[Illustration: 2010 © The People's Voice] At this point, I didn't believe it was possible, but the Obama administration has just reached an all-new low in its abysmal civil liberties record. In response to the lawsuit filed by Anwar Awlaki's father asking a court to enjoin the President from assassinating his son, a U.S. citizen, without any due process, the administration late last night, according to The Washington Post, filed a brief asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit without hearing the merits of the claims. That's not surprising: both the Bush and Obama administrations have repeatedly insisted that their secret conduct is legal but nonetheless urge courts not to even rule on its legality. But what's most notable here is that one of the arguments the Obama DOJ raises to demand dismissal of this lawsuit is "state secrets":

in other words, not only does the President have the right to sentence Americans to death with no due process or charges of any kind, but his decisions as to who will be killed and why he wants them dead are "state secrets," and thus no court may adjudicate their legality.

Cyberterrorism is such a threat that the U.S. president should have the authority to shut down the Internet in the event of an attack, Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said. [There is no 'cyberterrorism'. There is some cybercriminality however and the CIA itself is behind a lot of it.] Hayden made the comments during a visit to San Antonio where he was meeting with military and civilian officials to discuss cyber security. The U.S. military has a new Cyber Command which is to begin operations on October 1. Hayden said the president currently does not have the authority to shut down the Internet in an emergency. [Nor should he ever have it. -By what right?]

How well did the White House react to the Gulf oil spill disaster? A federal panel appointed by President Barack Obama starts its investigation Monday. The two-day meeting of the presidential oil spill commission will look at the controversial use of chemical dispersants, a moratorium on deep-water drilling and Obama's plans to make the Gulf's environment better than it was before the huge spill. It will also examine who was in charge of making critical decisions — BP PLC or the federal government. The April 20 explosion and fire killed 11 workers, sunk the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and unleashed 206 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. It also tested the oil industry's and government's capabilities to respond to a massive blowout in deep water.

Bulldozers began operating this morning in Jewish settlements on the West Bank in direct defiance of a plea from the Israeli Prime Minister. Residents of the town Ariel wok to hear construction work beginning on more than 50 new housing units, the Jerusalem Post reported. A moratorium on building in Israeli settlements elapsed at midnight this morning, threatening the recently resumed peace talks. Bejamin Neanyahu had pleaded for restraint from his people, although wild right-wing celebrations greeted the expiry of the government's 10-month ban. Bulldozers, cement mixers and other construction equipment have been moved into some areas overnight, although he said 'nothing spectacular is happening'. Citing money problems, he predicted that only a few hundred homes would be built in the next few months.

The United States will now wait for the next move from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has kept peace hopes alive by saying that his team would not withdraw from the negotiating table. One settler leader, Dani Dayan, said land-moving equipment would begin laying the groundwork for new Jewish homes in West Bank settlements straight away.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus on Saturday criticized U.N. calls for increased "global governance" of the world's economy, saying the world body should leave that role to national governments.

The solution to dealing with the global economic crisis, Klaus told the U.N. General Assembly, did not lie in "creating new governmental and supranational agencies, or in aiming at global governance of the world economy." "On the contrary, this is the time for international organizations, including the United Nations, to reduce their expenditures, make their administrations thinner, and leave the solutions to the governments of member states," he said.

Klaus appeared to be responding to the address of the Swiss president of the General Assembly, Joseph Deiss, who said on Thursday at the opening of the annual gathering of world leaders in New York that it was time for the United Nations to "comprehensively fulfill its global governance role."

A group of Jewish activists set sail for the Gaza Strip on Sunday, intent on defying an Israeli blockade and highlighting the suffering of Palestinians who live in the territory. Nine activists from Israel, Britain, Germany and the United States left Famagusta port in northern Cyprus with a small quantity of aid aboard their British-flagged catamaran, "Irene." Uninterrupted, their trip to Gaza would take around 24 hours.

On Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010 a press conference was held to protest the FBI raids the day before on Chicago-area anti-war activists. In an attempt to intimidate and silence activists critical of U.S. foreign policy and militarism. Joe Iosbaker and his activist wife Stephanie Weiner had their home invaded by the FBI and searched for 12 hours. They even put in "evidence" bags drawings that their children made. Includes comments by their attorney Melinda Power. The space at the West Town Community Law Office was packed with about 75 supporters from numerous community and anti-war groups who made enthusiastic chants of solidarity at the end of the press conference. Iosbaker vowed that this McCarthy era-type government intimidation will not deter the anti-war movement from building an upcoming Midwest regional march on Oct. 16. Length - 9:28. Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit Google Video, YouTube, or blip.tv and search "Labor Beat".

