Friday November 13, 2009
Alleged 9/11 plotters to be tried in New York

Five men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks, including the self-proclaimed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be tried in a civilian court in New York, The Washington Post reported Friday.

President Barack Obama had pledged to inform a Guantanamo military judge by Monday whether to try the men before US federal courts or military tribunals -- a decision central to his plans to close the controversial facility.

Asked about it in Tokyo, Obama said the Justice Department would make an announcement later in the day, calling it a "prosecutorial decision as well as a national security decision."

"I am absolutely convinced Khalid Sheik Mohammed will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice," Obama said.*

The decision would not affect the vast majority of the 215 detainees who remain at Guantanamo Bay, the controversial off-shore prison which Obama had pledged to close by January 22, the Post said, citing a federal official and other sources.

Senior officials have already acknowledged the Obama administration is unlikely to meet the deadline that the president set just two days after taking office.

Three prisoners have been convicted before military commissions, but the tribunals have been widely condemned for limiting defendants' rights and attracted criticism from the US Supreme Court in a 2006 ruling that forced an overhaul of the process.

Despite the criticism, the Obama administration has indicated it will maintain the system established during former president George W. Bush's tenure.

To mollify critics, the White House and lawmakers worked together on a bill passed in late October that boosted defendants' rights.

The legislation barred the use of evidence obtained through coercion,* strengthened the rules on hearsay evidence and improved defendants' access to witnesses and evidence, even when classified.

In a May speech, Obama said further defendant rights would "ensure that these commissions are fair, legitimate and effective," but added that his administration would seek to try detainees before federal courts "when feasible."

Despite initial opposition from lawmakers reluctant to see detainees transferred to US soil, Congress ultimately approved legislation allowing Guantanamo prisoners to appear as defendants before federal courts.

In some cases, bringing detainees before civilian courts may make it easier for the administration to secure convictions, and defense lawyers have long called for their clients to be granted US trials.

"In the 9/11 case, they are not going to conduct the trial process behind closed doors, the whole world is going to be watching," said Suzanne Lachelier, military defense attorney for Mohammed's co-defendant Ramzi Binalshibh.

But using civilian courtrooms could also pose serious problems for the administration, including the likelihood that the September 11 suspects would reveal explosive details about their treatment at the hands of Central Intelligence Agency interrogators.*
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Alleged_9_11_plotters_to_be_tried_i_11132009.html

* Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in one month
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/04/18/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-was-waterboarded-183-times-in-one-month/

Obama Blaming 9/11 on Al-Qaida Again


Reverend Obama Observes 9/11 at Pentagon
 


911 Pentagon Footage Fraud


Plane hitting Pentagon... NOT!


Why were 'first responders' de-contaminated at the Pentagon?
http://www.blackopforum.info/index.php/topic,236.0.html

Candidate Obama promises to end the war. "You can take that to the bank."


Dec 6, 2009
US to launch new bid to hunt down Bin Laden
The United States will launch a new effort to track down Osama bin Laden who is believed to be hiding in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistan border, a senior US official said.

Intelligence reports suggest the Al-Qaeda chief "is somewhere inside north Waziristan, sometimes on the Pakistani side of the border, sometimes on the Afghan side of the border," said national security adviser James Jones.

In making the case last week for surging 30,000 additional troops into Afghanistan, Obama and his deputies have argued the Taliban are colluding with Bin Laden's network and therefore containing the Afghan insurgents is vital to defeating Al-Qaeda.

Washington has stepped up a bombing campaign against Al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan using unmanned aircraft, an operation that US officials decline to discuss publicly.

