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Guest Post: The Yemen Underwear Bomb and Other Hobgoblins
Submitted by James E. Miller of the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada,
Today it was widely reported that the CIA thwarted a “plot by al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb.” This bomb, which was to be concealed in a pair of underwear, was designed as an improvement over what Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to use to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day of 2009. This bomb was upgraded and designed to specifically avoid metal detectors.
At first glance it would appear to be a job well done by the world’s leading domestic affairs meddlers.
But like all of these instances, it was routinely denied “there was ever any immediate threat to the public.” It was also revealed that:
The bomb plot had allegedly advanced to the point that a would-be suicide bomber was told to buy a ticket on the airliner of his choosing and decide the timing of the attack. It’s not immediately clear what happened to the would-be bomber.
It would seem that what the CIA recovered was essentially just a crudely made bomb. The supposed bomber was nowhere to be found. There is no evidence presented as to a real threat or plan to use it.
The truth was finally revealed as the would-be bomber was, in fact, a double agent of the CIA.
When considering the nature of the state, this new instance of government supported terrorism is unsurprisingly comparable to previous cases.
Looking back at the original underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the mainstream narrative nowhere matches the disturbing details. Not only was Abdulmutallab’s explosive device determined not to be functional but, according to undersecretary for management at the State Department Patrick Kennedy, his visa wasn’t confiscated and he was given access to the airplane for the purposes of conducting further investigation. This came at the request of federal counterterrorism officials.
As former Assistant Secretary to the U.S. Treasury and acclaimed commentator Paul Craig Roberts documents in regards to attempted terrorist attacks since September 11, 2001:
If we look around for the terror that the police state and a decade of war has allegedly protected us from, the terror is hard to find. Except for 9/11 itself, assuming we accept the government’s improbable conspiracy theory explanation, there have been no terror attacks on the US. Indeed, as RT pointed out on August 23, 2011, an investigative program at the University of California discovered that the domestic “terror plots” hyped in the media were plotted by FBI agents.
For example, the Washington DC Metro bombing plot, the New York city subway plot, the plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago were all FBI brainchilds organized and managed by FBI agents.
RT reports that only three plots might have been independent of the FBI, but as none of the three worked they obviously were not the work of such a professional terror organization as Al Qaeda is purported to be. The Times Square car bomb didn’t blow up, and apparently could not have.
Think now about the airliner shoe-bomb plot, the shampoo-bottled water plot, and the underwear-bomb plot. Experts, other than the whores hired by the US government, say that these plots are nonsensical. The “shoe bomb” and “underwear bomb” were colored fireworks powders incapable of blowing up a tin can. The liquid bomb, allegedly mixed up in an airliner toilet room, has been dismissed by experts as fantasy.
Just this past May Day, the FBI reportedly foiled an attempted bombing of a bridge near Cleveland. But like many instances of domestic terrorism, this operation was aided and facilitated by the FBI itself. On cue, authorities assured the public it “was never in any danger.”
Far from having their liberty secured, the American public is being lulled into a sense of infant dependency from engineered threats from abroad and at home.
The art of governing can be broken down into two easy steps: scare the citizenry into capitulation with manufactured threats and legislate yourself increasing amounts of power.
With the illusion of monsters from foreign countries breathing down their necks, those infatuated with “national defense” as some unworldly savior are more than willing to bow down and submit themselves to having their privacy torn to shreds for the feeling of security. They are no better than children who wrap themselves in a blanket for fear of an unknown boogeyman. The corporate media, never letting an opportunity of state worship go to waste, vets out the reports of threats with little if any vigor. The Associated Press actually found out about the newly “foiled” underwear bomb threat last week but submitted to White House demands to hold off on reporting the story. After all, there is too much money at stake to not buddy up with Washington and keep a frightened populace spoon-fed with false delusions.
