>>> 9/11 family members are pissed--and rightfully so--at the Bush Administration's continuing cover-up of the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as the pathetic media's complicity in letting officials change the subject.

An 11 June Newsweek article tells of a closed meeting between 9/11 families and FBI officials, including Director Robert "Perjurer" Mueller. Family members refused to put up with Mueller's spin and lies:

“A lot of family members were angry, and there was a lot of shouting out of turn,” said Steve Push, the leader of one of the 9-11 victims’-family groups. “There was a lot of unhappiness with quite a few of the responses.”

Much of the stiffest criticism came from “the Jersey Girls”—a group of feisty young widows from northern New Jersey whose husbands died in the World Trade Center and who have become increasingly radicalized by what they view as the U.S. government’s failure to provide them with answers to many key questions about the attacks.

The women from New Jersey got especially frustrated when Mueller and other top bureau officials at the meeting repeatedly brushed aside their questions, saying they couldn’t respond because the answers might jeopardize the Justice Department’s pending case against Zacarias Moussaoui, the accused Al Qaeda terrorist who is facing charges that he was a co-conspirator in the 9-11 attacks.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about Moussaoui!” said Patty Casazza, a 38-year-old New Jersey resident whose husband, John, died in the World Trade Center’s north tower. “Send him to Guantanamo Bay and … get what you can from him there.”

...

“I don’t think he understands we’re done with there being no accountability for what happened to our loved ones,” said Lorie Van Auken, 48, another one of the Jersey group, whose husband, Kenneth, died in the attacks.

...

“We’re anxious,” said Casazza. “And we want answers.”

On 18 June, Salon revealed more about the contentious, restricted meeting. Some direct quotes from the family members prove very enlightening:

"We've been fighting for nearly 21 months -- fighting the administration, the White House," says Monica Gabrielle. Her husband, Richard, an insurance broker who worked for Aon Corp. on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center's Tower 2, died during the attacks. "As soon as we started looking for answers we were blocked, put off and ignored at every stop of the way. We were shocked. The White House is just blocking everything."

Another 9/11 family advocate -- a former Bush supporter who requested anonymity -- was more blunt: "Bush has done everything in his power to squelch this [9/11] commission and prevent it from happening."

...

"We're the most skeptical audience Mueller will ever have, and I think it showed," says Sept. 11 widow Beverly Eckert, whose husband, Sean Rooney, died in the twin towers. "We want answers."

...

"Iraq changed everything with the press," says one victims' advocate whose wife died in Tower 1. "Nobody cares about this after Iraq."

"It was a successful attempt to change the story," notes John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a nonprofit defense policy group. "From the White House's perspective, no good can come of these [9/11] investigations. So I think their approach has been entirely predictable, and easy to understand."

Adding insult for some family activists was the fact that Bush used the 9/11 attacks as a justification for the war on Iraq. "I sat and listened to the State of the Union speech [last January] when Bush mentioned 9/11 12 or 13 times," recalls Kristin Breitweiser, whose husband, Ronald, was killed when United Flight 175 slammed into Tower 1. "At the same time, we were having trouble getting funding for the independent commission."

Gabrielle was equally upset: "Bush has never personally met with the [9/11] families to discuss any of this, so for him to use Sept. 11 and its victims to justify his agenda, I myself am disgusted."

...

"It was upsetting to find out the White House was trying to block the independent commission's access to the joint inquiry information, when we all know the mandate that created the independent commission states clearly that the commission is to use the joint inquiry as a starting-off point," notes Breitweiser, who also voted for Bush in 2000. "So why would they be blocking access to that?"

...

"Bush begrudgingly signed [the commission] into law," complains one family advocate. "Since it was created, he's done everything to take the teeth out of it. His fingerprints and Karl Rove's are all over this."

...

