Mar 14, 2005

Canada: world capital of the human albino and friend to draft dodgers

JUST WHAT do you do when your government decides to make terrorism its number #1 export and decide to get in the business of trading body bags for oil AND THEN decides they want you to one of those body bags? One word.

Run.

Get your ass to Canada and don't look back. Don't think we won't.

Posted on Sun, Mar. 13, 2005

In Canada, draft dodgers offer help

By Jim Warren

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

TORONTO - If the story of Darrell Anderson and other U.S. servicemen who have deserted to Canada sounds familiar, it's not surprising.

An estimated 50,000 Americans fled to Canada during the 1960s and 1970s, all intent on avoiding the Vietnam War. Many returned home when the Ford Administration, and later the Carter Administration, offered amnesty. But some remained north of the border, eventually becoming Canadian citizens.

To be sure, what's happening now is different. During Vietnam, most of those fleeing north were avoiding the draft. Now, those crossing the border are individuals who voluntarily joined the U.S. military, but for various reasons don't want to go to Iraq. Compared to Vietnam, the number of people going north now barely amounts to a trickle.

Many of the people assisting Anderson and other deserters today are veterans of the Vietnam movement more than 30 years ago

[WHOLE ARTICLE HERE]

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Mar 10, 2005

Bush bangs terrorist just before big day

VIA VOXFUX: http://www.voxfux.com/articles(closed)/00000009.htm

Bush and Atta Visit Same Resort in the Hours Leading to 9-11
More smoke, more fire.
by Daniel Hopsicker

July 29—Venice, FL.

Just three nights before President George W Bush arrived at the swank Colony Resort on Longboat Key on the evening of Sept 10, 2001, Mohamed Atta was staying at a slightly-less tony hotel just two miles down the beach, the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites—Longboat Key, according to eyewitnesses who contacted the FBI in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Predictably, the story went nowhere. So too did early wire reports stating that on the day of the attack Sarasota police said the Secret Service interrogated four Sudanese men after getting a tip that the men intended to harm President Bush during his visit to the city.

The incident was found to be "unrelated" to the attacks, the AP reported, and ended in the release of the men. But these stories are now being resurrected in the wake of recent reports of a possible Longboat Key assassination attempt against Bush on the morning of the terrorist attack, and they are provoking disturbing questions about how much, or how little, Americans have been told about the events surrounding the attack on their country.

In an exclusive interview with theMadCowMorningNews, the bartender at Marty's Pub at the Holiday Inn, Darlene Sieverts said, "Mohamed Atta sat right on that bar stool, drinking rum and coke." "I didn't have any real interaction with him. A bartender can tell when a customer doesn't want to talk, and he didn't."

"How do you say 'I'll have what he's having?'"

"About fifteen minutes later he was joined by a second man. When
I approached (the second man) and asked what he'd like to drink, he
indicated that he didn't speak English, and motioned for Atta to
intercede. Instead of ordering something for him, Atta asked for the
bill," bartender Sieverts told us.

"He left a $20 bill to cover a $4. tab."

Sieverts recollections of spotting on Longboat Key the most
cold-blooded killer of the still-young 21st Century—just a few short
days before Bush's arrival—were confirmed to the FBI by other hotel
employees, several of whom also recalled seeing Atta on another
occasion, dining in the hotel's Gulfstream restaurant with a man
identified by the restaurant manager and a waiter as Marwan Al-shehhi.

The two both dined on the hotel’s featured 'Surf & Turf'
buffet.

The revelation of Atta's proximity to Bush, first
reported in the local Longboat Observer, deepens the mystery
surrounding the pre-dawn warning received by the Secret Service detail
protecting the President on his Florida trip in the early morning hours
on Sept 11.

Alarmingly, The Colony, which bills itself as "the nation's no.
1 tennis resort," is just two miles of mostly-deserted white sand
away from the Holiday Inn Hotel frequented by Atta and Al-shehhi.

{FULL ARTICLE HERE}

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Post-Catastrophe Elections Approved

House Approves Post-Catastrophe Elections

NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, March 4, 2005

WASHINGTON -- More than 1,000 days after the Sept. 11 attacks, the House made another attempt Thursday to prepare for a catastrophic event that kills more than 100 of its members.

The House, with a 329-68 vote, said states must hold special elections within 49 days of an announcement by the speaker that there are more than 100 vacancies in the 435-member body. A similar bill died in the Senate last year after House passage.

There was broad agreement over the need to take steps so Congress could recover and continue functioning after a cataclysmic attack, although some lawmakers said the special election approach would cause a legislative vacuum of weeks during a national crisis.

Last year, the House rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed the House, like the Senate, to temporarily fill vacancies through appointments during exceptional circumstances.

