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Slick Connections: U.S. Influence on Iraqi Oil Erik Leaver and Greg Muttitt Foreign Policy In Focus, July 17, 2007 "The oil belongs to the Iraqi people. It's their asset," declared President George W. Bush in a press conference on the White House lawn in June 2006. He had just returned from a surprise visit to Baghdad, in which oil had been one of the main subjects of discussion.
"We talked about how to advise the government to best use that money for the benefit of the people," he clarified.
But by January 2007, the euphemism of "advice" had been dropped, as passage of an oil law became a "benchmark," an instruction to the Iraqi government.
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Violating the very notions of freedom and democracy Bush invokes in nearly every speech on Iraq, the U.S. government has actively intervened in the restructuring of Iraq's oil industry since at least 2002.
At different times, the Iraqi government has been threatened that passing the oil law was a pre-condition for partial reduction of Saddam Hussein's debts, for the provision of reconstruction funds, and even for the continued survival (through U.S. military support) of the al-Maliki government itself.
The issues could hardly be more important for Iraq.
Oil accounts for more than 90% of government revenue, and is the main driver of Iraq's economy.
And decisions made in the coming months will not be reversible—once contracts are signed, they will have a major bearing on Iraq's economy and politics for decades to come.
No wonder polls have shown that roughly 75% of Iraqis think one of the main reasons why the United States invaded Iraq was "to control Iraqi oil."1
Attempting to reverse this perception and change U.S. policy, lawmakers passed legislation stating that the United States should not exert "control over any oil resource of Iraq."
But contradicting this sentiment, the Congress also passed a law that required reporting on a set of U.S. imposed benchmarks, which included language for the Iraqi parliament to pass " legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources."
The administration has used this benchmark to push a law that has almost nothing to do with revenue distribution among Iraq's sectarian groups, and everything to do with creating highly profitable opportunities for multinational oil corporations. 2
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Under pressure from the U.S. government, the Iraqi cabinet has endorsed the controversial oil law, which now awaits approval in the Parliament.
Yet among Iraqis, the law faces extensive opposition, including from two of the law's three original authors—as well as more than 100 of Iraq's most senior oil experts, the powerful oil unions, and other religious and secular civil society organizations.
Ironically, the law deemed to be needed to bring the country together, instead has the potential to violently rip it apart.
Oil Pressure: A History of U.S. Involvement in Iraq's Oil Development
Feb.-March 2001: White House Energy Taskforce produces a list of "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts." 3
December 2002-April 2003: U.S. State Department Oil and Energy Working Group brought together influential Iraqi exiles, U.S. government officials, and international consultants.
The result of the project's work was a "draft framework for Iraq's oil policy" that would form the foundation for the energy policy now being considered by the Iraqi Parliament.
The final report noted that Iraq "should be opened to international oil companies as quickly as possible after the war. 4
Later, several Iraqi members of the group became part of the Iraqi government.
The Group included future Iraqi Oil Minister, Bahr al-Uloum.
January 2003: The Wall Street Journal reported that representatives from Exxon Mobil Corp., ChevronTexaco Corp., ConocoPhillips, and Halliburton, among others, were meeting with Vice President Cheney's staff to plan the post-war revival of Iraq's oil industry.5
January 2003: Phillip Carroll, a former chief executive with Royal Dutch-Shell, and a 15-member "board of advisers" were appointed to oversee Iraq's oil industry during the transition period.
According to the Guardian, the group's chief executive would represent Iraq at meetings of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). 6
Carroll had been working with the Pentagon for months before the invasion—even while the administration was still insisting that it sought a peaceful resolution to the Iraq crisis—"developing contingency plans for Iraq's oil sector in the event of war."
Carroll, in addition to running Shell Oil in the United States, was a former CEO of the Fluor Corporation, a well-connected oil services firm with extensive projects in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and at least $1.6 billion in contracts for Iraq's reconstruction.
One month after the invasion, Carroll took control of Iraq's oil production for the U.S. Government. He was joined by Gary Vogler, a former executive with ExxonMobil, in Iraq's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
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Mr. Carroll made it clear to Paul Bremer, the U.S. occupation chief who arrived in Iraq in May 2003, that, "There was to be no privatization of Iraqi oil resources or facilities while he was involved." 7
Carroll leaves his job seven months later.
March 2003: Iraqi Oil Ministry was one of the few structures the invading forces protected from looters in the first days of the war.
April 2003: During the initial assault on Baghdad, soldiers set up forward bases named Camp Shell and Camp Exxon. 8
April 2003: President Bush called for UN sanctions against Iraq to be dropped.
The request sounds innocuous enough, but it masks an urgent U.S. desire for a free hand to start pumping Iraqi crude once again to raise funds for rebuilding the country. 9
April 2003: USAID Solicits Bid to Draft Economic Reorganization Plan for Iraq. The U.S. Agency for International Development asks BearingPoint, Inc to bid on a sole-sourced contract for "economic governance" work in Iraq.
The contract document was written by Treasury Department officials and reviewed by financial consultants.
The confidential 100-page request, titled "Moving The Iraqi Economy From Recovery to Sustainable Growth," states that the contractor will help support "private sector involvement in strategic sectors, including privatization, asset sales, concessions, leases, and management contracts, especially in the oil and supporting industries." 10
May 22, 2003: UN Security Council passed a resolution ending sanctions on Iraq.
Significantly, the resolution gave the United States decision making power over how the oil funds would be used with regard to relief, reconstruction, disarmament, and "other purposes benefiting the people of Iraq." 11
May 22, 2003: President Bush signed Executive Order 13303 providing full legal immunity to all U.S. oil companies doing business in Iraq in order to facilitate the country's "orderly reconstruction."
June 22, 2003: Iraq ships crude oil for the first time since the start of the war.
Head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Paul Bremer, broached the politically sensitive issue of how oil revenue should be spent, proposing that some of the money be shared with Iraqis through a system of dividend payments or a national trust fund to finance public pensions.
"Iraq's resources cannot be restricted to a lucky or powerful few," Bremer said.
"Iraq's natural resources should be shared by all Iraqis." 12
July 2003: Bremer appoints the members of the Iraqi Government Council. Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, a member of the State Department's energy working group, is tapped as Iraq's oil minister.
Al-Uloum soon proposed a privatization program, and endorsed production sharing agreements as the route to that goal. 13
October 2003: Carroll was replaced by Robert McKee, a former ConocoPhillips executive.
According to the Houston Chronicle, "His selection as the Bush administration's energy czar in Iraq" drew fire from Congressional Democrats "because of his ties to the prime contractor in the Iraqi oil fields, Houston-based Halliburton Co.
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He's the chairman of a venture partitioned by the ... firm." 14
The administration selected ChevronTexaco Vice President Norm Szydlowski to serve as a liaison between the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Oil Ministry.
Now the CEO of the appropriately named Colonial Pipeline Company, Szydlowski continued to work with the Iraq Energy Roundtable, a project of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, which sponsored meetings to "bring together oil and gas sector leaders in the United States with key decision makers from the Iraq Ministry of Oil." 15
Terry Adams and Bob Morgan of BP, and Mike Stinson of ConocoPhillips would also serve as advisers during the transition. 16
November 2003: McKee quietly ordered a new plan for Iraq's oil.
The drafting would be overseen by a "senior adviser," Amy Jaffe, who had worked for Morse when he was the Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. Jaffe now works for James Baker, the former Secretary of State, whose law firm serves as counsel to both ExxonMobil and the defense minister of Saudi Arabia.
The plan, written by State Department contractor BearingPoint, was guided, says Jaffe, by a handful of oil -industry consultants and executives. 17
December 19, 2003: BearingPoint releases "Options for Developing a Long Term Sustainable Iraqi Oil Industry," a report on the Iraqi oil industry favoring foreign participation as the most efficient way of developing the sector. 18
March 2004: CPA names new Iraq Oil Advisers: Mike Stinson of ConocoPhillips and Bob Morgan of BP. 19
March 2004: Iraq's interim constitution, the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) passed in March 2004 by Iraq's Governing Council, sets forth that CPA laws, regulations, and orders are to remain in force after the transfer of sovereignty unless a duly enacted piece of legislation rescinds or amends them. 20
June 2004: U.S. handover to the Iraq Interim Government. Mike Stinson becomes an adviser to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.21 Thamir al-Ghadban is named as Iraqi Oil Minister.
November 2004: International oil companies launched voluntary efforts to train Iraq's oil workers and provide technical assistance, hoping to generate goodwill and eventually get access to the country's huge oil reserves.
Companies from the United States, Britain, and Russia—including ChevronTexaco Corp., BP, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Lukoil—are paying to send Iraqi oil workers out of the country to teach them the latest techniques in developing and managing oil fields. 22
December 22, 2004: Iraqi Finance Minister Mahdi, in a joint press conference with U.S. Undersecretary of State Alan Larson at the National Press Club, announced Iraq's plans for a new petroleum law to open the oil sector to foreign private investment.
Mahdi explained, "So I think this is very promising to the American investors and to American enterprise, certainly to oil companies." 23
Early 2005: New Government, old oil minister, al-Uloum reappointed to position of Minister for Oil. Ahmed Chalabi, head of the U.S.-backed Iraqi National Congress, was appointed chair of the Energy Council.
In 2002, Chalabi said, "U.S. companies will have a big shot at Iraqi oil." 24
May 2005: Approximately 30 international oil companies signed Memoranda of Understanding with Iraq, generally for the training of Iraqi staff, consulting work, and studies. 25
August 30, 2005: Bush says U.S. troops would continue fighting in Iraq in order to protect the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists. 26
October 15 2005: The national referendum for the Iraqi constitution passes, containing an outline for oil revenue sharing and development.
December 2005: Iraq enters into agreement with the International Monetary Fund committing Iraq to draft a new petroleum law by the end of 2006 to allow foreign investment in the country's oil industry.
The arrangement was signed before the new Iraqi government had been appointed and one week after the December 2005 elections thus denying Iraqi voters a chance to react through the ballot box.
February 2006-June 2006: USAID contracts with BearingPoint to draft Iraq's oil law to provide "legal and regulatory advice in drafting the framework of petroleum and other energy-related legislation, including foreign investment." 27
March 15, 2006: Gen. John Abizaid, the Army general overseeing U.S. military operations in Iraq, said the United States may want to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq to bolster moderates against extremists in the region and protect the flow of oil. 28
May 2006: Iraq's new oil minister, Hussein al-Sharistani, began drafting legislation to govern Iraq's oil sector.
