White House threats against Wayne Madsen must be taken seriously...

April 4, 2011 -- White House threats against Wayne Madsen must be taken seriously...

http://newhk.blogspot.com/2011/03/components-of-white-house-murder-incs.html

Dangerous times loom ahead "inside the Beltway." ; the Infamous White House Murder INC, ready for action within USA too...Fascism creeping fast in DC and Langley...

In yet another indication that America's democratic experiment is a thing of the past, Wayne Madsen has received word from a source in a foreign intelligence agency allied with the United States that there has been talk by some within the Obama White House that Wayne Madsen is under threat. What particular stories have inflamed the White House are not known but the warning conveyed by the source, who has connections within the White House, was stark in its directness: "They want to kill you."

It was perfectly clear that the phrase was not being used as a figure of speech....

That this development is being reported on April 4 is even more ironic. On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Kr. was assassinated in Memphis during his mission to support striking sanitation workers in the city. Now, we have our first African-American president and a threat to kill a journalist who is most definitely not one of their favorites has been seriously discussed.

Of course, muckraking journalists have been under threat before in America. In 1972, columnist and investigative journalist Jack Anderson had ended up very high on President Richard Nixon's infamous "enemies list." Anderson had long been a burr under the political saddle of Nixon and the president blamed Anderson for exposing a number of Nixon's corrupt activities, including the exposure in 1956 by Anderson and his boss, Drew Pearson, of a loan from Howard Hughes to Nixon's brother Donald.

But in the years before the Watergate scandal broke but at a time when other various scandals in the Nixon administration began to receive the bulldog-like attention of Anderson, who succeeded Pearson as editor of the "Washington Merry-Go-Round column in 1969, there were serious discussions among Nixon aides Charles Colson and G. Gordon Liddy, as well as the CIA's Dr. Edward Gunn, an expert on poisons, about assassinating the troublesome Anderson.

Scenarios included the use of LSD or poison but Anderson's Mormon religion and the fact that he did not drink ruled out the use of poisons or LSD in his drink. Staging an automobile accident in which Anderson would be incinerated was also an option. Another scenario considered was one which would have appeared to be a random Washington, DC street mugging in which Anderson would be stabbed or have his throat slit. The plot to assassinate Anderson came to an abrupt halt as Liddy, Colson, and E. Howard Hunt, who had also been involved in the action against Anderson, were exposed in the May 1972 break-in at the Watergate headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.

Although Wayne Madsen attempted to pattern WMR after Anderson's and Pearson's "Merry-Go-Riund" column, Wayne Madsen does not have the luxury of newspaper syndicators or a Pulitzer Prize, all of which Anderson could rely on as firewalls between him and those in the White House who wanted to kill him.

Wayne Madsen ran the information about the warning from the foreign intelligence source by some African-Americans in Washington who have worked with Obama White House officials. Their response was less than encouraging. The bottom line is that the White House engages in the type of "gangster politics" for which their home base of Chicago has become infamous....

Although Wayne Madsen has taken precautions in covering post-genocide Rwanda, child trafficking in Thailand and Cambodia, the "loss" of nuclear weapons at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, the story about the GWB extra-judicial assassination Matrix in 2001 and the launching of the Infamous White House Murder INC in the Levant together with Asef Shawkat and Syria's military intelligence goons who assassinated Mr Elie Hobeika; January 24th 2002 in Beirut and other assassinations in Lebanon and Syria up until February 12th 2008 and the assassination of Imad F. Moughnieh in Damascus by Asef Shawkat on behalf of CIA/MOSSAD in a trade off with STL patrons...; the gunning down by police of CIA asset Tony Carnaby in Houston, the story of "Washington Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey, and BP's activities on the Gulf Coast in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and President Obama's and incoming Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's past activities in Chicago, those measures were temporary and lasted for as long as he was in the field....

However, I have absolutely no desire to constantly be in fear of the type of a White House-directed or-tolerated hit like that discussed by Nixon aides on Anderson who had the benefit of a degree of support from his syndicate and the newspapers who carried his column, which included The Washington Post.

