Michael Mukasey’s Tearful Lies

Michael Mukasey has conclusively proven himself to be an exact replica of Alberto Gonazles — slavishly loyal to every presidential whim and unbound by even the most minimal constraints of truth while serving those whims. Speaking in San Fransisco this week, Mukasey demanded that the President be given new warrantless eavesdropping powers and that lawbreaking telecoms be granted amnesty. To make his case, Mukasey teared up while exploiting the 3,000 Americans who died on 9/11 and said this:

Officials “shouldn’t need a warrant when somebody with a phone in Iraq picks up a phone and calls somebody in the United States because that’s the call that we may really want to know about. And before 9/11, that’s the call that we didn’t know about. We knew that there has been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn’t know precisely where it went.” At that point in his answer, Mr. Mukasey grimaced, swallowed hard, and seemed to tear up as he reflected on the weaknesses in America’s anti-terrorism strategy prior to the 2001 attacks. “We got three thousand. . . . We’ve got three thousand people who went to work that day and didn’t come home to show for that,” he said, struggling to maintain his composure.

At the time of the attacks, Mr. Mukasey was the chief judge at the federal courthouse a few blocks away from the World Trade Center.

These are multiple falsehoods here, and independently, this whole claim makes no sense. There is also a pretty startling new revelation here about the Bush administration’s pre-9/11 failure that requires a good amount of attention. Even under the “old” FISA, no warrants are required where the targeted person is outside the U.S. (Afghanistan) and calls into the U.S. Thus, if it’s really true, as Mukasey now claims, that the Bush administration knew about a Terrorist in an Afghan safe house making Terrorist-planning calls into the U.S., then they could have — and should have — eavesdropped on that call and didn’t need a warrant to do so. So why didn’t they? Mukasey’s new claim that FISA’s warrant requirements prevented discovery of the 9/11 attacks and caused the deaths of 3,000 Americans is disgusting and reckless, because it’s all based on the lie that FISA required a warrant for targeting the “Afghan safe house.” It just didn’t. Nor does the House FISA bill require individual warrants when targeting a non-U.S. person outside the U.S.

Independently, even if there had been a warrant requirement for that call — and there unquestionably was not — why didn’t the Bush administration obtain a FISA warrant to listen in on 9/11-planning calls from this “safe house”? Independently, why didn’t the administration invoke FISA’s 72-hour emergency warrantless window to listen in on those calls? If what Muskasey said this week is true — and that’s a big “if” — his revelation about this Afghan call that the administration knew about but didn’t intercept really amounts to one of the most potent indictments yet about the Bush administration’s failure to detect the plot in action. Contrary to his false claims, FISA — for multiple reasons — did not prevent eavesdropping on that call.

Mukasey was even more dishonest in demanding amnesty for lawbreaking telecoms. According to today’s admiring Wall St. Journal Editorial, this is what Mukasey said on that subject:

The AG also addressed why immunity from lawsuits is vital for the telecom companies that cooperated with the surveillance after 9/11. “Forget the liability” the phone companies face, Mr. Mukasey said. “We face the prospect of disclosure in open court of what they did, which is to say the means and the methods by which we collect foreign intelligence against foreign targets.” Al Qaeda would love that.

Mike Mukasey was a long-time federal judge and so I feel perfectly comfortable calling that what it is: a brazen lie. Federal courts hear classified information with great regularity and it is not heard in “open court.” There are numerous options available to any federal judge to hear classified information — closed courtrooms, in camera review (in chambers only), ex parte communications (communications between one party and the judge only). No federal judge — and certainly not Vaughn Walker, the Bush 41 appointee presiding over the telecom cases — is going to allow “disclosure in open court of . . . . the means and the methods by which we collect foreign intelligence.” And Mukasey knows that. Worse, FISA itself (50 USC 1806(f)) explicitly provides that telecoms are permitted to present any evidence in support of their defenses in secret (both in camera and ex parte) to the judge and let the judge decide the case based on it. Just go read 50 USC 1806(f) of FISA; it’s as clear as day. In fact, it doesn’t merely permit, but explicitly requires, the federal judge to review evidence in secret whenever the Attorney General requests that (”the United States district court in the same district . . . shall, notwithstanding any other law, if the Attorney General files an affidavit under oath that disclosure or an adversary hearing would harm the national security of the United States, review in camera and ex parte the application the application, order, and such other materials relating to the surveillance.”).

Beyond that, the key provision of the House’s FISA bill expressly provides that any classified information in the telecom lawsuits shall be submitted in secret to the federal judge. Mukasey’s claims that these lawsuits will result in disclosure of classified information in open court is a complete lie — term used very advisedly.

Worse still, think about what Mukasey is actually saying. His argument means that government officials must be free to break the law in a classified intelligence setting with impunity, because we can’t risk subjecting them to a court of law since, presumably, we can’t trust our country’s federal judges with classified information and so it’s preferable to allow lawbreaking by our highest government officials. That’s a pretty extraordinary — and pretty reprehensible — argument for a former federal judge and current Attorney General to be making. I hope Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer are very proud.

Michael Mukasey can cry all he wants about the 9/11 attacks. But neither he nor the rest of the Bush administration are the proprietors of those attacks. There were millions of New Yorkers in Manhattan on 9/11 other than Michael Mukasey, who lived and worked there for a long time. Neither Mike Mukasey nor his tearful pleas for unchecked government surveillance power and the erosion of the rule of law are representative of them.

To the contrary, the substantial majority of New Yorkers — and huge majorities of Manhattanites — vehemently reject the Bush/Cheney agenda of dismantling our constitutional framework and basic safeguards in the name of these sorts of fear-mongering and manipulative appeals. Unlike Mukasey and other Bush followers, most New Yorkers have ceased quivering in fear long ago — if they ever did — and have had their resolve to defend our basic constitutional liberties strengthened, not obliterated, as a result of the 9/11 attack and the subsequent, self-serving exploitation of it by Mukasey’s White House bosses. And under no circumstances do Mukasey’s tears provide license for this tidal wave of lies in defense of presidential lawlessness, from our nation’s highest “law enforcement officer.”

* * * * *

Jane Hamsher, Howie Klein and I are working this weekend on creating the content for the various ads that are going to run, beginning April 23, aimed at Democrat Chris Carney of Pennsylvania — the clear winner (loser) of the poll which asked which Bush Dog Democrat should be targeted. Carney has ceaselessly supported the worst aspects of the Bush agenda and was one of only five House Democrats to vote against the House FISA bill because he wanted to pass the Rockefeller/Cheney bill.

The ad campaign and its purposes were described here. Close to $50,000 was raised in two days, which allows for an extremely hefty, potent package of television, radio and newspaper ads in Carney’s district, which we’re in the process of creating.

I have some preliminary ideas, but if you have suggestions and concepts for what these ads should convey and how they should be shaped, please email me. In order to keep the email load manageable, I’d really appreciate it if only those people who give some real thought to this and create what they believe is a unique and powerful message actually send me their ideas. It can be anything from the broad topic or general content strategy to a full-scale copy-written television, radio or newspaper ad.

Please review the post I linked to above in order to keep the purpose of the ad in mind. The purpose is to undermine and weaken Carney in the eyes of his largely conservative district by conveying why it is that his Bush-loyal support for warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty — and his general refusal to fulfill his constitutional duty to provide oversight of the President — violates the values of that district’s voters.

