Politics Board Book, TV or Movie Recommendation Thread

Re: Politics Board Book Recommendation Thread

Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs, and Operations in the 9/11 World, by William Arkin.

It identifies 3,000 once-secret code names and details the plans and missions they stand for.

"perhaps the most concentrated act of defiance of official secrecy policies since Howard Morland wrote about the H Bomb Secret in the Progressive in 1979." - Steven Aftergood

Arkin is the author of 10 other books and is a columnist with the Los Angeles Times, military analyst and former Army intelligence officer...

 

Submitted to "common dreams" last week...

“The Clutch:” Five Books Illuminating America’s Other Twin Towers
by Mel Brennan

Looking to define “clutch?”

Well, one way is to look at the events of the night of 14 June 1998. In a game many talking heads will forever argue should have been his last, and with his beloved Bulls trailing by one in the closing seconds, Michael Jordan stole the ball from Utah’s Karl Malone, drove on Malone’s team-mate Byron Russell, stopped on a dime…

And did what he always does, pressure or no: he took the shot.
He hit the shot.
A game-winning shot.
A championship-winning shot.

Clutch: doing, when it’s hard, that which you do when it’s easy.

Be it Jordan, or Mia Hamm, or Emmitt Smith, or Serena Williams or Reggie Jackson, we embrace fully the concept of “coming through in the clutch,” of being everything you’ve claimed to be when it’s hardest to do, in our conception of American sport. In fact, we judge our sport leadership and participants by that clutch standard.

In what way does the U.S. citizen, the U.S. government exemplify such “clutchness" off the court, in the daily drumbeat of life and living, our current opportunities for global leadership?

One look at “The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib,” by Karen J. Greenberg, Joshua L. Dratel and Anthony Lewis begins to let us know.

Michael Ratner, of the Center for Constitutional Rights, says the work “…may well be the most important and damning set of documents exposing U.S. government lawlessness ever published,” and I may agree. I certainly agree with Brig. Gen. James Cullen when he submits that “The memos and other material collected in this book reveal how political lawyers in the Administration adopted an ‘ends justify the means’ policy, and tailored their advice to justify torture and avoidance of obligations under the Geneva Conventions.” For citizen-accountable governments like the U.S., the torture papers represents some bastardization or perversion of that process by both abidcation of best practice and endorsement of something else.

Certainly not clutch.

We can all observe the employment of Executive “ends justify the means” rationale in the language Bush and Blair use to justify the invasion of Iraq. Both leaders have submitted a number of times along of the lines of Well, reasonable people may disagree as to how we got into Iraq, but no one can say that the world isn’t a better place with Saddam Hussein out of power.

Ends, justifying the means.

What Bush and Blair leave unsaid, and what must be said, is that this mode of being in the world is in fact the precise mode of operating employed by individuals and groups who look to wage terror. Innocent civilians die? “Who cares,” or “that’s not important,” terror-mongers might say: “the means serve a greater end.”

We might want to consider the extent to which US/UK foreign policy aligns with terrorist thought/action at any time, but particualrly at a time when we are claiming the opposite perspective in terms of a so-called "clash of civilizations." For the global observer, U.S. employment of "ends justifies the means" thought and action makes it harder, not easier, to distinguish between "civilizations."

Indeed, the more one looks at this way of being in the world, the more one realizes that “ends justifies the means” thinking can only end in terror, because it is predicated upon a "might makes right" mindset; it is only in extreme historical moments like that of 9/11 and its aftermath (extreme for Americans, one of a spectrum of horrors for much of the rest of the world) that this mode of engaging the world is even allowed consideration by rational human beings and societies.

Extremes; extremes in our own citizen-fear allow terror-aligned thinking to manifest as well. We have lost, in horror, the Twin Towers of our New York skyline and the souls who inhabited them at the moments of their fall; yet another set of Towers remain: the Twin Towers of the Future of America.

One Tower is built, layer upon layer, with different takes on the idea that America can claim notions such as “the greatest democracy in the world,” and “the hope for freedom of millions,” while reflecting diametrically opposed truths such as those disclosed in the memos of “Torture Papers.” It is a Tower built of words promoting the Idea of America while simultaneously undertaking the oft-horrific acts encompassing America-style globalization found in John Perkins’ “Confessions of an Economic Hitman."

