Person or Not a Person?


An American Category Sketch of Personhood vs. Non-Personhood – not exhaustive, but representative.

  • So much is under debate.
  • So much is culturally modulated.
  • So much has a history of discussion rather than a solid truth claim.
  • So much seems a little strange.

Warning: Your answers may differ.
This is meant to be thought-provoking; sorry for all the things I’m leaving out.

Comments are welcome, but only if you’re civil. All comments are moderated.

For each of the following, is this a person?

Non-living:

  • Rock – NO!
  • Table – NO!
  • Book – NO!

Beings:

  • Flower – NO!
  • Tree – NO!
  • Monkeygrass – NO!
  • Frog – NO!
  • Beetle – NO!
  • Ant – NO!
  • Tilapia – NO!
  • Worm – NO!
  • Dog – NO! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Cat – NO! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Cow – NO! (DISAGREEMENT)

Scale/Boundary:

  • Electrons – NO!
  • Nuclei – NO!
  • Fungi – NO! (LIFE, MAYBE GROUP INTELLIGENCE OF A KIND, NOT PERSON)
  • Bacteria – NO! (LIFE, MAYBE GROUP INTELLIGENCE OF A KIND, NOT PERSON)
  • Virus – NO – um… probably not! (DEAD/ALIVE, IMMORTAL? SOME UNKNOWN)
  • Prions – NO! (DEAD/ALIVE, IMMORTAL? MUCH UNKNOWN)
  • Mitochondria – NO! (MAY HAVE DEVELOPED HUMANS, HISTORY OF DISCUSSION)
  • Planet – NO! (ECO-REACTIONS, SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • Star – NO! (HISTORICAL SMALL DISAGREEMENTS)

Sex/Gender:

  • Female – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Male – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • Hermaphrodite – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Transvestite – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Transgender – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Heterosexual – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • Homosexual – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Bisexual – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Married – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • Single – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • Complicated – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)

Class/Money/Economy:

  • Poor – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Rich – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Middle-class – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Blue-collar – YES!
  • White-collar – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Upper-class – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Migrant – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Inner-city – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Rural – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Suburban – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Socialist – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Communist – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Crony Capitalist – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Regulated Capitalist – YES! (DISAGREEMENT) (etc.)

Education:

  • Highly educated – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Highly trained – YES!
  • Untrained – YES!
  • College – YES!
  • No College – YES!
  • Under-educated – YES!
  • Literate – YES!
  • Sub-literate – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Intentionally ignorant – YES! (DISAGREEMENT) (etc.)

Political Values:

  • Democrat – YES! (CONFUSION AND DISAGREEMENT)
  • Libertarian – YES! (CONFUSION AND DISAGREEMENT)
  • Republican – YES! (CONFUSION AND DISAGREEMENT)
  • Independent – YES! (CONFUSION AND DISAGREEMENT)
  • Green – YES! (CONFUSION AND DISAGREEMENT)
  • Reconstructionist – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Imperialist – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Fascist – YES! (CONFUSION AND DISAGREEMENT)
  • Nazi – YES! (HEATED DISAGREEMENT)
  • Uninterested – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Fanatical – YES! (DISAGREEMENT) (etc.)

Nationality / Ethnicity / Race:

  • American – YES! (MINOR DISAGREEMENT)
  • Non-American – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Registered US Immigrant – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • Non-registered US Immigrant – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • American Terrorist – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • Non-American Terrorist – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Same Ethnic/Racial Composition as Yourself – YES!
  • Different Ethic/Racial Composition from Yourself – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • German – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • French – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • Kenyan – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • British – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • Chinese – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • Iraqi – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Afghani – YES! (SOME DISAGREEMENT)
  • Iranian – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)

Religion:

  • Christian – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Muslim – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Jehovah’s Witness – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Wiccan – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Buddhist – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Fanatical – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Orthodox – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Evangelical – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Reformed – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Unitarian – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Atheist – YES! (DISAGREEMENT)
  • Eclectic – YES! (DISAGREEMENT) (etc.)

Corporate Groupings: (UNDER CONTESTATION!!!!!)

