Source: http://www.truthout.org/terrorism-law-new-mccarthyism57092
Title: Terrorism Law, the New McCarthyism
by: Stephen Rohde
The LA Daily Journal
Monday 22 February 2010
Tomorrow, the US Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the first encounter with the free speech and association rights of American citizens in the context of terrorism since the 9/11 attacks, and in the first test of the constitutionality of a provision of the USA Patriot Act.
The "Material Support" law takes a sweeping approach to its ban on aid to terrorist groups, prohibiting the provision of cash, weapons and the like, as well as four more ambiguous categories - "training," "personnel," "expert advice or assistance" and "service." Opponents of the law say that when it comes to providing lawful legal advice or training in nonviolence, the law is nothing more than "guilt by association," reminiscent of the witch hunts of McCarthyism.
2010-02-20
SIBEL EDMONDS: THE TRAITORS AMONG US
Source: http://larryflynt.com/?p=693
by Brad Friedman
for HUSTLER MAGAZINE – March 2010
SIBEL EDMONDS, a former FBI translator, claims that the following government officials have committed what amount to acts of treason. They are lawmakers Dennis Hastert, Bob Livingston, Dan Burton, Roy Blunt, Stephen Solarz and Tom Lantos, as well as at least three members of George W. Bush’s inner circle: Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and Marc Grossman. But is Sibel Edmonds credible? “Absolutely, she’s credible,” Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told CBS’s 60 Minutes when he was asked about her in 2002. “The reason I feel she’s very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story.” Edmonds’s remarkable allegations of bribery, blackmail, infiltration of the U.S. government and the theft of nuclear secrets by foreign allies and enemies alike rocked the Bush Administration. In fact, Bush and company actually prevented Edmonds from telling the American people what she knew—up until now.
SIBEL EDMONDS: THE TRAITORS AMONG US
SIBEL EDMONDS HAS NAMED NAMES. WHY ISN’T THE MEDIA REPORTING THE STORY?by Brad Friedman
for HUSTLER MAGAZINE – March 2010
SIBEL EDMONDS, a former FBI translator, claims that the following government officials have committed what amount to acts of treason. They are lawmakers Dennis Hastert, Bob Livingston, Dan Burton, Roy Blunt, Stephen Solarz and Tom Lantos, as well as at least three members of George W. Bush’s inner circle: Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and Marc Grossman. But is Sibel Edmonds credible? “Absolutely, she’s credible,” Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told CBS’s 60 Minutes when he was asked about her in 2002. “The reason I feel she’s very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story.” Edmonds’s remarkable allegations of bribery, blackmail, infiltration of the U.S. government and the theft of nuclear secrets by foreign allies and enemies alike rocked the Bush Administration. In fact, Bush and company actually prevented Edmonds from telling the American people what she knew—up until now.
Sex abuse and Pedophilia claims against famed rabbi grip Israel
Source: http://www.reuters.com:80/article/idUSTRE61I3KX20100219
Title: Sex abuse and Pedophilia claims against famed rabbi grip Israel
By: Alastair Macdonald
Israeli police said on Friday they were looking into allegations of sexual abuse against one of the country’s most famous and politically influential rabbis, in a case that has triggered dramatic headlines this week.
Title: Sex abuse and Pedophilia claims against famed rabbi grip Israel
By: Alastair Macdonald
Israeli police said on Friday they were looking into allegations of sexual abuse against one of the country’s most famous and politically influential rabbis, in a case that has triggered dramatic headlines this week.
Two Israeli spies sentenced to death in Lebanon
Source: http://www.eutimes.net/2010/02/two-israeli-spies-sentenced-to-death-in-lebanon/
Title: Two Israeli spies sentenced to death in Lebanon
By: Author
Date: 02/20/2010
Two Israeli spies sentenced to death in Lebanon
Reporters take pictures of electronic instruments Lebanese security forces found with arrested Israeli spies.
A Lebanese court on Thursday sentenced two men to death on charges of espionage and involvement in the killing of senior members of Lebanese and Palestinian resistance groups.
Title: Two Israeli spies sentenced to death in Lebanon
By: Author
Date: 02/20/2010
Two Israeli spies sentenced to death in Lebanon
Reporters take pictures of electronic instruments Lebanese security forces found with arrested Israeli spies.
