It's A Strange Ignorance Coming Down (Re WTNPH Discounting Evidence That gwb Allowed 9/11 To Occur)

Note that in this commentary the Libertarian blogger Willis Hart refers to me as a "colleague". This was before he banned me from his blog. Now I'm a psychotic troll, and he's restricted his commenting policy so that only team members can submit anything.

Willis Hart: It's a Strange Hate Coming Down... Our colleague, wd, is on the record as saying that President Bush MAY (yes, he gave himself a little wiggle room) have known in advance that 9/11 was going to happen, and let it happen as a pretense to start a war in Iraq. An interesting theory, isn't it? I do have to wonder, though. Is wd aware that, had those planes struck a little differently and the evacuation not gone so smoothly, it wouldn't have been 3,000 human beings dead? It would have been 30,000, 40,000, or 50,000 human beings dead. Does he really think that Mr. Bush is evil to that extreme? Hm, I guess that only he can answer that, huh? (8/28/2011 AT 8:11pm).

Remember the PDB (presidential daily brief) from 8/6/2001 that warned Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US? Condi Rice fibbed and said "the CIA's PDB did not warn the President of a specific new threat but "contained historical information based on old reporting". Implying there was no reason for them to act... "historical information based on old reporting".

But that is CLEARLY bullshit, given the in Ladin Determined To Strike in US warning contained within the PDB. You don't act when you're being WARNED?

An excerpt from the PDB (dashes denote redacted words).

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Laden implied in U.S. television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America". *snip* Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that in --, Laden lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own U.S. attack. Ressam says bin Laden was aware of the Los Angeles operation. Although Bin Laden has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks... Al Qaeda members -- including some who are U.S. citizens -- have resided in or traveled to the U.S. for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. *snip* We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a -- service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman and other US-held extremists. Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks...

Yes, there is "historical" data here, but it also says that bin Laden IS DETERMINED. More attacks WILL come. And this warning (and it absolutely was a warning) was delivered less than 4 months before the 9/11 attacks occurred. There were other warnings, however. Warnings that date back the early days of the bush presidency.

They're coming here: Bush admin. ignored multiple pre-9/11 warnings (11/14/2015 RT article excerpt) Disclosures from more than 100 hours of exclusive interviews with 12 former CIA directors reveal that the George W. Bush administration ignored repeated warnings of an Al-Qaeda attack before September 11, 2001, according to a new Politico report. ... A key meeting took place on July 10, after the head of the Al-Qaeda unit at the CIA... "The information that we had compiled was absolutely compelling. It was multiple-sourced. And it was sort of the last straw" [Cofer Black, a CIA chief of counterterrorism] said. ... "It was very evident that we were going to be struck, we were gonna be struck hard and lots of Americans were going to die" [according to Black]. Black and [CIA director George] Tenet requested an urgent meeting at the White House and met with Bush's National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. The president was on a trip to Boston at the time. Rice was told there would be significant terrorist attacks against the US in the coming weeks or months. "The attacks will be spectacular. They may be multiple. Al-Qaeda's intention is the destruction of the United States", said [Al Qaeda unit head, Richard] Blee, according to Tenet. Rice asked what they thought they needed to do, and Black blasted "We need to go on a wartime footing now!". Despite this warning, Black said the administration sat back.

The Politico article conclusion fits with Willis Hart's "strange hate" description, in that the author concludes that the warnings were actively ignored.

Tenet and Black pitched a plan, in the spring of 2001, called "the Blue Sky paper" to Bush's new national security team. It called for a covert CIA and military campaign to end the Al Qaeda threat - "getting into the Afghan sanctuary, launching a paramilitary operation, creating a bridge with Uzbekistan" "And the word back", says [CIA director George] Tenet, "was we're not quite ready to consider this. We don't want the clock to start ticking"... Translation: they did not want a paper trail to show that they'd been warned. (11/12/2015 article by Chris Whipple).

