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Pentagon Censors 9/11 Suspect’s Tape

Friday, September 14th, 2007

By PAULINE JELINEKAssociated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon has censored an audio tape of the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks speaking at a military hearing - cutting out Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s explanation for why Islamic militants waged jihad against the United States.

After months of debate by several federal agencies, the Defense Department released the tape Thursday. Cut from it were 10 minutes of the more than 40-minute closed court session at Guantanamo Bay to determine whether Mohammed should be declared an “enemy combatant.”

Since the March hearing, he has been assigned “enemy combatant” status, a classification the Bush administration says allows it to hold him indefinitely and prosecute him at a military tribunal.

Officials from the CIA, FBI, State Department and others listened to the tape and feared it could be copied and edited by other militants for use as propaganda, officials said.

“It was determined that the release of this portion of the spoken words of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would enable enemies of the United States to use it in a way to recruit or encourage future terrorists or terrorist activities,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. “This could ultimately endanger the lives and physical safety of American citizens and those of our allies.”

Calling Mohammed a “notorious figure,” Whitman added, “I think we all recognize that there is an obvious difference between the potential impacts of the written versus the spoken word.”

Some of the statements deleted from the tape have already been widely reported because the Pentagon released a 26-page written transcript of the hearing several days after it was held. Others statements were cut both from the audio and the transcript because of security and privacy concerns, officials said.

Mohammed was the first of 14 so-called “high-value” detainees who were held in secret CIA prisons before being transferred to the Pentagon facility at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

At the hearing, he portrayed himself as al-Qaida’s most active operational planner, confessing to the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl and to playing a central role in 30 other attacks and plots in the U.S. and worldwide that killed thousands.

The attacks range from the suicide hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001 - which killed nearly 3,000 - to a 2002 shooting on an island off Kuwait that killed a U.S. Marine.

Among statements that appeared in the transcript, but were cut from the audio, was Mohammed saying he felt some sorrow over Sept. 11.

“I’m not happy that 3,000 been killed in America,” the transcript quoted him as saying in broken English. “I feel sorry even. I don’t like to kill children and the kids.”

But he says there are exceptions in war.

“The language of the war is victims,” Mohammed said in a part of the transcript that was cut from the audio. He compared al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to George Washington, saying Americans view Washington as a hero for his role in the Revolutionary War and many Muslims view bin Laden in the same light.

“He is doing same thing. He is just fighting. He needs his independence,” Mohammed said.

During much of Mohammed’s hearing, he spoke in English. The audio released by the Pentagon includes Mohammed responding to questions.

Audio tapes of other high-value detainees have been released by the Pentagon. Whitman said he did not know if any of those have been used as propaganda by extremist groups on the Internet.

The audio tape also includes a number of other redactions that reflect portions of the written transcript that were deleted, because of security and privacy concerns, when it was first released.

One of the sections initially held back by the Pentagon, but later released, was Mohammed’s confession to the beheading of Pearl. “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan,” Mohammed said in a written statement read by his U.S.-appointed representative for the hearing.

Officials at first held back the section to allow time for his family to be notified, Whitman said at the time.

—

AP Washington reporter Lolita Baldor contributed to this report.

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Court Case of Suspected Terrorist‏

Friday, September 14th, 2007

WILMA RILEY

A JURY in the trial of a student accused of terror offences must decide if he is “a wannabe suicide bomber” or a “foolishly stupid young man” simply researching Islamic terrorism.

Prosecutor Brian McConnachie, QC, yesterday told the members of the jury they should convict Mohammed Atif Siddique, 21, of three out of four terror charges he faces.

Siddique’s counsel said the suggestion was “unpalatable and ridiculous” and argued it was legitimate for the accused to access information to understand Muslim terrorists’ behaviour.

Siddique, of Alva, Clackmannanshire, denies the terror charges and a breach of the peace.

Summing up the case for the prosecution, Mr McConnachie said: “This is not someone who is systematically carrying out research into Islamic politics and the difficulties facing Muslims in the Middle East, this is a wannabe suicide bomber.”

And, referring to documents and videos allegedly found on Siddique’s computer and a CD discovered under a carpet in his family home, Mr McConnachie added: “The whole ethos is to get the message across as to what people should be doing.

