The End of American Thanksgivings

Nobody but Americans celebrates Thanksgiving. It is reserved by history and the intent of "the founders" as the supremely white American holiday, the most ghoulish event on the national calendar. No Halloween of the imagination can rival the exterminationist reality that was the genesis, and remains the legacy, of the American Thanksgiving. It is the most loathsome, humanity-insulting day of the year – a pure glorification of racist barbarity.

We at Black Commentator are thankful that the day grows nearer when the almost four centuries-old abomination will be deprived of its reason for being: white supremacy. Then we may all eat and drink in peace and gratitude for the blessings of humanity’s deliverance from the rule of evil men.

Thanksgiving is much more than a lie – if it were that simple, an historical correction of the record of events in 1600s Massachusetts would suffice to purge the "flaw" in the national mythology. But Thanksgiving is not just a twisted fable, and the mythology it nurtures is itself inherently evil. The real-life events – subsequently revised – were perfectly understood at the time as the first, definitive triumphs of the genocidal European project in New England. The near-erasure of Native Americans in Massachusetts and, soon thereafter, from most of the remainder of the northern English colonial seaboard was the true mission of the Pilgrim enterprise – Act One of the American Dream. African Slavery commenced contemporaneously – an overlapping and ultimately inseparable Act Two.

First Genocide, Then Lie About It - Why I Hate Thanksgiving

The year was 1492. The Taino-Arawak people of the Bahamas discovered Christopher Columbus on their beach.

Historian Howard Zinn tells us how Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. Columbus later wrote of this in his log. Here is what he wrote:

"They brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned. They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of sugar cane. They would make fine servants. With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

And so the conquest began, and the Thanotocracy -- the regime of death -- was inaugurated on the continent the Indians called "Turtle Island."

Celebrating Genocide!

Many people annually get as stuffed as their turkeys in celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanksgiving is a quintessentially American holiday, so much so that it is not just a holiday, but really is (as the etymology implies) one of our Holy Days, almost universally celebrated by Americans. In its sacredness, families get together to (unintentionally?) celebrate one genocide (against Native Americans) by committing another (against turkeys). Can we celebrate in good faith and conscience?

On Thanksgiving Day, we give thanks. We give thanks for being the invader, the exploiter, the dominator, the greedy, the gluttonous, the colonizer, the thief, indeed the genocidaire, rather than on the other side of imperialism's zero-sum murderous game. As Mark Twain points out in his War Prayer, wishing and being thankful for one's own success and victory is, at the very same time, wishing and being thankful for another's defeat and destruction. Do we want to make these kinds of wishes and give these kinds of thanks?

Cooking the History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre - Is All That Turkey and Stuffing a Celebration of Genocide?

Is All That Turkey and Stuffing a Celebration of Genocide?

By Laura Elliff, Vice President, Native American Student Association
Thanksgiving is a holiday where families gather to share stories, football games are watched on television and a big feast is served. It is also the time of the month when people talk about Native Americans. But does one ever wonder why we celebrate this national holiday? Why does everyone give thanks?

History is never simple. The standard history of Thanksgiving tells us that the "Pilgrims and Indians" feasted for three days, right? Most Americans believe that there was some magnificent bountiful harvest. In the Thanksgiving story, are the "Indians" even acknowledged by a tribe? No, because everyone assumes "Indians" are the same. So, who were these Indians in 1621?

In 1620, Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower naming the land Plymouth Rock. One fact that is always hidden is that the village was already named Patuxet and the Wampanoag Indians lived there for thousands of years. To many Americans, Plymouth Rock is a symbol. Sad but true many people assume, "It is the rock on which our nation began." In 1621, Pilgrims did have a feast but it was not repeated years thereafter. So, it wasn't the beginning of a Thanksgiving tradition nor did Pilgrims call it a Thanksgiving feast. Pilgrims perceived Indians in relation to the Devil and the only reason why they were invited to that feast was for the purpose of negotiating a treaty that would secure the lands for the Pilgrims. The reason why we have so many myths about Thanksgiving is that it is an invented tradition. It is based more on fiction than fact.

So, what truth ought to be taught? In 1637, the official Thanksgiving holiday we know today came into existence. (Some people argue it formally came into existence during the Civil War, in 1863, when President Lincoln proclaimed it, which also was the same year he had 38 Sioux hung on Christmas Eve.) William Newell, a Penobscot Indian and former chair of the anthropology department of the University of Connecticut, claims that the first Thanksgiving was not "a festive gathering of Indians and Pilgrims, but rather a celebration of the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women and children." In 1637, the Pequot tribe of Connecticut gathered for the annual Green Corn Dance ceremony. Mercenaries of the English and Dutch attacked and surrounded the village; burning down everything and shooting whomever try to escape. The next day, Newell notes, the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony declared: "A day of Thanksgiving, thanking God that they had eliminated over 700 men, women and children." It was signed into law that, "This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots." Most Americans believe Thanksgiving was this wonderful dinner and harvest celebration. The truth is the "Thanksgiving dinner" was invented both to instill a false pride in Americans and to cover up the massacre.

Was Thanksgiving really a massacre of 700 "Indians"? The present Thanksgiving may be a mixture of the 1621 three-day feast and the "Thanksgiving" proclaimed after the 1637 Pequot massacre. So next time you see the annual "Pilgrim and Indian display" in a shopping window or history about other massacres of Native Americans, think of the hurt and disrespect Native Americans feel. Thanksgiving is observed as a day of sorrow rather than a celebration. This year at Thanksgiving dinner, ponder why you are giving thanks.

Iraq's oil: The spoils of war

Iraqis face the dire prospect of losing up to $200bn (£116bn) of the wealth of their country if an American-inspired plan to hand over development of its oil reserves to US and British multinationals comes into force next year. A report produced by American and British pressure groups warns Iraq will be caught in an "old colonial trap" if it allows foreign companies to take a share of its vast energy reserves. The report is certain to reawaken fears that the real purpose of the 2003 war on Iraq was to ensure its oil came under Western control.

The Iraqi government has announced plans to seek foreign investment to exploit its oil reserves after the general election, which will be held next month. Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proved oil reserves, the third largest in the world.

'"Economic Brief: The Blue Stream Gas Pipeline'"

On November 17, the Blue Stream gas pipeline between Turkey and Russia was officially inaugurated. Its construction, undertaken by Russia, Turkey and Italy -- involving a joint venture between Russia's gas giant Gazprom and Italy's energy major ENI -- began in 1997. At that time, it was sharply criticized as technically flawed (it runs at a record depth of 2,150 meters below the sea) and politically inopportune (since it was said to dangerously increase Turkey's dependence on Russia's gas supply).

Blue Stream's implementation confirms that Russia is using its vast oil and gas reserves as a geopolitical wildcard. For instance, on Blue Stream's inauguration day, Russian President Vladimir Putin already proposed the construction of new Russian-Turkish oil and gas pipelines.

Additionally, the success of Blue Stream highlights once again the major economic and strategic stakes of the broad area linking the southeastern Balkans, the Black Sea region and the Caspian Sea. Russia, Turkey, the E.U. powers and the U.S. are all involved in a complex geoeconomic competition.

'"Economic Brief: The Blue Stream Gas Pipeline'"

On November 17, the Blue Stream gas pipeline between Turkey and Russia was officially inaugurated. Its construction, undertaken by Russia, Turkey and Italy -- involving a joint venture between Russia's gas giant Gazprom and Italy's energy major ENI -- began in 1997. At that time, it was sharply criticized as technically flawed (it runs at a record depth of 2,150 meters below the sea) and politically inopportune (since it was said to dangerously increase Turkey's dependence on Russia's gas supply).

Blue Stream's implementation confirms that Russia is using its vast oil and gas reserves as a geopolitical wildcard. For instance, on Blue Stream's inauguration day, Russian President Vladimir Putin already proposed the construction of new Russian-Turkish oil and gas pipelines.

Additionally, the success of Blue Stream highlights once again the major economic and strategic stakes of the broad area linking the southeastern Balkans, the Black Sea region and the Caspian Sea. Russia, Turkey, the E.U. powers and the U.S. are all involved in a complex geoeconomic competition.

EXPORTING GAS AND IMPORTING DEMOCRACY IN BOLIVIA

From NACLA

In late May and early June, tens of thousands of mostly Aymara campesinos, miners, students, public school teachers, factory workers and residents of the sprawling impoverished city of El Alto overran neighboring La Paz. For the second time in less than two years, they forced Bolivia’s president to resign. In both cases, the rebellions were largely driven by a single concrete demand: greater control over Bolivia’s natural gas reserves, the second largest in South America and the nation’s most valuable resource.

"We want the gas to be industrialized here in Bolivia," Teodoro Calle, a soft-spoken Aymara street vender from El Alto, told me in late October 2003 as he leaned on crutches outside a church community center in hopes of receiving a small handout. Calle had been shot in the left leg by Bolivian soldiers while protesting against a plan to export natural gas to the United States.

"Before, perhaps we agreed to everything, but not anymore," said Calle. "People know now what's going on.... But the government wants to sell the gas abroad at the price of a dead chicken. That's why we're fighting. Every neighbor, every Bolivian, that's why."

Thatcher 'threatened to nuke Argentina'

Jon Henley in Paris
Tuesday November 22, 2005
The Guardian

Margaret Thatcher forced François Mitterrand to give her the codes to disable Argentina's deadly French-made missiles during the Falklands war by threatening to launch a nuclear warhead against Buenos Aires, according to a book.
Rendez-vous - the psychoanalysis of François Mitterrand, by Ali Magoudi, who met the late French president up to twice a week in secrecy at his Paris practice from 1982 to 1984, also reveals that Mr Mitterrand believed he would get his "revenge" by building a tunnel under the Channel which would forever destroy Britain's island status.