A Lebanese court on Thursday sentenced two men to death on charges of espionage and involvement in the killing of senior members of Lebanese and Palestinian resistance groups.
Immigrants riot in Milan after Egyptian killed
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61D0RI20100214
Immigrants riot in Milan after Egyptian killed
MILAN (Reuters) - Dozens of immigrants from North Africa rioted during the night in a multi-ethnic district of Milan, smashing shop windows and overturning cars to protest at the knifing death of an Egyptian, Italian police said on Sunday.
Yet Another Congressman Questions 9/11
Source: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/02/yet-another-congressman-questions-911.html
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Yet Another Congressman Questions 9/11
Congressman Jason Chafetz just said that we need to be vigilant and continue to investigate 9/11.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Yet Another Congressman Questions 9/11
Congressman Jason Chafetz just said that we need to be vigilant and continue to investigate 9/11.
A nutjob, right?
Maybe.
But he joins quite a few other Congressmen:
2010-02-19
The Placeman Cometh: New IAEA Chief Stokes Iran War Fever for the Bush-Obama Regime
Source: http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1928-the-placeman-cometh-new-iaea-chief-stokes-iran-war-fever-for-the-bush-obama-regime.html
Title: The Placeman Cometh: New IAEA Chief Stokes Iran War Fever for the Bush-Obama Regime
By: Chris Floyd
Date: Friday, 19 February 2010 00:25
In an astounding development, the brand-new director of the International Atomic Energy Agency -- who was narrowly elected to the post a few months ago with the strong, one might say insistent, backing of the United States -- has just issued his very first report on Iran's nuclear program. And guess what the new, American-backed director said? Go on, you'll never guess.
Give up? Well, hold on to your hats -- the American-backed director, Yukiya Amano, has "broken with the more cautious style of his predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei" -- you know, the man who was right about Iraq's lack of a nuclear weapons program -- to suggest (sans proof, of course) that there might be "possible military dimensions" to Iran's nuclear program, which just happens to be the most internationally inspected and regulated nuclear power program in history.
Title: The Placeman Cometh: New IAEA Chief Stokes Iran War Fever for the Bush-Obama Regime
By: Chris Floyd
Date: Friday, 19 February 2010 00:25
In an astounding development, the brand-new director of the International Atomic Energy Agency -- who was narrowly elected to the post a few months ago with the strong, one might say insistent, backing of the United States -- has just issued his very first report on Iran's nuclear program. And guess what the new, American-backed director said? Go on, you'll never guess.
Give up? Well, hold on to your hats -- the American-backed director, Yukiya Amano, has "broken with the more cautious style of his predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei" -- you know, the man who was right about Iraq's lack of a nuclear weapons program -- to suggest (sans proof, of course) that there might be "possible military dimensions" to Iran's nuclear program, which just happens to be the most internationally inspected and regulated nuclear power program in history.
U.S. sought attack on al-Qaida: White House given plan days before Sept. 11
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4587368/ns/us_news-security
U.S. sought attack on al-Qaida: White House given plan days before Sept. 11
By Jim Miklaszewski and Alex Johnson
U.S. sought attack on al-Qaida: White House given plan days before Sept. 11
By Jim Miklaszewski and Alex Johnson
msnbc.com and NBC News
WASHINGTON, May 16, 2002 - President Bush was expected to sign detailed plans for a worldwide war against al-Qaida two days before Sept. 11 but did not have the chance before the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, U.S. and foreign sources told NBC News.
The document, a formal National Security Presidential Directive, amounted to a “game plan to remove al-Qaida from the face of the earth,” one of the sources told NBC News’ Jim Miklaszewski.
The plan dealt with all aspects of a war against al-Qaida, ranging from diplomatic initiatives to military operations in Afghanistan, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
DOJ Report on Torture Memo: Yoo Said Bush Could Order "Massacre" of Civilians
Source: http://www.truthout.org/doj-report-torture-memos-released-yoo-bybee-offficials-cleared-congress-plans-hearings57039
DOJ Report on Torture Memo: Yoo Said Bush Could Order "Massacre" of Civilians
Friday 19 February 2010
by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t
Former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo argued that President George W. Bush’s commander-in-chief powers were so sweeping that he could willfully order the massacre of civilians, yet Yoo’s culpability in Bush administration abuses was deemed “poor judgment,” not a violation of “professional standards.”
