Violence Archives - Page 12 of 14

FBI’s Edmonds: Bin Laden Worked for U.S. Until 9/11

Posted on August 2, 2009 by TL

What a bombshell.

During my recent interview with FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds on the Mike Malloy Show, a caller had asked her opinion on whether she believed 9/11 to have been “an inside job.”

Edmonds replied by first specifying “As I have done for the past 7 or 8 years, I have basically stuck with what I know, first-hand, directly, my own knowledge, based on my own experience, based on what I obtained, which is not a lot, but it is extremely important.”

After explaining the difference between what she does and doesn’t know first hand, she went on to explain: “I have information about things that our government has lied to us about. I know. For example, to say that since the fall of the Soviet Union we ceased all of our intimate relationship with Bin Laden and the Taliban – those things can be proven as lies, very easily, based on the information they classified in my case, because we did carry very intimate relationship with these people, and it involves Central Asia, all the way up to September 11.” …

Her complete response, pulled from the lengthy interview (full, commercial-free audio here) has been transcribed by Luke Ryland, perhaps the world’s foremost expert in all things Sibel Edmonds related.

From Luke Ryland on the Daily Kos:

Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds dropped a bombshell on the Mike Malloy radio show, guest-hosted by Brad Friedman (audio, partial transcript).

In the interview, Sibel says that the US maintained ‘intimate relations’ with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, “all the way until that day of September 11.”

These ‘intimate relations’ included using Bin Laden for ‘operations’ in Central Asia, including Xinjiang, China. These ‘operations’ involved using al Qaeda and the Taliban in the same manner “as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict,” that is, fighting ‘enemies’ via proxies.

Luke’s summary:

The bombshell here is obviously that certain people in the US were using Bin Laden up to September 11, 2001.

It is important to understand why: the US outsourced terror operations to al Qaeda and the Taliban for many years, promoting the Islamization of Central Asia in an attempt to personally profit off military sales as well as oil and gas concessions.

The silence by the US government on these matters is deafening. So, too, is the blowback.

Puts an entirely different spin on Bush ignoring that PDB.

What did George W. Bush know, and when did he know it?

Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino Is Dead

Posted on August 1, 2009 by TL

225px-Cory_Aquino_during_a_ceremony_honoring_US_Air_Force This one is really striking a chord with me.

Corazon “Cory” Aquino, 11th President of the Philippines, died today, August 1, 2009.

Talk about the end of an era.

From the New York Times:

Corazon C. Aquino of the Philippines, who was swept into office on a wave of “people power” in 1986 and then faced down half a dozen coup attempts in six years as president, died Saturday in Manila, her son said. She was 76.

The NYTimes article is excellent, touching on many of the dramatic high points of Aquino’s life and service as president of the Philippines. Who will ever forget the more than 2,500 pair of shoes left behind by Imelda Marcos, wife of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who lost election to Aquino in 1986?

What a thunderous moment in history.

More from the NYTimes:

An observant Roman Catholic who sometimes retreated to convents for contemplation, she attributed much of her success to a divine will. She also said she sought guidance from the spirit of her late husband, Benigno S. Aquino Jr., who had been a chief challenger to Mr. Marcos. His assassination in 1983 fueled the opposition against Mr. Marcos and made his widow a popular figure.

“What on earth do I know about being president?” Mrs. Aquino said in an interview in December 1985, after a rally opening her election campaign.

But that was beside the point. For many Filipinos, she embodied a hope of becoming a better nation and a prouder people.

“The only thing I can really offer the Filipino people is my sincerity,” she said in the interview.

It was what they hungered for, and what she delivered as president. Although often criticized as an indecisive and ineffectual leader, Mrs. Aquino combined passivity and stubbornness and an unexpected shrewdness to hold firm against powerful opponents from both the right and the left.

I recall an account of Aquino going to communion on her knees after her election. Literally, according to accounts at the time, she processed down the aisle to the priest on her knees. At the time, I thought that odd. But Aquino attributed much of her success to divine will, and she strove to remain humble before her God. Today, I consider that a striking image, contrary to leaders who have claimed to lead with a divine mandate, Aquino attempted to remain humble:

She had come to power through what amounted to popular acclaim — she called it “people power” — expressed by huge crowds that gathered in support of her after the disputed election in February 1986.

One year later, in February 1987, an 80 percent popular vote for a new Constitution was seen as a vote of confidence in her presidency, and coming after her nonelectoral ascent to power, it confirmed her legitimacy and helped keep her challengers at bay.

