http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Bin Laden’s Former Driver Is Sentenced to 5 1/2 Years
By WILLIAM GLABERSON 38 minutes ago

A panel of six senior military officers sentenced Salim Hamdan to 66 months in prison after just over an hour of deliberation.

http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

MUST WATCH: Keith Olbermann Interviews Pulizer Winner Ron Suskind About His Newest Book
"The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism" is shocking in its revelations. Suskind, last of a dying breed, fields GOP attacks from persons he interviewed, shurgs it off -- he has the tape recordings. John Dean "Worse Than Watergate" comments.

http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na READ THE COMMENTS!

Detainee Convicted by Military Panel

By WILLIAM GLABERSON NYTimes
Published: August 6, 2008

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — A panel of six military officers convicted a former driver for Osama bin Laden of a war crime Wednesday, completing the first military commission trial here and the first conducted by the United States since the end of World War II.

But the commission acquitted the former driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, of a conspiracy charge, arguably the more serious of two charges he faced. His conviction came on a separate but lesser charge of providing material support for terrorism.

Mr. Hamdan, who has said he is about 40, faces a possible life term. The sentence is to be set in a separate proceeding before the same panel that is to begin this afternoon. As the verdict was read, Mr. Hamdan, who has been in custody since he was detained in Afghanistan in November of 2001, stood passively at the defense table in a white headscarf, his head bent slightly down.

The Anthrax Attacks: Sunlight Is the Best Disinfectant

http://www.truthout.org/article/the-anthrax-attacks-sunlight-is-best-dis...

The Anthrax Attacks: Sunlight Is the Best Disinfectant

Monday 04 August 2008

by: Bill Simpich, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

If we've learned anything in the United States during the Bush era, it's that we have to resist rushing to judgment in the face of catastrophic events. The exercise of careful, independent judgment is the best tool available - we should use it. US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who often wrote on the benefits of both privacy and transparency, offered the reminder "sunlight is the best disinfectant."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9735

PsyOp: Is Washington Intent on Sabotaging the Beijing Olympics?
Pre-Olympics PsyOp creates Atmosphere of Fear and Insecurity

by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, August 3, 2008

In the weeks leading up to the Beijing Olympics, an atmosphere of fear and insecurity is unfolding.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9735

THE BIOWAR STORY NOT TOLD IN THE AFTERMATH OF A SCIENTIST’S “SUICIDE”

SPECIAL NEWS DISSECTOR REPORT: THE DEATH OF A SCIENTIST AND THE BIO WAR MYSTERY

By Danny Schechter

Danny Schechter, nicknamed "The News Dissector," is a television producer, independent filmmaker (Weapons of Mass Deception) , blogger, and media critic who writes and lectures frequently about the media in the United States and worldwide.

It is Saturday morning, and as the skies darken, and the rains threaten, I am reading about biowar investigator Bruce E. Ivins who is said to have taken his life with a fatal cocktail of codeine and other drugs just as he was about to be arrested and charged with five cases of murder in connection with the still fully unsolved anthrax attacks of 2001.

The naming of Mr. Ivins, born in Lebanon (Ohio), not the Middle East, and a veteran employee at the U.S. Government’s massive US Army bio weapons lab at Ft. Detrick, MD at least suggests, as many have long contended, that this was a domestic crime, not a foreign terrorist act.

The story, broken by the LA Times Friday got the full card monte coverage treatment by the New York Times on Saturday with acres of print. Is there any reason to conclude that we now know all the facts, or that the case is closed or even that Ivins was the guilty party?

The last man accused by the FBI Dr Stephen Hatfill went to Court and won a $4.6 million settlement in his suit against the FBI for violating his rights. His law suit against the NY Times reporting on the issue failed when the Judge ruled he could not prove the newspaper knowingly published false information. Clearly, the information was false then. How credible is the reporting now?

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=7...

Al-Qaeda No 2 al-Zawahiri may be dead: report

Islamabad, August 02, 2008
First Published: 16:00 IST(2/8/2008)
Last Updated: 16:04 IST(2/8/2008)

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second most powerful leader after Osama Bin Laden, might be critically wounded and possibly dead, according to a media report.

The CBS News reported that it had obtained from sources in Pakistan a copy of an intercepted letter which urgently requests a doctor to treat al-Zawahiri. The al-Qaeda leaders are believed to be hiding somewhere in Pakistan's tribal areas.

