What really happened...?

I just came across this interesting critique of the official 9/11 story (H/T to The Gaelic Starover).

It caught my eye in part because I had just commented on the very topic over at Salon today, in response to a review of What Terrorists Want, by Louise Richardson (requires subscription or ad-viewing).

In my comment, I queried whether we really know beyond a shadow of a doubt that bin Laden and al-Qaida were responsible for the attacks on 9/11.

Given the Bush administration's track record for lying, and the obvious benefits for bin Laden of claiming responsibility, I really wonder. I'm not a Bush-blaming conspiracy nut, far from it! But until bin Laden is given due process and a trial--something unlikely to happen--I believe the idea that a defined entity, "al-Qaida," under the leadership of bin Laden, planned and executed the attacks of 9/11 should be treated as open to question.

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed explores the question in more depth.

Five years after the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that shook the world, scepticism [sic] about the Bush administration account of what happened, as well as of the “War on Terror” in general, has increased exponentially. This has accompanied the emergence of all kinds of pet theories about what happened, some of them truly bizarre, others intriguing but vacuous, and perhaps a few based on compelling facts.

For someone not familiar with these theories, it’s difficult to know where, and why, to start. And particular variants of 9/11 “truth”, such as the “no planes” theory that the whole event was merely an audiovisual technicolor chimera concocted on our TV screens, don’t help.

But is it all just a pile of lunacy? If only it was, I could sleep much better at night. Unfortunately, beneath the mountain of theories and speculations, there remain disturbing and persistent anomalies that have yet to be resolved. In this respect, the mainstream media’s approach to criticism of the 9/11 official narrative has been wanting in the extreme, focusing largely on bizarre pet theories and fringe speculations, suggesting that anybody who has doubts about the official story must be delusional, dumb, or both.

His exploration is worth reading, if for no other reason than it raises issues I've not come across elsewhere. Such as the charge that al-Qaida's operational links to the CIA and DEA were (indeed, still are) very much alive and well in September 2001.

Read it here.

R.I.P.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Tyron Garner, one of two men [on the left, in the photo above, John Lawrence is on the right] whose 1998 arrests led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down bans on sodomy, has died, according to a spokesman for the legal firm that represented him.

Garner died early Monday at a Houston hospital, said Mark Roy, a spokesman for Lambda Legal in New York City. Garner had been suffering from meningitis and had been in his brother's care for the past six months.

Garner and Lawrence were arrested when police entered Lawrence’s apartment on September 17, 1998, responding to a false “weapons disturbance” call, and found the two men engaged in sex.

I wonder what role race played in the arrest. Would the Houston police have arrested two white men caught having consensual sex in the privacy of their home?

According to Wikipedia, Lawrence must have been around 44.

How very sad he's gone.

Complete story here.

Stop homophobia...!

This from the Guardian's Comment is Free:

Fifty-eight alleged lesbians and gays have been outed by the Ugandan newspaper, Red Pepper - the latest outrage in an on-going homophobic witch-hunt orchestrated by the government, police, media and churches of Uganda.

Uganda is the new Zimbabwe. President Yoweri Museveni is the Robert Mugabe of Uganda - a homophobic tyrant who tramples on the human rights of gays and straights alike.

Taking a lead from Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Museveni has found it politically convenient to demonise and scapegoat gay people as "the enemy within", thereby helpfully diverting attention from human rights abuses, poverty, unemployment, corruption, unfair elections and mass deaths from HIV.

In the latest tabloid outing, last Friday, 8 September, 13 supposed lesbians were exposed by Red Pepper. They include two boutique owners, a basketball player and the daughters of a former MP and a prominent Sheikh. Under the headline, "Kampala's notorious lesbians unearthed", the sleazy tabloid published a photo of two very glamorous, unnamed, scantily-dressed women embracing at a party. The article urged readers phone a hotline to "name and shame" any lesbians they know:

"To rid our motherland of the deadly vice (lesbianism), we are committed to exposing all the lesbos in the city. Send more names us (sic) the name and occupation of the lesbin (sic) in your neighbourhood and we shall shame her. Call: 0712XXXXXX," wrote Red Pepper.

Citizens who are happy, healthy, sexually fulfilled and free to pursue love and affection from partners of their choice do not fall prey to the manipulations of corrupt despots, like Yoweri Museveni, Robert Mugabe or, for that matter, GW Bush.

Which is why authoritarians and tyrants of all stripes seek to control and restrict the sexuality of the people they desire to dominate.

Campaigns like the one above also divert attention from society's genuine ills and the myriad ways crooked leaders fail their people.

My heart goes out to Uganda's LGBT folk. Please check out the entire column and write (a polite email) to the Red Pepper’s senior editor, Arinaitwe Rugyendo at: rugyendo@mail.redpepper.co.ug

Oh, this explains it...!

(H/T to Salon's Video Dog.)

President Smirky McTorturer....

There are five-year-olds who have greater reasoning and mental capacity than this president of the United States.

The mainstream media's not giving him quite as free a ride as they used to...

War criminal....

I (obviously) didn’t see Bush’s “9/11 address to the nation” last night, as I'm(thankfully!) out of the nation.

