep-water Horizon oil rig leased by BP, killed 11 people, injured 17, and according to government estimates, polluted the Gulf of Mexico with 210 million gallons of Louisiana sweet crude. It turns out, however, that the casualty toll did not end with those 28 workers. The real number may reach into the thousands. Last year, BP pled guilty to 14 felonies stemming from the disaster, including misleading Congress about the amount of oil that gushed into the gulf. But that was not the only way BP attempted to cover up the extent of the spill. The main method was using 1.84 million gallons of a substance known as Corexit, that acts to attach itself to leaked oil, break it into droplets, and disperse them into the vast reaches of the gulf, thereby keeping the oil from reaching Gulf Coast shorelines. Writing for Newsweek and with the support of the Nation Institute's Investigative Fund, Mark Heertsgaard recently laid bare how Corexit was utilized, and the dire effects it apparently had on the men and women, who worked to "clean" the gulf in the wake of BP's historically unprecedented spill. People like Jamie Griffin. A BP representative reportedly assured Griffin, that the smelly sludge cleanup workers were tracking into the "floating hotel" where she was a cook, would be as safe as Dawn dish-washing liquid, so she scrubbed and scrubbed to clean it up. "Within days," Hertsgaard writes, "the 32 year old single mother was coughing up blood, and suffering constant headaches." She soon "fell ill with a cluster of excruciating bizarre, grotesque ailments, unstoppable muscle spasms were twisting her hands into immovable claws. She began losing her short term memory, The right side, but only the right side, of her body started acting crazy. It felt like the nerves were coming out of her skin. It was so painful. "My right leg swelled, my ankle would get as wide as my calf, and my skin got incredibly itchy." Hundreds, perhaps thousands of other workers were exposed to the same chemicals, including those who were coated in a mist of Corexit, since almost 60% of it was sprayed out of airplanes. Hertsgaard reveals that not only "did BP fail to inform workers of the potential hazards of Corexit, and to provide them with safety training and protective gear, according to interviews with dozens of cleanup workers, the company also allegedly threatened to fire workers, who complained about the lack of respirators and protective clothing. So, add Corexit to the list of toxic substances, brought to us by industries that promised better, and include BP in a long catalog of companies which, over the last century, have tried to hush up the truth about the types of chemical assaults, for which the Department of Homeland Security issues no fact sheets. It is a story as old as industrial America, and one that public health historians David Rosner and Jerry Markowitz know all too well. For years, they have earned the ire of the lead and petrochemical industries for historical exposes, that demonstrate how American companies regularly sacrificed workers and children's lives for the sake of big profits.

Tony Cartalucci: Time to End Western Support for Terrorists in Syria!

The opposition is entirely run by Al Qaeda. Nowhere in rebel controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of. From the beginning, it was clear to geopolitical analysts, that the conflict in Syria was not pro democracy protesters rising up, but rather the fruition of a well documented conspiracy between the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, to arm and direct sectarian extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda, against the Syrian government. It is now admitted by the New York Times, that the entire armed so called opposition is comprised entirely of Al Qaeda, meaning the torrent of cash and weapons sent to the "opposition" by the West and its regional allies, were intentionally sent directly to listed terrorists, guilty of a multitude of unprecedented atrocities. This was documented as early as 2007, a full 4 years before the 2011 "Arab Spring" would begin, by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh, in his New Yorker article titled, "The Redirection: is the Administration's new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism? which stated specifically: To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabia's government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The US has also taken part in clandestine operations, aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by product of these activities, has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups, that espouse a militant vision of Islam, and are hostile to America, and sympathetic to Al Qaeda. For the past two years, the US, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Turkey have sent billions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into Syria, along side known terrorists from Libya, Chechnya, neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. In the Telegraph's article titled "US and Europe, in major airlift of arms to Syrian rebels through Zagreb," it is reported: It claimed 3,000 tons of weapons, dating back to the former Yugoslavia, have been sent in 75 planeloads from Zagreb airport to the rebels, largely via Jordan since November. The story confirmed the origins of ex Yogoslav weapons, seen in growing numbers in rebel hands in online videos, as described last month by The Daily Telegraph and other newspapers, but suggests far bigger quantities than previously suspected.  
  

