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NOVEMBER 2004 OCTOBER 2004 CHALLENGING THE DIRTY BOMB FEAR GUARDIAN - Since the attacks on the United States in September 2001, there have been more than a thousand references in British national newspapers, working out at almost one every single day, to the phrase "dirty bomb. . . Starting next Wednesday, BBC2 is to broadcast a three-part documentary series that will add further to what could be called the dirty bomb genre. But, as its title suggests, The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear takes a different view of the weapon's potential. . . During the three years in which
the "war on terror" has been waged, high-profile challenges
to its assumptions have been rare. The sheer number of incidents
and warnings connected or attributed to the war has left little
room, it seems, for heretical thoughts. In this context, the
central theme of The Power of Nightmares is riskily counter-intuitive
and provocative. Much of the currently perceived threat from
international terrorism, the series argues, "is a fantasy
that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is
a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments
around the world, the security services, and the international
media." The series' explanation for this is even bolder:
"In an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility,
fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain
their power." SEPTEMBER 2004 RIDGE INVESTED IN CORPORATIONS WITH HOMELAND SECURITY CONTRACTS TIM STARKS, CQ - Tom Ridge had investments last year in a number of companies with contracts with his department and others who want to profit from homeland security, a new list of his assets shows. Ridge reported investments in: - Microsoft, which in July 2003 won a $90 million contract with the department to provide desktop computers and server software. Ridge checked a box saying he had an investment worth $1,001-$15,000 in the company. - Unisys, which in 2003 was selected to manage four "Operation Safe Commerce" pilot programs funded by DHS. In August 2002, the company won a $1 billion contract with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for information technology managed services. Ridge disclosed he had an investment worth $1,001- $15,000 in the company. - General Electric, which this year undertook airport pilot programs with TSA for its EntryScan3 walk-through explosives detector. Ridge checked the box saying he had an investment worth $15,001-$50,000 in the company. - Sprint, which completed work this year on a new network for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Ridge said he had an investment worth $1,001-$15,000 in the company. - Raytheon, a subcontractor to Accenture on a $10 billion contract for DHS' entry-exit program, U.S. VISIT, as well as a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman on its Homeland Secure Data Network contract. Ridge said he had an investment worth $1,001-$15,000 in the company. - The pharmaceutical companies Baxter International, Merck and Pfizer, all of which have had a stake in a smallpox vaccine. Ridge said he had an investment worth $1,001-$15,000 in each company. - Oracle, which has its own "Homeland Security Team" generating homeland security business. Ridge said he had an investment worth $1,001-$15,000 in the company. . . In response to a late afternoon telephone inquiry, DHS spokesman Brian Roehrkasse first said the department did not have enough time to answer questions about the disclosure form. Pressed further, he shouted an expletive to a reporter and hung up. Later, in a second telephone conversation, Roehrkasse said, "I don't know where we are in the process. I don't know . . . I can't validate any information you've got," and repeated a string of expletives. Later, Roehrkasse called back
to say that he had spoken to the department's general counsel's
office, which has not yet signed off on the disclosure report. BRITISH DIPLOMAT CALLS BUSH 'BEST RECRUITING AGENT' FOR AL QAEDA GUARDIAN - The Foreign Office was thrown into turmoil yesterday after the British ambassador to Rome, Sir Ivor Roberts, described President George Bush as "the best recruiting sergeant ever for al-Qaida". His comment, made at a closed conference of about 100 British and Italian diplomats, politicians and journalists in Tuscany, was leaked to an Italian newspaper, provoking embarrassment in London. . . "If anyone is ready to celebrate the eventual re-election of Bush, it's al-Qaida. Whereas it is clear that the Palestinians hope that a Kerry victory will unblock the situation," he said. . . In a statement, Sir Ivor said last night: "These statements as reported do not reflect my personal views." NOVAK: BUSH PLANS TO BAIL ON IRAQ ROBERT NOVAK, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES - Inside the Bush administration policymaking apparatus, there is strong feeling that U.S. troops must leave Iraq next year. This determination is not predicated on success in implanting Iraqi democracy and internal stability. Rather, the officials are saying: Ready or not, here we go. . . Six weeks before the election, Bush cannot be expected to admit even the possibility of a quick withdrawal. Sen. John Kerry's political aides, still languishing in fantastic speculation about European troops to the rescue, do not even ponder a quick exit. But Kerry supporters with foreign policy experience speculate that if elected, their candidate would take the same escape route. Whether Bush or Kerry is elected, the president or president-elect will have to sit down immediately with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The military will tell the election winner there are insufficient U.S. forces in Iraq to wage effective war. That leaves three realistic options: Increase overall U.S. military strength to reinforce Iraq, stay with the present strength to continue the war, or get out. Well-placed sources in
the administration are confident Bush's decision will be to get
out. They believe that is the recommendation of his national
security team and would be the recommendation of second-term
officials. An informed guess might have Condoleezza Rice as secretary
of state, Paul Wolfowitz as defense secretary and Stephen Hadley
as national security adviser. According to my sources, all would
