Joe 6 Pack's Elegant Coincidence Theory Blog

Mission Accomplished: An UNJUST War

2006-01-27T16:01:00.000-05:00

"We are witnessing a sequential war to control the largest reserves on a planet that is running out of oil."
- Michael Ruppert, From the Wilderness

"The poor countries will bear most of the burden [of high oil prices]. But the United States will be in serious difficulties. There is, I fear, a strong danger of some ill-considered military intervention to try to secure oil."
- Colin Campbell, petrogeologist,
Association for the Study of Peak Oil, December 2000

"The revelation of facts concerning 9/11 is THE most important issue facing America today, because it could directly expose a conspiracy to dupe Americans into approving an unjust war for oil."

- 9/11 Visibility Project

The Strangest Tale EVER Told!

2005-03-01T18:29:00.000-05:00

Tailhooker - Plamegate - Sibel Edmonds Updates

2005-02-23T15:51:00.000-05:00

Scroll down to fourth entry…………… nuff said

9/11 whistleblower Sibel Edmonds has had a problem for a couple of years now - she can't get the government to acknowledge she even raised concerns in her position as an FBI linguist and interpreter regarding government inaction / complicity in the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The Department of Justice even went as far as to retroactively classify three letters written in 2002 from Senators Leahy and Grassley requesting information into Edmonds complaints.

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) sued for release of the Leahy and Grassley letters, claiming that no national security issues would be compromised by the release of the letters. The DOJ has been fighting the release tooth and nail, yet moments before a federal court ruling this morning, DOJ capitulated and agreed to release the letters. Background and a copy of the letters can be found on the POGO website.

In a nutshell, the letters lend a tremendous amount of credibility to Edmonds allegations that the FBI turned a collective blind eye to problems in the transcription process of multiple intelligence documents in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. To the skeptic, it would appear that the FBI was more interested in doing some track covering than actual interpretation of intelligence data.

With the release of the Leahy / Grassley letters, maybe another little chunk of the 9/11 iceberg has finally broken loose. Sibel Edmonds' knowledge, which she is under a court ordered gag not to reveal, will go a long way in helping to understand the post-9/11 dynamics in the U.S. intelligence community.

If she's ever able to tell her story, that is.

Dick Clarke Is STILL Running Around With His Hair On Fire

2005-02-11T15:02:00.000-05:00

Although then national security adviser Condoleezza Rice wrote a March 22, 2004 column in The Washington Post that "No al-Qaeda threat was turned over to the new administration," a newly declassified document [image below the fold] tells the story.

U.S. media haven't got this yet, but Australian papers have:
US al-Qaeda warning revealed
11feb05

EIGHT months before the September 11 attacks the White House's then counterterrorism adviser urged then national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to hold a high-level meeting on the al-Qaeda network, according to a memo made public today.

"We urgently need such a principals-level review on the al-Qaeda network," ... Richard Clarke wrote in the January 25, 2001 memo.

Mr Clarke, who left the White House in 2003, made headlines in the heat of the US presidential campaign ... when he accused the Bush White House of having ignored al-Qaeda's threats before September 11.

Mr Clarke testified before inquiry panels and in a book that Rice ... had been warned of the threat.

CONDI LIED :: CONDI LIED :: CONDI LIED

Note to Wrongwingbats: Do not try this @ home. Perjury is a criminal offense, and I think lying to a Congressional committee is too.

I think those would be prosecutable even after Ms. Rice is out of office, unless there's a statute of limitations.

"Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." - Orwell

Apparently, when they said they would have moved heaven and earth to stop 9/11 if they had any warning, they meant they needed memo's to be put in pop up book form since nobody in this admin seems to be able to read.

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bush's Agenda in August 2001

That PDB is still a big problem

Oliver Schrom, the German intelligence expert, wrote a whole book
on the Sept. 11 hijackers, based on the research he did during their
time in Germany. The book, "Tödliche Fehler",

was a #1 best seller in Germany, but has not been translated
here.

Schrom asserted in this article, "Deadly Mistakes", in the Oct.2, 2002. issue of Der Zeit, that the Aug. 6 2001 PDB was not 1 1/2, but 11 and 1/2 pages long.

Crawford, Aug. 6, 2001. U.S. president George W. Bush is on
vacation. He wants to spend the whole month at his ranch in Texas.
Every morning, however, he still receives his Presidential Daily Brief,
or PDB, wherein the CIA informs the president about the country's
security situation. On this morning, the report is straight from the
CIA director. His PDB runs 11 and one-half printed pages, instead of
the usual two to three, and carries the title, "Bin Laden Determined to
Strike in U.S." Therein the CIA chief explains that al Qaeda has
decided to carry out attacks within the United States, and that
presumably members of the terrorist organization have been in the
country for some time. It is unclear whether the CIA director informed
the president about the statements of arrested al Qaeda members.
According to their confessions, the terrorist organization for some
time has been thinking about hijacking planes and using them as
missiles.

Go back and look at the pdf of the Aug. 6 briefing again.

The page numbers at the bottom of the pages have been redacted.
The famous "release" of the PDB following Rice's testimony was only a
partial release, and Rice knew it. They all knew it. They have all been
lying from the very beginning.

"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor."

Rebuilding America's Defenses pg. 50

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 - In the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal aviation officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports that warned about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations, according to a previously undisclosed report from the 9/11 commission.

Among other things, the report says that leaders of the F.A.A. received 52 intelligence reports from their security branch that mentioned Mr. bin Laden or Al Qaeda from April to Sept. 10, 2001. That represented half of all the intelligence summaries in that time.

Five of the intelligence reports specifically mentioned Al Qaeda's training or capability to conduct hijackings, the report said.

So, you would chalk the entire context of warnings, from Clarke's memo through the summer of his running around with his hair on fire and right up to 9/10 to incompetence? They must be the most incompetent mofos in history. America IS being run for four more years by the most incompetent mofos in history... or something even worse!

Clarke's "Ten Years Later" in the Jan/Feb issue of The Atlantic. It's written, a bit strangely, from the point of view of a professor giving a lecture in 2011 looking back on the many ways in which the govt. failed to prevent terrorist acts, from 9/11 forward. I'd recommend sending the link or a copy to anyone you know who believes the billions we're putting into DHS are even remotely well-spent.

"If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied." - Rudyard Kipling, 1918

Sibol Edmonds Update

2005-01-25T13:40:00.000-05:00

Certain elected officials will stand trial and go to prison. - Sibol Edmonds

What We've Learned Since 9-11

2004-08-30T22:59:00.000-04:00

Lots of things are unraveling now.

Do YOU Believe The Official Coincidink Theory?

2004-08-18T17:06:00.000-04:00

That governments have permitted terrorist acts against their own people, and have even themselves been perpetrators in order to find strategic advantage is quite likely true, but this is the United States we're talking about. That intelligence agencies, financiers, terrorists and narco-criminals have a long history together is well established, but the Nugan Hand Bank, BCCI, Banco Ambrosiano, the P2 Lodge, the CIA/Mafia anti-Castro/Kennedy alliance, Iran/Contra and the rest were a long time ago, so there’s no need to rehash all that. That was then, this is now! That's progress! That Jonathan Bush’s Riggs Bank has been found guilty of laundering terrorist funds and fined a US-record $25 million must embarrass his nephew George, but it's still no justification for leaping to paranoid conclusions. That a client of Riggs Bank sent tens of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions and that that client was the Saudi Embassy headed by Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan just shows how rich the Saudis really are. That Prince Bandar's wife, Princess Haifa al-Faisal, authorized regular payments over four years to two Saudi families in California, one of whom reportedly helped find lodgings for two of the 15 Saudi hijackers who took part in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, is no reason to question her charitable nature or the fact that she was an invited overnight guest at George & Laura's Neverland Pretend Ranch which was completed just prior to Dubya's rather controversial inauguration on land he purchased in 1999! That George Bush's brother Marvin sat on the board of the Kuwaiti-owned company which provided electronic security to the World Trade Centre, Dulles Airport and United Airlines means nothing more than you must admit those Bush boys have done alright for themselves. That George Bush found success as a businessman only after the investment of Osama’s brother Salem and reputed al Qaeda financier Khalid bin Mahfouz is just one of those things - one of those crazy things. That Osama bin Laden is known to have been an asset of US foreign policy in no way implies he still is. Nor does it imply that bin Laden is also still a Pakistani intelligence asset. That al Qaeda was active in the Balkan conflict, fighting on the same side as the US as recently as 1999, while the US protected its cells, is merely one of history's little aberrations. The claims of Michael Springman, State Department veteran of the Jeddah U.S. visa bureau, that the CIA ran the office and issued visas to al Qaeda members so they could receive training in the United States, sounds like the sour grapes of someone who was fired for making such wild accusations. That one of George Bush's first acts as President, in January 2001, was to end the two-year deployment of attack submarines which were positioned within striking distance of al Qaeda's Afghanistan camps, even as the group's guilt for the Cole bombing was established, proves that a transition from one administration to the next is never an easy task. That so many influential figures in and close to the Bush White House had expressed, just a year before the attacks, the need for a "new Pearl Harbor" before their militarist ambitions could be fulfilled, demonstrates nothing more than the accidental virtue of being in the right place at the right time. That the company PTECH, founded by a Saudi financier placed on America’s Terrorist Watch List in October 2001, had access to the FAA’s entire computer system for two years before the 9/11 attack, means he must not have been such a threat after all. That whistleblower Indira Singh was told to keep her mouth shut and forget what she learned when she took her concerns about PTECH to her employers and federal authorities, suggests she lacked the big picture. And that the Chief Auditor for JP Morgan Chase told Singh repeatedly, as she answered questions about who supplied her with what information, that "that person should be killed," suggests he should take an anger management seminar. That on May 8, 2001, Dick Cheney took upon himself the job of co-ordinating a response to domestic terror attacks even as he was crafting the administration’s energy policy which bore implications for America's military, circumventing the established infrastructure and ignoring the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman report, merely shows the VP to be someone who finds it hard to delegate. That the standing order which covered the shooting down of hijacked aircraft was altered on June 1, 2001, taking discretion away from field commanders and placing it solely in the hands of the Secretary of Defense, is simply poor planning and unfortunate timing. Fortunately the error has been corrected, as the order was rescinded shortly after 9/11. Hopefully NORAD has improved its strategy too since 9-11. That in the weeks before 9/11, FBI agent Colleen Rowley found her investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui so perversely thwarted that her colleagues joked that bin Laden had a mole at the FBI, proves the stress-relieving virtue of humour in the workplace. That Dave Frasca of the FBI’s Radical Fundamentalist Unit received a promotion after quashing multiple, urgent requests for investigations into al Qaeda assets training at flight schools in the summer of 2001 does appear on the surface odd, but undoubtedly there's a good reason for it, quite possibly classified. That FBI informant Randy Glass, working an undercover sting, was told by Pakistani intelligence operatives that the World Trade Center towers were coming down, and that his repeated warnings which continued until weeks before the attacks, including the mention of planes used as weapons, were ignored by federal authorities, is simply one of the many "What Ifs" of that tragic day. The FBI Director at the time - one Louis Freeh - was once the prosecutor of the Unibomber case and cover-up. That over the summer of 2001 Washington received many urgent, senior-level warnings from foreign intelligence agencies and governments - including those of Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Afghanistan and others - of impending terror attacks using hijacked aircraft and did nothing, demonstrates the pressing need for a new Intelligence Czar. That John Ashcroft stopped flying commercial aircraft in July 2001 on account of security considerations had nothing to do with warnings regarding September 11, because he said so to the 9/11 Commission. That former lead counsel for the House David Schippers says he’d taken to John Ashcroft’s office specific warnings he’d learned from FBI agents in New York of an impending attack – even naming the proposed dates, names of the hijackers and the targets – and that the investigations had been stymied and the agents threatened, proves nothing but David Schipper’s pathetic need for attention. That Garth Nicolson received two warnings from contacts in the intelligence community and one from a North African head of state, which included specific site, date and source of the attacks, and passed the information to the Defense Department and the National Security Council to evidently no effect, clearly amounts to nothing, since virtually nobody has ever heard of him. That in the months prior to September 11, self-described US intelligence operative Delmart Vreeland sought, from a Toronto jail cell, to get US and Canadian authorities to heed his warning of his accidental discovery of impending catastrophic attacks is worthless, since Vreeland was a dubious character, notwithstanding the fact that many of his claims have since been proven true. That FBI Special Investigator Robert Wright claims that agents assigned to intelligence operations actually protect terrorists from investigation and prosecution, that the FBI shut down his probe into terrorist training camps, and that he was removed from a money-laundering case that had a direct link to terrorism, sounds like yet more sour grapes from a disgruntled employee. That George Bush had plans to invade Afghanistan on his desk before 9/11 demonstrates only the value of being prepared. The suggestion that securing a pipeline across Afghanistan figured into the White House’s calculations is as ludicrous as the assertion that oil played a part in determining war in Iraq. That Afghanistan is once again the world’s principal heroin producer is an unfortunate reality, but to claim the CIA is still actively involved in the narcotics trade is to presume bad faith on the part of the agency. Mahmood Ahmed, chief of Pakistan’s ISI, must not have authorized an al Qaeda payment of $100,000 to Mohammed Atta days before the attacks, and was not meeting with senior Washington officials over the week of 9/11, because I didn’t read anything about him in the official report. That Porter Goss met with Ahmed the morning of September 11 in his capacity as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has no bearing whatsoever upon his recent selection by the White House to head the Central Intelligence Agency. That Goss's congressional seat encompasses the 9/11 hijackers' Florida base of operation, including their flight schools, is precisely the kind of meaningless factoid a conspiracy theorist would bring up. It's true that George HW Bush and Dick Cheney spent the evening of September 10 alone in the Oval Office, but what's wrong with old colleagues catching up? And it's true that George HW Bush and Shafig bin Laden, Osama's brother, spent the morning of September 11 together at a board meeting of the Carlyle Group, but the bin Ladens are a big family. That Carlyle owned a majority share in the supplier of air traffic control surveillance systems for the Federal Aviation Authority, shouldn't raise any eyebrows. Nor should the fact that the 12 billion dollar company has recently signed contracts with United Defence Industries to equip the Turkish and Saudi Arabian armies with aviation defence systems. After all, it's a big company. I'm sure their aviation defence system products are just what the Turks and Saudis should rely upon... like we did... on 9-11. That FEMA arrived in New York on Sept 10 to prepare for a scheduled biowarfare drill, and had a triage centre ready to go that was larger and better equipped than the one that was lost in the collapse of WTC 7, was a lucky twist of fate. Newsweek’s report that senior Pentagon officials cancelled flights on Sept 10 for the following day on account of security concerns is only newsworthy because of what happened the following morning. That George Bush's telephone logs for September 11 do not exist should surprise no one, given the confusion of the day. That Mohamed Atta attended the International Officer's School at Maxwell Air Force Base, that Abdulaziz Alomari attended Brooks Air Force Base Aerospace Medical School, that Saeed Alghamdi attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey merely shows it is a small world, after all. That Lt Col Steve Butler, Vice Chancellor for student affairs of the Defense Language Institute during Alghamdi's terms, was disciplined, removed from his post and threatened with court martial when he wrote "Bush knew of the impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism. What is...contemptible is the President of the United States not telling the American people what he knows for political gain," is the least that should have happened for such disrespect shown his Commander in Chief. That Mohammed Atta dressed like a Mafioso, had a stripper girlfriend, smuggled drugs, was already a licensed pilot when he entered the US, enjoyed pork chops, drank to excess and did cocaine, was closer to Europeans than Arabs in Florida, and included the names of defence contractors on his email list, proves how dangerous the radical fundamentalist Muslim can be. That 43 lbs of heroin was found on board the Lear Jet owned by Wally Hilliard, the owner of Atta’s flight school, just three weeks after Atta enrolled – the biggest seizure ever in Central Florida – was just bad luck. That Hilliard was not charged shows how specious the claims for conspiracy truly are. That Hilliard’s plane had made 30-round trips to Venezuela with the same passengers who always paid cash, that the plane had been supplied by a pair of drug smugglers who had also outfitted CIA drug runner Barry Seal, and that 9/11 commissioner Richard ben-Veniste had been Seal’s attorney before Seal’s murder, shows nothing but the lengths to which conspiracists will go to draw sinister conclusions. Reports of insider trading on 9/11 are false, because the SEC investigated and found only respectable investors who will remain nameless involved, and no terrorists, so the windfall profit-taking was merely, as ever, coincidental. That heightened security for the World Trade Centre was lifted immediately prior to the attacks illustrates that it always happens when you least expect it. That Hani Hanjour, the pilot of Flight 77, was so incompetent he could not fly a Cessna in August, but in September managed to fly a 767 at excessive speed into a spiraling, 270-degree descent and a level impact of the first floor of the Pentagon, on the only side that was virtually empty and had been hardened to withstand a terrorist attack, merely demonstrates that people can do almost anything once they set their minds to it. That none of the flight data recorders were said to be recoverable even though they were located in the tail sections, and that until 9/11, no solid-state recorder in a catastrophic crash had been unrecoverable, shows how there's a first time for everything. That Mohammed Atta left a uniform, a will, a Koran, his driver's license and a "how to fly planes" video in his rental car at the airport means he had other things on his mind. The mention of Israelis with links to military-intelligence having been arrested on Sept 11 videotaping and celebrating the attacks, of an Israeli espionage ring surveiling DEA and defense installations and trailing the hijackers, and of a warning of impending attacks delivered to the Israeli company Odigo two hours before the first plane hit, does not deserve a response. That the stories also appeared in publications such as Ha'aretz and Forward is a sad display of self-hatred among certain elements of the Israeli media. That multiple military wargames and simulations were underway the morning of 9/11 – one simulating the crash of a plane into a building; another, a live-fly simulation of multiple hijackings – and took many interceptors away from the eastern seaboard and confused field commanders as to which was a real hijacked aircraft and which was a hoax, was a bizarre coincidence, but no less a coincidence. That the National Military Command Center ops director asked a rookie substitute to stand his watch at 8:30 am on Sept. 11 is nothing more than bad timing. That a recording made Sept 11 of air traffic controllers’ describing what they had witnessed, was destroyed by an FAA official who crushed it in his hand, cut the tape into little pieces and dropped them in different trash cans around the building, is something no doubt that overzealous official wishes he could undo. That the FBI knew precisely which Florida flight schools to descend upon hours after the attacks should make every American feel safer knowing their federal agents are on the ball. That a former flight school executive believes the hijackers were "double agents," and says about Atta and associates, "Early on I gleaned that these guys had government protection. They were let into this country for a specific purpose," and was visited by the FBI just four hours after the attacks to intimidate him into silence, proves he's an unreliable witness, for the simple reason there is no conspiracy. That Jeb Bush was on board an aircraft that removed flight school records to Washington in the middle of the night on Sept 12th demonstrates how seriously the governor takes the issue of national security. To insinuate evil motive from the mercy flights of bin Laden family members and Saudi royals after 9/11 shows the sickness of the conspiratorial mindset. Le Figaro’s report in October 2001, known to have originated with French intelligence, that the CIA met Osama bin Laden in a Dubai hospital in July 2001, proves again the perfidy of the French. That the tape in which bin Laden claims responsibility for the attacks was released by the State Department after having been found providentially by US forces in Afghanistan, and depicts a fattened Osama with a broader face and a flatter nose, proves Osama, and Osama alone, masterminded 9/11. That at the battle of Tora Bora, where bin Laden was surrounded on three sides, Special Forces received no order to advance and capture him and were forced to stand and watch as two Russian-made helicopters flew into the area where bin Laden was believed hiding, loaded up passengers and returned to Pakistan, demonstrates how confusing the modern battlefield can be. That upon returning to Fort Bragg from Tora Bora, the same Special Operations troops who had been stood down from capturing bin Laden, suffered a unusual spree of murder/suicides, is nothing more than a series of senseless tragedies. Reports that bin Laden is currently receiving periodic dialysis treatment in a Pakistani medical hospital are simply too incredible to be true. That the White House went on Cipro September 11 shows the foresightedness of America’s emergency response. That the anthrax was mailed to perceived liberal media and the Democratic leadership demonstrates only the perversity of the terrorist psyche. That the anthrax attacks appeared to silence opponents of the Patriot Act shows only that appearances can be deceiving. That the Ames-strain anthrax was found to have originated at Fort Detrick, and was beyond the capability of all but a few labs to refine, underscores the importance of allowing the investigation to continue without the distraction of absurd conspiracy theories. That Republican guru Grover Norquist has been found to have aided financiers and supporters of Islamic terror to gain access to the Bush White House, and is a founder of the Islamic Institute, which the Treasury Department believes to be a source of funding for al Qaeda, suggests Norquist is at worst, naive, and at best, needs a wider circle of friends. That the Department of Justice consistently chooses to see accused 9/11 plotters go free rather than permit the courtroom testimony of al Qaeda leaders in American custody looks bad, but only because we don't have all the facts. That the White House balked at any inquiry into the events of 9/11, then starved it of funds and stonewalled it, was unfortunate, but since the commission didn't find for conspiracy it's all a non issue anyway. That the 9/11 commission's executive director and "gatekeeper," Philip Zelikow, was so closely involved in the events under investigation that he testified before the the commission as part of the inquiry, shows only an apparent conflict of interest. That commission chair Thomas Kean is, like George Bush, a Texas oil executive who had business dealings with reputed al Qaeda financier Khalid bin Mafouz, suggests Texas is smaller than they say it is. That co-chair Lee Hamilton has a history as a Bush family "fixer," including clearing Bush Sr of the claims arising from the 1980 "October Surprise", is of no concern, since only conspiracists believe there was such a thing as an October Surprise. That FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds accuses the agency of intentionally fudging specific pre-9/11 warnings and harboring a foreign espionage ring in its translation department, and claims she witnessed evidence of the semi-official infrastructure of money-laundering and narcotics trade behind the attacks, is of no account, since John Ashcroft has gagged her with the rare invocation of "State Secrets Privilege," and retroactively classified her public testimony. For the sake of national security, let us speak no more of her. That, when commenting on Edmond's case, Daniel Ellsberg remarked that Ashcroft could go to prison for his part in a cover-up, suggests Ellsberg is giving comfort to the terrorists, and could, if he doesn't wise up, find himself declared an enemy combatant. I could go on. Rabbi Zakheim, Comptroller of the entire Pentagon budget. And on and on. But I trust you get the point. Which is simply this: there are no secrets, an American government would never accept civilian casualties for geostrategic gain, and conspiracies are for the weak-minded and gullible.