Article continues

The book, to be published on Friday, is one of several on France's first Socialist president to mark the 10th anniversary of his death on January 8 1996. Despite a now tarnished reputation, he remains a source of fascination for the French in general and the left in particular.

Rendez-vous provides revealing insights into the man's mysterious character, complicated past, paranoia and power complex, but nothing as titillating as his remarks on the former British prime minister.

"Excuse me. I had a difference to settle with the Iron Lady. That Thatcher, what an impossible woman!" the president said as he arrived, more than 45 minutes late, on May 7 1982. "With her four nuclear submarines in the south Atlantic, she's threatening to unleash an atomic weapon against Argentina if I don't provide her with the secret codes that will make the missiles we sold the Argentinians deaf and blind." He reminded Mr Magoudi that on May 4 an Exocet missile had struck HMS Sheffield. "To make matters worse, it was fired from a Super-Etendard jet," he said. "All the matériel was French!"

In words that the psychoanalyst has sworn to the publisher, Meren Sell, are genuine, the president continued: "She's livid. She blames me personally for this new Trafalgar ... I was obliged to give in. She's got them now, the codes."

Mr Mitterrand - who once described Mrs Thatcher as "the eyes of Caligula and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe" - went on: "One cannot win against the insular syndrome of an unbridled Englishwoman. Provoke a nuclear war for a few islands inhabited by three sheep as hairy as they are freezing! But it's a good job I gave way. Otherwise, I assure you, the Lady's metallic finger would have hit the button."

France, he insisted, would have the last word. "I'll build a tunnel under the Channel. I'll succeed where Napoleon III failed. And do you know why she'll accept my tunnel? I'll flatter her shopkeeper's spirit. I'll tell her it won't cost the Crown a penny."

Ward Churchill

You've got to learn

that when you push people around,
some people push back.
As they should.
As they must.
And as they undoubtedly will.
There is justice in such symmetry.
- Ward Churchill

Behind the phosphorus clouds are war crimes within war crimes - We now know the US also used thermobaric weapons against up to 50,000 civilians

We now know the US also used thermobaric weapons in its assault on Falluja, where up to 50,000 civilians remained

We shouldn't forget that the use of chemical weapons was a war crime within a war crime within a war crime. Both the invasion of Iraq and the assault on Falluja were illegal acts of aggression. Before attacking the city, the marines stopped men "of fighting age" from leaving. Many women and children stayed: the Guardian's correspondent estimated that between 30,000 and 50,000 civilians were left. The marines treated Falluja as if its only inhabitants were fighters. They levelled thousands of buildings, illegally denied access to the Iraqi Red Crescent and, according to the UN's special rapporteur, used "hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population".

US Dictator George Bush planned to bomb Arab broadcaster Aljazeera, British newspaper the Daily Mirror has reported

Memo: Bush wanted Aljazeera bombed 22 Nov 2005 US Dictator George Bush planned to bomb Arab broadcaster Aljazeera, British newspaper the Daily Mirror has reported, citing a Downing Street memo marked top secret. The five-page transcript of a conversation between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair reveals that Blair talked Bush out of launching a military strike on the station, unnamed sources told the daily. Aljazeera - HERE

Bush Plot to Bomb His Arab Ally --Madness of war memo 22 Nov 2005 President [sic] Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals. But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash. A source said: "There's no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it." Mirror - HERE

On the Return of Watergate - Worse than Watergate? The Mother of All Constitutional Crises

The recent revelations about the man often seen as the "moral hero" of the Watergate scandal, the Washington Post's Bob Woodward, have the feel of an interment ceremony. Reading press accounts of how Woodward swallowed the first Plame leak for a mere two-plus years without a peep and then went out on the Larry-King circuit to dismiss the significance of Plamegate, what came to mind was the burial ceremony that, in "committing" a body to the ground, goes, in part, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." If there were a Watergate/Plamegate version of this, those two phrases might be replaced by "Nixon to Bush, Woodward to Woodward."

It's strange, isn't it, that the two great constitutional crises of the last half century are "gated" because the first became public thanks to a two-bit break-in by political thieves at an apartment complex named Watergate. We've been gated ever since. It's no less strange that Bob Woodward's decision to protect a source bookends both crises -- and, though a source may be a source, the differences between the two moments tell us much about the world we've traversed between Richard Nixon's impeachment in 1973 and today.

In both moments, it would not be wrong to say that a small coterie of high officials, a "cabal" (to use the word of Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson) took control of the government, intent on pursuing a foreign war (though in Nixon's case, one initiated and escalated by Democratic presidents); intent as well on smearing and destroying presidential enemies, especially antiwar ones, on using "national security" to secure political power, and on removing the Constitutional fetters on the president's ability to pursue any policies he may desire.

Give Thanks No More; It's Time for a National Day of Atonement

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.

In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.

Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the United States.

Mike Whitney: 'Hugo Chavez and the Crawford madman'

Hugo Chavez seems to take great pleasure in tweaking George Bush's nose. He's repeatedly called Bush a "terrorist" and disparaged the US as a "terrorist state". Just last week, Chavez fired off another broadside saying, "The planet's most serious danger is the government of the United States...The people of the United States are being governed by a killer, a genocidal murderer, and a madman."

He got that right.

For liberals and leftists Chavez's fiery salvos have been a welcome respite from the weak-kneed groveling of congressional Democrats and the congratulatory purring of media brown-nosers. So far, the Venezuelan president has been the only leader on the world stage to state the obvious, that Bush and his maniacal group of liars, carpet-baggers, and war criminals are savaging the planet and putting millions at risk.

That doesn't mean that Chavez hates the American people; quite the contrary. Following the vast devastation of Hurricane Katrina Chavez responded more quickly than FEMA, offering to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers to the disaster area. He offered to provide $1 million of free petroleum via the state run Petroleos de Venezuela and its subsidiary CITGO for the relief effort.

Power to and from the people

Knight-Ridder explores the devious ways in which Venezuela is trying to generate support in the United States:

"Even as Chavez attacks President Bush as his sworn nemesis, his government is running a strong campaign to curry favor with U.S. citizens through leftist grass-roots groups [Bolivarian circles], paid lobbyists and public relations operatives and offers of cheap fuel for America's poor.

"The Venezuelan leader is running a 'grass-roots foreign policy,' said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Washington based Center for Economic and Policy Research, a group that supports Chavez.

"'Obviously the government of the United States has not been very friendly and the Venezuelans figure they have a better chance at dealing directly with the people who don't have any particular reason not to like Venezuela,' he added."

My favorite part of the article, raising the now routine question of anonymous sources, was this:

"To Bush administration officials the names of organizations that back the Venezuelan president have a familiar ring to them.

"'The Venezuelans just got the Rolodex from Cuba,' said one senior State Department official who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue."

The article then goes on to mention Danny Glover and Rev. Lucius Walker as both supporters of Cuba and of Venezuela. Quelle surprise! If Hugo Chavez wanted to find out who in the U.S. to reach out to for support, he hardly needed to call up Fidel Castro. He could have called me or about a thousand other people who could have given him the complete list of people and groups likely to support him. Heck, he probably could have found the list on the web, starting with David Horowitz's list of "leftists I love to hate." The idea that this was somehow "sensitive" information that warranted that this State Department official be granted anonymity for his cheap slander (well, he or she thought it was slander, anyway) is preposterous. And typical.

Bill Clinton's Hypocrisies on Iraq

When Bill Clinton told a group of students in Dubai recently that the Iraq war had been a "big mistake", champions of the current White House occupant were quick to accuse him of hypocrisy. For once, they had a strong point.

To be clear, Clinton's criticism was confined to the conduct of the war, not its premises or ethics. "We never sent enough troops," the former president lamented, "and didn't have enough troops to control or seal the borders." At the moment, there are 160,000 US troops in Iraq; since 2003, half a million US soldiers have fought there. Would greater numbers have succeeded in doing anything other than further inflame an insurgency which is overwhelmingly conducted not by foreigners but by Iraqis, who have no need to slip over borders?

Clinton publicly backed the invasion of 2003--and he can't credibly claim he did so because (like the US public) he was misled by White House propaganda about Iraq's WMD and links to Al Qaeda. In fact, his administration laid the groundwork for the Iraq policy pursued by Bush.

Throughout his eight years in office, Clinton applied a ruthless sanctions regime that took the lives of at least half a million Iraqi children. He subjected Iraq (with British help) to the longest sustained bombing campaign since Vietnam, ostensibly to protect the no-fly zones established in 1991. In 1993, he ordered US warplanes to destroy Iraqi intelligence centers in retaliation for the attempted assassination of George Bush Sr. In 1998, he signed the Iraq Liberation Act, which made regime change official US policy, and did so explicitly on the basis of the threat posed by Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. In December of that year, US forces--with British assistance but without UN consent--mounted a ferocious four day aerial assault on Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. The pretext was Iraq's refusal to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors, some of whom had been suborned by the Clinton administration to act as spies for US intellige

The Champ Meets the Chump

...Back then, Ali could level criticism about an ill-advised, unfair war: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No, I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality.... If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people, they wouldn't have to draft me, I'd join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We've been in jail for 400 years."

If Ali had said things like that today about our current war, it would have earned him not not a medal but a one-way trip to Gitmo.

The United States of Torture - Yet another sickening, shocking insight into the depths of evil to which the Bush regime can sink

Unfortunately it is not the first time that the Bush regime brings shame onto the good people of the United States of America and its Constitution, this bastion of freedom and democracy which is now relegated to a sad and apologetic synonym of the torture chambers of Abu Ghraib, the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay (what an example for Washington to give to Havana) and now, 175 people found in central Baghdad who resembled the cowering skeletal figures of Treblinka, Dachau or Belsen.

