The Smoking Gun has 40 pages of correspondence between jailed former Enron boss Kenneth Lay and El Busho:

"The Bush-Lay material touches on both personal matters (birthday greetings and Bush's knee surgery) and public concerns of Lay and Enron, such as energy legislation and tort reform, and reflects the kind of jocular relationship that reportedly saw the nickname-happy Bush call the Enron boss 'Kenny Boy.' "

The massive heist:

"The looting of Iraq isn't over -- it's just moved to a new phase. One of the things a sovereign (albeit hand-picked) government of Iraq can do, which under international law an occupying army can't do, is sell off Iraq's public resources. That's what's now under way. The Bush Administration has an ambitious plan, unprecedented among underdeveloped countries, to privatize virtually every agency ever run under the umbrella of the government of Iraq. It's a fire sale to pyromaniacs, and aside from the fact that Iraq's public resources will be sold off to mostly foreign, mostly American bidders at pennies on the dollar, the contracts that they in turn let are likely to set new standards for corruption and cost-plus accounting -- particularly in a country that barely has its own police force, let alone one capable of investigating high-level wheeling and dealing of this order.

The whole thing stinks to high heaven..."

Give it back, George:

"When I worked as a racketeering investigator for government, nothing was spared, including houses bought with purloined loot. Let there be no exception here. It's time to tape up the White House gate and hang the sign: 'Crime Scene: Property to be Confiscated. Vacate Premises Immediately'. "

Greg Palast calls on the Bush Cartel to give up their ill-gotten gains from Key Lay's Enron.

CIA Dismissed Warnings Of Faulty Intelligence In Powell Speech:

'Let's keep in mind the fact that this war's going to happen regardless of what Curve Ball said or didn't say. The Powers That Be probably aren't terribly interested in whether Curve Ball knows what he's talking about.'

Bush Cartel Talks of Steps to Potentially Cancel ("Postpone") the Presidential Election:

"... the Bush Cartel could claim that they have solid information of an imminent attack and postpone the election because they don't want the terrorists to influence the outcome, because, they would argue, that would give a victory to the terrorists.

Which is all another way of saying, the Republicans don't plan on yielding power under any circumstances, the will of the people be damned."

The lie that killed my son:

"'When I go to Washington DC as an American citizen I have a right, I have a right to go to the White House and I'll not stop until that right is given back to us. My son's blood paid for that White House, and I can't go in? That's my White House. I'm furious.' What would she say to Bush if she met him? 'God have mercy.' She shakes her head. 'God have mercy.'"

A Pacifist Palestinian Speaks Out:

"Two minutes went by and I saw two soldiers above me next to my head. `Get up! Get up!' I tried but I couldn't. I said to the soldier, `You have killed me and you are telling me to get up?'

'My voice grew weaker. The soldiers stayed above my head for 20 minutes. They didn't let anyone approach. My mother and father and brothers tried, but they didn't let them. The soldiers threw stun grenades at them and fired in the air. I felt like I was going to die. I said to the soldier, `Be humane, let the people help me, I'm going to die.''"

Feith's Fake Cell Briefed White House on Iraq's 'imaginary' al-Qaeda links:

Neo-conservatives Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz set up an "unofficial 'Iraqi intelligence cell' in the summer of 2002 to circumvent the CIA and secretly brief the White House on links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qa'eda, according to the Senate intelligence committee.

According to dramatic testimony contained in the annexe, Mr Feith's cell undermined the credibility of CIA judgments on Iraq's alleged al-Qa'eda links within the highest levels of the Bush administration.

The cell appears to have been set up by Mr Feith as an adjunct to the Office of Special Plans, a Pentagon intelligence-gathering operation established in the wake of 9/11 with the authority of Paul Wolfowitz. Its focus quickly became the al-Qa'eda-Saddam link.

On occasion, without informing the then head of the CIA, George Tenet, the group gave counter-briefings in the White House. Sen Jay Rockefeller, the most senior Democrat on the committee, said that Mr Feith's cell may even have undertaken "unlawful" intelligence-gathering initiatives."

Tony Blair's Iraq evidence was 'confusing' say former intelligence officers. A BCC Panorama special tonight will showcase UK intelligence showing Saddam did not have WMDs, intelligence that was ignored by No. 10 and Washington.

WORLDS GREATEST COINCIDENCE (CONTINUES)

What about the fact that without minutes of the World Trade Centre attacks, the White House was pressuing the CIA to connect the attacks with Iraq? Just a coincidence!!?!

What about Dick Cheney's frequent and virtually unprecedented visits to CIA headquarters? Well, they were certainly just a co-incidence, because the report actually says so! Read this:

"The committee did not find any evidence that intelligence analysts changed their judgements as a result of political pressure, altered or produced intelligence products to conform with administration policy, or that anyone attempted to coerce or influence analysts to do so."

And yet the report also quotes the CIA ombudsman describing what he called a "hammering" in the form of repeated questions by administration officials on Iraq intelligence related to Saddam's possible links to al-Qaeda. The intensity of the questioning was "harder than he had previously witnessed in his 32-year career with the agency," the report quoted the official as saying.

The ombudsman told the committee: "Several analysts he spoke with mentioned pressure and gave the sense that they felt the constant questions and pressure to re-examine issues were unreasonable."

Well, what about that? Just a coincidence?

By failing to join the dots and condemn the Bush Administration insiders who cynically manipulated intelligence for their own ends, the Senate committee is not only wilfully negligent, they are also now complicit in perpetrating the world's greatest lie.

What about all the nations at the UN? Does anybody remember how sceptical people were when Powell presented his "conclusive proof" of Saddam's WMD programs? Does anybody remember the riducule when his "evidence" turned out to be a plagiarized university thesis? The war went ahead anyway, remember?

Finally, what about the fact that George W. Bush's father was HEAD of the CIA for years, and the people who brought young George W. to the White House were old Bush 41 administration officials, business associates and family friends with close ties to the CIA? Just another #$%&ing coincidence???!

Let's not keep pretending that this war was anything other than a cynical grab for oil and power. The Emperor has no clothes and he had no clothes when he went to war. Let's stop discussing his wardrobe!!!

Army Whistleblower Says Superiors Hid Torture:

'On several occasions I walked in and saw agents literally pulling prisoners' arms out of their sockets while they were tied behind their backs with flexcuffs. I had to push [one] idiot off [a] detainee and pop the guy's arms back in place.'

When this soldier - with 30 years experience - reported these events to his commander, he was strapped into a guernsy against his will, classified mentally unfit and shipped out of Iraq.

WORLD'S GREATEST COINCIDENCE!

GOD MISLED ON IRAQ WMDs!

Finally, the US Senate report on Iraq is delivered. Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who heads the committee, said the evidence presented by the CIA for going to war with Iraq was all dreadfully wrong, but he says the Bush White House was not to blame.

What about the neo-conservatives who rose to positions of power within the Bush White House, who had been planning such an invasion of the Middle East for over a decade, who set up an Office of Special Plans to filter all this faulty intelligence and hand-pick the worst of it? Just a coincidence.

What about the decision by Bush, Cheney, Powell and other to always favour this hand-picked data (WMDs, Niger nukes, 45-minute warnings, etc) over other, more sceptical intelligence? Just a coincidence.

Pat Roberts calls this a "global intelligence failure," implying that the whole world believed the intelligence Bush used to go to war with Iraq was right. What about the millions of anti-war protestors around the world? What about the countries who argued against the invasion at the UN, or those who were only reluctantly pressured into joining the "coalition of the willing" despite strong objections by their citizens?

Just a coincidence?!?

What about Bush's insane declaration that God Almighty told him to smite Saddam?

Was God, too, misled by the CIA???

Supreme Court Republicans Turning Against Bush & Co?

"Three years, two wars and thousands of lies later, ...the 2000 election is more controversial than ever. The electorate is at least as polarized as it was during the '60s; many Democrats worry that this year's election will again by decided by judicial fiat. Fifty-one percent of Americans still say that Bush is an illegitimate pretender to the Oval Office."

Ted Rall argues that two ageing Supreme Court Republicans are now staying on till after November so that Bush cannot replace them with his own nominees.

Isreal Officially Becomes A Rogue Nation

The World Court has ruled Israel's giant concrete barrier illegal. Predictably, Israel says it will not accept the ruling and will continue extending the barrier. Palestinians are now calling for UN sactions against Israel.

But what's the White House reaction? Can you guess? ...

