Can Americans Escape the Deception?

By Paul Craig Roberts

Paratroopers from the 3rd Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division work on a mine roller in front of a wall of hesco barriers at FOB Gardez in Afghanistan’s Paktiya Province July 10, 2012. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal, has held numerous university appointments and is Contributing Editor to Gerald Celente’s Trends Journal.

Hot Air Day is upon us. On July 4 hot air will spew forth all over the country as dignitaries deliver homilies to our “freedom and democracy” and praise “our brave troops” who are protecting our freedom by “killing them over there before they come over here.”

Not a single one of these speeches will contain one word of truth. No speaker will lament the death of the US Constitution or urge his audience to action to restore the only document that protects their liberty. No speaker will acknowledge that in the 21st century the Bush/Obama Regime, with the complicity of the Department of Justice, federal courts, Congress, presstitute media, law schools, bar associations, and an insouciant public have murdered the Constitution in the name of the “war on terror.”

As in medieval times, American citizens can be thrown into dungeons and never accounted for. No evidence or charges need be presented to a court. No trial is required, and no conviction.

As in tyrannies, US citizens can be executed at the sole discretion of the despot in the Oval Office, who sits there drawing up lists of people to be murdered.

Protestors exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association are attacked by armed police, beaten, tasered, tear-gassed, pepper sprayed, and arrested.

Whistleblowers who report the government’s crimes are prosecuted despite the statute that protects them.

US soldier Bradley Manning, who allegedly gave Wikileaks the documents revealing US war crimes, including the video of US soldiers in a helicopter gunship enjoying themselves murdering civilians walking along the street as if the soldiers were playing a video game, has been arrested and held in conditions of torture while the government tries to invent a case against him.

According to the US Military Code, US soldiers are required to make war crimes known. However, the law on the books provided no protection to Bradley Manning, and conservative Republicans whom I know are foaming at the mouth for Manning to be executed for letting out the truth. The truth, what is mere truth compared to the “exceptionalism of the great american people”? America has carte blanche to do whatever it wishes to the unexceptional peoples. Manning deserves to die, they say, because he took the side of the oppressed and not the side of the amerikan oppressors.

After the Swedish prosecutorial office dropped the case against Wikileaks’ Julian Assange, ruling that the charges of rape had no foundation, another prosecutor, many believe at the urging of the US government, demanded Assange be extradited from England in order to be questioned. Normally, extradition only applies to those who have been charged with a crime and for whom a warrant has been issued, which is most certainly not the case with Assange. But, of course, if Washington wants Assange, Washington will be sure every law is broken or bent until they get him. The Swedish puppet will do the exceptional country’s will and be paid well for its service.

Peace activists in several states had their homes invaded by FBI, computers and personal records taken, and a grand jury was convened in an attempt to indict them for supporting terrorism by their protests of Washington’s illegal wars, wars that are war crimes under the Nuremberg standard established by the US government itself.

None of this will be mentioned in July 4 patriotic speeches. The inebriated masses will be wrapped in the flag and return home full of the hubris that despises lesser foreigners, such as Muslims, Arabs, Chinese, and the French.

And no dignitary will mention that those that “we are killing over there” are mainly women, children, village elders, and aid workers. The US troops seem to specialize in soft targets like weddings, funerals, kids’ soccer games, farm houses, and schools.

Recently Washington reduced the “collateral damage” count by declaring every murdered male of military age to have been a Taliban fighter or terrorist. Obviously, Washington has no way of knowing whether they were or not, but Washington’s declaration is intended as a green light to murder Afghan males of military age.

Currently, Washington has wars underway, or occupations, or is violating the sovereignty of countries with drones and/or troops in seven Muslim countries, and is arming rebels in Syria. All of this is being done without the constitutionally-required authorization by Congress, allegedly the people’s representatives. What a joke!

In short, in “freedom and democracy” america, the people have no voice and no rights and no representatives.

Yet, this huge deficit of democracy and liberty will pass unmentioned by July 4th orators.

