Ed Miliband's manifesto

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The key to the politics of the next decade and Labour's chance to speak for the majority lie here, in this article on how the super rich are the only group who has benefited from the last years of neoliberalism. Essentially the great majority have fallen behind as the top 1% shoot off into space with all the money. It requires a very big U-turn from New labour's embrace of the super-rich. Does Miliband gets it? The Greens, or some other party, might just steal a march if he doesn't. Look what happened in Scotland.
Meantime Jim Rogers, the great/ devilish American speculator, was interviewed on BBC World Service and declared time on the dollar due to America's unsupportable debt burden. He said the day when the greenback ceased to be the world reserve currency was not far off - and there was no obvious replacement; neither the euro or the yuan could replace it. Oh, and the oil was officially running out. What struck me was his view that politicians are only thinking about the election cycle, not long-term, hence their inability to get to grips with deep structural problems. Interesting times ahead.

Guardian deletes my comment on ISI 9/11 link

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Why would The Guardian 'moderator' delete this comment on its article about the ISI Who's side is the ISI on?

I am actually quite angry about that as all I did was report facts that have been known for years and in the public domain and admitted by officials. Perhaps these facts are too sensitive in the context of western journalists working in Pakistan - some of whom have paid the ultimate cost for their efforts.

See below:

In his informative piece about the ISI, Declan Walsh does not address the critical facts around the visit of then ISI chief Mahmud Ahmed to the US from 4 September 2001 through to 9/11 - when he met the CIA chief George Tenet, and US Senators Porter Goss and Bob Graham among other security and intelligence officials - and the explosive allegation of The Times of India (12 October 2001) that Ahmed ordered the wiring of $100,000 to lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta. That story has since been excised from the internet, although there are many references to it. The source appears to have been Indian intelligence. The FBI is also reported to have confirmed that Ahmed did order Omar Sheikh (the killer of Daniel Pearl) to make the transfer to the leader of the 9/11 hijackers.

This is the most important incriminating fact against the ISi in its whole history. If it is true, then it surely bears repeating now following the death of Bin Laden.

Ahmed has been kept in seclusion in Pakistan ever since. He must know a thing or two about ISI's secrets, and those of the CIA, around who knew what about the 9/11 plot. Following the 9/11 attacks, the ISI-created Taliban said they would only hand over Bin Laden if the Americans provided proof that Bin Laden was involved. The Americans refused.

Link to Asia Times story of 2004.
On the morning of September 11, Mahmoud was having a breakfast meeting at the Capitol with Graham and Goss. Goss spent as many as 10 years working on numerous CIA clandestine operations. He is very close to Vice President Dick Cheney. It's interesting to note that two weeks ago Goss suggested to the Justice Department to bring perjury charges against the new Cheney nemesis, Clarke. As it is widely known, Graham and Goss were co-heads of the joint House-Senate investigation that proclaimed there was "no smoking gun" as far as President George W Bush having any advance knowledge of September 11.

According to the Washington Post, and also to sources in Islamabad, the Mahmoud-Graham-Goss meeting lasted until the second plane hit Tower 2 of the World Trade Center. Graham later said they were talking about terrorism coming from Afghanistan, which means they were talking about bin Laden.

Pakistani intelligence sources told Asia Times Online that on the afternoon of September 11 itself, as well as on September 12 and 13, Armitage met with Mahmoud with a stark choice: either Pakistan would help the US against al-Qaeda, or it would be bombed back to the Stone Age. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented an ultimatum in the form of seven US demands. Pakistan accepted all of them. One of the demands was for Musharraf to send Mahmoud to Kandahar again and force the Taliban to extradite bin Laden. Mahmoud knew in advance Mullah Omar would refuse. But when he went to Kandahar the Taliban leader said he would accept, as long as the Americans proved bin Laden was responsible for September 11. There was no proof, and Afghanistan was bombed anyway, a policy already decided well in advance.

Bin Laden Sons Say U.S. Broke International Law

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NEW YORK TIMES — The adult sons of Osama bin Laden have lashed out at President Obama in their first public reaction to their father’s death, accusing the United States of violating its basic legal principles by killing an unarmed man, shooting his family members and disposing of his body in the sea.

