On Strike!

No Work | No School | No Shopping

I'm on strike. How about you?

Cheney Doesn't Need To Attack In USA With WMD This Summer

While I've been watching the Kennebunkport Warning train wreck and wondering what's to become of the Anti-War and 9/11 Truth movements, Chris Floyd has been busy creating a monsterpiece which answers a few outstanding and seemingly unrelated questions on the way to making its main point.

Some "conspiracy theorists" say they see a "new 9/11" coming soon, and it's no surprise. They're reacting to what they hear from our "national security" establishment, and what they read in the papers. But is it real or is it propaganda?

In other words, is Dick Cheney really planning to attack us this summer? And, for that matter, why hasn't there been another terrorist attack on America since 9/11?

Cheney may be up to no good, but as Chris Floyd makes clear, there's no need for another attack.

The spoils of the first attack have been more than sufficient. The terrorists got everything they wanted, and they're now in a stronger position than ever, and likely to get whatever else they want -- without any meaningful opposition at all!

If they attack us again, it'll be out of spite and not necessity, because the terrorists have already won.

2007 has turned out to be a year of triumph for the Bush Faction -- the hit men who delivered the coup de grâce to the long-moribund Republic. Bush was written off as a lame duck after the Democrat's November 2006 election "triumph" (in fact, the narrowest of victories eked out despite an orgy of cheating and fixing by the losers), and the subsequent salvo of Establishment consensus from the Iraq Study Group, advocating a de-escalation of the war in Iraq. Then came a series of scandals, investigations, high-profile resignations, even the criminal conviction of a top White House official. But despite all this -- and abysmal poll ratings as well -- over the past eight months Bush and his coupsters have seen every single element of their violent tyranny confirmed, countenanced and extended.

The war which we were told the Democrats and ISG consensus would end or wind down has of course been escalated to its greatest level yet -- more troops, more airstrikes, more mercenaries, more Iraqi captives swelling the mammoth prison camps of the occupying power, more instability destroying the very fabric of Iraqi society. The patently illegal surveillance programs of the authoritarian regime have now been codified into law by the Democratic Congress, which has also let stand the evisceration of habeas corpus in the Military Commissions Act, and a raft of other liberty-stripping laws, rules, regulations and executive orders. Bush's self-proclaimed arbitrary power to seize American citizens (and others) without charge and hold them indefinitely -- even kill them -- has likewise been unchallenged by the legislators. Bush has brazenly defied Congressional subpoenas -- and even arbitrarily stripped the Justice Department of the power to enforce them -- to no other reaction than a stern promise from Democratic leaders to "look further into this matter." His spokesmen -- and his "signing statements" -- now openly proclaim his utter disdain for representative government, and assert at every turn his sovereign right to "interpret" -- or ignore -- legislation as he wishes. He retains the right to "interpret" just which interrogation techniques are classified as torture and which are not, while his concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay and his secret CIA prisons -- where those "strenuous" techniques are practiced -- remain open. His increasingly brazen drive to war with Iran has already been endorsed unanimously by the Senate and overwhelmingly by the House, both of which have embraced the specious casus belli concocted by the Bush Regime. And to come full circle, Democratic leaders like Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin are now praising the "military success" of the Iraq escalation -- despite the evident failure of its stated goals by every single measure, including troop deaths, civilian deaths, security, infrastructure, political cohesion and regional stability. This emerging "bipartisan consensus" on the military situation in Iraq (or rather, this utter fantasy concealing a rapidly deteriorating reality) makes it certain that the September "progress report" will be greeted as a justification for continuing the "surge" in one form or another.

It is, by any measure, a remarkable achievement, one of the greatest political feats ever. Despite Bush's standing as one of the most despised presidents in American history, despite a Congress in control of the opposition party, despite a solid majority opposed to his policies and his war, despite an Administration riddled with scandal and crime, despite the glaring rot in the nation's infrastructure and the callous abandonment of one of the nation's major cities to natural disaster and crony greed -- despite all of this, and much more that would have brought down or mortally wounded any government in a democratic country, the Bush Administration is now in a far stronger position than it was a year ago.

And that's not all.

Bush's power has only grown with each new outrageous claim of unchallengeable presidential authority. It is too little understood how vital -- and how fatal -- Congress' acquiescence in all of this has been. By continuing to treat the Bush Administration as a legitimate government, to carry on with business as usual instead of initiating impeachments or refusing to cooperate with a gang of usurpers, Congress instead confirms the New Order day after day. Some Democrats may grumble, whine or bluster -- but they DO nothing, and their very participation in the sinister farce ensures its continuance.

Again, look at the facts, the reality: Bush wants Congressional approval of his illegal surveillance; he gets it. Bush wants to launch spy satellites against the American people; he does it. Bush wants concentration camps and secret prisons with torture; he's got them. Bush wants to escalate a ruinous, murderous, unpopular war; he does it. He wants to declare people "enemy combatants" and imprison them indefinitely; he does it. Bush's spokesmen openly claim that the laws passed by the people's representatives are "just advisory" and "the president can still do whatever he wants to do," and there is no outcry, no action, no defense of the Republic against this overthrow of the Constitution.

