New England Activists head to NYC to support the NYC 911 Ballot Initiative
Boston 9/11 Truth activists join NYC 9/11 Truth 7/24-27
July 23, 2008
As of July 10th 20,000 signatures have been collected for the NYC 911 Ballot Initiative. By July 29th 35,000 signatures must be collected for review by the New York City Council. If the Council challenges the petition to place this initiative on the fall ballot, an additional 15,000 signatures must be gathered to override that challenge. What this all means is that a lot of hard fast work must be done over the next 10 days.
The good news is that many volunteers are heading to NYC this coming week to help gather signatures (you do not have to be a NYC resident to collect signatures.) Also in the good news department, a donor has given the project $25,000 to hire canvassers to help complete this effort! So between paid canvassers and volunteers there is every reason to believe we can pull this off, if we all do our part!
Many local 911 Truth activists will go down early on Thursday 7/24 and return late Thursday evening. Contact Chris if you want to go down with us on Thursday or contact Doug Wight to make arrangements to go down to NYC to help out on another day. Go here for NH ridshares.We hope to have a huge turnout of volunteers this coming weekend 7/26 and 27.
Here's the weekend schedule:
Arrive NYC: Friday, 25 July and check in - lodging arranged, talk over process for Saturday
Petitioning: Saturday, 26 July, 10 AM
Party: Saturday, 26 July in the PM to celebrate reaching the 30,000 goal.
If you would like to learn more about NYC 911 Ballot Initiative, details are at http://www.nyc911initiative.org.
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Boston Activists Blast 4th of July Celebration with the Truth
Boston 9/11 Truth activists hit the pavement at Boston’s 4th of July
July 4, 2008
It wasn’t the flashiest Truth action ever, nor did it make the evening news, but 20 or more dedicated Boston911Truth activists hit the pavement at Boston’s 4th of July Pops concert and fireworks display and accomplished something just short of miraculous, for us anyway. Armed with only a smile, new Patriots Question 911 postcards and WeAreChange informational flyers, our hearty “Info Warriors” were able to distribute 7,000 pieces of literature at a rate of 1,000 per hour for seven hours among the crowds lining the Charles River waiting for the festivities to begin.
This was a unique experiment for us. Each year on the 4th, Boston’s Charles River Esplanade attracts 500,000 people to listen to the Boston Pops and watch the spectacular fireworks display. Our primary goal was to get as much solid literature as we could into the hands of the captive audience who come hours early to claim a good spot.
Two weeks prior, we ran a 48-hour email fund drive to raise the money to buy 10,000 pieces of literature. We hit our mark in less than 36 hours. We purchased 4,000 of the new PatriotsQuestion911 postcards created by 911Truth.org and 6,000 WeAreChange tri-fold flyers.
Our next strategy was to blend in with the crowd – meeting them where they are at, as opposed to creating some sort of scene to get noticed. We had virtually no signs (though we did put up an ae911truth.org sign about half way through) and most of us wore Red Sox apparel, t-shirts that just said “Boston,” our local t-shirts with a red, white, and blue peace symbol or just a regular top. No “Inside Job” and very little “Investigate 911” garb could be found. We flew an American flag and the Flag of New England at our home base. It’s become increasingly important for many of us to show the public that we’re normal people just like them, with real concerns about America. We discouraged, almost forbid any confrontation. As one activist put it, “The best line to use to get someone to take a handout was “How y’all doing today – with a smile.”
We established a home base, which ironically was right beside a State Police outpost. We passed out material to those who passed by and complimented that with teams of two or three truthers each, who got out there and worked the crowd on both sides of the river.
Beginning around 10:30 am, truthers went blanket to blanket among the early arrivals and politely asked if they wanted something important to read while they were sitting around waiting for the festivities to begin. We mapped out the whole area carefully so that we wouldn’t hit the same area twice in a row and bother people who had already been approached. Early in the day, almost half of everyone we asked took our literature. We taped postcards inside the “port-a-pottys,” and on light posts.
The experiment was to see how well kindness and a smile would work. We were totally confident in the materials produced by 911truth.org and WeAreChange and we felt that the extremes of brash signage and slogans that mean little to passers-by would detract rather than help our effort. And we were so right.
It literally brought tears to our eyes to see blanket after blanket with people READING our handouts – not just glancing at them, but actually reading them all the way through. On a return trip to our home base to re-supply, it was not unusual to be passed by people coming toward us carrying or reading our handouts while walking, flanked on either side by people sitting quietly and reading our message. At times it felt like the biggest 911 truth festival one could imagine.