Johnny Punish: Global War Against Extremism Hits Snag at Fox News!

Today, Judge Jeanine Pirro of Fox News gave an effective rant against the mother of the Boston Marathon bombers, essentially calling for her to be taken to Gitmo, and tried as a terrorist, for raising Jihadi children, and making comments that were clearly anti American. In listening to Judge Pirro, she had many salient and clear headed thoughts, that this pro-humanity writer actually agrees with, however, her conclusion is that we should suspend the American justice system to deal with such people that anger her. Check out what she actually says in this video: Now, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, has dealt with the same issue. But he did so in a much different way. Last week, he outlined how Fox News was advocating the complete destruction of our civil liberties, our Bill of Rights, and US Constitution. He did so in such a funny way, it had this writer on the floor laughing his ass of (JHAO). Check him out here, warning! Hold on to your chair! The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes. Indecision Political Humor. The Daily Show on Facebook. Both were effective speakers for Their audience. But their arguments highlight the divide, not only within the USA, but internationally in that many people don't really know whom were are at war with, and what to do about it? Are we at war with Islam? Christianity? Judaism? Iran? Chechneya? Oklahoma? Newtown? North Korea? Some crazy mother? Whom are we at war with? As it turns out, many countries, not only the USA, have an extremist challenge at home, and have to deal with domestic terrorism. Surprise! It is worse in many other countries! And you thought the USA was all alone? So while it feels like Americans are unique in experiencing terror, the real truth is that it's a worldwide challenge. What is truly needed is a global examination of this challenge, but that is not on the table right now. Instead, we have Judge Pirro and her fans, cheering and yelling at the top of her lungs, to suspend rights in America, when they feel it warrants. They don't seem to understand that the whole world has this challenge, and that suspending rights won't resolve a darn thing, except hurt everyone else, who is normally law abiding, creating even more anger. Moreover, the hawks certainly do not aim to acknowledge that the USA itself is engaged in global terrorism, both directly and indirectly, causing deaths daily around the world, as it seeks to achieve its' global hegemony. This aggression is NOT a good way to win friends and influence people!  

Valerie Tarico: Mother Theresa's Masochism: Does Religion Demand Suffering!

to keep people passive? With a new Pope at the helm, the Catholic hierarchy has set about to polish its tarnished image. Can an increased focus on the poor make up for the Church's opposition to contraception and marriage equality, or its sordid financial and sexual affairs? The Bishops can only hope. And pray. And perhaps accelerate the sainthood of Agnes Gonxha, better known as Mother Teresa. In the last century, no one icon has improved the Catholic brand as much as the small woman who founded the Missionaries of Charity, whose image aligns beautifully with that of the new pope. In March, a team of Canadian researchers noted the opportunity: What could be better than beatification, followed by canonization of Mother Teresa to revitalize the Church and inspire the faithful, especially at a time when churches are empty, and the Roman authority is in decline? The question, however, was more than a little ironic. The team of academics from the Universities of Montreal and Ottawa set out to do research on altruism. In the process, they reviewed over 500 documents about Mother Teresa's life, and compiled an array of disturbing details about the soon to be saint, including dubious political connections, and questionable management of funds and, in particular, an attitude toward suffering that could give pause to even her biggest fans. Passive acceptance, or even glorification of suffering, can be adaptive, when people have no choice. As the much loved Serenity Prayer says, "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change." This attitude of embracing the inevitable is built into not only Christianity, but also other religions, especially Buddhism. But passive acceptance of avoidable suffering is another thing altogether, which is why the prayer continues, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. By even her own words, Mother Teresa's view of suffering, made no distinction between avoidable and unavoidable suffering, and instead cultivated passive acceptance of both. As she put it, There is something beautiful in seeing the poor to accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ's Passion. The world gains much from their suffering. Or consider this anecdote from her life: One day I met a lady who as dying of cancer in a most terrible condition. And I told her, I say, "You know, this terrible pain is only the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close to Jesus on the cross, that he can kiss you. And she joined her hands together and said, Mother Teresa, please tell Jesus to stop kissing me!   

Tom Dispatch By David Rosner, Gerald Markowitz!