The statement, provided to The New York Times on Tuesday, said the family was asking why Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, “was not arrested and tried in a court of law so that truth is revealed to the people of the world.”

Citing the trials of Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader, and Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian leader, the statement questioned “the propriety of such assassination where not only international law has been blatantly violated,” but the principles of presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial were ignored.

“We maintain that arbitrary killing is not a solution to political problems,” the statement said, adding that “justice must be seen to be done.”

The statement, prepared at the direction of Omar bin Laden, who had publicly denounced his father’s terrorism, was provided to The Times by Jean Sasson, an American author who helped the younger Mr. Bin Laden write a 2009 memoir, “Growing Up bin Laden.” A shorter, slightly different statement was posted on jihadist Web sites.

The Chertoff story

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Michael Chertoff, the former homeland security chief who’s not been shy about exploiting terrorist threats for the benefit of his clients, has decided to join a top defense contractor that defrauded the U.S. government.

The one-time head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under President George W. Bush is now a board member of BAE Systems, the United Kingdom-based defense corporation that agreed to pay $447 million in fines to the American and British governments to settle allegations of corruption, including bribing a top Saudi Arabian official.

BAE is the eighth-largest contractor doing business with Washington, having received $7.1 billion in government contracts in 2009 alone. It also has received more than $200 million from DHS since 2005.

Following the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day, Chertoff was seen on television calling for the government to buy full-body scanners for airport checkpoints. Chertoff failed to mention in numerous interviews that his consulting business represented the company, Rapiscan Systems, that makes the scanners.

Chertoff family connections

The March 2005 issue of Popular Mechanics (PM) carried a piece by senior researcher, 25-year-old Benjamin Chertoff, a cover story entitled "Debunking 9/11 Lies" which seeks to discredit all independent 9/11 research that challenges the official version of events.

"Conspiracy theories can't stand up to the hard facts," the cover reads. "After an in-depth investigation, PM answers with the truth," it says. But the article fails to provide evidence to support its claims and doesn't answer the key question: What caused the collapses of the twin towers and the 47-story World Trade Center 7?

The lead editorial by James Meigs, Editor-in-Chief of PM carries the title "The Lies Are Out There." It continues: "As a society we accept the basic premise that a group of Islamist terrorists hijacked four airplanes and turned them into weapons against us."

But do we, "as a society" accept this basic premise? None of the 19 "Islamist terrorists" were even found on the passenger lists that day.

"Sadly," Meigs continues, "the noble search for truth is now being hijacked by a growing army of conspiracy theorists."

The Meigs' editorial concludes, "But those who peddle fantasies that this country encouraged, permitted or actually carried out the attacks are libeling the truth – and disgracing the memories of the thousands who died on that day."

Nobody says that the United States of America did anything on 9/11, Mr. Meigs. "This country," the USA doesn't do anything, Mr. Meigs, people do. In the case of 9/11 we are dealing with a very small group of people, perhaps no more than a dozen or so at the highest "architectural" level, and there is no guarantee that they are from any one country – most likely they are not.

The Chertoff article goes on to confront the "poisonous claims" of 16 "myths" spun by "extremist" 9/11 researchers like myself with "irrefutable facts," mostly provided by individuals in the employ of the U.S. government.

But who is Benjamin Chertoff, the "senior researcher" at Popular Mechanics who is behind the article? American Free Press has learned that he is none other than a cousin of Michael Chertoff, the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

This means that Hearst paid Benjamin Chertoff to write an article supporting the seriously flawed explanation that is based on a practically non-existent investigation of the terror event that directly led to the creation of the massive national security department his "cousin" now heads. This is exactly the kind of "journalism" one would expect to find in a dictatorship like that of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Because the manager of public relations for Popular Mechanics didn't respond to repeated calls from American Free Press, I called Benjamin Chertoff, the magazine's "senior researcher," directly.

Chertoff said he was the "senior researcher" of the piece. When asked if he was related to Michael Chertoff, he said, "I don't know." Clearly uncomfortable about discussing the matter further, he told me that all questions about the article should be put to the publicist – the one who never answers the phone.