The hype is on, and this time the Bush regime is quick to claim that the raids were made by Iraqi and US troops, uncovering a shocking act of depravity unseen outside Hitler's concentration camps since 1945. What the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal failed to state was the fact that the torturers have been trained by Washington, that the CIA has set up torture chambers outside US soil in European prisons and that endemic torture is an integral part of the Bush regime.

What are you going to do now, Mr. Bush? "We used to have one reactionary dictator. Now we have tens of them springing up"

The Bush regime's policy in Iraq is an abject failure. Two years after the lies which gave a false pretext for the illegal invasion of Iraq, after 30,000 civilians have been murdered by US armed forces, after a hundred thousand people have lost their lives directly or indirectly because of this invasion, after Iraq's civilian infra-structures were selected as military targets, after the war crimes, the use of chemical weapons, the cases of torture, who can say that the policy was a success?

The Americans have lost control over Iraq

The US Forces have lost control of the situation. Eye witnesses have informed Pravda.Ru that the troops are rarely to be seen on the streets - they spend their time avoiding the population in huge convoys travelling back and forth on the outskirts of the cities and the ones who exert direct control are the gangs of armed men on practically every street corner.

Life much worse for the population

Global Eye - Body Politics and dictator George Bush

Four years ago, President George W. Bush quietly assumed dictatorial powers with a secret executive order granting himself the right to imprison anyone on earth indefinitely, without charges or trial or indictment or evidence, simply by declaring them an "enemy combatant," on his say-so alone. This week, the assemblage of bootlickers and bagmen that befoul the U.S. Senate voted to codify the core of this global autocracy under the pretense of curtailing it.

With great self-fluffing fanfare, the Senate passed two measures ostensibly designed to stem the flood of torture and tyranny issuing from the White House. But the twinned amendments to a military spending bill have the curious effect of canceling each other out: The anti-torture measure leaves Bush's tyranny intact, while the anti-tyranny measure will allow torture to continue unabated. This switcheroo, we are told by one of the scam's sponsors, "will re-establish moral high ground for the United States," The Washington Post reports.

PINOCHET FACES OFF WITH CHILE’S FORMER SECRET POLICE DIRECTOR

Manuel Contreras Blames Human Rights Abuses on Former Dictator

(Nov. 21, 2005) Chile’s former military dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet went face-to-face with Gen. Manuel Contreras, his own former director of the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA), in a joint testimony before Chilean authorities Friday morning. Victor Montiglio, the investigating judge in the Operation Colombo case, ordered the meeting between Contreras and Pinochet to help him resolve discrepancies in their respective accounts of the 1975 murder of 119 activists from the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR).

The meeting came as a surprise to Gen. Pinochet’s lawyers, who were notified on Friday morning that Pinochet was to appear before Judge Montiglio later that day. Pinochet’s counsel had hoped to avoid any direct confrontations with government investigators that might further establish Gen. Pinochet’s mental competence after state medical examiners declared him well enough to stand trial in early November (ST, Nov. 11).

Gen. Contreras and Gen. Pinochet have been accused of masterminding Operation Colombo, a joint operation between the military regimes of Chile, Argentina, and Brazil to cover-up the execution of 119 members of leftist opponents belonging to the MIR.

The Pentagon's plans to invade Venezuela

The United States has military contingency plans aimed against Venezuela, contrary to the UN Charter and the document guiding relations between members of the Organizations of American States (OAS).

A recent article in the Washington Post--which has not been refuted by the Pentagon--affirms that the Defense Department has prepared a plan to create a potential conflict with the South American nation, considered a threat to US strategic security by the White House.

William M. Arkin, in a column published November 2, said that Venezuela was identified as a "threat" in this year's Pentagon analysis and is foreseen to remain so for the period 2008-2013.

The fifth greatest oil exporter in the world and among the principal exporters of crude to the US, Venezuela is included on the list of states which pose the most danger to the US, sharing that position with North Korea and Iran, both considered by the Bush administration as nuclear threats.

According to the daily, the White House sees President Hugo Chavez as promoting revolutions in Latin America and accuses him of financing rebels in Colombia—where there are US military advisors are participating in a long-term domestic conflict.

Venezuela has suffered from the instability of the situation in Colombia, particularly that country's use of paramilitary forces paid for by the interests behind the failed coup attempt against the Venezuelan leader.

But when we look into what the Pentagon has planned in the land of Bolivar, we cannot forget the history that explains the hostile escalation of actions by the current Republican administration against the Bolivarian Revolution.

The participation of both the CIA and the former US military mission in Caracas in the short-lived coup attempt headed by Pedro Carmona is not conjectural journalism.

The government of George W. Bush never condemned the coup attempt, despite the US being a signatory of the Democratic Letter of the OAS. On the contrary, they welcomed, encouraged and participated in the coup.

Nor is it a coincidence that military interests behind the coup which are responsible for planting bombs at the Colombian and Spanish diplomatic missions in Caracas are protected in the US, despite their being terrorists.

In Boca Raton, Florida lives Venezuelan business executive Nelson Mezarhane--a banker and stockholder of the opposition daily El Globo. He is wanted by the Venezuelan justice system for having participated in the assassination of Judge Danilo Anderson, who was bringing to trial those individuals who were implicated in the April 2002 coup attempt.

We must also mention the fact that terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, another fugitive of Venezuelan law, is a "guest" of the US immigration service, which has refused to extradite Posada Carriles to Caracas.

With such information, it should not come as a surprise that the Pentagon has included Venezuela in its plans for future "preventive wars," despite President Chavez' prediction that if this were to ever occur, Latin America would explode in a ball of fire.

Looks like I may have been right about Rice

Back in July I speculated that Condoleezza Rice may be at the center of the Wilson/Plame leak. Now it seems like that speculation may, in fact, have been right on. While she is denying her role - the fact that she feels compelled to offer a public defense today should tell us something: namely, the sharks are circling around her and her former deputy, Stephen Hadley.

If the Times of London today is right and Hadley was Woodward's direct source, that raises a very important question: Was Hadley ordered to leak Plame's name to the press by his boss at the time, Condi Rice? In other words, Rice may not have been Woodward's direct source as she claims - but that doesn't mean she didn't give the order. Remember, as I wrote back in July, Wilson's New York Times op-ed was a direct indictment of Rice, meaning she had a personal motive. And it would be extremely hard to imagine Hadley acting alone with such a coordinated hit job on a CIA officer...Stay tuned.

Bush World v. The Real World: Deconstructing Progress in Iraq

Do you, like me, have trouble distinguishing the truth between the various statements administration officials make regarding the status of the war in Iraq, and information published or broadcast elsewhere in the media or on the Web? It makes it difficult to to know if what you're reading is the truth, or merely a facile canard. Who to believe: Bush and his boyos, or those who dispute the Bush spin on Iraq? Often, many of us are forced to choose sides. Either we join the True Patriots who believe every word that is uttered (for approbation or anonymously) by the Bush administration, or we find ourselves in the camp of the Surrender Monkeys, who think Bush and all his followers have a wee bit of a problem with the virtue of honesty.

The problem, however, may be merely a matter of perspective. What we have here may not be a question of truth or falsehood , but instead more the result of the narrative we choose to construct or accept from the information available to us. How one interprets information is often more critical than the information itself. I know, another French Intellectual argument, but Republicans do seem open to them these days. See, for example, the arguments employed by defenders of the theory of Intelligent Design. For lack of better labels, I've chosen to call the Bush administration narrative "Bush World" and the narrative of all of us surrender monkeys the "Real World." I know some conservatives might dislike that particular nomenclature for the narrative I happen to espouse, but hey – if you want to play postmodernist games about truth, and conservatives seem all too willing lately to employ this philosophical approach when making (up) their own arguments (cf. Jonah Goldberg) you have to accept that sometimes your opponents may get in first with their own “framing” devices rather than yours.

So with that in mind, let’s examine these two "world narratives" and see if we can get a better understanding of where the differences between them arise in the case of, say . . . Progress in Iraq?

Germans: Bush misused data to justify Iraq war

Informant's handlers say they repeatedly warned of unreliability.
By Bob Drogin and John Goetz
Special to The Morning Call

BERLIN | -- The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush Aadministration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his claims before the Iraq war.

Five senior officials from Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said in interviews with the Los Angeles Times that they warned U.S. intelligence authorities that the source, an Iraqi defector code-named Curveball, never claimed to produce germ weapons and never saw anyone else do so.

According to the Germans, President Bush mischaracterized Curveball's information when he warned before the war that Iraq had at least seven mobile factories brewing biological poisons. Then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell also misstated Curveball's claims in his pre-war presentation to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, the Germans said.

Curveball's German handlers for the last six years said his information was often vague, mostly second-hand and impossible to confirm.

"This was not substantial evidence," said a senior German intelligence official. "We made clear we could not verify the things he said."

Yosfiya: The 21st Century Nazis Are Here

Those who follow the American occupation of Iraq news may be familiar with a term used in media almost two years ago: The Triangle of Death, an area south of Baghdad, which constitutes three relatively small towns; Yosfiya, Mahmoodiya and Latifiya. Of course it has nothing to do with death; on the contrary it is situated in one of the greenest, most beautiful and peaceful areas of Iraq, full of fruit orchards, vegetable farms where the Tigris and the Euphrates and many smaller canals flow calmly through the rural areas and hundreds of small villages. It also used to be one of the most important industrial areas in central Iraq, especially textiles. But it is branded Triangle of Death by the American troops now, because they face the largest number of attacks on the southern highway there.

