Durham Spark - Durham, North Carolina, USA

Durham Bill of Rights Proclamation Monday and Loose Change on Communist Voice

2011-12-03T20:41:00.001-05:00

The 9th annual Bill of Rights/Human Rights Proclamation will be presented at the beginning of the Durham City Council meeting December 5th at 7pm in City Hall. The Durham Bill of Rights Defense Committee invites people to attend and it can also be seen live on cable's DTV8.

Communist Voice is showing a one hour version of Loose Change - Final Cut this month, starting this Tuesday at 6-7pm on both Durham Community Media and The Peoples Channel. Loose Change is a famous 9/11 truth documentary, available in several versions covering many of the holes in the official story and this version leaves out some questionable claims in previous versions. This cable access version was provided by www.911tv.org. There are enough shows on 9/11, US war crimes, Soviet history, leftist music, etc. available now and our cable access channels have space for new programming, so Communist Voice now has an hour every week on Tuesdays.

Commemorating the Russian Revolution on TPC/DCM

2011-11-01T13:15:00.001-05:00

The October Socialist Revolution began November 7th (October 25th by the calendar the Russian Empire was using at the time), 1917, so this month's showing on Communist Voice is the 1986 Soviet video Chronicle of October - 1917, starting tonight. The Occupy Movement should study the proletarian revolutions in Russia and elsewhere, instead of relying on small capitalist discourse, as it seems to right now. Chronicle of October has been shown in full on The Peoples Channel before, but the Cyrillic credits and the opening scenes in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) had to be cut for space. The video was donated by the US Friends of the Soviet People. Communist Voice might soon switch to an hour long time slot, probably around the same time.

IAC statement on NATO's war against Libya

2011-10-29T23:54:00.001-05:00

Below is a statement from the anti-imperialist International Action Center (www.iacenter.org) on the NATO attack on Libya. Whether it is Bill Clinton attacking Iraq and Yugoslavia, George Bush attacking Afghanistan and Iraq, or Barack Obama attacking Libya, these are wars of aggression for geopolitics, markets, and resources, justified as "humanitarian intervention." The US government claims to have humanitarian concern for Libya, but rewards the bloody repression in Bahrain, which hosts a US naval base. Russia and China allowed the war against Libya to have UN Security Council approval, and then protested as if they didn't know NATO intended to topple the government.

People who opposed Bush's wars were duped by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Obama or revealed that they believe in imperialism as much as Obama and the Democratic establishment does. The strange result was that Republicans were referred to as anti-war in the media. The media, including NPR and Amy Goodman's Democracy Now attempted to delegitimize the sovereign government of Libya by referring to "Gadhafi forces" and the media in general trumpeted opposition statements that turned out to be false, such as the claims about Viagra and sub-Saharan African mercenaries. .

With its success in Libya, and the killing of Gadhafi in a way reminiscent of what the Afghan warlords did in the early 90's, NATO might now turn to Syria and Obama may be creating the foundations for an attack on Iran. Since this statement, it has been revealed that Somalia is being secretly bombed by the US, in addition to Yemen and Pakistan.

- Murder of Gadhafi is next step to wider U.S. wars in Africa

INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER STATEMENT ON LIBYA: Lynching in Libya – Made in U$A

The brutal lynching of Moammar Gadhafi, the leader of Libya, is the latest criminal act in NATO's seven-month war of regime change and conquest.

Gadhafi died resisting to the very end U.S.-NATO war, as he said he would. He refused to negotiate with NATO an ignominious departure for himself or to surrender. He chose a martyr's death for Libya's independence and sovereignty. Despite ridicule in the West, in Africa Gadhafi will be remembered as an anti-imperialist fighter.

The gross and disrespectful behavior of the National Transitional Council (TNC) in the display of Moammar Gadhafi's body confirms to the world in the most graphic way that these elements, who the imperialist powers have given official recognition, are in fact crude, low-life gangsters.

Instead of burying Gadhafi within a day as required under Islamic law, they chose to display Gadhafi's battered, half naked body -- bloody, unwashed and uncovered -- on a soiled mattress in a meat locker at a shopping center.

This affront to religious and national custom will further deepen outrage and resistance.

TNC militias did no real fighting. These divided, competing military bands operate as scavengers or vultures, calling in air strikes and lying in wait to pick over the death that NATO bombers have blasted in front of them. In seven months of NATO bombing they have shown themselves capable of firing endless weapons in front of cameras and brutalizing Black Libyans, yet incapable of conducting any independent military action.

U.S. and NATO forces bear responsibility for this latest crime and the way it was carried out. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded like a gunslinger in a Hollywood western in Tripoli the day before Gadhafi's murder, demanding his capture – dead or alive.

Loyalist forces in the city of Sirte, Bani Walid and several other cities have held out heroically two months after NATO seizure of Tripoli.

NATO bombers targeted Sirte and Bani Walid's electrical grid, communications, food storage, the city water supply, the water towers on apartment buildings and even the water tower on the roof of the hospital. Again and again the TNC has announced that all resistance in these small cities have has been destroyed, only to be driven out each time.

The imperialist war in Libya is reminiscent of past colonial wars in Africa and Asia. Targeting of any civilian necessities, such as water, food, medicine, and communication is specifically prohibited under international law and considered a war crime under the Nuremburg and Geneva Conventions. Yet during seven months of war those are exactly the civilian targets that NATO planners focused on again and again.

The bombing of lines of cars fleeing the NATO besieged city of Sirte that led to Gadhafi's capture is an example of systematic targeting of civilians.

U.S. British, French and Italian imperialist forces claimed to be protecting civilians and implementing a United Nations Security Council No-fly zone. But the Libyan government used no aircraft at all. U.S. and other NATO jets ruled the skies and civilians were their targets. This is an expanding war. Today U.S. drones strike with impunity at defenseless peoples around the world.

Gadhafi's greatest threat to the imperialist countries was promoting a development plan for an African Federation and a stable African currency backed by Libya's $90 billion reserves to help Africans free themselves from the IMF and World Bank's onerous dictates.

Forty-two years ago Libya was one of the poorest, least developed countries of Africa. Gadhafi and other young military officers overthrew the Western-supported Libyan monarchy of King Idris in 1969, then held the imperialist's off as the Libyans built with nationalized oil revenues a series of modern cities and infrastructure. Before the NATO bombing this year, the Libyan people had achieved the highest educational and health standards in Africa, according to UN development statistics.

In the same week that Secretary of State Clinton traveled to Tripoli and that Gadhafi was murdered, President Barack Obama ordered U.S. Special Forces and military advisors to Uganda, South Sudan, Central Africa Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. These are countries that hold a vast reservoir of strategic minerals, including cobalt, coltan, industrial diamonds, copper in Congo and newly discovered oil in Uganda and South Sudan.

Anyone who expects that U.S./NATO forces or their corrupt collaborators will rebuild the schools, hospitals, modern housing, sports complexes, vast underground water system, electricity, advanced communications, reorganize free health care or reconstruct essential infrastructure that they have laid waste to in months of bombing need only look at their ignominious record in Iraq after eight years or in Afghanistan after ten years. The promised peace, national reconciliation, democracy and development were empty words.

Today, the vast majority of Iraqi people, even in the capital city of Baghdad, still struggle with a few hours of electricity a day. Potable water is a memory of a past, pre-occupation epoch, so is free education and health care. NATO is a war machine for corporate profit, not a social service agency. It has shown itself as incapable of reorganizing a decent life.

In Afghanistan after a decade of occupation, the rubble of U.S. bombs and rusting tanks still litter the roads. None of the promised social progress has reached beyond Pentagon press releases and politicians visits.

In Iraq the indignities and humiliations were so numerous and such an affront that even the government of compliant collaborators established by the U.S. has been forced by mass sentiment to refuse immunity to U.S. troops scheduled to remain in Iraq as relabeled trainers and advisors.

As in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen the resistance in Libya to U.S. NATO domination will continue and take on new forms.

The imperialists never expected mass mobilized resistance to their plans. They predicted a war that would be over within a week. Instead a small population of six million, spread across a largely desert country, managed through mass mobilizations of millions of people, military resistance and emergency measures to withstand more than 200 days of non-stop bombardment, more than 9,000 air strikes.

U.S., British and French corporate looters are planning a new assault on Africa, but they are finding that this is not the world of 100 years ago.

The tens of thousands of youth occupying sites in cities across the U.S. and Europe need to stand in solidarity with resistance to corporate domination at home and to imperialist wars abroad.

Occupy Wall Street!

NOT Libya, Iraq or Afghanistan.

Part Two of Truth and Politics Starts 10/4

2011-10-03T20:17:00.001-05:00

Part 1 of Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 9/11 / A Talk by David Ray Griffin ended rather abruptly, so viewers contacted me thinking it was cut off, but there is a Part 2, starting on Communist Voice tomorrow evening. Because of the time limit, a few minutes had to be cut at the beginning and the end.

Part 1 left off with Dr. Griffin questioning why the Secret Service didn't rush Bush out of the Florida elementary school he was visiting that morning, in contrast to how they hurried Cheney into a bunker. He says this reflects the 9/11 Commission's typically uncritical acceptance of whatever officials say, and that when questions were asked, they were not included in the final report. Griffin says the 9/11 Commission Report's general consistency indicates that it was edited by one person, Executive Director Philip Zelikow. The 9/11 Commission did not examine the numerous very general to very specific warnings received before 9/11, and in his remarks Griffin mentions San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown being warned not to fly on 9/11 and how Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped taking commercial flights that summer. Part 2 starts with a discussion of how Ashcroft rebuffed former Clinton impeachment prosecutor David Schippers, who was trying to bring to Ashcroft's attention a group of FBI agents who knew six weeks beforehand the general time and location of the attack in New York, who would carry it out, and how it was funded.

The credits also had to be cut:

Videography: Jim Terrell, Celestine Star, Lee Beale, Brad Larsen, and Gabriel Kish

Video Recording: Hummux

Graphics: www

Editor & Technical Director: Ken Jenkins

They recommend that viewers educate themselves and others, and support these organizations:

911truth.org

justicefor911.org

septembereleventh.org

9/11 Truth on DCM/TPC

2011-09-06T12:49:00.001-05:00

A new episode of Communist Voice is premiering tonight on Durham Community Media and The Peoples Channel, part 1 of Truth and Politics: Unanswered Questions About 9/11, which is a recording of a 2004 address by philosophy of religion professor and leading 9/11 truth author David Ray Griffin. Griffin and others raise many important questions about the al Qaida conspiracy theory put foward by the government to explain how 9/11 could have occurred and what happened that day. It is clear that the government knew an attack was coming, and knew at least some of the details, and benefitted from the attack. I'm more agnostic about issues like what crashed into the Pentagon and whether explosives were planted in the three buildings that collapsed at the World Trade Center. Defenders of the official theory argue over these issues, rather than the evidence that the Bush Administration knew 9/11 was going to happen, and let it happen so they could invade Afghanistan and Iraq and carry through their domestic policies.

It should be noted that I critically endorse the content of Communist Voice, and the programs may or may not have been created by members of a communist party. I have no reason to think David Ray Griffin is a Marxist, but I think it is important for people to hear his arguments and communists should not join capitalist media and opportunists in attacking the 9/11 truth movement with a broad brush, as some have.

Manchuria - August 1945

2011-07-19T15:40:00.001-05:00

Starting this evening, the Communist Voice series on The Peoples Channel and Durham Community Media will be showing Manchuria – August 1945, a Soviet documentary about the USSR's role in liberating northeastern China from Japanese occupation. The program was donated by US Friends of the Soviet People. In September 1931 Japan attacked China and seized Manchuria, and in July 1938 the Sino-Japanese War began, lasting until the defeat of Japan in 1945. In this way WWII's roots extend back to the 20's and 30's, and in a few decades, US aggression against Iraq in the 90's and the invasion in 2003 may be seen as the quiet beginning of the next inter-imperialist war.

As the Allied powers had agreed at conferences, the USSR was to have a role in the war against Japan, but by August 1945 Roosevelt was dead and President Truman wanted a free hand. Japan's fascist government, all but defeated already, knew it had lost when the USSR and Mongolia entered the war, but the US still dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima August 6^th and on Nagasaki August 9^th. It can be argued that, other than the radiation, there is not a huge difference between being incinerated or boiled by a nuclear bomb versus the conventional firebombings that struck other Japanese and German cities. Two cities were destroyed and tens of thousands of Japanese and Korean civilians were killed so the US would be the sole occupier of Japan and could intimidate the USSR, an attempt which failed (ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/All30iii.htm). The US went on to preserve part of Japan's fascist leadership for use during the Cold War, divided the Korean nation, and fomented the Korean War (ml-review.ca/aml/China/KoreaNS.htm). China liberated itself from imperialist domination and feudalism, and helped defend the DPRK, but its revisionist leadership did not build socialism, and now openly advocates capitalism and supports imperialism, from Haiti to Libya.

There is an annual vigil in August commemorating the atomic bombing of Japan at the Chapel Hill Post Office on Franklin Street.

Karl Marx featured on Communist Voice this month

2011-05-01T19:58:00.001-05:00

Karl Marx was born May 5, 1818, so Communist Voice is featuring the first half of Karl Marx: the Scholar, the Revolutionary, and the Man this month. The time is also moving, to Tuesday evenings at 8 on The Peoples Channel and 6pm on Tuesdays on Durham Community Media (but the Life of Vladimir Lenin will continue a week or two into May on the Durham station).

Events this week

2011-04-17T18:33:00.001-05:00

In honor of the great Russian communist leader VI Lenin's birthday, April 22, 1870, this month's episode of Communist Voice is the Soviet film The Life of Vladimir Lenin, more for its unique archival footage than for its political clarity. Communist Voice is available on cable Mondays 4-4:30pm on The Peoples Channel in Orange County and parts of Chatham County and on Durham Community Media.

April 22 is also Earth Day and the 25th annual Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice is this week, and stops in the Triangle area April 21-22 (see www.ncjustice.org/?q=node/793#thu for the schedule).

Please let me know if you know of events planned for International Workers' Day/May Day. The annual marijuana legalization rally will probably happen May 1st at the State Capitol, but I am not aware of any labor events planned in the area.

France and other imperialists launch war with Libya

2011-03-19T13:03:00.001-05:00

Below is a message from the International Action Center (www.iacenter.org/anti-war/stop_the_us_war_on_libya_and_bahrain/) exposing the hypocrisy of the Obama administration and the other imperialists, who have started a war with Libya to aid the opposition, but stand by or encourage the bloody crackdown in Bahrain, and prevent UN action against Israel whenever it attacks its neighbors and targets civilians. Bush is unpopular and many Americans now see that he is a warmonger, but now the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is supporting a new unjustified war in the Arab world the day before the anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.

STOP THE U.S. WAR ON LIBYA AND BAHRAIN!

The International Action Center calls on all anti-war and social justice activists to call Emergency Response STOP THE U.S. WAR AGAINST LIBYA AND BAHRAIN actions in their areas on Friday, March 18 or Saturday, Marcy 19, or to mobilize support for any already existing anti-war demonstrations called to mark the anniversary of the Iraq War, with this statement and signs to STOP THE U.S. WAR AGAINST LIBYA AND BAHRAIN, as well as to intensify the mobilization for the April 9th and 10th Anti-War demonstrations in New York and San Francisco called by the United National Antiwar Committee.

On March 17, 2011, Washington showed its true intentions by pushing through a U.N. Security Council resolution that amounts to a declaration of war on the government and people of Libya.

A U.S. attack is the worst possible thing that could happen to the people of Libya. It also puts the unfolding Arab revolutions, which have inspired people across North Africa and Western Asia, in the gravest danger.

The resolution goes beyond a no-fly zone. It includes language saying U.N. member states could "take all necessary measures" ... "by halting attacks by air, land and sea forces under the control of the Gadhafi regime."(CNN.com, Mar 17)

The new resolution not only calls for attacks on Libyan aircraft and air defenses, but authorizes the strafing and bombing of ground forces as well. The U.S. and French governments immediately announced that they were ready to go. Britain and Italy are aiding. In essence the former colonial powers have begun an armed attack on the Libyan government and its people, backing one side of a civil war.

No matter how one feels about Libya today and the role of the Gadhafi government; regardless of how one evaluates the Libyan opposition, a U.S.-led war or intervention in Libya is a disaster for the Libyan people, and for peace and progress around the world.

BAHRAIN EXPOSES THE LIE ABOUT "PREVENTING ATTACKS ON CIVILIANS"

The U.S. and its allies are repeating over and over the lie that they are trying to "prevent attacks on civilians" and are acting from humanitarian motives. But nobody should be fooled. Consider these "humanitarians" and how they react to Bahrain.

The U.S. Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, which is an absolute monarchy. Its people have been valiantly trying to change their government for weeks. They had some initial success. The king responded with deadly repression and later with hints at reform.

On March 14, however, hours after Secretary of Defense Gates visited Bahrain, the Bahraini government commenced a brutal crackdown, backed up by Saudi Arabian troops. Helicopters, tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition were used, killing and injuring many people. Nearly all of Bahrain's security forces are foreign mercenaries.

Unlike the Libyan rebels, the Bahraini people have absolutely no arms. But there has been no talk of a no-fly zone over Bahrain, let alone attacks on the murderous Bahraini and Saudi armies.

NO BLOOD FOR OIL

This is because the real motivation for the U.S. and its allies in both Bahrain and Libya, and indeed the whole region, is to control the OIL! It is Washington's main strategic interest and a primary financial interest for U.S. big business.

This is true even though the U.S. is not directly dependent on imported oil from Libya. Oil is a worldwide commodity, and any country which imports oil must deal with a world market, no matter from which individual country or countries they import the oil.

Of even more importance to the U.S. and Europeans is who controls the flow of oil. A military presence or a reliable puppet in Libya would give Washington --and to a lesser extent the European imperialists -- control of the oil spigot to Europe and also establish a military presence in North Africa from which to influence or prevent the development of the revolutions, especially in Egypt and Tunisia.

ARAB LEAGUE "VOTE" FRAUD

Not only a demonization campaign against the Libyan leader, but every form of fraud and propaganda is being used to push for this intervention, including a supposed "vote" by the Arab League supporting the latest U.N. resolution. Left unsaid is the fact that only 11 of the 22 members of the League even attended the meeting, which was held behind closed doors. Two of these 11 attending members, Syria and Algeria, made clear that they were completely opposed to military intervention in Libya.

Meanwhile the corporate media has ignored a resolution by the African Union, representing 53 countries, which adamantly rejected a no-fly zone or other intervention.

WHAT ABOUT GAZA?

The U. S. blocked any UN action, even a toothless resolution, during the massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2008 and also during the Israeli bombing and attempted invasion of Lebanon in 2006, as well as the continued bombardment of Gaza as recently as this week!.

It is important that peace-loving and progressive people around the world develop a consistent approach opposing ALL U.S. intervention. This is the only way to avoid becoming just an echo of the U.S. State Department and Pentagon.

U.S., French, British, Italian hands off Libya!
NO to the U.S. supported attack on the people's movement of Bahrain!
U.S. Out of Arab and African Lands!

Some events this month

2011-03-16T18:25:00.002-05:00

The annual Durham Creek Week is March 19-26; see http://www.durhamcreekweek.org/ for a calendar of events. There will be trash cleanups throughout Durham on the Saturday and the 26th, hikes, kayak excursions, workshops, and storytime events throughout the week, a panel discussion at the Hayti Heritage Center on the 24th, etc.

The first Friday after March 15th is also Arbor Day in North Carolina.

March 20th is the anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, though murderous sanctions and bombings had been going on for over a decade. Lots of events in the USA and elsewhere are listed at warisacrime.org/content/upcoming-events, but nothing in North Carolina. [ Actually, a rally March 26th in Fayetteville is listed by ANSWER: www.answercoalition.org/national/news/march-19-day-of-action.html ]. NC Peace Action's Spring Lobby Weekend is this weekend in Washington. The weekly peace vigil in Chapel Hill continues on Fridays at Village Plaza, and is probably on the summer 5-6pm schedule starting Friday, instead of 4:30-5:30. There is also a monthly vigil, 12-1 on first Wednesdays at the Raleigh Post Office, 300 Fayetteville Street. The Durham peace vigil might still continue 12-1 on Saturdays at Brightleaf.

I believe "humanitarian interventionism" in Iraq and possibly soon in Libya (but not in Bahrain or Yemen or any other Arab country) only masks imperialist aims, and now the Arab people are carrying out their bourgeois democratic revolutions without the US having to invade and devastate their countries. The Arab revolutionaries should be wary of imperialists trying to subvert their revolutions, and halt them at the overthrow of authoritarian leaders, before they can go deeper.

The 100th anniversary of International Women's Day was March 8th, and the media here was praising women leaders like Hillary Clinton and Condolezza Rice. According to Wikipedia, International Women's Day began with American socialists, the Second International, and later the USSR, and it is only a legend that it originated in an 1857 demonstration by female textile workers in New York. Whatever the truth about its origins, I did not hear about any local commemorations for peace, socialism, or economic justice to post about.

Khrushchev Lied

2011-02-28T15:12:00.001-05:00

I recently came across a so-called museum of communism online, with a board of directors including Grover Norquist, and a national anti-communist monument planned under Clinton. The website has a hall of heroes, but strangely enough, they left out such great anti-communists as Franco, Hitler, Syngman Rhee, Suharto, Augusto Pinochet, the Colombian AUC paramilitaries, Gulbuddin Hektmatyar, Osama bin Laden, and Luis Posada Carriles. They also left out Khrushchev, who damaged the communist cause on a global scale with his lies and social imperialist policies.

The website ends with Stalin in its list of Soviet villains, and no wonder, because under Stalin's leadership the USSR provided an attractive political and economic model to the international working class and had the diplomatic skill and economic and military might to protect the gains of the October Revolution and aid allied countries. Khrushchev's betrayal began the process of counterrevolution that ended with Gorbachev and Yeltsin, fractured the communist movement, and aided revisionists in taking control of most of the parties with state power.

Scholarship in the USA is dominated by anti-communists who accept nearly every allegation made by counterrevolutionaries from the former USSR, but a blow has been struck with the publication of Montclair State University professor Grover Furr's book Khrushchev Lied, first in Russia and now in the USA. It is time to challenge the anti-communists who control the history curriculum at UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, and the Durham Public Schools.

From the publisher, Erythros Press (www.erythrospress.com/store/furr.html):

Khrushchev Lied
The Evidence That Every "Revelation" of Stalin's (and Beria's) Crimes in Nikita Khrushchev's Infamous "Secret Speech" to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956, is Provably False

In his "Secret Speech" of February 1956 Nikita Khrushchev accused Joseph Stalin of immense crimes. Khrushchev's speech was a body blow from which the worldwide communist movement never recovered. It changed the course of history.

Grover Furr has spent a decade studying the flood of documents from formerly secret Soviet archives published since the end of the USSR. In this detailed study of Khrushchev's speech he reveals the astonishing results of his research: Not a single one of Khrushchev's "revelations" is true!

The most influential speech of the 20th century—if not of all time—a dishonest swindle? The very thought is monstrous; the implications for our understanding of Left history—immense. Basing their work on Khrushchev's lies, Soviet and Western historians, including Trotskyists and anticommunists, have effectively falsified Soviet history.

Virtually everything we thought we knew about the Stalin years turns out to be wrong. The history of the USSR, and of the communist movement of the 20th century, must be completely rewritten.

Reviews and Comments on Khrushchev Lied

"Khrushchev Lied is a marvelous piece of work, formidable in its research and reasoning, clear and precise in its writing, and breathtaking in its findings and implications. Revisiting old sources and using new material from the Soviet archives, Grover Furr's study demands a complete rethinking of Soviet history, socialist history, indeed world history of the 20th century."

- Roger Keeran, Empire State College, co-author of Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union.

"Grover Furr has performed a valuable service to the field of Soviet studies by grappling in depth with Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech of 1956. … While some of the charges Khrushchev made have long been rejected in the West and in Russia, for example the idea that secret police chief Lavrenty Beria was a foreign agent, many other points Grover Furr raises are new and worthy of a great deal more attention."

- Robert W. Thurston, Phillip R. Shriver Professor of History, Miami University; author of Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia, 1934-1941.

"Grover Furr has written an intriguing book that challenges much of the existing historiography of the Stalinist 1930s. His insights and the sources he brings to bear question many of the views held by historians for decades and deserve our consideration. This book raises issues and questions that most scholars in the West today would not and does so in a sober and penetrating manner. He reaches fascinating conclusions, debunking much of what we thought we knew about the Stalinist era. … The translation of this pathbreaking work, which has already made quite a splash in Russia's academic circles, into English is long overdue."

- Jeff Jones, Associate Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; author of Everyday Life and the "Reconstruction" of Soviet Russia During and After the Great Patriotic War, 1943-1948.

Communist Voice premiering on Durham Community Media Monday

2011-02-12T14:27:00.004-05:00

Starting next week, the Communist Voice series is coming to Durham Community Media (cable channel 18) at the same time it is on The Peoples Channel (channel 8 in Orange County and parts of Chatham, www.thepeopleschannel.org), Monday afternoons at 4. The new episode starting Monday, after being delayed by technical problems, is Part 1 of Felix Dzherzhinsky: Champion of the Revolution. Dzherzhinsky was a leader of a Polish-Lithuanian socialist party separate from the Bolsheviks and he led the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (the Cheka), which fought sabotage and counterrevolutionary plots in the early years after the Russian Revolution.

Let me know if you want to sponsor the series so it can be broadcast in Raleigh or elsewhere, or have an idea for future programming. Non-Soviet videos will probably start this fall.

US Friends of the Soviet People is seeking volunteers in the New York area and money and material contributions to digitize and distribute an archive of around 300 Soviet films in Russian with subtitles.

Vigils 2/1 in support of undocumented students in NC

2011-01-31T19:15:00.001-05:00

A bill has been proposed in the General Assembly to bar the children of undocumented immigrants from the community colleges and the UNC system. There will be protests in Raleigh, Greensboro and other cities Tuesday evening. Below is the announcement:

MEDIA ADVISORY: Vigils set for Feb 1 in support of access to education

MEDIA ADVISORY: Vigils in support of access to education spring up around the state

This Tuesday, the Adelante Education Coalition [adelantenc.org/], the American Friends Service Committee and supporters will hold vigils in Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte, Greenville and Asheville

Who: Community members who support access to education

What: State-wide vigils in defense of Education

Where: Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte, Greenville, Asheville

When: Afternoon and Evening, Feb. 1, 2011

RALEIGH (Feb. 1, 2011) – On Tuesday, Feb. 1, the Adelante Education Coalition and supporters will join together to hold vigils across North Carolina in defense of access to higher education for all.

The key to creating jobs, stimulating the economy and reducing the state deficit is to invest in educating all people of North Carolina. Exclusion and re-segregation would cost North Carolina dearly now, at a time when it can least afford to do so.

The Adelante Education Coalition will join with supporters and community members on the anniversary of the 1960 Greensboro sit-ins by NC A&T students to stand together for education for all.

Vigils will be happening across the state, at the following locations:

* Raleigh, 7 p.m. in front of the NC General Assembly, Jones St.
Contact Bart Evans (919) 660-0704 or Nayely Perez-Huerta (919) 433-6055

* Greensboro, 7 p.m. at New Garden Friends Meeting, 801 New Garden Rd. (at Friendly Ave.)
Contact Eric Jonas (336) 379-0037, Lori Khamala (336) 491-0039 or Wooten Gough (336) 306-3252

* Charlotte, 6pm at Marshall Park MLK statue
Contact Lacey Williams (704) 879-1298

* Greenville, 6pm at New Covenant Community Church, 1212 North Greene St.
Contact Juvencio Rocha Peralta (252) 258-9967 or Dani Martinez-Moore (919) 533-9203

* Asheville, 4pm at the Vance Memorial at Pack Square, Downtown
Contact Diego Lopéz (828) 460-8112 or Molly Hemstreet (828) 230-8937

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Bart Evans (919) 660-0704, Nayely Perez-Huerta (919) 433-6055

News from the Tunisian Revolution

2011-01-27T19:38:00.002-05:00

Below is the founding platform of the 14th of January Front, translated from French by a comrade:

Tunisia: The 14th of January Front

On the 20th of January 2011 a number of Tunisian radical left organisations, notably the PCOT (Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia ) and the PTPD (Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party), constituted a Front. This Front was named the «14th of January Front» in reference to the date of President Ben Ali's rout.The object of the 14th of January Front is to undertake the organisation of the resistance against the present transitional government, which still includes leaders of Ben Ali's party the RCD (Rassemblement constitutionnel démocratique), and to build a popular alternative based on the existing vigilante committees that have been constituted in a number of neighbourhoods in Tunisia with the aim to defend the inhabitants against the terror disseminated by RCD thugs and the presidential police. The call is addressed to all the progressive political, trade-union, associative forces, asking them to fulfil the objectives intended by popular Tunisian revolution.

Here is the founding text: (http://www.albadil.org/spip.php?article3675 ):

In asserting our commitment to the revolution of our people who has been fighting for its rights to freedom and to national dignity, and has made great sacrifices, dozens of martyrs, thousands of wounded and imprisoned, in his struggle to overcome internal and external enemies and to thwart aborted attempts to crush these sacrifices, we have constituted the "14 of January Front", a political framework «which will work for the advancement of the popular revolution for the realisation of its objectives and oppose the forces of counterrevolution. This framework consists of parties, progressive and democratic national organisations.