AWIP: FBI Raids Peace Activist Homes Looking For Terrorist Ties!
Kenny's Sideshow: Dangerous White Folks With Babies, "Domestic Terrorists," Raided by FBI for Thinking They Have Anti-War Free Speech Rights

The US military claimed responsibility for killing scores of insurgents over the weekend as it unleashed its long-awaited offensive against Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO umbrella organization for the US-led occupation, reported the largest body counts in two eastern regions of the country. In eastern Laghman Province, ISAF reported that a US-led air assault killed at least 30 in an “engagement with enemy fighters” in the Alishing district. The report claimed that there were no injuries to civilians in the area. On Saturday, however, several hundred Afghans demonstrated in the streets of Mihtarlam, the provincial capital, to protest the slaughter of unarmed civilians in the raid. The protesters chanted slogans condemning the US-led occupation.

PressTV: US drone kills two in NW Pakistan.
PressTV: US strikes kill nine in Pakistan

Afghan vote-rigging videos emerge -- The integrity of Afghanistan's recent parliamentary election has been plunged into fresh doubt with the emergence of amatuer videos that appear to show police officers tasked with stopping fraud allowing vote-rigging to occur.

The integrity of Afghanistan's recent parliamentary election has been plunged into fresh doubt with the emergence of amatuer videos that appear to show police officers tasked with stopping fraud allowing vote-rigging to occur. The videos, obtained by Al Jazeera, cannot be independently verified but appear to show Afghan police involvement in electoral fraud, dealing a blow to official claims that any dishonesty that occurred was the work of independent fraudstars and was not carried out on a massive scale.

After Iran raises doubts about the official US account of the 9/11 attacks, an Iranian lawmaker says Washington intends to turn the event into a 'sacred' issue that cannot be debated. Bijan Nobaveh told IRNA on Monday that as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has mentioned, the US seeks to maintain September 11 as an untouchable 'sacred' issue as they have done about the Holocaust. "In that case, no country or individual will dare to make a word about the incident and the US will then be able to pursue its policies as it wants in the future," he added.

Nobaveh further stated that the main documents proving the fake nature of the 9/11 attacks are currently prepared by American citizens themselves. The Iranian lawmaker pointed out to the Qur'an desecration in the US on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks and said, "They wanted to imply that Muslims caused the attacks and therefore the US could wage a war against them." According to Nobaveh, most American people do not believe in the US government's explanations about the 9/11 incident.

PressTV: Ahmadinejad: An in-depth inquiry needs to be conducted into the incident.
AWIP: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: his outlandish largely fact-based 911/ WOT quotes

I have just perused some of the most popular "alternative" media sites this Saturday morning to see what is being written about Ahmadinejad's speech at the UN this week. Seems like complete avoidance. Censorship is a better word. While the Main Stream Media (MSM) at least covered the story, the alternative media has avoided the story, hoping it would go away. They are, it seems, under strict guidelines to not mention 9/11 truth or any of the evidence that conflicts with the official story of 9/11.

I looked at Alternet, CommonDreams, Truthout, DemocracyNow, Counterpunch, antiwar.com. I did see a small mention of the speech on DemocracyNow, as part of their news rundown. No details. I didn't see anything on antiwar.com's listing of headlines around the world that normally would have had information about the speech.

I think this is a clear indication that our progressive and independent alternative media is completely controlled. By whom? Well, it seems by the big foundations that help fund these sites. If you go to the foundational support for any of these sites, you will find foundations that link back to the likes of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Joyce Foundation, and many others.

Real Zionist News: Ahmadinejad - Guts To Tell The Truth THE ONLY WORLD LEADER with the guts to tell the truth these Zionist-censoring days, is Muslim President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And although the Iranian President boldly told the UN Assembly last week that “9-11 Was An Inside Job,” the American delegation and all of its European puppets walked out on the truth-teller, calling his proven statements “hateful and offensive.” Why? Because the Zionist-controlled US diplomats fear to offend their Jewish enablers like AIPAC and its subsidiary, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. In another truth-telling moment, Ahmadinejad remarked to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on 15 September 2010 that “Obama is controlled by the Zionist Lobby in America.” Ahmadinejad expanded his assertion by defining Zionism as an ideology aimed at displacing the Palestinians from their rightful homeland:

“Zionism is the widely accepted belief that Israel belongs to the Jews because they are the chosen people. This belief has displaced millions of Palestinians who lived there prior to the Zionist invasion.”