Preliminary plans are being made to continue the investigative journalism of WMR from a safer vantage point abroad and in an environment that provides basic protection for press freedom. Unfortunately, the United States is no longer a safe place for independent journalists. Today, President Obama kicked off his 2012 presidential campaign in a web video message. Without a Democratic primary challenger, it can be safely assumed that the White House will pull out every arrow in its quiver to suppress negative information about Obama. There mere fact that the announcement of Obama's re-election came on the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King shows that Obama will shamelessly attach himself to the legacy of the much-revered African-American leader with whom he shares no cultural legacy of historical African-Americans with their family histories of slavery in the South and sharecropping. Nor would King, if alive today, approve of any of Obama's pro-war and pro-corporate policies.

With a second Obama term a likelihood, it only makes sense, therefore, that the reporting on the "new America" be conducted from a more secure location.

There is an interesting postscript to this story. Not once, during the eight years of the Bush administration, did I ever receive such a credible and direct threat. In fact, after WMR's stories about marital friction between Bush and First Lady Laura Bush received national media attention, there was a communication from a close friend of Mrs. Bush that if I laid off her marital situation, I would be given a major scoop. Knowing that no one should ever cut a deal with the Bush family or their friends, I kindly declined the offer. But whereas the Bush White House was prepared to offer a carrot, the Obama administration appears to favor the stick or another lethal weapon of choice.

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist. He has written for several renowned papers and blogs. Madsen is a regular contributor on Russia Today. He has been a frequent political and national security commentator on Fox News and has also appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and MS-NBC. Madsen has taken on Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity on their television shows. He has been invited to testify as a witness before the US House of Representatives, the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and an terrorism investigation panel of the French government. As a U.S. Naval Officer, he managed one of the first computer security programs for the U.S. Navy. He subsequently worked for the National Security Agency, the Naval Data Automation Command, Department of State, RCA Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation. Madsen is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Association for Intelligence Officers …

Editor’s note: Wayne Madsen is an investigative journalist who has covered political happenings inside the Beltway for decades. His work is superior and his sources are global. He is owned by no one and is therefore free from corporate constraints to report the facts as told to him. Wayne and his investigative work is a rarity these days b/c corporate media cut investigative journalism budgets long ago. You know when you are reading a Wayne Madsen Report that it is the unvarnished truth, and obviously, reporting said truths, especially related to the empire’s CIC who has gone to great lengths to hide all there is to know about him, is threatening. Well, here’s a big clue – stop hiding who and what you truly are, Mr. President! Give American’s some credit – they may actually like the hidden Obama more than the pretend one seen in plain view everyday! And tell your lackey’s to back off because WE THE PEOPLE will be watching…closely.

1. "Wayne Madsen, America's premier professional investigative journalist, a lifelong Washington DC resident -- who reveals (website http://www.WayneMadsenReport.com ) documentation of the secret story of President Barry Obama,Jr.-Soetoro raised from infancy and 40 years 'groomed' in CIA-controlled daycare, indoctrination, and induction as the most thorough 'Manchurian candidate' experiment 'success' yet produced -- by such reporting is now a White House target for murder by the Infamous White House Murder INC. If any harm occurs to Madsen then the White House and specifically President Obama is guilty of ordering it and causing it, just as guilty as any vile murderous street-thug seen in mugshots of deviants on TV."

All of us here better work to publicize such a statement far and wide, on websites, on blogs, in comments, in letters -- especially on newspaper websites, broadcast media websites, journalism websites, 'legal firm' websites, congressional websites/emails/faxes, high-traffic websites (10,ooo or more 'eyeball visits' a day), and in personal communications with renowned public figures. Statements of two clauses saying, first, Wayne is an exemplary professional journalist who the 'White House' aims to and premeditates to murder in cold blood, and second, if anything happens to Wayne then the 'White House' is guilty and the 'White House' has admitted in advance it means to murder the American citizen(s) who tell Obama's life secrets and the sordid barbaric crimes of the most odious White House Murder INC since 2000.

Wayne Madsen

publication date: Apr , 2011

More indications come forward that 9/11 was a massive internal plot by treasonous Americans and Israelis....

As time goes by, More indications come forward that 9/11 was a massive internal plot by treasonous Americans and Israelis....