The Front's immediate urgent tasks are as follows:

1 – To overturn the present Ghannouchi government or any other government that adopts the old regime's symbols and its antinational, anti-popular policy that benefited the fallen president.

2 – To dissolve the RCD, confiscate its head-office, property, assets and funds, given that they all belong to the people.

3 - To form an interim government enjoying the trust of the people and the progressive militant political, associative, trade-union and youth forces.

4 – To dissolve the House of Representatives, the Senate, all fictitious organs as well as the High Magisterial Council. To dismantle the political structure of the old regime and to prepare the election of a Constituent Assembly, which within a year at the most, is to formulate a new democratic constitution and lay the foundations for a new juridical system covering public life, and guaranteeing political, economic and cultural rights to the people.

5 – To dissolve the political police and adopt a new security policy founded on the respect for human rights and the primacy of the law.

>6 – To bring to justice all those guilty of having stolen public funds, committed crimes against the people such as: repression, imprisonment, torture and humiliating treatment – from decision taking to execution –, and finally all those found guilty of corruption and embezzlement of public property.

7 – To dispossess the old ruling family, their kin, associates and all civil servants who misused their position to enrich themselves at the expense of the people.

8 – To provide jobs for the unemployed, urgently grant unemployment benefits, improve social care, increase the purchasing power of wage earners.

9 – To restructure the national economy so that it serves the people and ensure that the State supervises vital strategic sectors. To re-nationalise the institutions that have been privatised by the previous regime and to set an economic and social policy that will break away from capitalist liberal approach.

10 – To guarantee civil and individual liberties, particularly the freedoms to demonstrate, to organise, of expression, of the press, of information and thought, the release of prisoners and the promulgation of an amnesty law.

11 - The Front salutes the support of the Tunisian revolution by the popular masses and the progressive forces in the Arab countries and internationally, and invites them all to pursue their support by all possible means.

12 – The Front calls for resistance to the normalisation of relations with the Zionist entity and its penalisation, and the support of national liberation movements in the Arab countries as well as worldwide.

13 - The Front calls all popular masses and nationalist and progressive forces to pursue the mobilisation and the struggle in all legitimate forms, particularly in the streets, in order to achieve their objectives.

14 - The Front greets all committees, associations and forms of popular auto-organisation and invites them to enlarge their area of intervention in all that concerns the exercise of public affairs and other aspects of daily life.

Glory to the martyrs of the Intifada and Victory to the revolutionary masses of our people.

Tunisia, January 20th, 2011

** Ligue de la gauche travailliste [Left Labour League]
** Mouvement des unionistes nassériens [Nasserite Unionist Movement]
** Movement of the nationalists democrats (Al-Watad)[Nationalist Democratic Movement]
** Courant Baasiste [Baasist Current]
** Gauche Indépendante [Independent Left]
** Parti communiste des ouvriers de Tunisie [Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia]
** Parti du Travail Patriotique et Démocratique [Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party).

Raleigh protest on National Day of Action Against FBI Repression, 1/25

2011-01-20T14:38:00.004-05:00

An announcement from the Triangle Committee to Stop FBI Repression:

What: Protest on 1/25 to Stop FBI and Grand Jury Repression of Antiwar and Solidarity Activists
Where: Federal Building, 310 New Bern Ave, Raleigh, NC
When: Tuesday 1/25 at 9:00 AM.
RSVP: ncstopfbi at gmail dot com or Facebook

WE NEED YOUR HELP. Join us at 9:00 AM on January 25 for a protest in Raleigh to coincide with National Day of Action against FBI Repression

On September 24th, 2010, FBI Agents conducted coordinated raids on the homes of anti-war, labor, and international solidarity activists in Minneapolis and Chicago. Fourteen activists were served with subpoenas that demanded they appear before a grand jury in Chicago. All fourteen refused to participate in the FBI's fishing expedition. In December 2010, under the direction of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the FBI delivered nine new subpoenas in Chicago to anti-war and Palestine solidarity activists. Patrick Fitzgerald’s office is ordering the nine to appear at a Grand Jury in Chicago on January 25.

On January 25, as anti-war activists who were resubpoenaed make their first appearance before the Grand Jury, demonstrations will be organized across the country to show solidarity with them, with all the activists whose homes were raided by the FBI, and to demand an end to FBI and Grand Jury repression of anti-war activists.

We'll be gathering in Raleigh at 9:00 AM for a press conference and rally at the Federal Building. Putting pressure on politicians and the FBI is essential to keeping these and other activists out of jail for activities--dissenting speech, travel and education--that are protected by the constitution and necessary to the democratic process. While initial media coverage of this issue was strong, continuing pressure requires action. WE NEED YOUR VOICES AND YOUR BODIES. Join us in taking the fight against the FBI's witch-hunt to the streets of Raleigh, in solidarity with those targeted and those fighting government repression in the United States and abroad.

For more info, please visit http://stopfbi.net/ or check us out on facebook, http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126101957455734
You can also contact us at ncstopfbi at gmail dot com. Please RSVP to let us know you plan to attend.

An African statement on Cote D'Ivoire

2011-01-04T19:23:00.001-05:00

I get suspicious when imperialists like the US, UK, and France (the former occupier of Cote D'Ivoire), and the UN they control interfere in the internal affairs of a small, but sovereign, country, even calling for a war to depose a leader. Consider this statement signed by several African leftist organizations:

NO TO FOREIGN MILITARY INTERVENTION:

NEITHER OF THE ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States],
NOR THE UN NOR FRANCE!

FOREIGN TROOPS OUT OF THE IVORY COAST!

UNITY AND NATIONAL SOVEREIGN IVORIAN DEMOCRATIC AND PEACEFUL SOLUTION TO THE POST-ELECTION CRISIS!

After the barely veiled threats of Sarkozy and Obama on behalf of the so-called "international community" made up of France, England, Germany and the United States, now there is an ultimatum from the Heads of State of Cape Verde, Benin and Sierra Leone in the Ivory Coast.

As if there had been agreement on sharing roles, the Western powers pushed ECOWAS to take the decision on December 24 2010 for an armed intervention in the Ivory Coast to dislodge GBAGBO from power if he did not yield to the injunctions brought to him by a final mission of these three Presidents in the name of the ECOWAS.

Thus, the Western powers that cannot intervene directly worked behind the scenes to push their men in power in Africa to commit the infamies that they dare not take on publicly.

The USA, EU, the IMF, World Bank, the International Criminal Court, the same ones who carried out and funded the military coup that overthrew the legal and legitimate President of Honduras Zelaya, are using servile African puppets to kill and impose a criminal war on the Ivorian people.

The same imperialist powers and financial institutions lied to the whole world about the "weapons of mass destruction and complicity with Al Qaida" to attack, overthrow and occupy Iraq and murder its Head of State

This is why the signatory organizations affirm that the solutions to the post-election crisis in Ivorian society must come first and foremost from the Ivorian people themselves.

This is why we denounce any foreign armed intervention in the Ivory Coast and demand the withdrawal of all foreign forces present on Ivorian territory, whether they are official (United Nations Mission to the Ivory Coast, 41st BIMA [Marine Infantry Battalion]) or unofficial (mercenaries).

Long live the sovereignty of the Ivorian people! Long live Pan-African and internationalist solidarity!

December 27, 2010

Signatories: Fernent/ Pan-African Workers Movement – Senegal (F/M.T.P-S), Yoonu Askan Wi Senegal, RTA [Union of African Workers] – Senegal, Revolutionary Communist Party of the Ivory Coast, Communist Party of Benin, Actus Prpe [Action for Unity and Socialism / Popular and Ecological Revolutionary Party] Chad, CP Togo, CP Tunisia, Democratic Road of Morocco, PADS [Party for Democracy and Socialism] Algeria, UP [Union of the Populations] Cameroun, Sanfin Mali, CP Congo

Government targeting of anti-war movement continues

2010-12-23T18:05:00.001-05:00

This is a 12/21 press release from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (www.stopfbi.net).

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald Expands Witch Hunt --

FBI delivers subpoenas to four more anti-war, solidarity activists

The FBI came unannounced to knock on doors at two apartments in Chicago this morning. FBI agent Robert Parker, under orders from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's office, delivered a subpoena to Maureen Murphy. Murphy, like several other individuals served subpoenas, is an organizer with the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago.

This continues the repression unleashed by Fitzgerald on the anti-war movement since September 24th, when fourteen subpoenas were delivered to anti-war, labor, and solidarity activists in coordinated raids involving more than 70 federal agents. Armed FBI agents raided homes, taking computers, phones, passports, documents, notebooks, and even children's artwork. A total of 23 subpoenas have been served to activists around the country.

Maureen Murphy said, "Along with several others, I am being summoned to appear before the Grand Jury on Tuesday, January 25th, in the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago. We are being targeted for the work we do to end U.S. funding of the Israeli occupation, ending the war in Afghanistan and ending the occupation of Iraq. What is at stake for all of us is our right to dissent and organize to change harmful US foreign policy." Ms. Murphy is also the Managing Editor of the widely-read website, The Electronic Intifada.

In addition, three women in Minneapolis - Tracy Molm, Anh Pham, and Sara Martin - are threatened with reactivated subpoenas by Fitzgerald's office and new Grand Jury dates. Tom Burke of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression explained, "It is likely the three individuals, like all the others so far, will continue to refuse to take part in Fitzgerald's witch hunt. Fitzgerald can then call for putting them in jail as long as he wants."

For more information: www.stopfbi.net

Defend Wikileaks!

2010-12-16T19:30:00.001-05:00

I'm surprised some communists, such as the Progressive Labor Party, are attacking Wikileaks when the establishment is trying to silence its release of damaging information about world imperialism, by forcing Wikileaks off the Internet, attacking its funding, attacking Julian Assange in the judicial system and media and threatening to assassinate him, and changing laws to reduce free speech in the USA. Wikileaks has the right enemies, and to attack Wikileaks is to assist the criminals in the US and allied governments. The government alleges Wikileaks has blood on its hands, but it is no allegation that the Bush and Obama administrations are covered with real blood from their actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Palestine, and elsewhere, and the actions of their proxies in Haiti, Georgia, Honduras, etc. If the US government attacks free speech over this incident, the problem is leaders like Obama and Senator Lieberman, not Wikileaks.

As an article on Global Research ( www.globalresearch.ca/index.phpcontext=va&aid=22389 ) shows, Wikileaks is a liberal organization originally focused on the same "oppressive regimes" targeted by the US, its allies, and the dominant media (with which Wikileaks is allied), though Wikileaks does not overlook leaks from the NATO countries. I doubt Julian Assange is actually a US operative, but Wikileaks could be used by the government to leak documents that aid imperialism, and the government and the New York Times used the documents against Iran. But the documents still reveal information embarassing to the imperialists (see Fairness and Accuracy in Journalism's article at www.fair.org/index.php?page=4215 ), and progressive people should critically use this information in the struggle to stop imperialism, whether it was leaked with good intentions or not.

Upcoming demonstrations around the world are listed at:

wlcentral.org/events-protests

and

http://www.worldcantwait.net

The only protest I have heard of in or near North Carolina is this:

Monday, December 20 · 4:00pm - 5:30pm
Corner of Friendly and Eugene St., Greensboro

Defend whistleblowers and truth tellers...prosecute war criminals! Hands off Julian Assange!

The highest officials in the Bush administration committed war crimes by leading the US into war on false pretenses, ordering torture, using chemical weapons against civilian populations, and indiscriminately targeting civilians. These crimes have continued under Obama.

Over the past several months, Wikileaks has revealed the true extent ...and the depth of these crimes, and the complicity of the Obama administration in covering them up, and maintaining policies under which these crimes continue. Wikileaks has published nothing but the truth about the actions of your government!

Join the rising global protest in calling for the US government to back off Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange, and renew the call for prosecution of war criminals!

Sponsored by The World Can't Wait - NC Chapter and North Carolina Labor Against the War

Communist Voice on The Peoples Channel

2010-12-13T05:07:00.001-05:00

Chronicles of October - 1917 has been showing since November, but the series overall now has a name and a Soviet program on the WWII liberation of what is now Belarus airs this month (Mondays, 4-4:30pm), starting this afternoon. This film uses archival footage, both Soviet and German, and unlike World War II in HD Colour, a European series currently airing on UNC TV, this obviously doesn't minimize the decisive role of the USSR in defeating the fascist powers, blame the USSR for the start of WWII in Europe and the Cold War, or attempt to equate fascist Germany and the USSR. A documentary on the Russian/Soviet writer and playwright Maxim Gorky will air in January, but it had to be cut slightly to fit the time slot.

More on the candidates

2010-11-02T04:11:00.001-05:00

For Sheriff, I gather that Worth Hill has been on the wrong side on immigrant issues and has a huge influence over Durham County's policies, though some initiatives are now moving forward, so I don't feel inclined to support him.

I have had helpful contacts with both of the Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisors, Ray Eurquhart and Robert Rosenthal, so I will vote for them again.

On the constitutional referendum to ban ex-felons from running for sheriff, I will vote no. I might have some concerns about a candidate with a criminal record, but they have served their time and I believe people can change, so it is a case by case decision whether to elect someone, and I would leave that to the voters. As recent letters to the News & Observer and the Independent Weekly point out, there are issues around felonies being defined differently by different states and the issue of people who are later found to be wrongly convicted. Drug crimes, which could be called political crimes (consider the role of the synthetic fiber industry's opposition to hemp and Nixon's use of drug laws against protesters in making marijuana illegal, and the difference in punishments for possession of cocaine versus crack, and who gets convicted for using it), are probably felonies, but using marijuana responsibly is no more of a threat to society than alcohol or tobacco, when used responsibly.

Soviet videos on The Peoples Channel

2010-10-31T18:20:00.001-05:00

Monday afternoon (unless the tentative scheduling was changed) Chronicle of October - 1917, a dubbed half hour video on the Great October Socialist Revolution will be on The Peoples Channel. The anniversary of the beginning of the socialist stage of the Russian Revolution is November 7th (it was October 25th under the calendar Russia used at the time, thus the name). I'm working to arrange a dedicated slot on cable access in Orange and Durham counties to air historical and cultural documentaries donated by the US Friends of the Soviet People (www.northstarcompass.org/US_friends.html) and videos on current events, depending on technical issues and copyright, starting in November. This puts the communist view out there (though it should be noted that the views expressed aren't necessarily mine), and the videos have retro historical or ethnographic value. If you have a video that might fit, drop me a line.

If you are in New York City, the national USFSP branch is meeting November 6th, with guest speaker Thomas Kenny, who wrote Socialism Betrayed with Roger Keeran.

The candidates for Congress and the General Assembly

2010-10-27T18:36:00.001-05:00

US Senate

I voted for Elaine Marshall in the primaries and plan to vote for her in November. While the statements on her website (www.elainemarshall.com) condemn the occupation of Afghanistan on the grounds of costs and benefits instead of anti-imperialism, she still calls for ending the war and opposes so-called nationbuilding around the world. She wants to make Big Business live up to its responsibility for the economic crisis, retain and better pay teachers, increase renewable energy use (though I question the use of wind power when turbines may be killing a lot of wildlife, and we won't see the evidence if the turbines are offshore), end legal discrimination against LGBT people at the Federal level, opposes recent free trade agreements, and advocates other progressive and populist policies.

Her campaign was apparently weakened by having to go through a runoff to defeat the national Democratic Party's favored candidate, who ran to Marshall's right, another example of the Democratic Party working to sabotage its left wing.

North Carolinians don't hear much from Senator Burr (or Kay Hagan, for that matter), but judging by what Burr says during the elections, he is serving a very rightist agenda, without being as loud about it as Senator Jesse Helms was. I was surprised when someone from his office called me after I wrote to them, which hasn't happened when I have contacted any of our other members of Congress (or since then with Burr), but constituent services or Federal funding for NC projects are little compared to his reactionary platform.

US House of Representatives and NC General Assembly incumbents

I'm leaning to not voting for Representative David Price or the incumbent Democrats running for the General Assembly. On the other hand, the media is starting to get to me. I don't want to contribute to a Republican landslide, especially given their candidates for the General Assembly, but it could be a case of the Democrats fearmongering for votes. Even if there is a landslide, a bitterly gridlocked Congress with Republicans in control of only one house could tie the imperialists' hands at the Federal level, while a Republican Congress could still be limited by Obama's veto, unless they have enough votes to override it.

Representative Price has, or had a pretty safe and left leaning district, yet he isn't a left Democrat like Dennis Kucinich. Price can be counted on to endorse Israeli aggression, and he can't be counted on to do what he can to stop Obama from starting a war with Iran or the DPRK or further bombing Pakistan, Yemen, and who knows where else. Price did oppose the invasion of Iraq to some extent, no doubt galvanized by the occupation of his Chapel Hill office, but I think he has supported every war funding bill since. Republican BJ Lawson's website (www.lawsonforcongress.com) links to a March 10th vote on Kucinich's bill for withdrawal from Afghanistan in which every NC representative but Republican Walter Jones voted no. Price could have voted to investigate Bush's crimes, and it even might have helped him win votes, but now Obama is covering some up and legalizing others.

Lawson seems to be running further to the right this year and his website comes across as pretty rightist, though his ideas probably haven't really changed much. If he is really more anti-war than Price and can't do too much on the domestic front, he could be an improvement over Price, though Price is generally left of Lawson.

Long live Enver Hoxha!

2010-10-16T19:17:00.001-05:00

Today is the anniversary of the birth in 1908 of Albanian communist Enver Hoxha, born in southern Albania when the nation was just gaining independence after centuries of foreign rule. Under his leadership, the anti-fascist Partisan guerrillas liberated Albania from Italian and German occupation during WWII, at a staggering cost in lives and property and relying on their own forces. The Partisans went on to liberate parts of Yugoslavia, while the other occupied countries in Europe had enough trouble driving the fascist forces from their own territory. Hoxha became First Secretary of the Party of Labor of Albania and held various government posts, leading Albania from the hardscrabble rural economy inherited from the Zog dictatorship to socialism, with an advanced industrial base and a drive for self-sufficiency. During this time the PLA also fended off take over attempts by the UK, USA, Greece, and Yugoslavia, and then, almost alone among the communist parties with state power, refused to follow the destructive revisionist road of the USSR after the 50's and denounced the revisionism of its Chinese ally in the 70's, despite the economic cost. Even Albanian counterrevolutionaries have to admit that Hoxha's policies defended Albanian sovereignty, liberated women, increased education and public health, encouraged study of Albanian history and culture, and modernized the economy. Of course there were also mistakes, and a counterrevolution succeeded, but socialist Albania's experience and Hoxha's many books should be studied by other communist parties, and Hoxha deserves a place among the great figures who fought for a socialist society in the 20th century and created a valuable legacy for those of us in the 21st.

Hoxha died April 11, 1985 and the PLA took a revisionist course, allowing a counterrevolution in the 90's, leading to the rule of the so-called Democratic Party of Albania. They made Albania a lackey of the EU and USA, and then they wonder why they were snubbed by the imperialists during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, despite the just demands of ethnic Albanians in the former Yugoslavia and the rights of Kosova under the Yugoslav constitution. Today the PLA has been reconstituted, under its original name, the Communist Party of Albania, and Hoxhaism remains influential in the international communist movement, including here in the USA.

I think the CPA's current website is www.pksh.org, but it could be a different group. An Albanian site dedicated to Enver Hoxha is at www.enverhoxha.info and some of his works are online at www.marx2mao.com, www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works-index.htm, and sites referenced on Wikipedia, and some WWII and early socialist Albanian history is referenced in the Kosova timeline at www.historycommons.org.

Bill Bland en Espanol

2010-09-30T15:11:00.001-05:00

Thanks to a translation by Basque comrades, ML Review now has the beginnings of a Spanish language section (see La Vida Albanesa at ml-review.ca/bland/espanol/la-vida-albania.html).

William B Bland (1916-2001) was an influential British communist, the first anti-revisionist to point out and condemn Mao's revisionism, the founder of the Albanian Society of Britain, the Stalin Society, and a leader of the Communist League and International Struggle Marxist-Leninist, and a major theoretical influence on Alliance Marxist-Leninist and its successor, ML Review, on this side of the Atlantic (see ml-review.ca/bland/biography.html).

On the actions of the "Department of Justice" against the anti-war movement: One of the people questioned lives in Durham (see articles in the Herald-Sun and the News & Observer earlier in the week), so this touches very close to home. There is a long history of US government harassment and even murder of critics of its foreign policy, but this is one of the biggest attacks in recent years. If progressive people fail to stand in solidarity now, we have even less chance of stopping the next imperialist war than we had in 2003, and in the worst case, repression will grow if there is no resistance to the government's initial attacks on the speech of anti-war forces.

Check out the International Action Center's petition at iacenter.org/stopfbi

FBI harassment of anti-war activists in NC, IL, MN, MI, and CA

2010-09-26T21:09:00.001-05:00

Starting at 8am Friday, FBI agents raided 7 homes and an office in Chicago and Minneapolis, belonging to anti-war, pro-Palestine, and Colombian solidarity activists. Agents visited other activists in California and North Carolina, including people formerly active in the Triangle area, but were met with silence. Eleven people were subpoenaed to give evidence before a grand jury on October 5th. It is thought that the government is trying to tie people to groups in Colombia and Palestine, which could be related to the government's new power to equate speech with material support to so-called terrorist groups. Obama and Biden are carrying out the same imperialist agenda as Bush and Cheney, and are trying to silence domestic opponents of their occupations and proxy wars, but there will be many actions this week to resist the government's new intimidation campaign.

The targeted people are active in organizations such as Students for a Democratic Society, the Colombia Action Network, the Twin-Cities Anti-War Committee, the Palestine Solidarity Group, Freedom Road Socialist Organization [publishers of Fight Back!], and the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera.

From the NC Committee to Stop FBI Harassment:

STOP HARASSING ACTIVISTS IN NORTH CAROLINA!
SUPPORT ANTI-WAR AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY ACTIVISTS!

Take Action Now:

Durham Emergency Action Against FBI Harrassment of Anti-War Activists
Monday 9/27, 12 pm, Downtown Post Office, 323 E Chapel Hill St, Durham, NC 27701.
RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=162954823719789

Raleigh Emergency Action Against FBI Harrassment of Anti-war Activists
Tuesday 9/28, 9 am, Federal Building, 310 New Bern Ave, Raleigh, NC
Rsvp on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=162954823719789#!/event.php?eid=162954823719789&ref=mf

Call the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at 202-353-1555 or write an email to: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov.

Sign the Petition to Stop FBI Harassment of our Activists! Ask your organization to endorse the statement:
http://bit.ly/ncstopfbi

North Carolina Statement in Support of Anti-War and International Solidarity Activists

We, the North Carolina Committee to Stop FBI Harassment, join with many groups across the US to denounce the Federal Bureau of Investigation harassment of anti-war and solidarity activists. The FBI raided seven houses and an office in Chicago and Minneapolison Friday, September 24, 2010. The FBI handed subpoenas to testify before a federal grand jury to eleven activists in Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan. The FBI also attempted to intimidate activists in California and North Carolina.

This suppression of civil rights is aimed at those who dedicate their time and energy to supporting the struggles of the Palestinian and Colombian peoples against U.S. funded occupation and war. The FBI has indicated that the grand jury is investigating the activists for possible material support of terrorism charges.

We ask people of conscience in North Carolina to join us in fighting this political repression, as we continue working to build the movements against US war and occupation.

We demand:

Stop the repression against anti-war and international solidarity activists.
Immediately return all confiscated materials: computers, cell phones, papers, documents, etc.
End the grand jury proceedings against anti-war activists.

For more information check out:

http://www.fightbacknews.org/2010/9/24/activists-denounce-fbi-raids-anti-war-and-solidarity-activists-homes

http://www.iacenter.org/actions/riads-activists092410/

http://antiwarcommittee.org/?q=node%2F534

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG3dIUGQvQ&feature=player_embedded

____________________________________________________________

NC Committee to Stop FBI Harrassment - ncstopfbi@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=162954823719789#!/group.php?gid=133197803393928

More actions, from another source:

NYC, Tues. 4:30 to 6pm Federal Building, 26 Federal Plaza [usually that means the corner of Broadway & Thomas St., nr. Worth St. & Duane St.; but if not, then check Foley Sq./Lafayette St. side of the bldg. too; map: http://is.gd/bsM8D-/ - t.]
www.antiwarcommittee.org

Minneapolis MN, Monday: 4:30, FBI Office Monday, 111 Washington Ave. S.
Chicago, IL, Monday: 4:30 FBI Building, 2111 W. Roosevelt Rd.
NYC, Tues. 4:30 to 6pm Federal Building, 26 Federal Plaza,
Newark, NJ Tues 5 to 6pm Federal Building Broad Street
Washington DC, Tues 4:30 - 5:30 FBI Building 935 Pennsylvania Ave NW.
Detroit MI Tuesday 4:30 McNamara Federal Building
Buffalo, NY 4:30 at FBI Building - Corner of So. Elmwood Ave. & Niagara St.
Durham NC on Monday, 12 noon Federal Building, 323 E Chapel Hill St
Raleigh NC. Tuesday 9 am. Federal Building, 310 New Bern Ave
Asheville, NC Tuesday
Atlanta, GA, Tues Noon, FBI Building
Gainesville, FL on Monday, 4:30 PM at FBI Building
Salt Lake City, Utah, 9 AM on Monday at Federal Building

New Alliance ML/ML Review website

2010-07-10T03:51:00.001-05:00

The archives of the former Alliance ML site are once again available online. Restoration and improvement of the site is ongoing. Migration to our new domain resulted in broken links, aesthetic issues and other anomalies. We are aware of these issues and we sincerely hope any such problems will be rectified in due course as we continue to improve the organization and presentation of all respective documents.

The Alliance Subject Index is online at: ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html

If anyone wants an image for a link to our website, this one is available: www.erythrospress.com/sites/mlreview.jpg

Capitalism failed in Greece

2010-06-24T17:22:00.001-05:00

After the demonstrations against austerity measures that would make the Greek working class pay for the capitalist crisis, reactionaries here talked about the failure of socialism and disorder caused by the bankruptcy of a welfare state. Here is an article from Anasintaxi (http://anasintaxi-en.blogspot.com) about the real failure of the capitalist leaders of Greece, the Greek revisionists, and the predatory, capitalist EU.

Crisis and the bankruptcy of Greek economy

Anasyntaxi [Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-55]

In the last five years, a steep deterioration in the condition of the Greek economy has been observed – a destructive course that has eventually led to bankruptcy, contrary to the completely unsubstantiated claims of both the big bourgeois and the Khruschevite parties.
       Side by side with the objective economic laws, the implementation of the most extreme neoliberal financial policy by the reactionary government of Karamanlis intensified even further the already existing problems of the Greek economy, aggravating basic economic indicators.
       In 2009, the condition of the Greek economy became aggravated to the very extreme point that the government of Karamanlis was not able to work out the state budget – an economic situation characterized by very high inflation and successive waves of high prices, rise in mass unemployment to around 15% and rising rapidly, a drop in industrial and agricultural production, a tremendous deficit increase to over 14% of GDP (more than 30 billion Euros), an increase of the external debt to an overwhelming level, around 120% of GDP (more than 300 billion Euros).
       The problems of the Greek economy have deepened even more with the outbreak of the global financial crisis. However, it has to be noted that the crisis of the Greek economy preceded the global financial crisis, since it had already hit, first and foremost, the construction sector, which, as it is known, is linked to a series of industrial branches.
       The overwhelming external debt and the very large deficit led the Greek economy to bankruptcy, resulting in the country becoming the "weak link" of the imperialist European Union (EU) and the object of concerted attacks of international speculative and usurious capital – attacks related not only to the Greek economy, but also to the Euro, in the context of the Euro-Dollar antagonism.
       In 2009, the terrible financial condition and bankruptcy of the Greek economy led to the "changing of the guard," initially the removal of Karamanlis's government and subsequently the defeat of his party in the elections as well as the entry of the country into supervision, initially by the organs of the imperialist EU, and subsequently by the triple austerity plan of the Commission-European Central Bank (ECB)-International Monetary Fund (IMF), that is, it led the country to a new occupation, without military presence.
       The new measures consisted in unprecedented decrease in wages and pensions, increase in indirect taxes, etc. and attack on social security rights (an increase in retirement age limits, low pensions, etc.) by the "troika" of the Commission-ECB-IMF, in agreement with the new social-liberal Papandreou government, which deepened the proletariat's absolute degradation to the extreme and annihilated in one night all the gains of the working class. In response, the working people participated in strikes and massive demonstrations, even though the reformist leaders of GSEE-ADEDY (General Confederation of Greek Workers-Civil Servants' Confederation) declared the first general strike very belatedly, the first on May 5, and the second one on May 20.
       Yet, despite the massive participation of working people in the strikes, there has not been UNITY on the level of gatherings and demonstrations during strikes, resulting in the obstruction of their MASSIVENESS and the undermining beforehand of the working people's struggle against these unprecedented measures. The UNITY of strike rallies is a presupposition of MASSIVENESS. MASSIVENESS cannot be achieved without UNITY, an issue directly connected to the strikebreaking role of the reformist leaders of PAME (the trade union controlled by the "Communist" Party of Greece-"K"KE).
       The strike-breakers-reformist leaders of PAME – through the permanent fragmentation of strike rallies with their separate gatherings – in the past helped the government of the monarcho-fascist party of Nea Dimokratia, with C. Karamanlis as prime minister, to promote and implement all the anti-popular and anti-worker measures; today, by continuing the same disruptive tactic in strike rallies, they are in the service of the government of the big bourgeois PASOK, and they are helping-enabling it to pass the present annihilating measures. For it is not possible for the reformist leaders of PAME to not understand that with their disruptive tactic they immediately break the UNITY of strike rallies, obstruct their MASSIVENESS and thus render the strike rallies INEFFICIENT beforehand.
       The new, even more annihilating measures, that were taken and "sucked dry" the poor, that it are being planned to be passed for the social security slaughter of workers' rights with the further looting of THEIR OWN MONEY, with the elimination of provisions in health and pensions (the class callousness of cutting two pensions per year had already preceded this), those that the extortions of the imperialists will continually demand, cannot be repelled by the working people if there is no MASSIVE UNITY, which are the qualities that can make strike rallies EFFICIENT, that is, capable of defeating or holding back the attacks of capital. This was evident in the case of the great strike rally of the reformist GSEE-ADEDY, which was the only efficient one, forcing Simitis's government to withdraw the draft of the bill for Social Security in 2001. Now, the messages of the spontaneous worker and popular response are the same. The great strike of May 5, with a gathering of 250.000 people in Athens alone, smashed in practice the rationale of isolationism, disruption of unity and strike-breaking. The participation en masse of working people within the union blocs, the gathering was UNIFIED and showed the way for the working class to win demands: the way of militant unity. The militant voice and action of the working people, the unemployed, the youth, the pensioners, was overshadowed by the throwing of a Molotov cocktail into a Marfin Bank branch office, which, regardless of the intentions of those who threw it, caused the death of three young working people: this is a reactionary criminal act, completely alien and hostile to the workers' movement. The responsibilities of the banker Vgenopoulos and Marfin Bank, who must be brought to court, are also tremendous (since they blackmailed the workers to go to work, they "locked" the door of the bank while the workers were inside, etc.).

