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We are not told what goes on behind the scenes. But there are clearly major differences of opinions. Highest ranking officers in the British Afghan forces are resigning.
Headlines saying US unhappy with British proposals for transatlantic airlines taxes are just euphamisms for some genuine differences, probably about the war on terror.
Freefall is the buzzword for the bush administration. DailyKos used it to describe the Bush foreign and domestic policy. Recent events in Lebanon were the last straw, when the US was unable to do anything.
Freefall means countries are ignoring the US.
A post mortem would enquire just what the original aims of the Bush administration were.
The aims would seem to be unattainable as they were infinite conquest.
Which leaves the question, were they in touch with reality? Or were they so far removed from the realities of the world we live in.
Now a court of justice generally knows, that when a criminal has been caught at one thing, they are likely to have committed a lot more crimes.
The clamours for justice will get some results. But the whole charade of these wars means the system also has to be overhauled.
The arguments of democracy and freedom of speech didn’t work, nor did different branches of Government policing each other work.
When faced with the rancour of justice seekers, clearly another war might seem an attractive distraction. But it is impossible to beat Iran!
On a conventional basis it has a massive ability to retaliate. If it were obliterated by WMD then there would be a backlash from the rest of the world.
The solution is for every nation to be one nation amongst others. Mostly Israel and the US.
In 1978, Bush and Osama bin Laden’s brother, Salem bin Laden, founded Arbusto Energy, an oil company based in Texas.
Several bin Laden family members invested millions in The Carlyle Group, a private global equity firm based in Washington, DC. The company’s senior advisor was Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush. After news of the bin Laden-Bush connection became public, the elder Bush stepped down from Carlyle.
Interestingly, on Sept. 11, 2001, members of the Carlyle Group - including Bush senior, and his former secretary of state, James Baker - were meeting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C., along with Shafiq bin Laden, another one of Osama bin Laden’s brothers.
While all flights were halted following the terrorist attacks, there was one exception made: The White House authorized planes to pick up 140 Saudi nationals, including 24 members of the bin Laden family, living in various cities in the U.S. to bring them back to Saudi Arabia, where they would be safe. They were never interrogated.
Five years later, and we’re still asking questions. We may have lost our innocence but we’re also losing, thankfully, our ignorance.
By Cindy Rodriguez
Denver Post Staff Columnist
Article Last Updated: 09/12/2006 12:57:26 AM MDT
Cindy Rodriguez’s column appears Tuesdays and Sundays. Contact her at 303-954-1211 or crodriguez@denverpost.com.
Largest Swiss Newspaper (Blick) Asks if Bush Was Behind 9/11
(translated from German into English, but not yet published online in English)
2,973 humans died with the attacks of 9/11. “Bin Laden” and “Al Qaeda”, the Bush clan cried. The world believed themm. In the meantime even scientists doubt the Bush version. Now, Swiss university professors Albert A. Stahel and Daniele Ganser raise new questions.
“Something is not correct”, says strategy expert Stahel in “World Week”, and here he refers to the “incomplete” official US Government 9/11 Report of 2004.
The university professor confirms his criticism in BLICK: “Osama Bin Laden cannot be ‘the large godfather’ behind the attacks. He did not have enough means of communication”.
Dr. Stahel doubts that a passenger airliner crashed into the Pentagon: “For trainee pilots it is actually impossible to crash into the building so exactly. Seven hours after the Twin Towers collapsed, the World Trade Center Building 7 next to it also collapsed. The official version: It burned for a long time. Nothing at all is clear.”
Raising questions along with Stahel is historian Dr. Daniele Ganser, his colleague at the University of Zurich. Dr. Ganser also calls the official US version “a conspiracy theory”.
“There are three theories, which we should treat equally”:
1. “Surprise theory” - Bin Laden and Al Qaeda implemented the attacks.
2. “Let it happen on purpose” - The US Government knew the Al Qaeda plans and did not react in order to legitimize a series of wars.
3. “Made it happen on purpose” - The attacks were actually planned and orchestrated by the Pentagon and/or US secret services.
Ganser: “3,000 humans were sacrificed for strategic interests. The more we research, the more we doubt the Bush version. It is conceivable that the Bush government was responsible. Bush has lied so much already! And we already know that the US government planned an operation in 1962 Operation Northwood that was approved by the Pentagon that would have sacrificed innocent US citizens for the government’s own interests.”
As for Ganser and Stahel: “We only ask questions.”
McClellan was the White House spokesman, now he has released a book with some telling tales about Bush. The media are picking up on the revelations that Bush misled the country to war because of the false Intel on Iraq’s WMD program.
Now if you want to get a job as a spokesperson for a company, you will need to sign a non disclosure contract. If you want to work at the upper echelons of government, you will need to be cleared by the secret service and abide by any official laws on confidentiality and official government secrets.
