Submitted by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
Being in my late 60’s and having grown up in a liberal family, politics and history have been always among my greatest interests. Those much younger than I would no doubt list 9/11 as the most traumatizing historical event of their lifetime. While 9/11 of course affected me greatly, no historical event in my life has affected me as much as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I believe that it traumatized my generation so extensively that most of us have not been able to fully believe in our country and its government since that tragic day and its aftermath. Most Americans alive today, who were born in 1960, or afterwards, have only second hand accounts of the total turbulence of the 60’s and the trauma experienced by those who lived through it. There is no doubt that 9/11 has traumatized this nation, but initially it drew most of us together, only to have that unity frittered away by the Bush Administration. The 60’s did that for my generation and that trauma led directly to our current political chaos and deep distrust of government as my generation took the reins of political power.
To most people growing up in the 50’s, on its surface America was the land of opportunity. The USA was a great democracy, unparalleled in human history in the prosperity of its citizens and its standing among nations. For many though, there were obvious cracks in this version of the America Myth. If you were a Black American you faced the viciousness of “Jim Crow” in the South and the somewhat more “genteel” racism pervading the rest of the country. People of Spanish speaking heritage also faced the status of second class citizenship. Native American’s were treated just as badly as they had been from the first European landing on these their shores. Women were, with few exceptions, expected to be subservient to male expectations and were uniformly portrayed as being intellectually inferior. Homosexuals were viciously and violently persecuted. And so it went in 1950’s America. Some great white writers like Mailer, Kerouac, Steinbeck and many others were taking on the myth of the America Dream. Africa American writers like Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin were standing on the shoulders of their predecessors from the Harlem Renaissance, in exposing the oppression Black people faced. There was among many Americans a weariness of the canards of the Eisenhower Administration, the fear based militarism of the Cold War and a recognition that all was not well with a good portion of the population. There was also for many, a hope for purposefulness in their own lives, beyond marriage, house in the suburbs, new car and two kids.
Arriving on the scene, promising to revitalize the country, was JFK, a brilliant speaker, handsome man and charismatic leader. He won a close election against the unlikable Richard Nixon and proceeded to galvanize the nation with the dreams of his New Frontier. JFK also was the source of great enmity among the Washington Establishment. Seen as nouveau riche by the plutocracy, too idealistic and naïve by the Defense, State Departments and CIA, hated by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, too “Nigra Friendly” for Southern racists and a threat to the “business as usual” Corporate status quo. He was murdered on a Friday Afternoon in 1963 as my University suspended activities and I sat with friends stunned with grief listening to a car radio and puffing Marlboro’s. That day is etched permanently in my mind and the disturbing events that followed it throughout those turbulent 1960’s forever changed the way I viewed the world. Lee Harvey Oswald was improbably murdered as I watched on TV that Sunday; a flawed Warren Commission Report arrived filled with holes; the murder of Martin Luther King and then Bobby Kennedy; along with the prosecution of a vicious and illegal war; with all this my faith in American Democracy and exceptionalism faded into skeptical disbelief. Life for us ordinary citizens, however, still went on and pleasure, friends, lovers, spouses, families and careers took up most of our time and attention. Nevertheless I devoured everything I could read about the JFK murder and indeed about the history taking place as I lived my mundane life. Recently a book brought all those strange feelings back to the surface and provided a possible explanation why our world seems so much crazier these days.
The book I want to discuss is “Family of Secrets” subtitled “The Bush Dynasty, America’s Invisible Government, And the Hidden History of The Last Fifty Years”. It is written by Russ Baker, an investigative journalist formerly of the New York Times. His excellent website is: http://whowhatwhy.com/. While George W. Bush was President I and others kept referring to the Administration as “The Bush Crime Family”. Reading this book, if it gives the true picture, I didn’t know how accurate that appellation could be. This is a book of more than 500 pages of narrative and perhaps 100 more pages of notes and footnotes. Thus it is far too large for me to provide more than a review and overview. To be honest I can’t do the book justice, simply because it provides a narrative that captures you into this sordid tale of a plutocratic America family and because knowing the outcomes of much it discusses, I found that I could only read it in spurts, so painful were its revelations.
