The "Blind Sheik" And The CIA - Media Again Bury U.S. Support For Radical Islamism
Two days ago the Takfiri Islamist leader Omar Abdul-Rahman , the so called "Blind Sheik", died in a U.S. prison. He had been found guilty of involvement in the 1993 attempt to bring down the World Trade Center in New York and of other crimes.
The obituaries of Omar Abdul-Rahman in U.S. media are an example of white washing of the U.S. exploitation of radical Islamism for its imperial purposes. While extensively documented in earlier media and official reports the CIA's facilitation and involvement with Abdul-Rahman is seemingly stricken from history.
Since the 1970s Omar Abdul-Rahman was involved in the growth of radical Sunni Islamism:
Founded in 1976, Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt (FIBE) is part of the banking empire built by Saudi Prince Mohammed al-Faisal. Several of the founding members are leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including the “Blind Sheikh,” Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman.
Financed by Saudi sources Abdul-Rahman created various groups of radicals in Egypt and gets deeply involved with Al-Qaeda, recruiting fighters for Afghanistan in cooperation with the CIA and the Pakistani secret services. He was the ideological leader of Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, an Islamic radical organization in Egypt responsible for several terrorist attacks. He traveled to the U.S. several timed between 1986 and 1990 to further his violent ideology. His visas were issued by CIA agents despite his appearance on a State Department terrorism watch list. In 1990 he moves to the U.S. where he preached his violent Islam and continued to recruit fighters for radical causes.
In December 1990 the New York Times reported:
The 52-year-old religious leader, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, entered the country more than five months ago despite being on a State Department list of people with ties to terrorist groups, the authorities said. He illegally obtained a tourist visa from a consul in the United States Embassy in Khartoum, the Sudan, in May, according to records of the Federal Immigration and Naturalization Service and State Department officials.
In July 1993 the NYT reported that "illegally obtained tourist visa" was not illegal at all:
Central Intelligence Agency officers reviewed all seven applications made by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman to enter the United States between 1986 and 1990 and only once turned him down because of his connections to terrorism, Government officials said today.
...
Mr. Abdel Rahman helped to recruit Arab Muslims to fight in the American-backed war in Afghanistan, and his lawyer and Egyptian officials have said he was helped by the C.I.A. to enter the United States.
...
American officials had acknowledged last week that the diplomat at the United States Embassy in Khartoum who signed the May 1990 visa request that allowed Mr. Abdel Rahman to enter the United States was in fact a C.I.A. officer.
Several attempts to remove Abdel-Rahman from the U.S. mysteriously failed. In 1991 he was inexplicably granted a Green Card despite still being blacklisted.
His involvement in the 1993 WTC bombing was a typical "blowback" from the CIA's chronic support of radical takfiri Islamism, supported by Saudi Arabia, whenever it helps its "regime change" plans here or there. Over the last years such CIA support led to the growth of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
After the recent death of Omar Abdul-Rahman several obituaries appeared in U.S. media. But none of them mention or dig into his deep and long CIA connections and the continuing CIA support for radical Islamism.
There is zero mentioning of the CIA and the visa shenanigans in his NYT obit, despite its earlier reporting. Neither the Associated Press nor AFP mention any connection to the CIA. The British service Reuters buries the visa story in one sentence in the 12th paragraph.
That the deep involvement over the years of the CIA (and FBI) in the crimes Omar Abdul-Rahman is now swept under the carpet and forgotten is not just coincidentally. It is a distinct feature of U.S. political culture.
The British poet Harold Pinter referred to this in his 2005 Nobel lecture:
It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest.
I have called this chronic forgetfulness the concept of immaculate conception of U.S. (foreign) policy. There never is an acknowledged history of U.S. misdeeds that may have led to this or that current blowback. When there is one it immediately gets buried, pushed out of sight, never to be talked about. The same applies to partisan policies within the U.S.
Currently the fake "resistance" against a Trump presidency blasts his policy of seeking better relations with Russia, his temporary travel ban reference to seven specific countries and his words against media leaks. But it was the Secretary of State Clinton who initiated a "reset" with Russia, it was the Obama administration that set a ban on those seven countries and it was the Obama justice department that used the espionage act against journalists for publishing leaked material. That all is now forgotten and not to be talked about.
Likewise the deep CIA connection with Omar Abdul-Rahman is now scrubbed from any of the semi-official media reporting. This at the same time the CIA continues its involvement with radical Islamists in Syria and elsewhere.
Pinter continued his lecture:
The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.
...
To not be taken in by the "immaculate conception" mechanism I recommend to reread or watch Pinter's lecture every once a while.
Posted by b on February 20, 2017 at 19:53 UTC | Permalink
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who are never informed of history are doomed to do whatever the f*ck they tell you to do.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Feb 20 2017 20:16 utc | 2
thanks b.. bang on... "concept of immaculate conception of U.S. (foreign) policy." combined with no accountability and here we are however many wars later, and in prep for another one from the 'exceptional' nation..
all the while, i am sure the ceos of the financial institutions, and military industries are primarily (all good?) christians that don't bat an eyelid of the business they are involved in.. radical christianity at it's finest..
Posted by: james | Feb 20 2017 20:31 utc | 3
Just when you thought it could not get any worse. "Rescue workers depicted in Syria’s Oscar-nominated documentary “White Helmets” have obtained U.S. visas and will now be able to attend the Academy Awards on Feb. 26.
“They’ve been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize — these people are the bravest humanitarians on the planet, and the idea that they could not be able to come with us and enjoy that success is just abhorrent.” http://www.thewrap.com/syria-white-helmets-rescue-workers-obtain-visas-to-attend-oscars/
Posted by: harrylaw | Feb 20 2017 20:42 utc | 4
Gulen was also admitted into the U.S. over State Department objections, because they were overruled by the CIA, and in particular by one Graham Fuller (related by marriage to the Tsaranyev brothers. His big thing was making use of Islamist terrorists for CIA purposes.)
Posted by: lysias | Feb 20 2017 20:46 utc | 5
I remember first learning about the U.S.'s use of Islamist terrorists from Richard Labeviere's book Dollars for Terror, which was published in 2000, but which I read shortly after 9/11.
Posted by: lysias | Feb 20 2017 20:48 utc | 6
Me@4 Charles Manson to be let out of prison to attend the film and receive a Oscar for the film 'helter skelter'. He may be nominated for a Nobel peace prize.
Posted by: harrylaw | Feb 20 2017 20:52 utc | 7
My recollection of the plot is that it was originally a sting operation to set up them sending pipe bombs via mail to 12 synagogues in the NYC metropolitan area. An FBI informant named Aned Salem had himself wired without the knowledge of the FBI and retained them as evidence. They showed that the FBI had trained the plotters in bomb making and provided the materials for the explosives. The FBI later called off the sting operation. The cell continued its activities which resulted in the truck bombing of the World Trade Center.
Posted by: Les | Feb 20 2017 21:03 utc | 8
The CIA is the biggest terrorist mob on the planet, in bed with those TBTF Wall Street Casinos, who never get prosecuted for stealing fraud, since they're 'made men' and no one can touch a mobster that high up. At least not us peons.
Then there's the drug dealing, from running heroin out of SE Asia during the Vietnam War, to cocaine out of S. America in the 1980's and beyond, to dealing their fav drug, heroin, coming out of those US Army protected Afghan poppy fields.
From assassinating elected leaders in nations around the world that the Fortune 500 don't like, to murdering JFK, to helping Israel set off the 9/11 False Flag, the CIA is the biggest threat to life on Earth.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/9-11/Israel_did_it
Posted by: Greg Bacon | Feb 20 2017 21:25 utc | 10
It is Orwellian. 1984 is and was here. They control past to control present narrative and hence control future.