Rigorous Intuition

9-11 Report Being Released Tomorrow!

2004-07-21T17:36:00.000-04:00

Braced for tomorrow's release of the final 9-11 report, the Bushies anticipate the backlash from critics for doing less than what is recommended by the commissioners. Extensive reform of both the CIA and FBI for instance... just for starters.

Flashback: Summer, 2001

2004-07-18T19:29:00.000-04:00

The approval numbers are tanking, and they have some evidence there may be hijackings soon. No one had flown planes into buildings deliberately before - not since that B-25 hit the Empire State Building about 50 years ago.

So they write all ~350 pages of the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act, tell the AG not to fly commercially, and let it happen

The 9-11 Whitewashingtonhouse Commission Report

2004-06-21T02:03:00.000-04:00

PETER LANCE, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Well, I think that it's inexcusable for several reasons. First of all, the joint inquiry of Congress listed 12 separate incidents where planes were used as weapons in the years prior to 9/11, at least four of those instances where they were going to fly them into buildings, so the idea that this thing wasn't anticipated just doesn't wash, and that's the congressional joint inquiry's conclusion. LANCE: Whether it's intent or negligence, the effect is the same. The public is only getting part of the picture. Example, quick example, there were two F-16s from the 177th fighter wing in Atlantic City, an Air National Guard unit, doing bomb sortees over the pinelands of New Jersey eight minutes away from Manhattan, and the first - they admit in the report today that they contacted Atlantic City, but they said they were basically inactive. What about that? That wasn't even explored. You know, "The Bergen Record" had a big story. They interviewed Governor Kane (ph) on it. They asked to talk to the people at the base. Why weren't we contacted? So you had two F-16s eight minutes away that could have stopped, potentially thwarted AA 11, not to mention the second flight. So what about that? Why isn't that in the commission report? . . . LANCE: Indefensible. It's the greatest failure of defense in American history, and I'd like to ask Victoria if you were working with - were you working with Secretary Rumsfeld at the time? CLARKE: Yes. LANCE: OK. Now there are two stories about Secretary Rumsfeld. One, the official story today is that he didn't go into the war room, the national military command center, until after the Pentagon was struck. I think 10:30ish or something is the official story. . . But Richard Clarke in his book, "Against All Enemies," says that a teleconferencing session was set up at the White House at about 9:10. Present in this teleconference were the CIA director, the FBI director, Secretary Rumsfeld, you know, Condi Rice, Richard Armitage representing Colin Powell. The only... LANCE: Fair enough, but why didn't he go to the war room? CLARKE: As soon as - wait! LANCE: He's the secretary of defense. CLARKE: As soon as - I think... LANCE: Why didn't he go into the war room and command - take command in the Pentagon? He didn't show up for over an hour and a half after the first plane was hijacked. Why? The secretary of defense? . . . [PAULA ZAHN] . . .But the president remained in the classroom for at least five more minutes. LANCE: Ten more, actually. In the classroom and then he stayed in the school in which he prepared a press statement and they actually did a press conference from the school. Now, keep in mind that at this point, as many as 11 planes, [where there was suspicion that they were hijacked, they have no idea where these other planes are going. The president is a highly visible target. ZAHN: What could he have done at that point? LANCE: First of all, with hindsight, the commander-in chief, let's put a - commander, as soon as he heard, 9:06, the nation is under attack, we know that there are marines and Secret Service people going, are we ready to go? And he... ZAHN: He's in Sarasota, Florida. LANCE: I know, but he could have made it to Air Force One if he was going to do a press conference to reassure the nation, he could have done it aboard the plane. Point is he had the sole ability to order the shoot down of the planes and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Air Force Base pilots Duffy (ph) and Nash (ph) said, we didn't have the authority and even if they had gotten there in time, without that authority from the president, so the potus (ph) is out of the loop. . .

attribution [CNN]

"There is no convincing evidence that any government financially supported Al Qaeda before 9/11." It added, "Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of Al Qaeda funding, but we found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior officials within the Saudi government funded Al Qaeda."

The effort to dispel the idea that the Saudi government played a role in supporting Al Qaeda occurred 17 months after the Congressional committee finished its work on a report that many contended reached a very different conclusion.

(from the NYTimes, 19 June 2004, linked above)

- According to Brisard and Dasquie's "Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secrect Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for bin Laden (2002)":

Khalid bin Mahfouz is not your typical banker (p. 115).

"The bin Mahfouz financial and charity network is one of the most active in facilitating Osama bin Laden's activities (p. 125)."

"This organization [Blessed Relief], suspected of having ties to Osama bin Laden, is also accused by the CIA of having received funds via the Saudi National Commercial Bank, headed at the time by Khalid bin Mahfouz (p. 127)."

"Khalid bin Mahfouz was very active in Texas at the time [80s and 90s] (p.133)."

"But the bin Mahfouz empire also shares common interests with American oil companies, specifically concerning central Asia in the area around the Caspian Sea, which is coveted by these companies. ..the Delta-Unocal consortium was undoubtedly counting on Khalid bin Mahfouz's support in the undertaking (p. 134)."

- the above excerpts from Brisard and Dasquie, Chapter 12. "The Banker of Terror"

"Atef's memo shines new light on what Al Qaeda knew about U.S. efforts to normalize relations with the Taliban in exchange for the fundamentalist government's supporting the construction of an oil and gas pipeline across Afganistan. As we document in the book, the Clinton and Bush administration negotiated with the Taliban, both to get the repressive regime to widen its government as well as look favorably on U.S. companies' attempts to construct an oil pipeline.

"The seven-page memo was signed "Abu Hafs" which is the military name of Atef, who was the military chief of Al Qaeda and is believed to have been killed in November 2001 during U.S. operations in Afganistan. It shows Al Qaeda's keen interest in the U.S.-Taliban negotiations and raises more questions aa to whether the U.S. military threat to the Taliban [concerning the oil pipeline negotiations] in July 2001 could
have triggered Al Qaeda's September 11 attack (pp. 141-2)."

"It is also worth asking whether, had this threat of July 2001 been widely known, U.S. intelligence agencies might have analyzed the information they were receiving about bin Laden's plots against the U.S. differently [e.g., August 2001 PDB "Bin Laden Determined to Strike inside the U.S."](p. 143).

Notes:

Hamid Karzai - a former consultant on Unocal's payroll - decided on May 30, 2003, to revive the pipeline project with Pakistan and Turkmenistan, signing an agreement under which the three governments agree to implement a pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan. . .Would the U.S. intelligence agencies' investigations into Al Qaeda activities in the months before September 11 had such a productive ending (p. 145)."

"What remains uncertain is the fate of those who inspire and finanace [terrorists], through action, negligence, or self-interest (ibid.)."

Jean-Charles Brisard is a consultant on business, corporate, and diplomatic intelligence. See his report "The Economic Network of the bin Laden Family" commissioned by the French intelligence community.

Guillaume Dasquie is an investigative journalist who is the editor-in-chief of the respected intelligence newsletter, Intelligence Online at www.intelligenceonline.com

Thomas Kean [head of the 9/11 commission] has been targeted for business dealings that include ties to Khalid bin Salim bin Mahfouz of the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, who was named among some 70 defendants in a 2002 lawsuit brought by a group of some 600 families of September 11th victims. He has also, apparently inaccurately, been referred to as Osama bin Ladin’s brother in law. (Not Thomas Kean, but Khalid bin Mahfouz.)

Khalid Bin Mahfouz was listed as one of seven “Main individual Saudi sponsors of al Qaeda” in a report prepared by JCB Consulting, the self-proclaimed “world expert on terrorism financing,” for the President of the Security Council of the United Nations in
December of 2002. The report, titled Terrorism Financing: Roots and trends of Saudi terrorism financing, has been cited throughout the investigation into the 9-11 attacks and Jean-Charles Brisard, CEO of JCB Consulting, is the lead investigator for victim’s families in their civil lawsuit against the financial apparatus behind the al Qaeda
network.

- last two paragraphs from the beautifully entitled article"9/11 chair, despite alleged Saudi ties, is remarkably clean" by Freda Moon

Who's on the 9-11 Whitewashingtonhouse Committee?

Edmonds' Hearing Is Canceled: She's Going Public June 14th!

