I wholeheartedly encourage others to join me in this promise.
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Showing posts with label 9/11. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 9/11. Show all posts
Sunday, September 11, 2011
On this day, the 10th ANNIVERSARY of 9/11, My Promise
I wholeheartedly encourage others to join me in this promise.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Rocky's Activism Created by a Tethered Press and Uninvolved Citizenry
by Barbara Bellows-TerraNova, PDA/Utah
Posted by Progressive Democrats of America
Ross C. (Rocky) Anderson left office Monday January 7, 2008 as his second four-year term as mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, expired. He plans to move his activism into the private arena--Rocky joined the PDA advisory board in September 2007--and has plans to start a non-profit organization serving humanity. PDA extends our hearfelt appreciation to former Mayor Anderson for his courageous stand against the Iraq war and occupation and his leadership on impeachment.
Rocky Anderson's last day as mayor of Salt Lake City included his signature, as well as the signatures of Mimi Kennedy, Tim Carpenter, Ralph Nader, Daniel Ellsberg, Harry Belafonte, and other noted activists, on a letter delivered to Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, urging him to investigate the abuse of power by the Bush/Cheney administration.
It was the cherry on the sundae that has been Rocky's double duty as mayor and U.S. citizen/activist. While many in Salt Lake have responded enthusiastically to Rocky's call to protest Mr. Bush's visits to the city, others have been annoyed and have encouraged phone campaigns against the activist mayor.
If these people in Salt Lake are displeased with Rocky Anderson's involvement in protests against the Bush administration and the impeachment movement, they should look to the poor job done by a press that was held back by a few newly-consolidated owners receiving favors from that same administration. Either it was the press-or a public that didn't care to pay attention.
Things would surely have turned out differently if Americans had known, for example, about:
-the dismissal of the 1991 insider-trading investigation by the Security Exchange Commission, whose Chairman was old family friend and Bush Sr. appointee, Richard Breedan, into George Bush's sudden dumping of his Harken Oil stock for $848,000 before informing shareholders about the company's financial losses;
-the lack of an investigation into Cheney's insider-trading when he cashed out his stock options at Halliburton for $20 million before the stockholders were informed of the asbestos-injury lawsuits that came with Cheney's arrangement of the company's buyout of Dresser Industries;
-the fact that the riot that shut down the vote recount in Dade County, Florida, on November 22, 2000, was actually manned by Republican aides and operatives flown down from D.C. in Enron and Halliburton jets, whose success was celebrated at a Thanksgiving banquet where they were serenaded by Wayne Newton;
-the 2003 report by the EPA Inspector General stating that the White House altered the wording of the post-9/11 EPA statement on the air safety in Manhattan to completely change its meaning, resulting in the horrendous, debilitating medical problems, suffering and deaths of the courageous first responders, EMTs, cleanup crew, and other workers and residents of New York City;
-the sell-out of every federal agency's purpose with the appointments of industry lobbyists throughout;
-the Office of Special Plans, where appointees from the militarily aggressive Project of the New American Century (whose University of Chicago professor/mentor, Leo Strauss, taught that it was best to subdue the public with "Noble Lies") cherry-picked through discredited intelligence data to build up a threatening Saddam Hussein;
-the multi-level, vast series of irregularities in the 2004 election, which were immediately exposed in the December hearings in Ohio by Congressman John Conyers, Jr., and the Democratic minority, culminating in the January 6, 2005, objection by Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones and Senator Barbara Boxer to the certification of the election. Conyers' report was inserted into the Congressional Record;
-the largest, record-breaking, donations to the 2005 Bush inauguration by the home-loan industry, whose unregulated business is now wreaking havoc across the world economy;
And that's just off the top of my head. I know. I picked up a book, and another, and another, watched PBS's "Now with Bill Moyers and David Brancaccio", did some Googling, and discovered that the Bush administration was not compassionate, was not conservative, and did not act according to moral values. Surely, this was not the President most Republicans thought they'd elected.
For me, that meant I was moved to begin emailing "Know Bush Facts" and performing Know Bush: Launching Facts That Shock and Awe, A One Person Patriot Act in October 2004 at the main downtown Salt Lake City library.
