The GOP elephant labored mightily and delivered a flea! Terror, Iraq, and, most recently, efforts by the Bush administration to goad Israel into attacking Syria have all been miserable failures. [See: Israeli officials say Bush was "nuts" for egging on their government to attack Syria] Bush, meanwhile, says that it's a mistake to believe that there is no terrorist threat to the US. But, as to be expected, Bush misstates the terrorist threat and expects Americans to draw the wrong conclusions about it.Bush's remarks and the events that compelled them must be placed in context. An AP-Ipsos poll this week paints the picture: Bush's overall approval rating drops to 33 percent, declining in nearly every issue but most significantly —the lost war in Iraq and his ham-fisted foreign policy. Bush lost ground even in the GOP friendly South where some 19 percent of those who supported Bush in 2004 now say they will vote Democratic.
It is not surprising that Bush will try to milk a foiled terrorist plot for all it's worth. But the old 911 magic may be gone forever. It was in those days, as you may recall, that Bush boasted: "Lucky me! I just won the trifecta". 911 propelled Bush to the heights of public approval amid promises that he would smoke out Bin Laden and bring him to justice, that he would treat the nations who nurture terrorism as terrorists themselves. In fact, he's done none of those things. And given the fraudulent nature of his war against Iraq, it is probably a good thing. [See: the FBI has recently stated that there was never hard evidence that Bin Laden had anything to do with the events of 911 anyway; Google search: NO HARD EVIDENCE]
Let's look at the cold, hard facts.Iraq had nothing to do with 911
There is no evidence that Saddam ever participated or encouraged terrorist attacks on America in any way at any time. When the "terrorist" card didn't play, Bush played his trump —the spector of mushroom clouds over US cities. Saddam, Bushies said, had WMD! But, as long as there is a Fox Network, working assiduously to keep alive the big lie, it is necessary to repeat: Bush's assertions that Iraq had WMD was a bald faced lie.Terrorism has been worse under GOP regimes since 1980
It was not too long ago that the GOP would poll higher than Democrats on the issue of "terrorism". The confidence was misplaced. Terrorism, in fact, grew worse over the two years Ronald Reagan waged his great "war on terrorism". The number of terrorist attacks on US interests increased significantly over a period of about two years, a pattern repeating under Bush. [See: Total Acts of Terrorism in the U.S. 1980-98, America's Response to Terrorism, The Brookings Institute (Based on FBI Statistics)]
There are two possible explanations. One, Reagan's war —not well thought out —was simply impotent and ineffective. It may even have been counter-productive, a rallying cry to legitimate critics of US imperialism as well as terrorists. The GOP loves to pretend to be fighting terrorism; but, in fact, GOP policies may be the cause of it. Such policies, of course, endanger American lives and, indeed, anyone who happens to get in the way. International terrorist attacks against the US declined under Clinton!
Bush's "War on Terrorism" is a miserable failure
The attack and invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with the "war on terrorism". There was never any evidence to support the Bush conclusion that the US was killing terrorists in Iraq, but real terrorists might have said with credibility that they were killing Americans in Iraq. Because Bush is a liar, Iraq —temporarily knocked off the front pages —remains the scene of chaos, civil war, brutality, and, most of all, meaningless and needless death. What Richard Nixon said of Viet Nam must be said of Iraq:Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively, and if after all of this time, and all of this sacrifice, and all of this support, there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership not tied to the mistakes and policies of the past.Bush isolated the US at the very moment in its history when it most needed the good will of the world. Cold War "liberals" were "internationalists" who sought to involve the United States positively in world affairs. But for a period of some 30 years, we have withdrawn, perhaps succumbing to Viet Nam syndrome. Clinton's good points aside, our current situation must surely be traced to the fact that the US has not had competent, "internationalist" leadership since Jimmy Carter managed to broker the Camp David Accords. The security of the world absolutely depends upon the US strengthening its ties with Europe, working throughout the Middle East as a truly honest broker, eschewing the temptation to prop up unpopular, puppet regimes with CIA skullduggery, death squads, and coups d'etat!—Richard Nixon [as quoted by Buzzflash]
Bush's Political Survival Depends on Terror Threats
By William Greider, TheNation.com. Posted August 14, 2006.
The president is trying for the third time to make terrorism his big campaign issue -- are Americans going to finally snap out of it?
