I am saddened by all the news reports being generated this week characterizing innocent American citizens who question what our media reports and how they report it, as right wing extremist haters of America.

Who benefits from the media and government's equating concern with hatred, and for what purpose would they portray American citizens who listen to alternative news (NPR, etc.) as "paranoid"?

On May 9,  CNN's American Morning host, Paula Zahn, asked William Bennett, former drug czar for G.W. Bush, Sr., how a book such as Noam Chomsky's "9-11" could be conceived (angling toward such heretical notions as this country's own possible culpability in the events of September 11).

Bennett's response (I heard) was, "these kinds of ideas are almost always suggested by those types of individuals who HATE America...." (see: CNN.com/TRANSCRIPTS)

I am neither familiar with Mr. Chomsky, nor have I read his book.  But if, as Ms. Zahn and Mr. Bennett (who quipped that his own book was not selling so well) suggested, Chomsky's book is selling like hot cakes to the tune of over 160,000 sold so far -- there must be a really large group of individuals among us who hate this country.

Mentioned almost in passing was another book issued abroad (France), and also selling well internationally, "Bin Laden: The Hidden (or Forbidden) Truth."

May 8,  one day earlier, Ms. Zahn had invited a well known, self-proclaimed patriot spokesman on her show to offer his own conjecture regarding the young man charged with the recent pipe bomb scares.  Her guest, Mr. Bo Gritz's, observations regarding such inspiration surprisingly seemed to betray the very people he claims to represent (see: www.bogritz.com), for he observed that, in his own esteemed opinion, the influence behind such tactics by a 21 year old who was not yet old enough to have formed a real knowledge of life and death or a true notion of politics,  were probably "not his friends, but more probably [influenced by] his own family or those black helicopter paranoid short wave radio.....henny penny sky-is-falling internet hate groups..."

I find such intimations to be odious and reprehensible.

Curiously, CNN now appears to have purged this part of Ms. Zahn's interview from their bank of available transcripts.

Remember toward the end of all those multiple Anthrax outbreaks (with their strange plain brown wrapper type delivery envelopes with childlike handwriting) when the government conceded the high-tech Anthrax strain sent in all cases to have most probably originated from The US Army Medical Research labs at Fort Detrick, Maryland? [1]Did the media ever really fully investigate the possibility that our own US Army personnel themselves were the most likely suspects?  Did the media subsequently open for discussion or elaboration, the primary nature of the government's work located at the medical labs in Ft. Detrick?  Isn't this where weapons-grade Anthrax, coated in Bentonite, is created specifically by the US military for use in germ warfare?

Did we ever hear CNN follow up on that?

Which story did we hear repeated most often?  The one that stuck....

Remember back to the Susan Smith murders?  Susan Smith, who killed her own sons by drowning them in a lake, then claiming that she had been carjacked and the children kidnapped, while she wept crocodile tears as she pleaded publicly for the alleged kidnapper to return her babies?  When then Sheriff Wells obtained a description of the alleged kidnapper, Smith gave him such a stereotypical, generic description of the alleged perpetrator that the police and detectives became immediately suspicious of her.  The details of her description, police later told the media, were too general, vague, ambiguous, and incredible---that is, lacking real credibility.   As we remember now, in her case there was no kidnapper.  There was no villain, none except the one who actually murdered those babies and sought only to draw suspicion away from the real criminal-----herself.    Smith concocted her story solely for the purpose of hiding her crime, of hiding the truth of what she herself had done. [2]

Is this why mainstream media is attempting to demonize us?  To draw our eyes away from the real issues at stake?  To obfuscate truth?

I grow sadder for my country, hourly.  An incredible propaganda machine is turning up the heat on us frogs in our boiling pot, churning out spin, relentlessly, disparaging and discrediting individuals who just want to uncover the facts, while the rest of the world is apparently being lulled into unconsciousness by, if nothing else, the sheer repetition of such misinformation--and are buying these stories because these stories are easier to believe than our own government standing eyeball deep in a 1400 mile long pipeline through southern Asia?   Is it easier to believe that a growing number of individuals in this country -- 160,000 by this morning's count -- are all paranoid anarchists or radical right-wing extremists threatening our national security,  than to believe that our government may be intimidating the truth right out of those in the media who are charged with reporting it?

