That clarifies this.
Peace,
Arlene Johnson
Publisher/Author
http://www.truedemocracy.net
-----Original Message-----
>From: Kris Millegan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: May 10, 2006 3:04 PM
>To: Cia-drugs Cia-drugs <Cia-drugs@yahoogroups.com>
>Cc: Kris Millegan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [cia-drugs] Fwd: Pre-invasion illegalities
>
>
>
>Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Brian Bogart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Date: May 9, 2006 9:07:10 PM PDT
>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED],
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED],
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Subject: Pre-invasion illegalities
>>
>> (December 1999, New Hampshire primary event, when asked about
>> Saddam Hussein)
>> Candidate George W. Bush: "I'd take 'em out...take out the weapons
>> of mass destruction. I'm surprised he's still there."
>>
>> (Paul O'Neill asserts that Bush took office in January 2001 fully
>> intending to invade Iraq and desperate to find an excuse for
>> preemptive war against Saddam Hussein.)
>> Paul O'Neill: "From the very beginning, there was a conviction that
>> Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go. For me,
>> the notion of preemption, that the US has the unilateral right to
>> do whatever we decide to do, is really a huge leap."
>>
>> (September 15, 2001; post 9-11 Cabinet meeting)
>> Condoleeza Rice: "Afghanistan is a kind of demonstration model, so
>> that other countries can look and say, 'Oh, I see. That's what
>> happens...'"
>>
>> President Bush: "Wolfie?"
>>
>> Paul Wolfowitz: "Well, I want to talk about another country, it's
>> another country in the Middle East, let's talk about that category
>> of countries which is considering actions hostile to the United
>> States. And if you take a good look at that category, then I think
>> there's one egregious member. It's been in violation of United
>> Nations resolutions for over ten years."
>>
>> Donald Rumsfeld: "I sent a memo, if you remember, Mr. President, in
>> January (2001), before this happened, I sent a memo with a list of
>> countries who I considered were eager to exploit any lapses in US
>> capability. China, North Korea, Russia, Iran. My conclusion was
>> we should take any actions necessary to dissuade nations from
>> challenging American interests. Top of that list was Iraq."
>>
>> Wolfowitz: "We're talking a corrupt dictatorship, run by a man who
>> oppresses his own people and thumbs his nose at American power.
>> We're talking about going in and establishing democracy. This is a
>> country which is now very brittle. It will break very easily.
>> It's sitting there, waiting to fall. This is something we can do
>> with very little effort. For a minimum expenditure of effort, we
>> can get maximum result. Take out Saddam and we blow fresh air into
>> the Middle East."
>>
>> Rumsfeld: "I mean, Jumping Jiminy, look at it strategically..."
>>
>> Wolfowitz: "That's it."
>>
>> Rumsfeld: "Look at it: Afghanistan's a big country, but what are we
>> going to bomb? Tommy Franks says there are only three dozen
>> targets. Three dozen! Have you looked at Afghanistan? Terracotta
>> pots and straw roofs!"
>>
>> Wolfowitz: "Let's say a hundred thousand American soldiers snarled
>> up, okay, in mountain fighting. What message does that send?
>> Whereas, look...Iraq's a country we know. We've been there. And
>> more important -- talk about sending messages -- I'd say there's a
>> good percentage chance Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the
>> attacks on the World Trade Center."
>>
>> Bush: "Reckon that, Paul. What percentage?"
>>
>> Wolfowitz: "Ten to fifty. That's where I'd put it. A ten to fifty
>> percent chance."
>>
>> Rice: "Mr. President, Afghanistan is a country -- this is a place
>> with a history. It was a nemesis for the British in the nineteenth
>> century. It was a nemesis for the Russians in the twentieth. All
>> I'm concerned is it isn't our turn in the twenty-first."
>>
>> Wolfowitz: "That's what's so good about Iraq. It's do-able."
>>
>> (May 2003)
>> Paul Wolfowitz: "The Bush administration focused on alleged WMD as
>> the primary justification for toppling Saddam Hussein by force
>> because it was politically convenient, because it was the one
>> reason everyone could agree on."
>>
>> (July 23, 2003)
>> Paul Wolfowitz, explaining why US forces were not, as he had
>> promised, greeted with flowers and offers of sweets: "Some
>> important assumptions turned out to underestimate the problem."