  • Homeland Security – NO!
  • CIA – NO!
  • Dept. of Eduction- NO!
  • NRA – NO!
  • ACLU – NO!
  • Catholic Church – NO!
  • US Marines – NO!
  • Al-Qaeda – NO!
  • Taliban – NO!
  • KKK – NO!
  • Halliburton – NO!
  • Chevron – NO!
  • Microsoft – NO!
  • Google – NO!
  • MacDonald’s- NO!
  • Citibank – NO!
  • Walmart – NO!

Stage / Distinctions:

  • Egg – NO!
  • Sperm- NO!
  • Fertilized egg – NO! (DISAGREEMENT – UNDER CONTESTATION!)*
  • Zygote – NO! (DISAGREEMENT- UNDER CONTESTATION!)
  • Fetus w/Beating Heart – ALIVE, BUT NOT PERSON! (DISAGREEMENT- UNDER CONTESTATION!)
  • Fetus w/Brain Waves – MAYBE! (DISAGREEMENT – UNDER CONTESTATION!)
  • Late-term Pregnancy – MAYBE! (HEATED DISAGREEMENT- UNDER CONTESTATION!)
  • Baby – COULD BE! (SOME DISAGREEMENT, HISTORICALLY NOT, BUT PROBABLY CONSIDERED ONE NOW)
  • Toddler – PROBABLY! (DISAGREEMENT – HISTORICALLY NOT, BUT PROBABLY CONSIDERED ONE NOW)
  • Child – PROBABLY! (DISAGREEMENT- HISTORICALLY NOT, BUT PROBABLY CONSIDERED ONE NOW)
  • Teenager – PROBABLY! (DISAGREEMENT – PAIN IN THE BUTT, AND SOME CONFUSION ABOUT RITE DE PASSAGE)
  • Adult – YES!
  • Middle-Aged – YES!
  • Elderly – YES! (DISAGREEMENT – HISTORICALLY SO, MAYBE STILL IS)
  • Corpse – PROBABLY NOT (SOME RELIGIOUS DISAGREEMENT)
  • Australopithecus – NO! (EXTINCT HOMINID! SOME DISCUSSION)
  • Neanderthals – NO! (EXTINCT HOMINID! SOME DISCUSSION)
  • Early Modern Human (EMH)/Anatomically Modern Human’ (AMH) (also referred to as Cro-Magnon) – UNKNOWN (DISCUSSION and DISAGREEMENT)
  • Homo Sapien Sapien – YES! (MINOR DISCUSSION, MOSTLY BY CURMUDGEONS)

* Fertilized chicken egg does not equal chicken either.

Iraq Numbers


Iraq causalities may be more than a million.

…a survey of 1,461 adults suggested that the total number slain during more than four years of war was more than 1.2 million. … nearly one in two households in Baghdad had lost at least one member to war- related violence, and 22% of households nationwide had suffered at least one death. It said 48% of the victims were shot to death and 20% died as a result of car bombs, with other explosions and military bombardments blamed for most of the other fatalities.

Here are some more startling stats – via Tom Engelhardt’s excellent article Here Are the Real Numbers That Tally Iraq’s ‘Progress’:

Number of U.S. criminal investigations underway for contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan: 73.

Cost to Pentagon of shipping two 19-cent metal washers to a key military installation abroad, probably in Iraq or Afghanistan: $998,798.00.

Amount paid by the U.S. military to two British private security firms, Aegis Defence Services and Erinys Iraq, to protect U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reconstruction teams in Iraq: $548 million ($18 million a month, with a private army of 2000 – about three military battalions).

Percentage of Iraqi national police force which is Shiite: 85%.

Number of Iraqis in American prisons in Iraq: 24,500.

Number of juveniles (11-17), held in those prisons: Approximately 800 (85% Sunni).

Number of foreign suspected jihadis held in those prisons: 280.

Estimated number of full-time al-Qaeda-in-Iraq fighters: 850 (2-5% of the Sunni insurgency).

Number of times President Bush mentioned al-Qaeda in a speech on the Iraqi situation on July 24, 2007: 95.

Number of Iraqi civilian deaths in August: 1,809 (the highest figure of the surge year so far).

Number of Iraqi “bus people” now in exile in neighboring lands: 2.5 million.

Amount spent by the average household in Baghdad for a few hours of electricity a day: $171 a month ($400 is a reasonable monthly wage).