{FULL ARTICLE HERE}

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911 - The cry for help

911 Is Still A Cry For Help
By Judy Andreas
3-6-5

We sat in the Conference Room, our eyes riveted to the TV monitor. Some of my colleagues were sniffling, others were crying softly. Occasionally an angry statement could be heard. Over and over again we watched the World Trade Center footage. Over and over again, the newscasters cemented their version of reality into our stunned psyches. It was September 11, 2001.....the day the music died.

Something was terribly wrong. It was more than the film that unfolded in front of my eyes. It was more than the words of the newscasters talking about the fact that we were under siege. It was more than the threat of never ending terrorism. The television screamed the official story, yet the voices in my head muted the words. Something was terribly wrong.

My feeling of disbelief was palpable. Sitting in that room of mourners on that sorrowful day, I was having a solitary experience. Questions begged for answers. How could our sophisticated system have gone awry? How could everything that had previously worked flawlessly, suddenly simultaneously failed? How could a small group of Arabs with boxcutters have thrown the whole nation into a tailspin? .

Most of the people, if not all of the people, in the Conference Room had never heard of Payne Stewart. They did not know the story of the golfer whose private Learjet had lost contact with the air traffic controllers. They did not know that when the golfer's jet failed to respond to air traffic controller communications, F-16 interceptors were quickly dispatched. According to an Air Force timeline, a series of military planes provided an emergency escort to Payne's stricken Learjet starting about 20 minutes after contact with his plane was lost.

Later I learned that the Miami Herald talked to air traffic controllers who said they could not understand why there was no reaction to what was happening in the skies the morning of September 11, 2001. Why was there no reaction from the Federal Aviation Administration and the military?

"That's a question that more and more people are going to ask, " one controller in Miami told the Herald.

Are more and more people asking that question? Are more and more people asking any questions?

"They attacked us because they hate our freedom." The President's eyes darted back and forth as he mouthed the words.

It could have been a laughable comment...it was certainly a ludicrous comment. It could have been funny if I hadn't seen people jumping hundreds of feet to their death. It could have been funny if thousands of people hadn't lost their lives on that infamous day.
I wanted to ask him why they didn't fly planes into Amsterdam....after all .....they have more freedom than we do. I wanted to ask him why they didn't cripple a nuclear reactor. I wanted to ask him why he was lying to us.

Each day as the story unfolded, another alternative website pointed to another anomaly in the official story. Had a plane really hit the Pentagon? The size of the hole in its supposed wake left room for doubt. Was it physically possible for the Towers to collapse as stated, or was it controlled demolition? Were there explosives in the World Trade Center? Could burning jet fuel initiate structural damage within the towers? Why was Building 7 pulled? Could a cell phone call be made on a plane? Why was the Mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, told not to fly on that date? Why was the rubble from the buildings hauled off without a proper investigation?

Wonderful books kept flying off the shelves of the alternative press. And yet, the mainstream media stuck with the official story. It could have been the Kennedy Assasination(s). It could have been TWA Flight 800. It could have been Oklahoma City or Waco. I had visited this place before. It was difficult to breathe with the stench of deception in the air.

Although movies have always been a passion of mine, I have tried to be discerning about time spent in the cinema. And yet, as the days grew into months, I was trapped in the theater of the absurd mainstream media, forced to watch a poorly crafted film about the events on September 11. Such props as Mohammed Atta's passport placed pristinely on the set cried out for a director's intervention.

Who put the Korans in the vehicle near the scene of the crime? How did we immediately know it was Osama bin Laden who had designed the events of September 11, 2001? How did we immediately know the name of the 19 highjackers? Why were some of them showing up alive and well and safe in distant ports of call? Why couldn't we locate Osama bin Laden, a 6 foot 5 man on dialysis? It was not like misplacing ones keys.
Mr. Bush said "If you're not with us, you're with the terrorists." My questions subjected me to words like "traitor." My questions subjected me to ridicule and jokes about tinfoil hats.

"If you don't like this country...get the hell out."

Could anyone know how deeply I loved this country? Could anyone know the heart of an idealist who was once again being sickened by another lie? Could anyone know how much I treasured life?

The dinner of deception had been placed on the public table and people were devouring it. Once more I had strayed from the herd unable to graze on the lies and distortions that had been specially prepared for the flock. I sat in a lonely place.
The following September 11th, I attended a conference in New York City called "Confronting the Evidence" Among the many speakers were Jenna Orkin, Webster Tarpley, Dave Von Kleist, Christopher Bollyn, Paul Hoffman, and Karl Schwarz.

Jenna Orkin delivered a chilling disclosure on the coverup of the air poisoning at Ground Zero. Asbestos, mercury and lead had been released into the air. And yet, the EPA lied and told the American people that the air was safe to breathe. They even allowed the White House to edit their press releases. "Over half of our heroes had begun manifesting respiratory problems and there were firefighters who could no longer work. Fourteen rescue dogs had already died."