You are a Guinea Pig: What Happens to your body as it is bombarded by toxic chemicals in your home. A hidden epidemic is poisoning America. The toxins are in the air we breathe, and the water we drink, in the walls of our homes, and the furniture within them. We cannot escape it in our cars. It is in cities and suburbs. It afflicts rich and poor, young and old. And there is a reason why you have never read about it in the newspaper, or seen a report about it in the newspaper, or seen a report on the nightly news: It has no name, and no antidote. The culprit behind this silent killer is lead. And vinyl. And formaldehyde. And asbestos. And Bisphenol A. And poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). And thousands more innovations, brought to us by the industries that once promised "better living through chemistry," but instead produced a toxic stew, that has made every American a guinea pig, and has turned the United States into one grand unnatural experiment. Today, we are all unwitting subjects in the largest set of drug trials ever. Without our knowledge or consent, we are testing thousands of suspected toxic chemicals, and compounds, as well as new substances, whose safety is largely unproven, and whose effects on human beings are all but unknown. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) itself has begun monitoring our bodies for 151 potentially dangerous chemicals, detailing the variety of pollutants we store in our bones, muscle, blood, and fat. None of the companies introducing these new chemicals, has even bothered to tell us we are part of their experiment. None of them has asked us to sign consent forms, or explained that they have little idea, what the long term side effects of the chemicals they have put in our environment, and so our bodies, could be. Nor do they have any clue as to what the synergistic effects of combining so many novel chemicals inside a human body in unknown quantities might produce. How Industrial Toxins Entered the American Home: The story of how Americans became unwitting test subjects began more than a century ago.The key figure was Alice Hamilton, the mother of American occupational medicine, who began documenting the way workers in lead pigment factories, battery plants, and lead mines were suffering terrible palsies, tremors, convulsions, and deaths, after being exposed to lead dust that floated in the air, coating their workbenches and clothes. Soon thereafter, children exposed to lead paint and lead dust in their homes, were also identified as victims of this deadly neurotoxin. Many went into convulsions and comas, after crawling on floors where lead dust from paint had settled, or from touching lead painted toys, or teething on lead painted cribs, windowsills, furniture, and woodwork.  

Johnny Punish: Global War Against Extremism Hits Snag at Fox News:

Judge Pirro Jumps off Extremist Bridge. Today, Judge Jeanine Pirro of Fox News gave an effective rant against the mother of the Boston Marathon bombers essentially calling for her to be taken to Gitmo, and tried as a terrorist, for raising Jihadi children, and making comments that were clearly anti American. In listening to Judge Pirro, she had many salient and clear headed thoughts that this pro humanity writer actually agrees with, however, her conclusion is that we should suspend the American justice system to deal with such people that anger her. Check her out what she actually says in this video: Now, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show has dealt with this same issue. But he did so in a much different way. Last week, he outlined how Fox News was advocating the complete destruction of our civil liberties, our Bill of Rights, and US Constitution. He did so in a funny way, it had this writer on the floor laughing his ass of (LHAO). Check him out here, warning! Hold on to your chair! The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes Indecision Political Humor. The Daily Show on Facebook. Both were effective speakers for their audience. But their arguments highlight the divide, not only within the USA, but internationally in that many people don't really know whom we are at war with, and what to do about it? Are we at war with Islam? Christianity? Judaism? Iran? Chechneya? Oklahoma? Newtown? North Korea? Some crazy mother? Whom are we at war with? As it turns out, many countries, not only the USA, have an extremist challenge at home, and have to deal with domestic terrorism. Surprise! It is worse in many other countries! And you thought the USA was all alone? So while it feels like Americans are unique in experiencing terror, the real truth is that it's a worldwide challenge. What is truly needed is global examination of this challenge, but that is not on the table right now. Instead, we have Judge Pirro, and her fans cheering and yelling at the top of their lungs, to suspend rights in America, when they feel it warrants. They don't seem to understand that the whole world has this challenge, and that suspending rights won't resolve a darn thing, except hurt everyone else, who is normally law abiding, creating even more anger. Moreover, the hawks certainly do not aim to acknowledge that the USA itself is engaged in global terrorism, both directly and indirectly, causing deaths daily around the world, as it seeks to achieve its' global hegemony. This aggression is NOT a good way to win friends and influence people.    

Rick Rozoff: NATO's Worldwide Expansion in the Post World Era!

