On November 6, CSPAN aired a hearing of the Homeland Security Subcommittee's "Terrorism and the Internet" which stated purpose was to attempt to identify and focus on the use of the internet by "home grown terrorist recruiters." The hearing was chaired by California democrat Jane Harman, sponsor of the infamous HR 1955, "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007", and ranking Republican, Rep. Dave Reichert.This event generated quite an uproar in the 9/11 Truth and civil liberties communities because of testimony by panelists conflating two very distinct and unconnected groups -- the 9/11 truth movement with jihadi terrorists. What generated the most buzz -- and condemnation -- was a powerpoint demonstration from Mark Weitzman of the Simon Weisenthal Center, whose powerpoint presentation titled "Internet: Incubator of 9/11 Conspiracies and Disinformation" showed a video of building 7 collapsing as well as a screenshot of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth's website in between websites which featured bomb-making techniques and a terrorist's training manual.
For anyone who has visited ae911truth.org you will see that Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth is as far from a terrorists' recruitment website as you can get. Just click on the "About Us" button and you will read this copy:
"We are a non-partisan association of Architects, Engineers, and affiliates, who are dedicated to exposing the falsehoods and to revealing truths about the 'collapses' of the WTC high-rises on 9/11/01.
We call upon Congress for a truly independent investigation with subpoena power. We believe that there may be sufficient evidence to conclude that the World Trade Center buildings #1 (North Tower), #2 (South Tower), and #7 (the 47 story high-rise across Vessey St.) were destroyed not by jet impact and fires but by controlled demolition with explosives.
We believe that this website, as well as the other referenced sites, contains the information necessary to demonstrate to all with an open mind that this is the case, and that such an investigation is warranted and overdue. We believe that the available relevant evidence casts grave doubt on the government's official story of these 'collapses'.
Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth are encouraged to take an active role by reporting the results of their research on 9/11 by means of lectures, articles, and methods of disseminating the truth about the 9/11 WTC building 'collapses'."
Then there is a picture of Richard Gage, AIA, founder of AE 9/11 Truth and his professional biography.
Scary, huh?
So, What were they thinking? Why would more than 200 architects and engineers who are calling on Congress to hold an independent investigation as to what really happened to the Twin Towers and WTC Building 7 get associated with islamic extremists?
It has become painfully obvious that when Glenn Beck (a CNN host who recently said that Truthers were of the same ilk as Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh) and a Homeland Security subcommittee do a smear job on Truthers they are doing so not because they are violent, or because their ideas are helping to recruit terrorists, but because they are threatening to the whole "War on Terror" agenda -- an agenda foisted on us by the military industrial complex and their corporate sponsors.
Like in the Middle Ages, Beck and Harman are fulfilling the role of the Church's Inquisitors by persecuting and prosecuting those who do not willingly submit to the "War on Terror" religion, which demands that we accept Osama bin Laden and "Islamofascists" as the Devil incarnate, and George W. Bush and the State as our personal Savior. According to Beck and Harman, If you lack the faith, and can't quietly hold your tongue in your disbelief, then the state has no room for you in polite society. Off to Gitmo you go to get tortured and be redeemed by the fascist rod of righteousness.
So, we need to think of Harman's committee as nothing more than a modern day witch hunt -- a panicky attempt to shore up support for a crumbling corporatists' consensus.
We have seen these kinds of repressive tactics countless times before in history -- from the Espionage and Sedition Acts during WWI, to the McCarthy's Red Scare in the 50s, to Cointelpro in the 60s and 70s. But this time the stakes are much higher as there is no end to the War on Terror as you can't have war on an abstract idea. As long as people are being repressed and are fighting back to preserve their freedoms and lives, this state will call them "terrorists," thus, the perpetual rational to keep repressing people, thus constantly creating new terrorists, thus keeping the cycle going; i.e., the war that will not end in our lifetimes.
We need to see that these attacks on Truthers, or anyone else who threatens the status quo (like Ron Paul and his supporters) as nothing more than a battle of ideas -- ideas that have the ultimate power to shape the world we want to live in. It is imperative that We The People build this world and not a criminal elite who are driven solely by power and profits.
This demands that we must make a choice: either that we live as free people or we live as slaves to a corporatist's state that will demand our riches and our blood in perpetual war. There is only one choice to be made. The other will be made for you.
Though Jane Harman's Homeland Security Inquisition and the cable news attacks by Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly on Truthers are scary to many, they are also a good sign as well. The mythmakers are seeing their flimsy house cards fall apart by the rigorous logic and analysis on sites like AE911truth.org. As a consequence, Truthers are winning the battle over hearts and minds and, as a result, going through the final stages that Gandhi said will happen when challenging the status quo:
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."
We are very close to winning.