Following his appointment, Shahristani announced that one of his top priorities would be to pass a law allowing privatization through parliament by the end of 2006.
July 2006: U.S. Government and oil companies get a copy of the draft oil law. 29
September 2006: International Monetary Fund and World Bank receive a copy of draft oil law. 30
October 17, 2006: President Bush signs the 2007 Defense Authorization Act (PL No: 109-364) which states in SEC. 1519, "No funds ... in this Act may be obligated or expended ... to exercise United States economic control of the oil resources of Iraq.
February 2007: U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, "has been in intense talks with Kurdish leaders in the north to overcome their objections to the draft.
Iraqi officials say Mr. Khalilzad's negotiations were crucial to winning unanimous cabinet approval." 31
February 18, 2007: "Draft Hydrocarbon Law" was submitted to the Iraqi Cabinet (Council of Ministers). 32
February 26, 2007: "Draft Hydrocarbon Law" was passed by the Iraqi Cabinet and was submitted to the Iraqi Parliament (Council of Representatives). 33
April 19, 2007: Defense Secretary Robert Gates travels to Baghdad to push political benchmarks and specifically the oil law. 34
May 9 2007: U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney travels to Baghdad to push political benchmarks and specifically the oil law. 35
June 12, 2007: U.S. Admiral Fallon, head of the Central Command, warned Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in a closed-door conversation to pass the oil law by July. 36
July 3, 2007: Iraq cabinet approves amended oil law draft and resubmits to the Iraqi Parliament. 37
July 12, 2007: The White House released its Initial Benchmark Assessment Report. Benchmark #3, "Enacting and implementing legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources" is found to be not met.
The report notes, "The effect of limited progress toward this benchmark has been to reduce the perceived confidence in, and effectiveness of, the Iraqi Government.
This does not, however, necessitate a revision to our current plan and strategy, under which we have assigned a high priority to this subject, and the process overall has continued to move forward." 38
For Endnotes and FPIF website, click here |
| I have no doubt whatsoever that the condition for children today is much worse
Focus on Iraq is not on the lives of Iraqis living day in, day out, with deprivation, with lack of food, with lack of medical supplies.
No! It is to give the occupation military a paycheck!
No! It is to give the puppet government a paycheck
No! It is to allow the puppet government to fly out of the country, and stay out, whenever they desire.
No! It is to allow the criminals in Washington, Democrat and Republican, who voted, and continue to vote for this genocide of a people, to survive in office.
TheWE.biz |
Conditions for Iraqi children worsen sharply: UNICEF
AFP
July 17, 2007
GENEVA (AFP) - Conditions for children in Iraq have deteriorated sharply in recent years as their humanitarian plight has fallen largely into neglect, a senior UNICEF official said Monday.
"I have no doubt whatsoever that the condition today is much worse," Dan Toole, acting deputy executive director of the UN Children's Fund, told journalists after being asked for a comparison with the situation under Saddam Hussein's regime.
"Children who have had to flee Iraq — and millions have fled — are much worse off than a year ago and they certainly are much worse off than they were three years ago," he added.
Toole said there were signs that the health and nutrition for Iraqi children was "changing for the worst", despite recently released two-year-old indicators that had shown signs of an improvement.
UNICEF said the information gleaned from people leaving Iraq, and from the agency's "quite limited" access within the country, indicated that the number of female-headed households has increased "dramatically" because mostly men have been killed in the violence there.
"Many of those women are too frightened to bring their children to health clinics, many are too frightened to send their children to school," he added
Only two-thirds of Iraqis have access to clean water, according to UNICEF.
"My concern is that the focus on Iraq is on the political situation, the security situation, it is not on the lives of Iraqis living day in, day out, with deprivation, with lack of food, with lack of medical supplies," he said.
"That says something about the attention of the world, the attention of our leaders," Toole added, urging a greater focus on the impact on children.
UNICEF says its aid programmes for children in Iraq have only received about one-third of the funding they need.
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Published on Monday, May 21, 2007 by Working For Change
Driving Triangulation “Over the Dead Bodies” of the Progressive Movement
by David Sirota
The term “triangulation” in politics means a set of leaders trying joining with their opponents to pass measures that run counter to those leaders’ own supporters.
Typically, triangulation is practiced by presidents against their own parties in Congress, with the master of triangulation being President Bill Clinton who, among other things, rammed welfare reform and NAFTA “over the dead bodies” of rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers and the progressive movement.
Can congressional leaders can pull the same move?
Unfortunately, we’re going to find out very soon, as congressional Democratic leaders are very clearly attempting to triangulate against their own party on the three issues the party ran on to win Election 2006.
TRADE — TRIANGULATING WITH A SECRET DEAL IN PURSUIT OF WALL STREET CASH
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On trade, Public Citizen has shown that the Democratic Party relied on candidates who ran against lobbyist-written trade deals in order to win many of the crucial conservative-leaning districts that were necessary to win the congressional majority.
Yet, as we’ve seen over the last week, a handful of senior Democratic leaders are joining with the Bush White House in an attempt to ram an ultra-secret free trade deal through Congress, acknowledging that in order to be successful, they will rely on all Republicans and just 25 percent of Democratic lawmakers.
Would have tried to negotiate the deal in even more secrecy
As rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers and organizations representing millions of workers, farmers and small businesses have raised objections to the deal, Reuters reports today that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is digging in, saying that if he knew what he knew now about how serious rank-and-file Democratic opposition to lobbyist-written trade policy was, he would have tried to negotiate the deal in even more secrecy than it was negotiated in in the first place.
On Bill Moyers’ terrific PBS report on Friday about the secret deal, author John R. MacArthur says the motivations for the triangulation on trade are obvious.
“This is like the NAFTA campaign of the ’90s, an attempt by the Democratic leadership — in those days it was the Clintons — to raise money from Wall Street.”
You can watch Bill Moyers’ entire piece on the secret deal here.
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Attacking Democrats raising questions about the deal
This drive to triangulate on trade has now reached a point where the handful of Democrats who made the deal are publicly attacking those rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers, labor, environmental, health, human rights, religious, consumer protection and agricultural groups raising questions about the deal.
On Friday, Reuters reported that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) “offered no apology” for negotiating the deal in secret or for continuing to conceal the legislative text of the deal.
People wasting my time
Instead, he went on the attack, saying the only thing he would do differently would be to “ignore a lot of people that really were just wasting my time.”
He claimed innocently that “I cannot see how anybody would be upset” by the deal, even though as Public Citizen shows today, the list of reforms to current trade policies that fair trade groups forwarded to Democratic leaders many months ago was almost entirely brushed aside by Rangel, as were proposals for a whole new framework for global trade deals.
TRIANGULATION STRATEGY: The dynamics set up a situation whereby the Democratic congressional leadership and less than half of all Democratic lawmakers (as during NAFTA) join with all Republicans to ram a free trade package through Congress over the objections of the progressive movement and rank-and-file Democrats who ran against lobbyist-written trade policies in 2006.
LOBBYING — TRIANGULATING TO PERPETUATE THE CULTURE OF CORRUPTION
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Most observers agree that outrage at the Republican’s corruption scandals and Democrats promise to clean up the “culture of corruption” helped Democrats win in 2006.
Yet, late last week, The Politico reported that Democrats on the House Judiciary committee yesterday “scrapped a beefed-up provision of the Lobbying Reform Bill that would have prohibited former lawmakers and senior staff from lobbying their former colleagues during their first two years out of office.”
The original bill would have extended the revolving door ban from one to two years, but the amendment eliminating that provision passed by a unanimous voice vote.
AP reports that “several days of backroom deal-making where some of the toughest proposed reforms were left on the cutting-room floor.”
The shenanigans come just as freshman Democrats announced their demands for a much stronger anti-corruption bill.
TRIANGULATION STRATEGY: The dynamics set up a situation whereby the Democratic congressional leadership would join with all Republicans to ram a sham lobbying “reform” bill through Congress potentially over the objections of many of rank-and-file Democrats and the progressive movement.
IRAQ — POTENTIAL TRIANGULATION TO KEEP THE WAR GOING
Finally, Iraq — the big issue that helped Democrats win in 2006.
The Associated Press reports that congressional Democratic leaders may be backing away from using their power to oppose the war, floating the possibility of an Iraq War supplemental bill that “would allow the president to waive compliance with a deadline for troop withdrawals.”
The New York Times says that the “likelihood that any final agreement will specify no withdrawal date for American troops from Iraq raised the possibility that antiwar Democrats will not support it, particularly in the House, and that the measure will need substantial Republican support to pass.”
TRIANGULATION STRATEGY: The dynamics set up a situation whereby the Democratic congressional leadership would join with all Republicans to ram a blank check Iraq spending bill through Congress potentially over the objections of many of rank-and-file Democrats and the progressive movement.
To read complete article including links to many references not included in above: click here |
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US politics playing with Iraqi blood
Columns: Nicola Nasser
Birzeit (West Bank), April 07, 2007 ... Similarly both electoral rivals want a US long-term military "presence" in Iraq. The White House certainly isn't expecting to maintain 1,60,000 troops in Iraq indefinitely, but it is planning a long-term occupation anchored in what the Pentagon has described as "enduring bases" and continues to construct these huge, imposing bases. Democrats too are on record as saying they want a long-term similar presence. The March 27 Senate resolution provides for a "limited number" of troops after the pullout date, which would be devoted to training and to "targeted counter terrorism operations". Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden had this to say:
"I think we're going to be left with the reality of something the size of a brigade, somewhere in the region, to make sure that the terrorists cannot occupy territory."
Biden says the "least important part" of the Iraq spending bill that recently cleared the US House and Senate is its target date for withdrawal of troops.
More importantly:
"...it redefines the mission of our troops from fighting in the midst of a civil war to doing what is rational for them to do, which is to continue to train Iraqi Army, to deny Al-Qaeda occupation of swaths of territory... and three for so-called source protection -- protecting our own forces."
Hillary Clinton
Another presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton, who voted for the Iraq war resolution in October 2002, said she would retain a significant residual occupying force in Iraq to "contain the extremists", "help the Kurds manage their various problems in the north", "provide logistical support, air support, training support" to the Iraqi government, and to carry out larger geopolitical responsibilities like trying "to prevent Iran from crossing the border and having too much influence inside of Iraq".
