Saturday, July 06, 2002



Like
FBI Agents Coleen Rowley and John O'Neill, Robert Wright's Terrorism
Investigations Were 'Intentionally and Repeatedly Thwarted'



Wright "worked in the Chicago office on counter-terrorism cases
that focused on money-laundering efforts by terrorist cells operating
within the US. His work developed into an operation that was named 'Bulgar
Betrayal,' which seemed on the verge of becoming officially designated
as a major case because of its far reach and national security
implications. Before he was finished, a Saudi businessman named Yasin
Kadi became implicated in the terrorism funding... One month after the
9/11 attacks, Kadi was named by the Federal government as a financial
supporter of Osama bin Laden. Yet Kadi's name was known to Wright well
before 9/11, when the Bulgar Betrayal investigations were taking place.
Did his work take root within the FBI?... 'FBI management,' said Wright
on Thursday, 'intentionally and repeatedly thwarted my attempts to
launch a more comprehensive investigation to identify and to neutralize
terrorists.'" We demand Judiciary Committee hearings on Wright's
explosive allegations!



Before
911, the NSA Monitored Calls between the Chief Hijacker and 911
Mastermind - And Then Sat on The Info?!



According to Knight-Ridder, the National Security Agency
"monitored telephone conversations before Sept. 11 between [Khalid
Shaikh Mohammed,] the suspected commander of the World Trade Center and
Pentagon attacks and [Mohamed Atta,] the alleged chief hijacker, but did
not share the information with," the CIA or FBI. "When the NSA
monitored their conversations, Mohammed was overseas and Atta was in the
US. Mohammed was included on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List when
it was published in October because he had been indicted on charges of
being involved in a failed 1995 plot to bomb 11 U.S. airliners flying
over the Pacific Ocean on a single day. The U.S. Justice Department has
offered a $25 million reward for him." The NSA has a $5 BILLION
budget and 30,000 employees, and it wasn't PAYING ATTENTION to calls
from TOP Al Qaeda terrorists TO THE US? This is the THIRD published 911
screwup by the NSA We think the NSA told Bush, and is now lying - we
demand a Blue Ribbon Commission!



The
State Department Knew as Early as June 22nd, 2001 that an Attack by Bin
Laden Followers was Imminent!



On June 21, 2001, Bakr Atyani, a correspondent of the Middle East
Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), interviewed Osama bin Laden and his
aides Abu Hafas al-Masri and Ayman al-Zawahiri inside Afghanistan. Bin
Laden was silent, but nodded approvingly when his aides warned that
"the coming weeks will hold important surprises that will target
American and Israeli interests in the world." The State Department
issued a "worldwide caution" on June 22nd and specifically
mentioned Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda organization as the source of the
threats. According to an article written by Amir Shah, an AP
correspondent in Afghanistan (published in the New Jersey Record on June
25th, 2001), Taliban government officials responded to "U.S.
reports of a terrorist plot" by Bin Laden followers on June 24th,
2001. Responding to "US concerns", Taliban officials stated
that Bin Laden was under their strict control and could not use Afghan
territory as a base for attacks.


On
June 29, 2001, the US Ambassador to Pakistan Told the Taliban the US
Would Attack Afghanistan if Al Qaeda Attacked the US



According to Sapra India, "William B. Milam, the outgoing US
Ambassador in Islamabad, contacted the Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan,
Abus Salaam Zaeef , on June 29 [2001] and reportedly warned him that in
case of a new terrorist attack against American interests by groups
associated with bin Laden, Washington would hold the Taliban directly
responsible, hinting thereby that any retaliatory strike by the US could
be directed against the Taliban's headquarters. Reports from Islamabad
suggest that a similar warning was conveyed by US officials to Mr.Abdul
Sattar, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, during the latter's visit to
Washington last month. He was reported to have been confronted by US
officials with fresh evidence relating to the continued clandestine
assistance of Pakistan to the Taliban in violation of the UN
sanctions."


