War on Terror Manipulations: Two Powerful Documentaries and My Own Experience as a Presidential Interpreter

INTERESTING INFORMATION -- WELL WORTH FOLLOWING UP ON by viewing the documentaries.

Subject: War on Terror Manipulations: Two Powerful Documentaries and My Own Experience as a Presidential Interpreter  by Fred Burks

This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/powerofnightmares

WantToKnow.info: Reliable, verifiable information on major cover-ups,
and a call to work together for the good of all

Two excellent documentaries, BBC's Power of Nightmares and Robert Greenwald's Unconstitutional, expose blatant manipulations in the war on terror. Power of Nightmares and Unconstitutional are among the best documentaries ever made using highly reliable sources to expose major government manipulations orchestrating war behind the scenes. Both are briefly described below with links given for free viewing online.

As further evidence, my own revealing experiences witnessing these manipulations firsthand while working as a language interpreter in secret meetings with Presidents G.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and other top officials are described. For verification purposes, links to major media articles on my whistleblowing testimony are provided. Empowering suggestions are also given on what you can do to help build a brighter future for us all.

The Power of Nightmares

The revealing BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares digs deep into the roots of the war on terror, only to find that much of the widespread fear in the post-9/11 world has been fabricated by those in power for their own interests. The intrepid BBC team presents highly revealing interviews with top officials and experts in combating terrorism who raise serious questions about who is behind all of the fear-mongering. These experts and riveting footage also show how the media have been manipulated to support secret war and power agendas.

This eye-opening documentary shows that, especially after 9/11, fear has been used widely in the media to manipulate the public into giving up civil liberties and turning over power to elite groups with their own hidden agendas. The Power of Nightmares clearly demonstrates that the nightmare vision of a powerful, united terrorist organization waiting to strike our societies is largely an illusion. Wherever the BBC team looked for al-Qaeda, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the sleeper cells in America, they found that we are chasing a phantom enemy. For all citizens who care about the future of our world, this is a must-watch video.

View All Three Parts of the BBC Documentary Power of Nightmares

Each episode is one hour. Part 3 is the most revealing. A 22-minute summary is also available.

For 22 minutes of the best excerpts from this three-hour documentary, click here.

For a high quality version of the most revealing third part of Power of Nightmares, click here.

Click here to watch all three parts and read reviews of Power of Nightmares on archive.org.

For an excellent review of Power of Nightmares in the Los Angeles Times, click here.

For a full written transcript of each part of Power of Nightmares: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3

For transcripts, audio and video downloads, and other excellent information on the series, click here.

To order all three parts of Power of Nightmares on one DVD, click here.

Another excellent, revealing BBC/Adam Curtis documentary, Century of the Self, delves into the history of mass propaganda and its power to shape public perception. Click here to purchase. Click here to watch it free.

Unconstitutional by Robert Greenwald

A second eye-opening documentary available online for free viewing is Unconstitutional. In this most excellent work, interviews with ranking members of Congress, top legal experts, and even a former CIA chief describe many insidious efforts to take away freedoms guaranteed under the constitution for over 200 years.

Compelling video footage shows U.S. citizens, from law-abiding store clerks to a U.S. Olympian, who have been the victims of unconstitutional policies established under the Patriot Act. Members of Congress describe the replacement of the previously agreed upon Patriot Act by another version quietly slipped into its place just hours before the final vote in Congress, leaving no one time to read the many devastating changes inserted at the last minute.

Call your friends together to watch this engaging film, and to join in the growing movement to uphold democracy and the U.S. Constitution.

Unconstitutional: Purchase or view free at http://www.WantToKnow.info/unconstitutionalcivillibertiesloss

Personal Experience of Presidential Interpreter Fred Burks

In my own experience as a language interpreter for U.S. and foreign presidents, I personally witnessed some of the manipulations mentioned in the Power of Nightmares and Unconstitutional. After resigning in late 2004 from my work as an Indonesian interpreter with the U.S. Department of State for over 18 years, in January 2005 I testified to this in the widely publicized trial of Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir.

Among other things, Ba'asyir was accused by U.S. authorities of being the mastermind behind JI (Jemaah Islamiah), which is alleged to be a sister organization of Al Qaeda. Many Indonesians were quite skeptical of these allegations. Like me and the Power of Nightmares documentary, they questioned whether JI was largely fabricated by powerful elite groups with hidden agendas.

At Ba'asyir's trial, I testified about a September 2002 secret meeting at which I interpreted for a top secret meeting between the president of Indonesia, Megawati Soekarnoputri, and three American representatives: US Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph Boyce, National Security Council representative Karen Brooks, and a special assistant sent personally by President Bush (who revealed privately to me that she was a CIA agent).

At a key moment in this unusual meeting, the "special assistant" put heavy pressure on President Megawati to render (secretly capture and turn over) Ba'asyir to the United States. Even under intense pressure, Megawati politely declined, much to the surprise of the Americans. Yet publicly, U.S. officials have repeatedly denied putting pressure on Indonesia regarding Ba'asyir. To read my full account of this intriguing meeting, click here.

To read articles about my court testimony in the Wall Street Journal and BBC, and to read the surprising results of this testimony and other fascinating experiences from my interpreting work:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4170629.stm - BBC article on my court testimony

http://www.WantToKnow.info/050226fredburkswsj - Wall Street Journal on my testimony and lots more

http://www.WantToKnow.info/050418fredburksinterpretingstories - Stories from my experiences interpreting

http://www.WantToKnow.info/fredburksresigns - My resignation from State Dept. due to excessive secrecy

http://www.WantToKnow.info/050129fredburkscelebrity - Miracles resulting from this testimony

Over a year before this secret meeting, a trusted friend gave me some powerful, disturbing information which opened my eyes to large-scale manipulations around the intriguing issue of UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence, matters of which I had previously been completely unaware. This information involved the public testimony of over 20 senior government and military witnesses whose credentials could not be questioned.

The astounding information revealed in their testimony clearly did not benefit these witnesses personally. In fact, it threatened their careers. Yet though these brave individuals testified in public with large numbers of major media reporters present, mainstream news sources in the U.S. gave little significant coverage to this major occurrence. The media was clearly complicit in downplaying this disturbing information.

Since my eyes were opened in 2001 to a major cover-up of the UFO issue and much, much more, I have dedicated myself to uncovering all that is going on behind the scenes. I discovered and became deeply involved with an informal international network of researchers who are committed to researching numerous major cover-ups of which very few are aware, and to spreading the word, so that we might all work together to return to a full, open democracy which supports all people in our good world.

In early 2003, I established the website WantToKnow.info in order to make the results of this research available to the public. On this website, you will find concise summaries of reliable facts and information on a number of major cover-ups. Almost all information is verifiable using the links provided to reliable sources.

To understand why all of this vitally important information isn't getting extensive media coverage, I invite you to spend some time exploring the powerful, reliable information available at www.WantToKnow.info. Take a look at our "Best Information" page, and our carefully compiled information centers and news article summaries listed in the left column of each webpage. To learn more about the dedicated international team of researchers involved with WantToKnow.info, click here.

For empowering suggestions on what we can do about all this, see the list below. And for a penetrating and inspiring essay on all that is happening behind the scenes and how we can build a brighter future together, click here. If you are not already a subscriber, consider also subscribing to our WantToKnow.info email list of reliable cover-up information (one email every few days – subscribe here).

Thanks for caring. Please help to spread this vitally important news by sharing this message with your friends and colleagues. You can easily do this by clicking on the "Share" icon at the top or bottom of this or any page on WantToKnow.info, or by copying and pasting the page to your email. I have no doubt that together, we can and will strengthen democracy and build a brighter future for us all.

