Conspiracy Theorists
Today it's intellectually chic among the middle class to consider intellectual curiosity and a questioning attitude 'conspiracy thinking'.
But anyone with a questioning mind could reasonably argue why it would be highly unlikely burning aviation fuel could collapse massive steel and concrete structures such as the Twin Towers like an accordion and disintegrate them into powder. However, because our governments and media claimed it was logically possible for the 110-floor buildings to turn to dust, the majority of humanity dropped all semblance of logic and went along for the ride.
Human beings are constantly being encouraged to close their minds and unquestionably accept dogmatic statements about Al Qaeda, pandemics, oil spills and Homeland Security. And humanity's response seems to be, "better to accept than to question".
And though the bourgeoisie has the education and economic power to question and research the ambiguities of officialdom, it rarely does so. All too often it retreats from critical thinking and calls back smirkily to those who do question ... "you're conspiracy theorists!". ... KFS
"All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t.” ... Robert F. Kennedy
Wikileaks et al. - The Free Flow of Information
Wired . Threat Level . off site link
Manning’s Father Condemns Treatment of Imprisoned Son
The father of suspected WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning says the military has crossed a line in its treatment of his son and called the conditions under which he was being imprisoned “shocking.”
Brian Manning broke his silence to a PBS Frontline correspondent this week after the U.S. Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Virginia, where his 23-year-old son is being held, stripped the soldier of his clothing and forced him to stand at attention in the nude and sleep naked. Manning’s defense attorney has called the brig’s move “inexcusable” and “degrading treatment.” [ 20-minute video interview available at Threat Level ]
on site links
Wikileaks vs Western hypocrisy
No one can prove Wikileaks has been responsible for the murder or death of anyone, anywhere as a result of the release of documents. Any accusation would simply be a conjecture. Ironically, support for this opinion comes from a statement Sarah Palin made following the Arizona shooting of 8 January 2011. Palin said, "... journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn."
Media spam
The number of bloggers, pundits and journalists who have cut and pasted unsubstantiated truths about Wikileaks is astounding. It's the spamming by well known or unheard of internet addresses against Wikileaks that clog the search results with their scoops. Take a look at the accusations that Wikileaks is connected to either Mossad, the CIA, Soros or all of them.
Looking for information in a noisy world
Wikileaks released 251,287 diplomatic cables during the period 2010 and 2011. That's almost half the number of documents found in the Iraq and Afghan War Logs, 466,743 documents, Wikileaks released in 2010. Cumulatively these releases could be compared to the effect of tab browsing 2000 radio channels on your computer simultaneously...
What the free flow of information would have told us : The war is a lie
On 15 February 2011, an exiled Iraqi codenamed Curveball (Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janab) in an interview with The Guardian newspaper in England claimed he lied to German authorities in the year 2000 about Iraq possessing a bio-weapons plant. In 2003, Colin Powell used Curveball's statement before the United Nations as one of the proofs Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Letter to BBC's Panorama on its Character Assasination of Wikileaks
"I'm certainly not suggesting the BBC needs to be responsible for Assange's PR. But I wonder how much of the mix of messages you put together in the report [above] - internal battles, sexual abuse, antisemitism, emotionally infantile, insensitive to others, putting people's lives in danger - is actually fair reporting or just unabated character assassination..."