Hers is an amazing story.

She performed one incredible about-face in policy, however, that rattles the Philippines to this day:

Under pressure from her restive military, she was forced to abandon one of the most strongly held ideas she brought to her presidency, an amnesty and reconciliation with a Communist insurgency. In one of the most striking retreats of her presidency, addressing the graduating class at the Philippine Military Academy a year after taking power, she said, “The answer to the terrorism of the left and the right is not social and economic reform, but police and military action.”

She turned her military loose, and the war against the Communist New People’s Army resumed. The four-decade conflict continues today, along with widespread extrajudicial killings by the military that are reminiscent of Mr. Marcos’s time.

Her son says there will be no state funeral, according to ABS-CBN news in the Philippines:

The Aquinos have decided on a private funeral for the late President Corazon Aquino, who died early morning Saturday after battling colorectal cancer for more than a year.

Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III said they have decided to have a private funeral, instead of a state funeral.

“It won’t be a state funeral,” the senator said.

“That was the intention from the start,” he said, adding that nobody from the presidential office had contacted him “nor am I waiting to talk to anybody there.”

Aquino also said that they have not yet been contacted by Malacañang regarding any plans for a state funeral.

“For all intentions and purposes, she had been a private citizen after stepping down, and siguro, to a degree we would like to spend as much time as possible as a family with her,” he said, explaining their decision.

All I can say is that I’m incredibly touched by her passing.

I’ll end by letting the former president speak for herself through this prayer she wrote in 2004:

cory_yellowribbon

Prayer for a Happy Death (2004)

by Corazon C. Aquino

Almighty God, most merciful Father

You alone know the time

You alone know the hour

You alone know the moment

When I shall breathe my last.

So remind me each day, most loving Father

To be the best that I can be

To be humble, to be kind,

To be patient, to be true,

To embrace what is good

To reject what is evil

To adore only You.

When that final moment does come

Let not my loved ones grieve for long

Let them comfort each other

And let them know how much happiness

They brought into my life.

Let them pray for me

As I will continue to pray for them,

Hoping that they will always pray for each other.

Let them know that they made possible

Whatever good I offered to our world

And let them realize that our separation

Is just for a short while

As we prepare for our reunion in eternity.

Our Father in heaven

You alone are my hope

You alone are my salvation

Thank You for Your unconditional love. Amen.

Prayer for a Happy Death (2004)
by Corazon C. Aquino

Almighty God, most merciful Father
You alone know the time
You alone know the hour
You alone know the moment
When I shall breathe my last.

So remind me each day, most loving Father
To be the best that I can be
To be humble, to be kind,
To be patient, to be true,
To embrace what is good
To reject what is evil
To adore only You.

When that final moment does come
Let not my loved ones grieve for long
Let them comfort each other
And let them know how much happiness
They brought into my life.
Let them pray for me
As I will continue to pray for them,
Hoping that they will always pray for each other.
Let them know that they made possible
Whatever good I offered to our world
And let them realize that our separation
Is just for a short while
As we prepare for our reunion in eternity.

Our Father in heaven
You alone are my hope
You alone are my salvation
Thank You for Your unconditional love. Amen.

Amen, indeed.

Brian Dugan Killed Jeanine Nicarico

Posted on July 29, 2009 by TL

Two men were once on Death Row for the murder of Jeanine Nicarico. Brian Dugan has been trying to confess to this horrible crime for years.

Tuesday, he finally got his chance.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Some in the audience wiped away tears as State’s Atty. Joseph Birkett solemnly described the fingernail scratches 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico left on the wall that showed how she tried to fight off a would-be burglar.

How Brian Dugan promised to take the girl home but instead killed her.

The murder “went as perfectly as the others, but something was wrong,” Brian Dugan told an Illinois State Police psychologist, Birkett recounted. “I felt like I was going to get caught.”

And he did. Dugan, already serving life sentences for two other murders, formally admitted in court Tuesday that he and he alone kidnapped, raped and killed the girl on Feb. 25, 1983.

His admission, first made in 1985, had long been rejected by DuPage officials. But on Tuesday Birkett said Dugan has been telling the truth.

Birkett’s 55-minute recitation of the facts was a dramatic turn in a case with 26 years’ worth of twists, including the false convictions and Death Row sentences of two other men and the acquittals of seven DuPage County law-enforcement officials on malfeasance charges. The drama will kick into high gear again in September, when Birkett pursues his long-stated goal of having Dugan sentenced to death.