So it isn't just me who thinks that the bush administration ignored the threat that an attack was coming, and that, had they acted, they might have prevented 9/11. Note that the "word back" was that they did not want "the clock to start ticking", not that they weren't convinced.

That the attacks were ALLOWED to occur is a solid conclusion, IMO. As a pretext for invading Iraq. As per the stated desire of PNAC for a "new Pearl Harbor". (Wikipedia/Project for a New American Century/Critics: Journalist John Pilger pointed to this passage when he argued that Bush administration had used the events of September 11 as an opportunity to capitalize on long-desired plans).

The bush administration was also warned that hijacked planes might be used as weapons.

WH spokesman Ari Fleischer said that while President Bush was told last summer that bin Laden's al Qaeda network might hijack planes, "until the attack took place, I think it's fair to say that no one envisioned that [using planes as suicide bombs] as a possibility". However, a federal report issued exactly two years before the Sept. 11 attacks contrasts with that statement. The report, entitled the "Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?", warned the executive branch that bin Laden's terrorists might hijack an airliner and dive bomb it into the Pentagon or other government building. [Also] the New York Times reports that an FBI agent in Arizona warned his superiors last summer [2000] that bin Laden might be sending students to U.S. flight schools. (What Bush Knew Before Sept. 11).

Then there is the fact that the WTC was bombed previously, due to it being seen by al Qaeda as a symbol of the United State's economic power. On 2/26/1993 a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower, killing 6 people and injuring more than a 1,000. Given the fact that the 1993 plan basically failed, in that those responsible had intended to bring down the entire structure and kill many more, I think our government should have assumed that another attempt was likely and only a matter of time.

When WTNPH says "does he really think that Mr. Bush is evil to that extreme" he predicates it upon his assumption that I said bush knew EXACTLY what was going to happen (that al Qaeda would fly planes into the WTC). But, while the bush administration might (or should) have been able to connect the dots and make some educated guesses as to what al Qaeda may be planning, they chose not to (didn't want the clock to start ticking).

bush, IMO, likely knew there would be an attack, but they had NO idea how bad it would be. My conclusions (which many others have reached) don't represent a "strange hate". Not strange and not hate. Only a rational conclusion based on an examination of the facts. Although I think hate surely would be justified.

Also, I say he LIKELY knew. I (of course) do not know with 100 percent certainty that bush knew an attack was coming. Given the fact that he (as president) was an incompetent doofus, maybe Cheney played him for the useful idiot (and that it's Cheney who is truly evil)?

Me, I'm thinking that Cheney (who was one of 25 people who signed the PNAC's founding statement of principles, while bush wasn't) wanted a "benevolent global hegemony" which would be brought about by toppling Saddam. i.e. the domino theory which said that if the US "overthrows Hussein and creates a pro-Western democratic regime in Iraq, the example will increase internal pressure to open closed societies such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria").

Whereas bush wanted to take out Saddam because he allegedly tried to kill his daddy.

During a campaign speech in September 2002, Bush cited a number of reasons - in addition to alleged terrorist links and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) about why Saddam was so dangerous to the U.S., noting, in particular that, "After all, this is the guy who tired to kill my dad". He was referring, of course, to an alleged plot by Iraqi intelligence to assassinate Bush's father, former president George H.W. Bush, during his triumphal visit to Kuwait in April, 1993, 25 months after US-led forces chased Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in the first Gulf War and three months after Bush Sr. surrendered the White House to Bill Clinton. While the alleged plot was never cited officially as a cause for going to war, some pundits... have speculated that revenge or some oedipal desire to show up his father may indeed have been one of the factors that drove him to Baghdad. (So, Did Saddam Hussein Try to Kill Bush's Dad? by Jim Lobe. 10/19/2004 Republished by Common Dreams).

So, bush evil? Yeah, I think so. Because of his actions. Most evil people don't view themselves as evil. Remember that Osama bin Laden thought he was leading a religious crusade against the Great Satan. And believed he was on the side of God (AKA Allah). But would Willis Hart say OBL wasn't evil? I really, really doubt it.

