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The post Charlie Kirk once questioned if Ukraine would try to kill him appeared first on LewRockwell.

Rick Rozoff wrote:

Senior Russian MP says Kirk’s assassination was warning to Trump.

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Rick Rozoff wrote:

British PM sacks ambassador to Washington over Epstein ties.

The post British PM sacks ambassador to Washington over Epstein ties appeared first on LewRockwell.

Tim McGraw wrote:

Hi Ed,

I just read your article on 9/11 propaganda on LRC. Great article. The 9/11 to 9-1-1 “What’s your emergency” link is obvious. Why people don’t see that it was planned that way is odd. 

As an aircraft mechanic, I knew the whole government story was bullshit from the get-go. I saw “Harley Guy” get interviewed “live” on TV. I laughed out loud. “Ground Zero”… “fire’s high intensity did structural damage”…LOL I know jet fuel doesn’t burn hot enough to melt structural steel. If it did, jet engines would melt. Airliners don’t fly fast into buildings or any small object like the Twin Towers. One plane was going 500 mph, and the other 585 mph. That’s a mile every 7-9 seconds. The pilot would have NO reaction time to make course corrections to hit a narrow target(s) like the Twin Towers. The collision would have bent some steel girders, maybe, but they wouldn’t break. Besides, the Twin Towers had an outside box of steel girders and an inner box of steel girders supporting the building. No way the building collapses. The Towers were designed for two airplanes to hit each tower and withstand it.  

You see the propaganda reasons the government’s story was bullshit. I see the physical reasons the government’s story was BS. Same conclusion, just a different path to get there.

The post Language and September 11th appeared first on LewRockwell.

The post Slouching Toward WWIII? With Guest Col. Douglas Macgregor appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, Rick  Rozoff.

The post The Charlie Kirk Assassination And Reaction From The Left appeared first on LewRockwell.

1968 – The Year That Shaped a Generation (Outstanding Documentary Illustrating Many Turbulent Parallels to Today)

This is a documentary posted specifically for those persons not alive in the chaotic turbulent year of 1968.

In 2025, we have yesterday experienced the wrenching tragedy of the assassination of the brilliant, adroit young conservative influencer/spokesman Charlie Kirk in the midst of this chaotic, indecisive era defined by the complex, towering man who will continue to define and shape this time more than any previous political person on the world stage, Donald J. Trump.

We have the witnessed the weakened incumbent president Joe Biden announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race after losing his artificial, concocted and spurious mandate for leadership, with chronic lying and disgust surrounding him and his criminal regime and its unpopular policies of war abroad and repeated failures at home, widespread distrust in the efficacy and believability in the “fake news” legacy media, the insurgent presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following courageously in the footsteps of his father Robert Kennedy who was assassinated in 1968 on the triumphant victorious pathway towards the nomination of his party in Chicago, the massive disruptive anti-war protests and riots expected in Chicago at the 1968 Democrat National Convention, and the tremendous outpouring of empathetic support directed to the defiant courageous Donald Trump who like RFK and MLK was targeted by the deep state for assassination.

This outstanding PBS documentary details the tumultuous impact of how events such as the Vietnamese Tet Offensive, the credibility gap between the Johnson administration’s lies and evasions on the War and growing skepticism on the part of elements of the establishment regime media expected to follow in lockstep in the fake news narrative (was Walter Cronkite an early version of Tucker Carlson in this regard?), the insurgent presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy against the incumbent Lyndon Johnson, Johnson’s shattering announcement of his refusal to seek re-election, the assassination of Martin Luther King, the rise of the counter-culture and student protests at Columbia University, the Parisian student-led revolution in France in May, the impactful wrenching assassination of Robert Kennedy, the police riot at the Chicago Democratic National convention, the massacre of protesters in Mexico City, the Prague uprising, the insurgent presidential campaign of George Wallace, and the presidential race between duplicitous Republican Richard Nixon and the banal Democrat Hubert Humphrey, made 1968 the pivotal year which shaped a generation of Americans.

It was a time when a generation rebelled and lost its innocence. From the Vietnam War to the struggle for racial equality to the birth of a counter-culture explosion, the 1960s were a decade of change, experimentation and hope that transformed an entire nation.

The post 1968 – The Year That Shaped a Generation (Outstanding Documentary Illustrating Many Turbulent Parallels to Today) appeared first on LewRockwell.

1.  A professional hitman employed by the Marxist Mafia that runs the Democrat party whose political arsenal includes its military wing of Antifa and the [Only] Black Lives Matter rioters and arsonists.
2. Yet another “lone nut” like the two who tried to assassinate Trump in the past year.

The post Two Likely Suspects in the Political Assassination of Charlie Kirk appeared first on LewRockwell.

III. Closing Argument: Remembering Charlie (Robert Barnes)

• On discovery his friend Martin Luther King had been assassinated, Robert Francis Kennedy took to the platform to inform the audience and try to redirect their rightful anger toward a more productive path. While much of the country rioted, the place RFK spoke — Indianapolis – was one of the few that did not. Here is what RFK spoke:
• “What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice towards those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black. We must dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and to make gentle the life of this world.”
• We would all be wise to remember these sage thoughts today in honoring and respecting the legacy of Charlie Kirk, a man dedicated to freedom, truth, family, country, and God, a faith worthy of continuing his legacy rather than letting it rot at the hand of an assassin. Let us indeed work “to tame the savageness of man and to make gentle the life of this world.” Let us be more like Charlie and listen to the better angels of our nature.

The post RIP Charlie Kirk appeared first on LewRockwell.

In November 2022 the (former) President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelenski published a 10 point ‘peace plan’.

It included:

5. Restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity and Russia reaffirming it according the U.N. Charter, which Zelenskiy said is “not up to negotiations”.

6. Withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities, restoration of Ukraine’s state borders with Russia.
…
10. Confirmation of the war’s end, including a document signed by the involved parties.

In September 2024 Zelenski raised the curtain of his Victory Plan for Ukraine. As I wrote at that time:

The ‘victory plan’ is not about a real plan for Ukraine’s action but a list of demands towards the ‘western’ supporters of Ukraine.

The theory in Kiev is that a fulfillment of these demands will allow Ukraine to win the war and to press Russian into accepting Ukraine’s 10 point ‘peace plan‘.

As explained by a Zelinski advisor:

A source close to Zelensky told the Kyiv Independent that the “victory plan” aims “to create such conditions and such an atmosphere that Russia will no longer be able to ignore the peace formula and the peace summit.”
…
“The problem is, to get to that point where we have any sort of peace negotiations, Russia must feel like they’re going to lose, and we are not there yet,” Rep. Jimmy Panetta, a Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee in Congress, told the Kyiv Independent.