Let me summarize it in this manner. The Bush Family dating back to Senator Prescott Bush has aspired to not only great power, but great wealth and has operated as both representative and agents of the “elite” class of American families, who believe it is both their destiny and their duty to rule this country, through whatever means available. In the minds of this class they are beyond the restraints of the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Legal System. At times this “elite” acted as both partners of and agents for, foreign interests and indeed see the aims of those interests identical to their own.
When discussing specific Bush family member’s deeds, the highlights are as follows:
Sen. Prescott Bush: Co-conspirator in a plot to overthrow FDR. Financier of NAZI causes via a banking partnership with John Foster and Alan Dulles. Head of the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee approving/abetting CIA foreign assassinations.
President George (Poppy) H.W. Bush: High Level CIA Agent. Possible Conspirator in the JFK Assassination. Possible Conspirator in the Watergate Affair as a CIA plot to remove Richard Nixon. Major Conspirator and Impeller of the Iran/Contra Affair. Started the First Iraq War. Possible 9/11 conspirator.
George W. Bush: Possible role in 9/11. Creator of a War Against Iraq, Terror, etc., etc., etc. Approved torture as a viable intelligence method. Approved unconstitutional methods of surveillance of citizens. Bankrupted the country with tax cuts targeted to the “elite” and bailed out a corrupt banking system, with no strings attached.
Obviously, these are pretty heady and serious claims for an author to make. Russ Baker, from my view, backs up what he says with pristine documentation and with supplying the complex context of interlocking individuals. What I find the most amazing is how he shows that the Bush Family friendships and alliances go across party lines and the specific individuals who are all intertwined with these major events to produce a convincing case for foul deeds and conspiracies that could leave us all with a bitter view of the history we’ve been fed.
Let me provide my own possible schematic scenario for some of this thread of history:
- Eisenhower, astute in military politics, yet a novice in national politics is offered the Republican nomination and is elected President. His advisers help him choose John Foster Dulles and his brother Alan, both closely aligned with Wall Street, oil interests and the CIA. These extreme cold warriors shape US foreign policy. Ike’s heart attack causes him to allow Richard Nixon to assume many Administration intelligence duties and foreign policy roles. With Nixon as its “case officer” the invasion of Cuba is planned. Nixon unexpectedly loses the Presidency to JFK, who Nixon believes stole the election. As he leaves office Ike cautions Americans to “beware of the Military Industrial Complex.
- George H.W. (Poppy) Bush goes into the oil business a novice, yet through his father’s connections establishes alliances with some of the biggest players in Texas oil. Establishes a company with two divisions. One is a CIA front and Bush travels the world presumably as a CIA operative, on purported oil business, even though many locations visited have little to do with oil.
- JFK reluctantly approves what becomes the “Bay of Pigs” operation, but refuses to back it up with a US invasion. Thereby gaining the enmity of the CIA and Foreign Policy Establishment. JFK’s experience with the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis leads him and RFK to become suspicious of the Foreign Policy/Defense “Experts” within his administration and their advice. As the US involvement in Viet Nam starts to escalate, giving lie to the “Experts” advice he begins to contemplate withdrawal from Viet Nam. He is murdered 11/22/63. George (Poppy) Bush is in Dallas on that day, as was Nixon the night before.
- LBJ becomes President. Appoints the Warren Commission led by Alan Dulles, who was fired by JFK and hated him. LBJ and Poppy Bush both were closely involved with Texas power firm Brown & Root Corporation, which had CIA ties and later became Haliburton. Warren Commission Report focuses solely on Oswald, refuses to deal with inconsistencies of his history. Gerald Ford develops the “single bullet” theory. LBJ escalates the Viet Nam War pleasing the Defense/Foreign Policy “Experts”. Opposition to the war grows. Poppy Bush fails in bid to become Senator, becomes Congressman, still maintains covert CIA ties.