Point is, we always determine evil by what evil does. Or what evil people do. In this case the evil of george w bush in ignoring the warnings and allowing 9/11 to happen. Something the evidence strongly suggests happened.

"Do you think President Bush intentionally allowed the 9/11 attacks to take place because he wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East?" Public Policy Polling asked in 2009.Wikipedia notes that "27% of respondents who identified themselves as Liberals, and 10% as Conservatives, responded YES".

The Hartster's response (when I quoted these figures to him) was that people who responded YES are crazy. But wasn't it MORE crazy to ignore the clear warnings the bushies were presented with? I mean, if bush had done the job he was elected to do as CIC, which was to keep America safe, then 9/11 ABSOLUTELY could have been prevented.

In any case, and to my reason for writing this commentary, I'm not attempting to convince anyone that bush knew and purposefully ignored 9/11 warnings (as people in that camp will likely never be convinced), but only to point out that there is a lot of evidence that strongly suggests bush knew. And that I'm not crazy, suffering from a "strange hate", or "as far outside the mainstream as it gets" (another WTNPH assertion).

For the record, when I say that Willis Hart's ignorance is strange, I mean for someone as politically aware as he is. I don't mean that such an opinion is out of the mainstream, as many people are (either unaware) or don't believe that bush ignored 9/11 warnings. Willis' ignorance is strange because he knows these things (as I pointed them out to him in the comment thread of the post quoted above). Yet he still discounts the probability entirely. And berates anyone who gives it any credence as crazy.

So, it's a WILLFUL ignorance. This from someone I'd wager would accuse others of being willfully ignorant (him viewing himself as someone whose eyes are wide open, politically).

OST #168. See also SWTD #350.

On The Fact That Congressman James Clyburn Was 100% Correct When He Said That The Orlando Nightclub Shooting Had Nothing to Do With ISIS & Everything To Do With Gun Control

Regarding the Orlando nightclub shooter, Congressman James Clyburn recently said, "this gentleman, it is now being revealed, had a lot of hate, and it seems that some of it was self-hate. And consequently this is not about ISIS, this is not about any kind of foreign terror. This is about guns in America and whether or not we're going to have some kind of moderation to this Second Amendment just as we have to the First Amendment".

OK, except for the killer being a "gentleman" I'd say Clyburn is right. Unsurprisingly the Libertarian gun nut blogger Willis Hart disagrees.

Willis Hart: On Congressman James Clyburn Saying that the Orlando Nightclub Shooting Had "Nothing to Do with ISIS" - this Despite the Fact that the Killer Himself Had Stated the Exact Opposite - and that it Had Everything to Do with Gun Control - this Despite the Fact that None of the Proposed Pieces of Legislation Would Have Stopped this Latest Atrocity... This ass-hat is a perfect example (and, yes, there are examples on the Republican side as well; Louie Gohmert, Steve King, Mitch "the Bitch" McConnell, etc.) of why we really need to go back to citizen legislators and ditch these career politicians who aren't just too detached from their constituents but from reality, too. "Had nothing to do with ISIS". Come on!! (6/25/2016 AT 11:21pm).

Asshat? Because Clyburn thinks people on the No-Fly list shouldn't have easy access to guns? Further proof of Hart's extreme gun nuttery. The shooter Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader abu bakr al Baghdadi, and (according to co-workers) claimed he had family connections to ­al Qaeda and was a member of Hezbollah, two opposing terrorist groups that have clashed repeatedly in Syria.

Proof he was talking out of his ass and his actions were NOT directed by ISIS. Although maybe Willis thinks al Qaeda and Hezbollah are now allies?

People who are filled with hate will latch onto ANY reason to justify violent actions. The only way in which this incident is in any way tied to ISIS is that Mateen used ISIS to justify his actions. Which is what Clyburn was talking about.