“It is saying if you are a Muslim you should be going to [wage] Jihad [holy war].”

Mr McConnachie said it was very significant that Siddique allegedly took the name Yah Yah Ayash as one of his aliases during online chats.

Ayash was Hamas’s chief bomb-maker, responsible for making the explosives used by suicide bombers in Palestinian and a man revered by both Hamas and al-Qaeda.

Donald Findlay, QC, defending, began his speech by quoting from the Koran and said the jury should not be “bound into a conviction” through a “fear or alarm” of Islam.

And Mr Findlay claimed that the suggestion that Siddique wanted to be a suicide bomber “has no crumb of evidence”.

The QC criticised a website run by terrorist expert Evan Kohlmann, who earlier gave evidence against Siddique, - claiming its content, such as the beheading of a US hostage, was the “most horrific ever shown to a jury”.

He added: “It is not challenged that he [Siddique] downloaded material. If it was training, then so is Evan Kohlmann’s [material].

“Instead of being brought from the US to be put in the witness box, he should have been put in the dock.

“Is it not legitimate that Mr Siddique can find out why young Muslim men like him act the way they do? It would not matter if he had 100 times the amount of material he had. You, the jury, have to be satisfied that it was for a terrorist attack.”

Mr Findlay concluded: “He [Siddique] is a young man who has said things that are distasteful, which you may not agree with. However, that does not make him a suicide bomber.

“You cannot put someone on trial for what he says or thinks.

In this country, we have the right, protected by law, and the freedom to do, say and think what you like.

“We also have the freedom to be wise or foolish.”

The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict today.

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Dems Reject Bush Iraq Plan

Friday, September 14th, 2007

Senate Democrats Lack the 60 Votes Necessary to Force Bush to Withdraw Troops

pelosi reid

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) speak to reporters following a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House in Washington September 11, 2007. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

By Z. BYRON WOLF

Calling President Bush’s anticipated announcement Thursday to end the surge the “illusion of change,” Senate Democrats called again on Republicans to break with the White House on Iraq policy next week.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, “The president is dug in and unwilling to realize that his strategy places all the burden on our military, and its not working.

“His plan is neither a drawdown or a change in mission,” Reid said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “His plan is more of the same. It keeps at least 130,000 troops, American troops, in the midst of a civil war. That is unacceptable to me. It’s unacceptable to the American people. I hope the Senate Republicans realize it’s time to come over and work with us.”

Syria says Israel aims to torpedo peace

Friday, September 14th, 2007

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria’s U.N. ambassador said on Wednesday that Israel’s motive in flying warplanes into its airspace was to torpedo the peace process, but he did not make a specific request for the U.N. Security Council to meet.

Israel has refused to comment on the air strikes on September 6 but U.S. officials have confirmed them. Analysts say likely targets were weapons caches Iran may have sent through Syria for Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas.

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari warned the Security Council and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in letters on Tuesday, of consequences for the region and denounced Israel for a “flagrant defiance of international law.

“We think the Israeli purpose behind such an aggressive act is to torpedo the peace process, to torpedo the idea of holding an international conference,” Ja’afari told reporters.

“So the issue in itself might not be a pure military one but having a very important diplomatic and political background,” he added.

Asked why he did not call for a Security Council meeting, Ja’afari said it was not his job to do so. Instead he said he wanted to inform the 15-member body about Israel’s action so they could “assume their responsibility in the maintenance of peace and security.”

“If they don’t act appropriately, then it would be a jungle law and there would be no need for the Security Council. ”

But the usual procedure for a council reaction is a request from the secretary-general or any U.N. member nation, and none has yet emerged. “If Syria had wanted a reaction of the council, they would have said so in a letter,” a council member said.

One possible reason for the lack of council action is that no one is certain what happened. Syria, in its letter, said Israeli aircraft “dropped some munitions but without managing to cause any human casualties or material damage.” Israel has not said if it hit anything.

Asked about Hezbollah’s weapons, Ja’afari said, “This is blah, blah. This is nonsense, this is an unfounded statement. It is not up to the Israelis or anyone else to assess what we have in Syria.”

“There was no target,” he added. “They dropped their munitions. They were running away after they were confronted by our air defence.”

