Benjamin Fulford: Persvrijheid in Amerika

[jopiter]

Interessant stuk over de "persvrijheid" in de VS de afgelopen jaren door voormalig Asia Pacific Bureau chief van het vooraanstaande blad Forbes, zeer veelzeggend (excuus dat het in het Engels is, beetje lang om snel even te vertalen) :

Has America lost its freedom of the press?
By: Benjamin Fulford former Asia Pacific Bureau chief for Forbes

There seems to be no other explanation for the otherwise incomprehensible failure of the American media to report on vast array of evidence pointing to the events of 911 as being part of a U.S. government conspiracy.

People are being murdered, newspaper and TV archives are being sanitized and government announcements are being retroactively rewritten. A growing group of academics, government officials, military veterans and other concerned citizens are fighting back using the internet and other non-traditional media. These people include a former German Defense Minister, a former member of the Bush Cabinet, authors like Gore Vidal and Hunter S. Thomson (who died recently under suspicious circumstances), prominent academics, former intelligence officials and many others. They have succeeded to the point where 63% of Canadians and 50% of New Yorkers now believe the U.S. government was complicit in the 911 attacks.

Despite this change in public opinion, the American people need the help of the international community, especially the international press. As former Vice President Al Gore said in a recent speech “I believe that American democracy is in grave danger.” Gore claims the Bush administration “has made it a practice to try and control and intimidate news organizations: from PBS to CBS to Newsweek.” Hundreds of American journalists are being followed on a daily basis, their phones are being tapped and they are being threatened with jail. The only truly free medium left is the internet, according to Gore and its liberty is also under threat.

The assault on freedom of the press in America means that all the checks and balances that once kept American democracy vibrant are now virtually gone.

On March 10th, newly retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor told an audience at Georgetown University that Republican proposals, and their sometimes uncivil tone, pose a danger to the independence of the judiciary, and the freedoms of all Americans.

What about the Congress and the Senate? After the Senate overwhelmingly passed a a law banning torture President Bush signed it into law but added a special “signing statement” saying in essence that he would ignore the law if he wanted to. This was a hidden coup, a declaration that the President could ignore laws passed by Congress and the Senate.

What is going on here? Why do a former Vice-President and former Supreme Court judge agree that Americans are losing their freedom? These are not your typical conspiracy theorists. What could prompt them to say such radical things.

To understand why Americans need the world’s help we need to examine exactly what has happened to that country. Why do so many Americans believe there has been a secret coup d’etat.? What I am about to describe is part of the emerging internet consensus about recent U.S. history.

One place to start is with the publication in September 2000 of an action plan called “Project for a new American Century,” put together by a think tank including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Lewis “Scooter” Libby. The plan calls for putting U.S. armed forces throughout the Middle East and says that “a New Pearl Harbor” type event would be needed to get the American people to support such a venture.

As soon as the Bush administration was elected planning for the “New Pearl Harbor” began. Construction work was begun in the Pentagon to bomb proof the one section, and only that section, of that building that happened to be struck later by “terrorists.”

The Bin Laden and Bush families and many other former U.S. government officials and conservative plutocrats set up the Carlyle hedge fund and began buying large amounts of military stocks.

A scion of the Bin Laden family, Osama Bin Laden, a long time CIA operative, was called into action. Osama Bin Laden helped fight the Soviets after they invaded Afghanistan and also organized a 400 man brigade to invade Iraq during the first Gulf War. In July of 2001 Bin Laden spent two weeks at the American hospital in Dubai where he met extensively with the head of Saudi Arabian intelligence and Larry Mitchell the local CIA operative. Could it be they were finalizing plans for 911?

In the run up to September 11, 2001 multiple, specific warnings of a terrorist attack were systematically ignored. In August of 2001 John O’Neill one of the top counter-terrorism officials at the FBI resigned complaining that the White House and oil interests were blocking his investigation of Al Qaeda.

O’Neill was offered a job as head of security at the World Trade Center by Larry Silverstein, who had just bought the complex with a down payment of $14 million. O’Neill died in the attack on the Trade Center buildings. Silverstein had put special terrorism insurance on the complex and 7 weeks after buying the complex he was asking the insurance company Swiss Re for $7 billion. The building bomb-sniffing security dogs were called off a few days before the attacks and special “construction work” was begun.

Once the attacks began no U.S. aircraft were scrambled to stop the hijacked flights even though during the previous year flights were stopped by fighter jets 67 times for straying as little as 2 miles off their designated routes.

There is so much evidence the attacks themselves were staged by the U.S. government it is hard to know where to begin. Here is a summary of some of the main evidence:

The attack on the Pentagon: Photographs of the attack clearly show a 16 foot hole, raising the question “How does a 44 ‘ tall 125’ wide airplane fit into such a small hole?” The other question raised is “If the Pentagon is the most secure building in the world, why is there no video footage of the attack?” The one film of the explosion released to the public had the wrong date on it and was missing several key frames. Then there were the films taken from security cameras at a gas station and nearby hotels that were never returned, never made public.

Then of course we need to know why no airplanes were scrambled to stop the attack on the Pentagon almost 90 minutes after the first attack on the first WTC building. Then we need to know why the Pentagon’s anti-aircraft missile batteries did not fire.

The Pentagon has changed its stories a couple of times about why aircraft did not scramble to stop the hijacked airplanes.

Then we have these wonderful slips of the tongue made by Donald Rumsfeld. In one he talks about terrorists who, among other things “shot down the plane over Pennsylvania.” (Dec 24, 2004 NPR All things considered). In another slip when talking about the Pentagon he refers to “the missile to damage this building” (Parade Magazine Oct 12, 2001).

