United States of Hypocrisy : We don’t ratify human rights treaties

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

United States of Hypocrisy : We don’t ratify human rights treaties

Sept 21, 2006

“The principles of this world beyond terror can be found in the very first sentence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document declares that, “The equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom and justice and peace in the world. “

– President Bush at the United Nations, Sept 19, 2006

COMPLETE list of states NOT YET RATIFYING the CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (CEDAW), one of the enabling conventions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

1. Holy See
2. Montenegro
3. United States of America
4. Iran (Islamic Republic of)
5. Nauru
6. Palau
7. Qatar
8. Tonga
9. Somalia
10. Sudan

Latest to ratify: Cook Islands, August 11, 2006

Note: This treaty was signed by Jimmy Carter and has gone unratified by the United States of America for 27 years.

COMPLETE list of states NOT YET RATIFYING the INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS (CESCR)

1. Andorra
2. Antigua and Barbuda
3. Bahamas
4. Bahrain
5. Belize
6. Bhutan
7. Brunei Darussalam
8. Comoros
9. Cook Islands
10. Cuba
11. Fiji
12. Haiti
13. Holy See
14. Kazakhstan
15. Kiribati
16. Lao People’s Democratic Republic
17. Malaysia
18. Maldives
19. Marshall Islands
20. Micronesia (Federated States of)
21. Mozambique
22. Myanmar
23. Nauru
24. Niue
26. Oman
27. Pakistan
28. Palau
29. Papua New Guinea
30. Qatar
31. Saint Kitts and Nevis
32. Saint Lucia
33. Sao Tome and Principe
34. Saudi Arabia
35. Singapore
36. South Africa
37. Tonga
38. United States of America

This treaty was signed by Jimmy Carter in 1977 and has gone unratified by the United States of America for 29 years.

International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (MWC) — NOT SIGNED OR RATIFIED BY USA (adopted:1990)

CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD (CRC) — SIGNED (1995) BUT NOT RATIFIED BY USA (adopted:1989)Status: 192 countries have ratified this Treaty.

CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE (CAT) — RATIFIED BY USA (1994), but ignored at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, among other locations. The Senate also passed an Act which implements Article 3 which prohibits transfer of any person to another state where there is evidence he or she would be subject to torture. Flagrantly ignored by the “Freedom Agenda” President.

source:
http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/12604351.html

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Torture reaches new depths in Iraq

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Torture reaches new depths in Iraq

New report blames government, militias with atrocities

Sep. 21, 2006. 11:15 AM

GENEVA (AP) — Torture in Iraq is reportedly worse now than it was under deposed president Saddam Hussein, the United Nations’ chief anti-torture expert said Thursday.

Manfred Nowak described a situation where militias, insurgent groups, government forces and others disregard rules on the humane treatment of prisoners.

“What most people tell you is that the situation as far as torture is concerned now in Iraq is totally out of hand,” said Nowak, the global body’s special investigator on torture.

“The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein.”

Nowak, an Austrian law professor, was in Geneva to present a report on detainee conditions at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, as well as to brief the UN Human Rights Council, the global body’s top rights watchdog, on the situation of torture in countries around the world.

He said that some allegations of torture in Iraq he received were undoubtedly credible.

Government forces were among the perpetrators, Nowak said, citing “very serious allegations of torture within the official Iraqi detention centres.

“You have terrorist groups, you have the military, you have police, you have these militias. There are so many people who are actually abducted, seriously tortured and finally killed,” Nowak told reporters at the UN’s European headquarters. “It’s not just torture by the government. There are much more brutal methods of torture you’ll find by private militias.”

Nowak has yet to make an official visit to Iraq, and said such a mission would not be feasible as long as the security situation was so dangerous. He based his comments on interviews with people during a visit to Amman, Jordan and other sources.

“You find these bodies with very heavy and very serious torture marks,” he said. “Many of these allegations, I have no doubt that they are credible.”

source:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1158833710803&call_pageid=968332188492

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

TARIQ RAMADAN IN GLOBE AND MAIL ON POPE’S RECENTS STATEMENTS

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

TARIQ RAMADAN IN GLOBE AND MAIL ON POPE’S RECENTS STATEMENTS

Now for the real debate …
The papal message is troubling, says TARIQ RAMADAN, but Muslims must show they share core values

TARIQ RAMADAN

From Thursday’s Globe and Mail (Sept 21, 2006)

A few sentences by the Pope were sufficient to touch off a firestorm. Throughout the Muslim world, religious leaders, politicians and intellectuals joined their voices to masses angered by a perceived “insult” to their faith. Most did not read the speech; others relied on a summary according to which the Pope had linked Islam and violence. But all railed against what they saw as an “intolerable offence.”

Whatever the judgments of these scholars and intellectuals, one would have hoped they adopt a more reasoned approach, for two reasons. First, the unquestionable love and reverence Muslims have for the Prophet Mohammed notwithstanding, we are well aware how certain groups or governments manipulate crises of this kind as a safety valve for both their restive populations and their own political agendas. When people are deprived of their basic rights and their freedom of expression, it costs nothing to allow them to vent their anger over Danish cartoons or the words of the pontiff.

Second, what we are witnessing is mass protest characterized by an uncontrollable outpouring of emotion that, in the process, ends up providing living proof that Muslims cannot engage in reasonable debate, and that verbal aggression and violence are more the rule than the exception. Muslim intellectuals bear the primary responsibility of not lending credibility to this counterproductive game.

Some, arguing that the Pope had offended Muslims, demanded a personal apology. Benedict XVI offered his regrets, but the polemic has not abated. There is ample reason to be startled by an obscure 14th-century quote attributed to the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologos critical of the malevolent works of the Prophet of Islam. Indeed, the Pope’s choice of examples in his attempt to take up the relationship between violence and Islam does raise questions, if not eyebrows.

Equally surprising was his reference to the Zahiri erudite Ibn Hazm (a respected figure but whose school of thought is marginal) to raise the issue of Islam and rationality. Perhaps the whole exercise was rather elliptical, lacking in clarity, but was it an insult for which formal apology should be demanded? Is it either wise or just for Muslims to take offence at the content of the quote — simply because the Pope chose it — while ignoring daily questions they faced for the past five years on the meaning of “jihad” and the use of force?

Benedict is a man of his times, and the questions he asks of Muslims are those of the day: questions that can and must be answered clearly, with solid arguments. To start with, we must not accept that “jihad” be translated as “holy war.” Our priority should be to explain the principles of legitimate resistance and of Islamic ethics in conflict situations, not to encourage people to protest violently against the accusation that they believe in a violent religion.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect is that the real debate launched by the Pope seems to have eluded most commentators, particularly Muslim ones. In his academic address, he develops a dual thesis, accompanied by two messages. He reminds those rationalist secularists who would like to rid the Enlightenment of its references to Christianity that these references are an integral component of European identity; it will be impossible for them to engage in interfaith dialogue if they cannot accept the Christian underpinnings of their own identity (whether or not they are believers).

Then, in taking up the question of faith and reason, and in emphasizing the privileged relationship between the Greek rationalist tradition and the Christian religion, the Pope tries to set out a European identity that would be Christian by faith and Greek by philosophical reason. Islam, which apparently has no such relationship with reason, would thus be foreign to the European identity that has been built atop this heritage. A few years ago, as cardinal, he set forth his opposition to the integration of Turkey into Europe on a similar basis. Muslim Turkey never was and never will be able to claim an authentically European culture. It is another thing; it is the Other.

These are the messages that cry out for an answer, far more than talk of jihad. Benedict is a brilliant theologian who is trying to set down the principles and the framework of a debate on the past, present and future identity of Europe. This profoundly European pontiff is inviting the continent’s peoples to become aware of the central inescapable Christian character of their identity that they risk losing. The message may be a legitimate one in these times of identity crises, but it is deeply troubling and potentially dangerous in its double reductionism in the historical approach, and in the definition of European identity.

This is what Muslims must respond to; they must challenge a reading of the history of European thought from which the role of Muslim rationalism is erased, in which the Arabo-Muslim contribution would be reduced to mere translation of the great works of Greece and Rome. The selective memory that so easily “forgets” the decisive contributions of “rationalist” Muslim thinkers such as al-Farabi (10th century), Avicenna (11th), Averroes (12th), al-Ghazali (12th), Ash-Shatibi (13th) and Ibn Khaldun (14th) is reconstructing a Europe that is not only a deception but practises self-deception about its own past. If they are to reappropriate their heritage, Muslims must demonstrate that they share the core values on which Europe and the West are founded.

Neither Europe nor the West can survive if we continue to try to define ourselves by excluding, and by distancing ourselves from, the Other — from Islam, from the Muslims — whom we fear. Perhaps what Europe needs most today is not a dialogue with other civilizations but a true dialogue with itself, with those facets of itself that it has refused to recognize, that even today prevent it from fully benefiting from the richness of its constituent religious and philosophical traditions.