So ... what's to be done?

In a land crawling with armed – and armored – SWAT teams, with operatives from innumerable federal agencies packing heat and happy to use it, a land where more than 2 million people languish in prison (many of them captives of an endless "war on drugs" that has done nothing to curb substance abuse but has greatly augmented the power of the state and the criminal gangs whose laundered money enriches Establishment elites), a land where almost every transaction is wired up to some national grid, where national ID cards are now being imposed – a land where you literally cannot exist without placing your liberty, your privacy, your very life at the mercy of a government apparatus besotted with violence, coercion and intrusion, there is no place left for the kind of action that Thoreau advocated. His way – and that of Gandhi and King, who took so much from him – envisions a state opponent which one could hope to shame into honorable action by the superior moral force of principled civil disobedience. But the very hallmark of the present regime is its shamelessness, its utter lack of any sense of honor or principle, its bestial addiction to raw power.

It is pointless – and counterproductive – to simply throw yourself under the wheels of such a monstrous machine in futile spasms of rage and despair. The machine doesn't care. It will gladly chew up your life and move on. For the action of the ordinary individual to have an effect, it must be amplified by a larger social movement. And it is difficult to imagine such a movement arising in America today...

No kidding.

Whatever we can do, we must do it ourselves. If we have no power or influence, if we cannot take large actions, then we must take small ones. Every word or action raised against the overthrow of the Republic will find an echo somewhere, from one person to another to another to the next -- each isolated, individual voice slowly finding its way into a swelling chorus of dissent.

It might be too late. It might not work. But failure – and much more horror -- is guaranteed if we don't even try.

As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once wrote – in a context that is growing less dissimilar all the time: -- it is impossible that evil should not come into the world; but take care that it does not enter through you.

It's good advice, from somebody who should know.

But how do you do that?

I've been trying to round up some support for a general strike.

Of all the tactics we haven't tried, I think it's the most promising.

To learn more about a general strike, see "What's Not To Like About A General Strike?"

If you have any other ideas I'd like to hear about them.

My comments are always open.

What's Not To Like About A General Strike?

What are YOU doing on September 11th? May I suggest something?

The vast potential of the American people still lies untapped. The time has come to unleash it. The technique is well-known in most foreign countries, though not here. But it's actually quite simple. It's called a General Strike.

When I say "General Strike", I mean it's for all of us. You don't have to be a General to take part.

But what is it against? That's up to each of us.

It can be against Torture, against the War in Iraq, against the 9/11 Coverup, against False Flag Terror in general, against the shredding of the Bill of Rights, against the destruction of our Electoral System, against the privatization of America's military, against the corruption of our Mainstream Media, against a regime powered by multi-million dollar "Public Diplomacy" campaigns, against rampant anti-democratic Globalization, against rule by Secrecy and Lies, against unlimited warrantless Surveillance... It can be against any or all of these things, and many more.

But it can't be against everything!

It also needs to be for something -- more than one thing, if possible. We could do it for our Children, we could do it for our Country, we could do it for Humanity, we could do it for Peace, we could do it for Justice, we could do it for 9/11 Truth, we could do for Truth in Media, we could do it for habeas corpus, we could do it for the Bill of Rights... We could do it for any or all of these reasons, and many others.

If you can't think of a reason, do it for me! Make yourself a sign that says "Google Winter Patriot" and carry it around with you on the 11th of September. Why not?

I'm just kidding, of course. But we need to keep spreading vital truths to people who don't have enough. We need to get visible. We need to see how many of us there are. And we need to make a statement, even if that statement is only "We've had enough!"

It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be complicated. We don't need to converge on Washington. Not yet, anyway. At the moment we can make more impact elsewhere. We can actually make the most impact without going anywhere.

This is not about travel. It's about gridlock. What if we all stop working? What if we all stop going to school? What if none of us spends a nickel? Do you think anyone would notice? Of course they would.

Would it hurt us? Of course it would. But in the long run it might do us more good than harm.

When I say "this is not about travel", I'm not saying we should all stay home.

If you can get to Washington, that's great. You'll have company.

If you can get to New York City, that might be even better. The sight of 9/11 Truth taking over Ground Zero has inspired a lot of good work. It would be great to be part of it this year.

But if you can't get to DC or NY, that's fine too. If you can get to your state capital, head for the government buildings. Otherwise just go downtown.

Wear orange. Be seen.

Carry a sign: "Peace Through Justice". "Inside Job". "Stop The War". "Paper Ballots, Hand Counted". "Google Winter Patriot". Or whatever.

We need to get active, and get visible, and watch our numbers grow. And we need to think about doing it again ... soon ... for as long as necessary.

We'll never know what can happen until we try. And if we don't try, we don't deserve to live in a free country. In my opinion, if we don't try, we deserve to live in Iraq! Surely the Iraqis don't deserve it. So let's see what we can do to stop the war ... at the very least.

You can read more at strike911.org and/or truthaction.org.

You can find out what's happening in your area here.

If you know of other sites that might be useful in organizing ourselves, please post the URLs here. As always, I thank you for your cooperation.