With gratitude and very best wishes,
Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info Team
Former language interpreter for Presidents Bush and Clinton

 

What you can do:

• Inform your media and political representatives of this important information and ask them to work for greater transparency in government. To contact those close to you, click here.


• Explore the abundant resources of our highly informative War Information Center at this link.


• Read summaries of reliable major media articles on war deceptions available here.


• To read the astounding two-page summary of a top U.S. general describing how he realized he was deceived and manipulated into supporting war, click here.


• For a powerful online lesson on war, manipulation of public perception, and what we can do to transform our world using the power of the Internet, see this free Insight Course lesson.


• Spread this news to your friends and colleagues, and bookmark this article on key news websites using the "Share This" icon on this page, so that we can fill the role at which the major media is sadly failing. Together, we can make a difference.

 

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Preaching pastors in the south

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/21/north-carolina-pastor-gay-rant-starvation_n_1533463.html?ref=mostpopular

The ignorance that prevails on this planet is astounding.  Hatred, judgment and bigotry posing as "Christian" teachings are being taught in the churches.  And just look at the self-righteousness of the men spewing out their rabid speeches from the pulpit in the videos.  Are these the kind of people with whom you would even want to mingle, much less follow?  This is representative of Tea Party ideology.  Sadly, this is where the Republican party has come in our lifetime.  And, even sadder: millions staunchly support this ideology and line up at the polls to vote for it. 

In my childhood, the Democrats were the party of hatred and bigotry, especially in the South.  That all changed when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 (perhaps the only good thing that man ever did in his life).  Gradually, the Democrats began to accept civil rights for all human beings.  In opposition, the Republicans began to spurn civil rights for "defective" people like homosexuals and blacks -- and, to this day, they remain in that camp. Most of them would never think of themselves as prejudiced -- but the kinds of e-mails they send speak to their real beliefs. 

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Easter Island heads have bodies

Easter Island archaeology project digs up island's secrets

Published May 16, 2012

• 

  The first methodical investigation of the statues at Rapa Nui, which many think of as simple heads, reveals the complete figures buried over centuries by natural forces. (Easter Island Statue Project / Jo Anne Van Tilburg)

New photographs reveal what lies beneath the surface of Easter Island, one of the most remote places in the world -- the carved bodies of the island's 887 famous guardians.

Most people think of the 63-square-mile Pacific island’s silent stone sentinels as simple heads. But the heads all have bodies -- and a backstory that's only now being pieced together, explained Jo Anne Van Tilburg, director of the Easter Island Statue Project.

“Those statues which are the most photographed are standing in the quarry. They’re buried up to mid-torso level. So it’s understandable that the general public didn’t have a clue that those statues had bodies,” she told FoxNews.com.

Current belief is that the statues were carved between A.D.1100 up until the 1800s, when an influx of Westerners transformed the culture. Van Tilburg, a fellow with The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, has only been coming to Easter Island (called Rapa Nui) to do research for twenty years, since 1992. But she first came more than thirty years ago -- and stayed for one clear reason.

'It’s understandable that the general public didn’t have a clue that those statues had bodies.'

- Jo Anne Van Tilburg, director of the Easter Island Statue Project

“I fell in love with the statues,” she said simply.

“I came to Easter Island in 1981. I was impressed with the number of statues and that they seemed accessible to me, they were on the surface. I wanted to know what was below the surface.”

First Van Tilburg documented the island’s statues and those that have been removed to museums; there are 887 inventoried, though she says the number is closer to 1,000. Then she began the next phase of work to reveal what lay beneath the ground -- covered up not intentionally by men, but through centuries of exposure to the environment.

That process has taken 12 years so far, and may take a lifetime of work.

“It’s the first time that one has been excavated in such a way that the documentation was complete and scientific,” she told FoxNews.com. Other groups have dug in the past, and looters have found their way to the remote island as well.

“People have been treasure hunting there for a long time.”