In “Confessions,” Perkins describes in detail thirty-five years of American business and government collusion to facilitate the work of, as Perkins puts it, “highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars.”

This Tower is built upon a tragicomically faltering foundation of hypocrisy, one perfectly described by a comic - George Carlin - as “...the old Americans double standard of 'say one thing, do something different'...”; an America less interested in promoting ideals and the rule of law than promoting a system of wealth inequality only bested in the developing world by Mexico (and one that, wage/inflation-wise, has forced most citizens to make do with less and less since 1973), while settling for an infant mortality rate double that of Sweden and higher than Slovenia.

That’s one Tower; one layered, built-upon conception of ourselves and of America.

That Tower contests right now with another, wholly different one: an America in self-conception and in local-to-global action found in works like Howard Zinn’s “A People's History of the United States : 1492-Present," where, through giving a voice to voices outside the First Tower's conception of American self (and subsequent mainstream media shaping of who and what is historically important), Zinn allows a totally different America, one that’s always been there and always been crucial, to come into our awareness.

This Second Tower is built on knowing that the Constitution, the very foundation of America, was one damn unique document for its time, maybe for all time, even if it left out an equitable fulfilment of rights and an affirmation of humanity to anyone who failed to be a landed white, heterosexual male, yet it left many rights, for many people, specifically uncodified and generally unconfirmed .

It’s a Tower laden with sensibilities that differentiate between our set of decision-rules (Constituting a democratic republic) and our chosen economic system (capitalism), and, like Michael Albert, see an America beyond such choice. In his work “PARECON: Life After Capitalism," Albert offers up an America promoting ideals and values such as “… equity, solidarity, diversity, and participatory self management” as a way of life for Americans, and not just as campaign-ad rhetoric. To fulfill the promise of those values PARECON describes new institutions that will facilitate, among other things, “…remuneration according to effort and sacrifice, and participatory planning.”

It’s a Tower that, like Cornel West in his book “Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism," finds space beyond the dogma of Christianity, Judaism and Islam to embrace progressive, prophetic voices on all sides of the spirituality debate, and demands wholesale rejection of “ends justifies means” fundamentalism, on all sides.

Indeed, these works help us see that the central thrust of this Second Tower is of an America in the becoming, with law and love and sacrifice as the forms of agency through which America gives itself the best chance to become that which we claim it to be, at home and throughout the world.

Engaging the Ideas of this Second Tower of American-ness means acknowledging that the Great Experiment remains to be completed; that its completion is a process of possibility.

A commitment to this Tower of American self-conception means coming to see that the extension of the Constitutional franchise - again, a document not specifically intended to encompass those different in gender, race and class fro the Founders - comes from everyday people getting in the streets and becoming willing to stand fast and sacrifice everything they are for the truth that the Constitution, that America, could and should represent everyone, especially when it’s hard to do.

It comes from “stepping up in the clutch,” for the nation, and for the world, in hope and expectation that a land which always celebrates and usuallly embraces the rule of law would eventually codify such sacrifice in laws extending rights and affirming humanity, for everyone.

From the Abolitionists, to the labor and child labor movements, to the suffrage movement, to the political rights and civil rights and Indian rights and women’s rights movements to the gay/lesbian rights movement: none of these are naturally provided for in either the letter or the interpretation of the Founding Document of the American nation. Rather, the Idea behind such movements was that with the Constitution as a basis, if we stood fast, stood courageous, in the streets for those rights and in the courtroom (and the jail, and in the morgue) for that change in the law, we would have a nation in practice like the one in the American Dream.

Thus, we stood, generationally, in each historical moment, in the clutch.
We took the shot.
And we made the shot.
Maybe not a game-winning shot, but the shot that keeps us in the game.

That’s what that Scond Tower is about. And it contends, everyday, with that first Tower, for the soul and substance of America.

The events of 9/11 reach out to this generation, to each American, as we contribute to the building and affirming of one Tower or the other, and each Tower rings back a substantively different response to those, or any, attacks.

One says “yes, ends do justify the means,” and keeps us duct-taped, terror-alerted and afraid while telling us that just being afraid is enough to justify anything to make us safe and make us win, whatever “safe” ends up meaning, whatever cost is incurred in the "winning."