The secret service also have their unwritten and unseen ways of enforcement.
There is also no way to have something published in the West in secret.
Don’t you think McClellan’s book was first vetted by the secret service? So why is he publishing the derisory knowledge of Bush?
First of all it negates the need for an enquiry into whether Bush made the evidence to fit the policy. Now that it is public knowledge.
It is now clear to everyone there is likely to be a call for an investigation into Bush’s Iraq debacle. And doesn’t McClellans revelation defuse what would have been far worse if it were revealed through a court. So it is all designed and measured, as Bush’s sun sets, let’s call it damage limitation.
After Bush leaves office there will be a clamour for prosecuting him & his colleagues for war crimes. Also the US will be in the midst of a recession and there will be a cry for justice there.
Nixon got pardoned for erasing tapes and breaking in to the oppositions offices, and lying and perverting the course of justice.
That is chicken feed compared to the Genocide, torture, illegal use of weapons, and lying that has gone on.
Bush has acted as a front man for some of the most powerful people. Could they allow him to be cross examined; I doubt it.
If only he could drop out now, but so sick is his entourage, there is no one to take his place. If only the military could temporarily take over with the express purpose of getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately.
Have Bush certified as insane.
All the powerful can only see the oil in Iraq, the resources of Afghanistan, and the evil of Islam. They are drunk with their greed. By perpetuating their narcissism they are baiting the war crime charges.
And there have already been many attempts.
Carter urges ’supine’ Europe to break with US over Gaza blockade
Ex-president says EU is colluding in a human rights crime
Excerpt from end of article:
Last night, before a packed crowd at Hay, Carter spoke of his “horror” at America’s involvement in torturing prisoners, saying he wanted the next US president to promise never to do so again.
He left an intriguing hint that George Bush might even face prosecution on war crimes charges once he left office.
When pressed by Philippe Sands QC on Bush’s recent admission that he had authourised interrogation procedures widely seen as amounting to torture, Carter replied that he was sure Bush would be able to live a peaceful, “productive life - in our country”.
Sands, an international legal expert, said afterwards that he understood that to be “clear confirmation” that while Bush would face no challenge in his own country, “what happened outside the country was another matter entirely”.
This article appeared in the Guardian on Monday May 26 2008 on p8 of the UK news section. It was last updated at 01:53 on May 26 2008.
Tony Karon is one of my favorite reads, his articles are articulate, and topical, even if when they are published it is not clear why he has chosen a topic, it often becomes clear later, that the subject matter was a precursor to a political earthquake or at least related to undercurrents within the ruling elite. Fortunately he is a liberal humanist. Actually I can even comment over there and his adversaries haven’t killed me yet. But that is a danger.
His latest is a small piece
bushs peace effort imperils peace. Basically writing the PA and Abbas off as irrelevant in the peace process. This we can assume (given the timing) is a reflection learned through the Bush visit. So presumably that leaves the establishment to consider embracing Hamas or thinking time is on their side. Personally I think the establishment has lost the plot, is guided by decisions based on a system many thousands of years old, and is incapable to respond to any reality on the ground. Gone are the days of initiative, of dictating events.
It has too much political power, and has attracted fundamentalist enforcers.
Bush the son of, how very Jewish. Hillary the wife of, again how very Jewish. The power of the Jewish thought in politics and business, is what is happening. To perpetuate an image, to make the image fit the ideology is not enough.
It is a compassionate religion, it has the eye for an eye, and it also has the idea of a fresh start.
The racial nature is unacceptable and all prevalent. The notion that the Arabs are so lowly is ironic, given the Jews long history in the Arab world.
Bush in Israel, seems to be a celebration of Jewishness. To who does this benefit? The peoples of the world? No. In fact it can only bring joy to the religious Jews. It is unlikely to make Israel any more popular amongst anyone at all.
So there he is at the Western wall, meeting religious Jews. And he is the least popular person in the world. But somehow this gives succour to those that follow the religion? It is pure Hubris, there is no soul searching involved. The arrogance is filtered down through the ranks to the army of hegemonists. As sympathisers, friends and well wishers diminish by the day.
No doubt his failing policies are well understood, but his supporters who write his policies want to show him the way out with solidarity, before they try to inflate a successor.
Religion with politics means war with Iran, and puppet politicians from the same family. Religion in business, means institutionalising consumerism, speculative investors, brand loyalty and seemingly no benevolence for nature or the world at large.
Speculative capitalism is collapsing. The rise of the east where the tradition is every man becomes a monk and goes out and begs for a period in youth is on the rise. Judaism says help the world by helping your family, those that fail or identify with people at large, are shunted to the dregs.
As Tony Karon recently pointed out (Rootless Cosmopolitan: Israel is 60) the idea was to be a nation that is a light onto others.