The danger in such juvenile acceptance of war propaganda is the creeping hand of despotism that must emerge. For if the public is lead to believe danger lurks in every shadow of the world, it will demand greater and greater protection from exactly those who salivate at the chance to provide it. From the Patriot Act to the National Defense Authorization Act, private correspondence and due process have been casually tossed aside for the promise of safety. This vicious cycle is reinforced by contrived instances of impending doom. The ruling class creates them and then feeds off the panic.
Even Bush administration spokesman Ari Fleischer admitted that “fake” terror alerts were used in 2002 to quell growing criticism amongst the public and particular Congressmen.
The famous Randolph Bourne quote “war is the health of the state” is often invoked as a simple dictum to demonstrate the irrefutable connection between government usurpations of authority and organized combat on a massive, industrialized scale. Almost any respectable writer, historian, or economist will cite the phrase when addressing the topic of warfare. That’s because in just seven plain words the mentality and violent temperament of those who sit at the state’s controls are defined so explicitly, it completely disrobes the glory and prestige too often associated with bloodthirsty crusades of patriotism.
Murray Rothbard recognized the underlying immorality of the government’s war machine complex when he wrote:
It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute domination over the economy and the society. Society becomes a herd, seeking to kill its alleged enemies, rooting out and suppressing all dissent from the official war effort, happily betraying truth for the supposed public interest. Society becomes an armed camp, with the values and the morale—as Albert Jay Nock once phrased it—of an “army on the march.”
The alleged Yemen “underwear” bomber was just another fabricated spook in the long line of mounting justifications to keep the war on terror and its profiteers going; no matter the cost. As long as the American people are still easily whipped into a frenzy over forged menaces from afar, their blood and treasure will go on to be squandered on military boondoggles and redundant intelligence agencies. War and fear end up becoming a way of life. And so does the state’s command over what could be a life of peace and tranquility for the nation it supposedly protects.
This isn’t conspiracy theory; just a recognition of the various hobgoblins, as H.L. Mencken described them, invented to justify encroaching totalitarianism.
James E. Miller holds a BS in public administration with a minor in business from Shippensburg University, PA. He is the chief blogger at the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada and a current contributor to his hometown newspaper, the Middletown Press and Journal.
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Could we not have killed Bin Laden again? Or at least the shark that ate Bin Laden?
We spend about 50% of the world's spending on the military and we deserve better villains then double agent underwear bombers. At least it could have been a Victoria's Secret model. We demand value for our money.
You didn't know that silicone is explosive?!
Just another act of treason.... nothing to see here. Move along.
Whatever.
Just wrap the nearest Amerikkkan flag around your body and hug your Bible for maximum fascist effect.
That ought to do the trick.
The heat must be building on the 'hand in your pants, sexual assault, microwave nude scanner, thieving TSA'. So they roll out another al CIAeda patsy with a false flag bomb threat.
Actually, operation "Cartagena Call-Girl" was a CIA field test for the new bomb sniffing nano-crabs which are eventually to be passed to suspected terrorist cell members known to frequent strip clubs before embarking on their one-way flights.
Thats why I heard also. The SS was under orders to collect FBI profile type information on these mediums. Turns out they are usually late 20s, single mothers who are willing to service multiple secret service members simultainously.
The way we can defeat these threats to national security is to not pay the asking price for servicing "yankee white" cleared US operatives. It makes the women feel scorned and consequently their threat is neutralized. They also will usually out themselves within days on american shock jock radio programs, followed by photo spreads in pornography such that we can construct body recognition algorithms to monitor them even if they get plastic surgery.
Approved. SEC-TRES. DHS. Advisory council head: Newt Gingrich (retired). Funded $50B 2012-> 2014. COLA adjutments (D.C. rates) for subsequent years.
How about 'infiltrated, volunteered for the mission, and provided the Israeli-built underwear bomb himself'?
Fixed it for you, New York Times.
I bet he just had tea with some Yemeni shopkeepers for a couple of weeks, then 'turned himself in'.
