Bill's Blog

Recently President Obama announced that the U.S. had killed Osama Bin Laden (OBL), despite releasing no evidence supporting those claims. While some orchestrated groups were shown celebrating the President’s announcement, many more met his announcement with skepticism and laughter. There are many reasons to question President Obama’s announcement, primarily the fact that OBL was reported as dead almost 10 years ago. President Obama and the Democrats will benefit politically from Washington’s quickly unraveling OBL fairy tale much the way George W. Bush benefitted every time OBL miraculously popped up when Bush needed to shore up support to condone his illegal actions. The state propaganda machine has propped up OBL’s ghost for almost a decade, albeit quite poorly and this doesn’t appear to be any different.

OBL had a well-documented Kidney problem which required a constant need for dialysis. Because of the health problems that are evident in the last known OBL video from late 2001, several heads of state and counterterrorism officials have opined that OBL has been dead since December 2001, and many reports on OBL’s death from that same time frame seem to confirm that. One of the many problems with Washington’s story, which only took 48 hours before unraveling, is that a dialysis machine is nowhere to be found in any of the pictures of the purported OBL’s compound released by the U.S.

According to French Intelligence Sources, OBL was flown to an American hospital in Dubai for 10 days of treatment. In Dubai, OBL was met by the local CIA attaché who was recalled to Washington after he bragged to his friends about meeting OBL. In fact, there were other OBL Dubai witnesses too. On September 10, 2001, OBL was in a Pakistani Military hospital for treatment where he remained under the watchful eyes of Pakistani intelligence, which has deep ties to the CIA. Naturally, when information about the CIA knowing the whereabouts of the terrorist mastermind it created was released, Washington denied it, but as I’ve said many times before, Washington has a major aversion to the truth.

An October 2001 videotape featured a visibly pale and gaunt OBL wearing Army fatigues and Islamic headdress. Two months later, in December 2001, another videotape featuring a seriously ill looking OBL who appeared unable to move his left arm appeared. The December 2001 videotape appears to be the last authentic video of OBL. All the ones presented by the CIA as proof that OBL was still alive turned out to be not real. The newest tapes alleging to be of OBL released by the CIA – the leader of the state propaganda parade – with no sound may or may not be authentic. That remains to be seen.

On December 26, 2001, Fox News reported on a Pakistan Observer story that OBL had died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended OBL’s funeral. According to the source in the report, OBL died in mid-December, and the U.S. coalition would never find his body because it was buried honorably in an unmarked grave was made per OBL’s Wahibi belief. 30 close associates of OBL attended that funeral, including his family members.

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William Cronon, author and professor of history, geography and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is taking flak from Republicans for revealing the actions of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and their involvement in Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker and his legislature’s illicit agenda that has fired up the nation because he published an op-ed in the New York Times titled “Wisconsin’s Radical Break,” in which he suggested Walker has turned his back on the state’s long tradition of “neighborliness, decency and mutual respect,” and then published an even more eviscerating post describing who is really behind the GOP agenda on his blog.

Prof. Cronon pointed out that it’s important to understand that events at the state level don’t always originate in the state where they occur. Indeed, far from it. To find out more about these corporate lobbyists and organizations who have been trying to destroy workers, the poor population, and Senior citizens, there are many places online that track them, such as Right Wing Watch, Source Watch, and Open Secrets.

So who does Prof. Cronon really believe is behind the Republican attack on workers, the poor population, and Senior citizens while rewarding the rich, large non-taxpaying corporations who own many politicians in the many State and Federal Governments? He doesn’t believe the Koch brothers are the only driving force behind the illicit GOP agenda. He’s been trying to discover the deeper networks from whence the legislation came, and he appears to have found them.

The most important group mentioned by Prof. Cronon is The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which was founded in 1973 by Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett, and Paul Weyrich — the figurehead of the New Right and co-founder of the Heritage Foundation among others. For forty years ALEC’s goal has been to draft “model bills” that conservative legislators can introduce in the 50 states. Your State legislators are paid well by these lobbyists and organizations for being told what to do by ALEC at your expense.

ALEC’s Partners Play an Important Role in Wisconsin and Other States

ALEC’s website claims that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce 1000 pieces of legislation based on its work, and that roughly 18% of these bills are enacted into law. ALEC was responsible for Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law that passed last year. It’s necessary to start paying more attention to ALEC and the bills its promoting, as well as the politicians it owns, including Scott Walker and company. A visit to the “About” menu on ALEC’s website will give you a sense of the organization’s history, its current members, and its funders. But to get to the true depths of collusive corruption, you need to visit the site’s “model legislation” page, the gateway to all the bills ALEC has drafted. Unsurprisingly, you can’t view that legislation unless you’re a member.

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The  information below is a statement in response to the Iraq War Logs that were recently released by Wikileaks from Iraq Veterans Againt the War.

A Call For Accountability

The latest release by Wikileaks of the Iraq War Logs is the largest leak in U.S. history and reveals in extensive detail what Iraq Veterans Against the War has been saying since our founding in 2004.  The U.S. has presided over a bloody occupation for seven years where war crimes are a common offense, civilian casualties have been grossly under-reported, and corporate contractors run amok.  See our official statement on the Iraq War Logs below.

IVAW Statement on the Iraq War Logs – A Call for Accountability

The recent Wikileaks release–The Iraq War Logs–has shed important light on the high rate of civilian death and widespread atrocities, including torture, that are endemic to the war in Iraq. As veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are outraged that the U.S. government sought to hide this information from the U.S. public, instead presenting a sanitized and deceptive version of war, and we think it is vital for this and further information to get out. Members of IVAW have experienced firsthand the realities of war on the ground, and since our inception we have spoken out about similar atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are asking the U.S. public to join us in calling on our government to end the occupations and bring our brothers and sisters home.

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