The working people showed once more the way to confront the crisis:
·       Capitalist industrialists and bankers must pay from their fabulous profits, along with all tax evaders
·       Business taxation must be increased from 20-25% to 35-40%, with a further increase in taxation when businesses fire workers and do not invest productively
·       The fabulous landed and other property of the Church, which does not belong to it, must be taxed in its entirety
·       Indirect taxes hitting exclusively the broad lower masses must be decreased
·       Direct taxation must place the burden on the capitalists, also natural persons, without affecting the tax exemption of the poor
·       Military expenses must be decreased drastically

We demand unilateral suspension of usurious debt payments – Withdrawal from the EMU-EURO with an immediate prospect of withdrawing from the EU

In contrast to the fabrications of the government and bourgeois politicians that "the country has not gone bankrupt, along with the Khruschevite social-democrats "K"KE (Khruschevite-Brezhnevites) and SYN (Coalition of the Left of Movements and Ecology – Euro"communists"), who are also disputing the existence of bankruptcy (Papariga – "K"KE: "they are bringing back the scarecrow of bankruptcy," "R" April 23, 2010, p. 6, Tsipras – SYN: "the tale about the dragon of bankruptcy is nice," "Eleftherotypia" March 14, 2010), bankruptcy is a concrete and painful fact.
       An analysis of the relevant economic data can only reach the conclusion that the figures show indisputably the bankruptcy of Greek economy:
1. an overwhelming external debt of more than 300 billion Euros, or about 120% of GDP (with a minimal to nonexistent industrial production, while even the "production" of waiters decreased with the fall in tourism since last year),
2. a huge deficit of more than 30 billion Euros or 14% of GDP,
3. a usurious 7-10% interest rate with spread of 500-700 bps (an interest rate that only bankrupt countries borrow at),
4. inability to service the external debt,
5. the triple austerity program by the Commission-ECB-IMF and designation of financial politics not by the elected government but by the delegations of the imperialist organizations, and
6. recourse to the so-called EU-IMF "support mechanism" for a further loan of 5%.
       The ND was the party that had been leading and led the country's economy to bankruptcy with mathematical precision, by doubling the external debt (more than 300 billion Euros) and multiplying the deficit by five (more than 30 billion Euros), leading to the country's triple supervision by the Commission-ECB-IMF, and has the first and major responsibility for this reason. But the then-opposition parties, the big bourgeois PASOK, and "K"KE and SYN (the Nazi-fascist LAOS had identified with the politics of ND), are tremendously responsible as well for not revealing to the Greek people this destructive financial course, which, for at least the final two years of ND's governing, was completely clear to the naked eye.
       The condition of the bankrupt Greek economy of today is bleak, and its prospect within the framework of EMU-EURO is at an impasse. The current bleak condition of the Greek economy has obviously led to the exposure of a series of bourgeois and revisionist myths (old and new) about the relationship between Greece and the EU, regarding 1) "equal participation in the EU," 2) "permanent growth within the EU," 3) "convergence of the EU member states' economies," 4) "permanent prosperity," 5) "decrease in interest rates," 6) "safeguard from bankruptcy," etc.
       With these negative developments in the Greece-EU relationship, the current complete deadlock of the bankrupt Greek economy, along with the fact that the big bourgeois PASOK government will not only multiply the annihilating anti-popular and anti-worker measures, but with the "gospel" of neoliberal financial politics in its hands, it intends to satisfy even more the lust of the speculators and loan-sharks and the IMF for the total looting of any remaining profitable sectors and savage looting of the country's overall wealth with the proportional destructive consequences, known to tens of other countries that fell into their clutches. The working class and the people must fight for the country's withdrawal from the EMU-EURO and the declaration of unilateral suspension of external debt payments (an issue discussed in "ANASYNTAXI" No. 313, January 1-15, 2010), in combination with the general struggle for Greece's withdrawal from the imperialist EU, a withdrawal that for the social-democrat Papariga (general secretary of "K"KE), at this moment "is not a solution in itself" ("R" March 5, 2010, p. 10) (it is the first "unwary"(?), but delightful and characteristic strip-tease by Papariga in favor of Greece staying in the EU, since the leadership of "K"KE claimed until now, of course for reasons of demagoguery, that they were in favor of the country withdrawing from it).
       The working class, the youth, the city and village poor, must fight everywhere, in each workplace, each space of education, residential area, and gathering place against the awkward Khruschevite social-democrats "K"KE-SYN, who deny the existence of bankruptcy and say not even one word about the tasks that derive from it, for the creation of a broad antifascist and anti-imperialist front, which will unite in the aforementioned goals of confronting the anti-worker whirlwind and in the struggle against suppression, the curtailment of democratic gains, the fascistization of public life, which are the necessary "tools" of capitalists and their political representatives in order to pass the measures of sordidness.

Events this week against Israel, rendition, and the US wars

2010-06-02T17:48:00.003-05:00

Several events are coming up locally to demonstrate against Israel's massacre of internationals attempting to help the people of Gaza and the Obama Administration's support for Israel's actions, the lack of accountability for US policies of rendition and torture, and the US government's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the 1000th US soldier was recently killed, and the hidden wars in neighboring countries. Korea should come up too, where the rightist south Korean government, the US, and Japan are working to renew the the Korean War, without much evidence that the DPRK is at fault. There has been less attention to the recent incident in which Israeli soldiers destroyed the left eye of a non-violent American student from New York in the Occupied Territories.

6/3 in Durham:

Stop Israeli Aggression! Break the Siege of Gaza! End U.S. Military Aid to Israel!

Jews For A Just Peace

Join us as we protest

Thursday, June 3
5 - 7 p.m.
Corner of Main and Gregson, Durham
(Brightleaf Square)

ORGANIZE A PROTEST IN YOUR CITY

Show your support for the Freedom Flotilla, violently attacked by Israeli military forces
as its ships headed for Gaza carrying thousands of tons of humanitarian relief supplies.

Protest this latest in Israel's long line of violations of human rights and international law,
resulting too often, as it did again this week, in the deaths of innocent people.

Demand an end to the billions of U.S. tax dollars given to support Israel's military.

Bring friends, bring spirit, bring signs.

This call to protest is being organized by Jews for a Just Peace- North Carolina and friends.
[]
Please distribute information about this protest far and wide.

NC PEACE ACTION IS A COSPONSOR

FORWARDED BY NC PEACE ACTION www.ncpeaceaction.org

[Since I wrote this, other demonstrations have been announced. Friday, 6/4 there will be a protest against the Israeli attack and the Gaza blockade at Peace & Freedom Plaza (in front of the Post Office on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. This is sponsored by WILPF. And in Raleigh:

Join us as we protest in Raleigh

Friday, June 4
2:20 PM to 5:00 PM

Corner of Western Blvd. and Gorman St.

Starting from the Islamic Center of Raleigh we will walk down Ligon St.and Gorman St. ending up at the corner of Western Blvd. and Gorman St. where we will remain up to 5PM holding protest signs and calling out slogans against the Israeli aggression, arrogance, and violation of international laws, human rights, and for freedom of the Gaza strip.

For more information contact: Waleed Elhentaty at 919-369-8686

NC Stop Torture Now vigil Saturday, June 5 2-3:30 at the southeast corner of the intersection of Swift Creek Road and Business Highway 70, next to the Johnston County Airport, home of Aero Contractors, Ltd., which flew prisoners to countries where they could be tortured for the US government.

[This has been moved to downtown Clayton, see www.ncstoptorturenow.net/calendar.html]

6/6 in Fayetteville: Join us for a peaceful, legal vigil and protest of the Israeli military assault on the Gaza flotilla, and the endless, pointless US war in Afghanistan.

Time: Sunday June 6 2010 - 3PM-6PM
Place: Fayetteville NC Market House downtown.
Sponsor: Quaker House
NOTE: RAIN OR SHINE-- the Market House has a covered atrium in case of a shower. (It's kept us dry before!)
Plenty of parking nearby. Map link: http://www.visitfayettevillenc.com/bigmap
Special Guests -- Drummers!
Exciting drum group "Original Nature" to highlight Fayetteville Peace Rally Sunday June 6 2010.
3-6 PM at the Market House downtown -- Spread the Word!
Favorites of Fayetteville's "Fourth Friday" evening festivals, ORIGINAL NATURE makes music for the heart, the mind, and the soul. This "eclectic orchestra" utilizes drums, flutes, blocks, chimes, and a variety of other indigenous instruments to invoke the 'natural ' spirit of music. ORIGINAL NATURE'S performances are enlightening, motivating, and inspiring, with each song being created in tune with the moment and emotions of the group. Therefore, each performance is different, and each song has the distinction of being made just for you---the audience. The nature of the performance is presented in its purest form, thus the performance is truly "Original."

Regular events:

There are weekly peace vigils Fridays 5-6pm at the corner of South Elliot Road and East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill and Saturdays 12-1 at Brightleaf Square in Durham. There does not seem to be a weekly vigil in Raleigh now, but Mondays 5-6pm there is a vigil against the death penalty in front of Central Prison.

In two weeks anti-war speakers will be addressing meetings in Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh.

TSF: Lenin against imperialism

2010-04-11T13:35:00.003-05:00

The Tiangle Socialist Forum is putting on a short film showing and discussion 3pm Saturday, April 17 in the Chapel Hill Public Library's conference room to commemorate V.I. Lenin's birth (April 22).

Demonstrations to mark start of Iraq War

2010-03-14T14:49:00.001-05:00

The Iraq War began March 20, 2003, so there will be several peace demonstrations against Bush and Obama's predatory wars this week.

The Triangle branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and Orange County Peace Coalition are vigiling in front of the post office on Franklin Street (Peace and Freedom Plaza), Wednesday, March 17th, 12 to 1pm.

Friday is the Chapel Hill peace vigil, now on the Daylight Savings Time schedule of 5-6pm, at the corner of East Franklin and Elliot (by the Village Plaza shopping center). It began back when the issue was the sanctions that were killing the Iraqi people (which still are in place to some extent), or possibly earlier.

I think there is still a Durham peace vigil, 12-1 on Saturdays at Brightleaf Square.

There will be a rally in Fayetteville at Market House/Market Square, 1-4 on Saturday, organized by the Quaker House. For a map see http://www.visitfayettevillenc.com/bigmap or call 252-323-3912

ANSWER is organizing a large national event in Washington, but there don't see to be any buses going from the Triangle.

There are also events around the US backed occupation of Palestine and immigration reform.

March 16th Balance & Accuracy in Journalism (BAJ) is hosting three locals who were in the Gaza Freedom March in Egypt, and will talk about what Americans can do to end the Israeli occupation and brutalization of Palestine. The meeting, Helping a Peace Process Emerge for Gazans, Israelis, and All the Rest of Us, is at the Community Church of Chapel Hill (106 Purefoy Road) at 7:30. For information, call 942-2919.

Copied from a calendar email: "March for America: Immigration Reform for New American Families and Economic Justice for All American Families: 1-4PM, March 21, National Mall, Washington, DC. 14 buses leave NC: buy $15 ticket by March 15: Contacts:
* *Raleigh*, El Pueblo, 4 N Blount St. Raleigh
NC, *919-835-1525*.
* *Durham*, El Centro Hispano, 201 W. Main St. Durham, NC.* 919-687-4635*; ggillis@ reformimmigrationforamerica.org/
* *Charlotte*, Latin American Coalition, 4938 Central Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28205-6878,* (704) 531-3848*.
* *Greensboro*, Faith Action International, 705 North Greene Street,
Greensboro, NC 27401-2025,*(336) 379-0037*.
* *Chapel Hill*, UNC RI4A, Wooten Gough,* 336-306-3252*
* *Chapel Hill* RI4A, Juan Mejia,* 919-699-5673* http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/ . Buses leave about 5 AM March 21 and return by 1 AM March 22. Locations TBD."

There are also some immigration talks this week.

Apparently there is a movement to make March 15th Peter Francisco Day in NC, in honor of a great, but now little known, soldier in the Revolutionary War (there was an editorial in The News & Observer Saturday).

Creek Week and National Wildlife Week coming up

2010-03-09T14:13:00.003-05:00

Creek Week, an annual event celebrating Durham's waterways, is March 20 to 27th. The schedule is online at www.keepdurhambeautiful.org. There will be several trash cleanups on the 20th, replacing the regular Earth Day cleanups, workshops on how to adopt a waterway and use the public equipment, nature hikes, kayaking, art workshops using the trash collected on the 20th, a storytime for kids, and more events all week.

According to the Piedmont Wildlife Center (www.piedmontwildlifecenter.org) March 15-21 is National Wildlife Week, and they have some ideas about how to celebrate on their website, and information about an annual wildlife photo contest.

International Women's Day is tomorrow

2010-03-07T14:36:00.001-05:00

International Women's Day, March 8th, is another day of action for peace and progress that began in the USA but is now more celebrated in other countries, as a day of action or as a holiday like Valentine's Day. There are still many examples of oppression against women, such as the pay gap for doing the same jobs as men and lastate laws that allow the prosecution of a woman for a miscarriage, such as if she stays with an abuser (this story was on Democracy Now! last week). There do not seem to be any events marking International Women's Day locally, but the Triangle branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, which both women and men can join, is celebrating International Women's Month and celebrating its 75th anniversary March 13th, 10am-12 in Chapel Hill. For information, call 968-1888.

Stalin died today in 1953

2010-03-05T14:43:00.004-05:00

Today is the anniversary of Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, possibly caused by the pro-capitalist revisionists, who had already gotten into the highest positions in the Soviet leadership. There are two interesting articles on Stalin in the current issue of Revolutionary Democracy (www.revolutionarydemocracy.org), by Yuri Yemelianov and Moni Guha, a prominent Indian Marxist-Leninist who passed away last April, but they are not currently available online. Anti-communist propaganda taught as factual history in North Carolina's public schools, UNC, Duke, etc. about Stalin are exposed at Grover Furr's website (www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/politics.html#STALIN). Alliance ML also has many articles, but the new website is not quite finished.

Raleigh march for jobs Friday

2010-01-14T14:05:00.001-05:00

"Date:Friday, January 15, 2010
Time:3:00pm - 6:00pm
Location:"Walnut Terrace Community Center (opening rally) then march to City Hall"
Street:111 West Lee Street
City/Town:Raleigh, NC

The Peoples' Empowerment Movement is organizing a MARCH FOR JOBS on Dr. MLK's birthday. At this march, we are fighting for a real jobs program and real solutions to the problems which plague our communities. We are demanding that the Federal government provide funding for a public jobs program which provides jobs for all at a living wage, benefits, and training for our futures. The challenges facing single mothers, including but not limited to: unemployment, lack of affordable childcare, and lack of transportation must be addressed.

Our communities are also being constantly harassed by police and our people are incarcerated en masse. Nearly a whole generation is locked up. As the banks are getting bailed out and billions of dollars are going to corporations and wars, we are struggling to meet even our most basic needs. 10.7% of the North Carolina population is "officially" unemployed, and over 15% of African Americans are "officially" unemployed. However, these numbers only account for those who are actively searching for jobs, and do not take into account those who are not actively seeking for jobs or are underemployed. The real unemployment rate is about 30% and the real unemployment rate for people of color is much higher. The unemployment rate for urban youth of color is as high as above 50%!

In order to address these issues and other issues of racism and injustice in our community, we must unify and fight back. We are also calling a march for jobs on Friday, January 15, 2009, the Friday before Martin Luther King Day. Join Us! The March will start with a rally at the Walnut Terrace community center at 3pm.

Then we will march to Raleigh City Hall (corner of Dawson St and Hargett, downtown) around 4:30pm, or so. We then hope to deliver resumes from youth from all over Raleigh who are demanding jobs, as a symbolic act. Join us and bring your resumes too! We NEED and are READY for jobs! The government is the only roadblock!

We will then march to the state office that oversees the Federal stimulus money, the Office of Economic Recovery and Investment at 221 East Lane Street.

Sponsors include:
Peoples' Empowerment Movement
Raleigh F.I.S.T.
Workforce Empowerment Alliance Community Team (W.E.A.C.T.)
Black Workers for Justice youth
Raleigh City Workers Union, UE150
Black Workers for Justice, Raleigh chapter
Fruit of Labor singing ensemble

For more information or to endorse call 919-701-9871"

The lynch mob mentality lives in North Carolina

2010-01-14T04:59:00.002-05:00

Apparently a number of people in the Triangle prefer lynching to the judicial system, and say it loud. Shortly after Demario Atwater and Laurence Lovette were accused of killing UNC Student Body President Eve Carson, a student on a non-political UNC listserve I'm on said the suspects should basically be lynched in The Pit, and he left that listserve rather than stop bringing up political issues. That could be understandable if the student had a personal connection to Carson, but now the defense is asking to move the trial out of state because the accused won't get a fair hearing, in part based on online comments. There doesn't seem to be very much public outrage about Abhijit Mahato, the Duke graduate student who also might have been killed by Atwater and Lovette, and what about murders of NCCU students and others in North Carolina? Some online comments say Atwater and Lovette should be charged with hate crimes, but it seems to me that race and class of the most popular victim and the alleged perpetrators is the reason some people would prefer to dispense with the justice system. I don't recall anyone saying that Michael Peterson should be lynched for murdering his wife. Maybe it isn't surprising, when people have also openly advocated [in letters to the editor] nuclear genocide against Somalia because of a few pirates and said different races can't be trusting neighbors, though the Triangle does not usually appear that racially divided.

Meanwhile, Governor Bev Perdue is cynically using the prison system to improve her poll numbers. At one point the General Assembly passed a law that reduced the amount of time in a life sentence and the prison system gave credits for good behavior, so some prisoners who are pretty old were about to be released last year. Then Perdue and the News & Observer focused on this, and Perdue said she will not allow the prisoners to be released, even defying the courts, if they rule against her, and saying she would go to jail instead. Any demogragraphic can commit a crime, but Perdue acts like these rather old people are scary criminals who will certainly commit violent crimes again. If rehabilitation isn't the goal of the prison system, the government might as well use the death penalty for most crimes, since imprisonment and rehabilitation won't work [as Perdue seems to believe].

This demagoguery is more of the same from a rightist Democrat like Perdue, who also supports paying companies to locate in North Carolina and wants the state to be more of a base from which Obama can launch wars of aggression and CIA torture flights. The News & Observer generally supports the Democratic line and often riles the public up against prisoners and "illegals."

[ I might not have been fair to the N&O, which has published good articles on prison issues and the treatment of undocumented immigrants. But I've noticed that some recent articles from national sources published in both the N&O and the Herald-Sun have titles that tilt to the right in the N&O. ]

More on the Durham Human Rights and Bill of Rights Proclamations

2009-12-25T04:38:00.001-05:00

Below is the Proclamation passed by the City Council on the 21st. A similar "resolution" (the term preferred by the County Attorney) was passed by the County Commissioners on the 14th, 1-4, with Chairman Michael Page against. Unlike in previous years, the resolution was not read aloud, and BORDC has yet to receive a copy of the official document.

The Herald Sun reported on controversy at the meeting (see http://www.heraldsun.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Bill+of+Rights+resolution+spurs+spat%20&id=5163081-Bill+of+Rights+resolution+spurs+spat&instance=homefirstleft). According to the article, Page wanted to delay the vote until there is a resolution all parties can agree to. Ellen Reckhow and Becky Heron said Durham is not trying to deport people, but if you run a red light in front of a police officer, you will be stopped. I doubt the absence of racial profiling is that guaranteed, and hasa board overseeing the 287g program been established, as the program itself calls for in each participating county? Anyone could be undocumented, but a rogue rightist police officer could harass Latinos more than other groups, in the hope of finding non-citizens as well as intimidating and driving off the rest of the immigrant community, documented or not. At least profiling isn't the official policy in Durham, as it appears to be in some parts of the State, where law enforcement apparently has set up traffic stops around Catholic churches on Sundays.

The City Council mostly agreed to the language requested by BORDC and DISC, but refused to say the Durham Police will accept Mexican Matricula Consular as identification, though apparently they already do accept it and these cards are reliable IDs. They are issued by the Mexican government to their citizens living here and presumably in other countries. In the fifth statement, Durham says it will not use 287g to deport people for minor things, and at the end the Proclamation says the police will use 287g "primarily" against felons, though the groups were requesting that 287g "exclusively" focus on felons.

Human Rights and Bill of Rights Day Proclamation

December 21, 2009

Whereas, the City of Durham is home to a diverse population, including students, working people, and retirees, citizens and non-citizens, all of whom add to Durham's cultural richness and economic vitality; and

Whereas, the City of Durham is committed to the human rights of all of its residents, and to actions that both protect and preserve those rights; and

Whereas, the City of Durham respects and recognizes the civil rights and liberties guaranteed to all by the Bill of Rights; and

Whereas, on October 20, 2003, the City of Durham adopted both the Bill of Rights Defense Resolution and Resolution #9046: Supporting the Rights of Persons Regardless of Immigration Status; and

Whereas, the City of Durham has for the past six years endorsed a policy whereby an individual's civil immigration status shall not be inquired about unless that individual is being investigated for suspected involvement in serious criminal activity; and

Whereas, it is the policy of the Durham Police Department to endeavor to assure that an immigrant driver is no more likely to be arrested during a traffic stop than any other driver stopped for a similar cause; and

Whereas, the City of Durham recognizes the importance of maintaining a climate of acceptance and solidarity, thereby decreasing fear and promoting the cooperation of all residents with law enforcement;

Now, therefore I, William V. "Bill" Bell, the Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina do hereby proclaim December 22, 2009 as "Bill of Rights Day" in Durham, and hereby urge all the citizens of the City of Durham to hereby reaffirm their support of the Bill of Rights and of the civil rights and liberties it guarantees to all residents of Durham, and pledge to continue our City's policy of non-discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, race, national origin, and immigration status, and continue to pledge that Durham's 287(g) participation will continue to focus on primarily on felony investigations.

Witness my hand and the corporate seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina, the 21st day of December, 2009.

William V. "Bill" Bell

Mayor

Bill of Rights Day Proclamation at City Council Monday

2009-12-20T13:56:00.001-05:00

The City Bill of Rights Day Proclamation will be presented at the meeting tomorrow at 7pm in City Hall. It will be accepted by the Director of El Centro Hispano, Pilar Rocha-Goldberg, but there will be a delegation from DBORDC and DISC. This should happen at the beginning of the meeting, as usual, instead of being delayed until the end of the meeting like the County Proclamation was this year.

Obama's Nobel and Human Rights Day

2009-12-10T19:52:00.001-05:00

Ironically Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the UN General Assembly's proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/), December 10, 1948. Obama's speech (the transcript, unfortunately divided into six pages, is online at www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/world/europe/11prexy.text.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2) uses high-flying rhetoric, but supports the domination and exploitation of the world by American imperialism, in alliance with the weaker imperialists in Europe and elsewhere, starting with the lie that war is an inevitable part of human nature.

Obama said that war started with humanity, but war is political and its nature changes with different stages in the development of human society. War was probably unknown or rare for most of human history, many tens of thousands of years, because there was nothing for wandering hunter-gatherers to fight over and the population was very dispersed. Later most of humanity settled down and turned to agriculture and developed class systems, leading to war over resources and prestige. War isn't caused by "evil," a concept more commonly used by Bush. Rational reasons can explain irrational violence, so there is no need for Obama to bring in religion, as he did repeatedly. Obama also said humanity developed laws to limit war, but it seems to me that war in the 19th century was often less brutal than war now. Under modern total war, hinted at by Sherman during the US Civil War, civilians and their property are targets and not just collateral casulties, because states can't fight without their industrial home front. When the imperialists clash again and try to ignite World War III, they might use their nuclear weapons and kill millions. The US, Israel, and other countries have few qualms about killing civilians in attacks on cities (Falluja and Gaza come to mind) or through sanctions (Albright said the death of Iraqi children was worthwhile), as long as they can hide it or blame their opponents. Theories of "just war" seem like just another way to justify war, so the people will willingly fight for the interests of the elite, and against their own interests.

Obama praises Woodrow Wilson, who violated his campaign promises and took the US into a war between two equally bad sets of imperialists who had nothing to do with the American people, and portrays the League of Nations and the UN as only tools for peace. In a way the UN promotes peace, but look at the way the UN is dominated by the imperialists in the Security Council. As a result, the UN acted as cover when the US fought to dominate Korea during the Korean War, the UN enforced sanctions that killed a million Iraqis, the UN does nothing to stop US wars of aggression, and it does nothing when Israel violates international law and the UN's own resolutions. The UN, Marshall Plan and other international structures were tools the US and its allies used to fight the working class and national liberation struggles around the world, later in alliance with the Soviet and Chinese revisionists. The Marshall Plan and other international economic structures have also been good at transferring wealth from other countries to the USA, so our economy can run on credit while sending real industry overseas.

Early in his speech, Obama advocates the lie of American exceptionalism, saying that "Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms." He refers to Germany (which the US, UK, and France divided, while the USSR was for a reunified, demilitarized, neutral, and even capitalist Germany), Korea (where the US committed atrocities against civilans and was allied with a military dictatorship until recently), and the Balkans (where NATO manipulated the just demands of various nations for self-determination to launch an imperialist war against Yugoslavia and now prevents Albanian self-determination). It also needs to be asked, whose security the US is really defending, and I think it it is the security of the multinationals and pro-US governments, whether elected or not. The imperialists had to improve the economies of countries like the Republic of Korea (which not long ago faced the more developed DPRK), as bulwarks against socialism, and now those countries might be allowed to decline, just like social welfare spending is no longer necessary to make capitalism look better than socialism.

Obama praises self-determination and freedom, but decries the secessionism that followed the Cold War. Self-determination is only real if a nation has the right to independence, not that it has to decide to excerise that right. It is only natural that nations wanted to be free from the domination of social-imperialists or other occupiers, and there are still unfree nations in the USA and Europe today.

The USA and every country has the right to defend itself, but the invasion of Iraq was not self-defense, and I doubt that even the invasion of Afghanistan would count as self-defense unde international law. The alleged 9/11 terrorists were not from Afghanistan and they trained in the USA, and it seems that they were helped by people in the US government and allied governments. The Taliban was not the government of Afghanistan and was originally an ally of the US and Pakistan, and even offered to extradite Osama bin Laden. According to a Pakistani official, American officials told him the plan was to attack Afghanistan in October 2001, before 9/11 provided a justification. NATO is an aggressive alliance controlled by the US and originally aimed against the socialist bloc and the West European working class, but Obama praises it as a force for peace.

Possibly going even beyond Bush in justifying imperialism, Obama endorses former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's concept of humanitarian intervention, under which the imperialists can meddle in the internal affairs of a country. I doubt this means the US will attack Israel to liberate Palestine, or liberate the Tamils in Sri Lanka, occupy the DR of Congo to stop the civil wars, or stop using the base on Diego Garcia, which the British stole from the native inhabitants. Obama mentions "rules of conduct," such as the prohibition on torture, but he has not ended extraordinary rendition, under which prisoners can be sent to other countries for torture and his Administration is covering up war crimes committed under Bush.

He praises the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treat, under which the superpowers got to keep their weapons, and now it is being used against former victims of US meddling and nuclear blackmail, while Israel gets to have its semi-secret arsenal and India violates the NPT and gets US nuclear technology. Obama says the nuclear weapons states would disarm, but the US and Russia still have many weapons, ready to launch, risking our extinction through a mistaken signal. However horrifying and expensive, possessing a nuclear deterrent might be the only way to prevent the US from invading your country these days, and that still opens the way for fake color revolutions to topple a troublesome government.

Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, but implicitly threatens countries like Sudan and Myanmar with invasion or genocidal sanctions. It is also ironic that he refers to the military dictatorship in Myanmar while abetting the military coup in Honduras. When people use social networking to fight capitalist and theological oppression in Iran, American capitalists and their media treat them as heroes, but Americans are brutalized when they peacefully demonstrate against unequal "globalization," and people are arrested for using social networks to warn about police countermeasures. Americans are also ignored if not actively denigrated by much of the media when they oppose a US war.

That Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize just for being different from Bush, and while occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, isn't that surprising considering some of the other people who have received the Prize, and the quiet but imperialist economy of Norway. Human nature, imperfect as it is, is not what needs to be perfected, it is the legacy of history that has put the working majority under the tyranny of the capitalist minority, and almost every country under the hegemony of one imperialist, nuclear-armed superpower. The control of the majority by a minority due to an exploitative and irrational economic system undermines our other human rights.

For a small, but real act in support of human rights, come to the Durham County Commissioner meeting Monday that 14th at 7pm to support this year's Bill of Rights Proclamation, with stronger language in support of the rights of immigrants. The Proclamation was negotiated by the Durham Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the Durham Immigrant Solidarity Committee, and there should be a City Proclamation later in the month. Bill of Rights Day is the 15th.

Durham County will follow its own zoning rules only if sued

2009-11-28T18:08:00.001-05:00

Durham County is not going to revisit the October 12th Jordan Lake watershed zoning vote, unless forced to do so by a lawsuit, so money is being collected to start a lawsuit December 11th. The County government says it is going to argue that the landowner petition was invalid if sued, though the Planning Department has now reversed its earlier decision, too late for the petition to have mattered. This is in addition to the developer's lawsuit claiming the County violated their "property rights," though October 12th the County did what the developer wants, but that zoning is not all they need the County to approve in order to build 751 South (which some still call 751 Assemblage). Below is an appeal from the zoning opponents, which they say to pass along, so I assume it can be posted here.

"The Durham Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) are leaving signers of the Jordan Lake boundary protest petition no recourse but to sue in order to get justice.

Durham activists have begun a fund to pay the legal fees for individual petition signers who are willing to be plaintiffs in a suit that would uphold the protest petition and stop the lake boundary change. This decision will affect everyone who cares about Jordan Lake - for drinking water and recreation.

Please send a check (put 'Jordan Lake Protest Petition Suit' in the memo) to "Ragsdale Liggett Trust Account" and mail it to

Ragsdale Liggett, PLLC

Post Office Box 31507

Raleigh, NC 27622

Time is of the essence. The attorney needs to start work immediately to meet the December 11 filing deadline.

Donations of $100 or more will be refunded in whole or in part if the county is required to pay our court costs. In this case, donations under $100 will be given to the Haw River Assembly for the future maintenance and protection of Jordan Lake.

Background:

The Haw River Assembly and Southern Environmental Law Center organized a zoning protest petition that was signed by 24 landowners in the affected boundary change area near Jordan Lake. The petition exceeded the minimum required, but was deemed invalid by the Durham Planning Department. The BOCC then voted on October 12 to approve the lake boundary change (that clears the way for a massive new development project to be built in what had been a protected watershed zone). SELC and HRA found that the Planning Department had made errors in counting properties in the petition and the Planning Deptartment now agrees that the petition is valid. A valid protest petition means that the BOCC vote to approve the boundary change needs a "super-majority" 4-1 vote to pass, which it did not have. Instead of admitting this mistake and acknowledging that the boundary should not be changed, the BOCC accepted the county lawyer's advice to defend that vote and decision - telling the petition signers to take them to court if they don't like it."

Defend human rights for immigrants in Durham, December 7th

2009-11-28T03:57:00.001-05:00

From DISC and the Durham BORDC:

"Please come out to protect immigrants' rights in Durham County!

On Monday December 7, the Durham Immigrant Solidarity Committee and the
Durham Bill of Rights Defense Committee will be on the agenda of the
Durham County Commission work session. This meeting starts at 9:00 am
and is held in the County Commissioners' chambers, on the second floor
of the Old Courthouse at 200 East Main Street. Our goal is to receive a
strong statement from the Commission in this year's Human Rights Day
(Dec. 10) and Bill of Rights Day (Dec. 15) proclamation. We are asking
for support for privacy rights and family integrity for everyone, and
specifically that picture ID cards from other countries (such as the
Mexican Matricula Consular) will be accepted as valid identification at
traffic stops and at other times when identification is required by law
enforcement. This would mean that people would receive citations if
appropriate, but would _not_ be taken to jail and fingerprinted for
minor offenses, which makes them subject to immigration detention and
deportation.

We hope to have a large turnout at this meeting from the Latino and
other immigrant communities, as well as of immigrants' rights advocates
from all backgrounds and affiliations. Please come and support
protection for the rights of all people who live in Durham County!"

Is the free speech of NC newspapers guaranteed?

2009-11-11T03:34:00.001-05:00

Apparently not for free papers. According to a detective in the UNC or Chapel Hill Police, it is perfectly legal to maliciously remove papers. A few months ago the General Assembly made it illegal to vandalize portable toilets, but free newspapers, inherently at risk because they are free and often have small budgets, are fair game. Vandalizing a newspaper box or rack seems to be illegal, but it sounds like people can get away with that too, especially if there is a question of intent.

The Independent Weekly says they have not had problems at UNC, but Chancellor Thorp and the UNC Police have been made aware of the vandalism campaign against Triangle Free Press. Maybe it will even make the police briefs section of the Daily Tar Heel, though the DTH must know about the situation.

Anniversaries of two revolutions and one sham, November 7-9

2009-11-07T19:01:00.002-05:00

Today in 1917 the Bolsheviks drove out the Kerensky government, putting all power in the hands of the soviets and beginning the socialist stage of the Russian Revolution. That night the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets started, and the next evening it passed decrees on peace and land, and established the Council of People's Commissars, led by Lenin and other Bolsheviks, in coalition with the Left Socialist-Revoluntionaries after the Congress of Peasant Soviets. The Decree on Peace called for a three month armistice to negotiate an end to World War I, and called for the international working class to work for peace and the end of exploitation. The Decree on Land nationalized the land, without compensation, ended rent to landlords, and freely gave more than 400 million acres seized from the monarchy, aristocracy, capitalists, and religious institutions to the peasantry. Forests, waterways, and natural resources were also nationalized. The revolution quickly triumphed in Petrograd, but it took a few more days in Moscow and it took several years to defeat all of the White forces and the imperialist intervention, including US soldiers.

Thanks to the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and socialism, the USSR industrialized and continued to develop at a rabid pace and guarantee social welfare while the capitalist countries suffered through the Great Depression. Counterrevolutionary revisionists were exposed and Nazi collaborators were uncovered, so the USSR did not collapse when the Germans invaded, unlike the countries of Western Europe. The outcome of World War II in Europe was decided by the superior strength of the USSR, and fascist aggression gave way to revolution across Europe and Asia.

Unfortunately the fierce class struggle of the 30's did not defeat revisionism in the Soviet Union, and in fact revisionists seem to have gotten the upper hand, and when they could, persecuted people unjustly and undermined the government. After Stalin died, or was assassinated by the revisionists, in March 1953, they gained complete power and carried out a counter-revolution during the 50's and 60's, and persecuted the real communists. The USSR probably was a useful counterweight to US influence during the Cold War, but it was still led by counterrevolutionaries who staged a coup in the Greek Communist Party in exile, betrayed the Vietnamese Revolution, staged a counterrevolution in Afghanistan, and enabled the first Iraq War.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Albania in 1941, later renamed the Party of Labor of Albania. It formed through the merger of three regional communist groups and was led by Enver Hoxha (born October 16, 1908). Albania was occupied by fascist Italy in spring 1939, and the CPA began in struggle against Italy and later Germany, and their Albanian allies and revisionists, freeing the country and parts of Yugoslavia in late 1944. Then the Albanian communists had to fight British and American intervention, invasion by Greece, and prevent Albania from being swallowed by Yugoslavia and Tito's pro-capitalist Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Ironically, Albania was friendly to the UK and USA, but was rewarded with provocations and paramilitary attacks similar to the "Bay of Pigs" operation in Cuba until 1953. They thought Albania was the weak point of the Warsaw Pact, but Albania uncovered and defeated all of the attacks.

Under the PLA, the severely war damaged economy began to recover and the economy was industrialized. Foreign aid, especially from the USSR, was vital for development, but the revisionist Soviet government under Khrushchev gained power and tried to push its revisionism on Albania. Khrushchev succeeded in undermining most of the communist parties, and all of those with state power in Europe, except Albania, which openly criticized Soviet revisionism in 1960. Later Albania was a leader in the fight against Chinese revisionism. Despite Albania's small size, the Albanian communists upheld Marxism-Leninism and were a progressive, revolutionary force in the world. Revisionism still triumphed there in the late 80's, but the PLA has been rejuvenated, though there is still a lot of work to do, given the embarrassing popularity of GW Bush and Bill Clinton in Albania.

For about a month BBC radio (carried on the local NPR station every day) has been crowing about "Europe's Revolution" in 1989. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, and ironically Stalin was probably for reunifying Germany, but was opposed by the East Germans. To a revolutionary communist, those events don't have the power the BBC thinks, because the governments that were toppled were led by revisionists, presiding over capitalistic economies. In the USSR, the leadership decided it no longer needed to pretend to be socialist, while China has kept up the sham that it is a socialist country led by a communist party. The European "Socialist Bloc" was toppled from within or fatally weakened by revisionists and the influence of Gorbachev, and to call counterrevolution a collapse is to buy the lie that capitalism, and not just any capitalism, but "free market" neoliberal capitalism, is the natural order of the world. Ironically, in many of these countries there is wide nostalgia for the past (of course decried as a result of lack of education and desire for faded glory by the UK's radio propaganda). Capitalism, bourgeois democracy, and following advice from Western imperialists has brought corruption, unemployment, poverty, and the other ills of capitalism. Thanks to Yeltsin, Russia is run by imperialist autocrats and profiteers and has declining life expectancy and is losing population, while racism is increasing.

The end of the Cold War has not frozen history, and class conflict is spontaneous and inevitable under capitalism, and won't end because the capitalist media says it has. Contrast the change in the revolutionary USSR and Albania with the fraud of Obama. The Bolsheviks got Russia out of WWI, while Obama continues all of Bush's occupations and sanctions and is widening the war in Pakistan, may attack Iran, and continues the attacks on Palestine, Cuba, and other countries, as well as Bush secrecy and cover for torture. We face an economic crisis, and Obama helps the companies that caused it to get richer, while unemployment rises and credit dries up. The Democrats' idea of health insurance reform is to help the private insurers get more customers, and their idea of fighting climate change is making carbon pollution another way to get rich without doing much about greenhouse gas emissions. The US desperately needs to find its communist party and socialist revolution, while the supposedly socialist countries that suffer under revisionism need to renew their revolutions, watering the tree of liberty with blood if necessary, not follow their Gorbachevs and Yeltsins to capitalist poverty, autocracy or virtually meaningless elections (like ours in the USA), and subservience to foreign and domestic imperialism.

What's up with the AML website? II

2009-11-04T04:11:00.001-05:00

Alliance Marxist-Leninist's old website (www.allianceml.com) is going to be replaced. There was an inadvertent lapse in payment and so a company had the opportunity to take the domain name. The content was not lost, but a new website will have to be created for the articles to be available to the public. If you have web design and HTML skills and want to help set up the site and fix the links, let me know.

In other news, a group in the Netherlands is going to translate some AML, Communist League, Compass, and International Struggle Marxist-Leninist articles for a Dutch journal.

City elections tomorrow

2009-11-02T14:37:00.002-05:00

Three city council seats and the mayor's office are being contested tomorrow. I think I will vote for the incumbents (Mayor Bill Bell and City Council members Cora Cole-McFadden, Howard Clement, and Mike Woodard. I can't think of anything they have done since the last election that would make it impossible to vote for them and the challengers do not seem to offer better. I will look up more about the mayoral race before voting, but I haven't heard much about the challenger, or about the person running for Woodard's seat.

I won't vote for candidates who support the way the Jordan Lake boundaries have been handled, and I have a lot of doubts about the plan for high-density 751 South. Now it appears that the Planning Department mishandled or sabotaged the landowner petition that would have required a vote 4-1 to change the map, which would have prevented the change from being made (and note that the area could have been developed without any change, just at a lower density). The County Commissioners did what the developer wanted, yet we are still being sued, and now there could be a Haw River Assembly lawsuit too, because the government is not going to revisit the October 12th vote, even if it is found to have ignored its own Unified Development Ordinance rules on petitions. We definitely need more jobs an economic growth in Durham, but I don't believe the developer's economic figures and if developments are approved based on predicted employment growth, no development will ever be turned down, because a capitalist economy is unlikely to ever provide 100% employment here. I think Durham is already too accomodating to developers and companies seeking incentives (a comprehensive survey of the Durham portion of Jordan Lake costing less than $100,000 is supposedly too expensive, yet millions are being given to one company after votes in October). Also, there is already a traffic problem because of development in Durham and Cary, and building so much at the south end of the County will only make traffic worse on 751 and nearby roads. These issues will be discussed by the City Council before 751 South can be built, so this is not just an issue for the County Commissioners. I don't know how the incumbents will vote, but they have not publicly supported what the County Commissioners are doing.

I have voted for Libertarians before, but I am opposed to economic libertarianism and don't see a reason to get rid of Clement. I generally agree with Woodard's votes and he usually replies to constitutent emails, unlike some members of the Council.

You can see the current City Council in action tonight and on the 16th at 7pm. The County Commissioners have regular 7pm meetings on the 9th and 23rd.

Final Jordan Lake vote is Monday night

2009-10-11T13:25:00.002-05:00

The decisive public hearing and County Commissioner vote on changing the map of Jordan Lake based on private surveys is Monday, the 12th, after 7pm at 200 East Main Street (see www.co.durham.nc.us/departments/bocc/Agendas/Current_Meeting_Agen.html). It should be a dramatic meeting.

Below is an article about the hearing on April 13th, which was about how to deal with the issue. Page and Bowser wanted to move the boundary on the spot, as an administrative change, but Howerton voted with Reckhow and Heron to go through the usual process, which seems to have been the only legal option for the County government. Since April 13th many things have happened (a counter-survey, South Durham Development is sueing the County, the Haw River Assembly forced the County to let them join the lawsuit, and the County Attorney was fired). A few days ago the Haw River Assembly presented a landowner petition that would require a majority of four commissioners to approve the change. Then the Planning Department said there are not enough petitioneers. The Herald-Sun speculated that this is because the rezoning hearing involves not just landowners near New Hope Creek, but also part of RTP (around the EPA and NIEHS campuses), in the Northeast Creek basin.

The battle over where Jordan Lake ends along New Hope Creek

At the Durham Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting April 13^th a far-reaching dispute over where Jordan Lake ends along New Hope Creek came to a head. The edge of the Lake's normal pool, at 216 above sea level, is at issue, because Durham limits impervious surfaces and utility connections within the critical watershed, one mile from the shore, and this effects a proposed 164 acre development. The plan includes 384 houses, 916 apartments, 600,000 square feet of stores and offices, two schools, a fire station, a police station, and a YMCA off 751 near Fayetteville Road. Cree CEO and developer of nearby Colvard Farms, Neal Hunter, originally proposed 751 Assemblage. He is now a minority partner with the Southern Durham Development Company and their plan was renamed 751 South.

Hunter asked then Planning Director Frank Duke, now planning director in Norfolk, Virginia, to move the critical and protected watershed boundaries west based on a 2005 survey by licensed surveyors Hunter hired. Duke and the Planning Department approved the change January 6, 2006, putting the property over one mile from the Lake. One argument is over whether this was an administrative "correction" or a change, which Duke could not do unilaterally under Durham's Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), which went into effect five days before his action. A correction is only allowed for a line on one property or when half-acre parcels are involved. Duke's decision impacts around 320 Durham properties. County Attorney Chuck Kitchen [since fired, possibly because of this advice] said the change is illegal, because Duke did not go through the BOCC or the State's Environmental Management Commission (EMC). In August the Division of Water Quality (DWQ) found that the County did not have the authority to change the map without approval from Federal and State regulators. Duke said he was following procedure, and that he was advised by Keith Luck, at the time the planning supervisor and now assistant planning director.

November 10th the County Commissioners voted 3-2 in closed session to accept the survey and a second Hunter commissioned in 2008 [at the time Cheek was a commisioner and now works for the developer's law firm]. Then Planning Director Steve Medlin changed the map back, incurring the wrath of then BOCC Vice Chair Michael Page. Medlin said he had to change the maps to reflect the current boundaries. In December the Chatham County BOCC passed a resolution questioning the use of a private survey and offering to help pay the $95,000 cost of a new survey.

This boundary change had to be vetted through the DWQ, which approved the change February 4^th, despite opposition from the Chatham BOCC and conservationists. Earlier, on November 26^th, Hunter wrote to DWQ saying review should not be necessary, because NC only requires the critical watershed to be half a mile from the shore and none of the State mandated boundaries had changed, and that Federal review was unnecessary. Then there was argument over whether the change had to go through the volunteer Durham Planning Commission. Earlier, in January 2008, ownership changed when Southern Durham Development, connected to the Boylan Companies in Raleigh, bought the land for about $18 million. April 13^th Company representatives said that they had thought it was no longer in the critical watershed.

In March Durham Planning Commission Chair George Brine, Haw Riverkeeper Elaine Chiosso, and south Durham activist Melissa Rooney asked the EMC to rule on the change. That decision will probably be made May 1st [the EMC declined to get involved].

In the meantime public debate was increasing. Environmentalists, the Haw River Assembly, Northeast Creek Stream Watch, and the Durham People's Alliance lobbied against using the surveys. At a BOCC working meeting March 23^rd members of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People held signs opposing holding a public hearing, in favor of promised new jobs. The developer's lawyers argued that a public hearing was not necessary, but this position did not prevail and it was scheduled for April 13th. The Duke and Old West Durham neighborhoods, Durham's Inter-Neighborhood Council, the Durham People's Alliance PA), and Democratic precincts approved a resolution against using the surveys. There was also lobbying by State groups like the Southern Environmental Law Council (SELC). Friends of Durham supported the private surveys, casting calls for a new survey as a waste of money and an unfair attack on Hunter by the PA. Their letter to the BOCC said the survey mirrored Federal topographic maps and that Durham protected water quality more than Chatham. The Durham Chamber of Commerce and the Triangle Business Journal also supported the survey.

County Attorney Kitchen asked UNC School of Government professor David Owens to review the case. Owens argued that if there was "an amendment to the boundaries of a zoning district" or if a map was used, there had to be a public hearing. The developer's attorneys argued that Owens did not settle the question. The Commissioners asked planners in Buncombe, Vance, Mecklenberg, Cumberland, and New Hanover counties for advice, but only Buncombe replied by the April 13^th hearing.

The almost three-hour hearing was very full, with more than 100 people, of which 45 commented. The first comments were against the private survey. A representative of the Trinity Park Neighborhood Association in downtown Durham said his organization cared about this issue and was opposed. SELC attorney Kay Bond, the Haw River Assembly's Elaine Chiosso and others criticized the survey methodology. A silver-haired man forcefully spoke for the development, saying that he drove for hours to represent his daughter, who was undergoing surgery for cancer. He said progress had allowed him to get to Durham. Jack Steer, of the conservative Durham Citizens Council, said it was too late to reverse course. A resident of nearby Chancellor's Ridge said that hairs were being split, education was a better use of taxes, and that development would bring improvements. Melissa Rooney showed photos of many nearby commercial sites that are vacant, indicating that there is a glut. Rooney and several others wore Clean Water/Clean Government t-shirts, with a picture of fox in a henhouse. There were also clean water stickers. Some private survey opponents held signs, while supporters held Jobs for Durham signs.

Southern Durham Development officials and their lawyers spoke. Among other things, they mentioned the estimated employment and tax revenue generated, and said the development would be a high quality, national example of New Urbanism and environmentally benign. Neal Hunter said "The commissioners should put an end to this continuously moving target, and acknowledge the property rights that I have. You have no right to change the rules on taxpayers and citizens. As landowners, how can we rely on anything in the future?" The surveyors defended their qualifications and results.

Chatham County Commissioner Sally Kost was the first speaker questioned by a Commissioner, when Bowser pointedly asked whether Chatham sets the critical watershed at half a mile or one mile from the Lake. Kost then asked whether Durham mandates buffers along ephemeral streams, which it does not, while Chatham does. Lawyer Tom Miller forcefully told the Commissioners that the approval process had gone out the window and that they had to start over or would be acting illegally. Deborah Giles accused developers of frequently using promises of jobs to manipulate the public. John Kent, of New Hope Audubon, was the final speaker. He mentioned the group's monthly water testing along New Hope Creek and the over 2000 valid signatures he had presented, from an online petition started by Rooney before the DWQ decision.

Another hour of deliberations followed. Four commissioners had already staked out positions. Current Vice Chair Ellen Reckhow and Becky Heron continued to oppose using Hunter's surveys. Chair Michael Page voted for the surveys in November and newly elected Joe Bowser opposed even having the hearing. Brenda Howerton, previously a Soil & Water District Supervisor, was also newly elected, and gave no sign of her position. In response to a question from the commissioners, Medlin said he could not say if the development would reduce water quality. Reckhow said "we would be terribly remiss to not follow the advice of our County Attorney and our County Manager." At one point, Bowser asked why Reckhow and the County Manager had not stopped this problem sooner. He also said "I'm not going to do anything to destroy the water quality in Jordan Lake." Reckhow later said "We took an oath of office that we would uphold the laws of this state and the laws of this community. Now we're sitting here and we're ready to throw them out the window, and I'm not going to be a part of it." Heron said the developers were "speculators" who knowingly took a risk in buying the land.

Bowser read a motion that the surveys be accepted, as a correction. Page seconded. Predictably, the Board split. Howerton abstained in order to ask a question and state that, while Durham has too much unemployment, "Where I stand on this is that we need to follow procedure." Reckhow's alternative motion, to follow the process, was seconded by Heron, and was carried through with Howerton's vote. The crowd was getting restless and someone in the back yelled no during the vote. People in the audience on each side rallied people to clap loudly at points, despite Page's earlier admonitions.

After the vote, Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People's Chair, Lavonia Allison said "I told ya'll [Howerton] can't be trusted." Howerton replied "You are not up here, Dr. Allison, I am." Allison said "You might not be for long" and Howerton retorted, "Well, I've got four years." Bowser alleged that the forces that had opposed Southpoint Mall were behind this, and would destroy the tax base. Page said "I talked to some homebuilders in Durham recently, and what I gathered is that we are not the most friendly folk towards development. I hope that we would change our attitude, and our perception, that when people are trying to grow our community, and grow our tax base, that we are a lot more receptive." There was even arguments over the Treyburn Industrial Park and the prospect of a Wal Mart next to Southpoint. Reckhow was going to suggest a motion, but decided to hold off and Page closed the meeting.

There will be a landowner meeting May 1^st and the boundary change could come before the Planning Commission in June. The developers have requested the comments sent to the BOCC on this issue.

Video of the meeting is available on Durham County's website.

City Council Primary Tuesday

2009-10-05T13:18:00.001-05:00

The field of candidates will be narrowed in the election tomorrow and the final vote will be in November. Cora Cole-McFadden and Howard Clement are facing several challengers for their seats. I'm leaning toward voting for the incumbents, unless any of the challengers are willing to outflank them on the left. One thing to pay attention to is a candidate's position on the Jordan Lake issue, which is currently only a County issue, but could involve the City Council soon. The Herald-Sun asked each of the candidates about this two or three weeks ago.

The current City Council can be witnessed in action tonight at their regular meeting (see www.durhamnc.gov/agendas) and next Monday is the pivotal County Commission vote on the Jordan Lake boundary, and it sounds like Brenda Howerton plans to vote with Page and Bowser to accept Hunter's survey. After all, she sided with them on firing the County Attorney, after he said the County had to go through proper procedures before it could move the boundary, resulting in a dubious lawsuit by 751 South's law firm, which employs former Commissioner Lewis Cheek. As a result 751 South will go ahead with higher density development, though there will still be opportunities to contest the site plan and ask that streams have wooded buffers, limit mass grading, etc.

US Government Complicity in the 9/11 Attacks, Part 4

2009-09-30T16:38:00.001-05:00

This is the fourth and last part of the 2006 article from Alliance!, and some of the references are to the 2007 article I posted before the anniversary of 9/11.

4. Operation Northwoods and other US government actions against Americans

It isn't only Nazi Germany (setting the Reichstag fire, engineered to spook the Germans into authorizing laws enabling their dictatorship) that was capable of terrorism and lies to justify otherwise unpopular actions – many governments have done so and continue to do so. Prior to 9/11 there were other convenient pretexts for US wars. The destruction of the USS Maine in Havana was the pretext for the Spanish-American War, which marked the first major effort by the US to acquire overseas colonies (such as Puerto Rico and the Philippines). Historians see the explosion as being either a convenient accident or deliberate provocation by the government. The sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania in 1915 by a German U-boat (as a trigger for US entry into WWI) was engineered by disguising the ship as a military vessel and routing it, without escort, at a slow speed, where it would probably be targeted by the Germans. Some historians believe the Roosevelt Administration allowed the Pearl Harbor attack, following severe economic sanctions on Japan and provocations (this argument is summarized in WOF and at www.allianceml.com/AllianceIssues/Alliance-44-wtc-htm). Conveniently, the vital aircraft carriers usually stationed at Pearl Harbor left before the attack, and the damage to the Pacific Fleet was quickly repaired. In 1964 President Johnson lied about attacks by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam against US Navy vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin to justify intensifying the Vietnam War (there were no torpedoes, possibly only phosphorescent invertebrates). Under both Clinton and G.W. Bush, the USAF attempted to provoke responses from Iraqi defenses to justify aggression.

In March 1962 the five Joint Chiefs of Staff presented a plan to President Kennedy that proposed terrorist acts in DC, Florida, Cuba, and elsewhere, to justify attacking Cuba, for "the replacement of the Castro regime with one more devoted to the interests of the Cuban people and more acceptable to the US, in such a manner to avoid any appearance of US intervention." Among the ideas were blowing up an American ship in Guantánamo, launching a mortar attack on that base, exploding "plastic bombs" in the US, sinking an actual or fake Cuban exile ship, attacking Cuban exiles in the US non-fatally, staging an attack by a fake Cuban air force fighter on civilian aircraft or ships, faking the shooting down of a USAF fighter by Cuba, shooting down a fake airliner, attacking other Caribbean countries, and blaming Cuba if John Glenn's space launch failed. Apparently President Eisenhower initiated the planning, and Kennedy decided not to follow one of the plans. It was classified by the Assassination Records Review Board, but later released to the non-profit National Security Archive. The entire memo is reproduced in Rubicon.

9/11 as an "opportunity"

Readers of Alliance!, and even readers of bourgeois papers alone, are probably aware of numerous ways the leaders of the US benefited from 9/11. Many even called it an opportunity. Bush called it "a great opportunity," Rumsfeld said it offered "the kind of opportunities that World War II offered, to refashion the world," Rice told the National Security Council to "think about 'how do you capitalize on these opportunities' to fundamentally change…the shape of the world," and the Administration's National Security Strategy said "The events of September 11, 2001 opened vast, new opportunities" (all quoted in O&C).

Fortune favors the prepared mind. The neoconservative Project for a New American Century (www.newamericancentury.org), the PNAC, published Rebuilding America's Defenses in the fall of 2000, calling for massive military spending if the "American peace is to be maintained, and expanded," since it "must have a secure foundation on unquestioned U.S. military preeminence." The authors saw this as a hard sell "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor." PNAC members include Richard Armitage, John Bolton, Cheney, Zalmay Khalizad, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, and James Woosley. Libby and Wolfowitz were among the producers of the quoted report. On 9/11 Bush is said to have written in his diary that "The Pearl Harbor of the 21^st century took place today" and Kissinger wrote an online article calling for "a systematic response, that, one hopes, will end the way the attack on Pearl Harbor ended – with the destruction of the system that is responsible for it" (quoted in O&C).

In 1997 Zbigniew Brzezinski published The Grand Chessboard: America's Primacy and Its Geostategic Imperatives, calling for control over Central Asia as a way in to dominate Eurasia and limit Russia and China. He said "as America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it might find it difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat." Brzezinski was Carter's National Security Advisor, and admits that that Administration aided the violent opposition to the progressive, leftist government of Afghanistan, intending to provoke a Soviet intervention. He even said this policy, which resulted in the shattering of Afghanistan and the rise of al Qaida, and the disintegration of the pro-capitalist USSR, "was an excellent idea. The effect was to draw the Russians into the Afghan trap" (to Agence France Presse (AFP), quoted in WOF). After the Carter years, Brzezinski was an intelligence advisor to Reagan and H.W. Bush (and co-chair of the National Security Advisory Task Force in 1988). He was on the board of the CFR and helped found the Trilateral Commission (Carter is a member of both), and now lectures on US foreign policy at John Hopkins University. Until 1998 Brzezinski was a consultant to BP-Amoco, one of three main developers of Central Asian oil and gas, which is the reason Afghanistan is important to US economic interests, as a pipeline route avoiding Iran and Russia.