Carpet
of Gold Bombshell - Salon Goes Where the Mainstream Media Fears to Tread



Jean-Charles Brisard reports, "A 1998 memo written by al Qaeda
military chief Mohammed Atef reveals that Osama bin Laden's group had
detailed knowledge of negotiations that were taking place between
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and American government and business
leaders over plans for a U.S. oil and gas pipeline across that Central
Asian country. The e-mail memo was found in 1998 on a computer seized by
the FBI during its investigation into the 1998 African embassy bombings,
which were sponsored by al Qaeda. Atef's memo was discovered by FBI
counter-terrorism expert John O'Neill, who left the bureau in 2001,
complaining that U.S. oil interests were hindering his investigation
into al Qaeda. O'Neill, who became security chief at the World Trade
Center, died in the Sept. 11 attack."


Air
Force Lt. Col. Steve Butler Is Suspended for Telling the Truth about
Bush's Failure on 911



Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Butler "has been relieved from duties
at the Presidio of Monterey after publication of his letter to the
editor accusing President George W. Bush of having advance knowledge of
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The letter accuses Bush of allowing the
attacks to occur for political reasons. The letter reads in part: 'Of
course Bush knew about the impending attacks on America. He did nothing
to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism. His
daddy had Saddam and he needed Osama. 'His presidency was going nowhere.
He wasn't elected by the American people, but placed into the Oval
Office by the conservative supreme court (if you really want to know why
the justices voted like they did, I suggest 'Supreme Injustice' by Alan
Dershowitz), the economy was sliding into the usual Republican pits and
he needed something to hang his presidency on. ' Butler's letter called
the president's course of action 'sleazy and contemptible.'"


Bush's Stupefying Stance on Global Warming




Molly Ivins writes, "The Bush administration has decided that
global warming is indeed taking place and they are planning to do
exactly nothing about it... They will not even do anything to slow it
down or soften its impact... 'Adapt to the inevitable changes'? The
changes are not inevitable... To keep right on doing what is already
causing disastrous consequences is either insane or profoundly stupid...
We can cut greenhouse gases; we can even do it dramatically. We are not
helpless. We are, however, currently governed by an administration of
oil executives and people whose main guiding principle seems to be
opposing anything Bill Clinton favored. This is both pathetic and
ridiculous... To fail to take action in the face of a recognized threat
is not only incredibly stupid, but also legally actionable. Misfeasance,
malfeasance and nonfeasance can all be alleged, reckless, irresponsible
conduct, failure of duty ... a litany of charges." Like we say --
Impeach Bush NOW!



Salon Delivers a NEW Enron Bombshell -- The Bushies Were Tipped Off
in August!




Salon's Jason Leopold reports that the Bush administration was tipped
off "last August about [Enron's] impending financial problems.
Enron lobbyist Pat Shortridge met with White House economic advisor
Robert McNally Aug. 15, the day after Enron president Jeff Skilling
resigned, to alert the White House that Enron could face a financial
meltdown that could possibly cripple the country's energy markets... If
McNally was tipped off to Enron's troubles it would mean that the White
House had been warned several months earlier than it has previously
acknowledged... It would also mean the White House received such a
warning even before Sharon Watkins delivered her famous memo to then
Enron chairman Kenneth Lay... It also fuels the most common question
plaguing the administration these days: What did Bush know, and when did
he know it?"



Fort Stewart Terrorist Is Set Free - What the HECK is Going On
Here???




"The soldier from Fort Stewart, Ga, who was arrested on charges
of planting an explosive device on a dirt road will serve 18 months
probation after pleading no contest yesterday. A Jacksonville police
officer stopped Derek Lawrence Peterson in May and found him wearing all
black clothing and black plastic pads on his knees and elbows. Police
said Peterson, 27, told them he was in the area practicing 'recon
tactics.' After he was arrested, Peterson, who has served on an Army
tank crew at Fort Stewart since March, at first was held on a $5 million
bond. Peterson's attorney, Hank Coxe, said yesterday his client's case
had been blown out of proportion because police initially suspected
Peterson's actions were related to terrorism." WHAT? "No
contest" means the Government did not want the truth to come out.
Probation means Peterson will return to ACTIVE DUTY. This looks like a
BLACK OPERATION by the Pentagon to create a "terrorist"
attack. Call your rep at 202-224-3121 and demand the truth!