Number of U.S. Army suicides: 17.3 per thousand, the highest rate in 26 years – not including unconfirmed reports or those who served and then committed suicide at home. In 2006, 99. Since 2003, 118 U.S. military personnel have committed suicide in Iraq itself.

Percentage of people across the globe who “think U.S. forces should leave Iraq within a year”: 67%, according to a just-released BBC World Service poll of 23,000 people in 22 countries. Only 23% think foreign troops should remain “until security improves.”

Percentage of citizens of U.S.-led “coalition” members in Iraq who want forces out within a year: 65% of Britons, 63% of South Koreans, and 63% of Australians. Even a majority of Israelis want either an immediate American withdrawal (24%), or withdrawal within a year (28%); only 40% opt for “remain until security improves.

Percentage of Americans who think U.S. forces should get out of Iraq within a year: 61% (24% favor immediate withdrawal, 37% prefer a one-year timetable).

Percentage of people across the globe who think the United States plans to keep permanent military bases in Iraq: 49%.

Percentage of Americans who believe, that the U.S. mission in Iraq will be seen as a failure in the long run: 57%, (only 29% disagree).

These from “The General Lies” by Robert Scheer:

Percent of Iraqis who believe security has deteriorated since the surge began: 70%.

Percent of Iraqis who believe attacks on U.S. forces are justified: 60%.

Percent of Sunnis (whom the general and ambassador claim are joining our side) that want to see us dead: 93%.

Recommended reading:

America’s Deadly Shock Doctrine in Iraq by Naomi Klein explains how the U.S. set about to destroy the Iraqi national psyche and then push through a disastrous privatization of its economy. The link will lead to an excerpt from the new book.

U.S. Secret Air War Pulverizes Afghanistan and Iraq by Conn Hallinan reports on the U.S. military’s increasingly reliance on deadly air strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan as the ground occupations fall apart, killing untold numbers of civilians.

Faced with defeat or bloody stalemate on the ground, the allies have turned to air power, much as the U.S. did in Vietnam. But, as in Vietnam, the terrible toll bombing inflicts on civilians all but guarantees long-term failure.

“Far from bringing about the intended softening up of the opposition,” Phillip Gordon, a Brookings Institute Fellow, told the Asia Times, “bombing tends to rally people behind their leaders and cause them to dig in against outsiders who, whatever the justification, are destroying their homeland.”"


Six Years After 9/11, Why We’re Losing the War on Terror
by David Cole and Jules Lobel argue that the Bush administration and its extralegal policies have taken the U.S. from being the object of the world’s sympathy to the object of their scorn.

The proposition that judicial processes and international accountability — the very essence of the rule of law — are to be dismissed as a strategy of the weak, aligned with terrorism itself, makes clear that the Administration has come to view the rule of law as an obstacle, not an asset, in its effort to protect us from terrorist attack.

Our long-term security turns not on “going on offense” by locking up thousands of “suspected terrorists” who turn out to have no connection to terrorism; nor on forcing suspects to bark like dogs, urinate and defecate on themselves, and endure sexual humiliation; nor on attacking countries that have not threatened to attack us. Security rests not on exceptionalism and double standards but on a commitment to fairness, justice and the rule of law. … The preventive paradigm has compromised our spirit, strengthened our enemies and left us less free and less safe.

6th Anniversary of 9/11


Here is a very comprehensive 9/11 timeline.

In New York City, firefighters and first responders at the World Trade Center read the victims’ names for the first time today.

The majority of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis, but Americans still try to draw some link to Iraq. Meanwhile, al Qaeda is in Iraq now.

This administration has made us less safe, less secure. We could have handled this so differently…

Take Action to Oppose Iraq Escalation


“Everything we do here is on the defense. Any troops increase over here – they will just be more sitting ducks, more targets.” – Army Sergeant Ronn Cantu, serving his second tour in Iraq.

Get informed, and take action to oppose escalation in Iraq. The war – it isn’t “really” a war, and yet Bush has assumed war powers – is wrong. No “surge” of troops, no bloody sacrificial sop to Bush’s pride can be acceptable to informed Americans.

Sign at least a couple of the petitions, send emails to your representatives, participate in local events, write to your local newspaper or television news station.

