by Joel Skousen
www.joelskousen.com
WORLD AFFAIRS BRIEF
November 15, 2002
Copyright Joel M. Skousen
Partial Quotations with attribution permitted.
Cite source as Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief
(http://www.joelskousen.com).
[Excerpt]
In a dramatic unexpected turn of events, Iraq has agreed in full to the UN’s new, expanded and all-intrusive inspection demands. These demands were worded in the best "catch-22" manner possible, giving the US multiple windows for declaring Iraq in default and going to war. For one thing, the US got the UN to declare Iraq already in default of its earlier resolutions. Now, Saddam Hussein has until Dec. 8 to make a full and open declaration of all his weapons systems. Any misstatement of fact (a virtual certainty) could trigger a US declaration that Iraq is "out of compliance." Additionally, UN weapons inspectors under Hans Blix are to resume inspections by Dec. 23 and are to report to the Security Council 60 days after inspections resume. At any point in this process, any failure by Iraq to comply, including showing resistance to an inspection team or making omissions in their weapons declarations, are to be reported by the inspectors to the Security Council, and could trigger a US military response.
US officials are so eager for war that they have suggested that Iraq may already be flouting the spirit of the resolution, by declaring Wednesday in its letter of response that it has no weapons of mass destruction. If Saddam continues to make that claim after the Dec. 8 deadline, he would be inviting war, US officials said.
The new inspection regime itself invites war by the nature of its intrusiveness. The UN is demanding the right to bring in armed forces and aircraft to put a virtual cordon around any inspection site. These cordons can be left in place indefinitely regardless of the hardship created on Iraqi civilians or businesses. This amounts to a virtual piecemeal invasion and occupation of any portion of Iraq coalition forces desire. It is a tremendous breach of Iraq’s sovereignty. In addition, the UN is demanding that Iraq submit a list of all of its military weapons scientists and put them at the UN disposal for questioning outside the country. This means that the US can remove, without guarantees of return, any or all of Iraq’s military scientists. Because of the vagueness of how one defines a scientist or technician involved in weapons development, Iraq is sure to be found guilty of some omissions in preparing this list.
I believe the UN proposal was intended to be intrusive so as to ensure an Iraqi rejection of these terms. Since Iraq accepted the terms, even when the Iraqi Parliament demanded a rejection, Iraq must know it is in a catch-22 situation, and simply hopes, by a show of the most abject compliance, to shame the US into refraining from an attack out of fear of world disapproval. It appears that Iraq’s compliant attitude is indeed causing a temporary setback in US warmongering, but it won’t last. I’m convinced that the US will do anything to find a pretense to invade Iraq.
THE RE-EMERGENCE OF OSAMA BIN LADEN
Governments with ulterior motives for instigating war have always used multiple provocations to force a reluctant public to go along. Hitler used multiple provocations to create justifications for his seizing absolute power, banning the Communist Party, and invading Czechoslovakia, Austria and Poland. FDR provoked Japan into striking the US and purposely allowed the attack to go forward without warning military officials at Pearl Harbor in order to undermine the spirit of American isolationism and opposition to WWII. Churchill willfully ordered the bombing of German civilians in the early stages of WWII in order to provoke Hitler to attack civilians in London. Kennedy administration officials provoked or falsified the Gulf of Tonkin incident in order to justify the war in Vietnam. The events of 9/11 (with all the strange overtones of government foreknowledge, incompetence, and collusion with al Qaeda – a CIA funded and controlled entity) conveniently ushered in the latest unlimited war on terrorism.
Now, enter Osama bin Laden again – the all too convenient boogie-man terrorist leader. Apparently he is still alive, according to the White House and the magical CIA forensic analysis of yet another almost inaudible tape recording. How strange is it that given bin Laden’s personal millions, the monetary support he receives from Islamic nations like Iran and Saudi Arabia, and his possession of high tech satellite cell telephones and encryption equipment, he can’t seem to afford to record a single message to the Arab world on any number of state-of-the-art tape or video recorders costing less than $300? How is it that, according to US government claims, he has to resort to amateur recordings for giving "coded messages" to his highly trained network, when intelligence agents know from experience that normal terrorist groups use special messengers or couriers to avoid detection? The use of special couriers is relatively cheap, nearly foolproof and allows a full range of specific instructions to be delivered.