I WOULD LOVE TO BE A CIA DOUBLE AGENT. I WOULD GET SO MUCH ASS AND LOVE MYSELF.
GOLD IS CRASHING BTW, PLEASE GET OUT NOW.
IT BROKE THE TRENDLINE WHICH STARTED IN OCTOBER OF 2008.
THIS IS HISTORICAL ACTUALLY, YOU GUYS SHOULD MARK IT ON YOUR CALENDAR. MAY 7, 2012, 4-YEAR GOLD TRENDLINE BREAKS AND GOLD STARTS ITS RELENTLESS DROP TO THE ABYSS.
Look at the charts for 2008, and then shut off your caps-lock.
Paper gold is covering margin calls. Horrible time to sell, unless you just like losing money like a muppet. AFAIK, most here have strong hands- I know that as far as I am concerned, my PMs can just lay real quiet for the next thirty or forty years, if need be- but I don't think it'll be more than three or four months before they're breaking records again.
For those of you who couldn't resist buying on margin, my condolences.
It's just a spot of apparent US dollar 'strength' in the face of another gut-wrenching Euro fuckup.
Be cool. Buy the fucking dip. Or just chill.
Or are you a bond fund investor LOL just kidding...I mean those are extinct, right?
YES FOR GOD'S SAKE SELL ALL OF YOUR GOLD AND SILVER... to me.
No, no, ME, ME
I love when silver gets in the $29.xx range - it's when I do my Christmas shopping.
You need to change your name to crying wolf.
all right smart guy, is this a buying opportunity or not, since you are giving advice!
NO, SELL ALL OF YOUR GOLD. IT BROKE TRENDLINE WHICH MARKED THE END OF THE 12-YEAR BULL MARKET.
Sure, sell me all your gold Mr. Crying Bare. Oh wait... you probably have none to sell. Hence my misspelling of your last name.
If I want to go buy a used Chevy, the first thing I do is tell the seller that the car is a piece of shit and he would be better off selling it to me just to get rid of it. I would offer him half the price he thought the car was worth. And the dumb fuck would sell it to me. Sellers need cash... stackers don't.
EVEN THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT WILL CAPITULATE
The chinese bought roughly 134 tonnes of gold the first quarter of this year, you think they are going to turn around and just sell it? Buhahahaha
Is that you MillionDollarBlowjob, um I mean HammyWanger, umm I mean MaxFister, i mean Dr BendAway.
How is it that these guys have access to the internet to post on ZH but read NOTHING else? Is it the computers at the libraries only have a single channel to ZH and you can't get to infowars.com or www.ae911truth.org or www.webofdebt.com or the thousands of other sites that have some real information?
"THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT WILL CAPITULATE" - Capitulate to what??? They are one of the largest CREDITOR nations in the world. You ever hear this "the golden rule - he that has the gold rules" - China has the USA IOU's, China has the manufacturing, China has gold....... China holds all the cards except for a bloated military - but who needs that when the last war will be fought with nuclear missles.
Please go back to your library and ask for the free upgrade to computer terminals that have full internet access - and then, please READ some history and current events. And then take the red pill.
NO, I DO NOT KNOW OF THOSE YOU HAVE MENTIONED IN YOUR COMMENT AND I HAVE WARNED FROM 1640 THAT A BREAK BELOW 1625 WILL BE TERRIBLE FOR GOLD.
IT HAS NOW BROKEN A 3.5-YEAR TRENLINE THAT GOLD TRADERS HAVE USED FOR REFERENCE. THIS IS SIGNIFICANT AND I JUST WANTED TO LET EVERYONE KNOW THAT THEY SHOULD SELL BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
OTHER WARNING SIGNS INCLUDE A FAILED INVERSE HEAD-AND-SHOULDERS,
A LARGE DESCENDING TRIANGLE.
AND OF COURSE, THE DEATH CROSS, FORMED ON APRIL 17TH.
