text:
911 Top 500 Questions
(It's not the answered questions that should bother us, but rather the unquestioned answers)
1. Why didn't jets intercept the airliners
since they had numerous warnings of terrorist attacks?
2. Why did Ashcroft stop flying commercial, citing an unidentified
"threat" in July 2001?
3. Why were there no photos or videos of the Pentagon plane?
4. Why didn't the Secret Service hustle Dubya out of the classroom?
5. Where was George H. W. Bush at the time of the attacks?
6. Why did passengers or crewmembers on three of the flights all use the
term boxcutters?
7. Where are the flight recorders?
8. Why were the FISA warrants discontinued?
9. How did Bush see the first plane crash on live camera?
10 Why was security meeting scheduled for
9/11cancelled by WTC management on 9/10?
11. How did they come up with the "culprits" so quickly?
12. How did they find the terrorist's cars at the airports so quickly?
13. Why did Shrub dissolve the Bin Laden Task Force?
14. Why the strange pattern of debris from Flight 93?
15. Why was no plane seen at the Pentagon?
16. How extensive was the relationship between the Taliban, the ISI and
the CIA?
17. What exactly was the role of Henry Kissinger at UNOCAL?
18. When was it decided to cancel building a pipeline from Turkmenistan
through Afghanistan to Pakistan?
19. When was the decision made to send the FEMA to New York?
20. Why did FEMA spokesman Tom Kenney tell Dan Rather he was in New York
on Sept. 10?
21. Why did the FBI in 1996 close the files to investigate Osama bin
Laden's relatives in Washington?
22. Why did .Bush stop inquiries into terrorist connections of the Bin
Laden family in early 2001?
23. Who made the decision to have John O'Neill stop investigating Al-qeada
24. Who gave the decision to give him a security job at the World Trade
25. Did John O'Neill meet anyone of the FEMA in the night of September
26. What about media reports that hijackers bought tickets for flights
scheduled after Sept. 11?
27. Why did none of the 19 hijackers appeared on the passenger lists?
28. Why would devout Muslims frequent bars, drink alcoholic beverages
and leave their bibles?
29. Why would the hijackers use credit cards and allow drivers licenses
with photos to be zeroxed?
30. Why did the hijackers force passengers to call relatives?
31. How did the hijackers change the flight plan without law enforcement
or the military try to stop them?
32. Which hijacker's passport was found in the WTC rubble? Who found it
and what time?
33. How could the FBI distinguish between "regular" Muslims and hijacker
Muslims on those flights?
34. Why was there not one "innocent" Muslim on board any of these
35. Did someone go through the passenger lists looking for Muslim names
and label them as hijackers?
36. Did the Florida police provide
information that Atta was searched because of 1)an expired Visa, 2)
driving a car without a license, 3) because of an incident at Miami
37. Why did Atta leave his bag at the airport and the employees didn't
put it on board?
38. Who found his bag? How can we be sure it it was his bag?
39. Why did Atta place a video "how to fly planes", a uniform and his
last will into his bag, knowing that he would commit suicide?
40. Why did Atta leave his drivers license in a rental car?
41. When did Atta train on a flight simulator?
42. Did Atta leave the US while in training and then return?
43. Why did Atta decide to study at Opa Locka, a famous hub of 6 Navy
training bases and includes government partners like U. S. Coast Guard
Air Station, Police (Miami-Dade) Aviation Unit?
44. Why was Atta allowed to study since he was stopped by the police for
driving without a license and also for violating his visa?
45. Why were the Black Boxes never
recovered ?
46. Why didn't the FBI release the air traffic controller's protocols?
47. Why did the FBI not release the Flight Data Recorder info?
48. Who video-recorded the first plane hitting the tower? Why did he
disappear from the media?
49. How did the FBI receive a tip from a
passenger who boarded a different plane and reached his destination
safely that he had a confrontation with two ME men at the Logan airport
in Boston?
50. Who tipped the FBI to storm the Westin Hotel in Boston on September
51. Where did the photos of all 19 hijackers come from?
52. How were all hijackers identified just 2 days after the attack?
53. Why did all 19 names not appear on the passenger list 2 days after
the hijacker list was released?
54. Why do none of the names appear on the passenger lists UA and AA
gave to CNN?
55. How could the hijackers disable the defense systems?
56. Why did the FBI ignore Bin Laden's family, who left the United
States without further investigation
57. What about the supposed hijackers who are still alive?
58. Was there a reason to change the list of the original 19 hijackers?
59. What happened to Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, who have
been in jail since September 2001, because of possession of box cutters
on a train? Who gave the tip to arrest them?
60. Why did it take 4 months before Ramsi Binalschibhs name was
mentioned, since he was a good friend of Mohammad Atta and lived in his
apartment in Hamburg?
61. Why did it take 4 months until December 11 to charge Zacarias
Moussaoui for the 9/11 attacks when his case was known worldwide for
months, but not mentioned in the American media?
62. Whatever happened with Lotfi Raissi, who was arrested in UK for
teaching the terrorist pilots?
63. What is the current status of the investigation of Mamoun Darkazanli
Import-Export-Company in Hamburg and Al Taqwa Management Organisation in
64. Why was Richard Reid able to enter the Paris airport twice and who
paid for his hotel?
65. Who hired Zacarias Masspoui to learn how to fly passenger jets in
the United States?
66. Why did the FBI or CIA fail to interrogate him between August and
December 2001?
67. Did the CIA monitor Bin Laden in 1998
with the help of 15 Afghan agents, paid $1,000/ month?
68. Where are these agents? Was Johnny "Mike" Spann one? Was John Walker
Lindh one?
69. Is an Afghan agent a member of the ISI? Is an Afghan agent working
for Bin Laden?
70. When was the first time Tenet mentioned the Al-Quaeda group to any
member of the Senate?
71. Why did the Pentagon release a new video version or translation of
the Bin Laden Home video?
72. Why it was released only 8 hours after translation by the German
magazine MONITOR on December ?
73. Why were the four translators prior US-Government workers?
74. When was the Bin Laden Home Video found and who found it?
75. Who found the video if Northern Alliance and US troops had not yet
arrived in Kandahar or Jahalabad?
76. Does the timestamp on the Bin Laden video indicate that it was found
two weeks after it was produced?
77. Why was the public not informed who found the video and when?
78. Why according to MONITOR magazine, were the most controversial
statements translated incorrectly?
79. Why was the video released?
80. Who gave the final decision to release it?
81. Why is the Bin Laden video of June 2001 in which he praised the
attack, available on the Internet?
82. What about Bin Laden's statements on Al-Jazeera in June 2001 about
the bombing of USS Cole, which are similar to the statements on the
November 2001 home video?
83. Why did Bin Laden state in Umman Magazine in Sept.
2001, that he was not involved in the WTC?
84. Is Bin Laden still on the payroll of the CIA or ISI?
85. Did the Bin Laden Group Inc. help build ToraBora with the CIA?
86. What was the purpose of the meeting with General Pervez Musharraf in
May 2001?
87. Why was a statement released that Al-Khalifa bin Laden, who is not
the mother of Bin Laden, had a telephone call with Bin Laden on
September 9, rather than Alia Ghanem, his mother? Why did Alia Ghanem
say she did not believe he planned the attack?
100. What happened on September 18th, when
an employee of Batelle Memorial Institute was involved in a so-called
anthrax hoax on that day? Was he arrested?
101. Why did the investigation of that case begin in December 2001?
102. What was in the memo of Dr. Leonard Horowitz, a public health
consumer advocate and author of "Death in the Air" on October 1, 2001,
almost two weeks before the first anthrax letter was sent from Trenton
to the American media building in Boca Raton?
103. What about his letter of Nov. 13 in which he claimed that BAYER is
behind the anthrax infections?
104. Did US BioDefense laboratories send the anthrax-laced letters to
get a new budget for research?
105. What about the statement of former UN-weapons inspector of Iraq,
Richard Spertzel, who told ABC, "... he knows only five scientists in
the USA who would be in the situation to produce such a fine, highly
developed spore material"?
106. Why did it take 48 hours to inform Bob Stevens that he had anthrax?
107. Why were envelopes never found near Bob Stevens, Amelie Lundgren
and Mia Nguyen?
108. How come Microsoft got a hoax anthrax letter from Malaysia on the
same day that President Bush said Malaysia might be one of the next
targets of the United States?
109. Why did the FBI never investigate the case Don Wiley, a
Bioscientist who disappeared 11/13/01?
110. Why did the FBI begin to investigate after his body was found on
December 22, 300 miles away? Was there an investigation at the military
hydro plant where workers found him? Why did the media write different
versions about how, when and where he was found? Why did the police
report change 2 months later from suicide to an accident?
111. What was the goal of Bioport in 1997?
112. Did development of anti-anthrax vaccines begin in 1998?
113. When did Bioport decide to produce anthrax vaccines?
114. Was it before or after Sept. 1998 that Admiral Crowe was put in
charge of investigations of the August 7, 1998 bombings of Embassy
Nairobi and Embassy Dar Es Salaam?
115. Did the schedule for developing anti-anthrax vaccines begin
starting in 1998?
116. When did the US Government ask Bayer for help in developing a
117. When did Bayer start sending the vaccines to the U. S.?
118. When did Bayer double production of the vaccines?
119. Was the death of Vladimir Pasechnik investigated? He was former
director of the Institute of Ultra Pure Biochemical Preparations of the
Soviet bio-warfare establishment Biopreparat in November 2001?
120. How are the deaths of scientists Robert M. Schwartz, Dr. Benito Que
and Set Van Nguyen explained since all occurred in the same month? Is
Set van Nguyen related to the anthrax victim Mia Nguyen?
121. What about the death of Nancy Sonnenfeld (FEMA-Wife)?
122. Why was the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife examining Anthrax in
August 2000?
123. Do any employees in Trenton have the same handwriting as printed on
the Anthrax envelopes?
124. Is it just a coincidence that the laboratory is also based in
125. Did the FBI ever ask Fort Detrick to examine anthrax spores?
126. What about the list of 15-20 labs (maintained by Barbara Rosenzweig)
who used Fort Detrick spores?
127. Does the CIA have spores different from those at Fort Detrick?
128. Why did Tommy Thompson, The Secretary of the Department of Health
and Human Services, and other Bush cabinet members meet secretly (i. e.
illegally) in Oct. 2001 with officials of the Pharmaceutical Research
and Manufacturers of America
(PhRMA) to develop plans for their Emergency Preparedness Task Force?
