As the U.S. becomes more and more the kind of country it has traditionally opposed, the answer to where we are headed may lie more in the arcane traditions of a dim past than in a bright future.

On the 10^th anniversary of 9/11, numerous commentators from across a broad spectrum of opinion focused their alarm not so much on the horror of events in lower Manhattan ten years before, but on what America has become in the aftermath of that horror. Ten years on, the United States desperately expands what appears to be an increasingly irrational, corrosive and ultimately self-destructive national security mandate around the globe and here at home.

In the darkening gloom of  the upcoming 2012 Presidential elections as the U.S. builds up its forces in the Middle East and returns its attention to Asia’s Pacific rim, the CIA’s focus is no longer on analyzing intelligence on terrorists, but simply killing those perceived as a threat to its existence or perhaps more cynically, its livelihood. In the hardened fortresses of endless war, American soldiers walled off from human society claim their own lives in record numbers while in beltway foreign policy circles “Peace� has become a dirty word. In the darkening gloom, robot Predator drones target those thought to be “terrorists� or those suspected of being terrorists. Those unfortunate enough to be standing nearby are targeted as well and will one day be the target of drones piloted by computer software and facial recognition, making the machine-killing completely autonomous.

In this house of mirrors where endless war has made guilt and innocence or even facts irrelevant, the U.S. has left the realm of science and empiricism and entered a realm more mystical than real. It is a realm where ideology dictates plans and programs and not logic and empirical evidence.  It is a realm where ideology dictates who dies and who lives and is populated by men and women who can neither be understood nor reasoned with outside the confines of their own internal and hermetically sealed logic. 

From its inception during World War II, America’s military/intelligence apparatus has acted more as a subculture of America’s ruling elite than a bureaucracy dedicated to the nation’s security. It was said of America’s first spy agency the OSS that its initials stood for Oh-So-Social because of its abundant staffing with New York’s high society blue bloods. Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks even titled their 1974 book on their life in the CIA and Foreign Service as The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence. 

But over the last forty years and especially since the events of 9/11, that “Cult,� and its sister organizations in the military/intelligence community have emerged from behind the curtain to become a ubiquitous and forbidding presence.

In effect, 1974’s American “Cultâ€� of intelligence has grown to become in 2011 the dominant American “Cult-ure.â€� But what that culture really is and where it’s leading us remains a frightening proposition that each and every American needs to understand. Read more È

Last weekend at the farmers Market I bumped in to an author, activist and a fairly popular blog-ist friend. I asked what he had been up to lately, and he said he was working with a group on bringing more pressure on Bush-Rumsfeld-Cheney from the international community, and possibly getting them banned from entering certain countries. I asked him about his plans for our current president, his undeclared wars and black operations, and his still-in-the-making trail of civilian casualties-the babies and grandmothers and all…He sincerely answered my question without any hesitation, ‘Oh, no plans for that yet. Not yet… Maybe after we are done with Bush… Obama certainly deserves being banned, but right now we are busy with our current project targeting Bush and his evil entourage.’

It seems like every time I look around I see these activists/writers/blog-ists who are extremely busy with chasing that long-gone evil president, or maybe his ghost. The guy had eight years in the White House when he was engaged in planning and executing orders for atrocious practices, and neither Congress nor the media lifted a finger to do anything about it. Even though they could; in theory, that is. Despite all our activism and whistleblowing the man came out of it without a scratch; really.

Look, I am not saying the pursuit of George W. Bush is totally futile and a waste of time. I certainly don’t disagree with those who believe the previous administration should be held accountable. After all, what do people think when they hear the name Sibel Edmonds? The FBI linguist who was retaliated against and fired by Bush’s FBI, silenced and gagged by Bush’s Justice Department, and basically, slammed and quashed and attacked nonstop by the Bush Administration (while the US Congress and the media watched detachedly without a blink). So, no, I have justifiably more reasons than many to despise the Bush Administration and seek accountability and justice. Read more È

Click here for the transcript at Corbett Report: TRANSCRIPT

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Earlier this month, the public was overwhelmed with saturation coverage of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. What is not being reported on with anything near the same zeal, however, is that this September 18th marked another solemn milestone, the 10th anniversary of the start of the anthrax attacks that paralyzed an already fear-stricken nation and actually shut down the US House of Representatives, three Senate buildings, and the Supreme Court.

That the government and the media are largely silent on this anniversary is hardly surprising. Rather than reinforcing the war on terror narrative, the anthrax investigation leads directly back to the heart of the US military-industrial complex, and a secretive biowarfare program that most Americans never knew existed.

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Last Tuesday, following his visit to ground zero, Obama’s New Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned the public of upcoming 9/11-like terrorist attacks. After a decade of war with Al Qaeda, the potential for another devastating terrorist assault “remains very real,� Panetta said, and added that the nature of the terrorist threat has evolved to the point that Al Qaeda “nodes� outside Afghanistan and Pakistan are now the most dangerous, before delivering the most significant part of his fear mongering propaganda-speech: “Yemen has risen to the top of the list.�

Panetta has been laying the groundwork for the next attack-Yemen- since the early days of his confirmation. Two months ago, on July 9, he stated the following:

Panetta said that it was from Yemen — not Pakistan — that the U.S. faces the most potent threat of future terrorist attacks, from an Al Qaeda offshoot known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Is it me or do you sense that troubling and nudging déjà vu feeling? I keep seeing Cheney and Rumsfeld. I hear the echoes of the past involving the imaginary Iraq WMD and Saddam-9/11 connections…I am reading the exact same lines of lies delivered by the exact same kind of liars. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this way, but let me refresh the memories of those who may have already forgotten.