opt for a withdrawal. FORMER BLAIR OFFICIAL: AL QAEDA HOPED TO DRAW WEST INTO WAR ANDREW WOODCOCK, SCOTSMAN - One of al Qaida's aims in its September 11 attacks on the US three years ago was to draw the west into military conflict on Arab soil, Prime Minister Tony Blair's former envoy to Iraq acknowledged today. Sir Jeremy Greenstock's comments appeared to give some credence to the argument of critics of the Iraq War that the US and UK played into al Qaida's hands by launching last year's invasion. . . Sir Jeremy today said the allies had "suffered the consequences" in Iraq of al Qaida's determination to exploit the opportunities presented by a war on Arab soil. He said that the West could not defeat bin Laden's terror network by military means alone, but must adopt policies to reduce resentment in the Muslim world. If the allies failed to help Iraq put an end to its current instability, they would be left "worse off than when we started", he warned. Sir Jeremy, who was at the centre of events in the run-up to last year's war as UK ambassador to the United Nations, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think it was one of the objectives of Osama bin Laden and the al Qaida leadership originally to draw America into conflict on Arab soil as close to Saudi Arabia as possible." Asked if this meant the allies had in fact played into al Qaida's hands, he responded: "To some extent, we are suffering the consequences of that." AL QAEDA SEES WIN-WIN SITUATION AL JAZEERA - Al-Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahri has forecast a US defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a videotape aired on Aljazeera television. "The American defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan has become just a question of time, God willing," he says in the tape telecast on Thursday. "In the two countries, the Americans are between two fires: if they remain there they will bleed to death, and if they withdraw they will have lost everything." The mujahidin are in a strong position in Afghanistan and have turned US plans in Iraq "head over heels", al-Zawahri said. On the Darfur conflict,
Al-Zawahri said it was an example of US desire to split the Arab
and Muslim world. . . Al-Zawahari said: "The Americans are
hiding in their trenches and refuse to come out to face the mujahidin,
as the mujahidin shell and fire on them, and cut roads off around
them. Their defence is only to bomb by air, wasting US money
as they kick up dust." [As reported by Dave Michaels of the Dallas Morning News, Louisiana Advocate, Oakland Tribune, LA Daily News and AP] - A $30,000 custom trailer for Madisonville, TX, population 4,200. City officials say it will be useful during the annual mushroom festival. - A $19,596 grant to the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas even though the tribe had asked for nothing. - $59,600 worth of binoculars and $52,000 worth of traffic cones for Harris County and San Antonio. - 17 digital cameras for the Webster TX police department to be used at car accidents and crime scenes. - Throckmorton County, which has one deputy and no jail, got two digital cameas and a pair of night vision goggles. - $30,000 for catering for the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness. - $1,600 in restaurant tabs. - $180 for an artificial Christmas tree. - A $76 shopping trip for Skittles, York Peppermint Patties and other candies. - Office supplies, including a $130 personal calendar, engraved bbrass nameplates for office doors, a Palm Pilot and a leather journal. - San Francisco and Oakland used homeland security money to pay overtime to police anti-war demonstrations. - Desert Hot Springs police ordered night-vision goggles to monitor gangs. - An agriculture commissioner
in central California got intelligence-gathering software to
file monthly pesticide reports. JULY 2004 AIR MARSHALS ENDANGERED BY DRESS CODE AUDREY HUDSON, WASHINGTON TIMES - The Homeland Security Department's sense of fashion is endangering the lives of federal air marshals by making them conspicuous to terrorists, says the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. Marshals, they say, must follow a strict dress code and military grooming that is enforced by the Federal Air Marshal Service. According to memos obtained by The Washington Times, marshals must wear a suit, or a coat and tie, when flying from all cities, even traditionally casual locations such as Orlando, Fla. Their hair must be worn in a conservative style. No beards are allowed, and dress shoes are required for both men and women. Marshals have nicknamed their neckties the "hangman's noose" because they say it allows an attacker from behind to incapacitate them. "The bottom line is these guys are supposed to blend in a crowd on a plane, and no one should be able to pick these guys out from the rest of the people on a flight," said John Amat, spokesman for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. "There have been many
instances where air marshals have been picked out by travelers;
people give them the thumbs up and thank them." The strict
dress code is a response to complaints from the airline industry
that marshals were inappropriately dressed in jeans and T-shirts
or sweat shirts, said Dave Adams, spokesman for FAMS in the Bureau
of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Homeland Security
Department. "We deem it appropriate when traveling on mission
status to be dressed appropriately," he said. A federal
air marshal who spoke on the condition of anonymity called the
dress code "ridiculous." Managers wait for marshals
to deplane to check whether they are clean shaven and wearing
proper attire. JUNE 2004 AND STILL WE ARE NOT SAFE. . .ANNABEL CRABB, SYDNEY MORNING
HERALD - Security
and intelligence chiefs are considering a plan to seal off the
British capital's central Westminster area as protection against
terrorist attack. The Observer reported yesterday that a proposal
for a "ring of steel" around the Houses of Parliament,
Big Ben and several ministerial and departmental offices was
being considered. It would result in the closure of roads within
London's famous tourist area. "The zone would not necessarily
be closed to pedestrians or vehicles such as buses or taxis,
but anyone coming or going in the zone would be liable to checks,"