“I hope part of this victory plan is how we can shape battlefield conditions to reach that point,” said Panetta, who met Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials in Kyiv last weekend.

I commented that:

The ‘victory plan’ requests are of course outrageous and delusional and have little to no chance to be fulfilled.

Nearly a year later the delusional demands of the 10 points ‘peace plan’ and the Victory Plan have made room for more realistic expectations. There will be no NATO or EU membership for Ukraine. It will lose a significant part of its land to Russia and will have to settle the war under Russian conditions.

Zelenski seems to now acknowledge that when he redefines what victory means:

Zelenskyy spoke to ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz Friday in an interview that aired on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday.
…
Asked by Raddatz what victory looks like for his embattled country, Zelenskyy said the survival of Ukraine.

“Putin’s goal is to occupy Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.

“[Putin] wants, of course, to occupy us totally. For him, this [is] victory. And until he can do it, the victory is on our side,” he said. “So that’s why for us to survive is a victory. Because we are surviving with our identity, with our country, with our independence.”

There is zero evidence that Putin’s, or -more correct- Russia’s goal was or is to occupy Ukraine.Russia wants to liberate the Russian population that, since the 1990s, was trapped in east Ukraine. He wants to prevent that Ukraine joins NATO. Neither requires the Russian army to move into the feverish anti-Russia center and western parts of Ukraine.

But it is of course convenient to claim that and to declare victory even after the government has moved to Lviv (aka Lvov, Lemberg) near the Polish border and called it a day.

I just wonder how the population there would react if Zelenski or his successor were then to arrange a well deserved Victory parade.

Reprinted with permission from Moon of Alabama.

The post Ukraine’s Victory Redefined appeared first on LewRockwell.

Most Members of Congress violate their Sacred Oath to the Constitution, which means they are Criminals without any redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Congress takes its orders and bribes from the Parasitic Super-Rich Ruling Class (PSRRC) to Intimidate, Murder, Destroy entire countries,and Engineer Revolutions. The money they spend destroys the living standard of Americans, enriches the PSRRC and makes the the world hate Americans. But they do generate money for the PSRRC and their Whores in Congress.

The FBI must investigate, charge, convict and jail criminals in Congress! But if the FBI was not complicit, they also would be in jail!

The FBI has done nothing for 100 years, so disband them and activate the Militia of the Several States as specified in the Constitution.

With only a quick look, I was able to uncover $428.4 Billion that Congress spent Unconstitutionally overseas without need or justification, for their own benefit, not The People’s. In fact, at this time they were willing to reduce the Social Security Trust Fund by $102 Billion. Let Seniors eat dog food, if they can afford it.

Following are the individual amounts: Foreign Aid for 2024 $63.3 Billion Israel War in Gaza $17.9 Billion Humanitarian Aid for Gaza $9.2 Billion Ukraine War $195 Billion (2024) 177,000 troops,750 bases $80 Billion (2024) Building  and Repair of bases $55 Billion.

When you add these Unjustified and mostly Unconstitutional foreign expenses, you get $428.4 Billion, which is almost 10% of total government income. Congress has robbed the American People of this amount and more toenrich the Military Industrial Complex of the PSRRC and ensure Congress gets their bribes. Members of Congress who vote for this blatantgraft and corruption belong in jail. These Overseas Expenses have no Justification in the Constitution or Heaven. These expenses can only be Justified in hell.

I want to remind you that we have been in wars for eighty years without a single Declaration of War; all of the conflicts were for profits of the PSRRC and not one was to defend the National Security of the United States. I can prove that not one of the wars was for National Security for the simple reason that we can’t be invaded because of our oceans. We can only be defeated by Weapons of Mass Destruction or within by the 21 million illegals in the Democrat aka Communist army. FAIR reports that this illegal army costs us a minimum of $150.7 Billion a year, which is money that should have been spent on Americans. Add this expense to the overseas expenses and it amounts to more than 10% of government income. The Constitution of the United States specifies that any aid to illegal invaders is Treason, but with a lawless government what can you do?

The Democrat aka Communist party did catastrophic, if not fatal, damage to the Republic, more so than any other event, by bringing in over 21 million illegal invaders . Those responsible should be prosecuted and their party declared an Unlawful Enemy of the Republic.

We need our military, all of it, and more, to confront and deport these invaders using deadly force if required. We should have a Declaration of War against Illegal Invaders and all who support them. Supporters of Illegal Invaders are guilty of Treason (Declaration of War or not). Unlike any other war, this is a war for our very existence. Any Judge that interferes with Deportation of illegal Invaders after a Declaration of War is guilty of Treason. We may have to reinstate the draft and restrict Habeas Corpus.

No other country can invade us, so NATO can’t honor their reciprocal duty under treaty to defend us. NATO is a sick joke on us. We spend 20% of government income on defense and NATO spends I or 2%.

You may ask how do you punish a Member of Congress for accepting bribes or other crimes? An honest federal law enforcement agency could investigate and charge them, but we don’t have an honest enforcement agency. You can’t impeachmembers of Congress; you can only expel them with a two-thirds vote of the chamber. But since most members of Congress are equally guilty, you will never get a two-thirds vote.

The Senate is a special case since the Coup of 1913 that transferred the selection of Senators from the states to big money. People lost their voice in the Senate and the people didn’t get it.

I don’t think you can clean up the FBI by changing a few top officials.  You must fire most of them and start over, or follow the Constitution and use the Militia of the Several States.

Everyone must realize that about 50% of our government is an unconstitutional Criminal Enterprise and this happened because of a corrupt and complicit FBI, the Jewish lobby and Media.

I repeat, we need a Declaration of War against Illegal Invaders. Communist aka Democrat supporters of Illegal Invaders must be charged with Treason (see the Constitution).

This Article proves that more than 10% of Government income is stolen from the people  for foreign expenses that are not justified by the Constitution, but benefit Congress and the PSRRC. THIS HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY ($579.1 BILLION) STOLEN FROM TAXPAYERS HAS DEPRIVED AMERICANS OF PROSPERITY AND THE AMERICAN DREAM.

The post Congress impoverishes Us To Commit Global Bribery, Intimidation, Murder, and Revolution appeared first on LewRockwell.

I don’t know US Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Scott Bessent, but I am told by people who worked with him on Wall Street that he is a really smart guy. But based on his most recent claim over the weekend that he believes a new round of sanctions — which includes shutting off the flow of Russian oil and natural gas to China and India — will collapse the Russian economy. Bessent’s statement tells me he understands nothing about the resilience of the Russian economy, nothing about the nature of Russia’s bilateral relations with India and China, and not a damn thing about Russia’s military industrial complex. In short, he may be really smart about trading bonds and securities on Wall Street, but he’s a dummy when it comes to Russia and its economy.