Benjamin's mother in Pelham, New York, however, was more willing to talk. Asked if Benjamin was related to the new Secretary of Homeland Security, Judy said, "Yes, of course, he is a cousin."

Chertoff and 9/11

During the period before and after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, Chertoff headed the criminal division at the Department of Justice where he "helped trace the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the al-Qaida network."

Chertoff became Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, by a vote of 95-1 on May 24, 2001. The dissenting vote came from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D – N.Y.).

In this position Chertoff was architect of some of the most controversial elements of the Bush administration's domestic war on terrorism and played a central role in formulating the Bush administration's "anti-terrorism policy." He defended the administration's decisions to hold military tribunals for non-U.S. suspect terrorists and to monitor phone conversations between attorneys and their clients.

Chertoff oversaw the detention of 762 foreign nationals for minor immigration violations, although none was charged with a terrorism-related crime. The detention of hundreds of people was necessary to detect "sleeper cells" of terrorists, he said.

"Chertoff headed the Justice Department's criminal division when hundreds of foreigners were swept up on minor charges and held for an average of 80 days," The Washington Post reported. "Some detainees were denied their right to see a lawyer, were not told of the charges against them, or were physically abused."

At the same time, Chertoff allowed scores of suspected Israeli terrorists and spies to quietly return to Israel. In several cases, Israeli suspects working for phoney moving companies, such as Urban Moving Systems from Weehawken, N.J., were caught driving moving vans which tested positive for explosives. On September 14, Dominic Suter, the owner of the moving company, which was found to be a Mossad front company, fled to Israel after FBI agents requested a second interview.

One group of 5 Israelis was seen on the roof of Urban Moving Systems videotaping and celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Center. These Israeli agents were returned to Israel on visa violations.

These Israeli suspects, and others, who had apparently transported explosives in the New York area, were allowed to return to Israel without being properly interrogated or their presence and activities in the United States having been vigorously investigated.

Newsnight - a neoliberal ghetto

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Dear Newsnight

I saw the panel item on Newsnight last night with 2 bankers and a Cardiff business economist saying Greece will have to privatise everything and needs a dose of Thatcherism to sort out its bloated public sector. Perhaps the Greeks were able to speak beforehand - I did not see this. Paxman did not question this guests at all as they explained Greece was like the UK in the 70s. "Oh I didn't realise it was that bad," he quipped.

Why don't we so rarely see people from the countries involved on the programme? What is it with this reliance on 'experts'? Who do they represent?

Last week Paxman interviewed Michael Chertoff, ex chief of Homeland Security, about the Bin Laden killing. He treated this man with great respect even though most people realise Chertoff is a Bush croney who has a highly questionable record in his various roles and made a great deal of money out of providing airport security technology through his own companies.

Newsnight is like a rightwing neliberal thinktank these days. This is something I have discussed with friends. I was a fan until about 2 years ago when I realised how rarely the editors let anyone heterodox or normal on the programme.

I now rely on online sources, Al Jazeera, Russia Today and other sources. I just think you need to get out more, much as I am sure you work very, very hard.

These panels are deadly dull. More investigative reporters and more unorthodox or heterodox guests to balance things up and Newsnight could become interesting again,

Regards

Joe

The slaughter of innocent Iraqis - and jubilation at his death

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No nation suffered more at the hands of Al Qaeda than Iraq - Pakistan is a distant second. It is true that the US occupation effectively unleashed this terror, but it was a terror supported and created by Al Qaeda in Iraq. So one can understand the jubilation of this Iraqi blogger Nidhal Al-Nakkash on the news of OBL's death.

