GeorgeWashington's blog

Former FBI Translator: Bin Laden Worked for U.S. Right Up Until 9/11

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/07/former-fbi-translator-bin-laden-worked.html

Before you hear what she has to say, you should know a little about Sibel Edmonds' background.

Edmonds is a former FBI translator, who the Department of Justice's Inspector General and several senators have called extremely credible (free subscription required).

Some of Edmonds allegations' have been confirmed in the British press.

“In a Society Governed Passively by Free Markets and Free Elections, Organized Greed Always Defeats Disorganized Democracy”

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/06/in-society-governed-passively-by-free.html

In his excellent new essay arguing that "Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression", Matt Taibbi writes:

In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

I agree.

This same thinking applies to the government's lies about Iraq, as more and more evidence proves that the American government knowingly lied when it claimed that Iraq had wmds, and when it claimed there was a link between Iraq and 9/11. The "organized greed" of those in government who wanted to invade Iraq defeated the "disorganized democracy" of everyone else.

If asked, Taibbi might even admit this parallel.

Yes, Conspiracy Theorists ARE Crazy

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/06/yes-conspiracy-theorists-are-crazy.html

Many people have given talks, and written articles and books about how "conspiracies" are a well-recognized legal principal, about documented conspiracies throughout history, and about the overwhelming evidence that some recent events were conspiracies.

But it has just dawned on me that - much of the time - the opposite approach might be more effective.

First, let me summarize the suggested approach, and then I'll explain why it works.

Dick Cheney Only Had to Delay Things a COUPLE OF SECONDS to Reach his Long-Sought Goals

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/06/dick-cheney-only-had-to-delay-things.html

CIA director Leon Panetta told the New Yorker:

When you read behind it, it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point.

News commentator Ed Schultz said today that Cheney is wishing for a terrorist attack on the U.S.

What should we make of all this?

Well, everyone knows that Cheney is ruthless:

The REAL Holocaust Deniers Are Those Who Accept the Government's Version of 9/11

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/06/real-holocaust-deniers-are-those-who.html

A reader named Patrick made a very insightful comment about the propaganda effort to link 9/11 truth activists with holocaust deniers (edited for readability):

"Grandparents for 9/11 Truth", "Working Parents for 9/11 Truth" and "Soccer Moms for 9/11 Truth"

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/06/grandparents-for-911-truth-working.html

Given the false claim being made that people who question 9/11 are terrorists (and see this), I encourage people to form groups that show how mainstream questioning the government's version of 9/11 really is.

For example, I encourage people to form groups such as:

What the Murders of Dr. Tiller and Holocaust Museum Guard Really Mean

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/06/what-murders-of-abortion-doctor-and.html

I believe that anyone who promotes further murders like Dr. Tiller or the guard at the holocaust museum are guilty of terrorism. As a Muslim blogger wrote about the Tiller murder:


Two men commit murder with the goal of influencing government policy in the United States. The crimes occur one day apart. Both are religiously motivated. The Muslim is charged with terrorism. The Christian is not.

On the other hand, anyone who tries to label the maniacs who committed the murders as "right wingers" is painting with too wide a brush.

The murders - and the prevention of potential future attacks - are part of an important law enforcement issue. But just as it was insane to invade Iraq based upon a false linkage with 9/11, it would be insane to try to label millions of Americans as being dangerous just because they are republicans, or liberals or any other group.

Allowing Guilty Pleas and Death Penalties Without Trial for Alleged 9/11 Plotters Would Be the Ultimate Obstruction of Justice

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/06/real-meaning-of-allowing-guilty-pleas.html

The tin-pot dictator will not let the media talk to the American prisoner captured when his plane crashed.

The dictator says that the prisoner confessed to a horrible murder, and has pleaded guilty.

And so - the dictator announces - there will be no trial, just a death sentence. Indeed, the prisoner is Christian, and the dictator says that the prisoner has asked for martyrdom according to his religious beliefs.

Would the rest of the world believe this is fair?

Of course not. Moreover, world opinion would assume that the prisoner might very well be innocent of the murder charges, especially if it comes out that any confessions were made during extreme torture.

This is exactly the situation we have currently with the prisoners at Guantanamo.

As the New York Times reports:

The Socratic Method of 9/11 Truth

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/05/socratic-method-of-911-truth.html

An ancient philosopher discovered that his students learned more if he asked a series of questions than if he gave them the answers.

By asking questions which challenged his students' faulty beliefs, and allowing them to think through it themselves, Socrates moved them slowly - using a series of questions - from false thinking towards truth.

Indeed, law schools today primarily use this "Socratic Method" of teaching.

A 9/11 activist wrote a good example of the use of the Socratic Method for 9/11 truth in an email:

There's a Reason that Jon Stewart is the Word's Most Popular Truth-Teller

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/05/theres-reason-that-jon-stewart-is-words.html

Jon Stewart does more truth-telling than any other mainstream reporter (Olbermann and some others are good, but not as popular as Stewart).

Conspiracies and the Martha Mitchell Effect

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/05/conspiracies-and-martha-mitchell-effect.html

John Mitchell was the Attorney-General during the Nixon administration.

His wife - Martha Mitchell - told her psychologist that top White House officials were engaged in illegal activities. Her psychologist labeled these claims as caused by mental illness.

Ultimately, however, the relevant facts of the Watergate scandal vindicated her.

In fact, psychologists have now given a label - the "Martha Mitchell Effect" - to "the process by which a psychiatrist, psychologist, or other mental health clinician mistakes the patient's perception of real events as delusional and misdiagnoses accordingly".

The authors of a paper on this phenomenon ( Bell, V., Halligan, P.W., Ellis, H.D. (2003) Beliefs About Delusions. The Psychologist, 6 (8), 418-422) conclude:

Psychologists Weigh In On 9/11

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/05/psychologists-weigh-in-on-911.html

A new article in U.S. News & World Report quotes a couple of psychologists, one sociologist and one historian to argue that people who question the government's version of 9/11 are prone to false thinking.

Initially, remember that, while there are many honorable psychologists and psychiatrists, psychologists helped to create the U.S. torture program, and actively participated in it.

Use Parody To Wake the Sleeping Masses

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/05/war-is-peace.html

Because some people are too stubborn or too stuck in dysfunctional thinking patterns to hear the truth even when it hits them over the head, I suggest that we try a different approach: parody.

When a comic, like Stephen Colbert, does satire -- an exaggeration of what's being said -- it can wake us up, so that we can see the truth and laugh at how we've been acting. That can give us the freedom to stop doing the same dumb thing and to try something new.

So put satirical slogans on stickers, emails and freeway blogs to snap people out of their coma, like (by way of example only):

Like Iraq, the "Facts" Regarding 9/11 Were "Fixed Around the Policy"

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/05/just-like-with-iraq-facts-regarding-911.html

3 facts show that the government "fixed the facts" regarding 9/11 around a policy decision to exonerate the government from any blame whatsoever.

1. 9/11 Commission's Chief Counsel says Official Story "Almost Entirely Untrue . . . There Was an Agreement Not to Tell the Truth about What Happened"

As Daily Kos notes in a recent recommended story, the senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission - John Farmer - states in a new book that the official story of 9/11 "almost entirely untrue".

As I noted last month, he also says:

At some level of the government, at some point in time...there was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened.

and

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