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U.S. Counterterrorism Officials Insisted that Crotch Bomber Be Let Into Country
Undersecretary for management at the State Department, Patrick F.
Kennedy, told Congress that the State Department wanted to keep crotch
bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab out of the U.S., but that intelligence
agencies insisted that Abdulmutallab be let into the country.
Specifically,
on January 27th, Kennedy told the House Committee on Homeland Security
that intelligence agencies blocked revocation of Abdulmutallab's visa
because it would have foiled a "larger investigation" into Al Qaeda.
As noted by The Detroit News:
The
State Department didn't revoke the visa of foiled terrorism suspect
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab because federal counterterrorism officials
had begged off revocation, a top State Department official revealed
Wednesday.Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at
the State Department, said Abdulmutallab's visa wasn't taken away
because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to
the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would've foiled a
larger investigation into al-Qaida threats against the United States.
"Revocation
action would've disclosed what they were doing," Kennedy said in
testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security. Allowing
Adbulmutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators
would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is
accused of working with, "rather than simply knocking out one solider
in that effort."
This is eerily similar to 9/11:
- One of al-Qaeda’s top trainers in terrorism and how to hijack airplanes, who was a very close associate of Bin Laden, was an American citizen who was an operative for the FBI, the CIA, and the Army (see this article from the San Francisco Chronicle and this article
from the Globe and Mail). Indeed, while he was acting as an FBI
informant, he smuggled Bin Laden in and out of Afghanistan, helped plan
the attacks on US embassies in Africa, and apparently played a pivotal
role in planning 9/11.According to a 1995 Boston Globe report, his entry into the country was made possible by “clandestine CIA sponsorship.” According to West Point's Combatting Terrorism Center, the terrorist was:
Given a visa waiver under
a “little known visa waiver program that allows the CIA and other
security agencies to bring valuable agents into the country, bypassing
the usual immigration formalities.” While perhaps “little known,” this
authority was granted to the Director of National Intelligence by the
Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 and codified in 50 U.S.C.
§403h, which states that if “the admission of a particular alien into
the United States for permanent residence is in the interest of
national security or essential to the furtherance of the national
intelligence mission, such alien and his immediate family shall be
admitted to the United States for permanent residence without regard to
their inadmissibility under the immigration or any other laws and
regulations….”
- 11 of the hijackers received visas to the U.S. through a consular office where, according to the former head of that office, the
CIA routinely insisted that visas be granted to terrorists, even when
their visa applications should have been rejected under standard
operating procedure
Indeed:
- An Al Qaeda operative very close to one of the top Al Qaeda leaders was a CIA informant
- In an article on the nephew of the supposed key mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Newsday reported in 1995: “FBI
officials also are considering a probe of whether the CIA had any
relationship with [the nephew], who fought with the CIA-financed
mujaheddin in Afghanistan in the 1980s.” A classified FBI file also reportedly indicated that the nephew had been recruited by the local branch of the CIA (pages 220-221)
- The president of Pakistan said that one of the masterminds of 9/11 was an MI6 (British intelligence services) agent
And U.S. and allied intelligence services had penetrated the highest levels of Al Qaeda prior to 9/11. For example:
- In January 2001 -- the French intelligence services gave a report to the CIA entitled "Plan to hijack an aircraft by Islamic radicals". Indeed, "foreign agents had infiltrated Osama bin Laden's network and were carefully tracking its moves" prior to 9/11. The original story from the leading French newspaper makes it clear that such infiltration went to the highest levels of Al-Qaeda's camps, and included listening to the hijackers' debates about which airlines' planes should be hijacked, and that allied intelligence services also listened into satellite phone conversations between the hijackers
- Moroccan intelligence penetrated Bin Laden's inner circle, and reported on Bin Laden's plans to the U.S.
- A longtime CIA officer says, “Egyptians, Jordanians, [and] Palestinians penetrated the bin Laden organization for us. It’s B.S. that we didn’t.” (page 143)
- Former CIA director George Tenet says that “a
group of assets from a Middle Eastern service”, working for the CIA,
penetrated al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan by September 2001.
