SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: T L Comiskey who wrote (43720)4/24/2004 6:42:10 PM
From: Raymond Duray  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 89467
 
9/11 TRUTH ALLIANCE: History of Government Conspiracies

[From Email, thus no URL]

This article originally appeard in May, 2002 and it could have been written yesterday. When will America come to its senses?

Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 02:43:51 EDT
From: xxxxx@xxx.com
Subject: OPERATION NORTHWOODS AND THE REICHSTAG FIRE

OPERATION NORTHWOODS & THE REICHSTAG FIRE

By Bill Molson Online Journal Contributing Writer 5-5-2

Could the United States government conceive of carrying out attacks against the American people under the pretext that the attacks came from a foreign enemy? We have to look back only 40 years to find that the answer is yes. The plan was called Operation Northwoods and it called for engaging in such unsavory activities as assassination, hijacking airplanes, blowing up ships, orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities, and even blowing up John
Glenn's space capsule, while pinning the blame on Fidel Castro. This would whip up necessary public support for a full-scale invasion of Cuba, which the military believed was necessary.

These details are revealed in a book entitled Body of Secrets, a book about the National Security Agency, by James Bamford. "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," wrote the military, and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave
of national indignation." This was not a "rogue" operation, or loners acting outside the government. These plans were devised by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in 1962. The Kennedy administration rejected the plan, but pretext operations would continue to be drawn up as late as 1963. Among these were to create a war between Cuba and another Latin American country so the U.S. could intervene, and paying someone in Castro's government to attack Guantanamo Bay.

The author, in an interview with ABC news, said, "The whole point of a democracy is to have leaders responding to the public will, and here is the complete reverse, the military trying to trick the American people into a war that they want but nobody else wants." It should be noted that it was the objections of Robert McNamara, and his revelation of the plot to Kennedy which prevented this operation from occurring. It was Kennedy - McNamara who rejected the nuclear first strike option during the Cuban Missile crisis and negotiated a peaceful resolution, saving the world from anni-hilation. These were the so-called "leftists"elements which no longer exist in the executive branch today (either of them).

In fact, if there is a conspiracy, it is likely originating from the executive branch. Then there is the Kennedy assassination itself, which has been examined with exhausting detail over the years, revealing that there were
almost certainly conspiratorial elements behind the assassination. This tenet has received widespread acceptance by the public. Yet despite this, nothing
definitive has been brought to light to indict any of the conspirators to this day.

* The Rise of Hitler

It may be considered crass by some to compare the rise
of the current administration to that of Hitler's regime.

While no accusations are being made, only the surface historical similarities between those events and now are being considered as merely a cautionary note, and a proof that sometimes a path, once started, leads to an unforeseen
conclusion. There was a great fear in the capitals of Europe at the time from the threat of Communism. Towards the end of World War I, the Bolshevik revolution in Russia toppled the Czar and installed a totalitarian dictatorship.
Russia's strategic position and military might were a matter of grave concern. It was felt that the threat of Communism could spread like a virus to all of Europe. It was especially a concern in Russia's perennial enemy Germany, which was plagued by unemployment and labor unrest, and whose currency had become nearly worthless.

In 1933, through a series of backroom deals and political intrigues, Adolf Hitler became the chancellor of a bankrupt, chaotic and divided Germany on the verge of Civil War.Hitler convinced German President Hindenburg to hold new elections on March 5 of that year, and Hitler believed the Nazi party would gain control of the legislature.

The Nazis controlled the courts, and had the backing of the major industrial powers and bankers, who believed Hitler would be "good for business." They blanketed the nation with propaganda from all media outlets. Then in late
February, shortly before the elections, the German parliament building, the Reichstag, was set ablaze by an arsonist. The arson was blamed on a 24-year-old Dutch
Comm-unist named Marianus Van Der Lubbe. He allegedly confessed to the crime and was quickly tried and executed. The Nazis used the public fear of the Communists to establish their dictatorship. Just as today, the opposition
parties were cowed into silence in the face of an external threat. Hitler grabbed more and more power.

An emergency decree was passed the very next day that stated: "Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic
communications and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed."

Similar to today's ongoing and never-ending terror alerts, frenzied news reports of Communist plots continued to circulate in the press.

The Nazis vowed to prove the fire was part of a vast Communist plot to take over Germany. Their propaganda emphasized that only they could control the threat to the nation. Despite this effort, they won only 40 percent of the legislature.

As with Bush, Hitler faced increasingly vocal concern about his measures, and an opposition party controlling the legislature. His tactic was to get an enabling act passed, giving him essentially dictatorial powers and rendering
the legislature irrelevant. On March 23, the newly elected Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin to consider passing Hitler's Enabling Act. It was officially called the "Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich."

