HartmannWatchWatch

Rabin assassin demands new trial

Pnina Guy, the original prosecutor, was discussing the 10th anniversary of Rabin's death when she expressed surprise that the assassin had managed to get so close as to press his gun to Rabin's body and fire at point blank range - closer than Amir ever came.

"It's still a mystery to me how he managed to shoot three bullets and at the same time even approach Rabin, and, according to the ballistic evidence, actually touch Rabin's jacket for the third bullet," she said on an Israeli radio station this week.

According to his family, Ms Guy's statement came as a shock to Amir - an ultra-Right wing extremist who said he had killed Rabin because he was betraying the Israeli people by preparing to exchange land for peace with the Palestinians.

"This is new evidence and my brother has never heard this before," Amir's brother Amitai told the Sunday Telegraph.

"The prosecutor says the bullet which killed Rabin was fired at point blank range, but Yigal never got that far. He couldn't get so close. Now he wants an appeal on this basis."

The appeal demand has infuriated Israelis across the political spectrum, who regard Amir as a fanatic who deserves to be locked up for life. Last week Israel's President, Moshe Katsav, insisted that he would never grant a pardon to Amir. "Amir is a villain. He shall not be pardoned, there is no cause for compassion or pity."

ALA Patriot Act Amendment Dropped from Spending Bill

House and Senate negotiators dropped language from a $57.9-billion Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill November 4 that would have restricted searches of library and bookstore records under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.

In June, the House of Representatives approved Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) Freedom to Read Amendment, which would have barred the DOJ from using any of the funds to search library and bookstore records. President Bush had threatened to veto the bill if the final version contained any language that would weaken the Patriot Act.

Meanwhile, conferees from both chambers met November 10 to begin reconciling differences in House and Senate bills reauthorizing the Patriot Act.

The Washington Post reported November 10 that a tentative deal worked out earlier would likely favor the Senate’s more restrictive version; in addition, both versions would add some degree of judicial review for national security letters. The issue of NSLs is central to a pending legal challenge involving a Connecticut library and the USA Patriot Act.

Posted November 11, 2005.

Chickenhawk Cheney in the 8th paragraph of his remarks today: ".....we owe them our liberty.", was what the Idiot said, as if our LIBERTY is something we have to trade back to somebody in order to show our gratitude. Only a CHICKENHAWK that has absolutely NO interest in DEFENDING our Contstitution, would want to trade away our LIBERTY. We owe the Veterans Gratitude for fighting for our liberty.

By Joe Strupp

Published: November 09, 2005 11:30 PM ET

NEW YORK Presidential Press Secretary Scott McClellan's short answer to a question at his daily press briefing last week has prompted a dispute between the White House press office and two news organizations that offer transcripts of the events.

A spokeswoman for McClellan's office told E&P late Wednesday that the White House is standing by its version of what he said.

At the Oct. 31 briefing, David Gregory of NBC News stated the following question to McClellan about White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby: "Whether there's a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations."

The official White House transcript states that McClellan's response was "I don’t think that's accurate."

But two outside news agencies, Congressional Quarterly and Federal News Service -- which provide transcripts for a fee -- both reported the response as "that's accurate."

The differing accounts have sparked a flurry of buzz on numerous blogs, such as ThinkProgress, Wonkette, Eschaton and DailyKos. They say a video of the press briefing reveals McClellan saying "that's accurate."

White House officials contacted the news outlets and ask for a change to their versions of the transcript.

continued

By Miki Johnson

Published: November 10, 2005 3:55 PM ET

NEW YORK At long last the journalism community's top news stories have finally received the recognition they deserve from the prestigious fake-news establishment.

Picking on the media melee surrounding source protection in the I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby trial and the more recent talk of an investigation into leaks to the Washington Post about secret CIA prisons, the front page of today's Onion included a satirical story headlined “Redbook Reporter Refuses To Disclose Source Of Recipe.”


Positing a fabricated case where reporter Nancy Steuber “will be held in contempt of course if she continues to withhold the source of a recipe for maple-glazed ham,” the story obviously references Judith Miller's jail stay for refusing to reveal her sources.