September 11^th provided a door for many of the capitalist elites' desired, but unpopular policies. As Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed points out, the Administration was in a deepening economic and political "crisis" (WOF) prior to 9/11. After the attacks (and the anthrax letters), the Administration was able to silence Congress and the media for years by appealing to 9/11 on issues from war to tax cuts. The Administration was able to launch two wars and measures cutting civil liberties, such as the Patriot Act.

David Ray Griffin points to the Administration's interest in "full spectrum dominance" (military superiority on land, sea, air, and in space), "missile defense," and enlarging the US Space Command. The Space Command's Vision for 2020 report says the Command's mission is "dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect US interests and investment," since "globalization of the world economy will continue with a widening between 'haves' and 'have-nots,'" echoing the rhetoric which started the Cold War. The goal is developing the capability "to deny others the use of space." This is aimed against serious challengers to US power, such as China and the European Union, and more recently the military said EU global positioning satellites were potential targets if US enemies used them. Griffin points out that key American actors in the 9/11 attacks are associated with the Space Command. Rumsfeld called for the militarization of space, but wrote that the cost and bureaucratic changes required might only be tolerated after "a disabling attack against the country and its people – a 'Space Pearl Harbor'" (quoted in O&C). The night of 9/11 he even asked Senator Carl Levin, then chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, regarding missile defense and "the large increase in defense spending," "Does this sort of thing convince you that an emergency exists in this country to increase defense spending, to dip into Social Security, if necessary, to pay for defense spending - increase defense spending?" General Richard Myers is a former leader of the Space Command and was Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 9/11. General Ralph E. Eberhart, a major player discussed in the future article about how the attacks were carried out, is in charge of the Command and NORAD. According to the 9/11 Commission, between fiscal years 2001 and 2004, the military budget increased by 50%, from $345 billion to about $547 billion dollars, an unprecedented rate since the Korean War.

Michael C. Ruppert points out the impending global peak in oil production, threatening the world economy and US hegemony, since oil powers society, the financial system, and is vital to agriculture and industry. He shows that the Administration knows this is coming and Ruppert argues that the government is acting to secure oil supplies for the USA. Ruppert and others also point out that illegal drugs help fuel the financial system, and opium poppy production has been restored in Afghanistan, after being sharply limited by the Taliban.

There were also opportunities for abundant corporate welfare in military and homeland security contracts and even more wealth for members of the Administration. Military purchases from the five largest contractors rose from $43.5 billion in 2001 to $66.4 billion dollars by 2003 (Waking Up From Our Nightmare, by Don Paul and Jim Hoffman). Bush I profits from Bush II's wars through the Carlyle Group, which owns military contracting corporations. Cheney was CEO and chairman of Halliburton, and still receives over $160,000 dollars a year from the corporation, which is involved in US efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere (and accused of fraud and abuse of its employees). In the five years before Cheney took office, Halliburton profited $1.2 billion dollars from government contracts, and $2.3 billion in five years of the Bush Administration. Without 9/11, Bush would have had trouble invading Iraq, where the occupation could privatize Iraqi industry and open it to foreign ownership, impose flat taxation, and force Iraqi farmers to buy seed from multinational corporations.

The Afghanistan War

There is evidence that an attack on Afghanistan was planned to occur in October 2001, scheduled before the 9/11 attacks were carried out. US hostility to the Taliban seems to have come more from the Taliban's obstruction of US business interests than because of its human rights record. During the 90's the CentGas Consortium, led by Unocal, was competing with the Argentinean Bridas Corporation to build a pipeline from the gas fields around the Caspian Sea, through Afghanistan, to the Indian Ocean. A problem was the civil war in Afghanistan, which by the 90's was mainly an ethnic civil war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. Some factions in the US might have wanted a peaceful settlement, or the victory of the Northern Alliance, but US policy agreed with Unocal's policy. Unocal allegedly favored the Taliban, for example telling the media that the pipeline was closer to realization in September 1996, after the Taliban took the capital, Kabul. Within hours the US said it would form diplomatic relations with the Taliban government. According to Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher, the US supported the Taliban by allowing Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to send most US Afghan aid to "the most anti-western non-democratic elements of the mujahideen," would not stop the Taliban from taking control of the Afghan Embassy in Washington (against the wishes of the Afghan UN delegation), hurt efforts to aid the Hazara people, under siege by the Taliban, and in spring 1998 the Clinton Administration advised the Northern Alliance to accept a ceasefire, which Rohrabacher said aided the Taliban most. In July 1998 the Taliban took Mazar-i-Sharif, giving them control of the proposed pipeline route, and CentGas was "ready to proceed" with construction. Unocal left the Consortium after the east African embassy bombings and the resulting US missile strikes in Afghanistan and the Clinton Administration switched to favoring a pipeline through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey. In late 2000 the US, Russia, and India began discussions of what should replace the Taliban (according to the Washington Post, December 19, 2000). There were reports over the next months that India and Iran would support a US and Russian attack on Afghanistan.

When Bush came to power, his administration approached the Taliban a final time. $43 million dollars in unaccountable aid in food and housing was given to the Taliban, making the total funding $124 million dollars. This is the period when a US delegation infamously told Taliban representatives "either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs" (WOF). The imperialist powers wanted an Afghan national unity government. Included in the delegation was at least one of the same officials who had advised the Northern Alliance to accept a ceasefire in 1998.

According to The Guardian (September 26, 2001), based in London, by early 2001 the Bush Administration was preparing to attack Afghanistan. Military cooperation with the Central Asian republics bordering Afghanistan was increased, US special forces were training, and Britain was hosting UN meetings involving British, Pakistani, and anti-Taliban representatives. In time for 9/11 two US Navy taskforces arrived in the Persian Gulf, the UK's "largest armada since the Falklands War" was on its way to Oman, later joined by 23,000 soldiers, another 23,000 US soldiers and 17,000 from NATO were on exercises in Egypt, and 12,000 NATO troops were in Turkey. Much of this had been planned up to four years in advance (cited in WOF). September 9, 2001, two alleged al Qaida members conveniently assassinated Ahmed Massoud Shah the popular leader of the Northern Alliance, and the likely leader of any post-Taliban government. Naiz Naik, a former Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs told the BBC that in mid-July US officials told him that, if the Taliban did not extradite Osama bin Laden, there would be war against the Taliban and al Qaida by the middle of October, and it actually began on October 7th. Naik thought it would not be stopped, even if bin Laden had been held, and, as the next installment of this article will show, the US rejected past offers of extradition. October 10, 2001 Unocal told Pakistan that the pipeline project was back on. It should be noted that large US bases today mark the proposed pipeline route and Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai and former US special envoy to post-Taliban Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad (a member of the PNAC) both worked for Unocal.

Gunning for Iraq

It is now well-known (or, at least, it should be) that the Bush Administration, most of whom were members of PNAC, which spent the late 90's calling for war on Iraq and other Arab countries, wished to replay the Iraq War of 1991 and overthrow President Saddam Hussein. The 9/11 Commission is willing to admit that Rumsfeld asked Myers to research Iraqi involvement in 9/11 and that Rumsfeld started the first post-attacks meeting at Camp David with a focus on Iraq. Even if there were only 10% certainty that Iraq was involved, Wolfowitz was for attacking Iraq. Bush tasked Richard Clarke with researching Iraqi complicity. The Commission omits that Rumsfeld's notes from 9/11, as reported by CBS (September 4, 2002), indicated that he wanted to use 9/11 as a pretext for aggression against Iraq. 9/11 wasn't enough to justify attacking Iraq (though many people have still been 'misled' into thinking Iraq was complicit), so the Administration used further half-truths and lies to launch the war in March 2003.

There will be another article, covering Pakistani and Saudi complicity, US shielding of Osama bin Laden, and physical evidence against the official story of the attacks, in a future issue of Alliance!.

Good Web sites to start with in learning more about 9/11 revisionist arguments are www.911truth.org, home of the 9/11 Truth Movement, www.historycommons.org, hosting the Complete 9/11 Timeline, www.fromthewilderness.com, www.911citizenswatch.org, and www.globalresearch.ca. The Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Independent Commission is online at www.911independentcommission.org.

An Alliance article skeptical of the official story and describing the evidence for Pearl Harbor complicity and US terrorism is online at www.allianceml.com/AllianceIssues/Alliance-44-wtc-htm.

Government Complicity in the 9/11 Attacks, Part 3

2009-09-23T16:50:00.000-05:00

Official American aid to the plotters

Immigration rules were broken and watch lists ignored

Reportedly, all of the Saudi hijackers received their visas to come to the USA at the US consulate in Jeddah. The consulate previously funneled "terrorists" to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets and the progressive Afghan government, and still is a "pipeline," according to Michael Springmann, head of the consulate's Visa Bureau from '87 to '89, and is now a lawyer in DC (all quotes cited in WOF). He told Newsnight on the BBC that "In Saudi Arabia I was repeatedly ordered by high level State Dept officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants. These were, essentially, people who had no ties either to Saudi Arabia or to their own country." Springmann pointed out in a CBC Radio One interview that reportedly all of the Saudi hijackers received their visas to enter the US from the Jeddah consulate. He also noted that a conspirator in the February 1993 WTC bombing, Sheikh Abdurrahman, received "his visa from a CIA case officer in Sudan." Springmann even went so far as to say the government must have been complicity in 9/11, "either through omission or through failure to act."

Alleged plot leader Atta was tracked as a possible terrorist by the FBI in 2000. In January 10, 2001 he was allowed back into the USA on a tourist visa, although he had already violated his visa, and he even told immigration officials in January that he was taking pilot classes, though he had the wrong visa for this. He entered the US three times in 2001, on an expired visa from 2000. The NYT reported that Israel warned the US that Atta plotted terrorism, prior to the issuance of the tourist visa.

Al Mihdhar and al Hazmi, mentioned above, were allowed to travel without any problems from their known connections to al Qaida terrorism. After meeting in Malaysia with Atta and KSM, something Malaysian security found the CIA surprisingly uninterested in (though the Commission says the opposite), the pair were allowed without problems back into the USA. By then they were listed as possible terrorists. They were visited in San Diego by up to five of the alleged hijackers and later lived with an FBI informant. They were on an FBI watch list and given a high priority by the CIA, but they were not stopped. They were not undercover, and used their own social security numbers, credit cards, etc., and were in the local phone book.

Sabotage by the FBI leadership

The FBI leadership seemingly intended to sabotage several investigations that connected to the hijacking plot. In Phoenix, FBI agent Ken Williams, began investigating a group of Middle Eastern men at a pilot school, starting in 2000. In early 2001 he was moved to an arson case. In early July, after he had been reassigned to the flight school investigation, he wrote the now famous Phoenix Memo. Williams suggested that the FBI begin monitoring suspicious activities at all flight schools, suspecting that al Qaida might be preparing something. The leadership said there was a lack of resources for this, yet in 1995 there was a broad investigation following warnings that al Qaida might want to use passenger planes to attack the CIA's headquarters. In 1994 a retiring Phoenix agent also complained about headquarters' relations with local investigations of terrorism.

The Phoenix Memo was sent to Supervisory Special Agent Dave Frasca, then head of the FBI's Radical Fundamentalist Unit (RFU) and possibly controlling the connected bin Laden unit as well. Frasca did not circulate the Memo, which hurt the Moussaoui investigation. The official story is that Frasca was not aware of the Memo before the 11^th. Ruppert thinks Frasca is a CIA covert operative in the FBI, considering Frasca's role in hindering several investigations related to 9/11. The Memo became known to the public in May 2002, at which point FBI Director Mueller classified it, and tried to prevent even the Senate 9/11 panel from reading it. Frasca held his position from 1999 to 2002, when he was promoted.

In Minneapolis the FBI was warned by a flight school that a student, French and Algerian citizen Zacarias Moussaoui, might be involved in terrorism. He was arrested on immigration charges after August 15^th. The local FBI wanted a FISA warrant to search Moussaoui's laptop and other affects. The FISA court almost never turns down a warrant request. Minneapolis' request was sent to FBI headquarters, where it was stopped by the FBI Deputy General Counsel. It was judged to be too weak a case after RFU agent Marion "Spike" Bowman removed French security information linking Moussaoui to Chechens Islamists linked to al Qaida. The Phoenix Memo would have been helpful in supporting the local agents' request, but it had not been circulated. Even the 9/11 Commission admits that further investigation of Moussaoui might have prevented the attacks. In May 2002 Minneapolis Special Agent Colleen Rowley released a letter sharply criticizing the FBI leadership and came close to accusing headquarters of assisting al Qaida. Rowley simultaneously sent her letter to Congress, so Mueller was not able to keep the letter classified. Mueller later admitted that an agent "at a high-level meeting" wondered if Moussaoui planned to fly a hijacked airplane into the WTC (from the New York Post). The FBI later gave Bowman an award for "exceptional performance" (O&C).

Also in 2002, an FBI translator, Sibel Edmonds, revealed that the FBI was shielding a possible spy and apparently threatened and then fired Edmonds because of her complaints. First there were issues of classified material being removed from the building and supervisors telling her to work slowly so the office could request more funds. It became very serious when Edmonds witnessed a Turkish-American co-worker, Melek Dickerson, allegedly protecting a Turkish group under investigation, of which Dickerson herself was a member. Dickerson is married to a US Air Force (USAF) major who Edmonds contends was also involved with the Turkish organization. Dickerson became the translator for material from the group, tried to get Edmonds to join, and threatened her. Edmonds found that Dickerson was deleting, not translating, or defining as unimportant information regarding terrorism and spying. Supervisor Mike Feghali aided in hiding information from an agent who requested that a document be re-translated. In another case, an FBI informant previously in Iranian intelligence, monitoring Afghanistan, warned in the spring of 2001 that an aerial attack was being planned in months, but Special Agent in Charge of Counterterrorism Thomas Fields said agents were not to reveal the intelligence and Mueller did not act on the warning. Reportedly Mueller was surprised that the Commission did not question him on this lead. Dickerson and others under investigation hurriedly left the US in 2002 and there was no criminal investigation. Feghali was promoted to be in charge of the Arabic translation groups. Edmonds sued the FBI over a Freedom of Information Act denied and the Justice Department for wrongful firing. Ashcroft requested a gag order, based on damage to state secrets, to limit what Edmonds could reveal, on Mueller's request. Bush appointee Judge Reggie Walton dismissed Edmonds lawsuit challenging the gag order, after delaying the hearing four times. Allegedly Edmonds was often tailed by government agents.

In 1998 in Chicago, agent Robert Wright Jr. began investigating a wealthy Saudi immigrant suspected of giving up to $3 billion dollars to al Qaida. Wright thought his case was uncovering more, and it was the only investigation to have seized assets (Rubicon), yet it was ended in January 2001. In June he wrote a memo accusing the FBI leadership of "merely gathering intelligence so they would know who to arrest when a terrorist attack occurred" (UPI, May 30, 2002). After Wright went public, with David Schippers representing him, the FBI harassed Wright and refused to allow him to discuss the contents of his unpublished memoir. At the same time Mueller said he welcomed criticisms. The Chicago Board Options Exchange was the source of a lot of the insider trading regarding 9/11.

Earlier, in March 2000, there was another possible case of the FBI shielding al Qaida. Emails captured with the Carnivore system regarding an al Qaida related case were deleted by the bin Laden unit and the International Terrorism Operations Center. Allegedly a technician deleted the files because emails from innocent third parties had been collected. This destruction of evidence would be a very serious crime, since the emails were collected under a FISA warrant, and Michael Ruppert speculates that it is ridiculous to think that the wanted emails and those accidentally intercepted would have been kept together.

Despite the detention and harassment of thousands Arab and Muslim Americans by the government after 9/11, there has seemingly been less than a full attempt to identify the culprits. A future article will show how many Saudis believed to have connections to al Qaida were allowed to leave the country within days after 9/11, with little screening. October 10^th the FBI ended its 9/11 investigations, allegedly "the most exhaustive in its history," and one official said "we're not trying to solve a crime now" (quoted in WOT).

The hijackers trained at government facilities

Not only were the alleged hijackers being tracked by many intelligence agencies, there is also evidence that some of them were actually trained by the US military. According to Knight-Ridder, Atta trained at the International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montogomery, Alabama, Abdulaziz al Omari trained at the Aerospace Medical School at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and Saeed al Ghamdi trained at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. Three hijackers trained at the Pensacola Naval Station in Florida, according to Newsweek.

There might also be a government connection to one of the two private pilot schools in Venice, Florida where most of the hijackers began study. At 2am on 9/12 the FBI was searching these two schools. Rudi Dekkers bought the Huffman Aviation school at about the time the alleged hijackers moved to Venice. A witness at the airport said "I've always had my suspicions about the way he breezed into town out of nowhere. Just too many odd little things. For example, he has absolutely no aviation background as far as anyone can tell. And he evidently has no use for, or knowledge of, FAA rules and regs" (WOT). Allegedly, Huffman was given a free hand by the Drug Enforcement Agency and the local Venice police were told to ignore the company. Dekkers is from the Netherlands, where he was indicted for financial crimes. By 9/14, the FBI had cleared Dekkers of suspicion, despite his testimony in contradiction with that of officials at other involved flight schools.

There is evidence that Huffman Aviation is connected to the CIA or other agencies. Huffman provides a hangar for Britannia Aviation, seemingly a front company. Britannia was contracted to operate a large maintenance operation at Virginia's Lynchburg Regional Airport, over a successful local company. It was later revealed that Britannia "is a company with virtually no assets [the company's worth was $750 dollars], employees, or corporate history" and it "did not even possess the necessary FAA license" for the maintenance it contracted to do (WOF).

Huffman also has a long standing relationship with Caribe Air, providing maintenance. Caribe Air operates around the Caribbean and is allegedly a CIA front (for more about CIA aviation front companies, see the article on US torture flights in the fall 2006 issue of Alliance!). Caribe's planes in Mena, Arkansas were seized by the government over drug trafficking, using up to 20 planes to move billions of dollars in drugs, at one point.

Uncertainty about the identity of the hijackers

It is even as yet unproven if the hijackers were the people the government has named. Six or more of the people named are alive and well in several Arab countries. Waleed al Shehri, allegedly on American Flight 11, is a Royal Air Maroc pilot in Casablanca, Morocco. Ahmed al Nami was an administrative supervisor for Saudi Arabian Airlines at the time, not on United Airlines Flight 93. Saeed al Ghamdi, also named as a hijacker on UA 93, was in Tunis for 10 months training to fly the Airbus. According to the Saudi Embassy in DC, Salem al Hazmi (allegedly on Flight 77) is an engineer at a petrochemical facility in Yanbou, and Mohand al Shehri and Abdulaziz al Omari are also reportedly falsely accused. The Commission did not answer these reports. Some of the identifications are based on surprising coincidences, such as the finding of Satam al Suqami's passport in Manhattan, supposedly having fallen from AA Flight 11.

There is also evidence against the alleged hijackers having been on the hijacked flights. The passenger lists have been released and do not include anyone with an Arabic name (Loose Change II documentary). According to Thierry Meyssan, the author of L'Effroyable Imposture (The Horrifying Fraud, titled The Big Lie in the English version, 2002), the released passenger lists indicate that there must have been fewer hijackers than the Administration says. Reasons to doubt descriptions by passengers will be covered in the next article.

Another oddity is the behavior of the alleged hijackers. For example, it has been reported that Atta ate pork, drank, used cocaine, got lap dances, lived with a prostitute in Florida, and gambled, yet he is supposed to have been a fundamentalist suicide terrorist. The contents of two of his bags, which were not loaded on the plane, reportedly because of a missed connecting flight, are also odd. They include his passport, will, international driver's license, Boeing flight simulation manuals, a Koran, a religious tape, and a memo about mental preparation for the other hijackers (O&C, The Big Lie). These and other behaviors could be explained, but they are not what one would expect of fanatical fundamentalists.

Fake evidence against bin Laden

The US government has very easily been able to finger Osama bin Laden for the attacks, but there is actually little hard evidence. One main piece of evidence given is a video (released December 13, 2001) allegedly of bin Laden and others meeting in Kandahar November 9^th. The bin Laden in the video is obviously an imposter, because his facial features are different, and he writes with the wrong hand and wears a gold ring (from the documentary Loose Change II), which would not be proper to a Muslim fundamentalist. An earlier tape was mentioned November 10^th by the Sunday Telegraph. Meanwhile, shortly after the attacks a statement was sent to al-Jazeera, purportedly from bin Laden, disavowing involvement in the attacks. This might be fake also, but it gives reason for doubt.

As a future article will show, the USA seemingly does not want to capture bin Laden, having passed on many chances, and reportedly there have even been recent meetings between US officials and bin Laden. Osama bin Laden is a convenient enemy, giving the US and its allies an excuse to carry out other objectives. It is also apparently untrue that bin Laden no longer has ties to the wealthy and well-connected bin Laden family and the Saudi government (who are in turn very connected to the Bush family and others in the Administration).

Government Complicity in the 9/11 Attacks, Part 2

2009-09-19T02:07:00.001-05:00

The Government knew what would happen on 9/11/2001

The many statements by Administration officials and others that the attacks, and suicide hijackings in general, were totally unexpected, is definitely false. Much of this information is summarized in The War on Freedom (WOF), written in 2002 by political scientist and human rights advocate Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Development (www.globalresearch.org) in the UK. The Clinton Administration must have considered the use of hijacked airplanes as missiles. In 1993 the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict studied the use of airplanes to attack domestic targets. The Pentagon, Justice Department, and Federal Emergency Management Agency were recipients of the study's report. In 1994 a disgruntled Federal Express employee tried to hijack a DC-10 jetliner to crash into one of its facilities in Memphis in April. 1993 was the year a pilot almost succeeded in crashing a small plane into the White House, in September. That December an al Qaida linked Algerian group tried to hijack an Air France plane, to crash into the Eiffel Tower. In January 1995 the Philippines even discovered the precursor to the 9/11 plot, an al Qaida plan (Project Bojinka) to destroy 11 planes over the Pacific Ocean or use at least some planes to attack sites such as the headquarters of the CIA, the White House, the World Trade Center (WTC), and the Sears Tower. United, Northwest, and Delta flights would be targeted. Allegedly, Ramzi Yousef, arrested in Pakistan and convicted of involvement in the 1993 bombing of the WTC, thought of the plans. He was convicted on Sept. 11, 1996, a date likely to be marked by future plots.

In response, the US government began watching for potential al Qaida members at American flying schools. Aircraft were very closely watched during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Since 1994 the FAA has warned that al Qaida was a potential threat to US airlines. In 1999 the National Intelligence Council warned that al Qaida could use a hijacked plane to attack a Federal building. Beginning in October 2000, several sources report, the FBI collaborated with Italian security in analyzing wiretaps of a cell in Milan and discovered a potential plan to attack domestic targets with planes. In 2000-2001 the CIA provided the FBI with a list of approximately 100 possible al Qaida members in, or coming to, the country. August 23, 2001 they specifically named Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi, who were already connected to numerous terrorist acts and allegedly on American Airlines (AA) Flight 77, which allegedly hit the Pentagon. Numerous papers report that the CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency (NSA) were monitoring these men from at least 1999. According to an article in Newsweek, al Mihdhar and al Hazmi lived for months, until August 2001, with an FBI informant, Abudssatta Shaikh. They also met with the group referred to in the FBI's Phoenix Memo (described below) and were tied by documents to convicted would be hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui.

An Internet feature of the Washington Post reported after the attack that the US, Israel, and the UK were alerted 6 and 3 months beforehand that Bojinka-style attacks on domestic US or Israeli targets were close to implementation. Further information was being gathered by ECHELON, a multi-nation system capable of listening to all electronic communications in the world. The system is an open secret and the EU, some of whose members reportedly participate in the system, confirmed that ECHELON exists. ECHELON allegedly allows domestic spying, by allowing governments to say they received any domestic information from foreign sources. The system has existed at least since 1995, according to Ahmed.

United Press International (UPI) has reported that the NSA has been able to listen to al Qaida telecommunications for years, at least since the 1998 East African US embassy bombings. The NSA recorded conversations between Atta and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) over the summer and did not notify other agencies and allegedly neglected to translate many of the calls, although Atta was on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list (according to Knight Ridder Newspapers). The NSA has repeatedly claimed that intercepted messages were not translated beforehand or could not be separated from other intercepted messages. Ruppert points out that this is very unlikely, since these were very wanted men, and the government reportedly has computer translation programs, presumably including an Arabic translator. In February 2001 it was revealed by UPI that the NSA had broken al Qaida's encryption methods and it is known that the government was able to block al Qaida's cell phones and financial transactions. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, of Utah, revealed after 9/11 that he had heard from the CIA and FBI that the government heard al Qaida members celebrating the attack. Rumsfeld denied this and condemned the revelation. ABC News reported that many phone calls to the US by reported al Qaida chief of operations Abu Zubaida had been recorded by the US before 9/11; the contents have not been released to the public.

There were increasing, and increasingly specific, warnings approaching that September. Former US National Coordinator for Counterterrorism Richard Clarke, told the New Yorker magazine that 10 months before 9/11 an attack was expected, followed 2 to 3 weeks later by indications that there would be an attack within a few weeks. He warned the FAA directly in July 2001. Measures had been proposed in the past that would have decreased terrorism threats to the airlines and safety problems, but apparently the FAA aided the industry in resisting these measures. Intercepts from Afghanistan indicated preparation for an attack in late June or July. That July, Italy warned of a suicide plane attack targeting Bush at the G8 Summit in Genoa. Egypt confirmed this, in part through infiltration of al Qaida. In late August security was increased at the WTC.

Many US allies knew attacks were coming, and at least seem to have had detailed advance knowledge. Russia reportedly warned in the weeks before 9/11 that there would be an attack on government buildings and airports with hijacked planes, 25 pilots having been trained (cited in Rubicon and WOF). Le Figaro reported that French intelligence told the CIA that attacks were coming on US targets globally and allegedly the French and Arab sources provided further detailed warnings. Jordan discovered that al Qaida was planning an attack using planes inside the continental US, according to an article in the International Herald Tribune. A Moroccan agent penetrated al Qaida for two years and warned of a massive attack in summer or fall 2001. He was not able to get further information because the US asked him to make a report in the US in person (from the same source as above). Al Qaida members even warned of attacks themselves, in Arab immigrant papers in the UK around this time, according to the London Independent and Senator Feinstein (D-CA). According to NBC News, two days before 9/11 a foreign intelligence service let the US know that bin Laden had called his mother and said "In two days you're going to hear big news, and you're not going to hear from me for a while." The British heard bin Laden discussing the attacks in intercepted phone calls weeks before 9/11 (from the Sunday Times). UK Prime Minister Blair said bin Laden told al Qaida members to gather in Afghanistan by the 10^th. Twelve days before 9/11 Egyptian President Mubarak told the US an event was coming. According to the German public television station ARD, Egypt had been monitoring Mohamed Atta's phone calls. An Iranian national imprisoned in Germany warned the US that the WTC would be attacked in the week of September 9^th, but apparently the US was uninterested in the warning. The Germans confirmed to www.online.ie that the calls were made.

Israel apparently had detailed knowledge and might even have been spying on the hijackers, in the US. According to the London Telegraph, two senior Israeli Mossad agents came in August to personally warn the CIA and FBI that up to 200 terrorists were planning an attack. Israeli spies were active in the same areas as the hijackers, Hollywood, Florida (where they lived close to Atta's post office box), San Diego, and Phoenix. A leaked FAA memo from 9/11 said an Israeli civilian connected to Israeli counterintelligence was shot on American Airlines Flight 11 (Rubicon). Germany's Der Spiegel reported that Mossad had a list of 19 al Qaida members planning an impending operation. The list included four of the alleged hijackers. If the US government was conspiring with al Qaida, Israel seemingly was a partner, at least passively.

Garth L Nicolson, Chief Scientific Officer and Research Professor at the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Huntington Beach, CA reported to Ahmed's organization that he was warned in three or more instances, by retired military and intelligence members and the head of state of an unnamed North African country, that the Pentagon would be attacked on 9/11. He believes his information was ignored by the many agencies he reported it to.

Six weeks prior to 9/11 Ashcroft and others were warned of the date and targets of the attacks, and who was funding them, by lawyer David Schippers, the Chief Invesigative Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee in 1998 and chief prosecutor in the Clinton impeachment. Schippers says he received this information from three FBI agents who said their investigations were stymied and that they were threatened with prosecution if they revealed their information to the public. The New American, a conservative magazine, interviewed FBI agents who confirmed that the information was well-known in the FBI before 9/11. The conservative civil liberties group Judicial Watch joined with Schippers in sueing the government on behalf of Schippers' informants.

Evidently many officials knew what was coming and avoided flying near 9/11. Eights hours before the attack began, San Francisco mayor Willie Brown was called by unnamed flight security and told to be careful, according to the San Francisco Chronicle (SFC). On the 10^th, a group of Pentagon leaders canceled a planned flight the morning of the attacks, according to Newsweek. Earlier in the summer then Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped taking US commercial flights, according to an SFC article. A week beforehand (says the London Times), famous author Salman Rushdie, who is guarded by the British Scotland Yard and British intelligence, was banned from taking domestic US and Canadian flights. Also a week before the attacks, a radio talk show in the Cayman Islands, where many American businesses and capitalists send their money to escape taxes, was warned that al Qaida was about to carry out an attack (from MSNBC, September 16, 2001). September 10^th employees of the Tokyo office of the Goldman Sachs company were warned to stay away from US government offices because of terrorism (Counterpunch magazine, September 14, 2001). September 7^th the State Department warned citizens of an impending al Qaida attack, but the government should have expected a domestic angle, given the many warnings and the Project Bojinka scenario.