Bin Laden was dropping hints about the upcoming 9/11 attacks to
training camp trainees in the summer of 2001, and US citizen John
Walker Lindh was told details of the 9/11 attacks within weeks of
joining a training camp that summer
- Indeed, in the summer of 2001, the CIA allegedly told President Bush that the highest levels of Al-Qaeda had been penetrated
In addition, U.S. and allied intelligence services followed the hijacker's every move:
- The Congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11 discovered that an
FBI informant had hosted and rented a room to two hijackers in 2000 and
that, when the Inquiry sought to interview the informant, the FBI
refused outright, and then hid him in an unknown location, and that a
high-level FBI official stated these blocking maneuvers were undertaken
under orders from the White House (confirmed here by the Co-Chair of the Joint Inquiry and former Head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham)
- The Pentagon also tracked the hijackers before 9/11
- Israel tracked
the hijackers' every movement prior to the attacks, and may have sent
agents to film the attack on the World Trade Centers. Israel, a very close ally of the U.S., presumably shared intelligence prior to 9/11
- And Saudi intelligence was "actively following" most of the September 11, 2001, plotters "with precision" prior to the attacks. Saudi Arabia, like Israel, is a very close ally of the U.S.
Moreover, the U.S. intercepted many high-level Al Qaeda phone calls:
- The CIA and the NSA had been intercepting phone calls by the hijackers for years
- The National Security Agency and the FBI
were both independently listening in on the phone calls between the
supposed mastermind of the attacks and the lead hijacker. Indeed, the
FBI built its own antenna in Madagascar specifically to listen in on
the mastermind's phone calls. The day before 9/11, the mastermind told the lead hijacker "tomorrow is zero hour" and gave final approval for the attacks.
The NSA intercepted the message that day and the FBI was likely also
monitoring the mastermind's phone calls. (The NSA claims that it did
not translate the intercept until September 12th; however, the
above-mentioned FBI translator said that she was frequently ordered to
falsify dates of translations regarding 9/11)
- Shortly before 9/11, the NSA also intercepted multiple phone calls from Bin Laden's chief of operations to the United States
- Only two days before 9/11, Osama Bin Laden called his stepmother and told her "In two days, you're going to hear big news and you're not going to hear from me for a while.” US
officials later told CNN that “in recent years they've been able to
monitor some of bin Laden's telephone communications with his
[step]mother. Bin Laden at the time was using a satellite telephone,
and the signals were intercepted and sometimes recorded." Indeed,
before 9/11, to impress important visitors, NSA analysts would
occasionally play audio tapes of bin Laden talking to his stepmother
Moreover, the financiers for Al Qaeda were not mysterious and unknown before 9/11:
- According to intelligence officials in India, Pakistan's military chief of intelligence wired $100,000 to the lead hijacker days before 9/11 (mentioned here in a news roundup). This is especially interesting because: That particular chief of intelligence was appointed to that position with the approval
of the U.S., and the intelligence chief had held "consultations" with
his U.S. counterparts at the CIA and the Pentagon during the week prior
to September 11. Coincidentally, the above-described military chief of
intelligence who wired the $100,000 to the hijacker actually met with the leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on the very morning of 9/11
Other facts point towards penetration of the highest levels of Al Qaeda:
- 9/11 family member and "Jersey Girl" Patty Casazza was told by whistleblowers that -- before 9/11 -- the government knew the exact day, the type of attack, and the targets
- One of France's largest newspapers claims that the CIA met with Bin Laden in an American hospital in Dubai in July 2001
Did
9/11 - like the crotch bombing - also involve U.S. intelligence
services letting smaller terrorists into the U.S. so that they could
catch the "big fish"?
If so, this would be ironic, since the U.S. could have killed Bin Laden in 2001 and again in 2007, but chose not to do so.
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Deflect and distract the peoples attention. Unemployment going up in December, underwear bomber happens, distract the people from their real problems.
Governments/Rulers have been using this technique for centuries and will continue to do so. We have a great enemy Al Qaeda which we can milk for decades.
C'est, la Vie mon ami.
sometimes to clear the brain one must think anew and in order to do that watch say Cambodia's answer to a young Sophia Loren in the following vid mash-up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cke9UynnmAI
...
my take off on Goldman based on Old Boy where our hero eats the Squid raw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9yvSmSGjNg has been made inaccessible in the USA. (places tin foil hat on head) even though it is a Korean movie that had a limited run in the US. strange,
duke
18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 1st corinthians 3: 18-20.
This post is as crazy as saying Lee Harvey Oswald defected to the USSR, married the daughter of a KGB Colonel, said he wanted to come back home, and was allowed to no questions asked.
Oh wait, that happened, didn't it....
not long after he made this speech, he was dead?
hmmm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeYgLLahHv8
Congrats to George Washington for yet again turning this site into an echo chamber for the Huffington Post.
Can we get some real articles please?
Oh come on now, certainly you're not suggesting the real reason they allowed this underwear bomber onto that Detroit flight was to make national news --- just when the voting down of the Dorgan Amendment, with the support of the White House and the anti-votes of many a so-called Democrat --- just began to make the national news.
And now, of course, few people recall that the Dorgan Amendment was the closest thing to a public option to come out of the US Senate.
Next you'll be suggesting that those immigration/Hispanic marches, of several years back during the Bush administration, were to kick that warrentless wiretapping off the front pages of the USA Today!
Just because those marches were organized over the Spanish-language radio stations, owned by the Blackstone Group (gee whiz, those were the guys who brokered the fastest and largest real estate sale in NYC's history, the World Trade Center, OMG!!!!), who also happened to be the recipient of that captive insurance fund for the relatives of the victims of the 9/11 attacks (which they structured as a quite-profitable hedge fund, OMG! OMG!), is anything other than a coincidence, for gosh sakes!!!!!
Just had to get in my sarcasm - and thanks for this post - today....
Seriously, though, hasn't anyone ever heard the term "cutouts" before? It was quite common when many of us served in military intelligence eons ago! (Yeah, right...sure the CIA penetrated al Qaeda, like they really needed to...)
And hasn't anyone ever read Zbig Brzezinski's memoirs, for gosh sakes? Al Qaeda is simply an ongoing intel operation, used by the Paks, the Brits, the Americans and certain other parties willing to pay their price.
Catch a clue, doods.
On the money. Again.
Yup! Everyone's playing their parts... Wouldn't want to people to pick up on the notion that we don't need leaders (who in turn grab power for the select few)... http://dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/Carpenter1102.htm
I just thought of a good defense for khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The CIA made me do it.
LOL! (and then... I kind of quit laughing because, well...)
Of course it was an inside job, just watch Kurt Haskell's interview (also on CNN) saying the kid was brought on to the plane with a sharp dressed man WITHOUT PASSPORT!! Watch the interview, don't believe me. Also make sure you listen to Kurt on Alex Jones who reveals EVERYTHING! Watch "fabled enemies" and "9/11 coincidences" on utube back to back, then you will learn what the hell is going on.
I know I'm getting credible news when Alex Jones is the source. *rolls eyes*
why would he want to get on the plane w/out a passport? Wasn't the flaw in our system that he should of had his visa revoked? Visas go in passports.
They found a passport intact, but those damn elusive black boxes.
because the whole thing was a setup, from the start. to introduce body scanners and profit from it, more importantly for people to give up their freedom more and more everyday.
In the history of mankind (more importantly architecture), only 3 steel framed structures gave in to fire, and that happened on 9/11.... something to think about
This isn't a chicken/egg problem. This is a complete WTF.
The futile "war on terrorism" is bankrupting us, as it did the Soviet Union. And we are not winning that war. We were soundly defeated by the "test monkeys" in Vietnam (who were armed by the USSR), and we will be defeated again in Afghanistan.
Pierre LaGrande demonizes the world's largest religion. It must be easier to have your imperialist, nationalism/hatred spoon fed to you by the msm than to befriend our Muslim neighbors, or learn what the Koran really says. Ah, the "ugly American". The mind-set that ushers in the new Dark Age.
Cognitive, my friend...we are truly just beginning to experience a massive "sea change" in the declining living standards of the developed countries, so the days of bliss and unbridled consumption that we have enjoyed is ending quickly. As you sow, so shall you reap.
GW, I always look forward to your diverse and thought provoking posts. Well done, sir.
