On this week's episode of his excellent weekly podcast from Washington, "Electric Politics," George Kenney interviews Peter Dale Scott. This is Kenney's third show on 9/11. If you haven't already listened to his fantastic interview with Paul Craig Roberts, I encourage you to download it from the archives -- it's one of the best PCR interviews I've heard yet. And show him some love in the comments section afterward!

"Of all the books on 9/11 Peter Dale Scott's learned The Road To 9/11(University of California Press, 2007) deserves special recognition for situating the events of 9/11 in an intelligible, albeit complicated, context. Unlike other leftist social critics who see a simple narrative in government actions, Peter sees rich textures in what he calls 'the deep state.' An agnostic about what actually happened on 9/11 Peter nevertheless convincingly and powerfully argues that everything is not as it seems. Here, we take up 9/11 as well as larger philosophical themes. Total runtime an hour and sixteen minutes. Enjoy!"

http://www.electricpolitics.com/podcast/2008/03/skimbleshanks.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2008
10:17 AM

CONTACT: Center for Constitutional Rights
Riptide Communications, Inc., 212.260.5000

CCR Says Suspected Use of Torture Undermines Credibility of 9/11 Report

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - January 31 - The Center for Constitutional Rights is outraged by new information that reveals that much of the information contained in the 9/11 Commissions Final Report regarding the planning and execution of the terror attacks on New York and Washington was supported by information gained from torture, including water boarding.

The analysis from NBC News shows that more than one quarter of all footnotes in the 9/11 Commission’s Report refers to controversial interrogation techniques, including information in the Report’s most critical chapters, those on planning and executing the attacks. Remarkably, Commission staffers and Executive Director Philip Zelikow admitted that though they were skeptical of the intelligence reports, they did not make any inquiries regarding cross-examination techniques.

Best line: "It showed an image of bin Laden wearing the same black beard and clothes as in the most recent video." Wearing the same black beard? As opposed to the other beards he is known to don and doff? What is he, Mr. Potato Head?

Also, how is it that a media outlet as sophisticated as the one alluded to here -- with banner advertisements, no less -- continues to elude our total world surveillance empire?

Al-Qaida promises 9/11 hijacker video
AP

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida said Monday that it will release a new video of Osama bin Laden presenting the last testament of one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers, marking the sixth anniversary of the attacks.

The announcement from the terror group's media arm came only days after bin Laden appeared in his first video in three years, giving an address to the American people, lecturing them to abandon capitalism and democracy and convert to Islam.

The announcement came in a banner advertisement posted on an Islamic militant Web site where al-Qaida often releases messages and was signed by al-Sahab, the media arm of bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.

Yet another Rosie blog on HuffPo, this time from Steve Young, a prolific HuffPo blogger.  If your fingers still flex after this past week, there is truth to be spread in the comment section and encouragement to be given to the author.

Rosie Has Become the Right's Latest Strawlib 

Kudos to these patriots. None of that vicious gay bashing you'll get from a Michael Savage. No, this is more important than just slamming sexuality. Even more important than how Anna Nicole's passing affected our lives. This was about a comedienne on ABC's "The View" who is trying take down America by challenging the particulars of 9/11. Ladies and gentleman, I warn you. This isn't Carrot Top. Not someone who starred in the classic "Chairman of the Board." This is someone who fielded her position all too well in "A League of Their Own."

Another indication of media blackout on 9/11 issues:

Media Matters has failed to report on any of the recent "conservative" media's feeding frenzy on Rosie O'Donnell and their vitriolic attacks on her First Amendment rights, which include calling for her dismissal and execution. Media Matters just this week published a blog on the site defending the repulsive Ann Coulter: http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/page.php?a=32662

With any other topic, Media Matters would have sent out press releases, blogged, and posted the information on their front page. They routinely monitor all Fox broadcasts and other Administration stenographic media personalities, calling them on misinformation, unprofessional conduct, and the like. According to their webpage:

Did anyone else catch this in New York Magazine's current issue?

“I knew what they were standing on top of,” Giuliani says. “They were standing on top of a cauldron. They were standing on top of fires 2,000 degrees that raged for a hundred days. And they put their lives at risk raising that flag.”

Hmmmmm...

http://nymag.com/news/features/28517/

December 14, 2006 --

On Dec. 11, WMR reported the following: "WMR has learned from one of its sources in New York that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York actively covered up massive money laundering by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) United Arab Emirate branch through its branch in New York. The money laundering consisted of questionable money movements through Dubai that involved individuals linked to "Al Qaeda," including those connected to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States."

We have now learned that the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago was made aware of possible terrorist-related money movements in a Federal Reserve Board of Governors letter sent to all Federal Reserve Banks a little over a month before the 9/11 attacks. The letter, dated August 1, 2006, requested all cognizant Federal Reserve components, including the bank's Financial Payments and Risk Analysis branches, to pay special attention to Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) being submitted by component banks.

In fact, some Federal Reserve banks did notice something very suspicious prior to 9/11. There was a dramatic downdraft in Federal Reserve note currency holdings in July and August 2001 (this is referred to as the M1 money supply). In fact, the decrease in Federal Reserve note inventory was 35 percent, equating to billions of dollars. Essentially, there was a run on cash at the banks in the months before 9/11, an event not seen since December 1999, in the weeks before Y2K, and in January 1991, prior to the commencement of Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf.

This is a fantastic article -- and I know that much of the gate-keeping left keeps up with the Common Dreams site. Hope it shames them to hell.

Published on Sunday, December 3, 2006 by CommonDreams.org

The Surreal Politics of Premeditated War

by R.W. Behan

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1203-21.htm

Here is an excerpt:

The story of George Bush’s premeditated wars now enters its final chapter. The catastrophic event takes place. A hijacked airliner probably en route to the White House crashes in Pennsylvania, the Pentagon is afire, and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center are rubble. In the first hours of frenetic response, fully aware of al Qaeda’s culpability, both President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld seek frantically to link Saddam Hussein to the attacks, we know from on site-witnesses. They are anxious to proceed with their planned invasion. And less than a week later, at a meeting of the National Security Council, President Bush ordered the Defense Department to be ready to handle Iraq, “possibly occupying Iraqi oil fields.”

The controversies rage on yet today about the events of September 11, 2001. No steel building has ever collapsed from fire alone. Buildings falling precisely into their footprints are the marks of deliberate (and expert) demolition. The faulty construction/foreshortened lifespan/insurance angle. The collapse of a third building that was not hit at all. The short-selling of airline stock in previous days. The Pentagon hit by a missile, not a civilian airliner. Michael Rupert’s book “Crossing the Rubicon” lays the blame for 9/11 directly at Dick Cheney’s feet. Senator Robert Dole’s former chief of staff, Mr. Stanley Hilton, claims he can prove George Bush signed an order authorizing the attacks. Half the people polled in New York city believed the Bush Administration had prior knowledge of the attack, and “consciously failed” to act. Et cetera. (Conspiracy is forever easier to see than to find, but that does not obviate the need to seek thoroughly the whole truth about 9/11, and that has yet to be done.)