The following letter has been sent to lawyers for Peabody Energy in response to their threat:
Dear Andrew Baum, Foley Lardner LLP, and Peabody Energy,
Thank you for your thoughtful letter demanding that we remove Peabody’s name from www.coalcares.org and cease falsely suggesting that Peabody cares about kids made sick by coal.
Your threat, although entirely baseless (see this response, and the EFF's blog post later today), did make us realize one thing: that Peabody, despite being our country's largest coal producer, and one of the largest lobbyists against common-sense policy, accounts for a mere 17% of U.S. coal production. The remaining 83% comes from 28 other companies, who are, every bit as much as Peabody, giving kids asthma attacks and other illnesses.
As even you may agree, the root of the problem is not Peabody, but rather our system of subsidies, regulations, and lobbying that lets your whole industry continue its lethal work. To make this clear, we have changed every instance of the word “Peabody” on www.coalcares.org to a rotating selection of the names of other large U.S. coal producers who, like Peabody, also need to be stopped from killing kids.
Very truly yours,
Coal is Killing Kids and the Yes Lab
coalcares@yeslab.org, (314) 472-5539
P.S. You suggest in your letter that “Peabody has a First Amendment right not to be involved with the dissemination of a message with which it does not agree,” a statement which, while completely untrue, does recall the World Resources Institute’s longstanding demand that you cease falsely attributing to them the nonsense statistic that “for every 10-fold increase in per-capita energy use, individuals live 10 years longer.” As the WRI notes:
First, WRI has never made such an assertion and has never done analysis to that effect. Second, this conclusion ignores critical factors related to energy production and human health. WRI’s longstanding support for a global transition to cleaner, low-carbon energy is well-documented.
We would be grateful if you would stop misquoting WRI and issue a corrective statement within the next 24 hours.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Osama and the real Dalai Lama
By Peter Lee
LOS ANGELES - In reporting on remarks of the Dalai Lama during his visit to the University of California in Los Angeles on May 3, the LA Times ignited something of a media firestorm.
Under the headline, "Dalai Lama suggests Osama bin Laden's death was justified", Mitchell Landsberg wrote:
Landsberg did get one thing right:
During the question and answer following his remarks at the Galen Center, the Dalai Lama responded to an submitted question as to whether "ensuring justice was more important than being compassionate" in the case of the death of Osama bin Laden. Specifically, was it OK to celebrate his death because, in the official US formulation, he had been "brought to justice"?
This was not a particularly difficult question for the Dalai Lama, and he responded:
The "justice way", in this context, looks like the working of the criminal justice system in dealing with Bin Laden's actions, not some kind of morally endorsed retribution on Bin Laden's person.
Once the "justice way" formalities were out of the way, the Dalai Lama was definitely not suggesting that shooting Bin Laden in the head was a suitable exercise of compassion.
The Dalai Lama continued on in this vein for a couple minutes, saying:
Things then got somewhat more ambiguous, at least for some listeners.
The Dalai Lama moved on from the actor to his or her actions, to clarify that compassion for Bin Laden didn't mean doing nothing about his destructive actions:
However, it can be stated with a high degree of confidence that the Dalai Lama did not consider the killing of Bin Laden to be "justified" - ie deserved and appropriate punishment for his crimes.
In fact, the Dalai Lama addressed the Bin Laden issue in 2006. In an interview in Dharamsala, India - home to his exiled Tibetan government, he told the Alice Thomson of the UK's Daily Telegraph that terrorists must be treated humanely:
Depending on one's degree of pessimism, one can either view the affair as evidence of further decline in standards of stenography and reportage, America's alarming need for enthusiastic, universal validation of its killing of Bin Laden, or a demonstration of the admirable efficiency of the world's press in exploiting the Dalai Lama's global popularity to create a faux controversy and fill a news hole.
Fortunately, the University of Southern California has now posted the Youtube video of the Dalai Lama's remarks, so interested viewers can judge for themselves.
The Bin Laden question appears at around the 45:00 mark. [11]
Notes
1. Dalai Lama suggests Osama bin Laden's death was justified, LA Times, May 4, 2011.
2. A Symbol Of Compassion, Dalai Lama Hints Bin Laden's Killing Was Justified, NPR, May 4, 2011.
3. It's not so strange for a Buddhist to endorse killing, Guardian, May 11, 2011.
4. Dalai Lama 'says bin Laden killing justified', AFP, May 4, 2011.
5. Dalai Lama Suggests Approval for Bin Laden Killing; Human Rights Watch Condemns, The Atlantic, May 4, 2011.
6. Why Was Bin Laden Shot?, Time, May 4, 2011.
7. Steven Tyler interview on Leno, M&C, May 7, 2011.
8. 'Westerners are too self-absorbed', Telegraph, Apr 1, 2011.
9. His Holiness Talks About Secular Ethics and Human Development at University of Southern California, Central Tibetan Administration (in exile), May 4, 2011.