The letter, reportedly written by Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, refers to al-Zawahiri by name and states that he is in "severe pain" and his "injuries are infected". CBS News said the Taliban logo and Mehsud's seal on the letter had been "confirmed by experts as legitimate".

THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF 9-11-2001: Video Summary---Prof. Paul Zarembka

Paul Zarembka, Editor
Department of Economics
State University of New York at Buffalo

Video summary is available
on-line from Showshoe Films

THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF 9-11-2001: Prof. Paul Zarembka (SUNY Buffalo) - 29 min - Oct 3, 2007

Countdown: Anthrax Attacks Inside Job?

Gitmo+Al+Qaeda+Movie+Creator+Previously+Pushed+Terror+Propaganda

Evan Kohlmann: “This is the kind of video proof that is going to put a lot of 9/11 conspiracy theorists out in the cold and for good reason.”

Steve Watson - Infowars.net - Friday, August 1, 2008

A Pentagon produced documentary on Al Qaeda which was presented as evidence at the first Guantanamo war crimes trial was created by a terrorism consultant who has previously attempted to pass off Pentagon released propaganda as directly released by Al Qaeda.

Along with experts on Islamic terrorist groups who were baffled by the video and declared that it had come from a security agency, the very journalist who received the tape also announced that the source was not Al Qaeda.

“The Al-Qaida Plan” was shown to an audience of military jurors hearing evidence against a former driver for Osama bin Laden earlier this week. The movie essentially props up the official government version of events on 9/11 and asserts that there was a coordinated “overarching conspiracy” by operatives of Osama Bin Laden to carry out the attacks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/world/asia/01pstan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=s...
Pakistanis Aided Attack in Kabul, U.S. Officials Say

By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: August 1, 2008

WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan’s powerful spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to United States government officials.

The conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack, the officials said, providing the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers are actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in the region.

The American officials also said there was new information showing that members of the Pakistani intelligence service were increasingly providing militants with details about the American campaign against them, in some cases allowing militants to avoid American missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/31/cheney-proposal-for-iran-war/

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/sealtricks

EXCLUSIVE At THINKPROGRESS: To Provoke War, Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians And Shoot At Them

Speaking at the Campus Progress journalism conference earlier this month, Seymour Hersh — a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist for The New Yorker — revealed that Bush administration officials held a meeting recently in the Vice President’s office to discuss ways to provoke a war with Iran.

In Hersh’s most recent article, he reports that this meeting occurred in the wake of the overblown incident in the Strait of Hormuz, when a U.S. carrier almost shot at a few small Iranian speedboats. The “meeting took place in the Vice-President’s office. ‘The subject was how to create a casus belli between Tehran and Washington,’” according to one of Hersh’s sources.

http://www./node/35102

$1,000 to Ask Pelosi a Question: She's Coming to a Town Near You
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2008-07-29 01:00.

We'll gladly pay you $1,000 to ask Nancy Pelosi a question.

Pelosi told "The View" today that she'd impeach Bush if anybody knew of a crime he'd committed, just as she told Ed Schultz a year ago. Here's a list of crimes (PDF) drawn up by Conyers 2.5 years ago. And here's a list of crimes (PDF) from Kucinich's articles of impeachment drawn up by Elizabeth de la Vega.

Could a few thousand people fax these to her please?
Fax: 202-225-8259, Phone: 202-225-0100, Email: AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov or sf.nancy@mail.house.gov

Could someone also deliver them to her at her appearance with Politics and Prose bookstore of Washington, D.C., on Saturday, August 2 at 3 p.m. at Friendship Heights Village Center, 4433 S. Park Avenue, Chevy Chase, Maryland. (There is no cost for this event. Please sign up in advance by calling the Village Center at 301-656-2797.)

Bush has repeatedly instructed current and former staffers to refuse to comply with subpoenas and contempt citations.

No, not "Zero", not "Loose Change Final Cut", no, not "In Their Own Words". Terrorstorm? No." The Power of Nightmares?"
Give up? "THE AL QAEDA PLAN" by Master Obfuscator Evan Kohlmann.

Guantanamo trial views graphic September 11 video

By Randall Mikkelsen

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Prosecutors in the trial of Osama bin Laden's driver unveiled a graphic video on Monday of the September 11 attacks and other al Qaeda operations that is likely to play a repeated role in pending war crimes cases.

