Juan Cole posted a great blog entry on the perils of voting for John McCain today on his always interesting blog, "Informed Comment". (As Aidan Monaghan points out in this blog entry, Obama has issues too, but not for the strawman reasons that McCain spouts in his public comments. As far as Clinton goes, a vote for Hillary is a vote for the Clinton dynasty, and all the baggage it entails.)

I would like to enhance Cole's blog entry with a couple segments from the 1995 documentary, "Dealing With the Demon". In the first segment, the human toll of drug trafficking is depicted. Cole refers to one million heroin addicts in Pakistan as a result of supporting the Mujahidin in Afghanistan, this documentary segment claims two million. The number is probably even higher now, as the sheer quantity of opium harvested in Afghanistan has skyrocketed. (This first segment is also interesting because an NBC news report from 1986 clearly explains how the Reagan adminstration had decided to supply the Mujahidin with Stingers and according to "one administration source, the CIA would be responsible for training the guerillas in their use". Oops! The official line these days is that the CIA never directly trained the Afghan Arabs.)

The second segment continues with an examination of the interconnected CIA, ISI, and drug trafficking warlords like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Both segments feature commentary from a sorely missed expert on Pakistani affairs, Dr. Eqbal Ahmed. The second segment features a brief comment from fromer DEA agent, Michael Levine. (There is a lot more background on the history of the opium trade in the full one hour episode you can view/download here.)

I disagree with Cole about the use of the term "blow-back" as he uses it, because contrary to conventional wisdom, it doesn't appear that contact with the Mujahidin was ever actually severed by Western interests after the Soviets left Afghanistan. Covert use of the Mujahidin was carried unbroken through the Clinton adminstration, as documented here by Nafeez Ahmed, and here by Michel Chossudovsky.

Clinton would seek to try 9/11 plotters in established courts
Carol Rosenberg | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: February 17, 2008 07:23:39 PM

If elected president, Hillary Clinton would ask the Justice Department to determine if alleged 9/11 plotters currently held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be tried in civilian courts or regular military courts rather than face military commissions that have sparked controversy both inside and outside the United States, her campaign says.

Clinton's response to questions about charges filed last week against six Guantanamo prisoners was the most far reaching of the three leading presidential candidates.

Her opponent for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said that the so-called "high-value detainees'' at Guantanamo should be tried in federal or traditional military courts, but did not say what actions he would take to move the trials.

Republican Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, said he plans to continue the military commissions even if the detention center in Cuba is closed, as he has advocated.

Flyby News Notes -
Editor - Jonathan Mark - www.FlybyNews.com
February 6, 2008 - Iran * Reflecting Pool * Clinton * Peltier

"Actions are held to be good or bad,
not on their own merits, but according
to who does them. There is almost no
kind of outrage--torture, imprisonment
without trial, assassination, the bombing
of civilians . . . does not change its moral
color when it is committed by 'our' side.
The nationalist not only does not disapprove
of atrocities committed by his own side,
he has a remarkable capacity for not even
hearing about them."

-- George Orwell

1) Iran Syria Oil Currency US-Israel Threat to Attack
- - Iran Oil Bourse to deal blow to dollar
- - What did Israel bomb in Syria? Implicit threat to Iran
- - THE SHELL GAME newsletter from Steve Alten
- - THE REFLECTING POOL – LA movie premiere review
- - The New York City 9/11 Ballot Initiative - Update
- - The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation
- - Why Were The Tapes Destroyed?
- - Willie Nelson: Twin Towers Were Imploded On 9/11
2) Lies and deceit is part of the Clinton-Bush record
- - Clinton Pardons Exposed Underworld Connections