For Rocky, it meant a call for protest when George W. Bush came to town, giving extremely informative speeches about the specific wrongdoings of the administration, and, ultimately, the detailed development of the legal basis for impeachment of an administration which overstepped both the Constitution and international law and destroyed the moral ground of democracy and human rights the United States once maintained-thus making us all considerably less safe in this world.
If we do not have a free press which informs us, we must have citizens who care enough to pay attention to what our leaders do in our name. If we are unwilling to listen to those citizens who do speak up, then it takes citizens who have greater clout-such as the Mayor of a noted conservative city-to stand up and point out what we desperately need to know.
I, for one, am very grateful to Rocky and am proud that we, as a community, were invited by him to engage in a meaningful response to the kind of power-usurping, questionably elected executive officer that our Founders intended us to stop from ruining our country.
Thank you, sir, for taking it on, and taking the flack. I, for one, will continue to pay attention to your efforts, and I recommend that others do the same. I'm setting up a "Google Alert" today so I can keep up.
Posted by Progressive Democrats of America
Ross C. (Rocky) Anderson left office Monday January 7, 2008 as his second four-year term as mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, expired. He plans to move his activism into the private arena--Rocky joined the PDA advisory board in September 2007--and has plans to start a non-profit organization serving humanity. PDA extends our hearfelt appreciation to former Mayor Anderson for his courageous stand against the Iraq war and occupation and his leadership on impeachment. Rocky Anderson's last day as mayor of Salt Lake City included his signature, as well as the signatures of Mimi Kennedy, Tim Carpenter, Ralph Nader, Daniel Ellsberg, Harry Belafonte, and other noted activists, on a letter delivered to Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, urging him to investigate the abuse of power by the Bush/Cheney administration.
It was the cherry on the sundae that has been Rocky's double duty as mayor and U.S. citizen/activist. While many in Salt Lake have responded enthusiastically to Rocky's call to protest Mr. Bush's visits to the city, others have been annoyed and have encouraged phone campaigns against the activist mayor.
If these people in Salt Lake are displeased with Rocky Anderson's involvement in protests against the Bush administration and the impeachment movement, they should look to the poor job done by a press that was held back by a few newly-consolidated owners receiving favors from that same administration. Either it was the press-or a public that didn't care to pay attention.
Things would surely have turned out differently if Americans had known, for example, about:
-the dismissal of the 1991 insider-trading investigation by the Security Exchange Commission, whose Chairman was old family friend and Bush Sr. appointee, Richard Breedan, into George Bush's sudden dumping of his Harken Oil stock for $848,000 before informing shareholders about the company's financial losses;
-the lack of an investigation into Cheney's insider-trading when he cashed out his stock options at Halliburton for $20 million before the stockholders were informed of the asbestos-injury lawsuits that came with Cheney's arrangement of the company's buyout of Dresser Industries;
-the fact that the riot that shut down the vote recount in Dade County, Florida, on November 22, 2000, was actually manned by Republican aides and operatives flown down from D.C. in Enron and Halliburton jets, whose success was celebrated at a Thanksgiving banquet where they were serenaded by Wayne Newton;
-the 2003 report by the EPA Inspector General stating that the White House altered the wording of the post-9/11 EPA statement on the air safety in Manhattan to completely change its meaning, resulting in the horrendous, debilitating medical problems, suffering and deaths of the courageous first responders, EMTs, cleanup crew, and other workers and residents of New York City;
-the sell-out of every federal agency's purpose with the appointments of industry lobbyists throughout;
-the Office of Special Plans, where appointees from the militarily aggressive Project of the New American Century (whose University of Chicago professor/mentor, Leo Strauss, taught that it was best to subdue the public with "Noble Lies") cherry-picked through discredited intelligence data to build up a threatening Saddam Hussein;
-the multi-level, vast series of irregularities in the 2004 election, which were immediately exposed in the December hearings in Ohio by Congressman John Conyers, Jr., and the Democratic minority, culminating in the January 6, 2005, objection by Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones and Senator Barbara Boxer to the certification of the election. Conyers' report was inserted into the Congressional Record;
-the largest, record-breaking, donations to the 2005 Bush inauguration by the home-loan industry, whose unregulated business is now wreaking havoc across the world economy;
And that's just off the top of my head. I know. I picked up a book, and another, and another, watched PBS's "Now with Bill Moyers and David Brancaccio", did some Googling, and discovered that the Bush administration was not compassionate, was not conservative, and did not act according to moral values. Surely, this was not the President most Republicans thought they'd elected.