The New York Times reported last week that the White House had granted authority to the Central Intelligence Agency to expand the air strikes in Pakistan to coincide with Obama's Afghan war strategy.  
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.4cb13f8d6d5deb3eb869dc3c7609c4fa.f1&show_article=1




Osama bin Laden:
A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.html

Damn near dead, Dec. '01


DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive?
A list of arguments why bin Laden has been dead for a while.
http://www.tucradio.org/Griffin_Osama.mp3  13:33 minutes

No-sama bin Laden
If bin Laden is dead and al-Qaeda is shadow of what it once was then the whole justification for maintaining 100,000 soldiers and a nearly equal number of contractors in Afghanistan at ruinous expense becomes a fiction. President Obama based his call for an escalation on the terrorist threat in the region, but it can be plausibly argued based on available evidence that al-Qaeda has essentially faded away. If that is so, and Obama almost certainly knows that to be a distinct possibility, the American soldiers are essentially being sent to prop up two extremely corrupt American allies, President Asif Zardari in Pakistan and President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan.

Nobody is coming home. America is in for a prolonged, bloody, and expensive experience in AfPak in spite of Obama Administration insistence that there is some kind of end game. America under President Barack Obama will be nation-building big time and for years to come, until the supply of money and soldiers run out. http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2009/12/09/no-sama-bin-laden/

Patriots from an outlaw organization that imports deadly drugs and has overthrown democratically elected governments around the world.
http://www.infowars.com/obama-hails-cia-patriots-at-memorial-service/

February 5, 2010
Obama hails CIA 'patriots' at memorial service

President Barack Obama paid tribute to seven CIA officers killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan, hailing them as "patriots" at a rare memorial service at the spy agency's headquarters.

In a break with tradition for the secretive Central Intelligence Agency, the president delivered the eulogy to an audience of about 1,000 CIA employees, relatives of the slain agents, lawmakers and officials.

"For more than 60 years, the security of our nation has demanded that the work of this agency remain largely unknown," said Obama. "But today, our gratitude as citizens demands that we speak of seven American patriots who loved their country and gave their lives to defend it."

The seven agents were killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan on December 30, when a Jordanian double agent who had been brought to the US base in Khost after promising to share intelligence on Al-Qaeda blew himself up.

Obama said the officers came from different backgrounds but were bound by a "common spirit."

"They served in the shadows and took pride in it," he said.

"They were doing their job and they loved it. They saw the danger and accepted it. They knew that the price of freedom is high and, in an awful instant, they paid that price."

Obama said the seven officers were at the forefront of a "war" to safeguard the United States. "Let their sacrifice be a summons. To carry on their work. To complete this mission. To win this war, and to keep our country safe," he said.

The event at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, outside Washington, was closed to reporters and the White House issued the text of the president's speech afterward.

Although the CIA has not released the names and background of the dead officers, Obama referred to one of the victims by name, Scott Roberson, expressing his condolences to his widow who gave birth to a baby girl after her husband's death.

Washington has stepped up drone strikes against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in the aftermath of the suicide attack amid speculation the Pakistan Taliban leader linked to the attack, Hakimullah Mehsud, was likely killed in one of the bombing raids.

Friday's event was unusual as presidents and government leaders frequently honor the sacrifices of troops in uniform but rarely acknowledge the sacrifices of American spies or their families.

The identities and biographical details of the CIA agents killed in the December attack have gradually leaked out over the Internet and in the US media since the incident.

Two of the officers, Jeremy Wise, 35, a former Navy Seal from Virginia, and Dane Clark Paresi, 46, of Washington state, were reportedly working for Xe Services, the security company known previously as Blackwater.

Six others were injured in the attack, including the CIA's second-in-command in Afghanistan, reports said.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Obama_hails_CIA_patriots_at_memoria_02052010.html

Sep 24, 2010
Obama slams Ahmadinejad for "hateful" 9/11 remarks

President Barack Obama on Friday condemned as hateful and inexcusable suggestions by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the U.S. government may have been behind the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Ahmadinejad responded to the U.S. criticism of his remarks by saying that Washington and its allies "need to listen."

In an interview with the BBC Persian news service, Obama lashed out at Ahmadinejad for the latest of what the White House called a long list of outrageous comments that would deepen Tehran's isolation from the international community.

"It was offensive. It was hateful," Obama said according to interview excerpts released by the White House.

"And particularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones," he said. "For him to make a statement like that was inexcusable."