The video is entitled "The Al Qaeda Plan," an echo of "The Nazi Plan" made by Oscar-winning director George Stevens as evidence in the Nuremberg war crimes trials of German leaders after World War II.

"Oh my God" was heard repeatedly as crowds watched the twin towers of the World Trade center collapse on September 11, 2001, in a vivid highlight of the movie shown over defense objections at the terrorism conspiracy trial of Salim Hamdan.

The Hidden History of 9-11 (Paperback)
by Paul Zarembka (Editor)

http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-History-9-11-Paul-Zarembka/dp/158322825X/re...

Editorial Reviews
Product Description

"Hidden History is a benchmark in 9/11 research; a serious reference volume that does not peddle vacuous theory, but instead offers up facts to be considered, and places 9/11 within a historical and social context that differs radically from the Official Story."-Guerilla News Network

How much insider trading occurred in the days leading up to 9/11? How compromised is the evidence against alleged hijackers because of serious authentication problems with a key Dulles Airport videotape? To what extent does the testimony of more than five hundred firefighters differ from official reports of what happened at the World Trade Center buildings that day? How inseparably connected are Western covert operations to al-Qaeda? How is Islamophobia used to sustain US imperialism?

http://rawstory.com//news/2008/ABC_US_headed_for_heightened_alert_0728.html

Still at Code Yellow, DHS fears 11 months of 'heightened alert'
David Edwards and Nick Juliano
Published: Monday July 28, 2008

With 99 days until the presidential election, the Department of Homeland Security is raising vague concerns about possible terrorist attacks in the US or abroad.

ABC News' Pierre Thomas says DHS officials are "quietly declaring" that the US is entering a "Period of Heightened Alert" because of the upcoming Olympics, the Democratic and Republican conventions, the November elections and the fact that a new president will be taking office in January. Officials tell Thomas the next 11 months will be "a time frame when terrorists may have more incentive to attack."

Accusations of politicization haunted DHS's decision to move the nation's color-coded advisory system from yellow, or elevated risk, to orange, or high risk, just three months before the 2004 election. (A week after President Bush was re-elected, the agency returned the advisory back to yellow.)

http://www.manonwire.com/

[MANON] | 2007 | 89 min | Feature Documentary

Directed by: James Marsh
U.K.

New York Premiere
Interests: Documentary, History, New York
Moods: Elegant, Iconic, Inspirational, Irreverent, Playful, Transgressive, Visceral
www.manonwire.com
Cast & Credits
Director: James Marsh
Principal Cast: Philippe Petit
Producer: Simon Chinn
Director of Photography: Igor Martinovic
Editor: Jinx Godfrey
Executive Producer: Jonathan Hewes
Co-Producer: Maureen A. Ryan
Co-Producer: Victoria Gregory

Program Notes

http://www.alternet.org/story/92385/?page=entire

Batman's Take on 9/11 Era Politics? Drop the Fearmongering

By Michael Dudley, City States. Posted July 25, 2008.

"The Dark Knight" warns against what happens when a society abandons its principles out of fear.

Editor's note: Contains spoilers.

"One of the "biggest" ideas of the year, according to James Fallows writing in the Atlantic Magazine, is the End of 9/11 as a metanarrative for American politics. For a growing domestic and international constituency, it is no longer tolerable for the very invocation of those events to warrant overriding every principle of American democracy. That moment of thoughtless panic has passed, and appears now to have been a dream of madness. Casting aside principles in the name of the "war on terror" -- to "work ... the dark side, if you will", as Dick Cheney put it -- is now being recognized as the path to becoming the very evil we feared."

http://www.prisonplanet.com/willie-nelson-announces-911-anti-war-event-o...

Willie Nelson Announces 9/11, Anti-War Event on the Alex Jones Show

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
July 23, 2008

In a landmark and impromptu interview today on the Alex Jones Show, music icon and genuine American hero Willie Nelson addressed the impending attack against Iran and Dennis Kucinich’s article of impeachment, scheduled to go before the House Judiciary Committee on Friday.

Calling in from a music tour venue in Council Bluff, Iowa, Willie stated that George Bush and his neocon minions cannot be allowed to get away with fraudulently invading Iraq and engaging in mass murder without “even a slap on the wrist.” Impeachment, according to Nelson, is a “minor way” to deal with crimes of such a horrific magnitude. However, supporting Kucinich’s brave and tenacious effort in the House of Representatives “might slow the guy down” in regard to the planned invasion of Iran, tentatively set for either September or October, according to numerous insiders and experts.

http://canada.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/53033

Why Was JFK Murdered?