"I'm very disappointed in the press," says Breitweiser. "I think it's disgusting the independent commission is doing the most important work for this nation and it's not even reported in the New York Times or on the nightly news. I've been scheduled to go on 'Meet the Press' and 'Hardball' so many times and I'm always canceled. Frankly I'd like nothing better than to go head to head with Dick Cheney on 'Meet the Press.' Because somebody needs to ask the questions and I don't understand why nobody is."

Among frustrated family members of Sept. 11 victims, there's a feeling they're losing the battle of time in their struggle to get answers from the Bush administration. "There's a very, very small window to effect changes," says one 9/11 widower, Bill Harvey. "And unfortunately, that window is closing."

posted 30 June 2003

>>> The US Consciousness Police have their sites set on a new plant that they're moving to outlaw. Says USA Today:

Federal drug agents are so concerned about the growing use of a little-known and accessible herb with hallucinogenic qualities that they are taking steps to treat it like cocaine, heroin and LSD, and make it illegal....

''It's not like this substance is overtaking the streets of America, but I could see it becoming a problem as it becomes more available,'' said Sgt. Rick Gerger, a detective in St. Peters [Missouri].

The Drug Enforcement Administration agrees and is collecting information about the herb's active ingredients as the first step toward seeking to have it declared an illegal controlled substance.

Salvia divinorum is an increasingly popular entheogen/psychedelic that leads to visions and often profound experiences in users. Like all psychedelics--such as LSD and peyote--it is absolutely non-addictive. It's also likely to be safe, since it's a form of the flavorful herb sage.

But we know that we can't let people have substances that open up hidden areas of their minds, so the Drug Warriors are aiming to outlaw this mint plant and--if the past is any guide--they'll do what they can to stamp it out of existence (although, like all other such attempts, this one will fail miserably). The USA Today article doesn't mention it, but last year a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives to designate Salvia as a Schedule I controlled substance.

For right now, though, this psychedelic sage remains legal. Buy it and grow it while you still can. Stock up on it. And if you're going to ingest it, learn as much as you can first and treat it with respect. This is not a party drug.

To find sellers, just enter the plant's name into any search engine. To learn more about it, check out these resources:

The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center

Report on Salvia Divinorum and its Active Principle, Salvinorin A

Salvia Divinorum Action Center

Erowid | Lycaeum

Salvia Divinorum Grower's Guide (book)

posted 30 June 2003

>>> Back from Iraq, a British soldier took a roll of film to be developed. When the photo developer who owns the shop saw what she was processing, she called the police, who arrested the soldier. In this article, the Sun (London) describes the pictures:

ONE was apparently taken in a warehouse. It showed a man stripped at least to the waist and suspended high in the air by a rope attached to one of the forks on a fork-lift truck.

More rope bound him throughout the length of his body.

He was hanging horizontally and his frightened face was in close-up. A soldier driving the fork-lift truck could be seen in the background, staring at his victim and apparently laughing.

ANOTHER picture showed a pair of white legs and the head of a male Iraqi.

The hand of a man behind the Iraqi’s head appeared to be forcing him to perform oral sex.

The Iraqi was squatting and again appeared to be at least naked to the waist. The soldier’s face was not visible.

A THIRD picture showed a pair of bare backsides. One Iraqi man was on his knees on the floor with his body bent.

Another was pressed behind him, tightly moulding his body like a spoon in what seemed to be a sexual position.

THE FOURTH snap showed two naked Iraqis cowering on the ground as if thrown there.

The photo developer who called the cops describes what she saw:

“At first appearance, it had seemed like soldiers having a laugh.

“Then I realised it was a half-naked Iraqi being hauled high into the air by a forklift truck while bound hand and foot.

“I saw the look on his face. He was petrified.

“I will never forget that terrible stare. I immediately thought, ‘That’s not right’.

“Then I saw some sexual pictures. One looked like an Iraqi PoW being forced to give a soldier oral sex. I think the Iraqi was naked — you could just see the top half of him and the bottom half of the soldier.

“There was also a close-up of the naked backsides of two Iraqis, as if they were simulating anal sex.