The MSM does not EVER say a bad thing about the Muslim religion. The US government does not EVER say a bad thing about the Muslim religion. My goodness Bush broke bread with a few KNOWN terrorists the same goddamn week that 3,000 were killed.
If one reads history one comes up against the fact that Islam was imperalistic...for a long long time. They want that back. Doesn't mean that the Bankers are not fucks, or that the left aren't a bunch of assholes or that the Republicans aren't trying to fix things for their biggest donors, it means that in real life you can have more than one enemy.
Yes, because Faux News isn't mainstream.
They just spew a bunch of garbage that plays to the majority of tin foilers out there.
Since they have the most viewers, that makes them the "alternative media" huh?
Saying it so doesn't make it so. Do you ever listen to what you're saying?
Two words: Manifest Destiny (so proclaimed by the "Christian Nation")
One word: Piousness
How's the reading up on Operation Northwoods coming?
Behind all the political rhetoric being hurled at us from abroad, we are bringing home one unassailable fact--[terrorism is] a criime by any civilized standard, committed against innocent people, away from the scene of political conflict, and must be dealt with as a crime...
[I]n our recognition of the nature of terrorism as a crime lies our best hope of dealing with it...
[L]et us use the tools that we have. Let us invoke the cooperation we have the right to expect around the world, and with that cooperation let us shrink the dark and dank areas of sanctuary until these cowardly marauders are held to answer as criminals in an open and public trial for the crimes they have committed, and receive the punishment they so richly deserve. - William Webster, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, October 15, 1985
GW - I suggest you take a look at the report drafted for the OSD by officers assigned to the Army War College in 1989 & 1990 relating to the development and expanding of the operative conditions necessary for the incorporation and deployment of increased national technical means in operations, foreign and domestic for some of the answers you seek. The fact remains that after Iran-Contra there were influential individuals more certain than ever of their belief that the rule of law was/is a barrier to the executive branch leading to the fuller application of the policy of judicial exclusion. These actions were augmented with efforts to lay the ground work necessary to render the rule of law moot with respect to all executive branch operations. The rest has been and is now our unfolding history as a nation of a unified political apparatus dedicated to the elimination of the concept of the rule of law and the professionals dedicated to its defense from national life as THE impediment to; "Preserving, protecting and defending The Constitution of The United States of America".
Y'all,
tough one this. Do we share info that is not 100% (50%, 25%???) credible in an attempt to better understand the plausible, possible (though not verifiable) nature of our world. We do it as investors every day and prices are based on this. Will Greece default? Will GS beat their #'s.
We look at all info to arrive at a conclustion. Invariably, we'll find some things that are incorrect, reaching, and wishful for those that want to tear up the status quo and begin anew. But so long as it is an honest attempt to open our minds to the possiblities, it's probably worth the time. But please, no one can prove a damn thing so let's not pretend we can. Having an open mind to the possiblities is good but closing it with certitude that there is a grand plot afoot is dangerous...especially if the truth comes along otherwise.
This isn't a conspiracy. It was an entrapment technique. Cops use it all the time. A blunder by the USG to go for a bigger prize-and putting a bunch of people at risk on that airplane.
I'm willing to bet that the USG didn't actually plot 9-11, but let these cats meader around trying to get a bigger prize and blew it. They lost track,got the wrong dates whatever. Condi Rice was put on the hot seat for knowing there was a plot way before 9-11 happened. I'll give that moron credit and just say she was incompetent and screwed up. She should be in jail.
The one thing you can count on in life is that any government and it's agencies are incompetent. And it only gets worse when it's malicious and incompetent at the SAME time.
How is this post relevant to finance?
The governments of the world are hiding their ponzi finance problems by drumming up terrorism scares. Everytime the government gets in trouble, or the ponzi starts unravelling, terrorism pops up. Videos of Osama,plots, alert rises. And in a world of complex financial interdependence and collusion, you can't just go bomb China. And China can't just go dump treasuries and kill us off. So the military and government class can drum up the esoteric terrorist threat to keep the money flowing to the right people. You think we couldn't get Osama by now? It's a headless hydra, invented by Western Governments.
What do you think those clowns in Davos are doing in private rooms(when there are no hookers)?
Bravo!