129. Why did he decide on October 25, 2001 to ask Congress for another
$500 million to produce Acambis's smallpox vaccine?
130. Why did it take 4.5 hours until Jean Marie Malecki , Director Palm
Beach County Health Department, picked up the phone for employees of the
AMI-Building, Boca Raton. This is where editor Bob Stevens got anthrax.
Why did she wait two days before she visited that building again?
131. Did Walter Gilbert, Director Myriad Genetics ever get official
permission from relatives of those killed at WTC to examine their DNA?
150. Why did General Mahmud Ahmad, former
head of the ISI quit his position?
151. Why did retaliation against the Taliban begin the day he stepped
152. Who in the ISI paid $100.000 to Mohammad Atta?
153. Why does Ahmad think that another secret service was involved in
the WTC attack? Which Secret Service was he referring to? Did other ISI
official's believe that? Did officials of the CIA believe that? Did some
officials of the Mossad believe that?
154. What was the purpose of Ahmad's visit to Washington on 9/11?
155. Who told Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov to abort an air strike
against Afghanistan in May 2000?
156. Did Russian intelligence notify the CIA in 2001 that 25 terrorist
pilots had been training for suicide missions, as reported in the
Russian press?
1. What did Kissinger mean that an "outside
threat from beyond", a "world government" and "individual rights" who
are "willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being
granted", what you mentioned in 1991 on a Bilderberg Conference?
2. What was his role at UNOCAL?
3. Is he in contact with representatives of these companies or
4. What did he discuss at the Bilderberg meeting last year in May 2001?
5. What was the purpose of his meeting with Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov in
July 2001?
6. Why does he write in "Toward a New Diplomacy for the 21st Century"
that America doesn't need a Foreign Policy?
7. When was the last time Henry Kissinger met US-Ambassador in Pakistan,
Robert Oakley?
1. Is it true that the CIA is in possession
of PROMIS software?
2. What is the purpose of PROMIS?
3. Did A. B. "Buzzy" Krongard, CIA, own any stocks of United Airlines,
American Airlines, Merrill Lynch, 4. Morgan Stanley, AXA Re (insurance)
which owns 25% of American Airlines, and Munich Re.?
5. What is his connection to Alex Brown, Deutsche Bank?
6. Did he give any insider information about to George Tenet, CIA?
7. Who was the investor who purchased 2,000 UAL put options between
August and September 11, 2001?
8. Did Deutsche Bank-Alex Brown own any stocks of UA, AA, Merrill Lynch,
Morgan Stanley, AXA Re (insurance) which owns 25% of American Airlines,
and Munich Re?
9. What about the 2,500 UA-contracts which were "split into 500 chunks
each, directing each order to different U. S. exchanges around the
country simultaneously." on August 10, 2001?
10. Did Deutsche purchase UAL options in August 2001?
11. Why did DB-AB purchase 4,744 put options on United Air Lines stock
as opposed to only 396 call s on September 6-7? What was the purpose of
doing that?
12. What is the connection to Wally Kromgaard?
13. Did Deutsche Bank or Wally Kromgaard purchase
4,516 put options on American Airlines as compared to
748 call options on September 10?
14. What was the reason of Mayo Shattuck III re-asssignment on September
1. When was the last time they met any
representatives of the US-Government?
2. What was the purpose of these meetings?
3. Do the Taliban know Karl E. Inderfurth and State Department
counterterrorism chief Michael Sheehan?
4. Do they know which US-Representative said in February 2001: "Either
you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet
of bombs"?
5. When was the last time the Taliban was in touch with this
6. Did Abdul Haq, the former Mujahedin leader executed Sept 2001 by the
Taliban, decide in Winter 2000 to attack the Taliban?
7. Did production of opium in Afghanistan fall from
3276 tonnes in 2000 to 185 tonnes in 2001?
1. Was Global Hawk technology able to
remotelycontrol unmanned planes in 1999 for 27 hours?
2. Did Northrop-Grumman use Global Hawk technology in the war in
Afghanistan since October 2001?
3. What is the purpose of unmanned technology?
4. Is Northrup in contact with any engineers of Boeing?
5. Did Northrup install Global Hawk technology in a commercial airplane?
1. Did two U. S. carrier battle groups
arrive in the Gulf of Arabia just off the Pakistani coast before
2. Did 17,000 U. S. troops join more than 23,000 NATO troops in Egypt
for Operation 'Bright Star' on 9/11? What was the purpose of both of
these operations?
1. When did Tommy Franks learn that he
would use Thermobarics in ToraBora?
2. Does he know if it had been tested on December 12 in Nevada?
3. Who told Franks that Bin Laden might hide in ToraBora?
4. Is the main purpose of Thermobarics to destroy buried bio and
chemical stocks?
5. Was Thermobarics developed for the purpose to use one day in Iraq?
6. When was the first time Franks used Thermobarics? Was it before or
after the announcement of the end of ABM Treaty on December 11?
7. When did the US decide to use B61-11, the "nuclear version" of its
"conventional" BLU-113 counterpart?
8. Why has the NSA destroyed data collected on Americans or US companies
since the Sept. 11 attacks?
1. Why did Clinton abort an attack on Bin
Laden in October 1999?
2. Who was responsible for that operation?
3. Why was the operation put on hold?
4. Why did Musharraf halt a covert operation to attack Bin Laden in
October 1999?
5. Why did the GOP in Congress stop almost every move Clinton made
against terrorism? They refused to believe reports and pass necessary
legislation. In
1996 Clinton proposed a very extensive anti-terrorism regulation.
1. Who hired Richard Reid to threaten a
passenger plane in Paris?
2. Who did he send an email to in Pakistan?
3. Has he ever been in touch with the ISI or CIA?
4. Did he know the difference between an explosive and a detonator?
5. How many ounces did he have in his shoes?
6. What size are his shoes?
7. Who build or prepared his shoes?
1. Has John Walker Lindh ever been in touch
with the CIA?
2. Did he ever work for the CIA?
3. Who arrested him in 2001?
4. Why didn't he escape in the tumult to nearby Masar-e-Sharif?
5. Who hired his lawyer, Richard Brohanan? Who paid his lawyer?
6. Why didn't he go to Guantanamo Bay?
1. When did Cheney stop working for
2. Is he still in possession of any Halliburton stock?
3. Is he still in contact with Halliburton?
4. Was Halliburton invited to an oil conference in May
5. Does Cheney know when that meeting was planned?
6. Did Cheney have influence concerning Halliburton contracts with the
7. What exactly did Cheney decide to do on September
8. Did he speak with an Air Force Commander or Lt. Gen. Charles F. Wald
on that day?
9. When did he inform the president about the hijacked airplanes on
September 11?
10. Who called the White House on September 11 at 9:30 PM about a
possible threat?
11. Why was no air security at the White House or the Pentagon at 9:30
12. When and who gave the approval to evacuate the White House at 9:45
13. What was the purpose of a meeting with Indian opposition leader
Sonia Gandhi in June 2001 about a multimillion-dollar debt owed to Enron
from a major energy project in Indian Power Plants?
14. When was the last time Cheney spoke with anyone from ENRON?
1. What was the role of Colin Powell?
2. Who decided to give $43 million in aid to the Taliban regime in May
3. Did he know that production of opium in Afghanistan fell from 3276
tonnes in 2000 to 185 in 2001?
4. What was the purpose of his decision to treat the Taliban prisoners
as War Prisoners? Is this decision in any way related to media reports 2
days earlier that Powell may have been involved in negotiations with
Indian Power Plants?
5. What was the purpose of his short trip to Latin America on September
6. Who decided that he fly to Latin America on that day?
7. Why would someone threaten him in Afghanistan on January 17, 2002 as
Newsweek reported?
8. What was the purpose of Powell meeting with India's foreign minister
on April 6, 2001?
9. Did Enron or Cheney ask Powell to help collect a $64 million debt on
an Indian plant project?
1. When was the last time George H. W. Bush
traveled to South Arabia on behalf of the Carlyle Group?
2. What was the purpose of that meeting?
1. Is Thomas White still in contact with
2. Did his contact at anytime influence his decisions?
3. Does he still own ENRON stocks?
1. Did Vreeland warn Canadian Intelligence
in May 2001 about possible terrorist attacks on New York and the
2. Did he place the warning in an envelope while in prison in Toronto,
3. Where did he get his information?
4. Whom did he give the envelope to?
5. Why was he placed in jail?
1. Was the domain created on September
11th, 2000?
2. Who paid for that domain?
3. Are they also owners of Iridium Satellites?
4. When did they end contact with relatives of the Bush family?
1. When was the last time George H. W. Bush
traveled to Saudi Arabia on behalf of the privately owned Carlyle Group,
the 11th largest defense contractor in the U. S.?
2. What was the purpose of that meeting?
3. When did he resign from Carlyle Group?
4. Is he still in touch with any of their representatives?
STEPHEN LANDER, Director MI5
1. Did Lander monitor a phone conversation
between Zacarias Moussaoui and Richard Reid in Dec. 2000?
2. What did Lander tell representatives of the CIA about Zacarias
3. Why did he stop monitoring Djamel Beghal, member of Takfir-wal-Hijra
(financed by Osama bin Laden) in August 2001?
1. Did Bin Laden in July 2001 enter an
American hospital in Dubai?
2. Did he arrive on July 4, 2001 on a flight from Qetta, Pakistan to
American Hospital?
3. Was he at the hospital July 4-11, 2001?
4. Did Bernard Koval, CEO of American Hospital, ever speak with Doctor
Terry Callaway about that visit?
5. Why did he change his statements about this story not being true and
that he "asked around"?
6. What is the difference between Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal
Dialysis and Continuous Cycling Peritoneal Dialysis?
7. Did Koval know Larry Stevens?
8. Can Koval explain why Richard Labeviere, author of "Terror Dollars"
(about illegal Al-Quaeda accounts), wrote the story about Osama Bin
Laden's kidney operation?
1. What exactly happened on September 11
and at what time was President Bush informed?
2. Why was President Bush scheduled to visit a school in Florida?
3. Who scheduled the time of the visit?
4. When exactly did Bush learn about the first crash into the WTC?
5. How could he have seen that on TV?
6. Why didn't he interrupt his school meeting as soon as he learned of
the first plane crash?
7. Did Bush ever wonder how Bin Laden was able to hear the first plane
crash live on the radio?
