Dance of Joy

Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged.

Rumi

In truth everything and everyone
Is a shadow of the Beloved,
And our seeking is His seeking
And our words are His words...
We search for Him here and there,
while looking right at Him.
Sitting by His side, we ask:
'O Beloved, where is the Beloved?'

 I am neither Christian, nor Jewish, nor Muslim. Doing away with duality, I saw the two worlds as one. I seek One, I know One, I see One, and I call One.

Read More

The Day After

The day after the release of the newest John Jay report, there is a veritable storm of controversy and debate ongoing on various blogs and websites. Check out Googling God and the comments section of National Catholic Reporter, among others. It is all quite sad and depressing. Should we even be giving this report so much attention and credibility? I don't know. Lots of controversy swirling and accusations of sensational reporting in the mainstream press. I await the discerning judgement of wiser heads than I.

Thanks to Reluctant Rebel for his comments here and at his blog, and for Thera and Colleen's input.

Not wanting to contribute to the mayhem, I deleted an earlier comment - which Thera P refers to in the comments - in which I suggested that all sexual contact between Ministers and young people  of any gender under the age of 17 should be referred to as pedophilia, regardless of the technical, clinical, psychiatric use of the term, simply because the word resonates in the general public with that sense of horror which is appropriate to the offense. Quibbling about pedophilia/ebophilia is a distraction. Who is horrified by ebophilia. Say What? Though there is also another term for the same thing - hebephilia, which sounds like a skin disorder. But as Moderate Fundamentalist points out in the comments, we also have to take into account the public's horrified fascination with 'gay pedophilia' because of it's own repressed homophobia and unrecognized subterranean desires, which leads the media to focus intently on such cases. Perhaps this is one reason among many for the under reportage of cases involving young girls. Sadly, while anti-Catholic bigotry may contribute to the complications of the issue, the greatest contribution to such bigotry, in my opinion, is the behavior of the bishops themselves. These are not good days to be proud of being 'Catholic'.

In the meantime, I continue to chart my own eccentric, heremitical path, witnessing to the fact that the catholic mystical charism survives quite nicely outside the formal structure of the Roman Church. The Spirit lives and breathes we know not where and none of us can control Her. Let us follow where She leads - and for many of us that guiding hand leads us "outside the door". I can testify to the inner peace and joy that comes from following that loving, all seeing hand, which is revolutionizing the community we call church in many unexpected and radical ways, few of them within the formal institutional structure. Nonetheless, without that structure and the tradition it was meant to enshrine and protect, I would never have been given access in the Spirit to this precious charism that constitutes being a catholic Christian. For that I will always be grateful. Peace, joy and freedom in the Spirit.

Read More

New John Jay Study debunks myth of link between gay priests and sex abuse. Sex abuse declines as number of gay priests increases.

Thanks to Religious News Service and Dating God for this near instant report on the long awaited and just released John Jay College of Criminal Justice report on the clergy sex abuse crisis.

(Update: here is a link to 3 SNAP victims' highly critical responses to the John Jay Report: Snap Network)


As if once wasn't enough, yet again this second John Jay report forcibly debunks the myth of a gay connection to the sexual abuse crisis - but it does so with a whammy of a final punch line.

the researchers found no statistical evidence that gay priests were more likely than straight priests to abuse minors—a finding that undermines a favorite talking point of many conservative Catholics. The disproportionate number of adolescent male victims was about opportunity, not preference or pathology, the report states.

What’s more, researchers note that the rise in the number of gay priests from the late 1970s onward actually corresponded with “a decreased incidence of abuse—not an increased incidence of abuse.”

 Read the full report at the above link for Religious News Service and for commentary at the link for Dating God and the New York Times.

From the NYT article: The report notes that homosexual men began entering the seminaries “in noticeable numbers” from the late 1970s through the 1980s. By the time this cohort entered the priesthood, in the mid-1980s, the reports of sexual abuse of minors by priests began to drop and then to level off. If anything, the report says, the abuse decreased as more gay priests began serving the church. 

Many more boys than girls were victimized, the report says, not because the perpetrators were gay, but simply because the priests had more access to boys than to girls, in parishes, schools and extracurricular activities. 

In one of the most counterintuitive findings, the report says that fewer than 5 percent of the abusive priests exhibited behavior consistent with pedophilia, which it defines as a “psychiatric disorder that is characterized by recurrent fantasies, urges and behaviors about prepubescent children.

(Snap member, David Clossey reponds:

-The crisis isn’t all that bad, the report suggests, because many of the kids who are or were violated had experienced puberty. Never mind the fact that child sex crimes, no matter at what age, are always illegal, immoral and hurtful. So the hair-splitting between pedophiles and ephebophiles (a distinction that seems to matter to few besides bishops) is, for the most part, at best irrelevant and at worst distracting.

“Thus, it is inaccurate to refer to abusers as ‘pedophile priests,’ ” the report says.

There are days when the light shines through the clouds, however briefly. This is one of those days (and it's gorgeous on the Vltava River here in Prague.) Perhaps I should have said, 'however dimly.' Whatever the flaws of the study, leaving Bishops free to conclude "we don't have to change a thing," it is the final nail in the coffin for the assertion that gay men are the locus of the problem.

Read More

Radical Forgiveness: Jesus and Osama

thanks to Truth Dig for this remarkable drawing.....designed to challenge fundamentalists everywhere.

Read More

The Audacity of Hope

"This is the Freedom Ride of this era"

Fifty years ago, on May 4, 1961, the first bus of the Freedom Rides left Washington D.C. headed to New Orleans, with people committed to challenging segregation. The Freedom Rides were one of the sparks that contributed to a movement to dismantle a degrading system that violated human rights.

In an interview with organizers from The U.S. Boat to Gaza, Alice Walker, one of our nation's foremost contemporary writers and the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize, likened the planned Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza to the Freedom Rides by saying "this is the Freedom Ride of this era." In the U.S. the racist system of segregation was challenged; in South Africa the racist system of apartheid was challenged; in Palestine the racist system of occupation and apartheid, enforced by the Israeli government and supported by the U.S government, is being challenged and will come to an end.

The sixty people from the U.S. on THE AUDACITY OF HOPE - our boat from the U.S. - are sailing with the international Freedom Flotilla II to demand an end to the illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. We are sailing to support the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice.

And throughout this country thousands more are building support for this effort and getting on board this massive campaign. Take a moment to view this short video of Alice Walker, and check ustogaza.org to learn more about what you can do today to help ensure the success of this mission.

Video of Palestinians and Syrians entering Israeli-occupied Golan Heights during the Nakba Day protests last Sunday.