Search for local events at America Says No.org (True Majority, Democracy in Action).

Sign the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Petition

Dear President Bush,

On Election Day, America spoke with one voice about its desire to end the war in Iraq. In the weeks and months since, members of Congress from both parties have urged you to heed the will of our nation and propose real change. Regrettably you have chosen to ignore the will of the American people. Concern about your escalation strategy is non-partisan. It is opposed by Democrats, it is opposed by Republicans, it is opposed by top military leaders, and it is opposed by an overwhelming majority of the American people.

Democrats, Republicans and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group have all offered you a roadmap to turn Iraq over to the Iraqis, begin the phased redeployment of American troops and end our open-ended commitment to Iraq. America doesn’t need another White House P.R. campaign — we need a real change of course in Iraq.

United for Peace March on Washington to End the War, January 27th.

10 Reasons Why the US Must Leave Iraq

Teddy Kennedy sums it up pretty well:

The President’s decision to send more American troops into the cauldron of civil war is not an acceptable strategy. It is against the advice of his own generals, the Iraq Study Group, and the wishes of the American people and will only compound our original mistake in going to war in Iraq.

…The mission of our armed forces today in Iraq no longer bears any resemblance to the mission authorized by Congress in 2002. The Iraq War Resolution authorized a war against the regime of Saddam Hussein because he was believed to have weapons of mass destruction, an operational relationship with Al Qaeda, and was in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolutions.

Not one member of Congress would have voted in favor of it they thought they were sending American troops into a civil war.

The President owes it to the American people to seek approval for this new mission from Congress. Congress should no longer be a rubber stamp for the President’s failed strategy, and should insist on a policy that is worthy of the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.

We have been irresponsible in allowing Bush to act like a King. It’s not the President’s decision anymore. It’s ours.

Senator Kennedy has introduced legislation that makes the issue plain. It states that any substantial new commitment in Iraq requires a plan from the administration and explicit authorization from Congress.

Add your name to the petition in support of Senator Kennedy’s legislation.

Stem Cell Funds Veto – Who Benefits?


Bush finally decided to veto something after six years: Stem cell research – a bill that even this Congress passed in both Houses.

“Now that’s something to save yer virgin veto for! All the people who might benefit from the research – well, they don’t matter so much. Those are future people – they don’t hardly count, not like those itty bitty blobs of cells so dear to the heart of that God-guy who’s gonna kill all you damn Liberals right soon. What matters is the manly action (superman!) to protect them pre-differentiated embryonic cells from study before they still get discarded. Well, we never said they wuz goin’ anywheres to thrive.”

My first line of thinking on this was simply that if this research doesn’t go forward here, it will elsewhere. Scientists in other countries will move ahead, and we won’t. Meanwhile, Rove is slinking around with his typical misinformation.
Tell me the truth – are there people who believe anything at all that Rove says? Can’t we just bestow a title, like “Duke of Propaganda and Slander,” upon him? Maybe they could have some pagentry, with flags and boots (or slippers?).

But wait! Didn’t Bush already allow limited funding of embryonic stem cell work in August 2001?
I think we should be debating bioethics on several fronts, including this one.

However, I don’t really think the Bush “virgin veto” is about morals or values – or even religious conformity.
It’s not even primarily about his “base” (did you know that’s how “al Qaeda” translates?).

This bill isn’t so much about the research itself. It’s about the funding! It’s about….privatization!

Private foundations and companies have continued funding this research, after all. It’s an investment.

Hmmm…. could it be that there might be private interests who might (gasp) want to be the ones to make all the money on this?

Maybe even…. some major contributors to Bush and the Republican party?

I wonder if someone would do a crosslisting of the likely companies who might profit from internal discoveries and applications and, say, those who were given the Medicare drug benefit to write for our legislative branch? Can we see a list of the companies who are doing this research now, and their campaign contributions?

I’m sorry to say it (and to believe it too), but when this administration talks values and morals, follow the money.

Corruption is a serious threat to our form of government, and all the more so until we have public-funded elections. The news tonight was full of horrified reporters noticing that some Katrina money was wasted and used inappropriately (they don’t mention the money that went to Pat Robertson, though). Still, we haven’t gotten much explanation of the disappearance of much larger sums through the hands of completely different segments of our population (and corporations who have been granted “personhood”).

