Review by John Bursill

Paper Link: Why Australia's Presence in Afghanistan is Untenable - By Lawyer James O'Neill

US President Barack Obama, 1 December 2009 “I am convinced that our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by al Qaeda. It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11.......It is important to recall why America and our allies were compelled to fight a war in Afghanistan in the first place. We did not ask for this fight. On September 11 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3000 people.”

From the essays Introduction "This article will suggest that the official rationale for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan is false. It involves a rewriting and/or ignoring of history on the part of the participants. It shows the same cavalier disregard for international law that was apparent in Iraq. It accepts without question the validity of the two premises argued by Obama in the above quote. Perhaps most disturbingly it persistently fails to address the reality of the present policies and their likely true intention."

Lawyer James O'Neill

In this outstanding historical analogy of the Afghan situation author and Lawyer Australian James O'Neill presents a story that the Australian and worlds population have been denied. O'Neill in this cutting and well documented essay makes a mockery of our current state of democracy in Australia; where neither the media, or the politicians of the major parties have attempted to even debate the legality of the US lead invaision and occupation of Afghanistan.

Two new papers have been published at the Journal of 9/11 Studies.

The first is called "Why Australia's Presence in Afghanistan is Untenable," by James O'Neill. Here is an excerpt:

"The events of 11 September 2001 provided a nominal casus belli for the attack and occupation of Afghanistan, heavily promoted by the mainstream media, which particularly in the United States is closely linked to the major armaments manufacturers. The same mainstream media have uncritically accepted and promoted the US government’s version of events about 11 September 2001, not because that account is plausible, which it manifestly is not, but because to question the rationale for military intervention is to question the whole of post World War II US foreign policy. If US foreign policy is seriously flawed then that in turn must raise serious questions about the level and extent of Australia’s adherence to the policies of its powerful ally."

The second paper is by Aidan Monaghan. It is called "Review of Analysis of Observed and Measured In-Flight Turns Suggests Superior Control of 9/11 Aircraft." Here is an excerpt:

"Although human control of UA 175 cannot be ruled out, small margins for error are evident in the number of available degrees of bank that could generate impact with WTC 2 via a constant radius turn from approximately 1.5 miles distant. An error of 5 degrees of bank left or right seems largely indiscernible to an observer, but would generate substantial distances from a given target. To achieve impact via a mile-long plus constant radius banked turn, within an acceptable margin of error would seem to be a substantial challenge to a reportedly inexperienced pilot without aid. The CWS function would apparently provide an in-flight automated stability that would permit a pilot to apply greater attention to the course of an aircraft and consider whether additional maneuvers would be required."

On Friday 27 June 1975 a young Venezuelan burst from a Paris apartment straight into the world's headlines.
He left for dead four men. He had previously blithely lobbed a grenade into a crowded café, attempted to assassinate the President of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain, seized the French Embassy in Holland, and launched two rocket attacks on planes at Orly airport. His crimes were apparently endless. He went on to kidnap the OPEC ministers in Vienna.
He is known to the world as Carlos. The press dubbed him the Jackal. Security forces considered him The World's Most Wanted Man.
David Yallop tracked Carlos down to a small village in the Bekaa Valley outside war-torn Beirut. Through two long nights he listened to part of Carlos's story. Then, under tragic circumstances, the trail went dead.
For the next seven years, Yallop tried to rediscover Carlos the Jackal, but what began as a manhunt became a journey into a frightening world of terrorism, espionage and Middle Eastern polictics.

http://www.yallop.co.uk/totheendsoftheearth.aspx

Source: http://japanfocus.org/-Peter_Dale-Scott/3448

Is the State of Emergency Superseding the US Constitution? Continuity of Government Planning, War and American Society by Peter Dale Scott

In July 1987, during the Iran-Contra Hearings grilling of Oliver North, the American public got a glimpse of “highly sensitive” emergency planning North had been involved in. Ostensibly North had been handling plans for an emergency response to a nuclear attack (a legitimate concern). But press accounts alleged that the planning was for a more generalized suspension of the constitution at the president’s determination.

As part of its routine Iran-contra coverage, the following exchange was printed in the New York Times without journalistic comment or follow-up:

[Congressman Jack] Brooks: Colonel North, in your work at the N.S.C. were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?

Both North’s attorney and Sen. Daniel Inouye, the Democratic Chair of the Committee, responded in a way that showed they were aware of the issue:
Brendan Sullivan [North's counsel, agitatedly]: Mr. Chairman?

Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10152010.html

Paul Craig Roberts
Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:31 CDT

Does anyone remember the "cakewalk war" that would last six weeks, cost $50-$60 billion, and be paid for out of Iraqi oil revenues?

Does anyone remember that White House economist Lawrence Lindsey was fired by Dubya because Lindsey estimated that the Iraq war could cost as much as $200 billion?

Lindsey was fired for over-estimating the cost of a war that, according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, has cost 15 times more than Lindsey estimated. And the US still has 50,000 troops in Iraq.