Oh yeah; I almost forgot: I was only partly kidding about the sign. It doesn't have to say "Google Winter Patriot". But you do need a sign.

Your sign can protect you from the heat-ray weapon the Pentagon calls "Active Denial". Click here before you build it.

One final, personal, note, if I may: This is not something we can or should do out of hate, or anger, or fear. Surely we all feel anger and fear, and many of us feel hate. That's ok in my view. Considering the circumstances, that's entirely understandable. But that's not what this is about. And it won't help us build anything useful, either.

In my humble opinion, Stephen Stills had it right 35 or 40 years ago. He put it this way:

You know we got to do it, we got to keep on keeping on
'Cause if we don't do it, nobody else is gonna.
But you know if we can't do it with a smile on our face,
You know if we can't do it with love in our hearts,
Then, children, we ain't got no right to do it at all.
'Cause that just means we ain't learned nothin' yet,
And we're supposed to be some kind of different.

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!

What else did we expect? The bogus show trial of the bogus phony war yields a bogus guilty verdict as the bogus world's greatest democracy goes even further down the actual physical drain.

There's not much else to say about this except that even if Padilla had been cleared of all the bogus charges, the result would still be bogus.

The Soviets used isolation and sensory deprivation to identify and discredit political dissidents. US prisoners of war confessed to nonexistent war crimes in the Korean War after similar treatment.

Fear of "brainwashing" prompted the CIA and Defense Department to underwrite research in the 1950s and '60s into the impact of isolation and sensory deprivation. The findings were included in a 1963 CIA handbook, later declassified. The book discusses the possible use of such techniques, including isolation. But it warns of the "profound moral objection" of applying "duress past the point of irreversible psychological damage."

That's what happened in Padilla's case, says Grassian. "It is clear from examining Mr. Padilla that that limit was surpassed."

He has "undergone a profound, tremendously prolonged psychological stress involving extended periods of utter isolation and deprivation," the psychiatrist writes. Grassian's report concludes: "Given the extensive research on this issue, much of it funded by the United States government, it follows necessarily that the United States government was well aware of the likely consequences of its conduct in regard to Mr. Padilla."

And that, of course, is exactly why they did it.

They didn't have enough on him to try him for the crimes he was originally charged with:

Padilla was first detained in 2002 because of much more sensational accusations. The Bush administration portrayed Padilla, a U.S. citizen and Muslim convert, as a committed terrorist who was part of an al-Qaida plot to detonate a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' in the U.S. The administration called his detention an important victory in the war against terrorism, not long after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The charges brought in civilian court in Miami, however, were a pale shadow of those initial claims...

So instead they destroyed him, and now -- after a trial featuring almost no evidence against him -- he's guilty as charged.

It's a splendid victory for President Bush in his Endless War.

Stalin never had it so good.

General Strike Has Everything!

Q: What has 9/11 truth, election fraud, the war in Iraq, the corrupt corporate media, war profiteering, torture, illegal surveillance, and civil rights?

A: General Strike. No kidding. It says so right here:

Iraq War

The Iraq War has taken hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, cost Americans over $450 billion, and was started by the Bush Administration on false claims.

Election Fraud

Voting irregularities, disenfranchisement, and the destruction of evidence indicate US election fraud in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. These facts put the legitimacy of the current government and American democracy itself in question.

Surveillance, Torture, Civil Rights

Since 9/11, the Bush Administration has steadily curtailed the civil rights of US citizens and shown utter disregard for the human rights of citizens of the wider global community.

Corporate Media

American mainstream media is owned by a shrinking number of large corporations. If current trends continue, independent journalism will be entirely replaced in major news sources by entertainment, spin, and sensationalism.

Military Profiteering

The “War on Terror” has been a boon to military and security contractors. Firms such as Halliburton and the Carlyle Group have won billions in no-bid contracts. Many members of the Bush Administration are former executives in these companies.

9/11 Coverup

There remain many unanswered questions concerning the attacks of September 11. The 9/11 Commission was headed by Washington insiders with close ties to the Bush Administration and has been widely critiqued as a whitewash and coverup. Delving into the untold history of 9/11 has led millions to conclude that elements of the US government were in some way complicit in the attacks. However, one thing is certain: the official story does not hold up to scrutiny. And we demand an honest investigation.

Looks like a good strike, I mean, site.

Elsewhere it says:

This is about unity and tolerance and common understanding of the predicament we’re in. We must stand together. This is a new kind of action: decentralized and viral. It can’t be stopped!

It's about time. Say it now.

General Strike.

Say it again, together this time and with feeling!

General Strike!

Thank you.

Justice Accelerated: More Powers For Alberto Gonzales

Do you know how long it takes to get people executed in this country?

All these guys hanging around death row forever, claiming they're innocent or some such thing?

Enough, already! American justice is about to get a little bit faster!

Here's the BBC:

The US is preparing to bring in legal changes giving Attorney General Alberto Gonzales new powers to limit the time inmates spend on appeal on death row.

New powers for Alberto Gonzales? Why on Earth would we give more power to Alberto Gonzales??

The change in the rules, under which Mr Gonzales will be able to decide state requests to speed the appeals process, was a measure in the 2006 Patriot Act.