Europe must learn to reconcile itself with the diversity of its past in order to master the imperative pluralism of its future. The Pope’s reductionism has done nothing to help this process of reappropriation: A critical approach should not expect him to apologize, but it must simply and reasonably prove to him that, historically, scientifically and, ultimately, spiritually, he is mistaken. It would also give today’s Muslims a way of reconciling themselves with the immense creativity of the European Muslim thinkers of the past, who, 10 centuries ago, were confidently accepting their European identity and who nourished and enriched with their critical reflection both Europe and the West as a whole.

Tariq Ramadan, an Islamic studies professor, is a senior research fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford.

source:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060921.wxcopope21/BNStory/specialComment/home

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

US Terrorize The World – 29 Shabaan 1427 H (22.9.06)

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

TARIQ RAMADAN IN GLOBE AND MAIL ON POPE’S RECENTS STATEMENTS – Now for the real debate …

The papal message is troubling, says TARIQ RAMADAN, but Muslims must show they share core values

A few sentences by the Pope were sufficient to touch off a firestorm. Throughout the Muslim world, religious leaders, politicians and intellectuals joined their voices to masses angered by a perceived “insult” to their faith. Most did not read the speech; others relied on a summary according to which the Pope had linked Islam and violence. But all railed against what they saw as an “intolerable offence.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060921.wxcopope21/BNStory/specialComment/home

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From Arar to the Pope: How to deal with Muslims

It is fortuitous that we are learning the lessons of the Maher Arar tragedy at the same time as grappling with the fallout from the Pope’s ill-advised comments on Islam. The first has to do with the fear of, and paranoia about, Muslims in the post-9/11 world, and the second about the rocky relationship between the West and the world of Islam.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1158790224698&call_pageid=968256290204

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House apologizes for Arar’s treatment (but Harper yet to apologize on behalf of Govt)

Motion passes unanimously in Commons; names removed from terrorism watch list

OTTAWA AND TORONTO — A packed House of Commons apologized unanimously Wednesday to Maher Arar for Canadian involvement in his deportation from the United States and torture in Syria.

MMN Note: It should should pointed out, as the article indicates below, that Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and other Conservatives did join in to support the motion of apologizing to Arar. Harper himself was in the US beating the drums of war for Afghanistan.
http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net

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Canada: House apologizes for Arar’s treatment

Motion passes unanimously in Commons; names removed from terrorism watch list
http://snipurl.com/wspc

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Islamophobia : Arar’s blackened name

By the summer of 2003, public unease over the case of Maher Arar was steadily growing into outrage. How could our government have allowed a Canadian citizen to be sent off to the hellhole of a Syrian jail?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060921.wxcowent21/BNStory/National/home

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Islamophobia : U.S. must accept the truth about Arar

The United States was complicit in the torture of an innocent Canadian citizen. Yet it has never been called to account for sending Maher Arar to his Syrian prison nightmare.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060921.wxearar21/BNStory/specialComment/home

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German police shadowed man before CIA seized him: witness

German police were shadowing Khaled el-Masri and exchanging information on him with U.S. authorities before he was seized by the CIA and taken to Afghanistan, a German federal policeman said on Thursday.
http://snipurl.com/wsp9

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Muslims protest against police massacre in eastern Sri Lanka

see: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/sep2006/sril-s21.shtml

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9/11 : Atta and friends and abramoff and friends

“On September 26, 2001, Associated Press writer Vickie Chachere reported that FBI agents probing Atta’s connections had turned their attention to SunCruz casinos — then owned by Abramoff
http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com/2005/08/atta-and-friends-and-abramoff-and.html

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9/11 Abramoff and Able Danger: Confirmed: US Intel told “hands off money laundering”

Jack Abramoff, known lobbyist, known crook, suspected Israeli intelligence asset, enjoyed the protection of US Intelligence while he used his Suncruz casino ships to launder money for various Neocon figures in the US. Along with the murder of Suncruz’ prior owner, Abramoff is suspected of a link to 9-11 itself, with Mohammed Atta confirmed as a regular guest on Abramoff’s casino ship in the months leading up to 9-11.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/1/1955/10277

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The Doomsday Code – Is This What Motivates U.S. Foreign Policy?

The people with powerful political friends in the White House, who are trying to bring about the end of the world. Julia Bard reports.

The leaders of the End Time movement are rich, well-connected and very powerful. Though the USA constitution enshrines the separation of church and state End Timers are frequent visitors to the White House.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15032.htm

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w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m : You’re either a Zionist or a terrorist

The Israeli legal system, stretched to the limit by cases of private and public corruption, still finds the time and the resources to provide massive support for spreading and deepening Israel’s image as a country suffering from terrorism and fighting for its existence. It is an image of a country threatened by traitors from within (Arab Israelis, hoping for a victory of the Axis of Evil whose center is in Damascus), by Hamas operatives (who aspire to destroy it) and by murderous Lebanese (Hezbollah).
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/765578.html

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Bush Rages: “I am not Beelzebub, Lord of Sulfur”

Plucky Chavez, – publicly throttled the Global Emperor in front of 6 billion people and left his bruised and bloodied carcass splattered across the canvas like Roberto Duran in Round 9 of the middleweight championship match…..
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15049.htm

In case you missed it : President Hugo Chavez, Address to the United Nations – Rise Up Against the Empire
Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15041.htm

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Noam Chomsky on Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest For Global Dominance

“If you repeat it loudly enough it will become the truth” – MIT institute professor of linguistics and author Noam Chomsky speaks out on U.S. hegemony, controlling the domestic population through fear and the historical parallels of current U.S. foreign policy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15052.htm

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United States of Hypocrisy : We don’t ratify human rights treaties

“The principles of this world beyond terror can be found in the very first sentence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document declares that, “The equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom and justice and peace in the world.”

– President Bush at the United Nations, Sept 19, 2006

COMPLETE list of states NOT YET RATIFYING the CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (CEDAW), one of the enabling conventions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/12604351.html

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Bush Desperate To Legislate Mengele Style Torture

Phony intelligence from false confessions needed to maintain Al-Qaeda myth, sexual mutilation of children advocated by White House legal architect

The Bush administration’s desperation to legitimize and legislate torture in the face of revolt from Congress, the Senate and even Colin Powell, is an attempt to rescue the need to have a constant supply of phony intelligence obtained from torture to justify the war on terror – while the real horror of how the administration advocates sexually mutilating children under the same legal definition remains hidden from the U.S. public.
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/september2006/190906mengelestyle.htm

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Bill O’Reilly Endorses Waterboarding As Safe and Reliable

Bill O’Reilly will not rest until he proves that harsh interrogation, never call it torture, really gets results. Tonight he had Brian Ross, ABC News, on The Factor to reinforce his claims that the CIA use of “alternative” interrogation methods like waterboarding are not only safe but very effective breaking down 14 terror suspects.Then Carol Bogart, Human Rights Watch, appeared so BOR could feel personally vindicated but his plan fell short.

Would he be willing to demonstrate for us just how safe it is? I have a few questions to ask him.
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/09/20/bill_oreilly_endorses_waterboarding_as_safe_and_reliable.php

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Justice Dept. Amends Remark on Torture Case Justice Dept. Amends Remark on Torture Case

In an embarrassing turnabout, the Department of Justice backed away Wednesday from a denial by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales of responsibility for the treatment of a Canadian who was seized by American authorities in 2002. The man was deported to Syria, where he was imprisoned and beaten.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/world/americas/21canada.html?ex=1316491200&en=c01819e14cf573a8&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

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Letter to Senator John Warner, Chairman, and Senator Carl Levin, Ranking Member, Senate Armed Services Committee on Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions

If any agency of the U.S. government is excused from compliance with these standards, or if we seek to redefine what Common Article 3 requires, we should not imagine that our enemies will take notice of the technical distinctions when they hold U.S. prisoners captive. If degradation, humiliation, physical and mental brutalization of prisoners is decriminalized or considered permissible under a restrictive interpretation of Common Article 3, we will forfeit all credible objections should such barbaric practices be inflicted upon American prisoners.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2006/09/mil-060912-sasc01.htm

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Torture reaches new depths in Iraq – New report blames government, militias with atrocities

GENEVA (AP) – Torture in Iraq is reportedly worse now than it was under deposed president Saddam Hussein, the United Nations’ chief anti-torture expert said Thursday.

Manfred Nowak described a situation where militias, insurgent groups, government forces and others disregard rules on the humane treatment of prisoners.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1158833710803&call_pageid=968332188492

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UK : Video footage shows soldier abusing hooded Iraqi prisoners

The ringleader of a group of British soldiers conducted a “choir” practice in which the “music” was the cries of pain from captive Iraqis as they were beaten, a court martial was told yesterday.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article1655633.ece

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Bush wants a bloodbath in Baghdad

Increasingly desperate over the deteriorating situation in Iraq, the Bush administration is demanding that the US-installed government in Baghdad support a savage intensification of repression or give way to a dictatorial regime that will.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/sep2006/iraq-s21.shtml

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“DVD Of The Resistance”: Watch For Free, Spread The Word – Please help us get Terror Storm to as many people as possible!

