Selection from the 9/11 report
Jul 23 at 10:10am by Anonymous
September 11th 2001
From page 362:
“But the enemy is not just “terrorism,” some generic evil. This vagueness blurs the strategy.The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is more specific. It is the threat posed by Islamist terrorism—especially the al Qaeda network, its affiliates, and its ideology.
As we mentioned in chapter 2, Usama Bin Ladin and other Islamist terrorist leaders draw on a long tradition of extreme intolerance within one stream of Islam (a minority tradition), from at least Ibn Taimiyyah, through the founders of Wahhabism, through the Muslim Brotherhood, to Sayyid Qutb. That stream is motivated by religion and does not distinguish politics from religion, thus distorting both. It is further fed by grievances stressed by Bin Ladin and widely felt throughout the Muslim world—against the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, policies perceived as anti-Arab and anti-Muslim, and support of Israel.”
The slight against “evil” as a useful term is of course a slight against Bush’’s useless rhetoric, but in a footnote, they specifically reference a Feb 2003 document, the “National Strategy for Combating Terrorism“, which begins rather melodramatically:
“The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Pennsylvania were acts of war against the United States of America and its allies, and against the very idea of civilized society. No cause justifies terrorism. The world must respond and fight this evil that is intent on threatening and destroying our basic freedoms and our way of life.”
So, bravo to the commission for trying to quell the insipid use of rhetoric that helps no one understand anything.
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And the cost keeps getting higher…
Jul 16 at 12:12pm by Anonymous
Institute for Policy Studies
Time for another review of the numbers. Thanks to our friends at the Institute for Policy Studies for this one: A Failed Transition.
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Election Postponement: Republic or Fascism?
Jul 15 at 9:09am by Jagwire X
What is Fascism
When I first heard about this I thought it must be joke. I thought surely this is a mistake, some foolish rumor that made it into the news. But on closer inspection I see that no - the idea is indeed being bandied about like it is something that happens every so often.
Ostensibly this is part of the whole idea of “guaranteeing” secure elections in the event of a terrorist act. It’’s bullshit.
DeForest B. Soaries Jr., chairman of the newly created U.S. Election Assistance Commission, wants Ridge to ask Congress to pass legislation giving the government power to cancel or reschedule a federal election. Seems rather counter to the ideals this country was founded on.
Currently, no federal agency has the power to cancel or reschedule a national vote. There is a reason for this, elections are about the people’s right to choose who their leaders are, not of the leaders to tell us when we can choose, or even worse who we can choose. There is no historical or constitution precedent for this. Read the rest of this entry »
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Truly Brilliant!
Jul 14 at 11:11am by Anonymous
UN Security council
Arms suppliers scramble into Iraq
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK - When the 15-member United Nations Security Council legitimized the US-imposed interim government in Baghdad in June, the five-page unanimous resolution carried a provision little publicized in the media: the lifting of a 14-year arms embargo on Iraq.
I’m too stunned to crack wise.
Free matches with every glass jar of gasoline.
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