The population is a mixture of Shiite and Sunni Arab tribes, as almost everywhere else in Iraq. It never happened in history that this area witnessed any sectarian conflict whatsoever. Directly after the occupation, and through 2004, news of American raids, arrests and big military operations were regular there. This year however, a new (dimension) was added, horrible stories of arrests, torture, and mass killing news were coming out, not only by the American troops, but also by the Iraqi police and Army units. These news rarely, almost never, find their way into the mainstream media, neither Iraqi nor international.

From Vietnam to Iraq: Sen. George McGovern Discusses the Lies of War from the Gulf of Tonkin to Iraq's WMDs

The 1972 presidential candidate looks back at how the U.S. entered the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. We also play an excerpt from the new documentary "One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern." [includes rush transcript]
In the past few weeks new information has been revealed about the U.S government's deceptions during the Vietnam War. Early this month new evidence emerged about the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 that precipitated the escalation of the Vietnam War. A National Security Agency historian determined that officers at the agency knowingly falsified intelligence in order to make it look as if North Vietnam had attacked U.S. destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf. Following the alleged attack, President Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes on North Vietnamese targets and used the event to persuade Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which led to the escalation of the war.
And just last week, documents were released from the National Archives that gave fresh insight into the Nixon administration's efforts to deceive the public over its 1970 attack on Cambodia. The over 50,000 pages of declassified material include records of then-President Richard Nixon meeting with aides at a time Americans were told US forces in Cambodia were there to support South Vietnamese. Nixon told aides: "That is what we will say publicly. But now, let's talk about what we will actually do."

George McGovern was the Democratic presidential candidate in the 1972 race against Richard Nixon. McGovern was one of the leading critics of the Vietnam war in Washington. A new film that looks at his life opened in Los Angeles this past weekend. It's called "One Bright and Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern." It was produced and directed by Stephen Vittoria. I was asked to narrate it.

Sen. George McGovern, ran for president in 1972 against Richard Nixon. He served in the Senate from 1962 to 1980.

The Power of Nightmares (THIS IS A MUST WATCH DOCUMENTARY )

The Power of Nightmares -

In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares. The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares.

THIS IS A MUST WATCH DOCUMENTARY

Each program is 58 minutes long - - Real Video - If you only have time to watch one program then please watch part III

Part I http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11091.htm

Part II http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11092.htm

Part III http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11093.htm

===

The Left-Progressive movement is on the march around the world.

November 21, 2005 -- The Left-Progressive movement is on the march around the world. The neo-cons and their assorted allies are on the run. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saw the writing on the wall. He announced he is quitting the Likud Party, which he helped to create. That decision will fracture the Israeli right and leave rudderless the neo-cons in Washington, London, Rome, Canberra, and other capitals.

In another dramatic development, Israel's Labor Party dumped the pedantic Shimon Peres and replaced him with social democratic labor union firebrand Amir Peretz, a decision welcomed in Damascus, Cairo, and elsewhere in the Arab world. Peretz is an Arabic-speaking native of Morocco and is on very good terms with Israel's one million-strong Arab community, especially the Arab working class. He says he will scrap the ridiculous pro-Likud American "Road Map" and negotiate directly with the Palestinian Authority. The Likud, which will now be headed by neo-con radical Binyamin Netanyahu, will drift even further to the right and irrelevancy. Look for Peretz to squeeze the Russian-Ukrainian-Israel Mafia of wealthy Russian and other former Soviet gangsters who have seized control of Israel through their alliance with the corrupt Likud Party.

Sharon obviously read the tea leaves and is jumping a sinking corrupt right wing ship dominated by gangsters and religious fanatics (sounds a lot like the Bush administration). Sharon is forming his own "centrist" political party with the ousted Shimon Peres, deeply fracturing the Israeli Right and consolidating the left around Peretz's Labor Party.

The purge of Peres from Labor is being echoed in the U.S. Democratic Party, where Rep. Jack Murtha's anti-war speech last week is putting the spotlight on leading Democrats who oppose a withdrawal from Iraq -- namely, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joe Lieberman and Representatives Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer. All are "neo con lite" and quikcly becoming irrelevant as the Democratic Party finds its anti-war footing thanks to Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Russ Feingold, and others.

In Sri Lanka, leftist Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse won the presidency on a platform of nationalization of the economy, a direct slap in the face of the World Bank of Paul Wolfowitz, which abhors state control of any portion of any national economy. His defeated opponent was a free market proponent. Sri Lanka now joins neighboring India (and its ruling Congress Party) in an emerging bloc of leftist governments in South Asia. Seven opposition parties have held talks with Communist rebels in Nepal with a view that Nepal may soon relegate its fascist pro-American King to the ash heap of history.

In Europe, British Prime Minister Tony Blair faces a rebellion in his own Labor Party and possible impeachment over the Iraq war. France is turning against the right-wing neo-con Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and the Socialists, Communists, and Greens remain strong at the regional and municipal levels. Italy's neo-fascist Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is on the electoral ropes from Italy's leftist coalition, including the Communists. In Norway, the Socialists beat a conservative Prime Minister with ties to the Christian Right in the United States.

It is Latin America that is leading the global progressive resurgence. Michelle Bachelet, tortured by the U.S.-supported Pinochet regime is the front runner to become the next President of Chile. After Pinochet's coup and after being tortured, she moved to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) to rebuild the Chilean Socialist Party. Bachelet is 24 percentage points ahead of her conservative and global neocon-backed rival. In next year's Mexican presidential election, former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is the front runner to succeed conservative Vicente Fox. The election is scheduled for next July 2. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is as strong as ever and continues to berate Bush, calling him "Mr. Danger." Chavez and a phalanx of Latin American leaders of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil blocked Bush's Free Trade Area of the Americas pro-corporate contrivance at the recent Americas summit in Argentina. In Bolivia, coca growers' union leader Evo Morales leads in polls for the Dec. 18 presidential election. He will reverse privatization and begin a policy of state control of the energy industry. In Nicaragua, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega stands a good chance of becoming the country's president after elections next year.

The signs are unmistakable that the progressive left is on the march throughout the United States and around the world. Meanwhile, Bush couldn't make it out of a door in Beijing.

THE GUATEMALAN POLICE ARCHIVES

Washington D.C., November 21, 2005 - The National Security Archive has posted a slide show of photographs documenting the stunning discovery of police records in Guatemala, as reported in the New York Times today. The photos are accompanied by a description of the police files by the Archive's Guatemala Project Director Kate Doyle, who first visited them in early August.

The discovery was made in July, when human rights investigators found by accident an enormous cache of abandoned files from Guatemala's brutal former National Police forces, documents that may contain information about the fates of hundreds of disappeared citizens. It is an extraordinary development in a country that suffered a savage civil conflict from 1960-1996, resulting in more civilian deaths and disappearances than any other nation in the western hemisphere; according to a United Nations-sponsored truth commission, more than 90 percent of those atrocities were committed by government security forces.

"Guatemalans have never stopped looking for true history and hard evidence about the state's hand in massive human rights atrocities," notes Kate Doyle. "The police files promise a wealth of new information about events that have been distorted for decades by government lies and a silence imposed by violence. It is a thrilling discovery."

Since the discovery, the National Security Archive has been working with Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman, non-governmental human rights organizations and other civil society groups to rescue the documents and design a strategy for their long-term protection, recovery and archival restoration so that they may be opened to the public. This historical salvage mission is intended to secure these records of repression, restore them to readable form, and organize them into what promises to be the largest and most revealing collection of 'dirty war' documentation ever unearthed in Latin America.

http://www.nsarchive.org
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB170/index.htm

"'Summit of the Americas Fails to Establish Agreement on F.T.A.A."

Initiated by U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1994, the Summit of the Americas (S.O.A.), which brings together the leaders of the 34 members of the Organization of American States (O.A.S.) every five years, was conceived as a vehicle for promoting Washington's plan for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (F.T.A.A.) that would extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (N.A.F.T.A.) to the entire western hemisphere according to the principles of the "Washington Consensus" -- fiscal discipline, anti-inflation policies, privatization of state enterprises, reduction of state intervention in the economy and of state expenditures, deregulation of the private sector, and receptivity to foreign investment. The F.T.A.A. was meant to be the capstone of the reforms promoted by the Consensus, opening up the economies of the hemisphere to free trade in goods and services.

At its inception, participants in the S.O.A. endorsed the concept of the F.T.A.A. and began to reform their economies along the lines of the Consensus, partly because of their interest in attracting foreign investment and partly because they were dependent on foreign lenders, particularly the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.), which required that the reforms be undertaken.

Over the past decade, the Consensus has broken down as reform failed to produce sufficient economic growth to raise the living standards of the 50 percent of Latin America's population who live in poverty, and pressures from below grew for governments to abandon neo-liberal policies and increase social spending.

The first serious rupture came in 1998, when Hugo Chavez came to power in Venezuela and started to institute his "Bolivarian Revolution" that had as one of its essential elements the rejection of the F.T.A.A. in favor of a Latin American economic community based on cooperation to achieve a social model of development. [See: "Venezuela's Hugo Chavez Makes His Bid for a Bolivarian Revolution"]

An American Tipping Point? Losing the Fear Factor - How The Bush Administration Got Spooked

It's finally Wizard of Oz time in America. You know -- that moment when the curtains are pulled back, the fearsome-looking wizard wreathed in all that billowing smoke turns out to be some pitiful little guy, and everybody looks around sheepishly, wondering why they acted as they did for so long.

ALCA afeta relações entre países

A ingerência dos interesses dos Estados Unidos na América Latina está provocando, agora, conflitos diplomáticos entre países da região. Nos últimos dias, os presidentes venezuelano, Hugo Chávez, e mexicano, Vicente Fox, têm trocado declarações sobre suas posições opostas a respeito da Área de Livre Comércio das Américas (ALCA), liderada pelos EUA.