Does anyone know the statistics over two years later? Does anyone care? Were our "best and bravest" merely fodder for a diabolical plan?

At the conference in New York, The Project for the New American Century, known as PNAC was discussed. This is a document that was crafted in September of the year 2000, which, in essence, was a plan for increasing defense spending, preemptive actions and the use of military force and domination. The creators of PNAC were the same neocons that are running the Bush administration, including the brains behind the plan, Paul Wolfowitz. This project included regime change in Iraq as a central element. The originators of the plan, realized that the American populace would not allow this to happen unless there was an event of catastrophic proportion. "A New Pearl Harbor"

9/11 was clearly that event. I thought it would only be a matter of time before everyone would begin questioning the official story. I thought it would only be a matter of time before people would wake up.

When I left that wonderful evening on September 11, 2002, I was filled with hope. Sure....we did not all agree on everything, but was that a necessary component for our working together to uncover the truth? Yes........there were some egos that were larger than the event itself, but isn't that to be expected in the world of personalities? If we all, indeed, had the same goal, couldn't we band together in deference to the old adage "there's strength in numbers."


It has been three and a half years since the planes flew into the towers. Has any progress been made? It's difficult to gauge. The mainstream media continues to ridicule the truth seekers..........having the audacity to print bogus articles in such magazines as Popular Mechanics. It shies away from interviews with authors who have published well researched and well documented books on the subject of 9/11. Perhaps the mainstream media realizes that it is no match for the truth. After all, how loud can Sean Hannity yell?

As the days grow into years, my sphere becomes increasingly populated with others who share a commitment to the truth. The Internet has brought a vast assortment of like minded people into my world. I will be eternally grateful to this global telephone. Those I have met have provided a "net" to catch me from falling into the abyss of despair.

Everyday people may sense something is wrong but they prefer to chase it quickly from their thoughts. Feeding their families, making a living and watching television are their rituals and routines for survival. I cannot fault them. I cannot hit them over the head with my "two by four" of Judytruth. I cannot evangelize them into the 9/11 movement. This is something I have slowly learned over the three and a half years. This is something I am still learning.

Will we ever uncover the truth about September 11, 2001? Please do not expect a Hollywood ending from my pen. Should we give up? A resounding "NO." Can we continue along our unique path, inviting others to join us, while not demanding that they do? I hope so. Is life about conformity? I don't think so.

I frequently refer to a quote from the Hindu Guru, Maharaj. He said "You can try to change the world. You won't accomplish much, but you will change yourself in the process."
And yet, I confess that there are some days when I cannot shake the fear. There are some mornings when my optimism does not awaken. There are times when my heart aches under the weight of the whispered truths and my soul knows that I am helpless to do anything about it. I have learned to understand those days and not to fight them. They are the sorrow that makes the joy more delicious. They are illusions melting into disillusionment. They are a necessary movement in the symphony of the soul.

Life is a spiritual trip. We must find our own answers to the question of meaning. And, if we do not, that too is a choice.


My joie de vivre is precious........................it is mine. I stamp the foot of indignation. Nobody can destroy me. Only I can do that. I smile at the animals and the trees and take a deep breath of the air that coughs under the weight of its pollutants.

My awareness of the fragility of life has been heightened. I smile at the shopkeepers and chat with passersby. I seize each opportunity to be a support and source of strength to those whose paths cross mine. I silence, if only for a day or an hour ...the voice within that beckons me into a world beyond this world. No.....I do not want to fall into the well of bitterness and anger. How would that serve my fellow travelers? How would that serve my friends and family? How would that serve myself?

Copyright 2005 Judy Andreas
JUDE10901@AOL.com
www.judyandreas.com

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US bomb-fired falluja

Napalm Raid on Falluja?
73 charred bodies -- women and children -- were found

GIULIANA SGRENA

«We buried them, but we could not identify them because they were charred from the napalm bombs used by the Americans». People from Saqlawiya village, near Falluja, told al Jazeera television, based in Qatar, that they helped bury 73 bodies of women and children completely charred, all in the same grave. The sad story of common graves, which started at Saddam’s times, is not yet finished. Nobody could confirm if napalm bombs have been used in Falluja, but other bodies found last year after the fierce battle at Baghdad airport were also completely charred and some thought of nuclear bombs. No independent source could verify the facts, since all the news arrived until now are those spread by journalists embedded with the American troops, who would only allow British and American media to enrol with them. But the villagers who fled in the last few days spoke of many bodies which had not been buried: it was too dangerous to collect the corpses during the battle.

Yesterday, for the first time since the beginning of the military campaign, the American Headquarters allowed a convoy of the Red Crescent (the Iraqi Red Cross) to enter the city with 7 ambulances and two trucks filled with food. In the past days the convoys of the humanitarian organizations were stopped on the other side of Eufrathes. Thus maybe we will now be able to obtain some more news on the conditions of the people who are left in the city -- the majority fled -- during 15 days of fierce and uninterrumpted attacks.