I DONT READ THOSE WEBSITES BECAUSE I DONT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT IT. IT IS NO USE IN LIFE WHATSOEVER BECAUSE ALL YOUR FRIENDS WILL THINK YOU ARE A PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIC WHO DOESNT HAVE SOCIAL FRIENDS AND THEREFORE, NOT GET LAID.
Fact is, folks, since "9/11" ALL the "terror" plots our gov has "thwarted" had help from that very government or wouldn't have amounted to a hill of beans. Whether it's FBI or CIA, the story is the same, "Be afraid, be very afraid, because TERROR still lurks".
Truth told, the "war on terror" is as bogus as the "war on drugs". Too many contractors making too much money and thus no one has the balls to shut it all down.
Ron Paul has the balls.
Nobody in the World truly believes this kind of shit anymore. Not even the ones that declare to believe it. They absolutely lack of any credibility, like Obama's Nobel Prize, 9/11, War on Terror, Al Qaeda, Osama and all kind of stuff they deliver from time to time, bullshit. Everybody consider each one of their statements a lie by default.
This people, this poor man and few woman who run the World, poor, miserable people, they can fuck us but actually the ones really fucked up are them with their arid, little minds. They're already defeated. "Mercaderes, traficantes, más que rabia dan tristeza, no conocen ni un instante la belleza..."
It is getting pathetically transparent isn't it You can even hear it in the tone of their voice as the government official and corporate media manager offers up the next towell wrapped entre like the fading drug addict conning his last few tricks
"You have to be asleep to believe in the 'American Dream'" - George Carlin
Outside the USSA, there really is a free press, we just don't get it here.
Take another blue pill Amerika and go back to sleep.
If you've taken the red pill, remember how to speak the sheeple dialect, it could be helpful not standing out during the roundup and laying low until "the time"
Semper Paratus
I can't wait for the TSA approved line of underwear from Apple.
You have a sick sick mind, which I greatly admire and appreciate.
On the Apple underwear, will it have Trojan Horses? Viruses? Or Stuxnet implanted by Annonymous to interfere with non-Apple smart phones and non-Ipad tablets? Airport-wide on just on the plane?
This underware bomber was a composite fabrication created by Obama, much like Barrys fabricated composite white girlfriend.
"Is thata bomb in your underwear,or are you just happy to see me"
"I sure hope it does not go off pre maturely".
"If I touch (off) your bomb tonight, will you still love me in the morning?"
the only thing you have to Fear is Fear itself...and the people who make money off of the fear
The only thing we have to fear is .... those who fear everything (and look to the government to protect them from their every fear).
Oh, now it all makes sense...
Anal probes before being beamed aboard flying saucers.
I guess terrorism is just a universal constant.
Buy the Fricking Dip.....................................................
This just in from a Vegas jokester source:
Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel , "Pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the Promised Land."
Nearly 75 years ago, (when Welfare was introduced) Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a Camel, this is the Promised Land."
Today, Congress has stolen your shovel, taxed your asses, raised the price of Camels and mortgaged the Promised Land!
I was so depressed last night thinking about Health Care Plans, the economy, the wars, lost jobs, savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc....I called a Suicide Hotline.
I had to press 1 for English.
I was connected to a call center in Pakistan. I told them I was suicidal. They got excited and asked if I could drive a truck......
Folks, we're screwed!
<I called a Suicide Hotline.
I had to press 1 for English.
I was connected to a call center in Pakistan. I told them I was suicidal. They got excited and asked if I could drive a truck......
Folks, we're screwed!>
This is the best post of today!
And just when all the elderly fliers thought it was safe to put the Depends back on . . . .
It's fortunate for Sleestak Magoo Munger that he flies on a private jet.
Yes, but he still shits himself at 50,000 feet and some poor bastard has to clean up the mess upon landing. Then they have to burn the plane as a final, radical method of decontamination.
A recent article on ZH called one of those Euro technocrats "Mr. Creosote" from the Monty Python skit where the fat bastard blows up after eating a "waffer thin" mint. Old Charly is in second place and gaining fast for that title.
Also,
The Truth Behind the Unemployment Numbers + Stimulus vs Austerity
Facebook Roadshow Presentation
S&P 500 timing system returns 289.81% over the past five years When to expect the next round of QEFuck off.
@FourthStooge: I'll go out on a limb here and assume you are referring to the guy who keeps posting spam links to his blog (above)???
If so, I would like to add that I refer to dickheads like this as Google-Whores.
.
You are correct.
You, sir, are far too kind.
NPR lead with this bullshit story this moring so I new it was crap.
No matter how hard we try we can't get anyone foreign or domestic to do terrorism on us. We need to train the CIA to do it so we keep on our toes.
See somthing. Say Somthing bitches.
I cleared the Las Vegas metal detector no problem wearing a metal watch but didn't know it til I passed. I felt terrible. I wanted to volunteer to go back and tell the brave TSA folk of my crime and then volunteer for a cavity search to show them no hard feelings. God Bless this land.
Bureaucracies and special interests that benefit from them will do anything to maintain job security and funding levels
I love walking around in bare feet with my belt off and pants falling down and taking out my wallet with all my money and leaving it sit unattendened as mobs of stange people walk by as I wait 10 minutes for a dumb ass TSA agent with a GED equivilant to frisk my balls because I refuse to let them fucking radiate me. I can't believe all the sheep I saw that were happy as clams to stand in front of a full body X-ray scanners for 3 seconds (on a regular basis for some) getting their cells mutated and their privates photographed. At least Michael Chertoff got rich on the scheeme. Anyways. fuck that noise. I'll drive for now on. Nothing is worth the torture of having to pass through an American Air port.
Perhaps if you wore a Zero Hedge baseball cap, they would just wave you through. Worth a try.
Maybe a ZH hat and nothing else.
They would jail you for obstruction of decency. ZH hat would be the reason.
They only got it right because it is an election year, government lies constantly why believe them now
nearly all terrorism in the world - and i mean the world - is sponsored by the cia using its database of mercenaries otherwise known as al qaeda - database is the meaning of al qaeda.
the cia, working on behalf of the bush crime syndicate and rockefeller axis of evil, uses terrorism as a tool to conquor open and free societies. the usa's constitutional government must be destroyed to bring about the new world order which is one world government...the job is almost complete....
!Don't leave out the Mossad and MI6
Give credit where credit is due!
Our Saudi "war on terror" partners deserve more recognition as experts in the field of double agents and airplane bomb plots.
Given that most so called terrorists have been entrapped and encouraged by the FBI I will always be suspicious.
When we mistrust the government and each other as much as third worlders mistrust theirs then we will be third world.
Credit cannot expand where there is no trust in promises of future action. Leverage and monetary policy transmission dont work efficiently where trust is lacking.
The govenment is squandering the very basis of efficient economic growth, trust.
Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
- Eric Idle
So many of us are in on it,
More than last time's bit
Now that we get to laugh, it won't last.
You'll see, they know
To stop us they have to blow
Just wonder whose underwear will blast.
Does anyone remember watching the Batman TV series? It seems that not only did the US defeat this heinous weapon, but they also ate their proverbial lunch.
I am getting the impression that all terrorists are the results of outcome based education. There must be a countless number of cheap and effective ways terrorists could make peoples lives a living hell, and they pick "blowing up their junk".
Agree. Is there anything more idiotic than strapping junk to your junk?... and what happens if it only partially goes off? You're left with half your junk and a molten pile of other junk beside your half blown off junk. Does that make sense? Somebody call the CIA to get a proper explanation of how all this junk works.
Wouldn't the underwear guy be an agent of the CIA and a double agent of al Qaeda? Not that it matters overmuch, just sayin.