French President Sarkozy's expulsion of French gypsies has been compared to Nazi wartime deportation of Jews. But French Jewish organizations support the move.

PARIS (JTA) Aug 29, 2010-- With a preponderance of voices from the international media, human rights groups, the French clergy and some politicians denouncing French President Nicolas Sarkozy for fueling negative ethnic stereotypes with his new immigrant-focused security crackdown, many Jewish community representatives in France are taking a more measured stance.

France's main Jewish umbrella group, the CRIF, has not put out any statement on Sarkozy's new policies. But in an interview with JTA, CRIF President Richard Prasquier said he supports the idea of expelling illegal Roma from the country and that the idea of denaturalizing certain foreign-born criminals is "understandable" if they are guilty of attacking officers. Prasquier warned, however, against allowing prejudice to develop against Roma migrants who are French citizens. "When we become French citizens, it must be merited," he said.

AWIP: The persecution of Roma—under the Nazis and today
AWIP: European leaders disavow criticism of France’s Roma deportations.

European Neanderthals may have been wiped out by a catastrophic volcanic eruption over 40,000 years ago, according to new research. A new study says that a massive explosion caused the onset of a 'volcanic winter' that devastated their population. Researchers led by Liubov Golovanova of Russia's ANO Laboratory of Prehistory in St. Petersburg report that volcanic dust deposits found in a cave in the Caucasus show that an ecological disaster was responsible.

I have to read the report through. But here's the UN link. I see that the report describes the operation as disproportionate, with "unnecessary and incredible" violence, and "an unacceptable level of brutality."

And glancing at the narrative, the report finds that two of the 9 men killed in the raid, including American Furkan Dogan, were holding cameras and using them to film the Israeli invaders when they were shot. Additionally-- despite the sticks and catapults that some passengers used on the commandos-- the four people killed on the lower, bridge deck were not posing any physical threat to the raiders, who were then on the top deck, and in fact were trying to get out of the way.

Also notice the description of Gaza conditions as an unacceptable disgrace in the 21st century and the poetical language about Jewish victimhood (as I read it anyway) near the end-- Jews must find the strength to pluck from their memory rooted sorrows.

The Department of Defense recently purchased and destroyed thousands of copies of an Army Reserve officer's memoir in an effort to safeguard state secrets, a spokeswoman said Saturday. "DoD decided to purchase copies of the first printing because they contained information which could cause damage to national security," Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. April Cunningham said. In a statement to CNN, Cunningham said defense officials observed the September 20 destruction of about 9,500 copies of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's new memoir "Operation Dark Heart." Shaffer says he was notified Friday about the Pentagon's purchase.

"The whole premise smacks of retaliation," Shaffer told CNN on Saturday. "Someone buying 10,000 books to suppress a story in this digital age is ludicrous."

Shaffer's publisher, St. Martin's Press, released a second printing of the book that it said had incorporated some changes the government had sought "while redacting other text he (Shaffer) was told was classified."
From single words and names to entire paragraphs, blacked out lines appear throughout the book's 299 pages.

Artists to perform at pro-Palestinian music festival as Robert Wyatt releases new album in collaboration with Gilad Atzmon.

A music festival will be held in London on October 12th and 13th dedicated to highlighting the plight of Palestinians and help raise aid for the Gaza Strip.

The event, dubbed 'Jazza Music Festival', will feature singer-songwriter Sarah Gillespie, London-based Israeli-born saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, with the participation of other leading artists and performers such as the Mercury Prize nominated 'Unthanks' sisters. Gillespie will be playing songs from her debut album 'Stalking Juliet', known for catchy songs like 'How the Mighty Fall', 'Ahmed and Dangerous' and the moving melody of 'Million Moons', in addition to showcasing new works. Atzmon will be playing material from Robert Wyatt's new release, which includes a song about Palestine, with the Sigamos Sring Quartet and Cleveland Wattkiss on vocals.

Other artists featuring at the two-day Festival include Nizar Al-Issa, Shathayah, Rory McCloud, Peter King, Seb Rochford, Alex Garnett, and Oren Marshall. The Jazza Music Festival is organized in association with the Free Palestine Movement. Meanwhile, Atzmon is currently on tour with his new album, celebrating his tenth anniversary with the Orient House Ensemble (with Eddie Hick on drums, Frank Marrison on piano, and Yaron Stavi on bass). The release of 'TheTide Has Changed', recorded with Harmonia Mundi (World Village) label, comes to crown a decade of success and awards for Atzmon.