According to John B Judis, senior editor at The New Republic journal, former Pentagon comptroller Dov Zakheim, who has developed a strikingly similar plan, estimates that 75,000 American troops would be needed to carry out his plan.
That's about half of the current force stationed in Iraq.
Chomsky — the issue has always been US control
Democrats, Republicans or whoever regardless, to quote Noam Chomsky in an interview earlier this year:
"the point in the Middle East… is that this is center of the world's energy resources.
Originally the British and secondarily the French had dominated it, but after the Second World War, it's been a US preserve.
That's been an axiom of US foreign policy, that it must control Middle East energy resources.
It is not a matter of access, as people often say.
Once the oil is on the seas it goes anywhere.
In fact if the United States used no Middle East oil, it'd have the same policies.
If we went on solar energy tomorrow, it'd keep the same policies.
Just look at the internal record, or the logic of it, the issue has always been control.
Control is the source of strategic power."
Bush
Bush remains delusional.
He insists that he'll keep US forces in Iraq until they achieve "victory".
Democrats challenge him to achieve the same "victory" differently!
What does that mean?
Pelosi
Anti-war protesters in Washington and outside Pelosi's home in San Francisco were denouncing her and other congressional Democrats for not cutting off the money to fight the war in Iraq.
If the war in Iraq is such an unnecessary and futile expenditure of blood and treasure as Pelosi and other Democrats have been saying, why not put an end to it?
Against the war without taking responsibility for ending it
Their congressional resolutions put them on record as being against the war without taking the responsibility for ending it, they said.
A successful conclusion of Bush's new strategy in Iraq war before the 2008 elections can be a political disaster for Democrats; his failure can doom Republican electoral prospects.
Many American analysts expect the civil war in Iraq to seriously shape the US presidential election next year.
Both Democratic and the Republican approaches simply seek to leave it to the Iraqis to fight it out among themselves, which will inevitably exacerbate "that" civil war:
For Americans it is the usual political power struggle.
For Arabs it is playing American politics with Iraq blood for oil.
Arab journalist Nicola Nasser is based in Birzeit, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and has dedicated readership in Kuwait, Jordan, UAE and Palestine. |
The United States will stand with Israel now and forever.
Now and forever.
29 July 2007
Israel hails US military aid rise
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has confirmed that the United States is planning a significant increase in military and government aid to Israel.
The package would amount to more than US $30bn increase.
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Crude Designs — Iraq's Oil Wealth Glowing White House fantasies |
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Sacrificing another nation's people.
— For Oil |
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Sacrificing another nation's people.
— For Oil |
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You are an accomplice. Daniel Burns — St Patrick Four |
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These People Frighten Me
— Mike Gravel |
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May 2, 2007 The Candor of Mike Gravel
By Margaret Kimberly
"These People Frighten Me"
D uring the first Democratic presidential debate a little known candidate, former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, ended up with one of the most memorable lines of the evening:
"And I got to tell you, after standing up with them, some of these people frighten me — they frighten me.
When you have mainline candidates that turn around and say that there's nothing off the table with respect to Iran, that's code for using nukes, nuclear devices.
"I got to tell you, I'm president of the United States, there will be no preemptive wars with nuclear devices.
To my mind, it's immoral, and it's been immoral for the last 50 years as part of American foreign policy."
Of the eight candidates on that stage in South Carolina, only Gravel and Congressman Dennis Kucinich will say that there is no reason for the American people to incinerate the Iranian people with nuclear weapons.
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When Senator Barack Obama repeated the lie that Iran is on the verge of attaining nuclear capability only Kucinich would call him out. He politely said that Obama's assertions were in dispute.
Obama: I think it would be a profound mistake for us to initiate a war with Iran.
But, have no doubt, Iran possessing nuclear weapons will be a major threat to us and to the region.
Kucinich: (OFF-MIKE)
Obama: I understand that, but they're in the process of developing it.
And I don't think that's disputed by any expert.
They are the largest state sponsor of terrorism...
Kucinich: It is disputed by...
Obama: ... Hezbollah and Hamas.
Kucinich: It is disputed.
Obama: And there is no contradiction, Dennis, between...
Kucinich: It is disputed.
Obama: Let me finish.
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Comforts child as her house is being searched.
— So the US can take Iraq's Oil |
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"The military industrial complex not only controls our government, lock, stock and barrel, but they control our culture."
Kucinich would have been correct if he had called Obama a liar.
Gravel is right, most of the Democrats are very frightening indeed.
This debate was a very sad foreshadowing of what is to come before Election Day in November 2008.
The corporate media will play a dominant role in choosing the nominee, by sponsoring debates, and by framing the way candidates are seen by the public.
The sponsor of this debate, MSNBC, is a subsidiary of General Electric, a defense contractor.
Gravel said it best when he answered a ridiculous question about America's need to label other countries as enemies.
"The military industrial complex not only controls our government, lock, stock and barrel, but they control our culture." They also control presidential debates.
The candidates are not just scary, they are gutless.
Moderator Brian Williams asked for comments on Rudy Giuliani's statement that only Republicans will keep the country safe.
No one gave the most obvious answer.
The terror attacks on 9/11 happened on the Republican's watch.
George W. Bush presided over the killing of 3,000 Americans and never demanded resignations from his cabinet and prevented any meaningful investigation from taking place.
Now his approval rating is a dismal 28% but you wouldn't know it from the frightening and frightened Democrats.
None of the other candidates support Kucinich's effort to impeach Vice President Cheney.
Impeachment is the only way to prevent further wars of aggression and it is the only way to expose the lies and manipulations of the Bush administration.
Impeachment is the only way to stop further erosions of civil liberties.
It is the only way to discredit Republicans enough to insure a Democratic victory in 2008.
Kucinich has a hard row to hoe.
There is ample evidence that there are grounds to impeach Cheney on the charges Kucinich has outlined in his articles of impeachment, namely that he manipulated the intelligence to make the case for invading Iraq.
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Candidates most flush with campaign cash most likely to bring little or no change
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that impeachment is "off the table."
Her explanations for eschewing impeachment are nonsensical.
"And frankly, for impeachment, George W. Bush is just not worth it.
We have great work to do for the American people."
Pelosi was not on the debate stage, but she represents everything that makes the rest of them so scary.
Democratic fund raising success is a sign that the high and mighty have concluded that the party's time has come.
Yet skepticism is always in order.
If anyone can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, it is the Democratic party.
If the Democrats do win, what will they do with victory?
Unless Dennis Kucinich [Or Mike Gravel] becomes president we have no reason to believe that much change is in the offing.
We may have universal health care, but it will subsidize health insurance companies.
American troops will still be in Iraq and the Patriot Act will still be on the books.
Bush will be gone but Bushism will still be with us.
That is the truly frightening thing about the Democrats.
The candidates who are flush with campaign cash and press attention are the most likely to bring little or no change to American politics.
In November 2008, it seems that Democrats will lose, no matter what. |
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| New World Order Statistics of Human Misery of Soldiers and Military that fight for the 'Order' ('The West' and their lackey's Warfare) Excluding Somalia and various other secret engagements | |
| icasualties.org Of the 2,959 coalition deaths in Afghanistan: 1,936 have been American One Albania 32 Australia One Belgium 158 Canada Five Czech 42 Denmark Nine Estonia Two Finland 82 France Ten Georgia 53 Germany Seven Hungary 46 Italy Two Jordan Three Latvia One Lithuania 25 Netherlands 10 Unidentified as to country NATO Six New Zealand 10 Norway 35 Poland Two Portugal 19 Romania One South Korea 34 Spain Five Sweden 14 Turkey 408 UK | To April 15, 2012 These figures are 'Battle deaths' and do not include deaths that take place as early as two or three weeks outside the Afghanistan war zones when seriously injured troops are shipped to their home country, or in the situation with the US military to some hospital on a military base in another country. These figures do not include suicide of soldiers who have returned home, or the killing and injuring of loved ones and others outside the family, by soldiers with mental impairment who have returned home. At least 15,322. personnel have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. |
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U.S. & Coalition/Casualties in Afghanistan occupation | |
| Of the 4,804 coalition deaths in Iraq: 4,486 have been Americans Two Australia One Azerbaijan Thirteen Bulgaria One Czech Republic Seven Denmark 5 El Salvador Two Estonia One Fiji Five Georgia One Hungary 33 Italy One Kazakhstan Three Latvia Two Netherlands 23 Poland Three Romania Four Slovakia One South Korea 11 Spain Two Thailand Eighteen Ukraine 179 UK | To April 15, 2012 These figures are 'Battle deaths' and do not include deaths that take place outside Iraq war zones, as early as two or three weeks, after seriously injured troops are shipped to their home country, or in the situation with the US military to some hospital on a military base in another country. — other coalition deaths are estimated at up to 10,000 deaths including contract people brought into Iraq by coalition forces. These figures do not include suicide of soldiers who have returned home, or the killing and injuring of loved ones and others outside the family, by soldiers with mental impairment who have returned home. At least 32,223 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. |
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U.S. & Coalition/Casualties in Iraq occupation | |
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Shoe Thrower — the Story of My Shoe Mass death returns to Ishaqi THE SCIENCE OF EVIL
ITS USE FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES |
"No Mercy": Annals of the Afghan Liberation
Chris Floyd, Empire Burlesque
Britain's arch-conservative Sunday Telegraph continues to be a source of some of the most revealing reports about George W. Bush's "War on Terror."
May 1, 2007
In its unquenchably pro-war pages, where the news section is just as skewed as the reliably rabid editorials, the ST regularly — albeit inadvertently — gives us a glimpse of the true face of the Terror War behind the painted masks of piety worn in Washington and London.
We highlighted an example of this a few months ago, when the paper ran what was meant to be a panting, gushing paean to a super-duper Anglo-American unit in Iraq — and unwittingly revealed the criminal heart of a very dirty "dirty war" being run by the Bush-Blair coalition in the conquered land.
(See Ulster on the Euphrates.)
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Whose ultimate aim is nothing more than the aggrandizement of a predatory elite
Now the ST has struck again, with another rah-rah piece that peels back some of the drapery obscuring the grisly realities of the "good war" in Afghanistan: US Aircrews Show Taliban No Mercy.