8. Which radio station he was listening to?
9. Can Bush explain how Bin Laden's Home Video was found only two weeks
after it was produced?
10. Why did Bush decide to release Bin Laden's Home Video?
11. What is the purpose of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security
Cooperation (WHISC) in Fort Benning, Georgia, where terrorists have been
trained for undercover agents in South America? Bush stated "if any
government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents, they have
become outlaws and murderers themselves". So what does he think about
Fort Benning?
12. What is the role of Zalmay Khalilzad (former UNOCAL) in the National
Security Council ?
13. What is the current role of Zalmay Khalilzad
(former UNOCAL) in Afghanistan?
14. When was Bush's last contact with anyone from ENRON?
15. Why was China admitted to the WTO on September 13 after 15 years of
unsuccessful attempts?
16. Why did Bush postpone the release of Ronald Reagan's records?
17. How does Bush feel about the need to investigate the CIA's mistakes?
18. Does Bush agree with senators John McCain, Joseph I. Lieberman,
Porter J. Goss, former C. I. A. clandestine case officer and a Florida
Republican, Richard C. Shelby and Ron Paul, US Congressman, who want an
investigation and have said "Secret government is winning out over open
19. Did he know before he left his hotel that morning on the way to the
school that the 1st tower had been hit? ABC news reported that morning
that he was asked by reporters if he was aware of events in NYC and he
answered yes. If so, why did he later say he first heard of it was when
he was at the school?
20. Why did Bush continue to sit in that classroom reading to children
when he should have been conferring with his advisors?
21. Why did Bush say that he and Card initially thought it was an
accident involving a small plane?
22. Given all the information sources available to the POTUS and his
staff how could his people not have known the kind of plane involved?
23. Why didn't they know at this point, as did the FAA and NORAD, that
aircraft were hijacked? The Batallion Chief in the 9/11 video was seen
and heard asking for military backup immediately after the building was
24. How come the NYFD knew it was terrorism right away but the POTUS and
his aides just calmly went about their business?
1. Were 25,000 British troops and the
largest British Armada since the Falkland Islands War, part of Operation
'Essential Harvest' pre-positioned in Oman, the closest point on the
Arabian Peninsula to Pakistan before September 11, 2001?
2. When did he begin to place SIS-Special Forces in Afghanistan? Why?
1. Did Gloria Irish own unit 1504 at the
Delray Racquet Club, 755 Dotterel?
2. Did she rent that property to Hamza Alghamdi in August 2001?
3. Why did the media not report about a connection of the Sun-Sentinel
and the hijackers?
4. Why did it first appear that the hijackers had something to do with
the anthrax attacks?
5. Why has this connection or coincidence never appeared in the media
6. What was the connection between husband Michael Irish (SunSentinel)
and Bob Stevens (who died from Anthrax)?
1. When did Vladimir Putin warn the CIA
about a possible terrorist attack and what was their reaction?
2. What was the purpose of the meeting between Christina Rocca, director
of Asian affairs at the State Department and the Taliban ambassador
Mollah Abdul Salam Zaeef in Islamabad in August 2001?
3. Why did she oversee the delivery of Stinger missiles in the 80s to
Afghan mujaheddin?
4. Did Walid Arkeh in Seminole County jail inform the FBI in August 2001
about an attack on America? What was the reaction of the FBI?
5. Why did Dr. Jeffrey Starr, U. S. department of defense, visit
Tajikistan in Jan 2001?
6. When did Jean-Claude Cousseran, Director DGSE , French Secret Service
inform the CIA about terrorist attacks on America? What was their
7. What does he know about the monitoring of Djamel Beghal, member of
Takfir-wal-Hijra (financed by Osama bin Laden) and Kamel Daoudi? Did he
ever inform the CIA about that? And when?
8. When did Italian Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini inform the CIA
about a possible attack on the American president "with the use of an
airplane"? What was their reaction?
9. When did President Mubarak, Egypt, inform the CIA about a possible
attack on America with an "airplane stuffed with explosives"? What was
their reaction?
10. When did Efraim Halevy , Director of Mossad since 1998 (unconfirmed)
inform the CIA about a possible attack with "200 terrorists" on America?
What was their reaction?
11. Is it true he warned Ariel Sharon not to travel to New York on
September 11 to speak at a festival?
12. Did a caller to Loxley Banks, Director Radio Cayman Islands talk
show, give several warnings of an imminent attack on the U. S on Sept. 3
13. The London Times reported that someone from the FAA warned Salman
Rushdie not to travel to the United States on September 3rd? If this is
true, who was it?
14. Did the FBI investigate the two men who met Mohamed Atta and Marwan
Al-Shehhi in Harry's Bar at the Helmsley Hotel in Manhattan on September
8, 2001?
15. Who does Abdullah Abdullah (Northern Alliance) believe killed
Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud on September 9, 2001?
16. When and why did he decide to attack Kabul on September 11 at 5:30
17. When did he decide to invade Masar-i-Scharif
18. Did the CIA helped him provoke a tumult?
19. Did he ever meet John Walker Lindh?
20. Why was Major John Kenny, Commander Wright Patterson Air Base,
Dayton placedon high alert on September 10? Did he inform companies in
Dayton to shutdown their offices?
21. Why was Colonel William M. Dietrick , Commander Defense Language
Institute in Garrison, Monterey on high alert on September 10?
22. Why did one of Kenneth (Ken) Weinbrecht (President SAMS ) executives
say on September 10, that he was a 'Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has
capability to target US forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab
23. Did Jean-Louis Bruguiere, French anti-terrorism, inform the CIA on
September 10 about a possible terrorist attack? If so, what was their
24. Why did Atta and hijacker Abdulaziz Alomari checke into a Portland,
Maine motel (unidentified) on September 10?
25. Why was the Portland, Airport, according to eye-witnesses, in full
charge of more military officials and soldiers than usual, weeks before
September 11, 2001?
26. Why, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported, was Mayor Brown warned
to be "cautious in your travel" the night of September 10? Who warned
27. Why did Alex Diamandis, Odigo Vice President of Sales and Marketing,
receive a warning on his messenger service about a possible attack on
America on September 11, 2001? At which time?
28. When did Dr. August Hanning , President BND
(Bundesnachrichtendienst Germany) inform the CIA that "Middle Eastern
terrorists are 'planning to hijack commercial aircraft ?" What was their
reaction? Did he allow an Iranian prisoner in Hamburg call to the CIA in
Summer 2001 about an attack on America? What was their reaction?
1. Why did Kenneth Waldie, Stanley Hall,
Herbert Homer and Peter Gay of Raytheon travel on Sept. 11? 2. 2. Can
Global Hawk technology be used for at least 27 hours?
3. Is Global Hawk technology used in commercial airplanes?
4. Did Danielle O'Brien, air traffic controller, inform another air
traffic control center about a plane traveling fast southwest of Dulles
after spotting it 8:18 AM on September 11?
5. Who was informed and what happened?
1. Why didn't Dr. James G. Roche, Secretary
of the Air Force try to reach the airplanes in NYC (7 minutes time for
McGuire AFB in New Jersey ) and at the Pentagon (10 minutes time)?
2. Did Roche ever try to shutdown the plane in Pennsylvania?
3. Can Roche explain why magazines of that plane were found 20 miles
away from the crash? Andrews AFB is 13 miles away. He had one hour and
fifteen minutes to respond to the plane that hit the Pentagon. What
happened during that time?
4. Can he explain why many ear- and eye witnesses, including workers of
the road construction company New Enterprise saw or heard F-16 jets ?
5. Why did President Bush say only one week later that he tried to
shutdown that plane?
6. Who gave that decision?
1. Why did George Bush leave Barksdale Air
Force Base aboard Air Force One and flew to an Air Force base in
Nebraska on 1:48 PM on September 11 and returned to Washington at 4:30
2. What exactly did Donald Rumsfeld do that day before he arrived at the
Pentagon around 3:55 PM?
3. How did Rumsfeld know at 5:30 PM on September 11 that the plane in
Pennsylvania could have been headed for one of three possible targets:
Camp David, the White House or the U. S. Capitol building?
4. Can he explain why early media reports told us that no squadrons of
combat-ready fighter jets have been at Andrews and later changed their
reports that they haven't been on high alert only?
5. Why was Air Force Lt. Col. Vic Warzinski, another Pentagon spokesman,
so sure on September 11 that aircraft was coming your way?
6. What did the D. C. Air National Guard in Washington do on September
7. Can he explain what those 3 fighters did from
9:40AM until 9:55AM when they finally turned towards Flight 93 and were
60 miles out at 10:06am?
8. Can he explain why Air Traffic Controllers in a Nashua Telegraph
article did report an F-16 was circling Flight 93 and was in visual
range at the time of crash?
9. Can he confirm a witness report that National Guard F-16's have been
at Hancock field in Syracuse NY in the air early that morning before
10. How could the hijackers know how to disable defense systems?
11. What was the official reason that fighters of the
305th Air Wing, McGuire Air Force Base, NJ did not intercept the 2nd
hijacked plane in NYC? This would have been possible within 7 minutes
after 8:48 AM
12. Why did none of the 459th Aircraft Squadron
(Andrews AFB) fighters intercept the plane which crashed into the
Pentagon? Andrews AFB is 10 miles from Washington DC.
13. Col. Ken McClellan, Air Force spokesman said on September 11, that
Mohammad Atta attended the International Officer's School at
Maxwell/Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, and was seen by
eye-witnesses? What was McClellan doing there? Why did he later deny the
14. Why did he decide not to shutdown ECHELON base Bad Aibling in
Germany as planned for 2002?
15. What is the reason that none of any Air Force fighters reached the
hijacked plane in time?
16. Many eye- and witnesses think that the plane in Pennsylvania was
shot down. What is the scientific explanation why the magazine of the
airplane was found many miles away?
17. Why did Jack Kelly, idefense. com, inform USA Today only 12 minutes
after the first crash (8:48AM), that terror groups using Web encryption
may have been responsible? And why was he so sure before the second
crash at 9:03 PM?
18. Did Kelly serve with the U. S. government where he managed several
significant programs for the information warfare and intelligence
19. Did Joseph J. Esposito, Chief of NYPD try to contact the Pentagon at
9:06 AM on September 11? What was their reaction?
10. Why didn't General Elwood "Pete" Quesada of the FAA inform President
Bush between 8:15 and 9:05 about four simultaneously hijacked planes?
Who did he inform and what was their reaction?
1. What does Nicholas Scoppetta of FDNY
know about the latest reports of the WTC destruction?
