June 2010

By Robert Parry (A Special Report)
June 24, 2010
ConsortiumNews.com

As the Official Story of the 1980 October Surprise case crumbles — with new revelations that key evidence was hidden from investigators of a congressional task force and that internal doubts were suppressed — history must finally confront the troubling impression that remains: that disgruntled elements of the CIA and Israel’s Likud hardliners teamed up to remove a U.S. president from office.
Indeed, it is this disturbing conclusion — perhaps even more than the idea of a Republican dirty trick — that may explain the longstanding and determined cover-up of this political scandal.

Too many powerful interests do not want the American people to accept even the possibility that U.S. intelligence operatives and a longtime ally could intervene to oust a president who had impinged on what those two groups considered their vital interests.
To accept that scenario would mean that two of the great fears of American democracy had come true — George Washington’s warning against the dangers of “entangling alliances” and Harry Truman’s concern that the clandestine operations of the CIA had the makings of an “American Gestapo.”
It is far easier to assure the American people that no such thing could occur, that Israel’s Likud — whatever its differences with Washington over Middle East peace policies — would never seek to subvert a U.S. president, and that CIA dissidents — no matter how frustrated by political constraints — would never sabotage their own government.

But the evidence points in that direction, and there are some points that are not in dispute. For instance, there is no doubt that CIA Old Boys and Likudniks had strong motives for seeking President Jimmy Carter’s defeat in 1980.
Inside the CIA, Carter and his CIA Director Stansfield Turner were blamed for firing many of the free-wheeling covert operatives from the Vietnam era, for ousting legendary spymaster Ted Shackley, and for failing to protect longtime U.S. allies (and friends of the CIA), such as Iran’s Shah and Nicaragua’s dictator Anastasio Somoza.
As for Israel, Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begin was furious over Carter’s high-handed actions at Camp David in 1978 forcing Israel to trade the occupied Sinai to Egypt for a peace deal. Begin feared that Carter would use his second term to bully Israel into accepting a Palestinian state on West Bank lands that Likud considered part of Israel’s divinely granted territory.

David Ray Griffin
Submitted June 18, 2010
911truth.org
William A. (“Bill”) Christison, a former senior analyst for the
Central Intelligence Agency who became a supporter of the 9/11 Truth Movement,
died June 13, 2010, due to a rapidly advancing neurological disease, which he
had contracted three months earlier. He leaves behind his wife, Kathleen McGrath
Christison (who had also been a CIA analyst), two daughters (Lynda Carlson and
Judith Wooten), and a son (Eric). He had been preceded in death by two other
sons (Robert and Thomas). The memorial service was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
on Friday, June 18.
Born in Boston in 1928, Christison graduated from Princeton in 1950 and immediately
joined the CIA to begin what would become a distinguished 28-year career. Starting
out as an analyst on Soviet affairs, he worked in the 1960s on the problem of
global nuclear proliferation, with special emphases on France, Israel, India,
and Pakistan. In the 1970s, he became the National Intelligence Officer for
South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa. (He and Kathleen met while they were
both working in Saigon.) He finished his career as Director of the CIA’s
Office of Regional and Political Analysis, supervising over 200 analysts covering,
between themselves, every region of the world.
In 1979, he and his wife retired from the CIA and moved to Sante Fe, where
he started becoming more critical of US foreign policy, especially when he saw
that the fall of the Soviet Union, which by ending the Cold War was supposed
to bring a “peace dividend,” did no such thing, but instead prompted
the United States to advance its imperial interests.
Becoming especially critical of US policy with regard to Israel and the Middle
East, he (along with his wife) began writing articles for Counterpunch.
Some of Christison’s most important work, Counterpunch editor Alexander
Cockburn told the Santa Fe New Mexican (Steve Terrell, “Former
CIA Agent Bill Christison Advocated for Palestinians,” The Santa
Fe New Mexican, June 15, 2010), came in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. In a March 2002 Counterpunch article, Christison wrote:

“My number one root cause (of terrorism) is the support by the U.S.
over recent years for the policies of Israel with respect to the Palestinians,
and the belief among Arabs and Muslims that the United States is as much to
blame as Israel itself for the continuing, almost 35-year-long Israeli occupation
of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

By Marc Hansen
June 17, 2010
Des Moines Register

On Tuesday night, Sean Michalek drove from Victor to Adel for the monthly 911 Truth of Central Iowa meeting.

The trek west took 105 minutes, but so what? Michalek, 64, would have driven nine hours to commune and commiserate with other Iowans who believe the official story of Sept. 11, 2001, is a big fat lie.

“It’s the only game in Iowa,” he said.

The only game, he meant, for people who think 9/11 is the least examined tragedy in American history.

Your support is needed at wacla.org
June 15, 2010

WeAreChangeLA’s lead organizer Bruno Bruhwiler is being targeted as a terrorist threat. It all began when Bruno was sitting in the audience at a civil hearing for another WACLA member. The Judge literally did not like Bruno’s involuntary facial expressions, and ordered him out of the courtroom.

He was detained in the hall after asking to see the officers’ ID cards before he left the building. They are required according to their own manual to provide ID upon request, but apparently don’t like to be asked for it. When the supervising officer ordered Bruno to turn around and put his hands behind his back, Bruno instantly turned around and put his hands behind his back with absolutely no resistance.

At first he was supposedly being detained for trespassing (which is a misdemeanor) but of course, you can’t trespass on public property so then they dropped trespassing and told him he was being detained for a public disturbance. About an hour later, when the supervisor actually placed Bruno under arrest, the original charge was changed to misdemeanor contempt of court. None of the witnesses present heard the judge mention anything about contempt when asking him to leave.

Two felony resisting arrest charges were then tacked on, which means Bruno is charged with physically resisting the officers – twice? – though witnesses observed that Bruno did not ever resist the officers. The arresting supervising officer claimed that Bruno threatened to assassinate him, then the same officer ordered an underling to back up his claim as a false witness and charged Bruno with making a “terrorist” threat. After 9/11, legislation was passed making it very easy to charge ordinary citizens as “terrorists” for almost any reason.

by Philip Shenon
June 10, 2010
The Daily Beast – Blogs & Stories

Anxious that Wikileaks may be on the verge of publishing a batch of secret
State Department cables, investigators are desperately searching for founder
Julian Assange. Philip Shenon reports. Plus, Daniel
Ellsberg tells The Daily Beast: "Assange is in Some Danger."

(This story has been updated to reflect new developments on Assange’s whereabouts,
including the cancelation of a scheduled appearance in Las Vegas.)
Pentagon investigators are trying to determine the whereabouts of the Australian-born
founder of the secretive website Wikileaks for fear that he may be about to
publish a huge cache of classified State Department cables that, if made public,
could do serious damage to national security, government officials tell The
Daily Beast.
The officials acknowledge that even if they found the website founder, Julian
Assange, it is not clear what they could do to block publication of the cables
on Wikileaks, which is nominally based on a server in Sweden and bills itself
as a champion of whistleblowers.