Posted by: Kalen | Feb 20 2017 21:38 utc | 11
Les @ 8
The FBI informant was involved throughout the operation. His sworn testimony is that his FBI handler insisted he supply explosives for the operation, not an inert substitute.
Based on this evidence, I find b's characterization of the 1993 WTC bombing ("blowback") to be misleading. It was essentially an FBI op.
Posted by: Berry Friesen | Feb 20 2017 21:48 utc | 12
harrylaw 4
That is sickening news for the White Helmets to be given awards, visas, kudos, etc. It's just like the pictures of Reagan hosting the Afghan "freedom fighters" at the White House. Obama commuted the sentence of FLAN terrorist.
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 20 2017 22:01 utc | 13
Les 8
Amad Salem wired himself to cover his rear. He recorded the FBI agent acknowledging that they told him not to use inert materials in the bomb.
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 20 2017 22:03 utc | 14
So who killed the Russian Ambassador at the UN?
me thinks that he died of natural death but the conspiracy theorists are out there .
BTW: Nikki Haley is already bitching about the month meeting being held wrt Palestine, after preventing a Palestinian to be an UN envoy to Libya.
Posted by: Yul | Feb 20 2017 22:09 utc | 15
FAKE NEWS and RETROCONTINUITY AS TOOLS OF INFOWAR
The Deep State's attack on Trump and Russia failed. The #FakeNews conspiracy theory boomeranged when people realized that it was the mainstream media that were the creators and conveyors of fake news. It is thus time to bury the concept. But wait! The alternative media and even president Trump has adopted the term.
Time to call in the Mighty Eagle of retroactive continuity. No, the Empire's infowarriors or the mainstream media media did not invent the fake news fallacy. It was invented by #Hitler himself as #Lügenpresse, and faithfully copied by Trump, the Nazi.
Fake news isn't a new concept - Hitler called it 'lügenpresse'The American president’s tactics and previous comments he made about immigrants have been likened to that of Adolf Hitler: Holocaust survivors compared Donald Trump’s attempt to ban immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries to the plight of the Jewish people in the 1930s.
Now, the president is once more being compared to the former German leader for his fixation on the concept of 'fake news'.
Hitler called it 'lügenpresse'
The phrase means ‘lying press’ in German, and was used to attack media outlets that were deemed to be unsupportive of the Nazi party and its aims.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Feb 20 2017 22:41 utc | 16
thanks for the reminder on pinter, b. it is strong stuff, but goes to the heart of it all ...
I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. ... As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self love. It’s a winner.Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words ‘the American people’ provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don’t need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it’s very comfortable.
This does not apply of course to the 40 million people living below the poverty line and the 2 million men and women imprisoned in the vast gulag of prisons, which extends across the US.
if the us is to be brought back to life it will be 'the 40 million people living below the poverty line' and the '2 million men and women imprisoned in the vast gulag of prisons' and their families who resuscitate it. they are the ones - the uncushioned ones - not only capable of admitting but living the truth about the usofa.
Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest.The United States no longer bothers about low intensity conflict. It no longer sees any point in being reticent or even devious. It puts its cards on the table without fear or favour. It quite simply doesn’t give a damn about the United Nations, international law or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant.
Look at Guantanamo Bay. Hundreds of people detained without charge for over three [fifteen] years, with no legal representation or due process, technically detained forever. ... It is not only tolerated but hardly thought about by what’s called the ‘international community’. This criminal outrage is being committed by a country, which declares itself to be ‘the leader of the free world’.
The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. ... an act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading - as a last resort ... as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands [millions and millions] of innocent people.
Death in this context is irrelevant. ... These people are of no moment. Their deaths don’t exist. They are blank. They are not even recorded as being dead.
The 2,000 American dead are an embarrassment. They are transported to their graves in the dark. Funerals are unobtrusive, out of harm’s way. The mutilated rot in their beds, some for the rest of their lives. So the dead and the mutilated both rot, in different kinds of graves.
more than 2000 johnnies have got their guns. but who and how many are the living mutilated, who - though studiously avoiding even the thought of the death, devastation and destruction enabling our voluptuous cushions - nonetheless rot?
and now that tee-rump is blurting out pieces of the story so studiously ignored in an effort - paradoxically - to detract attention from his own sorry ass and manifold failings, the walking self-mutilated - nsa/dnc/cia - are ganging up on, trying to silence him and his desperate outbursts in order to ensure the rest of us stay atomized, 'intact' - mutilated. in order to keep the greatest show on the road, each of us on our own voluptuous cushion, hiding in plain view.
Posted by: jfl | Feb 20 2017 22:49 utc | 17
it's important also to remember Lynne Stewart, Omar Abdel-Rahman's, lawyer who was herself railroaded to prison under a sham regime of SAMs special administrative measures put in place after 9/11 'designed to prevent communications that could endanger US national security' ... foreclose attorney's discovering the cia's role as worldwide terrorist? 'endangering national security' is a often used euphemism for talking about us-sponsored terrorism.
according to the wikipedia article, the regime went out of its way to set up Lynne Stewart in the first place.
In November 1994, former Johnson administration attorney general Ramsey Clark met with Stewart and asked her to take Rahman on as a client after Rahman dismissed his court-appointed lawyer and his other lawyers, William Kunstler and Ron Kuby, were taken off the case for conflict of interest. Stewart was reluctant at first, but Clark convinced her to take the case, arguing that otherwise "the Arab world would feel betrayed by their friends on the American left.
... killing two birds with one stone?
Posted by: jfl | Feb 20 2017 23:47 utc | 18
It was a great speech. I had forgotten.
As for the visas for terrorists programs, there was, also, the report of diplomat Michael Springmann, who oversaw the visa operations in KSA in late 80's. When he saw visas being granted to men, who were obviously and completely unqualified to receive visas, he tried to stop those visas and was overruled by embassy officers, who were evidently CIA. His protest and appeal within State was rewarded with early separation from the Foreign Service.
Of course, eleven years after Springmann, the hijackers of four US planes were identified as mostly Saudi men and a couple Egyptians. Since 1) the source of those quickly appearing hijacker lists was never explained, and since 2) we know that at least 7 of the men were misidentified (because the named men later identified themselves, still alive and living in KSA, with no record of travel to the US) but 3) the lists were never corrected or updated, we really have no way to judge who the hijackers may have been. But it seems reasonable to presume that visas supplied by the embassy in KSA played a part.
One imagines that this is what Trump had in mind, when he told the Court that, if anything happened, it would be the Court's responsibility. He, like everyone, can see that there is a faction inside intelligence that is fighting him at every step. Why wouldn't he worry?
Not surprising that KSA, as the arsenal and cover for US operations in the area, cannot be included in the ban. But the US embassy in KSA issues visas for applicants from other countries in the region, too; at least, reducing the pool of the angriest, aspiring jihadis limits the options of this regional CIA recruitment post.
Posted by: smoke | Feb 21 2017 0:32 utc | 19
of great interest, too, coming right after b's first quote above.
Founded in 1976, Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt (FIBE) is part of the banking empire built by Saudi Prince Mohammed al-Faisal. Several of the founding members are leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including the “Blind Sheikh,” Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman.
is, 1. ...
The Islamic banking boom is closely associated with the neoliberal free-trade philosophy of the Chicago School of Economics, with the free-trade prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund, and with conservative think-tanks like the Virginia-based Islamic Free Market Institute.
and further, 2. ...
FIBE is also closely associated with the infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), which will be found to be deeply implicated in the illegal arms and narcotics trades, and with the funding of terrorist organizations when it collapses in 1991. Investigators will also find that BCCI held $589 million in “unrecorded deposits,” $245 million of which were placed with FIBE.