Bush and White House Staff Started Taking Cipro for Anthrax on Sept
11 - What Did They Know???




Judicial Watch "is suing the Bush administration for access to
documents about last fall's anthrax attacks, asserting that top
officials might have known the bioterrorist attack was coming... Larry
Klayman, chairman of Judicial Watch, said administration officials said
last fall that some White House staff members had begun taking the
antibiotic Cipro on Sept. 11, weeks before the anthrax attacks were made
public. 'We believe that the White House knew or had reason to know that
an anthrax attack was imminent or underway,' Klayman said. 'We want to
know what the government knew and when they knew it.' 'We did not know
about the anthrax attacks. Period!' said Gordon Johndroe, a White House
spokesman." [Gee Gordon, why don't we believe a word you say?]
Klayman said the mistake goes beyond a bad judgment call. 'They
deliberately withheld information,' he said. 'The political elite,
they'll be protected from day one. The ordinary folks will be treated in
a lesser fashion.'"



NY Times Slams Bush's Secret Detentions




The NY Times editorializes, "The Bush administration's
post-Sept. 11 assault on civil liberties reached a new low recently when
the Justice Department argued in court that an American-born detainee,
who may be a United States citizen, should not be allowed to talk to a
lawyer. This is the same Justice Department that has refused to release
the names and locations of the estimated 1,200 people detained after
Sept. 11, and that has insisted on conducting detainees' legal hearings
in secret. These policies are blatantly unconstitutional, and in recent
rulings, courts have begun saying just that." Bush took a solemn
oath of office - on a Bible - to "Protect and Defend the
Constitution of the United States." Impeach Bush Now!



Department of Homeland Insecurity -- or is it the Department of
Distract and Divert?




Frank Rich writes, "No one seems to remember anymore that
President [sic] Bush put Mr. Cheney in charge of not one but two task
forces last year... On May 8, 2001, the president charged Mr. Cheney
with overseeing a 'national effort' to coordinate all federal programs
for responding to domestic attacks... Did Mr. Cheney take on that
responsibility with the same urgency with which he met with Enron
executives to develop energy policy? [After 9/11, The Washington Post
reported] that the government-wide review that Mr. Bush had entrusted to
Mr. Cheney had never taken place... Were the vice president to be
quizzed about his pre-Sept.-11 efforts at preparedness, he'd likely
either invoke secrecy or impugn the questioner's patriotism. [The cure
Mr. Bush now proposes for such ailments is still another avoidance of
accountability that reshuffles the same deck of lightweights we have
now]. These days that's a sure sign that the buck-passing will never
stop."



Ashcroft Should be the Very First Head to Roll over 911




Joe Conason writes, "From what we know of Mr. Ashcroft's conduct
since he assumed office last year, he shrugged off the terrorist threat
in favor of his own small-time agenda. He wanted to prosecute people in
California who provide marijuana to cancer patients. He wanted to
prosecute doctors in Oregon who assist the suicides of terminally ill
patients. He wanted to prosecute pornographers... He can't say he wasn't
warned. As Newsweek reported two weeks ago, Mr. Freeh tried to convince
him that additional resources and action were needed to fight
terrorism... but Mr. Ashcroft brushed him off... Last year, Mr. Ashcroft
challenged the patriotism of anyone who dared question his incursions on
traditional freedoms, and his critics quickly backed down. Now it is he
who should be challenged, to explain his past approach to terrorism and
to justify his present assaults on liberty. And he should not be allowed
to hide his answers behind closed doors."