The belief in Washington policy circles that the Russian economy can be collapsed is not a new goal hatched by Bessent. That scenario figured prominently in the Rand Corporation’s April 2019 report, which was prepared for the US Department of Defense — Extending Russia: Competing from Advantageous Ground. The authors assessed the Russia economy in 2019 as follows:

The common charge that modern Russia is just a petrostate like Saudi Arabia is grossly overstated, but its economy and state budget are disproportionately dependent on energy exports, the value of which has collapsed.28 Russia possesses sizable manufacturing and service industries, but these are relatively uncompetitive on the world market, and the country exports few manufactured goods other than weapons. Recognizing the folly of Russia’s economic dependence on energy exports, the liberalizing technocrat Dmitry Medvedev pursued a policy of economic modernization during his presidency that sought to diversify Russia’s economy. . . .

Russia’s overall economic outlook is unfavorable for both the short and long terms. Between the collapse in energy prices and the international sanctions imposed after the Crimea and Ukraine invasions, Russian GDP fell and is now stagnant.31 The ruble lost half of its value against the dollar and euro in the aftermath of the crisis, but Russia has nevertheless developed a dependence on imports for both consumer and capital goods. Predictably, these conditions have resulted in a massive tax shortfall and the imposition of austerity measures. For the past two years, the Russian government has been making up the gap by spending down the hard currency reserves built up during the boom years, but these will be exhausted soon, necessitating politically fraught choices to slash social spending. The likelihood that oil prices will remain stagnant for the foreseeable future gives little hope that the Kremlin can make an easy escape from this conundrum. While much of Russian industry was de-privatized (renationalized) under Putin, the government is rumored to be planning a selloff of some of these assets to raise desperately needed cash.

Do I need to write it out for you? These brainiacs were and are wrong! Russia is now the 4th largest economy in the world in terms of GDP as measured by Purchasing Power Parity (i.e., PPP), notwithstanding more than three years of heavy Western sanctions. Russia has the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio of all of the top economies in the world… now estimated to be, at most, 19%. That means in the event of a major financial crisis, Russia has ample financial means to weather a major storm. But let’s look at the term, collapse.

To say that a country’s economy “collapses” means there is a widespread breakdown of normal commerce and market mechanisms, resulting in severe, prolonged economic distress that goes far beyond a typical recession or depression. An economic collapse is marked by:

• Massive failures in banks, businesses, and markets
• Very high unemployment
• Bankruptcies and widespread poverty
• Chaos in the currency, sometimes including hyperinflation or a currency crash
• Breakdown of law, public order, and often social unrest
• Failure of government economic interventions to restore stability in the short term

Unlike regular downturns or recessions, an economic collapse is not a normal part of the economic cycle; it often follows a crisis and can last for years or decades. Classic examples include the Great Depression in the US, or the hyperinflation-era Weimar Germany. Social chaos and civil unrest often accompany a collapse, and recovery is slow and painful. The Russian economy collapsed in the 1990s, and that experience left an indelible scar on the soul of the Russian people. If you want to place your bets, I believe that the US will experience a collapse before Russia.

So how vulnerable is Russia to tough sanctions on oil and gas? Oil exports account for 15–20% of Russia’s GDP in recent years, including 2025. The oil and gas sector as a whole makes up roughly 15.2% (2020), 19.2% (2019), and up to 21.1% (2018) according to Russian government data, but the share for oil alone is typically at the lower end of this range, around 15–17%. Oil and petroleum products account for about 40–45% of Russia’s total exports as of 2025. This figure includes both crude oil and refined petroleum products, making them the largest export category for the country.

Where do China and India fit in? China and India together account for around 63% of Russia’s fossil fuel export revenues in 2025, with the EU and Turkey trailing behind but still significant players. Check out this table:

Let me take you to fantasy land. Let’s assume that China, India, Turkey and the European Union stop buying Russian oil and gas. That would be a 15% hit to Russia’s economy… painful, but not debilitating nor devastating. But that is not going to happen. China, which is the largest importer of Russian oil, just inked a deal with Russia to build a new pipeline to deliver more oil and gas to China. India also is unlikely to cave to US and European pressure because it needs inexpensive oil more than it needs trade with the NATO-block.

If Trump is counting on Bessent to give him leverage over Putin and the Russian economy, then he is making an ill-advised wager. The West’s failure to understand the simple fact that Russia, by virtue of its vast natural resources, does not need international trade to grow its economy. It is self-sufficient. But Russia is not sitting still… It has forged close economic ties with its BRICS partners and, along with those partners, is building an alternative to a Western hegemonic economic and financial system. Donald Trump is no longer in a position to take Russia as an economic and financial hostage. Pax Americana is kaput.

This article was originally published on Sonar21.

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The end of the Cold War in 1989 provided a fantastic opportunity for a major reset in relations between the American people and the people of Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and other nations that U.S. officials had long designated as official enemies of the United States. For almost 45 years following the end of World War II, U.S. officials had inculcated a mindset of deep fear among the American people — fear that the Russians, Chinese, and other communist nations were coming to get us.

It was all one great big racket designed to justify the conversion of the U.S. government from our founding governmental structure of a limited-government republic to a national-security state, a type of totalitarian-like governmental structure that wields omnipotent powers, such as the power of engaging in state-sponsored assassinations.

Fear-mongering, propaganda, and indoctrination are central to a national-security state governmental structure. The national-security state must convince the citizenry that there are scary enemies coming to get them so that the citizenry will continue to support and embrace the national-security state governmental structure and the ever-increasing power and taxpayer-funded largess that is necessary to sustain it.

The racket worked almost perfectly. Americans fell for it hook, line, and sinker. “The Russians are coming!” people cried. “The Reds are everywhere!”

One big exception was when President Kennedy achieved a personal “breakthrough” after the Cuban Missile Crisis by recognizing that the Cold War and the anti-communist crusade were nothing more than one great big racket. After he vowed to bring the racket to an end in his Peace Speech at American University in June 1963, the U.S. national-security establishment dealt with him in Dallas five months later.

Thus, the Cold War racket continued all the way until 1989, when the Soviet Union suddenly and unexpectedly dismantled itself. The Berlin Wall came crashing down and West Germany and East Germany recombined into one nation. The Warsaw Pact dissolved, Russian troops withdrew to Russia, and Eastern European countries gained their independence.

There was an obvious readiness among Russian officials to do a complete reset with respect to relations with the United States. They made it clear that they desired to establish a world of peaceful and friendly relations. The same held true for China, notwithstanding the fact that it was still headed by a communist regime. The same was true for Cuba.