“Another shot showed two Iraqis lying naked on the ground as if they had just been thrown there. There didn’t seem anything wrong with the other photos. They were just pictures of Iraqi soldiers surrendering — the sort of thing you saw on the TV during the war.”

In a sidebar, the article notes:

THE Army probe into the photos scandal has been stepped up amid fears that a “hornets’ nest” of horror could be unearthed.

Lt Col Jeremy Green, commanding officer of the Special Investigations Branch, last night took personal charge of the inquiry.

And a source close to the investigation said: “There is a genuine fear that this is not just a scandal involving one 18-year-old Fusilier.

“Our biggest worry is that the reputation of 1 Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, will be besmirched.”

The Sun has an artist's rendition of the forklift photo, based on the photo developer's description:

If anyone out there has access to these photos--or any like them--please send them to The Memory Hole.

'Torture' snaps: man held | My horror at PoW sex abuse pics

Soldiers sent home amid PoW abuse inquiry | Army to face new torture claims

Inquiry widens into soldier's 'torture photos'

posted 04 June 2003

From "Washington Shelved Report of 44-trillion-dollar Deficit" by Agence France-Presse, 29 May 2003:

In the midst of negotiating a steep tax cuts package, the US government shelved a report that showed the United States faces future federal budget deficits of more than 44.2 trillion dollars.

President George W. Bush's administration chose to keep the findings -- commissioned by then-Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill -- out of the 2004 annual budget report, published in February, London's Financial Times reported.

The newspaper desribed the study as "the most comprehensive assessment of how the US government is at risk of being overwhelmed by the 'baby boom' generation's future healthcare and retirement costs."

The Financial Times hinted that the decision not to publish the report may have been because the White House was campaigning for a massive tax-cut package that critics claim will expand future deficits.

The study, according to the same source, said that sharp tax increases, massive spending cuts or both are unavoidable if the US is to meet benefit promises to future generations.

"It estimates that closing the gap would require the equivalent of an immediate and permanent 66 percent across-the-board income tax increase," the Financial Times said.

"The study was being circulated as an independent working paper among Washington think-tanks as Bush on Wednesday signed into law a 10-year, 350-billion-dollar tax-cut package he welcomed as a victory for hard-working Americans and the economy," the newspaper said.

Kent Smetters, then-Treasury deputy assistant secretary for economic policy, and Jagdessh Gokhale, then a consultant to the Treasury, were in charge of the analysis, the newspaper said.

"When we were conducting the study, my impression was that it was slated to appear (in the budget). At some point, the momentum builds and you think everything is a go, and then the decision came down that we weren't part of the prospective budget," Gokhale was quoted a saying in the front-page article.

O'Neill, who was fired last December, refused to comment, according to the same source.

The Bush administration has come under severe criticism for the tax cuts package, which come on top of a 10-year 1.65 trillion tax cut program enacted in 2001, at a time when the US economy is sputtering and unemployment is steadily rising.

Naturally, the Administration denies the charge.

You can read an early draft of the report at the American Enterprise Institute's Website by doing the following:

1) Go to this page.

2) In the right column, click on "Gokhale's Paper."

For good measure, also click on "Gokhale's Presentation."

posted 04 June 2003

>>> Unknown News places 3 articles side by side so you can see the startling news about suicide attempts among the prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay. In early October of last year, there had been "at least 30" such attempts. But in late May, there had been only 27.

Not only had all the prisoners completely stopped trying to kill themselves for almost seven months, but at least three of the early attempts weren't really attempts at all!