If some guy known to be a CIA agent approached a terrorist organization and asked them to put a bomb in his underwear, I think they would do it. I mean one less as far as they are concerned.
That's the problem with secrecy. There is no way to really know if an agent is double, triple, quadruple...
On another note, it has been said that the CIA's main mission is propaganda. That observation is quite consistent with the fact that we never hear much at all about or from other US spy agencies.
Operation Mockingbird comes to mind.
That was a lousy way for all of you to treat the intelligent Dr Benway.
He's probably home now seeking solace reading about the heroic & fearless death of Pat Tillman while watching the Private Jessica Lynch story.
i remember the feeling i had when i told my school friends that there wasn't really a santa claus, or easter bunny. i never thought i would have the same feeling at age 40.
Seems TPTB/MSM have everyone in line.
1. Getting a bomb on a plane is easy as pie. Only very few suitcases are checked. With the detonator being an iPhone there is no way to stop anyone from getting a bomb on a plane. Anyone who works at an airport knows this.
2. Terror is about scaring people. So, a terrorist could fly to the USA, go to random supermarkets and inject fooditems with some kind of poison. The country would be in panic as food would no longer be safe. That's terrorism cause it's REALLY close to you and you have no safety or control.
2. The fact that not more planes are blown up or hijacked - or other forms of terrorism take place - means there are no terrorists.
Regarding the first underwear bomber: Kurt Haskell, a lawyer, and his wife witnessed the whole event. Government "officials" forced the underwear bomber on the plane without a passport, against the will of airline personnel at the gate.
Connect the dots.
Considering that a growing percentage of security professionals involved are private, let's say it bold: FASCISTS!
http://www.prisonplanet.com/al-qaeda-bomber-was-a-cia-informant.html
War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement.
James Madison
It's a protection racket. Payment by way of fear, taxes and civil liberties.
They have the power but we have the numbers. You reading this, FBI cunts?
Fear of terror makes people STUPID and easy to MANIPULATE
i'm not a ninny anymore, i'm no one's patsy & fool. how the hell do we get rid of these people who are controlling the U.S. government & bleeding the U.S. treasury dry, sucking the very life out of this country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tYNIqwdFzY
+1 for the Captain Underpants pic.
YOU....NEED....GOVERNMENT, BITCHEZ
Sincerely,
The Government
Whew!
What a relief.
I thought billionaire oil-rich sheikhs headed Saudi Arabia.
I thought the Saudis were religious extremists. I thought they promoted Wahhabism and considered other religious sects as heretic infidels. I thought they felt especially economically threatened by the hated Shiites in Bahrain and Yemen. I thought the Saudis were engaged in a campaign of persecution and violence against them in Yemen and Bahrain.
I even had thought the Saudis could have been involved in 9/11.
But now the government has provided the MSM with a story from always reliable Saudi/CIA sources to say different.
The Saudis are using their expertise in double agents and airplane bomb plots to fight “terrorism”.
The Saudis are the “good guys” because they are partnered with the CIA.
What further proof is needed to warrant more drone attacks and military action in Yemen?
Please remove your underwear for inspection.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/07/world/meast/yemen-qaeda-plot/index.html
"I remember when the FBI built the bomb that went off in the WTC in '93. That was a hoot. fortunately the person they were going to set up as the "terrorist patsy" recorded conversations between him and the FBI which got him off the hook. That bombing by the FBI only killed 6 and injured 1000. Seems everyone has forgotten the role the FBI had Looks like they got another "terrorist patsy". But since they got caught with having a role in one major bombing what are the chances they aren't behind more? And since they were caught in one, doesn't that by even their own definition define them as terrorist organization? Or is that designation only apply to everyone else in the world including US citizens trying to catch a flight that must first surrender to molestation because a government official helped a guy with no visa, no passport on board an international flight? There is no Al Qaeda. This is all government sponsored terror."
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