Al-Qaeda has more "senior operatives" than any other organization. In fact, they're mostly senior citizens.

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said Friday it has custody of one of al-Qaida's most senior and most experienced operatives, an Iraqi who was attempting to return to his native country when he was captured.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the captive is Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi. He was received by the Pentagon from the CIA, Whitman said, but the spokesman would not say where or when al-Iraqi was captured or by whom.

The Pentagon took custody of him at Guantanamo Bay this week, Whitman said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070427/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terror_capture

The internets are all abuzz with the smackdown Mike Gravel gave to his fellow Democratic candidates during the latest debate.

You can watch a compilation of his performance here:

http://weazlsrevenge.blogspot.com/2007/04/mike-gravel-busting-all-of-lackey.html

A Democratic Blogger writes:

"Dennis Kucinich just lost nearly all of his support. He is now completely irrelevant. Gravel adopts the same positions, but has passion and power."

Not EXACTLY the same positions, as we here on blogger are aware. Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate who has dipped his toe into 911 truth. Gravel has not and, judging from his speech at least, supports the official fairy tale.

However, politics nowadays is not about what position you take on a particular issue, it's how well you present yourself. On that basis, Kucinich may well be finished. Many here are fans of Ron Paul, but unless he is able to pull a Perot he may not get any media coverage whatsoever, and therefore be relegated to "Green party" status.

Here’s antiwar.com:

“A mix-up in Boston prevented the luggage from connecting with the plane that hijackers crashed into the north tower of the trade center. Seized by FBI agents at Boston's Logan Airport, investigators said, it contained Arab-language papers revealing the identities of all 19 hijackers involved in the four hijackings, as well as information on their plans, backgrounds and motives.”

- MICHAEL DORMAN, Newsday
April 17, 2006

Forget Atta’s will.

Here we have “plans”, “backgrounds”, “motives”, and the “identities” of “ALL” their comrades. Just in time for CNN.

I have to admit, for a plan this meticulously orchestrated, it was a damn fool move on the part of the “hijackers” to place their fate in the hands of some zit-faced bag-boy checking their luggage. But hey, these guys were gamblers. In fact a few of them were playing craps on Abramoff’s Casino boat one work prior. So I guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

There are two pieces of “evidence” with respect the patsies I would have liked to included in “The Third Stage”: the magic passport and the Rosetta Stone.

Un-freekin-believable

---
April 7, 2007

Giuliani Says Nation at War Requires Him
By MARC SANTORA

CHARLESTON, S.C., April 6 — As Rudolph W. Giuliani introduced himself to primary voters this week, he rarely talked about the details of New York’s darkest day.

But Sept. 11 was a constant backdrop, and as Mr. Giuliani promoted his vision of a forceful foreign policy that calls for the United States to continue slugging it out in Iraq, he let his audiences know that his was an outlook forged by fire.

“What they say in Washington is not going to affect the fact that there are terrorists around the world that are planning to come here and kill us,” he said in Iowa, in the most spirited part of his newly honed stump speech.

Pointing his finger and bouncing up and down on his toes, he declared, “It is something I understand better than anyone else running for president.”

***

At a house party in New Hampshire, Mr. Giuliani suggested that it was unclear which was farther along, Iran or North Korea, in the development of a nuclear weapons program.

The Ontological Status of Conspiracy Theory

Another anarchist intellectual takes a rational approach to so-called “conspiracy theory”.

Hakim Bey, best known for his concept of T.A.Z. or the “Temporary Autonomous Zone”, dissects both the irrational “all-powerful” conspiracy theories of the populist right, as well as the equally irrational “conspiracy phobia” of the current left. In doing so he comes to a conclusion which is actually fairly obvious (despite the [at times irritating] post-modernist jargon), namely that “although human beings are carried along or moved by class interests, economic forces, etc., we can also accept the possibility of a feedback mechanism, whereby the ideologies and actions of both individuals and groups can modify the very "forces" which produce them.”

I have been working on a 911 truth video for the past several months in support of National Days of Truth Action.

I recently completed said video and uploaded it to googlevideo.

There was no problem.

After watching the film I noticed a few glitches, so I deleted the film, corrected the mistakes and re-uploaded it.