"The White House has refrained from addressing the decision, saying it did not think it was the right forum..."

"This is an issue that should be resolved through the process that has been put in place, specifically the road map," said White House spokesman Scotty McClellan.

The blessed road map! Let us cling to belief in Bush's blessed road map! Yae, though the pages be torn and spattered with blood, though the directions be utterly misguided and our moral compasses adrift, let us cling to Bush's blessed road map as we blast our way through the scorched badlands of the Middle East!

To quote Gandhi once again: "There is no road to peace. Peace is the road."

Neo-cons Subverting Supreme Court Verdict On Gitmo

The Pentagon said on Wednesday a newly created tribunal of three U.S. military officers will conduct hearings to permit all of the approximately 594 prisoners held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their status as an "enemy combatant" rather than prisoner of war...

But the Pentagon said Guantanamo prisoners cannot have a lawyer for the tribunal hearings, and that unspecified security and other arrangements must be resolved before detainees can have access to lawyers for court challenges to their imprisonment.

Amnesty International have noted that the new process remains entirely within the U.S. military, and that all sorts of evidence will be admissible, including from anonymous witnesses and statements that may have been coerced.

The new tribunal was detailed in an order written by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The order stated that 'the tribunal is not bound by the rules of evidence such as would apply in a court of law' and that there will be 'a rebuttal presumption in favor of the government's evidence.' "

George W. Bush, Jr. - The Dark Side:

"'I'm a uniter not a divider. That means when it comes time to sew up your chest cavity, we use stitches as opposed to opening it up.' -- Bush, on David Letterman, March 2, 2000. (the audience booed) "

Bush Campaign Ad Invokes Hitler

The Guardian Weblog reports on the latest Bush campaign commercial and says "to describe it as crass would be an understatement."

'This is not a time for pessimism and rage ...' opens the latest George Bush campaign video. It's an extraordinary, ear-bashing piece of work which splices clips of John Kerry, Michael Moore and Al Gore speaking with footage of Hitler addressing a Nazi rally. Moore and Soros, say the Republicans, have both compared Bush to Hitler.

But their own anti-Bush hectoring makes them sound more like the Nazi dictator. The core message: Democrats preach a message of pessimism and hate. 'Disgusting,' ripostes the Kerry team: 'The fact that George Bush thinks it's appropriate to use images of Adolf Hitler in his campaign raises serious questions about his fitness to spend another four years in the White House.'

Democrats should realize that this is a deliberate ploy by Republicans to muddy the water on issues where Bush is sensitive: Fascism and Nazism. GOP posters on the Net regular call Islamic fundamentalists "Islamofascists" and even claim that Hitler was a Socialist (because his government supported the Volkswagen as the "peoples' car").

Privatizing War:

"The use of mercenaries was once a dirty, little secret most governments were loath to acknowledge. But today they're called private military contractors and perform almost every function essential to military operations. The Financial Times has labeled this trend the 'creeping privatization of the business of war.'

During the first Gulf War, about two percent of U.S. military personnel were private workers. As of 2003, it had reached 10 percent. The Pentagon employs more than 700,000 private contractors, and at least $33 billion of the $416 billion in military spending overwhelmingly approved by the Senate last week will go to PMCs.

In Iraq, these companies supply more trainers and security forces than all remaining members of the 'coalition of the willing' except the United States. Approximately 15,000 civilian security guards are stationed there, at least 6,000 of them armed. Some contractors maintain sophisticated weapons systems that used to be handled by the army. More than $20 billion -- almost a third of the Army's budget for Iraq and Afghanistan -- goes to contractors. "

Bush has opened a slight lead over Kerry, according to a a new Associated Press poll.

Shock! Kerry Has A Sense Of Humour!:

'I want you to know we think this is a dream ticket. We've got better vision. We've got better ideas. We've got real plans. We've got a better sense of what's happening to America,' Mr Kerry said.

'And,' he added with a grin, 'We've got better hair. I'll tell you, that goes a long way.'

Another former Australian PM, Malcolm Fraser has joined Paul Keating in asking the USA to stay out of Australian domestic politics. And Fraser was a Liberal!

UN rejects request for US presidential poll monitors

Are You Experienced?

George W. Bush alleged Thursday that John Edwards lacks the experience necessary to be president. As Juan Cole points out, "the problem with this argument is that Bush lacked the experience necessary to be president when he ran in 2000, so this sort of cheap shot just hoists him by his own petard."

Cole posts an old CNN story to reinforce the point:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush is enduring sharp criticism for being unable to name the leaders of four current world hot spots, but President Bill Clinton says Bush "should, and probably will, pick up" those names.

The front-runner for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination faltered Thursday in an international affairs pop quiz posed by Andy Hiller, a political reporter for WHDH-TV in Boston.
Bush

Hiller asked Bush to name the leaders of Chechnya, Taiwan, India and Pakistan. Bush was only able to give a partial response to the query on the leader of Taiwan, referring to Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui simply as "Lee." He could not name the others.

"Can you name the general who is in charge of Pakistan?" Hiller asked, inquiring about Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, who seized control of the country October 12.

"Wait, wait, is this 50 questions?" asked Bush.

Hiller replied: "No, it's four questions of four leaders in four hot spots." . . .

Bush, in answering the question about the leader of Pakistan, also said: "The new Pakistani general, he's just been elected -- not elected, this guy took over office..."

Freedom Fighter or Opportunist Vigilante? You Decide

The BBC reports that three US citizens arrested in Kabul this week were on a freelance counter-terrorism mission. The group had been posing as US military and had imprisoned and perhaps even killed Afghanis.

Flogging the Simian has some very detailed and interesting background information on the apparent leader, Jack Idema.

Write What We Want You To Write, Or Else...:

"Just five months before American voters decide who will be appointed to the most powerful office in the world, the US state department said it would no longer allow overseas journalists to renew visas from within the country. From next week the estimated 20,000 foreign journalists stationed in the US, who used to be able to renew their visas with ease in any major city, will be forced to leave the country to do so. "

Can you imagine the delays for journalists who dare to write anything remotely critical of Bush & Co?

The new edict is courtesy of John Ashcrost's Department of Homeland Security. That word "Homeland"... it sounds so much like the Communist Russian "Motherland" or the Nazi "Fatherland" or (auf Deutsch) "Heimat", doesn't it?

Howard's Tired Old Song

Louise Dodson looks at Australian PM John Howard's latest policy speech and find it remarkably similar to the same tired politics he has been peddling for the last ten years. The only major issue he isn't talking about any more is GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY.

Bush Wants Bin Laden's Head On A Pakistani Platter Before November

"The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs [high value targets] by the election. According to one source in Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), 'The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] U.S. elections.'"

The Emperor Has No Clothes - Who Dares To Say It?

The New York Times says the " bipartisan Senate report to be issued Friday that is highly critical of prewar intelligence on Iraq will sidestep the question of how the Bush administration used that information to make the case for war, Congressional officials said Wednesday.

But Democrats are maneuvering to raise the issue in separate statements. Under a deal reached this year between Republicans and Democrats, the Bush administration's role will not be addressed until the Senate Intelligence Committee completes a further stage of its inquiry, but probably not until after the November election. "

This is very, very wrong.

Cheney and the neo-cons specifically set up their Office of Special Plans to shape intelligence as they wished. Millions of anti-wr protestors around the world knew the intelligence was being carefully manipulated, cynically presented, and therefore the war was wrong. It's all very well to avoid playing partisan politics with intelligence in an election year, but to present such a report without laying blame on the White House doorstep is an abdication of moral responsibility. What do you pay your taxes for, folks?

Bush's Big Business Buddies Gunning For Edwards:

"The Chamber of Commerce, the biggest business corporation, said it was seriously considering abandoning its traditional stance of neutrality to fight Edwards.

The chamber's head, Tom Donohue, vowed to the Wall Street Journal this week to work to defeat Edwards. "We would get the best people and the greatest assets we can rally" to the cause, he said...

"John Edwards supports a radical anti-business agenda," says the Atra anti-Edwards Internet site www.edwardswatch.com."

Sounds good to me!!!

Mind your business, Keating tells US:

In response to unprecedented US criticism of Australia's opposition Labour party from G. W. Bush, Cheney, Powell, Richard Armitage and others, former Australian PM Paul Keating has warned US politicians to mind their own business.