This was a time of great optimism and hope for the American people and the people of the communist world. Why, for a few years afterward, there were even libertarian conferences being held in both China and Russia.

But the hope and optimism did not characterize the U.S. national-security establishment — i.e., the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA. Remember: They needed big official scary enemies to justify their existence. They knew that many Americans were advocating a post-Cold War “peace dividend,” which would have entailed a severe reduction in military-intelligence spending. There was even the danger that Americans might even begin demanding the restoration of their founding governmental system of a limited-government republic.

The U.S. national-security establishment was not going to let that happen, at least not without a big fight. A deadly invasion of Iraq, followed by 11 years of brutal and deadly economic sanctions against the Iraqi people, produced the “blowback” of the 9/11 retaliatory attacks. The national-security establishment was back to the races, this time replacing communism with terrorism as the new official enemy of the American people.

At the same time, however, they never gave up hope of restoring the Cold War to America. It had proven to be too lucrative a racket to simply let it go. If they could combine their “war on communism” racket with their “war on terrorism” racket, they could virtually guarantee that the national-security state governmental structure would remain a permanent and perpetual part of the U.S. government.

That’s why they used their old Cold War dinosaur NATO to begin moving eastward toward Russia, absorbing former members of the Warsaw Pact in the process. It wasn’t exactly consistent with the peaceful and friendly world that people had in mind at the end of the Cold War.

Moreover, once the U.S. national-security state became mired in forever wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. officials could see that China and Russia were prospering, especially given that they weren’t mired in such wars. They could also see that China and Russia were gaining popularity and influence around the world, while there was ever-growing animosity toward the U.S. and its forever deadly and destructive propensity toward war and aggression.

That’s when the U.S. government decided that it was time to “degrade” both China and Russia and initiate the continuation of the old Cold War racket. A vicious trade war and a brutal system of economic sanctions were launched against China, with the aim of diminishing the economic prosperity of that nation. Moreover, the old Cold War dinosaur NATO was used to provoke Russia into invading Ukraine, which provided U.S. national-security state officials with the opportunity to use Ukraine as a proxy or agent to give Russia its own “Afghanistan,” thereby “degrading” Russia through the loss of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers and ever-increasing war expenditures.

Thus, what began with lots of hope and optimism at the end of Cold War I ended up with Russia and China being restored to the top tier of America’s official enemies as part of Cold War II.

According to a recent article in Politico, however, the U.S. government is now shifting its attention to Latin America, using its decades-old, ongoing, never-ending, perpetual drug war as its excuse. That shift in official enemies is clearly reflected by the new U.S. obsessiveness with Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.

The irony is that when Cold War I ended, the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA were so panicky over having lost Russia as their official enemy, they were suggesting that they could help fight the drug war as their new mission. And so here they are — with their new official enemies — drugs and drug lords in Latin America.

Don’t think for a minute, however, that they are giving up on Russia and China as official enemies. They are just hedging their bets by adding more official enemies to keep the American people agitated and afraid. In that way, Americans will continue to look on the U.S. national-security state to keep them “safe” and “secure” from all those scary official enemies.

Reprinted with permission from The Future of Freedom Foundation.

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“The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.”—Thomas Paine

They said it was for safety.
They said it was for order.
They said it was for the good of the nation.

They always say it’s for something good… until it isn’t.

Nearly a quarter-century after 9/11, we are still living with the consequences of fear-driven government power grabs. What began as “temporary” measures for our security have hardened into a permanent architecture of control.

The bipartisan police-state architecture that began with 9/11 has been passed from president to president and party to party, each recycling the same justifications—safety, security, patriotism—to expand its powers at the expense of the citizenry.

So they locked down the country “for our safety.”
They expanded surveillance “for our security.”
They rounded up anyone who challenged the narrative “for the common good.”
They erased names, ideas, and histories “to prevent offense.”
They forced schools to teach only what was politically correct “for the children.”
They censored speech “for our protection.”
They targeted dissenters “to preserve peace.”
They militarized the streets and called it “law and order.”

These very abuses—once denounced when carried out by the Left—are now cheered, defended, and excused when carried out by the Right.

People who once spoke passionately about truth, freedom, and faith have now fallen silent in the face of injustice, or worse, convinced themselves that nothing is wrong. The very voices that should be warning against tyranny are instead excusing it or looking away.

This is the danger of double standards in politics: every tyranny is rationalized in the moment by its chorus of defenders.

But history teaches that what goes around comes around. If you justify it now, you’ll have no defense when the tables turn.

And yet, time and again, the lies we tell ourselves make it possible. The cult of personality. The blind loyalty to party. The belief that “our side” can’t be the villain.

It never ceases to amaze how far people will go to excuse the actions of their favorite tyrant, even when those actions are the very things they once swore to oppose.

The pattern of justifying tyranny is as old as power itself. Every abuse comes wrapped in the same excuse: we had to do it.

After 9/11, Americans were told the Patriot Act and mass surveillance were “necessary to prevent terrorism.” The result was a sprawling security state that tracks every phone call, every online search, every purchase. The justification was security. The cost was freedom.

Under Obama, drone warfare and the prosecution of whistleblowers were defended as “keeping America safe.” The president even claimed the power to assassinate U.S. citizens abroad without trial. The result was an unaccountable government acting as judge, jury and executioner. The justification was safety. The cost was due process.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns and mandates were imposed in the name of “public health,” laying the groundwork for a Nanny State empowered to micromanage every aspect of our lives—where we go, what we buy, who we see. The result was government claiming control over every aspect of daily life. The justification was saving lives. The cost was the right to govern our bodies.

Under Trump, the script is familiar.

National Guard deployments in American cities are justified as “restoring order.” Sweeping surveillance is framed as “protecting communities.” Crackdowns on dissent are defended as “stopping criminals.” Mental health round-ups of the homeless are justified as “helping the vulnerable.” Militarized patrols on city streets are justified as “cleaning up the streets.” Turning ICE into a roving army of lawless thugs is justified as “protecting citizenship.” Censorship and efforts to sanitize American history are now being lauded by the same voices that railed against “cancel culture.”

That same logic has taken a deadly turn abroad. At Trump’s direction, the U.S. carried out a series of preemptive military strikes this year—against Iran’s nuclear sites, against the Houthis in Yemen, and most recently against what the administration claimed was a drug-trafficking boat off the coast of Venezuela. The White House has justified these deadly attacks—carried out without congressional approval or constitutional authorization—as part of the president’s unilateral war-making authority.

This, too, is part of the bipartisan police-state architecture built after 9/11, when presidents claimed open-ended authority to wage preemptive war without meaningful congressional oversight.

What began with Afghanistan and Iraq has metastasized into a global battlefield where any president can launch attacks—on Iran, on Yemen, on Venezuela—without accountability.