Van Tilburg is conducting a far more thorough examination, however, working in collaboration with a staff of three in California and ten Rapa Nui natives who are doing all of the excavation work. She is currently gearing up for the sixth scheduled dig on the island, which should run from October through November 2012.

Work so far has revealed evidence of ceremonies and very large quantities of paint; the archaeologists believe the workers painted the statues as well as their own bodies.

She found evidence of human burials nearby as well.

And recent digs have revealed just how the massive heads were carved -- some of which tower more than 30 feet in height, from base to top, and weigh more than 80 tons.

“We found over 500 stone tools. The statues were carved with different types, big heavy picks and finer basalt and obsidian tools to finish details,” she explained. Other tools were used to rub surfaces and burnish the statues. Van Tilburg found evidence of post holes as well, big enough for a tree trunk, and rope guides carved in some statues to elevate them into standing position.

But the intent of the giant sculptures, their reason for being, is still not totally clear.

“Think of China where they buried an army of standing warriors. That group was intended to be together as part of a burial feature. Here, on Easter Island, each statue is individually constructed by groups.”

A signed stone recently discovered beneath one of the heads held a petroglyph of a Polynesian style canoe, and a clue: It was meant to signify identity, Van Tilburg said.

“It was meant to identify that statue either to a family group of people or a subgroup, either carvers or the family unit the carvers came from, or beyond that, to the chief,” she told FoxNews.com. The giant sculptures were most likely relatives and not guardians, in other words.

Later sculptures were far more realistic and individualistic, she noted, which also reveals something about the changing culture, as native peoples moved from highly controlled fiefdoms to a society allowing for more individual expression.

“It’s always important to get beneath the surface of things,” she said.

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Fewer white babies being born

http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/17/census-2011-data-confirm-trend-of-population-diversity/?hpt=hp_bn13

The direction we are headed:  Within another generation or so, most people being born will be a beautiful coffee color.  Eventually racism will become a thing of the distant past, with our descendants wondering why there was such a big deal made about skin color (and sexual orientation) way back in the "old days."  The Tea Party's ideology will be studied in history classes as the model of ignorance and bigotry, and everyone will be stunned that people could ever have thought that way.  Most of today's old white men's beliefs will have died out with the old white men, making way for a more open-minded society that welcomes new ideas, instead of automatically opposing them (like today's "we don't want no new things around here" Republicans).

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
—Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788 – 1860)

'First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.'
--Mahatma Gandhi

There is a principle which is proof against all information, which is proof against all arguments, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance; that principle is contempt, prior to investigation. --Herbert Spencer

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
--John Locke, 1690, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

 

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EASY TICK REMOVAL -- IMPORTANT MESSAGE

Definitely worth a try!

 

TICK REMOVAL IMPORTANT MESSAGE A nurse discovered a safe, easy way to remove ticks where they automatically withdraw themselves when you follow her simple instructions.  Read this one as it could save you from some major problems.   Tick Removal:  Spring is here and the ticks will soon be showing their heads.  Here is a good way to get them off you, your children or your pets.  Give it a try.   A School Nurse has written the info below--good enough to share--and it really works!   "I had a pediatrician tell me what she believes is the best way to remove a tick.  This is great because it works in those places where it's sometimes difficult to get to with tweezers:  between toes, in the middle of a head full of dark hair, etc.   "Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball.  Cover the tick with the soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15-20); the tick will come out on its own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away.  This technique has worked every time I've used it (and that was frequently), and it's much less traumatic for the patient and easier for me.   "Unless someone is allergic to soap, I can't see that this would be damaging in any way.  I even had my doctor's wife call me for advice because she had one stuck to her back and she couldn't reach it with tweezers. She used this method and immediately called me back to say, "It worked!"   Please pass on. Everyone needs this helpful hint.