UPDATE: When Hillary Clinton teared up in New Hampshire, here’s what Maureen Dowd and the very serious band of National Security Journalists at The New York Times said about it:

When I walked into the office Monday, people were clustering around a computer to watch what they thought they would never see: Hillary Clinton with the unmistakable look of tears in her eyes. A woman gazing at the screen was grimacing, saying it was bad. Three guys watched it over and over, drawn to the “humanized” Hillary. One reporter who covers security issues cringed. “We are at war,” he said. “Is this how she’ll talk to Kim Jong-il?”

We’re at war. Is tearing and crying how Mike Mukasey intends to deal with Sleeper Cells and other scary Al Qaeda threats? I wonder if national security reporters at The New York Times are now going to be raising those same questions about Mukasey’s toughness. Actually, I don’t wonder that at all.

UPDATE II: The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the Mukasey speech and is asking some of the right questions:

Mukasey did not specify the call to which he referred. He also did not explain why the government, if it knew of telephone calls from suspected foreign terrorists, hadn’t sought a wiretapping warrant from a court established by Congress to authorize terrorist surveillance, or hadn’t monitored all such calls without a warrant for 72 hours as allowed by law. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for more information.

As indicated, FISA didn’t require a warrant for that call, but these questions have to be pursued. Mukasey can’t be allowed to drop such a deceitful little bombshell like this — blaming FISA for the Bush administration’s failure to detect the 9/11 attacks — and then refuse to answer basic questions about his incredibly manipulative claims.

Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times Bestselling book “How Would a Patriot Act?,” a critique of the Bush administration’s use of executive power, released in May 2006. His second book, “A Tragic Legacy“, examines the Bush legacy.

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53 Comments so far

ncycat March 29th, 2008 12:11 pm

Mukasey is counting on the fact that Americans are, in general, functionally illiterate (they don’t really understand any of this because they don’t read, don’t want to read, don’t study, don’t want to study, don’t comprehend the complexity of it all and don’t want to comprehend it because to do so would distract them from what they consider their priorities: working, shopping and playing). I talk to people like that every day. Most don’t even know who Mukasey is.

Bernice March 29th, 2008 12:21 pm

Does anyone else notice a lessening of originality and an increase in parroting since George Bush lost Karl Rove? Whoever’s writing now uses a vocabulary that often sound way to sophisticated to be real Bush-speak, at least when Bush is the speaker.

redrooster March 29th, 2008 12:40 pm

No one seems to wonder about, or have an excuse for, telecom immunity for wiretaps place BEFORE 9/11!!!

ruthru March 29th, 2008 12:55 pm

I wonder if he tears up while watching prisoners being waterboarded.

voxclamantis March 29th, 2008 12:58 pm

I also feel bad about the 3000 innocent dead people from 911, but what really makes me tear up is the million-odd innocent dead Iraqi victims of American terrorism and piracy. Are Iraqi telephones and e-mail tapped by their government I wonder? Because if somebody in America, whose taxes are paying for the bombs that are falling on Basra today, is talking to somebody inside the sovereign democracy of Iraq, I would think that should be the business of their homeland security people as well. The golden rule does sound ridiculous as soon as you actually apply it.

piltdownman March 29th, 2008 12:59 pm

Christ the fear-mongering by the Bush administration gets tiresome!

Anyone who has bothered to look knows by now that before 9/11, BUSH WASN’T LOOKING. He was too busy figuring out ways to hand over windfall tax breaks to “his base” and restrict women’s reproductive rights.

frank1569 March 29th, 2008 1:14 pm

Dec 5, 2006: “Former President George H.W. Bush broke down in tears yesterday as he praised his son Jeb, the outgoing governor of Florida.”

“Of course I do, I’ve got God’s shoulder to cry on, and I cry a lot… I’ll bet I’ve shed more tears than you can count as president.” (from “Dead Certain - The Presidency of George Bush)

April, 2005: “Top Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham Quits and Cries After Pleading Guilty to Corruption Charges.”

And the Oscar goes to…

johnycanuck March 29th, 2008 1:49 pm

Am i the only one who has noticed this..

With all the legal and illegal eavesdropping the US government has done, for many many years..

I have not seen ONE case of a terrorist found.. so far all I’ve seen them net are civilians usually the ”enemies” of some power group.. IE; hooker rings and the former NY prosecutor who went after crooked big money boys on wall street

doesm’t the amount of details and evidence amaze you?

please someone show me otherwise

NateW March 29th, 2008 1:51 pm

As a Californian, I am utterly ashamed of my state’s senator, Diane Feinstein, who’s support was instrumental in getting Mukasey confirmed. Not that this should be any surprise, Jello Biafra (who ran against her in 1979 for Mayor of San Fransisco) has described her a “Dragon Lady” and her conduct in the Senate has done nothing to counter that prescient impression.

since1492 March 29th, 2008 1:53 pm

Political whores auditioning for fame and fortune in the biggest whore house in the world. And being presented to us by the media whores who need material to pimp themselves into the big time. Meanwhile, we are losing the Iraq War and our economy and health care are crumbling. That’s OK because the networks are making a bundle.
Hoa binh

emkay March 29th, 2008 2:02 pm

Thank you NateW, for alluding to the first thought that crossed my mind reading the article–let’s all not forget which Democrats allowed this asshole into the position in the first place.

And again, they try to tie Iraq to 911. Shameless.

canardtahiti March 29th, 2008 2:08 pm

Sir, you and I both know (as do our fellow common-dreamers) that this criminally insane bushco régime is most certainly NOT guilty of “a failure to detect the 911 attacks.”

What they clearly ARE guilty of (and I,like you, have known this in my gut since that fatal September morn), is KNOWING about the plot and PERMITTING IT TO HAPPEN (yeah, even aiding and facilitating its déroulement) — because such psychopathic, willful “negligence” (along with active abetting and amplication of the plot) provided them with the blank check they required so as to dismantle our constitution and wreak havoc around the world.

Even you, Sir, are still speaking euphemistically when writing about
the most heinous crimes ever inflicted upon our nation, our people, our now-shredded constitution…and upon millions of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Please stop pretending you don’t KNOW this. Thank you.

Vince Lawrence March 29th, 2008 2:28 pm

uuhhh, didn’t Richard Clark try to present Condi Rice and others in the Bush clique with an urgent report entitled:

“Al Queda Determined To Strike United States”

just before that attack occured?

Mr. Greenwald you have a reputation to protect, so I’ll say it: Mukasey is a shameless fucking whore, a comsumate liar, and a fraud. On top of that, if this is how Mukasey is arguing, he is a complete idiot. Even a child should be able to see through his astonishing statments.

Unbelievable.

Frank Lieb March 29th, 2008 3:19 pm

Let’s not forget that Sen. Feinstein and Sen. Schumer, both Democrats (?), proposed this schmuck! Along with our Neanderthal President, and the rest of the Dems voted to appoint the schmuck.
Big Bad Bob and Vince Lawrence said it all!

Little Brother March 29th, 2008 3:19 pm

The Democratic leadership’s entirely predictable, and utterly reprehensible, gracious acquiescence to the Mukasey nomination is only one instance of the nominally opposed political elites making common cause in the name of comity and moderation.

The spectacle of Democrats Feinstein and Schumer fluttering around the nominee, while not unremarked upon, didn’t especially trouble the corporate media infotainwhore commentariat. And the self-styled “pragmatic” partisan Democrats were happy to strew these charlatans’ path with the usual flower petals of accommodationist rationalization: Mukasey was, after all, the “least evil” possibility; rejecting him would have only meant that an even more blatantly malignant person would be offered by the uncompromising criminals occupying the Executive Branch– got to pick one’s battles, after all, keep the powder dry; and above all, avoid the trap of Making the Perfect the Enemy of the Good.