“It is the opinion of the court that this is the most devastatingly succulent ham to come across our docket in a very long time,” the story quotes fictional judge Antonio Pelicore. “The state has a vested interest in learning the identity of the person responsible for a dish of this mouth-watering magnitude.”

Complete with speculation that Steuber's refusal to reveal her source is “motivated by self-interest, not a desire to protect free speech,” the story finishes with a quote from the “reporter” ringing of recent real-news stories.

“It's a women's magazine journalist's job to report on recipes of this caliber fairly and accurately. But when it comes to who is behind those recipes, or how best to use the leftovers, I'm afraid I'll have to remain silent, no matter the personal cost.”

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Lethal bird flu found in Kuwait

Kuwait has taken precautions at its main bird market
One of the two cases of bird flu recently detected in Kuwait was caused by the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, a Kuwaiti official has said.

It is the first confirmed case in the Middle East of the virus that has devastated poultry stocks and killed more than 62 people in Asia.

Tests on a migratory wild flamingo found last week on a Kuwaiti beach showed it had the H5N1 strain.

A falcon found in a shipment at Kuwait Airport had the milder H5N2 strain.

Mohammed al-Mihana, an official at the Public Authority for Agriculture and Fish Resources (PAAFR), told the Associated Press that the birds had been destroyed immediately and the virus had not been allowed to spread.

Kuwait and other Middle East states have banned wild bird imports and all poultry from Asian states.

This nut job is resigning his Ambassador post to run our DRUG POLICY?!?!?!?

RADIO INSIDE SCOOP WITH MARK LEVINE
Thursday MP3 Audio
November 10, 2005
This Bush Crony Has Blood on His Hands!

BLOG: This Bush Crony Has Blood on His Hands!

THE INSIDE SCOOP on George W. Bush's Former Ambassador to Italy, Melvin Sembler, who ran a teen drug rehab center where thousands of American teens were physically and mentally abused in horrific, degrading ways.

Guest: Reporter John Gorenfeld Ambassador de Sade: Bush rewarded one of his loyalists with the ambassadorship to Italy -- despite his past as the founder of an cult-like teen rehab clinic.

Among our president's appointments of GOP activists to important posts, we've
done worse than Melvin Sembler, the Ambassador to Italy who couldn't speak
Italian. Unlike the FEMA chief, who had real responsibilities, Sembler sometimes
found himself a fifth wheel around his own embassy. As the Washington
Monthly has reported, the scandal that claimed Scooter Libby's job
last month may have sprung from secret Rome meetings between neocons, an
Iran-Contra figure and an Italian intelligence boss who later pushed phony WMD
documents -- all behind Sembler's back.

But where Melvin Sembler, 74, demands attention is as an object lesson in how cruelty can be redeemed by the transformative power of political donations. For 16 years, Sembler, with his wife Betty, directed the leading juvenile rehab business in America, STRAIGHT, Inc., before seeing it dismantled by a breathtaking array of institutional abuse claims by mid-1993. Just one of many survivors is Samantha Monroe, now a travel agent in Pennsylvania, who told The Montel Williams show this year about overcoming beatings, rape by a counselor, forced hunger, and the confinement to a janitor's closet in "humble pants" -- which contained weeks of her own urine, feces and menstrual blood. During this "timeout," she gnawed her cheek and spat blood at her overseers. "I refused to let them take my mind," she says of the program. The abuse took years to overcome.

Sunday November 13, 2005 - Sunday - Weekly Review
For his first time mark is going to return to this same topic instead of his regular "WEEKLY Review"

Associated Press
Nov. 10, 2005 10:53 AM

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - The winner of a school board election didn't campaign, attend forums or even go to any school board meetings before the vote - because he was in jail.

Randy Logan Hale won 831 votes in Tuesday's election, securing one of three open seats on the Romoland School District Board in a community about 70 miles north of San Diego.

'This is wild, he'll be glad,' said his wife, Penny."

Hale, 40, was returned to prison in September for violating his parole on 1998 convictions for spousal abuse and drug possession, the California Institution for Men in Chino said, and is due to be released Feb. 15. He declared his candidacy in August.