 

--
Tom

 

 

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Too few are aware of the global catastrophe caused by Fukushima disaster

Voice crying in the wilderness:  We are experiencing a global wakeup call re the dangers of nuclear power -- but how many are paying attention?  Today's news tells of the tons of debris washing up on America's western shores from the Fukushima nuclear disaster--with the EPA admitting they have no way to deal with it.  Another earthquake occurred in Tokyo today as well.  The radiation levels on the west coast  (particularly in our area of central/northern California, in Oregon, and Washington state) are very high but are not being measured by the officials, no doubt because to do so would make apparent to the people how dangerous the situation really is.  There is very little in the mainstream news about any of this and little talk of doing away with nuclear power entirely.  The risk of Japan having another quake in the Fukushima region is extremely high, and Reactor #4 would, almost without a doubt, have a complete collapse, spewing tons more deadly radiation into the atmosphere. 

http://cosmicconvergence.org/?p=641

Excerpt: Most of the world community is still unaware of the extremely profound and far-reaching effects that the Fukushima nuclear disaster has had. If the nations of the world really understood the implications of the actual ‘fallout’ – past, current and future – the current nuclear energy paradigm would be systematically shut down. For those of us who are in the know, it is incumbent upon each of us to disseminate the relevant information/data necessary to forever close down the nuclear power industry around the globe.

A Special Report On the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe

“Does anyone in their right mind believe that nuclear power plants can ever be designed, engineered or constructed to withstand 9.0 earthquakes followed by 15 meter high tsunamis? Sorry if we offend, but such a display of so deadly a combination of ignorance and arrogance must represent the very height of hubris. Particularly in view of the inevitable consequences which have manifested at Fukushima, how is it that so few saw this pre-ordained and disastrous outcome, except by willful blindness?”
— Japan: A Nation Consigned To Nuclear Armageddon

Numerous headlines over the past few weeks have been relentless in trumpeting Japan’s begrudging response to this global wakeup call. For the first time since nuclear power has been used in the land of Nippon, all 55 nuclear power plants now sit idle. This is of course very good news for the people of Japan. The question now remains how to go about remediating all of these vulnerable and unsafe nuclear reactors. Particularly because of those nuclear plants that are located anywhere along the Japanese coastline is this remediation imperative an existential necessity.

AND READ THIS, from article at: http://www.infowars.com/fukushima-is-falling-apart-are-you-ready-for-a-mass-extinction-event/:

If they are MOX fuel, containing 6% plutonium, one fuel rod has the potential to kill 2.89 billion people. If this pool collapses, as Senator Wyden is now saying, we would face a mass extinction event from the release of radiation in those rods.

That is, if we aren’t in one already. Nuke experts like Arnie Gundersen and Helen Caldicott are prepared to evacuate their families to the southern hemisphere if that happens. It is that serious.

So now you know, if you didn’t before. We are in big trouble.

Thirteen months have passed since the Fukushima reactors exploded, and a U.S. Senator finally got off his ass and went to Japan to see what is going on over there.What he saw was horrific.And now he is saying that we are in big trouble.See the letter he sent to U.S. Ambassador to Japan Ichiro Fujisaki, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and NRC’s Chairman Gregory Jaczko here.  But what is so ironic about this is that we have been in this heap of trouble since March of 2011. March 17th, to be exact, when the plume of radioactive materials began bombarding the west coast of California. And Oregon. And Washington. And British Columbia. And later Maine, Europe, and everywhere in between.  Independent researchers, nuke experts, and scientists, from oceanography to entomology and everywhere in between, have been trying to sound the alarm ever since.

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Repug Billionaires Gearing Up to Finance More Lies

Nasty, Say-Anything Republican Campaign Coming

by Dave Johnson | May 18, 2012 

There is a news report that yet another right-wing billionaire is going to spend even more millions to run even more poisonous, divisive, racist, degrading, insulting, lying, character-assassination ads designed to turn people against government and democracy. And an added bonus (for Republicans) will be turning people away from even voting. They're going to do this because it works -- for them and the billionaires who back them.

NY Times: G.O.P. ‘Super PAC’ Weighs Hard-Line Attack on Obama,

» article continues...

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