Freedom and Democracy is Dying

Kurt Nimmo

Saturday February 24th 2007, 3:00 pm

Source: http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=781

“A Gallup poll surveying US opinion on geopolitics singles out Israel as only foreign nation Americans feel favorably toward and also say that what happens there is vitally important to the US,” the Israeli online newspaper Yedioth Internet reports.

Never mind Israel attacked the USS Liberty in 1967, killing 34 Americans and wounding 171, and never mind Israel was caught red-handed in 1954 plotting to blow up U.S. targets and presumably killing Americans in Egypt, and never mind, according to a German public television (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) documentary, the main suspects in the 1986 Berlin disco bombing that killed two U.S. soldiers, an event that provided a pretext for a U.S. air assault on Libya, worked for Israeli intelligence (with more than a little help from American spooks), and never mind that in response to Jonathan Pollard selling U.S. secrets to Israel resulting in the execution of CIA agents in the Soviet Union, Israel granted Pollard citizenship and continues to pester U.S. officials and presidents, demanding the traitor be released, and finally never mind that Israel used nuclear blackmail to force Kissinger and Nixon to airlift supplies during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Never mind. Americans like to be stabbed in the back.

“The country viewed as least-favorable by Americans is Iran (9 percent), followed by North Korea (12), Iraq (15), Palestinian Authority (16), Syria (21), Afghanistan (23), Cuba (25), Pakistan (28), Saudi Arabia (35), Venezuela (41) and China (48),” the Gallup poll indicates.

Never mind that not one of the above mentioned nations ever declared war on the United States, although Iran, Iraq, the Palestinians, Afghanistan, and Cuba have more the enough reason to regard the United States, and indeed its brain-dead public, not only as “least-favorable” but with contempt.

How many Americans know that the CIA, in cahoots with British Petroleum, planned and executed a coup against Mohammad Mosaddeq, a democratically elected and popular Iranian leader, ushering in the dictatorial rule of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and his brutal secret police, SAVAK?

How many Americans—completely up to speed on the rotting corpse of Anna Nicole Smith—know Saddam Hussein was a CIA asset, a hired thug tasked with killing Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim in 1959?

How many Americans know the United States gives Israel all the military equipment and money it requires to slaughter the Palestinians?

Of course, many Americans realize the United States invaded Afghanistan, as that is recent history and amnesia has yet to set in, but how many of them realize the United States had plans on the table to invade the country well before September 11, 2001?

How many Americans know Cuba, in a $181.1 billion lawsuit filed in 1999 against the United States on behalf of the Cuban people, alleged that for over 40 years, “terrorism has been permanently used by the U.S. as an instrument of its foreign policy against Cuba,” and it “became more systematic as a result of the covert action program.” Does the average American know the United States engaged in biological warfare against Cuba, using a virulent strains of dengue fever, swine flu, and other biological agents against people, livestock, and agriculture?

Dreadful few Americans know these things.

“‘The broad support of the American people to Israel is of the utmost strategic importance to Israel and it must be nurtured and maintained,’ Israeli ambassador to the United States Salai Meridor told Ynet in response to the poll’s findings.’The United States understands that Israel stand with it against extremists threatening world security. The results of this poll give expression to the shared values and interests between Israel and the US,’ said Meridor.”

Of course, these “shared values and interests between Israel and the US” will last only as long as the people of the United States continue to fork over billions of dollars every year to fund the racist settler state of Israel. Israel will remain a “friend” only so long as the United States squanders its treasure and soldiers in fighting wars against Israel’s enemies.

It will be interesting to see poll results after the coming conflagration—and economic disaster—touched off by the invasion of Iran, an invasion launched at Israel’s behest, of course, as there is no reason for America to fear Iran or its illusory nukes.

On September 11th 2001, BBC World reported at 4:57pm Eastern Time that the Salomon Brothers Building (more commonly known as WTC7 or World Trade Building 7) had collapsed.

This even made the 5pm EST headlines, what is bizarre is that the building did not actually collapse until 5:20pm EST.

9/11 was unusual enough, without BBC World being able to foretell the destiny of WTC 7.

What is even stranger, is that the women reporter is telling the world that the building had collapsed when you can see it in the background over her left shoulder.

Then at 5:15pm EST, just five minutes before the building did actually collapse, her live connection from New York to London mysteriously fails.

So the question is, on 9/11 how did the BBC learn that WTC7 collapsed 23 minutes before it actually did.

Building Seven was 47 storeys, modern in design with structural steel throughout, yet symmetrically collapsed in 6.5 seconds, was someone leaking information.

No steel framed skyscraper has ever collapsed due to fire, before or after 9/11, most people who find out about WTC7, believe it was brought down by a controlled demolition, even demolition experts agree.

Please Investigate 9/11 - Time is of the essence.

Probably the only decent and moral candidate to consider running for US president. A solid track record and character.

By Chalmers Johnson, Metropolitan Books

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story/47998/

The following is excerpted from Chalmers Johnson's new book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic" (Metropolitan Books).