I guess we should be grateful that these treacherous villains aren’t shedding their own crocodile tears for greenlighting still another odious miscreant. I’m certain that politicians are permanently convinced, one way or another, that they’re always doing the best they can, and are striving to find the best solutions possible (with emphasis on possible) to complex and intractable problems.

Their modern consciences are self-cleaning, like ovens.

whatfools March 29th, 2008 3:33 pm

This is so FUBAR that it’s time to secede.

Nietzsche March 29th, 2008 4:13 pm

Some people don’t need a demagogue to jerk them off. They shamelessly seek out an audience to watch them masturbate. And the more worked up they get, the less sense they make. Nobody can think after they have abandoned themselves to an abreactive emotion fest.

shuoshuokan March 29th, 2008 4:16 pm

As we all know we can’t travel in a carriage without a horse. As the song goes, it is “horse and carriage”. If you want an aggressive foreign policy and imperial strategy you must necessarily have a tightly controlled nation with maximum domestic “security”.

This is needed for two obvious reasons. You need to frustrate any retaliation from your foreign enemies who might want revenge and justice, and you need to de-fang your critics at home. So, if we don’t want a police state we must make the change at its source. Stop being a hegemon, whatever the justification for it might be.

lizard March 29th, 2008 4:25 pm

Diane Feinstein is jewish. Her loyalty is to Israel. Her actions are consistent with her principles. She is a person who places her principles above all else, as one would expect from a principled person.

camus13 March 29th, 2008 4:29 pm

Chris Carney is from the 10th District in Pa. He defeated Don Shrwood who beat up his bimbo in Washington and she called the cops. He promised her $500,000 if she did not push the case and paid her $250,000 before his relection and promised another $250,000 after.

Carney a military man from way back won the seat in a very heavy GOP district. After going to Washington he became George Bush III voting with him on everything.

He has two ultra-rights running on the primary in PA on the GOP side of the ticket. You should hear their advs. “Family values and please pray for him….etc.”

But I believe watching him from the start he was really a right wing GOPer from the start.

He needs to be attacked for he was the Blue Dog of Blue Dogs.

David Grayling. March 29th, 2008 4:34 pm

Reading these comments disturbs me greatly. Many Americans know that what their country and its leaders are doing is wrong yet all they can do is whinge!

Why doesn’t someone start to do something about it? I mean the French when they had their Revolution, showed they could do more than whinge. They actually got off their bums and threw the bastards who were oppressing and manipulating them out! Yes they did! If all they’d done was to whinge they’d still be under the heel of the corrupt French Royalty.

There’s a lesson in that I’m sure. I hope so otherwise my ‘Epitaph for Mankind’ will be the final word on it.

www.dangerouscreation.com

Nietzsche March 29th, 2008 5:31 pm

Well David, not enough people are starving yet. When things get bad enough there will be change. Things are not bad enough yet. You think the whole universe obeys the laws of cause and effect except man? Not bloody likely.

Remember how desperate the Russian peasant had to become before he was receptive to the massive confidence swindle of the Red Party.

Aarky March 29th, 2008 6:14 pm

Mukasey’s story about the call from Afghanistan was probably true,but he forgot to mention one part of the story. If I recall from all my readings, the call was picked up by NSA, but wasn’t translated for a couple days. That is when the attack occurred. As soon as Mukasey said that he didn’t have any opinion on waterboarding, the Demos should have dumped him out of his chair and beat the Hell out of him with leather belts. But no! They helped put him in as the AG.

namaste March 29th, 2008 6:16 pm

David G — Do you really want to know?

I really hate to sound like another poster herein, who for many months has been referring to govt mind control. Until today, I discounted those assertions as fundamentally flawed and outrageous, as I hadn’t yet gotten the connecting piece of the puzzle.

Today, I’ve crossed over and now believe that there’s more going on than just obvious: propaganda, psychopathic run corpo-fascist cartel/govt, cognitive dissonance, and control of M$M.

This bag of tricks is actually NOT enough reason for so many Americans to be dumbfounded and agreeable to disgusting degenerate and illegal torture and world terrorism (the source of).

Mind control is not only possible & plausible - but a logical extension of 40-yr long MK-ULTRA experiments. Part of it is now freely available and packaged for anyone to purchase: hemisync brain hemisphere entrainment through binaural (headphones) tones, get any number of various programing CDs for $20 each. Lose weight, learn a new language, break old habits, … etc.

If you can handle the truth, follow this link here

Namaste

Jack37 March 29th, 2008 6:30 pm

Fucking rubber stamp liar, Mukasey—is he the first Israeli citizen AG? The only one greasier than Mukasey is Gates, who followed Rummy right out of Iran/Contra lies into the new ones….

Gail March 29th, 2008 6:31 pm

“Speaking in San Fransisco this week, Mukasey demanded that the President be given new warrantless eavesdropping powers and that lawbreaking telecoms be granted amnesty.”

Did Mukasey demand that the telecoms give “FIRST RESPONDERS” a bandwidth of their own in the event of another 9/11 or Katrina - or would that interfere with their profits after buying the people’s airwaves for a song and dance?

Bush, Cheney, Mukasey and all the other lying misfits in this government can go to hell!

bill March 29th, 2008 8:34 pm

Bush and his people are doing what they have to do to protect the carbon-auto industry. The only force strong enough to oppose this power is an international mass movement. Want to fight back? Join your local bus/transit riders’ union, or political party, and fight for free public transit. This is the best way to undercut the auto and sprawl.

http://frepubtra.blogspot.com

abelito March 29th, 2008 8:52 pm

Mukasey is right. You don’t want “the means and the methods” out in court as to WHY there was, as Darth said,”…a failure to connect the dots.” Not that there weren’t any “dots” to “connect” BEFORE 9/11.

AlexLawyer March 29th, 2008 8:56 pm

The FBI and CIA had the information, under existing laws in 2001, that could and should have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Bush, Ashcroft and Rice were repeatedly warned by the CIA, FBI and NSC and failed to act. It was their negligence and incompetence, willful or otherwise, that allowed a group of 19 mostly Saudi terrorists using clumsy, transparent methods, to stage this attack. Intelligence wasn’t lacking on paper, but within the thick skulls of the neocons. Accordingly, giving up our civil rights won’t solve the problem. Bush declared that we were attacked for our freedom and prosperity, and has done his utmost to deprive us of both. It’s time to restore both our rights and sanity to our government.

voxclamantis March 29th, 2008 9:14 pm

David G - I’m starting to hate the word “whining” which I read a lot on this blog. We voice our discontent, we have no answers, so we are whining. Do you want us to shut up?

Okay, you are impatient. I’m off my ass, I’m going to DO something. I’m dipping the end of a stick in pitch and lighting it on fire. I’m grabbing my pitchfork. I’m loading my pistol and stuffing it in my belt. I’m calling my friends and neighbors. I ain’t going to take it any more. I’m leading a march on Washington to take back my country. I’m making it about a mile down the highway before I am arrested and put someplace where I can’t even whine.

