The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality

The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality By Glenn Greenwald

"When Awlaki’s father sought a court order barring Obama from killing his son, the DOJ argued, among other things, that such decisions were “state secrets” and thus beyond the scrutiny of the courts. He was simply ordered killed by the President: his judge, jury and executioner. When Awlaki’s inclusion on President Obama’s hit list was confirmed, The New York Times noted that “it is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing.” "

Absence of Evidence: The Progressive Policy of Imperial Murder by Chris Floyd

"The president of the United States murdered two American citizens this morning. He had some nameless functionary -- who was sitting comfortably and safely at a computer console somewhere on a well-guarded, probably secret military base -- push a button. A missile was then fired from a robot drone buzzing maleovently in the sky over Yemen. The missile then murdered two American citizens who -- let it be carefully noted -- had not even been charged with a crime, much less tried and convicted in a court of law of any offense.

...

But they were not charged -- and were never going to be charged -- with any crime that would have brought their cases into the judicial system. The whole point of these high-profile murders was to establish, yet again, the "right" -- and the power -- of the U.S. president to kill anyone on earth, including American citizens, at his arbitrary command.

...

This is not just the usual partisan amnesia, this is not just moral blindness: it is active, open, undeniable complicity with evil."

Bill

Retention Periods Of Major Cellular Providers

ACLU Releases Justice Department's 'Retention Periods Of Major Cellular Providers' Document


Some more chipping away at whatever semblance of privacy we still have. This article talks about how phone providers are keeping track of us. Excuse me but how did they get this right to supersede our right to privacy?

You see where this is heading, right?

"A few data points from the sheet were known outside law enforcement circles, but wireless carriers have not been open about their policies. They aren't required to keep the data, and they keep the same information for varying lengths of time. Some don't keep data at all that other companies store. For instance, it says T-Mobile USA doesn't keep any information on Web browsing activity. Verizon, on the other hand, keeps some information for up to a year that can be used to ascertain if a particular phone visited a particular Web site.

According to the sheet, Sprint Nextel Corp.'s Virgin Mobile brand keeps the text content of text messages for three months. Verizon keeps it for three to five days. None of the other carriers keep texts at all, but they keep records of who texted whom for more than a year.

The document says AT&T keeps for five to seven years a record of who text messages whom _and when, but not the content of the messages. Virgin Mobile only keeps that data for two to three months.

The carriers don't have recordings of calls, but keep information about calls that are made and received for at least a year."

Bill

A President Who is Helpless in the Face of Middle East Reality

A President Who is Helpless in the Face of Middle East Reality by Robert Fisk

" ... should have no trouble this evening in besting Barack Hussein Obama's pathetic, humiliating UN speech on Wednesday in which he handed US policy in the Middle East over to Israel's gimmick government."

Why America and France clash on Palestine by Michael Goldfarb

The following quotes are not in context of this topic's title, but very noteworthy in context of providing yet another astonishing example of how the people want one thing and the rulers do other - with abandon and without any accountability.

"Asked "Do you think that the Palestinians have a right or do not have a right to their own state?" Eighty-four percent of Germans, 82 percent of the French and 66 percent of Britons answered yes. Around 5 percent said no, the rest were undecided.

Asked, "Do you think your government should vote in favor or against the U.N. resolution supporting recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, 76 percent of Germans, 69 percent of French and 59 percent of Britons said vote in favor. Once again, the bulk of the other responses were undecided."

Bill

Why the Middle East Will Never Be the Same Again

Why the Middle East Will Never Be the Same Again by Robert Fisk

"Should we say "poor old Obama", as I have done in the past? I don't think so. Big on rhetoric, vain, handing out false love in Istanbul and Cairo within months of his election, he will this week prove that his re-election is more important than the future of the Middle East, that his personal ambition to stay in power must take first place over the sufferings of an occupied people. In this context alone, it is bizarre that a man of such supposed high principle should show himself so cowardly. In the new Middle East, in which Arabs are claiming the very same rights and freedoms that Israel and America say they champion, this is a profound tragedy.

US failures to stand up to Israel and to insist on a fair peace in "Palestine", abetted by the hero of the Iraq war, Blair, are responsible. Arabs too, for allowing their dictators to last so long and thus to clog the sand with false frontiers and old dogmas and oil (and let's not believe that a "new" "Palestine" would be a paradise for its own people). Israel, too, when it should be welcoming the Palestinian demand for statehood at the UN with all its obligations of security and peace and recognition of other UN members. But no. The game is lost. America's political power in the Middle East will this week be neutered on behalf of Israel. Quite a sacrifice in the name of liberty..."

Bill

Weinstein is ignoring the evidence

Weinstein is ignoring the evidence By John Glaser

"As Michael Scheuer, former head of the bin Laden unit at the CIA, wrote, “These attacks are meant to advance bin Laden’s clear, focused, limited and widely popular foreign policy goals,” namely ending U.S. aid to Israel, ending support of Arab dictators and withdrawing troops from their lands."