2. Can he explain why many witnesses saw and heard more than two
explosions in the WTC?
3. Can he explain why both Twin Towers and Building 7 collapsed in that
4. Can he explain why a gas tank was in Building 7?
5. Can he explain why there were no passengers in the subway under the
6. Can he explain why there was no guard at the gold reservoir under the
7. Why did Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, Director CDC prepare, as CNN reported,
emergency-response teams on September 11 at 11:16 PM?
1. When did Dr. August Hanning , President
(Bundesnachrichtendienst Germany) inform the CIA that "Middle Eastern
terrorists are 'planning to hijack commercial aircraft ?" What was their
reaction? Did he allow an Iranian prisoner in Hamburg call to the CIA in
Summer 2001 about an attack on America? What was their reaction?
2. When did Tayseer Allouni , Kabul correspondent Al-Jazeera, receive
his first video from Bin Laden? Can he explain why the first video on
October 7 2001, the day of the retaliation, looked like it was recorded
in the morning?
3. Did Tom Simmons (former U. S. Ambassador to Pakistan), Karl
Inderfurth (former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs)
and Lee Coldren
(former State Department expert on South Asia) decide or announce in a
July 2001 meeting that an attack was planned on the Taliban in October
4. Why did Ms. Barbara Bodine, US ambassador to Yemen stop John O'Neill
from investigating Al-Quaeda accounts in July 2001?
5. Did Niaz Niak, former Pakistani Foreign Secretary say in mid July
2001 that the USA planned military action against Osama Bin Laden and
the Taliban?
6. Did Hameed Gul, retired Pakistani general of Pakistan's Inter
Services Intelligence, say that a secret service was involved in the
attack on America?
7. Why did Tommy Thompson, The Secretary of the Department of Health and
Human Services, and other Bush cabinet members meet secretly (i. e.
illegally) in Oct. 2001 with officials of the Pharmaceutical Research
and Manufacturers of America
(PhRMA) to develop plans for their Emergency Preparedness Task Force?
Why did he decide on October
25, 2001 to ask Congress for another $500 million to produce Acambis's
smallpox vaccine?
8. Why did it take 4.5 hours until Jean Marie Malecki , Director Palm
Beach County Health Department, picked up the phone for employees of the
AMI-Building, Boca Raton. This is where editor Bob Stevens got anthrax.
Why did she wait two days before she visited that building again?
9. Why did Mayor Guilani sell WTC rubble to India for recycling and also
China? Who made that decision?
10. What was the purpose of U. S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain's phone
call on October 10, 2001 to the Pakistani oil minister? Why was she sure
that a previously abandoned Unocal pipeline from Turkmenistan across
Afghanistan to the Pakistani coast for the purpose of selling oil and
gas to China, was back on the table in view of recent geopolitical
11. What exactly was found on Z. Moussaoui's computer after 9/11, when
local agents were given a Federal Intelligence Security Act (FISA)
warrant, which they had requested six weeks previously? This ties
directly into the question of the administration's dealings with the
Taliban, its reluctance to investigate Saudi nationals, etc.
12. Why the attack on Cynthia McKinney for asking: 1) why has there been
no investigation of the 9-11 attack? and 2) did Bush/CIA/NSA know of it
beforehand, and allow it to happen?
13. Why is the Bush administration so strongly against a real
investigation into the events of 9-11?
14. Why did the US give 43 million dollars to Afghanistan back in May or
June of 2001
15. Why did Bush toss the Hart-Rudman terror security study (developed
over a 2 year period) and instead assign responsibility to Cheney and
16. Why did Ashcroft stops flying commercial, citing an unidentified
"threat" in July 2001? Why did the FBI and Justice not identify the
form, origin and time of the threat?
17. Why did Bush stay in Texas for the month of August and Cheney in
18. Why no photos or videos of the Pentagon plane? And there's not a
single credible frame of film or second of video of this? Also, why
hasn't a similar flight path graphic ever been published?
19. Why didn't the Secret Service hustle Dubya out of the classroom a
half-second after Andy Card told him, "Mr. pResident, the nation is
under attack"?
20. Why did they leave him exposed to danger for two and a half minutes
in the classroom and another half-hour in the school before he returned
to the relative safety of Air Force One?
21. Where was George H. W. Bush at the time of the attacks?
22. Why did passengers or crewmembers on three of the flights tell
people on the ground that the highjackers had "box cutters"?
23. Where are the flight recorders?
24. How did they find a passport that just "happens" to belong to one of
the hijackers in the WTC rubble and they can't locate even ONE flight
25. Why no investigative reporting of the Pentagon scene? The photos do
not show much, but then photographers were not allowed, initially, to
photograph the scene, if I remember correctly.
26. Why was the series of recommendations Al Gore also put together in
1996 on airport security called by Republican congress "paranoid" and
too harsh. Why did the airline industry, lobbying against it, consider
it too expensive and impractical.
27. Why was the Hart-Rudman report on the potential dangers of terrorism
in the homeland. The results of the research ignored by Bush?
28. Why were FISA warrants disallowed by Bush?
29. Why did the US pull the plug on Muslim websites Monday September 10,
30. Why did the Saudi bin-Laden-group have a website with a PRE-SET
expiration date of Sept. 11, 2001?
31. Why were the bin Ladens flown out of the U. S. on private jets the
day after the 9/11?
32. Why did Cheney say that everyone in the White House started taking
Cipro on September 12 when the first anthrax letter wasn't postmarked
until September
18. 33. Why did Bush dissolve the Bin Laden Task Force? What would have
happened had this focused and knowledgeable group been in place 9 months
before 911?
34. Why was metallic debris found 8 miles from the crash site of the
plane that went down in Penn? They said it went straight down and left a
small hole in the ground. If they found metallic debris from the plane 8
miles away it was either shot down or a bomb exploded in the plane.
35. Why did they not let the media or any reporters take video or photos
of the crash site?
Comment From Nico Haupt
Please don't send ME any answers to these questions. I've been working on Sept. 11th oddities, including media and political analysis, for the past 7 months, 24/7, and would describe myself as one of the specialists and analysts of the attacks and the circumstances surrounding them.
This list of questions has been circulating since January, 2002, and I have just now been able to revise it. Its main purpose, from the beginning, has been to express, how many questions are really exist.
It's actually not ME who is searching for answers any longer. The US government and the people who are addressed in these questions, have to answer to us. I hope you got the idea.
The purpose of this list has only a political background:
It's question list designed for a commission of inquiry and individuals called to testify. So, again, please don't send me any corrections or answers.
You should use this list, politically, to send to your US Congressman and local papers, etc.
I'm sure most of us 911 skeptics, and all Rense-regulars, already know which questions are really important, which immediately have to be asked, which are less important or inane, and which ones have to be further updated.
You will find much additional material at http://www.ourDNA.org where you can also leave your comment, thx :)
And there a thousands more questions concerning 911...


text:
Thomas Frank appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #428. He is most recently the author of Pity the Billionaire.
Listen: Play in new window | Download
Condition of Mr. Segundo: Wondering why Grover Norquist keeps leaving voicemails about tax pledges.
Author: Thomas Frank
Subjects Discussed: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's notion of "compromise," the Republican failure to acknowledge Reagan's complete history, Reagan's Continental Illinois bailout, efforts to "erase" liberalism from Washington, Barack Obama's failings, Congressional disapproval by the American people (as reflected by recent polls), how George W. Bush became a toxic Republican figure, the Tea Party movement, the Great Recession, how the Right co-opted populism after 2008, the 2010 extension of the Bush tax cuts and Bernie Sanders's filibuster, Obama signing the NDAA "with serious reservations," the Democratic Party less about the working man and more about expertise and technocrats, Obama's TARP bailouts vs. Roosevelt's Reconstruction Finance Corporation bailouts, government agencies that become instruments of Wall Street, "purified" capitalism, firing bank managers, conservatives mimicking progressive ideologies of the past and protest movements of the 1930s, co-opting outrage, Orson Welles's influence on Glenn Beck, The War of the Worlds, being subscribed to Beck's email newsletter, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, the Republican base being united over the past few decades by "quasi-military victory" and lack of civility, Howard Phillips and "organized discontent," why the Democrats are allergic to discontent and anger, Roosevelt's tendency to stump and explain legislation vs. Obama's failure to do so, the Democratic tendency to use experts as a selling point, Jon Stewart and the New Political Privilege, the Rally to Restore Sanity, Occupy Wall Street, blue-collar invisibility in DC, living in a neighborhood in which 50% of the population have PhDs, NASCAR, idiosyncratic hangover cures, diffidence and resistance against righteous indignation in the last few years, the hard times swindle, Scott Walker and attacks on the Wisconsin labor movement, attempts to investigate why liberalism can't stick in recent years given The Wrecking Crew's suggestion that people inherently expect a liberal state, the myth of small business job creation (specific data breakdown on new jobs creation from 1992-2008 from Scott Shane discussed by Correspondent and Frank), George Lucas calling himself an "independent filmmaker," C. Wright Mills's White Collar, small business serving as a propaganda front for big business, America's reticence in discussing how we are all corporate slaves in some sense, Tea Party memorabilia, Glenn Beck's CAPITALISM painting, Rep. Nan Hayworth's dodging questions about Verizon with empty utopian bluster, whether it's possible to take back the term "small business," the Black Panther Party, ways to organize political movements, whether it's possible to build a dedicated base to combat a corrupt two-party system, legal blockades to third party movements, protesting out of resentment and self-pity, self-pity and the resurgent Right, whether the Tea Party is protesting with a shared sense of humiliation, populist politics as a gateway drug, searching for good things to say about the Tea Party, liberalism and populist movements, Atlas Shrugged, Walter Issacson's Steve Jobs biography, Jobs being selfish with his money, why selfishness is a uniquely American draw, retreating into laissez-faire purity, Ayn Rand's prose style, capital strikes as fantasy, leftist versions of Atlas Shrugged, John Dos Passos, Steinbeck, Frank's collection of proletarian fiction, Upton Sinclair, the cold sex and descriptions of steel and machinery in Atlas Shrugged, the connections between recent political movements and mythology, German sociologists from the 1930s, the social construction of reality, Karl Mannheim's Ideology and Utopia, how the Left might find political possibilities in passion, pragmatism, and anger, the neutered Left falling prey to forms of mythology that are just as nefarious as present myths on the Right, organized labor, Steven Greenhouse's The Big Squeeze, how politics tends to inspire perverse behavior, and train wrecks.