An evil symbiosis does exist between Muslim terrorists and American politicians, but it is not the one Republicans describe. The jihadists need George W. Bush to sustain their cause. His bloody crusade in the Middle East bolsters their accusation that America is out to destroy Islam. The president has unwittingly made himself the lead recruiter of willing young martyrs.
More to the point, it is equally true that Bush desperately needs the terrorists. They are his last frail hope for political survival. They divert public attention, at least momentarily, from his disastrous war in Iraq and his shameful abuses of the Constitution. The "news" of terror -- whether real or fantasized -- reduces American politics to its most primitive impulses, the realm of fear-and-smear where George Bush is at his best.
So, once again in the run-up to a national election, we are visited with alarming news. A monstrous plot, red alert, high drama playing on all channels and extreme measures taken to tighten security.
The White House men wear grave faces, but they cannot hide their delight. It's another chance for Bush to protect us from those aliens with funny names, another opportunity to accuse Democrats of aiding and abetting the enemy.
This has worked twice before. It could work again this fall unless gullible Americans snap out of it. Wake up, folks, and recognize how stupid and wimpish you look. I wrote the following two years ago during a similar episode of red alerts: "Bush's 'war on terrorism' is a political slogan -- not a coherent strategy for national defense -- and it succeeds brillantly only as politics. For everything else, it is quite illogical." ...
Here's an update from CNN:
Does this mean that Bush's "War on Islamic Fascists" is over? What a turn around! Just a few days ago the MSM hypervented —wailing that hundreds of thousands of Americans might have died in another nefarious Al Qaeda plot. Now, it appears that the great "Satan" was not even in Al Qaeda's cross hairs. Dare we hope that the MSM will eventually admit that the term Islamo-fascism is a stupid, sophomoric non-word that Repuglicans just made up?Mine is not the only "Existentialist" blog on the net. Here's a good precis of the origins of Existentialism in Descartes' cogito as well as a good take Camus:Chertoff: No sign plotters targeted U.S.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- "Current evidence" does not show the people involved in an alleged plot to blow up airplanes planned to conduct any operations in the United States, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Sunday."The current evidence does not show any plotting occurring inside the United States or any plan to conduct operations within the United States," Chertoff told CNN's "Late Edition."
Chertoff's remarks came three days after police in England arrested about two dozen people allegedly involved in a plot to use liquid explosives to blow up as many as 10 passenger planes during flights from the United Kingdom to the United States.
That prompted an immediate ban on liquids and gels in carry-on luggage in the UK and U.S. that resulted in widespread flight cancellations and delays. (Watch why checking in bags may not keep planes safe -- 1:58)
On Sunday, the Transportation Security Administration exempted small doses of liquid medications, glucose gel for diabetics, solid lipstick and baby food from the list of items passengers are not allowed to take onto planes. All aerosols are prohibited.
The TSA also said it will require all passengers to remove their shoes for X-ray screening.
"These tweaks are aimed at making a smoother process at the checkpoint," TSA Assistant Secretary Kip Hawley said in a news release.
Asked about suggestions that some of the alleged plotters had telephoned people in the United States, Chertoff said, "As of now -- and of course it's subject to change -- we do not see any plotting inside the United States or any indication of operational activity by these plotters inside the United States."
Chertoff described the alleged plot as "sophisticated," but said officials have not determined whether it was the work of the al Qaeda terrorist organization responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks....
Killing Arabs: Bush, Camus and the Politics Of The Absurd
Oh. My. God. Bush has been reading Camus:Bush puts down his summer reading -- including Albert Camus' "The Stranger," and two books on Civil War President Abraham Lincoln -- in favor of presidential briefing books.I find this particularly disgusting because L’Etranger (The Stranger) is my favourite Camus book.
For those not familiar with the name, Albert Camus was a famous French-Algerian writer whose work is synonymous with the concept of absurdity.”At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.” - CamusAlong with Jean-Paul Sartre and other intellectuals, Camus developed a school of thought known as Existentialism. Adherents simply refused to believe anything that could not be universally proven to be true. And what can be proven to be true, other than the simple fact that we exist? As Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.” All else is conjecture.