the newspaper said. THOUSANDS HELD IN AMERICAN GULAGS JASON BURKE, OBSERVER, UK - The United States government, in conjunction with key allies, is running an 'invisible' network of prisons and detention centers into which thousands of suspects have disappeared without trace since the 'war on terror' began. . . The astonishing traffic has seen many, including British citizens, sent from the West to countries where they can be tortured to extract information. Anything learnt is passed on to the US and, in some cases, reaches British intelligence. The disclosure of the shadowy system will increase pressure on the Bush administration over its 'cavalier' approach to human rights and will embarrass Tony Blair, a staunch ally of President George Bush. The practice of 'renditions' - when suspects are handed directly into the custody of another state without due process - has sparked particular anger. At least 70 such transfers have occurred, according to CIA sources. Many involve men who have been freed by the courts and are thus legally innocent. Renditions are often used when American interrogators believe that harsh treatment - banned in their own country - would produce results. The Observer has obtained details of two incidents in which men have been detained by the US despite being found innocent by courts in their own country. In one, a British businessman called Wahab al-Rami, an Iraqi living in the UK and a Palestinian seeking asylum were arrested by US and local officers in Gambia in November 2002 as they stepped off a flight from London. FIRING GEORGE TENET RAY MCGOVERN, DEMOCRACY NOW: George Tenet is clearly the first sacrificial lamb here. Things are going quite badly here in Washington. Somebody has to start being held accountable. And Tenet is sort of a tragic figure because he did all he could to help George Bush, much more than he should have as an objective intelligence professional. For example, the estimate that was prepared in September and October of 2002, which was used to persuade our Congress that Saddam Hussein was about to rain mushroom clouds upon us. That was George Tenet actually corrupting the Intelligence process to the policy that had already been decided. The decision for war antedated that estimate by six or seven months at least. And so we had the bizarre experience of a decision for war before there was any intelligence estimate, and the intelligence estimate sort of playing catch-up ball so that the Congress, that needed to approve this war, would be deceived. He played that game, and he defended it, and if you look at what that estimate said, it was wrong on virtually every count. It?s amazing that he hung around as long as he did. . . Tenet was playing a double game. He was trying to be all things to all people. Which is what a congressional staffer needs to do, and that is his sole professional background. . . AMY GOODMAN: We, of course can?t forget how many times Dick Cheney went to the Central Intelligence Agency. Very unusual situation. Can you talk about that in relation to George Tenet? RAY MCGOVERN: People have asked me, is that unusual? Well, it?s not unusual for the vice president to go to CIA headquarters. It?s unprecedented. I worked there for twenty seven years, and never once did a serving vice president come on a working visit to CIA headquarters. That?s not the way you do things in Washington. We went down to see him. . . . You not only had Dick Cheney, you had people like Newt Gingrich for Pete?s sake. You had Colin Powell bragging about the fact that he spent four days and nights at CIA headquarters before his key speech on 5 February 2003. This is bizarre. If by that time the CIA did not have together a conclusive case to present to Colin Powell for him to present to the UN, it?s bizarre that he had to show up there and help along the analysts. This is not the way things are done. MARCH 2004 BOSTON GLOBE - The US-led war on terror has made the world more dangerous, rather than safer, and has prompted the most sustained erosion of human rights and international law in 50 years, Amnesty International said in an annual report released yesterday. The report, which examined the state of human rights in 157 countries and alleged abuses committed by 177 armed groups, was followed by unusually scathing criticism of the Bush administration. . . The release of the report in Washington was accompanied by data indicating that terrorist acts have increased since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the advent of the war on terrorism. Jessica Eve Stern, a lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University who has spent six years interviewing members of terrorist organizations, cited statistics indicating that the number of terrorist incidents increased from 2,303 in the two years before the Sept. 11 attacks to 4,422 in the two years after Sept. 11. ''There is no question in my mind that the war in Iraq increased terrorism, in part because the United States created a weak state unable to maintain a monopoly on the use of force," Stern said after the news conference. Her statistics, included in a database maintained by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit think tank, and funded by the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, run contrary to a recent State Department report that indicated a slight decline in terrorist acts from last year. The State Department did not provide details about how the data were collected to a reporter who requested the information KAREEM FAHIM, VILLAGE VOICE - While the nation focused on Richard Clarke's allegations, CIA director George Tenet let slip other revelations in his testimony to the 9-11 Commission, admissions that sharpen the contours of the shadowy intelligence practice called "extraordinary rendition." The policy, codified in the late 1980s to allow U.S. law enforcement to apprehend wanted men in lawless states like Lebanon during its civil war, has emerged in recent years as one of America's key counterterrorism tools, and has now expanded in scope to include the transfer of terrorism suspects by U.S. intelligence agents to foreign countries for interrogation - and, say some insiders, torture prohibited inside this nation's borders. Tenet testified that in an unspecified period before September 11, the U.S. had undertaken over 70 such renditions, adding that the Counterterrorist Center at the CIA had "racked up many successes, including the rendition of many dozens of terrorists prior to September 11, 2001." Tenet's testimony marked a rare occasion when the CIA, which doesn't comment publicly on the practice, provided any details about rendition. As the 9-11 Commission continues its focus on why more wasn't done to prevent the terror attacks, a public inquiry set to begin in the next few weeks in Canada may reveal long-hidden secrets about the abuses of America's war on terror. Headed by a judge, it will investigate why Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was flying home to Montreal in 2002, was detained by the U.S. authorities at JFK Airport, and then escorted through Jordan to Syria, where he said he was tortured and kept in a grave-like cell for 10 months. Arar was finally cleared by a Syrian court and sent back to Canada, where he hasn't been charged with any crime.