- War Protest Movement keeps growing, while Martin Luther King is morphing the Civil Rights Movement into a general movement for economic justice and against the War. CIA and FBI institute COINTELPRO. MLK assassinated as he begins to speak out more against the Viet Nam War. RFK assassinated after he wins the California Democratic Primary and becomes likely Presidential nominee. Democratic Convention riots lead to Humphrey nomination. Nixon ekes out Presidency in 1968 election.
- Nixon further escalates Viet Nam War. He names Poppy Bush Ambassador to China despite lack of qualification. Nixon/Kissinger cut “Experts” out of Foreign Policy and negotiate détente with China, decried by Defense/CIA/”Experts who are all “Cold Warriors”. “Plumbers” unit formed in White House, members all tied to CIA and Poppy Bush. Amateurishly bungled Watergate Burglary performed by intelligence professionals. Nixon reelected but Watergate becomes big deal. Bob Woodward, with past CIA ties, begins investigation with Carl Bernstein. Woodward gains information from “Deep Throat” that is damning. John Dean, who also has ties to Poppy Bush blabs to Congress. Andrew Jaworski, an old friend of Poppy Bush, becomes Special Prosecutor after Cox fired. Poppy Bush becomes head of Republican Party. Poppy Bush advises Nixon to resign for the good of the Party. Gerald Ford becomes President and surprises Poppy Bush by not naming Poppy Bush Vice President. Ford pardons Nixon before full charges are brought and so many details lost as the investigation stops.
Having only superficially summarized some of the details from Family of Secrets I will stop here in 1976 because this would become far too long a post were I to continue my summarization up to the present day, as does the book. My lack of detail is necessary because the connections made by the book are so intricate as to defy retelling in as short a space as I’m allowed. Here is Russ Baker himself speaking on these matters:http://whowhatwhy.com/2012/02/12/russ-baker-on-deep-history-and-little-known-origins-of-current-problems/
Here also is a direct quote from Russ Baker talking about why as we near the 50th Anniversary of JFK’s murder there is so little talk as to the strange circumstances surrounding it:
In any case, none of the films that Hollywood seems willing to tackle touch on what the great, great mass of careful investigation, research and scholarship has shown over the years—the extremely high likelihood that JFK’s death was a covert operation engineered by exactly the kinds of people whose profession was to displace leaders and carry out military-precision operations under cover. (My own book, Family of Secrets, has four chapters of new, abundantly documented and heavily footnoted material on the Kennedy assassination, including the answer to why George H.W. Bush cannot remember where he was on Nov. 22, 1963—and there are many other fine books, both recent vintage and released over the years, which carefully lay out enough evidence to settle the matter to all but the most closed-minded. Examples here, here, and here.)
Nearly half a century after the death of a President, who took bold steps against abuses by the one percent of the one percent, we are still in denial about how and why he died. Our leading institutions and individuals are not only scared to talk about the truth, but glad to cynically profit from tired lies and evasions. http://whowhatwhy.com/2012/01/23/the-deaths-of-jfk-rfk%E2%80%94and-the-silence-of-the-lambs/
My own view of the history Russ Baker reveals is that it not only seems plausible, but explains so many of the inconsistencies most people see in our history, but either ignore, or at a loss to explain. While all of this information is rather glum there is some hope to be derived from it. The Bush Family may well be plotters and executors of plots, but they are not omnipotent. G.H.W. Bush would not have been a one-term President if that were the case. I’ve said before, that I do believe that our country is run by a loosely connected oligarchy, from which the only redeeming feature is their own internal battles for power and the egos behind those struggles. Please understand though that because the JFK murder takes up a good part of my meanderings here, that is but the tip of an iceberg concealed below its apparent surface, a conspiracy of violence and greed that makes a mockery of America’s Constitution and its values. Some other links that I recommend to you to assist in your contextualizing this information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFK_assassination_theories
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Commission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFK_assassination
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLK_assassination
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_%26_Root
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Jaworski
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
I lived all through that era as well as I’m a war baby – todays people don’t hear about us – they only hear about the baby boomers. I was working on an assembly line when the JFK murder happened, and we heard it over the radio that they always had on throughout the factory. Hope today’s programmed with fabricated ‘history’ they have been force-taught in the Govt schools all their lives, know they have been lied to. Oswalled was teh patsy and did not shot JFK and he was not the good shot as they have tried to get the public to believe he was. The researchers have proven he coudl nto hvae made any of those shots and was not even at that window or on that floor at the time anyway. Gun and all was planted. It was a pro-sniper (3 of them actually). The Elite Bush dynasty has for at least 5 generations (or more) been pro-Nazi and Prescott Bush financed Hitler. All wars are planned, as is everything else that happens. FDR even stated and wrote such –
FDR stated – “NOTHING happens in government or the nation that is not planned without a reason and purpose !”