Little of the government story about bin Laden makes sense. Almost everything we know about bin Laden comes from government sources, which is suspicious in and of itself, and the picture is anything but clear. There have been no open declarations of responsibility by any terrorist group for 9/11 as there typically are following legitimate terrorist events. Then there is the larger question of why there have been no trained terrorist attacks on the US since 9/11 when we are wide open and vulnerable to attacks on a relatively small scale. All of these incongruities arouse my suspicions that bin Laden is being used as a convenient scapegoat. There is evidence on several fronts that our government has made no real effort to capture bin Laden. I know of at least three credible intelligence reports delivered in person by Pakistani informants to US officials this past year, revealing bin Laden’s specific location. In none of these cases did the US make any move to capture bin Laden. They also made no move to interview al Qaeda operatives held captive by Kurds in Northern Iraq. Why not?
It is also more than coincidental that this new alleged recording by bin Laden mentions his solidarity with and support of Iraq. The Bush administration is desperate for an excuse to link Saddam Hussein with al Qaeda in some future terrorist attack. Such an attack would be a welcome provocation allowing the Bush military, now poised to attack Iraq, to be unleashed.
LATEST AL QAEDA WARNINGS
This week, a new warning has been sweeping the European press about imminent al Qaeda attacks. According to a Fox News report forwarded to me by Karen-lee Bixman, publisher of the respected Investigative Reporter, "A Pakistani-American businessman [Mansoor Ijaz] who helped negotiate a deal turned down by the Clinton administration for Osama bin Laden's extradition to the US said late Saturday that the terror chief's al Qaeda network is planning to launch major attacks on the US and two other countries by the end of the month. Asked about a report by Interpol this week that warned: ‘All intelligence experts are agreed that al Qaeda is preparing a major terrorist operation,’ Mansoor Ijaz told Fox News Channel's Foxwire, ‘Within the next two to three weeks I think we're going to be looking at something pretty tough. ... This is almost identical to the information I have. ... I've been told there's going to be three simultaneous attacks; it will be three different continents...US and United Kingdom would be ‘primary targets,’ while the Far East or India would likely be the third target.’"
It is strange that the US Dept. of Justice has not jumped on this bandwagon to promote another round of al Qaeda warnings in the US – especially since the government has delivered tens of such warnings before, even when the warnings were based only on general intelligence information. I’m very skeptical of these kinds of general, insubstantial warnings, which only make Americans yawn. Real, specific intelligence can be traced back to the source and checked. These obviously cannot.
The Bush administration is facing a mounting crisis of credibility as time continues to pass without a fulfillment of their constant dire predictions. In this case, either the Bush administration has decided to quit passing along non-specific warnings, or we are being set up for another high profile attack, which government officials can’t afford to warn about lest US intelligence be held responsible for not knowing enough to stop it. If such an attack does take place in the US, watch carefully for evidence of government involvement or collusion. High profile terrorist attacks should always be looked upon with scrutiny. They are a sign of controlled terrorism for domestic political purpose, especially when not accompanied by numerous smaller attacks typical of real terrorism, as experienced in France, Ireland, and Israel.