Ahmadinejad told the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that U.S. statesmen were isolated in saying that al Qaeda militants carried out the suicide attacks that brought down New York's World Trade Center and hit the Pentagon outside Washington and called for a U.N. investigation.

He said most Americans and others around the world believed the U.S. government orchestrated the attacks to rescue the economy and save Israel, comments that prompted the U.S. delegation, all 27 European Union member states and several other delegations to leave the assembly hall in protest.

"HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS" KILLED

Ahmadinejad returned to the issue during a news conference on Friday, saying he met with four groups of U.S. citizens in New York who disagreed with the U.S. government's explanation for 9/11. He said he was not surprised by the angry response his remarks had elicited from U.S. officials.

"The U.S. government, if it's upset, it should be," he said, adding that an unidentified poll showed that 80 percent of Americans found the events of September 11 to be suspicious.

"Their (U.S. and EU) tolerance seems to be low," Ahmadinejad said. "Their nerves get disrupted too fast. They need to listen."

He said 9/11 had caused two wars -- in Afghanistan and Iraq -- leading to the deaths of "hundreds of thousands."

"Now they recently starting bombing Pakistan," Ahmadinejad said. "What's going on? How many terrorists are there? Is nine years or 10 years not enough time to get rid of them?"

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Ahmadinejad's 9/11 remarks were "bizarre, offensive and attention-grabbing pronouncements." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also said he strongly condemned the comments.

One reporter asked Ahmadinejad to clarify whether or not he has said that Israel should be wiped off the map, as has been widely reported.

He responded that the Palestinians should be allowed to decide for themselves what kind of state they want to live in without outside interference.

"Sixty years ago there was no occupying regime (Israel)," he said. "It was imposed on the people. Let the people decide."

The Iranian president also criticized U.S. media, suggesting that American reporters all seemed to be under the influence of the U.S. State Department. He said one interviewer had raised his voice and insulted him.

"In the interviews I had with all the American media, all the questions were the same," he said. "The only difference was the order they were asked ... The American media is the least trusted in the world."

OCTOBER NUCLEAR TALKS POSSIBLE

For more than seven years, the United States and its Western allies have been locked in a standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, which Washington believes aims to produce weapons but which Tehran says is for solely peaceful purposes.

In Obama's speech at the United Nations on Thursday, he reiterated the U.S. position that the door to diplomacy with Iran remained open but that Tehran must fulfill international obligations over its nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad told a news conference on Friday he was ready for talks with the international community and that an Iranian official might meet next month with a representative of one of six world powers offering Iran political and economic incentives in exchange for halting uranium enrichment.

However, he thanked the people of New York, calling them kind and "very good people," and the New York police department. He also apologized for any traffic jams he caused.  
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68N3WB20100924?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:reuters/topNews(News/US/TopNews)



OBAMA vs. JFK

JFK was adamantly determined to stop Israel from building the nuclear bomb.
http://www.john-f-kennedy.net/mossadandtheassassination.htm

Obama Administration: Israel Has ‘Right’ to Nukes
Call for a Nuclear Free Middle East 'a Mistake'
July 07, 2010

A statement released yesterday by the Obama Administration has made public America’s long-standing support for the Israeli government’s large, undeclared nuclear arsenal, and insists that Israel has an inherent “right” to possess such an arsenal for “deterrence purposes.”

Officials have also reportedly acknowledged that the Obama Administration has labeled its previous support for a “nuclear-free Middle East,” including a vote in favor of this at a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference, had been “a mistake.”

The Obama Administration complained at the time of the vote that it unfairly “singled out” Israel, apparently oblivious to the fact that Israel is the only nation in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, as well as the only nation which is not a signatory of the NPT.

Israel has ruled out ever signing the NPT, though it has called for the treaty to be strengthened to punish signatories like Syria and Iran for what it perceives as “violations.” Israel has likewise never publicly acknowledged the size of its nuclear arsenal, though the fact that it exists is not generally considered a secret.  http://news.antiwar.com/2010/07/07/obama-administration-israel-has-right-to-nukes/