DAVID CLARKE ON BUSH AND TERROR WASHINGTON POST - On the evening of Sept. 12, 2001, according to a newly published memoir, President Bush wandered alone around the Situation Room in a White House emptied by the previous day's calamitous events. Spotting Richard A. Clarke, his counterterrorism coordinator, Bush pulled him and a small group of aides into the dark paneled room. "Go back over everything, everything," Bush said, according to Clarke's account. "See if Saddam did this." "But Mr. President, al Qaeda did this," Clarke replied. "I know, I know, but . . . see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred." Reminded that the CIA, FBI and White House staffs had sought and found no such link before, Clarke said, Bush spoke "testily." As he left the room, Bush said a third time, "Look into Iraq, Saddam.". . . White
House and Pentagon officials who spoke only on the condition
of anonymity described Clarke's public remarks as self-serving
and politically motivated. Like former Treasury secretary Paul
H. O'Neill, who spoke out in January, Clarke said some of Bush's
leading advisers arrived in office determined to make war on
Iraq. Nearly all of them, he said, believed Clinton had been
"overly obsessed with al Qaeda." Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, Clarke wrote, scowled and asked, "why we are beginning by talking about this one man, bin Laden." When Clarke told him no foe but al Qaeda "poses an immediate and serious threat to the United States," Wolfowitz is said to have replied that Iraqi terrorism posed "at least as much" of a danger. FBI and CIA representatives backed Clarke in saying they had no such evidence. "I could hardly believe," Clarke writes, that Wolfowitz pressed the "totally discredited" theory that Iraq was behind the 1993 truck bomb at the World Trade Center, "a theory that had been investigated for years and found to be totally untrue." Wolfowitz, in a telephone interview last night, cited statements by CIA Director George J. Tenet and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell affirming that Iraq once trained al Qaeda operatives in bomb making and document forgery. NEWSWEEK - Clarke is perhaps not the most neutral source. Last year Clarke's best friend, Rand Beers, quit as the White House's counterterrorism chief after complaining - over glasses of wine on Clarke's front porch - about the wrong-headedness of Bush's plan to invade Iraq. Beers is now a principal foreign-policy adviser to Kerry. LIFE AT THE GITMO TORTURE CAMP DAILY MIRROR, UK - Jamal al-Harith, 37, who arrived home three days ago after two years of confinement, is the first detainee to lift the lid on the US regime in Cuba's Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta. The father-of-three, from Manchester, told how he was assaulted with fists, feet and batons after refusing a mystery injection. He said detainees were shackled for up to 15 hours at a time in hand and leg cuffs with metal links which cut into the skin. Their "cells" were wire cages with concrete floors and open to the elements - giving no privacy or protection from the rats, snakes and scorpions loose around the American base. He claims punishment beatings were handed out by guards known as the Extreme Reaction Force. They waded into inmates in full riot-gear, raining blows on them. Prisoners faced psychological torture and mind-games in attempts to make them confess to acts they had never committed. Even petty breaches of rules brought severe punishment. Medical treatment was sparse and brutal and amputations of limbs were more drastic than required, claimed Jamal. A diet of foul water and food up to 10 years out-of-date left inmates malnourished. But Jamal's most shocking disclosure centered on the use of vice girls to torment the most religiously devout detainees. Prisoners who had never seen an "unveiled" woman before would be forced to watch as the hookers touched their own naked bodies. The men would return distraught. One said an American girl had smeared menstrual blood across his face in an act of humiliation. Jamal added: "The whole point of Guantanamo was to get to you psychologically. The beatings were not as nearly as bad as the psychological torture - bruises heal after a week - but the other stuff stays with you." ~~ Now Jamal bears the scars of Guantanamo. He stoops into a hunch as he walks because the shackles that bound him were too short. As a punishment, inmates would be confined so tightly they would be forced to lie in a ball for hours. During lengthy interrogation, they would be tethered to a metal ring on the floor. ~~ Jamal said victims of the Extreme Reaction Force were paraded in front of cells. "It was a horrible sight and it was a frequent sight." ~~ Rice and beans was the usual diet and the water was "filthy". Jamal added: "In Camp X-Ray it was yellow and in Delta it was black - the colour of Coca-Cola. "We had it piped through with a tap in each 'cage' but they would often turn the water off as punishment. "They would shut off the water before prayers so we couldn't wash ourselves according to our religion. ~~ "They would play tricks on people by denying them things - you might be the only person on your block who didn't get any bread. I prided myself on never asking them for anything. I would not beg." Jamal said they were told they had no rights. "They actually said that - 'You have no rights here'. After a while, we stopped asking