10. Dalai Lama in bin Laden Quandary, Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2011.
11. Secular Ethics, Human Values and Society: The Dalai Lama at the USC Galen Center, YouTube, May 5, 2011.
Peter Lee writes on East and South Asian affairs and their intersection with US foreign policy.
LOS ANGELES - In reporting on remarks of the Dalai Lama during his visit to the University of California in Los Angeles on May 3, the LA Times ignited something of a media firestorm.
Under the headline, "Dalai Lama suggests Osama bin Laden's death was justified", Mitchell Landsberg wrote:
[I]n an appearance Tuesday at USC, [the Dalai Lama] appeared to suggest that the United States was justified in killing Osama bin Laden.
As a human being, Bin Laden may have deserved compassion and even forgiveness, the Dalai Lama said in answer to a question about the assassination of the al-Qaeda leader. But, he said, "Forgiveness doesn't mean forget what happened ... If something is serious and it is necessary to take
counter-measures, you have to take counter-measures." [1]That started the ball rolling:
NPR: A Symbol Of Compassion, Dalai Lama Hints Bin Laden's Killing Was Justified. [2]Actually, the real story was less-than-stellar reportage.
Stephen Jenkins at the Guardian: It's not so strange for a Buddhist to endorse killing; the Dalai Lama's attitude to Bin Laden's death should not be too surprising - Buddhism is not as pacifist as the West fantasizes [3]
AFP: Dalai Lama 'says bin Laden killing justified' [4]
Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic: Dalai Lama Suggests Approval for Bin Laden Killing. [5]
Michael Crowley at Time: Clearly, the precise legalities involved in killing bin Laden are murky ... But unless you are opposed to capital punishment in the absolute, or believe that we are compelled to put on trial any terrorist we are able to capture, the morality is less complicated. Heck, even the Dalai Lama isn't bothered. [6]
Jay Leno's monologue: This is my favorite thing; in an address at USC the other day, the Dalai Lama seemed to suggest that killing Bin Laden was okay. That's when you know you're a bad guy, when the Dalai Lama's going, "I didn't see nothing." [7]
Landsberg did get one thing right:
The audience, which included some 3,000 USC students, responded to his message respectfully, even adoringly. Afterward, however, some complained that they had trouble understanding him; the Dalai Lama often speaks about thorny concepts in accented English, sometimes relying on a translator to fill in gaps.Include Landsberg as one of the audience with an understanding problem. I know, because I was there.
During the question and answer following his remarks at the Galen Center, the Dalai Lama responded to an submitted question as to whether "ensuring justice was more important than being compassionate" in the case of the death of Osama bin Laden. Specifically, was it OK to celebrate his death because, in the official US formulation, he had been "brought to justice"?
This was not a particularly difficult question for the Dalai Lama, and he responded:
Now here must make distinction between actor and action. His actions of course destructive ... they must bring him into justice way. But actor - as human being, as human brother, we must show compassion, sense of concern for his well-being.In other words, something along the lines of "love the sinner but hate the sin".
The "justice way", in this context, looks like the working of the criminal justice system in dealing with Bin Laden's actions, not some kind of morally endorsed retribution on Bin Laden's person.
Once the "justice way" formalities were out of the way, the Dalai Lama was definitely not suggesting that shooting Bin Laden in the head was a suitable exercise of compassion.
The Dalai Lama continued on in this vein for a couple minutes, saying:
The basis of forgiveness does not mean forget what happened ... but because of that action, keep ill-feeling toward that person, wrong.So, celebrating Bin Laden's death, definitely wrong.
Things then got somewhat more ambiguous, at least for some listeners.
The Dalai Lama moved on from the actor to his or her actions, to clarify that compassion for Bin Laden didn't mean doing nothing about his destructive actions:
So towards action - destructive action - we must take appropriate action to stop that...if something serious and necessary to take counter-measures, you have to take countermeasures.It was clear that the Dalai Lama considers flying airplanes into buildings filled with thousands of people as the kind of "destructive actions" that should be stopped with "counter-measures" if possible. Presumably, if Bin Laden had taken up a weapon and the SEALS had shot him in self-defense and in a "more in sorrow than in anger" kind of way, the Dalai Lama would also have approved.
However, it can be stated with a high degree of confidence that the Dalai Lama did not consider the killing of Bin Laden to be "justified" - ie deserved and appropriate punishment for his crimes.