A situação se agravou quando o líder venezuelano acusou o mexicano de ser um "cachorro do império" e "entreguista aos EUA".

Chávez divulgou vídeos do confronto privado dos presidentes sobre a ALCA, na quarta cúpula, realizada em Mar del Plata, Argentina, neste mês, e estimou que demonstram que os Estados Unidos perderam esse debate.

"Cavalheiro, não foi incluída no documento a sua proposta; foi derrotado, cavalheiro; nocaute, gentleman, nocaute, sir", disse Chávez, referindo-se ao presidente estadunidense, George W. Bush, após transmitir um discurso deste em seu programa dominical rádio-televisionado, Alô Presidente.

PT: pensar para frente por Leonardo Boff

Não há consciência nos políticos da gravidade da situação que exige políticas globais que dêem centralidade à Terra. Neste quadro, o Brasil ocupa um lugar singular, possuindo a maior biodiversidade do planeta. Esses temas devem fazer parte da agenda de reconstrução do PT.

O PT introduziu novidades na política brasileira como a democracia interna (que não conseguiu evitar desvios do grupo dirigente), o orçamento participativo, a maneira nova de organizar o mandato dos eleitos em orgânica relação com as bases. E inegavelmente o acento (embora ainda insuficiente) nas questões sociais numa perspectiva emancipatória.

Las iglesias evangélicas y el juego de Estados Unidos en el mundo árabe

Desde 1947, numerosos jefes militares y dirigentes políticos estadounidenses, entre ellos los Bush, pertenecen a un grupo evangélico secreto, llamado «La familia», cuya sede se encuentra cerca del Pentágono, en la propiedad de los cedros. Esa organización, luego de aliarse al Vaticano en América Latina en contra de la teología de la liberación, dirige hoy una doble ofensiva contra católicos y musulmanes. De ella provienen también los principales personajes de la dirección política de Estados Unidos y extiende su influencia por el mundo mediante sus misioneros. El politólogo Charles Saint-Prot, quien participará en el coloquio Axis for Peace, analiza, en el trabajo que hoy les presentamos, la estrategia de ese grupo evangélico en el mundo árabe.

Pinochet dedica su actuar a Dios.

CHILE - El ex dictador chileno Augusto Pinochet, ha decidido responsabilizar a Dios por todos las muertes que cometió y que ordenó cometer durante el gobierno militar entre 1973 y 1990.

En un interrogatorio judicial para determinar su responsabilidad sobre la Operación Colombo, mediante la cual se ocultó la muerte de 119 militantes de izquierda, declaro: “Lamento y sufro por esas pérdidas, pero es Dios quien hace las cosas, él me perdonará si me excedí en alguna, pero no creo que haya sucedido eso”.

Pinochet, que está próximo a cumplir los 90 años, también dijo que “Todo lo que hice, todo lo que actué, todos los problemas, se los dedico a Dios, se los dedico a Chile, porque de esa forma se permitió que el país no fuera comunista y surgiera como hasta hoy”

El ex dictador que se encuentra bajo arraigo domiciliario, también ha sido interrogado por las cuentas secretas que tenía en el Banco Riggs de los Estados Unidos así como en bancos de otras partes del mundo, fortuna que podría llegar a 27 millones de dólares.

Augusto Pinochet encabezó el golpe militar que derrocó al presidente constitucional Salvador Allende el 11 de septiembre de 1973. El militar mantuvo una cruenta dictadura durante 17 años en las que se cometieron diversas violaciones a los derechos humanos como torturas, desapariciones y asesinatos.

"It is time to unite and to ensure peace" - Final Declaration by Axis for Peace

In Spanish

A military coalition has launched itself into an unbridled exploitation of the world's resources and energy reserves. Fuelled by neo-conservatives, it has increased its attacks, practicing all forms of interference, from forcing changes in regimes to colonial-style expansionism. This coalition continually violates the principles of international law as they were established by the conference of the Hague and laid out in the San Francisco Charter.

This group masks its ambitions by intoxicating the media and by deceiving international organizations. It practices a double standard by unjustly accusing those who stand in their way of not respecting the rules whilst violating them themselves. The coalition betrays democratic ideals when claiming to serve them through military occupation.

To justify their thirst for conquest, they form terrorist groups with the aim of manipulating them, create pretexts for military action, propagate theories of an international Muslim plot and fuel conflicts between civilizations. They seize power for themselves and contribute to pushing humanity toward ruin and disorder.

To stop this process, we appeal to the well-intentioned permanent members of the UN Security Council. We ask them to enforce the respect of the sovereignty of nations, which forms the basis of international law and constitutes a precondition for the development of democracy in its genuine form. We deplore that France, initially opposed to the invasion of Irak, has joined the ranks of those who proffer menaces against new targets.

We salute the mediation of Russia who stands by the application of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and the presumption of innocence in international relations. We call upon the UN General Assembly to support Russia’s efforts in favor of the re-establishment of a multilateral dialogue; to support its strong stance against financing terrorism, double standards in international politics and the interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states.

On our behalf, we engage ourselves, similarly to that which has been done in Latin America, to continue to mobilize public opinion in order to combat hatred and propaganda and to reject all projects of global domination and exploitation.

It is time to unite and to ensure peace.

Wasting Fallujah

"Swarming…the specter in broad daylight accosts the passerby.
-- T.S. Eliot, "The Wasteland"

"We have now awakened to the barbarians...Retribution has been visited on the barbarians,
and more will follow."
-- Naval War College Review

"Waste the motherfuckers!" screamed across the screen in the outrageous and hateful film "Rules of Engagement" (2000), and into the streets and neighborhoods of Fallujah in November 2004. The film is a Samuel L. Jackson military vehicle that celebrates US war crimes from Vietnam to the Middle East, the US slaughter of Muslim civilians, young children included, and Arab bloodletting in general. It is, of course, one film, among many, that prepares US audiences for real manifestations of US aggression and war crimes: torture, slaughter of civilians, children included, and Iraqi bloodletting, as was the case in the "wasting" of Fallujah.

The ease with which the US has, for more than 2 ½ years "wasted" Iraqis, the ease with which culturally we participate in acts of wanton cruelty, demonizing of Iraqis, savage acts of inhumanity and barbarism, brutish violations of international conventions and laws, and our willingness to look the other way in the face of monstrous US induced misery, suffering and death, is symbolized graphically in the haunting specter of the US "wasting" of Fallujah one year ago: "Operation Phantom Fury."

---------------------

Please allow a closing sonnet from G. Last:


AH, FREEDOM COMES TO IRAQ

Ah, the freedom to be fucked in the ass,
Ah, the freedom to be tied to a leash,
Ah, the freedom to be hooded and chained,
To shit in your pants, and rip out your hair,
To shiver and sweat, squirm naked in piss,
To know the agony will never pass;
The freedom to scream, the freedom to screech...
To know the torturers will not be rained
In by law, reason, or moral despair
Provides one the hateful freedom to kiss
Goodbye the life vomited on the floor
Amidst broken teeth and bloodied bile
Leaking from your holes. Freedom is the whore
And death the pimp with the "'merican" smile.
g.last - '05

Where to Look for Answers on Corrupted Intelligence by Ray McGovern

Sunday 20 November 2005

While it is altogether appropriate for Congress's attention to be riveted on the future and, specifically, on how to end the disaster in Iraq, we Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) continue to be asked about the past and how the George W. Bush administration was able to create/corrupt intelligence to convey a false picture of the need for war on Iraq in the first place.

Renewed, if short-lived, interest in this issue can be traced to Senator Harry Reid's demand on November 1 that Pat Roberts, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, make good on his promise to complete his investigation into this issue (the so-called "Phase 2" study that Democratic senator Jay Rockefeller acquiesced in postponing until after last year's election).

Don't hold your breath. Roberts is still diddling Rockefeller, who, as ranking Democrat on Roberts's committee, has a painful propensity for letting himself be outmaneuvered. The two are still far from agreement on how to proceed, and Roberts seems likely to use another pending study to delay still further the completion of "Phase 2."

Congressional sources disclosed Thursday that the Department of Defense Inspector General has agreed to review the pre-war intelligence activities of former defense undersecretary Douglas Feith, a main architect of the war on Iraq. The IG investigation could take at least six months, say defense officials. Indeed, the study is not yet under way, since the IG is "still discussing it with the Roberts committee staff," according to Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman.

For the gullible, here's a new promise from Pat Roberts: "We're going to try to expedite it [the IG study on Feith] as much as possible ... The IG knows we are very eager to get this done but he wants to get it done right."

Right.

Not that it really matters. Attempting to get an apolitical study out of Roberts's committee would be a fool's errand, even if Rockefeller had more backbone. Pat Roberts, you may recall, rejected as "inappropriate" Rockefeller's suggestion last year that the committee ask the FBI to look into who manufactured the (in)famous forgery about Iraq seeking uranium in Niger.

Don't despair. We in VIPS have been hard at work on this issue since well before the war. Indeed, it was/is our raison d'être.

Where to look for the answers? Try the just published "Neo-CONNED Again!" a collection of essays and interviews by and with VIPS and other professionals. My colleague Col. W. Patrick Lang, USA (ret) and I have authored chapters devoted specifically to how intelligence was corrupted to "justify" an unjustifiable war - or, in the words of the Downing Street Minutes, how "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Pat's article, "Drinking the Kool-Aid: Making the Case for War with Compromised Integrity and Intelligence," was originally published in the summer 2004 Middle East Policy Journal. Mine is titled "Sham Dunk: Cooking Intelligence for the President." The text is posted here.

But for a fuller picture on the Iraq misadventure, you may wish to obtain the book itself. For it also contains a wealth of insight from the likes of Robert Fisk, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Karen Kwiatkowski, Jeffrey Record, Tom Engelhardt, Sam Gardiner, Michael Ratner and many others.