1. is redolent of the financiers push for worldwide, full spectrum dominance, and
2. has the odor of cia money-laundering. the cia is primarily responsible to finance. always has been. draws on the same reservoirs for their personnel ...
“I have described the intelligence service as a socially acceptable way of expressing criminal tendencies,” [Nelson Brickham] said. “A guy who has strong criminal tendencies – but is too much of a coward to be one – would wind up in a place like the CIA if he had the education.”
... cia officers and or g-sax ... peas in a pod.
Posted by: jfl | Feb 21 2017 0:37 utc | 20
@20
Bank of Credit and Commerce International
Police and intelligence experts nicknamed B.C.C.I. the "Bank of Crooks and Criminals" for its penchant for catering to customers who dealt in arms, drugs and hot money.William von Raab, a former U.S. Commissioner of Customs, also told the Kerry Committee that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency held "several" accounts at BCCI. According to a 1991 article in Time magazine, the National Security Council also had accounts at BCCI, which were used for a variety of covert operations, including transfers of money and weapons for Iran-Contra.[12]
[12] TIME, 22 July 1991, Iran-Contra: The Cover-Up Begins to Crack
the al-cia-duh of finance? then it was funding the contras. now its funding daesh and the rest of the menagerie in syria. the cia - and the nsc - up to their eyeballs in it all.
It’s a scintillating stratagem. Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words ‘the American people’ provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don’t need to think. Just lie back on the cushion.
daesh and al nusra are the moral equivalent of the founding fathers. maybe. do you think so? they were all keen on finance.
Posted by: jfl | Feb 21 2017 1:04 utc | 21
@20 smoke
and i had forgotten about Michael Springmann. the unity of cia and state is now rock-solid reality.
i always had trouble envisioning israel and the saudis co-operating on 9/11. i envisioned a murky upper-layer of control by al cia-duh that was actually mossad. i still think that cia and israel were at the top of the operation, but the saudis may well have been given an operational role explicitly. if that was the case the 'sue saudi arabia' act ought eventually to shake loose the truth of the cia-israeli involvement. and that would account for obama's opposition to that act - sitting on john brennan's knee as was for eight long years.
Posted by: jfl | Feb 21 2017 1:20 utc | 22
@22
the union of cia-state ... and the union of cia-war. i feel sure that carter was a cia mole at the top of the department of war. how many in his train remain now is uncertain. but i feel sure they're there.
Posted by: jfl | Feb 21 2017 1:24 utc | 23
@5 lysias
yes gulen was given entry at fuller's request. robert parry has a soft spot for 'ex' cia for some reason, and one of his favorite's is graham fuller. right after the attempted coup in turkey fuller was there, making sympathetic noises on behalf of gulen.
Posted by: jfl | Feb 21 2017 1:29 utc | 24
A powerful speech. I'm one of the Americans "demonstrably sickened, ashamed, and angered by (my) governments actions." Sad, but accurate, point made that we are not a coherent political force. For Christ sake, Bernie barely budged the dialogue, if at all.
Maybe pin that video link somewhere?
Posted by: IhaveLittleToAdd | Feb 21 2017 2:02 utc | 25
Churkin passed away.
https://www.rt.com/news/377988-russian-ambassador-churkin-un-dies/
Posted by: B2 | Feb 21 2017 2:18 utc | 26
Thanks b, keep swing'en the hammer of truth. Maybe one day, some of that truth will filter down to the American public. It's not like the real nature of the American Empire isn't available. it's out there, thanks to you, and people like you.
Fact is, the majority of the people don't have access, or even care about what our Govt. does in their name. Like Religion, it's so much easier to just consume what's put in front of us, rather than give any real thought to the subject du jour.
Don't hold your breath til' that changes.
Posted by: ben | Feb 21 2017 4:01 utc | 27
The Myths, deliberate Lies & enforced Forgetting, go back to at least 1945 ...
We are the only nation to have dropped atomic bombs.
There was virtually nil justification for dropping the first, this is well documented, and absolutely none for the second(Unquestionably a War Crime and a Crime against Humanity). Imperial Japan was already known to be defeated and desperately continuously seeking to negotiate surrender terms from four months prior.
Our corrupt politicians, ideologues & entrenched corporate fascism, warmonger/war-profiteer Robber barons that seized control of the State with the appointment of Vice President Truman, later President, did it not to defeat Japan at all, but to send a, 'message', explicitly to the then USSR, and to a lesser worldwide audience, that the 'Global Order', had changed.
Excluding Japanese & others (Min 250,000+), the casualties of this combined 'message' included ~1,000 American citizens (mostly children(Japanese-Americans)) & ~25+ US Prisoners of War. This was concealed & denied until the late '70's ...
The FBI has been a domestic Secret Police/Gestapo above the Law, in fact above the State, since the days of WWI:
J Edgar Hoover was hired by the Justice Department to work in the War Emergency Division. He soon became the head of the Division's Alien Enemy Bureau, authorized by President Wilson at the beginning of World War I to arrest and jail disloyal foreigners without trial. He received additional authority from the 1917 Espionage Act...In August 1919, Hoover became head of the Bureau of Investigation's new General Intelligence Division—also known as the Radical Division because its goal was to monitor and disrupt the work of domestic radicals. America's First Red Scare was beginning, and one of Hoover's first assignments was to carry out the Palmer Raids.
Hoover and his chosen assistant, George Ruch, monitored a variety of U.S. radicals with the intent to punish, arrest, or deport those whose politics they decided were dangerous. Targets during this period included Marcus Garvey; Rose Pastor Stokes and Cyril Briggs; Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman; and future Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter, who, Hoover maintained, was "the most dangerous man in the United States"...
Under Truman the National Security Act of 1947 created the National Military Establishment (NME), effectively the Dept of Defense(?!), the NSC, the CIA, the JCS, the US Air Force (Nuke bombers), et al, were created. Truman also created the NSA by a mere classified Executive Order (PDD), no legislation whatsoever.
The act re the CIA authorized it to to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, and to:
Perform other functions and duties relating to intelligence affecting the National Security.Particularly nebulous & exploited as such from inception.
In December of 1947 Truman created classified annex NSC-4A authorizing the CIA to explicitly conduct 'Covert Operations'.
The follow-on Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949:
... permitted the CIA to use confidential fiscal and administrative procedures and exempting it from many of the usual limitations on the use of federal funds. The act also exempted the CIA from having to disclose its "organization, functions, officials, titles, salaries, or numbers of personnel employed."This is arguably in direct breach of the Constitution re use/allocation/oversight of Federal Funds.
So, given all the above, and the ongoing complete myths, lies & Deep State actions & falsehoods around the globe that generations have lived thru for at least ~71 years, what's a few illegal visa's, micro-management/direction of agent provocateurs/terrorists, resulting in the deaths of only a 'few' American citizens as collateral damage, as long as it's in the interests of 'National Security', as arbitrarily & unilaterally decided by the unelected, unconstitutional, unaccountable, Deep State serving corporate interests & entrenched idealogues, since 1945, at least.
The US of A hasn't been a sovereign nation, nor arguably even a functioning constitutional Democracy, since FDR's death ... and unless the MICC is confronted, dismantled and destroyed, root & branch, what difference will voting/elections in this faux democracy make ... it hasn't for the last ~71 years ... has it ?
Posted by: Outraged | Feb 21 2017 4:15 utc | 28
Outraged @ 28 said:"Deep State serving corporate interests & entrenched idealogues, since 1945, at least."
Yep! No doubt. Good synopsis on the "Deep State", and who they are. The Corporate part of that alliance finances over and above their Gov. salaries, as they pursue the interests of the Mega-corporations, better known as "American Interests".
The U$A military has killed millions around the globe furthering " American Interests."
And the vast bulk of these Gov. "Deep State" Cabals are not elected, they stay in their positions from Admin. to Admin., no matter the political party in charge.