Yesterday Bill Taylor, responsible for the reconstruction of the Department of state, said that the United States government will spend more than 100 million dollars for the reconstruction of Falluja. The money will be invested in public buildings, private houses, shops, infrastructure. A destruction which could be avoided, if a different solution had been chosen for Falluja, as it was wished by many Iraqis. And what about all the civilians killed, of which the number is not known and probably never will? Will 100 million dollars be enough to gain back the trust of those who live in Falluja? Not likely, in fact, the opposite is more likely. It is in fact easy to foresee, even for the observers, that this “pacification” will not smooth the way for the elections. The anger of those who inhabit the Sunni triangle will more likely be exploited by those who are willing to do anything in order to avoid the vote.

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/420dd721e0ff0.html

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What happens when US mention US, Napalm, and Iraq in the same sentence

Sgrena: I was an American target

3/6/2005 2:00:00 PM GMT

The freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena suggested that U.S. soldiers deliberately tried to kill her, fueling what could possible be a growing diplomatic rift between Rome and Washington.

Il Manifesto journalist Sgrena's convoy was attacked by U.S. forces when being driven her to Baghdad airport, after Italian intelligence services managed to negotiate her release. One of Italy's top intelligence officials was killed trying to protect Sgrena who along with two others suffered gun wounds.

Sgrena said she may have been a target because the US opposed negotiations with her kidnappers.

"Everyone knows that the Americans don't want hostages to be freed by negotiations, and for that reason, I don't see why I should rule out that I was their target," Sgrena told a television news channel on Sunday.

"The incident could have very serious political consequences," Italy's La Stampa daily said in a front page editorial.

"The state of relations between the two governments, Italy and the United States, has suffered an immediate deterioration. Hour after hour, Washington's version given by the State Department immediately after the incident has begun to unravel.

"The theory that an absence of coordination in Baghdad between the two allied commands and excessive secrecy by the Italians about their (rescue) mission led to the shooting near the airport, has faded."

"The Italian government said it had informed the United States about the very delicate operation which was about to begin.

"And the presence of an American colonel at Baghdad airport along with the Italian officers who were waiting for Sgrena and her liberators, demonstrates that the operation was being conducted in harmony," the newspaper further added.

It said however that a ranson was "almost certainly" paid to the kidnappers, even though any payment was "very probably" opposed by the Americans.

Sgrena confirmed on Sunday that she had been voluntarily released by her kidnappers.

Many believe this latest incident will further galvinise those who oppose the Italian government's recent decision to maintain Italy's 3,000-strong military contingent in Iraq. Much of the country opposed the original decision by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in June 2003.

Berlusconi told a press conference in Rome late Friday there were troubling questions that needed to be answered, and called in the U.S. ambassador to Rome, Mel Sembler, to protest.

Pressure on U.S.

Pressure has increased on the United States to explain its troops firing on Sgrena's convoy.

"They (the kidnappers) never treated me badly but I wish things had gone better last night," the exhausted journalist told colleagues of left-wing daily Il Manifesto who greeted her inside the plane.

Anti-globalisation protesters gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Rome demanding the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

While Paris-based journalist rights group Reporters Without Borders demanded an independent UN-led inquiry into the incident.

Differing accounts of what happened emerged, with Sgrena telling the country's ANSA news agency her convoy was fired at by a patrol and that the car was not speeding.

"Our vehicle was running at normal speed which could not be misunderstood," she said, flatly rejecting any U.S. reports which said the vehicle carrying Sgrena was travelling at high speed toward a checkpoint and the soldiers who fired on it waved their hands and arms, flashed white lights and fired warning shots in a failed attempt to get it to stop.

In France, the Italian journalist's release has rekindled hopes that French correspondent Florence Aubenas, missing in Iraq for two months and seen only once in a video begging for help, could be freed, too.

"This gives me a lot of hope and, above all, it gives me great satisfaction to see that things are moving," Benoit Aubenas, the father of Aubenas, said Saturday.

"I see in this an extremely positive sign toward the upcoming release of Florence and her guide," he said.

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=7373

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US Death Squad suicides Hunter Thompson

TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Hunter Thompson friend confirms was on to White House callboy story

this

audio file

ALEX JONES: We're talking to a renowned journalist and writer, Paul William Roberts. Wrote a story for The Globe & Mail up in Canada where he talked about Hunter S. Thompson before he died mysteriously a few weeks ago, saying he believed the government may have been involved in 9/11, and he was concerned. He lived basically in a little armored compound... now they're saying he committed suicide.

But Paul has also interviewed people like Saddam Hussein; has written on the subject -- just this whole global empire...