"'Beating up on friendly foreign political parties is not only unsightly, it is also dumb and counter productive in the longer term,' Mr Keating said. 'There is no division in the Labor Party about the value or maintenance of the US alliance nor about policy on Iraq. But the party will not be thugged by US officials. In my own experience of presidents Bush (senior) and Clinton, no behaviour of this kind towards what the US might regard as a client state, was ever contemplated or attempted.'

Mr Keating questioned Mr Armitage's and Secretary of State Colin Powell's support for the Iraq war.

'A modicum of self regard might have taken Richard Armitage and his secretary, Colin Powell, out of this administration over its policy in Iraq,' he said. 'I can understand both men seeing it as their duty to stay on to fight the fight within the administration for America's sake. But I should have thought a little humility might have been appropriate or at least some contrition.'"

'I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation.'

- George W. Bush

U.S. Gives Iraqi Hospitals Broken Promises in Place of Medicine:

"Despite promises of over $1 billion in US funding, hospital patients in Iraq continue to suffer ongoing hardship. Problems plaguing Iraqi hospitals fifteen months into what has been a brutal, bloody occupation range from ongoing medicine and equipment shortages to an overall lack of proper medical infrastructure.

'We are getting less medical supplies now than we were during the sanctions,' said Dr. Namin Rashid, the Chief Resident Doctor at Yarmouk Hospital. 'Paul Bremer came here and talked a lot at the beginning of the occupation, but nothing has changed.' "

Few foreign fighters held in Iraq:

Iraq's government said it was holding only 29 foreign fighters at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.
"Those on the list included four Saudis, four Syrians, four Jordanians, two Yemenis, an Egyptian, a Turk, a Lebanese, a Palestinian, a Moroccan and an Iranian.

Some 60 other foreign fighters were being held elsewhere in Abu Ghraib and at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, for 'anti-Iraq activities that threaten the security of coalition forces,' said Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Johnson, the US military's spokesman for detention operations.

More than 22,000 Iraqis have been through the prison system since the end of the war last May. There are currently 5,500 Iraqi prisoners listed as "suspected combatants"."

64 Bad Things About The Bush Administration Years

I read a list of 64 bad things about the Reagan years recently, and thought it would be easy enough to put together a similar list for the last three and a half years under Bush's insane regime. So here they are, in no particular order...

1. The poetry of Donald Rumsfeld
2. Skull and Bones
3. Weapons Of Mass Destruction (WMDs)
4. “Mission Accomplished”
5. No Child Left Behind
6. Clear Skies initiative
7. Kyoto
8. International Criminal Court
9. Prescott Bush
10. Missing National Guard records
11. “Bring ‘em on!”
12. Guantanamo Bay
13. Falluja and Najaf
14. “War on Terror”
15. Jeb Bush
16. Florida
17. Hanging Chads
18. Judge Scalia’s duck-hunting trip
19. Arnold Schwazenneger’s California
20. Dick Cheney’s consistent denial of facts
21. Uranium from Niger
22. Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations
23. The “Road To Peace” in the Middle East
24. Ariel Sharon
25. The Patriot Act
26. The Coalition Of The Willing
27. John Ashcroft
28. George Tenet and CIA “intelligence failures”
29. The Department of Homeland Security
30. “Freedom Fries” (French Fries) and “Loyalty Day” (Labour Day)
31. Paul Bremer, the "dictator of Baghdad"
32. 2002 US-sponsored coup in Venezuela
33. Office Of Special Plans
34. The Neo-conservatives
35. David Kelly and the Hutton Enquiry (UK)
36. US Removal of Aristide in Haiti
37. Iraqi "Untermenschen"
38. Poindexter’s "Policy Analysis Market"
39. US Global Empire
40. Rush Limbaugh’s drug addiction
41. Abu Ghraib prison and “Torturegate”
42. Drilling for oil in Alaska
43. Dubya-speak and the torture of the English language
44. Tax cuts for the rich
45. The dismissal of “Old Europe”
46. Jose Padilla's denial of civil liberties
47. The longest Presidential holidays on record
48. Kenneth Lay, Enron and other corporate scandals
49. The “USS Condoleeza Rice” (a Chevron oil tanker)
50. The “outing” of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent
51. The dark nemesis in the White House, Karl Rove
52. Diebold and electronic voting
53. "We don’t do body counts”
54. Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi Governing Council
55. The “jobless recovery”
56. The “Bush doctrine” of pre-emptive strikes
57. the Project For A New American Century
58. “Human remains pouches” a.k.a. “Transfer Tubes”
59. Oil wars
60. “Iraqification” of the Middle East
61. The explicit threat of “With us or against us”
62. Bush's fake Thanksgiving turkey in Baghdad airport
63. "International law? I better call my lawyer. He didn't bring that up to me."
64. And last but not least, that damned stupid SMIRK!

Feel free to doctor the list as you see fit and pass it on to your friends and workmates... :-)

New Nicolas Cage Movie Features Illuminati (Skull and Bones) Spin & Symbolism:

The National Treasure, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, follows the story of Cage's character, an archaeologist-historian, who seeks to find a hidden treasure guided by a map secretly embedded within the Declaration of Independence.

The all-seeing eye which appears on the reverse side of the one dollar bill, according to the movie, was put there by the founding fathers as a means of communicating a secret about the hidden treasure. In reality, it was President Franklin D Roosevelt who made the decision to place the pyramid on the one dollar bill.

Click here to watch the movie trailer and see the overload of all-seeing eye symbolism. For a historical account of what the all-seeing eye really means, click here."

Fox Runs Out Of Time For Skull And Bones:

Kris Millegan, editor of Fleshing Out Skull & Bones appeared on Fox News Channel on June 19th. Fox infobabe Page Hopkins interviewed him...

PH: "I mean I guess the questions is, those of us on the outside what do they do. Do they get together and have dinner together what is the point of this club?

KM: Well, some say that point of the club is bonding. I look at it through the eyes of a social historian and when you look at the grouping of people and the jobs that they have. you find a rather large amount of the membership has been involved in intelligence. And then one of the most disturbing things is that the family groups have been involved in drug running since the early 1800s. And it seems --

PH: Drug running?

KM: Yes, the founder of Skull & Bones was William Huntington Russell and his family business was Russell & Company. Which was the -er- America's largest opium smuggler, the third largest in the world.

PM: Wow, Kris Millegan, unfortunately we are out of time... "

Paranoia Becomes Iraq Government Policy:

"Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has signed into law new security measures enabling the Government to impose curfews and arrest people only suspected of wrongdoing..."

Juan Cole exposes media double standards:

"When Princeton University Press considered my book, written out of the Egyptian National Archives, on the 19th century Urabi Revolt, the editor sent the manuscript to eminent experts in 19th century Egyptian history. Now, I lived in the Arab world for 6 years, have a degree in Arabic studies from Cairo, and had a Fulbright grant for my research. I spent a year working almost daily in the archives in Cairo. I had an academic position in a major department at a major university. But Princeton University Press did not trust me. They still had the book refereed.

In contrast, the American Enterprise Institute publishes anything (Laurie) Mylroie hands into them, no matter how fantastic. She does not speak Arabic, has never been in any Iraqi archive, and has no standing in the Middle East field. Her books don't have to be refereed, apparently. The poor lay reader who finds her book in Borders has no way of distinguishing it from the trade paperbacks of Princeton University Press. And then the mere fact of the book's existence can become a reference-point in political debate. No university press would have published Mylroie's pablum, because academic researchers would have shot it down for poor evidence and bad reasoning...

The tragedy is that people will go on believing Mylroie's weirdness, and she will keep getting invited on t.v. and to speak to Congress, and AEI will not suffer a loss of credibility because of this fiasco. If an assistant professor in a university wrote such nonsense, the person would never get tenure and would end up unemployed.

I guess if you have the backing of enough incredibly rich people, you can get away with almost anything."

Media Distortion Continues

Responding to taunts from US VP Dick Cheney that he "probably" had more info than the 9-11 Commission, representatives today released a one sentence statement saying:

"After examining available transcripts of the Vice President's public remarks, the 9-11 Commission believes it has access to the same information the Vice President has seen regarding contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq prior to the 9-11 attacks."

No response from Cheney, who still wants US voters to believe Saddam had WMDs and a dangerous relationship with Al Quaeda. But a spokesman said Cheney never took issue with the 9/11 Commission, only the way it was reported. Yeah, right.

Why does the Bush administration feel it necessary to lie to the American people? How can such disengenous, slippery and manipulative politics possibly continue beyond November 2nd? The effort of pinning down all these lies is seriously exhausting to any of us who attempt it - what will happen if we get 4 more years of this shit?