The Tory story's political intent is two-fold: to portray the Blair government as a bunch of wussies in its prosecution of the Afghan war, and to exalt the Bush way of dealing with the dusky races, so redolent of the much-lamented Empire in its prime.
But the piece goes beyond the interesting interplay of politics and journalism to a much darker, deeper truth: the degradation of the human spirit in war.
This is true in every conflict, of course, even the most limited and justified; but in unending campaigns of conquest and domination like the Terror War, whose ultimate aim is nothing more than the aggrandizement of a predatory elite, the brutalization and coarsening of the forces involved is all the greater.
And we can see that in this Telegraph story, which is meant to show American soldiers at their strutting, manly best, but is instead a sad indictment of the Bush Imperium's all-pervading moral rot.
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The burden of the piece is this: British forces in the hotly disputed Helmand province were not "ruthless enough in finishing off their targets" when going after the Taliban.
They too often refrained from instant, massive retaliation in fear of killing civilians.
But now the Americans have come down to show them how it's done, with the "uncompromising use of air power" and orders to "show no mercy" against suspected Taliban fighters.
The centerpiece of the story is an attack by Apache helicopter gunships on a boatload of men crossing a Helmand river.
Even though the copter crew "didn't have hostile intent or a positive ID from the ground commander," Special Ops told them "that although they could not themselves see the men on the boat, they must be the Taliban who had [earlier] attacked them."
And so the Apaches swung in low and opened up with 30mm cannons on the Afghans, who had by this time scrambled to shore.
You just see a big dust cloud where the person used to be
1st Lt. Jack Denton, 26, described it for the Telegraph:
"You can see the person but you can't see the features of his face.
The 30mm explode when they hit and kick up smoke and dust.
You just see a big dust cloud where the person used to be."
One particular dust cloud caught Lt. Denton's attention:
Soul-less men with glazed-over eyes
PPS: Another contractor just called me — I guess my 15 minutes of fame isn't quite over yet — and this one started telling me some really scary stories about a mysterious place called "Area 51" where trained-killer special-ops forces hunker down in between "jobs".
And he REALLY scared me as he described soul-less men with glazed-over eyes who lived like those hordes of evil bad guys from The Lord of the Rings — just waiting to be let out of their cages.
[The above left over from an earlier piece — decided to leave it in — Kewe TheWE.biz
The attack was "typical of a new, aggressive, approach adopted by American forces in southern Afghanistan and particularly in Helmand," said the ST.
"Aircrews say they have been told to show no mercy, but to press home their advantage until all their targets have been destroyed."
For a moment, the ST reporter, Gethin Chamberlain, makes a brief feint in the direction of actual journalism, by bringing up a slight caveat about the "no mercy" missions:
The attack, and four other missions against suspected Taliban compounds, are clearly effective, but the stakes are high.
Coalition attacks on mistakenly identified targets here, as in Iraq, have left dozens of civilians dead and wounded and can act as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists. |
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"No Mercy": Annals of the Afghan Liberation
Chris Floyd, Empire Burlesque
Deliberately muddled syntax that leaves the impression that only some few "dozens" of civilians have been killed by Anglo-American air attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq, when in fact that number runs into the thousands
May 1, 2007
Even here, of course, Gethin does yeoman service for the Terror War cause, with some perhaps deliberately muddled syntax that leaves the impression that only some few "dozens" of civilians have been killed by Anglo-American air attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq, when in fact that number runs into the thousands.
Because after all, what are a few dozen innocent lives here or there when you are putting whole countries on the right path? As that old breaker of nations, Josef Stalin, used to say: "When wood is chopped, chips fly."
In any case, such womanish scruples do not trouble the Telegraph's no-mercy Americans:
Capt. Staley [commander of Lt. Denton's Apache] said he had no qualms about pressing home such attacks until no one was left standing and claimed that American pilots were more effective than their British Apache counterparts, who he said flew higher and were less ruthless in finishing off their targets.
'The Brits are good but they don't have the extreme aggression that we do.'" |
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The American Mukhabarat has undertaken another project, this one with the clear support of Iran
A prime example of that "extreme aggression" so prized by the Telegraph and by Capt. Staley in the Pentagon and Oval Office was on display in Afghanistan just last month, in Nangarhar province, as David J. Morris reports in Salon.com (America's Dangerous Trigger Finger):
According to an investigation by an Afghan human rights group released on April 14, the Marines, who said they came under small-arms fire after the bombing, went on a rampage, shooting at vehicles and pedestrians along 10 miles of road.
At least 12 civilians were killed and another 35 were injured, including one infant and three elderly men.
A 16-year-old girl, newly married and carrying a bundle of grass to her family's farmhouse, was shot in the back.
A 75-year-old man was shot so many times that his son had trouble recognizing him when he reached the scene.
A few hours after the shootings, the Marines returned to the primary site of the carnage, cordoned it off, and allegedly began removing evidence that it had occurred.
Seven journalists representing multiple media outlets complained that the Marines confiscated their equipment and forcibly deleted photographs taken by Afghans working for the Associated Press...One journalist said he was told, "Delete the photos or we'll delete you."
After conducting an initial inquiry into the matter, the American military command in Afghanistan found no evidence that the Marines had come under small-arms fire after the bombing.
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But the spiritual degradation does not only show in blatant atrocities like the Nangarhar rampage
Perhaps these Marines too had been ordered to "show no mercy, but to press home their advantage until all their targets have been destroyed" — even if, as in the Apache attack in Helmland, they "didn't have hostile intent or positive ID from the ground commander" before their "uncompromising use" of firepower.
Perhaps if they hadn't turned that 16-year-old girl into a dust cloud — or had been quicker in destroying the evidence — they could have claimed that all the dust clouds were Taliban, and gotten a laudatory write-up in the Sunday Telegraph.
But the spiritual degradation does not only show in blatant atrocities like the Nangarhar rampage (or the Haditha rampage in Iraq, or the slaughter of the innocents in Ishaqi).
It has permeated the minds of ordinary soldiers carrying out their ordinary duties — if anything can said to be "ordinary" about Bush's intervention in Afghanistan's long-running civil war on the side of a coalition of war criminals, drug barons, warlords and woman-hating religious fanatics, that is.
You die, you die, you die
Witness the Telegraph story's closing words, from young Lt. Denton.
The passage is obviously meant to be a bit of gung-ho G.I. bravado of World War II vintage, the kind of line you might hear in an old movie from a cheerful, apple-cheeked, tough-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold dogface played by, say, Ronald Reagan:
But for now, the American airmen are not losing any sleep over [the threat of being shot down].
"When you are on top of the enemy you look, shoot and it's, 'You die, you die, you die'," Lt Denton said.
"The odds are on our side.
I really enjoy it.
I told my wife, if I could come home every night then this would be the perfect job."
"You die, you die, you die....You can see the person but you can't see the features of his face...You just see a big dust cloud where the person used to be...I really enjoy it...I really enjoy it....You just see a big dust cloud...I really enjoy it...you die, you die...you can't see his face...you die...I really enjoy it."
Even in a justified or unavoidable war, the thought of killing another human being — the thought that we, the common human family, have sunk to such a low point, yet again — should be a matter of deepest tragedy, of enduring regret.
It is a terrible thing to have to do, even when compelled by the most extreme necessity.
Yet the Terror War is leeching the terror out of this dreadful act.
Because the Terror War has no deeper meaning — no real purpose beyond loot and power for a few — it devalues and degrades everything it touches.
To kill a human being is nothing more than stirring up a bit of dust; it's easy — "the odds are on our side" — it's fun, "I really enjoy it."
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A directive that echoes almost precisely the instructions given by another "war leader" to his armies as they stood poised to launch a war of aggression based on false pretenses, some 68 years ago
This is the ethos of the War on Terror (on every side of this hydra-headed conflict): "No mercy." "Extreme aggression." "Uncompromising force."
And this is the dictum with which Bush now sends his troops into battle — a directive that echoes almost precisely the instructions given by another "war leader" to his armies as they stood poised to launch a war of aggression based on false pretenses, some 68 years ago:
"Close your hearts to pity." |
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Blackwater mercenaries, West Point graduates & other contractors' tales
Jane Stillwater's Web Log
When I was in Iraq, I brushed my teeth with the non-potable water.
April 29, 2007
Well, since I've been back, my mouth just hasn't felt right.
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Man worked as a trucker for KBR
OMG!
Maybe the water was non-potable because it was filled with depleted uranium?
Then I started getting really paranoid.
"I'm gonna die of mouth cancer!"
Me and Sigmund Freud.
Yuck!
Then I got a phone call from a man who used to work as a trucker for KBR in Iraq and I realized that he had a LOT more to worry about than me.
"I was only over there for four months but already my body has aged 30 years and my muscle mass is just melting away."
KBR paid him $8,000 a month to drive the big rigs all over central Iraq.
"And I'd give every cent of it back in a heartbeat if I could get my health back."
Fat chance of that happening.
"After four months living in a tent pitched over an old bombed-out bunker, blood and pus started coming out of my eyes.
It really scared me and I tried to get back to the states to get treated.
But the moment I left Iraq, KBR canceled my health insurance.
I used to be able to hang 160 sheets of drywall a day.
Now I can hardly help the neighbors move their front room couch."
The contractor was very unhappy with KBR.
"They promised me that I was going to get a COBRA but it never came through.
I need an operation, I have severe nerve damage in my arms.
I don't sleep because my hands and arms are so sore.
I can take a lot of pain but this is constant.
This is too much.
If I ever get my hands on the KBR employee who canceled my insurance, they'd have to put me on four-way restraints!"
The contractor has lost three inches off of his biceps.
What happened over there?
Depleted uranium?
"I wouldn't be surprised.
Iraq is the most polluted country in the world.
It scares the hell out of me."
Then he added:
"I think part of my nerve damage comes from wearing 56 pounds worth of body armor for 12 or 15 hours at a time because rather than up-armor the trucks, they up-armored the drivers."
He thought that the KBR operation was a circus run by buffoons.
"They were only in it for the money."
"Do you think you will ever go back to Iraq?" I asked him.
"I can't go back.
I'd never pass the physical."
He then gave me the names and numbers of several friends who had suffered the same experience.
Scary.
After I got done talking with the contractor, I biked downtown to get a copy of the Berkeley Daily Planet, featuring an article about the Blackwater mercenaries.