CALLER "Scott from Texas": I was just wondering if you guys might be able to clear up something I heard through the journalist Sherman Skolnick. He is reporting that another story or book, I don't remember exactly which, that Hunter S. Thompson was working on was about this gay prostitution ring in the White House and supposedly that was another touchy topic that he brought out, and the whole...

JONES: Had you heard that from Hunter?

PAUL WILLAM ROBERTS: Yeah, I had heard that quite a lot from Hunter. It goes back to Kissinger, I believe.

JONES: Wow.

Now that's a big confirmation. Now for those who don't know, We have Washington Times articles from 1989, you know -- 'underage call boys in the White House', and so this is serious . .. Hunter was working on that?

ROBERTS: Yeah, in fact Lyndon LaRouche published some stuff about that. And although, you know, a lot of his material was not that trustworthy, in this particular case there were a lot of sources cited and there was no lawsuit. And where there's no lawsuit you can be almost guaranteed that it's true.

CALLER: And I'm wondering if that might not be a hotter issue otherwise, because you get into the Jeff Gannon case and the whole gay prostitution and that's a national security issue.

JONES: Well, Skolnick is saying that now, we're talking about some of the fake reporters, and we know that ... again I haven't confirmed that part of the story but i'd like 2 get some conf on that

CALLER: And also it's interesting too because it dovetails with Jeff Gannon possibly being the leak that leaked the story about Valerie Plame...

JONES: Well let me just add this. I mean, we have the New York Post: 'Top gay porn star services moguls at Bohemian Grove... I mean I have Parade magazine articles, Spy magazine articles from the 80s where, as I said they bus in the gay prostitutes like Beluga caviar for our "Christian conservative" leaders... And is that what Hunter S. Thompson was on to?

ROBERTS: He certainly knew all about that and I believe had written about it. I don't know wheher there was a book in the works, but he certainly had published columns on it...

JONES: Well it certainly looks pretty suspicious. Man let me tell you.

[LATER IN THE PROGRAM]

CALLER "Thomas in Colorado": I never met Mr. -- Dr. Thompson myself, but we had a muutal friend and I'm still friends with this guy and through this mutual friend, I passed on to him about a year ago some of your vidoes. So Dr Thompson watched your videos, I know this for a fact and through my friend I heard that he was impressed and he said something to the effect, "Yes, that's the way it is" or "That's the way things are."
http://www.total411.info/2005/03/hunter-thompson-friend-confirms-was.html

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Orwell & present day America

March 10, 2005

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INTERVIEW ARCHIVES

Robert Kane Pappas' Reflections on Orwell, 2005

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

In the end the party would announce that 2 plus 2 made 5, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim, sooner or later, the logic of their position demanded it. -- George Orwell, in 1984

* * *

Robert Kane Pappas is the director of the mass media-critiquing documentary, beloved by BuzzFlash readers, "Orwell Rolls in His Grave." This week he agreed to revisit George Orwell's prophetic anti-utopian novel, 1984, and to reflect on recent events in terms of Orwell's vision of a nightmarish future. Are we there yet?

* * *

BuzzFlash: Eason Jordan, the former head of CNN News, was fired for allegedly suggesting, off-the-record, that the U.S. military had targeted journalists in Iraq. He quickly back pedaled, yet he was still "resigned," so to speak. Now the facts indicate that Jordan was right. For instance, an attack on an Al Jazeera reporter was recorded on film in the documentary "Control Room." We also had the deadly attack by American soldiers on journalists at the Palestine Hotel. We've had reports of numerous reporters killed in the field, and just this week Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was shot, even though these people were known reporters. The bottom line: Orwellian or not?

Robert Kane Pappas: In 1984, Winston Smith worked for the Ministry of Truth, in the department that rewrote past news items to make them conform to the present political realities. As his assignments came in, his daily creative endeavors concerned intuiting how the party might want this done. Winston says, "All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory." It's uncanny how close his job seems to today's lackey editors.

Imagine today's news correspondents' mental gymnastics. They were wringing their hands over the Ukrainian exit polls, using them as a basis to call that election into question, but they were unable to mention (or remember?) what had occurred in their own country only weeks before. Straight-faced irony worthy of Winston Smith.

I think it was November 4th of 2004 that I was listening to "Imus in the Morning," which had a phone interview with Jeff Greenfield of CNN. Imus asked something like, "What about this disparity between the exit polls and the vote?" Greenfield set him straight immediately (I paraphrase): "Oh that's all clear now, we found out through the exit polls that to voters it was about values . . . this was the unforeseen factor that made all those new voters break for Bush" . . . (voters who historically break for the challenger). Judging from his tone of voice, Greenfield had already internalized the new truth. That was it. End of analysis. End of Imus' foray into exit poll discrepancies. As Orwell wrote, "All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory."

