Do You Really Believe in Miracles?

by David Ray Griffin

n Open Letter to Terry Allen, Noam Chomsky, Alexander Cockburn, David Corn, Chris Hayes, George Monbiot, Matthew Rothschild, and Matt Taibbi.1

According to several left-leaning critics of the 9/11 Truth Movement, some of its central claims, especially about the destruction of the World Trade Center, show its members to be scientifically challenged. In the opinion of some of these critics, moreover, claims made by members of this movement are sometimes unscientific in the strongest possible sense, implying an acceptance of magic and miracles.

After documenting this charge in Part I of this essay, I show in Part II that the exact opposite is the case: that the official account of the destruction of the World Trade Center implies miracles (I give nine examples), and that the 9/11 Truth Movement, in developing an alternative hypothesis, has done so in line with the assumption that the laws of nature did not take a holiday on 9/11. In Part III, I ask these left-leaning critics some questions evoked by the fact that it is they, not members of the 9/11 Truth Movement, who have endorsed a conspiracy theory replete with miracle stories as well as other absurdities.

The Supreme Court of British Columbia: A Naturally Dysfunctional Basket-Case?  Or Something Else? What the “Journalist Accreditation System” Tells.

Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm signed search warrant material at a foreign holiday spa to “further” the B.C. Premier Glen Clark (almost baseless, 1999-2002) fraud case. I call it the “fraudulent investigation and trial of Glen Clark” – months and months of RCMP investigation and 136 days of trial costing millions of dollars, to fight over some ten or twelve thousand dollars spent on a residence sun deck.  Clark was cleared of all wrong doing … but was (as intended?) ruined politically.

NATO dovetailed nicely into this plan as it would stealthily be mutated from a defense alliance to an instrument of American imperialism.

The BC Rail Scandal.  For the Supreme Court of British Columbia Ms. Jill Leacock (June 29, 2010) Law Officer, reproves Robin Mathews for his interpretation of the Publication Ban "in the absence of the jury" (imposed by Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case).  Robin Mathws replies.

By Dana Gabriel

The Arctic has been the subject of dispute between Canada, Denmark, the U.S., Russia and Norway with each country taking steps to expand their scientific research and military presence. Its vast untapped oil, natural gas and mineral resources represent a tremendous economic potential, but control of the region is also important from a strategic standpoint. Increased cooperation and military integration could be used to further secure interests in the area. Canada and Denmark recently signed an agreement which will promote defence and security collaboration in the Arctic. In August, Canadian Forces operations in the far North will include Danish and American participation. There are also calls for U.S.-Canada joint security of North America’s Arctic waters and skies. 

  The publication ban in the trial of Dave Basi, Bob Virk, and Aneal Basi (the B.C. Rail Scandal) is suppressing information that the public wants. Because the Gordon Campbell government is closely associated with the trial, discontent has a focus - and suspicion is rife. That raises the whole question of such bans in general ... and this one in particular.

Corporate cowboys
By Colin Penter
Posted Thursday, 24 June 2010

 "Limited liability is at the heart of this rise of corporate power: it constitutes a blanket exemption of a special interest group from accountability for the actions of their companies". Stephanie Blankenburg and Dan Plesch (PDF 100KB).

 "The ripples of this pressure on civil society travel far indeed. The perception that civil society is uncivil and a source of insecurity contributes to an environment of enhanced regulation of the voluntary sector, strengthened state oversight of voluntary sector activities, and declining confidence in the sector's ability to contribute to the resolution of social problems and the advancement of human security". Mark Sidel.

Excessively armed thugs parading through the streets, military checkpoints at traffic lights, police helicopters hovering over the city, a long chain-link fence around the center of downtown, secret snipers on rooftops, urban warfare weapons, bomb-sniffing dogs, sound canons; this is not the sight of the infamous Green Zone in blood-drenched Baghdad, but a picture of what downtown Toronto will look like this weekend when the city hosts the world’s leading heads of states, and government officials.

They are in Toronto for the G20 conference, where they plan to discuss a global economic order, and new austerity measures for heavily indebted nations. It is expected that U.S. President Barack Obama will fearmonger about Iran’s nuclear capabilities and motives, just as he did at the last G20 meeting that took place in Pittsburgh in September, 2009.

the FIFA World Cup?

By David J. Climenhaga

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June 21, 2010

Remember the successive scandals about $640 toilet seats, $7,600 coffee pots and $436 hammers made for the U.S. armed forces?

Already strange similarities are beginning to show between the BC Rail Scandal (the Basi, Virk, and Basi case) and the Robert Dziekanski Affair.  The latter is exploding as a result of the Report by Mr. Justice Thomas Braidwood on the actions of the four RCMP officers involved in the confrontation with Dziekanski in Vancouver International Airport in 2007.  CanWest's BC flagship The Vancouvr Sun leads the game of 'smoke and mirrors".

The BC Rail Scandal Trial in the Supreme Court of British Columbia is being conducted by a Special Crown Prosecutor appointed in violation of the legislation. In this column I invite Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie to name me in contempt of court for reporting her negligence in the case.

Global Research, June 10, 2010

“[T]he majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.”– Harold Pinter, Nobel Lecture (Literature), 2005

The maintenance of the hierarchical structures that control our lives depends on Pinter’s “vast tapestry of lies upon which we feed.” Therefore the main institutions that embed us into the hierarchy, such as schools, universities, and mass media and entertainment corporations, have a primary function to create and maintain this tapestry. This includes establishment scientists and all service intellectuals in charge of “interpreting” reality.

In fact, the scientists and “experts” define reality in order to bring it into conformation with the always-adapting dominant mental tapestry of the moment. They also invent and build new branches of the tapestry that serve specific power groups by providing new avenues of exploitation. These high priests are rewarded with high class status.

By Bob Hepburn

When political leaders start to lose power, it’s often because voters have come to believe they have grown too arrogant, too uncaring and too obsessed with their own image.

It’s what happened to Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien, all of whom left office when their support was near all-time lows and their reputations were tarnished.

It’s now happening to Stephen Harper.

By Dana Gabriel

As a result of the demise of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America, the NAFTA trilateral relationship has suffered. This has forced many of the SPP’s objectives to be funneled through various bilateral initiatives. Mexico’s drug war is also serving as a catalyst for more North American cooperation and integration in areas of border security, law enforcement and the military. Canada is being encouraged to further engage and commit itself alongside the U.S. in helping Mexico.