DOJ Report on Torture Memo: Yoo Said Bush Could Order "Massacre" of Civilians
Friday 19 February 2010
by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t
Former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo argued that President George W. Bush’s commander-in-chief powers were so sweeping that he could willfully order the massacre of civilians, yet Yoo’s culpability in Bush administration abuses was deemed “poor judgment,” not a violation of “professional standards.”
There's No Such Thing as a Free Market -- Just a Matter of Who Pays for It
Source: http://www.alternet.org/economy/145726/there%27s_no_such_thing_as_a_free_market_--_just_a_matter_of_who_pays_for_it
Raj Patel argues that the corporate capture of government and our current financial crisis are the result of our bankrupt political system.
There's No Such Thing as a Free Market -- Just a Matter of Who Pays for It
By Terrence McNally and Raj Patel, AlterNet
Posted on February 19, 2010, Printed on February 22, 2010
Raj Patel opens his new book, The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy, with Oscar Wilde’s observation that “nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Patel shows how our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced. Revealing the hidden ecological and social costs of a hamburger -- as much as $200 -- he asks how we came to have markets in the first place. Both the corporate capture of government and our current financial crisis, Patel argues, are a result of our bankrupt political system. Searching for solutions, Patel goes back to basics in both economics and politics.
Raj Patel argues that the corporate capture of government and our current financial crisis are the result of our bankrupt political system.
There's No Such Thing as a Free Market -- Just a Matter of Who Pays for It
By Terrence McNally and Raj Patel, AlterNet
Posted on February 19, 2010, Printed on February 22, 2010
Raj Patel opens his new book, The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy, with Oscar Wilde’s observation that “nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Patel shows how our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced. Revealing the hidden ecological and social costs of a hamburger -- as much as $200 -- he asks how we came to have markets in the first place. Both the corporate capture of government and our current financial crisis, Patel argues, are a result of our bankrupt political system. Searching for solutions, Patel goes back to basics in both economics and politics.
KERMIT DIES OF SWINE FLU
Source: Intergalactic Times
Title: Kermit Dies of the Swine Flu
By: Mission Control and the AP
Date: 9/12/09
Mission Control and Associated Presses –
Kermit, formerly of the Muppets, was found dead in an industrial area on the west side of New York City earlier this week. Kermit's body was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where doctors determined Pandemic Influenza (H1N1) 09 swine flu to be the cause of death. A hospital spokesman stated that the blood tests were conclusive and that Mount Sinai immediately contacted the World Health Organization to report the outbreak.
Title: Kermit Dies of the Swine Flu
By: Mission Control and the AP
Date: 9/12/09
Mission Control and Associated Presses –
Kermit, formerly of the Muppets, was found dead in an industrial area on the west side of New York City earlier this week. Kermit's body was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where doctors determined Pandemic Influenza (H1N1) 09 swine flu to be the cause of death. A hospital spokesman stated that the blood tests were conclusive and that Mount Sinai immediately contacted the World Health Organization to report the outbreak.
2010-02-18
Afghan Push - Hype or History in the Making?
Source: http://www.truthout.org/afghan-push-hype-or-history-making57085
Afghan Push - Hype or History in the Making?
Thursday 18 February 2010
by: Jean MacKenzie and Mohammad Ilyas Dayee
Global Post
Few signs on the ground of the "spectacular advances" claimed by the combined U.S. and Afghan forces.
Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan - Six days into the battle for Marjah, the spin doctors in Kabul and Washington may be regretting all the advance hype. With 15,000 combined Afghan, American and British forces arrayed against what was thought to be a handful of insurgents, victory had seemed assured.
But instead of “breaking the back of the Taliban,” Operation Moshtarak is bogged down in a hostile landscape full of mines, snipers and increasingly frustrated residents.
Afghan Push - Hype or History in the Making?
Thursday 18 February 2010
by: Jean MacKenzie and Mohammad Ilyas Dayee
Global Post
Few signs on the ground of the "spectacular advances" claimed by the combined U.S. and Afghan forces.
Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan - Six days into the battle for Marjah, the spin doctors in Kabul and Washington may be regretting all the advance hype. With 15,000 combined Afghan, American and British forces arrayed against what was thought to be a handful of insurgents, victory had seemed assured.
But instead of “breaking the back of the Taliban,” Operation Moshtarak is bogged down in a hostile landscape full of mines, snipers and increasingly frustrated residents.
2010-02-16
America’s Shadowy Base World
Source: http://original.antiwar.com/engelhardt/2010/02/09/americas-shadowy-base-world/
Title: America’s Shadowy Base World
By: Tom Engelhardt On February 9, 2010 @ 11:00 pm On Anti-War blog
Once is an anomaly; twice is the beginning of a pattern. Right now, we’re seeing the same sequence of events for the second time in less than a decade, and it looks like the signature American way of war in our time is coming into focus.
In 2003, when the Bush administration invaded Iraq, the Pentagon already had on its drawing boards plans for building a series of permanent mega-bases in that country. (They were charmingly called "enduring camps.")
Title: America’s Shadowy Base World
By: Tom Engelhardt On February 9, 2010 @ 11:00 pm On Anti-War blog
Once is an anomaly; twice is the beginning of a pattern. Right now, we’re seeing the same sequence of events for the second time in less than a decade, and it looks like the signature American way of war in our time is coming into focus.
In 2003, when the Bush administration invaded Iraq, the Pentagon already had on its drawing boards plans for building a series of permanent mega-bases in that country. (They were charmingly called "enduring camps.")
Kensington Rune Stone Decoded: Vikings, Templars & Goths in America in 1362?
Source: http://www.barnesreview.org/html/jan2010lead_127.html
Title: Kensington Rune Stone Decoded: Vikings, Templars & Goths in America in 1362?
By: Frank Joseph
Kensington Rune Stone Decoded: Vikings, Templars & Goths in America in 1362?
WHEN A SIMPLE IMMIGRANT FARMER discovered what seemed to be an ancient stone with “Vikingstyle” runes inscribed on it in Minnesota, people said he was crazy or lying. But more than 100 years later, additional discoveries have proved the stele was indeed the real McCoy, although left there by Knights Templar of the Middle Ages rather than Thor-worshipping Norsemen.
BY FRANK JOSEPH
Very few books are truly capable of rewriting history, but The Hooked X: Key to the Secret History of North America, by Scott F. Wolter, is certainly one of them. Although the author of this new Revisionist book, who is well known to longtime readers of TBR, is a professional geologist and not a historian, the discoveries made by Wolter in recent years and described in Hooked X are powerful enough to compel a fundamental rethinking of our view of the American past.
The centerpiece of his revelations is that controversial, even contentious artifact known as the Kensington Rune Stone [see TBR, March/April 2002—Ed.].
For those who are unfamiliar with it, this is a 200-pound greywacke sandstone stele found by Swedish immigrant farmer, Olof Ohman, while clearing his land in the largely rural township of Solem, Douglas County, Minnesota, during September 1898. Lying face down and entwined in the roots of a stunted, 30-year-old aspen, the 30-by-16-by-six-inch slab was covered on its face and one side with some sort of runic writing. Ohman brought it to the nearest town, Kensington, where his find was displayed at the local bank.
A badly flawed copy of the inscription was forwarded to the University of Minnesota, where a translation was attempted by Olaus J. Breda. It would take more than another 100 years for scholars, correcting for the imperfect copy, to properly translate the text. The front face reads, “Eight Gotlanders and 22 Norwegians on (this) reclaiming/acquisition journey far west from Vinland. We had a camp by two (shelters?) one day’s journey north from this stone. We were fishing one day. After we came home we found 10 men red with blood and death. Ave Maria. Save from evil.”
Inscribed on the side of the stone are the words, “There are 10 men by the sea to look after our ships 14 days journey from this island. Year 1362.”
PROFESSIONALS JUMP TO DEBUNK ARTIFACT
Although a professor of Scandinavian languages and literature, Breda’s runic knowledge was limited. He hastily proclaimed Ohman’s discovery a transparent hoax. Breda was supported by Norway’s leading archeologist of the late 19th century, Oluf Rygh, and his colleagues at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois.
