- On the 10th 9/11 anniversary, a September 9 Washington
Post editorial highlights what readers hungry for news and information
face. Titled, "Ten years after Sept. 11: The gains outweigh the mistakes,"
it says:
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- "(C)onventional wisdom (suggests) "We will
be hit again" to "Osama bin Laden won by provoking us into a
decade of overreaction."
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- Fact check
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- Bin Laden had nothing to do with a US state-sponsored
attack. Criminal militarists, in fact, planned permanent war on humanity
"overreaction."
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- America "made big mistakes over the past decade...But
the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon alerted Americans
to genuine dangers that only a relative few had previously noticed."
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- Fact check
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- Americans only are endangered by rogue government elements,
not "crazed Arabs" wanting to harm them.
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- "The overreaction argument holds that al Qaeda goaded
the nation to curtail civil liberties and construct a monstrous homeland
security apparatus while bungling into adventures abroad that birthed new
enemies...."
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- Fact check
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- Clinton's 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act followed the 1995 false flag Oklahoma City bombing.
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- Air Force General Benton K Partin (a noted explosives
and ordnance expert) revealed that high-grade military explosives, detonators,
and proper internal placements heavily damaged the Murrah building and
300 others within a sixteen-block radius.
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- The 300 + page USA Patriot Act was written well in advance
of 9/11 as were plans to establish a "monstrous homeland security
apparatus" now in place.
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- Moreover, "adventures abroad" weren't "bungl(ed)
into." They were planned months or years in advance, ready to be launched
at a chosen moment.
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- "The United States went to war in Iraq on the basis
of faulty intelligence."
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- Fact check
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- US lies became pretexts for wars on Iraq, Afghanistan,
Libya and other nonbelligerent states. Lies launch all wars, not "faulty
intelligence."
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- With America at war, "(t)here's a danger that the
nation will, once again, withdraw too soon from the challenges. Al Qaeda
(is) a well-organized, capable organization intent on causing America mortal
harm."
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- Fact check
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- America's wars create problems. They never solve them.
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- In the 1980s, Al Qaeda was a US creation to fight Soviet
forces in Afghanistan. Ronald Reagan called them "freedom fighters."
Today they're "terrorists."
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- "Confronted with those realities, (Bush and Obama)
accepted the same strategic truths: the United States must protect itself
at home as much as it sensibly can while taking the fight to its enemies
overseas...."
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- Fact check
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- America's had no enemies since Japan surrendered in August
1945, except manufactured ones to justify permanent wars, because the business
of America is war.
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- "Given the scope of the challenge, the country should
give itself some credit for what it has achieved."
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- Fact check
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- America's "achieve(ments)" can be simply explained.
They're lawless, preemptive, permanent imperial wars on humanity, causing
millions of deaths and injuries, as well as vast destruction.
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- On this 9/11 day or any other, it's hardly a legacy to
exude pride. It's far worse than shame. It monstrously describes the rotting
stench of out-of-control imperialism, ravaging planet earth to achieve
hegemony.
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- "There was in fact no large-scale assault on personal
freedoms - no equivalent to the Supreme Court-sanctioned roundup of Japanese
Americans, no repeat of the Red Scare infringements on freedom of speech
and association."
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- Fact check
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- A monstrous police state apparatus followed 9/11, including
repressive legislation, presidential directives and executive orders, a
total surveillance society, and virtual war on democratic freedoms.
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- Muslims and so-called undocumented immigrants (mainly
Latinos) are today's Japanese!
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- Latinos are persecuted, detained, then deported for needing
work to support their families back home because NAFTA destroyed their
livelihoods.
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- Muslims have been targeted, hunted down, rounded up,
held in detention, kept in isolation, denied bail, restricted in their
right to counsel, tried on secret evidence, and convicted on bogus charges.
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- Afterwards they've been incarcerated for extra harsh
treatment as political prisoners in segregated Communication Management
Units (CMUs), in violation of US Prison Bureau regulations and the Supreme
Court's February 2005 Johnson v. California decision.
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- That's police state harshness, also unleashed ruthlessly
against other designated domestic and foreign targets.
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- "The Patriot Act enabled a modest, mostly court-supervised
expansion of law enforcement vigilance."
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- Both Bush and Obama administrations insisted "that
the US war (is) not against Islam.
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- And though it took too long, (political Washington) eventually
made clear that torture is not acceptable."
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- The editorial's concluding comment praised those "who
have fought and worked to keep the country safe."
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- Fact check
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- The Patriot Act eroded four Bill of Rights Freedoms,
including due process; free expression, association and assembly; legal
representation; and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.
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- Moreover, state-sponsored Islamophobia rages, and torture
is official US policy. It continues out of sight and mind in numerous prison
hellholes, including in America.
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- That's today's state of the nation, but it didn't happen
by chance. It was well-planned long in advance and carefully implemented.
As a result, in America's post-911 world, no one anywhere is safe, including
at home.
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- Fundamental international and constitutional laws are
in tatters, replaced by out-of-control rampaging to advance America's imperium.
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- As a result, the nation never has been less safe or free,
and the worst is yet to come.
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- The Post editorial can be summarized in two words - disgraceful
and scandalous.
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- But what else could be expected from a leading US broadsheet,
infamous for publishing managed news, commentaries and opinions, especially
about what's most important.