And more words of wisdom from the Hopi

Read More

Israel, Uganda, The Hopi & The End Times

 (Palestinian teen dies in Jerusalem,  victory in Uganda as the anti-gay bill is shelved)

A Palestinian teenager who was shot Friday during street clashes in East Jerusalem died of his wounds early Saturday, raising tensions ahead of planned Palestinian protests marking the anniversary of the founding of Israel.

Milad Ayyash, 17, was shot in the stomach during stone-throwing confrontations in the neighborhood of Silwan (actually it was Ras al-amud, his funeral passed through Silwan, prompting riots-JC) between local youths and Israeli police and security guards posted at buildings housing Jewish settlers, according to witnesses. Police said they were investigating the source of the gunfire.

The youth’s funeral sparked further clashes on Saturday, and two Palestinians were reported wounded by rubber-coated bullets fired by police.
(Washington Post)
(Jerusalem Post) 
(Haaretz)
 
(Update May 15 from Joseph Dana's blog +972 with videos of the Nakba demonstrations.

A 17 year old Palestinian from Silwan has died this morning from wounds sustained during clashes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood yesterday afternoon. Milad Said Ayyash, a resident of the Ras el-Amud neighborhood in East Jerusalem was shot in the abdomen with live ammunition as Border Police officers and settlers clashed with local youth. He was evacuated to the Muqassed hospital with no pulse and in critical condition, where he underwent surgery in a failed attempt to save his life.

Israel is claiming that the minor was shot by Israeli security forces but eyewitness and activists on the ground are claiming that he was shot by private settler security guards around the large settlement, Beit Yonatan, in the heart of Silwan. According to the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, the bullet extracted from Ayyash’s abdomen has been found to belong to a handgun. This type of bullet is scarcely used by the Israeli police in crowd control situations. The bullet therefore indicates the likelihood that the youth was shot by one of the settlers’ security guards.)

Clearly there is some confusion as to who actually fired the bullet. 

TVNL Comment:  Stones against guns, as always.  Had this been an Israeli teen, the story would have made headlines on every US 'news' network.

Though a common enough occurrence in Israel (and how we have become inured to these stories) this death has affected me deeply, because I talked with so many of these Palestinian youths on the streets of Ras al-Amud and Silwan, Jerusalem, three weeks ago. Yet another tragic story in this never ending saga of oppression. I'm not forgetting the Jewish victims of suicide bombers, nor the rigid pathological hatred of some members of Hamas and Hezbollah, but the larger proportion of violence  lies by far on the Israeli side. It took the Palestinians twenty years of occupation before the first suicide bombing occurred. 

This ongoing oppression, aided unreservedly by the US (with oil definitely the primary motivation. among other benefits), is simply part of the end times for our industrial civilization. Chris Hedges of Truth Dig has been writing powerful, prescient, prophetic sermons to this effect for some time. See his latest in this vein, This Time We're Taking the Whole Planet With Us.  

With the sparsity of oil and other natural resources, powerful elites are gathering their forces together and engaging in ever more draconian methods to consolidate their power. I continue to agree with those analysts who see 911 and its aftermath as such a conspiracy with full US government complicity and possibly the unwitting aid of genuine Muslim jihadists, but the fog of controversy and obfuscation that still surrounds this issue makes it difficult to break through the wall of denial. 

This brings me by a circuitous route to the recent news from Uganda that the anti-gay legislation, complete with the death penalty for homosexual acts, which was once again before the Ugandan parliament, has been shelved for the time being, with its supporters saying, "It waits for the next parliament." (though this seems like an empty boast. In face of the enormous world wide protest, it would seem the time for this bill has past and that is cause for cautious rejoicing.)  Why the connection, however, with 'conspiracy theories' about 911? Because the sponsor of the bill,  David Bahati, is the secretary of the Ugandan branch of The Family, the secretive American Christian evangelical organization, which has close ties to the Bush family. As Indira Singh, the heroic 911 whistle-blower has maintained, the Family is one of the powerful, 'hidden' groups connected to the software firm of PTech, which is funded by elements within the Saudi Royal family, and whose software is installed on all computers in the White House, secret service, the FAA and Norad. It is Indira Singh's contention that this futuristic, 'artificial intelligence' software is the key to unraveling the conspiracy of 911. If this sounds like a crazy theory, my apologies, but it is crazy, since it is the work of devious men - though I also believe it's an accurate analysis. However, I'm not an investigative journalist, and this is an extraordinarily complex and convoluted subject, which requires very careful study. I hope to do a future posting on this heroic woman's efforts to reveal the truth. Indira Singh's interviews can be found on YouTube and here at From the Wilderness.

At the moment, these reflections (without documentation and support) simply reflect my view that all things are connected, from the death of a Palestinian teen in East Jerusalem, to a Christian fundamentalist attack on gays in Uganda, to an extremely sinister US Christian fundamentalist sect, The Family, with close ties to elements within the US government, to the conspiracy of 911 and it's tragic aftermath for all of the Middle East, and finally to the ongoing saga of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Follow the thread and connect the dots, because they are all connected, but because of the convoluted and highly secretive nature of these elements, it takes the heroism of researchers like Indira Singh to make sense of it all and to convince fair-minded, reflective persons that this is not some 'crazy conspiracy theory.'  I would urge all LGBT persons who are actively promoting the cause of justice for gay people to become informed about this larger contextual web within which our struggle is contained.

However, I don't quite share Chris Hedges deep sense of pessimism and despair (We've lost, they've won), but rather I find myself more attuned to the author of the blog, In the Wilderness, Michael Ruppert (where the articles on Indira Singh can be found). After recovering from a serious illness, Michael has now opened a new blog, entitled, Collapse Network, which contains a number of valuable spiritual resources for dealing with the present crisis of our civilization. It may seem alarmist, and I have to admit I'm not at the point where I can take their practical suggestions for the future seriously, but the writers are less alarmist than Christ Hedges, who commands enormous respect within 'liberal' opinion. While a 'collapse' of sorts may be imminent within the next generation, this is simply another of those difficult times of trial the human community must pass through. What is clear from CN's resources, however, is the imperative need for spiritual persons to make themselves ready for a time of purification, in order to be of service to their fellow human beings and to ensure that the traditions of civilization are protected and preserved. At this point in history, sadly, the formal institution of the Catholic Church must be accounted as a hindrance to the requirements of this coming time of purification.

But just to give some idea of their spiritual approach to the whole issue, here is a wonderful Hopi Indian video (2 parts) I found at Collapse Network, which begins with these prophetic words from Hopi elder, Floyd Red Crow Westerman.

"Time evolves and comes to a place where it renews again. There is first a purification time and then there is a renewal time. We are getting very close to this time now. We were told that we would see America come and go.  In a sense America is dying from within, because they forgot the instructions on how to live on earth."