Wow. Because of the PATRIOT ACT, Alberto Gonzales gets even more power, and this time it's the power to limit the appeals process of people who've been sentenced to death. How quaint!! And that's the good news!

Death penalty experts argue that shortening the time allowed for inmates to appeal, in what are often very complicated cases, will make effective and fair review very difficult.

The new procedures will cut down the amount of time that death row inmates have to appeal to the federal courts, once the state court has ruled, from one year to six months.

The federal courts will also have less time to review the cases before them, which represent the only opportunity defence lawyers have to file new evidence.

Elisabeth Semel, director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California law school in Berkeley, told the BBC News website the new rules represented a "very dramatic change".

She fears that not only the few death row inmates who turn out to be innocent but also those who have been unfairly given the death penalty will lose out.

And, she points out, those who decide whether to limit the appeals process are the same people as are seeking a faster process.

You see the problem? We've got an attorney general who can't remember to tell the truth about simple things when he testifies before the people's representatives, a man sworn to uphold justice who has in fact done enormous damage to pillars of legal history, a man under threat of possible impeachment for these and other crimes including politicizing the nation's Department of Justice for partisan political ends. What do you do?

Give him more power, of course! Power of life and death over defenseless people!!

Elisabeth Semel wasn't kidding when she told the BBC:

"It's like giving control of the hen house to the fox, because it's the attorney general in the state going to the attorney general of the US and getting permission to do something that kills the chicken."

It's getting pretty cold, don't you think? It's been getting colder and colder for quite a while now, and it will continue to get colder and colder, and colder and colder, as darkness encroaches ever further on this shining beacon on the hill ... unless we do something about it ... now, while we still have a chance!

Pinch Me, Martha, I Must Be Dreaming!!

Now here's something you don't see every day:
A sight for sore eyes!!

Important?
Just look!!

Sights for sore eyes, indeed!
And look! Here comes a third!

Winter Matriarch always said
"Good Chings Come in Threes"
She was right!!!

[click the images!!!]

For those who can't see the graphics, the third one says:

General Strike
NO Torture | NO Lies | NO Tyranny
NO School | NO Work | NO Buying
The Time Has Come | 9-11-07 | Hit The Streets
DEMAND: Impeachment | Treason Trials
End The War | Restore The Bill Of Rights
A NEW 9/11 Investigation

Subtle hint to frozen readers: this is one of those links you should share as widely as possible.

Hint, hint!

Webster Tarpley: 'Cheney Determined To Attack In US With WMD This Summer'

I'm not sure what to make of Webster Tarpley's newest warning on the state of the world. Much of what he says is obviously true and many other points are well documented. Yet he makes quite a few uncorroborated statements, some of which seem quite far-fetched to me, and I'm not inclined to accept any of them -- let alone all of them -- on his say-so alone. On the other hand, it's still an interesting read, containing much useful information.

The good folks at Total 411 dot info posted the following excerpt:

Cheney Determined To Attack In US With WMD This Summer: Only Impeachment, Or A General Strike, Can Stop Him

"The greatest threat now is "a 9/11 occurring with a group of terrorists armed not with airline tickets and box cutters, but with a nuclear weapon in the middle of one of our own cities."
Dick Cheney on Face the Nation, CBS, April 15, 2007

By Webster G. Tarpley | July 21, 2007

A few days ago, a group of lawyers from western Massachusetts met with the local congressman, Democrat John Olver. Their request was that Olver take part in the urgent effort to impeach Bush and Cheney. Olver responded by saying that he had no intention of doing anything to support impeachment. He went further, offering the information that the United States would soon attack Iran, and that these hostilities would be followed by the imposition of a martial law regime here.

According to reports in the British press, the Cheney war party has gained the upper hand in the secret councils of the Bush White House, pushing aside the purported hesitations of Miss Rice, Secretary Gates, and the NATO allies to chart a direct course towards war with Iran:

'The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned. The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo." ...at a meeting of the White House, Pentagon and state department last month, Mr Cheney expressed frustration at the lack of progress and Mr Bush sided with him. "The balance has tilted. There is cause for concern," the source said this week. ... "Cheney has limited capital left, but if he wanted to use all his capital on this one issue, he could still have an impact," said Patrick Cronin, the director of studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.' ("Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran; Military solution back in favour as Rice loses out; President 'not prepared to leave conflict unresolved'", Guardian, July 16, 2007.)

Deluded supporters of the Democratic Party may soon have to throw away their pathetic countdown clocks, those self-consoling little devices that remind them of how much time remains until noon on January 20, 2009, the moment when it is thought that Bush will finally leave office. These countdown clocks make no provision for the Cheney doctrine, which calls for a new super 9/11 with weapons of mass destruction in the US, to be used as the pretext for a nuclear attack on Iran and for martial law at home. Those who think the Republicans cannot hold the White House in 2008 have forgotten that neocons always prefer a coup d'etat to an election. As Cheney told Bob Schieffer of CBS's Face the Nation on April 15, 2007:

'The greatest threat now is "a 9/11 occurring with a group of terrorists armed not with airline tickets and box cutters, but with a nuclear weapon in the middle of one of our own cities."'