Everything for the past 150 years has been set up to establish a full OWG. IT began with Lincoln, a dedicated Marxist Communist. I’m a historian and have written much on this whole era. Lincoln set himself up as the first Dictator after he swiftly did a complete coup de tat on our Founders govt in 1861. There is a reason why Lincoln was set up in the Gvot Fedrael schools to be worshipped. But he was a bloody tryannt dictator who hated the Constitution and was the first president NOT to abide by it. Lincoln is who supported the National Banking sytsem , he created the IRS and direct taxes and the illegal UN-Constitutional Executive Orders to rule by. NOT too many today know our TRUE history and DC wants to keep it that way. But out probelms of today began in 1861 with dictator Lincoln, who was also a good friend with Communist Karl Marx. LIke Obama and Bush who followed Lincoln’s example, Lincoln did not do anything Constitutional.
Mike I used to believe the same way you do but as I got older and looked into the facts and starting thinking how the real world works and how people can’t keep secrets I have come to to the conclusion that if if the JFK assignation and the world trade center was an inside job it would have leaked out someone would have felt remorse and talked at least on his death bed however I do believe the mlk murder could have been an inside job by a very small group of insiders
lotta,
pete’s caustic observation about the plethora of “lone gunmen” walking around in the 60’s was on target. It was a scenario that worked quite well until Reagan. Would have worked there too if the secret service man with him hadn’t insisted that he be taken quickly to the hospital.
Conspiracies don’t have to be large to work well. Just ask J. Edgar who managed to pull off the greatest of conspiracies by publicizing his huge investigations into grand Communist conspiracies. The ol’ “slight of hand” that Gene spoke of brings a lot of men to power and enables them to hold on to that power for decades.
I don’t see a huge conspiracy involving many individuals. Just a very few.
The beat goes on for we’ll see Jeb in 2016.
pete
1, March 18, 2012 at 1:34 am
commoner
i don’t believe there was prior knowledge of JFK or the 911 attack but certain people in power were quick to see an advantage in both cases.
….Pete, you are either an idiot or have a screw loose to make such a statement. Sorry for you if the shoe fits. Spindell, I have a renewed likeness towards you after this article. You brought back memories,flashbacks, and horrible images that should resonate in the minds of “true” Americans. I for one will never forget the traumatic experiences of the sixties. I don’t want to forget; especially after learning more of the “actual” truths of these murders, etc.etc……………… As a child born in 1956 I have flasback images and memories of events all the way back to my diaper days. On that cold and dreary day in Nov. 1963, I was sitting in my 1st grade classroom, not cutting up as usual, when the announcement via radio broadcast was played over the school PA system. There was even a mention of blood. School was a lot different in those days. For many days later, everyone seemed to be in a state of shock and terror. How could one individual be so deranged as to take out the renewed hope for a country; the world even. For over ten years now I have been reading and listening via my friend, a retired Air Force man, about the conspiricies revolving around the Bush families. Their involvement runs deep and wide and includes those on both party lines. The Clintons are but one example. The problem,we as “TRUE Americans” face, is now we can, with almost certainity, point fingers of responsibility for such terrible events; however, this is only one group of players. There are many more such groups with all kinds of titles or identifying handles. Is there any way to take our country back?