Read it.

posted 04 June 2003

>>> I'll be picking up a copy of the new exposé, The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group:

Dwight D. Eisenhower, upon leaving the office of president in 1961, warned future generations against the dangers of a "military-industrial complex," and the "grave implications" of the "conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry." The wisdom of these comments has clearly been lost in the forty years since Ike left office. And the first step towards turning things around is understanding how we got here. No single company can illustrate that progression better than the Carlyle Group, a business founded on a tax scheme in 1987 that has grown up to be what its own marketing literature once called "a vast interlocking global network." The company does business at the confluence of the war on terrorism and corporate responsibility. It is a world that few of us can even imagine, full of clandestine meetings, quid pro quo deals, bitter ironies, and petty jealousies. And the cast of characters includes some of the most famous and powerful men in the world. This is today’s America. This is the Carlyle Group.

Check it out.

Read about Carlyle

posted 04 June 2003

>>> Another exposé that looks like it holds lots of potential is The Big Fix: How the Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off American Consumers:

As the pharmaceutical industry invests more and more in the development of new drugs, true breakthroughs are few and far between. Into the breach comes a panoply of product-line extensions and me-too drugs aimed at grabbing market share. The industry plows its high profits back into research, but invests an equal or greater sum in flogging its products in every imaginable venue. Research studies are designed to support marketing claims. Many doctors all over the country get their first information about new drugs from a salesperson. And, increasingly, prescription drugs are pitched to consumers on TV and the internet with images of hope, terror, or chic. Evidence-based practice guidelines, which endeavor to get the right medicines to those who will benefit most, can't be heard over the din.

Having created an unprecedented number of "megabrands"--blockbuster drugs with huge sales--and undergone an extraordinary wave of consolidation, some drug companies now find themselves in a precarious position. Patents are expiring on flagship products. In order to sustain the growth Wall Street has come to expect, these companies must produce billions of dollars worth of new revenue--fast. But can Americans continue to bankroll Operation Grow Big Pharma? Must we swallow the bad with the good?

Check it out.

posted 04 June 2003

>> Sometime during the night/morning hours of 23-24 May 2003, Michael Moore's Website was hacked. Interestingly, the hack page went through three different versions before Moore's Webmaster regained control.

The first shot is from a few minutes after midnight EST on 24 May:

Here's a mirror of the whole page.

The second shot is from the screen as it appeared around 12:15 AM. The flag and the greetings had been erased:

The final shot is from approximately fifteen minutes later, with a new first sentence/paragraph added:

posted 04 June 2003

>>> Ain't It Cool News, the scoop-filled Website that always has advance word on upcoming movies, has a report from an anonymous person who attended a private Michael Moore interview. The setting was Cannes, and Moore--via satellite--was pitching his new documentary, Farenheit 911, to distributors. Here's the crux of the matter:

Its about the Bush family, their extensive connection with the Bin Laden family and the environment within the USA post Sept 11. He has footage of the Bush family dining with the Bin Laden family. It elaborates on the business relationship between the families that has existed for many years. It explores how a Saudi charter plane travelled the US immediately after Sept 11 and how the FBI were pissed that they couldn't interrogate its Bin Laden passengers as they were ferried to Paris. It looks at the way in which the government used the events of Sept 11 to push their own agendas.

Moore expalined that since COLUMBINE and its appearance at the Oscars he receives 6,000 pieces of fan mail a day and gets given pieces of footage that he can't talk about now but will make this perhaps the most incendiary documentary of all time. In his words 'If I don't make this, I may as well stick my head in the sand like everybody else."

During question time one audience member questioned his ability to finish the film, to which his answer was "Any attempt to stop it will just create more interest." He also said he would explore the reasons as to why Blair put his arse on the line to support Bush and [he will] make a film that is funnier and more shocking than COLUMBINE.

Read the whole thing here.

posted 27 May 2003 | thanks to Cursor

>>> In his seminal e-newsletter, "Secrecy News," Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists discloses an obscure way Congress could release its 9/11 report despite the Bush Administration's attempts to block it:

Five months after the completion of an 800 page report by the congressional joint inquiry into the September 11 terrorist attacks, the report remains classified and unavailable to the public. But if Congress had the will, it could release the report itself.