Our best hope, I think, is the Marxist notion that there exists an historical dialectic, and that things seethe and compost and brew and finally emerge into action at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way. How it works might be none of our business. But we here at CD are discontent itself, and at this time and place we fight with bitching and whining and words, if you will, instead of bayonets. We are making progress you know. We are throwing the bastards out. I changed the mind of a conservative yesterday. I threw some bastard right out of his brain.

namaste March 29th, 2008 10:21 pm

Voxclamantis — Congratulations on de-NeoCON’ing a conservative’s infestation. If only we could bottle that, and spread an infection of similar consciousness rising activity.

It sound a lot like exorcism - blasting the evil out and into the abyss.

Namaste

Greg Bacon March 30th, 2008 12:40 am

The illegal warrantless telecom spying began in February 2001, SEVEN months before 9/11.

Which means that the Bush/Cheney Junta not only knew about the upcoming attacks, but were active in ensuring that the attacks were carried out and the cover was kept so the MOSSAD/CIA false-flags ops of 9/11 could proceed without hindarance.

canuckchuck March 30th, 2008 12:45 am

“We knew that there has been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn’t know precisely where it went.”

Excuse me? WASN’T BUSH “THE UNITARD” AND THE TELECOMS EAVESDROPPING PRIOR TO 911?

HOW ABOUT THIS ONE…”we knew that al qaeda had a plan to attack the USA using passenger jets, and we knew we had given visas to several known terrorist to study to fly passenger jets…well, take off and fly a bit, anyways, they didnt sign up to learn to land…and when several passenger jets were hijacked and started to fly to NYC we had the air force stand down….BUT WE COULD HAVE PREVENTED IT IF ONLY WE HAD BEEN ALLOWED TO EAVESDROP ON THE DEMOCRATS

canuckchuck March 30th, 2008 12:50 am

“THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOMS….SO WE HAVE TO DESTROY THEM….OUR FREEDOMS THAT IS” - THE UNITARD

greenerthanthou March 30th, 2008 1:28 am

It is too bad that pointing out that 9-11 had to be an inside job is simply forbidden speech, beyond the pale, not allowed in polite company. In today’s America, the child who blurted out the truth that the Emperor had no clothes would be hushed, ridiculed and whisked away in embarrassment.

I am sorry that I can’t get beyond the obvious truth that spying on Americans didn’t stop 9-11 because 9-11 was needed to push the neocon agenda. So I can’t come up with a clever ad campaign slogan that dances around that fact.

Thank you, Glen Greenwald, for pointing out legalisms that I didn’t know about the FISA law.

Homarus March 30th, 2008 7:06 am

I join “greenerthanthou” in applauding Glen for his clear definition of the lies. And, I applaud “greenerthanthou” for raising the issue of the neocon agenda, prior to 9/11. The similarity of the events leading up to 9/11 to the events leading up to events on Dec. 7, 1941 is conspicuously missing from our national discussion.

It took more than a quarter of a century for the inaction of those with knowledge of the coming attack on Pearl Harbor to be openly discussed. I suspect that eventually the same discussion will take place about 9/11. If what Mukasey says about what was known before the attack is true, then almost certainly it can be assumed that the details of what was about to happen were also known.

A truly sad comment about our elected leadership.

willybill March 30th, 2008 7:20 am

TREASON!! No more need be said.

Gail March 30th, 2008 9:52 am

“(Mukasey’s) argument means that government officials must be free to break the law in a classified intelligence setting with impunity, because we can’t risk subjecting them to a court of law since, presumably, we can’t trust our country’s federal judges with classified information and so it’s preferable to allow lawbreaking by our highest government officials.”

Mukasey’s argument or “ideology” is in perfect lock-step with the arrogant elitists who have been working for decades to create a world dictatorship under their control.

While keeping the U.S. in a “state of war” with one country or another, the executive branch with the help of Congress over many decades has been able to undermine our Constitution and Bill of Rights (our liberties and freedom) by using “national security/classified information” as an excuse to usurp the power of citizens and establish more authoritarian rule within the federal government.

The elites have always displayed a negative attitude toward the people they rule and have done everything in their power to keep our involvement in government at a minimum to none at all.

Consider the journalist who recently told Dick Cheney that the majority in this country were against the occupation/war in Iraq: Cheney’s response was, “So”!

In other words: Screw the people - they have no say in this authoritarian government, of, by and for the corporate elitists. Who gives a $hit what those retarded underlings have to say about our foreign and domestic policies; we’re the “experts”.

As “we the people” can see, their policies are simply impeccable…..absolute perfection! Their expertise is undeniable!

Without a Mukasey-type ideology in full play, the ruling elite will be unable to have their cake and eat it, too.

Speaking of the ruling elite, Bush now wants to give more control to the Federal Reserve Bankers after the biggest economic screw-ups and banking fraud of the century. Check out this article: http://www.ft.com/home/us

barksnotbites March 30th, 2008 10:22 am

I knew how wicked (evil) Diane Feinstein was when she sold out the ancient redwoods to that criminal from Texas! There is Nothing she has done or could do now to prove otherwise.

Bully trick from waaay baaack: when all else fails and you cant get your way, cry. Appear human for just long enough to trick the fools into giving you your way.

barksnotbites March 30th, 2008 10:25 am

Yes Willybill, TREASON.

namaste March 30th, 2008 11:11 am

Gail — The sickening truth of neoCONs deranged doctrine underpinning ALL, is clarified herein

From this profoundly informative research paper:

” One particular faction of ambitious men, the former cold warriors and emerging neo-conservatives, were close followers of philosopher Leo Strauss. This elite group included not just generals and industrialists but philosophers, scientists, academics, and politicians have now become the most
powerful public-private war organization ever known.

Strauss espoused an elitist philosophy that fawned over the characteristics of those who inherited wealth and lived lives of leisure to pursue whatever their interests may be. His ideas have been
transformed into a cogent ideology in which the media, religion, and government are used to subdue the masses while the real “nobles” follow their own will without regard to the laws designed to control lesser men. Strauss was likewise fond of secrecy, as a necessity for control, because if the lesser men found out what was being done to them they would no doubt be upset.

“The people will not be happy to learn that there is only one natural right – the right of the superior to rule over the inferior, the master over the slave, the husband over the wife, and the wise few over the vulgar many.” In On Tyranny, Strauss refers to this natural right as the “tyrannical teaching” of his beloved ancients..

Leo Strauss, Albert Wohlstetter, and others at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought receive wide credit for promoting the neo-conservative agenda through their students, Paul Wolfowitz, Allan Bloom, and Bloom’s student Richard Perle.”

BTW, this is the same paper I mentioned elsewhere on CD about Directed Energy weapons, that now reach US far beyond mere crowd control - including brain wave manipulation, thought control, organ failure, man-made (horizontal laser spawned) lightning, and of course crispy fried smoking DEATH. This reference has many contacts for those interested in joining together, or consolidating actual evidence.

Please also see videos of Dr. Nick Begich here for undeniable proof of govt’s proven techniques to program people, like one might do to a computer with the proper software.

Namaste

namaste March 30th, 2008 11:14 am

sansf March 30th, 2008 1:01 pm

Long ago I let Sandra O’Connor’s people know that I can never forgive her 2000 vote re Bush. Recently, after many complaints to Feinstein’s office re most of her votes, I let her people know that I can never forgive her voting Mukasey out of judiciary committee for vote. I know that she is no Democrat. But Mukasey is there because of Democrats. We could have survived this time without an AG since any would have been rubber stampers. Dems knew that.

Gail March 30th, 2008 1:42 pm

namaste March 30th, 2008 11:14 am

Your lightning-bolt visual is stunning!