As always, the justification is order, safety, and patriotism. The cost is truth, justice and freedom.

Every time Trump expands his powers, the chorus is the same: It wouldn’t be necessary if Democrats had done their job. If you don’t break the law, you have nothing to fear. If you’re not doing anything wrong, why worry?

These are the oldest excuses for tyranny—and they never change. Only the partisanship does.

What makes Trump and those who came before him especially dangerous is not merely their willingness to wield power but the eagerness of their enablers to excuse and defend it at every turn.

History shows that bullies and strongmen can only rise when mobs rally to their side. A tyrant’s greatest weapon is not his fist, but the crowd that cheers him on, intimidates his critics, and convinces itself that might makes right.

The machinery of authoritarianism always needs a chorus of defenders, and today that chorus is louder, more organized, and more dismissive of constitutional limits than ever before.

We have been building to this moment for a long time. Even so, why do people accept tyranny so easily?

First, the cult of personality. When people invest blind faith in a leader, they will excuse anything he does. If he says surveillance is necessary, they believe it. If he says dissenters are enemies, they cheer their punishment. It is the psychology of the mob, cloaked in the loyalty of the true believer.

Second, fear as a political weapon. Every despot knows that frightened people will tolerate almost anything. Fear of terrorism. Fear of crime. Fear of disease. Fear of immigrants. Fear of collapse. Fear makes people beg for the chains that bind them.

Third, the “our side” fallacy. People imagine tyranny is only tyranny when the other side does it. When their side does it, they call it leadership. They call it patriotism. They call it protection. But the abuse doesn’t change when the party label does. Wrong is wrong.

Every new regime that seizes power promises it will use extraordinary authority only for good. And every regime—without exception—uses it to entrench itself at the expense of liberty.

Every generation tells itself the same lies to excuse the same abuses.

Consider the whiplash of partisan double standards:

• Conservatives who blasted the Obama administration for NSA spying now cheer Trump’s Palantir partnership and AI-driven surveillance that tracks Americans’ digital footprints.
• Democrats who embraced Biden’s use of emergency orders to advance their agenda have been quick to denounce Trump for ruling by executive order.
• Those who bristled at COVID mandates under Democrats now applaud Trump’s use of government force to impose his own version of “public safety.”
• Both sides flip-flop on free speech. Conservatives denounced censorship on college campuses but defend banning “dangerous” books and surveilling dissidents, while liberals oppose Trump’s attempt to whitewash history yet defend platforms censoring speech they deem “harmful” or “hateful.”

The double standard is breathtaking.

Tyranny doesn’t change depending on who carries it out. Yet partisans convince themselves it does. They say: It’s different this time. It’s necessary. It’s for us.

In truth, the only difference is who holds the whip.

The Constitution was designed to restrain exactly this impulse. It does not say: “These rights apply only when the other party is in power.” It does not say: “The executive may rule by decree if he is popular.”

James Madison warned that “if men were angels, no government would be necessary.” But men are not angels. That is why the Constitution separates powers, guarantees due process, and protects speech and assembly—especially in times of crisis.

Every time one party tramples these limits, the other eventually inherits those same powers and uses them in turn. The Patriot Act, passed under Bush, was wielded aggressively under Obama, Trump, and Biden. The executive orders one president signs become the precedents for the next.

“What you excuse today,” history warns us, “will be used against you tomorrow.”

The descent into tyranny always begins with justifications.

The Roman Republic collapsed into empire because senators claimed Caesar needed extraordinary powers to restore order. The republic never recovered.

In 1930s Germany, emergency decrees were defended as temporary measures to stabilize society. They became the permanent architecture of dictatorship.

In post-9/11 America, warrantless surveillance and secret courts were sold as temporary protections. Nearly a quarter-century later, they remain fixtures of government power.

Tyranny is never announced as tyranny. It is always justified as safety, morality, and order. It is always explained away as temporary. And it is always defended by people who believe they are on the winning side.

And so here we are.

A president issues executive orders that erode the Bill of Rights. His supporters applaud. Another president expands surveillance or censorship. His supporters applaud.

Both sides denounce the abuses of their opponents yet sanction the same abuses when carried out by their own.

This is how liberty dies—not with a sudden coup, but with partisan politics valued more than principled freedom.

The police state thrives on this selective outrage. It does not matter which party is in power. The machinery of control grows. The Constitution withers. And the people are left squabbling over whose tyrant is better.

There is only one antidote: principle.

You cannot defend freedom by defending tyranny when your side is in power. You cannot preserve liberty by cheering for its destruction. You cannot expect constitutional limits to shield you tomorrow if you discard them today.

The warnings span centuries. The Founders foresaw the danger: James Madison cautioned against the “gradual and silent encroachments” of government. Thomas Jefferson warned that the natural tendency of power is to grow.

Justice Louis Brandeis later confirmed it from the vantage point of the modern state: “the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachments by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”

Those warnings went unheeded after 9/11, and we have been paying the price ever since. The bipartisan police-state architecture built in those years has only grown stronger, repurposed by each new administration.

Unless we find the courage to dismantle it, today’s justifications will become tomorrow’s permanent chains.

The lesson is clear: if you want liberty, you must defend it consistently—even when it restrains your own party, your own leader, your own side. Especially then.

What you excuse today will be used against you tomorrow.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, it does not matter whether the abuse comes draped in red or blue. It does not matter whether it is cheered by the Right or justified by the Left.

Tyranny, once excused, becomes entrenched.

This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

The post How Tyranny Becomes Entrenched: 9/11 and the Police State’s Endless Power Grabs appeared first on LewRockwell.

The second toughest job in the Trump administration isn’t vice president or secretary of defense or secretary of state. It’s not even attorney general, though that’s close. It’s secretary of Health and Human Services. That’s Robert Kennedy Jr.’s domain. It’s tough because Donald Trump has charged RFK Jr. with pursuing sea-change agendas in health care and nutrition. Kennedy is threatening mighty powerful interests in both arenas.

A thousand current and former HHS employees signed a letter calling for Kennedy’s “demission.” In plain English, they want Kennedy to resign, but he won’t — and he shouldn’t. RFK Jr. has Trump’s backing. Then on September 4, Kennedy appeared before the Senate Finance Committee, where Democrats and a GOP senator piled on. A conspiracist might suggest that the letter and attacks at the hearing were coordinated.

ABC News reported on September 3:

In the letter, HHS employees said Kennedy continues “to endanger the nation’s health” with examples such as the ousting of newly-installed CDC director Susan Monarez, followed by the resignations of four top CDC leaders.