What is it that I find so moving about that statement? It is the extraordinary spiritual  patience and  boundless trust it implies, enduring near genocidal extinction and centuries of oppression with the calm, clear sighted view that "this too will pass." The Hopi teach us a lesson about patience in the face of oppression and limitless trust in the power of the Creator. It was a lesson learned by the Jews during their many years of the diaspora, enduring centuries of Christian persecution, while never giving up hope in the 'coming of the Messiah.' It is a lesson lost by the present generation of Zionist, Israeli leaders. It is a lesson not yet learned within the extremist elements of Hamas and Hezbollah. It is a lesson being taught by the wisest of the Palestinian spiritual leaders. It is certainly a lesson for gay persons everywhere. And it is a lesson Christian Catholics must take to heart in the face of the intransigence of the present institutional leadership (though I'm not counseling total passivity). "This too will pass."

Read More

Palestinian teen shot in Jerusalem five minutes from my hotel.

Shocked by this story from Jerusalem of a Palestinian teen fighting for his life this evening after being shot by Israeli forces cracking down on Nakba demonstrations. The incident occurred a five minute walk from the Jerusalem Panorama Hotel, where I stayed three weeks ago for Holy Week. I walked right dowh the street saying the rosary one evening, deeply moved by the sights of the local community. I remember the sheer graciousness of the Palestinian community who welcomed me so warmly - the shopkeepers in the grocery store, the druggist, the fruit stand, the teen boys lounging on the streets who lit up so brightly when I said I was from America (no resentment there), the young boy on his horse charging up and down the street with unabashed enthusiasm, the tiny boys throwing little pebbles at the passing cars, who smiled shyly at me as I watched their game, and finally the young teen boy, about the same age as the victim of this story, who smiled so warmly at me each day as I passed him in the fruit stand. (Needless to say, girls do not lounge about on the streets of a Muslim Palestinian neighborhood and I only saw them in passing in the early morning, wearing their uniforms on the way to school. ) One of these boys now lies in Muqassed Hospital fighting for his life, if not dead already, since he arrived at the hospital with no pulse. Tragically, this story only confirms the central insight of my pilgrimage to the Holy City - one cannot celebrate the Passover of the Lord, especially within his own city, without being immersed within the tragedy of the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people.

   Palestinian teen critically injured as Israel cracks down on Nakba demos; American protester shot in the head with tear-gas canister at close range. (taken from Mondoweiss)

by Popular Struggle Coordination Committee on May 13, 2011

A 17 year-old was critically injured from live fire in East Jerusalem, and an American protester suffered serious head injury after being hit by a tear-gas projectile shot directly at him from close range.

Israeli military and police forces responded heavy handedly to demonstrations commemorating 63 years to the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948 today all over the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Morad Ayyash, a 17 year old from the Ras el-Amud neighborhood was shot in the stomach with live ammunition. He has reached the Muqassed hospital with no pulse and the doctors are now fighting for his life.

Tension also rose in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, where 19 protesters have been injured and 11 were arrested. During the evening hours, large police forces raided houses in Silwan and carried out additional arrests.

In the village of Ma'asara, south of Bethlehem, two protesters were arrested during a peaceful demonstration that was attacked with tear-gas for no apparent reason. One of those arrested is a member of the village's popular committee. In Nabi Saleh - a regular target for military aggression recently - soldiers and Border Police officers injured no less than 25 protesters, including a Palestinian women in her 50s who was beaten up so badly that her wounds required her removal from the Salfeet Hospital to the bigger and more advanced Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus. A 25 year-old American demonstrator suffered a serious head injury and an Israeli activist was diagnosed with two open fractures in his hand. Both were injured by tear-gas projectiles shot directly at them from short range, in violation of the Israeli Army's open fire regulations. Four protesters were arrested in Nabi Saleh, including two Palestinian women.

Violence in Nabi Saleh started today after Israeli Border Police officers took over the village's main junction and tried to disperse the demonstration while it was still well inside the village, The officers began charging the peaceful protesters with batons, shooting large amounts of tear-gas - partly shot directly at the demonstrators - and carrying out arrests.

The Israeli military and police's violent and hysteric reaction to the Nakba day demonstrations today is an example to the fact that Israel cannot conceive handling Palestinian civil resistance to the Occupation in any means but military means. As September looms, it seems as if Israel chooses to tread not the path of democracy, but rather that of neighboring regimes like Egypt and Syria, and shoot at unarmed demonstrators.

Read More

Uganda Anti Gay Bill in the News Again

Hmmmm...my most recent post on 911 Whistleblower Susan Lindauer has disappeared, but then so have the recent posts of most Blogger Sites. Technical difficulties and human error, explain the Blogger team, so I'm waiting for the post to be restored.


Meanwhile this just in from The Daily Beast. Makes depressing news:


Even if the death penalty is removed from Uganda’s Anti-Homosexual Bill, its passage would codify the country’s extraordinary persecution of gays—and American evangelicals will bear responsibility, says Michelle Goldberg.

In 2009, a month after ethnic riots rocked the Ugandan capital of Kampala, an evangelical lawmaker named David Bahati introduced his Anti-Homosexuality Bill into parliament. The measure was draconian, prescribing the death penalty for some gay people, mandating prison sentences of at least five years for the “promotion of homosexuality,” and requiring Ugandans to report “offenders” to the authorities. After an international outcry, President Yoweri Museveni distanced himself from the bill, and it seemed likely to disappear.

Children demonstrated against homosexuality in Kampala, Uganda, in January of 2010. (Stephen Wandera, File / AP Photo)
 
Then, this month, it came roaring back, and it could pass by the end of the week. Although some media outlets are reporting that Bahati has dropped the death-penalty clause, no revised bill has surfaced yet. “As far as we know, as of today, parliament was still discussing the same version,” Maria Burnett, a Uganda-based senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said on Wednesday. “While the author of the bill has said he was willing to make amendments, I’ve never seen an actual document with those amendments made.”

Even if capital punishment is removed from the bill, its passage would herald extraordinary state persecution of a demonized and beleaguered minority. Already, some Ugandan newspapers have taken to publishing lists of alleged gays and lesbians with blaring headlines like “Hang Them!” and “Homo Terror!” The bill is the culmination of an anti-gay campaign that’s been waged in Uganda for more than a decade. Because some American evangelicals have played a major role in that campaign, they’re at least partly responsible for what is happening now.

Read the rest of the article here.  

And this from the Guardian:

Iraq dossier drawn up to make case for war – UK intelligence officer

Thursday, 12 May 2011 21:29

A top military intelligence official has said the discredited dossier on Iraq's weapons programme was drawn up "to make the case for war", flatly contradicting persistent claims to the contrary by the Blair government, and in particular by Alastair Campbell, the former prime minister's chief spin doctor.