The police, National Guard and Park Rangers were great. We shared a spot with the State Police and they left us completely alone. Early in the day two Park Rangers came by and told us they got a littering complaint. We told them that we would go clean up whatever people dropped, but they said “no worries” and never bothered us with that again, because actually, we found very few on the ground. But the Rangers did come back because one of them was really interested in our message, and to the chagrin of his partner, lingered for about 20 minutes to learn as much as he could.
Out of the thousands of people we approached and who took our handouts, the number of people who challenged us or were angered could be counted on one hand. Parents seeing us passing out literature sent their kids over to get one for themselves. We had an encounter with the son of a Sept 11 first responder whose dad was still sick and getting no help from the government – a young student pointed to us and with a smile screamed at his friends enthusiastically, “See, that’s what I’m talking about” -- and an older couple stopped a couple of us to tell us of the great 911truth work being done in Spain. These are just a few of the dozens of great encounters we had. And we learned a very important lesson – that being kind and respecting where people are coming from goes a long way in getting people to listen.
The action did not go completely without a glitch, however. Toward the end of the day, a couple of our more rambunctious WeAreChangers decided to crank the volume up, so to speak, which got the immediate attention of the State Police. To diffuse what up until then had been an incident-free public action that showed amazing results, one of our organizers walked up to one of the officers to apologize for the outburst. The officer thanked him for coming over, shook his hand and said, “You guys give protesting a good name.”
This was an amazing action for us and it was so easy to do.
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When we put together this summary of our event, we mistakenly credited
911truth.org for creating the PatriotsQuestion911 postcard, when in fact,
the card was the brainchild of a California-based graphic designer named
Camille and the coordination for the printing was handled by the great folks
at the Northern California 911 Truth Alliance, who went out of their way to
accommodate our tight time schedule.
To get cards of your own, you can contact sf911truth.org or 911sharethetruth.com.
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Globe Columnist Alex Beam Attacks 911truth.org
Read Replies to Mr Beams article by Boston 9/11 Truth activist
You can contact Mr. Beam at beam@globe.com, or (617) 929-3309
Read Replies 1 | 2 | 3
3 Released Gitmo Detainees Tell All on No Lies Radio!
9/11 Perps or Patsies? - You decide!!
Friday, July 4th at:
10am Pacific - 1pm Eastern - 17:00GMT
Repeated Saturday, July 5th at 11am Pacific - 2pm Eastern - 18:00 GMT
Click Here to Listen:
http://noliesradio.org
The return of the black helicopters
By Alex Beam Globe Columnist / June 30, 2008
My friend, the critic Katherine Powers, has spotted an interesting theme in books flowing across her desk for review - paranoia. Coming this fall: John Demos's "The Enemy Within: 2,000 Years of Witch-hunting in the Western World." Demos is a Bancroft award-winning historian emeritus at the World's Second Greatest University (Yale), who once wrote a Wall Street Journal commentary suggesting that it might be time to pardon America's 17th-century witches. So soon?
Then arrives "Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11," by University of California history professor Kathryn Olmsted. Hot on its heels comes "Paranoia: The 21st Century Fear," by brothers Daniel and Jason Freeman. The Freemans published a self-help book in Britain called "Overcoming Paranoid & Suspicious Thoughts: A Self-Help Guide Using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques."
As part of their research, the Freemans circulated a "Paranoid Thoughts Questionnaire" to 1,200 people, inquiring how often they felt that "People are laughing at me," or if they "suspect that someone has it in for me." That's easy! All the time. They concluded that "about a third of the population are regularly bothered by suspicious or paranoid thoughts." ...
... What are the great conspiracy theories of our time? Sept. 11 spawned a host of paranoid illusions, numerous enough to fill up the next edition of the psychiatrists' diagnostic manual. I see that the lunatic website 911truth.org, formerly ground zero for the most noxious "George Bush blew up the World Trade Center" myths, has moved on to new concerns. Among other things, they worry that the Bush administration plans to attack Iran before leaving office. I do, to. ...
The full article continues here
THE 4TH OF JULY
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly.
He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown , Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.
So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and
silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.
Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com.
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The following is a letter I have sent to Alex Beam in response to this article "The Return of the Black Helicopters" in which he characterizes www.911Truth.Org as "the lunatic website". - Chris Gruener
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 10:42 PM
To: beam@globe.com
Subject: Re your article "The Return of the Black Helicopters"
Hello Alex. I trust you will be able to put a face to my name by recollecting the days when our boys played on the same Newton soccer team. However, I am writing to you today in my capacity as the Secretary for the Boston 911 Truth Committee (www.Boston911Truth.Org ) . In particular, I would like to respond to your 7/1/08 Boston Globe article titled "The Return of the Black Helicopters".