Monarez clashed with Kennedy over vaccine policy. When Monarez learned that Kennedy planned to dump her, she ran to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA). Cassidy is a longtime Trump antagonist. He backed off opposing Trump when Trump’s term began. Odd that he would do so, considering he voted to impeach the president for “incitement of insurrection” in February 2021. A man of principle, huh?

Cassidy is a physician. He’s up for re-election next year, which surely explains his slacking off his anti-Trump fervor. He chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He also has a seat on the Finance Committee.

Where there’s a senator up for re-election — who holds a committee chairmanship — oodles of campaign cash flows in.

Cassidy is regarded as one of BIO’s “strategic voices and allies” in Congress. BIO is short for “Biotechnology Innovation Organization.” It’s a trade group. It’s a behind-the-scenes organizer to oust the secretary. Its members include heavy hitters “Pfizer, Merck, Novavax, Vaxcyte, and hundreds of biotech firms that profit from regulatory insulation,” per the Public Health Policy Journal.

The Bio-Vaccine Policy Steering Committee (VPSC) is comprised of BIO member company employees. Members are charged with working reps and senators and their staffers. “Work,” so-called, involves handing out campaign checks, dispensing favors, and applying pressure. A memo leaked last April suggests that the committee is spearheading the get RFK Jr. intrigue.

Cassidy appears to be Big Pharma’s Senate point man in taking down Kennedy. On September 4, in the Finance Committee hearing at which Kennedy was testifying, Cassidy used his time to push a scare tactic. Per the New York Post, via MSN:

“I would say, effectively, we’re denying people vaccines,” Cassidy said after reading the messages from conservative radio host Erick Erickson and a friend of the Louisiana Republican, who is a doctor.

Cassidy is trying to undercut Kennedy from the Right. Citing Erickson, who’s another longtime Trump opponent, isn’t exactly the smartest way to win friends and influence people, not among MAGA legions anyway.

Open Secrets reports that from 2019-24, Cassidy received in excess of $3 million from health-related groups and individuals, clearly his largest contributions category. Pharmaceuticals were fourth on Open Secrets Top 20 list of contributions to Cassidy, with over $700,000.

As Public Health Policy Journal mentioned, Big Pharma wants “regulatory  insulation,” though not for any noble purpose. Pharmaceuticals want to dodge liability, which they received with the COVID vaccines — immunity that was extended through 2029, thanks to whoever was calling the shots in the Biden presidency’s dying days.

“Stopping the spread” might not have been a Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel punchline, but it was a joke thanks to the COVID vaccines’ spectacular failures to perform as advertised. Anyone ever hear of “spike proteins?”

And Big Pharma doesn’t want anyone messing with the childhood immunization schedule. Whether or not there’s a causal link among any of a growing number of childhood vaccines and autism should be open to debate. The scientific consensus is that links haven’t been found. Perhaps autism and vaccines aren’t related, but a slew of childhood vaccines invite closer scrutiny. Autism has shot up at alarming rates in recent years. That’s just attributable to better detection?

Kennedy’s mantra is that he wants “evidence-based” outcomes to determine vaccine efficacy and safety. Science pursued honestly. That’s not pharmaceutical industry housed or underwritten research with all the dubious motives. Real science is never settled.

Kennedy has been crossing swords with Big Pharma for years. Since being sworn in as HHS chief, he’s acted with dispatch to implement change, much to the consternation of big drug company big dogs. For them, tens of billions of dollars in revenues hang in the balance. That’s not just vaccine revenues. Drug pricing is consequential, too.

A 2024 Rand report confirms that pharmaceutical manufacturers charge more for prescription drugs here than overseas. Manufacturers are paid less overseas because they must negotiate pricing with national health bureaucracies. Lower drug prices in the E.U., for example, are made up by charging U.S. consumers exorbitantly. Manufacturers say that higher U.S. prices compensate for R&D costs. In other words, U.S. consumers are being forced to subsidize drug costs across the globe.

The president signed an executive order last May aimed at bringing domestic and overseas pricing into parity. This would result in significantly lower costs to American consumers. RFK Jr. is leading this effort. Yet another reason why pharmaceuticals want him out.

Stopping the “freeloading” — negotiated cost savings below fair market value — by other nations takes a process. That will take time.

Read the Whole Article

The post RFK Jr. Under Fire appeared first on LewRockwell.

Change has its enemies.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said this in last week’s raucous Senate Finance Committee hearing, a three-hour scolding session during which he was called a liar, a charlatan, and a child killer. Committee members also told him to resign.

Kennedy refuses to quit. He’s been waiting a very long time for the chance to reform the agency he now leads. On Thursday, he took on all his antagonists — as much as he was allowed to. Committee members arrived armed with choreographed takedowns crafted to make him look cruel and inept. They repeatedly cut him off before he could answer their questions or rebuke accusations, fearing that the longer he spoke, the worse they looked. For example, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) went after Kennedy by quoting supposedly false allegations about the mRNA injection made by Dr. Robert Malone. Dr. Malone is a new member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Before Kennedy could remind the senator that Malone is an inventor of that very technology, Bennet cut him off. This was emblematic of how the hearing went.

Kennedy knows he’s up against the Medical Establishment, a network with enormous wealth and power. That power extends to the halls of Congress. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) admitted during the hearing that “everybody” — Democrats and Republicans — receives PAC money tied to Big Pharma. It was a fascinating admission against interest.

Trump & Operation Warp Speed

Knowing they were unlikely to convince him to resign, many committee members, Republicans included, tried to corner Kennedy into discrediting Operation Warp Speed, the 2021 expedient rollout of the mRNA Covid-19 “vaccine.” His boss, President Donald Trump, takes pride in that boondoggle. If they could get Kennedy to admit it was a disaster, they likely calculated it would hurt Trump’s ego. And, as everyone knows, the president doesn’t react kindly to those who demean his perceived accomplishments. But Kennedy methodically stepped around that trap. Despite being on-record for a number of statements that disparage the mRNA concoction, he tip-toed on a fine line of praise for his boss and Operation Warp Speed while defending a series of actions his agency has taken to undermine the very concoction it brought about.

So far, Trump is standing by Kennedy. He said after the hearing that he appreciates that the secretary is brimming with ideas about how to find out what’s causing autism and other health problems plaguing Americans.

Attempt to Derail MAHA

There are multiple reports circulating about a coordinated plan to get Kennedy fired. Back in July, Dr. Malone wrote about a leaked document with minutes from a meeting during which forces conspired a coup. According to Malone:

According to the apparent leaked minutes, verified by the name of the creator of the file, on April 3, 2025, BIO [the Biotechnology Innovation Organization] held a “Vaccine Policy Steering Committee” (VPSC) meeting whose internal summary … reveals a campaign of strategic deception, institutional capture, and psychological warfare and exposes a campaign of institutional deception, investor protection, and coordinated sabotage of the MAHA reform platform. According to the leaked document, titled “BIO Vaccine Policy Steering Committee – April 3, 2025”, BIO has committed $2 million — half of its cash reserve — to counter what it calls the “threat” posed by Kennedy’s rise. But this is no ordinary PR push. It is a multi-pronged campaign designed to deceive the public, silence dissent, and preserve industry dominance through influence operations masquerading as science.