In hitherto secret evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, Major General Michael Laurie said: "We knew at the time that the purpose of the dossier was precisely to make a case for war, rather than setting out the available intelligence, and that to make the best out of sparse and inconclusive intelligence the wording was developed with care."
His evidence is devastating, as it is the first time such a senior intelligence officer has directly contradicted the then government's claims about the dossier – and, perhaps more significantly, what Tony Blair and Campbell said when it was released seven months before the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Laurie, who was director general in the Defence Intelligence Staff, responsible for commanding and delivering raw and analysed intelligence, said: "I am writing to comment on the position taken by Alastair Campbell during his evidence to you … when he stated that the purpose of the dossier was not to make a case for war; I and those involved in its production saw it exactly as that, and that was the direction we were given."

He continued: "Alastair Campbell said to the inquiry that the purpose of the dossier was not 'to make a case for war'. I had no doubt at that time this was exactly its purpose and these very words were used."

Laurie said he recalled that the chief of defence intelligence, Air Marshal Sir Joe French, was "frequently inquiring whether we were missing something" and was under pressure. "We could find no evidence of planes, missiles or equipment that related to WMD [weapons of mass destruction], generally concluding that they must have been dismantled, buried or taken abroad. There has probably never been a greater detailed scrutiny of every piece of ground in any country."

Read More

Hero or Madwoman: Susan Lindauer Faced with Indefinite Detention for Speaking Out

Have just finished reading Palestinian poet, Mourid Barghouti's heartbreaking memoir, I Saw Ramallah,  which describes his return to Ramallah on the West Bank in 1996 after many years in exile. The book is a cri de coeur filled with the most haunting images of Palestine as it once was and as it now is, in it's present demoralized and deteriorated state. Barghouti remarks that it is not the loss of the olive trees, the orchards and the hillsides that have been most devastating for the Palestinians. It is the absence of bookstores, of libraries, of schools, of theaters. It is the absence of culture and the means for creating one's one self conscious, literate, informed future.  I picked the book up in Munther Fahmy's wonderful bookstore in the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem during Holy Week. The book itself and my immersion in Palestinian, Arab, Muslim culture while in Israel has stirred me deeply and keeps me preoccupied with the terribly destructive 'myth' of 911 which has caused such damage to the image of Muslims everywhere. This does not mean I am without sympathy for the Israelis, but it is a sympathy for the misguided and the deluded who are trapped in the destructive national myths of their leaders' own creation and which keep them imprisoned in falsehood and violence. The fear in Israel is palpable and real, combined with the national xenophobia, and of course things are not so simple as I'm making out. Heroic Israeli's like Uri Avery of Gush Shalom, Gideon Levy of Haaretz, the fearless workers of the human rights group B'Tselem, noted Israeli historian Ilan Pappe (driven out of Israel by death threats towards his family) and many others have been attempting to deconstruct the myth of Israel's founding (see Ilan Pappe's groundbreaking The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine). Yet such is the power of myth that when it takes hold of the collective consciousness of a nation that it is well nigh impossible to break through its defenses. To read some of the featured articles in Haaretz, one would think none of these great 'new' Israeli historians had written a word. (The great thing about Haaretz is that it prints an extraordinarily wide range of viewpoints and opinions, and sticks by its more 'radical' journalists, like Gideon Levy, in the face of ferocious attacks from the right.)

These musings and concerns always lead me back to the defining myth of American consciousness and identity in our times, 911, when twelve Muslim suicidal Jihadists supposedly orchestrated a brilliant attack of the WTC, and from these musings I'm led to admire the true American heroes who continue to 'blow the whistle' on this myth, even in the face of threats of imprisonment.

As Goebbels rightly said, repeat a lie often enough and the public will believe it. Iraq & Weapons of mass destruction, Iraq & weapons of mass destruction, Iraq & weapons of mass destruction - Osama Bin Laden, Al Quaida & 911/ Osama Bin Laden, Al Quaida & 911/ Osama Bin Laden, Al Quaida & 911. This leads me to one of our most noteworthy whistle-blowers, Susan Lindauer, the only non-Arab to be indicted under the  Patriot Act. Susan is a former CIA asset who was tasked (or so she claims) with warning high ranking Iraqi officials in the summer of 2001 that the US had intelligence that Al Quaida and Iraqi forces were together planning an attack on the World Trade Center in New York in the Fall of 2001. Her CIA handlers are now denying her claims, make of that what you will. Her specific task, she says,  was to threaten these Iraqi officials that if they did not uncover the Iraqi connection with Al Quaida, or any information having to do with hijackings and these immanent attacks, the US would bomb Baghdad back to the stone age. Susan now believes this was a complete disinformation campaign in which she and other assets were used to disseminate false information and rumors, in order to prepare the way for the 'myth' of 911 and the subsequent war with Iraq. She also makes the connection between 911 and Israel's Mossad, and with such accusations we are getting into dangerous waters. However, for myself this makes the connection with Mourid Barghouti's poignant memoir, I Saw Ramallah. Why was Susan indicted and then sentenced to one year of detention -without a trial or a hearing - at Carswell Air Force Base, in Fort Worth, Texas? Because she approached two US senators and requested to testify about Iraq and 911. The government claims she was suffering from paranoid delusions.

But is this the whole story? Wikipedia says that Susan was incarcerated for 'psychological evaluation,' then released in 2006 because the judge concluded she was mentally unfit to stand trial. This decision was reaffirmed in 2008, mentally unfit, troubled by delusions of grandeur and paranoia, with psychotic episodes going back to her childhood, including delusions she could predict bombings before they happened. All charges were dropped against her in 2009, the DOJ maintaining that it would not be in the interest of justice for her to stand trial. It goes without saying that Susan herself has a very different take on the government's decision not to try her. I have to say a chill went through me when I read these 'accusations,' because they sound so much like the treatment meted out to dissidents in the Soviet Block, including right here in Czechoslovakia  during the worst years of the Cold War. And it also goes without saying that her story has been picked up by the most radical sites on the web, including Truth Jihad. Com, which has an explosive interview with her, which you can read here, followed by the very interesting comments, some of which urge caution. If only these sites were not so garish and sensational, though to be fair, Truth Jihad is run by, Dr. Kevin Barrett, who has respectable credentials.  

(Kevin Barrett, an American Muslim and PhD Arabist-Islamologist, is one of America's best-known critics of the War on Terror. Dr. Barrett has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS, Unavision, Russia Today, Press TV and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune, etc. A leading alternative radio host, Dr. Barrett is lead editor of the book 9/11 and American Empire (Volume II) and author of the books Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie (2007) and Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters (2009).)