>>
>>
>> Both parties have relied on an external threat since World War II.
>> That reliance will only stop with popular demand for government
>> cleansing. If we do not rise to the occasion, we will eventually
>> become identified as part of whatever external threat is the excuse
>> of the day. During the Cold War, Democrats started wars to placate
>> conservative domestic politicians. Republicans didn't need to. In
>> this post-Cold War era, things are vastly different. Both parties
>> are fueling a massive assertion of power for global economic
>> supremacy (neo Manifest Destiny), pushed by wealthy, highly
>> organized neoconservative groups and business interests (lobbying)
>> of all kinds, defense and otherwise. This will bankrupt America
>> and continue to destroy the planet, but it is unfortunately a
>> politically viable path for both parties. A wholesale and sudden
>> exodus is needed from these parties to one that makes human
>> progress the basis for all domestic and foreign policies. Let's
>> hope exploding gasoline prices are enough to awaken the minds of
>> selfish Americans to an unselfish vision.
>>
>> --Brian Bogart
>> _________________
>>
>> "They Can Run, But They Can't Hide"
>> May 8, 2006
>>
>> On May 4, a televised speech in Atlanta by Defense Secretary Donald
>> Rumsfeld
>> was disrupted by 4 protesters, including activists from World Can?t
>> Wait--
>> Drive Out the Bush Regime. A little later, Rumsfeld was forced to
>> answer a
>> substantive challenge to his lies about the war from Ray McGovern,
>> a 27-year
>> CIA veteran and a participant in the Bush Crimes Commission.
>>
>> Then something else remarkable happened: the episode was televised
>> across
>> the U.S. and the world, with pointed commentary.
>>
>> MSNBC?s Keith Olbermann on ?Countdown 5?: ?Good evening. There have
>> been
>> many explanations offered for why, in one of the times of the greatest
>> turbulence in American history, there has been comparative apathy
>> in places
>> that have been past venues for public protest. One answer-- that the
>> administration has been outstanding cherry-picking not just
>> intelligence,
>> but also the make-up of the crowds that greet or interact with its key
>> players. Our fifth story in the Countdown, that latter
>> component-- the
>> governmental equivalent of the ?cone of silence? from the old TV
>> series ?Get
>> Smart?-- this afternoon broke down again for the second time in six
>> days.
>> First, the president?s lambasting by Stephen Colbert at the White
>> House
>> correspondents? dinner, and now, today?s vivisection of Defense
>> Secretary
>> Donald Rumsfeld, with only Rumsfeld?s own words as weapons, at a
>> speech in
>> Atlanta? [Here?s the] full 4-minute exchange with fact checks:
>>
>> Ray McGovern: Atlanta. Sep 27, 2002, Donald Rumsfeld said, ?There?s
>> bulletproof evidence of links between Al Queda and the government of
>> Saddam Hussein.? Was that a lie, Mr. Rumsfeld? Why did you lie to
>> get us
>> into a war that was not necessary that has caused these kinds of
>> casualties?
>>
>> Rumsfeld: Well, first of all I haven?t lied...it appears that there
>> were not
>> weapons of mass destruction there.
>>
>> McGovern: You said you knew where they were.
>>
>> Rumsfeld: I did not. I said I knew where suspect sites were and--
>>
>> McGovern: You said you knew where they were. ?Near Tikrit, Baghdad,
>> northeast, south, west of there.? Those are your words?
>>
>> In fact, those WERE Rumsfeld?s exact words, and in an unusual turn of
>> events, CNN, MSNBC and other major media outlets broadcast the
>> exchange,
>> then went into their vaults and within moments aired the actual
>> March 3,
>> 2003 broadcast with George Stephanopoulos, confirming McGovern?s
>> quote from
>> Rumsfeld.
>>
>> After the exchange, MSNBC?s Olbermann commented: ?In the parlance
>> of sports,
>> Mr. Rumsfeld got faced this afternoon, posterized, forced to deny
>> his own
>> words... When someone goes out there and blithely denies that they
>> said such
>> and such a thing and this exact thing is on tape? how can that not
>> result in
>> some kind of political fall-out or even disaster? I mean,
>> charitably it?s
>> dementia, and not charitably it?s lying? What happened to the portable
>> bubble defense for the administration, [first] we had Stephen
>> Colbert, now
>> there?s Ray McGovern, and the woman with the war crimes banner who was
>> carried out. There were at least 3 other hecklers. What happened to
>> the
>> pre-screening of dissenters, or are they now in a situation where
>> they just
>> don?t have enough people who still buy this stuff to fill a hall
>> with them??
