MEDIA ROOTS — The two-tiered American justice system is in full effect as felonious political actors advocate and promote the Iranian terrorist group Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) in order to pursue US hegemony in the region.  

In 2010, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case Holder v. Humanitarian Law that providing material support in coordination with a designated foreign terrorist organization is a felony punishable by 15 years in prison.  If you or I took money from the MEK to advocate lifting the terrorist designation, how long do you think it would take to be hooded, shackled and indefinitely detained under the National Defense Authorization Act?  

Abby Martin of Media Roots and RT reports on the current efforts to convince the State Department to de-list MEK as a foreign terrorist organization.

Abby Martin – State Department Lobbies Terrorists for RT

A wave of American leaders have illegally lined up to get their slice of the MEK bankroll for speaking on their behalf.  Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Hugh Shelton said, “Why would we not want to put the weight and power of this country behind an organization that we know stands for the same principles we stand for, and that is the best-organized, best-led organization to take on the current Iranian regime?”  Louis Freeh, former Director of the FBI stated that “MEK is leading the fight for freedom in Iran. Just as our military forces fight for freedom on the battlefields, you fight in a more difficult and much more dangerous place.”  

The end-game of all this bought and paid for rhetoric is a writ entered on June 1, 2012 to the United States Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. asking Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State to review the designation of MEK as a foreign terrorist organizations within four months or by default the designation will be removed.

These naïve politicos with imperialist illusions of Iranian regime change want to jump in bed with the MEK who vocally supported the U.S. embassy takeover in Tehran in 1979 and vehemently called for the execution of diplomats in 1981.  The very same MEK that attempted to kidnap US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur in 1971, wounded Air force General Harold Price in 1972, assassinated US Army Comptroller Louis Lee Hawkins in 1973, assassinated US Air Force officers Paul Shaffer and Jack Turner and assassinated American employees William Cottrell, Donald Smith and Robert Krongard in 1976.  The very same group that hijacked a plane in 1971 and bombed and killed 70 members of the Iranian parliament including Chief Justice Mohammad Beheshti, the second highest ranking official in Iran at the time.  MEK also reportedly celebrated the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as well as helped carry out the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists last year.

American justice calls on the following Americans to surrender and submit to interrogation so it can be determined what degree of material support they provided officially designated terrorists: Tom Ridge, Wesley Clark, Michael Mukasey, Frances Townshend, James Jones, Peter Pace, Hugh Shelton, Louis Freeh, Michael Hayden, Anthony Zinni, Rudi Giuliani, Howard Dean, Andy Card, Bill Richardson, Lee Hamilton, John Bolton and all other Americans that feel they can operate above the law.  All money received for speaking engagements should be returned, resignations should be tendered and pleas should be entered.

The arrogant criminal hypocrisy is absolutely surreal as American politicos subvert the draconian laws they perpetrate upon the rest of America.  Swift sanctions are necessary to ensure the general public that all Americans live under one set of laws. So far the defenses offered by these haughty elitists are their right to free speech, which is specifically limited by the Holder Supreme Court case.  Their argument is that the MEK will make a fine marionette for American imposed regime change in Iran.  But Americans don’t want war or regime change in Iran—America wants representatives with common sense and ethics to be focused on this country.  Let the Iranian people determine their own leadership and destiny.

Chris Martin for Media Roots

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SALON –We now have an extraordinary situation that reveals the impunity with which political elites commit the most egregious crimes, as well as the special privileges to which they explicitly believe they — and they alone — are entitled. That a large bipartisan cast of Washington officials got caught being paid substantial sums of money by an Iranian dissident group that is legally designated by the U.S. Government as a Terrorist organization, and then meeting with and advocating on behalf of that Terrorist group, is very significant for several reasons. New developments over the last week make it all the more telling. Just behold the truly amazing set of facts that have arisen:

In June, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 6-3 ruling in the case of Holder v. Humanitarian Law. In that case, the Court upheld the Obama DOJ’s very broad interpretation of the statute that criminalizes the providing of “material support” to groups formally designated by the State Department as Terrorist organizations. The five-judge conservative bloc (along with Justice Stevens) held that pure political speech could be permissibly criminalized as “material support for Terrorism” consistent with the First Amendment if the “advocacy [is] performed in coordination with, or at the direction of, a foreign terrorist organization” (emphasis added). In other words, pure political advocacy in support of a designated Terrorist group could be prosecuted as a felony — punishable with 15 years in prison — if the advocacy is coordinated with that group.

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Photo Iran flag wikicommons

MEDIA ROOTS — A pair of internet archivists who call themselves ‘Neuro Linguistic Programming’ have uploaded Part Three of US corporate media print publications from the immediate days and weeks following 9/11.  The duo plans to post more multiple full issues of Time and Newsweek as well as other timely magazines that are filled with blatant fearmongering and propaganda about terrorism.  They have been releasing most of the archives starting from October, 2001, but they say the next two pieces will be from the week right after 9/11. 

Following 9/11, news media accelerated at an amazing rate, and most companies soon adopted internet versions of their paper or magazines.  Before this was commonplace, many interesting pieces of information printed about that day most likely were never reprinted again–due to false information or just abandonment by the propagandists.  As we know, many government narratives and unfounded claims about 9/11 were re-printed without any journalistic investigation.  Also worth noting is how candid some of the reporting is, where journalists admitted things like ‘patriotic bias’ clouding their ability to do actual journalism. 