(Saturday, July 19, 2008)

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, TX, as the result of a conspiracy. Why did the Shadow Government decide to eliminate him? We now know he wanted to get U.S. troops out of South Vietnam. JFK had also been taking on Wall St. and The Fed. He threatened to disband the CIA and close tax loopholes beneficial to “Big Oil” and the multinationals. JFK made a lot of powerful enemies--one too many!

“Which forces are in control, the public or shadow powers?”

-- Peter Dale Scott, author, essayist and poet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080718/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terror_threat

Chertoff: European terrorists trying to enter US

By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 18, 5:03 AM ET

WASHINGTON - European terrorists are trying to enter the United States with European Union passports, and there is no guarantee officials will catch them every time, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.
ADVERTISEMENT

Chertoff's comments on Capitol Hill comes as the country is entering a potentially vulnerable period with the presidential nominating conventions coming up next month; the presidential election in November; and the transition to a new administration in January — all of which may be attractive targets for terrorists.

In his last scheduled appearance before the House Homeland Security Committee, Chertoff said that the more time and space al-Qaida and its allies have to recruit, train, experiment and plan, the more problems the U.S. and Europe will face down the road.

Flyby News Alert - 17 July 2008 - www.FlybyNews.com
Editor - Jonathan Mark

"I wanted to express my strong support for the NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative.
There has never been a better time to get such an initiative on the ballot,
because the 9/11 Truth Movement's case against the official account of 9/11
..All that is necessary is enough people to commit themselves to work enough
hours to gather those signatures. If you help get this initiative on the ballot,
your name will surely be included in the universe's list of heroes."

-- David Ray Griffin

Final Push for 9/11 Ballot Initiative 2008 - last weekend of July
by Douglass E. Wight

Nearing the 20,000 signed petition mark, the NYC 911 Ballot Initiative Campaign continues to forge ahead towards our anticipated victory on July 26.

A tremendous amount of progress and success has been made since our campaign's inception in February of 2008. Since February, Ralph Nader, Amy Goodman, Wayne Madsen, Jesse Ventura, Christine Ebersole, former Senators Mike Gravel and Lincoln Chafee, and Ed Asner have all come out in favor of our NYC 911 Ballot Initiative.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Seven_years_on_no_answer_from_0716.html

Seven years on, no answer from White House on anthrax attacks

Published: Wednesday

It's been almost seven years since — in the weeks immediately following 9/11 — anthrax powder sent through the mail killed five people, threatened the lives of two Democratic senators, terrorized the entire nation, and helped prod a panicky Congress into passing the so-called Patriot Act.

In the intervening years, not only has the killer remained free, but missteps in the investigation have had major negative consequences. Just last month, in fact, the Department of Justice agreed to pay $4.6 million to former bioweapons expert Stephen Hatfill to settle a lawsuit Hatfill brought against the Justice Department, the FBI, and former Attorney General John Ashcroft for destroying his reputation and career by publicly implicating him in the case. And Glenn Greenwald has pointed out that in 2001, ABC News was fed false information by several "well-placed sources" (presumably officials in the Bush administration) suggesting an Iraq-anthrax link. That imaginary link was widely cited by pro-war cheerleaders.

Wolfowitz:+U.S.+Confidence+Hinges+on+Another+‘Crisis’

Former Deputy Secretary of Defense argues that America’s leadership role in the post-Bush world may depend upon ‘how threatening the world appears’

Aaron Dykes - Infowars.com - July 15, 2008

In a response to PNAC associate Robert Kagan, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz has suggested that a ‘compelling crisis’ such as Pearl Harbor or 9/11 may help bolster America’s stature in the world, which, Wolfowitz clearly hints, has been damaged by the Bush administration:

America’s future leadership role may depend even more on how threatening the world appears. Historically, that leadership role has often emerged out of a compelling crisis: Pearl Harbour, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran hostage crisis, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, or the attacks of 9/11.