This is just one quote from this article that every American should read and think about.


30 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is About To Go Into The Toilet from The Economic Collapse

"If you think the U.S. economy is bad now, just wait for a few months. Things are about to become absolutely nightmarish."

These 2 articles are compelling reading, and they are totally inter-related: if we didn't invade the Middle East, none of this would be true today.


Bill

Social Security is not in any crisis

Noam Chomsky on How the Military Is Bankrupting Us and Why Corporate Interests Want to Destroy Public Programs By Noam Chomsky and Aaron Mate and Amy Goodman

A bit lengthy quote follows, but every word is worth the space:

"NOAM CHOMSKY: Social Security is not in any crisis. I mean, the trust fund alone will fully pay benefits for, I think, another 30 years or so. And after that, taxes will give almost the same benefits. To worry about a possible problem 30 years from now, which can incidentally be fixed with a little bit of tampering here and there, as was done in 1983—to worry about that just makes absolutely no sense, unless you’re trying to destroy the program. It’s a very successful program. A large number people rely on it. It doesn’t pay munificently, but it at least keeps people alive, not just retired people, but people with disabilities and others. Very low administrative costs, extremely efficient, and no burden on the deficit. The effort to try to present the Social Security program as if it’s a major problem, that’s just a hidden way of trying to undermine and destroy it.

Now, there has been a lot of opposition to it since the 1930s, on the part of sectors of extreme wealth and privilege, especially financial capital. They don’t like it, for several reasons. One is that for the rich, it’s meaningless. For anyone who’s had a fairly decent income, it’s a tiny addition to your retirement but doesn’t mean much. Another is, if the financial institutions and the insurance companies can get their hands on this huge financial resource—for example, if it’s privatized in some way or vouchers— that’s a huge bonanza. They’ll have trillions of dollars to play with, the banks, the investment firms and so on.

But I think, myself, that there’s a more subtle reason why they’re opposed to it, and I think it’s rather similar to the reason for the effort to pretty much dismantle the public education system. Social Security is based on a principle. It’s based on the principle that you care about other people. You care whether the widow across town, a disabled widow, is going to be able to have food to eat. And that’s a notion you have to drive out of people’s heads. The idea of solidarity, sympathy, mutual support, that’s doctrinally dangerous. The preferred doctrines are just care about yourself, don’t care about anyone else. That’s a very good way to trap and control people. And the very idea that we’re in it together, that we care about each other, that we have responsibility for one another, that’s sort of frightening to those who want a society which is dominated by power, authority, wealth, in which people are passive and obedient. And I suspect—I don’t know how to measure it exactly, but I think that that’s a considerable part of the drive on the part of small, privileged sectors to undermine a very efficient, very effective system on which a large part of the population relies, actually relies more than ever, because wealth, personal wealth, was very much tied up in the housing market. That was people’s personal wealth. Well, OK, that, quite predictably, totally collapsed. People aren’t destitute by the standards of, say, slums in India or southern Africa, but ver many are suffering severely. And they have nothing else to rely on, but the pittance that they’re getting from Social Security. To take that away would be just disastrous."

Bill

The "Dancing Israelis" FBI Report - Debunked

The "Dancing Israelis" FBI Report - Debunked

This article can be found on the Whatreallyhappened website:

"The FBI concluded they were innocent of covert or overt operations in the U.S. and did not have foreknowledge. It can be seen that the FBI’s NS-2C Unit of its “National Security Division” out of FBI HQ in Washington, DC, ordered FBI Newark to call off their investigation into the five Israelis and hand them over to the INS. The evidence uncovered by the FBI proves that the Israelis knew what was going to happen, so Newark ignored that and came up with the politically motivated conclusion.

The FBI documents Sections 1 to 6 were recently obtained under FOIA and made available by the blogger andie531 from WUFYS.com, and I include transcripts of the best parts.

This is the strongest proof yet of Israel’s central role in 9/11."

The report is very lengthy. From the conclusion at the end:

"Denying Israel's role in 9/11 is like denying the fact that the Sun heats the earth. There needs to be a truly independent investigation into the events of 9/11, that bases its conclusions on the facts and the evidence rather than political considerations such as whether the principals of the study will keep their jobs. President Obama must fire his treacherous Zionist so-called "aides" and indict them on charges of treason - however many favors they claim to have done him, conduct his own independent research, reverse the transfer of trillions of dollars from the American people to crooked bankers, and abolish all foreign aid to Israel forthwith."

A reader comment:

"This is an extremely methodical and thorough analysis of the 911 Israeli-Washington DC high treason and mass murder and arson for profit crimes, focusing on the dancing Israeli Mossadniks who were celebrating the attacks on the WTC towers and had their camera equipment set up BEFORE THE ATTACKS STARTED!!!"

Bill