Tuesday, June 11, 2002

A
September 11th Widow Speaks: 'What Could I Have Done to Save My Husband?
Now I Know -- I Was Asking the Wrong Person'



A.R. Torres writes in Salon, "I used to know whose fault it was.
At least I thought I did. The loss of my beloved Eddie hurt badly enough
when 9/11 was a story about a secret plot that was so fantastic, so
sophisticated and hidden, that it escaped our mighty intelligence
network... But now the story has become one of incompetence vs. evil.
There had been knowledge, hints, warnings - shared at the highest levels -
and yet no action, not a peep. How was that possible? Suddenly the
diabolic geniuses behind this plot weren't that smart. Instead they were
just a few fundamentalist lunatics with box cutters and a dream, who could
have - should have - been stopped at so many points before 8:46 a.m.,
Sept. 11." Eddie Torres died on Sept. 11, his second day of work in
the World Trade Center.



'No
Warnings' - Bush's Unforgiveable Lie



Marie Cocco writes in Newsday, "In all the verbiage that has
rained down since word leaked that President [sic] Bush was warned that
Osama bin Laden's crew might hijack a plane and strike at the United
States, two words count: 'No warnings.' That is what White House spokesman
Ari Fleischer told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sept. 11. He said it
as the flames from the World Trade Center and the Pentagon lit the sky and
the office workers and firefighters and deli-counter men were buried
beneath the molten steel. It was a lie... Since word leaked about the
infamous memo Bush received on Aug. 6, the White House has spun another
web of lies... Now there is an unnerving shadow that will follow Bush
through his presidency... Bush lied to us, and covered up." Impeach
Bush NOW!



Heads
Should Roll - Starting With John Ashcroft



John Ashcroft played "down the terrorist threat in the first
months of the Bush administration. [He accused] his critics of undermining
the fight against terrorism. But it is becoming clear that before
September 11 he had little interest in counter-terrorism, and diverted
resources from measures to prevent terrorism... He also sent a
memorandum... stating his seven priorities. Counter-terrorism was not on
the list. He turned down an FBI request for hundreds more agents to be
assigned to tracking terrorist threats. Nevertheless, he began using a
chartered private jet to travel around the country, rather than take
commercial airliners. [Ashcroft had a showdown with FBI director Louis
Freeh last spring on counter-terrorism. When] Mr Freeh began to talk about
his concern about the terrorist threat facing the country, 'Ashcroft
didn't want to hear about it'... But even since September 11 Mr Ashcroft
has been accused of putting ideology before the battle against
terrorism."



Bush
Incompetence Hides Behind a Veil of Executive Privilege



Robert Scheer writes, "Until Sept. 11, the Bush administration was
simply too distracted and/or incompetent to maintain the American pressure
on Osama bin Laden begun in 1998 under President Clinton. [Sandy Berger
was totally preoccupied with the prospect of domestic terror attack. He
warned Condi Rice]: 'You will be spending more time on this issue than on
any other.' Problem was, she didn't. [She wasn't alone. John Ashcroft also
downshifted anti-terrorism efforts, and] Rumsfeld blocked an attempt to
move $800 million from his pet missile defense program into
counter-terrorism... We already know enough... to raise strong suspicions
that executive privilege is now being invoked to conceal enormous
incompetence on the part of the [Bushies. But] we as a nation have long
believed that it is the truth--full, complex and unsanitized--that shall
make us free. We should continue to act accordingly."



Did
FBI Terrorism Expert John O'Neill QUIT Over Bush's Refusal to Heed the
Phoenix Memo?



MediaWhoresOnline writes, "At the end of August, in disgust, [FBI
terrorism expert John] O'Neill left the FBI to take what he somewhat
ruefully regarded as his 'retirement' job - as head of security at the
World Trade Center. There, on September 11, [he] died at the hands of his
arch-enemy bin Laden's fiendish followers. Connect the dots? Well, duh!
O'Neill got the Phoenix message. No one would listen... The Bushies had
backed off bin Laden. So O'Neill changed jobs - and went on to die a
martyr's death. While all the people who ignored him, on up the chain to
the Oval Office, live on - ghoulishly making political hay out of his
sacrifice and their own incompetence - and... their own perfidy. But
here's the really amazing thing - having unearthed this blockbuster, NY
Times reporters David Johnston and Don Van Natta, Jr. simply bury it in
their story. They report, incredibly, that O'Neill simply 'retired' back
in August - ignoring the well-known background, leaving the dots
unconnected!"