The details:

Birkett’s description of Nicarico’s final hours were brutal and difficult to listen to, as were his descriptions of the autopsy results. Some in the audience wiped away tears as they heard how Dugan brutalized the girl on a sleeping bag in the woods, leaving her bloody and disoriented, then promised to wash her up and take her home, but instead crushed her skull with either a baseball bat or a tire iron.

Birkett also described in detail the 1985 rape and murder of 7-year-old Melissa Ackerman of Somonauk, one of two murders for which Dugan already is serving concurrent life sentences. Bakalis has previously approved allowing the details of the Ackerman case at a trial, ruling that the similarities with the Nicarico murder showed a legal pattern of behavior.

Dugan sat quietly during Birkett’s grim reading of a 14-page statement. Melissa’s father stonily stared off into space.

When it was over, the judge denied Dugan’s request to read aloud a letter that he carried with him, a letter his attorneys contended was an apology.

This was not the only child this monster murdered. We should be grateful the judge did not permit him to read his letter, address the families. They don’t need that.

Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death for the same crime. Birkett said Dugan’s confession completely exonerates them.

Two on Death Row for a crime they didn’t commit. Some would argue that the system worked, eventually. Except these two lost years of their lives because of Dugan’s crime. The two were set free in 1995, twelve years after Jeanine’s death, when DNA tests and recanted testimony damaged the prosecution, the Tribune says.

The temptation is great for us to kill this man. If anyone deserves to die…

Dolling out death takes us down a slippery slope, though. We don’t do that well. We make mistakes. We can be incredibly stupid animals, Vonnegut said. We suffer under the illusion that “The System” is somehow divine, that there is this separate entity apart from humanity called “The System,” and that “The System” will protect us in spite of ourselves.

Except it won’t. The system is us. We are the system. That system is us at our best and our absolute worst.

Put this monster away forever. And mourn Jeanine Nicarico and Melissa Ackerman once more.

Two Shot in Park Forest; Police: Shooting Not Random

Posted on July 19, 2009 by TL

It must be terrifying to learn that a shooting occurred in your town, let alone on your street.

Residents of Nassau Street in Park Forest must have been a bit nervous, to say the least.

The Park Forest Police Department went door-to-door Saturday to reassure residents that the shooting was not random, according to the Chicago Tribune:

A woman who lives two homes down from where the police marked off the crime scene said she heard at least two gunshots while inside her home.

The woman, B.J. Wyatt, said one of the shooting victims was a neighbor who moved in recently, but she didn’t know how serious the neighbor’s condition was. She also had no information about any other victims.

“The police came around and let us know it [the shooting] wasn’t random,” Wyatt said in a telephone interview this evening. She said police have assured her that a gunman wasn’t “prowling the neighborhood” and that they know who the shooter is.

It’s reassuring when police personally alert residents after a tragedy. A shooting in your town is always disturbing.

Police are searching for a suspect.

From eNews Park Forest:

The suspect is identified as Timothy J. Lucas, a black male, born on September 26, 1978, according to police.

Pulling the trigger changes everything. I’m not going to pontificate on guns or gun control.

But I will ask, why can we not control ourselves? Why can Canadians own guns, and not shoot other Canadians?

Why do we shoot each other?

Simeon Sanders Served US in Iraq; Shot Dead in Harvey

Posted on July 13, 2009 by TL

simeon-sanders

His mother didn’t want him to join the Army. She was worried about him fighting overseas. But it was one of us in this country who shot Simeon Sanders dead in Harvey.

One of us. An American.

From the Sun-Times:

Sanders, 21, of Harvey, was shot and killed Thursday evening at 154th and Center Avenue in the south suburb while walking with his cousin. Sanders had been home on furlough to visit his family.

The cousins had just gotten french fries at a restaurant and heard men arguing — some on the sidewalk and some in a car, family members said. Wanting to avoid trouble, the cousins tried to cross the street, and got caught in the crossfire.

“They happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Simeon’s mother, Shannon Sanders, said Saturday while sitting in a room filled with pictures of their large, close-knit family.

Charges are pending against one man. Police are seeking a second suspect.

I don’t want to talk about gun control. Instead, I want to know why we can’t control ourselves. Why do we use guns so freely?

In my classroom, I often tell my students that the United States is the most dangerous country on the face of the earth outside of a war zone.

Look at that young man staring back at you from eternity and ask yourself, “Why?” Let’s just have a conversation about why this happened. Twenty-one years old. Shot in the back.