2004-06-12T03:50:00.000-04:00

Some here may or may not know of Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator who blew the whistle on the 9/11 coverup. Here is an interview with her on May 7th. Well, AG Ashcroft has since had Edmonds' info retroactively classified. Could she be referring to President Bush's uncle Jonathan Bush
and the Riggs Bank scandal and the $25 million fine for a "willful, systemic" violation of anti-money-laundering laws? And if you're so inclined you can "follow the money".

LATEST: Former FBI translator Sibel Deniz Edmonds was awaiting a June 14 court hearing to determine if she can publicly tell the full story of intelligence failures over the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. government wants her knowledge to remain a state secret. Judge Reggie Walton has now called off the hearing - no reason cited, and no future date scheduled. The fourth time he's done this in the past two years. Sibel Edmonds will hold a press conference with Daniel Ellsberg at 3rd & Const. Ave. on Monday, June 14, at 9:30 AM in front of the Court.

Daniel Ellsberg was the insider who provided the complient media with The Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War. Perhaps Ms. Edmonds shall violate the imposed gag order and disclose that information concerning 9-11 that she feels the American people need to know... NOW!

Speaking of the 9-11 connection to multi-national money laundering and drug trafficking... here's 49 OTHER things about pork chop loving, cocaine-snorting, alcohol-drinking party animal Mohammed Atta & associates that you probably wouldn't ever know... if he hadn't led a team of supposedly Islamic militant fundamentalists to skyjack four commercial airliners three years ago this September.

"Even in Death, Reagan Adds to the National Debt".

WOW! Read This Transcript Of A Radio Interview With Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Who Is Now Being Gagged By The Justice Department

2004-05-22T03:48:00.000-04:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jim Hogue provided the following conclusion to this interview: "The facts reported by Sibel Edmonds and Behrooz Sarshar are incontrovertible. Result: Silence. And you must agree to be a part of this silence.The gag order permeates the White House, the Senate Judiciary Committee, all levels of the FBI, the CIA, the 9/11 Commission, the NSC, the Pentagon, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and the mass media. The media and the White House will next assassinate Miss Edmond's character, as they have done to others who haven't rolled over and played dead. Never in the course of human events has so great a story been covered up by so many on the orders of so few.

The likes of Seymour Hersh, Bob Woodard and Judith Miller should put their tails between their legs and slink away, while the obscure academic, Dr. David Ray Griffin, while candidate John Buchanan, citizen Eric Hufschmid, author Gore Vidal, independent journalists Michael Ruppert and Christopher Bollyn, and the 9/11 families are recognized among those who kept open the window to Democracy.

Miss Edmonds has challenged us to do our jobs as citizens. It isn't often that a phone call could change the course of history. Now is such a time."

Open Thread

2004-05-21T06:15:00.000-04:00

Feel free to discuss any aspect of the popular coincidence theory of 9-11 right here!

Why Won't Bush Admit To The 9-11 Commission That He Authorized The Saudis' Flights From America Immediately After 9-11?

2004-05-21T04:11:00.000-04:00

President Bush, met privately with the Saudi Arabian ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, on the morning of Sept. 13, 2001.

On that same afternoon of Sept. 13, 2001, three Saudi men in their early 20s flew in a Lear jet from Tampa, Fla., to Lexington, Ky., where they boarded a Boeing 747 with Arabic writing on it waiting to take them out of the country. The flight from Tampa to Lexington was first reported in the Tampa Tribune in October 2001.

Earlier that same day, the FAA had issued a notice that private aviation was banned and that three private planes that had violated the ban had been forced to land by military aircraft, according to an article late last year in Vanity Fair.

The flight from Tampa to Lexington was one of several flights that Saudi Arabian citizens took in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, when the rest of the country was prohibited from flying. Many of the Saudis were members of the Saudi royal family or the bin Laden family.

The New York Times has reported that bin Laden family members were driven or flown under FBI supervision to a secret meeting in Texas and then to Washington, from where they left the country when airports were allowed to open Sept. 14, 2001.
Overall, close to 140 Saudis left the U.S. days after the attacks, even though 15 of the 19 terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks were Saudi Arabian.

NEW! 'American Traitor' Series Debuts ~ Help The Whitehouse Discover Which One or More of its' Staff Are Traitors!

2004-04-30T03:35:00.000-04:00

AND THE THREE AMERICAN TRAITOR FINALISTS ARE...

Joe Wilson narrows it down:

WASHINGTON - Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, has been pegged as a possible leaker of the name of CIA (news - web sites) operative Valerie Plame to a syndicated columnist, according to accounts in a book by former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, Plame's husband.

In "The Politics of Truth," to be published Friday, Wilson says Libby is "quite possibly the person who exposed my wife's identity," according to The Washington Post, which obtained an early copy.

The vice president's office did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.

Wilson writes that a "workup" of his background was done by the White House in March 2003, after his public criticism of the administration's Iraq (news - web sites) policy.

"The other name that has most often been repeated to me in connection with the inquiry and disclosure into my background and Valerie's is that of Elliott Abrams, who gained infamy in the Iran-Contra scandal," he writes.

Another suspect named in Wilson's book: White House chief political adviser Karl Rove. "The workup on me that turned up the information on Valerie was shared with Karl Rove, who then circulated it in administration and neoconservative circles," Wilson writes.

Stand by for the toll-free numbers to vote for YOUR favorite "American Traitor." Stay tuned each month for MORE AMERICAN TRAITOR episodes! But first, the swimsuit competition.

Is the 911 web about to unravel? Claims of complicity and treason are being supressed with every mechanism Ashcroft has at his disposal. It's the lowly translators that are the weak link in the 911 brownwash. One is thinking about leaving the country for fear of her safety, the other is firmly (for now) under the hobnails of Ashcrofts jack boot. They're trying to tell us something. Will America have the heart to hear what they have to say?

The translator alluded to additional but more volatile allegations in a phone call on Friday night to Kyle Hence, cofounder of 9-11 Citizens Watch, who said in a widely distributed email that Edmonds told him "if what she knows is revealed, it could lead to charges of treason being leveled against officials at top levels of the U.S. government."

Hence added, "If that is the case, then all those who have been involved in keeping this information from getting to the public are complicit in this treason." - [here] and [more here]

Oh, I thought some of you less dumb citizens might be interested in THIS matter concerning blackbox voting and the patriotic activist author who's been working earnestly towards the day America does enjoy uncorrupted elections. It's NOT only the GOP who are maintaining proprietary interest in advancing these electronic voting-cheat machines. There are considerable ties in with the U.S. Defense Department AND the secret service is engaged in harrassment under the guise of an 'unrelated hacking investigation'. They want the IP addresses of ALL members of blackboxvoting.org. Have YOU read Bev Harris' book yet? It's available free of charge online at the blackboxvoting.org site and there's a link here as well in the Library of Commons. You see 'merica, they're spending all those billions on constructing infrastructure for a permanent military presence in the Gulf region; they aren't spending it on liberating Iraq and providing them democratic rule. They're spending money Congress allocated for homeland defense and fighting terrorism by the bucketloads on infiltrating anti-war organizations and pro-democracy advocates' grassroots organizations and for riot cops' equipment [EIGHT & A HALF MILLION just for that] for gassing and beating peaceful antiglobalization protestors at the WTO meeting in Miami. Got that... yet?

... and THIS is for ladies ONLY

Steady Leadership - [cont'd]

2004-04-02T21:15:00.000-05:00

A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened.

She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was "an outrageous lie".

Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three hours in a closed session with the commission's investigators providing information that was circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has sought to silence her and has obtained a gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used "state secrets privilege".

She told The Independent yesterday: "I gave [the commission] details of specific investigation files, the specific dates, specific target information, specific managers in charge of the investigation. I gave them everything so that they could go back and follow up. This is not hearsay. These are things that are documented.These things can be established very easily."

She added: "There was general information about the time-frame, about methods to be used but not specifically about how they would be used and about people being in place and who was ordering these sorts of terror attacks. There were other cities that were mentioned. Major cities with skyscrapers." - independent.co.uk

Steady Leadership???

2004-03-10T23:30:00.000-05:00

Yes, The CIA Was Tipped Off By German Intelligence About 9-11 Skyjacker 2 Years Before The Attack

2004-02-24T08:26:00.000-05:00

They had the unlisted SAE phone number of Mohammed Atta's Hamburg roommate, and didn't follow up on it... until after the attack happened.

Venice the Menace

2004-02-10T22:45:00.000-05:00

Something to ponder.... Do you believe that foreign students in America prior to 9-11 would have relatively easy access to every flight school - or at least most flight schools - in the country? That's the impression we're led to believe though, isn't it? Isn't that the assumption you hold about it? Now, as an exercise in critical thinking... ask yourself whether or not it is a coincidence that most of the alleged suicide pilots on 9-11 were congregated around the same few flight schools. They didn't go to all sorts of different ones, as we generally assume they did. Let's look at one of these flight schools a little deeper, since the mainstream press really isn't engaged. Would this flight school in Venice, Florida be a typical one by comparison with all of the others across America in your opinion; or not?

Imagine how much more difficult it would have been for people to take over control of four commercial passenger jets and fly three of them successfully across some of the world's most heavily-defended airspace successfully to their mission targets... if they didn't receive flight training from schools such as this one in Venice, Florida. I hardly think I'd need to emphasize this point any further. Clearly, you must agree it wouldn't be possible.

The Media Aren't Investigating 9/11 Terrorists' Activities. Coincidence?

2004-02-10T22:06:00.000-05:00

You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of American journalists who have investigated the 9/11 terrorists activities... Either were the FBI beforehand, and the 9-11 Commission investigating it all aren't doing a helluva lot either.

TWO German Intelligence Officers Testify That Iranian Spy Tried To Warn CIA Of Impending 9-11 Attacks... But They Ignored Him. Over.

2004-02-06T02:34:00.000-05:00

The United States was warned of impending September 11 terrorist attacks by an Iranian spy, but ignored him, German secret service agents testified yesterday in the trial of an alleged al-Qaida terrorist.

The spy, identified as Hamid Reza Zakeri, tried to warn the CIA after leaving Iran in 2001, but was not believed, two German officers who interviewed him told the Hamburg court. - The Guardian [U.K.]

Testing the RSS Feed

2004-02-04T22:43:00.000-05:00

Don't miss our new site OR The Fog Of War!

Bush Recommends Congress Approves A Two-Month Extension Of The 9-11 Commission; A 180 degree turnabout!

2004-02-04T21:22:00.000-05:00

There's also a link provided in this story to the official 9-11 panel. This is good news for everyone concerned. It's also one of the rare determinations this current government has made that is rational. Bravo!

White House withholds notes taken by Sept. 11 delegation

2004-02-01T01:41:00.000-05:00

The White House, already embroiled in a public fight over the deadline for an independent commission's investigation of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is refusing to give the panel notes on presidential briefing papers taken by some of its own members, officials said this week. Lack of access to the materials would mean that the information they contain could not be included in a final report about the attacks, several officials said.

What If...

2004-01-31T15:40:00.000-05:00

... Dubya really had done his job?

... anyone who studies the record with any care will know that there were any number of moments when it would have been possible for a more alert administration to intervene in such a fashion as to interfere and quite possibly thwart the hijackers’ purposes. Here are just a few:

What if Bush's National Security Agency had translated on Sept. 10, 2001 - instead of Sept. 12 - disturbing Arabic intercepts that referred to phrases "tomorrow is the zero hour" and "the match is about to begin"?

What if the FBI had acted on the Phoenix memo and aggressively investigated — and arrested potential terrorists and illegal aliens who were taking flight lessons for the purpose of hijacking?

What if the CIA had received and acted upon the Minneapolis memo, and combined with the FBI to apply its vast knowledge of al Qaeda operations to break up the U.S.-based network of fliers?

What if the FBI and CIA had not mysteriously decided to drop their investigations of the whereabouts of hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar who, following their return from an al Qaeda planning meeting, continued live and work under their own names in San Diego?

What if Bush and Cheney had seized upon the recommendations of the Hart/Rudman Commission rather ignoring - and pretending to review - them?

What if Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had agreed to the Senate and House Armed Services committee’s request to reprogram $800 million from missile defense to terrorism protection?

What if Bush’s National Security Council had carefully studied the evolution of terrorist threats: to hide bombs on 12 U.S.-bound airliners and crash an explosive-laden airline into the CIA; to crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives into the Pentagon, CIA or the White House; and crash a plane into the Eiffel Tower or to the Genoan castle where Western leaders met in spring 2001?

What if the same NSC had taken seriously the recommendations of Clinton counterterrorism chief Richard C. Clarke to institute an aggressive program in order to: attack the financial network that supported the terrorists, freezing its assets and exposing its phony charities, and arrest their personnel; offer help to such disparate nations as Uzbekistan, the Philippines and Yemen to combat al Qaeda forces; increase U.S. support for the Northern Alliance in their fight to overthrow the Taliban’s repressive regime; and institute special operations inside Afghanistan and bombing strikes against terrorist training camps?

What if the Bush Treasury Department had taken a less indulgent view of the kind of money-laundering operations that support terrorist networks and worked with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to try to curb it?

What if Secretary Rumsfeld had green-lighted the use of the CIA’s Predator surveillance plane over Osama bin Laden’s camps in Afghanistan, armed with Hellfire missiles?

What if Attorney General John Ashcroft had taken the initiative in speeding up the FBI request to add 149 field agents, 200 analysts and 54 translators to its counterterrorism effort, instead of vetoing it entirely to focus on his higher priorities?

What if Attorney General Ashcroft, instead of simply deciding not to fly commercial like the rest of us, persuaded the administration to institute an emergency program to improve airport security to prevent hijackers from reaching their targeted weapons?’

The administration and its allies rule all such questions out of order, going to extraordinary lengths to ensure they don’t enjoy any political traction. When the issue was first raised, back in 2002, Vice President Cheney termed all suggestions "incendiary," and "thoroughly irresponsible and totally unworthy of national leaders in a time of war," Even the usually apolitical Laura Bush got into the act by calling the questions about what the administration might have done as an attempt to “prey upon the emotions of people." But Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), former chairman of the Senate intelligence panel and co-chairman of the inquiry, had a different answer. "The attacks of Sept. 11 could have been prevented if the right combination of skill, cooperation, creativity and some good luck had been brought to task."

And because of the success of the administration’s efforts to keep the commission from getting at truth—as well as a decided incuriosity on the part of the mass media, it’s likely we will never know. Apparently, that would suit the Bush administration just fine.

Certainly 9-11 Could Have Been Prevented... IF A Number Of Federal Agencies Had Only Followed Standard Procedures

2004-01-27T05:01:00.000-05:00

Kevin Hayden @ the Street tips us off to a recent article reporting that the 9-11 attack probably wouldn't have happened IF several agencies had followed standard procedures.

Several commissioners at the hearing noted a lack of coordination and inadequate intelligence sharing between federal agencies before the attacks, which may have made it easier for the men to enter the United States. Commissioner Slade Gorton, a former U.S. senator, questioned whether the government's improvements since Sept. 11 would be sufficient to avert that kind of attack today. A second statement from commission staff, read out by executive director Philip Zelikow, said, "... this story is not just about the past. We wonder whether the management of transnational intelligence operations has adapted enough to cope with the challenge of the war on terrorism."

Conspiracies & Conspiracy Theories

2004-01-24T02:49:00.000-05:00

Our compatriot David Neiwert over at Orcinus provides some insights about these terms we hear so many Reptilican conservatards using these days, which is notable owing to their normally constrained vocabularies.