Pelosi and Reid need to toss out their fatuous countdown clocks, and get out their impeachment stopwatches - fast.

Thanks to Total 411 dot info for catching this and posting an excerpt.

You can read the entire piece at Revere Radio dot net, or if white text on black is not your idea of fun, here.

General Strike Shuts Down Pakistan

News clips from from Pakistan (in true blogger style; reverse-chronological order):

Dawn, May 15:
Countrywide shutdown | Outrage over Karachi killings | Enthusiastic response to opposition’s strike call

ISLAMABAD, May 14: A sense of anger and grief was more than evident on the streets across the country on Monday, as most businesses and shops from Khyber to Karachi remained closed. In many cities and towns, public transport remained off the road, bringing normal life to a halt on what was supposed to be the first working day of the week.

The strike was observed on a call given by the combined opposition in protest against mayhem in Karachi on Saturday when hundreds of armed men took control of the streets and Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and his lawyers were prevented from leaving the airport to attend a bar association function in downtown Karachi.

The nationwide shutdown was on a scale not seen for many years. So widespread and effective was the response to the opposition’s call that even traders in Islamabad, who ignored such pleas in the past, kept their businesses shut throughout the day. The shutdown in adjoining Rawalpindi was more comprehensive, with even smaller bazaars remaining closed.

Reeling under the after-effects of Saturday’s bloodbath, Karachi also observed a complete strike and witnessed more bloodshed when another four people were killed, taking the death toll in the ongoing violence to 46.

Two of those killed, reportedly belonging to Pakistan People’s Party, were gunned down when a contingent of Rangers, who have been empowered to shoot on sight anyone involved in rioting, opened fire to disperse protesters in the Lyari area.

Residents said a large number of people had taken to the street in protest when a police contingent forced shopkeepers to pull up their shutters. They said a Rangers’ party reached the area and opened fire on the protesters.

However, a Rangers spokesman categorically denied involvement of their personnel and attributed the killings to the Lyari gang war.

All commercial and shopping centres, markets, showrooms and shops were closed and public transport remained off the roads. The entire city wore a deserted look throughout the day.

Aljazeera, May 15:
Pakistan cracks down on riot threat

Strike action by opposition groups has virtually shut down major cities across Pakistan, as the row over the suspension of Iftikhar Chaudhry, Pakistan's chief justice continues.

The strikes on Monday come as the Supreme Court in Islamabad suspended a hearing into the charges against Chaudhry after one of the judges refused to hear the case.

"The city [Karachi] is totally paralysed. Shops are closed and very little public transport is on the roads. People are scared," Azhar Farooqi, a Karachi police chief, said.

Also in Islamabad on Monday, armed men shot and killed a senior Supreme Court official, police said.

Aljazeera, May 13:
Pakistan army told 'shoot rioters'

Pakistan's government has ordered the country's security forces to shoot rioters if necessary to bring an end to political violence that has left at least 37 people dead in Karachi in the last two days.

The order came as sporadic clashes continued around Pakistan on Sunday, a day after the worst street violence since the 1980s.

Unrest broke out in several ethnic Pashtun-dominated areas of the city, and "unknown people" fatally shot a man identified as Saifur Rehman, according to Shad Masih, a police officer. He said police dispersed a crowd in the area using tear gas.

"We have increased the presence of Rangers in the city and have told them to arrest or shoot anyone involved in violence and riots threatening life or property," Syed Kamal Shah, the interior secretary told Reuters, referring to a paramilitary force.

"The events of yesterday were very serious and violent. The whole city was paralysed and many precious lives lost...We don't want a repeat."

Aljazeera, May 13:
Pakistan violence toll rises

The death toll from the political violence in Pakistan has risen to 36 after hospitals received more bodies.

The violence came after a political crisis threatening General Pervez Musharraf, the president, exploded into clashes on Saturday between pro-government armed men and opposition activists in Karachi.

Karachi was largely peaceful early on Sunday but a group of about 100 people had blocked a street with burning tyres and stones in Jamshed Quarters neighbourhood, an Associated Press report said.

The death toll rose to 34 from the initial 28 after more dead bodies arrived in four Karachi hospitals and a police officer was killed by a mob late on Saturday, police and hospital officials said.

Most of the victims were members of opposition parties supporting Iftikhar Chaudhry, the chief justice suspended on March 9 by Gen Musharraf.

What is all this about?

As your cold scribe has reported (here and here), General-President Pervez Musharraf faces a re-election challenge soon, and the former Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, was expected to enforce the law that says only civilians can run for president.

So Musharraf would have had to give up his commission to run again, or give up the presidency to remain a General, or declare martial law and cancel the election, or maybe he thought he saw another way to stay in power: by firing the Chief Justice.

But Pakistan's lawyers didn't buy it, and they got out in the streets (in their business suits!), and the instability in Pakistan -- already torn apart by Musharraf's post-9/11 alliance with the USA against their friends and neighbors, the Taliban -- has been gathering momentum ever since.