 Back to Susan, do all of these suspicions make her story untrustworthy? I have followed this story closely for some time and listened to her video interviews, and she seems perfectly sane to me, as well as highly intelligent and informed. But then what do I know? This whole area becomes so murky, twisted, and convoluted that one could be forgiven for throwing up one's hands and saying, "Enough. I give up."

Susan has just started a series of articles at The Intel Hub (Yes, one of those sites). Here is what she has to say about her situation.

Thirty days after I spoke with top staffers for Senator Trent Lott and Senator John McCain, the FBI showed up with a warrant for my arrest.

My 5 year indictment on the Patriot Act nicknamed me “Symbol Susan.” It was not subtle. The viciousness I suffered was purposefully designed to scare off on anybody else who might consider talking. The cover ups of 9/11 and Iraq distinguished the Patriot Act as the premiere weapon to take down whistle blowers.

To those others I say, they cannot silence us if we refuse to give up our voice. I challenge Congress to put our country on the right track by holdings hearings on 9/11 to take our testimony. I will gladly swear to all of the following under oath.

THE TRUTH: A SUMMER OF ADVANCE WARNINGS 

The truth is that our team, which triangulated the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, discussed the 9/11 attack in its exact scenario and time frame throughout the summer of 2001.

We talked about it practically every week at our meetings. We also discussed it on the telephone, pointedly joking “Hello NSA! Pick up the phone—” knowing the National Security Agency had wire tapped my lines.

There’s no question that the story of the 9/11 conspiracy was planted months in advance to prep the intelligence community for the government’s reaction. And it unfolded exactly as they told us it would—with a little help from an orphan explosives team. That will be explained in a second article. The two are not contradictory.

Before we get to that, Americans must first accept the motivation for 9/11, and why the U.S. government allowed it to happen. This was a Pearl Harbor Day. And it achieved an agenda, which was already well defined.

From the first moment that I was told about 9/11 in April and May of 2001, I was informed that the United States planned to declare War on Iraq immediately when 9/11 happened. The two were already linked as cause and effect.

Read Susan's entire article here (the first in a series).

In the video below, Susan details the warning she made to the Bush staff in early August about an imminent attack on the WTC. Her handler Richard Fuisz told her in August 2001, "Do not go to New York, stay out of New York, we are expecting mass casualties, the attack is imminent."The video interview is chilling for many reasons, not least of which is her exchange with Iraqi diplomat Saleh Amoud just minutes after the attacks. "Susan, we learned of this attack from you. Why didn't you stop it? I will tell you. You didn't stop it because the United States had decided to start a war with Iraq. So you were willing to let your own American people die. You should ask God for forgiveness." Powerful, but is it fabricated and delusional? The ramblings of a paranoid schizophrenic or the testimony of a genuine American hero? Or something in-between?

Read More

Italian bishop turns heads with Giorgio Armani vestments

Just found this article at the Guardian this morning while drinking my morning tea. This is not re-posted by me in a sarcastic frame of mind, I actually think the vestments are quite beautiful. I just wish the bishop (whom the Guardian describes as a 'free thinker' within the Church) would lose that silly hat. Interestingly, the good bishop penned the preface to a book examing the financial scandals in the Vatican, which was published on the eve of the beatification of JPII. I found the article by following links at the blog site Pray Tell, while reading an article on the latest (Swiss) Catholic bishop to speak out in favor of women's ordination. While purusing the comments sections of the article, I came across a 'compliment' for fellow blogger William Lindsey and his superb blog Bilgrimage. At least I think it was a comment, since it referred to Bilgrimage as "a quite uncomfortable site." I presume the commenter meant that Bilgrimage exposes unpalatable truths about the Catholic Church which more orthodox church goers would rather not hear.  And I was led to Pray Tell by Bridget Mary's Blog, which never fails in keeping us alert to all the signs of the impending revolution in the Patriarchal Church. All things are connected. From women priests to quite uncomfortable sites to the silken green vestments of Georgio Armani. I can't help wonder if the good bishop below isn't a "friend of Dorothy,' since who else but a gay queen would appreciate such beauty and delight in parading about in it.

Follow the link for a much closer look at the green silk vestments:

The devil may wear Prada, but a Sicilian bishop has set out to show Satan does not have a stranglehold on designer clothing by ordering new vestments from Giorgio Armani.

Bishop Domenico Mogavero drew compliments from churchgoers when he turned out for mass on Monday on the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria in green silk vestments designed by Armani and decorated with symbols of vines, wheat, shells and starfish.

Mogavero said the vestments had turned heads, particularly among female parishioners, but warned he had no intention of turning the aisle into a catwalk.

"This is all not about having brands in church or indulging in the fashion of the moment, but about wearing something beautiful to give glory to God," said Mogavero, 64, who donned the vestments at a ceremony for the opening of a church on the tiny volcanic island.

Armani, who has holidayed on Pantelleria for 37 years and owns a luxury retreat there, has created four vestments for the new church, in green, white, red and purple.

"They are tasteful, made from a sober type of silk and give an idea of the solemnity of the occasion," said Mogavero, who was appointed the bishop of Mazara del Vallo, in Sicily, four years ago.

Known as a free thinker within the church, Mogavero once called for Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign over his sex scandals and has told Italians to show more tolerance towards immigrants.

Most recently he penned the preface to a book that details the financial scandals at the Vatican during John Paul II's papacy and was published on the eve of the Polish pontiff's beatification.

Last summer he approached Armani, 76, about vestments for the church on Pantelleria, which is closer to Tunisia than the Italian mainland.

"I asked him for the vestments as a gift to the new church – to create something beautiful, original and with themes reflecting the island," he said. "I will see him this summer and I'll have the opportunity to thank him personally."

Mogavero's venture into designer wear follows reports that Pope Benedict had a weakness for red Prada shoes, although the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano scotched the rumours, pointing out that the shoes in question were in fact made by an Italian artisan. "The Pope is not dressed by Prada but by Christ," the newspaper stated.

Read More

Wise and compassionate spiritual message from Egypt about death of Osama.

Wonderful article from Lauren Unger-Geoffrey at Truth Dig about the Egyptian reaction to news of Osama Bin Laden's death. I love this particular passage with a powerful, humbling spiritual message at the end.

(The whole article is really quite wonderful and deserves a careful reading. How humbling and inspiring to see such deeply spiritual faith from the Muslim world. Read the full article here)

Yes, many feel slighted as Muslims by the dumping of his body in the sea—“if it is true”—but they feel this is just typical of the United States’ disrespect of Muslims and no big deal about Osama. And they are a bit sad that this icon of Arabic resistance to the USA superpower dominance has been killed so ignominiously, if that is indeed what happened. But the truth is he is not really that important to the vast majority here, who are also somewhat relieved and dare to nurture a tiny hope that the loss of this iconic image of Arabs as dangerous terrorists and enemies may soften the animosity that the West has held toward them since 9/11.