For me, that meant I was moved to begin emailing "Know Bush Facts" and performing Know Bush: Launching Facts That Shock and Awe, A One Person Patriot Act in October 2004 at the main downtown Salt Lake City library.
For Rocky, it meant a call for protest when George W. Bush came to town, giving extremely informative speeches about the specific wrongdoings of the administration, and, ultimately, the detailed development of the legal basis for impeachment of an administration which overstepped both the Constitution and international law and destroyed the moral ground of democracy and human rights the United States once maintained-thus making us all considerably less safe in this world.
If we do not have a free press which informs us, we must have citizens who care enough to pay attention to what our leaders do in our name. If we are unwilling to listen to those citizens who do speak up, then it takes citizens who have greater clout-such as the Mayor of a noted conservative city-to stand up and point out what we desperately need to know.
I, for one, am very grateful to Rocky and am proud that we, as a community, were invited by him to engage in a meaningful response to the kind of power-usurping, questionably elected executive officer that our Founders intended us to stop from ruining our country.
Thank you, sir, for taking it on, and taking the flack. I, for one, will continue to pay attention to your efforts, and I recommend that others do the same. I'm setting up a "Google Alert" today so I can keep up.
Friday, May 14, 2004
Know Bush Fact #24
Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:
On June 26, 2001 the State Department issued a worldwide caution to Americans traveling or living abroad.
The National Security Agency’s ECHELON electronic spy network gave warning that Mideast terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American culture.
That same month, the Bush Administration initiated the VISA EXPRESS service for expediting visa applications through out Saudi Arabia.
On June 25, 2001, the day before the State Department’s warning, the US Embassy in Riyadh proudly announced:
To make this very clear, under this new rule instituted by the Bush Administration, both Saudis and non-Saudis could obtain U.S. visas without being photographed or having to apply in person just by going through one of ten designated travel agencies in The Kingdom.
Three of the Saudi hijackers in the September 11 attacks came into the U.S. on visas they obtained through the VISA EXPRESS program.
Still, the Visa Express program was not closed after September 11. In fact, in the first 30 days after 9/11, the U.S. Embassy at Jeddah, one of three offices in Saudi Arabia, issued 104 visas through the program, denying none.
It was not until Joel Mowbray, a journalist from The National Review, broke the story in June of 2002, pointing out that the Visa Express program was still in place, that the State Department found it necessary to make some changes.
Secretary of State Colin Powell asked Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, Ambassador Mary Ryan, the longest-serving career diplomat at the department, "to retire," announcing this change on the same day when two committees in Congress would be voting on legislation to remove the State Department’s visa authority.
Two days later, after questioning spokesman Richard Boucher at a State Department press briefing, Joel Mowbray was detained for about 30 minutes, as security demanded he reveal his sources. Yet a year after 9/11, the State Department had still not interviewed the single Foreign Service Officer in the Jeddah consulate who issued 10 of the visas to the Saudi hijackers.
To research/verify, Google "Bush +Visa Express."
- May 14, 2004
On June 26, 2001 the State Department issued a worldwide caution to Americans traveling or living abroad.
The National Security Agency’s ECHELON electronic spy network gave warning that Mideast terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American culture.
That same month, the Bush Administration initiated the VISA EXPRESS service for expediting visa applications through out Saudi Arabia.
On June 25, 2001, the day before the State Department’s warning, the US Embassy in Riyadh proudly announced:
"Now all Saudis and non-Saudi applicants may obtain visas at their own convenience by submitting their applications through any of ten designated travel/courier companies operating throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. . . Applicants will no longer have to take time off from work, no longer have to wait in long lines under the hot sun and in crowded waiting rooms, and no longer be limited by any time constraints. Effective immediately, ALL APPLICANTS will be expected to use the US VISA EXPRESS service offered by any of the selected companies listed below."
To make this very clear, under this new rule instituted by the Bush Administration, both Saudis and non-Saudis could obtain U.S. visas without being photographed or having to apply in person just by going through one of ten designated travel agencies in The Kingdom.