I really appreciate your humor. Thanks.

seastar March 30th, 2008 5:55 pm

Did anyone else notice this lovely piece of innuendo from Mukasey:

Officials “shouldn’t need a warrant when somebody with a phone in Iraq picks up a phone and calls somebody in the United States because that’s the call that we may really want to know about. And before 9/11, that’s the call that we didn’t know about. We knew that there has been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan…”

Notice the not-too-subtle Iraq-9/11-Afghanistan connection drawn here! Years after any connection between Iraq and 9/11 has been thoroughly discredited, the Bushies are still using it!

Unchained March 30th, 2008 6:19 pm

We had warnings from several countried months before this event occurred. The admin didn’t pay heed.

Hmm…should the White House, or Cheney’s headquarters been tapped?

When will these guys quit feeding us the bull and just admit they are screw ups?

crowbone66 March 30th, 2008 6:28 pm

call mukasey at 202.353.1555

call feinstein and schumer and thank them heartily for his appointment. tell them to make a public apology.
202.224.3121 and ask for them by name

Siouxrose March 30th, 2008 10:36 pm

NAMASTE: Powerful visuals! The Tower is my least favorite card of the tarot. And I have a method for calculating the I ching each day, and for 9-11-2001 it adds up to 23, the I ching number of SPLITTING APART. When I witness this type of synchronicity often, it leads to a sense of awe for the pattern in the great fabric that we’re all woven into via shared strands of destiny.

namaste March 31st, 2008 2:18 am

SIOUXROSE — It’s the dark night of the soul, for the fool who had forgotten that he had built the tower, but it all comes back in the flash of lightning brilliantly revealing the long hidden truth, concealed by the powers that be - but no longer.

I also feel and “witness this type of synchronicity … sense of awe … we’re all woven into … shared strands …”, and it is incredible that these archetypal forms are coincidental or “accidental” - the underpinnings of these towers goes back 4,000 yr (¿ Egyptian) in one sense.

With the prospect of the Great Awakening also (possibly) SPLITTING us APART from the dross of materialism and greed, to open the consciousness to literal transformation manifesting amongst us ALL, now that is going to be ONE big FLASH (when dual_tower_ism is eradicated - by its roots - and ONEness wings us to walk upon the sky circle once again).

There is a quickening and convergence of which glimmers were foretold upon us, and we are blessed with the presence of existence grasped at but not yet held.

¿ If many are called but few are chosen - then is it our own CHOICE to become vulnerable to this SPLITTING APART, to bare our ∞ to the winds of change ?

For my 2 ¢, we are on the threshold of “Childhood’s End” that Arthur Clark foretold, and whereupon the road forks, we pick one.

¿ Are not WE the choosers of BEING the chosen ?

Namaste

arkitekton March 31st, 2008 5:32 am

“Please also see videos of Dr. Nick Begich here for undeniable proof of govt’s proven techniques to program people, like one might do to a computer with the proper software.

Namaste”

Er, I believe it’s called the public education system.

So Bush’s AG is a lying sack of shit. Go figure.

namaste March 31st, 2008 12:35 pm

arkitekton — Your offhand comment is directly addressed in the 3 short videos, and the consequences for the future are far worse than can be easily imagined.

To wit (from Dr. Begich), we already have compulsory primary education where curriculum is now set by govt policy (NCLB sucks, but that is besides my point).

Most would accept futuristic improvements in downloading directly into our kids minds, the principles of math and science — as those are objective and difficult to learn, while providing immense benefit to society. No harm, big gain, no foul.

What is scaring the neurons to jump in my brain today, is the other side of programming emotionally charged ideas, that EVERYONE (from one end of the n-dimensional spectrum to the other) likely agrees — it is the parents role to teach morality, ethics, and the social context of being human (and whomever they choose to delegate that function to on Sunday’s, or all week long in a privater school).

How well do you suppose the miscreant_in_thief_&_loonitary_unitard and his accomplices will teach your own principles to (who they consider to be) “their” kids ?

If you believe that people are being programmed now, how far can we allow things to progress when the govt can make “better” robots (and killing machines) of all of our children?

Namste

Nader4prez April 1st, 2008 2:19 pm

Can’t we just start a class action law suit and sue the whole damn lot of them for high-jacking our Country?

namaste April 1st, 2008 3:13 pm

The law for massive criminal enterprises is called

R acketeer I nfluenced and C orrupt O rganizations Act
(_ R I C O _)

“All” we need is an honest Attorney General, or Congress, or enough proof published wide enough that the PUBLIC demands accountability and HEADS.

Namaste

ncycat March 29th, 2008 12:11 pm

Mukasey is counting on the fact that Americans are, in general, functionally illiterate (they don’t really understand any of this because they don’t read, don’t want to read, don’t study, don’t want to study, don’t comprehend the complexity of it all and don’t want to comprehend it because to do so would distract them from what they consider their priorities: working, shopping and playing). I talk to people like that every day. Most don’t even know who Mukasey is.
Bernice March 29th, 2008 12:21 pm

Does anyone else notice a lessening of originality and an increase in parroting since George Bush lost Karl Rove? Whoever’s writing now uses a vocabulary that often sound way to sophisticated to be real Bush-speak, at least when Bush is the speaker.
redrooster March 29th, 2008 12:40 pm

No one seems to wonder about, or have an excuse for, telecom immunity for wiretaps place BEFORE 9/11!!!
ruthru March 29th, 2008 12:55 pm

I wonder if he tears up while watching prisoners being waterboarded.
voxclamantis March 29th, 2008 12:58 pm

I also feel bad about the 3000 innocent dead people from 911, but what really makes me tear up is the million-odd innocent dead Iraqi victims of American terrorism and piracy. Are Iraqi telephones and e-mail tapped by their government I wonder? Because if somebody in America, whose taxes are paying for the bombs that are falling on Basra today, is talking to somebody inside the sovereign democracy of Iraq, I would think that should be the business of their homeland security people as well. The golden rule does sound ridiculous as soon as you actually apply it.
piltdownman March 29th, 2008 12:59 pm

Christ the fear-mongering by the Bush administration gets tiresome!

Anyone who has bothered to look knows by now that before 9/11, BUSH WASN’T LOOKING. He was too busy figuring out ways to hand over windfall tax breaks to “his base” and restrict women’s reproductive rights.
frank1569 March 29th, 2008 1:14 pm

Dec 5, 2006: “Former President George H.W. Bush broke down in tears yesterday as he praised his son Jeb, the outgoing governor of Florida.”

“Of course I do, I’ve got God’s shoulder to cry on, and I cry a lot… I’ll bet I’ve shed more tears than you can count as president.” (from “Dead Certain - The Presidency of George Bush)

April, 2005: “Top Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham Quits and Cries After Pleading Guilty to Corruption Charges.”

And the Oscar goes to…
johnycanuck March 29th, 2008 1:49 pm

Am i the only one who has noticed this..

With all the legal and illegal eavesdropping the US government has done, for many many years..

