We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, March 3, 2017

Meet 70 Americans Working for Saudi Arabia Against 9/11 Justice

Click here to access article from 28Pages.org.  (amended at 3:30 PM Seattle time)

The power of concentrated wealth, which rules most of the world today, is well illustrated in this report by a citizens action group efforts in their attempt to unravel the many mysteries of Saudi Arabia's involvement in 9/11. 

As a holdover from feudalism the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is wholly owned and ruled by the king's family, and protected and preserved by the United States since WWII when FDR recognized the vast petroleum potential of the kingdom. In the midst of this devastating war he proclaimed in 1943 that "the defense of Saudi Arabia is vital to the defense of the United States". Today these petroleum reserves help prop up the dollar (petrodollars), and the Kingdom is more useful to the US-led Empire than ever before. 

As reported in this article the Kingdom is also using its vast wealth to counter American activists' efforts at exposing their participation in 9/11 by hiring other Americans to oppose these efforts.
How much would Saudi lobbyists have to pay you to help undermine a new law that enables 9/11 families and survivors to present evidence against the kingdom for its alleged assistance to the 9/11 hijackers?

According to filings with the Department of Justice mandated by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), some of your fellow citizens have done so for as little as $5,000; others are cashing in on a much bigger scale. They’ll say they’re doing it for different, baseless reasons, but there’s no doubting the aim of their faraway masters.

The September enactment of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) was a resounding defeat for Saudi Arabia and its lobbyists in Washington. Undaunted, the kingdom and its fellow travelers in and out of the United States government immediately launched a coordinated assault on the new law.