So now we have: an unstable government, including an admitted terrorist as secretary of defense, in massive crisis over executive interference in the judicial system (against a background of attempted election fraud!) in a country that's virtually ruled by its army; a rogue intelligence agency with major terrorist connections; and angry, grief-stricken people who are sick to death of the so-called "War on Terror" and responding to calls for a general strike.

It almost sounds familiar!

Tarpley: Beware The Ides Of March -- Mobilize Now!!

Stop Sectarian Squabbles
Stop Moping
Time To Mobilize Against World War III

by Webster Tarpley, author of "911 Synthetic Terror"

[from Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth; edited slightly for clarity, emphasis added]

We are very close to a nuclear attack on Iran, meaning a Middle East regional war and a slide towards thermonuclear World War III. Beware the Ides of March, and the New Moon a few days later, the favorite time for Anglo-American sneak attacks. Stop wasting your time with sectarianism - it gets you nowhere. Compared to the world catastrophe now in sight, these petty quarrels sink into microscopic significance.

Putin's Munich Wehrkunde speech is a clear warning that we are on the brink of general war - worse than the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962. This is Putin's War Warning.

Zbigniew Brzezinski's testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Feb. 1 explicitly warns that terrorist actions inside the US are being prepared which will be blamed on Iran -- for use as pretexts to attack Iran within the framework of a multi-step neocon war scenario. (Zbig wants WWIII via an attack on Moscow, not Teheran -- that is his objection.) This means a new 9/11 with WMD: it will be MIHOP, state-sponsored, false flag, synthetic terrorism, for those who still do not get that crucial point.

We urgently require united front action by the 9/11 truth movement to accomplish the following:

1. Take back the airwaves. Call in to C-SPAN, Larry King, Limbaugh, Ed Shultz, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc. to cite Zbig's warning that the Cheneyacs are preparing a new 9/11 war provocation. Inoculate people not be stampeded. Ridicule the 9/11 myth being conjured up once again by Republicans like Boehner today in the House.

2. Form 9/11 truth squads and confront the 25+ declared presidential candidates on this same issue. Top priorities: Hillary the hypocrite warmonger, McCain the butcher, and Mr. 9/11, Giuliani. Challenge them to condemn new 9/11, attack on Iran, film them when they refuse to. Easiest to do in New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, and South Carolina, but possible and necessary everywhere. Two people ask questions, a third runs the camcorder or cell phone camera. Send results to youtube, 911blogger, 911truthsquads.com. Don't let them dodge the life and death questions. We are the new alternative media, as Time mag told us.

3. Start a weekly demo to protest the new 9/11 fakery and the wider war with Iran and Syria. Start now with whatever you have. Then build it from week to week. Go for visibility. Invite the peace movement and all persons of good will to attend. Get the media. A series like this in Leipzig, Germany in 1988-89 went from 10 people to 250,000 people and what amounted to a national general strike, bringing down the East German communist regime. Maybe it is our turn to get lucky too.

4. The neocons have wars plans; we need war plans of our own. Every group in every city needs to have a pre-arranged meeting point for a protest demo when the false flag provocation goes off, and then on the first day that war starts. In Washington, we all know that if the new 9/11 goes off and/or the bombs begin to fall, we go to Lafayette Park at the White House and say no to the new neocon insanity. Get pictures of protestors saying no to national suicide on the evening news, to counterbalance the hysteria. Make sure a sympathetic antiwar local reporter is briefed and won over in advance. In the first hours, there will be a titanic struggle to control and manipulate the popular mind. Get ready to act effectively at the drop of a hat.

For the medium and longer term: Get ready to turn the imperialist world war into a new era of human progress.

WGT

Please share this message as widely as possible.

Webster G. Tarpley: What To Do Next

UPDATED: see below

[Webster G.] Tarpley is a patriot who speaks five languages and is out front on the truth tours, technical analysis and in bringing people into the light concerning the methods of the covert ops, e.g., patsies, moles, etc., as per JFK assassination ad nauseum.

Until we openly teach the power of the mind, and how tractable the average citizen is, we will be vulnerable to various forms of mind control, propaganda and simple advertising manipulation, not to mention personal prejudice. Immature people are generally control-freaks and don't understand liberty for what it really is...rather than the channeled form of "freedom" we now generally experience as the Matrix-type existence. If we don't have control of our minds and have allowed ourselves to be conditioned to be sophists, it's all over...

So pass this everywhere, and get people thinking in terms of effective action, as Tarpley does.

So writes prez_usa_exile, who quotes Webster G. Tarpley

The 9/11 truth movement contributed decisively to the defeat of the pro-Bush forces in the November 2006 election. Bush and Rove intended to terrorize the electorate with the 9/11 fear issue, as they had successfully done in 2002 and 2004, to create an atmosphere conducive to stealing yet another election with vote fraud, vote suppression, and other illegal dirty tricks. But this time, as even some leading Democrats noted, the spell had been broken, and the nightmare vision had lost its hypnotic power. Bush was exposed as the desperate little demagogue behind the curtain. This was the result of five years of agitation and political education carried out by the 9/11 truth movement on the internet, through regional, national, and local conferences, in books and other publications, in battles for academic freedom on campus, and on cable television especially during 2005-6.