Three of the Saudi hijackers in the September 11 attacks came into the U.S. on visas they obtained through the VISA EXPRESS program.
Still, the Visa Express program was not closed after September 11. In fact, in the first 30 days after 9/11, the U.S. Embassy at Jeddah, one of three offices in Saudi Arabia, issued 104 visas through the program, denying none.
It was not until Joel Mowbray, a journalist from The National Review, broke the story in June of 2002, pointing out that the Visa Express program was still in place, that the State Department found it necessary to make some changes.
Secretary of State Colin Powell asked Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, Ambassador Mary Ryan, the longest-serving career diplomat at the department, "to retire," announcing this change on the same day when two committees in Congress would be voting on legislation to remove the State Department’s visa authority.
Two days later, after questioning spokesman Richard Boucher at a State Department press briefing, Joel Mowbray was detained for about 30 minutes, as security demanded he reveal his sources. Yet a year after 9/11, the State Department had still not interviewed the single Foreign Service Officer in the Jeddah consulate who issued 10 of the visas to the Saudi hijackers.
To research/verify, Google "Bush +Visa Express."
- May 14, 2004
Monday, March 08, 2004
Know Bush Fact #13
Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:
In 1995, a Pakistani terrorist linked to bin Laden was arrested in the Phillipines and admitted plans to fly a plane into a U.S. federal building.
In 1998, terrorism analysts briefed the Federal Aviation Administration on the possibility of terrorists crashing planes into such targets as the World Trade Tower, the Pentagon, the Capitol, and other targets.
In January 2001, prior to leaving the White House, President Clinton and his security team warned Bush and his team that Al Queda and its sleeper cells in the U.S. were the major security threat facing the U.S.
On April 18, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an advisory warning for U.S. carriers to "demonstrate a high degree of alertness."
On June 26, the State Department issued a worldwide caution to Americans traveling or living abroad. The National Security Agency's ECHELON electronic spy network gave warning that Mideast terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American culture.
On July 5, NSA Counter-Terrorism Chief Richard Clarke reported to the White House, "Something really spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon." Bush was warned that bin Laden was about to mount a major attack.
Bush went on vacation in Crawford, Texas for the entire month of August.
Bush's Cabinet-rank advisors didn't hold their first meeting on terrorism until September 4, 2001.
Because Bush failed to increase the Air Defense readiness levels, when the 2nd plane hit the World Trade Center on September 11, the nearest approaching fighter jet was still seventy miles away.
To verify/research, Google: "September 11 +Bush +warn +planes"
- March 8, 2004
In 1995, a Pakistani terrorist linked to bin Laden was arrested in the Phillipines and admitted plans to fly a plane into a U.S. federal building.
In 1998, terrorism analysts briefed the Federal Aviation Administration on the possibility of terrorists crashing planes into such targets as the World Trade Tower, the Pentagon, the Capitol, and other targets.
In January 2001, prior to leaving the White House, President Clinton and his security team warned Bush and his team that Al Queda and its sleeper cells in the U.S. were the major security threat facing the U.S.
On April 18, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an advisory warning for U.S. carriers to "demonstrate a high degree of alertness."
On June 26, the State Department issued a worldwide caution to Americans traveling or living abroad. The National Security Agency's ECHELON electronic spy network gave warning that Mideast terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American culture.
On July 5, NSA Counter-Terrorism Chief Richard Clarke reported to the White House, "Something really spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon." Bush was warned that bin Laden was about to mount a major attack.
Bush went on vacation in Crawford, Texas for the entire month of August.
Bush's Cabinet-rank advisors didn't hold their first meeting on terrorism until September 4, 2001.
Because Bush failed to increase the Air Defense readiness levels, when the 2nd plane hit the World Trade Center on September 11, the nearest approaching fighter jet was still seventy miles away.
To verify/research, Google: "September 11 +Bush +warn +planes"
- March 8, 2004
Saturday, February 28, 2004
Know Bush Fact #11
Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:
On September 11, 2001, the best scientists in the world on toxicity/air testing were busy in Libby, Wyoming investigating the damages of asbestos and vermiculite from the Grace Corporation in that community, when the World Trade Towers were attacked, collapsed, and filled the New York air with glass fibers, concrete dust, fiberglass, asbestos, mercury, PCBs, lead, benzene, fire and smoke. These scientists were certain they would be asked to come test the air around Ground Zero.