The following is a direct quote from the previous regime’s Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld:

No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq- Donald Rumsfeld, testimony to Congress, Sept. 19, 2002

So is this one:

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

And here are a few related news clips from the then Vice President, Dick Cheney:

Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday the evidence is “overwhelming” that al Qaeda had a relationship with Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.

“There clearly was a relationship. It’s been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming.â€� Cheney said he had seen proof that Saddam Hussein had provided “training” to al Qaeda operatives and all but called Russert a liar, saying he had personally told Russert that significant evidence existed of a connection between Hussein and al Qaeda.

In 2007, years after all the carefully-planned propaganda was debunked and exposed as nothing but intentional lies,  41% of Americans still answered ‘Yes‘ to the question “Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?”

Yes
Now
41%
4/2003
53%

When it comes to Obama’s Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s latest propaganda you don’t have to read between the lines. Just read the lines: “Yemen has risen to the top of the list.� You see, the groundwork for the next US offensive is being completed.

It didn’t take too much effort to have Americans swallow the Iraq-9/11 ties. Given that even now, a decade later, many still believe in the Saddam-WMD-9/11 fable, will it take much for the current regime to sell Yemen-Al Qaeda-Next 9/11 propaganda? Unfortunately, I don’t think so.

The Bush administration dragged our nation into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Obama regime picked up where Bush left off, expanded our wars into Pakistan and Libya, and now are laying the groundwork for the next war-Yemen. Coming next, probably for our next to-be-elected president, will be Syria, and the ultimate nation to be devoured-Iran. Amazing parallels and incredible sameness that apply to both the propagators and the public.

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Lorie Van Auken joins us and shares with us her reflections ten years on about the events of 9/11 and her loss. She discusses the still- classified 28 pages of the JICI dealing with terrorist financing, the 9/11 families’ stalled lawsuit to bankrupt the terrorists and the direct interventions by the White House to protect the Saudi regime against the justice-seeking families, and the many uninvestigated questions and facts covered up by the 9/11 commission. She questions our current many-fronted wars and the senselessness of the occupation of and our military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan with Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden both dead, while our economy is crashing here at home. Ms. Van Auken talks about the three versions of the NORAD timeline, the passage of the Patriot Act as a vehicle to erode our civil liberties, NSA’s illegal wiretapping of our domestic communications under the guise of security, and more!

Lorie Van Auken, the mother of two children, lost her husband Kenneth Van Auken in the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. She is one of the “Jersey Girls� who, along with Kristen Breitweiser, Mindy Kleinberg, and Patty Casazza, fought the Bush administration for a commission to investigate the attacks. Ms. Van Auken is also a member of the September 11 Advocates.

Here is our guest Lorie Van Auken unplugged!

Interview with Lorie Van Auken [ 48:26 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Can we just step back for a few minutes, put aside all the little meddling points showcased by the propaganda machine media and political showmen, take a look at the following facts, and try to see the forest despite the trees?

An ‘alleged’ Mastermind executes a terror attack on September 11, 2001, with a few men, to be exact 19.

Our government responds by sending over at least 150,000 men and women.

 That ‘alleged’ Mastermind implements the 9/11 terror plot with a few hundred thousand dollars; in the range of $400,000.

Our government spends more than $1,000,000,000,000 in response, on wars on terror abroad, at least that much here at home, and keeps on spending.

Our government has been using lots of this:

To bomb the hell out of this:

Because we have this:

And they have only this:

The 9/11 Terrorist Attack cost us 2977 innocent lives. 19 terrorists’ also died on that day; resulting in 2996 deaths.

 In Afghanistan alone our government’s response has resulted in the deaths of more than 2600 coalition forces, at least 10,000 civilians, and many more thousands lumped together as Taliban, Militants or  simply unknown; our estimated total around 20,000.

We suffered greatly as a result of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, with 2977 deaths, nearly 7000 treated for injuries, and tens of thousands suffering the losses of their loved ones.

As a nation we’ve been suffering continuously since then; for almost a decade: with thousands of our soldiers killed, many more thousands wounded, and many many more thousands of these men and women’s loved ones suffering the results. We have also been suffering the loss of trillions of our hard-earned tax dollars. For a decade; Continuously.

As a nation we’ve been causing lots of suffering too; for a decade; continuously. With tens of thousands of people we’ve killed and seriously injured, and with many more tens of thousands of orphans and loved ones left behind to suffer those losses.

Tens of thousands of lives. Trillions of dollars. Tens of thousands of disabled; orphans, and widows. Suffering there. Suffering here.

There must be ‘some ones’ out there immune to all this suffering. Obviously those ‘some ones’ have not been suffering. In fact ‘some ones’ must be gaining a lot from all this suffering.  And maybe, considering the tremendous level of ‘gains’ involved, ‘some ones’ actually want, thus, start and inflict the suffering. Otherwise what could ever explain this insanity?

Tens of thousands of lives lost there. Thousands of lives lost here. Tens of thousands more in pain; and many more mourning. Millions deprived of Trillions of hard-earned dollars. And there are those ‘some ones’ who have been earning billions of dollars from many millions’ sufferings; for almost a decade, and, continuously.

Who could these ‘some ones’ be? Any food for thought?

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