The turning point of the election campaign was probably the four telecasts in July-August of the round table of the Alex Jones Los Angeles conference, taped in late June; these broadcasts reportedly garnered the highest ratings in the history of C-SPAN thanks in part to a campaign of call-ins to talk radio by 9/11 truth activists and deflated the racist, militarist, and fascist 9/11 myth in the eyes of a whole stratum of opinion leaders. The Hillary Clinton-Lieberman-Rahm Emmanuel wing of the Democratic Party, by contrast, did everything possible to re-enforce the 9/11 myth and lose the election, and has been attempting ever since to throw away the fruits of victory in the name of "bi-partisan" sellouts.

The United States is now in the throes of a party re-alignment on the model of 1828, 1860, 1896, 1932, and 1968. This past election, like 1930 and 1966, was the prelude to and harbinger of a great historical watershed. If the cause of 9/11 truth prevails, the re-alignment can be resolved in a positive direction for the United States and the world. If 9/11 truth is strangled, the re-alignment may well turn out to be a re-alignment into totalitarian fascism. If the Democratic Party attempts to continue the war of civilizations imposed using the 9/11 pretext, it is the Democratic Party which will be destroyed. The new Congress must repudiate the discredited 9/11 commission and re-open the 9/11 question, working to bring the September criminals in the US government to justice.

The Baker-Hamilton commission is an attempt by the US ruling class to continue the Iraq and Afghan wars with different rhetorical packaging, pushing the neocon fascist madmen into the background and attempting to recruit Syria for a US-sponsored Sunni alliance with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt to oppose the Shiite bloc of Iran, Hezbollah, and the Iraqi Shiites. Baker-Hamilton ignore the grave danger that the 150,000 US troops in landlocked Iran will have their supply lines cut by insurgents, leading to their encirclement, decimation, and rout. Bush's likely insistence on escalating the Iraq war into an endless bloodbath, while retaining the lunatic victory rhetoric of the neocons and preserving total US subservience to Israel, may well propel part of the ruling class to seek the impeachment of the current regime, or Bush's ouster under the XXV Amendment. Such conflict is the public expression of a contrast within the US-UK ruling class itself between an extremist pro-fascist financier faction identified with George Shultz, and the imperialist grouping represented by James Baker III. The hegemony of either of these groupings spells doom for the United States as the death agony of the US dollar unfolds over the coming months. All indications point to a looming catastrophic worldwide dollar panic as more and more countries refuse to accept the US currency in payment for oil, raw materials, and other exports. The US ruling class will try to save the dollar by means of a regime of genocidal austerity here on the home front. We demand instead that the finance oligarchs pay for the crisis by means of a securities transfer tax (Tobin tax), taxes on the $300 trillion in derivatives held by Wall Street, and other taxes on the parasitical top 2% who have been the beneficiaries of the predatory tax policies of the Bush regime.

Bush-Cheney will necessarily attempt to motivate their policy of endless war and wider war against the will of 80% of the electorate by obsessive and compulsive citation of the lessons of 9/11. In this way they will place 9/11 more than ever before at the center of political conflict. Our ability to further dismantle and discredit the 9/11 myth will be the key to defeating Bush-Cheney and their war regime. By sweeping the 9/11 myth into the garbage can of history, we will destroy Bush's last line of defense. In doing this, the 9/11 truth movement is the only force which can save the United States.

The Democratic rubber-stamping of al Qaeda founder and Iran-contra criminal Robert Gates as Pentagon boss shows that the Democratic Party is strongly inclined to capitulate to Bush. Despite the parliamentary cretinism of Speaker Pelosi, other forces are at work to radicalize the Democrats. Whatever legislation the Democratic Congress may pass is likely to be vetoed by Bush. The one important power the Congress can exercise is that of oversight hearings, using subpoenas to compel testimony and the disclosure of documents by such lawless officials as Gonzalez, Rice, etc. Cheney has already signaled that the administration will refuse to comply, citing the fascist theory of the "unitary executive." This will force the Congress, deprived of any other way of justifying their own existence, to resort to contempt of Congress citations, funding cutoffs (on the model of the Hatfield-McGovern amendment that ended the Vietnam war), and boycotts of Bush's nominees. The resulting constitutional crisis over checks and balances would then set the stage for the impeachment of top officials.

US-led coalitions are facing catastrophic defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the vaunted Israeli army has been mauled by Hezbollah during this past summer's war in southern Lebanon. These events symbolize the death knell of imperialism in the Middle East. Oblivious of this, the Shultz-Cheney faction continues to strive for a new 9/11, a new Gulf of Tonkin, of other provocations which would enable US nuclear attack on Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, or other nations. Since these machinations would most likely be conducted under the cover of exercises and drills, we must maintain our vigilance, including by forcing the new Congress to address the issues of what 9/11 really was and how it could be repeated by the rogue networks in the CIA, Pentagon, etc. We must:

1. Impeach Bush-Cheney and top administrations officials (Gonzalez, Rice, etc.) for 9/11 crimes, starting with the overwhelming prima facie case for misprision of treason. (The Vermont Idea)

2. Deploy 9/11 Truth Squads into New Hampshire, Iowa, and other early primary/caucus states to confront candidates of all parties, challenging them to repudiate the racist, militarist, and fascist official myth of 9/11, re-open the investigations, and bring the actual perpetrators -- the 9/11 September criminals infesting the US government to justice. We reject the warmongers, totalitarians, globalizers, and state terrorists from all parties.

