Torture as Terrorism. Torture as Spin. Shock and Awe. For EVERYBODY.

10 Comments

1. 

   Arthur Gilroy on December 13, 2005 at 12:41 am

   and stuff?

   AG

2. 

   LookingUp on December 13, 2005 at 5:22 am

   basically coming up with no answers. Sometimes I do have insights into social movements, but been drawing a blank.

   Your reasoning I believe is sound. Thanks for sharing.

3. 

   rumi on December 13, 2005 at 7:19 am

     They already have the information.

   Military intelligence officers and contractors who ran the clandestine mission, a computer data-mining operation within the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, claim that more than a year before the attacks, Able Danger identified four of the plot’s 19 hijackers and produced a chart that fingered ringleader Mohammed Atta, displayed a photo of him and contained the names of up to 60 al-Qaida operatives worldwide. Those claims contradict the findings of the 9/11 commission set up by Congress, which in its final report last year spread blame for the attacks across the government but concluded that none of the 19 hijackers, some of whom lived in the United States for months before Sept. 11, were identified until after the tragedy.

   ————–

   Part of the problem in untangling the Able Danger web is that the computer-based program was designed to search “open source” documents — everything in the public domain — for patterns and links among al-Qaida terrorists, but the program as a whole was classified. So, while at least some of its original material was public, it became secret after entering an Able Danger database.

   ————–

   After initial refusals to comment, Pentagon officials have acknowledged that Able Danger existed. Army Maj. Eric Kleinsmith told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 21 that he had complied with orders to destroy 2.4 terabytes of computer data produced by Able Danger — 2,400 gigabytes, or about one-quarter the size of all the books in the Library of Congress.

   ————–

   Hijackers identified long before attack, operatives of Able Danger claim

     Too much evidence points to the theory that that the terrorists were pulled from datamining as well as actual connections with politics/intelligence/foreign-policy/business groups by choice in a setup of sorts rather than the official story.

     The same people who own the profits of war and torture also own the datamining and with that, all of our daily activities and life information.

     The torture can’t be to get information.

   • 

     Arthur Gilroy on December 13, 2005 at 8:32 am

     Yes,

     That too.

     A third leg of evidence that the whole “torture” thing is a red herring.

     ANOTHER attempt by the magician to distract our attention while he pulls a rabbit out of his hat.

     A dead rabbit.

     The REAL WMDs?

     Weapons of Mass Distraction.

     WHATEVER it is about which the media raise a hue and cry…and increasingly, that includes the larger elements of the internet media as well…if you think through the subject you will find something entirely different on the other side of the looking glass.

     It is ALL a distraction.

     I cannot press this point home often enough. From the Ron Suskind article in the NY Times published on October 17, 2004.Without a Doubt. (Referring to conversation in 2002, by the way. This is nothing new, here.)

     In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn’t like about Bush’s former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House’s displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn’t fully comprehend — but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

     The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

     And here we are once again, babbling liberally on about torture torture torture torture. Torture this, torture that. While we uncomprehendingly watch as Semi-President Butcher’s numbers once again begin their inexorable rise in the polls. Saying “How can these people be such FOOLS??? Don’t they SEE!!!???”

     WE don’t see. Too busy looking at the bloody hand.

     They have once again created a new reality. While we…judiciously, as we will…sit here and outragedly argue about old news.

     Sad.

     DO NOT EVEN LOOK AT THE MAGICIAN.

     If you MUST, at least just snatch quick glances out of the corner of your eye.

     Like gazing full on at Medusa, taking anything that he says or does seriously…even the “crimes” in which he allows himself to be caught…will turn you right into stone. Like Lot’s wife looking back at Sodom and Gomorrah instead of running for all she was worth, you will be turned into a pillar of salt.

     His sleight of mind is KILLING us.

     And once again…this seems to be a lost cause with much of the population, left right or center, but it is the only possible solution to our current problems that I can find so I soldier on…I suggest to you all.

     NEWSTRIKE!!!

     MEDIASTRIKE!!!

     The MOST radical action that is available to us.

     Tired of being fooled by the magician?

     Don’t attend his performance!!!

     Don’t read competing reviews of his performance.

     Pay him no mind. Because “mind” is the currency in which he deals. Starve the bastard out.

     Mae West said “Call me anything but call me often.”

     The old saw goes “Say anything you want about me, but spell my name right.”