for human rights - we wanted animal rights. In Camp X-Ray my cage was right next to a kennel housing an Alsatian dog. "He had a wooden house with air conditioning and green grass to exercise on. I said to the guards, 'I want his rights' and they replied, 'That dog is member of the US army'. NOVEMBER 2003 BUSH POLICIES RISKY FOR AMERICAN COMPANIES FINANCIAL TIMES - US multinational companies are "acutely worried" about the business consequences of Bush administration foreign policy, according to a new report from Control Risks, a UK-based international security consultancy. "The consequences of Bush's foreign policy have created new risks - and exacerbated existing risks - for US companies around the world," the report says. The company's Risk Map 2004 report describes US foreign policy as "the most important single factor driving the development of global risk." It says many in the private sector "believe that US unilateralism is creating a security paradox: by using US power unilaterally and aggressively in pursuit of global stability, the Bush administration is in fact creating precisely the opposite effect." It says that for companies such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola, dealing with anti-American sentiment is not new. "However, US companies that never previously worried about the connotations of their national origin are acutely worried about a new wave of popular resentment in other parts of the world against US policies," it says. Long-standing boycotts of US products in the Middle East and parts of south-east Asia had been reinvigorated, a point emphasized by the rapid success of brands such as Mecca-Cola and Qibla Cola. OCTOBER 2003 RUMSFELD SUGGESTS WAR ON TERROR COULD GO ON FOREVER SF CHRONICLE - Given the chance to talk to the defense secretary, one solider from the 101st Airborne Division asked what was on the minds of many: When will the worldwide fight against terrorism be over? "I mean, should I get my 3-year-old ready for air assault school?" the soldier asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during an Iraq tour last month. "I wish I could give you a date, but I can't," Rumsfeld said. That would be like estimating when a town will no longer need firefighters or police, he told the soldier. LAWYER SAYS GUANTANAMO DETAINEES TORTURED ASSOCIATED PRESS - The U.S. military has tortured terrorist suspects held without charge at the Guantanamo Bay military prison, an Australian lawyer representing some of the suspects claimed Wednesday. U.S.-based Richard Bourke, who has been working for almost two years on behalf of dozens of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, said American military officials were using old-fashioned torture techniques to force confessions out of prisoners. The methods "clearly" fell under the definition of torture under international conventions, he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio in an interview from the United States. "They are engaging in good old-fashioned torture, as people would have understood it in the Dark Ages," he said. . . Bourke told ABC radio that his claims are based on reports leaked by U.S. military personnel and from descriptions by some detainees that have been released. "One of the detainees had described being taken out and tied to a post and having rubber bullets fired at them. They were being made to kneel cruciform in the sun until they collapsed," he said. Media reports that many detainees have attempted suicide and are suffering mental health problems backed up claims of harsh treatment, he said. U.K. ARRESTEE SAYS U.S. AGENTS THREATENED TORTURE, RAPE GUARDIAN - A British businessman arrested as a suspected terrorist has told the Guardian that US agents threatened him with beatings and rape in an attempt to break him. Wahab al-Rawi, 38, was denied a lawyer, held incommunicado for four weeks in Gambia, and repeatedly questioned by CIA agents before being released without charge. His account is the first from any Briton about their treatment by the US while held as a suspect in the two year "war on terror." The account also challenges US denials of the use of torture or the threat of torture on terrorist suspects, thousands of whom have been detained and interrogated across the world. Speaking publicly for the first time, Mr Rawi, 38, said: - CIA agents twice threatened him with torture if he did not cooperate; - He was subjected to sleep deprivation, with lights permanently kept on in his cell; . . . In the new house, the toilet was a bucket kept in the room, there was no exercise, and a shower was allowed just once a week. . . . "They came in and started laughing. Lee said: 'Did we scare you?' in a sarcastic voice, and then they started interrogating me. "I said to them, they can't intimidate me, I lived through my father's experience when he was held and tortured by Saddam Hussein. I told them, in Iraq they don't threaten, they do things, they rape people, they torture. "The little American said: 'We can be just as ruthless as Saddam Hussein' - he was trying very hard to scare me. SEPTEMBER 2003 WAR ON TERRORISM HASN'T MADE PUBLIC FEEL SAFER Two years after September 11, despite the various high-profile efforts of the war on terrorism, 76% of Americans say that over the last two years they have not come to feel safer from the threat of terrorism, according to a new PIPA/Knowledge Networks poll of 1,217 Americans, conducted August 