Status: Rejected.

There is nothing in this video that violates current copyright law. With the exception of a small excerpt from a CBC news program on PNAC WHICH IS ALREADY PRESENT IN ITS ENTIRETY ON GOOGLE VIDEO AND YOUTUBE, every clip clearly falls within Fair Use. Indeed, nearly all of the footage was taken from films already available on Google Video and other source which deal directly with 911 truth. I'm stunned at this development.

Here's the email:

Your video "The Third Stage" was rejected because it didn't comply with
our Program Policies.

Videos submitted to our program are subject to an initial review to
ensure that they comply with our guidelines. When videos do not meet
our standards, we disapprove them. You can review our guidelines at:

http://video.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=27737&topic=1490&hl=en

On the first anniversary of September 11, Richard Bernstein in the New York Times described the 1993 bombing as "the linchpin of September 11." He claimed that the pork-lover/coke-fiend Mohammed Atta had “met” with one of the patsies of the ’93 bombing, Ramsi Youssef. Apparently this alleged meeting was supposed to prove something, or at least buttress the official account. It does not.

The 1993 bombing was a classic case of a “sting operation” gone wrong – or right – depending on whether you see terrorist atrocities as something to prevent or rather actively encourage. The FBI obviously holds the latter view. As most of us are now aware, the man sent to recruit patsies for the “dry run” of September 11th was an Egyptian intelligence agent named Ali Salem. He also happened to be working as an informant for the FBI. A Mossad operative named Guzie Hadas provided the rental van. The FBI provided the explosives. Salem was ensured that the bombs were duds. They weren’t.

9/11 fantasists pose a mortal danger to popular oppositional campaigns

These conspiracy idiots are a boon for Bush and Blair as they destroy the movements some of us have spent years building

George Monbiot
Tuesday February 20, 2007
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2017005,00.html

Make sure you register and express your appreciation over being called a "moron" for believing in the laws of physics.

Excellent article by Mike Whitney which includes a chilling passage from a pre-911 article by the mythmaker Philip Zelikow. “In the Nov-Dec 1998 issue of Foreign Affairs he (Zelikow) co-authored an article called ‘Catastrophic Terrorism’ in which he speculated that if the 1993 bombing of the World Trade center had succeeded ‘the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it. Such an act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed event in American history."

--

Just as 9-11 has been used to justify the enhanced powers of the “unitary” president, the evisceration of civil liberties, and a permanent state of war; so too, the bombing of the Golden Mosque, has been used to create a fictional narrative of deeply ingrained sectarian animosity that has no historical precedent. Both events need to be exposed by thorough and independent investigations.

The responses to Rep's thread are a terrific example self-congratulatory narcissism.

If it's just a matter of venting (justified) anger then I'll join you in the hate-fest; I've had numerous email debates with Chomsky on the subject of 911 (one of these is posted at length on the Guerilla News Network, if you’re interested); needless to say I share your collective disgust.

But there’s a time for hate and there’s a time for redemption.

Like many of you, I eventually came to the conclusion that Chomsky was/is becoming senile, irrational, overly impressed with his own stature and ultimately doomed to be replaced by the likes of Chossudovsky and other new media figures.

Chomsky’s old stuff is fantastic and highly recommended, but his willful ignorance of the horrific new constant -- false flag operations -- makes him irrelevant, or nearly so, as to current affairs - save his massive following. I repeat: massive following. Are we a cultish clique or a movement? Do we want to expand our horizons or congratulate ourselves?

Arundhati Roy is arguably an even bigger darling of the left than Noam Chomsky, and with good reason. Her exquisite book “The God of Small Things” was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for fiction; she has spoken out tirelessly against the corporate takeover of India and the increasing impoverishment (and suicide) of poor farmers; she has taken on Monsanto and frankenfoods, imperialism and the war on terror; she’s a leading figure of the anti-globalization movement.

She was also listed amongst Tarpley’s “left gatekeepers” during a presentation he gave in New York.