Correspondent: We're talking only a few nights after a really fascinating 60 Minutes interview with [House Majority Leader] Eric Cantor. I'm not sure if you saw this.
Frank: I didn't see it.
Correspondent: Well, it was interesting. Because it reminded me very much of your book. I'm about to talk with you and this happens. So [Cantor] appears. And it's this fairly amicable, typical segment. And then Lesley Stahl basically says, "Will you compromise in any way?" And he dodged the issue of being able to compromise on anything. And then Lesley, of course, brings up the Reagan tax increase.
Frank: The 1986?*
Correspondent: Yes. And he denies that Reagan ever did that. And then, to add an additional monkey wrench into this, there's an off-camera press secretary who says that's a lie. And then, of course, they play the clip.
Frank: What?
Correspondent: Yes! And they play a clip of Reagan using "compromise" as a verb** when he's talking about this tax increase. So this seems a very appropriate beginning to some of the issues in your book.
Frank: That's amazing. That's exactly what I'm writing about. These people who are essentially blinded by ideology. But when I say it that way, it sounds like some kind of slang term. Or something like that. But I mean it in a very serious way. That these are people who have bought an entire utopian way of seeing the world and are able to close their eyes to things that are obvious. And what you just said about Reagan, that would be a juicy detail that I would have loved to have had for the book. But there are so many other examples — essentially, they deny. Look, I went to a graduate school and studied history. One of the baseline things that historians agree on is that for the last thirty or forty years, we've been in a conservative era. That people around the world — governments, politicians, elites around the world — have discovered the power of markets and have moved in this direction towards markets that are deregulated, have privatized, have done all these things. This is common knowledge. A conservative movement today — you talk to a guy like Eric Cantor? No, that's never happened. We're still living under socialism. And we have been since Woodrow Wilson. Or something like this.
Correspondent: But why is it that Cantor and the Freshman Republicans want to just keep their blinders on about history? About their man Reagan? Is there a specific…
Frank: They have to have a hero and they've thrown George W. Bush under the bus. Because of the bailouts. But at the end of the day, look, it's opportunism. Reagan is very popular. Bush is not popular. Nixon is not popular. So they have to have a hero. And it has to be someone who is beloved. Ipso facto, it has to be Reagan. But they have to deny all sorts of thing about Reagan. For example, Reagan bailed out Continential Illinois Bank — at the time, the biggest bank failure in U.S. history. Reagan, as you've just mentioned, raised taxes. Reagan sold weapons to Iran. You remember that one? Iran-Contra. I mean, there are all sorts of other crazy things that Reagan did that don't look so good. I mean, Reagan really liked Franklin Roosevelt. Reagan was a more complicated person. But none of that is admissible. If you're going to follow this ideology and this utopian vision that they have of what I call "market populism" — if you're going to follow that all the way — and, of course, part of the idea of this is that you're going to have to follow it all the way — and we'll get into that a minute — you basically have to whitewash history. I mean, it's almost Soviet, what you're describing.
Correspondent: The phrase you use in The Wrecking Crew. "The Washington conservatives aim to make liberalism not by debating, but by erasing it." And I'm wondering if there's any past political precedent that would suggest they could entirely efface liberalism from our political machinations.
Frank: Or from our memory.
Correspondent: Or from our memory. It's very strange.
Frank: Well, that was the big subject a few years ago — when The Wrecking Crew was published. One of the topics of conversation was these grand schemes that the Republicans kept coming up with. The Republicans in Washington here, I'm talking about. I'm not talking about your rank-and-file Republicans. But the Republicans in Washington kept coming up with the grand schemes for some kind of political checkmate. Some kind of move that would end the debate forever and yield victory for their side forever. And they include — privatizing social security was a big one. Another one — the one that I focused on in The Wrecking Crew — is deficits. And that, I'm sorry to say, I turned out to be right about the one. By deliberately running up the deficits in the Bush years, it doesn't give them permanent victory, but it does stay the hand of whoever, whatever liberal follows — in this case, Barack Obama — and it has worked exactly as they planned it to. Although Obama pushed it a little farther than they thought possible with the stimulus package. But now look at what's happened with the debt ceiling catastrophe and all that sort of thing. So that turned out to be effective. They were able to limit the debate by some deeds that they pulled while they were still in power. And some of the other things that they are trying or will try or I predict they'll try, they are things about tricking the franchise. Somehow keeping or dissuading people from voting. That sort of thing. But there's always this search for the doomsday device. Yes, and it still goes on.
Correspondent: But this level of no quarter, no compromise. I mean, isn't there some kind of "uncanny valley" or Hubbert's Peak to what they can do before it's just not acceptable? I mean, there was that latest Rasmussen poll where Congress got a 5% approval rating. That was a few days ago.
Frank: 5%?
Correspondent: 5%.
Frank: Well, that makes a difference in the Presidential Election. But that really won't make a whole lot of difference, strangely enough, in the Congressional Election. Because people might hate Congress, but they like their own Congressman. That's the classic, the old saw. But, look, what you're getting at is a really interesting phenomenon of these people, instead of being pulled to the center — as all of your political science theorizing and all of your DC punditry insists that the gravity of politics pulls people to the center. Political scientists have believed this for fifty years. And this is a pet peeve of mine. Because I think it's rubbish, okay, for reasons that we'll go into. But it's been just dramatically disproven in the last couple of years. Think back to 2008. You had the Republican Party in ruins. You had all these scandals in the Bush Administration. All this corruption. And then it ends with this catastrophic meltdown in the market. The housing bubble bursts. The banks start to go under, one after another. Then Wall Street starts shedding 700 points per day. It's this crazy disaster. The financial crisis. And then they do the bailouts, forever sealing Bush's fate not only with the general public but with the Right. One of the most unpopular Presidents of all time. The Republican Party is in ruins in 2008. And you have pundit after pundit weighing in and saying, "These people are done for. Bush led them too far to the right." The era of George W. Bush was where they went too far to the right, and Tom DeLay and all those guys, they went too far to the right, and now they have to make their way back to the center or they will risk being irrelevant forever more. Or for the next twenty years or something like that. And look what happened. They did the opposite. Guys like Eric Cantor, they did not embrace the moderates in their party. They excommunicated them. They purged them. I mean, these guys, they behave like Communists in a lot of ways. This is one of those things. They purged these guys. They throw people out. And they don't want them in the Party anymore. And they moved deliberately to the right. Way to the right. That's what the Tea Party movement is all about. And I'll be damned if it didn't work. They just scored their biggest victory in eighty years. Or seventy what — a whole lot of years in the 2010 off-term elections. They had a huge victory. So obviously that strategy has vindicated for them. It worked! It paid off! And there's no reason why they would go back on something that just succeeded. It was a success.
Correspondent: But in the chapter in this book, "The Silence of the Technocrats," you describe this collapse of Democratic populism from 2008. You point to the failings of the Democrats to challenge the Tea Party, people at the town hall meetings. You point also to the manner in which they formed corporate alliances with healthcare and also the bailouts that we were just talking about. The failure of the stimulus package. The list goes on. Only a few days ago, Obama signed into law the NDAA, which essentially gives the government the right to detain any citizen, and he had this whole "with serious reservations" claause that he did while he signed it. So the question I have is: if Democrats are offering the defense that Obama is being forced into this predicament…
Frank: They're listening to the pundits. The Republicans did the opposite of what the pundits suggested. The Democrats are listening to them. There's this DC elite that the Democrats are listening to. This is what Obama's Presidency is all about — it's looking for a grand compromise. But the Republicans, they're not interested. Make him come to us, they say. He can come to us. He can compromise in our direction. Look, at the end of the day, this is something you can figure out with game theory. It's really simple. If they're the side that stands pat and makes the other guy come to them, they win. But that's neither her nor there. I think the Democrats really misplayed the hand they were dealt with. I mean, misplayed it in a colossal manner. In a catastrophic manner. And Obama may well get re-elected in 2012 at this point. Who knows at this point?
Correspondent: Well, with the crop of candidates, it's a big clown car.
Frank: Elected for what purpose? After what's happened, why bother? They didn't understand the needs of the moment. The cultural and political needs of the moment, which were populist. They didn't understand that all that political science theorizing that I was telling you about, where the center is where the gravity always pulls you — you have to move to the center. You have to make compromises with the other side. That all of that old way of thinking about everything was discredited. The financial crisis. The Great Recession. The huge business slump. We were going into Great Depression II, it looked like back then. And what was called for was 1930s style politics. The conservatives offered it. The Republicans offered it. Or I should say the Tea Party offered it and has since grafted it on the Republican Party. And the Democrats behaved as if everything was just as it was in the 1990s. That if they acted like Bill Clinton, everything would be fine. They did not understand that the old scheme was completely out the window.
Correspondent: Why though would they continue to act as if they wished to rise above partisanship? This notion…
Frank: That's who they are.
Correspondent: I mean, even after the whole debt ceiling showdown. That whole business.
Frank: Can you believe that? Don't you think that that would be the big convincer?
Correspondent: But why do you think this is? I mean, why didn't Obama just go to the people and say, "Look, this is going to have serious actions even if I approve it or veto it. I am actually going to you, the American people, and I am explaining to you that the Republicans want to throw the Bill of Rights into a flaming trash can…
Frank: (laughs)
Correspondent: "So I can't in good conscience sign this." Why do you think he can't do that?
Frank: Well, the point where this really got out of hand — I mean, there were several big turning points in the Obama Presidency, but the one that really just blew my mind because it was such a misplayed moment. And we think Obama's a very intelligent man. And he is. I met up. He's a super-duper smart guy. But some of the political moves have just been total rookie mistakes. The one that got me was when he still had a Democratic Congress. It was a lame duck session. This would have been at the end of 2010. And he renewed the Bush tax cuts. Why not make the Republicans come to him and offer something in exchange for that? No. He just gave it to them. It's like the biggest prize on the table. And he just handed it over.
Correspondent: Leaving Bernie Sanders to do that long filibuster. But that ended up being all for nought. Even though it was an impressive theatrical display. Everybody was behind Bernie Sanders. Finally somebody standing up.
Frank: Oh sure. But it wasn't up to Bernie Sanders. It was up to Barack Obama. And he just gave it away — the one ace he had in the hole, he just gave it away. And so maybe he did it as a good faith gesture to the Republicans. And look what it got him? This terrible smackdown with the debt ceiling crisis.
Correspondent: An embarrassment.