Part Three, ‘Closing In: Afghanistan War Propaganda’ featured below, gives us a look at a TIME magazine issue (all pages about non ‘War on Terror’ subjects have been omitted) about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.  The issue also includes a transcript of the Bin Laden ‘confession tape’, explaining to the reader why this is irrefutable ‘proof’ of his involvement in 9/11.  Considering that the faultily translated tape was admitted to be a sting operation orchestrated by the CIA, we encourage readers to focus on this particular section, since it aims to halt lingering doubts about the official 9/11 narrative.  We hope that these archivists continue this fascinating project, it could uncover aspects of the ‘War on Terror’ that most journalists and researchers have completely forgotten about.  Above all, it reveals the extent of the conditioning the American people were subject to immediately after our nation’s traumatization.  They have put the issue up in PDF format which can be downloaded here as well as a slideshow (see below).

Check out previous installments, Part One, ‘The Terrorism Survival Guide’ here and Part Two, ‘How Scared Should You Be?’ here

Robbie Martin for Media Roots

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Note:  The slideshow of the full Time issue ‘Closing In’ looks best at full screen by clicking the box in the right corner.  Click play to start.  Click the pause button to stop the slideshow from progressing automatically on the right corner.

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MEDIA ROOTS — A pair of internet archivists who call themselves ‘Neuro Linguistic Programming’ have uploaded Part Two of US corporate media print publications from the immediate days and weeks following 9/11.  The duo plans to post multiple full issues of Time and Newsweek as well as other timely magazines that are filled with blatant fearmongering and propaganda about terrorism. 

Following 9/11, news media accelerated at an amazing rate, and most companies soon adopted internet versions of their paper or magazines.  Before this was commonplace, many interesting pieces of information printed about that day most likely were never reprinted again–due to false information or just abandonment by the propagandists.  As we know, many government narratives and unfounded claims about 9/11 were re-printed without any journalistic investigation. 

Check out Part One, ‘The Terrorism Survival Guide’ here.  Part Two, featured below, gives us a look at a Newsweek titled ‘Biological & Chemical Terror: How Scared Should You Be?’  The featured photo is a man wearing a gasmask, and the entire issue focuses on bio terrorism.  Throughout the magazine, that question is addressed repeatedly, and all answered the same way: be absolutely terrified.  We hope that these archivists continue this fascinating project, it could uncover aspects of the ‘War on Terror’ that most journalists and researchers have completely forgotten about.  Above all, it reveals the extent of the conditioning the American people were subject to immediately after the traumatization of our nation. They have put the issue up in PDF format which can be downloaded here as well as a slideshow (see below).

Robbie Martin for Media Roots

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Note:  The slideshow of the full Newsweek issue ‘How Scared Should You Be?’ looks best at full screen by clicking the box in the right corner.  Click play to start.  Click the pause button to stop the slideshow from progressing automatically on the right corner.

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RT TV – The looming threat of cyberterrorism is being ramped up by the day–from government officials to mainstream media pundits–who say that cyberterror will soon outweigh terrorism as the number one security threat facing the United States.

It’s a threat that’s all too certain, as the federal government continues to make the claim stressing how it’s not a matter of if, but when a cyber attack will occur in this the US.  At a recent congressional hearing entitled “America is Under Cyber Attack: Why Urgent Action is Needed,” Subcommittee Chairman Michael McCaul exclaimed how “It’s not a matter of if, but when a cyber Pearl Harbor will occur.”

The rhetoric is so pervasive, that there is even an entire cyberterror exhibit called “Weapons of Mass Disruption” at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, a museum whose executive director spent 36 years at the CIA.  The room displays multiple disaster scenarios it claims are likely to happen when a cyber attack destroys the power grid and infrastructure of this country.

Mark Stout, historian at the International Spy Museum, explains that the room is not there to cause panic–it simply exists as a beacon of awareness about the issue.  He says that as technology advances along with our reliance on and integration with computer systems, it’s becoming more important to focus on cyberterrorism.  However, Stout does express the similar talking point of the likely possibility of this happening in the near future, warning that “there will come a time and it will be within our lifetime, probably relatively soon, that there will be a major cyber terrorist attack.” 

Also on display at the “Weapons of Mass Disruption” exhibit is a well produced graphic film reel of government officials and top military brass urging warnings about the threat.  “We know that there are half a dozen countries in the world that have developed cyber weapons,” states James A. Lewis, Director of Center for Strategic International Studies, in the film. 

However, the threat surpasses nation states.  The government is also pointing fingers at ubiquitous web entities such as Anonymous, the leaderless hacktivist group who has been shutting down highly secure government websites in addition to their repeated calls for mass civil unrest in the US.

Overall, the cyberterror hype seems to be working–a recent poll reveals that Americans are now more scared of cyberterrorism than actual terrorism. 

In response to the climate of fear, the federal government has already started to draft legislation to deal with the threat. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, is a bill that would permit massive collusion between corporations and the government to gain access to private user data.  It has already passed the House, and is now awaiting a Senate vote.

Critics of the legislation warn that the bills proposed are too broad, and could pave the way for government abuse.  “When it comes to protecting our civil rights and civil liberties, we don’t usually give the government a blank check, and that’s what these bills have done in a lot of ways,” explains Matt Wood, Policy Director for Free Press.  He continues to describe how the government’s excessive response doesn’t match the threat, and that these laws could be used simply for corporations to capitalize off the elimination of privacy at the risk of impeding Net Neutrality.  “It could be a competitive threat, it doesn’t have to be something you and I define as a cyber security threat, just a threat to their current bottom line or business,” Wood states.

Whether or not CISPA passes the Senate, one thing remains clear.  The government will continue its constant attempts to control the Internet, and the blanket threat of cyberterrorism may be the perfect avenue to convince the people of this country into giving up their rights to privacy on the Internet once and for all.

Written by Abby Martin for RT TV

Photo by flickr user AdamSelwood