The memo, which you can read here, includes a plan to co-opt various influencers and conservatives as potential allies. Among those it names are Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which sits under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). When he questioned Kennedy last week, Cassidy devoted all his time to trying to trap the secretary into discrediting Operation Warp Speed. Cassidy also accused Kennedy of telling another committee member that the Covid vax killed more people than Covid, which was verifiably false. Kennedy made no such claim during the hearing.

Conservative podcaster Benny Johnson reported last week that he got information from whistleblowers within HHS and the CDC about a sabotage plot to dislodge Kennedy. Johnson said that CDC bureaucrats were using tactics from a CIA manual to upend Kennedy’s agenda. The walkouts, corporate media hits, fake protests, and heated Senate hearings are part of an attempt to derail the MAHA agenda, according to Johnson.

CDC vs. Kennedy

On the day before last week’s hearing, more than 1,000 current and former CDC employees signed on to a letter saying, “It’s time for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to Resign.” The letter contains many of the complaints heard during the hearing. It’s obvious there is a coordinated plan against Kennedy.

Some MAHA supporters have been disappointed with the secretary for failing to eliminate the Covid jab and for other perceived shortcomings. But the Establishment is clearly in a state of hysterical panic. Perhaps that’s because Kennedy’s agency has taken a number of actions that threaten to topple the Medical Establishment’s system of graft and dependency.

One of Kennedy’s most ire-drawing actions includes firing the entire ACIP panel. “RFK Jr. ousts entire 17-person CDC vaccine advisory committee,” a PBS headline screeched June 10. Last week, the committee repeatedly attacked Kennedy over this. “No one in your job has ever fired every committee member all at once,” Bennet said.

ACIP creates vaccine recommendations and vaccine schedules. It was the central body behind the Covid-19 shot recommendations. Kennedy claims that ACIP is saturated with conflicts of interest. The question isn’t whether he’s right about that, but how many former ACIP members have ties to Pfizer, Moderna, Merck, or others.

When he was accused of politicizing ACIP for firing everyone and replacing them with “non-experts, vaccine skeptics, and conspiracy theorists,” Kennedy shot back. “I didn’t politicize ACIP, I depoliticized it!” he said. He wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week that the ACIP shakeup was about eliminating conflicts of interest, bureaucratic complacency, and leaders who resisted reform.

Layoffs, Resignations, Firings

Kennedy has presided over mass layoffs, as well as the firings and “resignations” of a horde of high-level CDC officials. He admitted Thursday that he asked the former CDC director (which he ended up firing) to fire “career scientists or public experts at the CDC.”

In April, HHS laid off 10,000 people, including 2,400 from the CDC. Before that, the founding director of the National Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce; the director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities; the head of the Office of Science; and the acting director for the Office of Health Equity all “retired.” In June, Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, who oversaw the CDC’s recommendations for Covid-19 vaccines, quit. That same month, Dr. Fiona Havers, who led the agency’s tracking of Covid hospitalizations, also resigned.

Last month, CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired. Her departure was followed by the resignations of a number of other high-ranking employees, including the chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science; the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and the director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.

Vaccine Controversy

The CDC is getting quite the makeover. The head of HHS is clearly trying to eliminate the culture and hive mindset that not only helped foster the disastrous Covid response, but also has contributed to the dire chronic illness problem plaguing America. On Thursday, Kennedy summarized to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) what he thought these people had accomplished:

We were lied to about everything. We were lied to about natural immunity. We were told again and again the vaccines would prevent transmission, they would prevent infection. It wasn’t true. They knew it from the start. It wasn’t true because that’s what that the animal studies in the clinical trials showed. We were told there was science behind cloth masks. The CDC allowed teachers unions to write the order closing our schools, which hurt working people all over the country, then pretended it was science-based…. [HHS] failed miserably during Covid.

Another major move undermining the Covid jab was the CDC removing its recommended status. It is no longer recommended for any healthy people under 65. This, too, drew high-decibel outrage during the hearing. While Kennedy insisted that anyone can still get the shot, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) of Massachusetts and others were right to point out that removing the recommended status makes it more difficult. In some states, getting a Covid booster means you’ll need a prescription. It could mean that healthy people would have to pay out-of-pocket for one. It has already made it harder for people to find it at various pharmacies, according to recent reports. And come January, this could affect whether Medicaid or Medicare will cover it.

Kennedy has also canceled $500 million in vaccine projects that use mRNA technology. Justifying the move, he noted afterward:

After reviewing the science and consulting top experts at NIH [the National Institutes of Health] and FDA, HHS has determined that mRNA technology poses more risk than benefits for … respiratory viruses.

Settling for Reform of an Unconstitutional Agency

Kennedy’s HHS is implementing a slew of other changes. It’s employing a more rigorous testing process to ensure vaccines are safe and beneficial. The NIH is ending gain-of-function research. HHS is also attempting to shift the public health model from a reactive one that addresses symptoms to a preventive one that staves off illness.

Kennedy appears to be trying his best to do what he set out to do without stepping on a number of mines set out for him. He has a monumental task before him. In a more just America with ethical leadership, reform would come easier.

In an ideal, constitutionally obedient America, there would be no federal health agency to reform because it would not exist. But for now, Americans will have to settle for reform.

This article was originally published on The New American.

The post Does the Medical Establishment Have Reason To Fear RFK Jr.? appeared first on LewRockwell.

Yesterday I wrote an essay titled WTC Building 7: Sabotage in Plain Sight that generated a great deal of reader commentary, which I have carefully read.

The perfectly symmetrical and simultaneous failure of all main supports in WTC Building 7 is just one of many bizarre features of the September 11, 2001 saga.

Some of my readers have asked me why I don’t “stay in my lane” by staying focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. The answer is because the same pattern of lying and concealment in the U.S. government’s representations of COVID-19 was evident in the same government’s representations about September 11.

Consider the so-called Congressional inquiry into the events of that day. Shortly after the disaster, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the U.S. Permanent Select Committee On Intelligence launched a Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before And After The Terrorist Attacks Of September 11, 2001.

In its capacity of representing We the People, Congress claimed it wanted to know what U.S. intelligence and federal law enforcement agencies knew about the hijackers before and after the attacks. Who exactly were these guys, who were they connected with, and who directed and supported them while they were in the United States?