Gross criminal negligence in every direction. I would say the same thing about flooded New Orleans, but I always get shrugs whenever I bring up the fact that all involved kept their jobs or weren't prosected to the full extent of the law.
New Orleans? Why, that was "school bus Nagan". Bush could never fail at anything he's ever done. It was the state and local governments, not the federal government.
We all know that the feds are here to protect us and keep us safe and warm.
This isn't a conspiracy. It was an entrapment technique. Cops use it all the time. A blunder by the USG to go for a bigger prize-and putting a bunch of people at risk on that airplane.
I'm willing to bet that the USG didn't actually plot 9-11, but let these cats meader around trying to get a bigger prize and blew it. They lost track,got the wrong dates whatever. Condi Rice was put on the hot seat for knowing there was a plot way before 9-11 happened. I'll give that moron credit and just say she was incompetent and screwed up. She should be in jail.
The one thing you can count on in life is that any government and it's agencies are incompetent. And it only gets worse when it's malicious and incompetent at the SAME time.
How is this post relevant to finance?
The governments of the world are hiding their ponzi finance problems by drumming up terrorism scares. Everytime the government gets in trouble, or the ponzi starts unravelling, terrorism pops up. Videos of Osama,plots, alert rises. And in a world of complex financial interdependence and collusion, you can't just go bomb China. And China can't just go dump treasuries and kill us off. So the military and government class can drum up the esoteric terrorist threat to keep the money flowing to the right people. You think we couldn't get Osama by now? It's a headless hydra, invented by Western Governments.
What do you think those clowns in Davos are doing in private rooms(when there are no hookers)?
top Al Qaeda leaders = CIA
don't you get it yet george? without enemies we can't have wars that never end fighting the ubiquitous terrorism..
chasing ghosts,dying for nothing, the rich get richer and the middle class gets poorer.
but tomorrow is that great event called the super bowl and we must prepare for that now. so we amerikans will continue to allow bored selves to be entertained , at all cost.
such is this life for now. one can only hope this will change.
Sigh...more bovine excrement from the conspiracy crowd with an agenda all their own. The sources they cite are usually dubious at best, dubious being very charitable about it.
They do nothing for ZH other than to detract from the otherwise high credibility of ZH, a reputation which it is both noted for and, the same reputation it will eventually lose entirely if the lunatic fringe is allowed to take it over.
Thankfully it appears there is one less wingnut among us these days, since PM doesn't seem to have put up a post on this site for weeks - HooRah!! Hopefully GW will go join him. Soon.
Flame away now, lunatic fringe. LOL...
Nice. You know it's true when five people flag it as junk. Happens to me all the time too.
b...b.b.b.ut!!! GOLD bitchez! And ammo, and canned hams! The world will end in three days, following the return of Jesus! That's why I only get the physical...
Two words: Operation Northwoods (you can go to the US government itself and find the released material [released as part of an inquiry into the death of JFK]).
Just because That operation didn't occur, it doesn't mean that such suggested tactics have not occurred (look up "agent provocateur"/CIA).
Oh, two more words: Manhattan Project (imagine something this big kept as a secret- so MANY people; makes you wonder how That was possible? 9/11 WAS a conspiracy; what's NOT known is who all contributed to it- sorry, if it's not brought out in a court of law any such "findings" are about as trustworthy as edicts from the Kremlin).
¨Lunatic fringe,¨ that group of lemmings that doesnt drown with the masses. Typical namecalling... wingnut ... lunatic fringe.... instead of reasoned arguments. Let ZH worry about their reputation and I suspect they will survive.
I knew you would be around here somewhere! Hi, Lou!
You're a broken record.
I don't know about all your conspiracy theories, this I do know. My neighbor's brother-in-law was one of the pilots of the 2nd plane, so remote control stuff just sounds false. I have listened to the 5 videos from Sibel Edmonds, hired the week of 9/11 as an FBI translator, her testimony sounds authentic, maybe you should listen, which will support the idea that her attempts to report the truth were ignored and prevented from being exposed within her own dept. I respect George's attempt to bring things to light. Light is our only disinfectant at this stage. http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7374
Thanks "Intelligence" A-holes.
I'll remember this next time I miss a flight due to a one hour security screening line.