Such a role would imply even more U.S. troops around the world and the need to maintain and even expand the state of crisis. In other words, it would be a continuation of the so-called ‘Wolfowitz Doctrine,’ a military-first approach to world dominance where the U.S. would function unilaterally as a pre-emptive security arm for world conflicts. However, despite Wolfowitz’s pre-war boast that Iraqis would "greet us as liberators," the phony WMDs episode has likely soured public support for such pre-emptive action.

Continued...
http://www.infowars.com/?p=3353

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/118233

June 10, 2008 - 5:13PM
Sen. Karen Johnson's floor speech about 9/11
Provided to the Tribune

9/11 Floor Speech

MR. PRESIDENT – POINT OF PERSONAL PRIVILEGE.

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS IN THE GALLERY … and then I WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST THAT MY REMARKS OF MORE THAN 200 WORDS BE ENTERED INTO THE JOURNAL.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Billboard_uses_burning_WTC_to_say_0715.html

Full Story: http://www.wftv.com/news/16879991/detail.html

Billboard displays burning World Trade Center with slogan, 'Please Don't Vote for a Democrat'
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Tuesday July 15, 2008

A political billboard in St. Cloud, Florida reads "Please Don't Vote for a Democrat" over an image of the burning World Trade Center.

Businessman Mike Meehan, who paid for the ad, says he's "only trying to help Republicans." The billboard also carries a link for Meehan's website, TheRepublicanSong.com, at which he says, "I claim to be a man of God" and promotes his political song and video.

Meehan's song, which appears to have racist overtones, begins, "The Democrat secular progressive move, political correctness is killing us too. They want to take the money from the hard working man, and give it to the lazy folks that don't give a damn."

Even Republicans have found the billboard "inappropriate," and many residents want it to come down. "I'm thinking about the Twin Towers, all the families that were killed there," one woman told local TV affliate WFTV.

Every deception revealed brings the masses closer to the nefarious TRUTH. Hopefully soon a single step will bring them around. Joe

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=63947

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_administration_hid_truth_about_Tillma...

Report: Bush administration milked untruths about Tillman, Lynch during sour times
Nick Juliano
Published: Monday July 14, 2008

The Bush administration willfully pushed fictional portrayals of Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan and Jessica Lynch's capture in Iraq to create "compelling public narratives" at times when public opinion was starting to sour on the wars, Congressional investigators have found.

The House Oversight Committee on Monday released a draft report on the sagas of Tillman and Lynch. The public did not learn that friendly fire had killed Tillman, a former NFL player, until more than a month after his death, and an apocryphal tale of Lynch bravely battling her Iraqi captors circulated for more than two months before key aspects of it were revealed to be false.

Message to ALL OpEdNews Members from Rob Kall

I don't send out many of these emails, trying to keep them less than twice a month. If you don't want to receive them, you can deactivate your member account. This also deactivates ability to post to the site though.

We've had a lot of good news lately, ways we're reaching members of congress, mainstream media, making a difference.

We now know a lot more about our members. We've been collecting demographic data from all new members. I've decided to share it with you. Here's the link to the page that shows statistics about who OEN readers are. over 9000 have filled in some of the fields. Our main reason for doing them is our polling system that shows demographic crosstab statistics. When you fill in the demographic information, that info is, anonymously, included in the poll results. After we started operating the polls, we added a lot more demographic questions-- the kinds of questions the "big guy" pollsters ask. We've only had about 400 people answer them. It would be great if you log in to your profile and fill in those questions.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-You-Should-Be-a-9-11-T-by-jimd3100-...

July 9, 2008

Why You Should Be a 9/11 Truther Even if You Don't Believe the Government Carried Out the Attacks

by jimd3100 Page 1 of 1 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com

Why you should be a 9/11 truther even if you don't believe the Government carried out the attacks.

Let's say you go along with the idea that WTC 7 collapsed because of normal fires, and Hani Hanjour went from an incompetent idiot to a highly skilled pilot, and 9/11 was carried out by 19 arab terrorists working for Osama Bin Laden. You should still join forces with the 9/11 truth movement and here's why.

Because the government is still to blame, and you are still being constantly lied to. Nothing was done to prevent these attacks. No one has been held responsible for massive errors that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans and consequently hundreds of thousands of deaths of human beings since then.

NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative 20,000 & Gravel Press Release

Press Conference with Sen. Mike Gravel
Foley Square, corner of Centre & Duane Streets across from U.S. Courthouse
Take trains to City Hall or Chambers Street
Thursday, July 10th, 2008 --- 12 noon