In fact, the Dalai Lama addressed the Bin Laden issue in 2006. In an interview in Dharamsala, India - home to his exiled Tibetan government, he told the Alice Thomson of the UK's Daily Telegraph that terrorists must be treated humanely:
"Otherwise, the problem will escalate. If there is one Bin Laden killed today, soon there will be 10 Bin Ladens. Awesome. Ten Bin Ladens killed, the hatred is spread; 100 bombed, and 1,000 lose members of their families." [8]After the kerfuffle, the Tibetan government in exile issued a flash news item summarizing the Dalai Lama's remarks. Concerning the Bin Laden question, it stated:
The first question was on His Holiness' emphasis on compassion as a basis of ethics. It asked whether in some situation ensuring justice is more important than being compassionate to the perpetrator of a crime. It referred to the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden and the celebrations of it by some, and asked where compassion fit in with this and ethics. In his response, His Holiness emphasized the need to find a distinction between the action and the actor.Not good enough for the Margherita Stancati of the Wall Street Journal's Chinarealtime blog, who sniffed:
He said in the case of Bin Laden, his action was of course destructive and the September 11 events killed thousands of people. So his action must be brought to justice, His Holiness said. But with the actor we must have compassion and a sense of concern, he added. His Holiness said therefore the counter measure, no matter what form it takes, has to be compassionate action. His Holiness referred to the basis of the practice of forgiveness saying that it, however, did not mean that one should forget what has been done. [9]
The question explicitly referred to Osama bin Laden, who was killed Sunday night during a US raid in Pakistan's town of Abbottabad.Actually, the Dalai Lama made a point of stating he squashed an occasional mosquito as a way of saying that human forbearance has its limits, even for living Buddhas. Violence is an inevitable element of human existence; the goal is to understand its roots, appreciate its karmic costs, and take measures to reduce it.
This placed the Dalai Lama - a man who famously frowns at the idea of killing mosquitoes - in the position of either having to compromise his unflinching commitment to non-violence or publicly declaring his compassion for the world's most wanted terrorist. In a poorly-orchestrated PR move, he managed to do both. [10]
Depending on one's degree of pessimism, one can either view the affair as evidence of further decline in standards of stenography and reportage, America's alarming need for enthusiastic, universal validation of its killing of Bin Laden, or a demonstration of the admirable efficiency of the world's press in exploiting the Dalai Lama's global popularity to create a faux controversy and fill a news hole.
Fortunately, the University of Southern California has now posted the Youtube video of the Dalai Lama's remarks, so interested viewers can judge for themselves.
The Bin Laden question appears at around the 45:00 mark. [11]
Notes
1. Dalai Lama suggests Osama bin Laden's death was justified, LA Times, May 4, 2011.
2. A Symbol Of Compassion, Dalai Lama Hints Bin Laden's Killing Was Justified, NPR, May 4, 2011.
3. It's not so strange for a Buddhist to endorse killing, Guardian, May 11, 2011.
4. Dalai Lama 'says bin Laden killing justified', AFP, May 4, 2011.
5. Dalai Lama Suggests Approval for Bin Laden Killing; Human Rights Watch Condemns, The Atlantic, May 4, 2011.
6. Why Was Bin Laden Shot?, Time, May 4, 2011.
7. Steven Tyler interview on Leno, M&C, May 7, 2011.
8. 'Westerners are too self-absorbed', Telegraph, Apr 1, 2011.
9. His Holiness Talks About Secular Ethics and Human Development at University of Southern California, Central Tibetan Administration (in exile), May 4, 2011.
10. Dalai Lama in bin Laden Quandary, Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2011.
11. Secular Ethics, Human Values and Society: The Dalai Lama at the USC Galen Center, YouTube, May 5, 2011.
Peter Lee writes on East and South Asian affairs and their intersection with US foreign policy.
Pakistani-Indian nuclear war seen as real possibility
With the breakdown of relations between Washington and Islamabad over recurring U.S. drone attacks inside Pakistan and the controversy over the U.S. Special Forces raid on Abbottabad that allegedly killed Osama Bin Laden, western intelligence agencies have concluded that a Pakistani-Indian nuclear exchange is now a distinct possibility.
Intelligence sources have also told WMR that Pakistan has recently updated its nuclear target list for India. The Indian high-technology city of Bangalore, which hosts a number of IT firms that provides outsourced jobs for U.S. companies for Indian employees, has been added to Pakistan's list of targets to be hit in a first wave Pakistani pre-emptive to retaliatory nuclear attack.
India is expected to add some 50 million highly-skilled jobs to its work force in the next decade, with many of the jobs located in the Bangalore high-tech center. A nuclear attack by Pakistan on Bangalore would all but wipe out India's high-tech capabilities, dealing a severe blow to India's economy.
Pakistan still maintains its nuclear attack protocol of avoiding striking Indian cities with large Muslim populations.
Western defense officials are also concerned about new security guarantees given by China to Pakistan as a shield from either Indian or U.S. aggression. China could retaliate against both India and the U.S. Seventh Fleet in Asian waters if an attack by either country were launched against Pakistan.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
British spy was assassinated by Mossad team
WMR's well-placed British sources report that Gareth Williams, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) employee who was seconded to the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6) and whose badly decomposed body was found stuffed into a sports bag in an MI-6 safe house in the Pimlico neighborhood of London on August 23, 2010, was a victim of a professional Mossad hit team.
The London Metropolitan Police and FBI are continuing to investigate Williams's death as "suspicious and unexplained." Williams's body was discovered in the security-protected MI-6 flat on Alderney Street, not far from MI-6 headquarters. The MI-6 safe house was protected by a fingerprint recognition and retinal scan access system, according to our sources. The safe house was registered to a labyrinth of MI-6 front companies to hide the identity of the actual owners of the residence. The safe house flat's owner was registered in the British Virgin Islands to a company called New Rodina, which was not listed in registered companies in the United Kingdom. The legal representative for New Rodina was a London law firm called Park Nelson, which has ceased to exist. WMR has learned that the safe house's actual owner was incorporated in the Dominican Republic.
Williams had worked for MI-6 on secondment from GCHQ for a year and he had recently visited the National Security Agency (NSA) before his body was discovered.
Immediately after Williams's body was discovered there were leaks to the British media that suggested that Williams died from a "sex game" that had gone wrong. Williams's body was embalmed before a full autopsy could be performed that would helped answer some of the questions raised by Williams's parents, who live in Wales. Leaks to the media of bizarre sexual activities that result in the "accidental" deaths of high-level intelligence and political murder victims represents a classic British intelligence ploy that is intended to ward off demands for full investigations by the next-of-kin.
Williams was a mathematics child prodigy who earned his first college degree in mathematics at age 17. He was one of GCHQ's top experts in encryption.
WMR has learned from our British intelligence sources that Williams was brought to MI-6 from GCHQ in Cheltenham to participate in a major investigation of Israeli Mossad penetration of GCHQ's and MI-6's encrypted communications networks, including those of GCHQ that process signals intelligence (SIGINT) intercepts of communications. Williams visited NSA a number of times to help the American SIGINT agency conduct an investigation of the extent to which Mossad was able to penetrate NSA systems via interfaces, such as the Zircon instant messaging network, with GCHQ networks.
A "Mediterranean looking" young man and woman, believed to be between 20 and 30 years of age, are suspects in Williams's death, now believed by British police to have been due to poisoning. "Mediterranean" is a politically-correct code phrase used by British police to describe the Israeli Mossad hit team. The FBI uses a similar code phrase, "Middle Eastern-looking," to describe Israeli spies in the United States. The Mossad duo was last seen entering the MI-6 residence where Williams lived in July 2010.
Some British intelligence officials are privately fuming over the cover-up of the details of Williams's murder and Israel's involvement in it. They have promised to exact severe revenge on Israel in a "quiet manner" but one that will leave Tel Aviv under no doubt that it is in retaliation for Mossad's murder of one of Britain's ace intelligence officers.
As for NSA, the penetration of GCHQ by Mossad has endangered America's own encrypted signals intelligence and cyber-warfare networks with the possibility that Israel has had or continues to have access to America's most delicate classified information.
"Wag the Dog" is a training film for the Obama White House
President Obama anxiously kept the media and the world waiting on the evening of May 1 for what later turned out to be his announcement that he ordered a US Navy SEAL team to attack the compound of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Obama claimed that the SEALs had shot and killed Bin Laden in a firefight.
The reason for the delay of Obama's announcement, according to WMR's sources, had nothing to do with national security but to alert Obama's student supporters at George Washington and Howard universities in Washington, DC to marshal a group of Obama fans to gather at Lafayette Park in front of the White House in a "flash mob" to stage a pep rally for Obama after his announcement. The "Wag the Dog"-inspired demonstration was planned by Obama's political adviser David Plouffe.
MS-NBC's dutiful bleating Obama sycophant, Rachel Maddow, showed a flash mob gathered in Lafayette Park shouting "USA! USA!" while she proceeded to lambast Pakistan for providing sanctuary to Bin Laden and other top Al Qaeda leaders. Of course, Maddow, was merely parroting the new neocon line that Pakistan must be the next nation to be rendered like a kosher chicken in the Maddow kitchen.
Plouffe, of course, arranged for brand new American flags to be distributed to the college students for the widely-televised "impromptu" demonstration. The new, just unfolded American flags appeared faster than the new Libyan royalist flags showed up in Benghazi, Libya after the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi.
The Obama vs. Osama television show continued into the weekend, with the Pentagon releasing a video, said to be captured, along with tera-bytes of other computer data, from Bin Laden's ramshackle lair in Abbottabad. But the White House originally said that Bin Laden's compound was a $1 million dollar "mansion." Obama's counter-terrorism adviser John O. Brennan, the former CIA official who helped craft the agency's kidnapping, rendition, and torture program, was responsible for much of the White House bombast, which later had to be recanted by White House press secretary Jay Carney. It was Brennan's firm, The Analysis Corporation, that had rifled through Obama's passport files at the State Department in January 2008. It now appears that it is Brennan who is Obama's current CIA control officer, the latest in a series of CIA handlers who have "run" Obama since his days at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
It is now apparent that the phony "hit" on Osama was known to only a few White House, CIA, and Pentagon officials, particularly the Air Force, which appears to be under the control of the cabal that is waging a devious information war on behalf of a continued war agenda by the Obama administration. Just two hours after Obama was said to have authorized the "hit" on Bin Laden, RAI television of Italy caught Obama handing a piece of paper to Air Force General Burke E. "Ed" Wilson at Cape Canaveral, Florida where the President landed after touring tornado-ravaged Alabama. After slipping Wilson the piece of paper, the general hands another piece of paper back to Obama. The fact that Obama was using a courier system, keeping whatever was on the pieces of paper away from the official White House communications systems, including the extremely limited access Planning and Decision Aid System (PDAS) that is used to support the operational capabilities to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon and and Combatant Commanders (COCOMs), indicates that Obama, the Air Force cabalists, and the CIA did not trust other elements of the Department of Defense and even the White House Communications Agency to be aware of the plans for Pakistan. Anyone with access to the White House communications systems would have "all-source" and "multi-compartmented" access and requisite security clearances. It is noteworthy that PDAS was used by Vice President Dick Cheney and a limited group of other officials to communicate during the 9/11 attacks.
A White House staff photograph issued after the assault on Bin Laden showed Air Force Brigadier General Marshall B. "Brad" Webb operating a laptop, which was said to be involved with providing a live video feed of the attack on Bin Laden's compound from the SEAL team in Pakistan. Webb is the assistant commanding general of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, also home to the Army's Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command, which, in the past, has supplied interns who helped craft news stories for CNN's Atlanta headquarters and National Public Radio in Washington.
Senior administration officials gathered in the White House Situation Room were shown intently looking at scenes of the attack on a video screen. Later, it was revealed that the live video feed had gone down prior to the photograph being taken. WMR has learned from news photographers in Washington that the Situation Room photograph was carefully stage-managed by White House staff. Standing among the senior administration officials was the gaunt figure of Brennan, a man who exudes as much warmth as the "cigarette smoking man" in the X-Files.
Webb is a 2008 graduate of the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) in Greensboro, North Carolina. As previously reported in WMR's exposé of Obama and his family's past ties to the CIA, the CCL, according to CIA files, was linked to the CIA's Political Psychology Division, renamed the Political Psychology Center in 1984 by another individual with Obama, Webb, and Brennan in the Situation Room, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. In 1984, Gates was the deputy director for intelligence of the CIA.
CIA records show that past graduates of CCL training programs include former National Security Agency (NSA) director Admiral Noel Gayler, and William Verity, Jr., the former chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a director at Business International Corporation (BIC) in Manhattan. BIC, a known CIA front company, employed Obama for about a year after his graduation from Columbia in 1983. Verity became Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan administration after Malcolm Baldrige was stormed to death by his horse during a rodeo. CCL is also linked to the Tavistock Institute of London, the "group think" organization that specializes in the type of flash mob operation that took place outside of the White House on the evening of May 1, in addition to operations that support "sock puppet" inundation of Internet sites that question official government story lines.
The Tavistock Institute has long been linked with the CIA's MK-ULTRA and Projects BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE mind control and brain-washing operations, conducted by the CIA's top scientist for such matters, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb. Much of the records about MK-ULTRA and other CIA programs was destroyed on the order of CIA director Richard Helms in 1972. BLUEBIRD documents describe what the CIA was trying to accomplish with behavioral modification in the early 1950s: "Can we 'alter' a person’s personality? Can we devise a system for making unwilling subjects into willing agents and then transfer that control to untrained agency agents in the field by use of codes or identifying signs?" In other words, the movie "The Manchurian Candidate," was not purely a fictional account within the CIA's research and scientific community. One of Helms's five favorite universities for the CIA's behavioral science program was the University of Hawaii, the alma mater of Obama's mother, Kenyan father, and Indonesian step-father.
Obama and Brennan will undoubtedly gain further control over the Pentagon when Leon Panetta, an Obama loyalist, transfers from the CIA to the Secretary of Defense office. Another Obama loyalist is Air Force chief of staff, General Norton Schwartz, who may be tapped to become Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Neocons in Washington affectionately call the general, "Nortie" Schwartz. The former Air Force Secretary's chief adviser, John P. Wheeler III, was an integral part of the Air Force chain-of-command through his work on the Air Force's cyber-warfare and related information warfare programs. Wheeler continued his cyber-warfare work at MITRE Corporation after leaving the Pentagon.
Wheeler would have also worked with Dr. Lani Kass, a former Israeli Air Force officer who skyrocketed into a major position in the Air Force hierarchy. Whatever Wheeler knew about the de facto alternate Air Force chain of command went with him to the grave. Wheeler's body was discovered in a Wilmington, Delaware landfill on New Year's Eve last year. Although ruled a homicide, Wheeler's widow has accused Wilmington and Delaware law enforcement law enforcement officials of dragging their feet in the investigation of her husband's death. Delaware's Attorney General also happens to be the son of Vice President Biden, Joseph "Beau" Biden III.