3. Aggressively lobby the new Congress to re-open 9/11, condemn the discredited Kean-Hamilton-Zelikow commission report, end the Iraq war at once, block the planned attacks on Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela, and ward off new acts of US-UK false flag state sponsored terrorism. We want the Patriot Act repealed, habeas corpus restored, and illegal NSA wiretaps shut down.

4. Prepare now to field slates of 9/11 truth candidates in the 2007 and 2008 elections, with a view to pushing the ongoing party re-alignment towards a positive anti-fascist outcome compatible with human progress.

5. Expand the effort of drill monitoring to deprive the ruling elite of the option of bootlegging new synthetic terror actions under the cover of military exercises and homeland security drills.

6. Call for more whistle blowers and deep throats to come forward with the truth of how 9/11 was a deliberate provocation run through the US military-security bureaucracy. We must identify, denounce, expose, and shut down suspect drills, educating world opinion about how drills are the matrix of state terrorism.

7. Prepare the ground for mass actions, including an open-ended general strike on the model of Spain in March 2004, to fight back against new state terrorist provocations, wider aggressive wars, and attempts to cancel elections or impose martial law.

8. In the context of the ongoing death agony of the US dollar, prepare urgent measures for emergency relief, job creation, re-industrialization, and economic recovery along the lines of the New Deal.

9. Work for the convocation during 2007 of an Independent International Truth Commission of eminent world figures to pass judgment of the US-UK official explanation of the 9/11 events and the neocon war of civilizations deriving from them.

10. The 9/11 truth movement, having largely transcended the artificial and obsolete left-right divide, will continue to work for the convergence of leftists, progressives, conservatives, greens, libertarians, and all persons of good will on the basis of a program of rejection war and dictatorship, and promoting economic recovery. This is a vital contribution to the ongoing party realignment and crisis of the political system.

The emphasis above is mine, and I wonder what you think about all (or any part of) this.

Please speak freely, as usual.

UPDATE: It's happening!!

From the Boston 9/11 Truth Blog:

Announcing an afternoon of TRUTH with Webster Tarpley

Jan 20th, 2006 11AM at the Friends Meeting House,
141 Central Avenue
Dover, NH

Webster Tarpley, noted author of 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA, and George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, will lead the day's activities for 9/11 activists, the public and invited guests in an event to create "Truth Squads" which will present a challenging presence to the presidential candidates in New Hampshire.

In his presentation Webster will discuss the current political party realignment and whether this transition will take us towards a new progressive phase or a more fascist and draconian society. As well the political evidence of 9/11 crimes, the dollar collapse, the dangers of a new 9/11 and the impending collapse of US forces in Iraq will be addressed by Mr. Tarpley.

Additional speakers will be added to address the issues of Impeachment and ending the war in Iraq.

Contact:

Peggy Brewster: brewstout@adelphia.net (Seacoast 9-11 Questions)
Jason King: jason@boston911truth.org (Boston 9/11 Truth Committee)

More details to follow at:
http://boston911truth.org

Voice Mail: 617-401-8047
Web: http://boston911truth.org
Email: boston911truth@gmail.com

Anyone close enough to attend?? Have a go at it! You never know what you can do until you try!!

After You "Vote"

Part VII of a series | Part VI | Part V | Part IV | Part III | Part II | Part I

In the previous installment of How To Survive The Midterm "Elections", we talked about what to expect. Based on past experience, unfortunately, the most realistic thing to expect is widespread fraud, and many stolen races. In this installment we consider what can be done about it.

David Swanson wants people to hold "candlelight vigils outside county election offices", which he says will pressure elections officials to count all the "votes" and count them correctly.

Kurt Nimmo sees "Rove and the Republicans rolling on the floor" laughing at Swanson's idea, and says:

Instead, activists should gather at the polling places and demand the removal of all devices — computer, optical, even card punch — and insist paper ballots be used instead. People should refuse to vote until this changes.

I agree with Nimmo, but only up to a point. Demanding the removal of all devices other than paper ballots would be a very good thing. But refusing to "vote" will not achieve anything. Think about it: if everyone who opposes the current administration refuses to "vote", they'll win by a landslide, even if they only have one supporter.

Rather than refusing to "vote", we should be refusing to work. And we should be refusing to spend. That's what people in other countries do when their "elections" turn out to be bogus. It's called a "general strike", and the tactic is based on the fact that your employers make more money from your labor than you do. So by withdrawing your services from the work-force, you hurt them more than you hurt yourself.

By refusing to work every day, rather than refusing to "vote" once every two years, you could make your voice heard every day. Or at least that's the theory.

But in this case it's only a theory; and there will never be a general strike in the USA, no matter how clear it becomes that our "elections" are a farce.

Why? Because consumers would be required to sacrifice a little bit of material comfort for future of their democracy, and for the future of their children.

And that is the one thing Americans have proven they absolutely will not do.