Translating spin and lies. Democracy Now provides an interview with Sibel Edmonds, the fired FBI translator who contests Condoleeza Rice's assertions that the government "had no information about an imminent domestic threat involving airplanes." She says she knows about them because she translated them, but is now under a gag order. We wrote about Edmonds recently.
For Brown, it was in September 2002, when Bush chief of staff Andrew Card uttered the infamous words, "you don't introduce new products in the summer." "That was a defining moment because I realized that these are parochial people. They're selling us a war, selling us a product for domestic purposes so W. can be Mr. Commander-in-Chief and on that we can win congressional elections," Brown says. "And that's when I said it stinks."
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Kiesling is not a pacifist. When the Balkans were imploding in 1992, he says, "it was clear to me that our policy of just pious bleating in favor of peace and unity was not going to do anything, and if we wanted to save lives there the international community would have to be prepared with an incredible threat of force." He and a group of colleagues wrote a memorandum of dissent to the department urging U.S. military action. But then came 2002, and Kiesling, who had begun his foreign service career under Reagan as an analyst, was offended by the connection drawn between Sept. 11 and Iraq. "If there had been any connection at all, we would have trumpeted it from the rooftops," Kiesling said.
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Wright arrived at her decision in January 2002, while watching President George W. Bush's State of the Union address on television in Kabul. Wright was sharing a two-room bunker with the four other diplomats assigned to the bare-bones U.S. embassy in Afghanistan (and, surely not pleasantly, sharing one toilet and one shower with 100 Marines) when Bush announced to the world that Iraq, Iran and North Korea had hereby been designated an "axis of evil."
Wright recalls: "We looked at each other and said, 'What? Why are they doing this now?'" Over the next 14 months she watched, dismayed, while 130,000 troops amassed in Kuwait even as the Bush administration ignored Israel and Palestine, refused talks with North Korea and imposed what she considered the "unnecessary curtailment" of civil liberties under the Patriot Act.
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All three fear the war's effects on America's image abroad. "Americans have been considered vulgar, badly brought up, we don't know how to use knives and forks properly, we wear shirts that are too colorful?you name it," Brown says. "But nevertheless we didn't shoot first. And with this catastrophe in Iraq we shot first. Basically, we were the good guys and we're no longer the good guys."
The loud, vulgar adolescent behavior characteristic of many Americans is really just a minor nuisance, unless it's backed up with weapons systems, 200 billion dollars, and a bogus ideology that focuses on imaginary WMDs and missile defense instead of tangible threats. That's the point at which certain wealthy, barely literate graduates of Yale and Harvard and their corporate cabalist buddies become villains.
If only the French would invade the USA and save us from this evil regime.
"If only 540 [individual or corporate] taxpayers paid the amount Berkshire will pay [$3.3 billion in 2003], no other individual or corporation would have to pay anything to Uncle Sam," Buffett boasted. "That's right, 290 million Americans and all other businesses would not have to pay a dime in income, Social Security, excise or estate taxes."
Buffett, one of the most successful investors in history, also noted, "If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is winning."
One of the key questions that the Moms [World Trade Center widows Kristen Breitweiser, Lorie Van Auken, Mindy Kleinberg and Patty Casazza] expected to be put to Mr. Powell was why over 100 members of the Saudi royal family and many members of the bin Laden clan were airlifted out of the U.S. in the days immediately following the terrorist attacks—without being interviewed by law enforcement—while no other Americans, including members of the victims’ families, could take a plane anywhere in the U.S. The State Department had obviously given its approval. But no commissioner apparently dared to touch the sacrosanct Saudi friends of the Bush family.
Top White House officials personally approved the evacuation of dozens of influential Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, from the United States in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when most flights were still grounded, a former White House adviser said today.
The adviser, Richard Clarke, who ran the White House crisis team after the attacks but has since left the Bush administration, said he agreed to the extraordinary plan because the Federal Bureau of Investigation assured him that the departing Saudis were not linked to terrorism. The White House feared that the Saudis could face "retribution" for the hijackings if they remained in the United States, Mr. Clarke said.
The fact that relatives of Mr. bin Laden and other Saudis had been rushed out of the country became public soon after the Sept. 11 attacks. But questions have lingered about the circumstances of their departure, and Mr. Clarke's statements provided the first acknowledgment that the White House had any direct involvement in the plan and that senior administration officials personally signed off on it.
The exclusively preferential treatment the Saudis received during the worst national crisis in decades and their connection to the Bush dynasty deserves further exploration. Why didn't the commission follow this line of thinking?
The entire Observer article above deserves to be read, particularly for the spectacular nature of Rumsfeld's inaction on 9-11-01, but also this:
The irony is that two of the Four Moms voted for George Bush in 2000, while another is a registered independent; only one is a Democrat. But until they felt the teeth of the Bush attack dogs, they were either apolitical or determinedly nonpartisan. Now their tone is different.
"The Bush people keep saying that Clinton was not doing enough [to combat the Al Qaeda threat]," said Ms. Kleinberg. "But ‘nothing’ is less than ‘not enough,’ and nothing is what the Bush administration did."
An unnamed spokesman for the Bush campaign was quoted as saying of Sept. 11, "We own it." That comment particularly disturbed the Four Moms.
"They can have it," said Ms. Van Auken. "Can I have my husband back now? "
Clarke should be brought back again after the ludicrous "joint" Bush-Cheney closed-door not-under-oath session, and commissioners should be free to pose the followup questions they would have wanted to ask the White House directly to Clarke.