Prominent in the evidence is the impossible physics of the World Trade Center collapse: Never before in history has a fire caused a steel frame building to collapse and yet, on September 11, 2001 we are told that three such buildings collapsed due to fire, including one that was not even hit by an airplane. They collapsed at a speed that can only be explained by a controlled demolition. Why were the transcripts of firemen in the buildings reporting multiple explosions suppressed for 4 years?
Why did Larry Silverstein say this of WTC building number 7 on a PBS documentary: “”’We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.’" And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse.” Pulling is a word used by people in the demolition trade. Demolition jobs take weeks to prepare.

There is so much more evidence on the internet and in DVDs like In Plane Site, Loose Change, 911 remembered etc., that there is no sense my repeating it all here. Just type in “911 conspiracy” on Google and see for yourselves. Feeble attempts in the mainstream media to discredit these blogs, such as a widely debunked and derided cover story in Popular Mechanics, have failed miserably to change the debate. Public opinion is turning very quickly towards an understanding that the U.S. government was responsible.

Many people might wonder if the United States could really do something like that. Well, they have in the past. The Spanish American War was started when the U.S. blew up its own ship, the Maine to create a pretext to grab Cuba and the Philippines from Spain. We all now know the U.S. knew about the Pearl Harbor attacks but did nothing to stop them because it wanted to get the American public in the mood to join WW2. We have also recently found out the Tonkin Gulf incident was manufactured by the U.S. as an excuse to start the Vietnam war. Then was Operation Northwoods, a plan presented to President John F. Kennedy in the 1960’s to stage hijackings with fake passenger lists as well as other “terrorist” attacks on America and then blame them on Cuba in order to create an excuse to invade that country. An ABC news story on this topic was on the net for years but recently, after gaining attention from 911 conspiracy investigators, the story was withdrawn and a message now appears on their website saying “no such story exists.” Fortunately the story has been copied and reproduced on countless websites, showing that the old ways of controlling information are just not working.

In any case, the actions of the U.S. since the 911 incidents show a clear agenda to invade Iraq, Afghanistan and next possibly Iran and Syria. A huge military build-up together with an oil grab in the Middle East made huge profits for Bush, the Bin Ladens, Cheney, and all their cronies. The U.S. now has military bases in central Asia that can guard a pipeline now being built through Afghanistan. Any efforts to stop these people are ruthlessly repressed.

When Afghanistan was invaded, U.S. special forces cornered Osama Bin Laden in Tora Bora and asked for permission to finish him off. Instead orders came from on high to leave him alone. A while later two helicopters came and whisked Bin Laden and his entourage to safety. Afterwards 5 special forces troops and their wives were found dead in “murder-suicides.”

In 2002 Hunter s. Thomson, the journalist famous for writing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas called the Toronto Globe and Mail and said he was worried he was going to be “suicided” because he was writing a story that 911 was a U.S. government plot. He was shot dead shortly after making this call.

There are many more mysterious deaths related to 911 but what is more important is to discuss what has happened to America since the attacks. Draconian laws have been put into place allowing removing basic rights Americans have long regarded as sacrosanct. The essential problem with the Patriot act is that there is no clear definition of “terrorist” meaning the government can theoretically label any opponent a “terrorist” and have him or her arrested. Opponents of the hastily passed Patriot Act had U.S. government grade anthrax mailed to them in the aftermath of the 911 attacks.

By creating an endless “war” on terrorists, the special war time powers of the presidency have been extended indefinitely. Combined with the new powers given by the Patriot act the Executive branch of the U.S. government has been arresting journalists, wiretapping domestic opponents and otherwise trampling on basic rights. There is also plenty of evidence the Presidential elections of 2004 were tampered with. Please see the accompanying print outs for details.

What is happened seems to be exactly what former President Dwight Eisenhower warned the American people about in his final speech to the nation as President. He said that the cold war required Americans to bear a heavy military burden for a long time but he said: “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

Recently Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the “war on terrorism” was like the cold war, it would go on indefinitely so Americans had to be prepared to pay for a large military indefinitely. It seems that Eisenhower’s nightmare has come true.

With the executive branch controlling the CIA, the Justice Department, the FBI, the NSA, Homeland Security and the Pentagon and now choosing to ignore the Congress, Senate and courts, we have something that looks very similar to a dictatorship.

Despite this grab on power by the military industrial complex, all is not lost. The power of the neo-conservatives relies on the American people being kept ignorant of the truth. A growing group of activists is harnessing the internet to make the American people aware. There is a group called the Muslim Jewish Christian Alliance fighting to have a proper investigation in the events of 911. There are also many other organizations all united by the wish to bring these criminals to justice.
However, the American people need help from the world community. International media outlets not controlled by the American plutocracy need to investigate the facts of 911 and report them to the global community. International pressure would help Americans force their own government to admit the truth.

The people of Japan and other Asian countries have a special moral responsibility to act. The U.S. government spends $1 million a minute feeding its vast military apparatus. It is only able to do this thanks to Asian money.

At the recent Davos forum a proposal was made to spend $7 trillion to end world poverty and stop environmental destruction. The gathered elite said it sounded nice and perhaps some day it could be implemented but “who has got that much money?” The answer of course is Asia. If Asian countries stopped using their balance of payments surpluses to finance the U.S. military machine they could end world poverty and save the environment. At a time when there are more extinctions since the end of the age of the dinosaurs, at a time when the global climate is headed for a radical disruption and in a world where 25,000 children starve to death every single day the Asian countries have an obligation to act. This could be done without causing global balance of payments turmoil by paying the Americans to save the world. This would be a much wiser use of that country’s incredible power than chasing manufactured enemies in a climate of paranoia. In other words, if Asians have the courage to seize the leadership of the planet in the 21st century they can save the world.