That Tower asks us to turn our backs on what we’ve claimed to be, in the light of a New Era in violence and destruction, and submits that in fact the only way TO survive on this New Earth is to become a New America. To, in the most important of moments, avoid taking the shot altogether. To take our ball and run home, and let our betters take whatever shot deemed necessary for us, while we watch, glued, then return to the court with a different ball and say "the game had changed."

The Second Tower says that it’s only in moments when we are afraid, only when the right thing is difficult to do, that we can claim what we are. That our Ideals, like friendship, suffer no test when everything is hunky-dory, but rather when everything is going wrong. It’s then, and only then, that we discover that for which we are willing to stand.

In the clutch.

Mel Brennan is the American author (along with Grant Jarvie and Tony Hwang) of “Sport, Revolution and the Beijing Olympics." Mel both teaches sports studies and examines human rights in Olympic cities in the pursuit of a PhD in Sports Studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland, UK.

 

Re: Politics Board Book Recommendation Thread



The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions And Distortions
by David Ray Griffin

...We all remember, as young children, scary locations that created deep fears. We might imagine monsters in the closet, dangers in a nighttime backyard, and creepy people in some abandoned house down the street. As we get older we build up the courage to open the closet, or walk out into the backyard to smell the night air. As adults there are still dark closets in our socio-cultural consciousness that make it impossible to even consider the possibility of the truthfulness of certain ideas. These fearful ideas might be described as threshold concepts in that they may be on the borders of discoverability, yet we deny even the potentiality of implied veracity - something is so evil it is completely unimaginable.

A threshold concept facing Americans is the possibility that the 9/11 Commission Report was on many levels a cover-up for the failure of the US government to prevent the tragedy. Deeper past the threshold is the idea that the report failed to address sources of external assistance to the terrorists. Investigations into this area might have lead to a conclusion that elements of various governments - including our own - not only knew about the attacks in advance, but also may have helped facilitate their implementation. The idea that someone in the Government of the United States contributed support to such a horrific attack is inconceivable to many. It is a threshold concept that is so frightening that it brings up a state of mind akin to complete unbelievability.

Philosophy/Religion professor David Ray Griffin has recently published his findings on the omissions and distortions of the 9/11 Commission report. Griffin's book brings into question the completeness and authenticity of the 9/11 Commission's work. Griffin questions why extensive advanced warnings from several countries were not acted upon by the administration, how a major institutional investor knew to buy put-options on American and United Airlines before the attack, and why photos of the Pentagon immediately after the attack show damage inconsistent with a crash of a 757 airliner.

Additionally, Griffin notes questions remain on why the 9/11 Commission failed to address the reports that $100,000 was wired to Mohamed Atta from Saeed Sheikh, an agent for Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), under the direction of the head of ISI General Mahmud Ahmed. General Ahmed resigned his position less than one month later. The Times of India reported that Indian intelligence had given US officials evidence of the money transfer ordered by Ahmad and he was dismissed after the "US authorities sought his removal."

Also, the 9/11 Commission report failed to address the reasons for the collapse of World Trade Center (WTC) building 7 more than six hours after the attack. WTC-7 was a 47-story steel frame building that had only small fires on a few floors. WTC buildings 5 & 6 had much larger fires and did not collapse. This has led a number of critics to speculate that WTC 7 was a planned demolition.

Overall concerns with the official version of 9/11 have been published and discussed by scholars and writers around the world including: Jim Mars, Nafeez Ahmed, Michael Ruppert, Cynthia McKinney, Barrie Zwicker, Webster Tarpley, Michel Chossudovsky and many others. The response to most has been to label these discussions as conspiracy theories unworthy of media coverage or further review. Pursuit of a critical analysis of these questions is undermined by the psychological barrier about 9/11 issues as threshold concepts - too awful to even consider.

We may be on the borders of discovery regarding the possibility of a great evil within our own government, and perhaps others outside as well. We must step past the threshold and have the courage to ask the questions, demand answers, and support research into all aspects of this American tragedy. Perhaps the closet isn't as dark and as fearful as we envision. If we don't courageously look and search into the deepest regions of our fears how can we assure our children and ourselves a safe and honest future..?

 

Re: Politics Board Book Recommendation Thread



Throughout history, tug-of-war dialogues of 'us and them' have permeated the human condition. Many of the problems that humanity has faced in the past, and is facing in the present, are manifestations of these tug-of-war dialogues. Racism, war, genocide, religious fundamentalism, and a wide range of other seemingly insurmountable social strifes, can be attributed to such definitions regarding who 'we' are, and who 'they' are.

There are dilemmas that are facing us, as we speak, that will only intensify with each passing year. Global warming is now upon us. Yet we, in the first world, continue pumping excessive quantities of smoke by-product into the atmosphere due to our habits of over consumption. Or consider the populations in the second and third worlds exploding like never before. Poverty is a factor in these increases, as any economics major will attest to. And since we live in a world in which 30% of the world's population holds 95% of the world's wealth, it is logical to hypothesize that the power to prevent such population expansion is within our hands. Statistically speaking, we are being faced with a 50% population increase less than 50 years away, from 6 billion people to 9 billion individuals. Can we even begin to fathom the burden of a population of 9 billion? Is that the legacy that we are choosing to leave behind?

The author of Transcend has spent the better half of the last decade, traveling extensively through Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Continental United States. As destination led to destination, and exposures began to accumulate, questions arose, of namely: What is it that separates us? What is it that binds each and every one of us together? What perspective is necessary so as to carry on one's life in full consideration of the welfare of the whole as well as for the individual self? And it was within this mode of intrepid travel where answers abounded.

Similar in format to Victor Frankle's, 'Man's Search For Meaning,' Transcend is broken into two parts. Part One is a non-fictional account of a handful of experiences; each anecdote culminating into a revelation of sorts. This first section is an engaging read, and has received much positive feedback from editorial reviewers, fellow authors, and readers alike. It's a travel log in which the journey is utilized as a vehicle for an underlying social message. In addition, this first section has all the punch, kick, and color that a good road book should have. Part Two then switches gears, as page after page unfolds into a five-and-dime philosphical hypothesis for achieving global cooperation, and ultimate peace. It's a salespitch that argues for the embracing of our human similarites, as well as our ultimate mortality, as a means toward brighter horizons. Would we continue to suppress, marginalize, exploit, and harm one another, if this is ultimately the only chance at life that each of us has? Maybe ending the perpetual struggles and strifes that we impose on one another is as simple as living in the here and now.... just that.

Transcend is a bombardment of the senses, as it is a glorification of the free spirit; a tribute to the persona that chooses by his or her own volition, to witness the world with his or her own eyes, before making any judgments as to what the world consists of...

"A book like Transcend could not have come at a more suitable point in time. As the country is withdrawing from true interaction from the rest of the world, the U.S. dearly needs to take note of messages such as Joseph's"

Carool Kersten - Rambles Cultural Arts Magazine

"A thought provoking portrayal of our capacities as individuals in ending the unfortunate inhumanity prevalent in the world today."

Clea Mcdougall - Ascent Magazine

"Transcend brings us face to face with ourselves, and forces us to reconsider our own feelings and values. It moves us out of our complacency and causes us to consider the effect of man's inhumanity on us all. The use of a travel motif makes this book readable, enjoyable and at the same time challenging. It draws us in and as we get hooked by the story, important issues are brought up about the world we live in, and ourselves. The philosophical musings are given within the context of the storyline, and hence Joseph is able to communicate a message where many others have failed. Transcend is a fascinating journey into our own quest for meaning."

Living Traditions Magazine

"One man's portrait of the world... as it is, as it was, and as it should be. To leave off with a thought from the book that is exceptional: 'Seeing, feeling, touching, experiencing first hand is to understand.' Great Job!"

Cynthia Godin - Book Review Cafe

"Full of insight, uncanny in its timeliness, this poignant work is extraordinary."

Maria Rodriguez - The New York Open Center

"Richard Joseph is the working man's Herman Hesse."

Ray Sikorski - Author of Driftwood Dan

"Transcend is an underground gem; well worth reading for all Americans."

Paul Lappen - Dead Trees Review

"Challenging and enlightening. An optimistic vision of what the world could be, if we opened our eyes... to each other."

Max Lindegger - Global Ecovillage Network