Frank: The kind of naivete that that takes. To not understand that that's how these guys play the game. There's plenty of journalists that wrote about the DeLay Congress and the Gingrich Congress. We know how these guys play. Or George W. Bush. Look at the career of Karl Rove. These guys play to win. They don't mess around. And the innocence of Washington that it took to make a blunder — let's call it what it is. A blunder like that is shocking to me.
Correspondent: If he's so smart, why does he constantly come to them? I mean, why give the game away like that?
Frank: Because that's who they are. That's the Democratic Party nowadays.
Correspondent: It's been like that for a while though, you know?
Frank: It has. And, hey, let's be fair. Obama isn't the — all of their last six Presidential candidates have been cut from the same cloth. I think Obama is, in lots of ways, smarter and a better speaker, and more talented than a lot of their previous leaders. But this is who the Democratic Party has become. Many years ago, they were the party of the working man. Everyone knew that. They were also a party that had an ideology. An ideology that arose from organized labor, that arose from the New Deal. And that has been lost. They are the party of technocrats now. Look, everything I'm telling you right now is right on the surface down at Washington DC. The big Democratic Party thinkers talk about this all the time. We are the party of the professional class. And if we aren't that yet, that's who we're going to be when we're done. We're going to get there eventually.
* — This is a very pedantic stickler point, but one that nonetheless demands clarity. Reagan raised taxes twelve times during his administration. Frank is referring to the Tax Reform Act of 1986. But, to be clear, Stahl was specifically referring to Reagan's 1982 tax increase in the 60 Minutes segment.
** — Another highly pedantic (and perhaps needless) stickler point. Reagan used "compromise" as a noun, not as a verb: "Make no mistake about it, this whole package is a compromise." And while Reagan's specific words convey the same point (indeed more definitively with a noun), it is important to remain committed to painstaking accuracy — especially when the corresponding approach being discussed over the hour involves how political parties cleave to mythology.
The Bat Segundo Show #428: Thomas Frank (Download MP3)

subset: commoncrawl


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Urban and rural collide in this wry, inspiring memoir of a woman who turned a vacant lot in downtown Oakland into a thriving farm
Novella Carpenter loves cities-the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can't shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables. Ambivalent about repeating her parents' disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways: a homegrown vegetable plot as well as museums, bars, concerts, and a twenty-four-hour convenience mart mere minutes away. Especially when she moved to a ramshackle house in inner city Oakland and discovered a weed-choked, garbage-strewn abandoned lot next door. She closed her eyes and pictured heirloom tomatoes, a beehive, and a chicken coop.
What started out as a few egg-laying chickens led to turkeys, geese, and ducks. Soon, some rabbits joined the fun, then two three-hundred-pound pigs. And no, these charming and eccentric animals weren't pets; she was a farmer, not a zookeeper. Novella was raising these animals for dinner. Novella Carpenter's corner of downtown Oakland is populated by unforgettable characters. Lana (anal spelled backward, she reminds us) runs a speakeasy across the street and refuses to hurt even a fly, let alone condone raising turkeys for Thanksgiving. Bobby, the homeless man who collects cars and car parts just outside the farm, is an invaluable neighborhood concierge. The turkeys, Harold and Maude, tend to escape on a daily basis to cavort with the prostitutes hanging around just off the highway nearby. Every day on this strange and beautiful farm, urban meets rural in the most surprising ways.
For anyone who has ever grown herbs on their windowsill, tomatoes on their fire escape, or obsessed over the offerings at the local farmers' market, Carpenter's story will capture your heart. And if you've ever considered leaving it all behind to become a farmer outside the city limits, or looked at the abandoned lot next door with a gleam in your eye, consider this both a cautionary tale and a full-throated call to action. Farm City is an unforgettably charming memoir, full of hilarious moments, fascinating farmers' tips, and a great deal of heart. It is also a moving meditation on urban life versus the natural world and what we have given up to live the way we do.
This item is Non-Returnable
- Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
- Imprint: Penguin Books
- Date: June 2009
- Seller Statement: Sold by Penguin Group US


text:
Carpooling offers many benefits.
It's easy: Carpooling is simple, easy to do and flexible
It's convenient: Carpooling provides commuting convenience comparable to driving alone, but with less stress and more companionship while you're commuting. Carpooling partners establish their own unique rules and arrangements that best meets the needs of their particular carpool.
It saves you money: sharing the costs of driving and parking in these times of increasing gas prices can help you reduce your daily commuting costs. The more occupants in the vehicle the more you save.
It's less stressful: Commuting with others means there's less frustration and you arrive at your job more relaxed and ready to work or study. If you're not driving, you might even be able to catch up on reading, get some extra sleep or work while commuting.
It's better for the environment: Fewer cars on the road means reduced green house gas emissions and improved air quality.
It improves your available commuting options: Carpooling offers a commuter option that may work for you better than other modes. It serves people who live where transit service may be limited and may fit your work schedule better than other options.


text:
This set is great for Halloween photos!
This product is compatible with Lightroom 3, Lightroom 4, Lightroom 5, Lightroom 6 and up. Will also work with Lightroom CC. It will NOT work with Photoshop CC, CS, Elements, GIMP, or any other editing program.
For tutorials for installation and use, click here and scroll to the tutorial that applies to your product and version of your editing program.
This product is subject to the copyright of Action Spree – © Action Spree 2014. All rights reserved.
Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents for any purpose is prohibited. This product was made for the purpose of personal use for professional photographers. It is not to be resold or redistributed for any purpose.
We promise to only send you good things like freebies and exclusive deals. :)
All rights BP4U Photographer Resources 2024 - Web design by Web & Art Solutions - Ecommerce Software by Shopify


text:
Equationally definable principal congruences
A (quasi)variety $\mathcal{K}$ of algebraic structures has \emph{equationally definable principal (relative) congruences} (EDP(R)C) if there is a finite conjunction of atomic formulas $\phi(u,v,x,y)$ such that for all algebraic structures $\mathbf{A}\in\mathcal{K}$ we have $\langle x,y\rangle\in\mbox{Cg}_{\mathcal{K}}(u,v)\iff \mathbf{A}\models \phi(u,v,x,y)$. Here $\theta=\mbox{Cg}_{\mathcal{K}}(u,v)$ denotes the smallest (relative) congruence that identifies the elements $u,v$, where "relative" means that $\mathbf{A}//\theta\in\mathcal{K}$. Note that when the structures are algebras then the atomic formulas are simply equations.
Properties that imply EDP(R)C
Properties implied by EDP(R)C
Relative congruence extension property
Relatively congruence distributive
W. J. Blok and D. Pigozzi, \emph{On the structure of varieties with equationally definable principal congruences. I, II, III, IV}, Algebra Universalis, \textbf{15}, 1982, 195-227 MRreview, \textbf{18}, 1984, 334-379 MRreview, \textbf{32}, 1994, 545-608 MRreview, \textbf{31}, 1994, 1-35 MRreview


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Spinal fusion: 10 things I learned surviving a scary-sounding and life-altering surgery
Life isn't fair.
I was born with an 80 year-old back. Not exactly 80, but old. It first broke when I was 29. After surgery, it worked again, but only for another six years. It teetered and failed again late this summer in the same spot — a re-ruptured L4/5 disc. The thing was so decrepit, my surgeon had to remove the remains and fuse my spine.
Now I'm resigned to a life of low impact and light lifting. I can't even hold my youngest brown-eyed boy in his final months of baby-dom, let alone lift a gallon of milk for a month. I can't return to full activity for six months until the vertebrae fully fuse. And after that, I'm advised to give up running, basketball, soccer, and maybe wake boarding or else.
It sucks.
But it's not all bad. In fact, I've got a heck of a lot to look forward to—a lot more to live for. While having my body deteriorate ahead of schedule and the long recovery are both humbling, I also feel inspired by the experience. Here are 10 things I learned post surgery: Continue reading…


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Sidel: Customised products are the future of packaging
Isabelle Maillot, VP, product innovation, Sidel told FoodProductionDaily packaging will have to proactively help the consumer to choose and allow for mixing several flavours.
Information in the Cloud
"Through the packaging, the product could proactively propose recipes. This would be dependent on consumer behaviour, which would be analysed due to connected technologies," she said.
"For example, your fridge could analyse the turnover of your vegetables, what kind you like, if you drink more soda than water and so on and send the information to the cloud.
"This information would then be transmitted to the product you bought, and the consumer would be reminded about the shelf life of the product or encouraged to balance their diet the next day, for example by sending the message 'drink me now with an apple'."
Maillot has a master's degree in mechatronics engineering from Supmeca Engineering Institute, France. Her career began as a trainee with Sidel in Atlanta, US. She has been working for the company for 13 years in various engineering and management roles in the US and France, from efficiency and maintenance improvement manager to technology development manager.
She started her new role in product innovation in September 2012.
"The hardest thing about my job is the communication aspect, to sell a product internally and to convince people about the need to start working on a topic today to bring it to market tomorrow," she said.
'Game changers'
"It is also very difficult to choose between the many ideas and opportunities, which are proposed to us both internally and externally.
"Making a decision to not evaluate one opportunity can mean we may miss a "game changer". Sidel has always been an innovative company however, it is very easy to kill an idea at each stage of its development.
"An innovation, by definition, is something that will disturb the established way of doing things. You have to find the proper balance around being in some way a "believer", following a feeling that you are progressing in the right direction.
"During the early stages of development, you don't often have much data to review and guide you in the decision-making process. Instead you have to be stubborn enough to fight for your corner, while at the same time learning to listen objectively to criticism and accepting when a project needs to be stopped for a reason."
Maillot said on one hand, her role is very operational, which makes it exciting to work with different teams of technical people, such as mechanical engineers, automation engineers, simulation engineers and various scientists.
On the other, it is very strategic in building a technology road map for the future, anticipating trends due to close relationships with key customers, broad academic network and with the marketing teams within Sidel.
"When we present one of our products to the market, I feel proud to be able to make a difference," she said.
"Also, when a customer recognises the value of what we have delivered, it is worth all the effort, energy and occasional learning curves we experienced during the development process."


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Cardigan, Old Navy. Dress and belt, Jones New York. Pumps, Pulse. Bag, Vieta. Ring, G&S. Sunnies, Girl Props. Earrings, No Boundaries.