Posted by: ben | Feb 21 2017 5:01 utc | 29
Christopher Davidson's new book Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle discusses the Blind Sheik and the overall context of the CIA's long standing relations with jihadist: https://www.libertarianinstitute.org/2017/02/shadow-wars-a-renowned-uk-professor-documents-the-rise-of-isis/
Posted by: roberts | Feb 21 2017 7:11 utc | 30
Yul | Feb 20, 2017 5:09:44 PM | 15
An unhealthy lot, the Russian ambassadors. 4 in 3 months. Too much smoking and booze I guess. The Morrel's and Obama's and their types would never stoop to anything so low as knocking off Russian ambassadors.
Posted by: Peter AU | Feb 21 2017 7:52 utc | 31
@28 or
thanks, as always for your links to original documents.
The US of A hasn't been a sovereign nation, nor arguably even a functioning constitutional Democracy, since FDR's death ... and unless the MICC is confronted, dismantled and destroyed, root & branch, what difference will voting/elections in this faux democracy make ... it hasn't for the last ~71 years ... has it ?
you didn't address that question to anyone in particular, but since i run my mouth off on 'elections' ... i'll give it a shot.
there are elections and then there are what we have now, which are called 'elections'.
the former are run bottom-up by the people of any given constituency. and are probably illegal ... or would be/will be if we actually had/have any, in the eyes of our present overlords.
the latter are ... media extravaganzas such as the most recent one that's brought us president trump ... top-down, choose from among distinct personalities with no effective difference between/among the 'policies' to be effected by any of them ... i don't think i have to exhaustively characterize these 'elections' and/or their candidates as they have exhausted all of us already.
i don't see any way other than elections of some sort to discover and document the will of the constituents of any constituency. am open to suggestions.
the question then - other suggestions aside - is how to have bona fide elections.
my suggestion is - just do it, basically. don't ask anyone's permission. no one has the authority to grant or deny such 'permission' anyway. it inheres in us sovereign people, constituents of the office in question. not only our election of representatives, but the power to legislate, to repeal laws made by our representative assemblies, and the power to recall such elected representatives and any all of their appointees also inheres in any sovereign constituency in question. the power to constitute government naturally lies within a constituency.
this/these power/s are alluded to in the us declaration of independence but not in our us constitution. so among our first tasks, once we have seized power, is 'mentioning' them, and correcting other such deficiencies of our constitution as we shall see fit to correct.
in our given political circumstances, the way to proceed seems to me to be as follows ...
1. there are said to be ~150,000 voting precincts in the usa, of between 1,000 and 2,000 voting population each. this seems to be the natural 'cellular' size at which to organize.
2. politics ain't rocket science. we need to define standards for paper ballot polls taken at the level of 1 above : authorization, authentication, physical ballot marking, counting, announcement of results, and storage of ballots for recount.
3. our first mission, once we accept it, is the broadest possible one : to ensure that our methods are accepted and validated nationwide.
4. that does not at all preclude the use of our balloting system to decide our overlords' representative elections in the meantime ... we may do so by defining our minimal platform, discovering among ourselves those who seem most likely to be able to effect our platform in the present congress, and voting them in during what our 'overlords' deem to be the 'real' elections in each of our constituencies.
5. the definition and discovery alluded to in 4 will take multiple elections to achieve. voting in our precincts must become second nature to us. there is no such thing as 'hands free' democracy. a moment or two's reflection will confirm that.
6. there will be clashes between ourselves and our overlords once they discover that we mean actually to seize power ourselves and so to end their rule. we must arm ourselves with an inalienable belief in our own sovereignty and persevere, no matter what forms their resistance to our power may take. our greatest strength will be in the knowledge of not only the rightness but the absolute necessity of our cause. there is no alternative to democracy, to turn the glib phrase of the neo-liberals/neo-cons against themselves.
that's what i see as the problem and its solution. i imagine that serious results might be achieved in 10 or 12 years ... 5 or 6 congressional cycles in the usofa. some surely sooner.
the biggest payoff will be in the transformation of our conception of ourselves from subjects to rulers. a further moment's reflection will confirm that that is exactly what is required by the term democracy.
as i say i am open to suggestions. i'm trying to envision a way from here to there, and that's the path that i can see between the two states.
i think that the idea of a representative administration ... which of necessity tends toward oligarchy, can nonetheless be useful. making traffic laws, seeing to food and drug regulation, making sure that corporations are brought to heel along every dimension of obfuscation and deceit they may employ ... but that such a representative body is merely a tool, and all the results it brings about must be subject to review and approval by the sovereign constituents of our realm ourselves: all of us. any subset of us is sure to have interests that will contend with the interests of all of us, and so only all of us together can straighten out and put right our collective work of self-government. albeit through compromise and majority rule. majority rule may seem tyrannous, but minority rule is surely not an acceptable alternative.
sorry to go on at such length ... as surely the above is only the barest outline of what's required. but you asked a question ... and in my view it literally demands an answer.
Posted by: jfl | Feb 21 2017 8:55 utc | 32
If you do what the ancient Athenians did and choose representatives by lot from the whole citizen body, then, by the laws of statistics, every segment of society, however defined, will be proportionally represented.
Posted by: lysias | Feb 21 2017 11:21 utc | 33
@28 or
i note that you add the second c - for congress? no - to the mic ... followed a link to diana johnstone and discovered the global ...
Military Industrial Media Intelligence Complex, or MIMIC. Its power is enormous, but acknowledging that it exists is the first step toward working to free ourselves from its grip.
... her substitute for deep state. the key is realizing that we are living in Neolibraconia ... sounds like groucho's marxist alma mater. it has no borders. the capitalists/imperialists cry themselves to sleep at night, like cecil rhodes, looking at the stars and thinking of the planets, beyond their reach ... they want them all. earth first, of course ... although until just recently they were sure they already had mother earth in the bag. or was it the trunk?
Posted by: jfl | Feb 21 2017 11:27 utc | 34
"Financed by Saudi sources Abdul-Rahman created various groups of radicals in Egypt and gets deeply involved with Al-Qaeda, recruiting fighters for Afghanistan in cooperation with the CIA and the Pakistani secret services."
The way that sentence reads it sounds like Al-Qaeda existing during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. It didn't. It likely came about afterwards because of the way things ended up. But it was not in existence until sometime after the Soviet occupation ended.
Posted by: Bill Smith | Feb 21 2017 12:08 utc | 35
#15
Churkin will be a great loss. Huge. Syria is now open to total smashing at UN. Syria's only defender assassinated..? It means COG via ZOG will continue (as we've seen already) w/ America taking up where Clinton left off . Already criticizing Russia and deploying troops to her borders. Seems the jettisoned "we will no longer fund ISIS" promise has morphed into the neocon dream of a bottomless sinkhole of military spending on wars for Israel. Remember when the Mouth in Chief ranted on and on about "we must eliminate the trillion dollar debt before it hits 20 trillion" ?
I bet Tavistock supplied him a page of hot button populist talking points he could toss out with no actual belief in them or intent to carry any of them out. Another stuffed shirt who may indeed prove to be America's last Trumpet as the Xtian jewhadis here say
Posted by: festus | Feb 21 2017 12:09 utc | 36
ben says:
...it's so much easier to just consume what's put in front of us...
that's the quantum nature of propaganda, the metaphysics of sorcery, where reality becomes whatever the observer says it is.
...
an absurd narrative only assumes a semblance of reality when the always existing evidence to refute it is ignored.
that was about the last time i heard anyone ask THAT question...