Most Egyptians I talked to were surprised at my concern about the “truth” of the story and the shameless incoherence of the report, and my shock at the gullibility of those who believed the account, accepting that the U.S. government had dumped into the ocean all proof of its success in needlessly killing the unarmed most valuable intelligence asset on the planet. There were video cameras on the helmets of some of those who attacked the bin Laden compound—President Obama and his inner circle saw it all in the Situation Room, and we saw them see it!—but, oh!, oops no video, there was a 25-minute blank. A terrible firefight, bullets flew! Oops, the one photo of a mattress and blood. Where are the impact marks in the walls of all those bullets? Pops, no, he was unarmed. What about that weird fake photo “leaked”? Today [Saturday] there is a video of a quarter view of a bearded old man watching Osama on TV, that’s supposedly him, um, before. …  

“Malesh, malesh,” they tell me. “It doesn’t matter, Louna. Accept that he is dead, they killed him. It’s not important—he is not important to us. It doesn’t change anything if the story is not true. Accept it and things will be better, God willing.

f

And for a very witty take on the whole issue, once again Sibel Edmonds delivers at her blog, Boiling Frogs, with these comments from five independent experts. Here is just a sample:

Two UN guys are sitting in a bar in Kabul – and one turns to the other and says “Did you hear the one about the president, the terrorism advisor and the pope?” The second guy turns to the other and says “Well – no – I have not” – and the first guys says “Me neither  – but it cannot be any more funny than the way the White House has handled the narrative of the Bin Laden raid.”

Read More

The Myth of Bin Laden Death receives another blow from FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds

(It's not my intention to turn Gay Mystic into a political blog, but this story is too  important to let rest, as it deals with the power of myth to corrupt entire societies. I continue to be shocked by the credulity with which this latest story of the death of OBL is being greeted. Have we learned nothing from the past ten years of government duplicity? To remind us, here is Sibel Edmonds' latest analysis of the Osama Bin Laden death story. Edmonds was the FBI translator fired from her position in March 2002 for having accused a colleague of covering up illicit activity involving foreign nationals. She is also the source for the info  that the US maintained 'intimate relations' with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, "all the way until that day of September 11." See that story here and  here.)

 Bin Laden Story Keeps Changing-Obama’s Nose Keeps Growing

(The links, highlighted in blue, are well worth following. And as a cure for political naivete, I can't recommend her blog, Boiling Frogs, too highly. )

The standard, call it classic, definition of PSYOP is badly in need of an update. When you look it up, you see something along these lines [Emphasis are mine]: planned propaganda operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. It is way past time to add ‘domestic’ in there. Isn’t it? Come on; remember our mini PSYOP cases like Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman. I say ‘mini’ because they were mini, thus, eventually exposed. The ‘major’ ones, at least here in the US, tend to go unnoticed or not widely debated. Right now, we may be very well looking at one of those major ones as it is unfolding: White House Osama Death PSYOP Script.

On Monday, less than a day after the supposed operation, I started covering the Osama Death sensationalism. In my first post I said: “It is way too early for a comprehensive analysis or even a short commentary.” I wish others, the so-called media had exercised the same restraint, instead of spreading the far-fetched and fantastical script given to them by their masters to fire up and round up the gullible and easily hurray-ing majority. 

On Tuesday, I pointed out the uncanny resemblance between the script and method used in the Jessica Lynch PSYOP case and the latest Osama Death case: “It is too early. I can talk about the strange timing, absurdity of some mysterious burial at sea, questionable coincidences, and or our government’s pretty tainted record when it comes to facts: Remember Iraq’s WMD lies, Pentagon’s made-up script on Jessica Lynch, wrongfully accused Steven Hatfill, questionable Anthrax suspect Bruce Ivins, Niger Yellowcake fantasy…” Again, it took the resourceful media another 24-48 hours and tons of pounding to make the connections.

You can read the rest of her analysis at her excellent blog,  Boiling Frog. She is asking that this information/analysis be widely disseminated and I'm happy to oblige.

To end, here is a quotable quote from Sibel's previous posting on the Pakistan Story:

Vanity Fair has declared war on anyone who dares to question the unanswered questions in the latest Bin Laden death development. Anyone. Doesn’t the least matter if the questions are completely rational. Doesn’t matter if the latest development leaves many unanswered questions and or unproved claims. It doesn’t matter. When the government is questioned, when the establishment is second-guessed, Vanity Fair comes running in defense of its masters by engaging in completely illogical offense. Now, the magazine is calling anyone with any questions or rational skepticism on the circumstances of Bin Laden’s death and burial at sea ‘Tin-Foil-Hat’ wearers. They have designated one bucket and are dropping everyone in it at the rate of 10000s per minute. This big bucket is reserved for: UFO believers, Birthers, Truthers, Taliban Sympathizers, Al Qaeda Sympathizers, terrorists, schizophrenic community, paranoid individuals, vegetarians… You see, it is a really big bucket.

You know how it is when crazy people view sane people as crazy? We have exactly the same phenomenon here.  

Now considering our government’s well-established tainted record in providing stories-fantasies, especially those released immediately and sensationally and those timed strangely, how could a rational thinking person consider a logical hesitancy as conspiratorial? How could an unbiased and untainted reporter write off the questioning of official stories (with a darn tainted historical record) as ‘tin-foil hat’ conspiracy? 

When it comes to our government’s tainted record in truth-telling: Fool us once, shame on them, fool us twice shame on us, fool us three times shame on us, fool us four times shame on us…I believe you all catch my drift; no?

Addendum: This just in from Al Jazeera:

The problem is the man who was last seen alive on November 30, 2001 was reported dead, again, and again, and again. A Taliban leader said it happened in mid-December 2001, near Tora Bora (he claimed to have attended the funeral); Osama had not been able to survive a serious lung problem.

By late 2002, everyone from then Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf to Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai, Israeli intelligence and the FBI's Dale Watson was sure of it. Yet it took Saudi intelligence years to come up with a definitive date: August 23, 2006. Throughout the 2000s, all Osama videotapes were revealed to be crass fakes.  

Beyond the fact that Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser John Brennan insists that Pakistan was not in the loop about the target assassination; beyond the fact that Osama was sold out by the Pakistani ISI and the military; beyond the fact that "justice" means capturing and trying someone in a court of law - not a targeted killing; beyond the suspicious fact that Washington did not profit from exhibiting Osama's body, Che Guevara-style (after all, Osama reveled in selling his myth as a sort of Sheikh Guevara); beyond the fact that al-Qaeda had already been strategically defeated by the Great 2011 Arab Revolt, and thus Osama was already irrelevant – a nagging question remains.