Alex Jones’ latest and greatest documentary film Terror Storm is available to watch for free on Google Video and we entrust our great supporters to circulate this page or a direct link to a high quality version of the movie – bypassing the controlled media monopoly and enflaming the revolution of information.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2006/200906terrorstorm.htm

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UN: Nearly 6,600 civilians killed in Iraq in two months

In July at least 3,590 people were killed and in August 3,009 died in bloody attacks on civilians, according to the UN human rights report.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=17535

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U.S. Occupation Forces Among At least 33 killed

“Insurgents” killed six policemen and wounded two others when they attacked a police station in western Baghdad’s Sunni Amiriya district, police said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L21430391.htm

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Anti Occupation Forces Gain Alarming Support Among Iraq’s Sunni Muslims

A confidential Pentagon assessment finds that an overwhelming majority of Iraq’s Sunni Muslims support the insurgency that has been fighting against U.S. troops and the Iraqi government
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2470183&page=1

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Torture reaches new depths in Iraq

Torture in Iraq is reportedly worse now than it was under deposed president Saddam Hussein, the United Nations’ chief anti-torture expert said Thursday.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15047.htm

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Halliburton ambush in Iraq caught on video

The video, by KBR truck driver Preston Wheeler, shows what initially appears to be a routine convoy of sixteen-wheeler trucks delivering supplies to U.S. troops. Three KBR truck drivers were killed.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15059.htm

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 20 September 2006.

• Wednesday morning Resistance bombing in al-Fallujah leaves three US soldiers reported dead.
• US soldier reported killed in Resistance bomb attack in ‘Anah Wednesday morning.
• Bodies of 41 more Sunni victims of savage torture and murder found in Shi’i sections of Baghdad as US-Zionist drive to partition Iraqi on sectarian and ethnic lines continues.
• New pro-American judge expels President Saddam Husayn from courtroom in latest session of American-run show “trial” in Baghdad.
• Mafkarat al-Islam obtains personal file of new American-backed judge al-’Arribi.
• US soldier reported killed in Resistance ambush in southwestern Kirkuk Wednesday.
• Resistance sharpshooter kills two US soldiers on patrol in al-Mawsil Wednesday morning.
• Resistance mortars pound joint US-Iraqi puppet army camp near al-Fallujah Wednesday morning.
• Resistance blasts puppet “Iraqi National Guard” headquarters in al-Fallujah with heavy mortars before dawn Wednesday.
• Fighting rages in ar-Ramadi just before midnight Tuesday-Wednesday.
• US troops raid Baghdad mosque during midday prayers Wednesday.
• Resistance car bomber blasts puppet police checkpoint near ad-Durah refinery.
• Resistance blasts US base in Samarra’ with Grad rockets Wednesday morning.
• Resistance bomb targets puppet “Iraqi National Guards” in al-Miqdadiyah Wednesday.
• Resistance eliminates Shi’i sectarian death squad leader Tuesday evening.

http://www.albasrah.net/pages/mod.php?mod=art&lapage=../en_articles_2006/0906/iraqiresistancereport_200906.htm

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Musharraf: US threatened to bomb Pakistan after 9/11

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said that after the September 11 attacks the United States threatened to bomb his country if it did not cooperate with America’s war campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
http://snipurl.com/wso8

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Pakistan rejects Bush threat

Pakistan today vowed to not let foreign forces enter its territory a day after US president George Bush said he would order American military action inside this Islamic nation if Osama bin Laden was found to be hiding there.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/story.asp?j=83878688&p=8387899x&n=83879068

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Genocide Crime : Jewish rabbi calls for extermination of all Palestinian males

Extremist rabbi Yousef Falay, who dwells at the Yitzhar settlement on illegally seized Palestinian land in the northern part of the West Bank, wrote an article in a Zionist magazine under the title “Ways of War”, in which he called for the killing of all Palestinian males refusing to flee their country, describing his idea as the practical way to ensure the non-existence of the Palestinian race.
http://www.imemc.org/content/view/21527/1/

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In 9 hours in Gaza, IDF kills 5, including 3 children, and injures 7

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has used excessive force in the north and south of the Gaza Strip during a 9-hour span today, Thursday, 21 September 2006, resulting in the death of 5 Palestinian civilians and the injury of 7 others, including a father and 2 of his children. Two of the victims including a woman were killed in cold blood in Rafah. They were left to bleed to death inside their houses. The other 3 victims were children from the town of Jabalia who were killed by a surface-to-surface rocket as they were herding sheep.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5766.shtml

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5 Killed In Israeli Attack On Occupied Gaza

Israeli occupation forces backed by a transport helicopter killed a woman in a raid on a house in the southern Gaza Strip.
http://snipurl.com/wso9

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Israel seizes million dollars in bank raids across West Bank

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Israeli security forces confiscated more than one million dollars during a series of pre-dawn raids on money exchange shops and banks across the West Bank, saying the cash was used for “terrorism.”

It was the latest crackdown against the Palestinians by Israel since a Hamas-led government took office in March.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060920/wl_mideast_afp/mideastunrestarmywestbankbanking_060920083543

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Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory ( 14 – 20 September 2006)

SEE: http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/2006/21-09-2006.htm

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Livni rejects Palestinian right to return home

Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, has used a speech at the United Nations to tell Palestinian refugees that they should not expect to be allowed to return to their homes in Israel.
http://snipurl.com/wsoe

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Arab states urge IAEA to slam Israel for atomic arsenal

Israel again rebuffed two resolutions in what has become an annual Arab effort to get the International Atomic Energy Agency to press it to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty arms-control pact and help set up a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/765538.html

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Iran could cut West’s oil supplies in event of war, warns American chief in Gulf

Iran could trigger a global terrorist campaign and choke the West’s oil supplies in the event of war with America, the top US commander in the region has warned.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/21/woil21.xml

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American CIA Explosive Experts Are Due to Arrive in Somalia in 24 Hours

The United States government was quick to respond the Somali transitional government’s appeal to find international help over probing the double car bombings that engulfed the lives of at least 11 and injured dozens. The blasts took place in Baidoa town that, temporarily houses government buildings.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200609200514.html

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Pentagon to release report on September 11 claims

The Pentagon’s inspector general will release a report in the coming days that is expected to refute claims that an Army intelligence unit had information that could have thwarted the September 11 attacks, officials said on Wednesday.
http://snipurl.com/wspj

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Judge Orders More Gitmo Papers Unsealed

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Department of Defense to release documents detailing mistreatment or disciplinary action taken against detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other information sought by The Associated Press
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6094165,00.html

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Padilla’s alleged recruiter wants wiretaps tossed

In court papers, Hassoun’s lawyers seek disclosure of secret FISA applications and warrants to determine whether they hold up under legal scrutiny.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15045.htm

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VT Cong Candidate Calls For Arrest of Bush and Cheney by U.S. Military

Former Army Lieutenant and a candidate for Congress in VT, Dennis Morrisseau of W. Pawlet, today called for the arrest of President Bush and Vice President Cheney by the American military “if necessary” to prevent an unauthorized attack upon the nation of Iran.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15056.htm

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Only 25% in Poll Approve of the Congress

With barely seven weeks until the midterm elections, Americans have an overwhelmingly negative view of the Republican-controlled Congress, with substantial majorities saying that they disapprove of the job it is doing and that its members do not deserve re-election, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/us/politics/21poll.html?ei=5094&en=ef00c357f1e7980c&hp=&ex=1158897600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all

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Joe Stalin is Alive and Living on Pennslyvania Avenue

Just as the Neo-Nazis are back as newly elected respectable members of governments in Eastern Germany, abandoning the skinhead look for suits and ties and softer rhetoric, our Neo Cons have moved from left to hard right wrapped in burkas made of the American flag.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15058.htm

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Jesus Camp: 3 Minute Video

ABC new report about the documentary ‘Jesus Camp’
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15048.htm

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

9/11 – War Crime : President’s Incitements to Commit Genocide

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

9/11 – War Crime :

President’s Incitements to Commit Genocide

Liaquat Ali Khan

http://mwcnews.net/mambots/content/mosthumb/thumbs/USA2_4_Bush-says-Iraq.jpg

On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, President George Walker Bush delivered an illegal speech and may have committed an international crime, that is, the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide of a religious group. Determined to rally disbelieving Americans behind a failed Iraqi war, the President drifted into calling for open-ended violence against Muslims. Says the President: “The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and the calling of our generation.” The President identifies “this enemy” as Muslim extremists. The 9/11speech is one among many through which the President has engaged, and continues to do so, in direct and public incitements to commit violence and other crimes against Muslims as a religious group.

The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide, among other things, as the act of killing members of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the target group. But the Convention goes further and lists other criminal acts related to genocide. It prohibits and punishes conspiracy to commit genocide as well as “direct and public incitement to commit genocide.” Article 4 of the Convention provides that the persons committing any of the listed genocide crimes shall be punished “whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.”

The US has ratified the Genocide Convention. In 1987, the US Congress furnished the implementing legislation to enforce the Convention (the Proxmire Act). The crime of inciting genocide is not only an international crime but a federal crime as well.

“On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, President George Walker Bush delivered an illegal speech and may have committed an international crime, that is, the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide of a religious group. “

Elements of the Crime

The incitement crime under the Genocide Convention consists of three distinct elements. First, the target of incitement is a group listed in the Convention. Second, the incitement to commit genocide is direct and public. Third, the perpetrator has the requisite intent. When a perpetrator satisfies these three elements, the crime of genocide-incitement is complete and committed.

Note that the incitement to commit genocide is a verbal crime, although non-verbal methods of incitement are equally criminal. Genocide-incitement is primarily a crime of the tongue. It is criminal speech. The Convention does not require that verbal incitement produce actual genocide, just as conspiracy to commit a crime is actionable even though it may yield no crime. Furthermore, the incitement committed with words is not protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, treaties, or customary international law of freedom of speech.

Let us critically examine whether the President’s 9/11 speech satisfies the three elements of the crime of incitement as defined in the Genocide Convention.

The Group

The Genocide Convention applies when the perpetrator defines the target in terms of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group. The Convention does not require that incitement be against the group as a whole. Even if the incitement to commit genocide is aimed at part of the group, the Convention crime has been committed.

In his 9/11speech, the President defines the enemy as Muslims who believe in a “perverted vision of Islam.” This perverted religious group is one that, according to the President, aspires “to build a radical Islamic empire where women are prisoners in their homes, men are beaten for missing prayer meetings, and terrorists have a safe haven to plan and launch attacks on America and other civilized nations.” The President ’s target is not confined to al Qaeda or actual terrorists who attacked or might be planning attacks on the US. Nor does the President define the target in terms of criminals who happen to be Muslims. Fearlessly as if the law would never reach him, which might sadly be true, the President paints the religious group with a broad stroke, describing the group as religiously perverted and evil, a religious group that must be confronted, defeated, and killed.

“The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide, among other things, as the act of killing members of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the target group. But the Convention goes further and lists other criminal acts related to genocide. “

The President targets the religious group for its ideology and not for its criminality against the US. That some members of this amorphous religious group may have committed crimes against the US furnishes no legal excuse to liquidate the entire group. When the innocent and the guilty are lumped together as a single entity, the offense of designing a target group is complete. Perpetrators of genocide (Hitler) frequently detest the group, in whole or in part, and not merely individuals. They make no distinction between the innocent and the guilty. The net they throw to encircle the group is vast, fluid, and indiscriminating.

Direct and Public Incitement

No one would dispute that the President’s 9/11 speech was a public event, a speech directly delivered to national and international audiences, carried live by major networks with global reach. The speech was also directly and publicly delivered to the US troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and stationed elsewhere in the world. The speech also addresses the US allies that are fighting terrorism. Thus, the NATO troops in Afghanistan, the Coalition troops in Iraq, the Israeli Defense Forces in occupied territories, all these troops were the actual or potential audiences of the well-advertised 9/11speech that the President delivered with high emotional voltage. I discuss below that the speech carried genocide incitement. Here it must be noted that the speech that delivered the message was not hidden and private. It was direct and public. The speech was delivered to millions of people across the world, including criminals, gangs, and soldiers, who harbor hatred against Muslims. In his speeches, the President has repeatedly and spitefully labeled Muslim extremists as an evil religious group that must be physically eliminated.

The incitement to genocide is a verbal attempt to exhort, persuade, encourage, and provoke the audience and troops to killing members of the target group. Part of the incitement is to dehumanize the target group, showing through words that the target group is subhuman, a threat, dangerous, and worthless. The President paints the target religious group as “dangerous enemies,” one that is “driven by a perverted vision of Islam,” that espouses “hateful ideology,” that “will not leave us alone,” that “will follow us,” and one that will use “the weapons of mass destruction.” These descriptions of the target group cause fear, anger, and arousal, urging the audience and troops to do something, including killings. Since the group is defined in a broad manner, the incitement to kill provides no specifics. It cultivates combat and preemption through any means necessary, including physical elimination of the group.

Furthermore, the President constantly uses the language of war to crush the target religious group. To defeat the group’s Islamic ideology, the President is proposing no cultural dialogue, seminars, or other peaceful means. The President is speaking of military action and a permanent war. Examine the following statements delivered in the 9/11speech, making it crystal clear that the purpose of incitement is none else but killings, embodied in the metaphor and reality of war: “America will stay in the fight.” “We are in a war that will set the course for this new century.” It “will not be over until we or the extremists emerge victorious.” As if the incitement to physical elimination of the religious group were still unclear, the President specifically addresses the audience and troops and calls them to action. The “decisive” battle of the 21st century, says the President, is the “calling of our generation.”

Requisite Intent

Genocide crimes, including the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide, are intentional crimes. These are not crimes of omission or negligence. The Genocide Convention demands that intent of the perpetrator be shown in commission of the listed crimes. The incitement crime does not occur if a person’s speech comes across as genocidal against a defined group, but the speaker has no intent to produce mass murder. Without intent, the provocation may still be regarded as odious and morally reprehensible. But it does not constitute the crime of genocide-incitement.

“The incitement to genocide is a verbal attempt to exhort, persuade, encourage, and provoke the audience and troops to killing members of the target group. “

However, intent is not a purely subjective state of mind that only the perpetrator knows. Intent is derived from the context in which the incitement is relayed to the audience and troops.

No one would dispute that the President intends war when he says war. War means killing. He is not using the word war only in the ideological sense. The President fuses military and ideological wars to constitute an organic unit. One war supports the other. Throughout his 9/11speech, the President refers to intentional killings of the religious group. “We put al Qaeda on the run, and killed or captured most of those who planned the 9/11 attacks.” The President continues to defend the illegal and intentional invasion of Iraq, which has killed hundreds of innocent Muslims. Speaking of exterminating the perverted religious group, the President adds: “America has confronted evil before, and we have defeated it — sometimes at the cost of thousands of good men in a single battle.”

In his 9/11speech, the President uses the word “war” eleven (11) times, the word “fight or fighting” six (6) times, the word “battle” two (2 times). Speaking of American soldiers, the President adds: “Our nation is blessed to have young Americans like these — and we will need them.” Need them for what? Obviously, for war and battle and fighting. The talk of killing is not accidental or even negligent. It is deliberate, cold-blooded, and even malicious. There exists evidence beyond reasonable doubt that the President intends to wipe out what he describes as the perverted religious group.

Conclusion

Examined in the light of the President’s direct and public incitements through his speeches, particularly the 9/11 speech, the atrocities committed by US troops, the Coalition forces, and the IDF acquire a new context. Episodes of repeated torture, Abu Gharib excesses, shootings at wedding parties in US occupied Muslim lands, frequent murders of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq—murders for which American soldiers are facing court martial and death penalty— the IDF’s cruel and criminal destruction of Lebanon, all are related to the President’s direct and public incitements in which he repeatedly dehumanizes and criminalizes Muslims, not as individuals but as a religious group, inviting lawless action against the group. The responsibility of the President as the commander-in-chief of the US forces might well be abstract and technical. In light of his incitements, this responsibility has become direct and tangible. The President has intentionally engaged in repeated direct and public provocations, persuasions, and exhortations to commit murderous violence against a religious group.

Ali Khan is a professor of law at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. He can be reached at: ali.khan@MWCNEWS.NET

source:
http://mwcnews.net/content/view/9595/42/1/1/

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Senior Military, Intelligence, and Government Critics of 9/11 Commission Report

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Senior Military, Intelligence, and Government Critics of 9/11 Commission Report

Many well known and respected senior members of the U.S. intelligence services, military, and government have expressed significant criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report. Several even allege government complicity in the terrible acts of 9/11.

Listed below are highly critical statements about the 9/11 Commission Report and/or calls for a new 9/11 investigation by 51 of these individuals. Their collective voices gives credibility to the claim that the 9/11 Commission Report is tragically flawed. These individuals cannot be simply dismissed as irresponsible believers in some 9/11 conspiracy theory. Their sincere concern, backed by their decades of service to their country, demonstrate that criticism of the Report is not irresponsible, illogical, nor disloyal, per se. In fact, it can be just the opposite.

9/11 is unquestionably the most important event in American history since December 7, 1941, when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor. The magnitude of its impact on America and the world cannot be overstated. The terrible acts of 9/11 and the events leading up to them deserve a thorough and unimpeachable investigation to learn the facts. And if some rogue element within the U.S. government is responsible for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11, as several of these individuals allege, it is critical that that be disclosed and forcefully dealt with.

For the sake of those who died on 9/11, their families, the American people, and for the sake of peace in the world, please continue to seek the truth about 9/11. Demand a thorough and impartial reinvestigation of 9/11.

Write your elected representatives in Congress. http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html Write your local television and radio stations and the networks. http://newslink.org/broad.html Write your local newspapers, national newspapers, and magazines. http://newslink.org/news.html

If you are an active or former senior member of the military, intelligence services, or government, who has publicly expressed concerns about the 9/11 Commission Report, and would like your comment to be added to this list, please email your information to alan.miller@PatriotsQuestion911.com.

FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

Rep. Curt Weldon –Vice Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Vice Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Ten-term Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania.

• Article 8/28/05: Regarding the 9/11 Commission “There’s something very sinister going on here that really troubles me,” Weldon told FOX News on Thursday, blasting the Sept. 11 commission for not taking the claims more seriously. He said some panel members were trying to smear Shaffer and Able Danger. “What’s the Sept. 11 commission got to hide?” Weldon asked.” http://www.foxnews.com/…
• Press conference transcript 9/17/05: Regarding the 9/11 Commission Report “There’s something wrong here, something tragically wrong. The American people, the families, the country and the Congress need to know the truth, the whole truth, the complete truth. And so far we haven’t gotten it. … Somebody’s got to connect the dots and answer the questions. If the 9/11 Commission won’t do it, then Congress has to do it.” http://www.globalresearch.ca/…
• Bio: http://curtweldon.house.gov/Biography/
• Email: CurtPa07@Mail.House.Gov

Senator Max Cleland – Former member of the 9/11 Commission, resigned in December 2003. Currently serves on the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. U.S. Senator from Georgia 1996-2002. Secretary of State of Georgia 1982-1996. Administrator of the U.S. Veterans Administration 1977-1981. Captain, U.S. Army awarded Silver Star and Bronze Star for bravery in Viet Nam. Triple amputee from war injuries.

• Article 11/03: Regarding the 9/11 Commission “It is a national scandal.” http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/…
• Article 11/03: “If this decision stands [to limit access to White House documents], I, as a member of the commission, cannot look any American in the eye, especially family members of victims, and say the commission had full access. This investigation is now compromised.” http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/…
• Resigned from the 9/11 Commission, 12/03
• Transcript of audio interview 3/23/04: “One of these days we will have to get the full story because the 9-11 issue is so important to America. But this White House wants to cover it up.” http://www.democracynow.org/…

Louis Freeh – Director of the FBI, 1993-2001. Former U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York, appointed by President George H.W. Bush. Former Deputy United States Attorney in New York. Former officer in the United States Army JAG Corps Reserve.

• Essay: “Even the most junior investigator would immediately know that the name and photo ID of Atta in 2000 is precisely the kind of tactical intelligence the FBI has many times employed to prevent attacks and arrest terrorists. Yet the 9/11 Commission inexplicably concluded that it “was not historically significant.” This astounding conclusion–in combination with the failure to investigate Able Danger and incorporate it into its findings–raises serious challenges to the commission’s credibility and, if the facts prove out, might just render the commission historically insignificant itself. … No wonder the 9/11 families were outraged by these revelations and called for a “new” commission to investigate.” http://www.opinionjournal.com/…
• Bio: http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/…

Morgan Reynolds, PhD – Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Labor under George W. Bush 2001-2002. Former Director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis. Professor Emeritus, Economics, Texas A&M University.

• Video: “I first began to suspect that 9/11 was in inside job when the Bush-Cheney Administration invaded Iraq. … We can prove that the government’s story is false.” http://video.google.com/videoplay?…
• Essay: “It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause(s) of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely [to] prove to be sound.” http://www.lewrockwell.com/…
• Bio: http://nomoregames.net/index.php?page=bio
• Email: econrn@cox-internet.com

Paul Craig Roberts, PhD – Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury under Ronald Reagan, “Father of Reaganomics”, Former Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. Currently Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

• Essay: “We know that it is strictly impossible for any building, much less steel columned buildings, to “pancake” at free fall speed. Therefore, it is a non-controversial fact that the official explanation of the collapse of the WTC buildings is false.” http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/…
• Essay: “There are not many editors eager for writers to explore the glaring defects of the 9/11 Commission Report. One would think that if the report could stand analysis, there would not be a taboo against calling attention to the inadequacy of its explanations.” http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02062006….
• Bio: http://www.vdare.com/roberts/bio.htm
• Email: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

Catherine Austin Fitts – Assistant Secretary of Housing under George H.W. Bush. Former Managing Director and Member of the Board of Directors of the Wall Street investment bank, Dillon, Read & Co.

• Audio Interview: Regarding 9/11 “The official story could not possibly have happened. … It’s not possible. It’s not operationally feasible. … The Commission was a whitewash.” (Radio KPFA 9/9/04 About 45 minutes into the file.) http://157.22.130.4/…
• Essay: “The first category of people who benefited were those who are guilty and complicit in designing, implementing and financing the 9-11 operation. On such a sophisticated and successful covert operation, the people responsible would have had budgets and financing and would have organized the operation to maximize their political and financial benefits.” http://globalresearch.ca/…
• Signatory: Petition requesting an immediate reinvestigation of 9/11 http://www.911truth.org/article …
• Bio: http://www.solari.com/about/ca_fitts.html

Edward L. Peck – Deputy Director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism under Ronald Reagan. Deputy Coordinator, Covert Intelligence Programs at the State Department. U.S. Ambassador and Chief of Mission to Iraq (1977-80). 32-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service.

• Signatory: Petition requesting an immediate reinvestigation of 9/11
• “We want truthful answers to question. … As Americans of conscience, we ask for four things:
  • An immediate investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
  • Immediate investigation in Congressional Hearings.
  • Media attention to scrutinize and investigate the evidence.
  • The formation of a truly independent citizens-based inquiry.” http://www.911truth.org/article. …
• Email: peckfsi@erols.com

Morton Goulder – Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Warning 1973-77 (Nixon, Ford, and Carter) Founder of Sanders Associates.

• Signatory: Petition requesting an immediate reinvestigation of 9/11
• “We want truthful answers to question. … As Americans of conscience, we ask for four things:
  • An immediate investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
  • Immediate investigation in Congressional Hearings.
  • Media attention to scrutinize and investigate the evidence.
  • The formation of a truly independent citizens-based inquiry.” http://www.911truth.org/article. …

Philip J. Berg, Esquire – Former Deputy Attorney General, Pennsylvania.

• Article: “The official story of what actually took place on 9-11 is a lie.” http://www.americanfreepress.net/…
• Signatory: Petition requesting an immediate reinvestigation of 9/11
• “We want truthful answers to question. … As Americans of conscience, we ask for four things:
  • An immediate investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
  • Immediate investigation in Congressional Hearings.
  • Media attention to scrutinize and investigate the evidence.
  • The formation of a truly independent citizens-based inquiry.” http://www.911truth.org/article.php?…
• Bio: http://www.911forthetruth.com/…
• Email: philjberg@911forthetruth.com

SENIOR U.S. MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE SERVICE VETERANS

William Christison – Former National Intelligence Officer and Director of the CIA’s Office of Regional and Political Analysis. 29-year CIA veteran.

• Essay: “I now think there is persuasive evidence that the events of September did not unfold as the Bush administration and the 9/11 Commission would have us believe. … An airliner almost certainly did not hit The Pentagon. … The North and South Towers of the World Trade Center almost certainly did not collapse and fall to earth because hijacked aircraft hit them.” http://www.dissidentvoice.org…
• Article: “David Griffin believes this all was totally an inside job – I’ve got to say I think that it was too,” said Christison. … I have since decided that….at least some elements in this US government had contributed in some way or other to causing 9/11 to happen or at least allowing it to happen. … The reason that the two towers in New York actually collapsed and fell all the way to the ground was controlled explosions rather than just being hit by two airplanes. … All of the characteristics of these demolitions show that they almost had to have been controlled explosions.” http://www.prisonplanet.com/…
• Email: kathy.bill@christison-santafe.com, christison@counterpunch.org

Major General Albert Stubblebine, U.S. Army (ret) – Commanding General of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM). Former head of Imagery Interpretation for Scientific and Technical Intelligence.