Posted by: john | Feb 21 2017 12:13 utc | 37
FYI- this piece suggested by friend at RT. Interesting in light of Churkins death. Confusing as to where he actually lived and worked among other things. Still convinced Ukraine was a lever against Russia due to its implacable support for Assad
http://theduran.com/breaking-ukraine-blocks-commemorative-resolution-vitaly-churkin-un/
Posted by: festus | Feb 21 2017 12:16 utc | 38
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-rebels-idUSKBN1601BD
Exclusive: CIA-backed aid for Syrian rebels frozen after Islamist attack - sources
CIA-coordinated military aid for rebels in northwest Syria has been frozen since they came under major Islamist attack last month, rebel sources said, raising doubts about foreign support key to their war against President Bashar al-Assad.
Rebel officials said that no official explanation had been given for the move this month following the jihadist assault, though several said they believed the main objective was to prevent arms and cash falling into Islamist militant hands. But they said they expected the aid freeze to be temporary.
The halt in assistance, which has included salaries, training, ammunition and in some cases guided anti-tank missiles, is a response to jihadist attacks and has nothing to do with U.S. President Donald Trump replacing Barack Obama in January, two U.S. officials familiar with the CIA-led program said.
The freeze reflects the troubles facing Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels in the almost in the almost six-year-old revolt against Assad, who now appears militarily unassailable in his core western region largely thanks to direct intervention on his side by Russia and Iran.
"The reality is that you have changes in the area, and these changes inevitably have repercussions," said an official with one of the affected FSA rebel groups. He said no military assistance could "enter at present until matters are organized. There is a new arrangement but nothing has crystallized yet".
The support funneled to vetted FSA factions has included contributions from Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia - states that have opposed Assad. It is one of several foreign aid channels to rebels. Others still function.
The CIA declined comment on the reported freeze in support. A Qatari official said his government had nothing to say on the matter. Turkish officials said only they could not discuss "operational details". There was no word from Saudi Arabia.
Reuters confirmed the freeze with officials from five of the FSA groups that have been recipients of financial and military support from the so-called "MOM operations room". It was also confirmed by two other senior FSA figures briefed on the matter.
They spoke on condition of anonymity given the covert nature of the CIA-backed program and the sensitivity of the subject.
Several rebels believed the aid halt was temporary, with new arrangements expected, but there was no clarity yet. Confirming the freeze, two senior FSA sources said donor states were aiming to send the aid to one, unified fighting force - a coherence that has eluded rebels throughout Syria's civil war.
One of the FSA officials said he did not expect the rebels to be abandoned as they represent the best hope for blocking a further expansion of Sunni jihadist influence in Syria, and to fight back against the growing role of Iran there.
DECLINING REBEL FORTUNES
Idlib and nearby areas of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces are among the last footholds of the anti-Assad insurgency in western Syria - the part of the country where he has shored up his rule by holding onto the main cities and the coast.
Islamists have long been seen as the more formidable insurgent force in the northwestern Idlib area though a dozen or more U.S.-vetted FSA groups have also operated there and nearby.
Posted by: okie farmer | Feb 21 2017 12:29 utc | 39
Outraged 28
US military/POWs are considered expendable; just ask John McCain.
My mother picked up a Military History magazine at the Senior Center because it had an article about the US hostages in Iran. (we had lived there years before) I took notice of a letter to the editor about sub policies in the Pacific in WWII and the writer considered it a superior tactic for US Subs to go after supply ships and troop transports over more tactical targets. A few days before I had read an article about a US POW diary written on scraps by a man who had given them to a friend to pass to his parents (and donated to the Library of Congress). How did the original writer of the diary die? He was on one of those troop transport ships with over 1770 other POWs. Most were lost after the ship was sunk by an American sub. The POWs may not have been intentional targets but the overall policy of targetting personnel had a heavy price. (On the other hand, the Japanese primarily went after military ships. And so we have the story - told in the movie Jaws - of the USS Indianapolis which took the nuclear bomb to Tinian.)
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 21 2017 14:39 utc | 40
Things like Marine Le Pen's refusing to wear a head scarf in order to meet a Muslim leader will undoubtedly help her in the French presidential election.
Le Pen Gains in French Polls as Security Concerns Win Voters:
Marine Le Pen gained ground on her rivals for the French election as she benefits from concerns about security while other candidates trained their fire on independent front-runner Emmanuel Macron.Monday’s daily OpinionWay poll showed that first-round support for anti-euro candidate Le Pen rose 1 percentage point to 27 percent, with Macron and Republican Francois Fillon unchanged at 20 percent each. While no surveys so far have shown Le Pen even close to a victory in May’s run-off, she’s quickly narrowing the gap to her rivals. OpinionWay showed Macron would defeat Le Pen by 58 percent to 42 percent in the second round. His advantage has halved in less than two weeks.
Macron lost half his lead in a runoff in two weeks. That's some momentum.
I suspect the CIA had something to do with sabotaging Fillon's chances. Like Le Pen, and unlike Macron, Fillon favors improving relations with Russia.
Posted by: lysias | Feb 21 2017 15:51 utc | 41
There's no longer any doubt that the U.S. Deep State has for decades viewed radical Islamic terrorism as a tool it could use to help achieve geopolitical aims. There seem to have been two main methods involved - one, recruitment of radical Islamic terrorists who could be manipulated into carrying out attacks against various targets, and two, organization of financial support that couldn't be directly traced back to the United States. The two main players seem to have been the Muslim Brotherhood and the Saudi Wahhabist billionaires, respectively.
(1) The terrorist recruitment program: Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt-based, initially)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jan/12/extract
About a month after I joined [1976], CIA in Bonn cabled that a leader of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood who was living in Germany wanted a meeting with the CIA.. . . I knew, in short, that dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood was playing with fire. These guys were programmed for trouble. But if the Reagan administration really was determined to fight it out with our enemies in Syria and Lebanon, we couldn't have found better surrogates. The only question was what they were prepared to do for us, and to find that out, we had to talk to them.
(2) The financial network: BCCI and the Saudis
http://www.ipsnews.net/2007/04/finance-questions-linger-about-bushes-and-bcci/
BCCI was the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a dirty offshore bank that then-president Ronald Reagan’s Central Intelligence Agency used to run guns to Hussein, finance Osama bin Laden, move money in the illegal Iran-Contra operation and carry out other “agency” black ops. The Bushes also benefited privately; one of the bank’s largest Saudi investors helped bail out George W. Bush’s troubled oil investments. . . The CIA used BCCI Islamabad and other branches in Pakistan to funnel some of the two billion dollars that Washington sent to Osama bin Laden’s Mujahadeen to help fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. It moved the cash the Pakistani military and government officials skimmed from U.S. aid to the Mujahadeen. It also moved money as required by the Saudi intelligence services.
This was the basis of the Afghan-Pakistan program in the 1980s, to support radical Islamic groups that were supposedly under the control of Pakistan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Note that the U.S. could have instead supported the independent nationalist group headed by Ahmad Shah Massoud, but he had no close ties to the Saudis and Pakistan, so he got very little support and ultimately, Pakistan's ISI helped the Taliban take over most of Afghanistan in the 1990s, as detailed in Steve Coll's Ghost Wars. Here he is discussing the paperback update for an hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqs07BrmJ0c
As far as domestic American politics, though, we should admit that Trump's ties to the Saudis and other Gulf Arab monarchies seem about as extensive as Hillary Clinton's; the Trump family business (with his sons running off to Dubai to open golf courses, etc.) seems very similar to how the Clinton Global Initiative and Podesta & Co. and Bill Clinton operated - private junkets, speaking fees, large donations, etc. Regardless, Trump is highly destablizing to establishment programs and Clinton would have been more closely aligned with Deep State agendas. Chaotic disruption is about all we can hope for from Trump, but that's still better than what Clinton & Co. would be up to right now.