Truth be known, I admire the work of both Arundhati Roy and Noam Chomsky, despite their cowardice on 911. I have lost a great deal of respect for many figures on the left, but I dislike “black and white” thinking and hold out hope that some of them will eventually do the right thing. I don’t really think it has much to do with “right” or “left” so much as ego and perceived stature. 911 is apparently viewed as a career-killer. The libertarian figures on anti-war.com have been similarly negligent, but I still enjoy the articles of Justin Raimondo.

9/11 in Context: The Strategy of Tension Gone Global

Finally, an anarchist interpretation of 911 that doesn’t involve “blowback”. I say “finally” only because I just came across these two articles by Tod Fletcher, posted under the pseudonym Max Kolskegg.

In his interview with Guns and Butter, available here:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2007/01/360935.mp3

…he also draws attention to the infiltration of the black bloc in Genoa, Italy. Anarchists are a very easy target for provocateur action (suffice it to say that dressing up like a Zapatista is not difficult), and are thus frequently smeared as instigators of violence. Indeed, it wouldn’t even matter if the black bloc was abandoned as a tactic by the small number of anarchists who engage in it, they would simply be replaced (and frequently are, I imagine) by fascists working for the state. The important thing is not to confuse a philosophy bearing an extremely broad back with the actions of a few people.

ESSENTIAL READING

Excerpts from the last chapter of Michael Parenti's "Land of Idols".

CONSPIRACY AND CLASS RULE

In 1837, Abraham Lincoln remarked, "These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people . . ."2 Today, he would be dismissed as a "conspiracy theorist." When so labeled, one is supposed to make hasty protestations to the contrary. For some, conspiracy is by definition ridiculous and nonexistent, evoking a caricatured tableau of sinister figures in secret chambers. Actually, "conspiracy" is a bona fide legal concept, defined as planning or acting together in secret, for unlawful or harmful purposes, often by illicit means. The ruling class's major mode of operation is systemic and institutional rather than conspiratorial. No ruling interest could last long if it tried to control an entire society with the manipulations of secret cabals.

--

To Maylie
FREE CLIMB

Climbing to 37,000 feet
above yosemite
and the ABC Sportsflight

shows the first free climb
of the Lost Arrow Spire
directly beneath me

so steep above the window
of the Ahwahnee Restaurant
we had to twist our necks
of the watery canyon
not as high as mine
the eggs and sausage arriving

above the thunderclouds
as the lead climber falls
the length of his belay

enough to bite his tongue
blood over his hand
and I as suddenly

am close to a cold sweat
once on Mont Saint Hilaire
above the white wood crosses

fully extended on a similar
rockface I had to drop
hoping to catch the ledge

saved by a chance handhold
for a sedate career And yet
my trip to the Archives

to finish this manuscript book
about Mengele and the US
in Latin America

years after the cold ,
breakfast in the drizzle
with the Canadian film-maker

outside the gates at Auschwitz
is in its way a first
crack at an unsealed pitch

no summit visible
learning to climb free
You must be half way

To Tassajara
our daughter sleeping
on the madrone hillside

above Suzuki Roshi’s grave

Episcopalian Priest and 911 truther Frank Morales argued on Guns and Butter that the next revolution will be global. Elites want a global government, therefore the revolution will transcend borders. It may start in a particular locale but will inevitably spread worldwide.

The goal of the “new left”, from my vantage point, is to create a decentralized network of self-governing communities federated horizontally rather than supporting a massive pyramidal technocracy or “global communist state”.

The goal of paleoconservatives is state sovereignty. There is a common thread here. Both factions – if they can be called factions (I dislike the term) – believe in a certain degree of decentralization; we should build on this.

We do not want global government.

Fundamental disagreements arise over issues like democracy, capital accumulation, cooperation vs. competition, institutional hierarchy, the role of the state (if any) and so forth, but when it comes to issues like individual rights, peace, justice and eliminating the parasitic elite, we’re all basically on the same page.

That word “basically” encompasses a thousand conflicts. It is false to say that the “left/right” paradigm is non-existent--comforting but fallacious. It still exists, but in a mutated and highly fungible form. The sham is in the FAKE left/right paradigm, ie demorats and rethuglicans and the meaningless wedge issues they wave in front of us like kidnapper’s candy, never intending to solve said issues in the first place.