BuzzFlash: Just when you think it can't get more Orwellian, it does. A guy who made his living as a prostitute was doing a daytime gig as a White House shill in the press room, even though he never had any legitimate journalism credentials--and the mainstream press largely ran from the story as if it were the plague. Maybe the D.C. reporters, the journalism prostitutes in the White House press corps, sympathized with Gannon/Guckert?

Robert Kane Pappas: Those journalists who speak too plainly, who dig too deep, disappear--not in the 1984 sense of being vaporized, but they disappear from the airwaves. Witness Eason Jordan, Dan Rather. Career implosions are not lost on journalists who want to survive in the mainstream. Helen Thomas, White House reporter for 10 Presidents, questions Bush prior to Iraq invasion. Suddenly, she's no longer called on. Banished to the back of the room.

Then a new guy is called upon by the President, Jeff Gannon. No credentials, advertises himself as a gay escort. But not digging too deep into Gannon is safe. It's curious that criminal allegations about Rush Limbaugh and sexual harassment charges against Bill O'Reilly did not derail their careers. But not dotting all the i's on a report about Bush's military service was a career killer. Highlighting that contradiction in the wrong venue would be one as well.

BuzzFlash: The Democrats still think they can win by debating public policy. But it appears to us that, particularly for those who rely on mainstream news coverage, it's almost impossible to figure out what the facts are on any public policy issue. How do you think we can overcome this problem?

Robert Kane Pappas: One of the underlying notions of "Orwell Rolls In His Grave" is not being able to see the forest for the trees. What strikes me about the present string of outrages is that, as they pile on, even thoughtful people almost don't know what to say--you lose the forest.

We BuzzFlash readers have to fix upon the opposition's vulnerabilities, and attack, attack, attack. The individual examples of jaw-dropping corruption and cronyism will not stop. With each new incident, a big portion of the Left says to itself: "No way they can get away with this--it's too blatant, the media is going to jump on this," but then the media drops it, again. This won't change, the big lie is in place.

We, like the Right in the early 70's, have to fund ourselves, and attack relentlessly at the structural level, and we have to fund that attack in a big way, and it can't be 3 famous lefties, we need a thousand populist economic, journalistic, legal, sociological and philosophical experts attacking the corporate media.

One other thing. My guess is that most Jews in Germany couldn't bring themselves to believe that Hitler would try to exterminate them. Although not directly comparable, I don't believe most people on the Left can make themselves believe that the Bush gang actually systematically stole the 2004 election, and that 2000 and 2002 were trial runs. It's too earth-shaking to accept that the other side is not playing by some basic rules. But I'm sure somewhere in his mind, George Orwell was utterly certain that what he was describing in 1984 could happen in spades.

BuzzFlash: In your fabulous documentary, "Orwell Rolls," which several thousand BuzzFlash readers have ordered, you end with a slightly hopeful note. In the film, Charles Lewis suggests that there is a narrow window of opportunity with the Internet for free speech to reassert itself. But that window may close up if the major Broadband and DSL providers charge a fee for posting on their "tubes." What's left after that, holding up signs on a street corner?

Robert Kane Pappas: I'm not technically savvy enough to say how the large media corporations will try to control the the Internet--but I am certain that they will try. They have to, the Internet is a threat. From those I have spoken with, saving the Internet's open character should be job #1.

The problem is that these companies think ahead, so watch for a solution to some other problem--say terrorism or child porn or identity theft--and the solution to that will include an element with the "unforeseeable" consequence of changing the Internet. "Unforeseeable" . . . sure. Once the change is made, it becomes a fact on the ground and becomes very hard to get rid of. Kind of like making tax cuts permanent.

The other issue is FCC regulation of the high speed Internet, this issue is being debated in the courts. Michael Powell had it decreed an informational network, not subject to regulation. At least one court has disagreed.

One more note on the Internet. Watch out for mutations in the copyright debate. Media corporations have identified this area as a method to control, and to maximize income.

BuzzFlash: Okay, let's get to the bottom line, as in profits. Isn't it sort of strange that the man who ultimately oversees CBS News is the vice-president of Viacom? You cover the multimedia conglomerate ownership of the "information industry" in your documentary. But it appears to be getting worse all the time. We have a one-party government in bed with the so-called news industry, which is really not a news industry at all. It's a public relations profit center. Every day we wake up with new "truths," the old ones erased as if the blackboard had been cleaned. How do we get the truth out to people in Oklahoma?

Robert Kane Pappas: I think Mark Crispin Miller puts his finger on it in my film. To paraphrase him: "...we need antitrust activity, not for economic reasons, primarily, but because the crucial content of the news is corrupted by these large commercial entities." Informing the public, while conceiving of it as a purely bottom line activity, has tragic consequences. Regulators and legislators, drunk on the "free market is god" mantra, are profoundly harming this country. In different countries around the world, including ours, politicians fear taking on Rupert Murdoch because he can destroy political careers.