The experience of the past few years has shown that, although Pat Roberts prides himself on being a US Marine, waiting for him to deliver on his promises is like waiting for Godot. (See "Semper Fraud, Senator Roberts.") There, fellow Marine (and VIPS member) Scott Ritter offers unique insight into Pat Roberts, including his foot-dragging on the "Phase 2" investigation.

Protesters Call Again for Closing of TORTURE SCHOOL (School of the Americas) IN GEORGIA

Carlos Mauricio, a torture survivor from El Salvador, will be among the thousands who gather at Fort Benning's main gate this weekend to call for the closing of a military school they blame for human rights abuses in Latin America.

"I was blindfolded. I was badly, badly beaten," he said. "I was tortured for nine days. I was forced to listen to the screaming of all the people being given electroshock and women being raped."

Mauricio, a high school science teacher, traveled by minivan from his home in San Francisco to join the annual protest organized by School of the Americas Watch, a group that has waged a 15-year campaign to close Fort Benning's School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

The demonstrations are held each November to mark the Nov. 16, 1989, slayings of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter in El Salvador. A congressional task force found that some of the soldiers responsible for the massacre had been trained at the School of Americas, which moved to Fort Benning from Panama in 1984.

Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest, founded the group in 1990 in an attempt to come to grips with the violence he had witnessed as a Naval officer in Vietnam and especially as a priest working with the poor in Bolivia in the 1980s.

"What I and others hope to accomplish is that our efforts will somehow help relieve the suffering of other people," Bourgeois said. "We're here trying to love and support people of other countries who are victims of the training at this school we're trying to shut down and our country's foreign policy."

British-trained police in Iraq 'killed prisoners with drills'

British-trained police operating in Basra have tortured at least two civilians to death with electric drills, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

John Reid, the Secretary of State for Defence, admits that he knows of "alleged deaths in custody" and other "serious prisoner abuse" at al-Jamiyat police station, which was reopened by Britain after the war.

Militia-dominated police, who were recruited by Britain, are believed to have tortured at least two men to death in the station. Their bodies were later found with drill holes to their arms, legs and skulls.

The victims were suspected of collaborating with coalition forces, according to intelligence reports. Despite being pressed "very hard" by Britain, however, the Iraqi authorities in Basra are failing to even investigate incidents of torture and murder by police, ministers admit.

Come on, Democratic Party, "Stand With The People" by Ralph Nader

With the Bush regime reeling from its own derelictions and falling in the national polls, the question most frequently put to the leading Democrats is, "What do the Democrats stand for?"

This is the question that Tim Russert asked Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, on Meet the Press recently. Mr. Dean responded that the Democrats do not control the House, the Senate or the White House and that, "right now it's not our job to give out specifics..it's our job to stop this corrupt and incompetent administration from doing more damage to America." He added that the Democrats had "plenty of time to show Americans what our agenda is and we will long before the '06 elections".

This is Mr. Dean strapped to the mast by his superiors in the Congress, where fear of the Republicans supersedes the Democrats' loathing of them. When their most senior member on the House military appropriations committee, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), a double-decorated Vietnam veteran and their most untouchable member by the Republican smear machine, came out last week for "immediate withdrawal" (meaning over six months) of U.S. soldiers from Iraq, the Democratic Party caucus did not come out in support of his position. This is the case even though most Democrats privately agree with Rep. Murtha, as does a growing majority of the American people.

The Republicans continue to taunt the cowardly Democrats by making them vote on a resolution for immediate termination without explaining what it means. The Democrats watch the Republican implode, but by not advancing their own agenda for America they find themselves also low in the polls.

The Betrayed Mothers Of America - Vietnam comes to mind. They talk of their patriotism, though patriotism is not enough

I sit in one of the dives on 44th Street, uncertain how to approach Sue Niederer and Celeste Zappala, afraid that their stories can be too easily turned into tears, their message lost after the Veterans’ Day march. They were put at the back of the New York parade, humiliated, with their little crowd of anti-war veterans and their memories of boys who left young wives for Iraq and came back in coffins.

Later I sit between the two women and remember the blood splashed across the road at Khan Dari and the 82nd Airborne washing away the brains from the highway in central Fallujah and the body lying beneath a tarp in north Baghdad. I’ve seen the American corpses. Now here are the American mothers.

Sue lost her son Seth on 3 February last year. He was looking for "improvised explosive devices" near Iskanderiya, south of Baghdad - the infamous IEDs, roadside bombs which have taken hundreds of American lives - when a booby trap blew up next to him.

PLAYS ON WORDS

Today's column is about a few words and how they can be more powerful than those of usual words and can speak volumes.

"The defiant Saddam Hussein" we read regularly in the press. In the English language, defiant can take on negative meanings, such as antagonistic, obstinate or disobedient. These are the more popular interpretations of the word. However, it can also depict bravery. When the press speaks of a "defiant" Saddam, the inference is of the negative nature. But, many people would translate defiant to mean bravery in Saddam’s case. That is the context in which I use the word.

I don't speak or read Arabic, but I have numerous friends who are from the Middle East and Arabic is their first language. Despite my lack of knowledge of Arabic, I do know one word: manuke.

A few years ago, I was in a business owned by an Iraqi-American who was speaking to a customer of the same background. The name of a local representative of Ahmed Chalabi came up and the customer said, "He's a manuke." The owner laughed and I asked him what manuke meant. Roughly translated it means a male who was the recipient in an act of sodomy. I cracked up and was proud that I knew one vile word in which I could convey a message to Arabic speakers when discussing traitors such as Chalabi.

The word manuke is not intended so much as a literal homophobic remark, but one that indicates the person is a disgusting individual who has no integrity.

Last week, I and about a dozen comrades met at an Iraqi restaurant owned by Shi'ite Muslims. The large-screen TV was on in the background displaying an Iranian satellite channel broadcast in Arabic. The same person who introduced the word manuke to me was watching and a news item about the stooge prime minister of Iraq appeared. My Iraqi-American friend then saw him and said, "Jafari ... manuke." There was that word again. For some reason, it just sounds profound and I am always impressed by one word that is so powerful that its implications can be depicted by many sentences. I have asked many Arabic-speaking friends about the word and they all say it is only used to show contempt and is not to be used in polite conversation.

Now, let's combine Saddam Hussein’s "defiance" and the word manuke.

An article published in the British newspaper The Guardian of November 17, 2005 reported a bizarre incident that occurred in an Iraqi courtroom in which Saddam was being questioned by a judge. According to the article, titled "Saddam Claims Assault by Court Clerks:"

Court clerks at Saddam Hussein’s trial lunged at the former dictator and punched him for insulting Shia saints, it emerged yesterday.

According to an Iraqi television station, the attack occurred when Saddam was being questioned about the suppression of the 1991 Shia uprising in Karbala.

A judge then asked him whether Iraqi forces had attacked the shrines of Imams Hussein and Abbas, two of the most revered figures in Shia Islam.

At first, Saddam pretended not to know who the holy men were. But then he is reported to have said, "Who do you mean? Those manayich (buggers)?"

His remarks angered two court employees, who had been taking notes, and a fight broke out.

Let's get back to words again. The word "manayich" is the plural of the word manuke. At least Saddam was grammatically correct.

The word "buggers" that was included in parentheses was an accurate translation. In Britain, it means the same as manayich, so "bugger" would be an accurate translation of manuke.

Sadly, in the U.S., the word "bugger" has been watered down over time and it is used as a term instead to depict a "jerk" or "moron" or "idiot." Therefore, a U.S. citizen reading the account of Saddam's statement in The Guardian would not understand its strength.

Saddam Hussein is on trial for his life. Most people in his circumstance would be begging to be spared, but Saddam has not followed this route. He believes that he and his country have been unfairly wronged and his integrity would not allow him to cower. Those who opposed him are now calling the shots in his trial, but, even though surrounded by them, he will not acquiesce to their demands. Similarly, he has never said "I give up" to the U.S.

Nobody knows Saddam's ultimate fate. Chances are that he won’t be around too long, but he will not sell out his country. Love him or hate him, you must admit he has "cojones grandes." If you don’t know that those words mean, look them up in a Spanish-English dictionary.

PLAYS ON WORDS

Today's column is about a few words and how they can be more powerful than those of usual words and can speak volumes.

"The defiant Saddam Hussein" we read regularly in the press. In the English language, defiant can take on negative meanings, such as antagonistic, obstinate or disobedient. These are the more popular interpretations of the word. However, it can also depict bravery. When the press speaks of a "defiant" Saddam, the inference is of the negative nature. But, many people would translate defiant to mean bravery in Saddam’s case. That is the context in which I use the word.

I don't speak or read Arabic, but I have numerous friends who are from the Middle East and Arabic is their first language. Despite my lack of knowledge of Arabic, I do know one word: manuke.

A few years ago, I was in a business owned by an Iraqi-American who was speaking to a customer of the same background. The name of a local representative of Ahmed Chalabi came up and the customer said, "He's a manuke." The owner laughed and I asked him what manuke meant. Roughly translated it means a male who was the recipient in an act of sodomy. I cracked up and was proud that I knew one vile word in which I could convey a message to Arabic speakers when discussing traitors such as Chalabi.

The word manuke is not intended so much as a literal homophobic remark, but one that indicates the person is a disgusting individual who has no integrity.

Last week, I and about a dozen comrades met at an Iraqi restaurant owned by Shi'ite Muslims. The large-screen TV was on in the background displaying an Iranian satellite channel broadcast in Arabic. The same person who introduced the word manuke to me was watching and a news item about the stooge prime minister of Iraq appeared. My Iraqi-American friend then saw him and said, "Jafari ... manuke." There was that word again. For some reason, it just sounds profound and I am always impressed by one word that is so powerful that its implications can be depicted by many sentences. I have asked many Arabic-speaking friends about the word and they all say it is only used to show contempt and is not to be used in polite conversation.

