For all of you conspiracy theorists out there who have made countless accusations about how 9/11 happened, and have questioned the accuracy of the reports that Bin Laden was the mastermind behind the attack, here is a link to the AP story that Al-Jazeera broadcast excerpts from a video filmed at the planning stages of the 9/11 attacks, which include 2 of the saudi members of the group of 19 9/11 hijackers meeting with Bin Laden.

     Now, seeing this new evidence, could someone please explain to me how Bin Laden wasn't involved.  How exactly was this an inside job?

     See for yourself, and then wonder.

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The CBS Evening News on Thursday night became the first broadcast network evening newscast to report how former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the one who revealed how Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, but CBS portrayed the Wilsons and taxpayers as the victims of the probe, not Scooter Libby or Karl Rove (whose name was never uttered), nor questions about the special counsel's pursuit. Couric framed the piece by asserting Wilson accused Bush of using “faulty intelligence to justify the war in Iraq” and the “leak ultimately sent a reporter to jail, got a top White House aide indicted, and set off a criminal investigation that has cost taxpayers $20 million so far.” In the “exclusive” interview with David Martin, Armitage maintained: “Oh, I feel terrible everyday. I think I let down the President, I let down the Secretary of State, I let down my department, my family, and I also let down Mr. and Mrs. Wilson.” Martin then asked: "You feel you owe the Wilson's an apology?" Martin did point out to Armitage, "You would have taken a lot of wind out of this whole feeding frenzy if you had come forward," prompting Armitage to say he had just honored the special counsel's request. And Martin wondered: “Did you ever think of saying, 'Mr. President, I screwed up'?”

Martin never addressed why the special counsel continued the probe when he knew up front that Armitage was Bob Novak's source, or retracted any of CBS's past mis-reporting (see below). CBS also presumed some facts not in evidence as Couric described Valerie Plame as an “undercover agent for the CIA” and Martin relayed: “It's a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA officer.” (Transcript follows)

Undoubtedly, the anger fomenting as a result of a television docudrama about the most serious attacks on America since Pearl Harbor has to be confounding the most seasoned of cynics.

After prominent House Democrats sent a letter Wednesday to Disney President and CEO Robert Iger requesting a re-editing of “The Path to 9/11” even though they admitted that they “have not yet seen this program” (as reported by NewsBusters here), another such request came from Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senator Charles Schumer, and Senator Byron Dorgan on Thursday.

In the latest categorical rejection of Saddam Hussein's links to al Qaeda Charlie Gibson said the following in an interview with President Bush:

Gibson: And that's the one thing that I
question, whether people do have any sense of that. For loathsome as he
may have been, Saddam Hussein was not connected to al Qaeda

This isn't just bias. It means that ABC isn't telling the truth now or wasn't telling the truth in some of their previous reporting.  Charles Gibson doesn't need to even go outside of his own network to find examples of Saddam Hussein's links to al Qaeda. 

As the NFL season opened Thursday night, it might not come as a surprise, but USA Today (among others) have reported that Bryant Gumbel's obnoxious commentary demeaning black NFL players union leader Gene Upshaw as being on a "leash" will not cost him his new job calling football games for the emerging NFL Network.

New NFL commissioner Roger Goodell isn't dumping Bryant Gumbel from the NFL Network.Goodell met with Gumbel last week and had "a very good dialogue" regarding his criticism of the league and union chief Gene Upshaw...

For his part, Upshaw is still foregoing comment, but Newsday columnist Bob Glauber notes that he's not holding back against critics echoing Gumbel:

Former Browns defensive back Bernie Parrish is critical of Upshaw's stewardship of the union. "Bryant Gumbel got it exactly right," said Parrish, a founding member of the NFLPA. "I don't think I can say it any better." Upshaw has held his tongue over Gumbel's remarks, but he's furious at Parrish.

A small world of self-proclaimed “conservative” retired Marine Colonels disillusioned with President Bush, Republicans and the war in Iraq. Ten months after CNN's John King featured criticism of the Iraq war from retired Marine Colonel Jim Van Riper, in an Anderson Cooper 360 story from North Carolina on supposed declining support for the war in a conservative area, CBS's Byron Pitts traveled to the same state and located the very same Marine to demonstrate that on the war “even some life-long conservatives are no longer hearing the President's message." On Thursday's CBS Evening News, Pitts touted the ex-Marine's credentials: "Retired Marine Corps Colonel Jim Van Riper is a Christian, card-carrying member of the NRA who voted for President Bush twice. But as more Marines have died in Iraq, his confidence in the Bush administration died as well." Van Riper asserted: “I don't mind arrogance except when there's dead bodies as a result." Pitts explained how “Van Riper will vote for Democrats across the board," and then cued him up: “If you could sit across from President Bush, what would you say to him?" Van Riper: "Sir, I'm disappointed."