One of the most significant developments of the post Cold War era, and certainly the most ominous, is the transformation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military bloc created by the United States during the genesis of the Cold War in 1949, into one that has grown to encompass the entirety of Europe, has expanded military partnerships throughout the world, and has waged war on three continents. In 2006 Kurt Volker, at the time with the State Department, and two years afterwards US ambassador to NATO, boasted that the year before NATO had been engaged in eight simultaneous operations on four continents. Two years later, the State Departments Daniel Fried, told the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe: When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, NATO was an Alliance of 16 members, and no partners. Today, NATO has 26 members, with 2 new invitees, prospective membership for others, and over 20 partners in Europe and Eurasia, seven in the Mediterranian, four in the Persian Gulf, and others from around the world. Although then Secretary of State, James Baker had assured Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at the time of German reunification in 1990, that NATO would not be moved one inch eastward, the very act of merger occurring as it did, led to the German Democratic Republic being absorbed not only into the Federal Republic, but NATO, and hence the latter immediately moving east to the borders of Poland and Czechoslovakia, and closer to that of the Soviet Union. The two invited nations Fried mentioned above are Albania and Croatia, which became full members of the military bloc in 2009, completing a decade of expansion that saw NATO membership grow by 75 percent from 16 to 28. NATO expansion to the east, has provided the Pentagon and its Western allies with bases and other military facilities in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Romania for wars to the east and south. Macedonia, which would also have been absorbed in 2009, except for the name dispute with NATO member Greece, is now in a new category of nations being groomed for full NATO membership, the alliance refers to as aspirant countries. The others currently are Bosnia, Georgia and Montenegro. With the Partnership for Peace program, that was used to promote twelve new Eastern European into NATO between 1999 and 2009, every non Soviet member of the Warsaw Pact and three former Soviet republics, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the Mediterranean Dialogue, the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative and, as of last year, the newly formed Partners Across the Globe, whose initial members are Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Korea, NATO members and partners number at least 70 nations, well over a third of those in the world. 

Stephen Lendman: Fabricated Intelligence and the WMD Pretext:

Obama heads closer to war on Syria: A previous article discussed spurious allegations of Syrian chemical weapons use. Obama calls using them a game changer. He also said that their use crosses a red line. Syrian officials categorically deny using them. According to Information Minister Omran al Zoabi: Even if Syria does have chemical weapons, our leadership and our military will not use them either against Syrians or against Israelis, above all for moral reasons, and secondarily on legal and political grounds. On April 24, The New York Times headlined US Says it Suspects Assad Used Chemical Weapons, saying: American intelligence agencies now assess, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons, but it said it needed conclusive proof, before President Obama would take action. On April 25, the White House Office of Legislative Affairs director Miguel Rodriguez addressed Syria. His letter to Senator John McCain, (R. AZ) and Carl Levin (D. MI) said: At the president's direction, the United States government has been closely monitoring the potential use of chemical weapons within Syria. We have kept the relevant committees of Congress fully informed of our assessment on this issue, consistent with our statutory obligations. Our intelligence community does assess, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin. This assessment is based in par on physiological samples. Our standard of evidence must build on these intelligence assessments, as we seek to establish credible and corroborated facts. For example, the chain of custody is not clear, so we cannot confirm how the exposure occurred, and under what conditions. We do not believe that any use of chemical weapons in Syria, would very likely have originated with the Assad regime. Thus far, we believe that the Assad regime maintains custody of these weapons, and has demonstrated a willingness to escalate its horrific use of violence against the Syrian people. Because of our concern about the detiriorating situation in Syria, the president has made it clear that the use of chemical weapons, or transfer of chemical weapons to terrorist groups, is a red line for the United States of America. Given the stakes involved, and what we have learned from our own recent experience, intelligence assessments alone are not sufficient, only credible and corroborated facts that provide us with some degree of certainty will guide our decision making. In the interim, the administration is prepared for all contingencies, so that we can respond appropriately to any confirmed use of  chemical weapons, consistent with our national interests.

Barry Chamish: The CIA Hoax Report!

