Peace Mongering/Propaganda Watch
"Citizenship? We have none! In place
of it we teach patriotism which Samuel Johnson said a hundred
and forty or a hundred and fifty years ago was the last refuge
of the scoundrel -- and I believe that he was right. I remember
when I was a boy I heard repeated and repeated time and time
again the phrase, 'My country, right or wrong, my country!'
How absolutely absurd is such an idea. How absolutely absurd
to teach this idea to the youth of the country."
-- Mark Twain - True Citizenship at the Children's Theater,
1907
* * * *
Cost of the War in Iraq
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* * * *
Chalabi should not be a scapegoat for
all that ails the American occupation of Iraq. When it served
their own ideological agenda, his neocon sponsors engaged
in a willing suspension of disbelief. The ideologues at the
Defense Department were warned by doubters at the State Department
and CIA that Chalabi was peddling suspect goods. Even so,
the Bushies were bamboozled by a Machiavellian con man for
the ages. Chalabi (who vigorously denies wrongdoing and has
donned a martyr's robes) has survived a fraud conviction,
betrayals and scandals before. He may yet emerge on top.
His story would be darkly entertaining, even funny after
the fashion of a late John le Carre novel, if the consequences
were not so serious.
Chalabi, 59, is a Savile Row Shiite who has spent much more
time in London than in Baghdad. His career as a banker
has been a trail of lawsuits and investigations (and one
conviction for fraud, in absentia by a military court,
in Jordan; Chalabi says he was framed by Saddam Hussein).
Along the way, Chalabi has worked as an American spy and
enjoyed the life of bon vivant —and friend to the
great. Though he plotted for years to overthrow Saddam,
he was not taken seriously by the regime. NBC's Tom Brokaw
recalled a conversation with a friend of the then Deputy
Prime Minister Tariq Aziz on a trip to Baghdad in the summer
of 2002. "You guys can have Chalabi!" the Saddam
flunky told the American newsman. "You can keep feeding
him all the prime rib and expensive Scotch. He doesn't
know anyone here. He hasn't been to Iraq in 25 years."
* * * *
An urgent investigation has been launched
in Washington into whether Iran played a role in manipulating
the US into the Iraq war by passing on bogus intelligence
through Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, it emerged
yesterday.
Some intelligence officials now believe
that Iran used the hawks in the Pentagon and the White House
to get rid of a hostile neighbour, and pave the way for a
Shia-ruled Iraq. . . .
. . . "It's pretty clear that Iranians
had us for breakfast, lunch and dinner," said an intelligence
source in Washington yesterday. "Iranian intelligence
has been manipulating the US for several years through Chalabi.".
. .
. . . The CIA allegations bring to a head
a dispute between the CIA and the Pentagon officials instrumental
in promoting Mr Chalabi and his intelligence in the run-up
to the war. By calling for an FBI counter-intelligence investigation,
the CIA is, in effect, threatening to disgrace senior neo-conservatives
in the Pentagon.
"This is people who opposed the war
with long knives drawn for people who supported the war," Ms
Mylroie said.
This is a good read for you John le Carré fans
out there. I laughed out loud when I read it.
* * * *
Washington - Efforts at the top level
of the Bush administration and the civilian echelon of the
Department of Defense to contain the Iraq prison torture
scandal and limit the blame to a handful of enlisted soldiers
and immediate senior officers have already failed: The scandal
continues to metastasize by the day.
Over the past weekend and into this week,
devastating new allegations have emerged putting Stephen
Cambone, the first Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence,
firmly in the crosshairs and bringing a new wave of allegations
cascading down on the head of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
when he scarcely had time to catch his breath from the previous
ones.
Even worse for Rumsfeld and his coterie
of neo-conservative true believers who have run the Pentagon
for the past 3 1/2 years, three major institutions in the
Washington power structure have decided that after almost
a full presidential term of being treated with contempt and
abuse by them, it's payback time.
Those three institutions are: The United
States Army, the Central Intelligence Agency and the old,
relatively moderate but highly experienced Republican leadership
in the United States Senate.
None of those groups is chopped
liver: Taken together they comprise a devastating Grand Slam.
* * * *
Tony Blair has told friends he will fight
on in Downing Street at least until Iraq is under free rule,
amid feverish speculation that he is already plotting an
exit.
The Prime Minister wants to see the damaging
conflict through at least until next January's planned elections
in Iraq, allowing him to claim a respectable legacy for his
premiership.
With rumours sweeping Westminster that
Gordon Brown could replace him as early as the autumn, allies
rallied round last night to attack what one aide called the
Michael Heseltine-style manoeuvrings against Blair by ambitious
Cabinet colleagues.
Tony Blair's seems to be toast. One can only
hope that the Shrub will suffer a similar fate.