His wife and a district trustee confirmed he was imprisoned.

The election of an inmate to the school board is a conundrum for the district, and Superintendent Roland Skumawitz said he's consulting lawyers to figure out how to handle the situation.

Shaun Bowler, a political science professor at the University of California, Riverside, said Hale may have gotten votes because he was at the top of the ballot.

Discussion Community: Phenylalanine - Aspartame said to promote ADD/ADHD

Phenylalanine is a hidden danger to anyone consuming aspartame. Most consumers don't know that too much Phenylalanine is a neurotoxin and excites the neurons in the brain to the point of cellular death.

ADD/ADHD, emotional and behavioral disorders can all be triggered by too much Phenylalanine in the daily diet. If you are one in ten thousand people who are PKU or carry the PKU gene, Phenylalanine can cause irreversible brain damage and death, especially when used in high quantities or during pregnancy. Phenylalanine is 50% aspartame, and to the degree humans consume diet products, Phenylalanine levels are reaching a dangerous peak.

It is important to learn about the ingredients within your foods, especially isolated amino acids like Phenylalanine. They are in combination within nature for a reason - they don't belong in isolated form for the healthy human diet.

09 November 2005
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The Security Council November 8 unanimously agreed to extend the mandate of the U.S.-led multinational force (MNF) in Iraq for one year.

"The unanimous adoption of this resolution is a vivid demonstration of broad international support for a 'federal, democratic, pluralist, and unified Iraq,'" U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.

The resolution extended the MNF mandate to December 31, 2006, unless the Iraqi government requests that it leave sooner. Previous resolutions concerning the force had it ending after the upcoming December national elections to replace the transitional government. In addition to the extension, the current resolution calls for a review of the mandate by June 15, 2006.

Extending the mandate at this time instead of waiting until the end of 2005, Bolton said, "will facilitate continued international support for Iraq's security and will give the newly elected Iraqi government time to assume office, address constitutional questions, and consolidate its authority before confronting issues such as those addressed in this resolution." The Iraqi people "continue to demonstrate the courage that we have seen throughout the transition process," Bolton said. "They went to the polls in extraordinary numbers last month and approved a new constitution last month, offering inspiration to other countries new to democracy, and other parts of the Arab world."

"Iraq is quickly approaching another major milestone in its transition -- there will be a new election on December 15th. It is important this be a transparent, participatory, and inclusive process for all Iraqi communities," he said.

In a letter to the Security Council October 31, Iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari asked for the one-year extension, saying, "Iraq is still confronted by forces of terrorism that incorporate foreign elements which carry out horrific attacks and terrorist acts in an attempt to thwart political and economic development in Iraq.

"The Iraqi security forces, which are growing in size, capacity and experience day by day, need more time to fill out their ranks, fully equip themselves and complete their training with a view to assuming responsibility for all security matters and providing adequate security for the Iraqi people," Al-Jaafari said.

In a separate letter to the council October 31, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed that the MNF "stands ready to continue to fulfill its mandate."

The Iraqi government and the MNF "have developed an effective and cooperative security partnership to address the evolving nature of Iraq's security environment, including the continuing need to prevent and deter acts of terrorism. This partnership plays a critical role in the daily efforts to improve security throughout Iraq," Rice said.

Iraq and the MNF are developing a security plan to set out the conditions necessary for transfer of security responsibility from the MNF to the Iraqi Security Forces, she said. "Conditions permitting, we look forward to notable progress in the next year."

"Together, we will build toward the day when the Iraqi forces assume full responsibility for the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq," the secretary said.

The resolution, which was co-sponsored by Denmark, Japan, Romania, the United Kingdom and the United States, also extends the arrangements for depositing proceeds from the export sales of oil, oil products and natural gas into the Development Fund of Iraq and for the International Advisory and Monitoring Board to monitor that development fund.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

BY SHAWN WINDSOR
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
:
HILLSDALE -- Five days before the election, Hillsdale mayoral candidate Michael Sessions wound up in the emergency room with bronchitis. He'd spent too many nights knocking on doors in the cold, trying to convince residents to write his name on the ballot when they voted.
'I tried to tell him to wear his coat,' said his mother, Lorri Sessions. 'But he wouldn't.'
Michael Sessions won Tuesday's election anyway, and at 18, became Hillsdale's youngest mayor ever, sending a jolt through this rolling little college community.
Sessions beat the 51-year-old incumbent, Doug Ingles, 732-668. Ingles told the Hillsdale Daily News, 'I'll continue to work to make Hillsdale a better place.'