When
Deceased FBI Deputy Director John O'Neill's Story Is Told, Bush Will Be
Impeached



Daily Brew writes, "It is simply impossible to examine the FBI's
role... prior to 9/11 without examining the work of John O'Neill [who]
quit the agency just two weeks prior to the 911 attacks to serve as
Director of Security at the WTC, where he died in the attacks... French
intelligence analysts Brisard and Dasquie claim to have met O'Neill
several times last summer, and reported in their book, 'bin Laden: Hidden
Truth' that O'Neill had complained bitterly that the US State Department -
and behind it the oil lobby who make up Bush's entourage - blocked his
attempts to prove bin Laden's guilt. They quote O'Neill as stating 'The
main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were US oil corporate
interests, and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it.' They also charge
that shortly after assuming office the Bush administration slowed down FBI
investigations of Al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a
deal with the Taliban for an oil pipeline across Afghanistan."



Did
Nearly 3,000 Americans Die for an Oil Pipeline?



Even before Bush took office in 2001, he was apparently scheming with
Unocal to force through a deal with the Taliban to put an oil pipeline
through Afghanistan. Thus, in AUGUST 2001, instead of taking steps to
avert terrorist attacks, Bush was holding secret meetings with the Taliban
over the pipeline, threatening to bury them "beneath a carpet of
bombs" if they didn't play ball. Two weeks before Sept. 11, FBI
deputy director John O'Neill - the nation's top Osama Bin Laden expert -
quit in disgust because he felt Bush was placing corporate interests ahead
of national security. This heroic man took a job as head of security at
the WTC, where he died on 9/11. Did O'Neill KNOW the WTC was targeted and
thus tried in his own way to protect the bulding and those in it because
the "President of the United States" REFUSED to?



Despite
'The Most Urgent Terrorist Warnings in Decades,' Bush Let Counterterrorism
Agencies 'Stand Down'!



At a top-level meeting on July 5 2001, 'Something really spectacular is
going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon,' the government's top
counterterrorism official, Richard Clarke, told the assembled group,
according to two of those present. The group included the Federal Aviation
Administration, along with the Coast Guard, FBI, Secret Service and
Immigration and Naturalization Service. Clarke directed every
counterterrorist office to cancel vacations, defer nonvital travel, put
off scheduled exercises and place domestic rapid-response teams on much
shorter alert. For six weeks last summer, at home and overseas, the U.S.
government was at its highest possible state of readiness - and anxiety -
against imminent terrorist attack. That intensity - defensive in nature -
did not last. By the time Bush received his briefing at his ranch in
Crawford, Tex., on Aug. 6, the government had begun to stand down from the
alert." AND WHY DID BUSH LET THEM STAND DOWN??? WE DEMAND ANSWERS!



Woodward
Says Condi and Ari LIED to America about the 8/01 Briefing by the CIA -
Bush Should Fire Them!



It's not every day that Bob Woodward calls the National Security
Advisor and the White House Spokesman liars. So read Woodward's article
"Aug. Memo Focused On Attacks in U.S." carefully: "In
earlier comments this week, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and
other administration officials stressed that intelligence officials were
focused primarily on threats to U.S. interests overseas. But sources made
clear yesterday that the briefing presented to Bush focused on attacks
within the United States.... Ari Fleischer told reporters yesterday said
the headline on the document was, 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike the
United States.' But sources who have read the memo said the headline ended
with the phrase 'in U.S.'" We demand that Bush fire Rice and
Fleischer for lying to the American people about 911!