The crimes against humanity, the dismantling of the US Constitution and the lawlessness both domestic and international that define 21st century amerika are the results of September 11, 2001.

Washington’s account of 9/11 is the wildest conspiracy theory known to mankind. The absurdity of Washington’s account is as follows: A few Saudi Arabians without any government’s backing or that of any intelligence service outwitted not only the CIA and the FBI but all 16 US intelligence agencies, even the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, together with the intelligence agencies of all of Washington’s NATO allies and Israel’s Mossad, which has infiltrated every radical Muslim group.

These humble Saudis of no known distinction or powers also simultaneously outwitted the National Security Council, NORAD, the Pentagon, Air Traffic Control, and caused Airport Security to fail four times in one hour on the same morning.

In other words, every part of America’s defenses failed at the same moment.

Think about that for a minute. If such a thing had actually happened, the President, Vice President, Congress, and media would have been demanding to know how such universal failure of every aspect of the national security state was possible. An investigation would have started immediately, not over a year later as a result of pressure from 9/11 families who could not be bought off with monetary payments. Such complete and total failure of every aspect of US security would mean that americans were not safe one single minute during the 40-year stand-off with the Soviet Union. At any moment the Soviets could have utterly destroyed the US and we would never have known what hit us.

In a real investigation, the 9/11 evidence would not have been illegally destroyed, and the investigation would have been conducted by experts, not by government agencies assigned a cover-up and by political hacks. The NIST report is abject nonsense. It explains nothing. It is a fabricated computer simulation of a non-event. The co-chairmen and legal counsel of the 9/11 Commission later wrote books in which they stated that information was withheld from the commission, the military lied to the commission, and the commission “was set up to fail.” Yet, these astounding admissions by the leaders of the 9/11 Commission had no impact on Congress, the presstitute media, or the public. All heads were in the sand. Please, whatever you do, don’t make us emotional weaklings face the facts.

More than one hundred firefighters, police, first responders, and building maintenance personnel report hearing and experiencing scores of explosions in the twin towers, including powerful explosions in the sub-basements prior to the collapse of the towers.

Distinguished scientists, authors of many peer-reviewed scientific papers, report finding unreacted nano-thermite in the dust from the towers, tested it for its explosive and high-heat producing ability, and reported the unequivocal results.

Seventeen hundred architects and engineers have testified in a petition to Congress that the three World Trade Center buildings were not brought down by fire and airplanes and have demanded a real scientific investigation of the cause of the buildings’ destruction.

Yet, we are left with the paradox that scientific opinion based on careful examination of the remaining evidence has been designated by the ignorant and unwashed as a “conspiracy theory,” while Washington’s absurd conspiracy theory stands as the truth of the event.

Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth headed by high-rise architect Richard Gage has driven the final nail in the coffin of Washington’s concocted conspiracy theory with its new film: “9/11: Explosive Evidence — Experts Speak Out,” and they do speak out. Scores of top level demolition experts and experts on the design, engineering, and construction of high rise steel structures provide the scientific, architectural, and engineering reasons that the three World Trade Center buildings came down only with the assistance of explosives that were placed and timed to remove the powerful structural support and permit the sudden collapse of the buildings. As the buildings were engineered and constructed according to known and tested principles that absolutely prevent rapid collapse, fire and structural damage that two of the three skyscrapers suffered from airliners could not possibly have caused the sudden disintegration of the three buildings.

I saw the film in Atlanta on July 2. Atlanta was a stop on the 32-city premier of the film. The film was shown at the 7 Stages Theater on Euclid Avenue, the former Euclid Theater to which 65 years ago we kids used to ride our bikes to see Tarzan battle giant reptiles and ride elephants to victory over evil black tribesmen or evil white hunters, or to watch Randolph Scott bring justice with his six-shooter to a town ruled by black hats, or to witness the brave American soldiers liberate Europe from the Nazis. We never dreamed that we, residents of the “land of the free” would be menaced by a gestapo police state.