People speak off the record because if they don't they will be hounded by the arrogant and brazen Zionists who control the media and their livelihoods. Government whistleblowers especially... are under threat now and a big chill has set in throughout Washington DC.....

2011 -- Further details of the real 9/11 culprits continue to emerge...

Multiple sources have reported to us on more details of the 9/11 attacks that so drastically altered life in America....

One of the designers of the New York City Emergency Command Center, located on the 23rd floor of Building 7, which collapsed later in the afternoon of September 11 and was relatively unscathed by the collapse of the North and South Towers, said that his colleagues in the center informed him during the morning that they had to evacuate Building 7 because "they were going to pull the building."

In a television documentary, the lease of the World Trade Center, Larry Silverstein, president of Silverstein Properties, said of Building 7, which collapsed at 5:20 pm on September 11, "I said, you know, we've had such terrible loss of life. Maybe the smartest thing to do is to pull it." Silverstein's supporters later claimed that he meant "pull" the firefighters from the building. However, there were no firefighters in Building 7, they had been withdrawn from the building at 11:30 am.

The Emergency Command Center designer's statement that his colleagues were told to evacuate during the morning because the building would be "pulled" is another clue that Silverstein was never talking about firefighters when he stated "pull it," that the decision to conduct a controlled demolition of the structure was made long beforehand...


"Remember remember the eleventh of September
Explosives, treason and plot...
I see no reason why explosives, treason
Should ever be forgotten... "[paraphrased from Guy Fawkes Day nursery rhyme].

Another informed source has told us that New York-New Jersey Port Authority police were aware that Silverstein had called off a regular breakfast meeting at the "Windows on the World" restaurant on the top floor of the North Tower but not for what Silverstein's wife claimed to have been a hastily-arranged appointment at his dermatologist. Silverstein maintained temporary offices on the 88th floor of the North Tower. However, on the morning of 9/11, Silverstein called off his 8:30 am business meeting and we have been told that a Port Authority police officer assigned to assist Silverstein, who had recently leased the World Trade Center from the port authority, overheard Silverstein tell his daughter Lisa, a vice president of Silverstein Properties, not to come to the area around the Trade Center during the morning of 9/11. American Airlines flight 11, or what was alleged to have been the passenger aircraft, struck the North Tower at 8:44 am.

Silverstein later sought to collect $7 billion in damages from World Trade Center insurers.

We are reporting the alleged "flight 11" because of yet another statement we have received. A Kroll Associates assistant to retired FBI Assistant Director John P. O'Neill was with her boss on the morning of 9/11. O'Neill had been hired by Kroll's Jerome Hauer as director of World Trade Center security just 19 days before the attack. O'Neill died in the collapse of the towers but his assistant was later pulled from the rubble by a New York City firefighter. O'Neill's assistant later told the firefighter who rescued her that after the planes hit the North and South Towers, O'Neill declared, "Those planes are being controlled from the ground." O'Neill's remains were not recovered from the debris of Ground Zero until September 22, 2001.....

People speak off the record because if they don't they will be hounded by the arrogant and brazen Zionists who control the media and their livelihoods. Government whistle-blowers especially... are under threat now and a big chill has set in throughout Washington DC.....

Does it really need sources when the evidence doesn't support the "official story"? Flying a jumbo at sea level with the precision needed to hit the towers is beyond the skills level of most seasoned pilots. And, we're supposed to believe that an unskilled little flight student can maneuver a jumbo with that kind of agility and accuracy? A plane in the past hit the empire state building and it did very little damage. We're talking a modern skyscraper made of reinforced concrete floors and steel beams. Not exactly material that is highly flammable. In fact skyscrapers are built to contain fires to a floor without the risk of it spreading. In addition, each floor is equipped with sprinkler systems. Jet fuel doesn't get hot enough to decimate a whole skyscraper and have molten steel that is still hot a month after the incident. An airplane is made of thin aluminum with two huge engines. Why didn't the wings sheer off? How can steel and concrete just absorb an airplane like it was going through butter?