• Video: ““One of my experiences in the Army was being in charge of the Army’s Imagery Interpretation for Scientific and Technical Intelligence during the Cold War. I measured pieces of Soviet equipment from photographs. It was my job. I look at the hole in the Pentagon and I look at the size of an airplane that was supposed to have hit the Pentagon. And I said, ‘The plane does not fit in that hole’. So what did hit the Pentagon? What hit it? Where is it? What’s going on?” http://www.undersiegemovie.com …
• Bio: http://www.canadiansub.com/Board….

Col. Ronald D. Ray, U.S. Marine Corps (ret) – Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Reagan Administration and a highly decorated Vietnam veteran (two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart). Appointed by President George H.W. Bush to serve on the American Battle Monuments Commission (1990-1994), and on the 1992 Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces. From 1990 through 1994, he served as Military Historian and Deputy Director of Field Operations for the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center, Washington, D.C.

• Article: “The former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under the Reagan Administration and a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and Colonel has gone on the record to voice his doubts about the official story of 9/11 – calling it ‘the dog that doesn’t hunt.’ ‘I’m astounded that the conspiracy theory advanced by the administration could in fact be true and the evidence does not seem to suggest that’s accurate,’ he said.” http://www.prisonplanet.com/…
• Bio: http://www.firstprinciplespress.org/…
• Email: ffp@iglou.com

Raymond L. McGovern – Former Chairman, National Intelligence Estimates, CIA, responsible for preparing the President’ Daily Brief (PDB) for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. 27-year CIA veteran.

• Video: “I think at simplest terms, there’s a cover-up. The 9/11 report is a joke. The question is: What’s being covered up? Is it gross malfeasance, gross negligence, misfeasance? … Now there are a whole bunch of unanswered questions. And the reason they’re unanswered is because this administration will not answer the questions. … I just want to reassert, what Scott [Ritter, former Major in the U.S. Marines Corps, former Chief Weapons Inspector for the United Nations Special Commission in Iraq] said and this is the bottom line for me, just as Hitler in 1933 cynically exploited the burning of the parliament building, the Reichstag, this is exactly what our President did in exploiting 9/11. The cynical way in which he played on our trauma, used it to justify attacking, making a war of aggression on a country that he knew had nothing to do with 9/11. That suffices for me, I think Scott is exactly right, that’s certainly an impeachable offense.” http://video.google.com/videoplay?…
• Signatory: Petition requesting an immediate reinvestigation of 9/11 http://www.911truth.org/…
• Bio: http://faculty.schreiner.edu/…
• Email: mcgovern@counterpunch.org

Col. Robert Bowman, PhD, U.S. Air Force (ret) – Director of Advanced Space Programs Development “Star Wars Program” under Presidents Ford and Carter. U.S. Air Force fighter pilot with over 100 combat missions. (PhD in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering, Cal Tech).

• Video: “A lot of these pieces of information, taken together, prove that the official story, the official conspiracy theory of 9/11 is a bunch of hogwash. It’s impossible. … There’s a second group of facts having to do with the cover up. … Taken together these things prove that high levels of our government don’t want us to know what happened and who’s responsible. … Who gained from 9/11? Who covered up crucial information about 9/11? And who put out the patently false stories about 9/11 in the first place? When you take those three things together, I think the case is pretty clear that it’s highly placed individuals in the administration with all roads passing through Dick Cheney. I think the very kindest thing that we can say about George W. Bush and all the people in the U.S. Government that have been involved in this massive cover-up, the very kindest thing we can say is that they were aware of impending attacks and let them happen. Now some people will say that’s much too kind, however even that is high treason and conspiracy to commit murder.” http://video.google.com/…
• Signatory: Petition requesting an immediate reinvestigation of 9/11 http://www.911truth.org/article.php?…
• Bio: http://bowman2006.com/about….
• Email: DrBob@Bowman2006.com

Col. George Nelson, U.S. Air Force (ret) – Former U.S. Air Force aircraft accident investigator and airplane parts authority. 34-year Air Force career.

• Essay: “The government alleges that four wide-body airliners crashed on the morning of September 11 2001, resulting in the deaths of more than 3,000 human beings, yet not one piece of hard aircraft evidence has been produced in an attempt to positively identify any of the four aircraft. On the contrary, it seems only that all potential evidence was deliberately kept hidden from public view. …
• With all the evidence readily available at the Pentagon crash site, any unbiased rational investigator could only conclude that a Boeing 757 did not fly into the Pentagon as alleged. Similarly, with all the evidence available at the Pennsylvania crash site, it was most doubtful that a passenger airliner caused the obvious hole in the ground and certainly not the Boeing 757 as alleged. …
• As painful and heartbreaking as was the loss of innocent lives and the lingering health problems of thousands more, a most troublesome and nightmarish probability remains that so many Americans appear to be involved in the most heinous conspiracy in our country’s history.” http://www.physics911.net/georgenelson….

Capt. Russ Wittenberg, U.S. Air Force (ret) – Air Force fighter pilot with over 100 combat missions. Flew commercial jets for Pan Am and United Airlines for 35 years, flying 707, 720, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, and 777 ’s. He had previously flown the actual two United Airlines airplanes that were hijacked on 9/11 (Flight 93, which impacted in Pennsylvania, and Flight 175, the second plane to hit the WTC).

• Article: “The government story they handed us about 9/11 is total B.S. plain and simple.” … Wittenberg convincingly argued there was absolutely no possibility that Flight 77 could have “descended 7,000 feet in two minutes, all the while performing a steep 270 degree banked turn before crashing into the Pentagon’s first floor wall without touching the lawn.” …
• “For a guy to just jump into the cockpit and fly like an ace is impossible – there is not one chance in a thousand,” said Wittenberg, recalling that when he made the jump from Boeing 727’s to the highly sophisticated computerized characteristics of the 737’s through 767’s it took him considerable time to feel comfortable flying.” http://www.arcticbeacon.com/17-Jul-2005….
• Audio Interview 9/16/04: Regarding Flight 77, which allegedly hit the Pentagon. “The airplane could not have flown at those speeds which they said it did without going into what they call a high speed stall. The airplane won’t go that fast if you start pulling those high G maneuvers at those bank angles. … And so for them to expect this alleged airplane to run these maneuvers with a total amateur at the controls is simply ludicrous. …
• It’s roughly a 100 ton airplane. And an airplane that weighs 100 tons all assembled is still going to have 100 tons of disassembled trash and parts after it hits a building. There was no wreckage from a 757 at the Pentagon. … The vehicle that hit the Pentagon was not Flight 77. We think, as you may have heard before, it was a cruise missile.” http://911underground.com/…/

Capt. Gregory M. Zeigler, PhD, U.S. Army- Former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer

• “I knew from September 18, 2001, that the official story about 9/11 was false. … [A]nomalies poured in rapidly: the hijackers’ names appearing in none of the published flight passenger lists, BBC reports of stolen identities of the alleged hijackers or the alleged hijackers being found alive, the obvious demolitions of WTC1, 2, and 7, the lack of identifiable Boeing 757 wreckage at the Pentagon … Link to full statement
• Email: gzeigler@cybermesa.com

Melvin Goodman – Division Chief and Senior Analyst at the Office of Soviet Affairs, CIA,1966 to 1990. Senior Analyst at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, State Department, 1974 to 1976.

• Congressional testimony: “I want to talk about the [9/11] Commission itself, about the flawed process of the Commission and finally about the conflict of interest within the Commission that is extremely important to understand the failure of the Commission.” http://www.house.gov/mckinney/…
• Signatory: Petition requesting an immediate reinvestigation of 9/11
• “We want truthful answers to question. … As Americans of conscience, we ask for four things:
  • An immediate investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
  • Immediate investigation in Congressional Hearings.
  • Media attention to scrutinize and investigate the evidence.
  • The formation of a truly independent citizens-based inquiry.” http://www.911truth.org/article.php?…
• Bio: http://ciponline.org/biographies….

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, PhD, U.S. Air Force (ret) – Political-Military Affairs Officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. On the staff of the Director of the National Security Agency. 20-year Air Force veteran.

• Essay: “Reading through the official 9/11 report, I quickly lost my focus – apparently emulating the 9/11 commission over the past 20 months. …One wonders if the entire commission wasn’t secretly replaced by pod people from the old Soviet Central Committee. I naively expected more constructive and useful information in the report.” http://www.lewrockwell.com/…
• Bio: http://militaryweek.com/…
• Email: ksusiek@shentel.net

Major Douglas Rokke, PhD, U.S. Army (ret) – Director U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project.

• Article: Regarding the impact at the Pentagon on 9/11/2001 “When you look at the whole thing, especially the crash site void of airplane parts, the size of the hole left in the building and the fact the projectile’s impact penetrated numerous concrete walls, it looks like the work of a missile. And when you look at the damage, it was obviously a missile.” http://www.rense.com/general67/radfdf….
• Email: Dlind49@aol.com

Major Scott Ritter, U.S. Marine Corps (ret) – Marine Corps Intelligence Officer and Chief Weapons Inspector for the United Nations Special Commission in Iraq 1991-1998.