The Lies of Abbottabad
The entire story of the raid on Abbottabad has been a series of lies and half-truths:
-- Bin Laden was first said to have resisted with weapons. It was later revealed that Bin Laden offered no resistance. Bin Laden, or the man who may have served as his double in U.S. intelligence-produced video tapes since 2001, was also reported to have offerred to surrender before he was shot and killed.
-- According to Brennan, Bin Laden was said to have been buried at sea in accordance with Islamic traditions. Yet, Islamic scholars and clerics said if someone dies on land, they must be buried on land.
-- Obama administration officials stated that Pakistan was not informed of the operation beforehand. Yet Abbottabad residents reported that Pakistani government officials ordered residents of the military cantonment town to turn off their lights and remain indoors at the same time U.S. and Pakistani helicopters were first spotted by residents in the area.
-- SEAL team members and the CIA were not able to get a voice recording of "Bin Laden" before he was killed. Nor could a height be determined of Bin Laden because the strike force had no tape measure. After Brennan stated there was a 99.9 percent certainty that from DNA and other forensics that the man killed was Bin Laden, a military official at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, where the "Bin Laden" body was transported, said the degree of certainty was 95 percent. In other words, certainty decreased, not increased, after a more thorough post-mortem examination at Bagram. The comparative DNA used to identify Bin Laden was said to have been obtained from Bin Laden's sister, after she died from cancer. However, Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the house Intelligence Committee, later said DNA samples were used from a number of Bin Laden's relatives.
-- Facial recognition technology used on Bin Laden's corpse at Bagram drove the degree of certainty down to 90 percent.
-- Brennan stated that US forces also killed Bin Laden's son Khalid in the attack. The White House later said it was another Bin Laden son, Hamza, who was killed. Bin Laden's wife, Amal al-Sadeh, was reported by the White House to have been shot and killed while trying to shield Bin Laden. The story was later changed to her being shot in the leg while lunging at one of the SEAL team members.
-- Obama refused to release photos of Bin Laden's body, the burial at sea (from which a determination of the height of Bin Laden could be made since the body was said to have been buried in a simple shroud from a lower deck of the USS Carl Vinson, or the actual military assault on the compound.
-- The compound was originally reported to have been a $1 million mansion. The photographs after the attack show a much less stately abode, one that has been estimated at worth $250,000 or less. Local residents reported they never heard the occupants of the compound speak Bin Laden's native Arabic but only Pashto.
And why would a primarily Pashto-speaking household have a cable or dish satellite television feed that offered only Arabic-language news channels in a primarily Urdu- and Pashto-speaking community? A close look at the elderly "Bin Laden" channel surfing his television shows only Arabic language stations being offered for favorite selection, except for the rock music station DJTV from France, BBC World, and Al Jazeera English.
In addition to Al Jazeera Arabic, Bin Laden's channel surfing favorite options starting from 001 include BBC Arabic, Al Arabiya, Iqraa TV from Saudi Arabia, Al Hiwar from London, ANB TV from Lebanon, Dubai TV, Al Emarah from the UAE, MBC Maghreb, France 24 Arabic, Future TV from Lebanon, Al Anwar TV from Kuwait, Deutsche Welle Arabic, Al Alam from Iran, Sharjah TV, Qatar TV, Saudi 1 TV, Kuwait TV, Libya TV, Sudan TV, Oman TV, LBC Lebanon, and Al Wakrah TV from Qatar (Sports). Pakistan TV (PTV) offers an Arabic service but it was not one of Bin Laden's favorites. In fact, Bin Laden's channel options are more in keeping with those offered in the Gulf states, perhaps Qatar where the U.S. Central Command has a large base that includes psychological warfare elements.
What's next? Hint: You won't like the answer
After neocons and Obama faux liberal Democratic media dragoons began to blame Pakistan for harboring Bin Laden, these same circles began calling for sanctions on Pakistan, as well as seizing Pakistan's nuclear weapons so that they could not fall into the hands of "Al Qaeda" or Bin Laden sympathizers.
The dubious WikiLeaks had previously provided an indication of the staged raid on and killing of Bin Laden. On April 25, five days before the raid on Abbottabad, The Daily Telegraph (UK), known to pander to neocon interests, published an article stating that according to State Department cables it obtained from WikiLeaks, enhanced interrogation of 700 detainees at Guantanamo revealed that Al Qaeda would unleash a "nuclear hellstorm" on the West if Bin Laden were ever captured or assassinated. Five days later, after Bin Laden was killed, there were immediate concerns raised by neocons, many reflecting media talking points originating from Tel Aviv and New Delhi, about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. The report had the added effect of legitimizing Brennan's rendition and torture program, since the information allegedly was derived form the use of torture. The case was being made for the "ticking nuclear bomb" scenario previously used to convince doubters of torture whether they would still be opposed to the technique if it meant that a ticking nuclear bomb could be located and disarmed.