Then there is Pennsylvania. I've worked for the airlines and talked to the airport manager that lived close to where the USAIR 737 flight went down outside of Pittmidway airport. It looked like a war zone with airplane parts strewn over a mile and body parts still strapped to their seats hanging from tree limbs. Where's the airplane pieces in PA and where are the body parts? The Pentagon is built like a brick fort-knox.... The hole is too small and the wings should have sheered off. In addition a jumbo doesn't have enough structural clout to penetrate several rings where the walls are really thick. And, at that low level of flight how did a jumbo not take out power lines. In addition, the Pentagon is surrounded by highways. How is it that there isn't a single 911 call reporting that a jumbo just flew inches above car tops? The racket alone would have been enough to startle a lot of "eye witnesses". The silence on the obvious is deafening.

Then there is the real obvious as to why our AF was on stand-down. I've been in a single engine aircraft where we got disoriented flying over DC. We where identified immediately and practically escorted down. All of these alleged commercial flights were off course. Where was the FAA on this. These flights fly by a flight plan. Any deviation gets immediately acted upon as normal procedure. These procedures predate the inside Job of 911....

If this were a criminal case then the governments version of the story does not even pass the specter of "beyond reasonable doubt".

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3857917663523144457#

who killed John O'Neil?

Get past the first fifteen minutes of this powerful 100 minute film, it's like a threshold to info you need to know...

To the jury: "ladies and gentlemen, we all understand that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. in each 9/11 implosion demolition the measurable Reaction force was at least 100 TIMES GREATER than the reported (known) Action force -- 100 TIMES GREATER using conservative measures of the Force of the building Reaction, and perhaps 1000 TIMES out-of-balance if the true and accurate measurements could be known. It is a scientific fact: that the Reaction was NOT equal, it was GREATER THAN the Action and the only physically possible way for that is by the existence of unreported 'extra' Force in Action in the building, and that unreported Force was EXPLOSIVES. Planted. Ahead of time. Including in Bldg.7 -- primarily occupied by CIA and FBI offices and personnel."

Here is the evidence proven as fact in science: tinyurl.com/2p8kep

"Oh, and by the way, the pulverized dust spread across Manhattan a half-inch thick contains, still today, abundant samples of explosives residue. specifically nano thermate. another scientific fact. courtroom admissible. culprits convictable way beyond a reasonable doubt."

NSA, DOJ, and courts conspire to cover-up NSA fraud, waste, abuse, and criminal conspiracy at trial....

Hitting the JACKPOT at NSA goes unpunished while whistle-blower is charged with espionage....

March , 2011 -- SPECIAL REPORT. NSA, DOJ, and courts conspire to cover-up NSA fraud, waste, abuse, and criminal conspiracy at trial....

In the trial of former National Security Agency (NSA) executive Thomas Drake, federal prosecutors have convinced an agreeable federal judge, Richard D. Bennett, to place under court seal previously-released trial documents because they have been deemed "For Official Use Only" or FOUO. Drake is accused of leaking classified materials to the media and is only the fourth person in U.S. history to be charged with violating the 1917 Espionage Act.

FOUO is not a national security classification and it never has been one, although there were attempts by the Reagan, George H W Bush, and George W. Bush administrations to create a "restricted" or "sensitive but unclassified" (SBU) national security classification immediately below the current lowest national security classification, which is Confidential. Expansion of national security classification categories beyond the current three -- Top Secret, Secret, and Confidential, in addition to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) special access categories -- but these have been unsuccessful. George W. Bush's creation of a Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) category was rescinded by Executive Order 13556 on November 4, 2010.

Although President Obama rescinded Bush's CUI presidential memorandum, federal prosecutors are trying to argue that CUI continues to exist as a national security classification under the guise of FOUO. The argument demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the classification scheme used by NSA. However, in past trials, notable that of NSA analyst Kenneth Ford, Jr., jailed after a political show trial waged by DOJ neocons in league with a "shopped" federal judge. In the Ford case, the NSA wanted to cover up the cooking of signals intelligence from Iraq in order to justify the attack on and occupation of Iraq....