Ja’afari said the purpose of his letter also was to warn the Israeli government “about the consequences of such an irresponsible act perpetrated against our sovereignty and to let the Security Council know that.”

Asked if he would take the issue to the General Assembly, the ambassador said it was too early to consider that.

Israeli planes last struck Syria in 2003 across a border that remains tense but largely quiet some 34 years after the last war between the two neighbours ended in an edgy cease-fire.

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The Coincidence Theorist’s Guide to 9/11

Friday, September 14th, 2007

There are no coincidences

The Coincidence Theorist’s Guide to 9/11

-That governments have permitted terrorist acts against their own people, and have even themselves been perpetrators in order to find strategic advantage is quite likely true, but this is the United States we’re talking about. -That intelligence agencies, financiers, terrorists and narco-criminals have a long history together is well established, but the Nugan Hand Bank, BCCI, Banco Ambrosiano, the P2 Lodge, the CIA/Mafia anti-Castro/Kennedy alliance, Iran/Contra and the rest were a long time ago, so there’s no need to rehash all that. -That was then, this is now! -That Jonathan Bush’s Riggs Bank has been found guilty of laundering terrorist funds and fined a US-record $25 million must embarrass his nephew George, but it’s still no justification for leaping to paranoid conclusions.

-That George Bush’s brother Marvin sat on the board of the Kuwaiti-owned company which provided electronic security to the World Trade Centre, Dulles Airport and United Airlines means nothing more than you must admit those Bush boys have done alright for themselves.

-That George Bush found success as a businessman only after the investment of Osama’s brother Salem and reputed al Qaeda financier Khalid bin Mahfouz is just one of those things - one of those crazy things.

-That Osama bin Laden is known to have been an asset of US foreign policy in no way implies he still is.

-That al Qaeda was active in the Balkan conflict, fighting on the same side as the US as recently as 1999, while the US protected its cells, is merely one of history’s little aberrations.

-The claims of Michael Springman, State Department veteran of the Jeddah visa bureau, that the CIA ran the office and issued visas to al Qaeda members so they could receive training in the United States, sound like the sour grapes of someone who was fired for making such wild accusations.

-That one of George Bush’s first acts as President, in January 2001, was to end the two-year deployment of attack submarines which were positioned within striking distance of al Qaeda’s Afghanistan camps, even as the group’s guilt for the Cole bombing was established, proves that a transition from one administration to the next is never an easy task.

-That so many influential figures in and close to the Bush White House had expressed, just a year before the attacks, the need for a “new Pearl Harbor” before their militarist ambitions could be fulfilled, demonstrates nothing more than the accidental virtue of being in the right place at the right time.

-That the company PTECH, founded by a Saudi financier placed on America’s Terrorist Watch List in October 2001, had access to the FAA’s entire computer system for two years before the 9/11 attack, means he must not have been such a threat after all.

-That whistleblower Indira Singh was told to keep her mouth shut and forget what she learned when she took her concerns about PTECH to her employers and federal authorities, suggests she lacked the big picture. And that the Chief Auditor for JP Morgan Chase told Singh repeatedly, as she answered questions about who supplied her with what information, that “that person should be killed,” suggests he should take an anger management seminar.

-That on May 8, 2001, Dick Cheney took upon himself the job of co-ordinating a response to domestic terror attacks even as he was crafting the administration’s energy policy which bore implications for America’s military, circumventing the established infrastructure and ignoring the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman report, merely shows the VP to be someone who finds it hard to delegate.

-That the standing order which covered the shooting down of hijacked aircraft was altered on June 1, 2001, taking discretion away from field commanders and placing it solely in the hands of the Secretary of Defense, is simply poor planning and unfortunate timing. Fortunately the error has been corrected, as the order was rescinded shortly after 9/11.

-That in the weeks before 9/11, FBI agent Colleen Rowley found her investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui so perversely thwarted that her colleagues joked that bin Laden had a mole at the FBI, proves the stress-relieving virtue of humour in the workplace.

-That Dave Frasca of the FBI’s Radical Fundamentalist Unit received a promotion after quashing multiple, urgent requests for investigations into al Qaeda assets training at flight schools in the summer of 2001 does appear on the surface odd, but undoubtedly there’s a good reason for it, quite possibly classified.