For an excellent write up on this issue, see:
State Terror: H.R. 1955 a Weapon of Mass Destruction of Civil Liberties
17 comments:
***Very good write-up... I watched the video a couple of weeks ago and was shocked on how they were attempting to "link up" the 9/11 Truth Movement with radical, bomb-building terrorist groups. I did not spend much time blogging on it except to post a blog to advise people to watch it for it's implications... What I find most disheartening is those (the ones that refuse to "educate" themselves or explore the issues further) that stand on the sidelines, throwing stones, that will heartily eat this convoluted chow of disinformation and propaganda like the good dogs the USG wants them to be... Well, I'm not eating up all this USG propaganda garbage like a dog. I'm a cat and until it's milk I'll be hissing, spitting, scratching, and biting the hand that tries to feed me any of that propaganda chow. BTW I'd like to believe that your last two sentences are true (who said the first? or is it your own):
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."
"We are very close to winning."
Words don't hurt me... And my claws are sharp and drawn... On to battle!
One must take a more historic look at the politico-religious phenomenon than is presented in this otherwise worthy article.
One simply must understand what is a religion apart from the condescending way Richard Dawkins, Pope Benedict or Bill Kristol might define religion.
A religion is a belief system that relies upon a higher being for substantiation of its beliefs.
Most here will readily admit Pope Benedict or Bill Kristol are diests. But how does Richard Dawkins the atheist fit this mold?
We can crack the nut of religion only if we understand it.
If we examine closely all our commonly held and equally cherished beliefs systems, from our commonly held moral views to our even more commonly held views of the penetrable scientific nature of the world, we find it is all religion.
Science is a religion that espouses against the overwhelming preponderance of the obvious complexities of reality, that the practice of science can somehow improve life by its weak penetration of the veil of the thing in itself, reality.
There, when one examines this notion closely, one finds there are two animisms intrinsic to any such a belief.
First, there is an animism that requires a guiding hand to inform us what might be better than life, odd as that may seem and impossible as it is; and secondly, an animism is required to act as a guiding hand to keep the meandering inquiries of empirical knowledge from destroying all humanity.
The unflinching acceptance of these twin empirical dieties and the promise of an empirical messiah that will rescue humanity from increasing empirical perils is part and parcel to the acceptance of the politico-religious phenomenon described in this article.
The clearest of affirmations of this strange new fundamentalist belief is inherent to the unspoken truth, a lie of silent assertion by any other name, that as (scientific-religious-political) Americans we are superior in every apsect of our lives from every other human on the planet.
One cannot dispel any of these myths without dispelling them all, and, ironically, replacing these religions of the past with a new one.
Such is human nature not too far removed from our simian cousins and the barbarity that is much closer to us all than is the past, as you have doubtlessly otherwise been led to believe.
Don Robertson, The American Philosopher
Glen Beck is a TRAITOR, and he will surely go back to Hell with the Bushes and the Clintons one day.
Jane Harman is also a traitor. I can tell by her last name that she is from a family that likes to spread hate, lies, and is trying to start a new inquisition. It is people like her that turns this country into the same country that the Pilgrims escaped from and came here 200 years ago to atart a free country, one where everyone can think whichever way he/she wants to, without getting prosecuted.
Kitty
The right-wing filth are using a similar smear on the environmental movement and particularly those who favor population control. Supposedly, environmentalists are now planning genocide to solve the population problem. (Of course global warming will solve the population problem in the time honored way.) It is crooks like these and the suckers who fall for them who have taught me to despise most of the lazy cowards we call mankind.
HR 1955 by Harman, is a 'harm..'
and is a throw back at least 250 years. But then anything for a vote, even if you have to grapple in the swill of bottom feeders.
Anyone, with half a brain cell can sence out the absolute 100% 'harm' and damage this bill truly is.
First, make sure Harman and their ilk are never elected to public office again. That should be a mandate.
Second, if half the attention to these intrusive and 'harm' ful laws were given, they would not be passed in the fisrt place.
Last, it does no real good of any kind to be the one these 'harm' intended laws come after. You can't e-mail for jail.
Hr 1955 and its serpentine evil mate Executive order 51 will put all our butts in the chow line in a containment camp if we do not make repeals and take action.
Its not us or them....IT IS US.
Reason Obbeys. Ignorance submits to what is dictated to it." Thomas Paine.
A good article. Well writtne and odne. Thanks.FAJL
1. The results of the Presidential elections in 2000 and 2004 were very likely the result of fraud, and future elections are in jeopardy.
2. The official 9/11 story has more holes in it than Dick Cheney's hunting buddy, and could very well be the most devastating and cynical scam ever imposed on the American people.
3. The media -- the fabled fifth estate has become the fifth column,betraying the truth left and right, mostly right. The one major difference between our "liberal" media and Pravda of 30 years ago is that the Russian people knew they were being lied to.
4. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afganistan have been killed by US forces. If this isn't terrorism, what is? The war was never declared by congess, and so is illegal.
5. There is no reason to ever torture anyone. To do so is to prove to our enemies that they are on the side of rightiousness.
"Waterboarding" is clearly torture.
Bush and Cheney are war criminals, and should be tried before the World Court as such.