However, NSA and Justice Department prosecutors are continuing to insist that FOUO is a security classification in the trial of Drake, however, NSA and DOJ decided to go after Drake because the documents he stands accused of passing to The Baltimore Sun, points to massive misuse of taxpayer's money and contract fraud under the NSA directorships of retired General Michael Hayden and current director General Keith Alexander. Alexander is also the commander of the U.S. Cyber Command. The fraud committed by Hayden, Alexander, and senior NSA officials amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars in wasteful expenditures. In some cases, the waste on certain contractor-supplied intelligence systems were life threatening, as far as troops on the ground were concerned. The fraudulent contract expenditures were part of NSA's massive TRAILBLAZER and GROUNDBREAKER outsourced modernization and restructuring programs.

On March 18, in response to a request from federal prosecutors, Bennett sealed two documents that were previously available on the court's own website. The documents sealed describe the classified contents of several documents seized at Drake's home, however, the documents appear to be unclassified working papers that the government, after the fact, is trying to argue are classified at the levels of Secret and Top Secret...

Drake's federal public defenders have argued in one of the sealed documents that the government's argument that the documents found in Drake's home is flawed due to the fact that the documents could not be construed as classified at Secret or Top Secret merely because they contain the words "FOUO" and "COMINT." COMINT is communications intelligence and by itself does not mean that the document is classified at "Handle Via COMINT Channels Only," a special handling caveat for SCI special access categories. In fact, the National Cryptologic Museum, which is adjacent to NSA headquarters and open to the public, freely uses "COMINT" in its displays. In addition, the commercial International Spy Museum in downtown Washington, DC has held public seminars on issues dealing with, among other tradecraft, "COMINT."

From the sealed DOJ letter arguing that the documents found in Drake's home are classified, it is clear that NSA, which has played fast and loose with the truth in previous trials and administrative actions against its whistle-blowing employees, has tried to re-classify previous unclassified "working papers" as being Secret and Top Secret to bolster its case against Drake.

We have previously obtained NSA contractor documents that were deemed by the contractor and NSA, itself, as unclassified and the Drake documents appear to fall within the same category. The unclassified documents that were re-classified as Top Secret and Secret have titles such as "Trial and Testing," "Collections Sites," "Volume is Our Friend," "What a Success," "Regular Meetings," "Shoestring Budget," "BAG," "Buy vs. Make," "TT Notes," "Terrorism Threat," "Note Card 1", "Note Card 2," and more intriguing, "9/11 Commission...." and " The White House Murder INC, "... We previously reported that NSA's security directorate, the "Q Group," has engaged in massive surveillance of employees and journalists, including this editor, to plug any leaks on NSA information on the False Flag 9/11 attacks, and " The infamous White House Murder INC, "... . Bennett, in his ruling on March 18, agreed to NSA's and lead federal prosecutor William Welch II's request that previously unclassified court filings be placed under seal.

While NSA and DOJ seek to convict Drake for having unclassified For Official use Only documents in which the terms "FOUO" and "COMINT" appear, we have obtained a similar Unclassified For Official Use Only (FOUO) document written by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), one of the major contractors for the fraud-ridden GROUNDBREAKER program. In the document, from which is providing excerpts, there are clearly many more NSA-unique systems and terms described.

Cover terms for classified NSA systems such as HIGHCASTLE, LOOKINGGLASS, MILENIUM, FAST TRACK, ROTUNDPIPER, and BRASSCOIN are listed, along with "SIGINT" or "Signals Intelligence," an NSA mission term comparable to the "COMINT" acronym found in the working papers confiscated from Drake's home.

The CSC document, maintained by CSC contractors and sub-contractors in their cars, briefcases, and homes, were never indicted by the Justice Department on grounds they violated national security. On the other hand, many at NSA feel that companies like CSC, SAIC, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and others, should have been indicted for the massive contract fraud carried out under the watches of Michael Hayden, George Tenet and Alexander....

In post-9/11 America, the whistleblowers to fraud, waste, and abuse stand accused of being criminals while the criminals rake in billions of dollars in taxpayers' money and are lauded as critical components of the "intelligence team."

