"You will find my power then."

It's become a routine. Every day I do a search for news of the CIA's agent provocateur, Davao City bomber Michael Meiring. An FBI team whisked Meiring out of a Philippine hospital and back to the US, two legs lighter, after an explosive device prematurely detonated in his hotel room, and - significantly - before he could face awkward questions and pesky charges. (If the name sounds unfamiliar, search this site for earlier posts.)

I'd thought that now the Philippines has formally asked the United States for assistance in returning Meiring, the story might finally break in the US media. But no. Nothing. And to be perfectly honest, I really didn't expect anything else. The Meiring case is a difficult story to tell in America, as it makes no sense within the official paradigm of the "War on Terror."

The most recent American coverage - the only coverage I see - is Houston's KHOU-TV's Dec 2 investigative report by "Channel 11's News Defenders," which uncovered Meiring's Houston connection.

(Let's note something here: meaningful investigative work in the US mainstream media, such as it exists today, is likely to be relentlessly local. When journalists, working away from the principal media hubs and outlets, incidentally strike a matter of interest to the National Security State, their work is more likely to proceed under the radar, uninterrupted by superiors who also double as assets of the alphabet agencies, and may even find an audience.)

The KHOU-TV report is fascinating, in part for what it doesn't say. For instance, there is no mention of Meiring's links to US intelligence, nor of the FBI team which flew to Mindanao just days after his maiming to spirit him out of the country. Rather, it plays up his connection to the Moro National Liberation Front, a "sometime Muslim rebel army."

This calls to mind how Chief Counsel Robert Blakey steered the House Select Committee on Assassinations towards the Mafia-killed-Kennedy finding, failing to see - and not wanting to see - that organized crime was just one component of the supra-legal association of military-intelligence, criminal and business interests that had worked together for years, and conspired together to murder the President. For instance, Blakey played up Jack Ruby's criminal ties, while Ruby's deep links to the Dallas police, the FBI and the government's protected drug trade were roundly ignored. So to with Meiring: he is regarded in the American report as an associate of Islamic terrorists, while his relationship to US intelligence is unmentionable.

Also fascinating is the telephone encounter with Meiring, who obviously knew "Channel 11's News Defenders" had no idea what they'd gotten themselves into: "If this harms me in any way, you will find my power then, and you'll find out who I am. But I will come for you. You harm me I will not let you off the hook."

By the way, 9/11 activists, here's an example that demands to be vigorously copied: last March, "the citizen-led Mindanao Truth Commission, after almost nine months of conducting investigations, has claimed that the government itself could be the possible leading perpetrator in the bombings all over the island that have led to the death of 95 people and the wounding of 490 others."

“From the data that we have gathered, the State leads the probable suspects … taking account of the statements and affidavits that were issued by government insiders themselves,” said Dr. Robinson Montalba, member of the MTC.

The MTC apparently put weight on the testimonies of junior officers of the Armed Forces involved in the ill-fated mutiny at the Oakwood Hotel in Makati City, wherein they claimed that they were ordered by their superiors to lob grenades at mosques in Davao City. The MTC said they found substantial evidence that the AFP indeed ordered a special operation to bomb mosques.

The group led by LTSG Antonio Trillanes IV claimed that the Armed Forces is involved in the selling of firearms and ammunitions to the New Peoples Army, the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF.

They said, too, that former Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and Intelligence Service of the AFP chief Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus were responsible for the March 4 airport and the April 2 Sasa Wharf bombings with the intention of putting the blame on the MILF, thus effectively tagging it as a terrorist group and pave the way for military financial and logistical aid from the US.

...

The MTC also named the CIA, citing reports that is used Michael Terrence Meiring to fake terror bombings in the Philippines. Meiring, supposedly a treasure hunter, figured in a bombing at a budget hotel here. He suddenly disappeared from the country, aided by agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The MTC said Meiring’s sudden flight could be taken as an indication of guilt. It further noted that the American could be among persons or groups in possession of bombs of such intensity that can rip concrete buildings and cause massive destruction.

I guess you could say it's like Agatha Christie's Mousetrap. The murderer is the last person you'd expect. But after such a long run, does it really still surprise?