America’s descent into a gestapo police state could be arrested, perhaps, if americans were not so ignorant of science or were capable of even realizing that what they see with their own eyes when they watch videos of the twin towers’ destruction is buildings blowing up, not buildings falling down from structural damage. Building 7’s destruction is the total and complete picture of controlled demolition.

At the end of the powerful film, psychologists explain why the majority of a population lacks the mental and emotional strength to confront highly disturbing facts. A government that so thoroughly spies on its population as Washington does obviously knows its population’s profile and sees nothing but weakness and fear that can be manipulated.

What fact is more disturbing than the likely fact that 9/11 was a false flag event designed to provide the neoconservatives with their “new Pearl Harbor” in order to launch Washington’s Wars of Hegemony in the Middle East, and from there to Iran and to the nuclear powers: Russia and China, which are being encircled, as Iran has been, with US military bases?

What we are experiencing is a replay of the French Revolution, this time on a world stage. Napoleon, the inheritor of the French Revolution, conquered Europe several times in the effort to expand the New Order in France to all of Europe. The French Revolution was the first claim of a New World Order, but at that time the world was Europe.

Washington’s “wars of liberation” are wars of world hegemony and wars of massive profits for the military/security complex. The combination of power and money that are the motives for Washington’s concocted wars are hidden motives, wrapped in the flag, patriotic sentiments, and fear of dark-skinned demonized Muslims.

Can Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth or any truth break through and liberate americans from the artificial reality created by government liars and a corrupt presstitute media, or are americans doomed to expire in the Matrix that has been created for them?

Perhaps the hope is that the economy will collapse under the would-be hegemons, and people who will not fight for principles and their liberty will fight for their economic survival.

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By Alistair Lyon and Yasmine Saleh

Farouk Sultan, head of the presidential election commission, speaks during the swearing-in ceremony of President Mohamed Mursi (C) at the Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo 6/30/12. Mursi said Saturday the military that took charge when Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year had kept its promise to hand over power, speaking at a ceremony to mark the formal transfer of authority. Judge Abdel-Moez Ibrahim, head of the High Elections Commission, is on the right.           REUTERS/Egyptian Presidency/Handout

CAIRO (Reuters) – Mohamed Mursi was sworn in on Saturday as Egypt’s first Islamist, civilian and freely elected president, reaping the fruits of last year’s revolt against Hosni Mubarak, although the military remains determined to call the shots.

The military council that took over after Mubarak’s overthrow on February 11, 2011, formally handed power to Mursi later in an elaborate ceremony at a desert army base outside Cairo.

At the ceremony, Mursi hailed what he called a unique model of “how power is transferred from the Egyptian military forces by the will of the people to an elected, civilian power”, praising the army for keeping its promise to do so.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who saluted Mursi when he arrived at Heikstep army base for the televised occasion, said: “Now we have an elected president who takes over the keys for ruling Egypt through a direct and free vote.”

The handover of power to an Islamist by a military that long backed Mubarak and his suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood was just one moment in a day rich in images that told of how much Egypt has changed, as well as the fragility of its transition.

Egypt remains in political limbo, without a constitution, a lower house of parliament or any clarity about the role of a military anxious to stay in the driving seat, as Islamists and others challenge its right to do so.

Mursi, a bearded engineer who turned to the Brotherhood as a graduate student in Los Angeles, is Egypt’s first civilian leader since army officers toppled the king in 1952.

For the 84-year-old Brotherhood, banned and repressed by Mubarak, it marks a dramatic reversal of fortunes.

“God is greatest, above all,” said Mursi, 60, at Cairo University at the start of a speech after swearing his oath of office at the Supreme Constitutional Court.

“Egypt will not go backwards,” Mursi said, pledging to keep the country on a democratic course, but saying it would not “export the revolution” or interfere in the affairs of others.

“We carry a message of peace to the world,” Mursi said, reaffirming Egypt’s commitment to international agreements, which include its U.S.-brokered 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

Israel has watched the rise of the Brotherhood in Egypt with apprehension since the fall of Mubarak, who staunchly upheld peace with the Jewish state, even if relations were never warm.