The buzz about Sessions' win funneled into Hillsdale High School, where he is a senior. All day Wednesday, he sat before television cameras, producers and reporters. The interim principal, Monty Bishop, was stunned and a bit amused at the national attention, but happy that his student did the unthinkable.


"This is a young man who thought out what he wants to do," Bishop said.


And what is that, exactly?


He wants to shake Hillsdale from its malaise.


"This town was too laid-back," said Sessions.


When he looked around last winter, thinking about running for mayor, he saw that his south-central Michigan community -- home to Hillsdale College and about 8,500 residents -- needed more jobs and needed to keep its college graduates from leaving.


"Not much has happened here," he said, "just a lack of motivation in the city."


So for the last several weeks, he raced home from school to finish his homework and then hit the streets.


The conversations usually began with the same incredulity.


Knock. Knock.


"My name is Michael Sessions. I'm running for mayor..."


"You're how old?"


"I'm 18, Ma'am."


"You work where?"


"I'm a high school senior."


When the residents got over the shock, Sessions pounced, using his teenage energy, his earnest outlook, his smile.


He'd talk to anyone. He'd talk for an hour. It didn't matter. He had saved $700 from his summer job to buy yard signs and business cards. That was his campaign. That, and knocking on doors.


But there was more to overcome. When Sessions called the clerk last winter to get on the ballot, he learned he couldn't. He was only 17.


So when he turned 18 on Sept. 22, he called back. He registered to vote. He had seven weeks until the election.


Chris Lambos said Sessions really made an impression. He sat in Lambos' kitchen for 30 minutes one night, discussing the future of the city.


"He's very intelligent," Lambos, 54, said. "He cares."


After that night, Lambos stuck three of Sessions' campaign signs in his yard.


The signs dotted most of the neighborhoods.


After school Wednesday, Sessions stood near his home, talking to another national TV crew.


Inside, his mother and father, Scott Sessions, answered the phone, which rang constantly. When he joined them, he took congratulatory calls. He slumped in the chair in front of his computer and yawned.


"I'm exhausted," he said.


He takes over the part-time position, which pays roughly $3,000, on Nov. 21. He said he plans to create an advisory team to help him navigate the egos and agendas of adult politicians and to work with the city manager, who runs the town's day-to-day operations.

Sessions wasn't the only teenager to be elected mayor Tuesday. Another 18-year-old in Linesville, Pa., received 144 votes -- twice as many as his opponent.

"The people of Linesville have spoken. ... They are able to trust their police and security to my generation," Christopher R. Seeley said of his win.

When he graduates next year, Sessions hopes to attend Hillsdale College.


Contact SHAWN WINDSOR at 313-222-6487 or windsor@freepress.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ADDITIONAL INFO

Think Progress

Congressional Quarterly and FNS both transcribed Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s answer as “That’s accurate.” The White House transcript lists McClellan’s answer as “I don’t think that’s accurate.”

Watch Quicktime

If you listened to the clip, it’s clear McClellan says “that’s accurate.” Nevertheless, the White House is trying to get CQ and FNS to change their transcripts. They’ve refused.

(HT: Wonkette)

Vital Visuals Online Store: In the days after World War II, a convenient story was told of church leaders and ordinary Christians that defied the Nazis from the beginning. Recent research has uncovered a very different story. Rather than resisting, the greater part of the German church saw Hitler's rise in 1933 as an act of God's blessing, a new chapter in the story of God among the German people.