NSA's GROUNDBREAKER and TRAILBLAZER contractors were eager to compile as many NSA systems and sub-systems as possible to cash in on the billions of dollars they could make from the NSA outsourcing work. The database that contained all the NSA systems, projects, and components ripe for outsourcing work was code-named JACKPOT. For CSC, SAIC, and certain NSA officials who spun through the revolving door after retirement and landed high-paying jobs with the contractors, it certainly was a JACKPOT and one that NSA, Q Group, the FBI, Department of Justice, and " The White House Murder INC, "... earnestly want to cover-up in the trial of Thomas Drake....

During Drake's trial, which begins next month in Baltimore, FBI agents are expected to use code words to describe different aspects of the case. One code-word that will most definitely not be heard is JACKPOT, the database of NSA contracts in which contractors and NSA retirees enriched themselves -- criminality that is only met with chirping crickets from the so-called "crime fighting" Department of Justice and the utterly corrupt FBI....

Foul play, accident or an ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON MERKEL?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel refused to take part in the no-fly zone over Libya.

On 16 March 2011, Angela Merkel narrowly escaped a helicopter crash while travelling to attend an election rally. (German Chancellor escapes chopper crash)

Minutes after dropping Merkel off in Oldenburg, the helicopter got into difficulty.

At an altitude of about 1,600 meters, both rotors of the Super-puma 332 chopper broke down.

The helicopter fell from the sky.

A few meters from the ground, the pilots managed to restart the engines.

German authorities are investigating how both rotors of the helicopter broke down simultaneously.

It was a brand new helicopter taken into the service of the federal police in December 2010.

Germany is the main trading partner in Europe for both Russia and China.

(BBC News - Merkel leads huge German delegation to Russia and China / German Business Moves Beyond Russia to China - NYTimes.com)

On 20 March 2011, in Libya, a three month old baby was buried....

Moammar Kaddafi was recruited by CIA in 1968....

The baby as well as ALL Libyans killed for the last 42 years are victims of CIA/MOSSAD and GADDAFI's craziness.... (Libya: Gaddafi regime buries its dead )

At least 64 people are reported to have been killed so far (20 March)

(Venezuelan president
condemns Western-led bombardment of Libya )

Libya: MI6 warns: oppose Gaddafi or die

....

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/170973.html

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/171005.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/merkel-rebukes-netanyahu-peace-israel?CMP=twt_fd

Most likely scenario is Computer bug.....

The only connection between the engines is the computer fly-by-wire system....

There are always several back-up systems that automatically kick-in when a fault with computer, in theory you'd barely notice anything.

In theory.....

There's a wire stop-system at the end of all mil runways, same as aircraft carrier, this because it's quiet normal for all systems and back-up to fail in the cold damp of Europe and the pilots have to do an emergency-stop as the plane refuses to leave the runway! Remember, they'll have full tanks and probably fully bombed, too.

The pilots only start breathing when several thousand feet up, any problem usually would have shown up before this. But it's quiet normal to arrive safely back home to be told you were on the last back-up.

So it's not proven there was an assassination attempt on Merkel. More like a simple fault, one that happens all the time.

As an ex-pilot (non-mil) I can tell you ALL pilots take a deep breath on a safe landing.....

Flying is dangerous.....

.

A rare US greenspace of thought in today's dimmer, dirtier world....

A rare US greenspace of thought in today's dimmer, dirtier world....

The Arabs and Iranians are looking at the United States to redeem itself....since 1953...to 2011...

Sadly, this very noble aim is directly at odds with this equally true statement:

That [American] idealism has been badly eroded both at home and abroad.....

The big power governments are afraid that their exploited citizenry might take such heart from a Libyan rebel success that they (we) might try to insurrect in some way against our own Upper Classes. And the upper-class-front American government would rather see millions of Libyans die than to see millions of Americans take such inspiration from a Free Libyan success that they (we) might try something analogous against our own Koch Brothers, for example.

So people "in" the governments of America AND Europe will have to figure out how to act fast, hard, and successfully before their government-employers can shut them down cold....

I have reached the conclusion that James Clapper was exactly correct in saying that if the situation in Libya is left to its own internal resolution, Qaddafi's forces will re-conquer the country and re-establish his rule throughout.

It appears to me that four things are causing the Obama Admin’s foot-dragging on Libya:

1- American collective continuing trauma over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a “feeling” that this would be more of the same which it would not be.