Stripped to such bare bones, even the basic concept of life itself becomes absurd. Most of us find such a stark reality unpalatable. We lean on various psychological props – religion, wealth, fantasy - to help us ignore this core dilemma of existence. But Camus and his fellow Existentialists bravely embraced such absurdity as the foundation for an ultimately life-affirming philosophy.“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” - CamusFor a telling recent example of the absurd, nothing can match the Bush administration's Weapons of Mass Destruction ruse. Bush sent a team of men scouring the desert sands of Iraq for more than a year, searching in vain for Saddam’s “elusive” WMDs. And yet at least some of the senior figures in the Bush administration knew those WMDs did not exist – because they themselves had set up a secretive Office Of Special Plans to help fabricate the WMD ruse. As a metaphor for man’s life on earth, Camus cited the eternal task of Sisyphus: repeatedly pushing a rock to the top of a mountain, only to watch it roll down the other side. The mission of Charles Deulfer’s Iraq Survey Group was no less absurd.”The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone.“ – CamusTo fully appreciate Camus, it is important to distinguish between absurdity and similar concepts such as irony and ridiculousness. For example, it is ridiculous that an intellectual lightweight like George W. Bush ever became President of the USA. ...
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35 comments:
Len,
Did you see where Shrub is reading "The Stranger" on his dude ranch vacation? How apropos.
Bush must be addled. Maybe he just read the TV guide entry for the Edward G. Robinson movie of that name released in 1946. It's about a Nazi war criminal (Joe Lieberman?) sought in Connecticut.
Seriously, though, can you imagine Bush reading...let alone a classic bit of existentialist fiction?
How to chase journalists away? It's a no-brainer coming from the corporate right wing: charge newspapers arms and legs if they wish to follow the president around!
Absolutely not. He seems to have ADD along with dry drunk syndrome. Who knows?
With regard to 9/11, I quote a comment on Bellaciao (where you can find my comments on the article and on some comments on that page - they are the ones identified by 84.***.250.***):
There is a new twist found on the Wayne Madsen Report stipulating that an former Israeli intelligence insider confirms that Mossad was trailing the 911 hijackers; and that the 120 or so "Art Students" were part of this operation.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com
Oooo... Poor evangelicals... the destruction of Israel is not going to happen soon; thus no jesus yet... Ah, the struggle of anticipation!
For Len and Vierotchka, you guys will sure enjoy that one:
What happens when American Army engineers get dface to face with an engineering masterpiece such as a Babylonian's 4ooo years old ziggarut? Here's what a journalist from the Washington Post saw:
It was 1991, and Strock's Engineer Brigade of the 24th Infantry Division was taking apart Tallil air base, while American air power was doing the same to Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait. Strock, who is now the Army's chief of engineers, found time to visit the ziggurat and toyed with the idea of pocketing one of its bricks as a souvenir.
[...]For all the intimations of empire attached to the U.S. presence in Iraq, these troops exhibited none of the rapaciousness associated with armies encountering antiquities, such as Napoleon's in the conquest of Egypt more than 200 years before. The engineers were just having fun, a subdued, compassionately conservative kind of fun.
It's the lack of curiosity, stupid! The Iraqi can sleep easy: Bush does not plan to dismantle any Iraqi Ziggarat in order to rebuild one of them, say, in the middle of Washington DC; as an ultimate price of conquest. This American Empire makes us to regret the times of Alexander the Great, Bonaparte or even the ruthless British Empire; I would say this: This American Empire just has no class whatsoever.
As old western Empires claimed to bask in higher cultural status and knowledge, as they enslaved and subdued and despised the dark skinned folks from the coutries they invaded, these Empires still priced and valued the history of these respective countries. Both the British Empire and the French Napoleonic armies for instance, while they destroyed cities, made sure to keep old monuments in one piece in order to learn from their engineering accomplishment; or at least to fill their home museum with stolen artifacts for public display.
True, on the one hand, this was all wrapped up into a despicable patriotic message of glory and pride. on the other hand, the public had the opportunity to learn about the arts and engineering skills coming from those who have been defeated. The public display of these craftmaships and artworks enobled, wrapped in respect and re-humanized the defeated. This attitude from the past empires is profundely Roman in origin: Elevating the enemy by displaying its power, its engineering skills and its intelligence, makes the victors, therefore us, even more glorious in their defeat. Meanwhile, for our Army engineers:
"I found some asphalt," exclaimed Col. Gary E. Johnson, who commands the Corps of Engineers in southern Iraq. It certainly looked like asphalt, and it was probably pretty old. The ancients bound their bricks with an asphalt-like substance made of bitumen.
"Great," someone shouted back. "Boil it down and use it to resurface the roads."
Indeed, Bush never "defined" victory going in. That's another way of saying that the Bush admin had no clear cut objectives —save the political exploitation of a manufactured threat.
Bush was going to rid the world of "terrorism" and told lies about Iraq in order to invade. Because it was so vague, the war had bogged down in the quagmire distinguished by the level of atrocity and viciousness. Moreover, no one knows that "terrorism" is. Certainly not Bush who arrogates unto himself the sole authority to define it. But, in fact, he has not defined it. He just labels any resistance to illegitimacy "terrorism".
I will go onto to say that the only terrorism in Iraq is that perpetrated by the aggressor nation upon the citizens of a sovereign nation. BUSH IS THE TERRORIST.
That Bush had no clear cut, achievable objectives is symptomatic of the fraudulent nature of the war to begin with.
In order to bring solid peace between two countries, two factions, or between two civilizations - such as the US versus “the Muslim world” -, the problem is not to be found into what the term “peace” really means or brings to each of the belligerents. Rather, it is in the meaning of “victory” itself: the soil in which peace always sprang, like new plants grow strong into the ashes of a chalked forest. The true reason why there is never going to be a peace in the Middle-East is that each faction has, before even finding a common ground for peace, alas, a completely different understanding of the term “victory”.
If today’s Western Europe has become such a cradle of peace, it is because WWII had ended with France and England, aided by the United States and others, earning a decisive, palpable and complete victory over Germany. But more so, because on both sides of the war, each country, used to have the same “goals”, the same interpretation and understanding of “victory” - which translated as the complete destruction of the opponent. It was the times of total wars between countries which armies fought on a relatively same technological scale, whose leaders trained, got molded and have grown within the same evolutionary path of the art of war. The example of the US versus Japan, two military giants despite enormous cultural differences illustrates even more this theory.
The war in Iraq, but even more so the conflict in Lebanon, departs dramatically from these times when foes fought in the same spirits, between civilizations that shared the same intellectual and religious history; waging wars that some call today “symmetric warfare”.
This was so last century. Today, the definition of the word victory for Hezbollah is to be found in their hubris axioms of “honor” - as to kill a certain amount of Jews per day or week. Meanwhile the Israel notion of victory is even foggier. If Israel claims that her victory will come by achieving a solid peace with her neighbor, she would encourage the economic development of the folks living just outside her frontiers. But the economic squeeze operated by Israel on Gaza, and the destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructures demonstrate that this country still staunchly assume that “her” peace can only be achieve by crushing the opponents into the utmost poverty and under-development. A tenet purely sprang from the mind of Netanyahu.
To make these matters worst, from the other hemisphere, the Bush administration, molded in the neo-con ideology, emphasized the military option to deter terrorism: a recipe that has proven itself absolutely disastrous from Islamabad to Ramallah; as terrorist groups have grown technologically stronger, ideologically justified in the eyes of millions in the Arab world, where thousand are now eager to join the fight against the “west”.
While the British intelligence, if we believe the press, has just, this week, brilliantly foiled a terrorist act by the sole tools of police and intelligence, without having destroyed a single city or a country or having killed a single human being, the United States and Israel have not yet understood, (or still refuse to acknowledge) that despite all their “intelligence”, a victory over terrorism can only be achieved in working at the source of the problem: the economic root. Rather, for the last eight years, the United States and Israel act like gardeners trimming relentlessly the branches of a three, without understanding that this treatment can only obtain only juicier and bigger fruits, or, in the case of a rose bush, better flowers with thicker, sharper thorns.
The only aggressiveness from the west must be in promoting the economical development of Arab countries, instead of showering their corrupt leaders with billions in order to keep them selling nothing but oil, or by bombing those who refuse our bribes.
By giving a chance to the everyday Arab to build western cars, computers components or video games, instead of outsourcing these goods exclusively in Asia, perhaps, through this dependence on real western investments, the Muslim world will come out of their religious and economic dark ages, come up finally with new technologies and exiting products of their own, and get a chance to participate fully in the global market as they should. Why don’t the west look closer at the economic miracle brewing in Muslim Indonesia is beyond me…
As exemplified by the Roman Empire, as demonstrated by the United States within its border, the only recipe for peace has been and always will be inclusion. As the common Arabs from the street of the Middle-east will finally be welcomed and encouraged to participate as members of the global village, their values will most surely level with ours; their notion of pride will surprisingly resemble our own; their definition of the word “victory” will finally translate exactly in our dictionaries.
But this is only for the United States and Israel to spark this change of mind into the head of the Arab of the street of Ramallah, Baghdad, Gaza or East-Jerusalem. Buy shedding their greed away and their hawkish approach, this the West who has to crank the peace process. Jesus was right in one thing: you can defeat your enemy by opening your arms to them. This is simply pure bewilderment from a staunchly Christian country such as the United States to have forgotten this helpful and powerful creed – and even more from her self-anointed “Christian” president!
When it comes to solid and lasting peace in the Middle-East, the ball is the hands of the United States and Israel; as the hands of Arabs are for now only filled with an economic void, a profound and justified anger, and a chronic hopelessness.
DL
Note for Len: My apologies for the deleted post due to a never-ending editing!
What actually happened and who the players are:
Aug. 11, 2006 -- UPDATED. According to knowledgeable sources in the UK and other countries, the Tony Blair government, under siege by a Labor Party revolt, cleverly cooked up a new "terror" scare to avert the public's eyes away from Blair's increasing political woes. British law enforcement; neo-con and intelligence operatives in the United States, Israel, and Britain; and Rupert Murdoch's global media empire cooked up the terrorist plot, liberally borrowing from the failed 1995 "Oplan Bojinka" plot by Pakistan- and Philippines-based terrorist Ramzi Ahmad Yousef to crash 11 trans-Pacific airliners bound from Asia to the United States. In the latest plot, it is reported that liquid bombs were to be detonated on 10 trans-Atlantic planes outbound from Britain to the United States.
The London terror plan was "known" last Sunday by British and American authorities, according to the Indian press. American Airlines flight 109 from London Heathrow to Boston boarded a family of five, however, after the plane left Heathrow authorities determined that the father appeared on a British suspect list drawn up after the 7/7 London transit attacks. At first, the pilot was instructed to fly all the way to Boston where U.S. authorities could claim credit for apprehending the suspect. However, the pilot, fearing for the safety of his passengers and crew, refused and quickly returned to Heathrow without informing the passengers. Once on the ground, it was discovered that the male had in his carry-on baggage the type of combination liquid explosive and electronic device now being hyped by the British and American media.
British sources report that the reason for the delay in informing the airlines and traveling public about the liquid bomb on the American flight was to maximize the beneficial political impact for Blair and George W. Bush, both plummeting in the polls from the situations in Iraq and Lebanon.
Earlier this week, two employees of Murdoch's London tabloid, News of the World, were charged with hacking into the voice and text cell phone messages of three members of the staff of Clarence House, the residence of Princes Charles, William, and Harry. One of those charged with the wiretapping was Clive Goodman, the Royals editor of the News of the World. The same paper earlier tried to politically damage two anti-Iraq war British politicians -- Scottish Socialist Tommy Sheridan and Respect Party MP George Galloway. The paper charges that Sheridan was unfaithful to his wife by going to swinger's clubs. He won a quarter million dollar lawsuit against the paper. Galloway was confronted by Mazher Mahmood, an individual who uses the moniker "Fake Sheik," who posed as a wealthy Arab businessman and tried unsuccessfully to get Galloway to accept cash and make anti-Semitic remarks. In fact, Mahmood was and continues to be a reporter for News of the World, his continued employment approved by Murdoch. Goodman has merely been suspended by Murdoch but he has not been fired.
However, what prompted Murdoch and Blair to hype a new global "terror" threat was what Murdoch learned from eavesdropping on the phone calls of Prince Charles' staff at the future king's office, home, and limousine. The eavesdropping revealed that Charles was working with Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who is to the left of Blair, to conduct the same type of political maneuver that John Major used to oust Margaret Thatcher from office. London's left-wing Mayor, Ken Livingston, was also in on the Charles-Brown plan and it was expected that in return for his support, Livingston would get a senior position in a Brown cabinet -- a development that sent shock waves through the neo-con circles in London, Washington, and Jerusalem, including British Home Secretary John Reid and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The Charles-Brown plan was briefed by Blair to Bush during the former's recent visit to Washington. However, because the phony terror plot was known to both leaders -- they decided to be away on vacation when the terror plot was "uncovered." Bush is vacationing at his Crawford, Texas "ranch," while Blair is on vacation in Barbados, staying at Sir Cliff Richard's luxurious villa.
After Blair met with Bush in Washington, he flew to California where on July 30 he attended Murdoch's News Corporation private corporate executive conference at the posh Inn at Spanish Bay golf resort in Pebble Beach. Blair met with Murdoch, Israeli former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Newt Gingrich, and various Fox, Star, and Sky News executives. The final touches were agreed to by Blair and Murdoch on how the fake terror plot would play out in Murdoch's media empire.
Blair told Bush that a Brown government would move to withdraw British troops from Iraq, break the "special relationship" with the Bush White House, and move closer to the European Union and the United Nations.
The Israeli attack on Lebanon created a rift within Blair's Cabinet with some former Blair loyalists signaling their support for the political coup against Blair. As a result, a suspect passenger was permitted to board an American aircraft at Heathrow with a liquid bomb to lay the groundwork for the media and travel hysteria five days later.
The wiretapping of Charles' messages also indicated that he has weighed in with various European royal families to discourage them from inviting Bush on state visits to their nations. This, reportedly upset the Bush and Blair regimes, who were working together to improve Bush's image in Europe. The White House's displeasure with the monarchies in Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg, and Norway are a direct result of the Murdoch eavesdropping on Charles' staff.
Not surprisingly, after Galloway tore into a Sky News reporter on a recent televised interview, The Sun, a Murdoch paper, is now reporting that one of the 24 British aircraft liquid bomber suspects now under arrest, Waheed Zaman, met with Galloway "many times." The paper quotes the sister of the suspect. A Galloway spokesman denies that Galloway knows the suspect. What is suspect is the Murdoch media empire that makes up news and commits illegal acts to provide cover for the false flag operations being conducted by Britain, the U.S., and Israel.
Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) agency has helped provide the cover story for the alleged liquid bombers. Working with British and U.S. intelligence, the ISI says it broke up the plot after arresting terrorist suspects in Lahore and Karachi. However, the ISI claims that the men were affiliated with the Kashmiri terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba, a group that is run and funded by the ISI itself.
The disclosure of the Charles-Brown plot has already created a backlash from the neo-cons. The Murdoch media is already floating the rumor that Home Secretary Reid is now Blair's chosen successor, while there will be an effort to scandalize Charles in an effort to convince the British public that it would be best to skip over him and have Prince William assume the throne upon Queen Elizabeth's death or abdication.
British commentators are noting that it is Reid, a noted neo-con, who is chairing national security "Cobra" meetings in Blair's absence. Blair bypassed Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and many political observers believe that Prescott was passed over because of evidence that he was involved in supporting the Charles-Brown coup. Prescott chaired Cobra meetings in the wake of the July 7, 2005 (7/7) London transit bombings.
Meanwhile, Republican governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mitt Romney used the occasion to boost their sagging popularity by placing their states' National Guardsmen at major airports in their states.
I forgot to include the link, so here it is - http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/ - Len, you can use your editing powers to place the link in my above post and delete this post. :)
This story is entirely believable, Vera, although, the author would have boost his credibility by being more forthcoming with his sources, other than citing some vague "knowledgeable sources". Sorry, I am skeptical by nature.
The involvement of Schwarzenegger is even more puzzling to me, since the author is flatly wrong arguing that the Californian governor is having "a sagging popularity". True, a year ago, his popularity received quite a stone huddling from groups of social workers like public school teachers and most notably the nurses. But a lot of water has passed since the last California election, and Schwarzy had accomplished quite a good track since then by, among many other good deeds, spectacularly passing a huge $62 billion infrastrusture bill -badly needed- on a complete and highly surprising bi-partisan mode. (6 billions just for public schools!).
Two weeks ago, for instance, he bluntly acknowledged his lack of ideas for resolving the disastrous situation in which our prison system lays, and called for a month long bi-partisan committee to debate on this matter.
If the Terminator's polls have not reached the mercury hights like the last month's California heat wave, it is definately summer between our the "governorator" and his constituents; even more so since Schwartzy is known not to be fond of Bush, blaming the prez openly for the lack of federal fundings for the Homeland security and other Enron's externalities. He even purposely dodged Bush travelling Air Force one for California fund raising in Sacramento (!), six month ago, while leaving the california's capital for another fund raising of his own in California's wine country. We, Californians, know all too well that Schwarzy may yet be working for the rich, but he sure despised Neo-cons - which must be at least in his resume in order to survive in the liberals's den that is California.
Vierotchka, I don't think I can edit your post without deleting it, re-coding to include the link, and then rep-posting. But that would take out your name and link.