Parts of the US government, to their credit, apparently took some steps to protect the public in response to these specific warnings. It is bad enough that the attacks happened despite the warnings. Even worse is the abundant evidence that the government abetted the terrorists by repeatedly allowing them into the US, shielding them from detection, and even training them. A later article will discuss how the US government under both Clinton and Bush II seemingly wanted, and still wants, bin Laden to remain free.

Warnings from stock markets

Michael C. Ruppert cites sources suggesting that the CIA and other intelligence agencies monitor the financial markets in real time to watch for warnings of threats to the USA. There were numerous ominous warnings in the days before Black Tuesday in put option trading in the stocks of many companies, oil, US Treasury bills, and gold. A put option is an agreement to sell stock at the price when the sale is made, but not having to provide the stocks until later, so if the stock's price falls the seller can make a profit. A call option is the reverse situation. Basically these are gambles about how stock prices will change over time.

Soon after the attacks, the SEC released a list of about 38 companies targeted by possible 9/11 insiders, trading in the USA, UK, Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Japan (where trading was 8 times over average levels on the Osaka Exchange), and Singapore. The Herzliya International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism in Israel reported several very irregular trading incidents. September 6-7 4744 put options on United Airlines were bought on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), against 396 call options. Herzliya calculated that, if 4000 of these options were bought with advanced knowledge, insiders gained nearly $5 million dollars in these trades alone. The day before 9/11, 4516 put options and 748 call options were bought on the CBOE, and 4000 of the put options would have resulted in profits of about $4 million dollars. Together these put option trades were 6 times above the average level and this only occurred on the days mentioned above. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co had offices on 22 floors of the WTC and only 27 put options were traded on an average day. On the last three open trading days before the attacks 2157 put options were bought, and if 2000 were bought by insiders, conspirators gained about $1.2 million dollars. These purchases were 27% above normal between September 7 and 10. Merrill Lynch & Co, based in the WTC, on average sold 252 options, and on the four open days before the attacks, 1200% more put options (12,215) were bought. If 11,000 were by insiders, they netted about $5.5 million dollars. 230,000 options on United Airlines were bought on the three open days before 9/11 for $2070 dollars (90 cents per share, selling for $12 dollars each by mid-October 2001). Options for 231,300 shares, worth about $2.77 million dollars were left unclaimed. Other sources reported a 90% increase in United Airlines put option purchases between September 6 and 10 (285 times higher that Thursday) and 60% higher for AA. These trades were very skewed to the put side, at a time when airline stocks were considered good buys, and the trades targeted exactly the airlines whose planes were hijacked. Reuters reported on September 10^th that airline stocks were about to gain value, and that Goldman Sachs was "an aggressive buyer of airline stocks," and that one of its favored companies was American Airlines (cited by Ruppert).

European states investigated trading involving Munich Re, Swiss Re, and AXA, a French company that owned at least 25% of American Airlines' shares, all of which were liable to pay for 9/11 damages. The American investment bank, Alex Brown, part of Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in Europe, had a role in facilitating some of the United Airlines trades, and was the main facilitator of those regarding Munich Re. The Bank is patronized by the bin Laden family and has ties to the Kuwait Finance House and the Faysal Islamic Bank of Bahrain, both having worked with al Qaida and not cooperating with US investigations. They were left out of the government's investigation of al Qaida's financial network. Both also helped Bush conduct what looks like insider trading when he was an officer of Harken Energy. Atta and several other alleged hijackers had accounts with Deutsch Bank. Ruppert also points out that CIA Executive Director (the third highest office) AB "Buzzy" Krongard was chair of Alec Brown, vice chair of Banker's Trust Alex, after Banker's Trust bought Alex Brown. Krongard was hired by the CIA in 1998, a year before Deutsch Bank bought Banker's Trust.

In addition to the put options, 5-year US Treasury notes (T-bills) were suspiciously popular prior to 9/11, including a $5 billion dollar purchase (Wall Street Journal (WSJ), October 2, 2001). Treasury bills are considered very safe investments and, expectably, they became more expensive after the attacks. The company recovering data from surviving WTC computers estimated that at least $100 million dollars were illegally moved through the systems prior to and during the attack. Former German member of parliament, overseeing the intelligence agencies, (and critic of the official story) Andreas von Bülow estimated that potential insider trading resulted in $15 billion dollars and CBS estimated that it was worth at least $100 million dollars (all cited in Rubicon). John Kinnucan, Principal of Broadband Research, told the Montreal Gazette (September 19, 2001) that "I saw put-call numbers higher than I've ever seen in 10 years of following the markets, particularly in the options markets" and CBS' 60 Minutes reported that "Sources tell CBS News that the afternoon before the attack, alarm bells were sounding over unusual trading in the U.S. stock options market" (September 19, 2001). "There have been fundamental movements in these [airline] markets, and the oil price rise just ahead of the attacks is otherwise inexplicable," unless due to insider trading, according to Ernest Welteke, president of the German Bundesbank (New York Times (NYT), September 28, 2001).

In typical fashion, the 9/11 Commission said the trading was not by people with insider knowledge, after assuming that the US institution it claims placed most of the put options on United Airlines and a financial newsletter would not have had advanced knowledge, since they are American. The Commission does not name these groups and it cites Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and FBI documents the public cannot view. In their Report they say "From the outset, we have been committed to share as much of the investigation as we can with the American people." The Commission expects Americans to trust them, though they do not provide much in the way of grounds for that trust. None of the results of the many financial investigations have been revealed to the public.

Government complicity in the 9/11 attacks, Part 1

2009-09-15T17:33:00.001-05:00

Below is the 9/11 article referred to in the article I posted last week. The 2006 article was printed by Alliance!, but since the website is down, I will re-post it here. This is the first of four parts, and explains structural reasons the 9/11 Commission should not be trusted, besides the definite lies and omissions it perpetrated.

US Government Complicity in the 9/11 Attacks

There is abundant evidence suggesting that the Bush Administration knew the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 were coming and did not act to prevent them. There is also evidence that the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, if not others (such as Israel), also had a role in the crime, and many governments knew something was coming that fall. As David Ray Griffin, Professor of Philosophy of Religion at California's Claremont School of Theology and prominent 9/11 revisionist researcher points out in his 2004 book, The New Pearl Harbor (NPH), complicit could mean several things. The amount of US participation in the crimes of 9/11 could range from having covered up what actually happened, with no other crimes having been committed by the government, to participation by only a part of the US government, such as the intelligence agencies, to the attacks having been a completely American operation, planned by the White House (these last possibilities would be false flag black ops).

We cannot say yet what the complete truth is, but a criminal conspiracy of some kind by the Bush Administration looks very likely. This article summarizes the documented evidence of advanced knowledge of the attacks by the US, Bush and Clinton Administration actions to prevent investigations that would have revealed al Qaida's plans, the lack of evidence supporting the government's list of hijackers, and reasons the US government, and the part of the capitalist elite it represents, might have wanted a massive terrorist attack in 2001, along with evidence that the US government has been willing to kill its own citizens to further past goals. Future articles will cover evidence of active participation by at least parts of the Saudi and Pakistani governments (other governments had at least advanced warning) and physical 'nuts and bolts' and documentary evidence contradicting the official story of what happened on Black Tuesday.

This is a summary of some of the best evidence against the government's al Qaida conspiracy theories, but it is not an alternative story of what happened. Some of this evidence could be explained away, but unless all of it has an innocent explanation, Americans should not accept the government's theory.

1. The 9/11 Report explains little and omits a lot

The so-called independent 9/11 Commission attempted to whitewash the evidence, aided by Congress and the dominant media. There have been several official, and contradictory, US government explanations for various aspects of 9/11 over the last five years. The Commission produced the current official theory by unscrupulously and brazenly omitting and misrepresenting the evidence (proven in works such as Griffin's The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, 2005 (O&C)). Twenty-five employees of the CIA, Customs Department, Defense Intelligence Agency, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and FBI signed an open letter to Congress about these omissions, saying that "We are aware of significant issues and cases that were duly reported to the Commission by those of us with direct knowledge, but somehow escaped attention," which "renders the report flawed, and casts doubt on the validity of many of its recommendations." The omissions can be explained by looking at who served in the Commission and how it was created.

The first in-depth investigation was a joint effort by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. As former Nixon chief counsel John Dean, basically a believer in the official theory, but not ignoring some of the incongruities, describes in Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, the Joint Inquiry was an effort to prevent a real investigation. He says, "such large joint committees are remarkably cumbersome and poor at investigations, and for that reason are rarely used." In addition, the Administration blocked the investigation and would not let the Joint Inquiry question then Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld or then Secretary of State Powell. During this period the FBI questioned almost all members of Congress about leaks of 9/11 information and wanted them to submit to lie detectors and turn over phone records and appointment calendars. Senator John McCain in February 2003 said the Administration had "slow-walked and stonewalled" the investigation (cited by Dean).

For 441 days the Administration resisted the creation of an independent commission with subpoena power, saying that it would harm the "War on Terror." Bush relented in late November 2002, after gaining the power to appoint the chair, who could block subpoenas. Even with this control and the composition of the Commission, the White House did as much as it could to forestall the investigation. Bush was not able to get away with appointing Henry Kissinger, Nixon's Secretary of State and someone deeply involved in the US government's foreign crimes over the past decades, as the chair. Instead, Thomas Kean was appointed chair, Lee Hamilton (currently on the Iraq Study Group) vice chair, with co-commissioners Richard Ben-Veniste, Fred Fielding, Jamie Gorelick, Slade Gorton, Bob Kerrey, John Lehman, Timothy Roemer, and James Thompson. Former Democratic congressman and Iraq War supporter Max Cleland of Georgia was originally on the Commission, and was a dissenter on several points, but he resigned when Bush appointed him to the Board of the Export-Import Bank. Consider the pasts of these commissioners.

Chairman Kean is a Republican former governor of New Jersey and a member of the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and a co-chair of the Century Foundation's Homeland Security Project, which called for an office of homeland security. Kean is a director and shareholder in Amerada Hess Corporation, which worked with Saudi Arabia's Delta Oil to tap oil around the Caspian Sea in the former USSR. Delta was involved in unsuccessful negotiations with the Taliban to build a pipeline through Afghanistan to Pakistan, bypassing Russia's existing pipelines and Iran. For these reasons, Kean has conflicts of interest, and could benefit from the Afghan War and other results of the 9/11 attack. Kean also spent little time working on Commission work, because he remained president of Drew University and a board and executive committee member in Amerada Hess.

Lee Hamilton replaced the first co-chair, who, like Kissinger, refused to admit his possible conflicts of interest. Hamilton was a Democratic Congressman from Indiana, serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Select Intelligence Committee, and a member of the CFR since 1988 or before. In Congress he helped cover up the CIA's involvement in drug trading in the Iran/Contra scandal, as chair of the investigation, and has been accused of helping to cover up the October Surprise, in which Iran helped Reagan win the White House, by refusing to release US hostages until after the election. Before the investigation of the October Surprise, Hamilton called a press conference in which he said George H.W. Bush was not involved; Hamilton later admitted to not having consulted the witnesses or the investigating lawyer before absolving Bush.

Jamie Gorelick, a Democrat, is vice chair of Fannie Mae and a member of the CFR. She is on the board of Schlumberger, an oil exploration and drilling company reportedly involved in almost all drilling operations. Through Schlumberger, Gorelick is an associate of James Baker, of the Iraq Study Group. Before joining Fannie Mae, Gorelick was Deputy Attorney General (second behind Clinton's Attorney General, Janet Reno), from March 1994 to May 1997. She co-chaired (with Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet) the Intelligence Community Law Enforcement Policy Board, a group set up to meet quarterly to discuss issues affecting the Attorney General, Director of Central Intelligence, security services, Asst. Sec. of State for Intelligence and Research, and the Defense Department's General Counsel. In 1998 Gorelick was also on the Central Intelligence National Security Advisory Panel and the President's Review of Intelligence. Gorelick was part of the legal team defending the Bank of Commerce International (BCCI) and First American, which are connected to Saudis suspected of aiding al Qaida. She was one of four Commission members given access to some of the White House intelligence documents.

Richard Ben-Veniste is a prominent Democratic lawyer in Washington, DC. He was Democratic counsel to the Senate Whitewater investigation, in which he shielded Truman Arnold (chief Democratic fundraiser at the time) from investigation, before representing him before the Whitewater grand jury, a conflict of interest. Truman reportedly transferred a $2 million dollar plane, for a dollar, to Wallace Hilliard, who ran a Venice, Florida flight school where four of the alleged hijackers were trained. Ben-Veniste also represented Barry Seal, who has been connected to Iran/Contra, the illegal drug trade, and then Governor Bill Clinton's government, flying out of Mena Regional Intermountain Airport, Arkansas (for more about this issue, see The Secret Life of Bill Clinton, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a reporter for The Daily Telegraph of the UK).

Fred Fielding was a deputy counsel in the Nixon Administration, under John Dean, allegedly involved in the same criminal activities, but Fielding was not jailed. He was Reagan's White House Counsel. He advised Karl Rove to delay divesting more than $100,000 dollars in Intel stock, and Rove than broke even the Bush Administration's ethics policies when a merger with a Dutch business was discussed while he and Cheney met with Intel executives. Fielding helped the Bush Administration transition team in 2001, reportedly conducting security clearance checks, that now take 60 days, in 1-2 hours.

Republican Jim Thompson is chair of the large Chicago law firm Winston and Strawn, after having been the longest serving governor of Illinois, until 1991. Thompson headed the transition team of Democratic governor Rod Blagojevich, reportedly "to the astonishment of practically everyone," since Blagojevich had strongly criticized Thompson's leadership (according to journalist Jim Rarey, quoted in Crossing the Rubicon).

John Lehman is an investment banker (with Paine Weber) with close ties to the Navy. He is chair of OAO Technology Solutions, Inc. and JF Lehman & Company, formerly chair of Sperry Marine, and on the board of the Ball Corporation and others. He was a member of, or associated with the neocon Project for a New American Century (the PNAC, see below). He was a reserve naval pilot, special counsel and senior staff member to Henry Kissinger in the Nixon Administration, and Secretary of the Navy from '81 to '87.

Slade Gorton is a member of the law company Preston, Gates, & Ellis in Seattle, and formerly was a Washington senator. He was on the House Intelligence Committee for two years, according to him, partly because of his friendship with Trent Lott. One major conflict of interest for Gorton is that on September 13, 2001 he said on public television that he thought the intelligence services could not have prevented the attack and the Seattle Times quotes him as also saying "I doubt we can get too much inside information no matter what we do" (Rubicon).

Tim Roemer might have fewer conflicts of interest. He was a Democratic member of the House who retired at the end of 2004, after being one of the main House members advocating an independent commission and is given credit for gaining (initial) support for the Commission from the group representing the 9/11 survivors and relatives. This could be seen as co-opting anger over the handling of 9/11, by bringing support to a Commission apparently designed to bury concerns, rather than honestly answer them. Roemer was a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Bob Kerrey was appointed to the Commission by former Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, and was a very pro-Iraq War Nebraska Democrat, who aided the Administration's efforts to use the attack to justify its plan to attack Iraq. Kerrey was vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a major supporter of CIA Director George Tenet. He was the only high-ranking Democrat on the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an American group related to the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which published a policy document in the fall of 2000 in which it said its recommendations might take a new Pearl Harbor for implementation. In 1998 Kerrey voted for the Iraqi Liberation Act and was close to the Iraqi National Congress, led by Ahmed Chalabi, who was convicted in absentia to 22 years imprisonment for bank fraud in Jordan. Kerrey published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for war with Iraq and pushing the claim that Mohammed Atta met with an Iraqi agent in Prague, Czech Republic, a claim denied even by the 9/11 Commission.

For these reasons the Commission was from the beginning compromised and full of conflicts of interest, for which it has been condemned by many. The actual work of the Commission was mostly done by the staff, many with ties to the government agencies being investigated by the Commission, and headed by executive director Philip D. Zelikow, a Republican with close connections to the Administration. He appears to have been an insider for the Administration. In April 2004 Newsweek reported that he faxed a warning to the White House to let Condolezza Rice testify or face public outrage. He argued in September 2002 that the US should attack Iraq to protect Israel. Zelikow was on Bush I's National Security Council, working with Rice as an aid to National Secuity Advisor Brent Scowcroft. Later he directed the Aspen Study Group, working with Rice, Scowcroft, Cheney, and Wolfowitz. During the 90's he collaborated with Rice on a book on German unification, supporting the first Bush's policies. From 2001 until he joined the Commission in 2003, Zelikow was on G.W. Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Rice asked Zelikow to help her in the transition and Zelikow advised the Administration on terrorism intelligence and spoke about al Qaida on several occasions with then Former US National Coordinator for Counterterrorism Richard Clarke, who served in both the Clinton and Bush II Administrations.

In light of these conflicts, consider Zelikow's power as executive director. Paul Sperry wrote an article for www.antiwar.com (March 31, 2004) stating that Zelikow "arguably has more sway than any member [of the Commission], including the chairman. Zelikow picks the areas of investigation, the briefing materials, the topics for hearings, the witnesses, and the lines of questioning for witnesses. In effect, he sets the agenda and and runs the investigation" (quoted in O&C). Many of the staff reports went directly into the Commission report, which was edited by Zelikow. Zelikow was one of the handful of Commission members allowed to read the famous Presidential Daily Brief of August 6, 2001 and only Gorelick and Zelikow had access to many White House briefings. Repeated requests by the Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Commission for Zelikow to be removed were denied. The best the Commission could do with these conflicts of interest (and in other cases) was to have Zelikow recuse himself when the Commission considered the Clinton-Bush transition process. In March 2004 the Committee said that it was "deeply disturbed to learn about" Zelikow's participation in transition briefings with Sandy Berger and Rice, in which Berger said al Qaida was the biggest security threat to the USA. Zelikow refused to investigate revisionist theories about 9/11, "outrageous conspiracy theories," comparing investigation to "whacking moles" (Global Outlook magazine issue 10 and O&C).

Much of this information is reported in Michael C. Ruppert's Crossing the Rubicon (Rubicon), which argues that the 9/11 attacks were a desperate attempt by the corrupt elite to create a pretext for policies to safeguard and expand the USA's global dominance in the face of the impending Peak Oil crisis. Peak Oil is the point at which oil production peaks, after which there will be increasing shortages, because oil is basically a non-renewable resource; other hydrocarbons also have peaks. Capitalism requires increasing production, and that will not be possible if oil runs out and is not quickly replaced by other energy sources. Some argue that it will be very hard to replace oil, but either way, capitalism is not a system that plans well for the future and human needs. Ruppert argues that Peak Oil largely explains the Bush Administration's foreign policy and relates to growing fascism at home. Michael Ruppert is a former Los Angeles police detective who blew the whistle on a CIA operation allegedly bringing illicit drugs into the US to finance the supply of weapons to Iranian Kurds, and was subsequently harassed out of the LAPD.

Even if the 9/11 Commission really "sought to be independent, impartial, thorough, and nonpartisan" (from The 9/11 Commission Report (9/11C)) in carrying out its mandate to "make a full and complete accounting of the circumstances surrounding the attacks, and the extent of United States prepardness for, and response to, the attacks," it would have had a hard time doing so. It was given only $3 million dollars, compared to $5 million to study legalized gambling in 1996 and $50 million to study the destruction of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The Administration refused the Commission's request for an allocation of $11 million dollars, but eventually raised the budget to $9 million. The deadline for the Commission's report was May 2004, and the Administration stalled on security clearances and releasing documents for months. All of the commissioners, most of whom already had experience in intelligence oversight and sensitive information, were not cleared to see secret information until March 2003. The Commission was mandated to build upon the Congressional Joint Inquiry's report, but that was not made available until late July 2003. Executive branch organizations, such as the Justice Department, stalled on releasing documents even longer, government employees had to testify in the presence of watchers from their agencies, and Bush refused to testify under oath or in person.

BOCC meeting Monday, Jordan Lake hearing delayed

2009-09-12T03:35:00.001-05:00

The County Commissioners are meeting on the 14th at 7pm (see www.co.durham.nc.us/departments/bocc/Agendas/Current_Meeting_Agen.html). The public hearing (allocated just 5 minutes!) is still listed on the online agenda, but the hearing is supposed to be postponed to mid or late October, on the request of the Haw River Assembly. The agenda includes a zoning item. There is a declaration making the 28th Family Day, encouraging families to eat dinner together that day.

There was a City Council meeting on the 8th and the next will be on the 21st (see www.durhamnc.gov/agendas).

The US government and its allies supported al Qaida and the 9/11 plot, Part 4

2009-09-11T12:36:00.001-05:00

This is the final part, on the USA and Israel.

The USA's collaboration with al Qaida

Does the government really want to arrest or kill Osama bin Laden?

By now it is obvious that many US allies in the Middle East and Near East are at least partly supporting al Qaida, even after 9/11. More shocking is the evidence that the US government itself is still supporting its Islamist Cold War allies. The article in the last issue showed that the US encouraged fundamentalism and helped form what became al Qaida in an attempt to overthrow the Afghan revolutionary government and the later Soviet intervention. That article also laid out evidence that the USA allowed Black Tuesday to happen and seemingly helped facilitate it, which provided a public rationale for the Bush Administration's plans in Afghanistan and Iraq. Examples suggesting US complicity are the ease with which the named hijackers were able to enter, live in, and leave the US, even after being listed as terrorists or tied to known terrorists, the FBI leadership's interference with terrorism investigations before 9/11, lack of funding for counterterrorism efforts, the fact that intercepted al Qaida communications were received and allegedly not translated and not shared within the government, and the fact that the attacks could happen at all despite numerous credible and detailed forewarnings. Add to this the fact that some officials took precautions as if they knew attacks were coming on 9/11/2001 and the fact that Black Tuesday is exactly what elements in the Bush Administration needed to implement their plans, as they admitted in a 2000 report from the Project for a New American Century and elsewhere. Below is more evidence that the "War on Terror" is not really about dismantling al Qaida. Instead elements in the US are still shielding the terrorists who carried out 9/11.

The US turned down numerous offers for the extradition or trial of bin Laden

The Clinton and Bush Administrations again and again refused offers of information from other governments. Some of these offers might have been disingenuous, but if they were serious they could have much weakened or even stopped al Qaida long ago. Many offers from Sudan, where bin Laden lived during much of the 90's, were rejected. In 1995 Sudan offered its extensive files on bin Laden and over 200 al Qaida leaders, financial information, and other intelligence, allegedly "an inch and a half" of documents (Guardian, 9/30/01). In April 1996 the US again rejected the Sudanese offer, as did the UK's MI6 foreign intelligence agency. Sudan said MI6 could send someone to Sudan the next day after accepting Sudan's offer. In May 2000 a CIA and FBI team went to Sudan to confirm that it was not supporting terrorists. Despite being found innocent, Sudan was not removed from the USA's list of 'state terrorists,' and again it rejected Sudan's information about al Qaida. In June 1995 the US blamed Sudan and Hassan al Turabi, the Speaker of the National Assembly and a prominent leader, for supporting an alleged al Qaida plot to kill the president of Egypt in Ethiopia. In March 1996 the US wanted Sudan to expel bin Laden. Sudan offered to extradite bin Laden for trial, allegedly even directly to the US, but this was declined because of a lack of evidence against him at the time. Richard Clarke, former CIA Director Tenet, and the 9/11 Commission deny this, though the Commission found that Saudi Arabia was considered. Allegedly the US asked Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia to take bin Laden, but was rebuffed, and wanted bin Laden sent anywhere other than Somalia (cited in The Terror Timeline). Sudan told the US bin Laden was going to Afghanistan, where he would be out of their control.

The Clinton Administration ignored Sudan's offers and instead destroyed a vital pharmaceutical plant in Al-Shifa, supplier of 60% of Sudan's medicines, in August 1998. Three days earlier the Administration rejected an FBI request to take up Sudan's offer to extradite two alleged al Qaida members who had entered Sudan and were thought to be targeting the US embassy. Sudan held the men for three more weeks and then lost track of them in Pakistan. June 13, 2002 Sudan arrested an al Qaida member who admitted to trying to use a missile to shoot down a US aircraft leaving Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia; our Saudi allies had refused to arrest the man.

The Taliban also seemingly wanted to cooperate with the US against bin Laden. Kabir Mohabbat is an Afghan-American who facilitated talks in 1999 between the US and Afghanistan on bin Laden. Mohabbat says the Taliban would extradite bin Laden to a third country or the International Court of Justice if the US would ease the sanctions on the Taliban. Allegedly Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil said at a meeting in Frankfurt, Germany that "You can have [bin Laden] whenever the Americans are ready. Name us a country and we will extradite him" (Reuters, 6/5/04). A German European Parliament representative who was also involved speculated that the US did not want to negotiate with the Taliban, and so passed up the offer.

About 21 meetings were held in Washington that involved Rahmatullah Hashimi, representing the Taliban, and mid-level State Department officials, Afghanistan watchers, and journalists, from March to September 2001. The Taliban offered to send bin Laden to a third party, but the Americans wanted to get bin Laden directly. Some of those in attendance thought the Taliban were negotiating honestly, others not. Laila Helms, the Taliban's public relations director and daughter of a former CIA director, said the Taliban offered to detain bin Laden and allow the US to assassinate him in Afghanistan. In June 2001 Mullah Omar expressed interest in settling the dispute over bin Laden to lift the UN sanctions he said were killing Afghans. In September, after the attacks, ISI Director Ahmed and others negotiate with the Taliban, which he says refused to extradite bin Laden. A senior Taliban official said that actually Ahmed counseled the Taliban to protect bin Laden and for al Qaida to use guerilla tactics against the US.

In September and October 2001 two Islamist parties in Pakistan apparently got bin Laden and Mullah Omar to agree to a proposal that bin Laden be held in Peshawar, Pakistan and tried or extradited to the US by an international tribunal. Pakistani President and military coup leader Musharraf turned down the offer because "he could not guarantee bin Laden's safety" (the Mirror, 7/8/02).

In March 2001 Russia presented a "breathtaking" and "unprecedentedly detailed report" on bin Laden to the UN's Security Council, that reportedly contained enough information to locate him, as well as information on Pakistani government support. It apparently located all of bin Laden's facilities and listed many of his allies (Jane's Intelligence Review, 10/5/07).

Evidence of cooperation between the US military and al Qaida

Alliance! covered the charge that several of the 9/11 hijackers received training at US military facilities and the US backing of the Afghan counterrevolution, starting before the Soviets intervened, in the last issue. But that is not the US military's only possible involvement with al Qaida.

Ali Mohamed was an Egyptian-American former Army sergeant and Middle East expert at the Army's John Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, until the 90's and was involved in al Qaida terrorism. He was an Egyptian special forces soldier until he was discharged for religious extremism in 1984, allegedly having joined Islamic Jihad. While in the Egyptian army, he received Green Beret training in the US. He applied to be a CIA asset after being discharged, then employed by Egypt Air as a security consultant, but was refused as unreliable and later watch listed, meaning he should have been banned from coming to the USA. Instead he later was given permission to immigrate to California, married an American and became a citizen and sergeant by 1986. The CIA did not respond to WSJ questions about its relationship to Mohamed, but a friend of Mohamed's in San Jose, Ali Zaki, told the paper "Everyone in the community knew he was working as a liaison between the CIA and the Afghan cause" (11/26/01).

While on leave from the military, he engaged in combat with Soviet forces in Afghanistan and met bin Laden, then certainly a US ally, allegedly with CIA backing. An article in North Carolina's News & Observer newspaper (10/24/01) pointed out that "it was highly irregular, if not illegal, for an active-duty U.S. soldier to fight in a foreign war," and the military did not care about his terrorism connections after being told two weeks before Mohamed's trip by another Ft. Bragg officer. He honorably left the military in 1989, but was in the Army Reserves for 5 more years. In 1993 he was arrested by Canada, but released after they were told by the FBI that he was working for the Americans (Globe and Mail, 11/22/01). He was tried in 1995 and it was revealed that he had stolen US special forces papers. He allegedly trained Islamists at camps in New York or New Jersey, bin Laden's security personnel and the terrorists who blew up two US embassies in east Africa in 1998, and in late 1998 he was arrested and sentenced for his participation in that plot, which he admitted in 2000. He was allegedly detained without sentence in an undisclosed location and was not called to testify in the bombings trial, though he confessed. Many of the legal documents are sealed and Mohamed and his lawyers are silent. Reportedly, the explosives used in the bombings were US supplies given to the Afghan mujahideen (Le Figaro, 10/31/01). Simultaneously, he was providing intelligence to the FBI between '93 and '98. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed goes into detail on Mohamed in The War on Freedom.

Below is coverage of the US military's strange failures to destroy al Qaida in the Afghanistan War, even when they allegedly had bin Laden cornered in a cave at Tora Bora and bin Laden escaped by helicopter.

Shielding those charged with al Qaida ties

In one of the first cases of protecting violent Islamists, the government apparently shielded Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman, the so-called "Blind Sheikh," who was convicted of assisting in the 1993 bombing of the WTC, which allegedly would have felled the towers if done the way they planned. In July 1990 Abdul-Rahman came to the USA on a tourist visa given to him by a secret CIA operative, despite Abdul-Rahman having been on a terrorism watch list for three years. Reportedly Abdul-Rahman was an integral part of the CIA and Pakistani battle against Afghanistan and the USSR, despite being openly focused on toppling the governments of the USA and Egypt. He was allegedly involved in a plot to kill Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat. Bin Laden might have been paying for Abdul-Rahman's stay in the US.