• Video: “I, like the others, are frustrated by the 9/11 Commission Report, by the lack of transparency on the part of the United States government, both in terms of the executive branch and the legislative branch when it comes to putting out on the table all facts known to the 9/11 case.” http://video.google.com/videoplay?…
• E-mail: wsritter@aol.com

Fred Burks – State Department Interpreter for Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Vice Presidents Dick Cheney and Al Gore, Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright. 18-year State Department career.

• Essay: “How is it possible that our military’s highly touted missile detections systems could not locate Flight 77 in the 42 minutes it was known to be lost before it crashed into the heart of the defense system of the U.S.? …
• An even bigger question is why isn’t our media asking these questions? Why isn’t our military spending many millions of dollars to find out why military defense systems failed on 9/11? Why is it that the 9/11 commission budget was far less than the budget allotted to the Challenger Disaster or even the Monika Lewinsky affair?” http://www.wanttoknow.info/911star…
• Signatory: Petition requesting an immediate reinvestigation of 9/11 http://www.911truth.org/…

Barbara Honegger – Senior Military Affairs Journalist at the Naval Postgraduate School, the Navy’s advanced science, technology and national security affairs university (1995 – present). White House Policy Analyst and Special Assistant to the Assistant to President Ronald Reagan (1981-83).

• Essay: “The US military, not al Qaeda, had the sustained access weeks before 9/11 to also plant controlled demolition charges throughout the superstructures of WTC 1 and WTC2, and in WTC7, which brought down all three buildings on 9/11. … A US military plane, not one piloted by al Qaeda, performed the highly skilled, high speed 270 degree dive towards the Pentagon that Air Traffic Controllers on 9/11 were sure was a military plane as they watched it on their screens. Only a military aircraft, not a civilian plane flown by al Qaeda, would have given off the “Friendly” signal needed to disable the Pentagon’s anti aircraft missile batteries as it approached the building. Only the US military, not al Qaeda, had the ability to break all of its Standard Operating Procedures to paralyze its own emergency response system.” http://blog.lege.net/…

Sibel Edmonds – Former Language Translation Specialist, FBI. Witness before the 9/11 Commission.

• Letter to 9/11 Commission: “I find your report seriously flawed in its failure to address serious intelligence issues that I am aware of, which have been confirmed, and which as a witness to the commission, I made you aware of. Thus, I must assume that other serious issues that I am not aware of were in the same manner omitted from your report. These omissions cast doubt on the validity of your report and therefore on its conclusions and recommendations.” http://www.commondreams.org…
• Email: sedmonds@nswbc.org

Bogdan Dzakovic – 14-year Counter-terrorism expert in the Security Division of the Federal Aviation Administration. Team Leader of the FAA’s Red Team, which conducted undercover tests on airport security through simulated terrorist attacks. Former Team Leader in the Federal Air Marshal program. Former Coast Guard officer. Witness before the 9/11 Commission.

• Video transcript: Regarding the 9/11 Commission “The best I could say about it is they really botched the job by not really going into the real failures. … At worst, I think the 9/11 Commission Report is treasonous. And if you look at what the word “treason” means in the Webster’s Dictionary, it’s a betrayal of a trust.” http://www.911report.com…

Letter to Congress regarding the 9/11 Commission Report, signed by the following 25 military, intelligence, and security veterans:

“[W]e the undersigned wish to bring to the attention of the Congress and the people of the United States what we believe are serious shortcomings in the [9/11 Commission] report and its recommendations. …

Omission is one of the major flaws in the Commission’s report. We are aware of significant issues and cases that were duly reported to the commission by those of us with direct knowledge, but somehow escaped attention. …

The omission of such serious and applicable issues and information by itself renders the report flawed, and casts doubt on the validity of many of its recommendations.” http://www.pogo.org/m/hsp/…

Edward J. Costello, Jr., Former Special Agent, Counterterrorism, FBI
John M. Cole, Former Veteran Intelligence Operations Specialist, FBI
David “Mark” Conrad, Retired Agent in Charge, Internal Affairs, U.S. Customs
Rosemary N. Dew, Former Supervisory Special Agent, Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence, FBI
Bogdan Dzakovic, Former Red Team Leader, FAA (See also individual quote above.)
Sibel D. Edmonds, Former Language Specialist, FBI (See also individual quote above.)
Steve Elson, Retired Navy Seal and Former Special Agent, FAA and US Navy
David Forbes, Aviation, Logistics and Govt. Security Analysts, BoydForbes, Inc.,
Melvin A. Goodman, Retired Senior Analyst/ Division Manager and Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, CIA (See also individual quote above.)
Mark Graf, Former Security Supervisor, Planner, and Derivative Classifier, Department of Energy
Gilbert M. Graham, Retired Special Agent, Counterintelligence, FBI
Diane Kleiman, Former Special Agent, US Customs
Lt Col Karen U. Kwiatkowski, Veteran Policy Analyst, U.S. Air Force-DoD (See also individual quote above.)
Lynne A. Larkin, Former Operation Officer, CIA
David MacMichael, Former Senior Estimates Officer, CIA
Raymond L. McGovern, Veteran Analyst, CIA (See also individual quote above.)
Theodore J. Pahle, Senior Intelligence Officer (Ret), Defense Intelligence Agency, Office of Naval Intelligence, and U.S. Army Intelligence
Behrooz Sarshar, Retired Language Specialist, FBI
Brian F. Sullivan, Retired Special Agent and Risk Management Specialist, FAA
Larry J. Tortorich, Retired US Naval Officer, US Navy and Dept. of Homeland Security/TSA
Jane A. Turner, Retired Special Agent, FBI
John B. Vincent, Retired Special Agent, Counterterrorism, FBI
Dr. Fred Whitehurst, Retired Supervisory Special Agent/Laboratory Forensic Examiner, FBI
Col. Ann Wright, Retired Reserve Colonel and Former US Diplomat, US Army,
Matthew J. Zipoli, Special Response Team (SRT) Officer, DOE

INTERNATIONAL MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE EXPERTS

Paul Hellyer – Former Minister of National Defense of Canada. Former Deputy Prime Minister. Former Member of House of Commons.

• Video: Regarding 9/11 “I think the inquiry has been very shallow, very superficial. I would like to see a much tougher, more in-depth inquiry. … I would like to see someone in a position of authority ask those questions and insist on getting answers, at least to why some of the things that happened that seem to be, for an ordinary person, inexplicable. … We have to try and get the truth. … I hope that somebody has the courage and persistence to keep at it until we get it.” http://www.septembereleventh.org/…
• Bio: http://www.nationmaster.com/…
• Email: phellyer@canadianactionparty.ca

Andreas von Buelow, PhD – Former National Minister of Defense of West Germany. Former Minister of Technology. Former Member of Bundestag (Parliament).

• Video: “The official story is so inadequate and far-fetched that there must be another one.” http://video.google.com/…
• Article/Interview: “The planning of the attacks was technically and organizationally a master achievement. To hijack four huge airplanes within a few minutes and within one hour, to drive them into their targets, with complicated flight maneuvers! This is unthinkable, without years-long support from secret apparatuses of the state and industry.” http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/VonBuelow….

Michael Meacher – Former Under Secretary for Industry, Under Secretary for Health and Social Security, Minister for the Environment, and Member of the House of Commons (Parliament) (UK).

• Video: Regarding the 9/11 Commission Report “It was a 580-page avoidance of any serious explanation. … The official investigative report says the US has never been able to find the sources of financing for 9/11. And then they say this “That after all is a matter of no great importance.” I find that astonishing. It is a matter of absolutely central importance. So there was a very great deal of evidence. And it seems to me extraordinary that the United States with its stupendous military capabilities and the most technologically advanced country in the world completely and totally failed to follow up on these leads.” http://video.google.com/…
• Bio: http://www.epolitix.com/…
• Email: C/o Monica Masson, massonm@parliament.uk

General Leonid Ivashov – Former Chief of Staff of the Russian armed forces on 9/11/2001, and Department Chief for General affairs in the Soviet Union’s Ministry of Defense.

• Essay: Regarding 9/11 “Only secret services and their current chiefs – or those retired but still having influence inside the state organizations – have the ability to plan, organize and conduct an operation of such magnitude.” http://www.physics911.net/ivashov….

Mohamed Hassanein Heikal – Former Foreign Minister of Egypt.