At trivia on Tuesday, we were asked what product is made by Ferrara Pan, Just Born, and Trolli. We guessed dolls, but the answer is candy. I thought it was just ridiculous that a candy company was named Just Born. Not knowing Just Born's products, I guessed they included things like gummy placentas. How gross would that be? On par with zebra sorbet, I think.


text: One of our BlackBerry connects sent us in a nice treat a little while ago… it is the first ever live video of the mythical BlackBerry Bold sliding device coming out of Waterloo. The quality of the video is also decently clear, so check it out, okay? We're still trying to confirm the model number of the handset, but it's definitely in the Bold lineup as has been rumored, and now confirmed via the branding on the back of the phone. Oh, the device is also running OS 6.0. Video is after the break!


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Syrian President Bashar al Assad gave an in-depth interview to journalist Hala Jaber, published in the UK's Daily Mail on 9 June. The soft-spoken voice and mannerisms of the world's most famous ophthalmologist afforded a delightful counterpoint as he pulled no punches in his statements. Whether intentional or accidental, Mail's headline was also a delectable delight:
From SANA:
President Bashar al Assad said that the UK publicly supported the White Helmets that are a branch of Al Qaeda and Jabhat al-Nusra in different areas of Syria, stressing that Syria considers the White Helmets to be a PR stunt by the UK.
In an interview given to Britain's Mail on Sunday published on Sunday morning, President al Assad asserted that the alleged chemical attack in Douma was staged by the UK, France, and the US.
He also said that there had been communications from different intelligence agencies in Europe, but it was stopped recently because they're not serious.
His Excellency stressed that the presence of the US and the UK in Syria is illegal and constitutes invasion as it breaches the sovereignty of Syria.
President Assad affirmed that Syria is the main party who's been fighting ISIS and that every inch of Syrian territory will be liberated.
He asserted that the only decision about what's going on in Syria and what's going to happen is a Syrian decision, and no one should have any doubt about this.
Following is the full text of the interview:
[Hala Jaber]: Mr. President, as of the 31st of March 2018, the total sum of funding that the British government supplied to the White Helmets, also known as the Syrian Civil Defense, is GBP 38.4 million. At the same time, Russia accuses Britain of helping to stage the attack that took place in Douma via this organization, the White Helmets. Do you, as Syria's President, believe that's true?
[President Assad ]: Definitely, without a doubt. Britain, France, and the US are following and adopting the same policy. That said, to be completely frank and stark, Britain and France are political satellites to the US. The UK publicly supported the White Helmets that are a branch of Al Qaeda, al-Nusra, in different areas of Syria. They (Britain) spent a lot of money, and we consider the White Helmets to be a PR stunt by the UK. So yes, definitely, it was staged by these three countries together, and the UK is involved.
[Hala Jaber]: British Prime Minister Theresa May said she had no doubt the Syrian regime was behind the April 7 chemical attacks and told her critics that Britain's participation had been right and legal and permitted under international law to alleviate humanitarian suffering. Do states not have a responsibility to protect against war crimes? How is the UK participation in strikes against Syria not justified under international law?
[President Assad]: So, according to her statements, when Britain and the US attacked Iraq illegally in 2003, killed millions, caused mass destruction, let alone the number of widows and amputees – according to May's logic, any government has the right to attack the UK or the US if it thought the act was justified, legal and allowed under international law to alleviate human suffering. This is first.
Second, they told a lie; they didn't provide their own public opinion – the British public – any evidence. After we liberated al-Ghouta, where the alleged attack happened, many foreign journalists, some of them against the Syrian government, asked local people about the chemical attack, and they said: "we didn't see any chemical attack, it didn't happen." It was a lie, especially after we liberated that area, our information confirmed that that attack did not take place. The British government should first prove with evidence that the attack happened, and then they should prove who is responsible – of course, this did not happen.
There was no attack; this is where the lie begins. Again, it wasn't about the attack; the crux of the issue is that they need to undermine the Syrian government, as they needed to change and topple the Syrian government at the beginning of the events of the war in Syria. They keep failing, they keep telling lies, and they continue to play a war of attrition against our government.
[Hala Jaber]: Unconfirmed reports have circulated that the Syrian government captured Western regular forces, as well as British fighters. Can you confirm this or shed light on these reports?
[President Assad[: There are fighters from all over the world helping the Jihadists. I wouldn't say we have British fighters who are alive. Most of those fighters, they are dead, they came here to die and to go to paradise, that's their ideology.
[Hala Jaber]: But you confirm that they're dead, and they were from these countries?
[President Assad ]: Yes.
[Hala Jaber]: Have there been any attempts, even through mediators or third parties, by the British government or its intelligence branches to establish communications with Syria for intelligence for whatever reason?
[President Assad]: No. We did have communications from different intelligence agencies in Europe, but it was stopped recently because they're not serious. They want to exchange information despite their governments being politically against ours, so we said when you have a political umbrella for this kind of cooperation, or let's say when you change your political position, we're ready. Now, there's no cooperation with any European intelligence agencies including the British.
[Hala Jaber]: But there's been no attempts by Britain to try and open lines of communication, as far as you know, even through mediators?
[President Assad ]: Even if there is a kind of an attempt, we don't discuss it; it's trivial, whether there is or not.
[Hala Jaber]: What are your views on May and Trump's handling of issues in the Middle East, and in Syria specifically, and what's the difference between their interventions in the region and those of Putin?
[President Assad]: Big difference: The Russians were invited by the Syrian government, their existence in Syria is a legitimate existence, the same for the Iranians. While for the United States, the UK, it is illegal, it is an invasion, they are breaching the sovereignty of Syria – a sovereign country. So, their existence is not legal at all, it is an illegitimate existence.
[Hala Jaber]: But in your view, how have they handled Syria, both May and Trump?
[President Assad]: It's not about May and Trump; it's about the Western politicians in general, the Western regimes in general. They don't accept anyone who has a different point of view, any country, any government, any personality. That's the case with Syria; Syria is very independent in its political positions, we work for our national interests, we're not a puppet state. They don't accept this reality. So, the whole approach toward Syria in the West is "we have to change this government, we have to demonize this president, because they don't suit our policies anymore." This is the situation, everything else is like flavors; they tell lies, they talk about chemical weapons, they talk about the bad president killing the good people, freedom, peaceful demonstration; all these lies are flavors for the main goal, which is regime change.
So, my answer to your question about how I see it is: this is colonial policy, that's how we see it, and this is not new. They have never changed this policy since the old way of colonialism that existed in the beginning of the 20th century and the 19th century and before, but today it's covered by, let's say, a new mask, or different masks.
[Hala Jaber]: Your main global adversaries today are Trump, Netanyahu, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, a lineup of unusual, unpopular characters. Are you suddenly looking good by comparison?
[President Assad]: I cannot compare myself to anyone, because I wouldn't be objective judging myself, so you better ask this question to others. But when you want to have an objective answer, you have to look for the real facts, not the propaganda that's been circulating in the Western media now for seven years. So, at the end, for me I don't care how I look in comparison to those; for me it's important how I look in the eyes of the Syrian people, that's my focus.
[Hala Jaber]: In 2013, you told me "Syria lies at the fault line geographically, politically, socially, and ideologically," and warned that playing with this fault line will have serious repercussions across the Middle East and Europe.
[President Assad]: Yes, we're at the fault line, the last five years have proven that I was right, because look at the repercussions all over the world, look at the terrorism spreading all over the world because of the chaos that is supported by the West in Syria. Look at the different attacks in Europe, in UK, in France, other countries. Look at the refugee crisis in Europe. That's because of the fault line that I talked about five years ago.
[Hala Jaber]: Five years on since you told me this, or since you said that, during which ISIS was born, you seem to see yourself as the main bulwark against it, why is that?
[President Assad]: For ISIS, we are the main party who's been fighting ISIS with support by the Russians and Iranians during the past years. No other party is doing the same, even partially. If you want to talk about the West and the Western military alliance led by the Americans, actually it has been supporting ISIS, because they've been attacking the Syrian Army whenever we attack or we've been attacked by ISIS; the last incident happened only days ago, when ISIS attacked the Syrian Army and of course we defeated them, and in response the Americans attacked our troops in the eastern part of Syria.
[Hala Jaber]: Was the world wrong in isolating you for the last seven years?
[President Assad: The concept of isolating a country in general is wrong. In the world, in the modern politics, even in the olden days' politics, you need communications. When you isolate a country, you isolate yourself from the reality in that country, so you're becoming politically blind. So, the concept is wrong.
[Hala Jaber]: Mr. President, some regard you as an international pariah, a dictator, with blood on your hands, give me an argument for why you are not, when in the past seven years, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed, arrested, imprisoned, and even tortured?
[President Assad]: So, the story that you're talking about, or let's say the Western narrative, that this is a bad president; he's killing his own people, and the whole world is against him because he's an international pariah, but he's been in his position for seven years while he's fighting everyone in this world. Can you convince your readers about this story? It doesn't even hold together, I mean the different factors of this narrative, it's not logical, it's not realistic. So, this president is in his position because he has the support of his own people, so how could he have this support while he's killing these same people? So, the story is not correct. We are fighting the terrorists, and those terrorists are supported by the British government, the French government, the Americans and their puppets whether in Europe or in our region. We are fighting them, and we have public support in Syria to fight those terrorists. That's why we are advancing. We cannot make these advances just because we have Russian and Iranian support; they cannot substitute the popular support, and the proof of what I'm talking about: Shah of Iran, the Western puppet, he couldn't withstand the backlash of the Iranian people, and he collapsed, the whole system collapsed in a few weeks, and he had to flee his country.
[Hala Jaber]: But despite having support of many Syrians, the fact remains that there are thousands, tens of thousands of people that were killed, and have been imprisoned.
[President Assad]: Of course, you're talking about a war; there is no good war, there is no peaceful war. That's why war is bad. So, when you talk about war, the natural and the self-evident result is death and blood everywhere, but the question is: who started this war, and who supported this war? The West. The West supported the war from the very beginning, and it supported the terrorists who started exploding everywhere and killing everywhere and everyone and beheading. The West supported Al Qaeda. So, it's not enough to say there is killing. Of course, there is killing; that's self-evident, but who started? The West is responsible first of all.
[Hala Jaber]: The West is responsible, but some also say that Mr. Assad or President Assad should bear responsibility as well.