Now you talk about unarmed man who has been killed among his children and family??? Now you are all HONEST DECENT people who DEFEND JUSTICE???? Where have you been and where are you when till this moment innocent IRAQIS are slaughtered by Bin Laden's men ,,,WE in Iraq have never been in such blood baths and massacres ,,, this devil should not only be killed but he should be torn to pieces ...Have you seen what have happened to us in Iraq ,,dirty work of this bloody criminal had cut heads of innocent young girls ,,women,,,young men,,children ,,infants,,, all sorts of human being ,,,and NOW you are defending him ,,PLEASE give us a break ,,BE HUMAN for a moment and NEVER ever say that killing him was unfair or against the Islamic law ,,,what do you all know of Islam ,,,??? YOU have misinterpreted Islam because you have been following this devil who has distorted and stained the name of Islam ,,,He & all his Salafi followers have changed this beautiful merciful peaceful religion into a religion of TERROR & EVIL ,,,of SLAUGHTERING & CRIMES ,,,from a good religion into a taboo - I wonder why do you defend him ...have you ever had your country destructed ? your wealth stolen ? your people slaughtered & are still being slaughtered every day ,,,,have you lost your job, your house,,everything ,,,PLEASE STOP PREACHING ,,,you are such a hypocrite and a big liar ,,to talk about this subject I wish you answer me I wish I can see you and show you our misery because of this BLOODY CRIMINAL WHO CALLS HIMSELF A MUSLIM ,,

Today is THE day ,,,it is the day of victory of justice against malignancy , a day of jubilation , a day of happiness ,, the death of the most evil terrorist man in the world - Osama Bin Laden who has distorted the name of Islam and who had changed the name of the peaceful and most merciful religion into a name of terror and evil ,, this criminal and his followers have killed and slaughtered millions of people all over the world ,,, if it wasn't because of him and his terror - America would NOT have invaded Iraq ,,, nor has the world changed into a place of terror ,,, he & his followers has all the means to spread thier malignant ideas by brain washing simple ignorant youth and poisoning their brains to join their movement and he became an icon for Jihad ( which is NOT by any means the truth of what they were doing) ,,,all his crimes has nothing to do with Jihad ,,, he has misinterpreted teh Qur'an and thus he has attracted a large number of ignorant into his movement - the Salafis and Wahabis who have distorted Islam - the religion of PEACE & MERCY into a religion of terror ; thus he kept his crimes by the help and support of the Saudi Arabia in order to distract the west away from the real reason which is to aid Israel and USA in controlling the Arab world and keeping the Saudis in save and protected status ,,, what an evil plan ,,, now that the USA has killed Osama Bin Laden - what will the Saudis say???
I am sure now they will change their attitude ; however , they will surely say that they are happy on the other hand they will work silently and in secret to avenge his killing: how? By supporting his followers and helping them carry on their dirty crmes against humanity ,,,Anyway TODAY is the most important day in the world ,,, it is a HISTORICAL day wherein good overcomes bad; justice overcomes ,,righteous deeds against criminal malicious evil ..
THANKS TO THE ALMIGHTY ALLAH without WHOSE WORK ,,this act will not have been don e
Thanks to the American troops who helped in killing this outrageous devil
It is a day for the world to celebrate and it is a day of jubilation and joy
Let us hope that the WORLD will be more PEACEFUL

Breaking News - Barack Obama Is Dead

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All events in this article are purely fictional...

Breaking News - Barack Obama Is Dead

By Fahad Ansari

"We Got Him!"

American War Criminal Barack Obama has been killed by Pakistani security forces in the UK, Prime Minister Hasan Abdullah of Pakistan has said.