Does anyone remember that just prior to the US invasion of Iraq, the US government declared victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan?

Does anyone remember that the reason Dubya gave for invading Iraq was Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, weapons that the US government knew did not exist?

The attacks of September 11 were a pretext to a war already under consideration, Gul said. "I think some of the neocons, who were very close to President [George W.] Bush, they wanted that he could embark on a universal adventure of Pax Americana, and they thought that the world was lying prostrate in front of them," he said. The 2001 terrorist attacks helped win the public support for the neocon plans, he said.

There was no legitimate reason for the United States to attack Afghanistan, Gul said, because the FBI had no solid evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the attacks on New York and Washington. "Why has not a single individual connected to 9/11 been caught in America so far, and why hasn't Osama bin Laden been charged?" With no evidence anyone in Afghanistan was involved, there is no way to legitimize the U.S. occupation, Gul said."

http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/06/ex-pakistan-spy-chief-afghanistan-war-lost-cause/
Ex-Pakistan spy chief: Afghanistan war 'lost cause'

Rethink 9/11: A Letter To Peace Activists

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/58549

By: truthexcavator Monday July 5, 2010 12:19 pm
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Dear Every Peace Activist,

The world dramatically changed on 9/11, though, not for the reasons that were given by the Bush administration less than twenty four hours after the attacks, but for reasons that are deeply disturbing, and revealing; reasons that are either unknown, or have been repressed by activists in the peace movement.

As we enter the ninth anniversary of the War on Terror, the war in Afghanistan is intensifying, tensions in Iraq are resurfacing, and the possibility of a U.S. led attack on Iran is growing daily. Reflection upon the central premises and objectives in America’s vast military enterprise in the Middle East has never been more urgent. The stakes have been raised. Questioning the official story of 9/11 is now a matter of human survival. We can not ignore the calling of history any longer. We live in a state of perpetual emergency; every moment is vital, every second counts, every day that passes is a missed opportunity to right a horrible wrong.

hyperlinks at source - loose nuke

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0619/pentagon-revives-domestic-spying-unit/

Pentagon revives Rumsfeld-era domestic spying unit By Daniel Tencer

Saturday, June 19th, 2010 -- 7:13 pm

The Pentagon's spy unit has quietly begun to rebuild a database for tracking potential terrorist threats that was shut down after it emerged that it had been collecting information on American anti-war activists.

The Defense Intelligence Agency filed notice this week that it plans to create a new section called Foreign Intelligence and Counterintelligence Operation Records, whose purpose will be to "document intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism and counternarcotic operations relating to the protection of national security."

But while the unit's name refers to "foreign intelligence," civil liberties advocates and the Pentagon's own description of the program suggest that Americans will likely be included in the new database.

 www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/03/george-bush-us-waterboarded-terror-mastermind

source: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304965.html

 U.S. 'secret war' expands globally as Special Operations forces take larger role

By Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 4, 2010; A01 

Beneath its commitment to soft-spoken diplomacy and beyond the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups, according to senior military and administration officials.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jAz5HTbaFcgiGhmbogdxlE2QCDzQD9FJFQLO0
Holder: Miranda may need changes for terrorists
By STEVEN R. HURST (AP) – 8 hours ago

WASHINGTON — In the wake of the Times Square bombing plot, the Obama administration said on Sunday it wants to work with Congress on possible limitations of the constitutional rights afforded terrorism suspects — even for American citizens.

Attorney General Eric Holder said changes may be needed to allow law enforcement more time to question suspected terrorists before they are told about their Miranda rights to a lawyer and to remain silent under interrogation.

As the nation debates how to proceed against terrorist attacks, particularly as they have become the work of individuals who are difficult to detect in advance, the administration has been heavily criticized for reading Miranda rights to suspects in the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a plane heading for Detroit and the May 1 Times Square plot.

Terrorism has presented all sides in the debate with a delicate balancing act, protecting the rights of the individuals accused of terrorism while also attending to public safety.

Members of WE ARE CHANGE OTTAWA went to Rideau Center for our 11th of Every Month campaign.

This is a place we frequent often due to the large amount of pedestrian traffic.

hyperlinks live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m3d9-Irans-refutation-of-US-lies-of-nuclear-weapons-ce...

Levying war against the US is defined as treason in the US Constitution. The political and corporate media oligarchy who lied to levy war in Iraq committed treason against the US.

The political and corporate media fascists now lie for war with Iran.

The latest lie is one of egregious omission: refusing to communicate to the American public Iran’s refutation of US government lying rhetoric of a nuclear weapons program in Iran; printed below. When media and government silence the voice of opposition, this shouts-out as propaganda that middle school students are taught to recognize.

In addition, IAEA has used curious and twisted language in their reports; finding no diversion of nuclear material from legal and lawful use should be their emphasis. The fact it is not is prima facie evidence that political pressure is being exerted on IAEA leadership to spin their reports against Iran.