-That FBI informant Randy Glass, working an undercover sting, was told by Pakistani intelligence operatives that the World Trade Center towers were coming down, and that his repeated warnings which continued until weeks before the attacks, including the mention of planes used as weapons, were ignored by federal authorities, is simply one of the many “What Ifs” of that tragic day.

-That over the summer of 2001 Washington received many urgent, senior-level warnings from foreign intelligence agencies and governments - including those of Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Afghanistan and others - of impending terror attacks using hijacked aircraft and did nothing, demonstrates the pressing need for a new Intelligence Czar.

-That John Ashcroft stopped flying commercial aircraft in July 2001 on account of security considerations had nothing to do with warnings regarding September 11, because he said so to the 9/11 Commission.

-That former lead counsel for the House David Schippers says he’d taken to John Ashcroft’s office specific warnings he’d learned from FBI agents in New York of an impending attack – even naming the proposed dates, names of the hijackers and the targets – and that the investigations had been stymied and the agents threatened, proves nothing but David Schipper’s pathetic need for attention.

-That Garth Nicolson received two warnings from contacts in the intelligence community and one from a North African head of state, which included specific site, date and source of the attacks, and passed the information to the Defense Department and the National Security Council to evidently no effect, clearly amounts to nothing, since virtually nobody has ever heard of him.

-That in the months prior to September 11, self-described US intelligence operative Delmart Vreeland sought, from a Toronto jail cell, to get US and Canadian authorities to heed his warning of his accidental discovery of impending catastrophic attacks is worthless, since Vreeland was a dubious character, notwithstanding the fact that many of his claims have since been proven true.

-That FBI Special Investigator Robert Wright claims that agents assigned to intelligence operations actually protect terrorists from investigation and prosecution, that the FBI shut down his probe into terrorist training camps, and that he was removed from a money-laundering case that had a direct link to terrorism, sounds like yet more sour grapes from a disgruntled employee.

-That George Bush had plans to invade Afghanistan on his desk before 9/11 demonstrates only the value of being prepared. The suggestion that securing a pipeline across Afghanistan figured into the White House’s calculations is as ludicrous as the assertion that oil played a part in determining war in Iraq.

-That Afghanistan is once again the world’s principal heroin producer is an unfortunate reality, but to claim the CIA is still actively involved in the narcotics trade is to presume bad faith on the part of the agency. Mahmood Ahmed, chief of Pakistan’s ISI, must not have authorized an al Qaeda payment of $100,000 to Mohammed Atta days before the attacks, and was not meeting with senior Washington officials over the week of 9/11, because I didn’t read anything about him in the official report.

-That Porter Goss met with Ahmed the morning of September 11 in his capacity as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has no bearing whatsoever upon his recent selection by the White House to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

-That Goss’s congressional seat encompasses the 9/11 hijackers’ Florida base of operation, including their flight schools, is precisely the kind of meaningless factoid a conspiracy theorist would bring up.

-It’s true that George HW Bush and Dick Cheney spent the evening of September 10 alone in the Oval Office, but what’s wrong with old colleagues catching up? And it’s true that George HW Bush and Shafig bin Laden, Osama’s brother, spent the morning of September 11 together at a board meeting of the Carlyle Group, but the bin Ladens are a big family.

-That FEMA arrived in New York on Sept 10 to prepare for a scheduled biowarfare drill, and had a triage centre ready to go that was larger and better equipped than the one that was lost in the collapse of WTC 7, was a lucky twist of fate.

-Newsweek’s report that senior Pentagon officials cancelled flights on Sept 10 for the following day on account of security concerns is only newsworthy because of what happened the following morning.

-That George Bush’s telephone logs for September 11 do not exist should surprise no one, given the confusion of the day.

-That Mohamed Atta attended the International Officer’s School at Maxwell Air Force Base, that Abdulaziz Alomari attended Brooks Air Force Base Aerospace Medical School, that Saeed Alghamdi attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey merely shows it is a small world, after all.

-That Lt Col Steve Butler, Vice Chancellor for student affairs of the Defense Language Institute during Alghamdi’s terms, was disciplined, removed from his post and threatened with court martial when he wrote “Bush knew of the impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism. What is…contemptible is the President of the United States not telling the American people what he knows for political gain,” is the least that should have happened for such disrespect shown his Commander in Chief.