What would be the benefit to Americans if the research was funded by the federal government, rather than by corporate interests? I’m not a lawyer, but if anyone out there has an informed opinion on the possibilities here, please comment.

al-Zarqawi is dead


Finally, it looks as though there has been some valuable on-the-ground intelligence.

The Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (real name Ahmed Fadhil Nazzal al-Khalayleh), the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq, is dead. As far as we know, he was the top guy in charge of kidnappings, beheadings and suicide bombings. Of course, our propaganda campaign may have exaggerated his importance to some degree, but however he got there, Zarqawi was considered the figurehead of the Sunni insurgency. He is said to be the leader of the merged insurgency/al-Qaeda network in Iraq, responsible for killing thousands of Shias and US forces. Jordanian courts have given him the death penalty more than once, and he is believed to have personally beheaded at least two Western hostages, among them American Nicholas Berg, who was slain on camera in late 2004.

The two 500-pound bombs dropped by warplanes on his safehouse seem to be a little bit of an overkill to me, but maybe not, since Iraqi police – first to arrive on the scene – were able to recover his body.

At this point, there are some conflicting reports about who else may have died. His key lieutenant and spiritual adviser Sheik Abdul Rahman al-Iraqi is being named as being among the dead, but seems also to have issued a statement today? An Australian site claims two women were killed in addition to the unnamed 6-7 aides at the safehouse. The story develops.

Al-Qaeda will, of course, try to use al-Zarqawi’s murder as a rallying point, but I don’t think there could really be such a huge following for the idea of “martyrdom” in this case. I hope that his death will contribute to improvements on the ground for the Iraqi people.

Demand Release of 9/11 Information


Please sign this petition, which supports a call (from prominent experts, including scholars, scientists and former high-level military personnel) for release of basic 9/11 information.

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT,

On Behalf of the People of the United States of America, the Undersigned Scholars for 9/11 Truth Hereby Petitions for, and hereby demands, Release of the Following kinds of documents, video and films, and physical evidence to the public for study by experts and scholars investigating the events of 9/11:

1. Immediate release of the full Pentagon surveillance tapes, of which five frames (only) have been released via the official ASCE report, as Judicial Watch has also requested. We further demand release of the video tape seized by FBI agents minutes after the Pentagon hit, from the fuel service station near the Pentagon, as well as any other videotape which shows the 9/11 strike on the Pentagon.

See
news.nationalgeographic.com
www.defenselink.mil
www.defenselink.mil
perso.wanadoo.fr/jpdesm/pentagon

2. Immediate release of 6,899 photographs and 6,977 segments of video footage held by NIST, largely from private photographers, regarding the collapses of WTC buildings on 9/11/2001 (NIST, 2005, p. 81). In particular, all footage relating to the collapse of WTC 7 (including shots before, during and after the collapse) must be released immediately, without waiting for the NIST report on WTC 7, which is long overdue and may be prolonged indefinitely.

3. An explanation from Vice President Richard Cheney regarding the “orders” described by Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta in his testimony before The 9/11 Commission. Secretary Mineta stated that while in an underground bunker at the White House, he watched Vice President Cheney castigate a young officer for asking, as a plane drew closer and closer to the Pentagon, “Do the orders still stand?” The officer should be identified and allowed to testify at a deposition under oath.

See
www.911truthmovement.org/video/hamilton_win.wmv

4. The documents generated by Vice President Cheney’s energy task force have been kept from the public. A court case brought forth a few maps that display oil fields in the Middle East. We hereby put Congress on notice that there is probable cause with regard to criminal activities by the Cheney Energy Task Force involving a criminal conspiracy to launch illegal wars and/or terrorist activities. We therefore demand that Energy Task Force document that comprise, discuss, or refer to plans to invade the Middle East, including Iran, and Venezuela or other sovereign nations be released immediately.

See Cheney v. District Court 542 U.S. 367 (2004) and United States v. Nixon 418 U.S. 683 (1974).

www.worldnetdaily.com/news

5. Audio tapes of interviews with air traffic controllers on-duty on 9/11 were intentionally destroyed by crushing the cassette by hand, cutting the tape into little pieces, and then dropping the pieces in different trash cans around the building. We demand an explanation for this destruction of evidence and ask that the possible existence of other copies of such tapes or perhaps of written transcripts of the interviews be pursued. All air traffic controllers on-duty on 9/11 should be allowed to testify during a public forum under oath.