The CIA and its predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), have long been involved in helping to produce movies in Hollywood to further the propaganda and mind control goals of the U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon. Frank Wisner Sr., the creator of Project MOCKINGBIRD, pressed a number of Hollywood moguls into service to support the Cold War propaganda efforts of the CIA. Among those recruited for MOCKINGBIRD were producers Daryl Zanuck of 20th Century Fox, Howard Hughes of RKO, and Cecille B. DeMille of Paramount, as well as director John Ford. "Predictive programming" was a major component of MOCKINGBIRD's propaganda operations. Many of Steven Spielberg's and Jerry Bruckheimer's movies point to the strong possibility that Wisner's Cold War operations in Hollywood continue to this day.
In fact, since 1996, the CIA has maintained an Entertainment Liaison Office that interfaces with Hollywood on film production. The office's first director was Chase Brandon, a 25-year veteran of the CIA's Clandestine Service who also happens to be a cousin of actor Tommy Lee Jones.
Alan Watt defines "predictive programming" as "the power of suggestion using the media or fiction to create a desired outcome." The WikiLeaks cables about an Al Qaeda nuclear attack was not the only predictive programming operation that occurred in April.
It should be recalled that on March 4, 2001, Fox aired an episode of the X Files spin-off, "The Lone Gunmen," in which the actual scenario for the 9/11 attacks was revealed. In the episode, a Boeing 727, en route to Boston, was hijacked by a shadowy group of U.S. government plotters intent on crashing the plane into the World Trade Center and blaming it on an anti-American despot to drag the United States into war and increase weapons sales. The plot was called "Scenario 12D." The Boeing had its autopilot commandeered from the ground. Unlike the actual 9/11 events, the control of the plane was restored at the last minute to the pilot. "The Lone Gunmen" series was canceled in June 2001.
On April 1, Hollywood released a movie, filmed in Canada and without the support of the Chicago Film Office, Chicago Police Department, or Illinois Film Office, called "Source Code." Film credits do thank the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, both owned by neocon interests, for their assistance. David Axelrod, Obama's former political adviser who is currently running Obama's re-election campaign, is a former reporter and columnist for the Tribune. Axelrod reportedly continues to exercise political influence over the newspaper. The movie's theme is that a "lone wolf" terrorist builds a nuclear dirty bomb and is planning to detonate it in a white van parked in downtown Chicago with an estimated death count of 2 million people. Before the terrorist detonates the bomb, he blows up a morning Chicago commuter train after it departs the Glenbrook station, killing all aboard. The train bombing and dirty bomb are said to be one of a series of attacks in Chicago.
Although the doubled-decked commuter train is called "CCR - Chicago Commuter Rail" - in the film, it is clearly a Chicago Metra commuter train. The bomb is detonated by two cell phones attached to a bomb. The plot is discovered by a top secret remote viewing program, code named "Beleaguered Castle" run out of Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. One of the series of playing cards that is used to put the remote viewer in trance state is the Queen of Spades. In the film, "The Manchurian Candidate," the trigger card is the Queen of Diamonds. One of the passengers on the targeted commuter train, a professional comedian, is heard telling a joke about "Barack and Michelle."
The remote viewing program in "Source Code" is called "Beleaguered Castle." The Chicago Water Tower is often called "The Castle."
Among the computer files seized from Bin Laden's compound was intelligence that indicated that in February 2010, Al Qaeda was making plans to attack America's rail system. Attacks on rail hubs and rail lines and bridges were said by Homeland Security officials to be in the "aspirational phase."
Chicago appears to replacing New York as the "aspirational" target for the next false flag terrorist attack, one that will all but assure Obama's re-election.
Obama's former chief of staff, the mercurial Rahm Emanuel, will be sworn in as Mayor of Chicago on May 16. Emanuel's team will include a number of individuals who would relish the idea of a false flag terror attack in America's "Second City."
"Al Qaeda" files, Hollywood predictive programming, and dubious WikiLeaks cables setting the stage for an attack involving Chicago's rail transit system.
After spending $45 million in federal funds on the Project Shield, designed to cover Cook County with stationary and mobile security cameras, the cameras have been found not to work, according to a February 16 article in the Chicago Sun-Times. The FBI is supposedly investigating the security debacle.
Emanuel's police superintendent is Garry McCarthy, the deputy commissioner of operations of the New York Police Department under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Before he became the police chief of Newark, New Jersey, McCarthy threatened two Palisades Interstate Parkway policemen for issuing his daughter a parking ticket in 2005. McCarthy and his wife were arrested after they confronted the officers who issued their daughter the ticket. McCarthy was also handcuffed during the confrontation withe the two officers. McCarthy and his wife were later convicted for obstruction of traffic during their melee with the police officers. McCarthy's bombast certainly matches that of Emanuel.