26 through September 3. A majority thinks the Bush administration is overemphasizing assertive and military approaches. Fifty-eight percent said that in the effort to fight terrorism, the Bush administration should put more emphasis on diplomatic and economic methods, while only 35% thought there should be more emphasis on military methods. In general, over the last two years 54% said that the Bush administration has been too assertive in relation to other countries, while 14% said it was too cooperative; and 28% said it has the right balance. Sixty-four percent said that US military presence in the Middle East increases rather than decreases the likelihood of terrorist attacks against the US, and 64% think that the US should reduce its military presence there over the next 5-10 years. Fifty-eight percent said that "The US is playing the role of world policeman in the Middle East more than it should be." AUGUST 2003 [From an interview with French historian and demographer Emmanuel Todd. "There will be no American Empire." According to Todd, whose 1976 book predicted the fall of the Soviet Union, there is no question: the decline of America the Superpower has already begun.] DOMINION, CA - The US is still the most powerful nation in the world today, but there are many indicators that they are about to relinquish their position as solitary superpower. In my 1976 book, La chute finale (Before the Fall: The End of Soviet Domination), I based my prediction of the fall of the Soviet Union on the relevant indicators of the time. An analysis of current demographic, cultural, military, economic, and ideological factors leads me to conclude that the remaining pole of the former bipolar world order will not remain alone in its position. The world has become too large and complex to accept the predominance of one power. There will not be an American Empire. Q - Nevertheless, if others are to believed, this empire has already been long in existence. "Get Used to It" was a recent headline in the New York Times Weekend Magazine. That is very interesting. Now that the concept no longer corresponds to reality, it becomes commonplace. While there actually was a basis in reality, there was scarcely a mention of the concept. Then you are of the opinion that there was an American empire at one point? The American hegemony from the end of WW II into the late 1980s in military, economic, and ideological terms definitely had imperial qualities. In 1945 fully half the manufactured goods in the world originated in the US. And although there was a communist bloc in Eurasia, East Germany, and North Korea, the strong American military, the navy and air force, exercised strategic control over the rest of the globe, with the support and understanding of many allies, whose common goal was the fight against communism. Although communism had some dispersed support among intellectuals, workers, and peasant groups, the power and influence of the US was by and large with the agreement of a majority throughout the world. It was a benevolent empire. The Marshall Plan was an exemplary political and economic strategy. America was, for decades, a 'good' superpower. Q - And now it is a bad one? It has, above all, become a weak one. The US no longer has the might to control the large strategic players, primarily Germany and Japan. Their industrial capacity is clearly smaller than that of Europe and approximately equal to that of Japan. With twice the population, this is no great accomplishment. Their trade deficit meanwhile, is in the order of $500 billion per year. Their military potential is nevertheless still the largest by far, but is declining and consistently over estimated. The use of military bases is dependant on the good will of their allies, many of which are not as willing as before. The theatrical military activism against inconsequential rogue states that we are currently witnessing plays out against this backdrop. It is a sign of weakness, not of strength. But weakness makes for unpredictability. The US is about to become a problem for the world, where we have previously been accustomed to seeing a solution in them. JUNE 2003 US AND BRITISH INTELLIGENCE GOING FOR ASSASSINATIONS JAMES ZOGBY, ARAB NEWS - The hallmark of the neo-conservatives thinking has been their belief that the US should project both political and military dominance in the post-Cold War world. It was this that led them to advocate US abandonment of several international agreements and conferences and to press for the largely unilateral war with Iraq. While much of this has been known, what is new has been found in articles that explore the intellectual underpinnings of this movement providing insights into their political thinking. Since a number of key neo-conservatives have studied with the political philosopher Leo Strauss, several researchers have probed the writings of Strauss and other Strauss disciples for clues into the ideas that have shaped the operational side of neo-conservative practice. From the articles that have appeared, three central notions emerge: - The role of elites William Pfaff writing in the International Herald Tribune describes Strauss' followers as a "cult" noting that Strauss believed that "essential truth about human society and history should be held by an elite and withheld from others who lack the fortitude to deal with truth." Another Strauss critic quoted in a lengthy New Yorker piece