He's also posted an accompanying discussion that explains how conspiracy theories are generated. Fascinating reading!

Here's just an inkling of an excerpt from the Orcinus article:

It is worth recalling, of course, that many of the Clinton conspiracy theories were in fact promoted by such mainstream conservative organs as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times and The American Spectator.

They came to encompass nearly every smear that was directed at Clinton, including the phony Gennifer Flowers and "black love child" tales. Interestingly, many conservatives raised these smears in conjunction with Clinton's impeachment trial, which revolved not around any alleged conspiracy but his private sexual conduct.

Now, with George W. Bush - whose father was almost certainly a participant in Iran-Contra and a likely participant in the October Surprise cases - in the Oval Office, Republicans are eager to dismiss as mere conspiracism serious questions about the kind of crony capitalism and abuse of the national-security apparatus not only was rampant in the first Bush administration but is a self-evident hallmark of Bush II.

Make no mistake: There have in fact been a significant number of conspiracy theories swirling around Bush's presidency, particularly regarding the 9/11 attacks (see Berlet's excellent summary of these) as well as the war in Iraq (notably the contention that the invasion was primarily about obtaining control of the oil fields for Bush's industry buddies). Most of these originate on the far left, though they also have enjoyed a certain level of circulation on the far right aswell.

However, mainstream liberals who have attacked, for instance, the involvement of the neoconservative Project for a New American Century in the invasion plans have likewise been dismissed, by such conservative luminaries as the New York Times' David Brooks, as not only conspiracy theorists but likely anti-Semites as well. This is, as I say, an easy smear.

The
same tactic is being directed at Kevin Phillips, himself a former Republican and a widely esteemed truth-teller and political analyst. The accusation is being hurled not only because American Dynasty tackles such subjects as the October Surprise and the Bush family's Nazi dealings, but due to its larger themes of confronting the danger posed by the confluence of dynastic wealth, corporatism and political power.

Yet as Jonathan Yardley notes in his Washington Post review, Phillips in fact has taken great pains to avoid the pitfalls of conspiracism. In his introduction, he writes:
We must be cautious here not to transmute commercial relationships into a latter-day conspiracy theory, a trransformation that epitomizes what historian Richard Hofstadter years ago called the "paranoid streak" in American politics. ... On the other hand, worries about conspiracy thinking should not inhibit inquiries in a way that blocks sober examination, which often more properly identifies some kind of elite behavior familiar to sociologists and political scientists alike.

Of course, what is really remarkable about this is the way the same people who accuse Phillips of conspiracism have themselves trafficked in outrageous conspiracy theories over the years, particularly those aimed at liberals and Bill Clinton in particular. But then, Hofstadter also rather keenly observed that projection is a common trait of the American right, along with its paranoia.

Family members of 9-11 victims are STILL PISSED about the panel set up to investigate why the Bush administration completely fucked up 9-11

2004-01-16T20:35:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI)
-- The panel set up to investigate why the United States failed to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, faced angry questions Thursday after revelations that two of its own senior officials were so closely involved in the events under investigation that they have been interviewed as part of the inquiry.

A spokesperson for relatives of the 9-11 victims surmises:

"We want the whole issue of who has access to the briefings revisited," said (9-11 widow) Breitweizer, "the entire commission has to have access to them."

A delegation of relatives traveled to Washington Thursday for an evening meeting with commission staff, which was expected to be stormy.

Philip Zelikow, the commission's executive director, worked on the Bush-Cheney transition team as the new administration took power, advising his longtime associate and former boss, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, on the incoming National Security Council. He also has ongoing ties with Karl Rove, so I believe there IS cause for concern about the partisan nature of the commission's findings, and it's NO coincidence that the only two panel members who have the fullest access to ALL of the evidence happen to be either Karl Rove's pals or a senior level staffer of former AG Janet Reno's office who hasn't any qualms about Zelikow's role on the commission or the fact that evidence is NOT accessible equally to ALL commissioners. WTF is the point of this commission anyways if it isn't full disclosure?

2004-01-15T22:01:00.000-05:00

There are several archived resources on the topic of your popular belief (at least amongst Americans) in the 'official' White House account, which is merely a coincidence explanation for simple public consumption. It's neither complete nor providing full disclosure on the matter, and its' authors are continually facing matters concerning their integrity on a variety of other issues. Do YOU believe in coincidence theories?

Note: Henceforth, MOST items directly regarding 9-11 shall now be posted at this site you're visiting presently. Joe6Packs also maintains the Fog of War blog and the latest one covering everything else generally... over here. Have a look about!

2004-01-12T23:47:00.000-05:00

I intend to devote the Elegant blog to the matter of 9-11 and the subsequent investigation and events directly related to it. Contrary to some wishful thinking conservatards, this issue will not just disappear anytime soon. Look to the Joe6Pack's Elegant blog for continuing updates which shall all be archived here, along with links to pertinent news articles and online resources about the truth of 9-11 rather than just the 'coincidence theory' you've been inculcated constantly with via your mainstream media. Take the 9-11 Visibility Project for instance. Here's a growing movement that's dedicated to learning the truth about 9-11. It may even interest you. Who knows?

2004-01-09T16:35:00.000-05:00

I do hope you'll visit my new blog location while you're by!

2004-01-08T03:33:00.000-05:00

Joe 6 Packs' NEW home.

2003-06-21T04:56:00.000-04:00

You remember the hoopla surrounding the Baseball Hall of Fame's President canceling an appearance by Tim Robbins due to the film star's public criticism of Bush's Iraq war, don't you? Read the correspondences here at the Better Rhetor's blog - particularly Tim Robbins' poignant response! (The Better Rhetor is taking an indefinite sabbatical from our beloved blogosphere. Fare thee well is in order and thanks for providing us with so much quality work.)

2003-06-13T04:14:00.000-04:00

2003-06-04T01:46:00.000-04:00

I know a petard when I hear it.

2003-05-09T02:31:00.000-04:00

The Mad Prophet offers up some mighty intriguing labor history lessons to commemorate May Day festivities. You'll also enjoy the caption accompanying his photo of our hapless leader, and there's much more for your delight to be had there as well!

Cowboy Kahlil is still managing to rustle up some fine fixins even though his 'puter has bit the dust.

... and don't miss the Bush kangaroo's banter over at skippy's popular blog either.

2003-04-23T22:43:00.000-04:00

The boycotts and the surrounding avalanche of negative publicity are a storm warning of what may lie ahead. Eight of the world's top 10 global brands - Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, General Electric, Intel, Disney, McDonald's and Marlboro - are American, worth an estimated cumulative $337 billion. McCann-Erickson's message may be that they should shed their Americanness, but just like other famous American brands - Starbucks, Nike, American Express, Levi's, Heinz and Kelloggs - they are wrapped irrevocably in the American flag. Indeed, many have built their brand on precisely what until now has been the appeal of America, what Joseph Nye, dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, calls American "soft power." As that is dissipated, so the companies concerned are put at a competitive disadvantage.

Mecca Cola, the soda with a message, to be produced in Morocco

2003-03-26T00:41:00.000-05:00

Boycott of American Goods Over Iraq War Gains

Well now, there's an interesting idea... the economy's in the toilet already anyways. If the domestic anti-war consumer crowd get on the global bandwagon too, George shall be out on his keister in 2004 for certain. Perhaps the peaceniks can start sipping imported beverages while marching? Perrier, anyone? THAT will get the corporate warmongers' attention! I understand it's not censorship but an individual's right to protest in America when they quit playing the Dixie Chicks on their radio networks, so I guess MILLIONS of anti-war marchers shall exercise their rights too by not listening to the country music stations or their sponsors at all and they'll quit buying American brands. I recommend NOT buying any product endorsed on the "cheerleading" television networks either throughout the war coverage.

Boycott American Goods

Boycott American Brands

2003-03-25T23:56:00.000-05:00

I'm currently devoting a considerable amount of my precious leisure time to a new Joe6Pack undertaking...

Announcing: Joe6Pack's new home in the works! Check it out.

Yes, I'll still be updating the Elegant Blog; but, I think the community will really appreciate the Spring spruce-up. There's significantly more space, and NO advertising (which is a plus considering that there's gradually becoming more and more blasted conservatives' merchandise being peddled in the ad space right at the top of each Elegant Blog page lately. Why, it's sacrilige I tell ya!). Oh, we'll be having commentary, and the content can be more easily organized into categories for quicker reference too. Sign up! Even obnoxious dittomonkeys provide some... er, valuable perspective. Especially when I've been remiss in viewing the mainstream media reports as I've been doing lately. *snark* Do have a peek in once in awhile to see how it's coming along, and update your bookmarks and pagelinks whenever you feel it merits it. I'll have it linked on the sidebar once the new site is sufficiently developed. Cheers!

2003-03-23T15:01:00.000-05:00

Eric Alterman provides a candid view of the "duel loyalties" reality of being Jewish-American. As you know, wrongwing warhawks deny the existence of "dual loyalties".Be sure to read "Perle, Interrupted" while you're at it, as well as my growing The Prince of Darkness: Richard Perle dossier on him; and The Men From JINSA, if you haven't done so yet.

2003-03-23T13:30:00.000-05:00

The watchdog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) shared Tescish's outrage. Describing the first Gulf War coverage as "enthusiastic cheerleading" and "boosterism for the war effort," FAIR deemed Gulf War coverage "one of the most disturbing episodes in U.S. journalistic history."

Elizabeth Wilmhurst, 54, deputy legal adviser, is understood to be unhappy with the government's official line that it has sufficient basis for war under UN resolutions. Ms Wilmhurst has been a legal adviser at the Foreign Office for 30 years, and deputy legal officer since 1997. After a week of reported unease within the government about the legality of going to war without a second UN resolution, Lord Goldsmith on Monday published a condensed version of his advice to Mr Blair. But anti-war MPs and many lawyers suspect the full version may be more evenly balanced. Concern about the legal advice was also expressed this week by two former Foreign Office legal advisers. In a letter to the Times, Sir Franklin Berman, legal adviser from 1991-99, and Sir Arthur Watts, legal adviser from 1987-91, expressed regret that the search for a second resolution had been abandoned. They said the onus was on the government to account "for their actions to the international community in whose name they claim to act".

- Adviser quits Foreign Office over legality of war
.

"If you depend on the news for your worldview, friends, you're in a sad place." - Garrison Keillor 11/9/02

The Royal Journal of Found Art is a website that collects odd examples of graphic art and writing that site contributors have discovered in peculiar places, or spied in advertisements and commercial products.

Bush Uses War to Bury Probe of 9/11
Are You In Bush's Prayer Circle?

2003-03-22T17:16:00.000-05:00

A remarkable event occurred in the first Bush-Gore debate, held on October 3, 2000. In his very first statement of the evening, Candidate Bush said this: BUSH: I want to take one-half of the surplus and dedicate it to Social Security, one-quarter of the surplus for important projects, and I want to send one-quarter of the surplus back to the people who pay the bills. I want everybody who pays taxes to have their tax rates cut.

Who Lost Bush's Budget?.

2003-03-22T15:53:00.000-05:00

Minneapolis FBI Whistleblower Coleen Rowley asked Special Agent in Charge Deborah Pierce to shift her to an investigative position, said Paul McCabe, a spokesman for the Minneapolis FBI office.

"This was special agent Rowley's personal decision," not a reprisal or a demotion, McCabe said, adding that Rowley will assume her new duties in the near future.

Coleen Rowley has made headlines — and attracted criticism — again this month when she said publicly that she didn't think the agency would be able to handle terrorism that could follow a war with Iraq. There are dedicated FBI agents in the field, and now there is one more.

2003-03-22T14:39:00.000-05:00

'God damn you' - Alan Bisbort, American Politics Journal

Mark Twain's War Prayer

Richard Dawkins on "Bin Laden's Victory"

2003-03-22T14:16:00.000-05:00

Law Groups Say U.S. Invasion Illegal

2003-03-22T13:22:00.000-05:00

2003-03-22T00:34:00.000-05:00

Now that Noelle's getting the help she needs, when is Jeb going to get treatment for his chronic corruption addiction?

2003-03-22T00:27:00.000-05:00

"Visit her. The monument, museum, crown, and observation decks are all closed now for security reasons, but it will still remind you of how great this country was, and what we used to stand for."

"Support him. With all of his faults he's still a better president than we have." - betterrhetor

2003-03-21T22:10:00.000-05:00

Who Is James R. Bath?

He's a crooked enough bastard to merit his own dossier at Joe 6 Pack's is who he is!

2003-03-21T21:58:00.000-05:00

Bush Pushes the Big Lie Toward the Brink Even some in government can no longer be silent in the face of falsehood. Robert Scheer, LA Times So the truth is out: George W. Bush lied when he claimed to be worried about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Otherwise, Iraq's stepped-up cooperation with the U.N. on disarmament would be stunningly good news, obviating the need to rush to war. Instead, the U.N. weapons inspectors' verification of Iraq's destruction of missiles, private meetings with Iraqi weapons scientists, visits to locations where biological and chemical weapons were destroyed in 1991 and a series of unfettered flights by U2 spy plans have been met with a shrug and sneer in Washington. The White House line is that even if the Iraqis destroy all their slingshots, Goliath is still bringing his tanks and instituting "regime change." The arrogance is breathtaking. We have demanded that a country disarm - and even as it is doing so, we say it doesn't matter: it's too late; we're coming in. Put down your guns and await the slaughter. Abraham Lincoln once observed that even a free people can be fooled for a time - and this, mind you, was long before Fox News existed - and in his chaotic two-year presidency, Bush has pushed the Big Lie approach so far that we are seeing dramatic signs of its cracking: an international backlash, a domestic peace movement and whistle-blowing from inside our own intelligence and diplomatic corps. - More...

2003-03-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

NOW with Bill Moyers - Integrity and Truth

2003-03-21T21:41:00.000-05:00

InfoTech & Weapons of Mass Repression

Now George has fallen and Fred is dead

And John got lost in the shooting.

Blood, however, is still blood-red

And the army is again recruiting.

Song of the Three Soldiers

Bertolt Brecht 1927

2003-03-21T21:38:00.000-05:00

"In the beginning of a change,the patriot is a scarce and brave man, hated and scorned.

When his cause succeeds however,

the timid join him, for then it costs nothing

to be a patriot."

- Mark Twain

"Fear not the path of truth,

for the lack of people walking on it."

Robert Francis Kennedy

More...

2003-03-21T21:32:00.000-05:00

In Israel, the belief that Ariel Sharon and his "security policies" will somehow end the violence bears bitter fruit.

Suicide bus bomber kills 15 in Israel

Independent

Excerpt:

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which comes as Israel's new hardline government is pressing ahead with a two–week–old
offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza, and as the Palestinian Authority is considering far–reaching reforms.

Israeli media reported that the blast was caused by up to 60 kilograms (130lbs) of explosives – an exceptionally powerful bomb compared to those used in similar attacks. Its force caused damage and debris to cars as far as 30 yards away.

"Once again the bestial hand of Palestinian terrorism has struck at the heart of Israel," said Mark Sofer, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, adding that in the past two months Israeli forces had thwarted almost 100 attempted attacks.

However, Israel might be constrained in any reaction by the possibility of an imminent US strike against Saddam Hussein, because the United States has made clear that they want to keep a lid on the Israeli–Palestinian fighting until the Iraq issue is resolved.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat condemned "any attack that is targeting civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli. But he added: "We reject the Israel government finger–pointing that the Palestinian Authority is responsible."

Senseless killings

Haaretz

The Israel Defense Forces operations in the refugee camps of the Gaza Strip in recent weeks appear to have been carried out with reckless abandon. Care not to harm innocent bystanders - oft recited mechanically by military commanders and ministers - has disappeared.

The operations are leaving dozens of dead civilians in their wake. Of the 72 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in February, 25 were civilians, including three children under the age of 10. A pregnant woman and two youths were among the dead in El-Bureij.

In demolishing the homes of terror activists, the IDF has also destroyed the property and possessions of neighbors who had nothing at all to do with anti-Israel activity before falling victim to the terror attacks, reprisals and counter-terrorism operations.

The declared intentions of adopting a selective approach to the operations - heavy-handed against the terror, and merciful toward unfortunate Palestinians who only want to live and make a living - have gone up in the smoke of the tanks and the dust of the bulldozers.

Dan Rather tells Greg Palast US reporters too afraid to ask questions

On my BBC television show, Newsnight, an American journalist confessed that, since the 9/11 attacks, U.S. reporters are simply too afraid to ask the uncomfortable questions that could kill careers: "It's an obscene comparison, but there was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming tires around people's necks if they dissented. In some ways, the fear is that you will be neck-laced here, you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck," Dan Rather said. Without his makeup, Rather looked drawn, old and defeated in confessing that he too had given in. "It's that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions and to continue to bore in on the tough questions so often."

Investigators were ordered to "back off" from any inquiries into Saudi Arabian financing of terror networks....

The reports I did based on this information won the California State University School of Journalism's Project Censored Award in 2002. It's not the kind of prize you want to win - it's given to crucial stories that were effectively banned from U.S. airwaves and papers. I don't want any misunderstanding here, so I must emphasize what we did not find: We uncovered no information, none whatsoever, that George W. Bush had any advance knowledge of the plan to attack the World Trade Center on 9/11, nor, heaven forbid, any involvement in the attack.

FBI Document 199I

What we did discover was serious enough. To begin with, from less-than-happy FBI agents we obtained an interesting document, some 30 pages long, marked "SECRET." I've reproduced a couple of pages here (figure 2.1). Note the designation "199I" - that's FBI-speak for "national security matter." According to insiders, FBI agents had wanted to check into two members of the bin Laden family, Abdullah and Omar, but were told to stay away by superiors - until September 13, 2001. By then, Abdullah and Omar were long gone from the United States.

More...

2003-03-21T21:19:00.000-05:00

Political Deception: The Missing Link behind 9-11

by Michel Chossudovsky

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO206A.html

"We have to find an approach that will help them (i.e. US troops fighting alongside the Phillipines
Gov't in their civil war) without violating their constitution,” Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference.

Arrests follow Philippines blast - Please note that while Islamic terrorists are "suspected", nobody actually knows who staged the bombings because no Islamic Terrorist group has claimed responsibility which is what they ALWAYS do to make a political point. Of course, there is no speculation that the bombing was staged by agents who are pushing for American involvement in the current civil war. THAT would be BEYOND THE PALE!

3/4/03 Arroyo: No combat for U.S. troops

CIA CAUGHT FAKING TERROR IN PHILIPPINES

Abu Sayyaf: The CIA’s Monster Gone Berserk

2003-03-21T21:14:00.000-05:00

the dead peasant bonanza

Ari clarifies George's intentions

Kermit Rolls A Fat One

9/11: The Enlightenment Can Science overcome Myth? (in time to stop the next war) MEDIA RELEASE 4th March 2003 Professor A.K. Dewdney, author of ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’, has released the results of an experiment testing the feasibility of claims that cellphone calls were made from ‘hijacked’ airplanes on September 11th 2001. The cellphone calls from hijacked planes were a crucial element of the 'official version' of the horrific events of '9/11', as they directly corroborated the notion that all four planes were hijacked by Arab terrorists. Dewdney's experiment suggests that it is highly unlikely the cellphone calls took place as reported... More...

Graham: His 9-11 ‘Outrage’

The Florida senator says reported FBI and CIA failures inspired his White House run

NEWSWEEK

March 10 issue — What prompted Florida Sen. Bob Graham to join the Democratic presidential sweepstakes last week? The 66-year-old Graham—who
recently had heart surgery—has toyed with the idea of running for years, but says he always lacked “fire in the belly.”

WHAT GAVE IT to him this time, he tells NEWSWEEK, was his experience last year overseeing a joint House-Senate inquiry into the events of 9-11. Graham says he became “outraged” by the intelligence and law-enforcement failures discovered by the inquiry—most of which, he charges, are still being suppressed by the Bush administration. The inquiry’s 400-page report can’t be publicly released because the administration won’t declassify key portions. Graham says the report documents far more miscues by the FBI and CIA than have been publicly revealed, as well as still unpursued leads pointing to 'facilitation' of the hijackers by a “sovereign nation.” (Sources say the country is Saudi Arabia.) “There’s been a cover-up of this,” Graham said.

—Michael Isikoff

More...

But can Bob Graham be trusted?

NEW REVELATIONS ON 9-11

Was it an ‘intelligence failure’ to give red carpet treatment to the ‘money man’ behind the 9-11 terrorists, or was it simply ‘routine’?

On the morning of September 11, Pakistan's Chief Spy General Mahmoud Ahmad, the alleged "money-man" behind the 9-11 hijackers, was at a breakfast meeting on Capitol Hill hosted by Senator Bob Graham and Rep. Porter Goss, the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence committees.

"When the news [of the attacks on the World Trade Center] came, the two Florida lawmakers who lead the House and Senate intelligence committees were having breakfast with the head of the Pakistani intelligence service. Rep. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, Sen. Bob Graham and other members of the House Intelligence Committee were talking about terrorism issues with the Pakistani official when a member of Goss' staff handed a note to Goss, who handed it to Graham. "We were talking about terrorism, specifically terrorism generated from Afghanistan," Graham said.

(...)

Mahmoud Ahmad, director general of Pakistan's intelligence service, was "very empathetic, sympathetic to the people of the United States," Graham said.

2003-03-21T20:58:00.000-05:00

"Well, those of you who still believe the myth of the liberal media should consider this: MSNBC, an obscure cable channel, has fired Donahue, the host of its highest-rated show. A memo from inside NBC shows that NBC big wigs feared that the liberal Donahue represented in the words of the NBC memo - quote - "a difficult public face for NBC at a time of war, while our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity because he seems to delight in guests who are anti-war, anti-Bush and skeptical of the administration's motives." So there it is, according to NBC. Phil Donahue was fired because he's a liberal. In fact, the only liberal with the solo cable talk show. NBC, of course, is a division of the conglomerate GE, where they apparently only bring right wing things to life." - Paul Begala, Crossfire, 03/05/03

"This is really an argument between two kinds of prayer - vertical and horizontal. I don't have the slightest problem with vertical prayer. It is horizontal prayer that frightens me. Vertical prayer is private, directed upward toward heaven. It need not be spoken aloud, because God is a spirit and has no ears. Horizontal prayer must always be audible, because its purpose is not to be heard by God, but to be heard by fellow men standing within earshot. To choose an example from football, when my team needs a field goal to win and I think, ''Please, dear God, let them make it!'' - that is vertical prayer. When, before the game, a group of fans joins hands and ''voluntarily'' recites the Lord's Prayer - that is horizontal prayer. It serves one of two purposes: to encourage me to join them, or to make me feel excluded."

This is true. The religio-nuts want to be seen praying. They can pray all they want, 24 hours a day, but that's not what they want. They want to be seen praying to reassure themselves that their God is the real God.

It's pure insanity, and one of these nuts stole his way into the White House to rob us blind. - amen

2003-03-21T20:48:00.000-05:00

Former President George Bush predicted in 1996 that if the United States were to engage in another war with Iraq, one aimed at overthrowing Saddam, the “entire Arab world would turn against us” and the U.S. would alienate its allies in the international community. the scoop

"The foreign ministers of France, Germany and Russia today issued a joint declaration that they will not allow a second American-backed resolution to pass the UN. Bush wants the Security Council to explicitly authorize force against Iraq, and his press secretary today remained optimistic that in the end, that's just what he'll get. President Bush is said to be focusing on one fence-sitting Security Council member, the African nation of Guinea, because he said - quote - "I used to have one of their pigs." - Paul Begala, Crossfire, 03/05/03

"God is a neutral observer in the affairs of man. Man cannot march into war and assume God will be at his side.'" - The Pope, who Bush must think is lying

"If the economy is flat, we're gonna win it." - Ted Kennedy, talking about 2004

2003-03-21T20:35:00.000-05:00

To begin with, check out the Express topics menu for the growing file titled Richard Perle: The Prince of Darkness

I've found a connection between him and the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. which implicates Dick Cheney too... and review the Artificialshrubbery file to see a further connection between the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., Prince Bandar - and his wife, Princess Haifa al-Faisal, who is the daughter of former Saudi King Faisal - with funding two 9/11 hijackers AND being houseguests at George and Laura's Crawford spread!

Bush's Real Goal In Iraq

Be Very Afraid

Yongbyon, North Korea aerial imagery

Saddam Seminar

Sunset View From Space

WHO alert: Mysterious illness is 'worldwide health threat'

As a mysterious respiratory illness spread to more countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday took the rare step of issuing a health alert, declaring the ailment "a worldwide health threat" and urging all countries to help in seeking its cause and control.

The agency said that in the past week it had received reports of more than 150 new suspected cases of the illness, now known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. The syndrome has caused at least nine deaths, the last one a nurse in Hanoi. Some victims have recovered, but no one has been up, around and healthy in the past two weeks. It apparently does not respond to antiviral and antibiotic drugs.

more

"Before getting into the lobbying game, Chet Lott, son of Trent, worked at Domino's pizza - world renowned as the perfect training ground for future Washington power brokers. Harvard, Yale, Domino's. Now instead of taking orders for extra cheese, he pushes the piping hot agendas of clients like BellSouth and munitions maker Day & Zimmerman. Neither of whom, I'm sure, hired young Chet because his dad is an influential Senator. (Maybe it's because Chet promised that if he couldn't deliver the legislation they'd ordered in 30 minutes it would be free - some habits are hard to break)." - Arianna Huffington, Power On The Potomac, ariannaonline.com

"This is not battle, for only one side is engaged - it has another name. It is massacre." - Mark Twain

2003-03-20T23:59:00.000-05:00

2003-03-20T23:43:00.000-05:00

Introducing The Queen of Baghdad!

Did you know that 85% of alcoholics relapse? George, it's mandatory that you pee in this bottle!

Is criticizing Ariel Sharon's and the Likudniks' policies antisemitism or not?

The vast majority of Iraq's biotoxins came from... Virginia.

Lessons From History

The Oilringwraiths' Timeline

2003-03-20T23:28:00.000-05:00

Scepticism mounts among defence and intelligence officials David Mulholland, JDW Business Editor, LondonJane's Defence Weekly, March 05, 2003 While Bush administration officials deride opposition to a war against Iraq as the usual "peacenik" reflex, Jane Defence Weekly sources say that dissenting views are now also coming from those who have traditionally supported military action. Such opposition was witnessed on 26 February in the UK Parliament - one of the largest voting revolts in the past 100 years. It is also becoming clear that many military and intelligence officials in both the US and UK, who are not in a position to speak publicly, are deeply sceptical of the Bush administration's apparent rush to war. The fundamental questions of why now, and why Iraq, have not been adequately answered, intelligence, military and legislative sources in Washington told JDW. Sources said that the Bush administration's changing arguments for military action appear to confirm that none of them is sufficient to justify the use of military force. One congressional source said that the arguments in favour of a war increasingly seem to be a "smokescreen" to hide the real reasons the administration is set on war. Indeed, both the US and UK intelligence information supposedly justifying a war with Iraq raise serious questions. "[Chief of the UN weapons inspectors Hans] Blix's criticism pokes holes in [US Secretary of State Colin] Powell's intelligence," said Joseph Cirincione, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "And the UK's intelligence dossier was shown to be a complete fraud." A US military source said that Bush and his inner circle seem to be suffering from what is known in the Department of Defence as incestuous amplification. This is a condition in warfare where one only listens to those who are already in lock-step agreement, reinforcing set beliefs and creating a situation ripe for miscalculation. An illustration of this was Bush's address to the American Enterprise Institute - a right-wing think tank in Washington - last Wednesday on why military action was required. "President George W Bush's speech on Iraq is significant, mostly because it reveals that he long ago made a decision for war and has always viewed the inspection process as an impediment to war to be overcome, rather than a means to avoid war," said Doug Bandow, a senior fellow with the libertarian Cato Institute and former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan. "War was always his first option. The president paints a positive picture of post-war Iraq that is likely to prove wildly optimistic." Retired US Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni, former head of the US Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East, said the administration is ignoring public reaction in the Muslim world about a US invasion of Iraq. In October he said: "Anti-Americanism, doubts about this war, concern about the damage that may happen, political issues, economic issues and social issues have all caused the [Arab] street to become extremely volatile. I'm amazed at people that say that there is no street and that it won't react. I'm not sure which planet they live on because it isn't the one that I travel. I've been out in the Middle East, and it is explosive; it is the worst I've ever seen it in over a dozen years of working in this area in some concentrated way. Almost anything could touch it off." Another former Reagan administration official said that Bush appears to be set on the course of action he has already decided because he is out of his depth and is unable to understand the nuances of the arguments that oppose an immediate war with Iraq. "He just doesn't have the experience to be dealing with these issues." This may have to do with Bush's seeming inability to change course in reaction to changing circumstances, a congressional source said. "With the exception of attacking Afghanistan in response to [11 September 2001], something that Bush had no choice about, he has not changed one iota of his agenda despite it being formed during a time of strong economic growth and a different perception of security threats."
Most sources interviewed for this analysis agreed that the Bush administration has backed itself into a corner and cannot reverse course at this point. It has now put too much political capital into a war. Backing out now would likely wreck Bush's image as a strong leader and focus the US voting public on the faltering US economy and the lack of appropriate policy initiatives. - more

2003-03-17T00:32:00.000-05:00

10 Reasons To Switch... to Canada!

2003-03-16T18:06:00.000-05:00

WHEN the Great Tao was abandoned,

There appeared humanity and justice.

When intelligence and wit arose,

There appeared great hypocrites.

When the six relations lost their harmony,

There appeared filial piety and paternal kindness.

When darkness and disorder began to reign in a kingdom,

There appeared the loyal ministers.

The function of the loyal ministers is to enforce ritual and etiquette, "with rolled-up sleeves" it says in Verse 38. Having utterly lost the Way, they mistake ritual and etiquette for compassion. The boys from PNAC strike me as loyal minister types. They talk about "moral principles" but haven't the foggiest notion of what that means. - mahablog

2003-03-16T18:04:00.000-05:00

Great pics of Old Europe!

2003-03-16T18:02:00.000-05:00

U.S. Arm-Twisting Allies On Iraq

As U.S. officials intensify their arm-twisting offensive to gather support for a war on Iraq, the Institute for Policy Studies has released a new study that examines the specific levers of U.S. military, economic and political power.

The study, entitled "Coalition of the Willing or Coalition of the Coerced?," looks at how this leverage applies to each current member of the U.N. Security Council. It also analyzes the power the U.S. government exerts over the broader group of countries that the Bush administration has dubbed the "Coalition of the Willing." Although the administration refuses to release a list of the members of this coalition, the authors compiled a list of 34 nations cited in press reports as supporters of the U.S. position on Iraq.

The major premise of the report is that most of the "willing" countries were recruited through coercion, bullying and bribery. Membership into this false coalition of countries like Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico stems mainly from free trade deals with the United States, for African nations the pursuit of access to U.S. export markets, and for Eastern European countries the desire to gain entry to the NATO alliance.

According to co-author and Middle East expert Phyllis Bennis, "It's hardly a new phenomenon for the United States to use bribes and threats to get its way in the U.N. What's new this time around is the breathtaking scale of those pressures -- because this time around, global public opinion has weighed in, and every government leaning Washington's way faces massive opposition at home."

Check It Out! IPS Releases Report On U.S. Arm-Twisting Over Iraq War

Get Off The Bus

"I don't get on press buses." That's the motto that veteran war correspondent Chris Hedges believes would fit a good war reporter. In an interview with Barbara Bedway of Editor & Publisher, Hedges said that only a small percentage of reporters truly want to cover war and the rest "just want to be hotel-room warriors, don't want to get anywhere near the fighting."

The New York Times staffer and author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (PublicAffairs), published in September, added: "The 10 percent that tries to get out will be stomped on. We saw that with Doug Struck, the Washington Post correspondent, when he tried to investigate civilian casualties in Afghanistan, by the U.S. military. He was made to lie down with a gun pointed to his head."

"I'm giving a voice to dissidents," Hedges acknowledged. "That has made some people at the newspaper uncomfortable." Hedges told Editor & Publisher that he believed the Times has done a good job on reporting about the war, "but the broadcast media has been so corrupted it is just parroting the jingoistic message from the state."

Check It Out! War Correspondent's Advice: Stay Off The Press Bus

So Few Get So Much

"Seldom have so few gotten so much from so many." That might be the motto of President Bush's proposed tax cuts.

This statement comes from a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Clinton - Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. He takes a hard look at President Bush's recent tax cut proposals in an essay published in The New York Review Of Books. Stiglitz's conclusion echoes that of leading economists who have written before him:

What is most impressive about the Bush tax proposals is the sheer brazenness with which they have been sold. Evidently thinking that the average American would not be able to understand statistics, the administration has presented the tax cuts by citing the average benefit it will bring - hoping that the average American will think that they will get the average tax benefit.

Stiglitz hopes that Americans will realize the true state of affairs regarding Bush's tax policy, and that their voices will be heard.

Check It Out! So Few Get So Much

Howard Dean Builds A Platform

On February 21, Vermont Governor Howard Dean laid out some of his basic ideas for his presidential platform in a speech to the Democratic National Committee. His statements indicate that he is as willing to battle his fellow Democratic presidential candidates as he is President Bush.

Dean asked:

Why in the world is the Democratic Party leadership supporting the president's unilateral attack on Iraq?
Why are Democratic leaders supporting tax cuts? The question is not how big the tax cut should be -- the question should be: Can we afford a tax cut at all with the largest deficit in the history of the country?
Why are we fighting in Congress about the Patient's Bill of Rights when the Democratic Party ought to be standing up for health care for every man, woman and child in this country?
Why are our folks are voting for the President's No Child Left Behind bill that leaves every child behind, every teacher behind, every school board behind and every property tax payer behind?

Howard Dean's speech indicates that there will be at least one liberal candidate who embraces much of what elected Democrats in the 107th Congress eschewed. He has yet to articulate his position on some of the tougher issues that could damge his reputation as a consistent liberal messenger -- raising taxes or U.S. policy toward Israel -- but there is still a year before the Democratic primaries begin.

Check It Out! Howard Dean Builds A Platform

Class Warfare Fact And Fiction

Compounding the public’s difficulty in comprehending President Bush's complex tax cut proposal has been the introduction of the incendiary phrase “class warfare” to attack opponents. This rhetoric implies that it is inappropriate to assess who would benefit the most and least under the plan because we must not think about our society along economic lines. The effect of the “class warfare” language has been to put on the defensive anyone who even mentions fairness.

To help correct myths and misleading claims that have appeared in the media during the current “class warfare” debate, and to defend the idea that we must consider the fairness of economic policy, Bernard Wasow at The Century Foundation has put together basic facts that demonstrate why particular assertions are wrong.

Myth #1 – The rich deserve most of the tax cuts because they pay most of the taxes.

Myth #2 – Cutting taxes on dividends and other capital income will generate new investment essential for economic growth.

Check It Out! Class Warfare Fact And Fiction

Bush's Theological Conversion

Since taking office, Bush's personal faith has turned increasingly public, arguably more so than any modern president, writes Deborah Caldwell for Beliefnet. What's important is not that Bush is talking about God more, but that he's talking about him differently. Bush's theology is shifting from a Wesleyan theology of "personal transformation" to describing a Calvinist "divine plan" laid out by a sovereign God for the country and himself.

Calvin, whose ideas are critical to contemporary evangelical thought, focused on the idea of a powerful God who governs "the vast machinery of the whole world." Bush has made several statements indicating he believes God is involved in world events and that he and America have a divinely guided mission. This shift has the potential to affect Bush's approach to terrorism, Iraq and his presidency, Caldwell claims.

For example, in his State of the Union address last month, Bush said that we place confidence in the loving God "behind all of life, and all of history" and that "we go forward with confidence, because this call of history has come to the right country. May He guide us now."

Check It Out! An Evolving Faith: Does The President Believe He Has A Divine Mandate?

2003-03-16T10:34:00.000-05:00

What About the Iraqi Children?

March 3, 2003

The following is a transcript of a speech given by now 13-year-old Charlotte Aldebron at a peace rally in Maine.

When people think about bombing Iraq, they see a picture in their heads of Saddam Hussein in a military uniform, or maybe soldiers with big black mustaches carrying guns, or the mosaic of George Bush Senior on the lobby floor of the Al-Rashid Hotel with the word "criminal." But guess what? More than half of Iraq's 24 million people are children under the age of 15. That's 12 million kids. Kids like me. Well, I'm almost 13, so some are a little older, and some a lot younger, some boys instead of girls, some with brown hair, not red. But kids who are pretty much like me just the same. So take a look at me - a good long look. Because I am what you should see in your head when you think about bombing Iraq. I am what you are going to destroy.

If I am lucky, I will be killed instantly, like the three hundred children murdered by your "smart" bombs in a Baghdad bomb shelter on February 16, 1991. The blast caused a fire so intense that it flash-burned outlines of those children and their mothers on the walls; you can still peel strips of blackened skin - souvenirs of your victory - from the stones.

But maybe I won't be lucky and I'll die slowly, like 14-year-old Ali Faisal, who right now is in the "death ward" of the Baghdad children's hospital. He has malignant lymphoma - cancer - caused by the depleted uranium in your Gulf War missiles. Or maybe I will die painfully and needlessly like18-month-old Mustafa, whose vital organs are being devoured by sand fly parasites. I know it's hard to believe, but Mustafa could be totally cured with just $25 worth of medicine, but there is none of this medicine because of your sanctions.

Or maybe I won't die at all but will live for years with the psychological damage that you can't see from the outside, like Salman Mohammed, who even now can't forget the terror he lived through with his little sisters when you bombed Iraq in 1991. Salman's father made the whole family sleep in the same room so that they would all survive together, or die together. He still has nightmares about the air raid sirens.

Or maybe I will be orphaned like Ali, who was three when you killed his father in the Gulf War. Ali scraped at the dirt covering his father's grave every day for three years calling out to him, "It's all right Daddy, you can come out now, the men who put you here have gone away." Well, Ali, you're wrong. It looks like those men are coming back.

Or I maybe I will make it in one piece, like Luay Majed, who remembers that the Gulf War meant he didn't have to go to school and could stay up as late as he wanted. But today, with no education, he tries to live by selling newspapers on the street.

This is not an adventure movie or a fantasy or a video game. This is reality for children in Iraq. Recently, an international group of researchers went to Iraq to find out how children there are being affected by the possibility of war. Half the children they talked to said they saw no point in living any more. Even really young kids knew about war and worried about it. One 5-year-old, Assem, described it as "guns and bombs and the air will be cold and hot and we will burn very much." Ten-year-old Aesar had a message for President Bush: he wanted him to know that "A lot of Iraqi children will die. You will see it on TV and then you will regret."

Back in elementary school I was taught to solve problems with other kids not by hitting or name-calling, but by talking and using "I" messages. The idea of an "I" message was to make the other person understand how bad his or her actions made you feel, so that the person would sympathize with you and stop it. Now I am going to give you an "I" message. Only it's going to be a "We" message. "We" as in all the children in Iraq who are waiting helplessly for something bad to happen. "We" as in the children of the world who don't make any of the decisions but have to suffer all the consequences. "We" as in those whose voices are too small and too far away to be heard.

We feel scared when we don't know if we'll live another day.

We feel angry when people want to kill us or injure us or steal our future.

We feel sad because all we want is a mom and a dad who we know will be there the next day.

And, finally, we feel confused - because we don't even know what we did wrong.

Charlotte Aldebron, 13, attends Cunningham Middle School in Presque Isle, Maine.

2003-03-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

Who has more credibility on the issue Iraq's weapons of mass destruction?

President George W. Bush 33% 3040 votes

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix 67% 6264 votes

Total: 9304 votes - another adorable opinion poll from wrongwinger Wolf Blitz

2003-03-16T10:20:00.000-05:00

Not Yet Down The Memory Hole: Why Has It Taken Iraq 12 Years to Disarm? From The Institute for Public Accuracy:
In his presentation before the Security Council on Friday, Hans Blix claimed: "If Iraq had provided the necessary cooperation in 1991, the phase of disarmament - under resolution 687 -- could have been short and a decade of sanctions could have been avoided." However, an examination of U.S. policy indicates that for the last 12 years the U.S. government has maintained the economic sanctions regardless of Iraqi actions towards the weapons inspectors, creating a disincentive for compliance -- and helping to explain why Iraq has taken so long to comply: April 3, 1991: U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 687, the "cease fire" resolution. It includes many demands but states that once Iraq complies with the weapons inspection regime, the economic sanctions "shall have no further force or effect." May 20, 1991: President George Bush: "At this juncture, my view is we don't want to lift these sanctions as long as Saddam Hussein is in power." March 26, 1997: Madeleine Albright, in her first major foreign policy address as Secretary of State: "We do not agree with the nations who argue that if Iraq complies with its obligations concerning weapons of mass destruction, sanctions should be lifted." Mid-Dec., 1998: A widely-criticized report is issued by UNSCOM head Richard Butler who, under U.S. pressure, withdraws UNSCOM inspectors, and the U.S. begins the Desert Fox bombing campaign on the eve of President Clinton's scheduled impeachment vote. Jan. 1999: U.S. media report that, contrary to U.S. denials, UNSCOM was used for espionage. Oct. 1, 2002: Just as Iraq is deciding whether or not to let inspectors have total access to presidential palaces, Ari Fleischer talks of "the cost of one bullet" being less than the cost of invasion. Early March, 2003: As Iraq is destroying Al-Samoud missiles, U.S. escalates its bombing of "no-fly" zones. March 3, 2003: Richard Boucher, State Department spokesperson, claims: "We have made clear all along that the goal was disarmament." March 6, 2003: President George W. Bush: "We will be changing the regime of Iraq."

2003-03-15T05:42:00.000-05:00

Rockefeller said U.S. worries about Iraqi nuclear weapons were not based primarily on the documents, but "there is a possibility that the fabrication of these documents may be part of a larger deception campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq." - Fake president uses fake documents to justify fake war

2003-03-15T05:06:00.000-05:00

WHO alert: Mysterious illness is 'worldwide health threat'

As a mysterious respiratory illness spread to more countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday took the rare step of issuing a health alert, declaring the ailment "a worldwide health threat" and urging all countries to help in seeking its cause and control.

The agency said that in the past week it had received reports of more than 150 new suspected cases of the illness, now known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. The syndrome has caused at least nine deaths, the last one a nurse in Hanoi. Some victims have recovered, but no one has been up, around and healthy in the past two weeks. It apparently does not respond to antiviral and antibiotic drugs.

more

2003-03-15T02:05:00.000-05:00

2003-03-15T01:57:00.000-05:00

2003-03-15T01:50:00.000-05:00

2003-03-15T00:33:00.000-05:00

    U.S. Consumer Confidence fell this month to its lowest level in over a decade. Experts assert that soaring fuel prices and geopolitical instability were primary factors.     The expectations index, based on optimism about the next one to five years, dropped to 67.2 from 69.9 last month. The February reading was the lowest since September 1993, when it was 66.8.     Economists are scaling back forecasts of 2003 U.S. economic growth amid such signs of consumer weakness. The economy will probably expand 2.6 percent this year, based on the consensus of 54 economists in the latest Blue Chip Economics Indicators survey. That's down from the 2.7 percent growth they forecast a month ago and less than the 3.3 percent average annual growth rate for the past 50 years.

Dow Jones and the Empire of Gloom

2003-03-14T23:16:00.000-05:00

It Isn't Just About The Destruction Of Iraq And The Deaths Of Iraqis

Found out what else it's about... from a veteran war correspondent.

2003-03-14T21:10:00.000-05:00

    The following is borrowed from Rick Mercer from “This Hour Has 22 Minutes" on CBC Television.     “On behalf of Canadians everywhere I’d like to offer an apology to the United States of America. We haven’t been getting along very well recently and for that, I am truly sorry. I’m sorry we called George Bush a moron. He is a moron but, it wasn’t nice of us to point it out. If it’s any consolation, the fact that he’s a moron shouldn’t reflect poorly on the people of America. After all it’s not like you actually elected him. I’m sorry about our softwood lumber. Just because we have more trees than you doesn’t give us the right to sell you lumber that’s cheaper and better than your own. I’m sorry we beat you in Olympic hockey. In our defence I guess our excuse would be that our team was much, much, much, much better than yours. I’m sorry we burnt down your white house during the war of 1812. I notice you’ve rebuilt it! It’s Very Nice. I’m sorry about your beer. I know we had nothing to do with your beer but, we Feel your Pain. I’m sorry about our waffling on Iraq. I mean, when you’re going up against a crazed dictator, you wanna have your friends by your side. I realize it took more than two years before you guys pitched in against Hitler, but that was different. Everyone knew he had weapons. And finally on behalf of all Canadians, I’m sorry that we’re constantly apologizing for things in a passive-aggressive way which is really a thinly veiled criticism. I sincerely hope that you’re not upset over this. We’ve seen what you do to countries you get upset with .”

2003-03-14T17:29:00.000-05:00

FLORIDA AUDIT RESULTS ARE IN 03-12-03

Now why was it that Janet Rehnquist, former solicitor general of HHS and daughter of a Supreme Kangaroo, delayed the audit of Florida's pension fund until after the November gubernatorial election? Because the conveniently delayed audit now shows that Jeb's government in Florida owes the United States more than $500M. That's why.
Gee, do you think that little factoid might have cost Jeb the election? Er, perhaps. Boy, this whole thing is pretty damned crooked, isn't it?

2003-03-14T15:33:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Uncle Albert

Earliest photograph of Albert Einstein

Google has dressed up their page to celebrate. Do a search for Albert Einstein, and learn more about him and his revolutionary discoveries in physics.

2003-03-14T00:52:00.000-05:00

Aboard the U.S.S. Caine, it was the business with the strawberries that finally convinced the doubters that something was amiss with the captain. Is foreign policy George W. Bush's quart of strawberries?
Over the past few weeks there has been an epidemic of epiphanies. There's a long list of pundits who previously supported Bush's policy on Iraq but have publicly changed their minds. None of them quarrel with the goal; who wouldn't want to see Saddam Hussein overthrown? But they are finally realizing that Mr. Bush is the wrong man to do the job. And more people than you would think — including a fair number of people in the Treasury Department, the State Department and, yes, the Pentagon — don't just question the competence of Mr. Bush and his inner circle; they believe that America's leadership has lost touch with reality.
If that sounds harsh, consider the debacle of recent diplomacy — a debacle brought on by awesome arrogance and a vastly inflated sense of self-importance.
Mr. Bush's inner circle seems amazed that the tactics that work so well on journalists and Democrats don't work on the rest of the world. They've made promises, oblivious to the fact that most countries don't trust their word. They've made threats. They've done the aura-of-inevitability thing — how many times now have administration officials claimed to have lined up the necessary votes in the Security Council? They've warned other countries that if they oppose America's will they are objectively pro-terrorist. Yet still the world balks.
Wasn't someone at the State Department allowed to point out that in matters nonmilitary, the U.S. isn't all that dominant — that Russia and Turkey need the European market more than they need ours, that Europe gives more than twice as much foreign aid as we do and that in much of the world public opinion matters? Apparently not.
And to what end has Mr. Bush alienated all our most valuable allies? (And I mean all: Tony Blair may be with us, but British public opinion is now virulently anti-Bush.) The original reasons given for making Iraq an immediate priority have collapsed. No evidence has ever surfaced of the supposed link with Al Qaeda, or of an active nuclear program. And the administration's eagerness to believe that an Iraqi nuclear program does exist has led to a series of embarrassing debacles, capped by the case of the forged Niger papers, which supposedly supported that claim. At this point it is clear that deposing Saddam has become an obsession, detached from any real rationale.
What really has the insiders panicked, however, is the irresponsibility of Mr. Bush and his team, their almost childish unwillingness to face up to problems that they don't feel like dealing with right now.
I've talked in this column about the administration's eerie passivity in the face of a stalling economy and an exploding budget deficit: reality isn't allowed to intrude on the obsession with long-run tax cuts. That same "don't bother me, I'm busy" attitude is driving foreign policy experts, inside and outside the government, to despair.
Need I point out that North Korea, not Iraq, is the clear and present danger? Kim Jong Il's nuclear program isn't a rumor or a forgery; it's an incipient bomb assembly line. Yet the administration insists that it's a mere "regional" crisis, and refuses even to talk to Mr. Kim.
The Nelson Report, an influential foreign policy newsletter, says: "It would be difficult to exaggerate the growing mixture of anger, despair, disgust and fear actuating the foreign policy community in Washington as the attack on Iraq moves closer, and the North Korea crisis festers with no coherent U.S. policy. . . . We are at the point now where foreign policy generally, and Korea policy specifically, may become George Bush's `Waco.' . . . This time, it's Kim Jong Il (and Saddam) playing David Koresh. . . . Sober minds wrestle with how to break into the mind of George Bush."
We all hope that the war with Iraq is a swift victory, with a minimum of civilian casualties. But more and more people now realize that even if all goes well at first, it will have been the wrong war, fought for the wrong reasons — and there will be a heavy price to pay.
Alas, the epiphanies of the pundits have almost surely come too late. The odds are that by the time you read my next column, the war will already have started.    - Paul Krugman, NY Times

2003-03-14T00:24:00.000-05:00

All the apologies for torture, especially the "what if there were a bomb about to go off" rationale, conveniently forget that there was such a situation. The FBI Minnesota field office knew there was at least one guy planning to fly a passenger airliner into a building and very likely more. They held him on a visa violation and tried, over and over again, to search his hard drive. Not torture him, just a normal law enforcement procedure, search the suspect's computer. Those who sabotaged that request were rewarded. We need to hit on that again and again and again. An experienced civil servant, using normal procedures, had the situation in hand; and was blocked by Republican political appointees. The Bush crowd doesn't want us to remember that. But why does the press, who all work in and around obvious terror targets, let them get away with it? Is not the gallows sufficient to concentrate their minds? ... referring primarily to the case of Zacarias Moussaoui. - from Orcinus

2003-03-13T23:23:00.000-05:00

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead
- Masters of War, Bob Dylan.

2003-03-13T13:36:00.000-05:00

'Why Americans tune in to Canada'

"An illegitimate war, a country in defiance of the UN. That was supposed to be Iraq's role in this drama. Instead, it seems to be the U.S. part," asserts Canada's Globe and Mail, before describing "just how far the United States has drifted from the global mood." And according to former National Security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, America "has never been so isolated globally, literally never, since 1945." - more

The Khashoggi/Reagan connection - Were you aware that Adnan Khashoggi once had an employee by the name of Theresa Lepore? Does the name Theresa Lepore ring a bell? She was the designer of the now infamous Palm Beach county 'butterfly ballot' that had lots of elderly jews voting for Pat Buchannon.

2003-03-13T09:07:00.000-05:00

Joe has updated his stimulating economy feature Dow Jones and the Empire of Gloom. Lots of telling new statistics inform Joe and Josephine 6 Packs with a realistic perspective of finance. For example, did you realize the NASDAQ composite index is 75% less than it was on March 10th, 2000? Keep up to date on the Empire of Doom markets!

2003-03-12T17:14:00.000-05:00

Jerusalem is NOT a part of Israel. UN Resolution 303 declares Jerusalem an "International city", not part of any one nation. The U.N. should send in troops to kick the IDF the hell out of Jerusalem on behalf of its true proprietors: the international community. No more squatting!

2003-03-12T16:21:00.000-05:00

It's Official: NYC Council Opposes War

UN Evacuates From Iraq, Peaceworkers Vow To Stay

    Baghdad - From its tent encampment across the road from the Canal Hotel UN Compound - beginning at 6:30AM, Wednesday, March 12 - the Iraq Peace Team (IPT), with deep regret, bid farewell to departing United Nations staff. While weapons inspectors and UN senior staff remain in Baghdad, the vast majority of international staff were involuntarily evacuated by the UN from Iraq on Wednesday.     The Team posted signs saying, "Farewell UN. Please advise: Who will protect Iraq's children?" As UN vehicles departed, the Team lined the road bearing enlarged photos of Iraqi children and civilians.     Despite the UN personnel's involuntary departure, twenty IPT members asserted their intent to remain in Iraq for the duration of hostilities. The UN departure signals the imminent escalation of the military attack on the Iraqi people. It is such an attack that Voices in the Wilderness, IPT's Chicago-based parent organization, has been working since 1996 to avert.     IPT and Voices in the Wilderness co-founder, Kathy Kelly, declared, "We are shocked by the involuntary evacuation of UN workers here in Iraq. It is deeply disturbing to everyone everywhere who honors the UN Charter - a Charter which pledges to eliminate the scourge of war."     Kelly explained, "The Iraqi people have been dependent on the international community during these long years of sanctions, siege and bombing. It was a forced dependency, but nevertheless they are now more abandoned than ever. We dread the coming carnage."     IPT member and long-time UNICEF volunteer, Cynthia Banas, of Vernon, New York said, "We believe that we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers, and we choose to stay. Many of us come from faith-based backgrounds that urge works of mercy rather than works of war."     The Iraq Peace Team in Baghdad consists mostly of US citizens, but also includes members from Canada, Australia, Ireland and South Korea. All IPT members are committed to active Nonviolence.

GOP: It's Okay to Lie to U.N., We're Leaving

"The U.N. 'Win-Win' for the Bush Cartel: Security Council Supports Iraq War Or U.N. Disbands," Bush doesn't care what the U.N. thinks, because he and his administration hawks want to end U.S. involvement in the U.N.

How can anyone be ignorant enough to feel unashamed being associated with the Bushvek regime? Clearly, they're the scourge of other civilizations besides once-proud America.

2003-03-12T13:56:00.000-05:00

"As thinking people it is our job not to be on the side of the executioners." - Albert Camus

Senator Byrd, March 11, 2003: Senate Remarks: America the Peacemaker Becomes America the Warmonger

2003-03-12T11:24:00.000-05:00

    The members of the Security Council are now faced with a grave choice. If they fail to agree on a common position and action is taken without the authority of the Security Council, the legitimacy and support for any such action would be seriously impaired.     If, on the other hand, they can come together, even at this late hour, to address this threat in a united manner and ensure compliance with the previous resolutions, then the Council's authority will be enhanced and the world will be a safer place. ~ Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General,

When the U.N. Charter is violated, the Security Council must gather, discuss the situation and make the corresponding decisions.

2003-03-12T09:09:00.000-05:00

2003-03-12T06:11:00.000-05:00

Make a point of dropping by the ReachM Ranch where Cowboy Kahlil mends his fences and opens his gates quite frequently.

2003-03-12T05:57:00.000-05:00

2003-03-12T04:13:00.000-05:00

An excerpt from an Associated Press article;

Newsweek reported in its current issue that an Egyptian radical arrested in an earlier raid on an al-Qaida hideout decided to cash in on the $25 million reward that was offered by the United States for information leading to Mohammed's arrest.

The Egyptian also demanded an additional $2 million to relocate to Britain with his family, the magazine said, citing an unidentified Middle Eastern intelligence source.

A law-enforcement official said the United States agreed to pay the reward to an unidentified informant, but wouldn't discuss details, according to Newsweek. The report could not immediately be confirmed.

=====

With that kind of loyalty in the troops, sometimes the big bribes do work! This proves to be the most effective way to dismantle terrorist groups. Wars aren't effective or necessary... unless fighting terrorism isn't the primary motive of the war, of course.

2003-03-11T14:58:00.000-05:00

Canadians Still Have No Use For Your Damned War, George.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget is discontinuing the annual report called "Budget Information for States" - the primary federal document reporting how much states get under each federal program. In fiscal 2003, the report ran 422 pages. In 2002, it was 415 pages.

That decision must have something to do with Bush's keen mind concerning environmental policies. It'll save trees.

"He denied he had these weapons, and then he destroys things he says he never had." - White House professional lying press secretary Ari the truth stretcher Fleischer, March 3, referring to Saddam Hussein's destruction of Al Samoud missiles.

"In the missile area, Iraq has declared the development of a missile known as the Al Samoud, which uses components from an imported surface-to-air missile." - Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, Dec. 19, 2002.

Clearly Ari the truth stretcher Fleischer is accepting bribes in the form of wages for expressly lying to the American public. Can we afford to subsidize deliberate prevaricators in our public institutions?

2003-03-11T14:29:00.000-05:00
Spring is in the air. Impeachment too. Hope springs eternal. Many hope that impeachment is effective as a method of deterrence. They're testing the new improved more destructive MOAB bomb today. All and all it's not our darkest hour. There's some consolation knowing it's certainly not George W. Bush's finest hour either.

Here's a snippet from these articles of impeachment that have been drawn by University of Illinois law professor, Francis Boyle: ARTICLE I In the conduct of the office of President of the United States, George Walker Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has attempted to impose a police state and a military dictatorship upon the people and Republic of the United States of America by means of "a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations" against the Constitution since September 11, 2001. This subversive conduct includes but is not limited to trying to suspend the constitutional Writ of Habeas Corpus; ramming the totalitarian U.S.A. Patriot Act through Congress; the mass-round-up and incarceration of foreigners; kangaroo courts; depriving at least two United States citizens of their constitutional rights by means of military incarceration; interference with the constitutional right of defendants in criminal cases to lawyers; violating and subverting the Posse Comitatus Act; unlawful and unreasonable searches and seizures; violating the First Amendments rights of the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, peaceable assembly, and to petition the government for redress of grievances; packing the federal judiciary with hand-picked judges belonging to the totalitarian Federalist Society and undermining the judicial independence of the Constitution's Article III federal court system; violating the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions and the U.S. War Crimes Act; violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; reinstitution of the infamous "Cointelpro" Program; violating the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Convention against Torture, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; instituting the totalitarian Total Information Awareness Program; and establishing a totalitarian Northern Military Command for the United States of America itself. In all of this George Walker Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore George Walker Bush, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

lots more on this very critical development here

U.S. diplomat resigns over Iraq war plans

    John H. Brown, who joined the U.S. diplomatic corps in 1981 and served in London, Prague, Krakow, Kiev, Belgrade and Moscow, said in a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell made available to the media: "I cannot in good conscience support President Bush's war plans against Iraq.     "Throughout the globe the United States is becoming associated with the unjustified use of force. The president's disregard for views in other nations, borne out by his neglect of public diplomacy, is giving birth to an anti-American century," the diplomat added.

ABC asks Is Weapons Case Against Iraq Disintegrating?(ABC shall be hearing from Karl Rove about publishing this stuff about 'transparently' forged and plagiarized documents)

Does America Torture? "The men's death certificates, made public earlier this week, showed that one captive...died from 'blunt force injuries to lower extremities complicating coronary artery disease' while another ...from [a] blood clot in the lung that was exacerbated by a 'blunt force injury'." What steps are we taking in our "war on terror"? What if other countries decide to treat our civilians as "enemy combatants"? Is the Pax Americana so important that we must resort to torture, or, as is most often the case, giving up prisoners to countries that are known torturers?

posted by taumeson as commentary at Metafile

We've abandoned any semblance of decency. Bush cartel has sunk to the level of terrorists.

War opponents grill Gephardt on his Iraq vote. Dick may as well save the Democrats time and money and bow out of the primaries. He continues to show the signs of failed leadership. Even the Brits who oppose Bush's assinine ploy to take over the world beginning with Iraq have more representation from their Labor party than we have with Dick and Hillary and countless others. You're a disgrace, Gephardt. Take Hillary and Lieberman with you before the Democratic party sinks altogether to the level of their opportunist corrupt fascist warmongering opposition.

2003-03-11T00:51:00.000-05:00

    This is a very insightful observation from someone sharing my cynicism about precisely what transpired before, during, and after 9/11. A point worth pondering, as well as the one immediately following from Maureen Dowd - one of the most credible writers remaining unsilenced today.

    I too am a Viet Nam vet. There are many of us out here. Being one doesn't give me anymore right to say yea or nay to war in Iraq. Being a citizen of the U. S. forces me to do peace walks, write letters to my reps etc. and tell them to rein the idiot in the WH in! He stole the election, didn't do anything to protect the people of this country after being told by George Tenet that airlines could be hi-jacked, we should be impeaching the little bastard!
    I really liked Condi's Rice's comments after the story broke that Bush had been warned - "we thought only in terms of traditional hi-jackings, we never dreamed they would fly them into buildings." Like traditional hi-jackings are OK????? - Tin Soldier
- from thread commentary on skippy the Bush kangaroo's blog.

80 See, e.g., Katherine M. Skiba, Quick Action Against Bin Laden Called Difficult, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, Sept. 26, 2001, at p.6A (quoting former CIA Director Stansfield Turner); Holger Jensen, Attacks Beyond Bin Laden’s Power?, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS (Denver), Sept. 18, 2001, at p.4A ( quoting Armed Forces Intelligence, a British think tank journal observing very much from the start (note publishing date) that the sophistication and planning of this operation “simply could not have been directed from a cave in Afghanistan”; Richard Sisk, The Prime Suspect Is Bin Laden, DAILY NEWS (New York) Sept. 12, 2001, at p.18, quote: “Intelligence officials and terrorism experts were stunned at the sophistication and coordination involved in the series of airline hijackings and suicide crashes in downtown Manhattan and the Pentagon.”
- courtesy of this pdf document citing bibliographical credits at bottom of page 16. A U.S. Dept. of Defense publication.

    The definition of "terrorism," downloaded (ostensibly by one of Bartcop's contributors but no link provided) from the U.S. Department of Defense website:     Terrorism: The calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious or ideological.

If this is the official DofD definition of terrorism, then we're knowingly terrorizing Iraqis with a force of over one quarter million U.S. military personnel inculcating fear by overwhelming superiority of firepower, predicated solely upon Bush's express pursuit of political/religious/ideological goals (to force regime change in Iraq), while coercing other governments to approve it (with fabricated/plagiarized/non-existent evidence of WMD in Iraqi, wiretapping diplomats, and significant financial inducements and outright bribes). Thankfully, the world community is far more effective in fighting terrorism than America has proven to be under the misleadership of George W. Bush.

Find the real 9/11 'mastermind' yourself!

"We are scared of the world now, and the world is scared of us. Bush officials...want a spectacular show of American invincibility to make the wicked and the wayward think twice before crossing us. Of course, our plan to sack Saddam has not cowed the North Koreans and Iranians, who are scrambling to get nukes to cow us. It still confuses many Americans that, in a world full of vicious slimeballs, we're about to bomb one that didn't attack us on 9/11 (like Osama); that isn't intercepting our planes (like North Korea); that isn't financing Al Qaeda (like Saudi Arabia); that isn't home to Osama and his lieutenants (like Pakistan); that isn't a host body for terrorists (like Iran, Lebanon and Syria)."
- The Xanax Cowboy by Maureen Dowd, NY Times (registration required)

Visit your IRAQNAPHOBIA therapy unit

2003-03-10T05:32:00.000-05:00

Are We Losing Our Humanity? asks Orcinus. A fascinating and quite eloquent discussion of the acceptance of torture in contemporary western culture since 9/11.

2003-03-10T01:43:00.000-05:00

    The war itself, for all its terror, inflicted minor destruction compared to the U.N. sanctions imposed by the Security Council days after Iraq invaded Kuwait. An international health group estimated that "an excess of 46,900 children died between January and August, 1991," in Iraq from sanctions and the effect of the bombing, according to a report in the Sept. 24, 1992, New England Journal of Medicine. In 1995, a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report found 12 per cent of children surveyed in Baghdad wasted and 28 per cent stunted. FAO team members estimated "567,000 children had died as a consequence of economic sanctions."     When I met the minister of health, a Kurd and a medical doctor, in Baghdad on Feb. 24, 2003, he gave me the ministry's detailed report on the effects of the sanctions on the people of Iraq, through December, 2002. It stated 1,807,000 people had died in Iraq as a direct result of the sanctions since their imposition on Aug. 6, 1990. Of these 757,000 were children under the age of five." -     "Bush has sought war with Iraq throughout his presidency. He and a handful of advisers are obsessed with the desire to control Iraq and its resources, and have brought us all to the brink of disaster." - International human rights activist Ramsey Clark

Quite an effective foreign policy ... FOR BIN LADEN THAT IS. [see a quote of his below from before 9/11] HIS RECRUITMENT EFFORTS WILL SERVE AL-QUEDA LONG AFTER HE'S GONE, thanks to president lumpy pants wielding 'big stick' diplomacy. Not a single Iraqi amongst all of those al-Queda cells, and now we're expecting there won't be significant numbers after THIS happens... TWICE!!??? Good gracious, we have nuts in our White House and they're even willing to lie to the entire world AND defy the majority of U.N. Security member states PLUS well over 100 nonvoting member nations at the U.N. in order to act out their obvious psychopathology!

With all due respect, Mr. Clark... most of President clap-for-me's closest aides were chosen due to their long-time seething obsession with gleefully massacring Iraqis. It's NOT just a coincidence that they were chosen well before 9/11 and the subsequent war on terrorism, either. Most of them are associated with either big petroleum or the big weapons industry (and often both along with significant dabbling in the CIA), and 'think tanks' (which is the buzzword for lobbyists actually). Most of them are also signatories of policy papers advocating war with Iraq that predate their current roles - by several years in some cases. Wolfowicz is 'credited' with drafting the framework a decade ago (which is just about in line with the mopping up period of the first massacre).

Something totally unexpected (by George's administration) is going to occur in light of the overwhelming opposition to this preemptive unjustified unprovoked war. It's NOT merely going to be lack of consensus from the majority of voting nations on the U.N. Security Council either. Bearing in mind international law regarding conduct of war (see Geneva Conventions, 1949; amended... at least through 1977), absence of substantiated evidence adequately providing pretext for this war, and the bare fact that the only alternative these international powers have in lieu of diplomacy regarding America's belligerence in the face of such strong condemnation, don't be at all surprised to find ANOTHER resolution tabled by a MORE POWERFUL COALITION OF THE WILLING soon after the nuclear monkeys running our government have severed ties with their former U.N. Security Council peers, because when it comes right down to it... America needs to be reined in right now and it will take all of the other U.N. Security Council member states combined to do it NOW or the U.N. WILL be impotent and redundant thereafter.

If you can't beat them on the ice [meaning prevent them from a preemptive assault upon Baghdad in defiance of the fact that the U.N. weapon inspections ARE making progress in Iraq, and in defiance of the strong conscientious objections of the MAJORITY members AND in direct violation of the spirit of any of those members' vetoes (if it comes to that)]... then watch out. You beat them in the alley. With a long history of enjoying veto privileges as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, the U.S. has exercised that privilege 73 times since 1990, and those vetos were all respected by the other S.C. members every time even though the U.S. vetoed alone on the majority of occasions. If it should come to the U.S. disrespecting the veto privileges of other members this week, by launching a 'shock and awe' assault upon Iraq, there will be very serious and very unpredictable reactions from almost every quarter of the entire world including traditional and steadfast allies of many years. In fact, expect to see some very unexpected but well-intended responses to this blithering idiot's NEXT assinine step even before he makes it. Consider it preemptive diplomacy - with the gloves off!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention releases a report saying virtually every American living in the United States since 1951 has been exposed to nuclear fallout."Operation Anaconda," the largest battle in the war in Afghanistan, ends and is declared a success. Later it's learned that despite killing over 800 Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, hundreds if not thousands got away as a result of double-dealing by local warlords the Americans had hired to actually do the fighting on the ground. GNN publishes Newswire entitled, The Price of Propaganda, revealing: "Muslims who watch Al Jazeera have long known that bin Laden hates Saddam, or so he says on a videotape that his Al Qaeda organization released before 9/11."

Now here's a guy who knows Governor George W. better than half of America! (although we're optimistic about the slower ones soon coming around).

    GNN wins the 2002 Sundance Online Film Festival "Live Action" category for their NewsVideo, "Crack the CIA." Bush refers to Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the "Axis of Evil," changing the word "hate" to "evil" at the last minute. Speechwriter quits. Shortly after, CNN airs a video of Osama bin Laden in which he says, "Freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people and the West in general into an unbearable hell and a choking life."

The U.S. government IS leading the West in that general direction, Osama (may I call you Saddam bin Laden like our stupid misleader does?). Our government IS waltzing us right out of the doors of the U.N.. You must be thrilled with that prospect since division amongst us hated Western types is something you'd love to propagate. I don't suspect that George attended any of your training camps since we found he isn't up to that sort of commitment here; but, I suspect some of those former partners of yours Osama who helped you build all those lovely hate-festering training camps may very well be in George's shadow cabinet. I mean just look at the felons he's not ashamed to publically endorse in his above-ground administration, and you'll (nearly) shudder as much as the majority of Americans do now at the prospects of what his shadow government is comprised with. Terrorists such as yourself are more acquainted with these forms of reptiles than us ordinary taxpaying working folks (which is something else you and George have in common that Joe Six Packs doesn't - lots of money. Odd how that applies, really isn't it Saddam bin Laden? Well, I'm sure you're absolutely delighted with our unelected misleader's response to 9/11. Not only did the twin towers' collapse go over better than you'd ever imagined; but, the boy-idiot has surpassed your lowest estimations, Osama, and now he's invoking invisible cloud deities to provide his strength and faith on par that we've never encountered... well, since we first seen a grainy videotape of a terrorist invoking Allah's name in declaring jihad upon Western society. You've got to be thrilled with that, Osama. It's what you ruddy well hoped to do, and now when the entire world sympathizes with the plight of untold millions of defenseless Iraqis who are led by a guy you hate as much as George does, you'll be able to stir up a great deal more support for your cause than any previous terrorist with bad kidneys could ever dream of. Iraq shall be ripe for your pickings once the dust has settled.

Besides all the lost innocent working Joes and Josephines who died as a result of that attack on 9/11 that you were obviously delighted about, Osama, who would venture to estimate the vast amounts of damage your former partner's idiot-son would cause in addition to that toll. Over 300,000 more Americans started filing for unemployment last month alone. About the same numbers applying in the period shortly after the attack in 2001. You must be howling each time George gets on the television and gets applause for linking Saddam Hussein to you. Maybe if these George-adorers found out how much you hate Saddam's secular society and see it as 'corrupt' and against the true teaching of the Koran, Americans would question the motives of their lying thieving fraud in the White House. Certainly most of them are smart enough. They're just informed inadequately through the corporate media. That must tickle you too, since the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network has more integrity than all of America's mainstream media combined. We can't even depend upon our Secretary of State or President or his spokespeople to be honest any more. Hell, they're capable of even trying to submit decade old student essays to the U.N. Security council as evidence, so we've become wary of every utterance these secretive types make. Vice President Cheney even appears on camera less than you do, Osama. Do you insist that everyone applaud as a condition for speaking? If you do, then there's something else you and George have in common, besides believing the U.N. is irrelevant!

Well, I imagine you're in a rush with all of them troops chasing you about the mountains along the border of our allies Pakistan, Osama. I'm sure you're a lot safer in this war on terror than the children living in Baghdad, and you certainly are better able to defend yourself too. It's strange that George is planning on bombing all those innocent kids so far away from where you and your fellow terrorists live, isn't it? I almost slipped and called you Saddam bin Laden again... well, nearly everyone here thinks you're the same person. After awhile it all starts making sense to bomb Iraq once you hear the government's manufactured arguments repeated enough times every days. Is that a method you use too for training terrorists, ~~Saddam~~ Osama? It sure seems like you know what you're doing. I heard you were claiming that you were going to die in a blaze of glory in the heartland of your enemies. For once, I'd like George to do the right thing instead of attacking Iraq. It looks like he's going to do what you want again, though.

2003-03-10T01:33:00.000-05:00

International human rights activist and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark recalls the last Gulf War and his reasons to object to another one. Bible-thumping current Attorney General John Ashcroft might take note from Clark's experience and take more effort than he has in securing the lives of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who are facing a similarly grisly fate... while sparing America the likely outcome of increasing domestic terrorist attacks in the aftermath of this preemptive war, and ultimately Ashcroft may even save his own soul from what his devout faith describes for it in the hereafter.

2003-03-09T23:06:00.000-05:00

    It is a long-standing tradition of 'free press' reporting to ignore Western crimes while focusing with great intensity on the crimes of whoever happens to be our latest enemy. As a result, the public is sold, as Gore Vidal notes, "the image of America the beauteous on its hill, envied by all and subject to attacks by terrorists who cannot bear so much sheer goodness to triumph in a world that belongs to their master, the son of morning himself, Satan". - Gore Vidal, quoted from Why America? - William Blum, the Ecologist, Dec 2001/Jan 2002     The maintenance of this deception allows hideous crimes to occur behind the scenes well away from public attention. Our media, our 'free press', plays a central role in making these crimes possible. Journalists would do well to remember the judgement of German media man, Julius Streicher, at Nuremberg:     "It may be that this defendant is less directly involved in the physical commission of crimes against Jews. The submission of the prosecution is that his crime is no less the worse for that reason. No government in the world... could have embarked upon and put into effect a policy of mass extermination without having a people who would back them and support them. ...[T]hese crimes... could never have happened had it not been for him and for those like him."
- Conot, Robert E, Justice At Nuremberg, Carrol & Graf, 1983, NY, pp.384-385, citing International Military Tribunal, Trial of the Major War Criminals; the published transcript of the trial, Vol 5, p 118 ... and in totally related news:the Media Ignores the Mass Death of Civilians in Afghanistan

    ... and on a lighter note, this from one year ago this past January: Human Rights Watch charges Enron subsidiaries with paying local law enforcement to suppress opposition to its fuel-starved idle multi-million dollar power plant south of Bombay, India [which awaits the new pipeline's construction in Afghanistan now that the "war that's about terrorism and not oil" is focusing upon the world's second largest proven reserve of the stuff in Iraq. Enron bribed local police to take some time on their beat to flail protestors, including the beating of pregnant women with batons.

    Why does Enron hate America so much? I mean law enforcement wielded batons and made arrests of participants in the women's groups who marched against war this past weekend across America commemorating International Women's Week, too. Of course, everyone realizes surely by now that Kenny Boy Lay, Fastrow and other Enron executives and board members/shareholders made a fortune fraudulently and used some of their ill-gotten proceeds to support the inexperienced unqualified poopy pants who was already out of his league governing Texas. While Enron limited their graft payments to local constabulary in India, they hate America so much that they personally funded the GOP's legal efforts in overturning the rights of Florida voters in having a full recount of their votes as is afforded expressly by their state law and is the sole jurisdiction and authority of the Florida Supreme Court! I wonder what induced those federal Supreme Court justices in even hearing this controversial case. The U.S. Supreme Court's hearing wasn't even required by law, and it certainly determined a different outcome than one would have if the state of Florida undertook a full recount of all of the legitimate completed ballots. One of Enron's board members is even living in a freshly-built mansion in Florida now which is worth more than eight million bucks - AND he's top brass with the military and called the shots for the Operation Enduring Dope campaign in Afghanistan! Why does Enron hate America this much?

2002: GNN Year in Review

“I think we could have an explosion in the Middle East. It could turn the whole region into a cauldron and destroy the War on Terror.” - Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser, Bush Sr.

IRAQNAPHOBIA INNOCULATION CENTER

2003-03-09T05:13:00.000-05:00

No Party for Wall St. Bubble Anniversary For Dow Jones and the Empire of Doom

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Monday marks the third anniversary of the biggest party ever hosted by Wall Street, but investors will pass the day with gloom - and a sizable dose of bitterness - as the countdown to war and the erosion of the market continue. The technology-stuffed Nasdaq composite index IXIC soared as high as 5,132.52 on March 10, 2000 - hitting a level never seen in its roughly 30-year history and not likely to be witnessed again any time soon. Sentiment took a 180-degree turn the following three years, and next week will highlight the startling shift in mood as the deadline for a war on Iraq looms, the hunt for terror suspects intensifies and economic data paint a dreary picture.

Happy Anniversary, Mister President poopy pants. I suppose he'll be holed up at his Crawford ranch for the celebrations where he likely was on the date of the Wall Street Bubble Party. Oh well, at least Governor poopy pants won't be in Crawford all month like he was before that other anniversary that comes on September 11th.