That body now slowly disintegrating in the waters of the Arabian Sea – is it the real shaheed who chose, as promised, not to surrender and die in a "firefight" this past Monday? Or is it a replicate?
Pepe Escobar 
 

Read More

The Agendas Behind the Bin Laden News Event

Excellent editorial from economist Paul Craig Roberts on the recent "rumors" of Bid Laden's death, since in the absence of verifiable proof, that is all they are, rumors. To question them gets oneself labeled a conspiracy theorist, the first mechanism of defense when a genuine conspiracy is in danger of being exposed. It is wise to stop and ponder the fact that the most spectacular conspiracy theory of the twentieth century was the vicious, unfounded, irrational rumors spread by a tiny minority of irresponsible, self-hating Germans that the Nazi's were exterminating tens of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and other undesirables in secret concentration camps in Poland. How preposterous, how absurd.

By Paul Craig Roberts | Lew Rockwell

The US government’s bin Laden story was so poorly crafted that it did not last 48 hours before being fundamentally altered. Indeed, the new story put out on Tuesday by White House press secretary Jay Carney bears little resemblance to the original Sunday evening story. The fierce firefight did not occur. Osama bin Laden did not hide behind a woman. Indeed, bin Laden, Carney said, “was not armed.”

The firefight story was instantly suspicious as not a single SEAL got a scratch, despite being up against al Qaeda, described by former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld as ‘the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth.” http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=43817

Every original story detail has been changed. It wasn’t bin Laden’s wife who was murdered by the Navy SEALs , but the wife of an aide. It wasn’t bin Laden’s son, Khalid, who was murdered by the Navy SEALs, but son Hamza.

Carney blamed the changed story on “the fog of war.” But there was no firefight, so where did the “fog of war” come from?

The White House has also had to abandon the story that President Obama and his national security team watched tensely as events unfolded in real time (despite the White House having released photos of the team watching tensely), with the operation conveyed into the White House by cameras on the SEALs helmets. If Obama

was watching the event as it happened, he would have noticed, one would hope, that there was no firefight and, thus, would not have told the public that bin Laden was killed in a firefight. Another reason the story had to be abandoned is that if the event was captured on video, every news service in the world would be asking for the video, but if the event was orchestrated theater, there would be no video.

No explanation has been provided for why an unarmed bin Laden, in the absence of a firefight, was murdered by the SEALs with a shot to the head. For those who believe the government’s story that “we got bin Laden,” the operation can only appear as the most botched operation in history. What kind of incompetence does it require to senselessly and needlessly kill the most valuable intelligence asset on the planet?

Read the rest of the article here at American Pendulum.  

Also at American Pendulum, is a short essay from theologian David Ray Griffin summarizing his 2009 book Osama Dead or Alive.

Objective Evidence that Bin Laden is Dead

The objective evidence includes the following facts:

First, up until mid-December 13, 2001, the CIA had regularly been intercepting messages between bin Laden and his people. At that time, however, the messages suddenly stopped, and the CIA has never again intercepted a message.

Second, on December 26, 2001, a leading Pakistani newspaper published a story reporting that bin Laden had died in mid-December, adding:

“A prominent official in the Afghan Taleban movement . . . stated . . . that he had himself attended the funeral of bin Laden and saw his face prior to burial.”

Third, bin Laden had kidney disease. He had been treated for it in the American Hospital in Dubai in July 2001, at which time he reportedly ordered two dialysis machines to take home. If you have ever wondered what bin Laden was doing the night before the 9/11 attacks, CBS News reported that he was being given kidney dialysis treatment in a hospital in Pakistan.  And in January of 2001, Dr. Sanjay Gupta said – based on a video of bin Laden that had been made in either late November or early December of 2001 – that he appeared to be in the last stages of kidney failure.

Fourth, In July of 2002, CNN reported that bin Laden’s bodyguards had been captured in February of that year, adding: “Sources believe that if the bodyguards were captured away from bin Laden, it is likely the most-wanted man in the world is dead.”

Fifth, the United States has since 2001 offered a $25 million reward for any information leading to the capture or killing of bin Laden. But this reward offer has produced no such information, even though Pakistan has many desperately poor people, only about half of whom have been supportive of bin Laden.

Testimonial Evidence that Bin Laden Is Dead

In addition to this objective evidence, we had considerable testimony in 2002, from people in position to know, that bin Laden was dead, or probably so. These people included:

•          President Musharraf of Pakistan;

•          Dale Watson, the head of the FBI’s counterterrorism unit;

•          Oliver North, who said: “I’m certain that Osama is dead. . . And so are all the other guys I stay in touch with”;

•          President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan;

•          Sources within Israeli intelligence, who said that any new messages from bin Laden were “probably fabrications”;

•          Sources within Pakistani intelligence, who “confirmed the death of . . . Osama Bin Laden” and “attributed the reasons behind Washington’s hiding news on the death of Osama Bin Laden to the desire of the hawks of the American administration to use the issue of al-Qaida and international terrorism to invade Iraq.”

Read the rest of Griffin's article here. 

What do I personally think of all of this (not that my opinion matters a whit)? I think the 9/11 Truth movement has a viable case to make for a massive cover-up of the events of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden as a Myth is at the heart of it. I think successive US governments have lied to us so consistently and so brazenly, that it would be the height of folly and naivete to trust such a story as we have just been fed...again so brazenly...without absolute proof. I also think that my former professor, Process theologian, John Cobb, who is Griffin's colleague at Claremont and who has also endorsed the 9/11 Truth movement, is a man of the most unquestionable integrity and professional, scholarly responsibility and probity, a man of sound judgement, slow to act until sufficient evidence has been established, but unshakeable when his sense of justice has been outraged. These are serious, trustworthy men, and it does the science of theology great honor that they are at the forefront of "one of the most impressive citizen research projects in history....which demonstrates beyond question the fraudulent nature of the official account of 9/11." 

Dr. Graeme MacQueen, Founder of McMaster University's Centre for Peace Studies.

Read More

Top US Government Insider: Bin Laden Died in 2001, 9/11 A False Flag

• Crazy? Watch the Video below.

  It is far more  disturbing than the article itself, taken from Prison Planet. com.

(See also Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth, particularly the articles by Process theologians John Cobb and David Ray Griffin. Very sobering)

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under three different administrations Steve R. Pieczenik says he is prepared to tell a federal grand jury the name of a top general who told him directly 9/11 was a false flag attack

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Top US government insider Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik, a man who held numerous different influential positions under three different Presidents and still works with the Defense Department, shockingly told The Alex Jones Show yesterday that Osama Bin Laden died in 2001 and that he was prepared to testify in front of a grand jury how a top general told him directly that 9/11 was a false flag inside job.