Even MORE scary!
According to reporter Jeremy Scahill:
"In February 2006 Donald Rumsfeld issued the Pentagon’s quadrennial review which lays out the Pentagon’s vision for years to come.
There he classified Blackwater and other contractors as a legitimate part of the total force making up the U.S. war machine."
So.
The neo-cons are hopefully anticipating the day when they can contract out our entire Army — not just the quartermaster department and the KP.
I wonder if the troops know about this?
...PS: I just talked with my contractor friend again.
He said that he doesn't have an e-mail address:
"Because I don't see very well any more."
And needs an operation.
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But he still doesn't have any health insurance except for Medicaid.
Plus he is now fully disabled and living on Social Security.
Just like we do for Wal-Mart
In other words, the American taxpayer is now taking up the "benefits" slack for KBR — just like we do for Wal-Mart.
Soul-less men with glazed-over eyes
PPS: Another contractor just called me — I guess my 15 minutes of fame isn't quite over yet — and this one started telling me some really scary stories about a mysterious place called "Area 51" where trained-killer special-ops forces hunker down in between "jobs".
And he REALLY scared me as he described soul-less men with glazed-over eyes who lived like those hordes of evil bad guys from The Lord of the Rings — just waiting to be let out of their cages.
But what he said spooked me so much that let's not talk about that.
PPPS: Holy cow! I just received an e-mail from my friend Stewart who just missed getting blown up by a truck bomb.
"There are body parts all over the place here...."
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Over time I was increasingly shocked by the speed and ease with which many intelligent and seemingly competent members of the CFR [ Council on Foreign Relations ] appeared to eagerly justify policies and actions that supported growing corruption.
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The regularity with which many CFR members would protect insiders from accountability regarding another appalling fraud surprised even me.
Many of them seemed delighted with the advantages of being an insider while being entirely indifferent to the extraordinary cost to all citizens of having our lives, health and resources drained to increase insider wealth in a manner that violated the most basic principles of fiduciary obligation and respect for the law.
In short, the CFR was operating in a win-lose economic paradigm that centralized economic and political power.
I was trying to find a way for us to shift to a win-win economic paradigm that was — by its nature — decentralizing.
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The reader can appreciate why Wall Street would welcome someone as accommodating as Gorelick at Fannie Mae.
This was a period when the profits rolled in from engineering the most spectacular growth in mortgage debt in U.S. history.
As one real estate broker said, “They have turned our homes into ATM machines.”
Fannie Mae has been a leading player in centralizing control of the mortgage markets into Washington D.C. and Wall Street.
And that means as people were rounded up and shipped to prison as part of Operation Safe Home, Fannie was right behind to finance the gentrification of neighborhoods.
And that is before we ask questions about the extent to which the estimated annual financial flows of $500 billion–$1 trillion money laundering through the U.S. financial system or money missing from the US government are reinvested into Fannie Mae securities.
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James Forrestal’s oil portrait always hung prominently in one of the private Dillon Read dining rooms for the eleven years that I worked at the firm. Forrestal, a highly regarded Dillon partner and President of the firm, had gone to Washington, D.C. in 1940 to lead the Navy during WWII and then played a critical role in creating the National Security Act of 1947.
He then became Secretary of War (later termed Secretary of Defense) in September 1947 and served until March 28, 1949.
Given the central banking-warfare investment model that rules our planet, it was appropriate that Dillon
partners at various times lead both the Treasury Department and the Defense Department.
Shortly after resigning from government, Forrestal died falling out of a window of the Bethesda Naval Hospital outside of Washington, D.C. on May 22, 1949.
There is some controversy around the official explanation of his death — ruled a suicide.
Some insist he had a nervous breakdown. Some say that he was opposed to the creation of the state of Israel.
Others say that he argued for transparency and accountability in government, and against the provisions instituted at this time to create a secrete “black budget.”
He lost and was pretty upset about it — and the loss was a violent one.
Since the professional killers who operate inside the Washington beltway have numerous techniques to get perfectly sane people to kill themselves, I am not sure it makes a big difference.
Approximately a month later, the CIA Act of 1949 was passed.
The Act created the CIA and endowed it with the statutory authority that became one of the chief components of financing the “black” budget — the power to claw monies from other agencies for the benefit of secretly funding the intelligence communities and their corporate contractors.
This was to turn out to be a devastating development for the forces of transparency, without which there can be no rule of law, free markets or democracy.
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Protecting the brand with dirty tricks — Enforcement Terrorism The profitable liquidation of every place — Coutts, bank for British Queen and royals Catherine Austin Fitts — Dillon Reid and Co. Inc. And the Aristocracy of Stock Profits |
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What Briody does not mention is allegations regarding Brown & Root's involvement in narcotics trafficking. Former LAPD narcotics investigator Mike Ruppert once described his break up with fiance Teddy — an agent dealing narcotics and weapons for the CIA while working with Brown & Root, as follows:
“Arriving in New Orleans in early July, 1977 I found her living in an apartment across the river in Gretna. Equipped with scrambler phones, night vision devices and working from sealed communiqués delivered by naval and air force personnel from nearby Belle Chasse Naval Air Station, Teddy was involved in something truly ugly.
She was arranging for large quantities of weapons to be loaded onto ships leaving for Iran.
At the same time she was working with Mafia associates of New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello to coordinate the movement of service boats that were bringing large quantities of heroin into the city.
The boats arrived at Marcello controlled docks, unmolested by even the New Orleans police she introduced me to, along with divers, military men, former Green Berets and CIA personnel.
“The service boats were retrieving the heroin from oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, oil rigs in international waters, oil rigs built and serviced by Brown and Root.
The guns that Teddy monitored, apparently Vietnam era surplus AK 47s and M16s, were being loaded onto ships also owned or leased by Brown and Root.
And more than once during the eight days I spent in New Orleans I met and ate at restaurants with Brown and Root employees who were boarding those ships and leaving for Iran within days.
Once, while leaving a bar and apparently having asked the wrong question, I was shot at in an attempt to scare me off.”
Source: "Halliburton’s Brown and Root is One of the Major Components of the Bush-Cheney Drug Empire" by Michael Ruppert, From the Wilderness
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Dark Alliance — The Story Behind the Crack Explosion The "Good Guys" Who Can Do No Wrong
Profoundest suspicions of white malfeasance were true |
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The Clinton Administration took the groundwork laid by Nixon, Reagan and Bush and embraced and blossomed the expansion and promotion of federal support for police, enforcement and the War on Drugs with a passion that was hard to understand unless and until you realized that the American financial system was deeply dependent on attracting an estimated $500 billion-$1 trillion of annual money laundering.
Globalizing corporations and deepening deficits and housing bubbles required attracting vast amounts of capital.
Attracting capital also required making the world safe for the reinvestment of the profits of organized crime and the war machine.
Without growing organized crime and military activities through government budgets and contracts, the economy would stop centralizing.
The Clinton Administration was to govern a doubling of the federal prison population.
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Depleted Uranium — its use in Afghanistan, Iraq, Balkans Photos of Iraq children being born deformed |
Published on Thursday, April 26, 2007 by Working For Change
When Journalism Became Transcription and Reporting Disappeared
by David Sirota
Bill Moyers’ PBS special last night on the media’s complicity in pushing America to war was so powerfully upsetting that I am forced to resort to using mid-1990s NBA metaphors to describe it, if only because describing it without a metaphoric buffer is just too depressing.
This production was the documentary equivalent of Tom Chambers famously jumping over a screaming Mark Jackson and hammering down one of the greatest, most in-your-face slam dunks in history.
To call the media’s complicity in the Iraq War a conspiracy is an insult to conspiracies, because it wasn’t hidden - as Moyers shows, it was all out there for everyone to see.
The problem was, Beltway reporters didn’t want to see it.
No one wanted to get into an argument with the president
As New York Times White House correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller famously admitted, in the lead up to war most self-respecting Washington journalists who wanted to stay on the White House Christmas card list refused to ask tough questions because “no one wanted to get into an argument with the president.”
What’s really disturbing, however, is not even what this documentary says about the past - but what it says about the state of journalism today.
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In interview after interview after interview, we hear top journalists and opinionmakers declare that they believe journalism is no longer about basic, hard-scrabble reporting or getting scoops.
As the Washington Post’s Walter Pincus says, most reporters today actually try to avoid getting scroops because they “worry about sort of getting out ahead of something” and - gasp! - making their friends inside Official Washington mad at them.
So rather than, say, do the real work of reporting news, journalism has become a profession that is almost entirely about PR, transcription and packaging Establishment spin for news copy.
This is why, for example, many of the highest-profile political “journalists” like Joe Klein and David Broder never bother to actually report anything anymore - but instead spend most of their time pontificating on horse race polls and campaign gossip, expecting us to believe that’s real “news.”
I’m a blue-collar guy from Buffalo - Russert multi-million-dollar journalist
This kind of attitude, as Moyers shows, goes straight to the top.
Take, for instance, NBC’s Tim Russert - the Washington Bureau Chief of NBC NEWS.
I stress the word “news” because, remember, “news” is supposed to be reported in the trenches, not transcribed in a television studio.
Russert loves to brag about coming from Buffalo (often ending his shows with some irritating quip about the Buffalo Bills) because he believes it gives him some sort of working-class cred and more importantly distracts viewer attention from the fact that he is a longtime Washington insider and multi-million-dollar journalist.
And at one point, he brags to Moyers that “I’m a blue-collar guy from Buffalo - I know who my sources are [and] I work ‘em very hard.”
But then when Moyers asks him why he gave Vice President Cheney such a free pass to come on Meet the Press and spew blatant lies about Iraq’s WMD - lies that news organizations like Knight Ridder were exposing but people like Russert were ignoring - we get this gem from Russert:
“There were concerns expressed by other government officials. And to this day, I wish my phone had rung, or I had access to them.” |
Would have been available to any reporter who called
Moyers quickly noted that at least some reporters “didn’t wait for the phone to ring,” and that CBS’s Bob Simon said that sources debunking the WMD case “would have been available to any reporter who called.”
And that makes Russert’s entire sob story fall apart like a house of cards.
Russert wants us to believe that he’s just “a blue-collar guy from Buffalo” who works sources very hard.
Yet, apparently, “working sources very hard” means not even picking up the phone to make a call, but instead sitting in a comfortable Washington office waiting for people to call him, and in the meantime giving Cheney as much airtime as he wanted to spew lies.
What made you present yourself as a Middle East expert
Then there is the interchange with The New Republic’s Peter Beinart, who since cheerleading for the war and berating war critics, has been rewarded with a Time Magazine column and a post as a foreign policy expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Moyers asks Beinart “what made you present yourself as a Middle East expert” in the lead up to war?
Beinart admits that despite his preening around as an expert, he’d never actually been to Iraq, but nonetheless insists that he is “a political journalist.”
So Moyers naturally asks that as a “political journalist” what kind of reporting did he do to make sure his prewar cheerleading was substantively sound.
Here’s Beinart’s answer:
“Well, I was doing mostly, for a large part it was reading, reading the statements and the things that people said.
I was not a beat reporter.
I was editing a magazine and writing a column.
So I was not doing a lot of primary reporting. But what I was doing was a lot of reading of other people’s reporting and reading of what officials were saying.”
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Not picking up the phone or doing primary research is actually being rewarded
So here we have one of the Iraq War’s leading cheerleaders actually telling us that his entire method of backing up his case was all about amplifying official Washington through brazen transcription.
He actually sits there and tells Moyers that as a self-described “political journalist” his primary method of reporting on the issues he presented himself as an expert on was by not reporting at all.
This is what journalism has become today - and the worst part of it is that people who follow this Russert-Beinart method of sitting in comfortable Washington offices not picking up the phone or doing primary research is actually being rewarded as we speak.
Moyers, channeling a fantastic piece by Jebediah Reed in Radar Magazine, notes that most of the people who regurgitated the Washington Establishment’s debunked case for war have actually been rewarded with even more prominent positions in the media.
And while these desperate-for-attention media icons like Bill Kristol and Tom Friedman are happy to throw themselves in front of cameras for almost any opportunity to promote themselves, they categorically refused to talk to Moyers for his PBS special.
I went to journalism school because I thought journalism was about sifting through the B.S. in order to challenge power and hold the Establishment accountable.
Bill Moyers and the folks I’ve worked with at McClatchy Newspapers who Moyers highlights show that that long tradition still exists.
But the fact that they are such rare exceptions to the rule also show that the incentive system in journalism today is to reward not the people who challenge power, but the people who worship it.
And though Tim Russert and Peter Beinart and Bill Kristol and Tom Friedman can kick back in Washington with their six figure salaries and tell themselves that they are really Important People, what we have seen is that they are part of a new journalistic culture that is threatening to destroy what once was a truly noble profession and undermine our democracy. |
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Norman Solomon — July 19, 2007 CommonDreams.org As the New York Times was to report, President Bush “essentially won the added time he said he needed to demonstrate that his troop buildup was succeeding.”
Meanwhile, inside a movie theater on the opposite coast, the thunderous voice of Senator Wayne Morse spoke to 140 people at an event organized by the activist group Sacramento for Democracy.
The extraordinary senator was speaking in May 1964 — and in July 2007.
A typical dash of media conventional wisdom had set him off.
The moderator of the CBS program “Face the Nation,” journalist Peter Lisagor, told the guest:
“Senator, the Constitution gives to the president of the United States the sole responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy.”
“Couldn’t be more wrong,” Morse shot back.
“You couldn’t make a more unsound legal statement than the one you have just made.
“This is the promulgation of an old fallacy that foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States.
“That’s nonsense.”
Lisagor sounded a bit exasperated: “To whom does it belong, then, Senator?”
Again, Morse didn’t hesitate.
“It belongs to the American people,” the senator fired back.
And he added: “What I’m saying is — under our Constitution all the president is, is the administrator of the people’s foreign policy, those are his prerogatives, and I’m pleading that the American people be given the facts about foreign policy –”
“You know, Senator, that the American people cannot formulate and execute foreign policy –”
“Why do you say that?
Why, you’re a man of little faith in democracy if you make that kind of comment,” Morse retorted.
“I have complete faith in the ability of the American people to follow the facts if you’ll give them.
“And my charge against my government is we’re not giving the American people the facts.” |
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| Was it worth it folks?
To lose your country.
To lose your freedom.
If 9/11 was not an inside job — increasingly evidence proves it was.
Was it worth it folks?
Wouldn't you really rather be fighting for your freedom (if needed) yourself? Without these goons (Thugs hired to intimidate) telling you what to do? |
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twenty twenty
On 29th June, 1934, Chancellor Adolph Hitler, accompanied by the Schutzstaffel (SS), arrived at Wiesse, where he personally arrested the leader of the Strum Abteilung (SA), Ernnst Roehm.
During the next 24 hours 200 other senior SA officers were arrested on the way to Wiesse.
Many were shot as soon as they were captured but Hitler decided to pardon Roehm because of his past service to the movement.
However, after much pressure from Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler, Hitler agreed that Roehm should die.
At first Hitler insisted that Roehm should be allowed to commit suicide but, when he refused, Roehm was shot by two SS men. (Spartacus.schoolnet.co)
Later, Hitler delivered a speech at the Reichstag in which he justified the murders of his rivals saying:
"If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this:
In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people.
It was no secret that this time the revolution would have to be bloody; when we spoke of it we called it ’The Night of the Long Knives.’
Everyone must know for all future time that if he raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot."
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The Night of the Long Knives is seen by many as the turning point where Hitler made it clear that he was above the law and the supreme leader of the German people.
Newly-built Halliburton detention centers
Operation Falcon: Blueprint for removing dissidents and political rivals
The Bush administration has carried out three massive sweeps in the last two years, rolling up more than 30,000 minor crooks and criminals, without as much as a whimper of protest from the public.
So far, not one of the more than 30,000 victims has been charged with a terror-related crime.
Operation Falcon is the clearest indication yet that the Bush administration is fine-tuning its shock-troops so it can roll up tens of thousands of people at a moment’s notice and toss them into the newly-built Halliburton detention centers.
This should be a red flag for anyone who cares at all about human rights, civil liberties, or simply saving his own skin.
Operation Falcon was allegedly the brainchild of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his counterpart in the US Marshal’s office, (Director) Ben Reyna.
But its roots go much deeper into the nexus of right-wing Washington think tanks where fantasies of autocratic government have a long history.
The name, Falcon, is an acronym for “Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally.”
It relates to the more than 960 state, local and federal agencies which are directly involved in the administration’s expansive criminal dragnets.
Typically, law enforcement agencies are protective of their own turf and wary of outside intervention.
The Falcon program overrides these concerns by streamlining the information-sharing processes and setting up a chain-of-command structure that radiates from the Justice Department.
This removes many of the traditional obstacles to agency interface.
It also relocates the levers of power in Washington where they can be manned by members of the Bush administration.
Dictatorships require strong centralized authority
Dictatorships require strong centralized authority and the Falcon program is a logical corollary of that ambition.
It creates new inroads for Bush to assume greater control over the nationwide police-state apparatus.
That alone should be sufficient reason for alarm.
The first Operation Falcon took place during the week of April 4 to April 10, 2005.
According to the US Marshal’s official website:
“The emphasis centered on gang related crimes, homicides, crimes involving use of a weapon, crimes against children and the elderly, crimes involving sexual assaults, organized crime and drug related fugitives, and other crimes of violence.”
More than 10,000 criminal suspects were arrested in a matter of days.
It was the largest criminal sweep in the nation’s history and, according to U.S. Marshall chief Ben Reyna, “produced the largest number of arrests ever recorded during a single initiative.”
The Washington Times noted, “The sweep was a virtual clearinghouse for warrants on drug, gang, gun and sex-offender suspects nationwide.”
The emphasis was clearly on quantity not quality.
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Still, this doesn’t explain why state and federal agencies had to be integrated with local law enforcement simply to carry out routine police work.
More importantly, it doesn’t explain why local police ignored their duty to protect the public just so they could coordinate with outside agencies.
According to one report “162 accused or convicted of murder” were picked up in the first sweep.
That means that the police knowingly left murderers on the street and put the public at risk while they orchestrated their raids with federal agencies?
That’s irresponsible.
It also suggests that there may be a more sinister motive behind the program than just ensuring public safety.
The plan appears to have been devised to enhance the powers of the “unitary” executive by putting state and local law enforcement under federal supervision.
Once again, it’s an attempt by the administration to extend its grip to the state and local level.
New Orleans after Katrina
We saw a similar strategy unfold after Hurricane Katrina when the Bush administration used the tragedy to seize control of local police and National Guard units so they could establish de facto martial law.
Troops, armored vehicles and mercenaries were deployed to New Orleans to fight lawlessness and looting even though desperate people were still stranded on their rooftops waiting for food, water and medical attention.
Operation FALCON II was another massive dragnet which covered the western half of the country and focused primarily on “violent sex offenders”.
The raids took place from April 17-23, and succeeded in apprehending 9,037 alleged fugitives.
The US Marshals web site boasts that the operation “took some of the country’s most dangerous wanted criminals off the streets and made America’s communities safer”.
Nonsense.
Despite the claims of success, only 462 “violent sex crime” suspects were arrested, along with 1,094 “unregistered sex offenders” and other minor “sex crime” suspects.
That leaves 7,481 suspects who were rounded up for other unrelated reasons.
Who are they and what crime did they commit?
7,481 people who were incarcerated are unaccounted
Were these drug violations, dads who were delinquent on child-support payments, traffic tickets, jay-walking?!?
7,481 people who were incarcerated are unaccounted by the government’s estimate.
This means that the bulk of them were probably undocumented workers who were shunted off to the INS (Immigration and Naturalization) or dispatched to Cheney’s tent-city gulags in western Texas.
(See: Democracy Now “Human Rights Groups Call for Closure of Texas Jail Holding Undocumented Immigrants” 2-23-07)
Similar inconsistencies appear in “Operation FALCON III, which covered the eastern half of the country from October 22 - 28, 2006.”
State, local and federal police-units arrested 10,773 fugitives; including 1,659 sex offenders, 971 unregistered sex offenders, 364 gang members, 140 homicide suspects, and 3,609 drug violations.
Once again, the US Marshal’s official tally doesn’t pencil out.
This time, 4,030 extra people were rounded up without any further explanation.
Who are they and have they been charged with a crime?
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Indications great majority of these people not violent at all
Furthermore, sex offenders, drug users and gang-bangers are not what we normally consider “some of the country’s most dangerous wanted criminals”.
In fact, there are indications that the great majority of these people are not violent at all.
For example, of the 30,110 total fugitives who were apprehended in all three Falcon sweeps, a measly 586 firearms were seized.
Clearly, the people who were arrested for the most part were not “armed and dangerous” nor were they a serious threat to public safety.
They were probably just the unwitting victims of an overzealous US Marshals office and an ideologically-driven Justice Department.
So, what was the real impetus for the Falcon raids?
Was it just a bean-counting exercise to see how many people would fit in the back of a Paddy-wagon or are they a dress rehearsal for future crackdowns on potential enemies of the state?
Bogus News Reports
The Falcon operation illustrates the incestuous relationship between the media and the state.
They are two wings on the same plane.
The Justice Department provided the TV networks with official footage of policemen and government agents raiding homes and handcuffing suspects; and the media dutifully aired the video on stations across the country.
The scenes were accompanied by a reassuring commentary lauding the administration’s new crime fighting strategies and linking homeland security with the nebulous war on terror.
Attorney General Gonzales told reporters:
“Operation FALCON is an excellent example of President Bush’s direction and the Justice Department’s dedication to deal both with the terrorist threat and traditional violent crime.”
He added,:
“This joint effort shows the commitment of our federal, state, and local partners to make our neighborhoods safer, and it has led to the highest number of arrests ever recorded for a single initiative of its kind.”
So far, not one of the more than 30,000 victims has been charged with a terror-related crime.
The media-hype surrounding the raids has been celebratory and uniform; cookie-cutter articles appeared throughout the US press (most of them unsourced) highlighting the cooperation between the divers agencies while providing an upbeat account of what amounts to police repression.
Thousands of nearly identical articles appeared in the nation’s newspapers which seem to have been authored by high-ranking officials at Homeland Security and protégés of George Orwell; although the difference between the two is far from certain.
Even stranger, most of the articles in the mainstream media can no longer be retrieved via a Google search.
They seem to have vanished into the black-hole of Homeland propaganda.
No matter.
If the media was supposed to make Gestapo-like crackdowns look like normal police operations; they succeeded admirably.
Mission accomplished.
Former Governor of Louisiana, Huey Long once opined, “When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in an American flag.”
Indeed, he could have added that the corporate media will gladly provide the flag and the public relations campaign as they have with Falcon.
Falcon; new drills for a new world order
The Falcon operations can only be understood in the broader context of the ongoing assault on the constitutional system of checks and balances; including the repeal of habeas corpus, warrantless wiretaps and searches, and the use of torture.
For the last 6 years, the Bush administration has been busy dismantling the legal safeguards which protect the citizen from the arbitrary and, oftentimes, ruthless actions of the state.
To that end, detention camps are being prepared by Halliburton within the U.S.
Secret courts have been established which deny due process of law.
American citizens are arrested without charge.
Law enforcement is increasingly militarized.
And the media has strengthened its alliance with the central government.
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Additionally, in October 2006, George Bush quietly changed the Insurrection Act, which prevented the President from deploying troops inside the United States.
Bush’s revision effectively overturns the Posse Comitatus Act which put strict limits on the executive’s power to use US troops in domestic situations.
Just days earlier Bush signed a similar bill, "The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" which gives Bush the power to take command of National Guard units across the country which are traditionally under the control of the state governors.
Without fanfare, Bush has taken control of all armed forces and militias inside and outside of the country and now has a monopoly on all the state-sanctioned tools of organized violence.
It’s a coup that could never have succeeded without the tacit cooperation of the media.
Congress is powerless to stop him
Bush is now free to declare martial law in response to a natural disaster, a pandemic or a terrorist attack.
The congress is powerless to stop him.
Also, Bush recently signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which allows the president to arbitrarily declare citizens and non citizens “enemy combatants” and imprison them indefinitely without charge.
The new law gives Bush the authority to disregard the Geneva Conventions and the 8th amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment and apply “harsh interrogation” which may include torture.
Military Commissions Act cannot coexist with the US Constitution
The act effectively repeals habeas corpus, the cornerstone of American jurisprudence and the Bill of Rights.
The Military Commissions Act cannot coexist with the US Constitution; the two are mutually exclusive.
The Military Commissions Act, The John Warner Defense Authorization Act, the Homeland Security Act, the Patriot Act, and the myriad presidential signing statements have conferred absolute power on George Bush.
The question is whether or not some incident will arise that will persuade Bush to use his extraordinary new powers.
General Tommy Franks predicted that a “massive, casualty producing event” might cause “our population to question our own Constitution and begin to militarize our country;” a scenario that many see as likely now.
Is that it?
Will another terrorist attack provide the rationale for overturning republican government and declaring martial law?
If so, then we should know what to expect.
According to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) it would mean “the suspension of the normal functions of civilian government, implying the cancellation or postponement of state and federal elections.” (Global Research)
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Shadow government
It would also “close public and government facilities not critical for continuity of essential operations.” (FEMA)
Northern Command would assume control and under “the classified ’Continuity of Government” (COG) Operations Plan’ a secret ’shadow government’ would become functional, redeploying key staff to secret locations.” (Global Research)
Also, “all forms of public gatherings or citizen’s protests which question the legitimacy of the emergency procedures and the installation of a police state” would be banned.
The military would be deployed to carry out “police and judicial” functions.
Martial law in the US would be applied with the utmost attention to public sensibilities and perceptions, avoiding the garish display of force we see in Iraq.
It would be a “kinder and gentler” martial law with a limited number of military personnel on the streets (just enough to remind us that things have changed) and an emphasis on “preemptive” policing operations. (Expect Falcons’ 4, 5 and 6 etc)
It would probably be disguised by a carefully crafted public relations campaign and a predictably cheery moniker, such as, “The Security Enhancement and Homeland Fortification Act”.
The possibilities are limitless.
The Bush administration is also prepared if some unforeseen tragedy befalls congress, like another anthrax attack.
In fact, the American Enterprise Institute, to which the Bush team is closely aligned, has already "issued proposals for the operation of Congress following a catastrophic terrorist attack".
They advocate the "APPOINTING" of individuals to the House of Representatives "to fill the seats of dead or incapacitated members, a first in American history."
Continuity of Government Commission is self-commissioned
"The Continuity of Government Commission is self-commissioned’, its members being neither elected nor appointed by any government body and mostly made up of professional lobbyists". ( Read the whole article )
(Coincidentally, Newsweek article “White House Rehearses for Domestic Attack” 2-23-07; “The White House is staging a high-level exercise Saturday to test responses to the prospect of a massive domestic terrorist attack.”
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These drills are a critical part of the C.O.G. regimen dating back to the Reagan administration)
According to the AEI’s plan, the future United States congress will be comprised of lobbyists and industry representatives.
What else would one expect from an organization that believes that corporate interests should determine policy?
These are the chilling precedents which have paved the way for further government lawlessness and abuse.
They foreshadow the ominous transition from representative government to autocratic rule; from inalienable rights to martial law.
The Falcon operations are just a small part of this larger paradigm.
The program is not designed for rounding up minor crooks and drug dealers, (which no one really cares about anyway) but for removing leftists, dissidents and political rivals.
These are the real targets.
The power of the state is measured in terms of how effectively it defeats or eliminates its enemies.
And, the Bush administration has shown a remarkable aptitude for crushing its rivals.
The Crawford Fuehrer
One day, after a particularly savage domestic purge; we can expect President Bush to stride to the presidential podium and reiterate the same words that were uttered by his German predecessor 60 years ago:
"If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this:
In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the American people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the American people….
Everyone must know for all future time that if he raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot."
Mike Whitney
July 23, 2007
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| Was it worth it folks?
To lose your country.
To lose your freedom.
If 9/11 was not an inside job — increasingly evidence proves it was.
Was it worth it folks?
Wouldn't you really rather be fighting for your freedom (if needed) yourself? Without these goons telling you what to do? |
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The Dark Side Initiates — Click here Dark path initiates depend on the denial The five-percent manipulator class is composed of those on the dark path |
Protecting the brand with dirty tricks — 'Enforcement Terrorism' The profitable liquidation of every place — Coutts, bank for British Queen and royals Catherine Austin Fitts — Dillon Reid and Co. Inc. And the Aristocracy of Stock Profits |
ESTIMATED NUCLEAR WARHEADS, STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL The United States has conducted 1,127 nuclear and thermonuclear tests — 217 in the atmosphere.
The Soviet Union/ Russia conducted 969 tests — 219 in the atmosphere.
France, 210 tests, 50 in the atmosphere.
The United Kingdom, 45 tests — 21 in the atmosphere.
China, 45 tests — 23 in the atmosphere.
India and Pakistan — 13 tests underground.
Israel — possible 1 test atmosphere South Africa 1979.
North Korea — 1 test underground, October 2006.
“The United states had drawn up a battle plan for the potential use of nuclear weapons in Iraq and the United States has been involved in planning potential nuclear use scenarios for Iran.”“The United States is now involved in a massive program to overhaul its nuclear arsenal. In fact they're working to replace every nuclear warhead and all of the existing delivery systems in the arsenal to ensure prompt precision global strike capabilities.”Jackie Cabasso — Western States Legal Foundation |
Western Elite militarismWestern Elite Terror StatesWestern Elite War Crimes
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'Oh! You don't believe the 9-11 official version,' they say.
'You mean where they want you to accept the buildings were not blown up from below.
'Plane fuel! Substance never burns higher then a gas stove! That it caused the inner core steel to melt!
'Steel melting!
'Concrete vaporizing!
'
'No! I don't believe that conspiracy theory.
'Cheney! Bush! Rudy Giuliani! HA! HA!
'Tower 7 that never had a plane hit — just came tumbling down!
'You believe that, eh!
'Ever think it had to be blown up because the plane scheduled to fly into it was off getting shot down.
'Thermite in Tower 7's walls, you see — incriminating evidence — impossible to get out without people watching!
Had to be blown up!
'Next you'll be saying Obama is not a Wall Street Illuminati banker stooge?
'Take your pick: The partner in a comedy team who feeds lines to the other comedians.
'Him who allows himself to be used.
'Oh! I can't really blame you, Television it turns minds to pulp.
'Turn off the television. It's the only way.'
'Turn off the television?'
'Get rid of it really. I mean what else is there to do!'
'Get rid of the television?'
'Don't forget all radio garbage is propaganda, even the songs.
'Then those five minute propaganda hits they send you every hour!
'The ones they refer to as News
'Get rid of all the propaganda from your brain, the only way to do it.'
'Stop being hooked on those Hollywood movies — even those that make you think they are making you think'
'All paid performers to make your brain dead.
'You turn the brainwashing off, you'll begin to become yourself.
'It really is the only way!'
'Oh!'
Kewe — TheWE.biz
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We are change 9/11 lies have sustained the ruling terrorism-threat paradigm The “why” is obvious: To justify an unjust war to serve corporate interests and greed |
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9.11 Truth New York City Decades long history of political disruption the US has been responsible for 9/11 is part of a long series of criminal, imperialist conquests Another major highlight was surprise appearance of Cynthia McKinney |
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Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth A solid convincing case which architects & engineers will readily see: that the 3 WTC high-rise buildings were destroyed by both classic and novel forms of controlled demolition These buildings were professionally demolished with explosives |
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Danish scientist Niels Harrit on nano-thermite in the WTC dust
— Click Here
Niels Harrit and 8 other scientists found nano-thermite in the dust from the World Trade Center.
Niels Harrit, you and eight other researchers conclude in this article that it was nano-thermite that caused these buildings to collapse. |
ITALIAN SAYS 9-11 SOLVED
It’s common knowledge, he reveals
CIA — Mossad behind terror attacks By the Staff of American Free Press
Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga, who revealed the existence of Operation Gladio, has told Italy’s oldest and most widely read newspaper that the 9-11 terrorist attacks were run by the CIA and Mossad, and that this was common knowledge among global intelligence agencies.
In what translates awkwardly into English, Cossiga told the newspaper Corriere della Sera:
“All the [intelligence services] of America and Europe… know well that the disastrous attack has been planned and realized from the Mossad, with the aid of the Zionist world in order to put under accusation the Arabic countries and in order to induce the western powers to take part … in Iraq [and] Afghanistan.”
Cossiga was elected president of the Italian Senate in July 1983 before winning a landslide election to become president of the country in 1985, and he remained until 1992.
Cossiga’s tendency to be outspoken upset the Italian political establishment, and he was forced to resign after revealing the existence of, and his part in setting up, Operation Gladio.
This was a rogue intelligence network under NATO auspices that carried out bombings across Europe in the 1960s, 1970s and ’80s.
Gladio’s specialty was to carry out what they termed 'false flag' operations — terror attacks that were blamed on their domestic and geopolitical opposition.
In March 2001, Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra stated, in sworn testimony:
“You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game.
The reason was quite simple: to force … the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security.”
Cossiga first expressed his doubts about 9-11 in 2001, and is quoted by 9-11 researcher Webster Tarpley saying:
“The mastermind of the attack must have been a sophisticated mind, provided with ample means not only to recruit fanatic kamikazes, but also highly specialized personnel.
I add one thing: it could not be accomplished without infiltrations in the radar and flight security personnel.”
Coming from a widely respected former head of state, Cossiga’s assertion that the 9-11 attacks were an inside job and that this is common knowledge among global intelligence agencies is illuminating.
It is one more eye-opening confirmation that has not been mentioned by America’s propaganda machine in print or on TV.
Nevertheless, because of his experience and status in the world, Cossiga cannot be discounted as a crackpot.
Free to redistribute as long as credit given to American Free Press |
Photo: Bentham-Open.org |
Bentham-Open.org Download pdf — 10mg document including images — Right click Save As |
The secret story of Mossad and the World Trade Center attack The Odigo Warning: Israeli employees get e-mail warnings of 9-11 SEC Secret Probe Of Stock Dealings Before 9/11 |
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Truth Action LA Branch We are in the midst of a mass awakening 9/11 is the foundational myth upon which the entire agenda has been triggered for our generation |
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Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice High Velocity Bursts of Debris From Point-Like Sources in the WTC Towers Why Did the World’s Most Advanced Electronics Warfare Plane Circle Over The White House on 9/11? |
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Your life, your children's lives — Will you live or die?Decided by small group of elite.Pure evil It doesn't get any clearer than this
Published on Friday, March 2, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times
US to Develop New Hydrogen Bomb
by Ralph Vartabedian
The Energy Department will announce today a contract to develop the nation's first new hydrogen bomb in two decades, involving a collaboration between three national weapons laboratories, The Times has learned.
The new bomb will include design features from all three labs, though Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Bay Area appears to have taken the lead position in the project. The Los Alamos and Sandia labs in New Mexico will also be part of the project.
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Hiroshima, Nagasaki — George Weller report |
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Why are the West's elites trying to start a nuclear war?
Because you pay for it |
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BBC — Thursday, 6 September 2007
UK jets 'chase Russian bombers'
The UK's Royal Air Force has launched fighter jets to intercept eight Russian military planes flying in airspace patrolled by Nato, UK officials say.
Four RAF F3 Tornado aircraft were scrambled in response to the Russian action, the UK's defence ministry said.
The Russian planes - said to be long-range bombers - had earlier been followed by Norwegian F16 jets.
Russia recently revived a Cold War-era practice of flying bombers on long-range patrols.
A Norwegian officer, Lt Col John Inge Oegland, told the BBC the Russian Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bombers flew in international airspace from the Barents Sea to the Atlantic, before turning back.
Two Norwegian F-16s shadowed them on Thursday morning and another two went up later, he said.
There have been several similar incidents in recent months, Lt-Col Oegland added.
"Norway is following the increased Russian activity in the far north with interest," he told the BBC News website.
He said the Russian flights were not causing alarm in Norway. "Our systems are adequate," he said, when asked whether Norway was bolstering its security in the area. |
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'Oh! You don't believe the 9-11 official version,' they say.
'You mean where they want you to accept the buildings were not blown up from below.
'Plane fuel! Substance never burns higher then a gas stove! That it caused the inner core steel to melt!
'Steel melting!
'Concrete vaporizing!
'
'No! I don't believe that conspiracy theory.
'Cheney! Bush! Rudy Giuliani! HA! HA!
'Tower 7 that never had a plane hit — just came tumbling down!
'You believe that, eh!
'Ever think it had to be blown up because the plane scheduled to fly into it was off getting shot down.
'Thermite in Tower 7's walls, you see — incriminating evidence — impossible to get out without people watching!
Had to be blown up!
'Next you'll be saying Obama is not a Wall Street Illuminati banker stooge?
'Take your pick: The partner in a comedy team who feeds lines to the other comedians.
'Him who allows himself to be used.
'Oh! I can't really blame you, Television it turns minds to pulp.
'Turn off the television. It's the only way.'
'Turn off the television?'
'Get rid of it really. I mean what else is there to do!'
'Get rid of the television?'
'Don't forget all radio garbage is propaganda, even the songs.
'Then those five minute propaganda hits they send you every hour!
'The ones they refer to as News
'Get rid of all the propaganda from your brain, the only way to do it.'
'Stop being hooked on those Hollywood movies — even those that make you think they are making you think'
'All paid performers to make your brain dead.
'You turn the brainwashing off, you'll begin to become yourself.
'It really is the only way!'
'Oh!'
Kewe — TheWE.biz
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9/11
By all accounts, the unprecedented events of September 11th, 2001 changed the way our country functions, and in turn, the world.
It is therefore critical that conscientious Americans, as well as people around the globe, understand these events in detail.
Unfortunately the official reports, including The 9/11 Commission Report and the NIST WTC Report, written by those working under the direction of the Bush Administration, have been proven to be elaborate cover-ups.
Film: 9/11 Revisited
September 11th Revisited is perhaps the most riveting film ever made about the destruction of the World Trade Center.
This is a powerful documentary which features eyewitness accounts and archived news footage that was shot on September 11, 2001 but never replayed on television.
Featuring interviews with eyewitnesses & firefighters, along with expert analysis by Professor Steven E. Jones, Professor David Ray Griffin, MIT Engineer Jeffrey King, and Professor James H. Fetzer.
This film provides stunning evidence that explosives were used in the complete demolition of the WTC Twin Towers and WTC Building 7.
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For Film: 9/11 Revisited
— Click Here
Film: 9/11 Press for Truth
An excellent documentary about the families of the victims of 9/11 and their fight to uncover and expose the truth about what happened that day.
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For Film: 9/11 Press for Truth
— Click Here
Film: 9/11 Mysteries
90 minutes of pure demolition evidence and analysis, laced with staggering witness testimonials.
Moving from “the myth” through “the analysis” and into “the players,” careful deconstruction of the official story set right alongside clean, clear science.
The 9/11 picture is not one of politics or nationalism or loyalty, but one of strict and simple physics. How do you get a 10-second 110-story pancake collapse?
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Image: Natasha Mayers |
| It's kind of a fun gameYou see the aim of those inner forces who guide the Elite —
For them the real agenda is depopulation
To kill off you your children your grandchildren It is to have fun watching our stupidity as we allow the destruction of our planet — but most haven't figured this out yet! If we stop them with the nuclear and biological weapons then it's the 400+ MPH, KPH wind the increase in UVB, UVC, UVA rays due to loss of stratospheric ozone. It's the climate! It's the reduction and elimination of food coming from all levels of cunning World Elite — tools and servants of Lucifer |
Gustave Doré's illustration for Paradise Lost by John Milton |
The Dark Side Initiates — Click here Dark path initiates depend on the denial The five-percent manipulator class is composed of those on the dark path |
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Agent Orange Dioxin — Vietnam Cleft palate, Canoe footed, Clawed fingers continue in births I didn't know what it was then, but it was white |
UVC in the 10 to 290 nanometer band UVB, 290 to 320 nanometers UVA, 320 to 400 nanometers |
Soot's effect on ice melt and glaciers Washington State's Glaciers are Melting |
Remnants of knowledge would be retained with those on higher ground. A few people here, a few there. Translations of discussions with The WE |
Depleted Uranium — its use in Afghanistan, Iraq, Balkans Photos of Iraq children being born deformed |
Crude Designs — Iraq's Oil Wealth Glowing White House fantasies |
US used white phosphorus chemical and thermobaric fuel-air weapons War Crimes — Fallujah — Graphic Images |
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Unspeakable grief and horror
...and the circus of deception killing continues...
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| Kewe Archives | TheWE.biz | The Poles |