Incidentally, one of the more telling email chains detailing these relationships is from the Podesta wikileaks trove and involves a lawyer, Jack Quinn (also for Bill Clinton & Blackwater) for the 9/11 families attempting to protect Saudi Arabia from prosecution via contacts with Podesta:
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/. . .
This is a lawyer for the 9/11 families, remember - but look what he's up to:
Over the years since the 9/11 attack and the filing of our litigation, the families and other plaintiffs have had a long history of dealings with the Department of State and the Congress, principally through counsel. Much of that interaction has involved the legal question whether the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should be dismissed from the suit on grounds of sovereign immunity and whether there are ways in which we might expedite resolution of this matter in the interests of justice, a goal we are convinced can be achieved consistent with our national security interests.
Podesta's response is to forward the email to Cheryl Mills, getting back to the laywer Jack Quinn, who responds:
John, I see this, of course, through all my own lenses, those of someone who cares deeply about the families cause. But I equally do not want this cause not to be misused for political purposes. Those of us who have been concerned about that politicization have had some thoughts about how to defang the issue and would be happy to knock those around with you or Cheryl if and whenever you like.
This looks like an effort to get a confidential settlement from the Saudis while hiding the role the Saudis played in financing the 9/11 hijackers from the public, which is right in line with the kind of relationship the U.S. government has had with radical Islamic terror groups and their direct financial sponsors (Saudi billionaires and Pakistan ISI and various Wahhabist charitable foundations) over the years.
It also raises the question of the extent of foreknowledge of the 9/11 hijackings possessed by various members of the Bush Administration in the summer of 2001.
Posted by: nonsense factory | Feb 21 2017 16:13 utc | 42
Trump had better rein in the intelligence agencies or he could be next. More on Russians targeted by NATO/West
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/someone-just-sent-a-message-putins-favorite-chauffer-killed-while-driving-presidential-limo_09092016
Or this: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-airplane-idUSKBN14E02Y
Will only escalate if CIA MOSSAD, Inc is not stopped. I nominate some spirit cooking of Samantha Powers to get things rolling.
Posted by: festus | Feb 21 2017 16:19 utc | 43
Thanks, Les, jfl
The FBI Allowed the 1993 WTC Bombing to Happen
Here's the link to the NYT reporting on the trial testimony showing the WTC 93 bombing was an FBI operation. I've since wondered if such reporting s the reason that the IC and their associated politicians prefer that there be no real criminal trials in these cases.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/wtcbomb.html
The FBI Allowed the 1993 WTC Bombing to Happen
THE NEW YORK TIMES
* * * * *
Thursday October 28, 1993 Page A1
"Tapes Depict Proposal to Thwart
Bomb Used in Trade Center Blast"
By Ralph Blumenthal
Law-enforcement officials were told that terrorists were building a bomb that was eventually used to blow up the World Trade Center, and they planned to thwart the plotters by secretly substituting harmless powder for the explosives, an informer said after the blast.
There is another hidden story behind the 1993 bombing attempt. There was evidence of Israeli involvement in the plot which was described by journalist Jane Hunter in two articles in the excellent but now defunct Middle East International. The U.S. authorities, of course, would not pursue any leads leading to Israel.
Posted by: Edward | Feb 21 2017 17:25 utc | 46
The spillover effects (domestic terrorism on American soil and in Europe, plus the current massive refugee crisis) of American foreign policy in the Middle East are probably more accidental than planned (on the part of western government leaders) but opportunistic leaders are always willing to exploit them to increase their power and agenda (as Bush and Cheney did after 9/11). However, "let it happen on purpose" is as close to conspiracy as they're likely to get to personal involvement. More active behavior is too likely to be exposed (which, for example, is why the CIA didn't plant WMDs in Iraq after the invasion).
The history here is pretty damning, regardless:
http://www.historycommons.org...western_support_for_islamic_militancy
1954-1970: CIA and the Muslim Brotherhood Ally to Oppose Egyptian President Nasser
In 1954, Egyptian President Gamal Abddul Nasser’s nationalist policies in Egypt come to be viewed as completely unacceptable by Britain and the US. MI6 and the CIA jointly hatch plans for his assassination. According to Miles Copeland, a CIA operative based in Egypt, the opposition to Nasser is driven by the commercial community—the oil companies and the banks. At the same time, the Muslim Brotherhood’s resentment of Nasser’s secular government also comes to a head. . . The CIA funnels support to the Muslim Brotherhood because of “the Brotherhood’s commendable capability to overthrow Nasser.”
After Nasser's death, Anwar Sadat comes into power, and promotes the Muslim Brotherhood-Saudi-CIA nexus:
During Sadat’s tenure in the 1970’s Egypt becomes a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism, and figures like Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman and Ayman al-Zawahiri gain great power in Egypt during this period.
The Deep State obviously misses the good old days when it could justify bloated budgets based on the Communist threat - so now it's back to Russia fearmongering? And the new NSC advisor looks like a McCain type, too. Will Trump eventually get on board the Deep State agenda and start backing radical Islamic terror groups, then? 50:50 chances?
Posted by: nonsense factory | Feb 21 2017 18:17 utc | 47
From the Mujahideen in Afgh. or perhaps before, ‘islamist’ radicals have been used, nay, say, created and funded:
1) as a proxy force against US ‘enemies’ or ‘threats’ - outsourcing for cheap, as the US can’t afford to fight full scale wars, or to face the public with their aims, all has to be muddled and propagandised (see Syria..)
2) at home, to scare ppl into submission, using false flags over and over, to pass Patriot acts, no-fly lists, etc. thereby augmenting control at home
On the grand world geo-political stage, to effect a re-modelling of ‘countries’ or ‘areas’ according to religious/ethnic/racial criteria, i.e. to set up ‘regions’ that are defined by religion, culture, race as opposed to ‘governance, model of society…’ -> the World of Tribes.
That world of tribes includes first of all Israel and KSA (+ other GCC), where it becomes easy to control from above, in a hierarchical scheme, in which the US controls these tribes, and passes down ‘local authority’ to its vassals and stooges, paying them handsomely. Not new, but becoming more blatant day by day. KSA and Israel need this model for survival, therefore they are allies.
Any country that is ‘socialist - nationalist - secular’ (in the sense of treating ppl as sorta-equals and independent of looks, race, religion, parentage, etc.) is a target for destruction. (Afgh. (imperfect …), Iraq, Lybia, and previously Yugoslavia, etc.) All those who adhere to some ‘religious’ agenda - like the Muslim Brotherhood, are to be supported — see for ex. McCain and Arab Spring.
The EU, too, has been under severe pressure to create ‘Regions’ that are not subsumed under ‘Nation States’ (France, Spain..) but directly dependent on Brussels, the EU.
Posted by: Noirette | Feb 21 2017 18:32 utc | 48
smoke 19, jfl 22
Corbett's interview "Visas for Terrorists" Michael Springmann.(40 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpXqlv1K4Xg
In the interview, he covers the blind sheikh, visas for 9/11 terrorists and al Qaeda fighters for various conflicts, and CIA operatives at State Dept positions. The book has lots of details.
nonsense factory 47
Sadat may have initially supported MB but it looks like they (and EIJ?) turned against him at some point. In a twisted way, it's funny that just as MB gets some political power, they reveal their real intentions and wind up getting clamped down.
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 21 2017 21:14 utc | 49
Outraged @28--
Outstanding research and referencing as usual all pointing in the proper direction. But I don't think FDR is as innocent as he's often made to seem; after all, he allowed those who plotted to overthrow him to not face the consequences. And more than a few of those people were brought into the government to prosecute the war. Yes, FDR was called an Internationalist, but of what sort? The answer to that is found in his actions as Assistant Navy Secretary that aren't included in the Wikipedia summary of his service then, although some is helpful--he was certainly a disciple of Mahan and an Imperialist Internationalist keen to inherit the soon to be bankrupt British Empire and its Great Game vs Russia.