HOMELAND SECURITY BILLS ADD TO GOVERNMENT SNOOPING POWERS
Not satisfied with the draconian powers already granted by the grossly mistitled USA PATRIOT Act, the Bush administration keeps adding to its wish list of surveillance powers with each new piece of security legislation. Bush is now on a roll, with his new election mandate, and he is pursuing his course of dismantling US Constitutional protections with relish and enthusiasm. Congress has become, by and large, a rubber stamp for anything done in the name of this phony war on terror. Here are the latest disasters for our civil rights in the offing:
Office of Information Awareness: This is a new bureaucracy intent on putting together the most comprehensive database about the private affairs of every person in America. It is another brain child of DARPA, the ultra secret Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency which spends billions in off-budget black projects that go unreported to US taxpayers. As William Safire describes the OIA in his recent NY Times piece "You are the Suspect," "Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as ‘a virtual, centralized grand database.’ To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you — passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the FBI, your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance — and you have the supersnoop's dream: a ‘Total Information Awareness.’"
This new office is to be funded by a $200 million budget (for starters) and is to be headed by John Poindexter – another of the NSA/Pentagon crowd from the Reagan/Bush years, like Donald Rumsfeld who has also been called back into service for George W. I have good friends from my former days as a Marine officer who know Poindexter personally, and who think highly of him. Granted, he is brilliant – he graduated first in his class at the Naval Academy, holds a doctorate in physics, and was one of Reagan’s top national security advisors. But he also has a long history of working for the dark side of US special operations.
Poindexter was a key player in the Iran-Contra scandal whereby the Republicans (even before being elected – which tells us something about secret power in America) used government aircraft and offices to consummate the sale of American missiles to the terrorist government of Iran, as a ransom for US embassy hostages, with the proviso that their release be delayed until after the election to help ensure Carter’s defeat. The code name of this illegal black operation was appropriately October Surprise. Poindexter and Oliver North were further involved in the diversion of Iranian funds to the Nicaraguan Contras (which also involved CIA drug running through Arkansas’ Mena airport, directly supervised over and profited in by then-Governor Bill Clinton). The military aid part of this deal constituted a portion of the secret NSA dealings which at least had some patriotic justification, owing to the fact that the Contras were fighting Communist Sandinistas in Nicaragua (who, ironically, had put into power with the knowing assistance of Carter’s leftist State Department).
I think dark side controllers in government always try to provide patriotic military men like Poindexter and North with some anti-Communist rationale that helps convince them to go along with illegal secret operations. Sadly, once useful men like Poindexter become insiders (or so they think) they become all too trusting of government secrecy and black operations. For Poindexter to be directing the level of compromise inherent in the OIA’s unconstitutional surveillance of ordinary Americans, indicates that he is either very naive or compromised to a degree my friends don’t realize. In 1990, a jury convicted Poindexter on five felony counts of making false statements during a Congressional investigation. However, his conviction was overturned on a technicality: Congress had given him partial immunity for his testimony. In fact, he did lie to cover for the illegal acts of government, and specifically to protect the President from scrutiny. This kind of misplaced loyalty on the part of our military leaders is detrimental to citizen oversight of government.
House Revision of Homeland Security Bill: On Nov. 13, the House passed several new addendums to the Homeland Security Bill that continue to point to a dark side agenda in the Homeland Security proposal. One new agreement, pushed through in spite of token Democratic opposition, gives President Bush the power to bypass selective worker protections in the Civil Service Act. As I have pointed out before, the Bush administration is refusing to produce of list of specific protections they want dismantled in the name of homeland security; rather, Bush wants a blanket veto power over any legal proviso that gets in the way of government’s security interests. Specifically, I believe the Bush administration is aiming at eliminating, selectively, whistleblower protections for certain officials who might get cold feet enforcing unconstitutional surveillances or lockups of American citizens without normal civil rights. In all dark side government operations, the government ruthlessly maintains the silent acquiescence of law enforcement and military personnel by the threat provisions tied to matters of "national security." However, when the government engages in blatantly illegal acts, even the "national security" line may be insufficient to deter whistleblowers, and additional measures become necessary to silence those who might object.