Glad to know you are both wasting hundreds of millions of dollars of productive time as well as defeating the purpose for wasting that time.
Al Quaeda is just the latest "external" bugabear to keep the amerikan people terrified and agreeable to squandering 1/3 of our monetary resources on defense which keeps the likes of Halliburton, XE, Dyncorp, GE and many others going strong.
If the "war" on terror was real, the first country the US would have bombed is Saudi Arabia. The guys who blew up the USS Cole were Saudis. The perpetrators of the US African Embassies that were blown up were Saudis. 15 of the 19 9/11 guys were Saudis. Osama is a Saudi.
The war on terror provides US justification to do anything it wants to any person or any country globally.
And complicating the matter is the US, of course. Consider that the ruling family is aging and no real succession is clear. The US MUST be in that country not only to protect the existing rulers, but it must be there in case the existing rulers fail. It serves both parties well for there to be fanaticals on display (though it's anyone's guess as to who is really doing the deeds- given that Osama bin Laden was on the CIA's payroll shows what a tangled web this all is).
+100.
You'd think more people knew this, but sadly... people still think that the hijackers were Iraqis with nuclear weapons that failed to detonate...
Tin foil hat...
Checkaroonie.
Anyone who believes novice non-military pilots could fly those planes into those TINY (at the speed they were flying) LOW targets is silly. Think about it folks, if you have trouble landing a Cesna, can you be expected to hit a specific building at a specific elevation (not too low - you'll hit something else first...not too high, you'll mis...) at 500-ish kph? Really? What other magic will you believe?
I am a pilot and it wouldnt be that hard...landing is hard...running into things not hard.
But lets ask you if it was amateurs piloting those planes who was it?
You're baiting things into a dead-end. Without actual suspects in place, and put through a thorough trial (and keep in mind, given the numerous exonerations that regularly occur, just because someone is convicted it still doesn't rest as absolute fact) we could hardly know, now could we?
Someone asked that civil discussion take place, and I agree. That's why I ONLY concentrate on the question of how WTC 7 came down- no pilots to mess with, no planes or pilots to haggle over here...
Controlled demolition.Watch the tapes of it's collapse then watch tapes of other controlled demolitions.
For extra fun, watch tapes of demolitions done badly and see just how expertly it was performed.Fire induced collapse?....what an unswallowable crock of excrement.
I was asking somewhat rhetorically... I've spent countless hours hashing over all of this. I understand physics, meaning, the "official" story can not be true...
They skipped learning about how to land. The 9/11 investigation was the cover-up. If you question the completeness of the inquiry you experience immediate ad hominem attacks, as CD expertly fleshed out for us.
Adding to what Orly pointed out about being more vulnerable to cognitive dissonance in the 50's/60's I would agree. We had just saved the world from Nazi and Bushido ideologies, yet were completely unaware of the mass torture, imprisonment, and murder of millions of Soviets. Before the internet how could you even know anything about MK Ultra experiments without being involved in the program?
Detractors never explain alternative viewpoints because the truth is hidden in [plane] sight.
Thanks... as many suspected...
Sigh. Facepalm. Can't anyone debate this stuff without coming off like either a) a nutjob or b) a religious bigot? I am sure, if folks try very hard, we can have an (ahem) intelligent, intellectual debate about all of this without resorting to name calling and delusional rants.
You can be agnostic on the bigger points GW make. since who of us really knows? I enjoyed this post as well as the comments. After the bailouts and related deceptions, many of us are more open to reinterps of the past than previously.
I'm glad that there are people against the war and know that its b.s. now.
I remember how lonely I felt in 2002 telling people that there were no wmd's, and that the premises of the war were lies.
People looked at me like I was mad. I'm surprised they didn't call the FBI on me for questioning the commander in chief during a time of war. No, seriously.
Yeah, I had my share of intimidations (like 4 strapping guys run a pickup truck at me- I stood my ground and challenged them- they backed down [smart of them]). Food thrown at me... And just after 9/11 (day of), my "ex" looks at me like I was a terrorist when I asked "what did we do to piss them off?" Of course, cause and affect is always alive- Chalmers Johnson spelled it all out in Blowback.
"When you find that you are on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."
- Mark Twain