Title: Kensington Rune Stone Decoded: Vikings, Templars & Goths in America in 1362?
By: Frank Joseph
Kensington Rune Stone Decoded: Vikings, Templars & Goths in America in 1362?
WHEN A SIMPLE IMMIGRANT FARMER discovered what seemed to be an ancient stone with “Vikingstyle” runes inscribed on it in Minnesota, people said he was crazy or lying. But more than 100 years later, additional discoveries have proved the stele was indeed the real McCoy, although left there by Knights Templar of the Middle Ages rather than Thor-worshipping Norsemen.
BY FRANK JOSEPH
Very few books are truly capable of rewriting history, but The Hooked X: Key to the Secret History of North America, by Scott F. Wolter, is certainly one of them. Although the author of this new Revisionist book, who is well known to longtime readers of TBR, is a professional geologist and not a historian, the discoveries made by Wolter in recent years and described in Hooked X are powerful enough to compel a fundamental rethinking of our view of the American past.
The centerpiece of his revelations is that controversial, even contentious artifact known as the Kensington Rune Stone [see TBR, March/April 2002—Ed.].
For those who are unfamiliar with it, this is a 200-pound greywacke sandstone stele found by Swedish immigrant farmer, Olof Ohman, while clearing his land in the largely rural township of Solem, Douglas County, Minnesota, during September 1898. Lying face down and entwined in the roots of a stunted, 30-year-old aspen, the 30-by-16-by-six-inch slab was covered on its face and one side with some sort of runic writing. Ohman brought it to the nearest town, Kensington, where his find was displayed at the local bank.
A badly flawed copy of the inscription was forwarded to the University of Minnesota, where a translation was attempted by Olaus J. Breda. It would take more than another 100 years for scholars, correcting for the imperfect copy, to properly translate the text. The front face reads, “Eight Gotlanders and 22 Norwegians on (this) reclaiming/acquisition journey far west from Vinland. We had a camp by two (shelters?) one day’s journey north from this stone. We were fishing one day. After we came home we found 10 men red with blood and death. Ave Maria. Save from evil.”
Inscribed on the side of the stone are the words, “There are 10 men by the sea to look after our ships 14 days journey from this island. Year 1362.”
PROFESSIONALS JUMP TO DEBUNK ARTIFACT
Although a professor of Scandinavian languages and literature, Breda’s runic knowledge was limited. He hastily proclaimed Ohman’s discovery a transparent hoax. Breda was supported by Norway’s leading archeologist of the late 19th century, Oluf Rygh, and his colleagues at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois.
2010-02-15
Cheney Admits to War Crimes, Media Yawns, Obama Turns the Other Cheek
Source: http://www.truthout.org/cheney-admits-war-crimes-media-yawns-obama-turns-other-cheek56924
Title: Cheney Admits to War Crimes, Media Yawns, Obama Turns the Other Cheek
By: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis
Title: Cheney Admits to War Crimes, Media Yawns, Obama Turns the Other Cheek
By: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis
Dick Cheney is a sadist.
On Sunday, in an exclusive interview with Jonathan Karl of ABC News' "This Week," Cheney proclaimed his love of torture, derided the Obama administration for outlawing the practice, and admitted that the Bush White House ordered Justice Department attorneys to fix the law around the administration's policy interests.
"I was a big supporter of waterboarding," Cheney told Karl, as if he were issuing a challenge to officials in the current administration, including President Barack Obama, who said flatly last year that waterboarding is torture, to take action against him. "I was a big supporter of the enhanced interrogation techniques..."
2010-02-14
HAARP, Haiti, Brzezinski and the NWO
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor
Jan 22, 2010, 00:30
On October 25, 2005, I wrote an article for Online Journal, headlined Is it the weather or government terror, detailing government manipulation of weather, including earthquakes, for terror and destruction, mentioning that “your local weatherman was surely not up to pointing this out,” and adding “let me help with the forecast, past, present and long-range. Well, déjà vu all over again seems to have struck in Haiti on January 12.
Online Journal Associate Editor
Jan 22, 2010, 00:30
On October 25, 2005, I wrote an article for Online Journal, headlined Is it the weather or government terror, detailing government manipulation of weather, including earthquakes, for terror and destruction, mentioning that “your local weatherman was surely not up to pointing this out,” and adding “let me help with the forecast, past, present and long-range. Well, déjà vu all over again seems to have struck in Haiti on January 12.