There were also some fine print added which allows Homeland Security to contract with companies who have moved offshore to evade SEC accounting requirements and /or income taxes. This is very telling, as it bolsters the suspicion that government connected corporations (like Enron) have been given secret assurances and protections from prosecution for tax and accounting practices that honest corporations don’t enjoy. Congress previously passed laws outlawing government from doing business with these rogue companies, but the Republicans want those restrictions undone in the name of homeland security.
Next, the Republicans, in lock step with the White House, granted blanket immunity from private civil lawsuits to any and all companies contracting with Homeland Security, specifically mentioning airline security companies and vaccine manufactures. To any careful observer, this is another telling indication that the government fully expects to run roughshod over people’s rights. They anticipate numerous complaints and lawsuits, and have engaged Congress in ensuring immunity for all. Is there no limit to Congressional knee-jerk yes-manship to the Bush agenda?
Lastly, the Bush administration is determined to cram a new smallpox vaccination down our throats. In the new Homeland Security Bill, Section 304, Subsection C is titled "Administration of counter measures against smallpox." It would give the HHS Secretary virtually unlimited powers to declare an emergency and order smallpox treatment that could include forced immunizations and quarantines, under a declaration of emergency without the consent of Congress. If you are harmed, you cannot sue the manufacturer or the government.
House Rejection of 9/11 Investigation: The terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 provide the impetus for all these new anti-terrorism powers. It is therefore essential for the White House to keep the memory of 9/11 foremost in the public mind, while at the same time suppressing any portion of truth concerning government co-responsibility for this attack. In this spirit, the House dutifully voted 215 to 203 (along party lines) not to create an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks. Vice President Dick Cheney, who has steadfastly refused to accede to Congressional demands for records of his secret talks with energy leaders, was particularly instrumental in lobbying Republicans, on behalf of the President, not to probe any deeper into government culpability in the attacks. In my opinion, Cheney knows much more about government dirty work than even the President, hence his extreme recalcitrance in this matter.
Microsoft Becomes a Compliant Government Partner: Retired Coast Guard Cmdr. Thomas Richey, a former aide to leftist Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., has been hired as director of homeland security for Microsoft Corp. Microsoft’s press release stated, "Tom's appointment is a significant step in establishing Microsoft as a strategic partner to the government as it evolves its homeland security strategy." I’ll bet it is! What this really means is that Richey will play an integral role in coordinating Microsoft software’s vulnerability to federal tracking and snooping with federal homeland security policies. Someday, all who value their computer privacy will be forced to avoid Microsoft products. Fortunately, almost-free Linux-based operating systems and software are slowly making increased headway in challenging Microsoft’s monopoly on the PC platform. Various third party vendors are taking the free Linux operating system and merging it with user-friendly programs to help people work within the new platform. Consider the following distributions: Red Hat (www.redhat.com), Mandrake (www.mandrakesoft.com), or SuSE (www.suse.com).
If the government were serious about Homeland Security, rather than engaging in widespread domestic snooping, suppressing dissent, and excusing the radical roots of Islam, White House leaders would encourage public preparation for self-defense, including (but not limited to) encouraging the acquisition of concealed weapons permits for defense against direct terrorist aggression, and home security shelters to protect against nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. After the DC sniper attacks, every American should realize that police simply will never be sufficiently numerous or ever-present to prevent anything but a fraction of personal crimes or terrorist events. The most powerful deterrent to crime and terror against civilians is the presence, or even suspected presence, of numerous armed citizens. Yet, every emphasis in the Bush paradigm of domestic security is on increased public reliance – indeed, TOTAL reliance – on government, rather than self. Not one cent has been devoted to facilitate private preparedness – not even a word of encouragement. Instead, we get increased millions for FEMA and local government programs, which cannot possible cope (even if totally equipped) with millions of unprepared citizens in a terrorist attack or other crisis. Virtually the only citizen help the government has called for is for increased snitching on one’s neighbors! Clearly, the Bush administration is not concerned with implementing real solutions to the problem of domestic terrorism, but is only taking advantage of public fears to restrict Americans’ liberties while concentrating ever more power into the hands of the federal government.
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