No planes crashed on 9/11. Two of the flights weren’t even scheduled to fly
on that date.
Videos show “planes” going into the Towers as though they were made of
whipped cream. Cartoon planes can do that, real planes can’t.
Barbara Olson is alive – and took the name “Lady Booth” whenever she
and Ted remarried.
WTC buildings didn’t collapse. As videos show, they were blown to Kingdom come.
Obama knows the truth, and he also knows the need to support the official 9/11fairy tale..
Blouise, Pete, “lot of lone assassins running around…”
—-
Actually I agree but I see them as proof that kill teams were used to accomplish the major assassinations of the time. The lone assassins failed, Wallace and Reagan were injured but their attempted assassins didn’t have any real training, logistical support or help (back-up)- the logistics weren’t there. All they had was a weapon, their craziness and a whole lot of stress. It had to be the most stressful day of their lives and it negatively affected their ability to do their job.
I know that the line of reasoning I used probably builds a bunch of fallacies into it (Gene will enlighten me with the list. Really, do so, I’m interested.) but that’s how I see it.
I’m thinking that Jeb may be a good bet for the Repubs in 2016. Andrew Cuomo vs. Jeb Bush maybe?
“Thanks for the reminder even as there are calls for Jeb Bush to enter the fray or hopes that a brokered convention will deliver the nomination to him.’
LK,
As you may know I have been predicting for more than six months now that Jeb Bush will be the Republica nominee and these rumblings seem to show I’m not so crazy after all.
—————-
Mike S, I’m moving away from that scenario of late since a brokered convention with an ‘outsider’ coming in might alienate too many in the base. That Palin is angling for the honor if there is a brokered convention is probably scaring the bejesus out of the RNC too. Also, I think the RNC is still competent enough to ‘fix’ their own convention and the caucus’ that are left for Mitt.
“there were a lot of lone assassins running around in the sixties though.” (pete)
Hey, why fix something that ain’t broke?
An old Greenwald piece that’s worth the read:
http://www.salon.com/2010/01/15/sunstein_2/singleton/
An excerpt, but the whole posting is worth the read:
“Sunstein’s response to these criticisms is easy to find in what he writes, and is as telling as the proposal itself. He acknowledges that some “conspiracy theories” previously dismissed as insane and fringe have turned out to be entirely true (his examples: the CIA really did secretly administer LSD in “mind control” experiments; the DOD really did plot the commission of terrorist acts inside the U.S. with the intent to blame Castro; the Nixon White House really did bug the DNC headquarters). Given that history, how could it possibly be justified for the U.S. Government to institute covert programs designed to undermine anti-government “conspiracy theories,” discredit government critics, and increase faith and trust in government pronouncements? Because, says Sunstein, such powers are warranted only when wielded by truly well-intentioned government officials who want to spread The Truth and Do Good — i.e., when used by people like Cass Sunstein and Barack Obama:
Throughout, we assume a well-motivated government that aims to eliminate conspiracy theories, or draw their poison, if and only if social welfare is improved by doing so.
But it’s precisely because the Government is so often not “well-motivated” that such powers are so dangerous. Advocating them on the ground that “we will use them well” is every authoritarian’s claim. More than anything else, this is the toxic mentality that consumes our political culture: when our side does X, X is Good, because we’re Good and are working for Good outcomes. That was what led hordes of Bush followers to endorse the same large-government surveillance programs they long claimed to oppose, and what leads so many Obama supporters now to justify actions that they spent the last eight years opposing.”
Very well done, Mike S. I knew Earl Rose through my work (decades ago) and was the beneficiary of his thoughts and conclusions about JFK’s assassination, as well as the events that followed. (He was the M.E. in Dallas back then and, subsequent to his involvement with the feds on the day that John Kennedy was shot, he did the autopsies on Oswald and Ruby. He knew Mary Sherman, the microbiologist for whom Oswald had reportedly worked and who was later murdered. His conclusions were interesting, to say the least. (He was also an advisor to the HSCA*, as part of the FPP (Forensic Pathology Panel).) He’s now deceased, but was a straight-shooter with an abundance of integrity.