See
query.nytimes.com archive
web.archive.org suntimes cst-nws-tape07.html

6. The Secret Service, which is highly trained to protect the President from danger and to move him to a secure location in the event of a threat, breached its own standard procedures by allowing President Bush to remain at a public location for 25 minutes after it was known that the nation was under attack. All Secret Service personnel who were at Booker Elementary School with President Bush on 9/11 should be required to testify in public and under oath about these events.

See
abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121331
www.whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES/feral_press_9-10.gif
www.whatreallyhappened.com/bushbook.mov

7. On the morning of 9/11, some five “war games” or “terror drills” were being conducted by U.S. defense agencies, including one “live fly” exercise employing aircraft. These drills reportedly included the injection of false radar blips onto the screens of air traffic controllers. In addition, the government was running a simulation of a plane crashing into a building the morning of 9/11. Who was in charge of coordinating these war games and terror drills? Who had the ability to issues orders in relation to their conduct? On which screens were “false radar blips” inserted? When did such false injects commence? When were they purged from the controllers’ screens? What was the effect of these activities on standard procedures for interdicting hijacked aircraft?

See
www.911readingroom.org article_id=92
www.fromthewilderness.com Mckinney_transcript.shtml
www.spiegltech.com McKinney2.rm (6 minutes, 12 seconds into the video)
www.boston.com 0903_plane_exercise.htm

8. It has been reported that the FBI long ago found three of four “black boxes” from the two airplanes which hit the Twin Towers, yet has consistently denied that they were ever found. Their data would be of the greatest importance to understanding the events of 9/11. This matter must be investigated and the data they provide released to the public.

See
www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra/archives/001139.html
www.counterpunch.org/lindorff12202005.html

For each of the four sites under investigation, the 9/11 Commission reported that two Boeing 757s, and two Boeing 767s (FAA, Part 121, airliners) owned by United Airlines and American Airlines were hijacked by novice pilots and were subsequently crashed, resulting in an unimaginable loss of life. Approximately 3,000 people died the morning of 9/11 as the direct result of these officially reported hijackings and subsequent crashes.

These four scheduled airliners were reported to have carried a total of 266 passengers and crew members, which, under FAA and NTSB regulations, demands a comprehensive investigation of the primary and contributing causes of each. In the case of suspected criminal foul play, the NTSB would normally assign the lead investigative role to the FBI, with assistance of investigators from the NTSB and FAA. A comprehensive investigation of each aircraft crash is not a regulatory option: they would have been mandatory. Therefore, we demand public release of each comprehensive crash investigation report, including access to all physical evidence that was required to have been collected and secured at a suitable facility. Such evidence should have included a large assortment of indestructible parts, including landing gears, surface actuators, engines, black boxes, and so on. The serialized parts would be invaluable in identifying each aircraft and, contrary to some reports, could not have “vaporized” upon impact.

Considering the enormous loss of life and financial collateral damage, if no crash investigations were conducted, who made the decision to disregard the FAA, Part 121, regulatory requirement? In the absence of the Part 121 investigation reports, the identity of the responsible authorities who made the decision not to investigate must be released, and they should be made immediately available for deposition under oath.

9. In the weeks before 9/11, the US Stock market showed rather high levels of activity on companies that would subsequently be affected by the attacks. The afternoon before the attack, alarm bells were sounding over trading patterns in stock options. A jump in United Air Lines some 90 times (not 90 percent) above normal between September 6 and September 10, for example, and 285 times higher than average the Thursday before the attack, have been reported. A jump in American Airlines put options 60 times (not 60 percent) above normal the day before the attacks has also been reported. No similar trading occurred on any other airlines appear to have occurred.

Between September 6-10, 2001, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw suspicious trading on Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, two of the largest WTC tenants. An average of 3,053 put options in Merrill Lynch were bought between Sept. 6-10, compared to an average of 252 in the previous week. Morgan Stanley, another WTC tenant, saw 12,215 put options bought between Sept. 7-10, whereas the previous days had seen averages of 212 contracts a day. According to Dylan Ratigan of Bloomberg News: “This would be the most extraordinary coincidence in the history of mankind, if it was a coincidence. This could very well be insider trading at the worst, most horrific, most evil use you’ve ever seen in your entire life. It’s absolutely unprecedented.”