But no such thorough testing was requested.
Early on September 12, Christine Todd Whitman, the Bush-appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency, issued a memo throughout the agency: "All statements to the media should be cleared through the National Security Council before they are released."
According to a 165-page report from the Inspector General of the EPA released in August 2003, under pressure from the White House and the NSC (Bush's top cabinet members), "reassuring information was added" and "cautionary information was deleted" from the official EPA press releases. Warnings and safety recommendations were removed while statements of encouragement to get back to such activities as business and shopping were emphasized.
By September 16, the public was told, "Ambient air quality meets OSHA standards and consequently is not a cause for public concern," and on September 18, Christine Todd Whitman officially announced that the air in lower Manhattan was "safe to breathe."
The impact of the government's lies is evident for the 78 percent of tens of thousands of WTC rescue, recovery and cleanup workers who suffer serious lung ailments, the 88 percent who have ear, nose and throat problems, or the approximately 500 NYC fire fighters who remain out of work on disability because of lung and organ problems, most of whom are expected never to return to work.
The August 2003 report indicates that the agency was essentially hijacked by the Bush administration and its National Security Council, and that "final approval came from the White House."
To verify/research this information, Google: "Ground Zero +Whitman +asbestos +Bush".
February 28, 2004
On September 11, 2001, the best scientists in the world on toxicity/air testing were busy in Libby, Wyoming investigating the damages of asbestos and vermiculite from the Grace Corporation in that community, when the World Trade Towers were attacked, collapsed, and filled the New York air with glass fibers, concrete dust, fiberglass, asbestos, mercury, PCBs, lead, benzene, fire and smoke. These scientists were certain they would be asked to come test the air around Ground Zero.
But no such thorough testing was requested.
Early on September 12, Christine Todd Whitman, the Bush-appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency, issued a memo throughout the agency: "All statements to the media should be cleared through the National Security Council before they are released."
According to a 165-page report from the Inspector General of the EPA released in August 2003, under pressure from the White House and the NSC (Bush's top cabinet members), "reassuring information was added" and "cautionary information was deleted" from the official EPA press releases. Warnings and safety recommendations were removed while statements of encouragement to get back to such activities as business and shopping were emphasized.
By September 16, the public was told, "Ambient air quality meets OSHA standards and consequently is not a cause for public concern," and on September 18, Christine Todd Whitman officially announced that the air in lower Manhattan was "safe to breathe."
The impact of the government's lies is evident for the 78 percent of tens of thousands of WTC rescue, recovery and cleanup workers who suffer serious lung ailments, the 88 percent who have ear, nose and throat problems, or the approximately 500 NYC fire fighters who remain out of work on disability because of lung and organ problems, most of whom are expected never to return to work.
The August 2003 report indicates that the agency was essentially hijacked by the Bush administration and its National Security Council, and that "final approval came from the White House."
To verify/research this information, Google: "Ground Zero +Whitman +asbestos +Bush".
February 28, 2004
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Know Bush Fact #2
Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:
Former FBI Deputy Director John O'Neill was in charge of the investigations into:
• the bin Laden-connected bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993
• the destruction of an American troop barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996
• the African Embassy bombings in 1998, and
• the attack upon the USS Cole in 2000 . . .
told French researchers in the summer of 2001:
In a tragic irony, O'Neill quit the FBI two weeks before 9/11 in disgust over the Bush Administration's refusal to investigate Saudi ties to Al Qaeda and went to work as head of security at the World Trade Center, where he was killed in the attack.
- January 28, 2004
Former FBI Deputy Director John O'Neill was in charge of the investigations into:
• the bin Laden-connected bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993
• the destruction of an American troop barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996
• the African Embassy bombings in 1998, and
• the attack upon the USS Cole in 2000 . . .
told French researchers in the summer of 2001:
"The main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporate interests, and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it...All the answers, everything needed to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organization, can be found in Saudi Arabia."
In a tragic irony, O'Neill quit the FBI two weeks before 9/11 in disgust over the Bush Administration's refusal to investigate Saudi ties to Al Qaeda and went to work as head of security at the World Trade Center, where he was killed in the attack.
- January 28, 2004
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