This film, based upon groundbreaking research, introduces the viewer to three of the greatest Christian scholars of the twentieth century: Paul Althaus, Emanuel Hirsch, and Gerhard Kittel, men who were also outspoken supporters of Hitler and the Nazi party. In 1933 Althaus spoke of Hitler's rise as "a gift and miracle of God." Hirsch saw 1933 as a "sunrise of divine goodness." And Kittel, the editor of the standard reference work on the Jewish background of the New Testament, began working for the Nazis to find a "moral" rationale for the destruction of European Jewry.

This provocative film asks: how could something like this happen in the heart of Christian Europe? Could it happen again? How does the scholarship of this period affect the church today? Does the church of today retain the ability to recognize profound evil?

Stars & Stripes: "DOD says Ed Schultz's talk show will air on AFR network"


WASHINGTON — Defense Department officials have promised that the Ed Schultz show will air on American Forces Radio, but no launch date has been set.

The liberal talk show host had been told by AFR programmers that his show would begin airing on the overseas network starting Oct. 17.

Pentagon officials scuttled those plans that morning, saying the decision to add the show had not gone through the proper review.

Since then, a growing group of Democrats has decried the move, saying defense officials wanted political payback for anti-Bush statements made by Schultz the week before his AFR debut.

In a letter sent last week to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita wrote that American Forces Radio and Television Service managers have decided to include Schultz’s show in their new programming plans.

AFRTS director Mel Russell said officials were waiting on updated information on the show’s audience size and syndication arrangement before giving the go-ahead.

Now, Schultz’s show will be included with a host of programming changes scheduled before the end of the year.

“There’s still a question of what other changes [there are], and when we’ll make the changes,” he said. “But the plan is to air the Ed Schultz show.”

Still, show producer James Holm said he has not received official word from the Defense Department on the decision, and he worries that officials may drag their feet in getting the show on the air.

“Right now, we’re looking at this as a minor victory,” he said.

Several Democrats have demanded an independent investigation into how the American Forces Radio and Television Service is run, noting that conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Laura Schlessinger vastly outnumber liberal offerings for the servicemembers.

And on Monday, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, announced plans to amend the 2006 Defense Authorization bill to include “fairness and balance” in AFR offerings.

Russell said he expects two other long-form talk shows to be added to the radio lineup this year, though he would not say which shows were being considered.

Schultz’s show is broadcast daily in about 100 markets in the United States. Plans originally called for the first hour of his three-hour show to be broadcast on the AFR network.

Complete Article and Video- Audio: The Battle of Algiers: 1966 Film Depicting Algerian War of Independence Against French Occupation Parallels Brutal U.S. Occupation of Iraq

We play an excerpt of the highly acclaimed 1966 film, The Battle of Algiers, that depicts the Algerian struggle for independence against the French occupation in the 1950's and early 60's. Parallels are being drawn between the French use of torture against resistance fighters in Algeria and the U.S. abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

Baghdad's mortuary reels under the weight of killings
By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
(Filed: 07/11/2005)

The bodies are arriving at the mortuary in Baghdad in such large numbers that the orderlies have run out of places to store them properly.

They are forced to leave them in piles in the overloaded freezer compartments or send them for burial in anonymous graves.

Last month there were 972 corpses received, almost all victims of violent death. The vast majority were brought in with bullet holes. Many had their hands bound and faces mutilated.

No one knows quite how many people are being killed in Iraq or by whom.

“George Bush is a murderer. I’m going to head the march against him stepping foot on Argentine soil.”
Diego Maradona, speaking out against the visit of the US president to South America last week

“The great loser today was George Bush. The man went away wounded—you could see defeat on his face.”
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, addressing demonstrators protesting against Bush’s Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement

“Peoples of the Americas are rising once again, saying no to imperialism, no to fascism, no to intervention — and no to death.”
Hugo Chavez

“We’re a people united against free trade, because free trade is a policy of death for our countries”
Carlos Reyes, protester from Honduras

“We’re looking for alternatives to the way the US controls the world, and Chavez has something to say about that.”
Graciela Fleidas, unemployed textile worker from Merlo, Argentina

“When I was elected president, there were those who foresaw the deterioration of relations between Brazil and the US. They were roundly mistaken.”
Brazil’s president Lula, who met George Bush for discussions in Brazil last week after his trip to Argentina

“One by one, Bush’s puppets have fallen.”
Hugo Chavez, sending out a warning to Latin American leaders who capitulate to neo-liberalism

© Copyright Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original and leave this notice in place.