The Palestinians recently asked that Bush get their women and children released from Jail. He is such a tainted soul. But such type of thinking is what is needed, Rabin would have heard them.
Is the religion a spiritual quest or a policing organisation?
“Some people suggest that if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away,” Bush said in his prepared address.
“This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of our enemies, and America rejects it utterly. Israel’s population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America stands with you.”
More and More Israelis (Jewish) are wondering if things would be better without the US, also more and more resistance to Israel is unfolding in the US.
This is possibly reverse psychology, (if Israel and the US part company), maybe the writing is on the wall.
Don’t ask who is writing Bush’s speeches.
It feels as if whatever supporters there were, are fleeing rapidly, not through lack of ideological faith, just through seeing the reality of failed policies. Through failed logistical thinking, through realizing the schemers are out of touch with the real world.
Bush did mention the Palestinians once, enjoying a state of their own 60 years from now.
Last time that happened Israel went into Gaza and 120 people died, something like that. Gazans stayed clear of their windows for fear of snipers. I think last time three rockets (or mortars) hit Ashqelon, and there was some death.
This time only injuries were reported. The reports give some indication of what happened, but do not necessarily reflect the truth. It was said two seriously hurt. This is a well defined medical category.
If there was death, there would also be every reason to conceal it. Either so as not to embolden the enemy. Nor to panic one’s own population. Similarly a less than serious injury, could actually mean temporary shock. And such distortions of the truth would be common military practice anywhere in the world.
Why was the fire activated now, with the full knowledge that this is a red line for Israel? Hamas has been saying it will use force up until the last minute, until a hudna (a ceasefire) is agreed.
Bush is in Israel now, and not for nothing, and not for three days to celebrate Israel’s anniversary.
So clearly actions speak louder than words. And Hamas wasn’t happy with what was offered. It would seem to be a very organised organisation. Maybe the orders came from Damascus?
The Israelis have been threatening to invade Gaza for months. It really is not something they want to do, or they would have done it already. Also when they have been making incursions, they have been meeting some fierce resistance, but we never hear about it.
There is something ludicrous about the Israelis launching an offensive while Bush is there. It is just no longer the way things are done. Leaders are always well away from where the trouble is. And of course it wuld ruin all the plans for a public show of a peace agreement.
In proxy wars, and maybe in all our modern wars it is the innocents who suffer the most. And the unfolding events confirm that. Tonight an Israeli air raid killed two Palestinians.
So we can expect the sides to continue trying to kill each other until there is an agreement. Which I think some would like to be signed in Sharm in about four days before Bush goes back. This also seems like Hamas is setting the agenda at this moment.
As for Bush himself, it would take a big stretch of the imagination to think he has a preference for particular details in the agreement. However there are a lot of people who do, Israelis and their Western backers. These backers have been getting publicity in the Olmert scandal case as people funding his election and the settlers in the west bank. And there are Israelis asking why financiers who reside in the US are having so much power over their lives.
The graph since 2003 until now, of timing and tactics has consistently favoured the other side.
Choose your words for the other side: Arabs, Muslims, Terrorists, Insurgents, Resistance, Axis of Evil, indigenous, the peoples will, the oppressed, the democratically elected.
A little truth could go a long way.
Annapolis Shpanapolis
The peace agreement to be announced.
Palestinians to be given part of negev in exchange for major Isreali settlements in West Bank. Free travel between Gaza and West Bank. Joint attendance at border posts into Jordan, although Israelis are only there as observers. Massive aid to industrialize the Palestinian state. The patsy PA is irrelevant. But Hamas might sign along with Egypt. Whatever they announce will not work, Egypt is weak, which means as a guarantor, it might not be there in its present form.
The Israelis want nothing less than servitude. Either side can scupper the deal. The Israelis by undermining the guarantor egypt. Bush, the neocons and the current Govt of Israel don’t know how to win the heart of rabbit.
There will be free access to jerusalem for the palestinians.
When you consider Israel’s economic might in the region, it seems a shame that 242 (UN Res.) isn’t implemented. Simple things work best. Isn’t that true? It means withdrawing to the 67 borders.
The issue is the settlers and recently their US backers have been getting publicity.
Whatever the fanfare of a signed agreement, it cannot work. Because of the Israeli right and their need to be on the West Bank.
We can remember when the west wooed Egypt away from the Soviets, It was a political coup. That seems very unlikely as a possibility with Syria from Iran. And perhaps that is what the Lebanon incitement had been all about, Syria would be pressed to appear in Sharm with the unseating of Hizbollah.
Egypt’s current opening of the border with Gaza must be part of Bush’s visit and this peace plan. We can expect the plans for Bush’s visit to go as well as they went in Lebanon and everywhere else.
Expect to see Peres, Mubarak, etal and Hamas in a ceremony. It will be a very lonely ceremony.
With the highest attendance from secret police, followed by the media, and some bussed in school children.
Israel where is the soul searching?
The most unpopular man in the most unpopular place.
Being loyal to one’s friends makes sense.
Sinking with them is a little more dubious.
Israel and the Jews have it in them to change coats. To change direction. To experience an awakening. Israel is known for dynamic political changes.
What is being cemented now with Bush’s visit?
A hubris, a blatant disregard for all the rest of humanity.
There will be some spin, just to ‘cover oneself’ by the Israelis. Maybe more revelations about Olmerts supposed corruption. ‘Supposed’ because it is simply a political tool.
I guess none of us know what goes on on these presidentail visits. There are also Hundreds of big wigs making deals and laying out strategies.
Hizbollahs recent show of strength was not part of the plan.
The old racism, imperialism and supremacist ideology will try to find more ways. What a party they will have. Devising more killing and bombing and what crumbs to offer the imagined defeated. In other words expect more fiascos from more of the same thinking.
They are sitting on top of a mountain that is melting.
They are talking about Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Syria, etc.
Wouldn’t it be nice to imagine a dramatic announcement? it is extremely unlikely. Bush is there for three days, then two days with Palestinians in Egypt. It is a long time. They must have some expectations, and Carter’s shuttling was not for nothing. But the Hizbollah provocation did not go to plan.
To get a rabbit out of the hat, they will have to include Hamas, Hizbollah and Syria.
Fat chance ……
Washington targeting training camps in Iran
The places where insurgents and terrorists etc. get trained. It sounds like a cowardly way to further the war aims. It also sounds extremely stupid. Given the vulnerability of the US forces who are in the Gulf region. Considering the alternatives, well there really are not any, targeting more than the training camps with more missiles thus getting a guaranteed retaliation against Israel. Using weapons of mass destruction, most countries possess these, and surely they would be used in retaliation. Or waging war on Iran in a sensible manner would require an army of many many millions of trained personnel, which is totally unfeasible. So it is a lose lose story.
What can the West do? Its going under, to some degree on the financial front, it is sinking. And there will be increasing calls for justice, for punishment for those that lied.
We need a Gorbachov (just to repeat myself) someone to dismantle it all.
Nobody can save the economic might of the US. The train is in motion. If the bloodshed increases, then so will the calls for justice. Isn’t it all ironic, that bush is so close to iran right now, if he just zipped over there now, everything could be sorted. When Nixon went to China, it took the world by shock. China was the Pariah state.
Everyday different headlines, all persuasive and convincing. The Neo Cons have never changed their tune, they are predictable. But the recent events in Lebanon surely have had an earth shattering effect. Maybe now the penny has dropped. The gungho realize other people are the same. Whether Arabs Chinese blue or brown. And to add insult to injury, capitalism is looking like a joke. And not even working in the favour of the imperialists!
Like petrol waiting for a spark: everyone can see through the poverty of our ruling juntas.
So what now, buy time, that won’t work. It is time for a radical change, some admission of guilt, which means a required demonising of the old guard, a new ‘gang of four’.
Bush is visiting Olmert in Israel, two empties in a vacuum, a manifestation of a vacuum, spin won’t even help. Is he going to announce more arms shipments, to who, the Lebanese Govt, Palestinian Authority, the Iraqi Govt forces.
Three more people were killed in Sadr city last night. A patriotic loyal officer insured this would happen, someone who thinks they believe in Bush or Olmert. Someone who grew up to be loyal to their country and to their kind.
The west empowers Iran!
Iranian expansion is root of Mid East crises says Israeli Army Radio.
Great your young will now hate Iran. Iran is just filling the void. The west has destroyed its two enemies, the Taliban and Saddam’s Baathists. Created a pro Iranian Government in Iraq. Nurtured the creation and success of Hamas. And created Hizbollah out of a forlorn peasant farmer class. The Iranians, Chinese and Russians are laughing themselves silly. And nobody can put a stop to it. Because the power is hidden and rooted in a fundamentalist anachronistic philosophy. Implemented by a capitalist armaments industry.
Interspersed with the posts I have quoted today (below) I saw a post for a call to prosecute Bush for Murderer and how Reagan’s attempted assassin was associated with the Bush family.
I remember reading in the past that while Bush was Governor He never pardoned anyone from the death penalty, except for a truly mass murderer.
“This documentary exposed a network of religious leaders and Washington politicians who flew children to Washington D.C. for sex orgies”
These are the friends of the Zionists. I am also personna non grata, by the people who hire mercenaries to go ten thousand miles and kill others. Their image is good mind you, just a glance would reveal a respectable person.
No these are not wild conspiracy theories. No they are not, and however small a ruling elite is, there are still many members of the public completely aware of what is going on. To some there is a reign of terror, to others they see no point in doing anything when the masses are not ready.