Also, the legislation proposed by the Democrats would have stopped Mateen from acquiring his weapons.

Senate Intelligence Committee vice-chairman Dianne Feinstein said Sunday that Democrats' proposed legislation, which aims to keep suspected terrorists from purchasing guns, would have caught Orlando shooter Omar Mateen. "Omar Mateen would have been picked up by this", she said on CBS "Face the Nation". (Dianne Feinstein: Dems' proposed gun law would have prevented Orlando by Emily Schultheis. Face The Nation 6/19/2016)

I suppose it's a much bigger hassle to be prevented from buying a gun than to be prevented from flying. I mean that sarcastically, of course. Apparently violating a person's due process is just dandy if all you're doing if f#ucking with their livelihoods (in that many people fly for work). The point is that IF you're going to have a "no fly" list because people on it are suspected of having possible terror ties, maybe we should take a look at any requests from them to buy guns? Sounds like common sense to me.

But gun nuts like Willis Hart clearly lack common sense. Given the fact that polls show the asshat Hart in the minority and completely detached from reality when it comes to gun control.

92 percent of respondents favored expanded background checks, 87 percent supported prohibiting convicted felons or people with mental health problems from buying guns and 85 percent were in support of banning people on the terror watch list or on the no-fly list from buying guns. (Poll: Gun control support rises after Orlando shooting by Tyler Pager. Politico 6/20/2016)

So Clyburn isn't detached from his constituents, but doing exactly what they want him to. Which is to not kowtow to the NRA as his Republican colleagues do.

BTW, Mitch McConnell is NOT known as "the Bitch". His nickname is the turtle. A nickname that is WIDELY known. Yet another (though significantly less important) fact from which the Hartster is detached from reality regarding.

OST #153

Willis Hart To Win Nobel Peace Prize?

Is the Libertarian blogger Willis Hart a potential future Nobel Peace prize winner? He just might be, if the organization he writes one of his "notes" to takes his advice.

Willis Hart: Note to ISIS... Hey guys, I have a suggestion. Instead of engaging in mass-executions and suicide attacks, you try a little something different. Like, I don't know, maybe construct a functional sewage system, hire a few traffic cops, build and maintain a half-way reliable electrical grid - you know, basic civilization stuff. No, it isn't as exciting as playing soldier or as psychologically comforting as thinking that there's a actually a god who rewards murder and mayhem with an afterlife of unlimited jail-bait but you gotta grow up sometime, fellas'. (4/11/2016 AT 4:22pm).

OK, so now that Willis has pointed out the flaw in the logic of ISIS, I'm sure they're going to change their ways and follow Mr. Hart's advice ASAP. Because you know someone high up in the ISIS ranks reads Contra O'Reilly.

Anyway, now that Willis has solved the ISIS/terrorism problem, I'm positive that, in appreciation, the citizens of the world will demand that he be awarded a Nobel Peace prize. You know, because, unlike Obama, he actually brought about peace.

Or, he is about to. Now that ISIS is aware of what they're doing wrong (thanks to Hart's note), it's only a matter of time before they start behaving themselves and doing exactly what Willis has prescribed. Because they will recognize the wisdom behind his words. Also because (upon realizing that they've been wrong all along) will be greatly ashamed. And realize they DO need to grow up and stop fantasizing about martyring themselves in the name of Allah (by blowing themselves up/murdering others) and receiving their "jailbait" reward in the afterlife.

Although the Koran states that believers receive "companions of equal age [who are] well-matched... pure beings" known as Houri. However, "some scholars argue that the promise of 72 virgins is a mistranslation". Also (however), according to Ibn Warraq (referring to The Syro-Aramaic reading of the Koran) "the context makes it clear that it is food and drink that is being offered, and not unsullied maidens or houris".