In November 1990 Rabbi Meir Kahane, leader of the Jewish Defense League, a Zionist international terrorist group based in the US, listed by the FBI in 2001, was assassinated, possibly with the involvement of Abdul-Rahman. The assassin had documents about a terrorist group, al Qaida, and attacks on tall American buildings, which allegedly were not translated for years. The NYPD said the assassin acted alone and the prosecution did not use their best evidence, so the assassin, Egyptian-American El Sayyid Nosair, was acquitted, though convicted for lower crimes and sentenced to 22 years imprisonment. An FBI agent told ABC News (8/16/02) that "The fact is that in 1990, myself and my detectives, we had in our office in handcuffs, the people who blew up the World Trade Center in '93. We were told to release them." Bin Laden helped fund Nosair's defense. Abul-Rahman was connected to the terrorists who shot a group of foreign tourists in Egypt in November 1992 and was only charged and convicted of crimes after the first WTC attack. In 1993 an FBI agent told the Village Voice (3/30/93) that Abdul-Rahman is "hands-off. It was no accident that the sheikh obtained a visa and that he is still in the country. He's here under the banner of national security, the State Department, the NSA, and the CIA."

Apparently the FBI had some control over the deadly 1993 bombing plot. Undercover FBI agent Emad Salem, a main witness in the trial of the bombers, told the NYT (10/28/93) that the FBI was aware of the plot and could have swapped the explosives for fakes, but decided not to. Some of the terrorists were trained by the CIA, and it admitted in an internal communication that the CIA is "partly culpable" for attack (Independent, 11/1/98).

In December 1994 bin Laden's brother in law, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, was arrested in the USA. He was carrying literature on terrorism and was charged with funding the Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization in the Philippines and being linked to the Bojinka suicide hijacking plot. Warren Christopher, Clinton's Secretary of State, pushed for the transfer of Khalifa to Jordan, where his conviction for giving money to a group that carried out bombings in the country had been overturned. A second trial let Khalifa go free. A CIA Counter Terrorism Official analyst called "Khalifa's deportation unreal" (cited in The Terror Timeline).

The CIA and DoD were reportedly against trying to capture Islamic Jihad and al Qaida leader Mohammed Atef in an unguarded hotel in Khartoum in 1998. A former CIA offical alleges that it was considered too difficult, yet the CIA carried out reconnaissance in 1998 there. By the time the government decided to capture him after all, the opportunity had been lost.

The World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) has been directly linked to terrorism, including the alleged 9/11 hijackers, and advocates killing Americans, Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims, according to testimony to the 9/11 Commission. The Pakistani government ended WAMY activity in its territory and India and the Philippines identified WAMY as a funder of terrorists. Between February and September 11, 1996, WAMY's US branch director, Abdullah bin Laden (Osama's brother or cousin and not the bin Laden family spokesman with the same name), and his brother Omar were investigated by the FBI. A classified document about the case covered in the media indicates that the case involved espionage, murder, and national security. The WAMY investigation was restarted after 9/11 and still not listed as a terrorist group by the government in 2004. WAMY's US office was at 5613 Leesburg Pike in Falls Church, Virginia, and four alleged hijackers lived at 5913 Leesburg Pike while bin Laden was in charge of the office.

Abdullah bin Laden was also on the board of a charity that Bosnia accused of funding Chechen guerillas. According to BBC journalist Greg Palast's book (mentioned above), the Clinton Administration shielded WAMY and others who were supporting Bosnian Muslim forces in the Yugoslav civil wars. The Republican Party Committee in 1997 produced a report blaming Clinton for making Bosnia a safe zone for Islamist terrorists connected to the 1993 WTC bombing. Swiss journalist Richard Laberviere wrote in his 2000 book, Dollars for Terror: The United States and Islam, that terrorist groups linked to bin Laden were "nurtured and encouraged by elements of the U.S. intelligence community, especially during the Clinton years" that al Qaida "was protected because the network was designed to serve U.S. foreign policy and military interests." He also wrote that the Clinton Administration thought they could control al Qaida and that even if it did go against the US, "they figured the US would gain more from it in the long run." Many also allege that the US and al Qaida cooperated in supporting the Kosovo Liberation Army, Kosovar Albanians being traditionally Muslim and Serbia traditionally Christian. This would seem to mirror the mutually beneficial relationship between Islamist guerillas in Afghanistan and the Carter, Reagan, and G.H.W. Bush administrations that helped propel the attacks on Americans, Europeans, Australians, and others in the 90's and today.

The conservative legal observer Judicial Watch faulted the Clinton Administration with ignoring terrorist financial fronts in the US. For example, the Islamic African Relief Agency allegedly sent money to Mercy International, which used it to acquire vehicles used in the East African embassy attacks and was connected to the person who supplied a cell phone bin Laden allegedly used in those attacks. Despite this, the State Department gave the IARA two grants equal to $4.2 million dollars that same year (November 5, 2001 report, available at www.judicialwatch.org). According to former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement Jonathan Weiner, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the Emirates did not cooperate with the US in stopping terrorist financial dealings, claiming to have found none (NPR, 11/21/01). On the Saudis, Bush said at a press conference that "As far as the Saudi Arabians go, they've been nothing but cooperative." Many people in and out of government say that the Saudis receive preferential treatment from the US and that they have become even more sacrosanct under Bush.

Allegedly counterterrorism became a top priority for the FBI in a 5-year plan issued in May 1998, but no extra people or money were deployed. About 6% of the FBI's agents (153 out of 27,000) were tasked with counterterrorist efforts between 1998 and 9/11/01. Only one strategic analyst was focused on al-Qaida. According to the 9/11 Commission, many local branches were not aware of the threat from al-Qaida, shortly before to 9/11. All of this was while the FBI received $4.3 billion dollars related to terrorism. May 1998 is also when a National Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Richard Clarke, was hired and joined the National Security Council. The FBI's special bin Laden unit was established three years (1999) after the CIA created its bin Laden unit (1996), but the FBI's Radical Fundamentalist Unit was created in March 1994. The leadership of these units later seem to have obstructed investigations, such as the pre-9/11 investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, which in theory could have further exposed the hijackers.

Thirty-five to forty CIA agents were in the bin Laden unit prior to 9/11, with five strategic analysts dedicated to studying al Qaida. In December 1998 then CIA Director George Tenet circulated a "declaration of war" against al-Qaida, but there was not much of a shift in US resources to fight al Qaida, though more money was appropriated for it. In 2001 millions of dollars appropriated had not been spent. Tenet himself did not do much to implement his spring 1999 counterterrorism plan, according to Alterman and Green's book, The Book on Bush - for example, he did not consult with the FBI.

In March 2000 FBI agent Robert Wright (author of the squelched Phoenix Memo, on possible terrorists receiving flight training in Arizona), backed up by fellow agent Barry Carmody, other investigators, and Federal prosecutor Mark Flessner, accused Muslim FBI agent Gamal Abdel-Hafiz of shielding Muslim criminal suspects. Wright was referring to refusal to cooperate in investigating a possible financial connection between New Jersey company BMI Inc, a rich Saudi, Yassin al-Qadi, and the East African embassy bombings. Carmody accused Abdel-Hafiz of also hindering investigation of University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian's alleged connections to terrorism (see www.freesamialarian.com). Al-Arian has since been convicted and imprisoned as a political prisoner for supporting Palestinian resistance groups. Abdel-Hafiz was then promoted to head all FBI investigations in Saudi Arabia, but suspended in February 2003 when the allegations became too high-profile. Rightist Fox News host Bill O'Reilly says that the FBI threatened to fire Wright if he spoke about his allegations, one hour before he was to be on Fox News on March 4, 2003.

Also that March Republican Senator Phil Gramm blocked a bill combating terrorist money laundering, impacting offshore banks. The bill passed 31 to 1 in the House Banking Committee, but Gramm prevented a vote in his Senate Banking Committee. The Bush Administration has acted similarly to protect methods used for terrorist financing, as well as by rich capitalists. In May 2001 the US ceased cooperating with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Financial Action Task Force, the main global anti-money laundering agency.

The investigation of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen was blocked over personal animosities if not worse reasons. John O'Neill, the Irish-American Special Agent in Charge for National Security at the FBI's NY office, 1997-2001, led a team of 200 FBI agents doing on-site investigation, but was reportedly hindered by restrictions and problems with the US ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine. According to the 9/11 Commission, she persuaded Yemen to allow armed US agents into the country, but "clashed repeatedly" with O'Neill. He reportedly had a rapport with Yemeni officials, but the Yemenis also reportedly called his team "Rambos" and refused to allow them to carry large firearms. O'Neill's superior inquired about the friction and found that only Bodine was opposed to O'Neill's work, but within weeks O'Neill was forced out, and the FBI contingent was reduced to around 50 agents before November. In June 2001 terrorism concerns forced the rest to leave. In July O'Neill said concern for oil, Saudi Arabia, and the possibility of Taliban cooperation in the Afghan pipeline project were hindering investigation of Islamist terrorism. O'Neill resigned from the FBI, in part because of the interference with his work, but one of his last acts was to send the FBI team back to Yemen because Bodine was leaving, and they arrived shortly before 9/11. Bodine was briefly an administrator of an Iraqi region, despite her actions in Yemen, and was later fired, seemingly over job performance, according to Thompson. O'Neill was killed in the attack on the WTC, where he was the security head, and some speculate that a group in the US government engineered his death, as will be discussed in the third article of this series.

In August 2001 the US decided not to capture a person thought to be Ayman al-Zawahiri, a deputy leader of al Qaida and the leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, who was receiving medical treatment in San'a, Yemen. Allegedly they passed up the chance because they were not sure it was al-Zawahiri, but they now regret this (ABC News, 2/20/02).

Nabil al-Marabh was possibly involved in 9/11, apparently having been in contact with some of the hijackers, sent them money, possibly helped them forge identification papers, and lived with al Qaida members. He was arrested but the Federal government did not charge him with terrorist activities and he was later deported to Syria. He arrived in Boston in 1989 and received military training at an al Qaida camp in Afghanistan in 1992. His roommate was arrested by Syria in October 2000 and said al-Marabh was with al Qaida. Between March 2001 and June 27, 2001 there was a warrant for his arrest after he violated his probation for having attacked a roommate. On September 11, 2000 he received a license in Michigan to drive tractor trailers carrying hazardous substances.

Al-Marabh was arrested sneaking in to the US from Canada, with false documents, and he apparently had done that repeatedly. He was directly deported to Canada, where he was imprisoned for two weeks and told other prisoners that he was communicating with the FBI. He skipped deportation proceedings after being released. September 19^th he was arrested in Illinois. FBI agents thought he helped the hijackers get fake identification and launder money, but he pled guilty to entering the US without permission and went to prison for 8 months. The Federal prosecutors said "at this time" they had no evidence of al-Marabh having links to terrorism (WP, 9/4/02). The presiding judge said he did not trust the plea bargain, but could not block it.

Fellow prisoners say that al-Marabh said several things indicating that he did want to carry out terrorism, such as blowing up a tunnel in NYC as a suicide bomber. US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald prepared a case against him for lying to the FBI, but was told to drop it to shield sources of intelligence, as were prosecutors in Detroit. After his eight-month sentence, al-Marabh was held in Chicago where Federal prosecutors wanted to detain him as a material witness, but the request was dropped and he was deported to Syria. The FBI admitted in the deportation documentation that it was not sure al-Marabh was not a terrorist and would not continue to be overseas. In June 2004 several Democratic and Republican senators complained to Ashcroft about this discrepancy, asking why al-Marabh was being sent to what they called a sponsor of terrorism.

This is different from the treatment of many Americans and visitors who were arrested or investigated for having Muslim or Arab names, held on any charges the government could find, and in many cases mistreated by their jailers. At least one person died in prison. Over 1200 mostly Muslim non-citizens were arrested for minor immigration violations and held for up to several months.

The US and German governments withheld evidence in the trial of Moroccan Mounir el Motassadeq, resulting in the overturning of his sentence of 15 years in prison for involvement in the 9/11 plot. For example, the US did not allow Ramzi bin al-Shibh (a Yemeni in Germany who supposedly coordinated the attacks and was reportedly captured by Pakistan September 11, 2002) or Mohammed Haydar Zammar (charged with recruiting Atta's cell and captured by Germany but held by his native Syria, where he was wanted and possibly tortured) to testify. Zammar is a German citizen and being investigated by Germany, but after he was arrested by Morocco in October 2001, the German government was not told and only found out from the media in June 2002. This is similar to the CIA's unilateral kidnapping of a Muslim cleric in Italy who was being investigated by Italian security.

According to journalist Seymour Hersh writing in the New Yorker magazine (9/30/02), would be hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui's lawyers and some FBI officials were very surprised that no plea bargain to gain more information was offered. One Federal defense lawyer said "I've never been in a conspiracy case where the government wasn't interested in knowing if the defendant had more information – to see if there wasn't more to the conspiracy." Allegedly this situation happened because Ashcroft wanted Moussaoui executed. The government also tried to prevent Moussaoui from calling Ramzi bin al-Shibh as a witness, which could have resulted in the case being thrown out and difficulty prosecuting bin al-Shibh (AP, 7/14/03).

Refusing to find bin Laden

As the above shows, the US gave up opportunities to capture or kill bin Laden and his allies before 9/11, when he was known to be a major organizer of terrorism. For example, reportedly while bin Laden was secretly receiving medical treatment in Dubai in July 2001 he received a CIA agent and the CIA's former or current proxy, the ISI, seems to be protecting al Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Nor have they captured or killed him since then, and officials have made statements that make the failures in Afghanistan seem explainable as intentional failures.

Whether the Bush Administration wanted 9/11 to happen or not, they are lying about focusing on counterterrorism, which has been one of their main selling points since the attack. Repeatedly candidate Bush said things like "I will put a high priority on detecting and responding to terrorism on our soil," referring mainly to "weapons of mass destruction" (National Guard Magazine, 9/00). September 13, 2001 Bush said "The most important thing for us is to find Osama bin Laden. It's our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." He admitted "I knew [bin Laden] was a menace and I knew he was a problem"…"I have no hesitancy about going after him. But I didn't feel that sense of urgency" (WP, 5/17/02). March 13, 2002 Bush said "I don't know where he is. I have no idea, and I don't really care. It's not that important. It's not our priority" (quoted by Ruppert). Meanwhile terrorism increased worldwide and allegedly al Qaida is now almost as strong as it was in 2001.

The Clinton Administration shielded terrorists, but comparing Clinton's actions and those of Bush before 9/11, you can see who acted most unconcerned. For example, Richard Clarke had a detailed plan in December 2000, similar to one he presented in 1998, to stop al Qaida over 3-5 years, but it was not implemented because Clinton was on his way out. The Bush Administration received the proposal in January, but waited until September 4, 2001 to approve a very similar plan, though the general sense in 2001 was that a major terrorist attack was imminent. Clarke was also demoted, giving him less access to decision makers. A former Clinton and Bush NSC member, Thomas Maertenson, attributed Bush's failure to politics: "They really believed their campaign rhetoric about the Clinton administration. So anything [they] did was bad, and the Bushies were not going to repeat it" (cited in The Terror Timeline). According to then Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Hugh Shelton, concern about terrorism was put "farther to the back burner" under Bush (cited in The Book on Bush). Future viceroy of Iraq, Paul Bremer, said February 26, 2001 that the Administration was ignoring terrorism (AP, 4/29/04). It cannot be denied that failure to stop terrorism benefited members of the Bush Administration politically and financially.

Reportedly Bush's first attorney general was opposed to looking at terrorism and argued with FBI Director Louis Freeh about discussing. Acting FBI Director Tom Pickard said "Before September 11^th, I couldn't get half an hour on terrorism with Ashcroft. He was only interested in three things: guns, drugs, and civil rights" (quote from the book, The Cell, 8/02). September 10^th Ashcroft said the FBI did not need $58 million more dollars for anti-terrorism efforts, and he cut a preparedness grant program by more than half. The FBI wanted to improve its anti-terrorism investigations by adding 149 field agents, 200 analysts, and 54 translators. June 2001 Chicago FBI agent Robert Wright, a leading investigator of terrorist funding in the US, said in a memo that: "The FBI has proven for the past decade it cannot identify and prevent acts of terrorism against the United States and its citizens at home and abroad. Even worse, there is virtually no effort on the part of the FBI's International Terrorism Unit to neutralize known and suspected international terrorists living in the United States." In May 2001 Ashcroft told Congress "our No. 1 goal is the prevention of terrorist acts" (from The Book on Bush).

Several other top members of Bush's cabinet appeared nonchalant about terrorism. In May 2001 Cheney was assigned to head a task force on what is now called "homeland defense," but it was just hiring staff in September, and was to report to Congress October 1st. Democratic Senator Gary Hart implied to Salon in April 2004 that Cheney was trying to block counterterrorism proposals from a bipartisan commission Hart helped lead that January. He also said then National Security Adviser Rice seemed unconcerned about terrorism when he spoke to her September 6, 2001. Rice was to speak on 9/11/01 about future threats, but a leaked copy did not refer to bin Laden, al Qaida, or any other Islamist terrorist organization, only referring to state terrorism, such as from Iraq. At the Administration's first Deputy Secretary meeting on counterterrorism, April 30, 2001, then Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was opposed to focusing on al Qaida, instead wanting to focus on Iraq, according to Richard Clarke saying: "I just don't understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man bin Laden. Who cares about a little terrorist in Afghanistan?" While they were saying this, many branches of the government were receiving warnings from seemingly credible sources, such as US allies, and government agencies were carrying out drills that mirrored what actually occurred on 9/11. The government seemingly wanted the attack or the Bush Administration cannot protect the American people from terrorist acts it knows will occur.

Along with the Taliban and allied ISI members who were allowed to escape from US and Northern Alliance forces during the Afghanistan War, bin Laden and many al Qaida members were allowed to escape with them or separately. In early November a large al Qaida convoy left Kabul under cover of darkness. According to an Afghan businessman: "We don't understand how they weren't all killed the night before because they came in a convoy of at least 1,000 cars and trucks. It was a very dark night, but it must have been easy for the American pilots to see the headlights. The main road was jammed from eight in the evening until three in the morning" (London Times, 7/22/02). In late October the US noticed al Qaida forces gathering in Jalalabad, and around the time when then convoy above left Kabul, they thought bin Laden was there too. An intelligence official said it was "obvious from at least early November" that al Qaida would try to escape from Afghanistan there and "All of this was known, and frankly we were amazed that nothing was done to prepare for it" (Knight Ridder, 10/20/02). Reportedly most of the group was able to flee. Kabul fell November 13^th, ending a reputed US plan to work with a faction of the Taliban. The next day Jalalabad fell, but 1000 or more al Qaida and Taliban soldiers fled to Tora Bora. The airport was attacked by the US, but seemingly the convoy was left alone. Around this time others were escaping to Pakistan by air from Kunduz in northern Afghanistan.

There are two routes from Tora Bora to Pakistan and apparently the US bombed one but the other was open for weeks. On November 16^th about 600 al Qaida and Taliban personnel escaped, followed by about 1000-1500 more, possibly including the top al Qaida leaders in Afghanistan, while the US considered the situation. There may have been 2000 personnel at Tora Bora, but only 21 were found alive. British military leaders told the NYT (9/30/02) that "American commanders had vetoed a proposal to guard the high-altitude trails, arguing that the risks of a firefight, in deep snow, gusting winds, and low-slung clouds, were too high." Once in Pakistan they were free, because that is an area only indirectly controlled by the central government. Local militias aided in the operation, but they are suspected to be friends of bin Laden from the Afghan civil war and so were really on his side.

An anonymous special forces soldier based at Ft. Bragg told the Fayetteville Observer (8/2/02) that special forces trapped bin Laden in a certain cave on November 28^th, but while waiting for orders two helicopters came and left towards Pakistan. This has not been confirmed, but some believe bin Laden escaped around then, though others think he had already fled or did so on November 30 or December 1. There were many Afghan accounts of black helicopters evacuating al Qaida leaders at night (Newsweek, 8/11/02). Thompson's timeline notes that when the story was released several Ft. Bragg soldiers died and between June 2002 and 2004 five soldiers (three of whom were special forces personnel just back from Afghanistan) and their wives died in what have been called murder-suicides (Independent, 8/2/02). The Daily Telegraph of Britain said the Battle of Tora Bora was looking more and more like "a grand charade" (2/23/02). Rumsfeld denied April 17^th, 2002 knowing whether bin Laden was at Tora Bora or not (USA Today, 4/18/02)

British media reported an alternative story, that bin Laden had been boxed into a 30-mile area in the south, but escaped in the time it took to capture Kandahar without Northern Alliance troops. In mid-November Ismail Khan, a warlord out of Heart in northwest Afghanistan, said his forces could have captured al Qaida and the Taliban, but the US did not want the non-Pashtun Northern Alliance to go into the pro-Taliban Pashtun areas in the south. Reportedly Hamid Karzai agreed to allow Taliban leader Mullah Omar to escape in return for Taliban surrender, but the US rejected it, though Omar still escaped. Allegedly the US let Omar escape again December 9, 2002 because of fears of killing civilians after a June operation that killed 34, though many Afghan and Iraqi civilians have been killed by American forces since then.

In February 2002 the focus was switched from Afghanistan to the planned invasion of Iraq.

General Tommy Franks, in charge of Central Command, 2001-2003, said in his first wartime press conference that "We have not said that Osama bin Laden is a target of this effort"…"What we are about is the destruction of the al-Qa'eda network, as well as the…Taliban that provide harbor to bin Laden and al-Qa'eda" (USA Today, 11/23/01). Britain's Daily Mirror (11/16/01) was told by a US official that "casting our objectives too narrowly" threatened "a premature collapse of the international effort if by some lucky chance Mr bin Laden was captured." The result of the occupation of Afghanistan and the rest of the "War on Terror" has been the strengthening of al Qaida, more terrorism against civilians worldwide, continued freedom for bin Laden, and the massacre of civilians and freedom fighters by the US and its allies. MIT political scientist Barry Posen said after the Battle of Toral Bora: "This is disturbing – a war on terror that doesn't focus on the terrorists" (cited in The Book on Bush).

Other leads rejected by the US

Besides allegedly ignoring 9/11 warnings, the government overlooked other offers of evidence. For example, Belgium found and translated a major al Qaida textbook in March 1995, but a former CIA agent says the CIA did not see it until 1999, because it did not want to face its role in the Afghan civil war, which gave birth to al Qaida.

Information on Saudi government crimes, which presumably could include support for terrorism, was refused in 1994. The First Secretary of the Saudi Mission to the US, Mohammed al-Khilewi, defected and sought asylum in the USA. He met with an assistant US attorney and two FBI agent and offered 14,000 Saudi documents on royal corruption, violation of human rights, and funding of terrorism, including funding of Iraq's nuclear weapon program. According to journalist Greg Palast, writing in his book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, the FBI agents had been ordered to decline "evidence of Saudi criminal activity, even on U.S. soil."

An analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, Judie Sirrs, traveled undercover to Northern Alliance territory and gathered evidence on the connections between bin Laden, other rich Saudis, the Taliban, and al Qaida. This included allegations that the oil company Unocal helped bankroll the Taliban conquest of Kabul. Sirrs seems to have wanted the US to increase support for the Northern Alliance, thinking it could easily defeat the Taliban with more support, and she thought the US relied too much on the ISI. Reportedly she had proper permission for the trip, but she was arrested as a spy when she came back. She was cleared of spying but lost her access to secret documents and later resigned from the DIA.

Supposedly the US has trouble getting on the ground human surveillance of al Qaida, but there is good cause to doubt this. For example, John Walker Lindh, a Californian of European descent who was relatively new to Islam and not trained in infiltration was able to join al Qaida and enroll in a training camp in Afghanistan after being in Pakistan for six months. At the camp he learned details about 9/11. Jack Roche, a white Muslim from Australia went to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Malaysia, and was able to train with explosives, meet bin Laden, Atef, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Hambali/Riduan Isamuddin, and others, and was entrusted with funds to organize an al Qaida branch in Australia. The US embassy in Australia and Australian intelligence ignored him, which Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, a Bush ally, admits was a "very serious mistake" (quoted in The Terror Timeline). Roche is now in prison for 9 years for planning to blow up an Israeli embassy, with al Qaida.

The FBI was slow to investigate a Quincy, Massachusetts software company, Ptech, Inc., that served the White House, military, FAA, FBI, IRS, and NATO, and has or had officers with ties to al Qaida and possibly Hamas. Yacub Mirza was on Ptech's board, and he was a high ranking official in several fundamentalist groups the US believes supported terrorism. Ptech Vice President and Chief Scientist Hussein Ibrahim was also vice chairman of BMI, an investment company that no longer exists and also the target of investigation. BMI laundered money from Yassin al-Qadi to the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, according to an FBI affadavit. al-Qadi is on a list of twelve Saudi capitalists the CIA secretly listed as benefactors of al Qaida. al-Qadi invested in Ptech since 1994, and several of its Boston employees told the FBI that al-Qadi was the funder of Ptech, but reportedly the FBI sat on the information and did not inform the Treasury Department inquiry into al-Qadi. Apparently the FBI did not act on further allegations in June 2002. At that time WBZ-TV Boston began investigating Ptech, but was asked by Federal agencies to wait three months before broadcasting their report. The station says the FBI investigation of Ptech began that August, and Ptech was raided December 5, 2002 (cited Thompson's The Terror Timeline). A website hosting company, the InfoCom Corporation, was raided in Texas just before 9/11, possibly a similar case of terrorism links between technology companies in the US and fundamentalist terrorists.

According to Michael C. Ruppert, writing in his book Crossing the Rubicon (for more, see www.fromthewilderness.com), bin Laden may have a major advantage that allows him to access US and foreign government and banking systems. In 2001 it was reported that FBI spy Robert Hanssen sold a copy of the PROMIS software to the Russian mafia, who then sold it to bin Laden. PROMIS is software for collecting and analyzing information in databases and was stolen from the Inslaw Corporation by the

US government in the early 80's. The software was then given to countries such as Israel and Canada, but with a feature allowing secret access by the US to sensitive government information and manipulation of financial dealings. If the program really has these capabilities and al Qaida has it, then al Qaida's success against the US is more understandable without invoking collaboration. An article on From the Wilderness alleges that Ptech engineered a version of PROMIS and was connected to al Qaida. By October 2001 US intelligence organizations claimed they were no longer using PROMIS, because it had been compromised by Hanssen.

Israel and 9/11

Israeli warnings to the US about the 9/11 plot were apparently ignored, but that is not the full extent of the publicly known Israeli actions regarding 9/11. The Saudi minister investigating 9/11 blamed Israel for it, though there is good evidence that at least a faction of the Saudi monarchy supports al Qaida's goals and strategy. February 6, 2001 eleven men from Afghanistan with Israeli passports were arrested by India as they were trying to go to Bangladesh. India concluded that this was a Mossad (Israeli intelligence) attempt to infiltrate al Qaida by an unexpected route (The Week, 2/6/00). Apparently beginning the month before, hundreds of Israeli spies posing as art students in the USA began attempting to penetrate government agencies, especially the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and military bases, and this was poorly covered by the media.

The surveillance of the DEA may relate to the control of the US market for the illegal drug Ecstasy by Israeli organized crime. A DEA Office of Security Programs report from June 2001 that was leaked to the media says the spies are trying to disrupt DEA investigations of the Israeli mafia. April 30, 2001 Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City was named as a possible target of the so-called art student spy ring. Up to that time almost 120 Israeli spies had been captured and about 20 more were caught before 9/11. By November 60 or more Israelis had been arrested for immigration violations, and many were also being held for national security concerns. May 7, 2002 a moving truck was stopped for speeding late at night near Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Oak Harbor, Washington, and a police dog indicated explosives residue in the truck and on one of the two men. Traces of TNT and the plastic explosive RDX were found inside. The FBI said the Israelis, both unauthorized travelers and one carrying a modified passport, were not involved with explosives, just a cigaratte lighter. Weeks later the involved Seattle FBI office was burgled, including the evidence room. According to the Palm Beach Post (3/11/02) the DEA report said the spies were all former Israeli soldiers, most having specialized in intelligence, spying on telecommunications, and explosive work.

May 9^th two Israelis fled arrest and were found with fake papers in Tennessee. May 27^th two tried to infiltrate an Atlanta military base, possibly carrying explosives. Salon showed that, of the two Israeli universities the spies claimed to have come from, one was nonexistent, and the other had no art students (5/7/02). A government official suggested to Salon that the poorly disguised DEA infiltration could be cover for other operations, like spying on al Qaida in the USA.

December 12-15 Fox News linked the spying to 9/11, but then withdrew it from its website after pressure from American Zionist groups. The British Jane's Intelligence Digest (3/15/02) printed "It is rather strange that the U.S. media seems to be ignoring what may well be the most explosive story since the 11 September attacks – the alleged breakup of a major Israeli espionage operation in the U.S.A." The Justice Department denied the existence of the spying on March 6, 2002.

Some of the spies appear to have been spying on the hijackers. The German newspaper Der Spiegel said (10/1/02) "a horde of Israeli counter-terror investigators, posing as students" spied on the hijackers. Five lived near Atta and Marwan Alshehhi and two other accused hijackers in Hollywood, Florida, before being deported in April 2001, unlike the future hijackers themselves. At one point Atta lived at 3389 Sheridan St., only hundreds of feet from Israeli agents living at 4220.