I read with concern your characterization of one of our affiliated groups, 911Truth.Org, as "the lunatic website". What exactly do you mean by this term? Also I am not aware of an article published on that website which states categorically that "George Bush blew up the World Trade Center". If you could reference that particular article for me I would be very grateful.
As you may be aware, numerous significant questions remain unanswered in the aftermath of 9/11/01. These questions are being asked by family members of those who were murdered in the attacks as well as by hundreds of credentialed research scientists, structural engineers, architects, military officers and others. Since the events of that day were used for the justification of the attacks upon Iraq and Afghanistan and will in turn be used to legitimize the attack upon Iran, which is implicitly threatened now, don't we owe it to those who have lost their lives so far and those who may soon sacrifice their lives in these wars to address these unanswered questions?
You make reference to paranoid thinking throughout your article. As a mental health professional it is my understanding that characteristics of "paranoid thinking" include a tendency to refuse reasoned, respectful debate in preference for name calling, character assassination and the wholesale dismissal of the concerns of people with whom the paranoid thinker does not agree. While I know that this is not your personal style, or the real attitude of your heart, I fear the causal reader of "The Return of the Black Helicopters" could easily conclude otherwise.
You will note below, an article I wrote to explain my own reluctant transformation from a believer of the official 9/11/01 myth into a dedicated 911 Truth Activist. Would you be willing to invest significant time to review some or all of the materials linked there? My article is then followed by a 911 Truth Resource Page. This page is something we send out to everyone who inquires about the concerns of our organization. If you you find in your exploration of these materials evidence of "lunatic" accusations or genuinely paranoid thinking, I will be extremely appreciative of your specific feedback and will follow up with removing those materials from our resource guide.
Thank you very much for taking the time to give careful consideration to my concerns, Alex. I look forward to running into you on the soccer field in the coming school year.
Sincerely,
Christopher Gruener
Secretary for the Boston 911 Truth Committee
Clinical Member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
Massachusetts Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (Lic. #646)
Massachusetts Licensed Mental Health Counselor (Lic. #1286)
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How I Became A 9/11/01 "Conspiracy Nutcase"
I am writing this article in my capacity as the secretary for the Boston 911 Truth Committee. However, I am also writing with my professional role as a licensed psychotherapist in mind. In that latter role I have served as an in-patient family therapist for drug addicted youth with the Phoenix House Foundation, an outpatient therapist for patients transitioning back into our community from nearby Bournewood Psychiatric Hospital and, for the past 15 years, as a private practice clinician at my office in Newton Massachusetts. It is both from this professional perspective, and from the point of view of being a belated "convert" to the 911 Truth Movement as well, that I have contemplated, with interest and concern, the tendency of many media spokespeople to characterize 911 Truth Activists as "Conspiracy Nutcases" who merely seek to confirm their preconceived paranoid conclusions.
Not long after 9/11/01 one of my therapy clients came to me nearly in tears saying that she had discovered the attacks of that day were, in her words, "an inside job". Naturally, I assumed my client was suffering from delusional paranoid thinking. I attempted to calm her down and to reassure her that her fears couldn't possibly be true. By 9/11/03, however, I was apologizing to this client for my ill informed and presumptuous response to her concerns. And by 9/11/04, I was actively participating in the development of the 911 Truth Movement.
As a family therapist I have seen first-hand how powerful is the tendency toward denial when a client must come to terms with the reality that an emotionally or physically abusive parent has betrayed their trust through verbal abuse or physical assault. It hurts, and it is terrifying to confront such betrayal. But the walk along the winding path of emotional healing, which can potentially lead to forgiveness and reconciliation, can not begin until that pain is faced and the attendant anger, fear and sadness fully felt.
Our highest government servants are to all of us Americans, in an unconscious fashion, much like national "parent figures". We look to them to keep us safe and provide for our collective needs, similar to the way a child looks to her or his parents to provide safety and support. So from a psychotherapy perspective, it is not at all surprising that any American would find it difficult to face and confront the possibility of acts of national betrayal and murderous treason by our leaders. For me, the evolving realization that we may have been betrayed by those entrusted with responsibility for our protection was a slow and frightening process - the exact opposite of a leap to preconceived ideas I yearned to prove true.