Click for Complete Article:
The murderous fools are not trying to end the war;
they're trying to keep it going as long as they can

The cat is out of the bag now.

It happened quite by accident, as most revelations do. And it is seen by most of the world as the most revolting of the American/Israeli atrocities in the past few years, although it's hard to prioritize that claim because of the level and frequency of barbaric acts that are committed on a regular basis by those affluent automatons who call themselves the good guys.

Yet everyone but the comatose American populace — blinded by its Orwellian media and stupefied by its demented diet of physical and mental poisons — can see it.

So permit me to spell it out for those cowardly people who say they're living in the freest country on Earth, but absolutely refuse in their silent ignorance to see the blood they're spilling. No country that condones deliberate torture for any reason can ever be trusted.

Sarko and the French Strategy of Tension
Sunday November 06th 2005, 4:58 pm ( Click for Complete Article)


Reading the news about the violence stretching from the Mediterranean to the German border, I can’t help but think something is rotten in Denmark—or rather France. It makes little sense for “Arab and African Muslim immigrants,” as described by the Associated Press, to burn down schools, nurseries, and shopping centers in their own neighborhoods, although of course likewise things happened in America (i.e., the Los Angeles riot and earlier civil unrest in urban America). However, the fact the French police tear gassed the Mosque de Bousquets during Laylat al-Qadr (the holiest night in Ramadan) as an act of provocation might have something to do with the subsequent violence. It also doesn’t help that the French police are headed up by one Nicolas Sarkozy, currently the French Interior Minister, who is more or less a racist, fascist, and neocon fellow traveler. Sarkozy has pledged to clean the Paris suburbs of “scum” and “riffraf” with a Kärcher (colloquially used as synonymous with a cleaning system using high-pressure water). It should also be noted Sarkozy covets the French presidency (next election to be held in 2007).

Real History Blog: DC to discuss Real History:

This coming year's JFK Conference, to be held in DC Nov 18-20, has one of the most illustrious set of speakers ever gathered.

Gary Hart, who investigated the JFK assassination as part of his role on the Church Committee in the seventies, will be there.

James Bamford, author of A Pretext for War : 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies, and Body of Secrets, in which he describes how the military and Kennedy were at serious odds over Operation Northwoods and other activities, will speak.

So will Jefferson Morley of the Washington Post, David Talbot of Salon, Professor John Newman, and so many others. See this list for the complete set of speakers and topics.

Complete article here:
Knowing exactly who/what the CIA is and has been since its creation in 1947 might shed some light on current events. The agency was created at the beginning of the Cold War under President Truman by Clark Clifford, a Wall Street banker and lawyer. His closest confidante and assistant was Allen Dulles, an attorney with Sullivan & Cromwell, which was then and still is, a prominent Wall St. law firm. It was about this same time that Dulles pulled the necessary strings to bring hundreds of former Nazis into the United States to work for the CIA in the agency’s intelligence operations against the Soviet Union. (CIA Admits Long Relationship With WWII German Gen. Reinhard Gehlen, Maria Alvarez, The New York Post, September 24, 2000 and Operation Paperclip Casefile)

At 1AM Eastern Peter Werbe is going to interview Thom Hartmann about his NEW BOOK. you can listen to the webstream from http://www.wrif.com/ (Detroit radio station) or you can
listen to archived MP3 from (LISTENER SPONSORED!!) White ROSE Society (the latest shows are NOT placed at the very bottom of the page, please look about 2/3 of the way down the page)

UPDATE: My apology for misunderstanding the interview to be on Peters program of Sunday Nov 6 11 PM - 2 AM Monday Eastern. The Schedule for Peter Werbe's show is correct. Thom Hartmann will be interviewed during another airing

I hope I am wrong about my bet, actually. For about 2 years, I have found Thom to be quite credible.

This is clearly one of those times I would stake everything on a wager and hope to be WRONG.