• Article: Regarding 9/11 “Bin Laden does not have the capabilities for an operation of this magnitude. When I hear Bush talking about al-Qaida as if it was Nazi Germany or the communist party of the Soviet Union, I laugh because I know what is there. Bin Laden has been under surveillance for years: every telephone call was monitored and al-Qaida has been penetrated by American intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, Saudi intelligence, Egyptian intelligence. They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organisation and sophistication.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/…

David Shayler – Counter-Terrorism Officer, MI5 (Britain)

• Video: “The available evidence indicates that people in key positions in the FBI, the State Department, the CIA and so on were not loyal to the Constitution; that they saw an opportunity in plans laid down by genuine Islamic terrorists to carry out an operation that would shock the world and would therefore justify U.S. adventurism in the middle East, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq.” http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5403286136814574974

source:
http://patriotsquestion911.com/

A PERSONAL NOTE ABOUT THIS WEBSITE

I believed the official explanation of 9/11 for four and one-half years. I remember, during that time, becoming angry at news stories about people who challenged that explanation. However, in the Spring of 2006, I saw the documentary, Loose Change, on the Internet. Although not an entirely objective documentary, it raised many serious and disturbing questions about the events of 9/11 that I had previously simply accepted without much critical thought.

And so I began a several month period of researching the events of 9/11. I found a great deal of material challenging the 9/11 Commission Report on web sites like 911truth.org, physics911.net, st911.org and many others. I attended a lecture by David Ray Griffin. I learned much about what has become known as the 9/11 Truth Movement.

Much of the information and most of the rather limited media coverage about the 9/11 Truth Movement focuses on college professors, such as: David Ray Griffin, Steven Jones, James Fetzer, Kee Dewdney, and others. In August of 2006, I began searching for statements about 9/11 by members of the intelligence services, military and government. Because of their experience in these areas, I felt their opinions about 9/11 would be an additional valuable source of information. I was surprised by the amount of criticism of 9/11 from this group that I found scattered around the Internet. I had learned of virtually none of this criticism through newspapers, television, or radio news sources.

I feel this information is very important and that it has been seriously under-reported. This web site is an effort to collect and summarize these public statements and make them easily accessible.

If you are aware of any similar statements made by senior members of the intelligence services, military or government, I would greatly appreciate knowing about them. Please email me at alan.miller@PatriotsQuestion911.com. Additionally, if you find any errors in this material, please let me know.

I don’t claim to know what really happened on 9/11. I cannot examine the facts of the matter first hand. And I don’t have the experience to know what’s possible and what is unlikely regarding terrorist activities or military operations. For that analysis, I need to rely on experts. I greatly value these individuals’ statements because most of them have spent large portions of their careers studying espionage, terrorism, and military operations throughout the world and personally planned and carried out United States’ military and intelligence activities. In other words, they’re experienced professionals, whom I trust.

My objective, at this point, is to have our government launch a new, extremely thorough and impartial re-examination of the terrible acts of 9/11 and the events leading up to them. In my opinion, and in the opinion of the above listed experienced individuals, the current 9/11 Commission Report is seriously inadequate in explaining what really happened.

I also want to acknowledge that none of the information on this web site is the result of any original investigation on my part. I have merely researched and compiled public information available on the Internet. I want to thank those in the 9/11 Truth Movement for their efforts over the last five years for conducting a great deal of research and for keeping the Movement alive in the face of both ridicule and indifference.

For the sake of those who died on 9/11, their families, the American people, and for the sake of peace in the world, please continue to seek the truth about 9/11.

Sincerely,

Alan Miller
September 2006
Email: alan.miller@PatriotsQuestion911.com

LINKS

A wealth of information about 9/11 is available on the Internet and in books and videos. I cannot list them all. However, the following links are good places to begin looking for information.
9/11 Truth Movement Sites
911Truth.org
Physics911.net
ScholarsforTruth911.org
PentagonResearch.com
9/11 Information Center
Reopen 911
Veterans for 9/11 Truth

9/11 Truth Videos
Loose Change
9/11 Mysteries
Painful Deceptions
September 11 Revisited
9/11: Press for Truth

9/11 Commission Report and Defenders
9-11Commission.gov
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Popular Mechanics

9/11 Families
WTC United Family Group
Families of September 11
September 11th Families Association

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Kurdish soldiers trained by Israelis

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Kurdish soldiers trained by Israelis

Newsnight has obtained the first pictures of Kurdish soldiers being trained by Israelis in Northern Iraq, as well as an interview with one of the former commandos who carried out the work.


http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42108000/jpg/_42108604_kurdistan_203.jpg

When the former Israeli special forces soldiers were sent to Iraq in 2004 they were told they would be disowned if they were discovered.

Their role there was to train two groups of Kurdish troops.

One would act as a security force for the new Hawler International Airport (near Erbil) and the other, of more than 100 peshmerga or Kurdish fighters, would be trained for “special assignments”, according to one of Newsnight’s interviewees.

Contractors

An Israeli security consulting form called Interop acted as the main contractor for the Hawler airport project and set up two subsidiaries (Kudo and Colosium) to carry out work in Iraq.

Kudo and Colosium described themseleves as Swiss-registered companies.

It’s a bit tense because you know where you are and you know who you are, and there’s always a chance that you’ll get revealed
An Israeli trainer

In addition to the training, Kudo provided quad bikes, communications equipment and security fencing.

One of the founders of Interop, and its Chairman until 2003, was Danny Yatom, a former Head of Mossad – the Israeli foreign intelligence service and now an MP.

He told Newsnight today: “I was not aware of what was done in 2004 and 2005 because I cut all contacts with the company when I entered the Israeli parliament in 2003.”

During 2004-5, Interop and Kudo were run by Shlomi Michaels, a former head of Israel’s counter-terrorist unit. Contacted by Newsnight, Mr Michaels declined to comment.

Special assignments

Newsnight was told by the Israeli interviewee involved in the training that senior Kurdish officials were aware of their nationality, but not the troops being trained.

The sensitivities for the Kurdish authorities are serious, since their political enemies have long accused them of being in cahoots with Israel.

The Kurdish authorities have previously denied allowing any Israelis into northern Iraq.

The Israeli trainer says: “You know, day by day it’s a bit tense because you know where you are and you know who you are. And there’s always a chance that you’ll get revealed.

“My part of the contract was to train the Kurdish security people for a big airport project and for training, as well as the Peshmerga, and the actual soldiers, the army.

“We were training them in all kinds of anti-terror lessons, anti-terror, security airport, training them with long rifles, pistols; telling them, teaching them tactics like shooting behind doors, behind barricades, shooting from the left, shooting from the right, shooting from windows, how to shoot first, how to identify a terrorist in a crowd.

“That’s clearly special assignments. That’s only training that special units get for special assignments.

“We crossed the border from Turkey and one of the intelligence officers passed us by, through the border, without stamping our passports.

“So you reckon that if two guys from the intelligence service knew we were Israelis and they saw our passports as well, the leadership knew as well – I mean their bosses, that’s natural.”

“The second Israel”

Khaled Salih, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government, says: “These are not new allegations for us. Back in the sixties and seventies we were called ‘the second Israel’ in the region and we were supposed to be eliminated by Islamist nationalist and now Islamist groups.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42108000/jpg/_42108680_soldier_203.jpg
The Kurdish authorities have long been accused of being in cahoots with Israel

“They look for internal enemies and we are the easiest to target. These kind of speculations have been around in the region for more than 30 years.”

The Kurdistan region sits at a strategic crossroads. To the east is Iran, to the north-west Turkey. Both countries have significant Kurd minorities and are worried about a Kurdish state emerging in northern Iraq.

The authorities there have accepted that for now and that they must remain part of a federal Iraq.

As they develop their region, the Kurds have opened an international airport at Irbil (Hawler in Kurdish).

It now boasts dozens of international flights each week and it is at Hawler International that the Israelis began their work.

Strategic options

With Iran becoming Israel’s principal enemy, there have been reports of Israelis using Kurdish areas of Iraq to increase its strategic options.

One constraint facing the Israelis, should they ever want to hit Iran, is distance. Most Israeli jets are short range and they have few in-flight tankers. Some studies have suggested that Israel could make refuelling stops at a modern airfield in Kurdistan.

If the Israelis ever planned to use Hawler airport as an emergency refuelling stop, it has now been compromised by Israeli press reports.

After finishing their training, Kurds sang their national anthem while marching behind one of the Israelis.

Israeli Government spokesman, Mark Regev, told Newsnight that the Investigations Division of the Israeli Ministry of Defence had passed the details of this case to the Israeli police to see if there had been any violation of export laws.

He added: “We have not authorised anyone to do any defence work in Iraq… If information is brought and there’s clear evidence that people broke our law, of course I expect them to be prosecuted.”

MARK URBAN’S REPORT WAS SHOWN ON NEWSNIGHT ON TUESDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER, 2006

source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/5363116.stm

Related News :
Israelis in Iraq : Could Their Target Be Iran?
We have obtained the first pictures of Kurdish soldiers being trained by Israelis in Northern Iraq. The sensitivities for the Kurdish authorities are serious, since their political enemies have long accused them of being in cahoots with Israel. The Kurdish authorities have previously denied allowing any Israelis into northern Iraq.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15033.htm

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW