Have You Heard?
Monday, December 11, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Bush’s troubles grow
Bush’s troubles grow: "Bush’s troubles grow"Published Sep 28, 2006 1:23 AM
You know that the president and his closest advisers are in a lot of trouble when the “intelligence” agencies of his government will no longer provide the backup he needs to sell his foreign policy to the people.
That’s what is happening right now between Bush and all the secret police agencies of the U.S. government, from the CIA on down.
The National Intelligence Estimate, a classified document, was recently leaked to the press. The New York Times and the Washington Post broke the news about it on Sept. 24. The document had been kept under wraps since its finalization in April and is “the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government,” according to the Times.
Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte had to approve it. His hard-line background, especially his role in the Contra war against Nicaragua and his stint as U.S. ambassador to Iraq, make its conclusions all the more remarkable.
In brief, the document’s judgment is that the Iraq war, instead of making the U.S. safer, has made it more likely to experience a terrorist attack. “A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks,” was the way the Times summarized it.
Anyone with a clear sense of what is going on already knew that the horrible war crimes committed by the Pentagon in Iraq had made the Bush regime hated all over the world. But no one in the U.S. government would say that openly. Even this document, of course, does not refer to the invasion and occupation as war crimes.
Nevertheless, the damage was done. Bush’s main theme, repeated endlessly since before the war began, has been that he was acting to protect this country from terrorism. He, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have all tried to justify the war by linking Iraq somehow to al-Qaeda and 9/11—a link that never existed.
Because of this kind of hard sell of the war, many young people joined the Army, Marines or National Guard, thinking they were helping to protect their families and communities. But as the fighting and occupation have ground on, enlistments have gone down and skepticism about the aims of the war has risen in the general population.
At the same time, it has become very clear to many in the capitalist establishment, but outside of Bush’s narrow circle, that the war is making things worse for U.S. imperialism in the world. It is not terrorism they fear the most, but popular resistance by oppressed peoples—and it is growing throughout the Middle East and elsewhere.
The release of this document just weeks before the midterm elections is yet another symptom of the bitter struggle going on within the capitalist state itself. It forced Bush to selectively release part of the document for public scrutiny—but only so he could put his own spin on it and claim that it supports his policies.
No one should think that the government’s spy agencies have suddenly become dovish. The CIA is still the CIA. They all just want to promote the Empire more effectively and see Bush and his group as incompetent CEOs who either have to change their ways or step aside so the company can become more profitable.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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Monday, April 10, 2006
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Chicago Tribune news: Exelon kept leaks quiet, files show
Chicago Tribune news: Exelon kept leaks quiet, files show: "Exelon kept leaks quiet, files showAdvertisement
By Hal Dardick
Tribune staff reporter
March 19, 2006
Exelon officials took several steps that for years kept the public in the dark about radioactive tritium spills at a Will County nuclear power plant and the groundwater contamination the spills caused, public records obtained by the Tribune show.
Recent company disclosures about four tritium spills between 1996 and 2003 at Braidwood Generating Station came only after the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency pressured Exelon Nuclear to test for contamination, following prodding from the plant's neighbors.
The disclosures of spills triggered lawsuits last week by the Will County state's attorney, the Illinois attorney general and neighbors of the plant accusing the company of not being forthcoming.
The public documents show Exelon Nuclear officials in 2001 and 2002 opposed public discussion of tritium and the release of documents about tritium spills. They also opposed legislation to mandate groundwater monitoring at nuclear plants and a permit review that led to discovery of the contamination, the records show.
'It's apparent that this all points to obfuscation of radioactive material releases at the Braidwood plant,' said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watchdog Project at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, an anti-nuclear group that has obtained many of the records independently."
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Sunday, February 19, 2006
United States Equestrian Federation, Inc : News
United States Equestrian Federation, Inc : News: "Hay is for Horses: Equine Groups Band Together to Provide Feed for Hurricane-Affected Areas"Friday, February 17, 2006
Ancient Words of Wisdom
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry.
Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so.
How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
"Naturally the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood.
But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
Hermann Goering, Hitler's #2 man,
before being sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials.