BuzzFlash: Dan Rather got "resigned" for airing purportedly phony National Guard letters about Bush that were, by all accounts, filled with the truth. When we have an allegedly phony document that contains the truth, isn't it kind of Orwellian to ignore the truth and just say it's all phony?

Robert Kane Pappas: There appears to be a calculus to killing stories. First, try not to respond to their main thrusts, but, rather, find an ostensible flaw in some minor point in that story, or attack the person related to the story. Presto, the story is now tainted. The expert-spokesman methodology of the corporate media makes this very easy to do. The common joke, that the networks would pit two experts, one saying the world is flat, the other saying it's round, is unfortunately, all too true.

BuzzFlash: What has happened to journalists' role in holding government accountable?

Robert Kane Pappas: Something has happened since the Bush administration took power. They are off limits for the media in some ways past administrations clearly were not, and for a couple of reasons.

First, the Republicans now control all three branches of government. There simply cannot be a Congressional investigation into something they don't want investigated. Even in such cases as Ken Lay/Enron and secret Cheney energy meetings or the Valerie Plame CIA outing, suddenly the wheels of investigations are slowed down to a glacial pace and the story never achieves a major level of public awareness. Meanwhile, the Martha Stewart case happens and justice moves with dispatch and huge media fanfare. So there is no accountability in the Bush Administration, not Bush, not Cheney, not Rumsfeld, not Rice, no one.

But there is no accountability for another reason. The Bush administration has a relationship with media corporations that is unprecedented. For instance, Bush's first cousin is John Ellis, who was head of FOX's election desk on election night 2000. FOX was the first network to call the election for George Bush. Even more outlandish--Murdoch, who in my opinion controls a worldwide privatized propaganda service, is firmly in Bush's camp; the FOX New Network is literally an arm of the Republican Party. So through this relationship, they control a big hunk of the dynamics of the media feeding frenzy. But this relationship has even further repercussions because the other giant media corporations give FOX a professional courtesy pass. You will never hear another network mention that FOX, the patriotic network, is owned by a man who is from Australia, who changes citizenship as it suits him, and who is currently building a home outside of Beijing with his his 3rd wife, Chinese-born Wendi Deng, with whom he has 2 young children. Murdoch controls a large portion of the Chinese media. You will never hear this discussed in the mainstream news programs. It's like a mutual protection racket on a huge scale. And just to top off this structural disaster, the administration controls the FCC, which can and does exert regulatory control over the networks. Remember that last year many stations declined to air "Saving Private Ryan," essentially an anti-war film, even though it had been seen previously on TV.

BuzzFlash: We know Karl Rove stage manages every Bush appearance. He only allows Republicans in, and reporters are confined to a pit that they cannot leave without a Soviet-style minder. In fact, at the Inauguration reporters were not allowed to roam freely. If they left their designated area, they had to be accompanied by a "minder." And then there are the people arrested or removed from Bush events for wearing T-shirts that indicate they are Democrats. Stalin must be smiling down on Bush as a protege. What do you think?

Robert Kane Pappas: I'm staggered on a daily basis by what reporters fail to mention--for instance, how controlled the Bush campaign events were, who they let in, what they could bring to events. At one event, boxes were used as set decorations to imply manufacturing jobs, but the boxes were stamped "Made in China" just off-screen. It's creepy. Imagine a radio sports reporter not mentioning that the football game is being played in a blizzard. It would be grounds for getting fired. There's way more truth in a "reality TV" show.

BuzzFlash: Former Ambassador Joe Wilson recently observed that so-called modern journalism feels the necessity to give each side their statement and then write up a story. In short, the facts of one side get countered with the lies of the Bush administration, but the reporters don't point out that they are lies. Wasn't the job of journalism at one time to get to the truth?

Robert Kane Pappas: Orwell wrote, "In the end the party would announce that 2 plus 2 made 5, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim, sooner or later, the logic of their position demanded it."

Read the flip flops on how the Bush administration characterizes Social Security, their analysis of the tax cuts' impact on deficits, the technique of repeating an untruth endlessly. We witnessed this in the run-up to the Iraq War. "WMD, WMD, WMD"--and it's happening again. The Social Security issue reminds me of the observation in 1984: "There had been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to 20 grams a week. And only yesterday, he [Winston] reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to 20 grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only 24 hours? Yes, they swallowed it." And Winston asks himself, "Was he, then, alone in the possession of a memory?"

BuzzFlash: Is it our imagination, or isn't the front page of The New York Times looking more and more like Pravda everyday? And we don't mean that it's Communist. Quite to the contrary, it's a Bushevik Neo-con Republican Pravda. The ultimate irony, America's paper of record is really just a regurgitation of White House spin. Doesn't Pravda mean truth?