Under a little-known provision of the rules that established the House and Senate select intelligence committees, Congress granted itself the authority to disclose whatever information it deems to be in the public interest.

"The select committee may... disclose publicly any information in the possession of such committee after a determination by such committee that the public interest would be served by such disclosure," according to Section 8 of the 1976 Senate Resolution 400. A similar provision appears in Section 7 of House Rule XLVIII.

In cases where the information in question is classified, the intelligence committee must notify the President five days in advance of disclosing the information. If the President objects in writing, the disclosure may nevertheless proceed, but in that case it must be approved by the full Senate or House.

Or, of course, they could anonymously send it to me. :)

Read the full newsletter here.

posted 27 May 2003

>>> The article "Use of Data Collection Systems Is Up Sharply Following 9/11" by Ann Davis of the Wall Street Journal (22 May) sheds light on Orwellian systems that are similar to Total/Terrorist Information Awareness but have thusfar escaped publicity:

In the 20 months since Sept. 11, 2001, little-known government and commercial databases that track the movements and backgrounds of everyday Americans have steadily ballooned....

While debates rage about these two programs [TIA and CAPPS], though, myriad other government agencies and private companies are building similar kinds of massive, easily searched databases on a broad range of people, all in the name of the war on terror. The emerging systems link databases that didn't communicate previously, mixing public records, such as indictments and prosecutions, with intelligence based largely on investigators' hunches....

But critics say the more information of varying credibility is amassed in one place, the greater the risk of overloading investigators with irrelevant leads that cast needless suspicion on innocent people. "What we're talking about here is unverified information and not necessarily very accurate information," says James Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an online policy group in Washington.

Some examples of what's in the works:

* The FBI is working with outside contractors to build an unprecedented "data mart." By importing data from other federal agencies and linking to local police intelligence databases, the Terrorism and Intelligence Data Information Sharing Data Mart will get instant access to a broad range of people. "Text-mining" software will then scan for common elements in more than a billion documents from FBI field offices across the country.

* An FBI database called the Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File is expanding rapidly. When it was launched in 1995, VGTOF was mainly used to track violent urban street gangs. Early last year, its purpose was quietly expanded to include all subjects of FBI domestic or international terrorist investigations. A February 2002 memo citing the 2002 Winter Olympics shows how the FBI's definition of potential terrorists has broadened: It encompasses such categories as "anarchists," "militia," "white supremacist," "black extremist," "animal rights extremist," "environmental extremist," "radical Islamic extremist" and "European origin extremist."

Because police even check VGTOF at traffic stops -- and it includes suspects with no criminal record -- inclusion in the database is supposed to be limited to people who pose a significant threat, says Roy Weise, senior adviser to the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division. But the terrorism listings now include more than 7,000 names, alongside the tens of thousands of gang members.

* Police intelligence files are being shared more widely. In a pilot project, several police agencies in the St. Louis region are combining their files with the FBI's into a single database. And a police intelligence network called Rissnet has emerged as a national bulletin board for police to post information about people suspected, but not necessarily convicted, of criminal activity. Since October, the Justice Department has been connecting Rissnet to other networks so that information on people of interest to local law enforcement -- including protest groups suspected of crimes, motorcycle gangs and members of organized crime -- can be cross-checked by federal investigators.

The degree to which there are mistakes in such systems isn't known. The public can't browse most of these databases. Challenging one's inclusion is hard, because most agencies won't confirm that individuals are on a watch list. And privacy laws contain many exemptions for national security.

posted 27 May 2003 | thanks to PM

>>> From "States Are Closing Many Previously Open Records" by Robert Tanner, Associated Press, 20 May 2003:

For the second year running, state legislators worried about terrorists are seeking to revise open-government laws, conducting a piecemeal but wide-ranging examination of the states' freedom-of-information measures....

At least 15 states have considered such legislation. So far, five of those have passed laws to tighten public access to documents or meetings, but most have yet to finish their legislative sessions.

Last year, 21 states approved measures to keep from public view information that was deemed important to security, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press found in a March study....