Here's a pattern you can look for in coming events:

1. Bad news comes out.
2. Bush/Cheney/Blair/Howard/etc immediately deny it. Headlines that should have said "Bad News Happens" instead read "Government Denies Bad News."
3. Bad news proven true.
4. Government continues stalling and qualifying remarks until it is eventually forced to admit that the bad news was true, but by that time it is no longer headline news so nobody notices.

This illustrates the growing problem of media influence on politics. Politics shapes the media and vice versa. It's a growing problem that needs to be addressed with some serious policies and commitments in the coming US/UK/Australian election campaigns.

Adding to the problem is the fact that right-wing political parties inevitably seem to have more influence over the media barons and their news channels. So it is with people who happily compromise morals for money.

This cartoon from Tom Tomorrow says it all.

Blair Grilled on Bush Union:

Tony Blair today faced tough questions from British MPs on his relationship with George W. Bush and what Britain may or may not have received in return for supporting the US invasion of Iraq. His tepid response shows why politicians who lie should never, ever admit even the slightest error. Dick Cheney would have been nauseated.

"I am not daft about the politics of it. I can see, particularly in my own political family, it is a problem from time to time," Blair admitted, when asked about his slavish devotion to all things American. He argued that people should not "believe that Britain is America's poodle." But then he stood on his back feet and danced in a circle:

"I think most countries round the world would give their eye teeth to have that relationship (with Washington), and it is a shame that here it is seen somehow as a sign of mockery that we have the closeness of that relationship," he said. Well, Tony, most people would actually give their eye teeth to have a government that was honest.

Asked about the detention of Britons in Gitmo, he at least showed more spine than Australia's John Howard: "Guantanamo Bay is an anomaly that at some point has got to be brought to an end," he said.

What about WMDs? "I have to accept that we have not found them, that we may not find them."

Opinion polls show a majority of Britons disklike the US president and disapprove of his close relationship with their prime minister. Oh dear...!

Siebel Edwards Knows Too Much For Bush & Co:

"A federal judge threw out a lawsuit Tuesday by a whistle-blower who alleged security lapses in the FBI's translator program, ruling that her claims might expose government secrets that could damage national security.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said he was satisfied with claims by Attorney General John Ashcroft and a senior FBI official that the civil lawsuit by Sibel Edmonds could expose intelligence-gathering methods and disrupt diplomatic relations with foreign governments.

The judge said he couldn't explain further because his explanation itself would expose sensitive secrets."

Edwards points out that:

(a) the judge never heard her side of the story, despite meeting twice with government lawyers, and

(b) the judge was appointed by George W. Bush.

Edwards plans to appeal the ruling. Once again you have to wonder - what are Bush & Co so afraid of???

Allawi's Gang Of Thugs

True to form, former CIA terrorist and now Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi has created a violent gang of terrorist thugs to perform his dirty work in a country where rule of law is still just a political toy.

A previously unknown group of armed, masked men - calling themselves the "Salvation Movement" - have issued a public warning to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to 'leave Iraq or die.'

The group cited the murder of foreign workers and threats against interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi as justification for their threats. Allawi, Bush and others should immediately and strongly condemn such mercenary vigilantes.

Fortress Washington

"The White House, the Capitol building and the Washington Monument are shrouded by curtained chain-link fences, or 8-foot-high wooden barriers. Behind these stockades, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of security enhancements are being built in a town that some are now calling Fortress Washington."

The "most photographed building in America is walled off for three blocks around. "

One observer, Brent Jesfiak of Troy, N.Y., says it's "a reminder of the paranoia of those in power."

US tortured Australian in Egypt:

"Australian terror suspect Mamdouh Habib was allegedly tortured in Egypt before being sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, according to Qatar's former minister of justice, Dr Najeeb Al-Nauimi.

SBS's Dateline program tonight explores allegations about the treatment of Mr Habib, beginning with his capture and interrogation in Pakistan in 2001.

It claims to have unearthed the mystery of what happened to Mr Habib before he became one of the two Australian citizens being detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba by the United States.

He has been held there for over two years without trial.

The former Qatari justice minister says Mr Habib was tortured and interrogated in Egypt 'in a way in which a human cannot stand up'."

New Poll Shows Most Iraqis (still) Want Americans to Leave:

Before he left Iraq, America's proconsul L. Paul Bremer told the New York Times: 'You won't find more than two percent of all Iraqis for all their complaints they're making now, who think it would have been better if we had never come.'

The comment show just how out-of-touch the US administrators - and their neo-cons backers in Washington - really are. According to a just-released poll, nearly 60 percent of Iraqis now feel it was wrong that the US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq.

Bush maintains Iraq WMD LIES:

"'I know that Saddam Hussein was a threat. He was a threat to the neighbourhood, he was a threat to the people of Iraq, he harboured terrorists,' Mr Bush told reporters yesterday.

That's a lie, and Bush knows it. The only terrorist in Iraq at the time of invasion was an old man called Abu Nidal who had renounced terrorism in favour of politics with the PLO. He was a scruffy old bag of nothing. Saddam's only other connection with terrorists was a PR stunt cash payment to bereaved families of Palestinian suicide bombers. He did not harbour terrorists.

'Saddam Hussein had the intent, he had the capability' to produce WMDs, Mr Bush said.

Another lie. Evidence shows Saddam had no such capability.

'The world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power,' said Bush.

Is it? A destabilized Iraq attracting terrorists like flies, increased support for fanatical Islamic groups, international law trashed and torn, dumped in an Oval Office bin, old alliances and treaties in tatters... Saddam was a cruel tyrant and it is good that he is gone. But is the world really a better place today than when he was in power? Or is that just the final, desperate White House lie?

John Howard's Secret, Taxpayer-funded Dirt-Digging Department

Alan Ramsey has a few tough questions for John Howard:

"Cross your heart and hope to die, John Howard. Then tell voters about Ian Hanke and what is referred to within your Government as "special projects", something Hanke, an old Liberal Party hand of umpteen years' standing, runs out of the office of Melbourne's Kevin Andrews, the soft-voiced, psalm-singing Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations...

Mark Latham went public in his compelling defence on Monday of the surge in trash generated around his private life and his family, and you, very piously, PM, immediately repudiated as 'nonsense' any interest 'in Mr Latham's personal life', as well as any suggestion of a Government 'dirt file' on your opponent...

So tell us, Prime Minster, exactly what do Ian Hanke and Gerry Wheeler do? Taxpayers pay their salaries, their ministerial allowances in lieu of overtime, and their tax-free travel expenses. They have a right to know, surely."

Iraq invasion 'shattered world's confidence in sovereignty' says Malaysian PM:

"The United Nations was effectively sidelined in March 2003, when the United States and its coalition partners decided to unilaterally invade and occupy Iraq," says Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. "This episode shattered the confidence of the world's people in the inviolability of national sovereignty."

"The experiences since September 11 brought to the fore another realisation, and that is the inadequacy of military action alone as a means of destroying the terrorist networks," he said.

"The fight against terrorism is also a battle for the minds of the perpetrators. Terrorism will not disappear if the methods used to hunt down terrorists lead to the breeding of new recruits."

Never mind the illegal US Coup D'Etat in Haiti, Carribean nations think it's time to move on:

"'What has happened in the past we consider very unfortunate, we don't like it at all. However, we think the time has come to move on.' "

Well Of Course They Knew! And So Did Bush, Unless He's An Idiot

CIA held info on abandoned WMD:

"THE Central Intelligence Agency failed to pass on information that Baghdad had abandoned its program to develop weapons of mass destruction to President George W. Bush before the Iraq war, The New York Times reported on its website late today.

Citing unnamed government officials, the newspaper said the existence of a secret pre-war CIA operation to debrief relatives of Iraqi scientists - and the agency's failure to give their statements to the president and other policymakers - has been uncovered by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence."

Allawi Shows His US Pedigree:

Today's US air attack on Falluja - the fifth since June 19th - was sanctioned by the new "soveriegn" Iraqi government:

"'After consultations between Iraqi government officials and multinational forces-Iraq, Iraqi security forces provided clear and compelling intelligence to conduct a precision strike this evening on a known Zarqawi safe house in southeastern Fallujah,' Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said in a statement."

The move is sure to stir further anti-government and anti-US resentment as more bodies are dug out of the rubble... Not a good start, Mr Allawi. But not at all surprising either.

The US military says it dropped four 500-pound (225kg) bombs and two 1,000-pound (450kg) bombs in the raid, which took place at about 7:15 pm local (Iraqi) time. Given that these bombs are being dropped from planes into populated civilian areas, it is no surprise that women and children are once again being reported among the dead and wounded.

And spare a thought for Wassef Ali Hassoun, the Lebanese-born corporal who deserted the US army in Iraq only to be captured and threatened with beheading. Now that he has been spared from execution, the US forces in Iraq will be trying even harder to find him... so they can arrest him for desertion!

Musharraf Highlights The Real Issues

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has warned that a new "iron curtain" is descending between the West and the Muslim world. He says a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might end 75 per cent of global terrorism, provided it is seen as just by mainstream Muslims.

"If we are just killing terrorists, we are not achieving anything ... I call them the leaves of a tree. As long as the tree is there, the leaves will keep growing."

"If you manage to finish off one organisation like Al Qaeda ... you've chopped off a branch of that tree, but the tree will still grow. You must identify the root, and the root happens to be political disputes ... the root happens also to be illiteracy and poverty."

It's about time a world leader started a debate on the root causes of terrorism. As head of a military dictatorship, Musharraf has survived two assasination attempts and knows better than most of Bush's allies how serious a threat is posed by the growing popularity of militant Islamic fanaticism.

His speech certainly sounds a lot more intelligent than Bush's Independence Day drivel: "You can't talk sense to them. You can't negotiate with them..."

In fact, negotiation - including recognisance of past and present mistakes by Western governments - is exactly what is needed.

Howard Hitched To Bush's Sinking Star:

"By becoming Bush's best buddy, Howard was able to strut the stage. He could have sleep-overs at the President's Texas ranch. He could be dubbed the 'man of steel'. And by refusing Bush's brief detour to Australia to be regarded as an official state visit, Howard was able to keep the Governor-General out of the way for photo opportunities. Our Prime Minister has appropriated Dubya as wholeheartedly as, years earlier, Margaret Thatcher appropriated Ronald Reagan. Or as Howard's mentor, Robert Menzies, embraced the young Queen.

Bush is on the nose in the US and Iraq, despite the grandstanding about 'the handover of sovereignty' that is dividing the Republican Party as deeply as it has British Labour. When William F. Buckley Jr, who is to American conservatism what the Pope is to Rome, joins in the growing unease about the war in Iraq, you know that Bush is whacked.

... Howard, who still pretends that Iraq is a triumph and that Bush is a great President, has to get us to the polls before George and Laura start packing their mementos into the tea chests provided by Lone Star Removals and retreat to the ranch. "

Why Are Bush and Blair Scared Of Criticism From Milosevic and Saddam?

It's very strange that, after two years of prosecution and millions of dollars in lawyers' bills and expenses, Slobodan Milosevic has suddenly been ruled unfit to present his court defence.

"Milosevic, who is defending himself, appeared relaxed and fit in the courtroom. He objected when Judge Robinson began discussing his medical file, but was overruled... Milosevic was expected to criticise former US president Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and leaders of other NATO countries. "

Britain Joins US Meddling In Australian Politics:

A few days ago it was US VP Dick Cheney. Now British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says an early Australian troops withdrawal from Iraq would have "serious implications." Maybe he's talking about serious implications for Blair's re-election chances?

OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism:

A new movie, 'Outfoxed' examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a 'race to the bottom' in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know.

Michael Moore Makes The Cover Of Time Magazine:

'...We may come to look back on its [Fahrenheit 9/11] hugely successful first week the way we now think of the televised presidential debate between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon, as a moment when we grasped for the first time the potential of a mass medium - in this case, movies - to affect American politics in new ways.'

Pastor rips Bush-Cheney 'duties' for congregations:

"The Bush-Cheney campaign's outreach to conservative Christian congregations, a constituency the GOP needs to turn out in high numbers, includes aggressive instructions criticized by some religious organizations as improper and potentially illegal.

A list of 22 'duties' included on a document the campaign sent to religious volunteers around the nation was released Thursday by The Interfaith Alliance, which said the instructions could lure churches into political activity... The activities encouraged by the Bush-Cheney campaign include sending the campaign church directories to be compared with voter registration lists."

Iraq Oil fund was suspiciously tapped before handover:

"U.S. officials in charge of the Development Fund for Iraq drained all but $900 million from the $20 billion fund by late June in what one watchdog group has called an '11th-hour splurge.'

An international monitoring board is planning an audit of money from the development fund that was spent on contracts for Iraq's reconstruction that were approved without competitive bidding. The fund, made up largely of Iraqi oil revenue, is intended to pay for the rebuilding of Iraq. "

Endangered species are more at risk under Bush:

"Federal officials have added an average of 9.5 species a year to the endangered list under Mr Bush, compared with 65 a year under Bill Clinton and 59 a year under George Bush snr. They have designated as 'critical habitat' only half the land area recommended by federal biologists. And they are transferring key decision-making powers from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to other agencies with different priorities.

Under this approach, federal officials have focused more on providing incentives to private landowners to protect the habitats of endangered species than on prohibiting human activity on those lands."

Bush Says "Terrorists" Cannot Talk Sense:

"At a time when Iraq's new leadership is talking about amnesty for anti-U.S. insurgents, Bush vowed not to negotiate with 'terrorists'.

'You can't talk sense to them. You can't negotiate with them. You cannot hope for the best with these people. We must be relentless and determined and do our duty,' he said."

Bush defends Iraqi war

"Defending the war in Iraq, President George W Bush said on Independence Day he believes America is safer because Saddam Hussein is in a prison cell.

'Our immediate task in battle fronts like Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere is to capture or kill the terrorists... so we do not have to face them here at home,' Bush told a cheering crowd outside the West Virginia Capitol. An enthusiastic audience, estimated by police at 6,500, waved American flags and chanted, 'Four more years.'

Regarding Saddam, the deposed Iraqi president, Bush said, 'Because we acted, the dictator, the brutal tyrant, is sitting in a prison cell.'

Two Bush opponents, taken out of the crowd by police, said they had been told they couldn't be there because they were wearing shirts that said they opposed the president."

Cheney says Iraq war makes US, world safer from terrorists:

"Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday repeated his assertion that ''long-established ties' existed between the former Iraqi dictator and the terrorist network.

Cheney offered a broad assessment of the Bush administration's fight against terrorism, saying that President Bush had made the world safer by taking ''relentless action' and launching ''a broad and sustained war on terrorist networks around the globe.'

Cheney, addressing Republican supporters at the National D-Day Museum here, also leveled implicit criticism at Bush's predecessor, former President Clinton.

''Consider for a moment how matters stood at the time when President Bush and I were sworn into office on January 20th, 2001,' he said. ''Terrorists were on the offensive around the world, emboldened by many years of unanswered attacks. Repeatedly, they had struck America with little cost or consequence.'"

A VERY SUSPISCIOUS ASSASINATION:

"The Iraqi official heading the investigation into alleged corruption in the United Nations oil-for-food program was killed in a bomb attack earlier this week, officials familiar with the probe said on Saturday.

Ihsan Karim, head of the Board of Supreme Audit, died in hospital after a bomb placed under one of the cars in his convoy exploded in Baghdad on Thursday, the officials said.

Iraq's former U.S. Governor Paul Bremer gave the board independence from the executive branch of government and appointed Karim as its head in April. The board appointed international accountants Ernst and Young in May to investigate commissions Iraqi and foreign companies paid to former President Saddam Hussein and his government for securing billions of dollars worth of contracts under the 1996-2003 oil-for-food program.

The investigation undermined a separate KPMG probe initiated by the now dissolved Iraqi Governing Council, and led to tension with former financier Ahmad Chalabi, who holds documents alleging that some international suppliers paid at least 10 percent of the value of contracts to Saddam.

KPMG has stopped working on its investigation and did not issue a report due in June about the alleged fraud. This is because a bill of several hundred thousand dollars of work has not yet been paid, people familiar with the contact said.

Zaab Sethna, a spokesman for Chalabi, said the audit board was poorly equipped to handle the investigation. 'The assassination of Mr Karim is very worrying. Bremer appointed the audit board and left them on their own,' Sethna told Reuters. 'The investigation was the highest profile probe the board was handling. It is impossible to speculate who killed Mr Karim, but the oil-for-food corruption involved very powerful people inside and outside Iraq,"

Iraq gets fraction of US aid billions:

"The US government spent just 2% of the $18.4bn it had obtained from Congress for the urgent reconstruction of Iraq before formally ending its occupation last week.