Unlike the eager conspiracy theorists imagined by some in the press, my slowly evolving realizations - that the formal 911 Commission Report was essentially false at its worst and deliberately misleading at its best - did not at all confirm the world view I wished to uphold. Nonetheless, as the damning evidence of lies and distortions became increasingly clear and the scientific evidence mounted, I was eventually forced to confront the dark truth behind the attacks of that day. I believe this process of confronting a painful truth of national betrayal on 9/11/01- a truth that I initially denied - was for me very similar to the process my psychotherapy clients have gone through when addressing childhood wounds. I also believe our collective natural yearning to entrust our safety to our political leaders, and our understandable fear of being in opposition to these powerful parent figures, is a significant factor, though an essentially unconscious one, in our reluctance to confront our leaders and demand the Truth.
The truly paranoid mind tends to label and caricature people rather then enter into dialog and debate. It is interesting to note, then, the way in which writers in the popular press go about discounting the concerns of the 911 Truth Movement. I have observed that these writers generally "debunk" the 911 Truth Movement as a whole by attacking the more peripheral issues raised by the movement while avoiding dialog on - or the offering of concrete evidence as rebuttal to - the central issues raised by the movement's researchers. For example, Popular Mechanics published an article which attempts to debunk issues raised by the 911 Truth Movement. One can review this article in full via this link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html . However, 911 Truth researchers challenge both the logic and veracity of many elements of both this Popular Mechanics article and the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report as well.
An articulate reply to the Popular Mechanics article, written by Jim Hoffman, can be found at http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/gopm/index.html and a more detailed analysis is available by reading Prof. David Ray Griffin's book "Debunking 911 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics" available at http://www.amazon.com/Debunking-11-Mechanics-Defenders-Conspiracy/dp/156656686X . Similarly, a concise critical analysis of the work of the 911 Commission is available at http://911research.wtc7.net/post911/commission/report.html and a more detailed analysis can be explored in "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions And Distortions", also by Prof. Griffin and available at http://www.amazon.com/11-Commission-Report-Omissions-Distortions/dp/1566565847 . But sadly this effort at dialogue and debate offered in good faith by the 911 Truth Movement is generally met with an unresponsive silence from the 911 Truth "debunkers". So who is it in this attempt to explore the truth of 9/11/01 that is functioning in an irrational or paranoid way?
Authentic dialog has at least two essential components. The first is making an effort to find common ground. Where do we have some degree of agreement that can serve as a jumping off point for exploring our points of disagreement? With this in mind, a careful review of Dr Steven Jones' paper, "Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction" is in order. This paper was recently published in the respected "Open Civil Engineering Journal" and can be downloaded at http://www.bentham-open.org/pages/content.php?TOCIEJ/2008/00000002/00000001/35TOCIEJ.SGM . A second element of authentic dialog is a willingness to respond to reasonable questions raised by individuals who have an obvious personal stake in finding answers to their questions. With this in mind, I would encourage the reader to link to a list of questions raised by family members of those who were murdered on 9/11/01 via "The Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Commission" at http://www.911independentcommission.org/questions.html . These question were not responded to by the commission. This You Tube brief video highlights some of the most significant among these questions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt2-E0VyLL0 .
I do understand that there is a great deal of both well intended misinformation and deliberate disinformation available on the internet with regards to the events of 9/11/01. I believe, however, that anyone wishing to more fully understand these events, and the concerns of the 911 Truth Movement that have arisen from these events, will find the resources listed below to be highly reliable. I invite those who are drawn to support the formal US government supported interpretation of the events 9/11/01 to explore these resources and to enter into dialogue about your perspective with me and others in the 911 Truth Movement.
Christopher Gruener
Secretary for the Boston 911 Truth Committee
Clinical Member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
Massachusetts Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (Lic. #646)
Massachusetts Licensed Mental Health Counselor (Lic. #1286)
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Alex Beam
Boston Globe
Dear Mr. Beam,
Similar to you and your friend, Katherine Powers, a friend of mine spotted your article, "The return of the black helicopters," with the theme that is so prevalent in the mainstream -- denial. Denial as a response to paranoia is not only sad, but dangerous. What do I mean by that?
Let me first clarify things by stating that my primary concern is your characterization of the website, 911Truth.org, as being "lunatic." Why do you say that? You never really explained.
"Sept. 11 spawned a host of paranoid illusions, numerous enough to fill up the next edition of the psychiatrists' diagnostic manual." -AB
Is there a river of paranoia running through the heart of this country? Absolutely. But you're diagnosis of its primary cause is misplaced. The paranoid illusions that were spawned on and after Sept. 11, 2001 lead directly to the White House, the Pentagon and their spin-masters, and not the the authors, filmmakers and webmasters who have since observed, contemplated and commented on the phenomena. The "Axis of Evil," the alleged "War on Terror," and the ridiculous notion that people living in the Middle East, the Near East, etc. hate and want to kill us because we have a democratic government based on liberty and freedom are all myths generated, and dare I say "fabricated," by a delusional, out-of-control executive with the support of an impotent, ill-informed legislature and a lethargic press, all leading to pre-emptive war, the erosion of personal liberties and the gross manipulation of law to justify torture. And most people know it and are tired of it.
