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WikiLeaks : Pentagon ready to discuss Afghan files By KARL RITTER, Associated Press Writer STOCKHOLM – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Wednesday the Pentagon has expressed willingness to discuss the online whistleblower's request for help in reviewing classified documents from the Afghan war and removing information that could harm civilians. "This week we received contact through our lawyers that the General Counsel" of the Pentagon "says now that they want to discuss the issue," Assange told The Associated Press by telephone. The Pentagon denied it was willing to collaborate with the group, but acknowledged that it had arranged for a phone call last Sunday between its general counsel and a person claiming to be a lawyer for WikiLeaks. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the lawyer, Timothy Matusheski, was a "no show" for the call. The Pentagon followed up with a letter to Matusheski on Monday demanding that WikiLeaks return the war files. ...

World's largest office building has distinctive past     By David Johnson The world's largest office building, the Pentagon is synonymous with the   Department of Defense   and a symbol of American military might.   Exactly 60 years before the September 2001 attacks, on September 11, 1941, ground was broken in Arlington Country, Virginia, for a huge new building to house the War Department, forerunner of today's Department of Defense. The department was then operating from 17 separate buildings in Washington . Pearl Harbor Alters Plans At certain periods 13,000 people worked on the project. Originally, plans called for three floors, but as the military prepared for war after the attack on   Pearl Harbor , two more floors were added. To conserve steel, concrete ramps were used in place of elevators and the outside walls were made of reinforced concrete.   The Pentagon was built in "stripped classical" style, a variation of Greek and Roman clas...

THE ROVING EYE - - - Fifty questions on 9/11 - - - By Pepe Escobar - - - It's September 11 all over again - eight years on. The George W Bush administration is out. The "global war on terror" is still on, renamed "overseas contingency operations" by the Barack Obama administration. Obama's "new strategy" - a war escalation - is in play in AfPak. Osama bin Laden may be dead or not. "Al-Qaeda" remains a catch-all ghost entity. September 11 - the neo-cons' "new Pearl Harbor" - remains the darkest jigsaw puzzle of the young 21st century. It's useless to expect US corporate media and the ruling elites' political operatives to call for a true, in-depth investigation into the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001. Whitewash has been the norm. But even establishment highlight Dr Zbig "Grand Chessboard" Brzezinski, a former national security advisor, has admitted to the US Senate that the post-9/11 "war ...