The White House budget office report, the first detailed audit of the reconstruction, showed that the US occupation authorities had spent nothing on healthcare or water and sanitation, two of the most urgent needs for Iraqis. In contrast, a total of $9m was spent on administrative expenses. "

Peter Goss, Bush & Co's Nomination for CIA Director:

This is about as bad as it gets, and makes you wonder if the neo-cons might not have been involved in orchestrating the 9/11 attacks:

"On the morning of September 11, Porter Goss was hosting a breakfast meeting on Capitol Hill in honor of General Ahmad, the alleged 'money-man' (to use the FBI expression) behind the 9/11 hijackers..."

US Congressman suggests Bush is hiding Osama:

"They are trying to decide what day they should bring him out..."

The spies who stole my name:

"An Auckland family have told how their tetraplegic son's identity was stolen by an Israeli secret agent who moved in just down the road. Zev Barkan, who has fled New Zealand and escaped the justice faced yesterday by his two co-accused spies, lived within 300m of the man in whose name he applied for a passport to assume a New Zealand identity. "

This war on terrorism is bogus:

"A blueprint for the creation of a global Pax Americana was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice-president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), Jeb Bush (George Bush's younger brother) and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America's Defences, was written in September 2000 by the neoconservative think tank, Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says 'while the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.'

The PNAC blueprint supports an earlier document attributed to Wolfowitz and Libby which said the US must 'discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role'. It refers to key allies such as the UK as 'the most effective and efficient means of exercising American global leadership'. It describes peacekeeping missions as 'demanding American political leadership rather than that of the UN'. It says 'even should Saddam pass from the scene', US bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will remain permanently... as 'Iran may well prove as large a threat to US interests as Iraq has'. It spotlights China for 'regime change', saying 'it is time to increase the presence of American forces in SE Asia'.

The document also calls for the creation of "US space forces" to dominate space, and the total control of cyberspace to prevent "enemies" using the internet against the US. It also hints that the US may consider developing biological weapons "that can target specific genotypes [and] may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool".

Finally - written a year before 9/11 - it pinpoints North Korea, Syria and Iran as dangerous regimes, and says their existence justifies the creation of a "worldwide command and control system". This is a blueprint for US world domination. But before it is dismissed as an agenda for rightwing fantasists, it is clear it provides a much better explanation of what actually happened before, during and after 9/11 than the global war on terrorism thesis."

Robert Fisk: So this is what they call the new, 'free' Iraq:

"Most of the American CPA men who have cleared out of Baghdad are doing what we always suspected they would do when they had finished trying to put a US ideological brand name on 'new' Iraq; they have headed off to Washington to work for the Bush election campaign. But those left behind in the 'international zone' - those we have to pretend are no longer an occupation authority - make no secret of their despair. 'The ideology is gone. The ambitions are gone. We've no aims left,' one of them said last week. 'We're living from one day to the next. All we're trying to do now - our only goal - is to keep the lid on until January 2005 [when the first Iraqi elections are supposed to be held]. That's our only aim - get past the elections - and then get the hell out.'

...Americans continue to hold Saddam - in Qatar, not in Iraq - and Americans ran the court in which Saddam appeared. American soldiers in plain clothes were the "civilians" in the court. American officials censored the tapes of the hearing, lied about the judge's wish to record the sound of the trial, and marked the videotapes "cleared by US military"; three US officers later confiscated all the original tapes of the trial...

... after the elections, if indeed they are held, we shall self-righteously claim we can no longer be blamed for anything that goes wrong in Iraq. We liberated the Iraqis from Saddam, we shall say. We gave them "democracy" - and look what a mess they made of it. "

Rumsfeld gave go-ahead for Abu Ghraib tactics, says Karpinski:

"The former head of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has for the first time accused the American Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, of directly authorising Guantanamo Bay-style interrogation tactics.

Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, which is at the centre of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, said that documents yet to be released by the Pentagon would show that Mr Rumsfeld personally approved the introduction of harsher conditions of detention in Iraq."

Army Stage-Managed Fall of Hussein Statue:
"As the Iraqi regime was collapsing on April 9, 2003, Marines converged on Firdos Square in central Baghdad, site of an enormous statue of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). It was a Marine colonel - not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV images - who decided to topple the statue, the Army report said. And it was a quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a spontaneous Iraqi undertaking... "

My Feelings on George W. Bush - A BuzzFlash Reader Contribution:

"I hate George W. Bush. Like James C. Moore, I voted for him in 2000, and I regret it. I hate his face and his hair. I hate the way he walks, and, most of all, I hate the way he talks. He's really pathetic! I think he's a mean person -- I can tell by looking at his face, especially when he speaks to reporters or an audience...

The word "likable" does not make sense. I don’t understand why people say George W. Bush is "likable." I don’t like him. How can he be "likable" if there are people who don’t like him? Because this country is divided equally, there must be a lot of people who don’t like him, so how can politicians and people on the news say he’s "likable"? People are different from each other. Some like certain people and others don’t, so why do the media generalize that he’s "likable," especially since this country is politically divided almost evenly?

I’ve been hating Bush ever since his inaugural. He’s a joke! Everything he says and does is a joke! He tries to be presidential and a strong speaker, but he has neither of those qualities. He’s really pathetic!!! He’s an embarrassment and a poor representative of the United States. He’s not a president to be proud of. When Bill Clinton was president, I took it for granted that we had an articulate and a legitimate president with a nice personality. Bush sickens me! I hate looking at him on television! It’s as if Bush knows he shouldn’t be President of the United States -- you can see it in his sorry face!!!!"

Secret Saudi "Terrorist" Trading:

"Five suspected terrorists were released from the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and returned to Saudi Arabia as part of a secret agreement last year, the New York Times reported, citing unidentified senior U.S. and U.K. officials.

In return, Saudi Arabia released five U.K. citizens and two others who had been convicted of terrorist strikes in Saudi Arabia, the newspaper reported on its Web site in a story to be published in tomorrow's edition. U.K. diplomats said the men had likely given false confessions after being tortured by Saudi security police officers, the newspaper reported. "

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"

- Mahatma Gandhi

Bush & Co Stall For Time and Scramble For A New Plan

Lawyers representing nine Guantanamo Bay prisoners have filed lawsuits in a United States court arguing their detention is unlawful and unconstitutional. Among those represented is Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, who was 15 at the time he was seized in Afghanistan and is now 17. The cases contend their confinement lacks any legal basis.

Major Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman, declined comment on the content of the lawsuits "because it's pending litigation."

Maj Shavers also said the Bush administration had not decided what actions it would take in response to the Supreme Court ruling.

"Obviously, we're going to comply with the court ruling, but there's been no decision made yet as to how we're going to do that," Maj Shavers said.

At the same time, the US Justice Department is pressing the CIA to publicly reveal the specific interrogation methods authorised by the Bush administration for some senior Al Qaeda captives.

Can you imagine the scenes in the Oval Office these days? A bunch of lawyers frantically trying to come up with some new scheme to derail any political accountability, Bush marching up and down swearing at them for having told him it would all be OK, and Karl Rove with his head in his hands saying "Just be quiet and let me think, for God's sake!"

The fact that Mr Shavers used the term "pending liability" indicates that the White House is planning an appeal against the Supreme Court decision. Obviously, this will take months, at least until after November (of course!), during which time the detainees will - what? Be released? Not likely! Seems they will be moved to a US prison in a co-operative state like Texas.

John Pilger: Bush Or Kerry? :

"Shortly before Bush's 'election' in 2000, the Project for the New American Century, the neoconservative pressure group, published an ideological blueprint for 'maintaining global US pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests'. Every one of its recommendations for aggression and conquest was adopted by the administration.

One year later, the Progressive Policy Institute, an arm of the Democratic Leadership Council, published a 19-page manifesto for the 'New Democrats', who include all the principal Democratic Party candidates, and especially John Kerry. This called for 'the bold exercise of American power' at the heart of 'a new Democratic strategy, grounded in the party's tradition of muscular internationalism'. Such a strategy would 'keep Americans safer than the Republicans' go-it-alone policy, which has alienated our natural allies and overstretched our resources. We aim to rebuild the moral foundation of US global leadership ...' "

US Lawyer in Bahrain Apologizes For His Country:

"'As an American national, I am deeply ashamed of what my government has done,' Mr Stafford Smith said in a letter to the Gulf Daily News.

'It is profoundly hypocritical for us to pretend that we are fighting a war to spread the rule of law to Afghanistan and Iraq and - as our first action - deprive people of the very rights we say we are fighting for.

'Hypocrisy is the yeast that leavens hatred and it is hardly surprising that so many people express their disdain for us.'"

Another false WMD alarm (surprise, suprise):

"Multinational forces in Iraq said on Friday that more than a dozen missile warheads said to contain mustard gas or sarin have tested negative for chemical agents.

Washington had announced the find by Polish troops on Thursday, which was later confirmed by Warsaw. The head of Poland's military intelligence service also said on Friday that 'terrorist' groups were seeking to acquire the weapons.

But the 122mm warheads, found in late June, have been found not to contain the deadly chemicals, a statement from multinational forces here said.

'Those 16 rounds were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals,' it said."

Saddam's Trial Censored for TV:

"American and Iraqi officials did not want any footage shown of Iraqi guards or court personnel, and they asked broadcast and cable news nets to honor this request.

But the situation took an unexpected turn even before the hearing began, when U.S. officials ordered CNN and Al-Jazeera, the pool camera crews, to disconnect their audio equipment. Officials said it was the wish of the Iraqi judge.

Following the hearing, the CNN footage was taken to the convention center, where a CBS News employee transmitted the footage after it was viewed and okayed by two military censors. "

US should be in the dock alongside its old pal Saddam :

"Many of the charges to be faced by the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein before a tribunal set up by the new interim government could also be levelled at his once staunchest ally: the United States.

The US military supplied Saddam with no less than 14 different strains of the deadly anthrax virus in 1988 to help hasten the end of the Iran-Iraq war. The US was also largely responsible for supplying Saddam with chemical weapons to suppress the Kurdish uprising in Halabja. In a UN Security Council resolution condemning the attack, the US was the only member to vote against the resolution.

And when Saddam had informed the then US ambassador to Iraq, April Gillespie, of his plans to invade Kuwait, she raised no objections. Her equivocation was interpreted by Saddam as a green light from the US to go ahead.

Saddam's trial has already been dubbed the trial of the century. But because he did not act without the implicit support of the US, they should both be put on trial for committing these crimes against humanity."

Bush Blows The US Budget:

"The plan was: a $400 billion federal budget surplus this year and a national debt of $2.1 trillion heading rapidly to zero. That was the plan back in January 2001, when President Bush took office. And not just the plan: That was the official prediction of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Now we have a new plan. Instead of a $400 billion surplus, President Bush's budget calls for a $500 billion deficit. The national debt is $4.4 trillion and headed to more than $6 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the CBO. Interest on that debt will cost $156 billion this year. Bush says he'll cut the deficit in half in four years. The deficit, not the debt. It's a remarkably modest brag. And even so, almost nobody believes him..."

(more here)

Time To Throw Off The Despots

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness... when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security..."

United States Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776

Delusions of Grandeur:

"Iraqis may not have full sovereignty yet, but America needs to understand that Iraqis, not Americans, are already sovereign over events there.

America would be a better nation-builder if it acknowledged this, but its history does not encourage humility. During the D-Day celebrations, the old newsreel footage of dusty GIs riding into Rome and Paris in 1944 burnished America's incorrigible mythology of its own omnipotence. In Iraq, even the locals succumbed to it, expecting that the world's most powerful country must be able to get water, electricity and security running in no time. It was a rude surprise to discover how chaotic, incompetent and downright violent the godlike liberators turned out to be...

The signal illusion from which America has to awake in Iraq, and everywhere else, is that it serves God's providence or (for those with more secular beliefs) that it is the engine of history. In Iraq, America is not the maker of history, but its plaything. In the region at large, America is not the hegemon, but the hesitant shaper of forces it barely understands."

Bush embarrassed by Civil Rights Act anniversary:

"Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has slammed Bush for not doing enough on civil rights. Others have attacked the administration for opposing in court the University of Michigan's affirmative-action program on minority admissions and for nominating candidates to the federal bench civil-rights activists have opposed.

'Under President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Justice Department's civil-rights division has been effectively closed,' the campaign of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in a release. 'Ashcroft has brought only 16 lawsuits in three years, compared to 24 in the last three years of Clinton, and has abandoned lawsuits and settlements begun by prior administrations.'

Bush garnered 9 percent of the black vote in the 2000 election, the lowest tally since Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater lost to Johnson by a landslide in 1964. Bush, like his predecessors, is actively courting the traditionally overwhelmingly Democratic black electorate -- and denies any civil-rights rollback.

'I urge you to look at the record and ignore the rhetoric,' Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said earlier Thursday.

The administration touts the president's No Child Left Behind Act, minority-homeownership programs, faith-based community initiatives and economic-stimulus programs as signs of his commitment to provide equal opportunity and rights for all U.S. residents, but criticism has not subsided."

And So It's Come To This...

The Moscow Times gives Bush's USA a well-deserved lecture on democracy:

"The American people -- proud heirs of a bold revolutionary spirit now marking the 228th anniversary of its fiery eruption into the world -- have been reduced to thanking the robed Olympians on the U.S. Supreme Court for preserving a few crumbs of the nation's once-vast ancient liberties.

This week, the justices ruled that the unelected strongman they appointed president in December 2000 does not have the unqualified right to arrest people without charges and put them in a dungeon forever -- at least not without allowing his victims to float up briefly in some conveniently undefined judicial 'process.' Not necessarily 'a regular civilian court,' mind you -- maybe a military tribunal, the justices suggested helpfully. And the defendants will be presumed guilty unless they can somehow prove themselves innocent -- with only limited, government-monitored contact with their attorneys. But at least the Bushists will have to produce a scrap of paper now and then to justify their body-snatching operations... "

USA's Ideological Apartheid

"In an ideal world, Americans of every political stripe would enjoy a forum to discuss the issues of the day. In an ideal world, communists and conservatives and militiamen and socialists and centrists and Christianists and atheists and libertarians and anarchists would all get the chance to express their opinions and propose changes in law and policy in the media as well as the corridors of power. In an ideal world, vigorous debate would never degenerate into name-calling or threats. In an ideal world, a losing political party would play the role of the loyal opposition as it plotted its return to power. In an ideal world, an imaginative, freewheeling, independent media would cast a wide net, broadening our national dialogue to include the previously disenfranchised.

In the real world, however, a narrow subset of right-wing conservatives controls the Supreme Court, White House, Congress and most state legislatures. In the real world, no American to the left of John McCain--including John McCain--has a chance to propose a law and see it signed into law. In the real world, newspapers, magazines, radio and television outlets are owned by a shrinking pool of conservative corporations motivated by short-term profits and cozy ties to the right-wingers who run the government. In the real world, the Democratic Party has given up hope of recapturing either the House or the Senate, and Democratic politicians vote along with the Republicans. In the real world, anyone who questions the president's justifications for starting wars, or questions whether he even has the right to call himself "president," should expect to be insulted and ridiculed, blackballed, smeared as a traitor and threatened with death by conservative commentators.

We are at war, but the terrorists aren't foreigners. We are fighting for our nation's soul..."

Read more at Ted Rall

No mention of power cuts and violence at trial of the century:

"Now it is time for bread and circuses. Keep the people distracted. Show them Saddam. Remind them what it used to be like. Make them grateful. Make Saddam pay. Show his face once more across the world so that his victims will think about the past, not the present. Charge him. Before the full majesty of Iraq's new 'democratic' law. And may George Bush win the next American election.

That's pretty much how it looked from Baghdad yesterday. Forget the 12-hour power cuts and the violence and the kidnappings and the insurgency. Let's go back again to the gruesome days of Baathist rule, let's revisit once more the theatre of cruelty - back to all those war crimes and crimes against humanity with which the Monster will be charged. Let's take another look at Tariq Aziz and 'Chemical' Ali and the rest. Isn't this why we came to Iraq - to rescue the Iraqis from the Beast of Baghdad?"

Turn A Blind Eye, Gov!

It is widely known in UK legal circles that the law lords told Blair that an invasion of Iraq would be illegal without a further UN resolution, which Blair and Bush could not get. Blair went ahead with the invasion anyway, hoping to twist the law in his favour with hindsight (as per the Bush-torture legalese). Now Blair's ministers are asking the UK courts NOT TO RULE on the legality of the war - just turn a blind eye, please!