So...here's the next best thing —a clickable link to the original article and an excerpt: Wayne Madsen Report
According to knowledgeable sources in the UK and other countries, the Tony Blair government, under siege by a Labor Party revolt, cleverly cooked up a new "terror" scare to avert the public's eyes away from Blair's increasing political woes. British law enforcement; neo-con and intelligence operatives in the United States, Israel, and Britain; and Rupert Murdoch's global media empire cooked up the terrorist plot, liberally borrowing from the failed 1995 "Oplan Bojinka" plot by Pakistan- and Philippines-based terrorist Ramzi Ahmad Yousef to crash 11 trans-Pacific airliners bound from Asia to the United States. In the latest plot, it is reported that liquid bombs were to be detonated on 10 trans-Atlantic planes outbound from Britain to the United States.
Vierotchka, some time ago I came across two articles about the 120 Israeli "art students" that I found helpful. I've posted them here and here.
Len, Wayne Madsen has pegged Bojinka 2 as a full on conspiracy. The prima facie evidence doesn't support that. The terrorist threat was real enough, people were setting up these attacks from within the UK and the police were monitoring them. The curious features that might support a more nuanced assertion that it was an inside job are: (i) the Pakistan based support for the UK operatives, and (ii) the concept of a 'dummy run' (an aspect which appeared in the London 7/7 bombings). So, there are circumstances in which the exercise could have been run with the UK terrorists being used as patsies. But the picture is not clear.
Cannonfire discusses some of these ideas here and here.
The evidence, of course, is that the hurried UK arrests were precipitated specifically by the blabbing of Cheney and other Bush admin officials to the US media. True to form....
It sounds suspiciously like the "Toronto Terror Plot" ( http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/
news/story.html?id=de3f8e90-982a-47af
-8e5e-a1366fd5d6cc&k=46849 ) that surfaced out of nowhere just after the country elected a minority Conservative government, whose Prime Minister is extremely cozy with Bush. Check it out, and see if you don't notice similarities. I predict another one will be the absolute silence that clamps down over the judicial proceedings, just like here. There hasn't been a squeak about it in the mainstream press for the last month. We are told the secrecy is necessary because there is an "ongoing investigation"; a phrase that is becoming as familiar as "national security" is in the U.S.
The paper that contains the link I sent is the same one that first broke the phony story about the Iranian regime ruling that non-Iranians must wear a distinctive coloured patch to denote their nationality (conjuring up immediate and obvious flashbacks to the Jewish yellow star). The story was subsequently proven to have been fabricated and planted.
"Ongoing investigation" is code for "We're going to keep this out of the news until the public forgets about it. By that time, we will have destroyed any evidence that might convict us!"
That's what happened with 911! Every "investigation" of 911 has been a farce! We may never know precisely what happened. The best we can do is to punch out all the holes in the official conspiracy theory until nothing is left of it.
Then it should be asked: if Bush were not complicit in an inside job, then WHY the elaborate cover up, the tortured cover stories, the conflicting lies?
There's wisdom in the parable that, the more lies you tell, the more difficult it is to keep your stories straight. It's simplest just to tell the truth, because you can be sure the story will not vary regardless the number of recountings. Only the most agile mind can stay on top of multiple lies, while intuiting the way ahead and what embellishments may be necessary. Even the kindest of Bush's supporters would not describe him as having an agile mind.
You're quite correct that a favoured tactic is to keep a hot potato under wraps until people have forgotten, and moved on. However, that's most difficult to do when the story involves people held on suspicion of committing a serious crime. What do you do with them, for how long, and how do you make them keep their mouths shut when you eventually let them go? Quite apart from the monstrosity of Gitmo Bay (how many people held there have actually been found guilty of anything, again?) there are "terror plots" in Miami, Toronto and now London again. It staggers the imagination that all those could be kept under wraps until Blair and Bush sunset safely, and Harper scores a majority government.
Something I enjoy is going back through old super-pro-Bush material from his devotees, and rereading the confident predictions they made, the ecstasy they expressed when he was reelected. Here's one of my favourites, by the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
columnists/pnoonan/?id=110005879
Ms. Noonan would at one time have had George Bush's baby at the drop of a hat (as hinted at here in her rhapsodic discussion of his...hmm...undercarriage). She tries to distance herself from him now, as do many conservative commentators, by suggesting they are disappointed in him. Slow learners, I'd say.