Can anyone explain to me how in a mere five (5) days, Lucas Helder managed to drive his Honda from Minnesota, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Colorado, Oklahoma, to Texas, then over to Nevada, all in just five days, building and delivering at least 24 mail bombs along the way?  (http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/08/mailbox.pipebombs/index.html) That is at least a 2500 mile road trip.  He would have had to be driving non-stop, without sleep, and topping speeds of about 90 miles an hour consistently, to do this----no pit stops, no food, no sleep.

What is wrong with this picture?

Why don't we as Americans ever think for ourselves?

It is as if our country needed yet another "crisis" to focus on since news of late has gotten a little stale. What do current CNN popularity polls reflect?

Before September 11, we as a country were barely emerging from the political scandal surrounding Election 2000 and its aftermath, multiple curious power outages in California, hotly contested soaring fuel prices in California now known to have been manipulated by Enron (http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-000032680may08.story) -- and our new President's numerous post-election public speaking gaffs and displays of sheer ignorance (remember... before taking office, he didn't know the heads of state nor had he himself even visited a foreign country); before 9-11 he and and his administration were lagging in public opinion polls.

I guess the question I have to ask myself over and over is, who has been best served by all of what has happened in the past nine months?

Is America now more secure?  Is our economy improving?  Are our borders not still wide open?  Who are currently being portrayed as terrorists?  Have we caught Bin Laden?   Are we even interested in Bin Laden?  How is the Office of Homeland Security making us all feel safer?  Why do so many people who work for our current administration have major oil and financial interests in those very areas where war is currently being declared?   What constitutes a conflict of interest?   How can any war be so deemed without an official Congressional declaration?   Does this mean we are under Martial Law?   Can our President really suspend all future presidential elections indefinitely -- forever, if necessary --until we are released from this state of Martial Law?

Why have we, the American people, been equated to terrorists for asking pertinent and probative questions like "HOW IS IT THAT FOUR AIRCRAFT SLIPPED THROUGH FAA SECURITY IN US AIR SPACE AND FOR 58-70 MINUTES WERE ALLOWED TO FLY UNDETECTED,  ATTACKING AND TOTALLY DESTROYING OVER 3000 HUMAN LIVES?" What does the FAA rule book state concerning such episodes?  How is it that the air force scrambled jets to the side of Payne Stewart's failing jet in 21 minutes -- per FAA regulation; without Presidential consent --when communication with that fateful jet, suddenly failed...........but NO military aricraft responded to the flightpath deviation and communication blackout(s) of those planes on 9-11.  Not even air-defense fighter jets based at Andrews Air Force Base, in Washington, DC, near the Pentagon.

Regarding Payne Stewart's doomed jet, CNN reports on October 26, 1999:

"Within MINUTES, on an immediate alert from the FAA, U.S. Air Force and Air Guard jets were scrambled to intercept Stewart's jet and see what the heck was up (not that it helped much in that case...): "Several Air Force and Air National Guard fighter jets, plus an AWACS radar control plane, helped the Federal Aviation Administration track the runaway Learjet and estimate when it would run out of fuel."

Who were our governmental officials charged with "keeping watch" on September 11, who allowed four planes to fly for over one hour to their destruction, who are now preventing further investigation of such questions from taking place?  Is anyone or any agency going to be held accountable for this federal faux pas leading to war, a war still yet undeclared by congress, officially?

Perhaps the greatest immediate benefit to demonizing decent law-abiding Americans is the distraction such slander stirring causes.   Mud-slinging distracts us from asking such sensitive questions as those concerning the true nature of inviting such luminaries as avowed satanist, Ozzy Osbourne to the White House for President Bush's correspondents dinner. Demonizing concerned Americans must seem an effective way to divert the easily diverted from the almost inconceivable image of George Bush Jr. showing "family slides" and conducting self-styled narratives at the same dinner displaying images of of Dick Cheney urinating [3] on his door in the Oval Office--a moment proudly engineered by Ozzy's highest profile, #1 fan, our own esteemed President, who showed his acumen at naming many of Osbourne's recent hits, reciting lyrics verbatim, and claiming Barbara Bush, matriarch, to also be a fan.