observes, "Strauss believed that good statesmen. . . must rely on an inner circle," and notes that this is how the neo-conservatives have come to see themselves. - Deceit as diplomacy Connected to the important role played by elites as the protectors of truth is the notion that "philosophers need to tell noble lies not only to the people at large also to powerful politicians [whom they serve]." Pfaff writes that in their view "it has been necessary to tell lies to people about the nature of political reality. . . The elite keeps the truth to itself. . . This gives it insight and . . . power that others do not possess." In this same context, the New Yorker article quotes one neo-conservative who has been in charge of the Defense Department's special intelligence unit who wrote that "deception is the norm in political life." - The need to have an external threat A few recent articles have also quoted Shadia Drury's book Leo Strauss and the American Right in which she wrote "Strauss thinks that the political order can only be stable if it is united by an external threat. Following Machiavelli, he maintains that if no external threat exists, then one has to be manufactured. . . .in Strauss' view you have to fight all the time. . . [this leads to an] 'aggressive belligerent foreign policy.'" Putting all this together, Joshua Jonah Marshall, writing in The Washington Monthly, describes neo-conservative political practice by providing a lesson from their Reagan administration days: "The willingness to deceive - both themselves and others - expanded as neo-cons grew more comfortable with power. Many spent the Reagan years orchestrating bloody wars against Soviet proxies in the Third World, portraying things like the Nicaraguan Contras and plain murderers like Jonas Savimbi of Angola as "freedom fighters. The nadir of this deceit was their Iran-Contra scandal. . . "But the neo-cons did not dwell on what they got wrong. Rather, the experience of having played a hand in the downfall of so great an evil (as the Soviet Union) led them to the opposite belief: That it's okay to be spectacularly wrong, even brazenly deceptive about the details, so long as you have a moral vision and a willingness to use force." MARCH 2003 DOCUMENT OUTLINES BEGINNING OF AL QAEDA MAUREEN DOWD - Nobody in America makes me feel more insecure than Tom Ridge. The man who is supposed to restore my confidence in the prospect of my safety gives me the uneasy sense that the door's unlocked, the alarm's off and there's a ladder leaning up against the house. He seems like a pleasant, well-meaning guy and admits, "It's not always easy to know the right thing to say or the right thing to do." But in George Bush's pulp Western, Mr. Ridge should be a square-jawed extra with no lines. JANE WALLACE INTERVIEWS SY HERSH ON PBS: HOW THE U.S. LET AL QAEDA ESCAPE IN AFGHANISTAN 'DUCT TAPE' TOMMY TRIES
AGAIN BUSH & THE LIVING MUSEUM OF WAR AND In case of a chemical attack, the government's basic advice is to run. - WASHINGTON TIMES HOW
TO HELP YOUR CHILDREN DEAL WITH GEORGE BUSH AND TOM RIDGE LIBERTY BELL LOCKED DOWN BY PHILADELPHIA
& PARK SERVICE
HOW MCDONALD'S DEALS WITH ANTI-AMERICAN CUSTOMERS ABROAD BUSH REGIME, MEDIA BACKING OFF OF DEADLY ROOM-SEALING ADVICE RECOVERED HISTORY MEMORY HOLE - The occasion was a press conference with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, which took place in the White House on 31 January 2003. Here's the key portion: [Adam Boulton, Sky News (London):] One question for you both. Do you believe that there is a link between Saddam Hussein, a direct link, and the men who attacked on September the 11th? THE PRESIDENT: I can't make that claim. THE PRIME MINISTER: That answers your question. FEBRUARY 2003
 DAVID FRUM, NATIONAL REVIEW - The arrest of Sami al-Arian on terrorism charges marks an epoch not only in the War on Terror, but in the history of the Bush administration... Not only were the al-Arians not avoided by the Bush White House - they were actively courted. Candidate Bush allowed himself to be photographed with the al-Arian family while campaigning in Florida. Candidate Bush denounced the immigration laws that detained - and ultimately deported - [al-Arian's brother-in-law] Mazen al-Najjar MORE
WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THAT DUCT TAPE IF PEACE BREAKS OUT A CHEMICAL ENGINEER EXPLAINS THE PROBLEM US NEWS & WORLD REPORT BACKTRACKS ON RED ALERT STORY FIRST LEAD - Indications from government sources are that the already heightened Code Orange security alert Washington, D.C., is operating under may be increased to Code Red in the next 24 hours because of heightened concern about a possible terrorist attack. While a top Bush aide said that a change from orange to red­the highest alert­isn't imminent, other moves suggest otherwise. REVISED LEAD - Earlier indications that the feds were considering a jump from Code Orange to Code Red due to heightened terrorist concerns in Washington have dissipated and Homeland Security Department officials assure that orange is the highest it's going this weekend. "There are no plans to go to Code Red," said a Homeland spokesman. Nonetheless, there are signs that this alert is serious. JON STEWART: If we're going to be warned about terrorism, can't be warned by someone who will make us want to survive? WEATHER AS WELL AS BULLETS CAN KILL SOLDIERS PENTAGON SAYS FREEDOM OF INFORMATION VIDEO IT MADE IS SECRET REUTERS - A majority of Germans believe the United States is a nation of warmongers and only six percent think President Bush is interested in keeping the peace, according to a survey published Monday. AUSTRALIANS TO GET ANTI-TERROR PACK MORE ATTEMPTED SUICIDES AT GITMO DOHA, Qatar (CNN) -- In an audiotape broadcast Tuesday on the Arabic television network Al-Jazeera, a voice purported to be that of Osama bin Laden called on Muslims to fight any U.S.