But what of the Deep State's roots? I'd say it was present at the beginning in 1776; it's members mostly listed on the Declaration, then later represented at the Articles of Confederation Coup Plot in Philadelphia, better known as the Constitutional Convention, with the Federalist Party being their initial political grouping, although it excluded some important Deep State members--Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe being 3. The very thinly examined period of US History from the end of Reconstruction to the rise of T. Roosevelt hides lots of important information on the genesis of the modern Deep State, just as Kolko's Trimuph of Consevatism only skims the surface of the so-called Progressive Era--an Orwellian term to be sure. Personally, I focused much more on the history of the Populists than that of the formation of the Deep State, but some work was done by Nevins in his examination of Hamilton Fish and his two volumes about The Emergence of Modern America, published in 1927 & 1941, which I'd use to point toward more detailed studies for examination. Why focus on determining the roots? Problem Tree logic says that to solve the problem in question the roots of it must be identified so the whole issue can be totally uprooted and die completely like a weed. I see much of the roots beginning at the beginning, with the 1787 coup and the resulting governing laws and organization that resulted--all ripe to foment and support a hierarchy/oligarchy, that most unfortunately would not become altruistic Philosopher Kings but the opposite.
Thanks to b, jfl, nonsense factory, Curtis, ben, outraged, and others who've done great work on this thread. Its subject is far more important than discussing the inanities of Trump.
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 21 2017 21:37 utc | 50
#7
Charles Manson to be let out of prison to attend the film and receive a Oscar for the film 'helter skelter'. He may be nominated for a Nobel peace prize.
If they resurrected Dr Mengele for the Nobel prize in medicine, they'd have grounds to issue 2 Nobel prizes - one for the team who resurrected Mengele (wow!) and the other one for Dr Mengele's own Aryan = Scandinavian friendly achievements, the fruit of his hard labour in labour camps, obviously.
Posted by: Quadriad | Feb 21 2017 22:04 utc | 51
"The “Counter-terrorism” Campaign in Syria is Fake. “Dark State” Manipulations Serve as Barriers to Peace"
Another "brick in the wall" people. From Global Research..
Posted by: ben | Feb 22 2017 1:00 utc | 52
That world of tribes includes first of all Israel and KSA (+ other GCC), where it becomes easy to control from above, in a hierarchical scheme, in which the US controls these tribes, and passes down ‘local authority’ to its vassals and stooges, paying them handsomely.
Not quite first time posting. I am hoping you can give an example of the "control" the US exerts in Israel. I can't think of any.
Posted by: mena | Feb 22 2017 2:34 utc | 53
TL;DR Warning, long post/rant ;)
@ Posted by: jfl | Feb 21, 2017 3:55:08 AM | 32
@ Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 21, 2017 4:37:48 PM | 50
Am reluctant to continue the oblique discussion, yet the thread is slow and these issues speak to the root cause and genesis of 'unaccountable power' that led to these individual events, IMV, so ...
Jfl, Military Industrial Congressional Complex (MICC) as originally drafted and intended by Ike, the current 5 suborned Mega-Media-Corporations could be considered subsumed within 'Industrial', yes ?
karflof1, FDR was no saint, yet is well regarded and known to existing populace, and was clearly anti-fascist as opposed to administrations prior and after FDR. He was well known to be near death and highly unlikely to live long into a 4th term, hence why the corrupt party bosses installed the bankrupt, corrupt, politically indebted/beholden and week-willed malleable Truman as VP. All the 'New Dealers' were quickly purged or effectively sidelined. De Javu re the recent corrupt/exposed DNC primaries/campaign, perhaps ?
Go too far back (beyond '45 ?) re any sort of discussion as to why we are where we are today, and it falls into entrenched perceived mythology of little relatable personal lived relevance, IMV. Why ? 'cause the Trump factions anomalous(?) ascendance and out of proportion reactions to it, create a chink in the sustained conformist false 'narrative' of generations. An opportunity now exists to increase the numbers of those who are 'aware' re reality/history, whether neutral, for or against the Trump-faction. IMHO.
An overlooked historical event that one thinks speaks to both your points and the true nature/alignment of the Republics Federal government & indeed Congress from inception ...
The Whiskey Rebellion beginning in 1791:Farmers living west of the Appalachian Mountains distilled their excess grain into whiskey, which was easier and more profitable to transport over the mountains than the more cumbersome grain. A whiskey tax would make western farmers less competitive with eastern grain producers. Additionally, cash was always in short supply on the frontier, so whiskey often served as a medium of exchange. For poorer people who were paid in whiskey, the excise was essentially an income tax that wealthier easterners did not pay.
Small-scale farmers also protested that Hamilton's excise effectively gave unfair tax breaks to large distillers, most of whom were based in the east. There were two methods of paying the whiskey excise: paying a flat fee or paying by the gallon. Large distillers produced whiskey in volume and could afford the flat fee. The more efficient they became, the less tax per gallon they would pay (as low as 6 cents, according to Hamilton). Western farmers who owned small stills did not usually operate them year-round at full capacity, so they ended up paying a higher tax per gallon (9 cents), which made them less competitive. The regressive nature of the tax was further compounded by an additional factor: whiskey sold for considerably less on the cash-poor Western frontier than in the wealthier and more populous East. This meant that, even if all distillers had been required to pay the same amount of tax per gallon, the small-scale frontier distillers would still have to remit a considerably larger proportion of their product's value than larger Eastern distillers. Small-scale distillers believed that Hamilton deliberately designed the tax to ruin them and promote big business, a view endorsed by some historians. However, historian Thomas Slaughter argued that a "conspiracy of this sort is difficult to document". Whether by design or not, large distillers recognized the advantage that the excise gave them and they supported it...
The Rebellion raised the question of what kinds of protests were permissible under the new Constitution. Legal historian Christian G. Fritz argued that there was not yet a consensus about sovereignty in the United States, even after ratification of the Constitution. Federalists believed that the government was sovereign because it had been established by the people; radical protest actions were permissible during the American Revolution but were no longer legitimate, in their thinking. But the Whiskey Rebels and their defenders believed that the Revolution had established the people as a "collective sovereign", and the people had the collective right to change or challenge the government through extra-constitutional means.
Historian Steven Boyd argued that the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion prompted anti-Federalist westerners to finally accept the Constitution and to seek change by voting for Republicans rather than resisting the government. Federalists, for their part, came to accept the public's role in governance and no longer challenged the freedom of assembly and the right to petition.
I would argue that the following ~226 years of American government and the Deep State(& earlier prototypes) is an endless series of 'Whiskey Rebellions', repeatedly resulting in the crushing of any dissent or resistance to faux government of & for exploitative corrupt 'Big Business'.
Jfl, unless an overwhelming critical mass of the population first have their indoctrinated perceived reality re the fraud of 'The American Dream' & 'Freedom & Democracy' belief in the validity of faux parties upturned and made 'aware', then how would your proposal get past go ? Consider the following ...
@ Posted by: ben | Feb 21, 2017 12:01:09 AM | 29
Essentially concurrent with what the sock-puppet Truman was used to enact by corrupt party power-brokers in league with Wall Streets owners, was the 'Red Scare/s(1&2)' & 'Lavender Scare'. The active reversal of addressing segregation & civil rights by FDR's administration and a complete infiltration and destruction of labor/union movements, workers, social & civil rights and associated entities under the faux claim of, 'Y'all are Commies! or Subversives or Gays !'. This did not end with McCarthy who was actually fed by J Edgar Hoover and as a means to undermine Eisenhowers popularity.
President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9835, the "Loyalty Order", in March 1947. An eventful year, 1947 ...