     Well…the Holy Prophet Screamin’ Jay Hawkins had it right when we sang “I put a SPELL on you!!!”

     I don’t care if you don’t want me

     I’m yours right now

     I put a spell on you

     Because you’re mine

     Oh, yeah

     They don’t CARE if we don’t want them.

     As long as we pay attention and spell their names right, the spell is ON.

     Wanna wake the fuck up?

     LEAVE THE GODDAMNED THEATER!!!

     Old vaudeville sketch.

     Doctor’s office.

     Patient: “Doc, it hoits when I do dis.” (Lifting his arm above his head.)

     Doctor: “Don’t DO DAT!!!”

     Duh.

     Don’t DO DAT!!!

     NEWSTRIKE!!!

     MEDIASTRIKE!!!

     Station WTFU, signing off.

     And…wake the fuck UP!!!

     AG

4. 

   rumi on December 13, 2005 at 8:54 am

     I admire the effort but I’m not sure it will work. We would just be shooting the meesenger, although that’s not without merit in some cases. We need to go deeper-down to the sources of the ‘perception management’- and neutralize it by appealing to the one principle that might work…greed.

   KABUL, Afghanistan — When The Rendon Group was hired to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai with media relations in early 2004, few thought it was a bad idea. Though Rendon’s $1.4million bill seemed high for Afghanistan, the U.S. government was paying.

   Within seven months, however, Karzai was ready to get rid of Rendon. So was Zalmay Khalilzad, then the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and now the American envoy in Iraq, according to interviews, e-mails and memos obtained by the Tribune. The complaint: too much money for not enough work.

   Despite such grumbling, The Rendon Group, based in Washington, managed to secure even more U.S.-funded work with Karzai’s government, this time a $3.9 million contract funded by the Pentagon, to create a media team for Afghan anti-drug programs. Jeff Raleigh, who helped oversee Rendon in Kabul for the U.S. Embassy, and others in the U.S. government said they objected because of Karzai’s and Khalilzad’s opposition but were overruled by Defense Department superiors in Washington.

   U.S. paid for media firm Afghans didn’t want
   Millions spent despite complaints deals were `rip-off’ to taxpayers

     There are plenty more of these groups at least partially responsible for the situation we face. The MSM just seems to read what’s handed to them.

   • 

     Arthur Gilroy on December 13, 2005 at 8:59 am

     Just expanded this as a diary. Media USA? More like MEDUSA!!!

     And as far as shooting the messenger is concerned…

     1-I don’t want to shoot him. I just want people not to read his message.

     and

     2-If the messenger works for the enemy…shoot the SHIT out of him.

     AG

     • 

       rumi on December 13, 2005 at 9:08 am

         Abramoff stopped funding sniper workshops but there are surely sharpshooters somewhere.

         Did you notice how confused the Bush became when Karl and Co were consumed with legal problems during Katrina?

         I think they would self destruct without the support of professional propaganda programs.

       • 

         Arthur Gilroy on December 13, 2005 at 7:45 pm

         I am sure they would.

         I am simply not quite sure who “they” are.

         AG

         • 

           rumi on December 13, 2005 at 9:31 pm

             Would you rather I list them all here or is it more interesting to just randomly toss a spotlight on each one as time permits.

             I’ve been more than reasonable for quite some time. I’m tired of being reasonable

           Hey, did you see this? I don’t think the issue here is the fence but the power shown by Chertoff,….that’s one.

           Border fence completion allowed

           SAN DIEGO, CA, United States (UPI) — A federal judge in San Diego has thrown out a legal challenge to the completion of a 14-mile secondary border fence along the Mexican border.

           Environmental groups opposed the waiver of laws blocking the completion of a small portion of the fence, which was begun in 1996.

           But Judge Larry A. Burns ruled the waiver was not unconstitutional, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.

           The waiver was granted in September by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff who used his authority on national security reasons.

           The controversy arose because a five-mile stretch of the fence lies near the Tijuana River wetlands, raising concerns over environmental damage. The plaintiffs, who fear the decision could become a precedent for overcoming other restrictions, plan to appeal.

5. 

   Revel8n on December 14, 2005 at 6:18 pm

   Along the lines of “so you think you’re terrorists, eh. We’ll show you what real terror is!”  And this is how we ourselves become the real terrorists.