by Stephen Lendman

They're an American tradition. They date from the republic's inception. Notable ones began in the mid-19th century.

They facilitated annexing Texas. Half of Mexico followed. America became Cuba's colonial power.

Controlling the Philippines, Guam, Samoa, Hawaii, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Canal Zone, Puerto Rico and other territories followed.

In 1917, Woodrow Wilson manipulated public sentiment. He did so with Big Lies.

They turned most Americans into raging German haters. Big Lies work this way. Wilson got the war he wanted.

FDR manipulated Japan to attack Pearl Harbor. Doing so let him wage war. He had to convince Congress and a pacifist public to go along.

What better way than by manufacturing terror.

Washington and Seoul conspired against Pyongyang. Numerous 1949/1950 cross-border incursions provoked its June response. Truman got the war he wanted.

War against North Vietnam followed the fake August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Doing so authorized war without declaring it.

Reagan's 1983 Grenada invasion had nothing to do with rescuing US medical students. It was about replacing leftist New Jewel Movement governance with pro-Western stooge allies.

In December 1989, manufactured incidents precipitated America's Panama invasion. Former US ally Manuel Noriega was deposed. At issue was forgetting who's boss.

In August 1990, Washington colluded with Kuwait's al-Sabah monarchy. Saddam Hussein was entrapped to invade.

In January 1991, the Gulf War followed. Over two decades of sanctions, war, occupation, and destruction of the "cradle of civilization" followed.

It bears repeating. 9/11 is the mother of all Big Lies. Thirteen years of imperial wars followed.

They continue. One country after another is targeted. Ravaging, destroying, colonizing, exploiting and controlling them reflect official US policy.

Homeland wars target Muslims, people of color, Latino immigrants and working Americans.

Award-winning author David Ray Griffin researched 9/11 exhaustively. He did so in 10 books, many articles and lectures. He provided vital evidence too important to ignore.

In April 2006, he discussed "9/11: The Myth and the Reality," saying:

"It would seem, for many reasons, that the official story of 9/11, which has served as a religious Myth in the intervening years (and still does), is a myth in the pejorative sense of a story that does not correspond to reality."

In September 2008, Griffin headlined "September 11, 2001: 21 Reasons to Question the Official Story about 9/11."

The FBI admitted it "ha(d) no hard evidence connecting" 9/11 to bin Laden.

So-called devout Muslim alleged hijackers drank heavily, frequented strip clubs and paid for sex.

Technology in 2001 made cell phone calls made from above 30,000 feet impossible.

The FBI lied claiming Mohamed Atta's left behind luggage contained "decisive evidence" about Al Qaeda responsibility for the attacks.

Passports allegedly found at United 93's crash site were fake.

Alleged hijackers weren't aboard the four fateful flights.

Standing operating intercept procedures weren't followed.

Then Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said Dick Cheney "apparently confirmed a stand-down order" prior to an alleged plane striking the Pentagon.

The 9/11 whitewash Commission deleted Mineta's comment from its official report.

Secret Service agents let Bush remain at a Sarasota, FL school for 30 minutes after learning about the second twin tower strike.

Standard procedure calls for securing his safety immediately in case of potential danger.

Jet fuel doesn't heat high enough to melt or cause rigid steel columns to crumble.

Doing so is "scientifically impossible." Controlled demolitions destroyed both towers. Building 7 fell the same way. Griffin explained other Big Lies.

He concluded saying growing numbers of "physicists, chemists, architects, engineers, pilots, former military officers, and former intelligence officers reject the official 9/11 myth."

In June 2010, he headlined "Did 9/11 Justify the War in Afghanistan?"

Asking is verboten. It's "off-limits," said Griffin. It's "not to be raised in polite company, and certainly not in the mainstream media."

It's forbidden "to ask whether the original invasion was justified by the 9/11 attacks."

No evidence linked them to Afghanistan. Attacking a country posing America no threat is lawless aggression.

War without mercy continues. It does so without Security Council authorization, Griffin explained. Claims otherwise are false.

No moral justification for war exists. Contrary arguments were Big Lies. America decided to invade Afghanistan two months before 9/11, said Griffin.

Reasons for doing so differ from official Big Lies. Invading had nothing to do with "captur(ing) or kill(ing) Osama bin Laden," Griffin explained.

Or defeating Al Qaeda. Or other nonexistent threats.

It was about advancing America's imperium. It was to colonize and control a strategic territory.

Afghanistan is a geopolitical prize. At issue is controlling Eurasia's vast oil, gas and other resources.