The Guardian reports:

"Five peace activists charged with trying to delay US bombers taking off from RAF Fairford in the week before the war sought a ruling that they were entitled to plead in their defence that they acted to postpone the start of a war they believed to be illegal...

In [the government]'s judgment "it would be prejudicial to the national interest and the conduct of the government's foreign policy if the English courts were to express opinions on questions of international law concerning the use of force by the United Kingdom and other states which might differ from those expressed by the government and advanced by it in the conduct of international relations". "

In other words, please do not rule that the war was illegal, or even consider such an argument (although it is central to the case) because that would be too embarrassing to the war criminals in the UK government.

Another Victory For Stupidity:

"The US military in Afghanistan is confronted with an embarrassing situation following the realisation that the two men in its custody were Afghan government officials from Helmand province rather than top Taliban commanders as claimed by it earlier...

The fact that the US military announced Hafiz Abdul Majeed’s capture without cross checking his identity isn’t the first time that the Americans have committed such blunders in Afghanistan. Certain other arrests of anti-US Afghans were also cases of mistaken identity.

Earlier, they printed wrong pictures of Mulla Omar on leaflets announcing monetary reward for his capture. Warplanes have frequently bombed the wrong targets, including wedding parties, passenger buses, graveyards, and convoys of pro-government tribal elders."

Evil Empire? Or Favoured Trading Partner?

More than a half million people clogged Hong Kong's downtown streets yesterday demanding full democracy and angry at China's communist leaders for denying them the right to directly elect their own rulers.

Unfortunately for them, China is the new driving engine of the world economy and Western leaders are no longer game to challenge China on Human Rights or other issues.

Guantanamo and other US gulags should be closed:

The lawyer for Australian Gitmo detainee David Hicks is calling for the USA to close down Guantanamo Bay:

"It has never been acceptable to attempt to take people beyond the rule of law, which the American administration, with the full support of the Australian Government, had attempted to do. There is no point in holding them in Guantanamo Bay any longer because Guantanamo Bay, as seen in the Supreme Court decision, is now within the American court structure."

The same applies to all the other secretive US detention centres around the world.

Born Under a Cloud of Irony:

"The ironies are flowing thicker than crude oil in Iraq these days.

First, the United States surreptitiously turns over nominal control of the country to a government appointed by outsiders - while leaving real power in the hands of U.S. military commanders - and calls it an exercise in democracy.

And although the interim prime minister is a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, who later conducted anti-Hussein terrorist operations on behalf of the CIA - operations in which innocent Iraqi civilians may have been killed - his anointment as leader of a 'free Iraq' is being hailed by President Bush as a great victory in the war on terror..."

A CEO President

"President Bush, when running for office, focused our attention on the fact that he was a CEO of a company, and that VP Cheney also was a CEO. Our government was to be run like a tight ship, a private, for profit enterprise. This was to be a new era, and a new tone was to be set in Washington.

I asked my colleagues (I work in high-tech) if they felt that they could talk to our CEO, or would they be afraid to honestly voice their opinion? Does the fear of our CEO indicate a democracy?

I have 30 years experience in high-tech, working for some of the largest semiconductor companies. Here is what I have learned from watching CEO's in the past:

- all pronouncements to the "outside" are carefully crafted PR statements. Material information is to be withheld and never disclosed.

- the employees have no right to know what deals the CEO and the company are making, while the deal is in progress.

- internal criticism is dealt with harshly.

- orders come down from the CEO, there is no chance for employees to question or discuss them, it is a directed situation.

- questions about layoffs, reorganizations, etc, are not answered truthfully, if at all.

- competition with other companies makes for a culture of 'us vs them', that includes 'cutting off the air supply' of your competitors.

- illegal behavior is ok, so long as a profit is made after paying the fines and legal fees. And wrongdoing is never admitted.

- profit is the only real motive, generosity and morality do not factor in.

- only advertising and public image count, actual behavior does not.

This seems to me to be the culture we have now in the White House. The function of CEO is in direct conflict with Democracy, it is much more like a dictatorship. Given that we now know about the CEO activities at Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Anderson, and many others, it should come as no surprise that we find that our current President and VP also behave in the same way."

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION by Bill Peterson

Our country is now being run in the fascist way of a company, and not in the Democratic way of a Republic. Advertising and PR have replaced the Truth, dissent is harshly stifled, and wrongdoing is never admitted.

US Army scrapes the bottom of the barrel to avoid a draft:

"Thousands more former soldiers could be ordered to Iraq and Afghanistan in addition to 5,600 reservists already set to be called back into active-duty service, the Army said on Wednesday.

The Army is tapping into the Individual Ready Reserve, a rarely used pool now numbering 111,000 former soldiers who remain eligible to be called to active duty for years after completing their voluntary Army commitment and returning to civilian life. Many have been out of uniform for years.

'I would think that there's going to be soldiers who, yes, will be shocked' Col. Debra Cook, head of the Army's Human Resources Command, told a briefing. "

Aussie Forces Should Leave Iraq, For Iraq's Sake:

"Defence Force chief General Peter Cosgrove has reportedly told a function in Sydney that replacing foreign troops in Iraq with local security forces would significantly reduce the level of violence in the country. Mr Latham told Channel Nine that General Cosgrove is right and his comments support Labor's case.

'It's a point I've been making for some time that a lot of the violence in Iraq is obviously uprising against the reality or perception of foreign occupation and if you reduce or eliminate that foreign occupation you eliminate a lot of the violence so I would have thought it's a commonsense proposition,' he said."

Iraq is worse off than before the war began:

"In a few key areas - electricity, the judicial system and overall security - the Iraq that America handed back to its residents Monday is worse off than before the war began last year, according to calculations in a new General Accounting Office report released Tuesday.

The 105-page report by Congress' investigative arm offers a bleak assessment of Iraq after 14 months of U.S. military occupation. Among its findings:

-In 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces, electricity was available fewer hours per day on average last month than before the war. Nearly 20 million of Iraq's 26 million people live in those provinces.

-Only $13.7 billion of the $58 billion pledged and allocated worldwide to rebuild Iraq has been spent, with another $10 billion about to be spent. The biggest chunk of that money has been used to run Iraq's ministry operations.

-The country's court system is more clogged than before the war, and judges are frequent targets of assassination attempts.

-The new Iraqi civil defense, police and overall security units are suffering from mass desertions, are poorly trained and ill-equipped.

-The number of what the now-disbanded Coalition Provisional Authority called significant insurgent attacks skyrocketed from 411 in February to 1,169 in May.

The report was released on the same day that the CPA's inspector general issued three reports that highlighted serious management difficulties at the CPA. The reports found that the CPA wasted millions of dollars at a Hilton resort hotel in Kuwait because it didn't have guidelines for who could stay there, lost track of how many employees it had in Iraq and didn't track reconstruction projects funded by international donors to ensure they didn't duplicate U.S. projects. "

Neocons Unprepared For Supreme Court Loss:

"'They really didn't have a specific plan for what to do, case by case, if we lost,' a senior Defence Department official was quoted as saying in the report. 'The Justice Department didn't have a plan. State didn't have a plan.

'It's astounding to me that these cases have been pending for so long and nobody came up with a contingency plan.'"

It seems that all the detainees may now be moved to a single US State (how about Florida, Jeb?). It is going to be VERY interesting to see what charges - if any - the military can come up with, and how these charges will be viewed in a non-military court. After over 2 years in detention for many at Gitmo and elsewhere, charges and hearings should be determined with all due haste. In other words, cases should be heard BEFORE the November election!

Will Bush Send Troops to Sudan? Not Likely!

"The US Agency for International Development estimates that about 300,000 people are likely to die by the end of the year in Darfur. Mr Powell and Mr Annan have called on the Sudanese Government to do more to rein in the militia that are accused of plundering villages and driving people from their homes. Mr Powell described the situation in Darfur as 'horrific', and said it required prompt action. "

No word from Powell or Annan on what that "action" will be - just a lot of talking so far.

Bush, Chirac and the transatlantic rift:

"The US and French presidents marked the conclusion of the NATO summit in Istanbul by openly and undiplomatically disagreeing over the alliance's role in Iraq and Afghanistan and Turkey's proposed admission to the European Union.

An unrepentant President Chirac, speaking to reporters before leaving for an EU summit in Brussels, reaffirmed that he was 'entirely hostile' to any NATO presence in Iraq and was unapologetic about his rows with President Bush.

'We are friends and allies but we are not servants,' he said."

John Howard and Tony Blair, please take note.