Feinstein
Urged Cheney to Act Against Terrorism on 9/10 - But She Was Told to 'Wait
Six Months'



There really is no limit to the despicable things the Bushies will say.
Ari attacked Senators Hillary Clinton and Dianne Feinstein, demanding to
know "What did the Democrats in Congress know? And why weren't they
talking to each other?" Of course, the Democrats only knew what Bush
WANTED them to know, since Bush runs the CIA and the FBI. DiFi hit Ari
right between the eyes with her response: "I was so concerned that I
contacted Vice President Cheney's office that same month to urge that he
restructure our counter-terrorism and homeland defense programs to ensure
better accountability and prevent important intelligence information from
slipping through the cracks. Despite repeated efforts by myself and staff,
the White House did not address my request. I followed this up last
September 2001 before the attacks and was told by 'Scooter' Libby that it
might be another six months before he would be able to review the
material. I told him I did not believe we had six months to wait."



Friday, May 24, 2002

If
the CIA and Bush Administration Weren't Involved in 9/11 What WERE They
Doing?


Investigator/journalist and former LAPD officer Michael Ruppert is sure
that the CIA, a secret cartel of major corporations and the Bush
administration colluded in the events leading to 9/11. Ruppert has spent
several months trying to reconstruct the significant events leading up to
the suicide attacks. Here he presents 34 separate but connected and
well-documented "steps" that lead to the horrendous disaster of
9/11. After reading them, you will find yourself wondering why ANYONE
would question Cynthia McKinney's call for a REAL investigation of what
may prove to be the most heinous inside job ever pulled off on American
soil.



CIA
Deputy Director Admits 'We Knew al Qaeda was Planning a Major Attack'



Online Journal's Larry Chin reports that Jim Pavitt, CIA Deputy
Director for Operations, recently admitted CIA foreknowledge of 911.
"We had very, very good intelligence of the general structure and
strategies of the al Qaeda terrorist organization. We knew and we warned
that al Qaeda was planning a major strike." But Pavitt insists
"We never found the tactical intelligence, never uncovered the
specifics that could have stopped those tragic strikes." Is this the
truth - or a CIA disinformation campaign? There is only one way to find
out - the CIA (and all other agencies, including the FBI, the NSA, and the
White House) must declassify ALL relevant documents, and a Blue Ribbon
Commission must be appointed to demand the truth from those who are paid
over $300 billion each year for "intelligence" and
"defense"!



CIA
Ignored Malaysian Warnings About 9-11 Hijackers



Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports, "Congressional investigators
believe there are more embarrassing documents to come. Another sensitive
issue: the CIA's failure to aggressively follow up on information provided
by Malaysian authorities in January 2000 about a meeting in Kuala Lumpur
of Al Qaeda operatives—including two men who turned out to be among the
9-11 hijackers. Malaysian officials passed along photos to the United
States, but they never heard back and stopped monitoring the suspects, one
Malaysian official told NEWSWEEK. CIA officials said the significance of
the meeting didn't become clear until much later. But by the time the CIA
alerted the FBI, it was too late." Why did the CIA IGNORE the
Malaysian warnings? We demand a Blue Ribbon Commission!



Before
9-11, the FBI Read Moussaoui's E-Mail that 'He Wanted to Learn to Fly a
747 from London's Heathrow to New York's JFK'



Here's another explosive 9-11 revelation: the FBI read Zacarias
Moussaoui's e-mail before 9-11 and "found he wanted to learn to fly a
747 from London's Heathrow to New York's JFK. The agents held
'brainstorming' sessions to try to figure out what targets might be en
route. The agents were 'in a frenzy,' 'absolutely convinced he was
planning to do something with a plane,' said a senior official. One agent
wrote that 'one possibility' was that Moussaoui might be planning to crash
into the Twin Towers." According to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, FBI
Director Robert Mueller "referred to this memo by a Minneapolis FBI
agent in testimony before Congress last week, but no newspaper reported
this. Why did the FBI ignore this warning? Why did the FBI ignore similar
warnings from its agents in Phoenix? And were there warnings from FBI
agents in Florida, where most of the hijackers were learning to fly? We
demand a Blue Ribbon Commission!