The hesitation and cowardice of these people at the prospect of public, truthful testimony tells the real story of their incompetence if not their criminal negligence.
Attorney General John Ashcroft not only moved aggressively to reduce DoJ's anti-terrorist budget but also shift DoJ's mission in spirit to emphasize its role as a domestic police force and anti-drug force.
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[late August 2001] In this request, FBI specifically asks for, among other things, 54 translators to translate backlog of intelligence gathered (line 3 under Foreign Language Services, cost of $5.1 million), 248 counterterrorism agents and support staff (line 14 entitled CT field investigations, cost of $28 million), and 200 professional intelligence researchers (line 16, entitled Intelligence Production, at a cost of $20.8 million). FBI has repeatedly stated that it has a serious backlog of intelligence data it has gathered but simply does not have the staff to analyze or translate it into usable information.
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Post 9/11 – Budget Document Detailing OMB Rejection of FBI Counter-Terror Request: Internal document showing that FBI requested $1.499 billion for counterterrorism for the post-September 11 emergency supplemental but received just $530 million from the White House, despite serious counterterrorism needs.
And within three years $200 billion would be shuttled in the direction of a WMD-free Iraq.
New York WLIB 1190 AM Los Angeles KBLA 1580 AM Chicago WNTD 950 AM Portland, OR KPOJ 620 AM Inland Empire, CA KCAA 1050 AM XM Satellite Radio Channel 167 San Francisco Coming Soon
The antiterrorism stance of the Bush administration was so swift and so thorough that it took one and a half years to get a no-fly zone approved for the tallest building in North America — long after Mickey and Minnie Mouse got their preferential no-fly zones (Chicago Tribune, March 23, 2003):
...[Chicago Mayor Richard] Daley had chastised Homeland Security officials for imposing no-fly zones over Disney amusement parks--and protecting Mickey and Minnie Mouse, as he termed it--while rejecting the request of the nation's third-largest city.
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People who live and work in and visit Chicago "are already living with more than enough tension," Daley said. "There is no need to add to that tension by allowing small planes to fly near some of the nation's tallest buildings."
In addition to Disneyland in Anaheim and Walt Disney World in Orlando, flight restrictions are in place in New York and Washington. Though other cities have asked, Chicago's was the only request granted, FAA spokesman Greg Martin said.
Of course Disney is a potential target, but it represents corporate theme parks, a relatively narrow interest compared to the city of Chicago. Why the ridiculous wait of eighteen months after 9-11-01 to get a no-fly zone in downtown Chicago? And what about LA and Vegas?
Bush USA: Citizens are expendable; corporations aren't.
"Did I give $1,000 to Ralph Nader because I hope and believe he will be president? No," said California business executive Charles Ashman. "I don't believe that any more than Ralph Nader does. But I was offended to see this campaign to squelch him from being a candidate."
Mr. Ashman said he remains a staunch Republican. He contributed $2,000 to the Bush campaign, the maximum allowed for the general election, according to records.
"I proudly made a contribution to the re-election of President Bush because I support him 100 percent," he said. "I hope and believe he will be re-elected."
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More than 24 Nader contributors of $250 or more – about 10 percent of his total – are otherwise reliable GOP donors, The News review found.
Mr. [Jeno] Paulucci, the creator of Chun King and Jeno's Pizza Rolls, donated $2,000 in February to Mr. Nader.
The Florida frozen-food executive is a prolific contributor to the GOP, giving more than $150,000 to the Republican Party and national candidates since 2000.
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As for Ben Stein's money, the television personality and outspoken advocate for the Republican Party has contributed $500 to Nader and $1,000 to Mr. Bush this year. Records indicate that over the last decade, Mr. Stein has given exclusively to the GOP.
Was there a parallel movement among Democrats to double-dip contributions to Perot in 1992? I don't remember.
MSNBC got gigged last week when Deborah Norville reported a federal study that supposedly said 58 percent of all exercise done in the United States occurs in those TV infomercials for body-sculpting workout machines.
But the story was a spoof from The Onion, a satirical newspaper and online publication. The network said it inadvertently dropped the attribution in picking up the story, but c'mon - most of the exercise done in America is on TV? Shouldn't somebody in the control room have said, "Hey, wait just a minute ..."
That little voice in your head that screams "Bullshit!" is apparently subject to cultural cycles too. We've just gotten through three years of the American bullshit detection switch in the Off position, and now it's waking back up, thanks to catalysts like Paul O'Neill and Richard Clarke.
Last week Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said he wanted to declassify 2002 testimony by Mr. Clarke, hoping to show discrepancies between his recent criticisms of the Bush administration and positive remarks he made as a White House aide.
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Mr. Clarke said he "would welcome" the declassification of his testimony before a congressional committee looking into events around Sept. 11, and hopes the White House will release even more documents that he claims will bolster his credibility and his charges.
In addition to his testimony, Mr. Clarke called on the administration to release Ms. Rice's testimony; all pre-Sept. 11 e-mails between Mr. Clarke and Ms. Rice; a a Jan. 25, 2001 antiterrorism memo sent by him to Ms. Rice; and a Sept. 4 national-security directive that he says embraces his memo's recommendations. The two latter documents, he said, show the administration "wasted months when we could have had some action" in ratcheting up the war on terrorism.
Regarding Rice, as we said before, if it walks like a chicken....