Why would more than 200 architects and engineers who are calling on Congress to hold an independent investigation as to what really happened to the Twin Towers and WTC Building 7 get associated with Islamic extremists?
It's pretty simple actually. Everyone who is trying to divert public attention from the terrorists who have committed their act on 9/11, thus trying to screen them from the responsibility, is aiding those very terrorists, which is a crime. It's the same principle as anyone who is denying the Holocaust is in fact calling for another Holocaust to occur - which is how it is seen in European countries.
Therefore, if law enforcement goes in and arrests members of any organization denying that 9/11 was the work of Islamic terrorists, that would be perfectly legal act. For everyone's security, these people should be detained as enemy combatants, so the government wouldn't be distracted from fighting the terror for us.
Listen to this fascist at 12:58. He would have rallied behind the Fuhrer too (Hitler, because I KNOW you don't have any type of historical knowledge). Why don't you look through history to see that state-sponsored false-flag terror to manipulate and control the PUBLIC thru FEAR to start WARS is nothing new at all.
For you to even suggest that a US citizen does not have the right to free speech makes YOU the traitor and it's treason agaist the Constitution of our FREE REPUBLIC to even begin to suggest that it's a THOUGHT CRIME to want the FACTS and not media-distorted lies about that day.
WHY don't you try to do some research before you embarass the human race any further with your sheepish ignorance.
This hearing was intentionally designed threaten to those who dissent from the official story. The action of labeling those who openly disagree as being in league with the criminals behind 9/11 is a true corruption of reality. This behavior itself indicates an active psychological defense on the part of those doing the distortion to deny awareness of a subconscious truth they themselves hold. Threat is a fear tactic used to force denial of conscious awareness of truth in other people. It won't work.
Cheney knew about peak oil before anyone. As a former Secretary of Defense, as well as CEO of the largest oil services corporation in the world, no one on the planet had more access to information regarding global oil reserves than him. No one. 9-11 was Cheney's baby. As to who else was in on the plot, besides the obvious (Meyers, Eberhart, Rumsfeld), we can only speculate.
Six years later, it's becoming increasingly clear that the United States of America is devoted to a "last man standing" approach to the coming energy debacle. Such a desperate endeavor, yet completely rational in the minds of it's architects. What were we to do, let Saddam sit on it? Let China march over the hill and grab it? Allow the FSU to become a global rival once more? NO. None of the above. That's why the first election being stolen in 2000 was so crucial. Cheney knew they might never get another chance.
The only way this plan could ever succeed was with total complicity of the major media in the US. That's five CEO's for anyone not acquainted with media ownership. Five CEO's is all it took. Five CEO's and five telephones. Done deal. Do not ever look for mainstream reporters to break 9-11 truth bombshells, cause it ain't gonna happen.
Richard Gage has shown uncommon courage in founding AE911 Truth. This is the site the perps fear more than any other, and it's growing. It's members realize that the the truth can and will be found through a scientific analysis of the evidence, and not through some dogmatic allegiance to a governmental entity.
Weitzman tried a sleight of hand and ended up tipping his hand. His actions reminded me of the scene from American Graffiti where a teenager named "Tiger" tried to get a store clerk to sell him a bottle of Old Harper whisky by including it in a plethora of items such as some licorice and a pocket comb. No dice Weitzman. What the fuck are you hiding.
This law is part of laying the groundwork for the coming police state. When 9/11 II comes, this law will be modified to have much more power -- like the power to simply shutdown sites like this one; and everybody, on both sides of the aisle, will pass it without hesitating. People like this always plan ahead, and this way the infrastructure will be in place, and the kinks smoothed out, when lock-down comes.
And no, the lock-down hasn't come yet. We need another "catastrophic and catalyzing event" for that.
Clearly any who support this bill are traitors to the Republic. And clearly are supporters of the Empire. When they use the rationale that 911 truth or other positions of dissent support Al Qaeda, etc., they are simply showing either their complicity in the crime or their amazingly ignorant belief that the terrorists are 'out there', are OBL, or 'islamofascists'....
Dear idiot, supporter of the 'official' meme, the terrorists are in Washington and London. And you are a dupe.
Nice write up, overall...interesting commentary, too. Good context and background info. This is a major issue for anyone concerned about our dying republic. McCarthy is back out of the bottle.
Unfortunately, these actions by congress and the media are making sane and rational people very nervous, and doubtless more militant. Harman's committee and the new laws like, H.R. 1955, the Military Commissions Act and Presidential Directive 51 (which would make pResident Bush king should he declare martial law) are the laws that could create radicals who could turn violent.
Using their own logic, this would make congress, Beck and O'Reilly responsible for creating any future would-be terrorists, and, under their own laws, they could be held liable for inciting terrorism under their new legislation, H.R. 1955.
Amen to that redpill8...
Theres another, small writeup of this at The Cave which seems to have a different perspective on this issue. I mean, theres only ONE line in the whole bill on the Internet.
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