http://www.gcnlive.com/On_Demand/Rense.htm
Amazingly perceptive analysis of the primaries by Tarpley, who convinces Jeff Rense that Hitlery Clinton is the lesser of three evil options -
the other two being Obama with Dr. Zbig Strangelove's war on Russia program in foreign policy and hyper-reactionary social agenda
and the GOP ticket of psychotic McCain with foreign agent Lieberman
The clou is where he shows that Obama is unelectable because he appeals only to a tiny group of wealthy liberal Democrats
That's the worst thing about Obama - he will give the White House back to the fascist Republican party
This all fits in with Tarpley's paradigm of the 36 or 40 year party realignment cycle which is now upon us
With Hitlery, this will realign away from the horrible southern strategy that has ruined the US since Nixon
It will be a new alignment of a "bi-coastal, urban southwestern coalition" which will be a much more positive force for the next cycle.
With McCain we go into another fascist cycle.
The US has alternated between positive and negative 40 year cycles. We've never had two bad ones in a row.

Peter Dale Scott addresses the Santa Cruz Media Strategy Summit, January 26, 2008.

In the above video, Peter Dale Scott talks about the futility of engaging with a system that offers no real choice, referencing Gore Vidal, who has said, in various ways, "We only have one political party in the U.S., and that is the property party, which essentially is corporate America, which has two right wings, one called Republican and one called Democrat. I can't say I like either of them."

In his book, (which he quotes from in the video), The Road to 9/11, Scott points out that real change in this country is not going to come from the top down. In other words, substituting one representative of the Property Party for another is not going to change anything. Real change in this country will come from the bottom-up, through the networking efforts of grass-roots activists and media activism that currently has its home on the internet. A real, workable coalition is needed, engaging the divided voting public. Scott writes that what we need "is a movement, like that of Solidarity in Poland, that unites the various elements in civil society instead of setting them against each other. I suspect that left and right, by discarding preconceptions and learning more about those whom they presume to be adversaries, could discover that they may have more in common than they believe." (The Road to 9/11, p.250)

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-60823289921627169

“Well the information which has been public for many months is that the attorney general decided not to fly commercially based on some assessments of existing threat level” - Hillary Clinton, June 8 2002

"How dare" Bill dismiss the idea of a new investigation based on his wife's own statements! If this "threat level" was sufficient enough for Ashcroft to be warned, what about the ordinary citizens who boarded the planes and were in the Towers and Pentagon?

I got through to (PNAC/drug czar) Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" radio-show early yesterday morning. Bennett's guest host Kevin Wall was talking about Hillary Clinton's chances. I decided to bring up the 9-11 elephant in the room in relationship to Bill's "How dare you?!" response to MN CHANGE's vocalization that "9-11 was an inside job." I also brought up Cossiga's recent comments, not because I am convinced that they are pure of intent, but more because they are a good thought and conversation starter, especially in a right-wing forum. What do you think of bringing Cossiga up? I also got to throw in his role in Operation Gladio. And ultimately claimed that Hillary Clinton is part of the 9-11 cover-up. As I believe the Legislative and Judicial branches in their entirety are at this point, both those consious and (intentionally) unconscious.

Click here to watch 'Bill-Bennett-Show-12-17-07-Clinton-talk'
or
http://media.putfile.com/Bill-Bennett-Show-12-17-07-Clinton-talk

Not *directly* related to 9/11, but it touches on the PNAC "new Pearl Harbor" memorandum. This is a good viral video to spread to people outside of the awareness of 9/11 truth, to prime them that there are forces in our government that have military expansion on their mind, at any cost....

From CNN:

She says she is the Democrat best equipped to fight terrorists, but White House hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton told New Hampshire voters Thursday that another attack on the United States would likely help Republican candidates at the polls.

"It's a horrible prospect to ask yourself, 'What if? What if?' " Clinton, a New York Democrat, told a house party in Concord, according to the New York Post and The Associated Press and confirmed by her campaign.

"But, if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the world."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/24/clinton.terrorism/index.html

There are two ways to interpret these comment. Naomi Wolf comes out in favour of the sensible one. Sample:

The Pentagon today told Hillary Clinton that she was boosting enemy propaganda by discussing withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

I don't like Hillary Clinton at all, but this may -- like other recent news -- start to wake the left up to the fact that the Neocons are playing for broke and -- as 9/11 truths know -- have ALWAYS been playing for broke.

