Posted June 26, 2002

Another Idea

Just read ... [Ran HaCohen's column, "How Jews Can Support Israel":], and "Settlement Trust" response from Adam R. Great ideas from both.

Here's another idea: The settler's who've been screwed by the government could join Palestine, start working with the Palestinian people, and tell Sharon to stick it.

Far-fetched? Of course, but what the hell.

~ C. Mitchell, Illinois

Specific Words

...One of the most annoying aspects of [Barbara] Walters' comments stem from the timing and the specific words she used to blow off the investigator's results.

Cannistraro is careful to interject "probably" into the mix (read the quote or, better still, watch the interview, and it fairly well shouts at you); within 10 seconds, Barbara tells the world that, 'there we have it, there's absolutely nothing to it, that these young men had no advance notice of 911. So let's put the rumor to rest...' (Paraphrased.)

Huge difference between "probably not " and "none at all."

~ Bob S.

Doubt

While I agree with Raimondo that the story of the "art students" and the white van tend to add up to an Israeli spy ring and the Mossad knowing much more than was given to the US, I doubt two of his conclusions.

One, that the Israelis held back and let the US catch it -- this would not really suit their interests. I tend to believe the theory that they sent messages via the French and Egyptian intelligence services, but nothing got through. The organization that brought off 9/11 was far from simple-minded.

Two, the fact that those guys looked like they were laughing on the roof of the van makes them, if anything, seem less than dangerous.

The first reaction of a lot of people to the plane crashing into the first tower was disbelief mixed with a kind of shocked amusement. A friend phoned me, half laughing, to say, "Hey, an Arnold Schwatzenegger movie is being played out for real!" convinced it was a pilot's error.

If they had been real spies, wouldn't they have kept out of sight? Been more careful about their behaviour, rather than stand on the roof of a van and giggle for all the world to see? -- and the fact that they had maps in the van tends to support their claim that they were movers, rather than spies, who would probably store their documents rather more carefully.

This is not to support Israel, but to shed a more sceptical light on the story. Between Barbara Walters and Raimondo there is so territory that may be worth examining.

~ Y.L.

Polygraph Abuse

I am a cofounder of AntiPolygraph.org, a nonprofit website dedicated to exposing and ending polygraph waste, fraud, and abuse.

The Washington Post article containing Sibel Edmonds' accusations notes that both Edmonds and the woman she accused have passed polygraph examinations. The article does not make it clear if those examinations were about Edmonds' allegations or if they were simply the standard pre-employment polygraph examinations to which all FBI applicants must submit.

But either way, if Sibel Edmonds' allegations are true, the FBI may have been penetrated by a double agent who beat the polygraph. It would not be the first time such a thing happened. Other double agents who beat the polygraph include Karel F. Koecher, Larry Wu-tai Chin, and Aldrich H. Ames (all worked for CIA) and Ana Belen Montes, the senior DIA analyst who recently pled guilty to spying for Cuba.

~ George W. Maschke, AntiPolygraph.org

American Gestapo

Jose Padilla could not be charged with a crime by the federal authorities. That is why he has been locked away under terrorism charges. Except for conversation with some radicals, I can not see that he committed any crime that could be proven in a court of law. It is obvious to me that Bush and Ashcroft all well on the way to enabling the American Gestapo.

And the days when we can send e-mails like this are numbered.

~ Warren K.

The Golden Rule

The golden rule -- do to others as you would have others do to you. The corollary also is common sense: don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you. So when you hear about the latest US bombing raid in southern Iraq (pipeline damaged and a woman wounded), one can only wonder how Americans would feel if some country started bombing the US Interstate or pipelines in Alaska on the grounds that the US's vast known (not just maybe) stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction makes the world a very dangerous place? Whatever Americans would feel towards such a country, ordinary Iraqis must feel far more bitterness towards the US. No wonder Bush and his ilk are so concerned about the threat of "terrorism". The only sane thing the US can do now is either to kill off all their perceived enemies once and for all, or just stop what they're doing, apologize, and begin a long period of compensation in the hope of being eventually forgiven.

~ Steve D., Canada