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Regime Pressed bin Laden on anti-U.S. Terror
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (IPS) - Evidence now available from various sources, including recently declassified U.S. State Department documents, shows that the Taliban regime led by Mullah Mohammad Omar imposed strict isolation on Osama bin Laden after 1998 to prevent him from carrying out any plots against the United States.
WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (IPS) - Evidence now available from various sources, including recently declassified U.S. State Department documents, shows that the Taliban regime led by Mullah Mohammad Omar imposed strict isolation on Osama bin Laden after 1998 to prevent him from carrying out any plots against the United States.
Federal court to hear cell phone tapping case
By Tony Romm - 02/11/10 10:35 AM ET
The Justice Department on Friday will begin making its case for new standards allowing law enforcement to use cell phone location data in criminal investigations.
Its case before the U.S. 3rd Court of Appeals in Philadelphia could provide more clarity to a bevy of murky cell phone location tapping laws, but it is sure to upset those who dread any federal encroachment in the realm of digital communications.
The Justice Department on Friday will begin making its case for new standards allowing law enforcement to use cell phone location data in criminal investigations.
Its case before the U.S. 3rd Court of Appeals in Philadelphia could provide more clarity to a bevy of murky cell phone location tapping laws, but it is sure to upset those who dread any federal encroachment in the realm of digital communications.
2010-02-08
Disinformation Tactics: The Methods Used To Keep You In The Dark
By Giordano Bruno
TV pundits are often trained in what are commonly called “Alinsky Tactics.” Saul Alinsky was a moral relativist, and champion of the lie as a tool for the “greater good;” essentially, a modern day Machiavelli. His “Rules for Radicals” were supposedly meant for grassroots activists who opposed the establishment, and emphasized the use of any means necessary to defeat one’s political opposition. But is it truly possible to defeat an establishment built on lies, by use of even more elaborate lies, and by sacrificing one’s ethics?
Today, Alinsky’s rules are used more often by the establishment than by its opposition. These tactics have been adopted by governments and disinformation specialists across the world, but they are most visible in TV debate. While Alinsky sermonized about the need for confrontation in society, his debate tactics are actually designed to circumvent real and honest confrontation of opposing ideas with slippery tricks and diversions. Alinsky’s tactics, and their modern usage, can be summarized as follows:
TV pundits are often trained in what are commonly called “Alinsky Tactics.” Saul Alinsky was a moral relativist, and champion of the lie as a tool for the “greater good;” essentially, a modern day Machiavelli. His “Rules for Radicals” were supposedly meant for grassroots activists who opposed the establishment, and emphasized the use of any means necessary to defeat one’s political opposition. But is it truly possible to defeat an establishment built on lies, by use of even more elaborate lies, and by sacrificing one’s ethics?
Today, Alinsky’s rules are used more often by the establishment than by its opposition. These tactics have been adopted by governments and disinformation specialists across the world, but they are most visible in TV debate. While Alinsky sermonized about the need for confrontation in society, his debate tactics are actually designed to circumvent real and honest confrontation of opposing ideas with slippery tricks and diversions. Alinsky’s tactics, and their modern usage, can be summarized as follows:
2010-02-04
Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Are Upending Our Democracy
By Janine Wedel
The mover and shaker who serves at one and the same time as business consultant, think-tanker, TV pundit, and government adviser glides in and around the organizations that enlist his services. It is not just his time that is divided. His loyalties, too, are often flexible. Even the short-term consultant doing one project at a time cannot afford to owe too much allegiance to the company or government agency. Such individuals are in these organizations (some of the time anyway), but they are seldom of them.
Being in, but not of, an organization enables these players to pursue a “coincidence of interests,” that is, to interweave and perform overlapping roles that serve their own goals or those of their associates. Because these “nonstate” actors working for companies, quasi-governmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) frequently do work that officials once did, they have privileged access to official information—information that they can deploy to their own ends. And they have more opportunities to use this information for purposes that are neither in the public interest nor easily detected, all the while controlling the message to keep their game going.
...