A phony CIA report on Israel is being distributed by a notoriously iffy Canadian website. The problem is its conclusions may be right for all the wrong reasons. We will dive into those reasons, as soon as we divest ourselves of this purported "study." The report begins with the cliche, of Israel being a colonial Apartheid state, which will be destroyed, when millions of Palestinians all decide to move back there. I will dismiss this observation with the endlessly quoted tourists of the 19th century, like Twain and Balzac, who reported an empty Palestine, where the Jews were the majority in centers like Jerusalem, Tsfat and Tiberius. The British takeover in 1917 attracted a new population of ancient Palestinians attracted by jobs. If you want to talk colonial takeover, start with the Hashemite dynasty, moved by the British from Mecca to Jordan, a generation before there was an Israel. A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel's survival beyond the next 20 years. The CIA report predicts an inexorable movement away from a two state, to a one state solution, as the most viable model, based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial Apartheid, while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region. In short, the CIA, if it claims to be professional, would never have written such a silly introduction. This is a classic far left cliche. But the misinformation gets even sillier. The study, which has been made available only to a certain number of individuals, further forecasts the return of all Palestinian refugees to the occupied territories, and the exodus of two million Israelis, who would move to the US in the next fifteen years. There are over 500,000 Israelis with American passports, and more than 300,000 living in the area of just California, International lawyer Franklin Lamb said in an interview with Press TV on Friday, adding that those who do not have American or western passports, have already applied for them. We begin with the accurate fact, that half a million Israelis boast American passports. Then the baloney. According to this hoax, All other Israelis have already applied for their passports. In other words, Everyone is getting ready to leave. This is not according to the alleged CIA report, but is a citation from a lawyer no one has heard of commenting on this dumb hoax. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that Israel is not going the way of South Africa or the Soviet Union, which kept their colonial populations, but to an even more appealing end, where all the Jews leave.   

Katrina Richardson: How Can White Americans Be Free?

No people come into possession of a culture, without having paid a heavy price for it: James Baldwin Measure, measure, measure. We learn to measure first. We spend our days measuring, and when we count, we start at one. Every number after is a relation to one. Two is after one. Three is after one. And so on. Every child knows that one is Whiteness. The beginning In the beginning there was Whiteness. This is the glittering starting point. This is The Default. This is what we measure everything else against. It's clear that we as Black and Brown Americans, are still recovering from the racist indoctrinations of the past 500 years. Though laughable it sounds, white Americans, too, have suffered from this crime. As our country began, and brown races were systematically denied the right to be human, and so internalized the role of the savage, white consciousness bullied its way into objectivity. The white mind became the unbiased mind, that objectively observed all the rest. This is called The Default: This belief that the white experience is a neutral and objective experience, and white consciousness is the standard consciousness, unless otherwise specified. White culture, and American culture as a whole, suffers from the tragedy of whiteness, as the default setting. Being The Default keeps white Americans from being liberated, because it denies them a specific identiy, by absorbing them into neutral blankness. This creates a lonely detachment from the rest of the world. Being The Default is the largest privilege granted to white Americans, yet it is so deeply entrenched, it is the most visible, we cannot see the edges of the atmosphere, but it exists. Whites benefit from being The Default, by having inherent legitimacy, in a way that is denied to people of color. Their experience of life, is normal. Whites are free from the constant awareness, and constant awareness, and subsequent constant paranoia, of existing in another person's world. Because The Default has so successfully dominated our subconscious, because our egos have been shaped by it from the moment of birth, we perpetuate it in micro ways, while fighting inequality with more obvious actions. The silent poison continues to poison. Whiteness as The Default, keeps brown people in subjugation by convincing them, that every part of their being, physical, spiritual and emotional, exist within a white narrative. When you are made to exist within something you are forced to be smaller than that which contains you. This is precisely the basis of racist thought. Brown existence, brown consciousness is smaller.         

Dr. Franklin Lamb: Pushing Al Qaeda to Take on Hezbollah!

