Dark Dreams

I am always very sceptical about conspiracy theories, but the Bush Administration keeps confirming all the darkest dreams of conspiracy theorists around the planet.

One story I have always steered away from is the claim that Bush insiders KNEW that 9/11 was about to happen and yet they did nothing (or worse yet, they planned it themsleves). As you can learn by reading up on the Project For A New American Century, neo-conservatives who had been planning US imperialism before 9/11had actually hypothesized about the potential benefits of "another Pearl Harbour" to galvanize public opinion behind their objectives.

Now, the chairman of a federal commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks says that the White House is withholding important documents from the panel and that he is prepared to subpoena the documents if they are not turned over within weeks. The requested documents include intelligence briefs that reached the President in the weeks and days prior to the 9/11 attacks.

"These are documents that only two or three people would normally have access to," the commissioner said. "To make those available to an outside group is something that no other president has done in our history.

"But I've argued very strongly with the White House that we are unique, that we are not the Congress, that these arguments about presidential privilege do not apply in the case of our commission," he said.

"Anything that has to do with 9/11, we have to see it — anything. There are a lot of theories about 9/11, and as long as there is any document out there that bears on any of those theories, we're going to leave questions unanswered. And we cannot leave questions unanswered."

Posturing For Effect

In Donald Rumsfeld's recent leaked Pentagon memo, there was a call for "bolder" measures to transform the US military and intelligence services for the 21st Century. Now we discover just how "bold" Rumsfeld wants these moves to be: the US is planning so-called "mini-nukes".

How can nuclear weapons be effective against a man on a plane with a box-cutter knife, or a woman on a bus with bombs strapped to her hips? Once again, the neo-cons are using terrorism as a pretext for increased war-mongering. I wonder who owns shares in the companies that will develop the new mini-nukes?

"This is extremely serious," said Arjun Makhijani, the president of the Washington-based Institute of Energy and Environmental Research, which has produced a study of the Bush administration's developing nuclear weapons strategy. "The appeal to deterrence is a smokescreen. The desire is to develop nuclear weapons that can actually be used. The United States is in danger of being at the leading edge of proliferation."