On 9/11 it is well known that five Israelis were arrested after they were seen filming, seemingly with glee, the destruction of the WTC from the roof of their company, Urban Moving Systems, by Liberty State Park in New Jersey. One man had $4700 dollars in his sock, one had two passports, and they had a box cutter and a map marking certain places. The Israelis, Sivan and Paul Kurzberg, Oded Ellner, Omer Marmari, and Yaron Shmuel, were held for 71 days and later released, claiming they were tortured, and one told ABC News (6/21/02) that they were told to "document the event." The FBI thought at least two were Mossad agents and some of them were in a national security database (ABC News, 6/21/02). The owner of the company, Dominick Suter, was questioned 9/12 and the premises searched, but he fled by 9/14.

September 29-30^th 6 more Israelis were arrested in the Midwest and had photographs and information on a Florida nuclear powerplant, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, box cutters, etc. FBI investigators were outraged that the Israelis were released before being questioned. October 16^th Moshe Elmakias and Ron Katar were arrested for illegal dumping, from a van labeled Moving Systems Incorporated. They were in possession of an undated video with many shots of the Sears Tower, another target al Qaida is known to have considered. Ayelet Reisler was with them and had contradictory identification (Philadelphia Mercury, 10/18/01).

Many people are now also aware some Israeli citizens were forewarned about 9/11. September 4^th the North American office of Zim-American Israeli Shipping Co. (49% owned by the government of Israel) was relocated from the 16^th floor of WTC to Norfolk, Virginia. The move's date was publicized half a year before. Over 200 employees moved out and around 10 remaining survived. Perhaps coincidentally, the eighteen employees of the Israeli company ClearForest were there also, but the four of five at work on Black Tuesday survived. Those were the only Israeli companies located in the WTC on its final day, according to Terror Timeline. Two hours before the attack, two workers in Odigo, Inc.'s Research and Development facility near Tel Aviv, Israel were warned, and possibly others. Odigo is among the biggest instant messaging providers and the WTC was two blocks from its main office. Odigo reported the message to the FBI, but no one has been named and Odigo has not released the actual message.

A former Israeli special operations soldier and founder of an electronics company was sitting near accused hijacker Satam Al Suqami on American Airlines Flight 11, and was shot or stabbed by Suqami.

In an 'unfortunate' remark, former and now current rightwing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on 9/11 that "It's very good. Well, not very good, but it will generate sympathy" (NYT, 9/12/01), which relates to the many 'wars on terror' launched by many countries on their domestic opponents after 9/11, yet another benefit of 9/11 for reactionaries (mostly friends of the US government) the world over.

The US and its allies supported al Qaida, Part 3

2009-09-10T16:37:00.001-05:00

This part of the 2007 article looks at Pakistan's role.

Pakistan, the Taliban, and al Qaida

The government of Pakistan, or at least its intelligence service (often called a state within a state) and its military, also seems to have played a major role in carrying out the 9/11 attacks and aiding al Qaida. Pakistan's connections to the Taliban are well-known, but less well known are its continued shielding of al Qaida and the Taliban, which in some ways is a seamless subsidiary of the ISI.

The ISI and the Taliban

Former National Coordinator of Counterterrorism Richard Clarke and others say that the ISI formed the Taliban and helped the Taliban get al Qaida's support. An unnamed CIA connected regional specialist told The Times of India (3/7/01) that the Taliban were "on the payroll of the ISI." In November 2001 the WSJ said "Despite their clean chins and pressed uniforms, the ISI men are as deeply fundamentalist as any bearded fanatic; the ISI created the Taliban as their own instrument and still support it." Reactionary California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher accused the US government under Clinton of aiding Pakistan in promoting the Taliban. At a hearing of the House Committee on International Relations July 12, 2000, Rohrabacher said "Everybody in the region knows that Pakistan is involved with a massive supply of military weapons and has been since the beginning of the Taliban" (lengthy quotes are in Ruppert's Crossing the Rubicon). Rohrabacher is a knowledgeable source because of his continuing connections to the anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban Afghan mujahideen; he even entered Afghanistan with them during the 80's and 90's. Rohrbacher says that the Taliban succeeded in taking most of Afghanistan thanks to Pakistani supplies while the US weakened the anti-Taliban forces. In June 2001 reporters for UPI visited Taliban areas and alleged that Saudi Arabia and the Emiratis were reimbursing Pakistan for its aid to the Taliban. Pakistan denied this, but UPI said "the Taliban is entirely dependent on Pakistani aid. This was verified on the ground by UPI. Everything from bottled water to oil, gasoline and aviation fuel, and from telephone equipment to military supplies, comes from Pakistan" (6/14/01). Clinton visited Pakistan in March 2000 over objections from the Secret Service over the risk posed by the ISI's links to terrorists, but as a precaution Air Force One was used as a decoy (NYT, 10/29/01). The US used Pakistan to get messages to the Taliban prior to the 2001 conquest of Afghanistan.

The CIA, ISI, the Taliban, al Qaida, and other fundamentalists were all involved in the opium trade. According to Alfred McCoy, a University of Wisconsin professor of Southeast Asian history, the CIA was "willing to work with people [the mujahideen] who were heavily involved in narcotics" (cited in The Terror Timeline). Around half of the US aid to counterrevolutionary forces in Afghanistan went to the arch-fundamentalist (and now anti-US guerilla) warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was also an important part of the heroin trade and a comrade of bin Laden in the 80's. The CIA is or has been involved in the drug trade outside of Afghanistan, for example in trading operating out of Mena, Arkansas. According to the Asian edition of The Financial Times (8/10/01) the ISI profited from heroin in the 80's and encouraged it, trying to addict Soviet soldiers, and now sends it to the West. Allegedly the trade is all that kept the Pakistani economy from collapsing.

According to the Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, Yossef Bodansky, bin Laden set up an arrangement after moving to Afghanistan in 1996 whereby he gets 15% of the profits in return for protecting and facilitating the trade. Financial Times estimated that in early 1999 bin Laden controlled 10% of the Afghan trade, bringing in a profit of as much as $1 billion dollars (out of a total annual Afghan drug profit of 6.5 to 10 billion dollars). That same year the UN's Drug Control Programme estimated that the ISI had about $2.5 billion in drug profits. The ISI director allegedly involved in 9/11 was put in place by military coup leader General Pervez Musharraf after former Director Brig Imtiaz was convicted of having millions of dollars from the drug trade in a Deutschbank account, a bank whose name crops up repeatedly in the story of 9/11. Vanity Fair (3/1/02) alleges that the ISI is still a drug trafficker, and that Pakistan has a $15 billion dollar drug economy (and a $60 billion dollar legal economy), which US policy rewards. Michael Ruppert speculates that the Taliban cracked down on opium production as "a form of economic warfare that might take a whole lot of money out of the world's banking system and its cooked books."

Reportedly Musharraf was for aiding the US against the Taliban at a high-level meeting after 9/11, and was opposed by four top officers, who were soon removed from office. They were then ISI Director Ahmed, Lt. Gen. Muzaffar Usmani, Lt. Gen. Jamshaid Gulzar Kiani, and Lt. Gen. Mohammed Aziz Khan. This may not be a true report though, because Ahmed was in the US until the 16^th and then Afghanistan and another country (Guardian, 5/25/02).

Pakistan was also benevolent to its domestic terrorists and fundamentalists who were a base for Musharraf and past military rulers. For example, in January 2002 Pakistan arrested about 2000 militants, but 800 or more were let go before February, "most of their firebrand leaders" included, according to Time magazine (5/6/02), and most of the rest over the year, and most of the terrorist groups reformed under new names according to the WP (2/8/03).

Former Afghan anti-communist mujahideen leader Abdul Haq was betrayed by the US, which apparently wanted to sideline him as it did with Ahmed Shah Masood. Haq offered in February 2001 to fight the Taliban in southern Afghanistan with 50 other mujahideen leaders, but he supported former Afghan king Zahir Shah, exiled in Italy after a military coup in the mid-70's. The CIA refused to back the operation. In October 2001 he infiltrated into Afghanistan but was surrounded by the Taliban, resulting in a 12 hour battle. He appealed to his ally Robert McFarlane, Reagan's National Security Adviser, who asked the CIA to assist, and it refused. Haq was near a former helicopter landing point, but the CIA said the terrain did not allow an airlift. Five hours after Haq was captured, a unmanned drone was used to attack the Taliban. Haq was executed. Former CIA director of counterterrorism Vincent Cannistraro and others accused the ISI of betraying Haq, and the ISI might have been behind the murder of Haq's family.

November 14-25, 2001 the US reportedly let thousands of Pakistanis and others fighting with the Taliban and al Qaida escape by air from Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan. Among those escaping were two Pakistani generals and numerous senior officers, Taliban leaders, and possibly part of Osama bin Laden's family. According to the NYT (11/24/01) Pakistan helped non-Afghan soldiers escape in 50 trucks. Supposedly the deal was made to keep Musharraf in power, and it was supposed to be limited and with US questioning, but then it got out of control. India said that by the last three days of the escape, 5000 flew out and the last 3000 surrendered. The US and Pakistan denied that it happened. This mirrors unopposed al Qaida and Taliban retreats to Jalalabad and Tora Bora in the south.

Many Taliban officials are free in Afghanistan and Taliban. One of them told the Guardian newspaper (12/24/01) that "Some are living in luxury in fine houses, they are not hiding in holes" and could be arrested quickly. Four or more senior leaders were released after capture. The US did not question Mullah Haji Abdul Samat Khaksar, the second highest Taliban leader held by the US, for months and despite his willingness to talk, for example about continuing ISI and Taliban cooperation against the US (Time, 2/19 and 2/25/02). Taliban general Mullah Akhter Mohammed Osmani was let go a few weeks after being captured and fled to Pakistan, though the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) said Osmani was never captured (Washington Times, 12/18/02).

ISI-bin Laden collaboration

When bin Laden joined the war in Afghanistan in 1984, he worked with the Maktab al-Khidmar (MAK), a Pakistani front for supporting the mujahideen, which MSNBC (8/24/98) says the ISI "nurtured," the ISI being the USA's proxy. Gerald Posner claims in his book, mentioned above, Why America Slept, that, according to former CIA agents, bin Laden repeatedly met with ISI Director General Akhtar Abdul Rahman (in office 1980-87) in Peshawar, Pakistan. Allegedly they had a system in which the opium trade was taxed, bringing in as much as $100 million dollars a year in 1985. Posner also claims that bin Laden and Abu Zubaida met with high-ranking Pakistani military leaders, such as Mushaf Ali Mir (he became the head of the air force in 2000) in June 1996. This was just after bin Laden had relocated to Afghanistan and a month after the alleged meeting with Saudi officials in Paris. Pakistan wanted al Qaida to support the Taliban, in return for Pakistani protection, and soon bin Laden did move from non-Taliban Jalalabad to Kandahar, a major base of the Taliban. Mir is one of those who died in strange circumstances shortly after he was allegedly revealed as a sympathizer with foreknowledge of the 9/11 plot by Zubaida in US custody in spring 2002. Posner reports that seven months after the alleged assassinations in Saudi Arabia, a recently inspected Pakistani air force plane went down, in fine conditions, claiming Mir, his wife, and others.

According to the New Yorker magazine (7/28/03), former ISI Director Hamid Gul informed the Taliban in July 1999 that the USA was not planning to attack them over bin Laden and he said he would warn them 3-4 hours before any US missile strike, alluding to a previous warning. Richard Clark suspects that Gul warned al-Qaida about the strikes in August 1998 and the US military suspected that Pakistan was warning about missile attacks. According to the UPI (7/22/04), a high-ranking official anonymously gave a document to the 9/11 Commission accusing Gul of being behind 9/11. The document pointed out that Gul admittedly admires bin Laden. Allegedly the CIA called Gul "'the most dangerous man' in Pakistan," and a high-ranking Pakistani leader thinks Gul "was Osama bin Laden's master planner" (The Terror Timeline and UPI). Knowledgeable people have questioned how al Qaida could have planned and pulled off the 9/11 attacks without state intelligence sponsorship (more on this below).

ISI agents are allegedly involved in getting advanced weapons for al Qaida and condoned attacks on American civilians. Randy Glass was an American informant involved in stings investigating weapons transfers to al-Qaida. July 14, 1999 Glass met at a restaurant in New York City with two illict weapons traffickers, Diaa Mohsen and Mohammed Malik, Shireen Shawky, a former judge from Egypt, and Rajaa Gulum Abbas, an ISI officer. FBI agents were undercover nearby. Abbas wanted to obtain stolen US military equipment for al Qaida. Abbas three times said there would be attacks on the WTC, including pointing out the window and reportedly saying "Those towers are coming down." He also said "Americans [are] the enemy" and that "We would have no problem blowing up this entire restaurant because it is full of Americans" (several media sources are cited in The Terror Timeline). The group met again August 17^th at a warehouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, to inspect Stinger missiles, the anti-aircraft weapon that the mujahideen found very effective in downing Soviet aircraft. Abbas and Malik were identified as being connected to the Pakistan-backed guerillas fighting in India-controlled Kashmir and the Taliban, and the missiles were for either group. Mohsen said Abbas was in contact with "dignitaries" and bin Laden. Abbas wanted to buy heavy water for a dirty bomb or other radioactive substances and said a Pakistani scientist would come to inspect the merchandise. They wanted to pay in part with heroin.

Mohsen and Malik were arrested over the Stingers June 12, 2001. Mohsen claimed to be linked to the Taliban and al Qaida. He pled guilty after 9/11, but was only imprisoned for 30 months and his connections to Pakistan were covered up. Malik was apparently let go and his court records sealed, and he worked at a Florida store less than a year afterward. The indictments of Abbas and Malik failed to mention their ties to Pakistan, the Taliban, or who they were seeking weaponry for. Kevin Ingram, a former Deutschbank senior investment banker (he resigned January 1999 after his division lost a lot of money), pled guilty to laundering $350,000 dollars and received an 18-month jail sentence. Pilot Walter Kapij had a small role, but was imprisoned for 33 months. Glass had 13 felony fraud charges, but acting as an informant reduced his punishment to 7 months in jail. Abbas was secretly indicted in June 2002, but MSNBC (8/2/02) easily contacted him by phone in Pakistan that August. Others, such as Shireen Shawky, were left alone. The FBI hindered the operation by not classifying it as counterintelligence and the Miami supervisor would not fund the sting, so Customs and Glass himself paid for it. Prosecutors often refused to allow phonetapping for the investigation.

That summer Egyptian agents found Ahmed al-Khadir, a friend of bin Laden and suspected of involvement in the 1995 bombing of Egypt's embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. They surrounded his location and asked the ISI for support, which the ISI granted. Then the ISI sent a car with diplomatic plates and Taliban fighters that freed al-Khadir and took him to Afghanistan (Time magazine, 5/6/02). In June 2002 the ISI is thought to have sheltered three al Qaida fighters who had just killed 10 soldiers. Reportedly the FBI and Pakistani security no longer notify the ISI of intended raids and the ISI does not share information with other Pakistani forces (from the Independent, 7/21/02).

The well-respected Jane's Defense Digest (9/20/01) confirmed Indian intelligence that bin Laden received kidney dialysis at a military hospital in Peshawar. According to CBS News (1/28/02) bin Laden was in Rawalpindi, Pakistan for treatment on September 10, 2001. Reportedly the military gave him security and the regular urology staff were removed and outsiders treated bin Laden. Asia Times (8/22/02) reported that the US wanted Pakistan to cooperate in capturing or killing bin Laden, but "a very strong lobby" in the Pakistani military was against cooperation. Reportedly the Taliban was open to negotiation about bin Laden that month, but Pakistan did not want to discuss bin Laden. In December 2001 Younis Qanooni, Afghanistan's Interior Minister, said the ISI assisted bin Laden in escaping from Afghanistan and were aiding him, with or without Musharraf's support.

Ahmad Shah Masood, a leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance and a popular mujahideen leader, was assassinated September 9, 2001 by two alleged al Qaida members disguised as journalists. September 14^th the Northern Alliance claimed in a press release that a "Pakistani ISI-Osama-Taliban axis" (Reuters, 9/15/01) was behind the killing.

The kidnapping and murder of WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl while he was reportedly investigating ISI linked terrorists and US support for the ISI provides more evidence of the ISI's state terrorism. He was kidnapped January 23, 2002 and known to be dead February 22^nd, but is believed to have been murdered January 31^st. 9/11 funder Saeed Sheikh (see below) was indicted for the kidnapping, but others apparently actually carried out the operation and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has also been named as a plotter, and allegedly is the person who murdered Pearl. A new group, the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, claimed credit, and US intelligence thought it was connected to the ISI. Its demands were unusual, such as asking for the repatriation of Pakistanis held by the USA, withdrawal of all American reporters in Pakistan, and for the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. That was the first such demand by terrorists, but acquiring the jets is longtime wish of the Pakistani government. January 19^th a high-ranking government official, many assume within the ISI, told the Pakistani media that Peral is Jewish, possibly to persuade the kidnappers to kill Pearl. November 10, 2001 the ISI merely deported Christina Lamb of the Daily Telegraph, who was in Pakistan researching ISI-Taliban ties.

Saeed Sheikh turned himself in to his former ISI superior, Ijaz Shah, a few days after the Pakistani police threatened family members. The ISI detained him for a week before they notified the police and they refuse to say what happened during that time. Saeed implied to the media that his family would be harmed if he said what happened. According to Thompson's Terror Timeline, only one American media report he looked at connected Saeed to the ISI, al Qaida, and the funding of 9/11, and fewer connections were mentioned in coverage of his July 2002 trial in Pakistan. The UK's media gave more play to the links. Saeed expected little punishment, according to a Newsweek story (3/11/02) and an article in The News newspaper of Pakistan reported that Saeed told the police that he was involved in terrorism in Kashmir and against the Indian parliament, and that he collaborated with the ISI in paying for, planning, and carrying out the parliament attack. The ISI intimidated The News into firing the four reporters for that article and the editor left the country instead of giving in to the ISI's request for an apology. Saeed later withdrew his confession. In the US then Secretary of State Powell said the ISI could not be involved, while then Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said the ISI was involved. Musharraf reportedly wanted Saeed hung, but also blamed Pearl for his own death, for being "over-intrusive" in "intelligence games" (cited in The Terror Timeline). The US indicted Saeed in March 2002, but, out of Saeed's long terrorist career, only referred to his involvement with al Qaida in the fall of 2001, and did not mention his role in 9/11, and not one journalist brought this up with then Attorney General Ashcroft. The FBI had access to Saeed only in February, and could not ask about him about al Qaida. The justice of the secret trial that sentenced Saeed to death is doubtful (see The Terror Timeline), though few in the US media questioned it. The British media did better on this. Seven or more involved in the plot and linked to the ISI were not found and arrested. According to Associated Press (AP) articles (8/1 and 8/7/03) the four men convicted in the Daniel Pearl case were not present where Pearl was confined and killed and three suspects arrested in May 2002 were being held secretly so that Saeed would be convicted.

Many former intelligence, military, and other government officials in the USA and elsewhere have expressed doubt that al Qaida had the ability to carry out 9/11 by itself. For example, former Egyptian military Major General Dr. Mahmoud Khalaf, a fellow of the Higher Military Academy of Egypt and a member of the British Royal College of Defence Studies, among other honors, said at a presentation at the University of Cairo's Center for Asian Studies (12/5/01) that he thought the attack would have taken 100 or more specialists a year to plan and that the only question is "That there is no proportionality between the performance of the operation and the performance of bin Laden and his followers." The former director of the CIA's Afghan activities, Milton Beardman, told CBS Evening News interviewer Dan Rather that it looked like a state was involved and that "if they didn't have an Osama bin Laden, they would have invented one" (9/12/01). The Center for Strategic and International Studies Senior Fellow in Strategic Assessment and a former official in several US military and foreign affairs offices, as well as NATO, Dr. Anthony Cordesman, said "There is a level of sophistication and co-ordination that no counterterrorism expert had ever previously anticipated, and we don't have a group that we can immediately identify that has this kind of capability" (AP, 9/11/01). There is overwhelming evidence that the plot was known beforehand though, and that the US was aware of the idea of hijacking airliners to use as missiles. A former Egyptian Foreign Minister and a top political commentator, Mohamed Heikal, said "Bin Laden does not have the capabilities for an operation of this magnitude…They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organization and sophistication" (The Guardian, 10/10/01). A former President of the German internal intelligence agency denied that a "loose group" such as Mohammed Atta's cell in Hamburg, Germany could have carried out 9/11, instead saying the operations must have been "state organized actions" (American Free Press, 12/4/01).

Jane's Intelligence Digest wrote (September 20, 2001): "It is becoming clear that both the Taliban and al-Qaeda would have found it difficult to have continued functioning – including the latter group's terrorist activities – without substantial aid and support from Islamabad [the government of Pakistan]." In The Terror Timeline Thompson writes "To date, this author has not uncovered a single mainstream U.S. media outlet that has seriously explored the possibility of Pakistani involvement in the 9/11 plot."

The ISI's role in 9/11

The ISI's direct role in perpetrating the 9/11 attacks can be seen by following the money and planning from al Qaida members identified as responsible, back to the Director of the ISI that fall. Saeed Sheikh apparently handled the funding and some of the training for the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed planned and controlled the plot for al Qaida, and former ISI Director Mahmoud Ahmed knew about the plot and told Saeed to send money to the future hijackers. Bin Laden and most of the men identified as the hijackers are Saudi and all are Arab, but key facilitators are Pakistani, and associated with the Pakistani government, which has numerous ties to terrorism against many nations.

Saeed Sheikh

Saeed Sheikh has already been referred to above as a terrorist associated with the ISI who gave funds and credit help to the alleged 9/11 hijackers. Saeed is of Pakistani origin and attended al Qaida and ISI terrorism training after dropping out of the London School of Economics, despite being what Thompson calls a "brilliant" student. He was a trainer at those camps by the middle of 1994 and then got involved in operations in India to kidnap Western tourists, including British citizens. Reportedly his ISI supervisor was Ijaz Shah, the official he surrendered to in 2002. In October 1994 he was arrested and jailed for 5 years in India. The ISI paid for his defense. In prison Saeed made contact with Indian organized crime and Maulana Masood Azhar and his group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, linked to al Qaida.

Through a prisoner exchange after an Indian airliner was hijacked and flown to Afghanistan, Saeed became free in December 1999. The London Times alleged (7/16/02) that the UK offered Saeed amnesty in return for intelligence about al Qaida, but was refused. He was still able to visit his parents there in 2000 and 2001 though. September 23, 2001 the UK reportedly sought India's help in finding Saeed. After being freed he traveled to Kandahar and met with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and bin Laden, who reportedly called Saeed "my special son." He returned to Pakistan where the ISI gave him a house and he had connections to several ISI officials and was at "swanky parties attended by senior Pakistani officials" (Vanity Fair, August 2002). Several media reports said he was collaborating with Ijaz Shah, who had been the ISI's contact with two terrorist organizations, Lt. Gen. Mohammed Aziz Khan, former deputy chief of the ISI and a link between the ISI and Jaish-e-Mohammed, and former ISI Brigadier Abdullah. He allegedly traveled repeatedly to terrorism training camps and contributed to training the hijackers, securing al Qaida's Internet communications, and working on a bin Laden interview video. Supposedly he was considered a candidate to replace bin Laden. He helped fund and train kidnapping operatives for an Indian gangster based in the UAE, in return for some of the ransom money. Saeed received $100,000 dollars for one kidnapping in August 2001 and transferred it to Mohammed Atta in the USA. Abdulrahman A. A. Al-Ghamdi, allegedly one of KSM's aliases, got a credit card on one of Mustafa Al-Hawsawi's accounts, allegedly one of Saeed's aliases. Saeed may be the Mustafa Ahmed who gave about $325,000 dollars to Mohammed Atta (see Thompson's Timeline). The 9/11 Commission says "the origin of the money used for the 9/11 attacks…[is] of little practical importance" and said the government was not able to trace it. Saeed is also thought to have worked with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the Pearl plot. Supposedly both were arrested in 2003, but witnesses did not see them there.

Saeed is thought to have retreated to Pakistan and Afghanistan, from the UAE, on September 11^th. Reportedly he met with bin Laden and fought with the Taliban, then was an intermediary as the ISI worked to hide bin Laden. In October 2001 he openly lived in Lahore, Pakistan and often attended parties with government officials and held a party when a child was born in January. He went into hiding four days before the Pearl kidnapping. Thompson notes that the US media often used Saeed's aliases or identified him as other people, especially after Saeed is linked to ISI Director Mahmoud, and they generally did not link Saeed to 9/11 when they reported on the Pearl murder. The FBI did not try to find the aliases, but apparently also used them to confuse the public, according to Thompson.

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (3/3/02) "There are many in Musharraf's government who believe that Saeed Sheikh's power comes not from the ISI, but from his connections with our own CIA. The theory is that…Saeed Sheikh was bought and paid for."

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Mohammed is a Pakistani who grew up in Kuwait and came to the USA for college, then went to Afghanistan in the late 80's, reportedly meeting bin Laden. In the mid-90's he was involved in planning and attempting terrorism in the Philippines, while spending money freely, drinking, pursuing women, etc., like some of the 9/11 hijackers he reportedly commanded. He escaped capture over the Bojinka plot to explode or suicide hijack airliners. He lived openly in Qatar, with the help of Interior Minister Abdallah bin Khalid al-Thani. In 1998 the US revealed that Mohammed had been involved in Bojinka and placed a $2 million dollar reward for his capture and produced posters. The effort was less than that to find his nephew, Ramzi Yousef, and he was not listed in the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list until August 2001. According to one official "We had identified him as a major al-Qaeda operative before September 11," though officials said after 9/11 that Mohammed somehow went unnoticed (NYT, 9/22/02).

By June 2001 the US knew he was trying to infiltrate agents into the USA and the National Security Agency recorded telephone calls between Mohammed and Atta around that time, but apparently did not tell the FBI. The NSA also recorded Mohammed giving Atta the final go-ahead signal on September 10. Using his picture on a Saudi passport under an alias, he got a visa to enter the USA in July 2001 (LAT, 1/27/04). June 4, 2002 the US announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the "mastermind" of the 9/11 plot. Most of the media ignored his links to the ISI. Allegedly Mohammed replaced Abu Zubaida when he was captured March 28, 2002.

Supposedly Mohammed is now a prisoner of the USA and providing information of questionable veracity, under torture. Pakistani and Indian journalists reported that he was capture June 16, 2002, but Pakistan and the US denied it. September 11, 2002 he might have been killed or almost caught when Ramzi bin al-Shibh was caught in Karachi. Finally, March 1, 2003 a joint Pakistani and FBI operation allegedly caught Mohammed and Mustafa Ahmed Al-Hawsawi in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Witnesses denied this and there were various versions of how it happened. "Foreign journalists looking at [an ISI video of the raid] laughed and said this is baloney, this is a reconstruction" (3/10/03).

Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmed

Mahmoud Ahmed became director of the ISI after General Musharraf removed Ahmed's predecessor for corruption. According to sources such as Ghost Wars by Steve Coll, Ahmed was one of the main forces behind Musharraf's seizure of power. The WP (12/19/01) characterized Mahmoud as a "leading Taliban supporter" and reportedly he was involved in funding the 9/11 attack. India claimed in October 2001 that Saeed Sheikh transferred $100,000 dollars to Mohammed Atta before 9/11 on Ahmed's orders. India also says the FBI has confirmed the charge. A few weeks later the Afghan Northern Alliance made the same charge. Reportedly the USA was behind the removal of Ahmed, as well as Lt. Gen. Mohammed Aziz Khan (Saeed's superior) and Lt. Gen. Muzaffer Usmani of the ISI, who allegedly opposed Pakistani support for the US attack on the Taliban. Ahmed has been silent on the allegations. Outside of Pakistan and India these charges have been mostly ignored by the media, though the WSJ mentioned it October 10, 2001. These charges could have been concocted by India or planted by anti-Pakistan factions of the US government, but they fit in with the pattern of Pakistani involvement in terrorism, including against Americans.

September 4-11 Ahmed was in Washington, his second after an April 4, 2000 visit. He was received at the Pentagon and the National Security Council and met with then CIA Director George Tenet, State Department officials, unidentified officials of the Bush Administration, and US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Mark Grossman. On the morning of 9/11 Ahmed was meeting with Democrat Bob Graham and Republican Porter Goss, now head of the CIA, who controlled the joint Congressional investigation into 9/11, which referred to Pakistan very little. The News of Pakistan noted that such trips to Washington by the ISI often came before major changes in Pakistan, such as Musharraf's military overthrow of the government in 1999.

The White House evidently does not want this information to be circulated. At a May 16, 2002 press conference, Condolezza Rice was asked if she was aware of Ahmed's visit, why he was here, and if he met with any Administration officials. The question also mentioned the money that was sent from Pakistan on the 10^th, though it did not link Ahmed to this). The Federal News Service recorded the full question; the White House transcript took out most of the question: "Dr. Rice, are you aware of the reports at the time that (inaudible) was in Washington on the 11^th…? (noted by Michel Chossudovsky and quoted in Griffin's O&C). Inside Politics on CNN and others used the White House transcript.

October 8, 2001 Ahmed resigned, because of pressure from the USA, according to an article in the Times of India (10/9/01).

The final section looks at the US government's collaboration with and protection of al Qaida and Israel's role in 9/11.