-That Mohammed Atta dressed like a Mafioso, had a stripper girlfriend, smuggled drugs, was already a licensed pilot when he entered the US, enjoyed pork chops, drank to excess and did cocaine, was closer to Europeans than Arabs in Florida, and included the names of defence contractors on his email list, proves how dangerous the radical fundamentalist Muslim can be.

-That 43 lbs of heroin was found on board the Lear Jet owned by Wally Hilliard, the owner of Atta’s flight school, just three weeks after Atta enrolled – the biggest seizure ever in Central Florida – was just bad luck.

-That Hilliard was not charged shows how specious the claims for conspiracy truly are. That Hilliard’s plane had made 30-round trips to Venezuela with the same passengers who always paid cash, that the plane had been supplied by a pair of drug smugglers who had also outfitted CIA drug runner Barry Seal, and that 9/11 commissioner Richard ben-Veniste had been Seal’s attorney before Seal’s murder, shows nothing but the lengths to which conspiracists will go to draw sinister conclusions.

-Reports of insider trading on 9/11 are false, because the SEC investigated and found only respectable investors who will remain nameless involved, and no terrorists, so the windfall profit-taking was merely, as ever, coincidental.

-That heightened security for the World Trade Centre was lifted immediately prior to the attacks illustrates that it always happens when you least expect it.

-That Hani Hanjour, the pilot of Flight 77, was so incompetent he could not fly a Cessna in August, but in September managed to fly a 767 at excessive speed into a spiraling, 270-degree descent and a level impact of the first floor of the Pentagon, on the only side that was virtually empty and had been hardened to withstand a terrorist attack, merely demonstrates that people can do almost anything once they set their minds to it.

-That none of the flight data recorders were said to be recoverable even though they were located in the tail sections, and that until 9/11, no solid-state recorder in a catastrophic crash had been unrecoverable, shows how there’s a first time for everything.

-That Mohammed Atta left a uniform, a will, a Koran, his driver’s license and a “how to fly planes” video in his rental car at the airport means he had other things on his mind.

-The mention of Israelis with links to military-intelligence having been arrested on Sept 11 videotaping and celebrating the attacks, of an Israeli espionage ring surveiling DEA and defense installations and trailing the hijackers, and of a warning of impending attacks delivered to the Israeli company Odigo two hours before the first plane hit, does not deserve a response.

-That the stories also appeared in publications such as Ha’aretz and Forward is a sad display of self-hatred among certain elements of the Israeli media.

-That multiple military wargames and simulations were underway the morning of 9/11 – one simulating the crash of a plane into a building; another, a live-fly simulation of multiple hijackings – and took many interceptors away from the eastern seaboard and confused field commanders as to which was a real hijacked aircraft and which was a hoax, was a bizarre coincidence, but no less a coincidence.

-That the National Military Command Center ops director asked a rookie substitute to stand his watch at 8:30 am on Sept. 11 is nothing more than bad timing.

-That a recording made Sept 11 of air traffic controllers’ describing what they had witnessed, was destroyed by an FAA official who crushed it in his hand, cut the tape into little pieces and dropped them in different trash cans around the building, is something no doubt that overzealous official wishes he could undo.

-That the FBI knew precisely which Florida flight schools to descend upon hours after the attacks should make every American feel safer knowing their federal agents are on the ball.

-That a former flight school executive believes the hijackers were “double agents,” and says about Atta and associates, “Early on I gleaned that these guys had government protection. They were let into this country for a specific purpose,” and was visited by the FBI just four hours after the attacks to intimidate him into silence, proves he’s an unreliable witness, for the simple reason there is no conspiracy.

-That Jeb Bush was on board an aircraft that removed flight school records to Washington in the middle of the night on Sept 12th demonstrates how seriously the governor takes the issue of national security. To insinuate evil motive from the mercy flights of bin Laden family members and Saudi royals after 9/11 shows the sickness of the conspiratorial mindset. Le Figaro’s report in October 2001, known to have originated with French intelligence, that the CIA met Osama bin Laden in a Dubai hospital in July 2001, proves again the perfidy of the French.

-That the tape in which bin Laden claims responsibility for the attacks was released by the State Department after having been found providentially by US forces in Afghanistan, and depicts a fattened Osama with a broader face and a flatter nose, proves Osama, and Osama alone, masterminded 9/11.