-led attack on Iraq -- and warned leaders of Islamic nations not to help the enemy. HAMAS LEADER TO MUSLIMS: ATTACK AMERICANS THE MOMENT WAR STARTS GREAT MOMENTS IN ANTI TERRORISM FCC REFERENCE INFORMATION CENTER CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE -Because of the elevation of the homeland security alert today to "high" the Commission's Reference Information Center will be closed to the public until further notice. FCC REOPENS REFERENCE INFORMATION CENTER TO THE PUBLIC. Effective immediately, the FCC Reference Information Center (RIC) will reopen to the public. However, the following security precautions are in effect in response to the increased Homeland Security Alert System threat level. . . GREAT MOMENTS IN INTELLIGENCE GATHERING We get general information and specific information but none of the specific information talks about time or place or methods or means - Thomas Ridge KURT VONNEGUT, IN THESE TIMES - I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka "Christians," and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or "PPs." To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete's foot. . .PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose! And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick. What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can't. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody's telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass! JUDGE ORDERS ACCESS TO DETAINEE FOR MOUSSAOUI'S LAWYERS RUMSFELD ATTACKS JOINTS CHIEFS OF STAFF RUMSFELD DISSES FRANCE AND ENGLAND, CALLS THEM "OLD EUROPE" French Finance Minister Francis Mer said he was "profoundly vexed" by Mr Rumsfeld's remarks - BBC PENTAGON DRAWS UP A 20-TO-30-YEAR ANTI-TERROR PLAN CBS - Opposition from three key Arab governments has stalled a State Department drive to improve America's image among Muslims, a newspaper reports. The Wall Street Journal reports the campaign of television and radio advertisements was suspended because the Egyptian, Lebanese and Jordanian governments expressed opposition to airing the spots on government-run channels. The ads are part of a $15 million propaganda blitz called "Shared Values" designed by the McCann-Erickson marketing firm and headed by former advertising industry insider Charlotte Beers, who heads the State Department's office of public diplomacy. The campaign also includes print ads, a website and a book. . . Critics said the ads came off as forced and a tad phony. "It was like this was the 1930s and the government was running commercials showing happy blacks in America," said Youssef Ibrahim, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. "Islamic opinion is influenced more by what the U.S. does than anything it can say," said an ad executive, Steve Hayden. JOHN LA CARRE SAYS AMERICA HAS GONE MAD U.S. POLICE OFFICIALS GO TO ISRAEL TO LEARN HOW TO DEAL WITH DISSIDENTS DANIEL PIPES ADDS EUROPE TO AXIS OF EVIL UPI - ISRAEL PLANNING TO SEND ASSASSINS TO U.S. RUMSFELD DISSES DRAFTED VETERANS: If you think back to when we had the draft . . . big categories were exempted -- people that were in college, people that were teaching, people that were married. . . And what was left was sucked into the intake, trained for a period of months, and then went out, adding no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services over any sustained period of time. - JAN 7 NEWS CONFERENCE BRITISH TABLOID AND GREENPEACE DEMONSTRATE LAX SECURITY AT NUKE PLANT AIRLINES EXECS SAY WAR WOULD ADD TO INDUSTRY'S WOES GREAT MOMENTS IN ANTI-
TERRORISM FAMILIES TO FACE BIG INCREASE IN HEATING BILLS BUSH TO LET SPECIAL OPS CONDUCT OWN FOREIGN POLICY BLAIR TELLS BUSH: LISTEN TO WORLD'S FEARS  UNREASONABLE WOMEN OF WEST MARIN'S WEBSITE EXPLAINS HOW TO STAGE NUDE PROTEST OF WAR WASHINGTON POSTAL WORKER SUES FOR $100 MILLION OVER HANDLING OF ANTHRAX CRISIS AIR TRAVELERS PAID SIX TIMES AS MUCH FOR SECURITY AS DID AIRLINES MIT STUDIES CHARGES OF LIES AND COVERUPS IN ANTI-MISSILE PROGRAM SOME OF THOSE HELD AT GITMO ARE UNLIKELY TERRORISTS MOST CANADIANS NOW SEE AMERICA AS A BULLY MORE ON AMERICAN TORTURE OF PRISONERS TOTAL WAR - One of George W Bush's "thinkers" is Richard Perle. I interviewed Perle when he was advising Reagan; and when he spoke about "total war", I mistakenly dismissed him as mad. He recently used the term again in describing America's "war on terror." "No stages," he said. "This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq... this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war... our children will sing great songs about us years from now." - JOHN PILGER, ITV BUSH REGIME EXPECTS MORE SERIOUS ATTACKS COLLATERAL DAMAGE? DEFENSE AGENCY OFFERING THREE MILLION FOR RESEARCH ON HOW TO IDENTIFY PEOPLE BY THEIR B.O. UNUSUAL INCIDENCE OF GRAVES DISEASE IN SPECIAL FORCES THE MYTH OF NON LETHAL WEAPONS HOW U.S. GOT OWN COPY OF IRAQ WEAPONS REPORT AL QAEDA MAY HAVE SHOULDER-FIRED WEAPONS JANUARY 2003 U.S. TORTURES SUSPECTS IN AFGHANISTAN |