* * * *
The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal
lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists
but in a decision, approved las year by Secretary of Defense
Donal Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation which
had been focussed on the hunt for A Qaeda, to the interrogation
of prisoners in Iraq Rumsfeld’s decision embittered
the America intelligence community, damaged th effectiveness
of élite combat units, and hur America’s prospects
in the war on terror
According to interviews with several
past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon’s
operation, known inside the intelligence community by several
code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion
and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to
generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in
Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details
of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed
from Rumsfeld’s long-standing desire to wrest control
of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations
from the C.I.A.
* * * *
As the photographs from Abu Ghraib make
clear, these detentions have had enormous consequences: for
the imprisoned civilian Iraqis, many of whom had nothing
to do with the growing insurgency; for the integrity of the
Army; and for the United States' reputation in the world.
Captain Robert Shuck, Frederick's military
attorney, closed his defense at the Article 32 hearing last
month by saying that the Army was "attempting to have
these six soldiers atone for its sins." Similarly, Gary
Myers, Frederick's civilian attorney, told me that he would
argue at the court-martial that culpability in the case extended
far beyond his client. "I'm going to drag every involved
intelligence officer and civilian contractor I can find into
court," he said. "Do you really believe the Army
relieved a general officer because of six soldiers? Not a
chance.
* * * *
T'S an image that would do Saddam proud.
A terrified prisoner, hooded and dressed in rags, his hands
out-stretched on either side of him, electrodes attached
to his fingers and genitals. He's been forced to stand on
a box about one-foot square. His captors have told him that,
if he falls off the box, he'll be electrocuted.
The torture victim was an Iraqi and his
torturers were American soldiers. The picture captures the
moment when members of the coalition forces, who styled themselves
liberators, were exposed as torturers. The image of the wired
and hooded Iraqi was one of a series of photographs, leaked
by a horrified US soldier inside Saddam's old punishment
centre, Abu Ghraib – now a US PoW camp.
* * * *
Chairman Kean: The Commission will
come to order. Welcome, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President.
Although, per our agreement, you are not being placed under
oath, we expect that your testimony will consist only of
the truth. The Commission and the American people deserve
no less, and we trust you are in full agreement with this
expectation.
Cheney: Yes, of course.
Bush: Sure, OK. . . . .
lots of back and forth . . .
Hamilton: That was a most intriguing
reaction, Mr. Vice President. Nobody asked you about your
actions or your motives. Commissioner Ben Veniste's question
was directed at the President -- Mr. George W. Bush, the
fellow sitting on your right. Are you suggesting to us that
you are the architect of the Administration's policies with
regard to pre-9/11 behavior?
Cheney: It was a mere slip of
the tongue, Mr. Vice Chairman, expressed in the heat of the
moment. I serve to aid the President in his policy decisions.
He was always in charge of Executive policy, and he is now.
Bush: That's right. I am now.
And was then. And always shall be. Just ask Dick.
Very funny and spooky.
* * * * <
President George Bush sparked a political firestorm yesterday
after making what many judged a tasteless and ill-judged
joke about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq.ve to deal with al Qaeda. Why are we talking about
that little guy? We have to talk about Iraqi terrorism against
the United States.'
Mr Bush made the joke at a black-tie event for radio and
television journalists in Washington on Wednesday night.
He narrated a slide show, described as the White House election
year album, making hay of the administration's reputation
for secrecy and strained relations with European allies.
But it was the joke about the war in Iraq that drew attacks.
A slide showed Mr Bush in the Oval office, leaning to look
under a piece of furniture. "Those weapons of mass destruction
have got to be here somewhere," he told the audience,
drawing applause.
Another slide showed him peering into another part of the
office, "Nope, no weapons over there," he said,
laughing. "Maybe under here," he said, as a third
slide was shown.
Should this be in the Comic Relief section?
see: MIA
WMDs--For Bush, It's a Joke for commentary in "The
Nation" on Shrub's idea of humour.
* * * *
Clarke's
Take On Terror - - - - <link
to aticle in PDF form>
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, President Bush ordered his
then top anti-terrorism adviser to look for a link between
Iraq and the attacks, despite being told there didn't seem
to be one.
CBSNEWS.com - March 21, 2004
Clarke relates, "I began saying, 'We have to deal with
bin Laden; we have to deal with al Qaeda.' Paul Wolfowitz,
the Deputy Secretary of Defense, said, 'No, no, no. We don't
have to deal with al Qaeda. Why are we talking about that
little guy? We have to talk about Iraqi terrorism against
the United States.'
"And I said, 'Paul, there hasn't been any Iraqi terrorism
against the United States in eight years!' And I turned to
the deputy director of the CIA and said, 'Isn't that right?'
And he said, 'Yeah, that's right. There is no Iraqi terrorism
against the United States."