I would be much happier in the long run to be able to take Thom's word to the bank.

I am certain Thom would never LIE like that. I feel left with just those 2 choices, if, in fact, Thom is writing a book.

JFK, the CIA, and Cuba
Project Freedom: Robert Kennedy's Plan to bring Democracy to Cuba
by Lamar Waldron (with Thom Hartmann)

by Staff, PW Daily -- 11/10/2005

The latest book to join the Kennedy assassination canon is due out November 18 from Carroll & Graf. Ultimate Sacrifice asserts that a planned Cuban coup is the major reason the conspiracy to kill the president has been covered up so well for so long. Salon will be running a 5,000 word excerpt on November 22.
Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFKLamar Waldron With Thom Hartmann. Carroll & Graf, $33. (904p.) ISBN 0-7867-1441-7
There has been a long hiatus in significant books on the JFK assassination since Gerald Posner's Case Closed argued in 1993 that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Posner took the CIA’s lack of involvement for granted, and that, according to this mammoth and painstakingly researched account, was a big mistake. It is Waldron and Hartmann's (The Edison Game) contention—bolstered by access to many previously unavailable files, and interviews with little-known as well as prominent figures—that the CIA knew a great deal about the assassination. But the agency couldn't admit what it knew because that could uncover the existence of a U.S. plan for a coup in Cuba, run by JFK's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The assassination, say the authors, was carried out by hired gunmen on the orders of three noted Mafia dons whose lives were being made miserable byRFK's ruthless pursuit—and these Mafia men knew about the planned invasion because they had worked with the CIA on previous efforts to topple Castro. Oswald, long a hidden CIA agent, was set up as the patsy, and it had always been Jack Ruby's job to eliminate him if he wasn't killed at the scene of Kennedy’s shooting.How well do the authors make their case? With a relentless accumulation of detail, a very thorough knowledge of every political and forensic detail and the broad perspective of historians rather than assassination theorists. They spend perhaps too much time with people they admire, like the late Enrique Ruiz Williams (who was to replace Castro in the planned coup). They also cannot resist chasing stories of only marginal relevance to their principal one, like what really happened to Che Guevara in Cuba. But no future historian of that tormented period in American history will be able to ignore their very convincing presentation, even if a lay reader may feel overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the evidence. B&w photos. (Nov. 18)

http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc/videos.html
http://tinyurl.com/7drxn

WTC collapses due to controlled
demolition (article link)

Steven E. Jones
Professor of Physics/BYU (AS IN) BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
I believe WTC collapses to be due to controlled
demolition are:

1. My own analysis of the "pancaking" floors model
(the FEMA/NIST model) combined with Conservation of
Momentum considerations gives a much longer time for
the fall (over 10 seconds) than that which was
actually observed for WTC-7 (about 6.3 seconds, just
over the free-fall time of 6.0 seconds). I find no
evidence in their reports that government researchers
(FEMA, NIST, 9-11 Commission) included Conservation of
Momentum in their analyses.

2. The fact that WTC-7 fell down symmetrically, onto
its own footprint very neatly, even though fires were
just observed on one side of the building. A
symmetrical collapse, as observed, requires the
simultaneous "pulling" of support beams. By my count,
there were 24 core columns and 57 perimeter columns in
WTC-7. Heat transport considerations for steel beams
heated by fire suggest that failure of even a few
columns at the same time is very small. Adding in the
Second Law of Thermodynamics ("law of increasing
entropy") leads to the conclusion that the likelihood
of near-symmetrical collapse of the building due to
fires (the "government" theory) -- requiring as it
does near-simultaneous failure of many support columns
-- is infinitesimal. Yet near-symmetrical collapse of
WTC-7 was observed. (If you still haven't gone to the
links above to see the actual collapse for yourself,
please go there now.)

Note that the 9-11 Commission report does not even
deal with the collapse of WTC-7. This is a striking
omission of highly relevant data.