It's controlling the world's largest opium supply. It floods global markets with heroin.

It provides enormous profits for Wall Street. It gives CIA access to billions of dollars in elicit drug money.

Occupied Afghanistan gives America a strategically located land-based aircraft carrier. It's part of Washington's plan to encircle Russia and China with bases.

9/11 was a convenient pretext. It was the mother of all Big Lies. Wars without end followed.

Griffin calls America's Afghan war "an abomination." The "official rationale (given) is a lie. We are there for other reasons," he stressed

No legal or moral justification exists. "The fact that the official story is a lie makes (America's) war crimes even worse." They continue daily out of sight and mind.

In his book "Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire," John Pilger called Afghanistan "the grand illusion of the American cause."

At the same time, "(t)rough all the humanitarian crises in living memory, no country has been abused and suffered more, and none has been helped less, than Afghanistan," he said.

America's presence exacerbates horrific conditions. Death, destruction and daily violence persist. They haunt daily life. Human misery is extreme.

Peace, stability and freedom remain distant hopes. Maybe "next time," says Pilger. For sure no time soon.

Not as long as permanent US occupation continues. America has no plans to leave.

On Thursday, September 11, this writer's Progressive Radio News Hour features new Consensus 9/11 information.

Elizabeth Woodworth will discuss it. She'll explain newly discovered truths. "Best evidence" proof is presented. It dispels official Big Lies. Consensus 9/11 is founded on:

"(1) The opinions of respected authorities, based on professional experience, descriptive studies, and reports of expert committees.

(2) Physical data in the form of photographs, videotapes, court testimony, witness reports, and FOIA releases.

(3) Direct rather than circumstantial evidence."

It's based on "integrating individual professional expertise with the best available documentary and scientific evidence."

Doing so is similar to how doctors diagnose illnesses. It's how forecasts based on best judgments are made.

Revisions based on new evidence are encouraged. Doing so reveals important truths.

No airliner black boxes were found at the World Trade Center site. New evidence refutes the official claim. Woodworth will explain.

Over a three-year period, 24 Consensus 9/11 panel members produced 44 peer-reviewed Big Truths. They refute official Big Lies.

New information keeps surfacing. Consensus 9/11 is dedicated to explaining what everyone needs to know.

For example, 10 so-called Muslim hijackers allegedly broke into the cockpits of four aircraft. Supposedly they commandeered them.

Yet none of the pilots or co-pilots "squawked" the 7500 hijack code. Nor does proof exist to verify numerous other official Big Lies.

9/11 is the mother of all them all. Truth is its mortal enemy. Revealing it is crucially important. Spreading it lets many others know.

Growing numbers of Americans and others worldwide reject the official 9/11 myth.

They do so for good reason. It's a bald-faced lie. It's by far the most harmful one in living memory.

Millions of corpses attest to America's barbarity. The mother of all Big Lies persists. Imperial wars rage without end.

Freedom in America is dying. Obama targets it for elimination altogether. He presides over a ruthless police state apparatus.

No one is free and safe. Big Brother watches everyone. Mass surveillance is official US policy.

So is targeting anyone resisting US authority. Monied interests alone matter. Advancing America's imperium serves them.

Whistleblowers exposing government crimes are targeted. Dissent is increasingly criminalized.

Constitutional rights are vanishing in plain sight. The Patriot Act alone eliminated fundamental freedoms. Nancy Chang once asked "(w)hat's so patriotic about trampling on the Bill of Rights?"

The American dream is more myth than reality. George Carlin once said "(y)ou have to be asleep to believe it."

Obama won't prosecute CIA torturers. He facilitates Wall Street grand theft. Corporate crooks run America.

War-profiteering is the national pastime. Thirdworldizing America is official policy. So is waging war on humanity.

Habeas protection no longer exists. Or due process and judicial fairness. Anyone can be criminalized for any reason or none at all.

Police states operate this way. Obama is judge, jury and executioner. He usurped diktat power.

He can claim emergency authority to declare martial law, suspend the Constitution for national security reasons, deploy federal and/or National Guard troops on city streets, and suppress whatever he calls disorder.

Included are peaceful protests. At issue is abolishing fundamental First Amendment rights. Without them all others are at risk.

They include free expression, a free press, public assembly, religious freedom, and right to petition government for redress. No longer.

America is unfit to live in. It's on a fast track to tyranny. It's perilously close to full-blown.

Perhaps just another 9/11-type False Flag away. The fullness of time will tell.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour