Day: April 12, 2016

Yet More 9/11 Stuff

Let’s be honest….you thought you have heard just about everything that could be printed on the 9/11 incident that turn the world upside down, right?

Maybe not so much?  There seems to be 28 pages of the official 9/11 report that has been kept from the public and the media since 2003……but that could be about to change.

What could possibly be so important that it must stay classified after all these years?

As former Florida Sen. Bob Graham told 60 Minutes on Sunday, he’s been on a quest since 2003. His mission: Get the so-called “28 pages”—classified pages from a congressional report that are said to detail suspected Saudi Arabian support given to the 9/11 attackers—brought out from the guarded vault in which they are reportedly kept. Graham sees the pages as a “key part” to understanding a scenario he tells 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft is “implausible”: that 19 non-English speaking foreigners, most with little education, “could’ve carried out such a complicated task.” In Graham’s view, that points to the existence of people (specifically, Saudis) who must have lent the hijackers support in the lead-up to the attacks. Kroft asks if the suspected Saudi involvement encompasses the government, rich people, or charities. “All of the above,” says Graham.

The 60 Minutes report is a timely one, with President Obama—who the Daily Beast reports has twice vowed to declassify the 28 pages excised from the report by the Bush administration—a little more than a week away from visiting Saudi Arabia. The Beast observes that the pages potentially weigh heavily on the ability of 9/11 victims’ families to go after the Saudis in court. The feds say sovereign immunity shields the Saudis, and the Saudis themselves point to one sentence in the report that seemingly absolves senior Saudi officials from playing a role. But that sentence is “not an exoneration,” says former Sen. Bob Kerrey. “We did not, with this report, exonerate the Saudis.” Kerrey is one of the few who have read the 28 pages, which 60 Minutes likens to “a grand jury or police report” containing both verified and unverified evidence that hijackers living in Southern California had help from the Saudis.

Could the US be protecting the Saudi royal’s asses?  My guess is yes….we always protect them from criticism and accountability.

Thoughts?

The Middle East: Let’s End America’s Hopeless War

Our country’s longest war is unwinnable, and we have more important things to do.  It is time to end these massive wastes of personnel and money….It has been 15 years and 13 years respectively and the US is NO closer to the original intent in to which we entered into these conflicts.

At what point will the American people realize what a waste all these wars are and just what could be accomplished in this country with the funds that we waste daily.

A hundred years ago, the armies of World War I fought to a bloody stalemate on the Western Front and desperately searched for ways to break it and gain an edge. They field-tested tanks and poison gas, rolling barrages and storm-trooper tactics. Today, the United States is stuck in an analogous stalemate in the Middle East and Islamic world in general. And we are field-testing all manner of novelties, much like the great armies of Europe mired in the trenches: the so-called Revolution in Military Affairs and counterinsurgency, precision-guided munitions and unmanned aerial vehicles, not to mention such passing fancies as “overwhelming force,” “shock and awe,” and “air occupation.”

Yet as was the case a century ago, the introduction of some new battlefield technique does not necessarily signify progress. On the contrary, it only deepens the stalemate.

Source: The Middle East: Let’s End America’s Hopeless War – POLITICO Magazine

I am an unashamed anti-war supporter and the longer these conflicts continue the more US troops will die and the more money that will be wasted on them, the wars not the troops…..it is time to wash our hands of these conflicts and come home and do the right things for the people of this country.

Panama Papers: A media disinformation campaign?

Since the release I have been reading everything I can find on the so-called Panama Papers.  I do not think that the western MSM is being totally forthcoming with the facts in their reporting.

As I find articles that explain the situation elsewhere I will press them on IST to help my readers understand what is going on with this situation.

I found another article that makes some sound and thought provoking points…..

We look at coverage of the scandal and ask whether corporate-owned media have been agenda-driven in their reporting.

Called the “biggest leak in the history of data journalism” by Edward Snowden, the Panama Papers story has rocked the world in the past few days exposing how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth.

The papers – some 11.5 million documents  – have revealed how Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm, allegedly helped current and former world leaders, as well as businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sports stars, evade or avoid tax via anonymously-owned shell companies and offshore accounts.

In terms of the size of the leak and the scale of the journalistic collaboration, the story has garnered wall-to-wall coverage and dominated the front pages of newspapers across the world.

Source: Panama Papers: A media disinformation campaign? – Al Jazeera English

There is more to this story than what we are getting from the media…..I will be watching and reported all the stuff that I find….maybe this way we can know at least some of the truth…..not necessarily all.

Only the Pentagon Could Spend $640 on a Toilet Seat

I try to point out just how much money the Pentagon wastes in the course of “doing business”…..we all know the famous stories of a $1000 screw or the $200 hammer and of course the “famous” $600 toilet seat…..but the waste goes much deeper than those that get highlighted occasionally….

What your tax dollars go towards at America’s defense headquarters.

From spending $150 million on private villas for a handful of personnel in Afghanistan to blowing $2.7 billion on an air surveillance balloon that doesn’t work, the latest revelations of waste at the Pentagon are just the most recent howlers in a long line of similar stories stretching back at least five decades.  Other hot-off-the-presses examples would include the Army’s purchase of helicopter gears worth $500 each for $8,000 each and the accumulation of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons components that will never be used. And then there’s the one that would have to be everyone’s favorite Pentagon waste story: the spending of $50,000 to investigate the bomb-detecting capabilities of African elephants. (And here’s a shock: they didn’t turn out to be that great!) The elephant research, of course, represents chump change in the Pentagon’s wastage sweepstakes and in the context of its $600-billion-plus budget, but think of it as indicative of the absurd lengths the Department of Defense will go to when what’s at stake is throwing away taxpayer dollars.

Source: Only the Pentagon Could Spend $640 on a Toilet Seat | The Nation

Yes this is an awful waste……if we accept that then the next point is how did this happen?

From spending $150 million on private villas for a handful of personnel in Afghanistan to blowing $2.7 billion on an air surveillance balloon that doesn’t work, the latest revelations of waste at the Pentagon are just the most recent howlers in a long line of similar stories stretching back at least five decades. Other hot-off-the-presses examples would include the Army’s purchase of helicopter gears worth $500 each for $8,000 each and the accumulation of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons components that will never be used. And then there’s the one that would have to be everyone’s favorite Pentagon waste story: the spending of $50,000 to investigate the bomb-detecting capabilities of African elephants. (And here’s a shock: they didn’t turn out to be that great!) The elephant research, of course, represents chump change in the Pentagon’s wastage sweepstakes and in the context of its $600-billion-plus budget, but think of it as indicative of the absurd lengths the Department of Defense will go to when what’s at stake is throwing away taxpayer dollars.

Source: How Not to Audit the Pentagon | The American Conservative

The truly sad part is that many Americans DO NOT care how much is wasted as long as it is not wasted on poor people or hungry people…..pathetic!

The Facade of Israel is Cracking

For sixty years the western media has protected Israel from any sort of negative PR no matter the extent of their depravity……but thanx to social media their actions are being reported and seen by many many people……most of whom have no idea the actions that Israel will take to depress the Palestinians under their control…..

Just look at the demolitions that the media refuses to print……

Social media is making it possible for the western world to see what the Middle East has known the whole time…..and it seems to be working……

For many more years than any intelligent person would want to count, Israel was the sacred cow of the United States. From its violent, bloody, genocidal inception that involved the ethnic cleansing…

Source: The Facade of Israel is Cracking

Little by little the world is seeing just how oppressive the Israeli government can be.

It is about damn time!