I am just a grandmother, a mother, a wife, a songwriter and folk singer (yes, a musician), a gardener, a lover of good cooking, good movies, great poetry, and many other forms of artistic creativity.  And I, too, am a Christian.  I do not own a short-wave radio.  I really, really like the Home & Garden TV channel.   I  listen to "Car Talk."   I love our country and all our freedoms illuminated by our own constitution and our pledge of allegiance, "One nation; under God; indivisible..."   I am not a conspiratorialist.  And for the record I do not, nor have I ever, owned a gun.  I am a middle aged woman who now can be legally executed for refusing to take another smallpox vaccination, because the one I had forty years ago, which was supposed to be for life, I am now being told, is no good.

Yes, while we were all contemplating this year's Super Bowl half-time entertainment,  warrantless search and seizure procedures had already been written into law right under our noses via the USA Patriot Act.  We were told the Patriot Act was to protect us from future terrorism such as 9-11, but had anyone actually chanced to READ the USA Patriot Act, including Congress, someone might have noticed that MANY of our former private rights have been permanently eliminated WITHOUT benefit of sunset clauses (see Part 2, here).

However, because it is still our choice, I do not own a gun.  I do not belong to or support the NRA, but I applaud another's right to.  Up until recently, anyway, I thought we still had a right to choose these types of things...

The screwball stuff which has been happening in the last nine months in this country, alone, have proven sufficient to cause most folks to overload.   CNN has fondly referred to the American "sleep-deprivation syndrome epidemic." (See 'cognitive dissonance,' Part 1) And for the record, our governmental leaders have done little to engender lasting feelings of confidence among us, or even to enhance their own credibility.

What was George Bush thinking at the White House Correspondents' Dinner?

I am deeply offended that, because I desire additional information concerning the many apparent news discrepancies, I am now being stereotyped, accused of hating my country, and labeled "paranoid, " alongside Osama bin Laden and alleged pipe bombers.  And, instead of assuaging our current feelings of uneasiness, the President and his current administration are only succeeding in making Bill Clinton's White House antics look pretty benign, in my opinion.  And Clinton's antics weren't benign.  This current administration, however, has gone even further into darkness, by taking multiple unprecedented legal measures to insure that many of our freedoms have been removed and insuring that no American citizen nor court, no, NO ONE will ever be able to review a president or his staff's actions -- either now, or in the future.

What about our alleged system of "checks and balances?"  What about the judicial branch of our American government being charged with keeping in balance our legislative branch which is to keep in check our executive branch, and all remain accountable to each other, and reviewable as to conduct, under the Freedom of Information Act?

Not any more it seems. The reason, I am told--to protect our national security.  From whom?  Us?

What will it take to waken Americans to the psychological shell game that is now being played?  Will it take another terrorist attack before we turn off our televisions in disgust and horror and actually read our currently dissolving United States Constitution?  Do you know what your constitutional rights now are?  Do you know that, daily, those rights are being taken away from you?  Do you know what a Model States Emergency Health Powers Act is?  Do you know how many states have already implemented this act?  Do you know that our government is planning forced inoculations under gunpoint, if necessary?

Did you know that our Neighborhood Watch programs are being managed under FEMA now? [4]  Did you know that American citizens are currently being trained all over this country as CitizenCorps, to arrest other American citizens, to supplement allegedly lagging police and military forces?

Do you understand that this is how Hitler quickly and efficaciously manipulated the citizens of pre-WW II Germany to turn over their liberties and to trust (and in some cases, work for) the Third Reich?

(See Reichstag: Part 2)

Do you know what former German institution our Office of Homeland Security models itself after?

Retired US Navy Lt. Commander and former officer in the Office of Naval Intelligence, Al Martin observes that according to our government, The Office of Homeland Security will operate three distinct divisions of itself. The first, a plain-clothes division similar to the FBI, called the State (Homeland) Security Division (SSD). The Nazi SS was called the Homeland Protection Squad or, loosely, die Schutzstaffel der Vaterland, in German, subgroup under the Sturm Abteilung, or Storm Troopers (See: Star Wars), abbreviated to "SS." Our Homeland Security, State Security Division, or SSD, is the same acronym as the former East German Secret Police. In terms of authority, Homeland Security will not be under anyone else's authority, as a "super-agency."  While it will initially act as a security coordinating agency, it will be above the FBI, CIA, NSA, and DIA. The new Office of Homeland Security officers are slated to have black SS-type uniforms complete with black leather jack-boots and helmets.  Additionally, OHS helicopters will be painted a matte black and have digitized red lettering that says State Security.
....or, SS?