King signed off from Greenville, while Pitts reported from Jacksonville, the home of the Camp Lejuene Marine Corps base, presumably an area with thousands of retired Marine corps officers -- yet CNN and CBS, ten months apart, stumbled upon the very same retired Marine Colonel -- an amazing coincidence. (Transcript and more follows)

Rush Limbaugh delivered the "freeSpeech" segment on Thursday's CBS Evening News. Anchor Katie Couric set up him up: “With the fifth anniversary of 9/11 coming up, the topic tonight is the war on terror. And there may be no one more opinionated on the subject than radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.” Limbaugh began: “My friends, it's time to face a hard cold fact: Militant Islam wants to kill us just because we're alive and don't believe as they do....Now, this threat is not just going to go away because we choose to ignore it.”

He soon zeroed in on the problem: “But some Americans, sadly, are not interested in victory. And yet they want us to believe that their behavior is Patriotic. Well, it's not. When the critics are more interested in punishing this country over a few incidents at Abu Grahib and Guantanamo Bay than they are in defeating those who want to kill us; when they seek to destroy a foreign surveillance program which is designed to identify those who want to kill us and how they intend to do it; when they want to grant those who want to kill us, U.S. constitutional rights, I don't call that patriotic.” (Full text follows)

Video clip (1:40): Real (2.9 MB) or Windows Media (3.3 MB), plus MP3 audio (600 KB). CBSNews.com has posted the text and video, as has RushLimbaugh.com

Did you hear that sound Thursday afternoon? That was the Constitution weeping as one of the nation’s major political parties trampled all over the First Amendment. Remember what that is…that right bestowed upon us by our Founding Fathers guaranteeing freedom of speech?

Well, if what was reported by NewsBusters here, and the Ostroy Report here (hat tip to Hot Air) are correct, and ABC really has caved into political pressure from Democrats – in particular, former President Clinton – to edit the miniseries “The Path to 9/11,” such rights have changed forever. At the very least, this would demonstrate that these rights – which Jefferson said were inalienable, by the way! – apply differently to Democrats and Republicans.

For the "Free Speech" segment of the "CBS Evening News," new anchor Katie Couric invited radio host Rush Limbaugh to deliver 90 seconds of commentary.

Hot Air has the video.

Katie Couric introduced the segment:

"If you’ve been with us this week, you probably know we have a new segment we’re trying called 'free speech,' where news makers, opinion makers and just plain folks tell us what’s on their mind.

"With the fifth anniversary of 9-11 coming up, the topic tonight is the war on terror. And there may be no one more opinionated on the subject than radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh."

Egged on by NBC’s Ann Curry, 9/11 widow and media fave Kristen Breitweiser attacked Ann Coulter and the President on this morning’s Today. On to promote her new book, Wake-Up Call, Breitweiser was portrayed as merely a non-partisan 'stay-at-home-mother,' as Curry never mentioned her 2004 support for John Kerry.

Before playing a clip of Coulter with Lauer, Curry asked Breitweiser: "You know conservatives, as you know, well know, have attacked, criticized heavily 9/11 widows for, including you, for, for some of what you've said over these years, over these five years. In fact on this program, Ann Coulter, the writer, said something to, to Matt Lauer. Let's take a quick listen to what she said."

Yet another case of a reporter not giving you all the facts.

CNN's Christine Romans tried to pass off a Boston area woman, Abby Subak, as merely a "mother of two" concerned about the death of the American Dream.

I thought it fit all too neatly into Romans's story, which hyped the findings of a liberal think tank critical of the Bush economy. Well, sure enough, an Internet search showed that this woman just so happened to have worked before for Ralph Nader's PIRG.

Here's a taste from my latest article available at the MRC's BusinessandMedia.org:

Geoff Dickens had the low-down first on Chris Matthews smiling through kooky Green Party gubernatorial candidate Malachy McCourt's talk about how he'd favor execution if the criminal was Pinochet or George W. Bush. It must depend on which politician is being criticized. On August 19, 2004, when columnist Michelle Malkin suggested it was possible John Kerry may have wounded himself in Vietnam, Matthews huffed after Malkin was evacuated, "We're going to keep things clean on this show. No irresponsible comments are going to be on this show."

