I already knew that Osama bin Laden read my book before the headlines this week – but I’m still angry that he gave The Best Democracy Money Can Buy only four-and-a-half stars on his Amazon review. Obviously, something in the book pissed him off, because
Since everyone seems to have an opinion about the mosque near Ground Zero (and President Obama has two), I’d like to ask you all
On September 11, 2001, my office building, the World Trade Center, was attacked by
The Department of Homeland Security, after a five-year hunt for Osama, finally brought charges against… Greg Palast.
As America crawled toward the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attack, Homeland Security charged me and my US producer Matt Pascarella with violating the anti-terror laws. Don’t you feel safer?
And I confess: we’re guilty.
He is the Sam Spade of investigative journalism. His exposes of the dirty dealings going on inside America’s politics are covered around the world
Jeff Cohen http://jeffcohen.org/ is the founder of the media watch group FAIR. For years he was an on-air pundit on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC-as well as senior producer of MSNBC’s primetime Donahue show in 2002/2003. This is adapted from his new book, Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.
Greg Palast will be appearing with Jeff Cohen this Saturday, October 7th, in New Haven Connecticut. The talk will benefit for WPKN’s “Between the Lines” program. Info at http://www.btlonline.org/
Silenced by the Drums of War
by Jeff Cohen
September 11th made 2001 a defining year in our country’s history. But 2002 may have been the strangest. It began with all eyes on Osama bin Laden and ended with Osama bin Forgotten – as the White House turned
Watch the BBC Report / Read the Transcript
September 10, 2006 – On November 9, 2001, when you could still choke on the dust in the air near Ground Zero, BBC Television received a call in London from a top-level US intelligence agent. He was not happy. Shortly after George W. Bush took office, he told us reluctantly, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the FBI, “were told to back off the Saudis.”
We knew that. In the newsroom, we had a document already in 
hand, marked, “SECRET” across the top and – meaning this was a national security matter.
The secret memo released agents to hunt down two members of the bin Laden family operating a “suspected terrorist organization” in the USA. It was dated September 13, 2001 – two days too late for too many. What the memo indicates, corroborated by other sources, was that the agents had long wanted to question these characters but could not until after the attack. By that time, these bin Laden birds had flown their American nest.
Back to the high-level agent. I pressed him to tell me exactly which investigations were spiked. None of this interview dance was easy, requiring switching to untraceable
The Right Wing has gone hog-ass wild over the New York Times’ “shocking” report that the Bush Administration is actually tracking terrorists’ money transfers. Oh my!
The fruitcakes are in flames! “Stand them in front of a firing squad or put them in prison for the rest of their lives,” says one pinhead on Fox TV.
For what? The stunning news that the government is hunting the source of al-Qaeda’s cash? “Osama! You must stop using your ATM card! Condi Rice is reading our bank statements!”
Somehow, I suspect bin Laden already assumes his checkbook is getting perused.
By Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services
“Governments don’t keep secrets to protect the public, but to deceive the public.”
Greg Palast happens to be talking about a certain Big Oil-friendly blueprint for the future of the Iraqi oil industry when he makes this point, almost in passing, in his just-released book, Armed Madhouse (Dutton), but he could be stating the general premise of the whole book, or of his career as a journo-sleuth in the Jack Anderson mold and stand-in for the little guy in the global economy. His raison d’être is to ferret out those secrets and those deceptions and present them in all their cynical glory to the people for whom such knowledge is vital: you and me.
The tooth fairy, Santa Clause, WorldCom profits, the Easter Bunny, al-Qaeda.
The cruel, evil jerks who blew up the London subway last week, despite appropriating al-Qaeda’s name for their website and T-shirts, have about as much to do with al-Qaeda as a Beatles tribute band has to do with the Fab Four.
Today, New York City ended the attempt to identify all the human remains of the September 11 attack. In stories of the sad conclusion to this great tragedy, there is no mention of those who have turned the horror of terror into a way to make a quick buck. Now, follow the money….
Document 199-I and The FBI’s Words to Chill The Soul
Watch the Report
On November 9, 2001, when you could still choke on the dust in the air near Ground Zero, BBC Television received a call in London from a top-level US intelligence agent. He was not happy. Shortly after George W. Bush took office, he told us reluctantly, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the FBI, “were told to back off the Saudis.”