If passed, it would in effect vote democracy out of existence in Germany and establish the legal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. Just as today, the public was assured that the sweeping new emergency powers would never be used
unjustly against its own citizens. In a speech before the deciding vote, Hitler told the lawmakers, "The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures . . . The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one." And, much like today, Hitler pledged to end the chronic unemployment facing his country, and to promote peace, not war, with Germany's enemies: Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. The vote was taken 441 for, and only 84, the Social Democrats, against.

The Nazis could now control the German political process and declare war at any time, against any foe, without the legislature. Far from aghast, much of the German public would support Hitler and the Nazis through 1945, by which
time Germany would be reduced to rubble. After the war, evidence led historians to concur that the Reichstag fire that the Nazis used so successfully to gain political power was, in fact, planned by the Nazis themselves for that end.
Although there is no consensus, a new book published in Germany in 2001 that reexamined all the court evidence (Der ReichstagbrandñWie Geschichte gemacht wird: The Reichstag FireñHow History is Created ), makes a clear and convincing
case that the Nazis themselves aided and abetted Van der Lubbe's torching of the Reichstag.

It should be clear from the above that there was no widespread feeling in Germany that it was becoming a dictatorship. Opposition forces were silenced by propaganda and public ostracism. Dissenters were tried in secret and
killed, or sent to the camps. No one knew the true motives behind the Nazi party.

Money and propaganda were the tools the Nazis used to devastating effect. People believe that our great nation, which has always been on the right side of history, will never walk that insidious path. But this is more a matter of faith then of fact.

Ever since that dark period, historians, writers and philosophers have wrestled with the agonizing question: "How did it happen," and more importantly,
"Could it happen again?" We should be asking, "Could it happen here?"

The Scenario

We now know that the military has planned terrorist operations against Americans as a pretext for war. To deny that a 9-11 conspiracy is even possible is, quite simply, to deny history. What if this time, the plans were carried
out? Furthermore, given the after effects, what if this is part of a larger plan to dismantle American democracy? One more catastrophic event, and the U.S. could easily be-come a dictatorship. Extreme? Perhaps. But consider the facts:

* Consider the fact that the anthrax attacks were almost certainly designed to foment war with Iraq, and that the anthrax itself came from U.S. government labs.

* Consider the fact that stock bets were made with insider knowledge of the attacks, and placed at a bank formerly run by the CIA chief.

* Consider the fact that the U.S. was planning to attack Afghanistan as early as July(, 2001).

* Consider the fact that the U.S. apparently rewarded, and then threatened the Taliban after Bush took office.

* Consider the fact that the shadow government was activated shortly after the attacks and kept a secret.

* Consider the fact that the Office of Homeland Security is working on emergency plans involving martial law.

* Consider the fact that the government can now legally spy on Americans much more easily and without constitutional and legal roadblocks.

* Consider the fact that the president can define terrorism, and that the attorney general can choose what groups are considered "terrorists" without legal oversight.

* Consider the Pentagon planning an office to propagandize noncombatants.

* Consider the fact that Bush's policies now receive unthinking support from the public, even though he received fewer votes than his opponent in the election.

* Consider the numerous government figures that have said that the "war" will not end in our lifetime.

* Consider the fact that both Bush and Cheney asked Congress to back off the 9-11 investigations.

* Consider the fact that Afghanistan is a major prize for
the oil industry, and Bush's government is largely oil executives backed by large energy concerns.

* Consider that the Iran-Contra conspirators drew up plans to declare martial law and suspend the Constitution, and that some of these men are now back in power.

* Consider that two of the hijackers were wanted by the CIA , and that nine of the hijackers were selected for security screenings but were allowed to board their flights.

* Consider that terrorism investigators were told to back off investigating the Saudis and Osama bin Laden's siblings.

* Consider the fact that bin Laden's siblings lived close to CIA headquarters, and near a place listed by four hijackers as their address, and that they were allowed to leave the country while thousands of other Muslims were
rounded up.

* Consider that former president Bush is a known friend of the bin Laden family, and works for a company that had the bin Ladin Group as an investor, a company which now stands to make billions from the war.

If we can spend $70 million to investigate the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas, isn't there enough evidence to warrant an investigation into these 9-11 connections, especially considering the gravity of what we're facing?
If we accept the fact that government agents can mail deadly anthrax to our citizens, as we must at this point, why couldn't they be capable of at least permitting an attack for their own benefit? What if the former Iran/Contra conspirators decided to take a page from Hitler's playbook and manufacture a crisis?

Moreover, a crisis that would give them unquestioning public support and make them very, very rich? If this is true, these same forces could be conspiring to permit or unleash another, perhaps more horrible, attack on the
American people if their hold on power is threatened.

Please don't take my word for it. Make up your own mind, don't let the government or press make it for you. I'm not a journalist. I don't have insider knowledge. I'm just a concerned citizen with a modem who is worried about
what is happening to our country. I've included every reference and source I used at the end of every article. I've intentionally relied on well-known respectable news sources. Most of these are available online. Please, please, please, go check them out yourself, and don't let your political or patriotic feelings get in the way.

Remember, American democracy and freedom are greater than any president or administration. We are still free. Only we can make sure it stays that way.

Sources: Details of Operation Northwoods

http //abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/jointchiefs_010501.html The Rise of Adolf Hitler historypla ce.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/
Copyright © 1998-2002 Online Journalô. All rights reserved.
onlinejournal.com tml



To: T L Comiskey who wrote (43720)4/24/2004 7:10:32 PM
From: T L Comiskey  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 89467
 
Two Americans killed in boat blast, among scores killed in new bloodshed in Iraq



BAGHDAD (AFP) - Two American servicemen were killed as a vessel they intercepted blew up in a daring attempted attack on an Iraqi oil terminal, in a day of bloodshed that also claimed the lives of six US soldiers and 39 Iraqis.












The incident was one of three in which suicide bombers sought to destroy vital oil facilities near the southern Iraqi port of Basra.

The US Navy said a crew had had set out to board the traditional Arab boat as it approached the Khor Al-Amaya Oil Terminal.

"As the eight-member boarding team approached the dhow in a rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB), the dhow exploded, flipping the RHIB and throwing the crew into the water, killing two and wounding four," a statement said.

Separately, a US navy spokeswoman said the dead were US nationals, but she did not immediately give their branch of military service.

Another two waterbone attacks, against the Al Basra Oil Terminal, were foiled about 20 minutes after the first attempt.

"ABOT security forces immediately took action to intercept. Prior to reaching the terminal, the boats exploded," the statement said.

"Initial reports indicate no damage to either terminal," the statement added, though port authorities said loading was interrupted.

The unprecedented attempted attacks capped a day of widespread violence, both in the Sunni Muslim north of Iraq (news - web sites) and in Shiite-dominated areas, including the volatile Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City.

Earlier in the day, police in Basra said they seized a truckload of explosives and arrested three Iraqis suspected in a series of suicide attacks that had killed 74 people in British-occupied southern Iraq Wednesday.

In Taji, just north of Baghdad, four US soldiers were killed and seven wounded, three of them critically, when a rocket was fired at their base at dawn, according to a military statement.

Another two US soldiers were killed and one wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a convoy near the southern city of Kut, police said.

In the northern city of Tikrit, four Iraqi policemen were killed when a booby-trapped car exploded near a US military base.

In another incident, 14 Iraqis were killed and 11 wounded when their bus was hit by a roadside bomb near Iskandariyah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Baghdad, hospital officials said.

And in Sadr City, where militant Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr draws much of his support, four separate attacks killed at least 14 people and wounded 36, according to hospital staff.

"There was a mortar attack that would appear to have been aimed at the old cigarette factory where coalition forces are occupied," said US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt. "It did not hit the coalition but it did hit some citizens in Sadr City," said Kimmitt, deputy operations director for the US-led coalition.

Sadr, who is holed up in the southern city of Najaf and is wanted in connection with the murder of a rival cleric last year, warned Friday that his supporters would carry out suicide attacks if US troops entered Shiite holy cities.



In Najaf, one of the holy cities, an Iraqi civilian was burnt alive in his vehicle after it came under fire near a coalition base, according to hospital sources.

A coalition spokesman said the base, manned by Spanish soldiers, was attacked by eight mortar bombs overnight, and that troops returned fire.

Near Karbala, another holy city, five insurgents who were preparing an ambush were killed by a Polish patrol, a coalition spokesman said.

And in Fallujah, a Sunni stronghold under a three-week-old siege by US marines, a two-year-old boy was killed when shells and bullets hit his family's house, according to a relative and a nurse.

Both sides have accused each other of breaching the ceasefire, and Kimmitt warned that US marines were ready to go back on the offensive if the terms of the truce are not respected.

He said up to 2,000 insurgents, including foreign fighters and loyalists of ousted and detained Iraqi president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), were holed up in the city.

US overseer Paul Bremer visited the city Saturday to seek a peaceful end to the confrontation, according to the coalition, but few further details were given.