>>
>> Newsweek?s White House correspondent, Richard Wolfe, replies:
>> ?Real-life situations puts them there, out there with people who are
>> critical. You can run but you can?t hide.?
>>
>> To watch the entire MSNBC broadcast, including footage of World
>> Can?t Wait
>> and other protesters disrupting Rumsfeld, go to:
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1FTmuhynaw
>>
>> Ray McGovern co-led the prosecution of the Bush administration for war
>> crimes in Iraq War at the Bush Crimes Commission
>> (www.bushcommission.org),
>> the Commission of Inquiry which brought together over 40
>> whistleblowers
>> and expert witnesses to determine whether Bush administer policies
>> rise
>> to the level of crimes against humanity. Commission witnesses--
>> including
>> McGovern, Brig. General Janis Karpinski, ex-UK ambassador Craig
>> Murray, Ann
>> Wright, Daphne Wysham, Ted Glick, Vanessa Brocato, Larry Everest,
>> and C.
>> Clark Kissinger -- are currently on a national ?Speaking the
>> Unspeakable?
>> tour of college campuses, co-sponsored by World Can?t Wait?Drive
>> Out the
>> Bush Regime.
>>
>> On www.truthdig.com (the website developed by former LA Times
>> columnist
>> Robert Scheer), McGovern is featured as the ?Truthdigger of the Week".
>>
>>> From their story on the Atlanta incident:
>>>
>>
>> ??If you want a little dessert before eating your vegetables, check
>> out
>> McGovern?s account of a cheeky piece of anti-Rumsfeld propaganda he
>> came
>> upon at the Atlanta forum. It was distributed by The World Can?t
>> Wait, an
>> organization dedicated to driving President Bush from office.
>>
>> McGovern: ?When I walked into the place? I was met with this little
>> blurb on Donald Rumsfeld, and as I read it, I had to chuckle. It says:
>>
>> ?There?s going to be a question-and-answer period, but please
>> adhere to
>> these guidelines. Refrain from using the word ?lie? in relation to
>> the war
>> in Iraq. Do not question the secretary?s personal responsibility for
>> torture. And please don?t discuss first use of nuclear weapons against
>> Iran. If you violate these guidelines, you?ll be immediately
>> removed from
>> the auditorium, flown to an undesignated prison location somewhere in
>> Eastern Europe and tortured. Thank you for your cooperation. The World
>> Can?t Wait.?
>>
>> A wonderful, wonderful group. [World Can?t Wait] were the folks
>> that spoke
>> up and tried to brace Donald Rumsfeld with the lies and their
>> charges of him
>> being?-and he is, arguably?-a war criminal. And we shouldn?t shy
>> away from
>> saying that.?
>> - McGovern quote is from Democracy Now radio interview, May 5:
>> http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/05/1432203
>>
>> McGovern also went head to head with another CIA veteran about the
>> firing of
>> Mary McCarthy on a recent broadcast of the PBS NewsHour with Jim
>> Lehrer.
>> McGovern won the debate, making the clear point that citizens have
>> a moral
>> and legal requirement to reveal government secrets when they are
>> witness to
>> war crimes. Go to:
>> http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?
>> option=com_content&task=view&id=1437&Item
>> id=184
>>
>> By Sunday, May 7, McGovern?s public challenge to Rumsfeld was being
>> noted in
>> the lead editorial of the New York Times. All of which is a vivid
>> demonstration of the purpose of the Bush Crimes Commission: to
>> transform
>> public discourse by daring to expose these officials with the
>> facts--framing
>> and fueling a real debate: "Is the administration of George W. Bush
>> guilty
>> of war crimes and crimes against humanity?"
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>> ?There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible
>> evil of
>> evil men.? -- Edmund Burke
>>
>> "Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid." -- Ronald Reagan, (1982)
>>
>> "The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let
>> us tie
>> the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second
>> will not
>> become the legalized version of the first."-- Thomas Jefferson
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