(*HSCA = House Select Committee on Assassinations, of course)
When I first began to contemplate writing this piece, after reading Russ Baker’s book, I had the awareness of how the very idea of “conspiracy” has become a source of derision among most American’s. The very valid thought process is how could something involving so many people be kept secret. The second part of that is that the mainstream media has consistently treated anyone who seriously entertained the idea of conspiracy as an amusing kook.
As to how could such a thing be kept secret the answer is that for the most part it hasn’t been kept secret, but that the pundits and opinion makers in the media have either ignored and/or ridiculed each and every revelation. As Dredd pointed out in his comment above:
“The pundits asked “Since 80% of the 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia, were recruited there, and Saudi money bankrolled the attackers, why was Saudi Arabia not considered by the 9/11 Commission?”
The fact that the Bush Administration arranged for every prominent Saudi in the United States to be flown out of the country prior to any questioning on 9/12/2001 was well known since 9/12/2001. Yet nobody made a big deal about it even though it has been shown that almost all of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi’s with connections to members of the Saudi regime. It’s been hidden in plain sight and remains so as long as the media refuses to make a big deal of it.
Then too we have the work of the Church Committee in the 70’s. Click on this link to get an overview and then clink on the links there to get a specific picture of the various findings, one being that there was probably more than one assassin of JFK. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee . All the information that would indicate an underlying conspiracy to murder JFK is available and available to the extent that it has become more than a cottage industry.
I made clear in my original piece that I was unable to do Russ Baker’s book “Family of Secrets” justice in the short space I had. Read the book, or any of the other excellent books on the subject, like the ones Finbarrr mentions above.
Blouise mentions she was a freshman in college when JFK was murdered, I was a sophomore, so our experiences of it were probably identical. I also pointed out in my piece that if you were born in 1960, or afterwards, you would have a different experience and perspective. By the time someone born at that time would be experiencing full political consciousness the ridicule of “conspiracy nuts” permeated the nation. Not experiencing fully the trauma of JFK’s death followed within 6 years by MLK’s and RFK’s murders, with the same inconsistencies and the same coverup, I would expect that most people in the country would think conspiracy was nonsense. There is so many more points I would make, but I can’t make them as well as the investigative sources do. Why not read them?
As to those who point out with some humor that I need to watch my back, perhaps that could be true, but I doubt it. I have no evidence, but others like Russ Baker have. So the question is why are they both alive and able to publish this material, if their allegations are true? The answer to me is obvious and that is that they and certainly I, represent no threat and indeed can be seen as a benefit to any possible conspirators. The simple reason for that is that the knowledge of the facts tend to make people paranoid and with paranoia comes fear. Part of the strategy of oppression has always been to make people afraid, because fear immobilizes action. ID707 poses the question that arises from all this which is what are we to do about it? My answer to him is basically “damned if I know”. I think I have a good uderstanding of the parameters of this, but I have little creative insight as to what to do about it, save spread the word.
Since I’ve felt this way for a long time my sole political strategy has been to urge measures to at least suggest that the “elite” is better served by taking good care of us “common” people, rather than letting us fall into despair. My contention is that there is more money to be made from the backs of fat, prosperous sheep, than from those who are lean and shorn. That is why I am voting for Obama this year, corporatist that he may be, because he at least doesn’t believe that much is gained by increasing the misery of the “common” folk. People may not agree with this position, but perhaps they might have more insight that my taking it is not some knee-jerk response to partisan feelings.
“Thanks for the reminder even as there are calls for Jeb Bush to enter the fray or hopes that a brokered convention will deliver the nomination to him.’
LK,
As you may know I have been predicting for more than six months now that Jeb Bush will be the Republica nominee and these rumblings seem to show I’m not so crazy after all.
Cool post Mike.
I was surprised to see main stream media (NY Times, Hardball on MSNBC, and Morning Joe on MSNBC) cover one of the many 9/11 conspiracy theories.
