As a nation, we are brought up to feel it a disgrace to succeed by falsehood; the word "spy" conveys in it something as repulsive as slave. We will keep hammering away with the conviction that honesty is the best policy, and that truth always wins in the long run. These pretty little sentences do well enough for a child's copy-book, but the man who acts upon them in war had better sheathe his sword for ever. (pp. 133-135, 1938 edition)
Some American Tommies are like their British counterparts, some are religious devouts on a “mission” because they have been deceived about 911; some are ordinary folk who cannot find work elsewhere, or who cannot otherwise afford a college education, and also are deceived about 911 and in some clouded state of mind refuse to think too clearly about why they are following orders.
We all may know that truth is the first casualty of war, but it is harder to appreciate that the "endless war" of the post-WWII war economy has meant a constant and endless stream of lies on all the most important matters to shape public consciousnes and accommodate it to the horrors necessary for war and imperialism at the time of Peak Oil -- a burgeoning of world economies coupled with a finite and soon-to-be depleted if not exhausted world-wide supply of essential raw materials. For complicated reasons, I believe that this decades-long cry of scarcity is coming to a crunch over the next decade or so.
The most recent, and most telling lie, comes from a wolf wearing sheep's clothing, "Cheney's Law," a PBS Frontline documentary that I interpret as harkening a reconciliation and fusion of interest between both major factions of the ruling class that are now fully aligned against democratic process, including your right to have your vote counted as cast. You may watch it in its entirety by clicking the initial episode on this page: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/view/
Frontline meticulously documents Cheney's push for overriding unitary executive power, a project that as Ellsberg notes he has pursued since the 1970s, but wishes are not horses until they can be ridden. The "unitary executive" power was introduced into Nazi Germany as the fueherprincipe, the idea that all power resides in and devolves from the leader himself -- who makes the laws rather than executes them. Pretending to operate under the authority of the Constitution, Cheney has been enabled in turning the document on its head by having attorneys David Addington and John Yoo interpret Article II, Section 2 to mean that as Commander in Chief the president shall have the power to do whatever he deems best in time of war, irrespective of Congress and the Courts. This is, of course, expressly contrary to the history and intent of the founders, as well as the over two centuries of Constitutional law that have followed. Whereas Ellsberg underscores the horror and depth of the coup by conveying that Cheney has been plotting it for a very long time, Frontline portrays Cheney as a patient lawful man who has bided his time. What, then, allowed Cheney's wish to come true and how does Frontline treat this bold usurpation of power? And, please keep in mind that Cheney is the spear-tip of a branch of the ruling class that has always yearned for legitimated fascism.
According to Frontline, two key events just happened. Cheney, and his powerful legal advocate, David Addington "waited for a future president, one more receptive to their ideas," and found him in the person of George W. Bush. "But then something happened they could not have imagined -- 9/11-- and there was a moment of preparation meeting a moment of opportunity." We are told that Cheney was able to continue his programme after Bush was re-elected in 2004.
As those of us working for Election Integrity know, Cheney & Co. had not "waited" for the right president: they stole the 2000 election in order to install him and stole it again in 2004 to maintain their power. Frontline knows this, and conceals it in order to legitimate the Cheney-Bush presidency.
I am not going to present the facts of 911 in any detail, but the evidence that 911 is a USG intelligence operation is as strong as the evidence that the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 were stolen. I do draw your attention to a turn of phrase, and a claim of fact made by Frontline. Many of us were shocked to hear Bush and Cheney describe 911 "as an opportunity" as though they were not much concerned with the actual attack and supposed enemy. The video's clever phrasing normalizes that jarring bit of history. More importantly, Frontline tells us that "something happened they could not have imagined -- 9/11." In so saying, Frontline underscores that the US was taken entirely by surprise and that 911 could never have been prevented because there was no way to anticipate it. The truth of this claim admits an indisputable answer: the warnings were legion, explicit as to means, target and date, collectively overwhelming in volume and detail. They are just as unhappily generally unknown as Greg Palast's proof of electoral fraud while the votes were still being counted that Gore refused to use and that the media hushed up. I refer the reader not already familiar with them to Paul Thompson, The Terror Timeline, Cht. 1, "Warning Signs" and Cht. 2 "Insider Trading and Other Foreknowledge." These may also be viewed online at http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&before_9/11=warnings AND http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&before_9/11=insidertrading; Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, The War on Truth: 911, Disinformation, and the Anatomy of Terrorism, Cht. 7 "What They Knew, When." Here is a good example, one of many:
Niaz Khan, a British citizen originally from Pakistan, is recruited into an al-Qaeda plot. In early 2000 he is flown to Lahore, Pakistan, and then trains in a compound there for a week with others on how to hijack passenger airplanes. He trains on a mock cockpit of a 767 aircraft (an airplane type used on 9/11). He is taught hijacking techniques, including how to smuggle guns and other weapons through airport security and how to get into a cockpit. In April 2000 he flies to the US and told to meet with a contact. He says, “They said I would live there for a while and meet some other people and we would hijack a plane from JFK and fly it into a building.” [London Times, 5/9/2004] He has “no doubt” this is the 9/11 plot. However, Khan slips away and gambles away the money given to him by al-Qaeda. Afraid he would be killed for betraying al-Qaeda, he turns himself in to the FBI. For three weeks, FBI counterterrorism agents in Newark, New Jersey interview him. [MSNBC, 6/3/2004; Observer, 6/6/2004] One FBI agent recalls, “We were incredulous. Flying a plane into a building sounded crazy but we polygraphed him and he passed.” [London Times, 5/9/2004] A former FBI official says the FBI agents believed Khan and aggressively tried to follow every lead in the case, but word came from FBI headquarters saying, “Return him to London and forget about it.”
What follows immediately from 911 according to the commentary is "What Cheney does then is say, 'We will have to be a country ruled by men, rather than laws, in this period.'" Of course, "this period" is a "war that will not end in our lifetimes." Frontline continues to present all of the torture, destruction of civil rights, and the Constitution itself as a perhaps regrettable but reasonable response to events, and certainly a reasonable interpretation of a document that Addington & Yoo turn inside out. Many heavies from the Eastern Liberal establishment weigh in to convey their polite skepticism about whether Cheney may not have gone a little too far, and thereby bestow upon this very deliberate fascism the mantle of legitimacy. An understanding has been reached amongst the ruling class; the People shall have none but mavericks and outcasts like Ellsberg & Kwiatkowski to speak some part of the truth on their behalf. This is PBS, public television, and Frontline's "investigative" reporting has sold us all down the river even while pretending to keep us informed and enlightened.
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