How The Terrorists Won and ESPN Lost

Bristol, Connecticut is a small town located 103 miles north of New York City.  It is known mostly for being the home of the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, a.k.a. ESPN.

The popular media outlet is owned by The Walt Disney Company which also controls ABC News.

John Athayde/Flickr

In Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales published the highlights of their five hundred interviews with people at the sports network.*

Chapter six delves into the events at ESPN in the days after the 9/11 attacks in New York and D.C.  One comment here jumps right off the page.

"They Hate Democracy" so said Bill Clinton

After sending 75 tomahawk cruise missiles in the general direction of Afghanistan and Sudan, Mr. Clinton said this about Osama bin Laden and the "terrorists"....

Mr. Clinton neglected to mention the "terrorists" clearly stated reasons for their hatred towards the U.S.  These include quotes from bin Laden himself which outline his 3 major grievances towards America:

1. "The ordinary man knows that [Saudi Arabia] is the largest oil producer in the world, yet at the same time he is suffering from taxes and bad services.  Now the people understand...that our country has become an American colony.  They act decisively with every action to kick the Americans out of Saudi Arabia. 

2. "The evidence overwhelmingly shows America and Israel killing the weaker men, women and children in the Muslim world and elsewhere.  A few examples of this are seen in the recent Qana massacre in Lebanon..."

3. "...and the death of more than 600,000 Iraqi children because of the shortage of food and medicine which resulted from the boycotts and sanctions against the Muslim Iraqi people"

Content and Osama bin Laden quotes from 1996 as reported by PBS Frontline

What Checks & Balances "The Deep State"?

Peter Dale Scott has coined the term "Deep Politics" to describe the hidden features of the government.  He describes his concept of The Deep State in this video:

The war on drugs benefits the public state and deep state.

The public state of Drug Enforcement Agency, local police & prison guard employees can grow their sphere of influence thanks to "legal" civil rights violations including home invasions and imprisonment of people who grow or trade plants.

Bombs Away U.S. of A.

How many countries has 'the United States of America' attacked this month?

Censored: U.S. Congress Respond to 9/11 Attacks

Two meaningful speeches on the U.S. House floor given three days after the attacks on New York, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, PA.

First, Why was the U.S. the target?

Second, How can further attacks be prevented?

*Ron Paul video on C-SPAN

Comedian Doug Stanhope on Puppet Leaders

After 9/11 comedian Doug Stanhope put the "leader" of the U.S. back into perspective....

Why Many Americans Were Not Surprised by 9/11

C-SPAN's Washington Journal, July 3, 2000

Caller: "How will we protect our borders against terrorist attacks if we decrease the armed forces?"

Harry Browne: "The problem today is...we have a giant national offense....  We have been bombing countries around the world.... Terrorists don't like our foreign policy.  They don't like the idea that we are running their countries."

Take a listen to the full 90-second clip below...

David Cross asks "Why Did They Attack the U.S."?

What does David Cross have to say about those "freedom hating" terrorists?

Humpday Humor: The Flag Waving Club

David Cross explains the "flag waving club"...

16 Years Ago the U.S. Starting Bombing Afghanistan

Today marks the 16th anniversary of the initial attempts by the U.S. to kill Osama bin Laden.  In 1998 Mr. Clinton ordered 75 cruise missiles to be launched at Afghanistan and Sudan with the hope that one of them would hit bin Laden.

They missed, he escaped.

21 other people were reported killed by the missiles.

Mr. Clinton explains that there was "compelling evidence that bin Laden...was planning further attacks against...freedom loving people"....

U.S. & Iranian Interests Aligned Against the Taliban?

Interesting news item about the origins of the Taliban and their relationship with Iran and Pakistan, from CNN 1998:

Pakistan was the first of only three countries to recognize the Taliban government, and as many as 40 percent of the militia members studied in religious schools in Pakistan.

This would have been good to know when planning retaliation for the bombing of the USS Cole or the 9/11 attacks.  Do you think that Mr. Clinton or Mr. Bush read this story?  Could any of their dozens of advisers mention to them that the Taliban is largely composed of people from Pakistan?

On another note, it seems critical to understand that the Taliban and Iran were involved in a mini-war with each other.

from PBS, 1998

We were told that the U.S. bombed Afghanistan in the hope of killing bin Laden after his gang bombed U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.  Would it not have been useful for 500,000 Iranian military members to help the U.S. government fight their war against the Taliban in Afghanistan?

Mr. Clinton, Mr. Bush & Mr. Blair had the chance to gain assistance from a powerful enemy of the Taliban and chose to go it alone instead.  Why did they turn against a potential partner in Iran and create further division between the Middle-East and the West?

Only a few people truly know the reasons for these actions.  Unfortunately, they are probably not going to let us in on the secret, leaving us to speculate about their behavior.