Among other new proposals under consideration:

Ohio would allow the state health director, as part of new bioterrorism provisions, to block from public view records generated during state disease and illness investigations. Lawmakers, however, appear more reluctant to back the plan than they were last session, advocates for civil liberties and newspapers said.

Nevada would allow the governor to keep certain documents about preventing or responding to terrorist attacks confidential. These include emergency radio frequencies, emergency response plans and vulnerability assessments. The bill is moving ahead.

Vermont would sharply restrict public access to architects' plans for public buildings. The proposal has passed both the House and Senate and a conference committee is working out differences on language.

Arkansas' police chiefs got a law passed that makes a list of material secret, including threat assessments and training plans. Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee opposed a similar effort by the state Emergency Management Department last year.

Read the whole thing here.

posted 27 May 2003

>>> Longtime labor activist Harry Kelber writes in his 21 May newsletter:

Are Secret Activities Being Conducted By AFL-CIO’s International Affairs Dept.?

Unbeknownst to most trade unionists, former AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, as head of the International Affairs Department, ran a global empire that consisted of about 100 full-time professionals in international relations, operating in some 80 countries through four regional institutes, which he tightly controlled for more than two decades until he was forced to retire in 1995.

Heavily financed by U.S. government agencies and private organizations, AFL-CIO operatives collaborated with the Central Intelligence Agency to undermine foreign governments and unions that were considered hostile to American business interests or were thought to be pro-Communist, even to the point of setting up and financing dual unions in those countries.

There is strong evidence that Kirkland’s American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) worked with the CIA to overthrow the democratically-elected Chilean government in 1973. The full story has yet to be told how American labor was drawn into an alliance with anti-democratic forces to subvert countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America in line with U.S. foreign policy. But enough details have come to light to reveal how these clandestine activities blackened the AFL-CIO’s international reputation.

To replace the four regional institutes, the AFL-CIO in 1997 created the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, using much of Kirkland’s global structure, with field offices in more than 25 countries, in such far-flung places as Bangladesh, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Croatia, which have no noticeable ties with American labor, but can be useful command posts for the U.S. State Department.

Read the full article here.

posted 27 May 2003 | thanks to PM for the article and the headline

>>> In "Critical Letter Taken off Mining Web Site," James R. Carroll of the Courier-Journal (Louisville KY), wrote:

A letter from the United Mine Workers union objecting to the proposed federal takeover of coal-dust testing was removed from a government Web site for public comments on the plan the same day the letter was posted.

Its removal was "suspect," said Joseph Main, the letter's author and administrator of the UMW's Department of Occupational Safety and Health. The seven-page letter offered a blistering critique of the Mine Safety and Health Administration's coal-dust testing plan.

"I think there's a reason they may not have wanted our comments on the Web site," Main said in an interview. "Whatever light shines on them, there's not a whole lot of defense the agency can muster for these rules."

But a spokeswoman for MSHA insisted there was no attempt to muzzle the union's criticism and that, at the union's request, the letter would be reposted. The spokeswoman, Katherine Snyder, said the letter was "inadvertently " posted in the first place. " It was not part of the rulemaking record. It was correspondence," she said.

Snyder said she expected the letter to be reposted by today.

UMW spokesman Doug Gibson said Main's April 17 letter was first posted on May 5 and removed the same day....

In the interview, Main said MSHA was attempting to roll back more than 30 years of efforts to reduce the explosion hazard posed by coal dust and to combat black lung, a debilitating and potentially fatal respiratory disease caused by exposure to excessive coal dust levels. Black lung kills about 1,000 people annually.... The UMW has called on MSHA to withdraw its coal-dust plan, saying it would allow mine operators to generate as much as four times the current limits on dust.

That letter has indeed been put back on MSHA's Website, and you can read it here [Acrobat format]. To be on the safe side, The Memory Hole is keeping a copy here.

posted 27 May 2003

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