3.Squibs (horizontal puffs of smoke and debris) are
observed emerging from WTC-7, in regular sequence,
just as the building starts to collapse. (SEE:
http://tinyurl.com/7drxn ) Yet the floors have not
moved relative to one another yet, as one can verify
from the videos, so air-expulsion due to collapsing
floors is excluded. I have personally examined many
building demolitions based on on-line videos, and the
presence of such squibs firing in rapid sequence as
observed is prima facie evidence for the use of
pre-positioned explosives inside the building.

4. The pulverization of concrete to powder and the
horizontal ejection of steel beams for hundreds of
yards, observed clearly in the collapses of the WTC
towers, requires much more energy than is available
from gravitational potential energy alone. Explosives
will give the observed features. Other scientists have
provided quantitative analysis of the observed
pulverizations, and I can provide references if you
wish. Here we are appealing to the violation of
Conservation of Energy inherent in the "official"
pancaking-floors theory-- a horrendous violation,
forbidden by principles of Physics. (What is going on
for the FEMA/NIST researchers to make such striking
errors/omissions?)

5. I conducted simple experiments on the "pancaking"
theory, by dropping cement blocks from approximately
12 feet onto other cement blocks. (The floors in the
WTC buildings were about 12 feet apart.) We are
supposed to believe, from the pancaking theory, that a
concrete floor dropping 12 feet onto another concrete
floor will result in PULVERIZED concrete observed
during the Towers' collapses! Nonsense! My own
experiments, and I welcome you to try this yourself,
is that only chips/large chunks of cement flaked off
the blocks -- no mass pulverization to approx.
100-micron powder as observed. Explosives, however,
can indeed convert concrete to dust --mostly, along
with some large chunks-- as observed in the
destruction of the Twin Towers on 9-11-01.

6. The observations of molten metal (I did not say
molten steel!) in the basements of all three
buildings, WTC 1, 2 and 7 is consistent with the use
of the extremely high-temperature thermite reaction:
iron oxide + aluminum powder --> Al2O3 + molten iron.
Falling buildings are not observed to generate melting
of large quantities of molten metal -- this requires a
concentrated heat source such as explosives. Even the
government reports admit that the fires were
insufficient to melt steel beams (they argue for
heating and warping then failure of these beams) --
but these reports do not mention the observed molten
metal in the basements of WTC1, 2 and 7. Again we have
a glaring omission of critical data in the FEMA, NIST
and 9-11 Commission reports.


7. I understand that models of the steel-frame WTC
buildings at Underwriters Laboratories subjected to
intense fires did NOT collapse. And no steel-frame
buildings before or after 9/11/2001 have collapsed due
to fire. Thus, the "official" fire-pancaking model
fails the scientific test of REPRODUCIBILITY.
(Earthquake- caused collapses have occured, but there
were no major earthquakes in NYC on that day. And
buildings which have collapsed due to earthquakes
collapse asymmetrically, as expected -- not like the
nearly straight-down collapse of WTC 7 to a small
rubble pile!)


8. Explosions -- multiple loud explosions in rapid
sequence -- were heard and reported by numerous
observers in (and near) the WTC buildings, consistent
with explosive demolition. Some of the firemen who
reported explosions barely escaped with their lives.

Essentially none of these science-based considerations
is mentioned in the Popular Mechanics article on this
subject, authored by B. Chertoff (a cousin of M.
Chertoff who heads the Homeland Security Dept.)
(Squibs are mentioned briefly, but the brief PM
analysis does not fit the observed facts.)

I have performed other analyses regarding the WTC
collapses on 9-11-01 which may be of interest --let me
know if you're interested. The matter is highly
interesting to me as a physicist -- and as a citizen
of the United States. I conclude that the evidence for
pre-positioned explosives in WTC 7 (also in towers 1
and 2) is truly compelling.

Steven E. Jones
Professor of Physics/BYU


This article was posted on 9.16.05

Neo-Conservatism: The Cult of American Ascendancy or Moral Bankruptcy? By Habib Siddiqui:

It is said that the last two political philosophers who both influenced world events and shared many of the worldviews of today's neocons were Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), who published "The Prince" in Italy in 1515, and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels (who inspired a young Adolf Hitler with his magazine "Ostara"). Neo-conservatism, as a strategy and philosophy of government owes it to them.