Meanwhile, the official and private organizations in and out of which such movers and shakers glide either just go along to get along or are ill equipped to know what these actors are up to in the various venues in which they operate. In McCaffrey’s case, no institution, from the Pentagon to the defense contractor to NBC, had an incentive to be anything but complicit. Operators like the general have surpassed their hosts, speeding past the reach of effective monitoring by states, boards of directors, and shareholders, not to mention voters. And while the players sometimes cause raised eyebrows, they are highly effective in achieving their goals—and often benefit from wide acceptance. Much more than the influence peddlers of the past, these players forge a new system of power and influence—one that profoundly shapes governing and society.
This new breed of players is the product of an unprecedented confluence of four transformational developments that arose in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: the redesign of governing, spawned by the rising tide of government outsourcing and deregulation under a “neoliberal” regime, and the rise of executive power; the end of the Cold War—of relations dominated by two competing alliances—which intensified the first development and created new, sparsely governed, arenas; the advent of evermore complex technologies, especially information and communication technologies; and the embrace of “truthiness,” which allows people to play with how they present themselves to the world, regardless of fact or track record. While it may be jarring to mention such seemingly disparate developments in the same breath—and to name “truthiness” as one of them—the changes unleashed by these developments interact as never before.
The proliferation of roles, and the ability of players to construct coincidences of interest by those who perform them, are the natural outcome of these developments. So, for example, increased authority delegated to private players (facilitated by privatization, the close of the Cold War, and new, complex technologies) has enabled them to become guardians of information once resting in the hands of state and international authorities. While supposedly working on behalf of those authorities, such players (working, say, as consultants for states or as special envoys or intermediaries between them) can guard information and use it for their own purposes, all the while eluding monitoring designed for the past order of states and international bodies.
The mover and shaker who serves at one and the same time as business consultant, think-tanker, TV pundit, and government adviser glides in and around the organizations that enlist his services. It is not just his time that is divided. His loyalties, too, are often flexible. Even the short-term consultant doing one project at a time cannot afford to owe too much allegiance to the company or government agency. Such individuals are in these organizations (some of the time anyway), but they are seldom of them.
Being in, but not of, an organization enables these players to pursue a “coincidence of interests,” that is, to interweave and perform overlapping roles that serve their own goals or those of their associates. Because these “nonstate” actors working for companies, quasi-governmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) frequently do work that officials once did, they have privileged access to official information—information that they can deploy to their own ends. And they have more opportunities to use this information for purposes that are neither in the public interest nor easily detected, all the while controlling the message to keep their game going.
...
Meanwhile, the official and private organizations in and out of which such movers and shakers glide either just go along to get along or are ill equipped to know what these actors are up to in the various venues in which they operate. In McCaffrey’s case, no institution, from the Pentagon to the defense contractor to NBC, had an incentive to be anything but complicit. Operators like the general have surpassed their hosts, speeding past the reach of effective monitoring by states, boards of directors, and shareholders, not to mention voters. And while the players sometimes cause raised eyebrows, they are highly effective in achieving their goals—and often benefit from wide acceptance. Much more than the influence peddlers of the past, these players forge a new system of power and influence—one that profoundly shapes governing and society.
This new breed of players is the product of an unprecedented confluence of four transformational developments that arose in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: the redesign of governing, spawned by the rising tide of government outsourcing and deregulation under a “neoliberal” regime, and the rise of executive power; the end of the Cold War—of relations dominated by two competing alliances—which intensified the first development and created new, sparsely governed, arenas; the advent of evermore complex technologies, especially information and communication technologies; and the embrace of “truthiness,” which allows people to play with how they present themselves to the world, regardless of fact or track record. While it may be jarring to mention such seemingly disparate developments in the same breath—and to name “truthiness” as one of them—the changes unleashed by these developments interact as never before.
The proliferation of roles, and the ability of players to construct coincidences of interest by those who perform them, are the natural outcome of these developments. So, for example, increased authority delegated to private players (facilitated by privatization, the close of the Cold War, and new, complex technologies) has enabled them to become guardians of information once resting in the hands of state and international authorities. While supposedly working on behalf of those authorities, such players (working, say, as consultants for states or as special envoys or intermediaries between them) can guard information and use it for their own purposes, all the while eluding monitoring designed for the past order of states and international bodies.
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