The order established the first general loyalty program in the United States, designed to root out 'communist'(simple Dissent ?) influence in the U.S. federal government. Truman aimed to rally public opinion behind his Cold War policies with investigations conducted under its authority...
The Executive Order 10450, signed by President Eisenhower in April 1953, revoked Executive Order 9835 and extended the restrictions to all other jobs in the US government...
Previously, the criteria used to define a security risk were largely political, that is, affiliation with suspect organizations or a clear demonstration of disloyalty. Executive Order 10450 added more general estimations of character, stability, and reliability. Its language was broad: "Any criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct, habitual use of intoxicants to excess, drug addiction, or sexual perversion." At the same time, the executive order's provisions contained advice on evaluating character problems, as in its provision that the medical valuation of a psychological problem should show "due regard to the transient or continuing effect of the illness."Without explicitly referring to homosexuality, the executive order responded to several years of charges that the presence of homosexual employees in the State Department posed blackmail risks. Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. explained that the new order was designed to encompass both loyalty and security risks and he differentiated between the two: "Employees could be a security risk and still not be disloyal or have any traitorous thoughts, but it may be that their personal habits are such that they might be subject to blackmail by people who seek to destroy the safety of our country." The executive order had the effect of banning gay men and lesbians from working for any agency of the federal government.
Loyalty and security tests spread through the federal government. At these inquiries, federal employees were asked questions such as:
Is it proper to mix white and Negro blood plasma?
There is a suspicion in your record that you are in sympathy with the underprivileged. Is that true?
What were your feelings at that time concerning race equality?
Have you ever made statements about the "downtrodden masses" and "underprivileged people"?
Have you engaged in sexual behavior of a criminal nature or sexual behavior that may cause you to be vulnerable to coercion, exploitation, or duress ?
This didn't even begin to be partially redressed until the mid 60's and I would seriously argue virtually any organization/association/entity, or politician/leader in existence re the above issues has been actively targeted/destroyed, infiltrated & suborned since '47 (& prior) on an ongoing, unrelenting basis by any and all means necessary, both domestically and wherever possible internationally.
EO 9835 and EO 10450 weren't repealed until Prez Bill Clinton signed EO 12968 in 1995 & EO 13087 in 1998(!).
So, a 20 year old entering federal service in 1995/1998 in an entrenched, assimilated ideological culture, with mandatory enforced/re-inforced attitudes/beliefs going back many generations would only now be in mid-management, ~20 years later, perhaps, assuming they survived or advanced at all ... should they not 'conform' ...
Hence, as long as the aims of Global Empire, supra-national/supra-legal 5-Eyes imperialism, more sophisticated yet harking back to the 19th century continues in the form of overt & covert endless war profiteering & neo-colonial resource exploitation by such continues, contrary to an actual democratic sovereign State nor the benefit of its citizens, then any hope of ever substantially addressing those domestic issues will likely only result in repeating unpleasant historical events ...
The Deep State exists to serve almost exclusively the corporate interests that created it ... Divide & Rule & deny/suppress/destroy any and all dissent/opposition/non-conformism/protest/resistance/'Others' re what was 'The Whiskey Rebellion' to 'The New Deal' and since.
Achieving a critical mass re 'awareness' of actual reality and true history is the mandatory prerequisite to any possibility of effective change, IMV. Thank FSM for digital Samizdat, 'The Internet', or an obviously accidental & unintended consequence of DARPA research funding ;)
Rant over, My 2c is up.
Posted by: Outraged | Feb 22 2017 4:10 utc | 54
Outraged 54
The Whiskey Rebellion writeup from wikipedia brought up a funny point. After rebels set up their new government, one of the first things they do is make rebellion illegal. Meet the new boss so to speak. And it's a good reminder that (the new hero) Hamilton brought this tax about to serve his NYC cronies.
And all hail the internet as an inadvertent creation that helped many people to wake up. They created their own monster. Will it help us save the day?
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 22 2017 16:13 utc | 55
Edward @46
Do you have a link? Can we read what she wrote?
Posted by: Castellio | Feb 22 2017 19:08 utc | 56
Castellio,
I scanned an article but can't copy it into a comment. I can email it. Middle East International lost 70% of its institutional subscriptions after it ran articles critical of the first Gulf war and eventually went bankrupt. You are unlikely to find old copies of the magazine outside a good academic library. The article I found is from the 3/19/1993 issue.
Posted by: Edward | Feb 23 2017 2:21 utc | 57
Edward @57
I appreciate the information. Thank you.
Posted by: Castellio | Feb 23 2017 22:27 utc | 58
b
Congrats! You're blog is acknowledged for pointing out the BS of this story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vvLpA-2DsY
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 23 2017 23:02 utc | 59
Outraged @54--
Thanks for your "rant"; it was well done!
Looks like your neverending Whiskey Rebellion hypothesis is close to the mark when one reads about legislation proposed in Arizona and other Republican controlled states, http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/02/23/new-law-would-let-arizona-treat-organized-dissent-organized-crime
Glenn Greenwald's take on the current propaganda being a rerun of previous design's very well done and provides a link to IF Stone's resource site, which is worth spending some time at, https://theintercept.com/2017/02/23/the-increasingly-unhinged-russia-rhetoric-comes-from-a-long-standing-u-s-playbook/
Both articles show a depth of depravity likely unmatched in any nation. Why are Americans with their hands on the levers of power so singularly evil--an evil differing from Daesh's.
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 24 2017 0:49 utc | 60
@ Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 23, 2017 7:49:00 PM | 60
Two excellent links, thank you.
Indeed, your first link is an explicit 21st century version of all past action under a faux guise/justification ... for the benefit of ?
Thank you for the Greenwald link, very germane and on 'point'.
To your last question, it is my lived belief that the 0.01% essentially toy/manipulate with power & extra-ordinary wealth as psychopathic pseudo-gods on Olympus essentially playing an enteratining, 'game'. What is there left to do when you 'have it all' ? Therefore they and their subordinates/agents and agencies/tools select for psychopathic/sociopathic/ideological traits in their MICC sock-puppets and so on down the line ...
It is well understood that the culture, conduct and values of any organization are set & determined by the management/leadership.
Our 'Militarized' domestic Police force now rivals the actual uniformed military of smaller nations in terms of force capabilities/materiel :(
If such traits are selected for and sustained within the organs/bureaucracy of the State for generation upon generation, then why would such depravity not exist ?
We deliberately dropped the atom bombs to send a 'message' to a third party, the Evil Russkies. The Japanese casualties weren't even a consideration, they were already knowingly defeated months earlier, the war was being 'dragged-out' ... anything since pales in comparison to those singular evils.
As a willing, active & committed servant of Empire, a 'good german' for the better part of my life, until an , event, triggered a partial epiphany that resolved over the following few years, to a total 180' rejection of everything one had believed prior ... no matter how evil Daesh is, and they are merely our plausibly-deniable proxies and simultaneous faux enemy, they are nothing in comparison to us.
JFK was in no way whatsoever a saintly knight of a mythologized fictitious Camelot, yet he was the last to repeatedly openly challenge the MICC ... and we know how that ended when over time it was determined he clearly couldn't be convinced/converted/constrained ...
Posted by: Outraged | Feb 24 2017 2:33 utc | 61
The comments to this entry are closed.
Great call!
Thanks for showing the dual nature of our government's actions. Why would they allow someone into the US who is such a radical? It makes no sense unless there is another purpose to be served. And he got a tourist visa from Sudan? At least Sudan is on Trump's list. But like the author of "Visas for Terrorists" pointed out, they can get their visas anywhere. And it was the couple (lawyer and his wife) who pointed out that the "underwear bomber" had help from a suited gentleman to board the plane. It's like that comment credited to Forrestal about the State Dept: if they were doing these things at random, you would expect them to get it right once in a while.
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 20 2017 20:10 utc | 1