Dante Lee - After Blair met with Bush in Washington, he flew to California where on July 30 he attended Murdoch's News Corporation private corporate executive conference at the posh Inn at Spanish Bay golf resort in Pebble Beach. Blair met with Murdoch, Israeli former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Newt Gingrich, and various Fox, Star, and Sky News executives. The final touches were agreed to by Blair and Murdoch on how the fake terror plot would play out in Murdoch's media empire.
Maybe they dropped in at Bohemian Grove. Moloch got a good run in Lebanon, but a bit more never hurts.
Cherie Blair has borrowed a practice from white witchcraft and on a regular basis casts a circle, a deeply symbolic act in magic, to create ‘sacred space’.
Another revelation details how Blair himself always keeps a gray velvet pouch in his breast pocket. It contains a small piece of red ribbon and a piece of rolled up paper. Even his closest advisors do not know its significance, but he cannot operate without it.
These are the nuts who are leading us.
Slightly off-topic - I've just thought of a "buzzword" with which to label Lieberman - "Turncoat Lieberman" - spread it around, it should be amply used to help Lamont. Oh, an my blog provider's servers are up and running again, I only lost two days' worth of posts. :)
Did you hear that Bush has beeN READING Albert Camus' L'Etranger during his vacation? See my blog for a lengthy discussion of this disturbing "worlds collide" scenario...
Ghandi - he merely held that book for the photo op!
Oops! Typo alert! I should have written Gandhi, :)
I have it on good authority that the president prefers children's classics such as, "The Pet Goat", which offer a rapid but satisfying read while the world is crumbling around you.
I don't beleive Bush is reading anything written by Camus. I am only familiar with The Plague. I have read it twice and will dig it up and read it again. I suriously doubt that Bush could read Camus and understand what Camus is writting about. Bush has shown me that he can't even grasp simple concepts. I doubt that Bush is capable of abstract thinking. Is only mental ability is in lying and fantasising.
Even better would be "Turncoat Joe" :)
Hi Len,
chek out FBI page and see Bin Laden's bounty. Notice he's not wanted in connection with 9/11 attacks.
Why do you suppose it should be that we are still removing our shoes when going through security -although the trigger for that was wanna-be shoe bomber Richard Reid nearly 5 years ago - but the outright ban on liquids is being rolled back only a couple of days after the latest panic?
Bush told several lies today. But here are the two biggest.
He said that Israel defeated Hezbollah. But neither Hezbollah OR a significant majority of Israeli citizens think so. In fact, Olmert is is BIG trouble with Israeli citizens and even Olmert concedes there were "problems" with the conduct of hostilities. Yep! I would call war crimes a "problem".
Bush claims Hezbollah started the conflict! NOPE! There is convincing evidence that the Israeli soliders were CAPTURED inside Lebanon!
Bush also claimed that Hezbollah had a fantastic propaganda machine. Maybe! But they DON'T have Karl Rove.
The biggest threat to world peace and Democracy is Bush.
Hey, fuzzflash; at the risk of misunderstanding the actual intent of your phrasing, I think you mean "dike". The one implies holding back a torrent, while the other...well, never mind.
I see here - http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/
sf/nyt8_15_06_1.htm - that Alberto "Abu" Gonzalez will conduct a parallel review of U.S. and British anti-terror laws, to see if some baubles may be sifted from the dross. One early pick is the ability (on the part of the Brits) to hold a suspect for up to 28 days without charge - Mike Chertoff likes that one. Boy, that'd put a crimp in your overtime at work, wouldn't it?
The really funny part was when Abu Gonzalez posed the rhetorical question, "Is it consistent with our Constitution?" As if he cares anything about the Constitution!! Of course, the Times would just keep rolling, without figuratively raising a satiric eyebrow, if Gonzalez started speaking Urdu, or broke into "To Sir, with Love". Business as usual in the emerging police state.
Len:
"
Bush also claimed that Hezbollah had a fantastic propaganda machine. Maybe! But they DON'T have Karl Rove. "
LOL!! Good one Len! Absolutely right. Olmert too would love to have one of those, "Hey, George, how'bout putting a clone of Karl as a complementery gift with the next weapon delivery, uh?"
Dante, let's send Karl to Israel...but, better, let's send him to IRAQ!
Mark wrote I think you mean "dike". The one implies holding back a torrent, while the other...well, never mind.
Uh...the other implies Ann Coulter?
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