On December of 2002, Congress published a report on its Inquiry. At first glance, this seemed an admirable example of our legislative branch doing its job for the American people. However, concerned citizens who read it—especially the relatives of Americans who died in the attacks—noticed that 29 pages of the report had been redacted because they contained “certain sensitive national security matters.”

Sensible readers will note that the whole point of the Inquiry was to ascertain WHY our intelligence and law enforcement had so catastrophically failed to protect our national security, so redacting 29 pages because they pertained “to sensitive national security matters” struck me as ridiculous. I suspected that Congress was protecting influential “friends” and “allies” from embarrassment.

Relatives of 9/11 victims filed a FOIA request for the redacted pages, and after a 14-year legal contest, Congress was finally ordered to publish the document, which it did on Friday, July 15, 2016.

For years the redacted section had been referenced as “the 28 pages,” but the total number turned out to be 29. The key FINDING of the redacted section is as follows:

While in the United States, some of these September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support or assistance from individuals who may be connected to the Saudi government. There is information, primarily from FBI sources, that at least two of those individuals were alleged by some to be Saudi intelligence officers.

One of the suspected intelligence officers was Osama Bassnan, who lived across the street from two of the hijackers when they resided in San Diego and was in close contact with many of their associates. According to the report:

Bassnan has many ties to the Saudi government, including past employment by the Saudi Arabian education mission. The FBI also received reports from individuals in the Muslim community alleging that Bessan might be a Saudi intelligence officer According to a CIA memo, Bassnan has reportedly received funding, and possibly a fake passport, from Saudi government officials, he and his wife have received financial support from the Saudi ambassador to the United States and his wife.

On at least one occasion, Bassnan received a check directly from Prince Bandar‘s account. According to the FBI, on May 14, 1998, Bassnan cashed the check from Bandar in the amount of $15,000. Bassnan’s wife also received at least one check directly from Bandar. She also received one additional check from Bandar’s wife which she cashed on January 8, 1998 for $10,000.

While such statements might pique someone’s curiosity to learn more about this connection between President Bush’s friend, Prince Bandar, and a suspected Saudi intelligence agent providing support for hijackers in San Diego, Congress wasn’t interested. As the Committees stated in their report:

It should be clear that this joint inquiry has made no final determinations as to the reliability or sufficiency of the information regarding these issues that we found contained in FBI and CIA documents.

U.S. mainstream media coverage of the release was minimal and it downplayed the significance of what was contained in the document. CNN’s report quoted Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein:

Sens. Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the chair and top Democrat of the Senate Intelligence Committee, issued a statement that they agreed with the decision to declassify the report. But they cautioned, “These pages include unconfirmed allegations and raw reporting and have been the subject of conspiracy theories for years.”

Isn’t it funny how you will never discover the truth of a matter if you don’t investigate it? Not investigating also enables you to brand anyone who raises questions about the matter a “conspiracy theorist.”

The FBI and CIA gave Congress what it asked for, but Congress didn’t like what it saw, so it did NOT order a follow-up investigation into the activities of the Saudi state actors referenced in the report, including Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud.

Instead, Congress redacted the 29 pages from its report and moved on to what it considered more important business—i.e., working with the Bush Administration to prepare for the invasion of Iraq the following spring.

This article was originally published on Courageous Discourse.

The post 9/11: A Case Study of Congressional Concealment appeared first on LewRockwell.

The Criminal State of Israel continues to initiate acts of war against states that are not at war with Israel.  The most recent was an Israeli attack on a residential building in Qatar.  Qatar’s Foreign Ministry accused Israel of “state terrorism.”

A residential building is a place where people reside.  Israel’s criminal action managed to kill six Qatari citizens, but not the Hamas leaders Israel allegedly was targeting. 

Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, described Israel’s enemies as “enemies of Western civilization,” but Hamas has made no attacks on Western civilization.  Leiter dismissed Israel’s critics with “they’ll get over it,” they always do.  To calm the troubled waters Leiter played Israel’s US card:  “Israel has never had a better friend in the White House and Washington and Israel are united in seeking the destruction of Hamas.”

Leiter summed up: “If we didn’t get them this time, we’ll get them the next time.”

Qatar has joined Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and the United States if you believe those who explain that Israel was involved in the murder of President John F. Kennedy as countries that are victims of Israel’s self-righteous aggression.  Yet Israel remains protected by the US, UK, EU, and the rest of the Western world, by most of what little remains of the Arab world, and by Putin.  Yet Russia is demonized for protecting Russians in the Russian areas of Ukraine from massacre by neo-Nazis.  How have Ukrainian neo-Nazis, financed and supported by Washington and Israel, avoided the demonization applied to Hamas?  Hamas is fighting for its own country–Palestine, which has been destroyed by Israel armed with US money, weapons, and diplomatic cover.

Currently Israel and the Zionist neoconservatives who have wormed their way into US foreign policy are pressuring President Trump–“Israel’s greatest friend”–to use nuclear weapons against Iran, a country who has done nothing to the US but nevertheless is under US sanctions and threats imposed at Israel’s insistence.  The “powerful American superpower” cannot even control its own foreign policy. The blustering, threatening Trump doesn’t dare threaten Israel. 

Get ready for Israel’s next war–Washington’s military attack on Iran.  Russia and China, by leaving Iran unprotected, have invited the attack.

Let us further compare the West’s treatment of Russia compared to its treatment of Israel.  Poland has asked NATO to invoke “Article Four” against Russia for allegedly violating Poland’s air space.  No attack was made on Poland.  Moreover, the alleged drone incursions came from Belarus, not Russia, and Belarus warned Poland in advance that some drones had “lost their track as a result of the impact of the parties’ electronic warfare assets.”  “This allowed the Polish side to respond promptly to the actions of the drones by scrambling their forces on duty,” said General Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the general staff of Belarus.

So, Poland wants Article Four invoked against Russia for a non-event, but it is anti-semitic to complain of Israel’s genocide of Palestine, both the people and the country, and Israel’s military/assassination attacks on other countries.  Clearly, the future of freedom does not reside in such a corrupt Western world.

The post Unaccountable Israel appeared first on LewRockwell.

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In this video production, Michel Chossudovsky and Drago Bosnic focus on Donald Trump’s aggressive actions against Venezuela, all in an attempt to appropriate its natural resources, particularly oil and natural gas. This includes not only the usual tools, such as sanctions and other forms of economic and financial pressure, but also threats of direct war. In addition, the US is also pursuing similar policies with regard to numerous other countries, particularly in the Middle East.

War against humanity: What is unfolding is a war against Planet Earth’s 8 billion people. 

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The original source of this article is Global Research.

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