-That at the battle of Tora Bora, where bin Laden was surrounded on three sides, Special Forces received no order to advance and capture him and were forced to stand and watch as two Russian-made helicopters flew into the area where bin Laden was believed hiding, loaded up passengers and returned to Pakistan, demonstrates how confusing the modern battlefield can be.

-That upon returning to Fort Bragg from Tora Bora, the same Special Operations troops who had been stood down from capturing bin Laden, suffered a unusual spree of murder/suicides, is nothing more than a series of senseless tragedies.

-Reports that bin Laden is currently receiving periodic dialysis treatment in a Pakistani medical hospital are simply too incredible to be true.

-That the White House went on Cipro September 11 shows the foresightedness of America’s emergency response.

-That the anthrax was mailed to perceived liberal media and the Democratic leadership demonstrates only the perversity of the terrorist psyche.

-That the anthrax attacks appeared to silence opponents of the Patriot Act shows only that appearances can be deceiving.

-That the Ames-strain anthrax was found to have originated at Fort Detrick, and was beyond the capability of all but a few labs to refine, underscores the importance of allowing the investigation to continue without the distraction of absurd conspiracy theories.

-That Republican guru Grover Norquist has been found to have aided financiers and supporters of Islamic terror to gain access to the Bush White House, and is a founder of the Islamic Institute, which the Treasury Department believes to be a source of funding for al Qaeda, suggests Norquist is at worst, naive, and at best, needs a wider circle of friends.

-That the Department of Justice consistently chooses to see accused 9/11 plotters go free rather than permit the courtroom testimony of al Qaeda leaders in American custody looks bad, but only because we don’t have all the facts.

-That the White House balked at any inquiry into the events of 9/11, then starved it of funds and stonewalled it, was unfortunate, but since the commission didn’t find for conspiracy it’s all a non issue anyway.

-That the 9/11 commission’s executive director and “gatekeeper,” Philip Zelikow, was so closely involved in the events under investigation that he testified before the the commission as part of the inquiry, shows only an apparent conflict of interest.

-That commission chair Thomas Kean is, like George Bush, a Texas oil executive who had business dealings with reputed al Qaeda financier Khalid bin Mafouz, suggests Texas is smaller than they say it is.

-That co-chair Lee Hamilton has a history as a Bush family “fixer,” including clearing Bush Sr of the claims arising from the 1980 “October Surprise”, is of no concern, since only conspiracists believe there was such a thing as an October Surprise.

-That FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds accuses the agency of intentionally fudging specific pre-9/11 warnings and harboring a foreign espionage ring in its translation department, and claims she witnessed evidence of the semi-official infrastructure of money-laundering and narcotics trade behind the attacks, is of no account, since John Ashcroft has gagged her with the rare invocation of “State Secrets Privilege,” and retroactively classified her public testimony. For the sake of national security, let us speak no more of her.

-That, when commenting on Edmond’s case, Daniel Ellsberg remarked that Ashcroft could go to prison for his part in a cover-up, suggests Ellsberg is giving comfort to the terrorists, and could, if he doesn’t wise up, find himself declared an enemy combatant.

http://thepeacetree.blogspot.com/2007/09/conspiracy-theory.html

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Watchdog asks: Why is Bush’s kid brother getting federal bucks?

Friday, September 14th, 2007

By Nick Juliano

An independent watchdog agency has asked the Department of Education to investigate why President Bush’s younger brother, Neil, has received money earmarked for the president’s signature education initiative to sell a curriculum program that has not been subjected to the rigorous evaluation it deserves.

Neil Bush, 52, who has no background in education, founded Ignite! Learning in 1999 with donations from his parents and a slate of international business interests. The company produces “Curriculum on Wheels” devices — computer/projectors that are pre-loaded with software aimed at preparing students for standardized tests that are the central tenet of the president’s No Child Left Behind law.

The “COWs” are sold to school districts at a cost of $3,800 to $4,200, although they have not been subjected to peer-reviewed scientific studies, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. CREW says nearly $1 million has been spent on the systems in 16 school districts, mostly in Texas, where George W. Bush served as governor before his election in 2000, and Florida, where brother Jeb Bush is governor.