[President Assad ]: Any Syrian could bear responsibility because of what's happening in Syria. That's another issue, this is a Syrian issue, we don't discuss it with the West. It's not the role of the West to tell us who's responsible in Syria, the president or the government or the army or the terrorists, this is a Syrian issue; we decide who. The West is in no position to tell us, at the end, it's not its role, but it interfered in a sovereign country and is responsible of the killing in our country, regardless of its narrative and its lies.
[Hala Jaber]: Russia appears to be making a lot of decisions about Syria, whether about foreign troops withdrawing to deals being struck with Israel over southern Syria, to which weapons you may or may not have. Does Russia now make your decisions?
[President Assad]: Russia is fighting for the international law, and part of this international law is the sovereignty of different countries, of the sovereign countries, Syria is one of them. Their politics, their behaviors, their values are not about interfere or dictate; they don't. We've had good relations with Russia for more than six decades now, nearly seven decades. They never, during our relation, try to dictate, even if there are differences; because there is a war and because there's high dynamism now in the region, it's natural to have differences between the different parties, whether within our government or other governments; Russia-Syria, Syria-Iran, Iran-Russia, and within these governments, that's very natural, but at the end the only decision about what's going on in Syria and what's going to happen, it's a Syrian decision. No one should have any doubt about this, regardless of the statements that you may hear, because I know on which base the question is.
[Hala Jaber]: Based on various statements.
[President Assad]: Exactly.
[Hala Jaber]: So, why has Russia not given you the S300 they promised for years, at a time when Israel is striking Syria practically every week, and why is Russia coordinating these strikes' targets behind the scenes with your enemies?
[President Assad]: Russia never coordinated with anyone against Syria, either politically or militarily, and that's contradiction; how could they help the Syrian Army advancing and at the same time work with our enemies in order to destroy our army?
[Hala Jaber]: But they usually know in advance where the attacks are going to happen…
[President Assad]: No, no, that's not true, that's not true, definitely. We know the details. Regarding the S300, why they announced it and then they stopped talking about it, you better ask the Russian officials. It's a political statement, they have their own tactics. But whether they send it or they're going to send it or not, this is a military issue; we don't talk about it.
[Hala Jaber]: Senior Pentagon officials have warned they will militarily retaliate should you mess with their alliance. Are you ever going to get rid of the US military presence in Syria, are you prepared to fight them directly?
[President Assad]: Since the beginning of the war, the Americans and their allies haven't stopped threatening Syria, they haven't stopped supporting the terrorists, and they haven't stopped attacking us directly on numerous occasions. But in spite of this we have been advancing against the terrorists, and we have said that we're going to liberate every inch of Syria regardless of any statement or any attack. This is our land and this is our duty; it's not a political opinion, it's a national duty. We're going to advance in that direction regardless of the military or political position of our adversaries.
[Hala Jaber]: You've said that you will take back every inch of Syrian territory, how long you anticipate this will take you?
[President Assad]: This is not only about the Syrian Army and the terrorists, or about the events within the border of our country, otherwise I would have given you, let's say, maybe a precise time frame. But I have always said that in less than a year we can solve this conflict, it's not very complicated. What has made it complicated is the external interference. The more we advance, the more support the terrorists have from the West. Look, for example, we were about to achieve reconciliation in the southern part of Syria only two weeks ago, but the West interfered and asked the terrorists not to follow this path in order to prolong the Syrian conflict. So, we think the more advances we make politically and militarily, the more the West, especially US, UK, and France, will try to prolong it and make the solution farther from the Syrians. But in spite of this, we are closing the gap between the two.
[Hala Jaber]: Mr. President, in three years' time, you will come to the end of your presidency term now, and it's been a long seven years and the next two years, do you think you will be running again as president, or you will call it a day and decide that it's time for you to take a break?
[President Assad ]: It's still early to talk about it; you're talking about three years from now. Three years on, no one knows how the situation is going to be in our country. If I'm going to run for the presidency, there are two factors: First of all, will – personal will to take responsibility, and second – which is the most important, the will of the Syrian people. Do they accept that person? Is the mood about me as president still the same, or will the Syrian people change their position? So, in three years, we will have to look at these two factors and then decide whether it's appropriate or not.
[Hala Jaber]: How do you think history will remember you?
[President Assad]: It depends on which history: The Western history? It's going to be skewed; it's going to tell lies and lies and lies; the same lies that we have heard not only about our present but also about the past. Our history on the other hand, which I care about, I hope it will remember me as somebody who fought the terrorists to save his country, and that was my duty as president.
[Hala Jaber]: With the World Cup around the corner, do you have a favorite team?
[President Assad]: In these circumstances, yes, my favorite team is the Syrian Army, to fight the terrorists.
[Hala Jaber]: Any favorite British teams, football teams?
[President Assad]: No, I don't follow.
[Hala Jaber]: It's been seven years of war, what do you do to let off steam, any hobbies?
[President Assad]: Sports is not a hobby, it becomes a part of your health, and a part of your daily routine, because good health is important to staying active. So, we cannot look at it as entertainment; there's no time or mood for entertainment. You're living with the war, the killing, with terrorism. So, this is the only hobby that has become a habit, a daily habit depending on the time and circumstances.
[Hala Jaber]: Your wife is British, and you've lived in London for many years, is there anything in particular that you miss from your days there?
[President Assad ]: I lived in London, I learned as a doctor. It's impossible for you to live in a city and you don't feel there is a special link with that city or with the people that you work with on a daily basis. So, you miss maybe this relation, but you live sometimes in contradiction; that the same city that you like is the same country that's been attacking your country, which is not good.
[Hala Jaber]: Thank you very much Mr. President.
[President Assad]: Thank you.
SyriaNews addenda:
Miri Wood wonders if Italy's is among the "not serious" intelligence agencies in Europe. In February, the Italian government flew Syrian Chief of National Security, General Ali Malmouk, to Rome, for meetings so quiet they were not reported in Italian media.
Evidence that there was no chemical attack in Douma is best provided by the terrorists, themselves. See "Last Terrorists of Douma" and "Testing Credibility on Syria" for massive documentation given by the savages.
Regarding the stethoscope-less, CPR-less, spinal precautions-less Nusra Helmets, they should be apprehended by law enforcement, around the world. Please use the search engine for dozens of more reports on these fake responders.


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Moving your apps is not going to be a "port" -- find out why and what other advice Japikse has for tranisitioning your apps to the revolutionary new ASP.NET Core 2.
Chris Sainty provides hands-on code samples on how to use Web APIs to interact with Blazor, an experimental framework from the ASP.NET team that allows developers to write C# and Razor code and have it run in the browser via WebAssembly.
The popular open source Babel compiler that makes modern JavaScript compatible with older environments has shipped in version 7 and, with help from Microsoft, now supports TypeScript.
.NET development tool specialist JetBrains has launched ReSharper Ultimate 2018.2, with performance improvements, support for C# 7.3 and initial support for the hot new Blazor project, which aims to allow for C#-based Web development.
Things are happening fast for ASP.NET Core, as Microsoft just released a new Version 2.2.0 preview while a recent developer survey indicates the Web dev framework is quickly becoming a mainstream option.
The recent release of Visual Studio 2017 15.8 featured a bevy of improvements for Web developers, ranging from new Docker container to Azure Functions functionality.
If you want to impress your boss (or client) with your diligence in generating documentation for your Web Service, then you need Swagger. That it will also make it easier for you to run tests on your service and check for typical errors is just icing on the cake.
Blazor is the Microsoft toolset that exploits the WebAssembly standard to let you write C# code that will run in your browser. Here's how to set up Visual Studio 2017 and create your first app.
It includes new project reference functionality, support for operating on parameter lists, new types to enforce explicit checks, improved JSX support, a better error UX and much more.
GrapeCity, known for its Microsoft-centric components and development tools, has issued a new software release, featuring new .NET controls and a Visual Studio Code extension for its JavaScript-based designer.
Microsoft added new Web app tutorials -- covering Django and Flask -- to its Python documentation for Visual Studio and its open source little cousin, the cross-platform Visual Studio Code editor.
Microsoft's TypeScript team just shipped the release candidate for the upcoming TypeScript 3.0, incorporating many new features dealing with project references, a new 'unknown' type and more.
Microsoft has boosted the performance of WebAssembly -- and JavaScript -- in Edge's rendering engine, benefitting both developers and users.
Microsoft continues to churn out updates to its experimental Blazor technology for running C# code on the Web, with the latest boosting JavaScript interoperability.
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text:
On Monday, January 27, 2014, at 8:40 pm, St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office deputies responded to the River Parish Hospital Emergency Room for the report of a shooting victim that walked in the emergency room for treatment. The 23-year-old male victim from LaPlace sustained a gunshot wound to the middle finger of his right hand. He was treated and transferred to another area hospital for additional treatment.
The victim and the witness who drove the victim to the hospital, provided different information to investigators on how the shooting occurred. With little information forthcoming from the victim and witness, detectives encourage anyone with information regarding this incident to call the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office TIPS line at 985-359-TIPS or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.


text:
Updated March 21, 2022 at 12:24 PM ET
A Russian court has banned Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, for "extremist" activities, making its work in Russia illegal. The decision excludes WhatsApp, which Meta also owns.
The ruling immediately bans Facebook and Instagram from Russia, where both platforms are already blocked. Russian authorities are also seeking to designate Meta an "extremist organization," which could go into effect after a potential appeal by Meta. The company did not immediately comment.
For now, the full scope of the ruling's impact remains unclear. An extremist designation in Russia typically outlaws any commercial activity or even the display of brand symbols. In the hearing, government prosecutors appeared to specify that regular people using Facebook or Instagram would not face prosecution.
The case stems in part from Meta's decision earlier this month to permit some calls for violence against Russian soldiers. Russian prosecutors' criminal probe cited "illegal calls for the murder of Russian nationals" by Meta employees and accused Instagram of serving as a platform for organizing "riots, accompanied by violence."
Meta later clarified to say it relaxed its rules against violent speech only for people inside Ukraine and only directed at Russian military in that country. It does not permit any calls for violence, harassment or discrimination against Russian people.
In recent years, Russian authorities have expanded the extremist designation beyond terrorist groups like al-Qaida to include Jehovah's Witnesses, the political movement of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and other organizations.
More Russians have begun using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to get around government restrictions on social media. Demand for VPNs in Russia was2,692% higher on March 14 than before the fighting began, according to Top10VPN, a privacy monitoring service.
More than 15,000 Russian protesters have been arrested in the past three weeks as new laws have criminalizedpublic statements about Ukraine that do not align with the Kremlin's official view of what it calls the "special military operation."
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