Pittsburgh Launches Anti-Violence Program Reminiscent of CeaseFireChicago

Posted on July 7, 2009 by TL

The city of Pittsburgh is launching an anti-violence program. Reading about it, it reminds me of Cease Fire Chicagco, with a twist.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The program is based on the work of David Kennedy, a professor in the anthropology department at New York City’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. It involves “call-in sessions” that bring gang members face-to-face with relatives, community leaders and law enforcement officials who tell them of the pain they cause and offer to help them escape the street life — or threaten to crack down on the whole group if one member commits another act of violence.

So far, Pittsburgh hasn’t held any such sessions. But city Councilman Ricky Burgess thinks one can happen as soon as the fall.

And more from the same article:

“There’s a nearly 15-year history now of the kind of work that Pittsburgh is undertaking,” Mr. Kennedy said last week. “There have been many, many cities that have done this. Everyone who has been serious about sticking to the core elements has been successful.”

Boston, the first city to undertake the program, demonstrates the limits of such success. After posting a two-thirds decline in youth homicides in the late 1990s, the murder rate started to climb again as police and community groups lost their focus on gang violence.

The process pioneered by Mr. Kennedy is complicated and labor intensive. Organizers must create a list of a city’s most violent groups. They then identify group members who are already under probation or parole and compel them to attend a first call-in session, often in a courtroom.

At the session, relatives of homicide victims talk about their anguish over the death of a loved one, while clergy members or other community leaders describe how violence is harming a community.

And I like this anecdote from North Carolina:

[Police Chief James Fealy of High Point, N.C.] cites as an example one man with an extensive criminal record who was threatened with hefty consequences if he didn’t stop selling drugs. Three months after the call-in session, officers caught the man smoking marijuana. But he was only charged with possession.

“We didn’t tell him he couldn’t smoke dope. He wasn’t dealing drugs,” Chief Fealy said.

Planners in some cities have to be ready to adjust tactics as the situation on the ground changes.

Imagine that: NOT arresting someone for smoking pot. What a concept!

I like this concept Pittsburgh is considering because it dares to look at things differently. Endless incarceration is not the best path to a crime-free society. Incarceration is a simplistic and inadequate solution.

The solution that works actually takes more work than that. Any real solution is going to be “complicated and labor intensive,” and that’s the only solution to violence that will last.

Former NFL Quarterback Steve McNair Killed in Nashville Shooting

Posted on July 4, 2009 by TL

CNN has the news:

Former NFL quarterback Steve McNair and another person were killed in a shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, authorities said Saturday.

Police said they found McNair and a woman shot to death in a Nashville residence Saturday after receiving a phone call about an injured person. The identity of the woman was not immediately released.

A law enforcement source close to the investigation said the woman is McNair’s girlfriend and that the residence is her condominium in downtown Nashville.

Witnesses said he was a frequent visitor there.

Authorities were questioning people who were near the home, but they said no one was in custody.

They could not provide details as to the circumstances of the shooting.

McNair played 13 seasons in the NFL, spending most of his tenure with the Tennessee Titans. He retired in April 2008.

He was only 36.

Christian Extremist Allegedly Shoots, Kills Guard at Holocaust Museum

Posted on June 10, 2009 by TL

First, the chilling news from the New York Times:

An 88-year-old white supremacist with a rifle walked into the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, one of the capital’s most visited sites, on Wednesday afternoon and began shooting, fatally wounding a security guard and sending tourists scrambling before he himself was shot, the authorities said.

The gunman was identified by law enforcement officials as James W. von Brunn, who embraces various conspiracy theories involving Jews, blacks and other minority groups and has at times waged a personal war with the federal government.

James W. von Brunn is 88 years old, currently listed in critical condition, according to CNN.

I’m not going to comment much. The story is still raw, and a man died today. The Holocaust Memorial Museum identified the deceased guard as Stephen Tyrone Johns.

According to CNN, the museum released a statement saying Johns died “heroically in the line of duty.”

“There are no words to express our grief and shock over these events. He served on the Museum’s security staff for six years. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Officer Johns’ family,” the statement said. “We have made the decision to close the Museum tomorrow in honor of Officer Johns, and our flags will be flown at half mast in his memory.”