I heard snippets on the radio this morning, which were enough to put me off my feed. I could barely bring myself to read it in its entirety today.

I do not understand how anyone can be taken in by Bush! His nauseatingly overblown rhetoric is more appropriate to satirical works, like Orwell’s 1984, than to the speech of an honest-to-god sitting president.

Some quotes and my responses:

“Nineteen men attacked us with a barbarity unequaled in our history.”

No disrespect to those killed on 9/11/01, but America’s history is replete with barbaric acts, many perpetrated by its very own citizens. Against African slaves. Or Native Americans, who initially greeted European newcomers with generosity. Or Vietnamese peasants. The list is tragically long.

“Today, we are safer…”

Every objective measure challenges the veracity of that statement.

“Since the horror of 9/11, we've learned a great deal about the enemy. We have learned that they are evil and kill without mercy…”

First, as Bush has reiterated ad nauseam, we have not suffered another attack on American soil since 2001, thanks to his glorious efforts to protect the Homeland. (Otherwise known as good luck.) So, wouldn't it be more correct to say “On 9/11, we learned”?

More importantly, since we had killed, as of October, 2004, more than an estimated 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians, wouldn't Bush’s words better describe us?

And finally, simplistically characterizing an enemy as evil killers is a timeworn propaganda tactic. I’m shocked anyone would be taken in by it.

“America did not ask for this war.”

Excuse me? America invaded an innocent country, Iraq, without provocation. (Twice, I might add.) And as for the attacks of 9/11, I abhor and condemn all terrorism, including those acts. But America's long history of meddling in the Middle East, arms sales, coups (such as the one that set up Saddam Hussein or the Shah in Iran), and partisan support of Israel against Palestine, made the US far from an innocent bystander.

“Every American wishes it were over. So do I.”

I seriously doubt that. The “War on Terror” is the primary means by which the Bush administration rammed through its radical authoritarian, proto-fascist agenda.

Not to mention, Bush, Cheney and their allies are making megabucks on the war and its historically high oil prices.

“Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone.”

Straw man argument. No one has seriously made such a ridiculous claim. Other than Bush and his supporters, in order to make their own points in the process of tearing it down.

“They are thrown into panic at the sight of an old man pulling the election lever, girls enrolling in schools, or families worshiping God in their own traditions. They know that given a choice, people will choose freedom over their extremist ideology.”

Give me a bucket, I'm going to hurl! If an Irish leader spouted such treacle, he or she would be jeered off the stage. Are Americans really so stupid?

“And then, on a bright September morning, it became clear that the calm we saw in the Middle East was only a mirage.”

Which calm was that exactly? The calm in Israel and Palestine? Or between Iraq and Iran? Or maybe the calm in Afghanistan under the Taliban? Oh, I know! The calm in Lebanon before Israel bombed the small country into rubble with US manufactured bombs, helicopters, and F16's last month!

“At the start of this young century, America looks to the day when the people of the Middle East leave the desert of despotism for the fertile gardens of liberty, and resume their rightful place in a world of peace and prosperity.”

That Bush can utter such words, given the monumental amount of deaths and destruction he is personally responsible for in the Middle East, is truly astonishing. [Re-reading this a few hours later, I realise that while it's ungrammatical, it effectively communicates my sputtering outrage!]

"The attacks were meant to bring us to our knees, and they did, but not in the way the terrorists intended. Americans united in prayer, came to the aid of neighbors in need, and resolved that our enemies would not have the last word. The spirit of our people is the source of America's strength. And we go forward with trust in that spirit, confidence in our purpose, and faith in a loving God who made us to be free.

Thank you, and may God bless you."

Unfuckingbelievable. The nation's founders are rolling over in their graves.

You gotta be kidding...!

SYDNEY, Australia Sep 12, 2006 (AP)— At least 10 stingrays have been killed since "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was fatally injured by one of the fish, an official said Tuesday, prompting a spokesman for the late TV star's animal charity to urge people not take revenge on the animals.

[snip]

Stingrays are usually shy, unobtrusive fish that rummage the sea bottom for food or burrow into the sand.

They have a serrated spine up to 10 inches long on their tails, which they can lash when stepped on or otherwise frightened.[emphasis mine]

Are people completely insane?! To retaliate against a naturally timid, unobtrusive creature in supposed revenge for the life of an avowed conservationist?!

Crikey, indeed!!

Complete story here.

Incestuous amplification....

Pass this video on, too! Buy the book. (H/T again to Crooks & Liars.) And pray you live long enough to see Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the rest of their cronies in prison for war crimes.

Right on...!

This clip is being edited for use in various netroots campaigns across the US. Catchy tune and excellent idea!!! Pass it on. (H/T to Crooks & Liars.)

Alison Bechdel

My favorite cartoonist has been branching out, publishing a graphic memoir, Fun Home, to great acclaim this year and now, sharing an exhibit at the Pine Street Art Works in Burlington, VT, with artist friend, Phranc. Bechdel is exhibiting these amazing drawings on four-foot wide Kraft paper.

She made a movie of them:



Incredible stuff! Here's the post about the drawings on Bechdel's blog.

[Edited to fix html on 13/9/06.]