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- A September 9 New York Times editorial matched the Post's
reinterpretation of hard truths neither paper will address. Headlined "A
New Start for Libya," it says:
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- It "would be unrealistic to expect a smooth transition
in the early days of Libya's post-Qaddafi era." However, "(t)here
are also signs of progress on military, diplomatic, economic and political
fronts."
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- Fact check
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- Dozens of previous articles explained reality on the
ground in Libya, described as:
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- -- a Nuremberg level crime;
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- -- US/NATO state terror on a ferocious scale;
- -- NATO called a killing machine;
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- -- initiated was months of planned bloodbath;
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- -- the genocidal rape of Libya;
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- -- NATO's latest charnel house;
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- -- besieging and terror bombing cities;
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- -- carving up the Libya corpse for profit;
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- -- Libya, Inc.: coming waste, fraud and other forms of
plunder on a grand scale; and
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- -- American and Western media cheerleading war and its
fallout, inflicting daily crimes and atrocities on a massive still ongoing
scale.
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- Libya pre-March 19 no longer exists. It's been laid waste
by US-led NATO terror bombing and paramilitary killers on the ground.
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- They were enlisted, armed, funded, and licensed to slaughter,
maim, terrorize and loot. They've taken full advantage.
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- As a result, minimally over 100,000 Libyans were killed,
multiples that number injured, and many more aggrieved family members affected.
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- Moreover, war keeps ravaging Libya, inflicting many more
daily casualties.
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- With a population 50 times Libya's, if America experienced
a similar catastrophe, the toll would be five million dead, perhaps another
25 million injured, and multiple numbers of aggrieved family members.
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- It would be an unprecedented disaster.
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- Imagine if a foreign journalist or opinion writer called
it "a new start."
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- The Times said "there is reason to be encouraged,"
despite migrant African workers being terrorized and slaughtered, while
admitting "(m)uch hard work remains."
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- Two late August Times op-eds were just as disgraceful.
On August 29, Roger Cohen headlined, "Score One for Intervention."
He compared Libya's "successful Western invention" with its 1990s
Balkan wars and 1999 Serbia/Kosovo terror bombing.
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- From March 24 - June 10, NATO's "success" included
around 600 aircraft flying about 3,000 sorties. They dropped thousands
of tons of ordnance plus hundreds of ground-launched cruise missiles. To
that time, the attack's ferocity was unprecedented, given the destructiveness
of modern weapons and technology.
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- Nearly everything was struck, causing massive destruction
and disruption. Included were known or suspected military sites and targets;
power plants; factories; transportation; telecommunications facilities;
roads, bridges, rail lines, and other infrastructure; fuel depots; schools;
a TV station; China's Belgrade Embassy; hospitals; government offices;
churches; historical landmarks; and more in cities and villages throughout
the country.
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- An estimated $100 billion in damage was inflicted. The
humanitarian disaster was horrific. Environmental contamination was extensive.
Large numbers were killed, injured or displaced. Two million people lost
their livelihoods. Many their homes and communities, and for most their
futures from what America planned and implemented jointly with NATO.
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- They replicated it in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
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- "Score One for Intervention."
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- For years, Cohen's produced numerous pro-war trash pieces
like other corporate media scoundrels, selling their souls for a buck.
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- On August 31, so did Nicholas Kristof in his op-ed titled,
"Thank You, America!" claiming fake Tripoli celebrations portray
Americans and NATO partners as "heros."
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- He, in fact, was there and knows, but lied, calling it
"a historic moment....a rare military intervention for humanitarian
reasons....a model (for future) intervention(s)."
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- Ignoring reality on the ground, he claimed "no looting
(and) little apparent retaliation," despite Tripoli streets strewn
with corpses and its residents cowering inside homes in fear.
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- Instead, he hailed "great progress in the last few
days. Tripoli now feels reasonably safe....Pro-Americanism now is ubiquitous."
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- His contempt for civil values and intellectual dishonesty
didn't even match the level of a B horror movie script.
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- A previous article said corporate media scoundrels like
him prostitute themselves daily, making street whores, pimps, and dope
peddlers look respectable by comparison.
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- They indeed reveal the shocking state of America's journalism
and opinion.
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- Another article imagined freedom from all managed news
and commentaries. Avoid them and make it happen.
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- Final 9/11 Comments
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- On September 9, a washingtonblog.com posting headlined:
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- "High-Level Officials Eager to Spill the Beans About
What REALLY Happened on 9/11....But No One in Washington or the Media Want
to Hear"
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- "9/11 Commission Admits it Never Got the Facts....But
No One Wants to Hear From the People Who Know What Happened"
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- 9/11 Commission co-chairman Lee Hamilton said:
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- "I don't believe for a minute we got everything
right," adding that the commission was set up to fail.
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- Commission member Bob Kerrey said:
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- "There are ample reasons to suspect that there may
be some alternative to what we outlined in our version," adding commission
members didn't have access to important information.
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- Other commission members also expressed frustration because
key facts were suppressed, misrepresented, and military officials lied.
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- Commission member Max Cleland resigned in disgust, calling
the inquiry "a national scandal."
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- Senior Commission counsel John Farmer said "At some
level of the government, at some point in time....there was an agreement
not to tell the truth about what happened," adding:
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- "I was shocked at how different the truth was from
the way it was described." A "culture of concealment" describes
the spin that became the official story.
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- All Commission members and various other present and
past government officials knew that 9/11 mythology substituted for full
disclosure.
-
- To this day, nothing changed as Americans commemorate
what's best described as "The Big Lie of Our Time."
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- As a result, the price they keep paying is incalculable.
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- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive
Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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