Emanuel's head the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications is Gary Schenkel, a 29-year veteran of the Marine Corps. According to the December 23, 1999, Chicago Sun-Times, Schenkel, a sharpshooter, "was one of 80 Marines spending three days in Chicago touring bridges and sewers as they studied how to work in urban combat zones" in 1998. The Chicago operation was part of the Marine's "Urban Warrior Advanced Warfighting Experiment." Schenkel took part in similar exercises during the late 1990s in Oakland-Alameda, California; Jacksonville, Florida; New York City; and Charleston, South Carolina. Schenkel headed up the Federal Protective Service (FPS), part of the Department of Homeland Security, in the George W. Bush administration. During his tenure as chief of the FPS, agents of the Government Accountability Office were able to sneak bomb making components into federal buildings with security levels just below those implemented for the White House.
William Daley, the brother of outgoing Mayor Richard Daley, is serving as White House chief of staff. Presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett, who was born in 1956 in Shiraz, Iran. Her father, William Bowman, a geneticist and pathologist, is believed by some Iran experts to have been a CIA clandestine services officer. The Bowmans moved from Shiraz to London in 1961 and to Chicago in 1963. Shiraz was a hotbed of support for Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq, ousted by the CIA in 1953 in Operation Ajax.
Dr. Bowman was reportedly part of a U.S. program that sent Americans to Iran to help with economic development, a program that is similar to the CIA program that saw Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, providing economic assistance and training to Indonesians following the 1965 CIA coup against President Sukarno. In the case of Bowman, he and the Americans were likely providing more than assistance to Iranians. Shiraz was not only a center of support for ousted Prime Minister Mossadeq but also a major center of activity for Iran's Tudeh (Communist) Party, which called for nationalization of Iran's oil industry. A decade before Stanley Ann Dunham was helping to finger Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members for Indonesian army death squads, Bowman, possibly assisted by his wife, were in a location where Tudeh and pro-Mossadeq forces could also be identified for the dreaded Iranian secret police, the SAVAK, which set up shop with assistance from the CIA and Mossad in 1957. Nemazee, a supporter of the Shah, was born in India to Iranian parents and was a resident of Washington, DC in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Bowman's cover was the Nemazee Hospital established in Shiraz by Mohamed Nemazee. On August 29, 2009, Nemazee's son, Hassan Nemazee, chairman of Nemazee Capital and brother-in-law of Britain's ambassador to France, was arrested for defrauding Citibank and other banks of $292 million in loans. Nemazee Capital also had a past partnering agreement with AIG, the CIA-linked insurance giant that Obama arranged to bail out with federal money. Namazee was convicted last year of fraud was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison. Hassan Nemazee was nominated by President Clinton to be U.S. ambassador to Argentina but Clinton suddenyl withdrew the nomination amid congressional opposition. Hassan Nemazee was a major donor to the presidential campaigns of John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and forked over $50,000 to President Obama's Inaugural Committee.
On April 14, 2011. WMR reported on a flurry of suspicious maritime liens filed agianst the U.S. Department of Treasury by leading Chicago and Illinois officials: "WMR has discovered that although less than 100 maritime liens had been filed in Cook County since 1985, since March 28 of this year, 11 maritime liens have been filed in Cook County against the U.S. Treasury Department.
Such a development could be easily explained away, except when examining the names of the maritime lien filers in the order that they were filed. It is not known who some of the individuals are who filed the liens since March 28, but they are also listed:
W. Smith (unknown affiliation)
Lisa Madigan (Attorney General of Illinois)
C. Wallace (unknown affiliation)
Richard Michael Daley (outgoing Mayor of Chicago)
Chicago Police Deptartment
Thomas G. Byrne (Commissioner of the Chicago Streets & Sanitation Department; ex-Chicago Police Department)
Catherine Hennessy (affiliation unknown, possibly Chicago Police Department)
Pat Quinn (Governor of Illinois)
Milton R. Sees (former Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary)
Jesse White (Secretary of State of Illinois)
Ernie Dannenberger (Director of Vehicle Service Department of the Illinois Secretary of State's office)Filing maritime liens against the US Treasury Department might indicate the future movement of U.S. Navy and/or Coast Guard vessels into Chicago's ports. However, the question looms: As Rahm Emanuel prepares to take over as mayor of Chicago, why was there a sudden flurry of maritime liens filed by top city and state officials a few weeks after Emanuel captured the mayor's seat in the election?"
According to the "intelligence" gleaned from the captured "Al Qaeda" computer files from Abbottabad, attacks on the U.S. rail system were planned for September 11, 2011, the tenth anniversary of the plane attacks on the United States. A handwritten note from February 10, 2010, mentions the possibility of rail attacks on a train on a bridge on the the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001.
Chicago should remain ever-vigilant against its new mayor and his cronies, suspicious Israelis masquerading as art students, office/furniture movers, kiosk vendors, and those who speak fluent Arabic and who claim to be security consultants, as well as suspicious financial transactions, and security training exercises planned for the city, especially those involving the Chicago Transit Authority and Metra. The London 7/11 attacks on London transit targets were conducted during an anti-terrorism exercise. One thing that can be said about the architects of false flag terrorist attacks is that they seldom stray from their master playbook.