The pundits asked “Since 80% of the 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia, were recruited there, and Saudi money bankrolled the attackers, why was Saudi Arabia not considered by the 9/11 Commission?”
Two Senators, one CIA agent, and one investigative reporter answered “because we needed them, i.e. their oil.”
One of those answering senators was on the 9/11 commission, the other was head of the joint congressional committee investigating 9/11, as well as being head of the Senate Intelligence committee. Both said the Bush II regime covered up the Saudi Arabian involvement in 9/11.
The videos of both shows are at the bottom of this post.
Interestingly, the Bush family is very close to the Saudi royals.
Are they gearing up for Iran or WW3?
He promised changes, didn’t he? We were stupid and didn’t ask.
“Obama Executive Order Declares Peacetime War Powers for “Preparedness”: Sets Up Absolute Neoliberal Handover to the MIC”
“—-It delegates absolute control over resources, energy, materials, agriculture, water, and even… labor… to the various Secretaries of the departments.
—-It states that the determination of “national defense” takes precedence over any existing ownership rights or contracts.
—-It says the head of each agency can make direct loans from the Federal Reserve Bank, without approval of congress, to any private business in order to acquire what it needs.
—-It also says the heads of each of the agencies can sell off whatever publicly owned asset it chooses, again without congressional approval.
—-It even talks about a “Director of Selective Services” “upon request by the Director of Selective Service, and in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, assist the Director of Selective Service in development of policies regulating the induction and deferment of persons for duty in the armed services”… that means a draft folks.
I—-t puts Leon Panetta, the CIA fascist, in charge of the entire country’s water supply and if you remember, it also states that Panetta can sell that water supply to anyone, foreign or domestic, that he wants.
And that is just the beginning…….”
White House link to Exec Order.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness.
Above citation from:
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/obama-executive-order-declares-peacetime-war-powers-for-preparedness-sets-up-absolute-neoliberal-handover-to-the-mic/#more-18774
A copy of the order is there too.
As you notice it was a Friday release, and the press goes home for the weekend as do we also
What Bill McWilliams said.
Pete; ever heard of “operation northwood”? it was a litmus test of JFK, he failed it.
Great to see Russ Baker’s work gain ground!
If you (Mike Spindell) could do the same for Peter Dale Scott (“Deep Politics And The Death Of JFK” and “The Road To 9/11”) the discussion would benefit greatly!
A major Tour de Force, Mike!
Yes, Kennedy’s assassination was probably the biggest shock of my life. I was in 11th grade, I think.
For me, Vietnam proved that I could never trust the government. It’s not that they’re particularly clever. They just lie all the time. They’re incompetent.
I don’t go for enormous conspiracy theories, though.
Three people are incapable of keeping a conspiracy quiet. One of them will find spilling the beans irresistible. Deep Throat.
Hundreds would have had to be in on the Kennedy assassination.
At least thousands would have had to be in on 9/11.
We look backwards, through the wrong end of a telescope. Patterns appear, but they’re just sequences of events. We struggle to make sense of the horrible things that happen.
Humans just aren’t competent enough to perpetrate huge conspiracies. Small ones, sure. Corporations form temporary alliances to control some market. But they’re so greedy that they turn on each other, eventually.
commoner
i don’t believe there was prior knowledge of JFK or the 911 attack but certain people in power were quick to see an advantage in both cases.
there were a lot of lone assassins running around in the sixties though.
I am probably voting a straight Democrat ticket. Though Michael a uniform conspiracy on 9/11 is improbable to me. Too many pieces have to fit into the puzzle to create a valid conspiracy theory in my eyes, unlike with JFK. JFK seems to have been beloved even by the Orthodox Jews, with many in the older generation talking about JFK with great love and respect.
To Inigo:
I was right across the bay on 9/11. I used to go on walks and enjoy seeing the two towers looming up in the distance. Then one day during class we all heard about the attacks and looking across the bay all I could see was a huge black cloud that stretched in a mighty arc across the sky….