Once upon a time, you could trace the spread of imperialism by counting up colonies. America's version of the colony is the military base; and by following the changing politics of global basing, one can learn much about our ever more all-encompassing imperial "footprint" and the militarism that grows with it.

It is not easy, however, to assess the size or exact value of our empire of bases. Official records available to the public on these subjects are misleading, although instructive. According to the Defense Department's annual inventories from 2002 to 2005 of real property it owns around the world, the Base Structure Report, there has been an immense churning in the numbers of installations.

The total of America's military bases in other people's countries in 2005, according to official sources, was 737. Reflecting massive deployments to Iraq and the pursuit of President Bush's strategy of preemptive war, the trend line for numbers of overseas bases continues to go up.

For rest of story... 

Source: TvNewsLIES.org

Let’s get something clear, it is America that marched into Iraq, bomb first, and enable the start of a conflict in which it was not involved. America is the enemy of the “insurgents; and the Iraqi people not the other way around!

Before our little trip to Iraq these so called enemies were nothing more than a people who were being accused of being our enemies. It turns out (although many of us knew this all along) these people were not claiming to be our enemies nor were they acting like our enemies. Actually there were no indications at all, outside the claims of the Bush administrations, that they were then or ever would be our enemies. But the Bush administration was determined to create an enemy in the region and by golly they did!

Iraq’s government and what is now the insurgency, were not arming themselves (creating WMD) to harm us, were not threatening us verbally and were not working to assist people who wanted to harm us. They were completely innocent. So what did we do to these people…we blew up their nation and their children and their mothers and fathers and their sisters and their brothers. Even after we officially realized (the media admitted) that there was no threat and that we essentially pummeled an innocent nation, we never even apologized!

So America proceeds to obliterate a nation, kill untold numbers of civilians, establish a security free zone where generational tensions were able to flourish into a full blown civil war, destroy hospitals, electrical plants, water treatment facilities, create a refugee nightmare, and let’s not forget place billions of dollars into the black hole of “government contractors” (Cheney friends) and perhaps into the hands of the so called insurgents themselves…and we call THEM the enemy? Every death in Iraq related to war is OUR FAULT! I should say it is the fault of the Bush administration and the US criminal corporate media!

There are no enemies in Iraq other than Americans, and we better start recognizing this; the rest of the world already does. Think about it! – Jesse, Editor, TvNewsLIES.org

Source: www.oldamericancentury.org

Source: www.oldamericancentury.org

By Paul Craig Roberts

14 February, 2007 - Countercurrents.org

What would be the consequences of a US or Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear energy sites?

At the 2006 Perdana Global Peace Forum, Australian medical scientist Dr. Helen Caldicott provided an authoritative analysis: [VIDEO] of the devastating impact on human life that would result from the radiation release from such an attack.

Dr. Caldicott described the catastrophic deaths that would result from a conventional attack on nuclear facilities and the long-term increase in cancer deaths from the radiation release.

Should the attack be made with nuclear weapons--as some of Bush’s criminally insane neoconservative advisers advocate--the populations of many countries would suffer for generations from radioactive particles in air, water, and food chains. Deaths would number in the many millions.

Such an attack justified in the name of “American security” and “American hegemony” would constitute the rawest form of evil the world has ever seen, far surpassing in evil the atrocities of the Nazi and Communist regimes.

Dr. Caldicott detailed the horrible long-term consequences for the Iraqi population from the US military’s current use of depleted uranium in explosive ammunition used in Iraq. Caldicott explained that “depleted” does not mean depleted of radiation. She explained that each time such ammunition is used, radioactive particles are released in the air and are absorbed into people’s lungs. We are yet to see the horrific civilian casualty rate of the American invasion--or the true casualty rate among US troops.

Dr. Caldicott expressed bewilderment why the rest of the world does not stand up to the US and force a halt to its crimes against humanity.

One man heard her--Vladimir Putin, President of Russia.

On February 10 at the 43rd Munich Security Conference, President Putin told the world’s assembled political leaders that the US was trying to establish a “uni-polar world,” which he defined as “one single center of power, one single center of force and one single master.”

This goal, Putin said, was a “formula for disaster.”

“The United States,” Putin said, truthfully, “has overstepped its borders in all spheres” and “has imposed itself on other states.”

The Russian leader declared: “We see no kind of restraint--a hyper-inflated use of force.”

To avoid catastrophe, Putin said a reconsideration of the entire existing architecture of global security was necessary.

Putin’s words of truth fell on many deaf ears. US Senator John McCain, America’s most idiotic and dangerous “leader” after Bush and Cheney, equated Putin’s legitimate criticism of the US with “confrontation.”

America’s new puppets--the states of central and Eastern Europe and the secretary general of NATO, no longer a treaty for the defense of Europe but a military force enlisted in America’s quest for empire--lined up with McCain’s argument that Russia was in fundamental conflict “with the core values of Euro-Atlantic democracies.”

Even the BBC’s defense and security correspondent, Rob Watson, jumped on the American propaganda bandwagon, tagging Putin’s speech a revival of the cold war.

No delegate at the security conference stood up to state the obvious fact that it is not Russia that is invading countries under pretexts as false as Hitler’s and setting up weapons systems on foreign soil in order to achieve military hegemony.