2- Russian and Chinese unwillingness to see collective action on a principle that they think could someday be applied to them.

3- Saudi unwillingness to see another existing Arab go down. Obvious analogy.

4- Israeli government application of the 1% principle in opposing a situation they cannot predict in favor of one that they understand fully....

Impelled by these factors, the administration and those who wish to do nothing are taking refuge in an appeal to legalisms, validation in international law, the UNSC, NATO, the EU, Arab League and any number of other evasions of responsibility for the catastrophe that the "Freedom Agenda" of the Bush Administration and Obama's coat-trailing in Cairo have brought on through encouragement of revolt.

Arab intellectuals are often a pusillanimous and confused lot. Today on Farid Zakariyah's GPS show, he assembled a panel of these creatures. They managed to say that the United States should encourage FREEDOM! everywhere, everywhere, but that significant military intervention to prevent the defeat of FREEDOM would be unacceptable. The leading exponent of these mutually exclusive positions was one Rami Khouri, a Lebanese editor. He is a great favorite as an opinion giver at the US Army War College. No wonder we are screwed up....

Pat Lang

Dr. Brenner and Pat lang are absolutely right on every count..., re Libya and the broader MENA implications....

I propose that we keep in mind a few truths about who we have been as a country, where we are as a world power, and why we may reasonably wish to be down the road.

1. American idealism always has been central to our self esteem, and to our standing in the minds of other peoples, even as we have acted pragmatically (wisely or otherwise) in pursuit of our national interests. That idealism has been badly eroded at both home and abroad with the deleterious consequences strikingly evident in both spheres.

2. In an evolving world where our relative power of coercion/persuasion is destined to diminish considerably, the intangibles of status and image grow in importance as assets to be used constructively to help shape a responsible multilateral management of world affairs.

3. Our crass conduct in the Greater Middle East during the 9/11 decade has been far more costly in every respect than the Washington punditocracy (or certainly the media) know or admit. The revolutionary wave in the Arab world is a stroke of good fortune given us by the gods. It creates circumstances of historic dimensions wherein we can restore our credibility and our standing as the 'good guys.' Obama and his minions seem to have no awareness of this whatsoever.

4. The challenge is to seize that opportunity while not disregarding our valid, tangible interests that do not fully coincide with our longer term interests in being the godfather and underwriter of democracy in the region. The pivots of our strategic position have been four preoccupations: Terrorism, Iran, Israel and oil. The first three have become obsessions that defy reason and logic. A saner, more reasonable estimation of authentic interests and threats in regard to all three would markedly alter how we balance our divergent concerns and make tradeoffs between short-term and longer-term perspectives. By devaluing the multiform 'war against terrorism,' we lower our stake in Bahrain naval bases, in potentates like Yemen's Saleh, and in keeping Shi'ites at bay wherever they raise their heads.

5. The stickiest issues are raised by Saudi Arabia - because of its key role in the global oil market and because there the fall of the House of Saud could bring to power truly disagreeable people.

6. The Bahrain/Saudi link is there although I lack the expertise to estimate possible spillover effects. I do think, though, that there is no compelling reason to have Mr. Gates personally put the American imprimatur on the Bahraini royal family, or for us to embrace whatever is left of Mr. Saleh's fragile regime.

7. This is the critical moment to fight free of the lethal Israeli embrace. Two passive acts could vastly improve our position in the region and the world: leaving Bahrain and Yemeni rulers to their own devices; lowering the temperature of our campaign against the Mullahs' regime in Iran. Two active acts complement them: calling out the Israeli government; and intervening in Libya. The last is of far greater importance than the place's nominal value. Pat Lang is absolutely correct on this. Nearly everyone in the world outside of the U.S. knows on which side decency lies. They also are looking at the United States to redeem itself. It is not mainly a matter of means but of ends. Very few would mistake a focused, multilateral intervention to turn the military tide there (with no follow-an occupation) with our savaging of Iraq and Afghanistan. Peoples’ instincts usually are truer than we give them credit for. This is especially true when the lines are so sharply drawn and everyone's consciousness heightened.

Dr. Michael Brenner