If the government has admittedly approved black uniforms for our Stateside Homeland Security, and an arsenal of black helicopters with SS on the side, what is the point of demonizing American citizens who truly love their country and are truly interested in more than current football scores? Our government and its publicity machinery, the news media, will soon be needing more than the mere demonizing of citizens to get us all scared enough to give up the rest of our inalienable rights.  In order to accomplish this, I feel that something extraordinary is going to have to occur, soon; something on a scale comparable to, or worse than,  9-11.   Those seven WTC buildings felled, may have been just the beginning.

Recently, financial wizard Warren Buffet, recently observes that a future nuclear assault is now not just probable, but inevitable:

Then any and all survivors can be gathered into FEMA containment facilities for quarantine and subsequently treated as prisoners of war.  Why, we even have our own FEMA detainment center ready, right here in Austin, Texas, at the old Robert Mueller Airport.  Yes, one of many old airport hangers there has been converted into a AEMA (under aegis of FEMA) containment center, complete with cots and leg irons bolted into the floor, capacity to contain is estimated at 1500 civilians, per multiple local new broadcasts, December 31, 1999.  (video/transcripts available from KXAN, K-EYE, KVUE: Austin, TX) This center was up and running, according to the news reports, in preparation for "Y-2K" or any subsequent city-wide emergency, as of 6 pm, New Year's Eve, 1999.

This is all happening right under our noses.   But the water is so warm......

Ann Hutchinson, director of the Austin Police Department and head of Austin's Emergency Management Agency, heads up our local FEMA/ Neighborhood Watch project coordination.  She will during the coming months be overseeing, per KXAN channel 36, civilian training--teaching civilians how to assist in arrests, detain, and subdue citizens.
Contact your local Bureau of Emergency Management offices for details.

See: http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/wmdcst.html ( NOTE: paragraphs on report re:"Posse Comitatus Act: "The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits military personnel from being used for law enforcement within the United States. As a result, there have been objections to using the National Guard to support civil authorities in this manner. However, WMD-CST troops are at all times under the jurisdiction of the state governor, a civilian, and serve to assess and evaluate situations in support of civilian  authorities." And, paragraph re: the "Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Domestic Preparedness Program."

And if you are thinking I am off my nut, and that this is really about our government's truly needing to properly respond to events such as 9-11 and any future terrorist attacks, then PLEASE, please go read Part 4 of this article, before you turn on your TV and tune me out.  If you actually do the little bit of research contained here and still believe we are just in a reasonable process of defending ourselves from irate foreigners plotting our total demise, then none of what I have said here matters anyway, and I must indeed be wacky.

If any of this, however, causes you to stop and think, I give thanks to God.  The boogey man is not who is being currently proffered.  He is now, sadly and ironically, being portrayed as your own neighbors, friends, and family.   Do not believe this type of report .   Do the homework.  Your private rights are in fact disappearing.   Truly.  And by the time you actually realize that what I am telling you here is true, you may be confronted with straits too dire as to leave any options.  You may find yourself, instead, in total despair.  And when that day of great national awakening comes, we will all need more than we, alone, will be able to provide ourselves and our families.  And for the record, when that day comes......hoarding gold, silver, and/or guns is not going to prove an efficacious solution.

Because the true enemy is bigger and badder than you could ever imagine...

1. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/anthrax_update020404.html
    http://www.weeklystandard.com/Check.asp?idArticle=1147&r=vnjgh
2. http://www.crimelibrary.com/fillicide/smith/7.htm
3  http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020505/80/cyaow.html (NOTE: As of May 13, 2001, this article has been purged from the internet.  Many articles are disappearing daily.  I have researched the above sources thoroughly and have no reasonable explanation for why this phenomenon seems to be occuring.  The same is true with the CNN story, above.  If any of you find these "lost" articles, please forward them to me. --betty)
4. http://www.progressive.org/May%202002/berk0502.html