What was "lunacy" was the Bush administration's 14-month opposition and subsequent stonewalling of any investigation into 9/11, against the consensus of the public at-large and the victim families, in particular. Equally lunatic was the fabrication and manipulation of intelligence to justify the attack, invasion and occupation of Iraq. And now, the suggestion of a pre-emptive attack on Iran is proving to be the height of lunacy, so much so that the military, itself, is calling the president and vice president to task.
We SHOULD be overly scared, aka paranoid.
Regarding the claims on websites like 9/11truth.org, there are scores of high-ranking military and intelligence professionals who dare to challenge the veracity of the conspiracy theory put forth by the Bush administration and its Commission concerning 9/11, along side millions of Americans who have doubts about what they've been told. I'm one of them and I take extreme exception to being called a lunatic for questioning the 9/11 story. Not too long ago, someone claiming that child abuse was rampant among the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church could have easily been labeled "paranoid" or a "lunatic." Certainly, the perpetrators of those crimes and their superiors denied their culpability when first confronted. I guess the Globe writers who eventually won a Pulitzer for uncovering the priest sex abuse scandalwere lunatics, as well -- until, that is, they proved themselves to beright.
Haven't we learned that what might be morally inconceivable is not necessarily unlikely? These issues are far too important to resort to name-calling, stereotyping and slander. Innocent people are dying in war --on both sides -- due to the paranoia imposed on us by our government; paranoia which does, in my view, accurately equate to terrorizing us into submission to their ambitions for war.
So whether it's the story of 9/11, the justification for war and torture, or the loss of our freedoms, on the 4th of July, at least, please afford us the dignity to exercise our right to question the behavior of the people running our government without publicly trying to slander us.
Thank You.
Mark McKertich
Boston, Mass.
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4th of July Truth Action
Truth activists will be gathering at Boston’s 4th of July Celebration on the Esplanade this year to distribute new Patriots Question 9/11 postcards along with We Are Change info handouts. We have a total of 10,000 pieces of literature we want to distribute among the 500,000-plus people in attendance. We hope you can join us as in this huge distribution effort and for some celebration after the fireworks. More Details
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WBZ Radio Interview with Gage, Bowman and O'Connor
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Dan Rae WBZ Radio Interview 12/14/2007 |
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Listen to this archived in-studio interview, with Host Dan Rae who graciously and respectfully spoke with Bob Bowman, Richard Gage and Donna Marsh O'Connor, regarding their skepticism of the official 9/11 theory on December 14, 2007. Download the (32mb) file directly here.
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Seven CIA Veterans Challenge 9/11 Commission Report
by Alan Miller
http://www.opednews.com
Official Account of 9/11 a "Joke" and a "Cover-up"
September 24, 2007 – Seven CIA veterans have severely criticized the official account of 9/11 and have called for a new investigation. "I think at simplest terms, there's a cover-up. The 9/11 Report is a joke," said Raymond McGovern, former Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) and 27-year veteran of the CIA. "There are a whole bunch of unanswered questions. And the reason they're unanswered is because this administration will not answer the questions," he said. McGovern, who is also the founder of VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity), is one of many signers of a petition to reinvestigate 9/11.[1]
During his 27-year CIA career, McGovern personally delivered intelligence briefings to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, their Vice Presidents, Secretaries of State, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many other senior government officials. Upon retirement in 1990, McGovern was awarded the CIA's Intelligence Commendation Medallion and received a letter of appreciation from then President George H. W. Bush. However, McGovern returned the award[2] in 2006 in protest of the current George W. Bush Administration's advocacy and use of torture...
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9/11 First Responder Support
Please consider helping these dedicated First Responder Foundations (Gear Up Foundation , Fealgood Foundation ) with whatever financial support you can. Our government assured the Fire Fighters, Police and EMT's that the choking cloud of dust and smoke at Ground Zero was safe to breathe. They did not even issue paper masks. Over 70% of the 40,000 have contracted serious respritory illnesses, and hundreds have already died as a direct result. The government that lied to them has now callously ignored and abandoned them.
All donations to these Foundations are 100% tax deductible. ~ Thank You
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Timeline to Tyranny
Ten advances towards the end of freedom and privacy in the United States
Paul Joseph Watson - Prison Planet
The top ten advances towards tyranny in the United States during the tenure of the Bush administration, from the Patriot Act to the latest expansion of the illegal eavesdropping surveillance program.