Now, let's combine Saddam Hussein’s "defiance" and the word manuke.

An article published in the British newspaper The Guardian of November 17, 2005 reported a bizarre incident that occurred in an Iraqi courtroom in which Saddam was being questioned by a judge. According to the article, titled "Saddam Claims Assault by Court Clerks:"

Court clerks at Saddam Hussein’s trial lunged at the former dictator and punched him for insulting Shia saints, it emerged yesterday.

According to an Iraqi television station, the attack occurred when Saddam was being questioned about the suppression of the 1991 Shia uprising in Karbala.

A judge then asked him whether Iraqi forces had attacked the shrines of Imams Hussein and Abbas, two of the most revered figures in Shia Islam.

At first, Saddam pretended not to know who the holy men were. But then he is reported to have said, "Who do you mean? Those manayich (buggers)?"

His remarks angered two court employees, who had been taking notes, and a fight broke out.

Let's get back to words again. The word "manayich" is the plural of the word manuke. At least Saddam was grammatically correct.

The word "buggers" that was included in parentheses was an accurate translation. In Britain, it means the same as manayich, so "bugger" would be an accurate translation of manuke.

Sadly, in the U.S., the word "bugger" has been watered down over time and it is used as a term instead to depict a "jerk" or "moron" or "idiot." Therefore, a U.S. citizen reading the account of Saddam's statement in The Guardian would not understand its strength.

Saddam Hussein is on trial for his life. Most people in his circumstance would be begging to be spared, but Saddam has not followed this route. He believes that he and his country have been unfairly wronged and his integrity would not allow him to cower. Those who opposed him are now calling the shots in his trial, but, even though surrounded by them, he will not acquiesce to their demands. Similarly, he has never said "I give up" to the U.S.

Nobody knows Saddam's ultimate fate. Chances are that he won’t be around too long, but he will not sell out his country. Love him or hate him, you must admit he has "cojones grandes." If you don’t know that those words mean, look them up in a Spanish-English dictionary.

Radioactive Tank No. 9 comes limping home ("depleted uranium.")

Across the plains of Kansas, destroyed, radioactive Abrams tanks, perched on railroad flatcars, rolled towards an uncertain future. Only one thing was certain. They would be radioactive forever. This would be their everlasting death mask. The Pentagon deceptively calls it "depleted uranium."

The Abrams tanks are constructed with a layer of radioactive uranium metal plates. The big tanks fire a giant uranium dart at 2,100 mph, much faster than an F-16 fighter aircraft, mach III to airplane pilots and very, very fast to the rest of us.

American taxpayers paid to ship the tanks to Iraq and to return them for disposal or re-building in the United States. The tanks are 12 feet wide and weigh a stout 70 tons, or 140,000 pounds.

The enduring vigorous stupidity of the U.S. military pretends that radiation is one of those things that if you can't see it, it can't hurt you. They are thoroughly delusional, of course. A National Academy of Sciences report released June 30, 2005, finds that there is no safe level of radiation. Any radiation is bad.

From America to Iraq and back, these giant radioactive hulks can only sicken and kill Americans. On top of the sheer, unrelenting stupidity of playing with radiation with unsuspecting soldiers, now the neo-con government is involving everyday Americans in their radiation madness.

The Pentagon can't even follow simple radiation hazard mitigation instructions. Their own rules and regulations have the force of law throughout the world. Yet they are ignored in the United States.

Che's Second Coming?

The Bolivian Congress is an ornate building in the Spanish Colonial style. It is also a study in cognitive dissonance. Located on the Plaza Murillo, one of the central squares of Bolivia's main city, La Paz, it is flanked by the Presidential Palace, the Cathedral and the mausoleum of Bolivia's second president, Andrés Santa Cruz, who fought alongside Simón Bolívar. Around these decorous buildings, soldiers in red pseudo-19th-century uniforms stand at attention or march ceremoniously from point to point. Were it not for the fact that most of these young recruits have the broad Indian faces of the Andean altiplano, or high plains, and that those gawking at them in the square are also themselves mostly indigenous, it would be easy to become confused and believe you were in some remote corner of Europe, albeit the Europe of a century ago.

Inside the Congress, this effect is, if anything, even stronger: marble floors, waiters wearing white shirts and black bow ties, photos on the walls in the office wing of the building, many now yellowing with age, that show previous generations of congressmen among whom there is barely an Indian face to be seen. The burden of this faux-Europeanness seems overwhelming, until, that is, you walk down one of the main corridors and, at its end, find yourself confronted with an enormous, colorized, Madonna-like image of Ernesto (Che) Guevara, Fidel Castro's comrade in arms, the archrevolutionary who died 38 years ago in the foothills of the Bolivian Andes trying to bring a Marxist revolution to Bolivia, then as now the poorest and most racially polarized country in South America.

Security adviser named as source in CIA scandal

THE mysterious source who gave America's foremost journalist, Bob Woodward, a tip-off about the CIA agent at the centre of one of Washington's biggest political storms was Stephen Hadley, the White House national security adviser, according to lawyers close to the investigation.

Woodward, the Washington Post reporter who broke the Watergate scandal that forced President Richard Nixon out of office, has refused publicly to divulge the name of his informant without permission, which has thus far been withheld.

The naming of CIA agent Valerie Plame as the wife of Joseph Wilson, the former US ambassador sent to Niger to investigate disputed claims that Saddam Hussein was trying to purchase uranium yellowcake for the manufacture of nuclear weapons, led to the indictment last month of Vice-President Dick Cheney’s top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for lying to a grand jury.

Brent Scowcroft Talks Turkey - Sibel Edmonds Fights Fascism

The Sibel Edmonds v. Department of Justice saga continues as the year 2005 draws to a close. The only breaking news to come from the ongoing drama is the implication, published in Vanity Fair, that Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of US Representatives, was the recipient of campaign contributions and assorted bribes from the Turkish-American community. That another US politician is on the take comes as no surprise. But more on that later. Sibel's story may have quietly died from the suffocating oppression of the US government had it not been for very recent revelations that the US sanctions and operates interrogation/torture facilities in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's and Vice President Dick Cheney's New Europe (Poland, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, etc.). While the buzz is all around the Plame-Wilson-Libby-Woodward-Rove-Hadley affair, and the lies that got the US into Iraq again, the real news is that military and non-military torture chambers stretching from Mexico to Asia have become standard operating procedure for the US. Further, the response of official Washington to the torture expose was not disgust, but a call to prosecute the whistleblower that leaked the awful news.

Within the remarkable public revelation from the Washington Post and Human Rights Watch, is the imprimatur of Rumsfeld and Cheney—the two crusty Nixon Administration buddies--and perhaps the most ruthless and dangerous Americans ever to hold office in the corporate/government world. They and their disciples share the view that "conduct unbecoming" does not exist. No law, no boundary, no moral code, no amount of lives or an outdated parchments like the US Constitution and Bill of Rights will be a barrier as they push forward their foreign and domestic agenda for some of the US population, Turkey and Israel. They hide behind the veil of "the national security of the United States of America" and label Top Secret/Special Compartmentalized Information the data that would implicate them, not save a US soldier in a Humvee, or they slap a State's Secret order on the likes of Sibel Edmonds mainly to protect balance sheets and business deals.

More on U.S. VX nerve gas shipments to Iraq in 1988 and 89

November 20, 2005 -- More on U.S. VX nerve gas shipments to Iraq in 1988 and 89. Former members of a military intelligence team deployed to Iraq at the outset of the Iraq invasion referred to their job as a "janitorial operation for the first President Bush and Carlyle." They were referring to the war profiteering firm, on whose international board George H. W. Bush sits and which was headed by Frank Carlucci, the Defense Secretary (and Princeton roommate of Donald Rumsfeld, who was Reagan's special envoy to Saddam Hussein in 1984) who served as the head of the Pentagon when the shipments to Iraq of VX nerve gas, other weapons of mass destruction, and conventional weapons were first authorized by the Reagan administration in 1988. The military intelligence personnel claimed that at the time, Carlyle was among the largest exporters of such weapons by the United States and that bills of lading and other documents presented to them at the Al Qaa Qaa (or Al Caca) weapons depot in Iraq point to pass through companies affiliated with Carlyle being involved in the shipments to Iraq. The evidence is contained in digital photographs taken of canisters and documents by the U.S. military team and which are now in the secured possession of the 223rd Military Intelligence Battalion in San Francisco.

Ed. Note: Carlyle is making some intimidating legal noise about printing a retraction or correction of this item. Fat chance! Discovery is a wonderful legal process!

The Bush 2 administration's main priority at Al Qaa Qaa was to have the incriminating evidence of binary VX nerve gas from the United States removed. A British hazardous material team removed the canisters with U.S. serial numbers. Although the Bush 2 administration highlighted documents presented by the Saddam Hussein government to the United Nations showing the sale of weapons and other embargoed equipment by French, Soviet (and Russian), German, and Yugoslavian firms to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and after, it quickly classified the documents pointing to the sale of U.S. and British weapons (including WMDs) to the Saddam Hussein regime.

The providers of the weapons of mass destruction to Saddam revealed by smoking gun documents found at Al Qaa Qaa weapons depot (left to right): Rumsfeld college roomie, SecDef, and Carlyle head Carlucci; Poppy Bush; and Donald Rumsfeld, special envoy to Saddam

U.S. intelligence sources report that George H. W. Bush, while Vice President under Reagan, lobbied strenuously to get WMDs to Saddam Hussein.

The CIA, according to U.S. military intelligence agents, never considered the U.S.-supplied VX nerve gas to be a WMD after Desert Storm. Their reasoning was that because of its binary nature it had a shelf life and oxidization rendered it harmless after the outbreak of Desert Storm. In reality, the U.S. military sources said the CIA's admission that Iraq possessed harmless VX was a way for it to protect itself and its former deputy director Carlucci while admitting to the fact that the Bush administration had, in fact, supplied the deadly agent to Saddam Hussein. The CIA's main mission in the 1990s was regime change and Saddam's alleged possession of WMDs was merely a causa sina qua non for continued hostilities, overt and covert.

U.S. military intelligence personnel also report that some of the incriminating evidence of U.S. WMD weapons transfers to Saddam Hussein may be lying at the bottom of Lake Tharthar, an artificial lake that is the site of Saddam's most opulent palace -- the Green Palace -- some 35 miles north of the Al Qaa Qaa depot.

The Green Palace and Lake Tharthar: evidence of U.S. collusion in providing WMDs to Iraq lies at its botto

Was Rafik Hariri a threat to the Bin Laden monopoly?

November 19, 2005 -- Was Rafik Hariri a threat to the Bin Laden monopoly? A classified but undated French intelligence report points to the fact that the assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was considered a potential monopoly-busting building construction competitor by the Bin Laden cartel, which is described as having a "monopoly" on construction contracts involving Islamic Holy sites in Saudi Arabia.

The operative paragraph from the French report states:

The Bin Laden family monopoly wields itself on work on the Islamic Holy Places (it is required that all the important companies such as Oger, Dar Al-Handasa, Mabani, or CCI must sub-contract with the monopoly) and the links which bind the family to the the Saudi dynasty over numerous years has resulted in a considerable financial cache, it is difficult to quantify but is twenty times than that amassed by Rafik Hariri.

Note: Oger, or Saudi Oger, is the company formed by Hariri in 1971, which became a major Saudi contractor under King Fahd.
The United States, using the United Nations as a proxy, is pressuring Syria over the assassination of Rafik Hariri. With evidence that Hariri was viewed as a potential threat to the Bin Laden monopoly, which is tied closely to the Saudi Royal Family, the Saudis may be as culpable in the assassination as is the Likud government of Israel and the Bush administration.

Rafik Hariri described in French intelligence report as both a competitor of and sub-contractor to Bin Laden construction monopoly. Crimes like this assassination call for investigating the motive. Clearly, Syria had no motive but others did.

CIA torture flights remain in operation

November 20, 2005 -- CIA torture flights remain in operation. On November 18, a CIA aircraft, a CASA CN-235-300 turboprop, tail number N196D, operated by front company Devon Holding and Leasing, Inc. of Lexington, North Carolina, was recorded as traveling from Iceland to St. John's, Newfoundland, to Manchester, New Hampshire and finally to Johnson County Airport in Smithfield, North Carolina.

N196D stopped in Malta, on May 17, 2004 -- its itinerary was Halifax-St.John's-Keflavik-Edinburgh-Frankfurt-Malta-Amman-Afghanistan. Paper work filed indicated two owners: Devon Holding and Leasing and Stevens Express Leasing Company of Tennessee, another front company being investigated by the Spanish Interior Ministry for fronting for torture flights through Mallorca, Ibiza, and Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

CIA Torture Flight N196D

A similar Devon-owned aircraft, tail number N168D, flew a route from St. John's to Keflavik, Iceland and on to Prague on April 6, 2005. It was also reported to have landed in Malta on August 12, 2005; Palma de Mallorca on January 16, 2005; and Ponta Delgada in the Azores on January 11, 2005 for a stop while en route from St. John's to Cagliari, Sardinia.

A former Piedmont Airlines Boeing 737, now CIA torture plane, tail number N313P (re-registered as N4476S), was spotted on the runway at Palma de Mallorca on January 23, 2004. CIA front owners have been variably listed as Premier Executive Transport Services and Keeler and Tate Management, both linked to Jeppesen Dataplan of California. The Boeing 737 was also spotted in Tulsa; Geneva; Oporto, Portugal; and Frankfurt.

Another CIA front company is called Prescott Support. Its C-130, the L-100-30 Hercules, (the same aircraft type reported to be involved with flying around "crated" prisoners) has been spotted at Frankfurt, Singapore (Changi), Kuala Lumpur's Subang Airport (parked in an isolated position away from other aircraft just a few weeks following the Indian Ocean tsunami), Malta, Ponta Delgada (Azores), Kuwait, Oporto (Portugal), Helsinki (Vantaa), and Kenya. Another Prescott Support plane, a DeHavilland Twin Otter/VistaLiner, was identified on a long flight in October 2004 from North Las Vegas to Prescott, Arizona to Starkville, Mississippi to Florence, South Carolina to Wilmington, North Carolina to Goose Bay, Labrador to Reykjavik's city airport in Iceland to Stansted, London, England to Cairo to Kenya.

A Constitutional Referendum that Wasn't

Did anyone else find it interesting that the results of the vote on Iraq's constitution passing (which occurred ten days earlier) were released on the same day of the announcement of the 2,000th US soldier having been killed in Iraq?

On October 25, the first news of the day about Iraq across most corporate media outlets in the US was that Iraq was celebrating the approval of a new constitution. Just hours after this news, Mr. Bush made a pre-emptive propaganda move in an attempt to blunt the blow of the incoming news of the 2,000 milestone, by telling a group of military wives at an air force base in Washington "This war will require more sacrifice, more time and more resolve."

Then, less than three hours after this speech, the news of the 2,000th US soldier dying was poured across the headlines; conveniently timed in that the Department of Defense usually has several deaths awaiting confirmation for days before they may be announced publicly.

But that's old news now. With troop levels soon to be over 161,000 in Iraq (remember when it was 138,000?) and the death toll over 2,030 and increasing daily, more milestones loom as a failed political process is pushed forward. We just passed another, in fact; with at least ninety-three troops killed in October, which made it the bloodiest month since January.

CHICKENHAWK Chaney's 5 Vietnam War Deferments

You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried:

"On Oct. 6, 1965, the Selective Service lifted its ban against drafting married men who had no children. Nine months and two days later, Mr. Cheney's first daughter, Elizabeth, was born."

This quote comes from a Saturday NYTimes article -- "Cheney's Five Draft Deferments During the Vietnam Era Emerge as a Campaign Issue" -- discussing the lengths VP Dick Cheney went to in order to avoid serving during the Viet Nam war.

It is apparent from the piece that Richard Cheney did everything humanly possible -- short of fleeing to Canada -- to avoid military conscription: He applied for and recieved 5 student deferments, a number described as "incredible" by professor David Curry of the University of Missouri in St. Louis. Curry has written extensively about the draft, including a 1985 book, "Sunshine Patriots: Punishment and the Vietnam Offender." The Times quotes Mr. Curry as observing: "That's a lot of times for the draft board to say O.K."

• Three weeks and a day after the Gulf of Tonkin resolution passed (giving President Johnson unlimited military force in Vietnam), Cheney married Lynn Cheney.

• Within a day or so of the end of deferment for "Married w/o children," Mr. and Mrs. Cheney conceived their first child.

Here's the rest of Cheney's well timed actions:

In February 1962, when Mr. Cheney was classified as 1-A available for service he was doing poorly at Yale. But the military was taking only older men at that point, and like others who were in college at the time, Mr. Cheney seemed to have little concern about being drafted.
In June, he left Yale. After returning home to Casper, a small city in east-central Wyoming, he worked as a lineman for a power company.

At that point, the Vietnam War was still just a glimmer on the horizon. In 1962, only 82,060 men were inducted into the service, the fewest since 1949. Mr. Cheney was eligible for the draft but, as he said during his confirmation hearings in 1989, he was not called up because the Selective Service System was taking only older men.

But by 1963, ferment in Vietnam was rising. Mr. Cheney enrolled in Casper Community College in January 1963 he turned 22 that month and sought his first student deferment on March 20, according to records from the Selective Service System. After transferring to the University of Wyoming at Laramie, he sought his second student deferment on July 23, 1963.

On Aug. 7, 1964, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which allowed President Lyndon B. Johnson to use unlimited military force in Vietnam. The war escalated rapidly from there.

Just 22 days later, Mr. Cheney married his high school sweetheart, Lynne. He sought his third student deferment on Oct. 14, 1964.

In May 1965, Mr. Cheney graduated from college and his draft status changed to 1-A. But he was married, which offered him some protection.

In July, President Johnson announced that he was doubling the number of men drafted. The number of inductions soared, to 382,010 in 1966 from 230,991 in 1965 and 112,386 in 1964.

Mr. Cheney obtained his fourth deferment when he started graduate school at the University of Wyoming on Nov. 1, 1965.

On Oct. 6, 1965, the Selective Service lifted its ban against drafting married men who had no children. Nine months and two days later, Mr. Cheney's first daughter, Elizabeth, was born. On Jan. 19, 1966, when his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant, Mr. Cheney applied for 3-A status, the "hardship" exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. It was granted.

In January 1967, Mr. Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft.

Quite frankly, I would have done the same thing as Cheney (if I wasn't 9 at the time). The difference between the Veep and me is that I wouldn't have the temerity to criticize someone who not only served in Viet Nam, but was wounded three times and won several honors for courage and bravery.

That would simply be hypocritical.

Cheney apparently has no such restraints. Of the American involvement in Vietnam, Dick Cheney was asked: "Was it a noble cause?
His answer: "Yes, indeed, I think it was."

Just not for him . . .



Source:
Cheney's Five Draft Deferments During the Vietnam Era Emerge as a Campaign Issue
Katharine Q. Seelye
NYTimes, May 1, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/01/politics/campaign/01CHEN.html