The reception given to Putin’s words made it clear to Russia, China, and every country not bribed, threatened or purchased into participation in America’s drive for world hegemony that the US has no interest whatsoever in peace. Intelligent people realize that American claims to be a moral and democratic force are mere pretense behind which hides a policy of military aggression.

The US, Putin said, has gone “from one conflict to another without achieving a fully-fledged solution to any of them.”

Putin has repeatedly stressed Russia’s peaceful intentions and desire to focus on its economy and to avoid a new arms race. In his speech on the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, Putin said: “I am convinced that there is no alternative to our friendship and our fraternity. With our closest neighbors and all countries of the world, Russia is prepared to build a kind of relationship which is not only based on lessons of the past but is also directed into a shared future.”

In his 2006 state of the nation speech, Putin noted that America’s military budget is 25 times larger than Russia’s. He compared the Bush Regime to a wolf who eats whom he wants without listening. Putin is being demonized by US propagandists, because he insists upon Russia being a politically and economically independent state.

The Bush Regime has taken the US outside the boundaries of international law and is acting unilaterally, falsely declaring American military aggression to be “defensive” and in the interests of peace. Much of the world realizes the hypocrisy and danger in the Bush Regime’s justification of the unbridled use of US military power, but no countries except other nuclear powers can challenge American aggression, and then only at the risk of all life on earth.

The solution is nonmilitary challenge.

The Bush Regime’s ability to wage war is dependent upon foreign financing. The Regime’s wars are financed with red ink, which means the hundreds of billions of dollars must be borrowed. As American consumers are spending more than they earn on consumption, the money cannot be borrowed from Americans.

The US is totally dependent upon foreigners to finance its budget and trade deficits. By financing these deficits, foreign governments are complicit in the Bush Regime’s military aggressions and war crimes. The Bush Regime’s two largest lenders are China and Japan. It is ironic that Japan, the only nation to experience nuclear attack by the US, is banker to the Bush Regime as it prepares a possible nuclear attack on Iran.

If the rest of the world would simply stop purchasing US Treasuries, and instead dump their surplus dollars into the foreign exchange market, the Bush Regime would be overwhelmed with economic crisis and unable to wage war. The arrogant hubris associated with the “sole superpower” myth would burst like the bubble it is.

The collapse of the dollar would also end the US government’s ability to subvert other countries by purchasing their leaders to do America’s will.

The demise of the US dollar is only a question of time. It would save the world from war and devastation if the dollar is brought to its demise before the Bush Regime launches its planned attack on Iran.


Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17021.htm

Gentle reader, you are probably unaware of former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski’s damning indictment of the Bush Regime in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 1, 2007, as the United States no longer has a media--only a government propaganda ministry.

02/09/07 "ICH' -- -- Brzezinski damned the Bush Regime’s war in Iraq as “a historic, strategic, and moral calamity.” Brzezinski damned the war as “driven by Manichean impulses and imperial hubris.” He damned the war for “intensifying regional instability” and for “undermining America’s global legitimacy.”

Finally, a voice with weight speaks. Brzezinski is a real intellect, a real expert, unlike the political hacks who have followed him in the office.

Brzezinski told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “the final destination on this downhill track is likely to be a head-on conflict with Iran and with much of the world of Islam.” Brzezinski predicts “some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the U.S. blamed on Iran; culminating in a ‘defensive’ U.S. military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.”

There is something deadly wrong with a society and a political system that permits a Regime capable of such insane and criminal “leadership” to remain in power. By the time Hitler launched World War II, the German Reichstag had no power to prevent him. But we have not yet reached that point in the United States.

Brzezinski concludes his testimony with the statement that it is “time for the Congress to assert itself.”

The reasons for impeaching Bush and Cheney exceed by many multiples all the reasons for impeaching every president combined in US history. The reasons have been enumerated many times and do not need repeating. If members of Congress were faithful to their oaths of office to uphold the Constitution, Bush and Cheney would already have been impeached and convicted.

The very least Congress can do at this very late stage is to make it perfectly clear in no uncertain terms that any attack on Iran under any pretext without the authorization of Congress after a careful examination of the pretext will lead to the immediate removal of Bush and Cheney from power, as will any escalation of the war in Iraq without explicit authorization by Congress.

Having delivered this ultimatum, Congress must immediately begin investigations of the Bush Regime’s attack on civil liberties and the separation of powers, on the Bush Regime’s use of lies and deception to lead America into a war with Iraq, on the Bush Regime’s violation of the Geneva Conventions, and on the Bush Regime’s plans to attack Iran.

The American people and their representatives in Congress must face the fact that criminal and dictatorial persons control executive power in the United States and immediately rectify this highly dangerous situation.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

90 minutes of pure demolition evidence and analysis, laced with staggering witness testimonials. Moving from "the myth" through "the analysis" and into "the players," careful deconstruction of the official story set right alongside clean, clear science. The 9/11 picture is not one of politics or nationalism or loyalty, but one of strict and simple physics. How do you get a 10-second 110-story pancake collapse?