This is one damn fine idea, what took us so long to see a simple solution that was right in front of our eyes for Christ's sake, Senator John McCain of Bomb, bomb Iran, and no-fly zones for Syria notoriety, reportedly demanded to know from Dennis Ross during a recent Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) brain storming session in Washington DC. Ross, a founder of WINEP with Israeli government start up cash, presumably reimbursed unknowingly by American taxpayers, and currently WINEP's Counselor, reportedly responded to the idea of facilitating Al Qeada, to wage jihad against Hezbollah with the comment: Shiites are not the only ones seeking death, to demonstrate their resistance to whatever. Plenty of other Muslims also want to die, as we saw last week in Boston. Let 'em all go at it, and Israel can sweep out their shit when it's over. One Congressional staffer attending the WINEP event emailed me, Dennis spoke in jest, well I assumed he did, but who knows anymore? Things are getting even crazier inside some of these pro Israel think tanks around here. Featured on the front page of its April 25 edition, the Zionist compliant New York Times, writes that the Assad regime is apparently recovering but, it must be understood that for all of the justified worries about the al Qaeda affiliated rebels Assad remains an ally of Iran and Hezbollah. The Times adopts the views of Islamo-phobe, Daniel Pipes, who recommends that the US try to keep the two sides in Syria fighting as long as possible until they destroy each other. Pipes, now serving as an adviser to John McCain, wrote in the Washington Times on April 11, Evil forces pose less danger to us, when they make war on each other. This keeps them focused locally, and it prevents either one from emerging victorious, and thereby posing a grater danger. Western powers should guide enemies to a stalemate by helping whenever side is losing, so as to prolong their debilitating conflict. Both Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs, and Susan Rice, US Permanent Representative to the UN, have at a minimum impliedly joined in the intriguing idea of siccing Jabhat al Nusra on the Party of God. This scheme, if launched, would be Feltman's 14th attempt to topple Hezbollah and defeat the Lebanese National Resistance to the occupation of Palestine, since he first arrived in Beirut from Tel Aviv in 2005, to become US Ambassador to Lebanon. This observer, among others in this region, sense that given the aura still enveloping the American Embassy here, that Jeffrey never really left his Lebanese ambassadorial post, and continues to occupy this position from his new UN office. 

Watch: The Daily Show Takes on the Bush Library,

and disaster-piece Theater. On last night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart and senior correspondent Al Madrigal took on the newly unveiled, George W. Bush Presidential Library. The team took particular shots at Decision Points Theater, the absurd exhibit, where museum patrons get a chance to relive some of Dubya's most controversial moments in his shoes. But any Bush library is going to have to grapple with some of the damaging decisions made by this administration, Iraq, Katrina, the financial crisis, hopefully the Bush center has found away to explore these issues, that are both informative and objective, Stewart said, before introducing what he calls Disaster-piece Theater. Jon then turned to senior correspondent Al Madrigal, who reported live from the library, wielding a George W. Bush Steak on a Stick. Decision Points theater: amazing. I aced it by the way, Madrigal said. Invade Iraq? Yes. Rescue New Orleans? No. Bail out Wall Street? Pass the checkbook. Jon, curious, asked, Knowing what we know now, why did you choose yes on invading Iraq? Well, Madrigal replied. The choices were: A, Leave a mad man in power, that will destroy civilization or B, be a little bitch, Madrigal said, further explaining that those who choose B face a video of Bush, telling users they made the wrong decision. You're making that up right? Stewart checked. No, that's actually what happens at the George W Bush museum, Madrigal said, reflecting a very sad reality. Luckily for presidential enthusiasts, similar exhibits exist in other libraries, Madrigal explained. There is a decision points room at the Clinton presidential library, Actually it's just a crotch level hole in the wall. A decade after President George W Bush ordered the unprovoked invasion of Iraq, one of the enduring mysteries has been why. There was the rationale, sold to a frightened American people in 2002 to 2003, that Saddam Hussein was plotting to attack them with Weapons of Mass Destruction, but no one in power believed that. There have been other, more plausible explanations. George Bush the younger, wanted to avenge a perceived slight to George Bush the elder, while also outdoing his father as a war president. Vice President Dick Cheney had his eye on Iraq's oil wealth, and the Republican Party saw an opportunity to create its permanent majority behind a glorious victory in the Middle East. Though George W Bush's defenders vigorously denied being motivated by such crass thinking, those rationales do seem closer to the truth. However, there was another driving force behind the desire to conquer Iraq: The neoconservative belief that the conquest would be a first step toward installing compliant pro US regimes throughout the Middle East, and letting Israel dictate final peace terms to its neighbors.