Mursi pledged to work to end bloodshed in Syria, scene of the most violent of a string of Arab uprisings.

Wrangling over Venue

The president was sworn in by the constitutional court, instead of parliament as is usual, because the court dissolved the Islamist-led lower house earlier this month amid a raft of measures to ensure enduring military influence.

The Nile-side constitutional court building where Mursi took his oath is next to the plush military hospital where Mubarak was transferred last week from the prison where he had begun a life term for failing to stop police killings of protesters.

The Brotherhood reluctantly accepted the venue, but in a symbolic riposte, Mursi read his oath on Friday to crowds in Cairo’s protest hub, Tahrir Square. He told supporters there that the people were the only source of power, in a dig at the generals who see themselves as the state’s ultimate arbiters.

The new president won a standing ovation when he recited his vow for a third time during his speech at Cairo University, delivered from the podium used by U.S. President Barack Obama to reach out to the Islamic world in 2009, early in his term.

An honor guard, artillery salute and the national anthem greeted Mursi at the university, where “No SCAF”, the acronym for the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, was scrawled on a wall visible on television as he drove in.

In the audience were women in full Islamic face veils or headscarves, some waving portraits of “martyrs” killed in the anti-Mubarak uprising. Christian priests sat alongside Muslim clerics and men in suits or robes, some with beards.

When Egypt’s military chief Tantawi arrived, some applauded, while others chanted “Down with military rule”.

Tantawi’s SCAF has guided a chaotic and sometimes bloody transition since Mubarak’s overthrow, holding elections, but issuing arbitrary and often contradictory decrees, while the economy shrank, increasing hardship for millions of Egyptians.

An army decree on June 17 clipped presidential powers, denying the head of state his role as supreme commander of the armed forces with the right to decide on war and peace. It also gave SCAF legislative powers until a new parliament is elected, as well as veto rights over the writing of a new constitution.

Tussle for Power

Much remains uncertain, with a protracted struggle likely as Islamists seek to roll back the control of a once all-powerful military, as their counterparts in Turkey have done.

An assembly that is supposed to write a new constitution has begun work after its predecessor fell apart amid disputes over whether Islamists were over-represented, in a country with a 10 percent Christian minority and many secular-minded liberals.

Egypt’s 82 million people are more polarized than ever.

Mursi narrowly won a run-off vote against Ahmed Shafik, a former air force chief and Mubarak’s last prime minister, but many voters were dismayed at having to choose between an Islamist and a man seen as a remnant of Mubarak’s era.

Egypt will find it hard to attract the investment, loans and foreign aid it needs to revive an economy blighted by months of turmoil and uncertainty until political stability returns.

The International Monetary Fund’s head, Christine Lagarde, called Mursi to discuss Egypt’s economic challenges and how the IMF can best help, an IMF spokeswoman said on Friday.

Lagarde hailed Mursi’s election as “an important step forward in Egypt’s transition”, but the Fund has set no date for a staff visit to discuss a proposed $3.2 billion IMF loan, pending the formation of a new government.

In Tahrir, where demonstrators have camped out for weeks to demand an end to military rule, one man said the protest would go on. “We will not leave until parliament is restored and the president gets all his authorities,” said Mahmoud Arafa, 41.

Arafa, a shopkeeper from Shabin al-Kom in the Nile Delta, said he wanted Mursi to fulfill the promises he made for his first 100 days in office. “If he cannot, we will help him.”

The Muslim Brotherhood’s programme calls for swift measures with an immediate social impact, pledging to get traffic moving, restore security, collect rubbish, and clear bottlenecks in the distribution of subsidized bread, petrol and cooking gas.

“For the first time in my life I feel we have elected a leader through our own free will,” said Mustafa Abu Hanafi, 31, an unemployed computer engineer from Giza.

“When someone graduates he’s supposed to have a job,” he said. “You always needed ‘wasta’ (connections). Under Mursi this will change … He’s one of us.”

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair, Marwa Awad, Patrick Werr and Omar Fahmy; editing by Andrew Roche)

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