Robert Kane Pappas: The spin process is very effective, both in newspaper reports and on TV and in radio. If you make it your business to be informed, what happens is, you end up watching the mainstream news with your mouth hanging open. If you watch only what they offer, you're largely intellectually lobotomized. Your opinions are determined by two- and three-word sound bites: "Death Tax," "Conspiracy Theory," "They hate our Freedoms," "Democracy," "Liberal Bias," "Class Warfare." As Winston's co-worker Syme says with glee: "Every year, fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller."

BuzzFlash: Once again, thanks for reminding us of Orwell's wisdom.

Robert Kane Pappas: You're very welcome.

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

SOURCE:
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/05/03/int05012.html

* * *

Resources

Orwell Rolls in his Grave- A Film by Robert Kane Pappas (DVD)
http://www.buzzflash.com/premiums/04/05/pre04014.html

"1984" DVD and "George Orwell Bush Day"
http://www.buzzflash.com/premiums/05/03/pre05029.html

Robert Kane Pappas, Director and Producer of "Orwell Rolls in His Grave"
A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/06/int04031.html

Newspeak Dictionary
http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-dict.html

Posted at 05:27 pm by seanJC
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perhaps the REAL terrorists are too...

Wed 9 Mar 2005

3:11pm (UK)
Many Terror Websites are U.S. Based - Study

Many websites used by terrorist organisations are based in the US, a new study by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre reveals.

The sites – including Islamic ones – have been used to foment hate, recruit new members and raise funds, said the Rabbi Abraham Cooper of centre. The report is to be released tomorrow at a summit on terrorism in Madrid.

“In other countries there are more strict laws against the incitement of hatred,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the Los Angeles based Jewish human rights group.

The report, Digital Terrorism + Hate, is to be unveiled as part of the summit grappling with how best to combat the tide of hate-fuelled terrorism that has claimed victims worldwide.

There are around 5,000 “problematic websites” according to the Wiesenthal Centre, an increase of 25% on last year.

Some sites use a technique called cybersquatting, which latches a parasite web page onto an existing legitimate Web location in order to evade detection, the report said.

This is the centre’s seventh annual report on Internet activity. Earlier studies analysed how anti-Semitic groups used the Internet to forge global alliances and distribute material.

http://news.scotsman.com/print.cfm?id=4232006&referringtemplate=http%3A%2F%2Fnews%2Escotsman%2Ecom%2Flatest%2Ecfm&referringquerystring=id%3D4232006

Posted at 05:12 pm by seanJC
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Mar 6, 2005

First evidence of Bush Death Squad operating in US

VIA VOXFUX: http://www.voxfux.com/archives/00000039.htm

SENATOR PAUL WELLSTONE ASSASSINATED BY COVERT US TERROR GROUP LINKED TO BUSH

The eerie resemblance to an identical Senator assassination two years ago goes completely unmentioned in the media.
by voxfux

America is gripped in a protracted, internal power seizure - this much is certain. The whole world is united against the policies of this shadow American government who has whipped the American people into a war frenzy. And it appears now that nearly each and every violent act of "Terrorism" since 911 and including 911 has its origin in America and is perpetrated by Americans - NOT Muslims.

And now, Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone is the latest victim of this clandestine US based, assassination group, racing to consolidate total power in the hands of George Bush.

In my May 25th Article of 2001, I laid out an explicit warning that a Democratic Senator would meet an untimely death by either an Anthrax hit or in a plane crash. (Click here for the article which predicted Wellstone's assassination) This article was written four months prior to the Sept 11th attacks and six months before the anthrax letters to Daschle and Leahy.

Wellstone was assassinated under the exact same circumstances as Mel Carnahan, two years ago. Carnahan the Democrat was beating John Ashcroft, but with just two weeks remaining before election day, Carnahans plane conveniently crashes. It is still not enough for the widely un-popular Ashcroft - When the voters considered the prospects of another six years with this Ashcroft, THE VOTERS VOTED FOR THE DECEASED CARNAHAN (actually his wife) RATHER THAN HAVE ASHCROFT FOR ANOTHER TERM ! What was Ashcroft’s reward for getting beaten by the man who he probably just rubbed out? ? Bush made Mr Popularity - Top cop.

Welcome to the fourth Reich.

What's most chilling about this series of identical assassinations is that it demonstrates the sheer brazenness and boldness of the operations of this shadowy group of private clandestine intelligence operatives, currently buttressing Bush. It’s as if they are feeling out their limits of carte blanche with the press and the American people and finding they have no limits. - Seeing how much we will take - And finding that there is no limit to how much we will take and how much we will let them get away with. As for whether there will ever be a mention of their operations in the major media... Apparently not.

{FULL ARTICLE HERE}

Posted at 02:59 pm by seanJC
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