On September 18, 2001, the BBC reported: “American authorities are investigating unusually large numbers of shares in airlines, insurance companies and arms manufacturers that were sold off in the days and weeks before the attacks. They believe that the sales were by people who knew about the impending disaster”.

According to the London Independent, October 10, 2001: “To the embarrassment of investigators, it has also emerged that the firm used to buy many of the ‘put’ options – where a trader, in effect, bets on a share price fall – on United Airlines stock was headed until 1998 by ‘Buzzy’ Krongard, now executive director of the CIA.”

See
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1549909.stm
news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=99402

The 9/11 Commission, after looking into the pre-9/11 stock trades, never denied their unusual nature. Instead, the Commission declared that al-Qaeda did not conduct the trades, and asked no further questions.

See amazon.com David Ray Griffin’s book The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions And Distortions

Who, if not al-Qaeda, performed the incriminating trades? This information exists, it can be easily obtained, and it needs to be made public. Moreover, illegal money transfers may have been processed through computers housed at the World Trade Center before the planes crashed into the Twin Towers on 9/11. We demand a disclosure of the source of the put options and that this whole sordid affair receive a complete and public investigation.

See
www.rediff.com/money/2001/dec/17wtc.htm
archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/12/20/wtc.harddrives.idg/

10. Eyewitness testimony and a substantiating photographic record suggest that a large sample of slag from the World Trade Center is being held at Hangar 17 of the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Access to the slag sample should be made available to appropriate physicists in order to conduct non-destructive X-ray Fluorescence tests and other forms of examination, which should reveal evidence of the cause of the collapse of the Twin Towers. Based on these tests, we further demand two small samples (about the size of a fist) be extracted from this large piece for further scientific analysis.

See
911proof.com/resources/Slag+Sample.gif

11. Release of a complete inventory of the plane wreckage and debris from flights 11, 77, 93 or 175 or any other aircraft that crashed or was destroyed on September 11, 2001, including, but not limited to:

(a) the location (whether warehouses or otherwise) of all such items;

(b) a catalog of photographs and videotapes taken of any and all such items; and

(c) a list of all tests and examinations concerning any and all such items, including reports of such tests or examinations.

12. Release of a complete inventory of any steel, other metal or other material from the World Trade Centers, including, but not limited to:

(a) the location (whether warehouses or otherwise) of all such items;

(b) a catalog of photographs and videotapes taken of any and all such items; and

(c) a list of all tests and examinations concerning any and all such items, including reports of such tests or examinations.

On behalf of the People of the United States of America, we demand that the cover-up in this case end and that the kinds of documents, video and films, and physical evidence described above be provided to the public for experts and scholars to evaluate and assess in their efforts to expose falsehoods and reveal truths about events on 9/11.

FOR THE SOCIETY:

James H. Fetzer, Ph.D.
Founder and Co-Chair
Scholars for 9/11 Truth

Steven E. Jones, Ph.D.
Co-Chair
Scholars for 9/11 Truth

28 February 2006


The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions And Distortions The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11

9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA Inside Job: Unmasking the 9/11 Conspiracies

Living with War


Listen to Neil Young’s new album, Living with War.

Visit the blog.

Don’t need no ad machine
Telling me what I need
Don’t need no Madison Avenue War
Don’t need no more boxes I can see

Covered in flags but I can’t see them on TV

Don’t need no more lies
Don’t need no more lies
Don’t need no more lies

Click on the track title for the lyrics in ticker formet at the official website, or here for the whole list.

“Let’s Impeach The President”

Let’s impeach the President for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

Who’s the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
They bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war

Let’s impeach the President for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government’s protection
Or was someone just not home that day?

(Bush clips)
Flip – Flop
Flip – Flop
Flip – Flop
Flip – Flop

Let’s impeach the president for hijacking
Our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he’s cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There’s lots of people looking at big trouble
But of course our president is clean.

Thank God

I’ve added him to the “Salute” category of links. Thanks Neil.

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