After Matthews pounded Malkin on how the Bush campaign should force the withdrawal of the Swift Vet ads, it was comical how out of control Matthews became. He wouldn't let Malkin speak for more than a few seconds without interrupting with outrage. See how very different Malkin was treated, compared with the execute-Bush joker. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown argued there was no question Kerry was shot in Vietnam, so what else was there to ask?

Video clip of Matthews pouncing on Malkin as he deliberately misconstrued her assertion Kerry suffered a “self-inflicted wound” to be an accusation “he shot himself on purpose” (2:10): Real (3.7 MB) or Windows Media (4.2 MB), plus MP3 audio (650 KB) [Transcript follows.]

Rush Limbaugh revealed that ABC has reported that the mini-series, Path to 9/11, is still being edited only two days before its air date. This likely means that the producers of the film are bowing to Democrat Party operatives' pressure to edit the film even at this late date.

As mentioned in my earlier Newsbusters posting, all of this flurry of edits are at the behest of Democrats who are "outraged" over the fact that the Clinton administration looks so bad in this film.

For the last few days, we have seen story after story where various members of the Clinton administration are railing against this film. The shrillness against this film has gotten so bad that Congressional Democrats are even attempting to pressure America's grade schools not to allow the DVD of this movie into their classrooms.

Once again, here's a dramatic picture of our press, embedded with the enemy as usual.

Notice, however, how many "innocent civilians" this man is surrounding himself with, while firing at Israeli troops.

The Israelis, of course, will not fire back, as the likelihood of them hitting any number of people behind this coward is too high. Our cowardly photojournalist, of course, reports the official terrorist line:—11 "unarmed" Palestinians were injured.

(Note: Content has been re-written now that I've cooled off some.)

Rosie O’Donnell used the Sept 7 edition of "The View" as a platform to show off her "get rid of the President" bumper stickers and to mock her partner’s "rabid Republican" parents. The new co-host also mentioned that she enjoyed annoying her mother in-law:

Barbara Walters: "How are your in-laws?

O’Donnell: "Yes, my in-laws, Melanie and Joel Safer. (ph?) I love them, from Baton Rouge Louisiana. (Laughs)...And when they come, you know, I like to annoy them in my own way. And we have two cars and my car, the Volvo, has all of these, you know, ‘no war, peace, get rid of the President’ bumper stickers."

In case you're wondering why the cartoons in the Atlanta Journal Constitution are so slanted, one need only look at this interview with Pulleftist Prize-winning cartoonist Mike Luckovich.

You've satirized numerous presidents. How's this presidency different?
Previously, whether I was dealing with a Republican or a Democratic president, I always felt that they were kind of up to the job, basically. And this president, to me, doesn't seem that way at all. It's very scary to me that he occupies the office.

That doesn't sound so impartial. Are you a Democrat?
I am...

Some of your cartoons are kind of dark.
We're in a dark time in history now. The country is needlessly divided.

Yes, needlessly divided. All we have to do to be undivided is convert to liberalism. Just like we're needlessly at war with militant Muslims and all we have to do to stop it is convert to Islam.

Four would-be committee chairmen, all Democrats in the House of Represenatives, just sent ABC a letter demanding that the network review its upcoming miniseries, "The Path to 9/11." No overtly threatening language is used in the letter (reprinted below the fold) but the implication seems pretty clear: If Dems take control of the House in November, ABC should expect hell from the various committees John Conyers, John Dingell, Jane Harman, Louise Slaughter head.

Which party was it that advocates censorship of "incorrect" speech again?

In an exclusive report, the Radio Equalizer, Brian Maloney, has published that Doug Kreeger, a board member who has been with Air America Radio since its earliest days, has resigned from its parent company, Piquant LLC. Maloney credits the find to "an internal source."

In addition, reports Maloney,

[Kreeger] has been a major investor in the company and likely still holds at least two million common and preferred units, as well as warrants. In a much smaller quantity, his wife Wendy has also held company shares.

At this point, however, these units could at best be described as illiquid assets, with little or no realistic cash value.

In addition, at key points where Air America saw a particularly urgent need for ready cash, Kreeger was there to help with further investment commitments.

Do you feel less safe now than before 9/11?

That's the question posed by a CBS News/New York Times poll, which interprets the results as criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the War on Terror:

Compared with five years ago, 39 percent of Americans say they feel less safe now, compared with only 14 percent who say they feel safer. Forty-six percent say they feel the same.

Count me in the 39% who feel "less safe". How could I not feel that way?