I have not seen ONE case of a terrorist found.. so far all I’ve seen them net are civilians usually the ”enemies” of some power group.. IE; hooker rings and the former NY prosecutor who went after crooked big money boys on wall street

doesm’t the amount of details and evidence amaze you?

please someone show me otherwise
NateW March 29th, 2008 1:51 pm

As a Californian, I am utterly ashamed of my state’s senator, Diane Feinstein, who’s support was instrumental in getting Mukasey confirmed. Not that this should be any surprise, Jello Biafra (who ran against her in 1979 for Mayor of San Fransisco) has described her a “Dragon Lady” and her conduct in the Senate has done nothing to counter that prescient impression.
since1492 March 29th, 2008 1:53 pm

Political whores auditioning for fame and fortune in the biggest whore house in the world. And being presented to us by the media whores who need material to pimp themselves into the big time. Meanwhile, we are losing the Iraq War and our economy and health care are crumbling. That’s OK because the networks are making a bundle.
Hoa binh
emkay March 29th, 2008 2:02 pm

Thank you NateW, for alluding to the first thought that crossed my mind reading the article–let’s all not forget which Democrats allowed this asshole into the position in the first place.

And again, they try to tie Iraq to 911. Shameless.
canardtahiti March 29th, 2008 2:08 pm

Sir, you and I both know (as do our fellow common-dreamers) that this criminally insane bushco régime is most certainly NOT guilty of “a failure to detect the 911 attacks.”

What they clearly ARE guilty of (and I,like you, have known this in my gut since that fatal September morn), is KNOWING about the plot and PERMITTING IT TO HAPPEN (yeah, even aiding and facilitating its déroulement) — because such psychopathic, willful “negligence” (along with active abetting and amplication of the plot) provided them with the blank check they required so as to dismantle our constitution and wreak havoc around the world.

Even you, Sir, are still speaking euphemistically when writing about
the most heinous crimes ever inflicted upon our nation, our people, our now-shredded constitution…and upon millions of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Please stop pretending you don’t KNOW this. Thank you.
Vince Lawrence March 29th, 2008 2:28 pm

uuhhh, didn’t Richard Clark try to present Condi Rice and others in the Bush clique with an urgent report entitled:

“Al Queda Determined To Strike United States”

just before that attack occured?

Mr. Greenwald you have a reputation to protect, so I’ll say it: Mukasey is a shameless fucking whore, a comsumate liar, and a fraud. On top of that, if this is how Mukasey is arguing, he is a complete idiot. Even a child should be able to see through his astonishing statments.

Unbelievable.
Frank Lieb March 29th, 2008 3:19 pm

Let’s not forget that Sen. Feinstein and Sen. Schumer, both Democrats (?), proposed this schmuck! Along with our Neanderthal President, and the rest of the Dems voted to appoint the schmuck.
Big Bad Bob and Vince Lawrence said it all!
Little Brother March 29th, 2008 3:19 pm

The Democratic leadership’s entirely predictable, and utterly reprehensible, gracious acquiescence to the Mukasey nomination is only one instance of the nominally opposed political elites making common cause in the name of comity and moderation.

The spectacle of Democrats Feinstein and Schumer fluttering around the nominee, while not unremarked upon, didn’t especially trouble the corporate media infotainwhore commentariat. And the self-styled “pragmatic” partisan Democrats were happy to strew these charlatans’ path with the usual flower petals of accommodationist rationalization: Mukasey was, after all, the “least evil” possibility; rejecting him would have only meant that an even more blatantly malignant person would be offered by the uncompromising criminals occupying the Executive Branch– got to pick one’s battles, after all, keep the powder dry; and above all, avoid the trap of Making the Perfect the Enemy of the Good.

I guess we should be grateful that these treacherous villains aren’t shedding their own crocodile tears for greenlighting still another odious miscreant. I’m certain that politicians are permanently convinced, one way or another, that they’re always doing the best they can, and are striving to find the best solutions possible (with emphasis on possible) to complex and intractable problems.

Their modern consciences are self-cleaning, like ovens.
whatfools March 29th, 2008 3:33 pm

This is so FUBAR that it’s time to secede.
Nietzsche March 29th, 2008 4:13 pm

Some people don’t need a demagogue to jerk them off. They shamelessly seek out an audience to watch them masturbate. And the more worked up they get, the less sense they make. Nobody can think after they have abandoned themselves to an abreactive emotion fest.
shuoshuokan March 29th, 2008 4:16 pm

As we all know we can’t travel in a carriage without a horse. As the song goes, it is “horse and carriage”. If you want an aggressive foreign policy and imperial strategy you must necessarily have a tightly controlled nation with maximum domestic “security”.

This is needed for two obvious reasons. You need to frustrate any retaliation from your foreign enemies who might want revenge and justice, and you need to de-fang your critics at home. So, if we don’t want a police state we must make the change at its source. Stop being a hegemon, whatever the justification for it might be.
lizard March 29th, 2008 4:25 pm

Diane Feinstein is jewish. Her loyalty is to Israel. Her actions are consistent with her principles. She is a person who places her principles above all else, as one would expect from a principled person.
camus13 March 29th, 2008 4:29 pm

Chris Carney is from the 10th District in Pa. He defeated Don Shrwood who beat up his bimbo in Washington and she called the cops. He promised her $500,000 if she did not push the case and paid her $250,000 before his relection and promised another $250,000 after.

Carney a military man from way back won the seat in a very heavy GOP district. After going to Washington he became George Bush III voting with him on everything.

He has two ultra-rights running on the primary in PA on the GOP side of the ticket. You should hear their advs. “Family values and please pray for him….etc.”

But I believe watching him from the start he was really a right wing GOPer from the start.

He needs to be attacked for he was the Blue Dog of Blue Dogs.
David Grayling. March 29th, 2008 4:34 pm

Reading these comments disturbs me greatly. Many Americans know that what their country and its leaders are doing is wrong yet all they can do is whinge!

Why doesn’t someone start to do something about it? I mean the French when they had their Revolution, showed they could do more than whinge. They actually got off their bums and threw the bastards who were oppressing and manipulating them out! Yes they did! If all they’d done was to whinge they’d still be under the heel of the corrupt French Royalty.

There’s a lesson in that I’m sure. I hope so otherwise my ‘Epitaph for Mankind’ will be the final word on it.

www.dangerouscreation.com
Nietzsche March 29th, 2008 5:31 pm

Well David, not enough people are starving yet. When things get bad enough there will be change. Things are not bad enough yet. You think the whole universe obeys the laws of cause and effect except man? Not bloody likely.

Remember how desperate the Russian peasant had to become before he was receptive to the massive confidence swindle of the Red Party.
Aarky March 29th, 2008 6:14 pm

Mukasey’s story about the call from Afghanistan was probably true,but he forgot to mention one part of the story. If I recall from all my readings, the call was picked up by NSA, but wasn’t translated for a couple days. That is when the attack occurred. As soon as Mukasey said that he didn’t have any opinion on waterboarding, the Demos should have dumped him out of his chair and beat the Hell out of him with leather belts. But no! They helped put him in as the AG.
namaste March 29th, 2008 6:16 pm

David G — Do you really want to know?

I really hate to sound like another poster herein, who for many months has been referring to govt mind control. Until today, I discounted those assertions as fundamentally flawed and outrageous, as I hadn’t yet gotten the connecting piece of the puzzle.

Today, I’ve crossed over and now believe that there’s more going on than just obvious: propaganda, psychopathic run corpo-fascist cartel/govt, cognitive dissonance, and control of M$M.

This bag of tricks is actually NOT enough reason for so many Americans to be dumbfounded and agreeable to disgusting degenerate and illegal torture and world terrorism (the source of).

Mind control is not only possible & plausible - but a logical extension of 40-yr long MK-ULTRA experiments. Part of it is now freely available and packaged for anyone to purchase: hemisync brain hemisphere entrainment through binaural (headphones) tones, get any number of various programing CDs for $20 each. Lose weight, learn a new language, break old habits, … etc.

If you can handle the truth, follow this link here

Namaste
Jack37 March 29th, 2008 6:30 pm

Fucking rubber stamp liar, Mukasey—is he the first Israeli citizen AG? The only one greasier than Mukasey is Gates, who followed Rummy right out of Iran/Contra lies into the new ones….
Gail March 29th, 2008 6:31 pm

“Speaking in San Fransisco this week, Mukasey demanded that the President be given new warrantless eavesdropping powers and that lawbreaking telecoms be granted amnesty.”

Did Mukasey demand that the telecoms give “FIRST RESPONDERS” a bandwidth of their own in the event of another 9/11 or Katrina - or would that interfere with their profits after buying the people’s airwaves for a song and dance?

Bush, Cheney, Mukasey and all the other lying misfits in this government can go to hell!
bill March 29th, 2008 8:34 pm

Bush and his people are doing what they have to do to protect the carbon-auto industry. The only force strong enough to oppose this power is an international mass movement. Want to fight back? Join your local bus/transit riders’ union, or political party, and fight for free public transit. This is the best way to undercut the auto and sprawl.

http://frepubtra.blogspot.com

.
abelito March 29th, 2008 8:52 pm

Mukasey is right. You don’t want “the means and the methods” out in court as to WHY there was, as Darth said,”…a failure to connect the dots.” Not that there weren’t any “dots” to “connect” BEFORE 9/11.
AlexLawyer March 29th, 2008 8:56 pm

The FBI and CIA had the information, under existing laws in 2001, that could and should have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Bush, Ashcroft and Rice were repeatedly warned by the CIA, FBI and NSC and failed to act. It was their negligence and incompetence, willful or otherwise, that allowed a group of 19 mostly Saudi terrorists using clumsy, transparent methods, to stage this attack. Intelligence wasn’t lacking on paper, but within the thick skulls of the neocons. Accordingly, giving up our civil rights won’t solve the problem. Bush declared that we were attacked for our freedom and prosperity, and has done his utmost to deprive us of both. It’s time to restore both our rights and sanity to our government.
voxclamantis March 29th, 2008 9:14 pm

David G - I’m starting to hate the word “whining” which I read a lot on this blog. We voice our discontent, we have no answers, so we are whining. Do you want us to shut up?

Okay, you are impatient. I’m off my ass, I’m going to DO something. I’m dipping the end of a stick in pitch and lighting it on fire. I’m grabbing my pitchfork. I’m loading my pistol and stuffing it in my belt. I’m calling my friends and neighbors. I ain’t going to take it any more. I’m leading a march on Washington to take back my country. I’m making it about a mile down the highway before I am arrested and put someplace where I can’t even whine.

Our best hope, I think, is the Marxist notion that there exists an historical dialectic, and that things seethe and compost and brew and finally emerge into action at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way. How it works might be none of our business. But we here at CD are discontent itself, and at this time and place we fight with bitching and whining and words, if you will, instead of bayonets. We are making progress you know. We are throwing the bastards out. I changed the mind of a conservative yesterday. I threw some bastard right out of his brain.
namaste March 29th, 2008 10:21 pm

Voxclamantis — Congratulations on de-NeoCON’ing a conservative’s infestation. If only we could bottle that, and spread an infection of similar consciousness rising activity.

It sound a lot like exorcism - blasting the evil out and into the abyss.

Namaste
Greg Bacon March 30th, 2008 12:40 am

The illegal warrantless telecom spying began in February 2001, SEVEN months before 9/11.

Which means that the Bush/Cheney Junta not only knew about the upcoming attacks, but were active in ensuring that the attacks were carried out and the cover was kept so the MOSSAD/CIA false-flags ops of 9/11 could proceed without hindarance.
canuckchuck March 30th, 2008 12:45 am

“We knew that there has been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn’t know precisely where it went.”

Excuse me? WASN’T BUSH “THE UNITARD” AND THE TELECOMS EAVESDROPPING PRIOR TO 911?

HOW ABOUT THIS ONE…”we knew that al qaeda had a plan to attack the USA using passenger jets, and we knew we had given visas to several known terrorist to study to fly passenger jets…well, take off and fly a bit, anyways, they didnt sign up to learn to land…and when several passenger jets were hijacked and started to fly to NYC we had the air force stand down….BUT WE COULD HAVE PREVENTED IT IF ONLY WE HAD BEEN ALLOWED TO EAVESDROP ON THE DEMOCRATS
canuckchuck March 30th, 2008 12:50 am

“THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOMS….SO WE HAVE TO DESTROY THEM….OUR FREEDOMS THAT IS” - THE UNITARD
greenerthanthou March 30th, 2008 1:28 am

It is too bad that pointing out that 9-11 had to be an inside job is simply forbidden speech, beyond the pale, not allowed in polite company. In today’s America, the child who blurted out the truth that the Emperor had no clothes would be hushed, ridiculed and whisked away in embarrassment.

I am sorry that I can’t get beyond the obvious truth that spying on Americans didn’t stop 9-11 because 9-11 was needed to push the neocon agenda. So I can’t come up with a clever ad campaign slogan that dances around that fact.

Thank you, Glen Greenwald, for pointing out legalisms that I didn’t know about the FISA law.
Homarus March 30th, 2008 7:06 am

I join “greenerthanthou” in applauding Glen for his clear definition of the lies. And, I applaud “greenerthanthou” for raising the issue of the neocon agenda, prior to 9/11. The similarity of the events leading up to 9/11 to the events leading up to events on Dec. 7, 1941 is conspicuously missing from our national discussion.

It took more than a quarter of a century for the inaction of those with knowledge of the coming attack on Pearl Harbor to be openly discussed. I suspect that eventually the same discussion will take place about 9/11. If what Mukasey says about what was known before the attack is true, then almost certainly it can be assumed that the details of what was about to happen were also known.

A truly sad comment about our elected leadership.
willybill March 30th, 2008 7:20 am

TREASON!! No more need be said.
Gail March 30th, 2008 9:52 am

“(Mukasey’s) argument means that government officials must be free to break the law in a classified intelligence setting with impunity, because we can’t risk subjecting them to a court of law since, presumably, we can’t trust our country’s federal judges with classified information and so it’s preferable to allow lawbreaking by our highest government officials.”

Mukasey’s argument or “ideology” is in perfect lock-step with the arrogant elitists who have been working for decades to create a world dictatorship under their control.

While keeping the U.S. in a “state of war” with one country or another, the executive branch with the help of Congress over many decades has been able to undermine our Constitution and Bill of Rights (our liberties and freedom) by using “national security/classified information” as an excuse to usurp the power of citizens and establish more authoritarian rule within the federal government.

The elites have always displayed a negative attitude toward the people they rule and have done everything in their power to keep our involvement in government at a minimum to none at all.

Consider the journalist who recently told Dick Cheney that the majority in this country were against the occupation/war in Iraq: Cheney’s response was, “So”!

In other words: Screw the people - they have no say in this authoritarian government, of, by and for the corporate elitists. Who gives a $hit what those retarded underlings have to say about our foreign and domestic policies; we’re the “experts”.

As “we the people” can see, their policies are simply impeccable…..absolute perfection! Their expertise is undeniable!

Without a Mukasey-type ideology in full play, the ruling elite will be unable to have their cake and eat it, too.

Speaking of the ruling elite, Bush now wants to give more control to the Federal Reserve Bankers after the biggest economic screw-ups and banking fraud of the century. Check out this article: http://www.ft.com/home/us
barksnotbites March 30th, 2008 10:22 am

I knew how wicked (evil) Diane Feinstein was when she sold out the ancient redwoods to that criminal from Texas! There is Nothing she has done or could do now to prove otherwise.

Bully trick from waaay baaack: when all else fails and you cant get your way, cry. Appear human for just long enough to trick the fools into giving you your way.
barksnotbites March 30th, 2008 10:25 am

Yes Willybill, TREASON.
namaste March 30th, 2008 11:11 am

Gail — The sickening truth of neoCONs deranged doctrine underpinning ALL, is clarified herein

From this profoundly informative research paper:

” One particular faction of ambitious men, the former cold warriors and emerging neo-conservatives, were close followers of philosopher Leo Strauss. This elite group included not just generals and industrialists but philosophers, scientists, academics, and politicians have now become the most
powerful public-private war organization ever known.

Strauss espoused an elitist philosophy that fawned over the characteristics of those who inherited wealth and lived lives of leisure to pursue whatever their interests may be. His ideas have been
transformed into a cogent ideology in which the media, religion, and government are used to subdue the masses while the real “nobles” follow their own will without regard to the laws designed to control lesser men. Strauss was likewise fond of secrecy, as a necessity for control, because if the lesser men found out what was being done to them they would no doubt be upset.

“The people will not be happy to learn that there is only one natural right – the right of the superior to rule over the inferior, the master over the slave, the husband over the wife, and the wise few over the vulgar many.” In On Tyranny, Strauss refers to this natural right as the “tyrannical teaching” of his beloved ancients..

Leo Strauss, Albert Wohlstetter, and others at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought receive wide credit for promoting the neo-conservative agenda through their students, Paul Wolfowitz, Allan Bloom, and Bloom’s student Richard Perle.”

BTW, this is the same paper I mentioned elsewhere on CD about Directed Energy weapons, that now reach US far beyond mere crowd control - including brain wave manipulation, thought control, organ failure, man-made (horizontal laser spawned) lightning, and of course crispy fried smoking DEATH. This reference has many contacts for those interested in joining together, or consolidating actual evidence.

Please also see videos of Dr. Nick Begich here for undeniable proof of govt’s proven techniques to program people, like one might do to a computer with the proper software.

Namaste
namaste March 30th, 2008 11:14 am
sansf March 30th, 2008 1:01 pm

Long ago I let Sandra O’Connor’s people know that I can never forgive her 2000 vote re Bush. Recently, after many complaints to Feinstein’s office re most of her votes, I let her people know that I can never forgive her voting Mukasey out of judiciary committee for vote. I know that she is no Democrat. But Mukasey is there because of Democrats. We could have survived this time without an AG since any would have been rubber stampers. Dems knew that.
Gail March 30th, 2008 1:42 pm

namaste March 30th, 2008 11:14 am

Your lightning-bolt visual is stunning!

I really appreciate your humor. Thanks.
seastar March 30th, 2008 5:55 pm

Hi

Did anyone else notice this lovely piece of innuendo from Mukasey:

Officials “shouldn’t need a warrant when somebody with a phone in Iraq picks up a phone and calls somebody in the United States because that’s the call that we may really want to know about. And before 9/11, that’s the call that we didn’t know about. We knew that there has been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan…”

Notice the not-too-subtle Iraq-9/11-Afghanistan connection drawn here! Years after any connection between Iraq and 9/11 has been thoroughly discredited, the Bushies are still using it!
Unchained March 30th, 2008 6:19 pm

We had warnings from several countried months before this event occurred. The admin didn’t pay heed.

Hmm…should the White House, or Cheney’s headquarters been tapped?

When will these guys quit feeding us the bull and just admit they are screw ups?
crowbone66 March 30th, 2008 6:28 pm

call mukasey at 202.353.1555

call feinstein and schumer and thank them heartily for his appointment. tell them to make a public apology.
202.224.3121 and ask for them by name
Siouxrose March 30th, 2008 10:36 pm

NAMASTE: Powerful visuals! The Tower is my least favorite card of the tarot. And I have a method for calculating the I ching each day, and for 9-11-2001 it adds up to 23, the I ching number of SPLITTING APART. When I witness this type of synchronicity often, it leads to a sense of awe for the pattern in the great fabric that we’re all woven into via shared strands of destiny.
namaste March 31st, 2008 2:18 am

SIOUXROSE — It’s the dark night of the soul, for the fool who had forgotten that he had built the tower, but it all comes back in the flash of lightning brilliantly revealing the long hidden truth, concealed by the powers that be - but no longer.

I also feel and “witness this type of synchronicity … sense of awe … we’re all woven into … shared strands …”, and it is incredible that these archetypal forms are coincidental or “accidental” - the underpinnings of these towers goes back 4,000 yr (¿ Egyptian) in one sense.

With the prospect of the Great Awakening also (possibly) SPLITTING us APART from the dross of materialism and greed, to open the consciousness to literal transformation manifesting amongst us ALL, now that is going to be ONE big FLASH (when dual_tower_ism is eradicated - by its roots - and ONEness wings us to walk upon the sky circle once again).

There is a quickening and convergence of which glimmers were foretold upon us, and we are blessed with the presence of existence grasped at but not yet held.

¿ If many are called but few are chosen - then is it our own CHOICE to become vulnerable to this SPLITTING APART, to bare our ∞ to the winds of change ?

For my 2 ¢, we are on the threshold of “Childhood’s End” that Arthur Clark foretold, and whereupon the road forks, we pick one.

¿ Are not WE the choosers of BEING the chosen ?

Namaste
arkitekton March 31st, 2008 5:32 am

“Please also see videos of Dr. Nick Begich here for undeniable proof of govt’s proven techniques to program people, like one might do to a computer with the proper software.

Namaste”

Er, I believe it’s called the public education system.

So Bush’s AG is a lying sack of shit. Go figure.
namaste March 31st, 2008 12:35 pm

arkitekton — Your offhand comment is directly addressed in the 3 short videos, and the consequences for the future are far worse than can be easily imagined.

To wit (from Dr. Begich), we already have compulsory primary education where curriculum is now set by govt policy (NCLB sucks, but that is besides my point).

Most would accept futuristic improvements in downloading directly into our kids minds, the principles of math and science — as those are objective and difficult to learn, while providing immense benefit to society. No harm, big gain, no foul.

What is scaring the neurons to jump in my brain today, is the other side of programming emotionally charged ideas, that EVERYONE (from one end of the n-dimensional spectrum to the other) likely agrees — it is the parents role to teach morality, ethics, and the social context of being human (and whomever they choose to delegate that function to on Sunday’s, or all week long in a privater school).

How well do you suppose the miscreant_in_thief_&_loonitary_unitard and his accomplices will teach your own principles to (who they consider to be) “their” kids ?

If you believe that people are being programmed now, how far can we allow things to progress when the govt can make “better” robots (and killing machines) of all of our children?

Namste
Nader4prez April 1st, 2008 2:19 pm

Can’t we just start a class action law suit and sue the whole damn lot of them for high-jacking our Country?
namaste April 1st, 2008 3:13 pm

The law for massive criminal enterprises is called

R acketeer I nfluenced and C orrupt O rganizations Act
(_ R I C O _)

“All” we need is an honest Attorney General, or Congress, or enough proof published wide enough that the PUBLIC demands accountability and HEADS.

Namaste

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