The alleged shooter is a Christian extremist. Read this disturbing passage from his book, Kill the Best Gentiles:

Under the Pharisees’ direction the Temple had become the Federal Reserve System of its day. Christ drove the usurers from the Temple with a snake whip, indirectly attacking the Pharisees’ purse. That sealed his fate! The Anti-Defamation League of his day acted quickly. Using standard procedures they defamed Jesus (“L’Infamie”) to get the mob on their side — as centuries later they would defame Marie Antoinette, the Romanovs, Hitler, Gen. MacArthur, McCarthy, et al). Then, Jesus was framed by the Sanhedrin, who had Him arrested, tried, sentenced, and crucified. (Pope John Paul, 1995 A.D., denied the HOLY WORD, pronouncing that JEWS had no part in the death of Jesus Christ!).

His blood be on us (JEWS) and upon our children! MATTHEW: 27:24-25.

I am innocent of the blood of this just man! THE SYNOPTICS: Pontius Pilate.

Other white supremicists seem to be worrying about their image, of all things. This from someone who calls himself “Messiah” on a Web site called Stormfront, which proclaims the motto White Pride World Wide:

Most know the source of our problems are Jews and their desires to control the whole earth and all that is within it. They’re using our American government, and our money to accomplish that.

Now that being said, shooting up the Holocaust Museum will not change that.

NewPagan offers this:

What a Jackass move. This accomplished less than nothing and was just stupid and senseless all around. At least if he had targeted some people directly responsible for the financial collapse I could understand that.

As far as I’m concerned, Sorcerer gets the prize:

Dumbass thats just gonna make WN look stupid. [sic]

Yup. Real stupid.

That’s all I can read right now. Personally, I’m going to spend a few moments in silent prayer reflecting on the loss today, working to focus back on the love.

PA Newspaper Runs Ad Calling for Obama’s Assassination, Apologizes

Posted on May 29, 2009 by TL

A Pennsylvania newspaper ran an ad apparently calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama, according to Editor and Publisher:

The publisher of a Pennsylvania newspaper that ran a classified ad appearing to call for the assassination of President Barack Obama said it was “unfortunate” the ad made it into the paper. He also said it drew dozens of phone calls to the paper and a likely visit from federal officials.

Publisher John Elchert of the Times-Observer in Warren also told E&P the ad — slated to run for three days — was stopped after appearing once Thursday. “It is unfortunate that it got past our classified people,” he said. “My first call [Thursday] was to the police chief and I believe his protocol is to contact the Secret Service.”

The ad stated: “May Obama follow in the footsteps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley & Kennedy!” All four of those presidents, of course, were assassinated in office. Elchert said when the ad was taken, the staffer who took it “did not make the connection of what tied those presidents together.”

The paper ran an editor’s note Friday that stated:

“An errant classified ‘personal’ ad which appeared in Thursday’s Times Observer has drawn the attention of law enforcement officials.

“A person from Warren placed the ad, which apparently alludes to the wish that President Obama meet an untimely end by linking him with four assassinated presidents. The ad representative didn’t make the connection among the four other presidents mentioned and mistakenly allowed the ad to run.

“Upon realizing the mistake early Thursday morning, the ad was immediately discontinued and the identity of the person who placed the ad was turned over to Warren City Police as per newspaper policy. The local police department forwarded the information to federal authorities, as per department policy.

“The Times Observer apologizes for the oversight.”

Wow.

Did you ever think you’d have to use that stuff they taught you in American History? Might be a good time to review.

Mancow Expected Fight from Olbermann, Found Respect

Posted on May 26, 2009 by TL

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I admit I don’t know much about Mancow.

Although I live in the Chicagoland area, I’m not much into talk radio outside WCPT. Having learned more about Mancow in recent days, I understand that some consider him very conservative. He says he’s Libertarian.

I can tell you now that I have a ton of respect for him now.

Matthew Erich “Mancow” Muller agreed to be waterboarded, for real. As we all know now, Mancow lasted less than six seconds. In his appearance on tonight’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Mancow said the word “drowning” is not a strong enough description of what we call waterboarding. Mancow, who did drown when he was young, said waterboarding is worse.

Amazing.

It seemed to me — and I could be wrong — that Mancow was expecting Olbermann to say something outrageous. Indeed, if they had met on any other day, under any other circumstance, Mancow and Olbermann would both be in rare form, very animated, and, no doubt, entertaining. But tonight, while they met as peers, Olbermann seemed genuinely awestruck with Muller.

Muller said he had chest pains for two days after this episode. He said no one should have to go through this.

Watch the video above and make up your own mind.

Let’s grow away from waterboarding and torture as a nation and talk about real policy issues.

Mr. Erich “Mancow” Muller, sir, I take my hat off to you. You did this nation a service. You did us all a service.