But Al-Tirmidhi (824–892) did write that an "houri is a girl of tender age". So, jailbait? This might very well be what ISIS suicide bombers believe they're going to be rewarded with in the afterlife. Anyway, given that they're fanatics, they'd probably want to chop off Willis' head... as opposed to reading and following the advice he gives in his "note".

I suppose I could be wrong, however, and that when Gary Johnson is elected president, he will appoint the Nobel-Peace-prize-winning Willis Hart to a prominent cabinet position (or Gary might even select him as his VP). In order to take advantage of his extraordinary wisdom.

By the way, there is also the fact that all the territory occupied by ISIS is actually parts of other countries, ruled by other people. If ISIS fighters put down their weapons and started constructing functional sewage systems, hiring traffic cops, and building and maintaining reliable electrical grids... they'd be shot and killed. Or arrested, tried and executed. You can't start acting like a government when you're not one. Because the actual government views your militia as belligerents.

I mean, when/if they win the war, then they likely would do these things (as their goal is to set up a strict Islamic state/Caliphate). They have to win the war FIRST, however. Are they "playing soldier", as the dense Hartster puts it, or are they freedom fighters? Yeah, I think that (at least in their view), they're the later. And freedom fighters have to win first BEFORE doing things governments do.

In other words... Willis again shows how much of a total moron he is. Oh, and "murder and mayhem"? They view us (the United States, Europe & allies) as the ones engaging in this, and they're only retaliating.

OST #137

Willis Hart A Bald-Faced Liar & Ignoramus Re The Non-Fact Of Bernie Sanders Blaming ISIS On AGW

Bernie Sanders, due to him being a Democratic Socialist who is running for POTUS, has inspired the Libertarian blogger Willis Hart to author a number of commentaries. Most of them focusing on how much of a dumbass Sanders is for not being a Libertarian.

In this case Willis is outraged that Senator Sanders correctly links ISIS in Syria to AGW (man-caused climate change).

Willis Hart: On the Fact that Bernie Sanders Is Attempting to Blame ISIS on (Man-Made) Climate Change... This man is either a bald-faced liar or an ignoramus beyond belief. (12/8/2015 AT 3:57pm).

The existence of ISIS cannot be blamed on man-caused climate change (Anthropogenic global warming or AGW) and Senator Sanders has made no such argument. Willis lies about this. Or he's an ignoramus and his take on Senator Sanders' actual argument is based on 2nd hand criticisms (from Conservative/Libertarian sources that are lying).

Either way there is lying involved, because, as we know (and perhaps Willis would agree with this) it was events put into action by former preznit gwb that lead to an environment where the formation of a group like ISIS was inevitable (the power vacuum created by the Iraq war/removal of Saddam and the dissolution of the Iraqi military).

Senator Sanders agrees with this read of the facts (as does the Libertarian-Republican Rand Paul).

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on [10/12/2014] told CNN host Candy Crowley that it was easy to criticize President Barack Obama's fight against ISIS in Iraq, but he reminded her that it was President George Bush's "disastrous blunder" that allowed the extremists group to get a foothold in the first place. [According to Sanders] "...We are here today because of the disastrous blunder of the Bush-Cheney era, which got us into this war in Iraq in the first place, which then developed the can of worms that we're trying to deal with right now" (Bernie Sanders reminds CNN host: You can slam Obama, but Bush's blunder created ISIS by David Edwards. RawStory 10/12/2014).

This claim that "Bernie Sanders Is Attempting to Blame ISIS on Man-Made Climate Change" is just another of the Hartster's infamous strawmen. Bernie Sanders blames ISIS on george bush's Iraq invasion.

As for the ACTUAL statements Senator Sanders has made in regards to the link between climate change and terrorism (and YES, he has made such statements)...

