The Washington Post

Police in thought pursuit

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071227/COMMENTARY02/620257774/1012/COMMENTARY

The Pope had his Index of Forbidden Books. Japan had its Thought Police against subversive or dangerous ideologies. And the United States Congress and President Bush have learned nothing from those examples.

Congress is perched to enact the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 20007 (Act)," probably the greatest assault on free speech and association in the United States since the 1938 creation of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Sponsored by Rep. Jane Harman, California Democrat, the bill passed the House of Representatives on Oct. 23 by a 404-6 vote under a rule suspension that curtailed debate. To borrow from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, the First Amendment should not distract Congress from doing important business. The Senate companion bill (S. 1959), sponsored by Susan Collins, Maine Republican, has encountered little opposition. Especially in an election year, senators crave every opportunity to appear tough on terrorism. Few if any care about or understand either freedom of expression or the Thought Police dangers of S. 1959. Former President John Quincy Adams presciently lamented: "Democracy has no forefathers, it looks to no posterity, it is swallowed up in the present and thinks of nothing but itself."

Denuded of euphemisms and code words, the Act aims to identify and stigmatize persons and groups who hold thoughts the government decrees correlate with homegrown terrorism, for example, opposition to the Patriot Act or the suspension of the Great Writ of habeas corpus.

The Act will inexorably culminate in a government listing of homegrown terrorists or terrorist organizations without due process; a complementary listing of books, videos, or ideas that ostensibly further "violent radicalization;" and a blacklisting of persons who have intersected with either list.

Political discourse will be chilled and needed challenges to conventional wisdom will flag. There are no better examples of sinister congressional folly.

Bin Laden, Brought to you by...

(I thought this was an interesting article by this writer)

Bin Laden, Brought to You by . . .

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 12, 2007; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/11/AR2007091102465.html
Early yesterday morning, a South Carolina Web designer who works at home managed to scoop al-Qaeda by publicly unveiling its new video, a feat she has accomplished numerous times since 2002. Within hours, cable news stations were broadcasting images of Osama bin Laden commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and crediting the 50-year-old woman, who uses the pseudonym Laura Mansfield.

A similar event occurred Friday, when another group beat al-Qaeda by nearly a full day with the release of the first video images of bin Laden to appear publicly since 2004. That group, the SITE Institute, provided the tape to government agencies and news organizations at a time when many well-known jihadist Web sites had been shut down in a powerful cyberattack by unknown hackers.

Chertoff in Washington Post admits 9/11 truth has gone mainstream

Washington Post, Sun 4/22/07 Link to Post article

Michael Chertoff: "Since Sept. 11, a conspiracy-minded fringe has claimed that American officials plotted the destruction. But when scholars such as Zbigniew Brzezinski accuse our leaders of falsely depicting or hyping a "war on terror" to promote a "culture of fear," it's clear that historical revisionism has gone mainstream."

The rest of the article can be summarized thus:
"al-Qaeda... terror network... Osama Bin Laden ... kill Americans... islamist ideologues... al-Qaeda... al-qaeda and the Taliban... Sept. 11... Sept. 11... Islamic extremists' plot... horrific consequences... Sept. 11... al-Qaeda... al-Qaeda trained killers... "

I think this has to be seen as a measure of how far the 911truth movement has come. For the head of the department of Orwellian irony department to write this article in an attempt to shore-up the crumbling 9/11 myth shows just and how much the perpetrators fear the truth.

The tide has turned. The truth will out. It cannot be stopped.
Keep up the pressure.

Suspect and Setback in Al-Qaeda Anthrax Case

The Washington Post reports that a microbiologist with "alleged al Qaeda sympathies" was under investigation in December 2001, but that he remains abroad and out of reach. The article is filled with unsubstantiated allegations based on flimsy evidence, but clearly it is intended to suggest the Amerithrax scare of 2001 was not the product of the US military.

Consider how this paragraph establishes how the whole story is baseless speculation:

"Precisely what Rauf achieved may never be known with certainty. That's because U.S. officials remain stymied in their nearly five-year quest to bring charges against a man who they say admitted serving as a top consultant to al-Qaeda on anthrax -- a claim that makes him one of a handful of people linked publicly to the group's effort to wage biological warfare against Western targets."

Later, the link is made with the Amerithrax scare (again, look at how little is verifiable in this story):

"Exactly how far al-Qaeda progressed with Rauf's help is not publicly known. No one has turned up any links between his work and the U.S. anthrax attacks, in which spores were mailed in letters to news organizations and U.S. Senate offices. Coalition forces discovered rudimentary laboratories in Kandahar but no evidence of bioweapons production. Yet both the White House and a presidential commission have hinted at additional findings suggesting that the terrorists were much further along than was first thought."

Washington Post Article on 9/11 Truth (With 2 Polls)

The Washington Post has written a fairly balanced article on 9/11 truth entitled "9/11 conspiracy theorists multiply: Many Americans suspect U.S. government involvement or complicity".

Read the article and vote on both of the online polls.

Homegrown Conspiracy Theories

Note the language of the latest Washington Post story about 9/11 skeptics:
U.S. Rebuts 9/11 Homegrown Conspiracy Theories.

Forget the dubious claim that the US government has "rebut" anything. The use of "homegrown" is an intentional echo of "homegrown terrorism," the White House attempt to subconsciously reinforce Bush's line that "if we don't fight them over there, we'll have to fight them here at home."

"Homegrown" terrorism also plants the seed of suspicion everywhere, and it justifies calls for a more "unified" intelligence response to terrorism. In other words, the terminology encourages consolidation of power. Here is what FBI director Mueller said back in June:

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1175300.php

'There is no one person, no one agency, no one police department, indeed no one country that has all of the answers,' Mueller said.

'Our greatest weapon against terrorism is unity,' Mueller stated. 'And that unity is built on information-sharing and coordination among our partners in the law enforcement and the intelligence communities.'

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