Pieczenik cannot be dismissed as a “conspiracy theorist”. He served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under three different administrations, Nixon, Ford and Carter, while also working under Reagan and Bush senior, and still works as a consultant for the Department of Defense. A former US Navy Captain, Pieczenik achieved two prestigious Harry C. Solomon Awards at the Harvard Medical School as he simultaneously completed a PhD at MIT.

Recruited by Lawrence Eagleburger as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Management, Pieczenik went on to develop, “the basic tenets for psychological warfare, counter terrorism, strategy and tactics for transcultural negotiations for the US State Department, military and intelligence communities and other agencies of the US Government,” while also developing foundational strategies for hostage rescue that were later employed around the world.

Pieczenik also served as a senior policy planner under Secretaries Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, George Schultz and James Baker and worked on George W. Bush’s election campaign against Al Gore. His record underscores the fact that he is one of the most deeply connected men in intelligence circles over the past three decades plus.

The character of Jack Ryan, who appears in many Tom Clancy novels and was also played by Harrison Ford in the popular 1992 movie Patriot Games, is also based on Steve Pieczenik.

Back in April 2002, over nine years ago, Pieczenik told the Alex Jones Show that Bin Laden had already been “dead for months,” and that the government was waiting for the most politically expedient time to roll out his corpse. Pieczenik would be in a position to know, having personally met Bin Laden and worked with him during the proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan back in the early 80′s.

Pieczenik said that Osama Bin Laden died in 2001, “Not because special forces had killed him, but because as a physician I had known that the CIA physicians had treated him and it was on the intelligence roster that he had marfan syndrome,” adding that the US government knew Bin Laden was dead before they invaded Afghanistan.

Marfan syndrome is a degenerative genetic disease for which there is no permanent cure. The illness severely shortens the life span of the sufferer.

“He died of marfan syndrome, Bush junior knew about it, the intelligence community knew about it,” said Pieczenik, noting how CIA physicians had visited Bin Laden in July 2001 at the American Hospital in Dubai.

“He was already very sick from marfan syndrome and he was already dying, so nobody had to kill him,” added Pieczenik, stating that Bin Laden died shortly after 9/11 in his Tora Bora cave complex.

“Did the intelligence community or the CIA doctor up this situation, the answer is yes, categorically yes,” said Pieczenik, referring to Sunday’s claim that Bin Laden was killed at his compound in Pakistan, adding, “This whole scenario where you see a bunch of people sitting there looking at a screen and they look as if they’re intense, that’s nonsense,” referring to the images released by the White House which claim to show Biden, Obama and Hillary Clinton watching the operation to kill Bin Laden live on a television screen.

“It’s a total make-up, make believe, we’re in an American theater of the absurd….why are we doing this again….nine years ago this man was already dead….why does the government repeatedly have to lie to the American people,” asked Pieczenik.

“Osama Bin Laden was totally dead, so there’s no way they could have attacked or confronted or killed Osama Bin laden,” said Pieczenik, joking that the only way it could have happened was if special forces had attacked a mortuary.

Pieczenik said that the decision to launch the hoax now was made because Obama had reached a low with plummeting approval ratings and the fact that the birther issue was blowing up in his face.

“He had to prove that he was more than American….he had to be aggressive,” said Pieczenik, adding that the farce was also a way of isolating Pakistan as a retaliation for intense opposition to the Predator drone program, which has killed hundreds of Pakistanis.

“This is orchestrated, I mean when you have people sitting around and watching a sitcom, basically the operations center of the White House, and you have a president coming out almost zombie-like telling you they just killed Osama Bin Laden who was already dead nine years ago,” said Pieczenik, calling the episode, “the greatest falsehood I’ve ever heard, I mean it was absurd.”

Dismissing the government’s account of the assassination of Bin Laden as a “sick joke” on the American people, Pieczenik said, “They are so desperate to make Obama viable, to negate the fact that he may not have been born here, any questions about his background, any irregularities about his background, to make him look assertive….to re-elect this president so the American public can be duped once again.”

Pieczenik’s assertion that Bin Laden died almost ten years ago is echoed by numerous intelligence professionals as well as heads of state across the world.

Bin Laden, “Was used in the same way that 9/11 was used to mobilize the emotions and feelings of the American people in order to go to a war that had to be justified through a narrative that Bush junior created and Cheney created about the world of terrorism,” stated Pieczenik.

During his interview with the Alex Jones Show yesterday, Pieczenik also asserted he was directly told by a prominent general that 9/11 was a stand down and a false flag operation, and that he is prepared to go to a grand jury to reveal the general’s name.

“They ran the attacks,” said Pieczenik, naming Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Hadley, Elliott Abrams, and Condoleezza Rice amongst others as having been directly involved.

“It was called a stand down, a false flag operation in order to mobilize the American public under false pretenses….it was told to me even by the general on the staff of Wolfowitz – I will go in front of a federal committee and swear on perjury who the name was of the individual so that we can break it open,” said Pieczenik, adding that he was “furious” and “knew it had happened”.

“I taught stand down and false flag operations at the national war college, I’ve taught it with all my operatives so I knew exactly what was done to the American public,” he added.

Pieczenik re-iterated that he was perfectly willing to reveal the name of the general who told him 9/11 was an inside job in a federal court, “so that we can unravel this thing legally, not with the stupid 9/11 Commission that was absurd.”

Pieczenik explained that he was not a liberal, a conservative or a tea party member, merely an American who is deeply concerned about the direction in which his country is heading.

Watch the full interview with Dr. Pieczenik here.

And on another note, see Process theologian David Ray Griffin's book Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive, published in 2005, but more relevant now than ever.

Amazon.Com summary of book:
American foreign policy in recent years has been based, in part, on the assumption that Osama bin Laden is still alive. George W. Bush promised as president that he would get Osama bin Laden ‘dead or alive’ and has been widely criticized for failing to do so. The US’s present military escalation in Afghanistan is said to be necessary to ‘get Osama bin Laden’. The news media regularly announce the appearance of new ‘messages from bin Laden’. But what if Osama bin Laden died in December 2001 – which is the last time a message to or from him was intercepted? In this book, David Ray Griffin examines the evidence for the claim – made by everyone from former CIA agent Robert Baer to Oliver North – that bin Laden is surely no longer with us. He analyses the purported messages from bin Laden and finds that, as many have suspected, they do not provide evidence of bin Laden’s existence after 2001. This leads naturally to the question: if Osama bin Laden did indeed die in 2001, how and why have dozens of ‘messages from bin Laden’ appeared since then? Griffin’s meticulous analysis supports above all one simple and urgent conclusion: if Osama bin Laden is dead, why has so much military and political effort been expended in hunting him down.

Read More