Clarke went on to add, "There's absolutely no evidence
that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda, ever."
When Stahl pointed out that some administration officials
say it's still an open issue, Clarke responded, "Well,
they'll say that until hell freezes over."
* * * *
Howard
Stern's schwing voters
The raunchy jockey is mobilizing his army of listeners against
Bush -- and they could make a difference in November.
Salon.com - Eric Boehlert -March 24, 2004
Declaring a "radio jihad" against President Bush,
syndicated morning man Howard Stern and his burgeoning crusade
to drive Republicans from the White House are shaping up
as a colossal media headache for the GOP, and one they never
saw coming.
The pioneering shock jock, "the man who launched the
raunch," as the Los Angeles Times once put it, has emerged
almost overnight as the most influential Bush critic in all
of American broadcasting, as he rails against the president
hour after hour, day after day to a weekly audience of 8
million listeners. Never before has a Republican president
come under such withering attack from a radio talk-show host
with the influence and national reach Stern has.
"The potential impact is huge," says Charles Goyette,
talk-show host at KFYI in Phoenix. "And it's not just
with the 8 million people who tune it, it's that he breaks
the spell. Everybody's been enchanted by Bush, that he's
a great wartime leader and to criticize him is unpatriotic.
Now Stern pounds him every day and it shatters that illusion
that the man is invincible and he shouldn't be criticized."
"He's got one of the biggest audiences in all of radio,
and perhaps the most loyal," says Michael Harrison,
publisher of Talkers magazine, the nonpartisan monthly that
covers radio's news/talk industry. "And that's why he's
so dangerous for the White House."
* * * *
The revolution inside John Ashcroft's Justice Department
-- an array of new crime-prevention powers embodied in the
Patriot Act -- has been fueled by the attorney general's
ambition intelligence and unusually extreme beliefs about
everything from the similarities between himself and Jesus
to the post-9/11 role of law enforcement, to the purported
demonic properties of calico cats. But as nervous sources
share stories of his Missouri governorship, and former stagers
and Senate allies speak out, JUDY BACHRACH discovers that
Ashcroft has also sparked a growing backlash one with surprisingly
bipartisan power.
* * * *
Britain's Army chiefs refused to go to war in Iraq amid
fears over its legality just days before the British and
American bombing campaign was launched, The Observer can
today reveal.
The explosive new details about military doubts over the
legality of the invasion are detailed in unpublished legal
documents in the case of Katharine Gun, the intelligence
officer dramatically freed last week after Lord Goldsmith,
the Attorney-General, dropped charges against her of breaking
the Official Secrets Act
The disclosure came as it also emerged that Goldsmith was
forced hastily to redraft his legal advice to Tony Blair
to give an 'unequivocal' assurance to the armed forces that
the conflict would not be illegal.
Refusing to commit troops already stationed in Kuwait, senior
military leaders were adamant that war could not begin until
they were satisfied that neither they nor their men could
be tried. Some 10 days later, Britain and America began the
campaign.
* * * *
Says Terry James, a Psychiatric Counsellor : "The only
other war I can closely compare this with is Vietnam. When
we went to Somalia, Bosnia, Panama, etc. once war was declared
over, it was over. But this one is not over even though it'
s declared over."
President Bush may have declared major combat operations
in Iraq over ten months ago, but fresh planeloads of wounded
soldiers continue to fly into Andrews Air Force base every
week, unseen by most Americans.
If the US government was to admit to the true human cost
of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the wounded as well as the dead,
then how many Americans would support George Bush and his
war?
* * * *
After two decades in the U.S. Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel
Karen Kwiatkowski, now 43, knew her career as a regional
analyst was coming to an end when -- in the months leading
up to the war in Iraq -- she felt she was being "propagandized" by
her own bosses.
With master's degrees from Harvard in government and zoology
and two books on Saharan Africa to her credit, she found
herself transferred in the spring of 2002 to a post as a
political/military desk officer at the Defense Department's
office for Near East South Asia (NESA), a policy arm of the
Pentagon.
Kwiatkowski got there just as war fever was spreading, or
being spread as she would later argue, through the halls
of Washington. Indeed, shortly after her arrival, a piece
of NESA was broken off, expanded and re-dubbed with the Orwellian
name of the Office of Special Plans. The OSP's task was,
ostensibly, to help the Pentagon develop policy around the
Iraq crisis.
She would soon conclude that the OSP -- a pet project of
Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld
-- was more akin to a nerve center for what she now calls
a "neoconservative coup, a hijacking of the Pentagon."
* * * *
20
Lies About the War
Falsehoods ranging from exaggeration to plain untruth were
used to make the case for war. More lies are being used in
the aftermath.
The Independent - Glen Rangwala and Raymond Whitaker
- 13 July 2003
* * * *
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