BREAKING NEWS: BARACK OBAMA IS DEAD

May 15, 2011 -- American War Criminal Barack Obama has been killed by Pakistani security forces in the UK, Prime Minister Hasan Abdullah of Pakistan has said.
Obama was shot dead at a compound near Camberley, in a ground operation based on Pakistani intelligence, the first lead for which emerged last August.
Mr Abdullah said Pakistan forces took possession of the body after "a firefight".
Obama is believed to have ordered almost 200 attacks in North and South Waziristan between 2009 and 2011 in which almost 2000 people were killed, when he served as Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces. Obama is also believed to have ordered the continued bombardment of Afghanistan during the same period in which thousands of others were killed.
He was top of Pakistan’s "most wanted" list.
DNA tests later confirmed that Obama was dead, Pakistani officials said.
Obama was cremated at the stake after a Christian funeral on board an aircraft carrier, ISI officials said.
Announcing the success of the operation, Mr Abdulla said it was "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat the CIA".
Pakistan has put Muslims around the world on alert, warning them of the possibility of American reprisal attacks for Obama’s killing.
ISI director Mohammed Akram said America would "almost certainly" try to avenge the death of Obama.
Crowds gathered outside the Red Mosque in Islamabad, chanting "Allah Akbar" after the news broke.
Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Mullah Jundullah said the operation sent a signal to the Neoconservatives in both the US and Britain.
"You cannot wait us out, you cannot defeat us, but you can make the choice to abandon the CIA and participate in a peaceful political process," she said.
Compound raided
Obama, 60, approved the campaign of terror on Waziristan for almost three years in which nearly 2,000 people were killed.
He evaded the forces of Pakistan and its allies for almost a decade, despite a $50m (£30m) bounty on his head.
Mr Abdullah said he had been briefed last August on a possible lead to Obama’s whereabouts. He authorised the operation last week once he determined there was enough intelligence to take action.
"It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground," Mr Abdullah said.
On Sunday, Pakistani forces said to be from the elite Badr Brigade undertook the operation in Camberley, Surrey, 50km (30 miles) south-west of London.
Pakistani officials said Obama was shot in the head after resisting.
Mr Abdullah said "no Muslims were harmed".
Pakistani media reports said that the body was cremated at the stake to conform with Christian practice of a dignified burial and to prevent any grave becoming a shrine.
Giving more details of the raid, one senior Pakistani official said a small Pakistani team conducted the attack in about 40 minutes.
Three other men - one of Obama’s brothers and two couriers - were killed in the raid, the official said, adding that Obama’s wife Michelle was also killed when she was used as "a shield" and two other women were injured.
One helicopter was lost due to "technical failure". The team destroyed it and left in its other aircraft.
One resident, David Shields, told Reuters the helicopters had come under "intense firing" from the ground.
The size and complexity of the structure in Camberley "shocked" Pakistani officials.
It was surrounded by 4m-6m (12ft-18ft) walls, was eight times larger than other homes in the area and was valued at "a million dollars", though it had no telephone or internet connection.
The Pakistani official said that intelligence had been tracking a "trusted courier" of Obama for many years. The courier's identity was discovered four years ago, his area of operation two years ago and then, last August, his residence in Camberley was found, triggering the start of the mission.
Another senior Pakistani official said that no intelligence had been shared with any country, including the UK, ahead of the raid.
"Only a very small group of people inside our own government knew of this operation in advance," the official said.
The Camberley residence is just a few hundred metres from Sandhurst – the British equivalent of the Pakistani Military Academy.
The BBC's Alan Matthews in Camberley says it will undoubtedly be a huge embarrassment to the UK that Obama was found not only in the country, but also on the doorstep of the military academy.
He says residents in the town were stunned the former American leader had been living in their midst.
The senior Pakistani official said the "the loss of Obama puts the Neocons on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse".
Obama’s probable successor, Tony Blair, was "far less charismatic and not as well respected within the organisation", according to reports from captured Neoconservative operatives, the official said.
However, the root causes of Neoconservatism - the range of issues that enabled the Neocons to recruit disaffected young liberals to its cause – hatred of Islam, oil and power - remain, for the most part, unaddressed, Neoconservative affairs analyst Rajinder Harbin told the BBC.
"The death of Obama will strike at the morale of the global ‘war on terror’, but is unlikely to end it," he warned.

World leaders welcomed the news of Obama’s death.
French President Jean Luc Blanc said Obama had "paid for his actions".Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Salim described the news as a "momentous achievement".
"The fight against terror goes on, but tonight Pakistan has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done," Mr Salim said in a statement.
But a spokesman for the English Defence League threatened revenge attacks against the "Muslamic and British governments and their security forces".
In the Israeli enclave of Tel Aviv, which is governed by militant group IDF, Prime Minister Ariel Lieberman condemned the killing of "a peaceful man".
BBC security correspondent Faraz Javed says that, to many in the Muslim world, Obama became the embodiment of global terrorism, but to others he was a hero, a devout Christian who fought three wars in the name of democracy.

All events are purely fictional – but you knew that already, didn’t you?