How the Media is Still Censoring 9/11

News Commentary – June 15, 2011

While addressing the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the Kazakh capitol of Astana, Wednesday, Iran’s President Ahmadinejad spoke of his suspicions about 9/11.

 According to the Iranian president: “Have any of our countries played a part in the creation of 9/11 under whose pretext Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded and more than one million people have been killed or wounded?”

 Note that none of the reports featured below makes reference to this particular part of Ahmadinejad’s speech. Indeed, you would almost think that they were deliberately avoiding that part of his address.

 And maybe they were because as Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower, said in a recent interveiw: the U.S. government has effectively ordered the media not to give voice to suspicions about the events of 9/11.

 Just as Air Force Colonel and key Pentagon official Karen Kwiatkowski – who blew the whistle on the Bush administration’s efforts to concoct false intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction – wrote recently:

“I have been told by reporters that they will not report their own insights or contrary evaluations of the official 9/11 story, because to question the government story about 9/11 is to question the very foundations of our entire modern belief system regarding our government, our country, and our way of life. To be charged with questioning these foundations is far more serious than being labelled a disgruntled conspiracy nut or anti-government traitor, or even being sidelined or marginalized within an academic, government service, or literary career. To question the official 9/11 story is simply and fundamentally revolutionary.”

Making the simple act of trying to ascertain the truth a revolutionary activity, which all the following reports scrupulously avoid. 

 Iran’s Ahmadinejad Urges Central Asia to End Domination of ‘Enslavers and Colonizers’

Voice of America – June 15, 2011

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged Central Asian nations to create a new world order that ends the domination of what he called the “enslavers and colonizers of the past” – a reference to Western powers.

Ahmadinejad was speaking Wednesday at the opening of a regional summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Kazakh capital, Astana. Addressing the summit as an observer, he said all of the participating nations have a history of avoiding conflicts and together can bring peace to the world.The SCO is a regional security and economic forum whose members include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.  Several nations participate as observers, including Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia.

The Iranian president used much of his summit speech to blame unnamed Western countries for global instability. After the summit, Russia says President Dmitry Medvedev urged Mr. Ahmadinejad to take a “more constructive approach” in resolving a dispute with six world powers about the Iranian nuclear program.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Mr. Medvedev also called on the Iranian president to improve the transparency of his contacts with the United Nations nuclear agency. The Russian president made the appeals in a three-way meeting with  Ahmadinejad and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Six major powers, Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and Germany, have been trying to persuade Iran to stop sensitive nuclear work in return for diplomatic incentives, but the talks have been stalled for months.

In private talks ahead of the summit Tuesday, Chinese President Hu Jintao also urged  Ahmadinejad to resume the six-nation talks, saying Iranian steps to establish trust and promote dialogue would be in the interest not only of Iran but of the Middle East as a whole.

Western powers accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian energy program. Lavrov says Ahmadinejad told his Russian counterpart that Iran has no intention of becoming nuclear-armed.

During Wednesday’s summit, Russia appeared to win support from other SCO members for its criticism of U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in Europe. In a declaration, the bloc said the “unilateral and unlimited” build-up of missile defense systems by one state or narrow group of states could “damage” global security.

The declaration did not mention any nation specifically. The United States has said its proposed European missile defense shield is meant to protect the region from potential attack by Iranian missiles. But Russia fears the system will weaken its nuclear deterrent.

SCO security summit: 

Are China and Russia losing patience with Ahmadinejad?

Fred Weir – Christian Science Monitor June 15, 2011

There aren’t many places Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the politically embattled president of Iran can go these days to find a receptive audience.

But the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Central Asian security and trade group dominated by Russia and China, is unencumbered with any official US allies among its members and always seems up for a rip-roaring denunciation of the US and all its works by the diminutive Iranian leader.

Upon arriving in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana to attend the SCO’s annual summit, where Iran is only an official observer, President Ahmadinejad did not disappoint observers awaiting his fireworks.

“All opinion polls show that the US is the worst country in the world. People everywhere regard this country as their own enemy,” he said in one meeting.

He called on the SCO to take a more active role in undermining the US-led global system of “slavers and colonizers” and replacing it with a more just order.

“I believe together we can reform the way the world is managed. We can restore the tranquility of the world,” he told the assembled SCO leaders, including Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev and China’s President Hu Jintao.

Less impressed with Iran?

But experts say that Russia, which was once Iran’s chief arms supplier and political supporter, has soured on its former partner since Mr. Medvedev came to power and began seeking better relations with the West.

Last year, Russia cut off all major arms sales to Iran and backed tough United Nations sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to give up its alleged drive to obtain nuclear weapons.

Even China, still a key economic partner of Iran, appears to be losing patience.

In a sideline meeting with Ahmadinejad, Mr. Hu called upon Iran to “take substantial steps in respect of establishing trust” and “speed up the process of dialogue,” in international efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

Russian experts say listening to an Ahmadinejad speech is a small price to pay for keeping some diplomatic lines open with Iran which, no matter how it is viewed, is an extremely important regional player.

“Iran understands that Russia doesn’t want to see it pushed into a corner and completely isolated,” says Georgi Mirsky, an expert with the official Institute of World Economy and Economic Relations in Moscow. “The sanctions against Iran are not working. So there needs to be other avenues.”

Iran leader calls for alliance against West

Associated Press – June 16, 2011

 ASTANA, Kazakhstan — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran called yesterday for a security alliance of several former Soviet nations and China to form a united front against the West.

Ahmadinejad’s address to fellow heads of state at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kazakhstan will probably deepen suspicions that the bloc is intended as a counterweight to the United States across the region.

In a declaration signed by all the member states, the group also attacked missile defense programs, another apparent dig at the United States.

“The one-sided and unlimited development of missile defense systems by one government or a narrow group of governments could cause damage to strategic stability and international security,’’ the document said.

Much of Ahmadinejad’s fiery speech was devoted to leveling an exhaustive series of thinly veiled accusations against unnamed Western countries, which he described as “enslavers, colonialists, [and] invaders.’’

“Which one of our countries [has played a role] in the black era of slavery, or in the destruction of hundreds of millions of human beings?’’ Ahmadinejad said, opening his address.

The organization was formed in Shanghai in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to address religious extremism and border security in Central Asia, but it has in recent years attracted interest in full membership from countries such as India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.