The watchdog group is requesting an investigation from the Education Department’s inspector general, alleging that the Ignite! systems do not meet the standards laid out by Congress dictating how NCLB funds can be spent.

“It is astonishing that taxpayer dollars are being spent on unproven educational products to the financial benefit of the president’s brother,” Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, said in a news release. “The IG should investigate whether children’s educations are being sacrificed so that Neil Bush can rake in federal funds.”

Neil Bush first attracted public scrutiny for his role in the Savings and Loan scandals of the late 1980s when a Colorado S&L on whose board he served failed. The scandal cost taxpayers $1.6 billion.

Some school districts identified by CREW spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal money on the mobile projectors, which include curriculum for math, science or social studies. In addition to their baseline cost — $3,800 for a single-subject COW or $4,200 for one covering all three subjects — the units impose on schools a $1,000 annual licensing and upkeep fee, CREW says. Schools also have the option of purchasing lifetime contracts for $6,800, according to the New York Times.

Although there’s no direct evidence of presidential nepotism on behalf of his baby brother, Neil Bush did benefit from his mother’s largesse in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last year. Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to a hurricane relief fund overseen by former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and earmarked part of those funds for purchases of Ignite! software.

In an interview earlier this year with the New York Times, Neil Bush denied using his brother’s position to push his product. He claimed he was inspired to start the company after struggling with dyslexia while he was in school.

Ignite’s Web site includes anecdotal testimonials from teachers who have used the program. But some teachers are less than impressed with the system, saying it supplants rote memorization for critical thinking skills.

“As a review, it uses catchy phrases and tunes,” Jeremy Siefker, a middle school science teacher who’s used the program, told the Times, “but as far as scientific investigation and inquiry, I don’t think it’s very good.”

Ironically, among the schools that have shunned the program is a Texas elementary school named for Neil Bush’s father.

“After reviewing the program, Bush is not interested,” Jill Arthur, principal of George H. W. Bush Elementary in Midland, TX, wrote in an e-mail to Ignite! obtained by CREW. “We feel our money is best spent elsewhere.”

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US confirms Israeli air strike on Syria

Friday, September 14th, 2007

By Tim Butcher in Tel Aviv

A US official has confirmed that Israeli warplanes carried out an air strike “deep inside” Syria, escalating tensions between the two countries.

Israel considers retaliation in Gaza

The target of the strike last Thursday remained unclear but Israeli media reported that a shipment of Iranian arms crossing Syria for use by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon was attacked.


	Israeli army Merkeva tanks on the Golan Heights

Syria first reported the incident on the day, saying its air defences had engaged five Israeli planes, but did not say what their target was. Israel remained uncharacteristically silent, pointedly refusing to deny that its warplanes were involved in an operation. The closest it came to acknowledging the affair happened was when it made an undertaking to Turkey to investigate how an Israeli long-range fuel tank was dropped on Turkish territory near the Syrian border.

Another theory gaining ground yesterday was that Israel was deliberately attacking the Russian-made Pantsyr air defence system recently bought by Damascus. The sale includes provision for the Pantsyr system to be shipped on to Iran and it is possible the Israeli attack was co-ordinated with America to probe the effectiveness of the system. It is believed that Iran would use the Pantsyr system to defend its nuclear facilities.

Syria has sought to keep the incident in the public arena, saying yesterday that it had complained formally to the United Nations, accusing Israel of unjustified aggression.

Syria and Israel have fought major wars on three occasions, in 1948, 1967 and 1973, as well as numerous other skirmishes. The two nations remain formally at war although an uneasy calm has largely held for the past three decades. Meanwhile, Israel was contemplating a retaliatory strike on Gaza last night after a Palestinian qassam rocket injured 69 of its soldiers, five seriously, at the Zikim army base. Many of the Israelis were hit by shrapnel as they slept under canvas.

While the rocket was fired by members of the Islamic Jihad party, Israel said it would hold Hamas accountable because the group is the main authority in the Gaza strip since it drove out its Fatah rivals in June.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, convened an emergency meeting yesterday with military and security commanders to discuss a response to the attack.

Have Your Say: US confirms Israeli air strike on Syria
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This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 7:46 am and is filed under 9/11 Truth, Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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