Bernie Sanders appearing on the 11/15/2015 edition of Face the Nation: ...we are going to see an increase in drought and flood and extreme weather disturbances as a result of climate change, what that means is that peoples all over the world are going to be fighting over limited natural resources... what happens in, say, Syria... is that when you have drought, when people can't grow their crops, they're going to migrate into cities... And when people migrate into cities and they don't have jobs, there's going to be a lot more instability, a lot more unemployment, and people will be subject to the types of propaganda that al Qaeda and ISIS are using right now... So where you have discontent, where you have instability, that's where problems arise, and certainly, without a doubt, climate change will lead to that. (Sanders doubles down: Climate change causes terrorism by Bradford Richardson. The Hill 11/15/2015).

ISIS can't be blamed on man made climate change. There is a link, however.

U.S. military officials refer to climate change as a "threat multiplier" that takes issues like terrorism that would pose a threat to national security and exacerbates the damage they can cause. A 2014 Department of Defense report identifies climate change as the root of government instability that leads to widespread migration [and] can create an avenue for extremist ideologies and conditions that foster terrorism"... ...a paper published in the academic journal PNAS earlier this year argues that climate change helped create instability and fighting in Syria. The Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS, arose in the country in large part due to that instability. (Why Climate Change and Terrorism Are Connected by Justin Worland. Time 11/15/2015).

Senator Sanders did not, by the way, "double down" and say "climate change causes terrorism". What Senator Sanders is saying is the SAME THING the Department of Defense and PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is "one of the world's most-cited and comprehensive multidisciplinary scientific journals") reports say... that climate change will (and has) made terrorism worse.

But the fact that Sanders is 100 percent correct on this did not prevent him being ridiculed in the media. By climate change deniers on the Right (like Willis) as well as others such as PolitiFact... which says Sanders' statements on the link between terrorism and climate change is "mostly false". But (in this case) PolitiFact is as full of shit as Willis.

But even PolitiFact didn't lie about Sanders saying climate change is TO BLAME for ISIS. PolitiFact reports that Sanders said "climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism". Climate change contributes to the growth (not creation) of situations that lead to more people becoming radicalized.

One such situation (as Senator Sanders points out) is the Syrian drought which has lead to the the refugee crisis. Refugees that US Republican politicos are demonizing by suggesting some might be ISIS infiltrators. These are people who are fleeing the conflict (between the Assad government, the so-called moderate rebels and ISIS).

For the record, the Syrians that joined ISIS (due to the instability caused by the conflict and made worse by the drought) could find easier methods to infiltrate over a multi-year vetting process (which the refugees are going through) [1]... such as via a tourist visa [2].

The bottom line is that climate change does act as a "threat multiplier" as the Department of Defense (in agreement with Senator Sanders) acknowledges. Sanders tells tells the truth in regards to this matter and Willis Hart is the ignorant liar. Although the Hartster's perfidiousness in regards to the very real link between climate change and terrorism isn't "beyond belief" given his long history of AGW denialism and hate for democratic socialism (his preference being for economic policies that favor the oligarchs).

Footnotes
[1] ...refugee applicants are subject to the highest level of security checks of any type of traveler to the U.S. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees initially chooses which refugees to refer to the U.S. after doing its own check. U.S. officials then conduct multiple in-person interviews and verify a refugee's story with intelligence agencies and by running background checks through several government databases, including DHS and the National Counterterrorism Center. (Can Terrorists Really Infiltrate the Syrian Refugee Program? by Russell Berman. The Atlantic 11/18/2015).
[2] It's much easier for a would-be terrorist to fly to the U.S. on a tourist visa. ...it makes little sense for an aspiring terrorist to apply to enter the United States as a refugee. Passing through the process often takes at least 18 months, and sometimes much longer. ... Overall, refugees are unlikely to be resettled at all - the UN Refugee Agency says that only about 1 percent of the world's refugees end up being taken in permanently elsewhere. Stephen Legomsky, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis and former chief counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said... "No competent terrorist would choose the U.S. refugee process as a preferred strategy for gaining entry into the US". (Here's Why You Should Stop Worrying About Terrorists Entering The U.S. As Refugees by Roque Planas. HuffPo 11/18/2015).

OST #87