Giving Senator Hillary Clinton a Taste of 9|11 Truth During Her Speech
[not the best quality but hopefully still 'does the trick' to inspire more people to do much of the same!]

Senator John Edwards ignores Bilderberg Group and 9|11 Truth Questions

Rep. Dennis Kucinich Shows Enthusiasm Towards 9|11 Truth Banners in the Audience
[but that energy later dwindles with questions regarding the 2nd Ammendment come about]

Source: http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2007/06/20/55-million-for-911-workers/

$55 million for 9/11 workers

A key Senate Committee has included an additional $55 million in federal funding for the mounting health needs of workers exposed to toxic substances during rescue and clean up following the Sep. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

The money would be used for treatment, screening, and monitoring administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services to expand the program beyond rescue workers to provide services to area residents, office and commercial workers, volunteers, students, and other individuals who were exposed to environmental hazards.

Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer said the legislation would provide comprehensive medical services for the thousands of ill and injured as well as the development of long-term, comprehensive screening and monitoring.

Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-usheal215264105jun21,0,5456654.story?coll=ny-health-print

Clinton condemns response to 9/11 dust

BY MARTIN C. EVANS

martin.evans@newsday.com; This story was supplement

June 21, 2007

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday chastised the Bush administration for failing to warn New Yorkers about toxic dust after the terror attack on the World Trade Center, but withheld criticism of the city's response under then-mayor and fellow presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani.

"Nearly six years after 9/11, we still don't have the whole truth about the toxic cloud of poison that filled the air after the towers fell," Clinton said yesterday at a hearing of the Senate subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health, which she chairs.

"We don't have an explanation for the misrepresentations that put countless people at risk of exposure to chemicals that we know are causing illness and death."

The chief of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, James Connaughton, defended the administration's handling of the toxic cleanup, saying its response was "conveyed real-time in fast-moving circumstances."

You have taken to the streets, you have made the DVDs, you have been to the conferences, you have heard the testimony, you have made the calls, you have borne the brunt of criticism, (some of it deserved, some of it contrived to demoralize you), you have read the books, (the official and alternative theories), and you have decided where to cast your lot.

And, you have decided to act!

Ok, now what?

Now is the time to focus your energy like a laser beam. Now is the time to inject yourself into the political debate in this country, and by proxy, to inject discourse about 9/11 into the living rooms of America.

How to do it?

Here is a clue. Last month activists confronted John Kerry with tough questions on WTC7 in Austin, TX. The video was posted to the internet. Alex Jones' infowars.com ran a story on Kerry's obfuscation, and this story was mirrored across the web.

Wake Up Your From Your Slumber has the goods. Or Raw Story's version is here .

May 15, 2007

Washington, DC - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY), Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health, and Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, announced today that they will conduct companion hearings into the failures of the Federal government in responding to the environmental crisis that resulted from the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks. For over five years, Clinton and Nadler have staunchly criticized the Administration's misleading public statements about post-9/11 air quality, as well as its continued failure to provide a proper testing and cleaning of indoor spaces contaminated by WTC toxins and its lack of provision of health care for the thousands of people who are ill as a result of exposure to the pollutants.

These hearings represent the first comprehensive Congressional oversight investigations into these environmental matters since the immediate aftermath of the attacks. While in the Majority, Republican House leadership steadfastly refused to hold a single hearing on this matter, or even respond to a written request made in September 2003 by Nadler, then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and then-Ranking Members John Conyers, John Dingell, George Miller, and Henry Waxman. (See http://www.house.gov/nadler/archive108/EPA_091703.htm ).

"We need to examine what went wrong and assess whether the federal government is better prepared to respond to environmental hazards in future disasters," said Senator Clinton. "I also remain concerned about potential indoor contamination resulting from the collapse of the World Trade Center and want to take a close look at the EPA's inadequate program to test and clean residential areas in Manhattan."