On
August 16, An FBI Agent in Minneapolis Told his Superiors that Moussaoui
'Could Fly Something into the World Trade Center'



Here is ANOTHER shocking new fact about the extent of the 911 warnings
that were sent to Bush's top anti-terrorism officials from US and foreign
government agents. As the NY Post reports, "It was previously known
that instructors at a Minnesota flight school warned local FBI agents that
Moussaoui - later described as the '20th hijacker' - might try to fly a
plane loaded with fuel into a building." But FBI Director Robert
Mueller told Senators on May 9 "for the first time that an FBI
investigator took that horrifying threat further - and actually considered
the scenario that occurred Sept. 11." "In one of the notes, the
agent in Minneapolis mentioned the possibility of Moussaoui being the type
of person who could fly something into the World Trade Center,"
Mueller said. Who at the FBI and the CIA reviewed this memo? Did they
simply IGNORE this warning?????



Did
FBI Director Robert Mueller LIE to Congress About the Crucial 911 Warning
from Phoenix?



On May 3, John Solomon of the AP revealed that a vigilant FBI agent in
Phoenix was suspicious of local Arab flight students and wrote a detailed
memo urging a nationwide investigation of flight schools. Solomon added,
"The FBI sent the intelligence to its terrorism experts in Washington
and New York for analysis and had begun discussing conducting a nationwide
canvass of flight schools when the Sept. 11 tragedies occurred, officials
told The Associated Press." But on May 8, FBI Director Robert Mueller
told Congress "he doubted that the memorandum was reviewed at a
senior level by agency directors. He said he did not believe that the
memorandum had been sent to the joint C.I.A.-F.B.I. counterterrorism
center." If Solomon's sources are reliable, then Mueller LIED TO
CONGRESS. Once again, we demand a Blue Ribbon Commission!



CBS'
60 Minutes II Asks: Could 911 Have Been Stopped?



60 Minutes reports, "One of the unanswered questions of [911] is
whether there was anything U.S. intelligence could have done to stop the
attacks...The FBI hauled in a French citizen, Zacarias Moussaoui...We now
know that, back in August, Moussaoui's possessions contained evidence that
would expose key elements of the [911] conspiracy. The FBI didn't search
Moussaoui's things because it says it didn't have enough evidence for a
search warrant. Critical evidence was in the hands of French
intelligence...60 Minutes talked with several sources in French
intelligence and they all agree on three points. First, back as early as
1995 French agents traced Moussaoui to Afghanistan on what they believe
was a trip to an Al Qaeda camp. Second, in 1999, the French put Moussaoui
on a watch list of potential terror suspects. Third, in 2000, French
intelligence followed Moussaoui to Pakistan. They believe he went to see a
man named Abu Jaffa - a top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden."
Investigate 911 NOW!



Greg
Palast Exposes the US Conspiracy behind the Failed Venezuelan Coup d'Etat



Greg Palast has done it again! Palast has scooped the US (and global)
media by getting the inside story on the failed US-engineered coup in
Venezuela. The US started planning this coup nearly a year in advance; the
plot included funding 3 simultaneous efforts to assassinate Venezuela's
elected President. US efforts gained urgency when Libya and Iraq
threatened an oil embargo to protest Israeli actions in Palestine. The US
needed to control Venezuela's oil to undermine any embargo. The Secretary
General of OPEC, Ali Rodriguez, warned Hugo Chavez of the planned coup, so
Chavez deployed his troops to foil the coup. His "Plan A" -
surrounding the palace with tanks - failed because the tank commander
disobeyed Chavez's orders (no doubt he was paid handsomely to do so). But
his "Plan B" - filling the palace with hidden troops, thereby
taking the coup leader hostage - succeeded brilliantly. We demand Senate
hearings on Bush's illegal coup!



'Compassionate
Conservatism' or Grand Larceny? Bush's Executive Orders Give Your Hard
Earned Tax Dollars to his Corporate Paymasters



Alexander Bolton writes in The Hill, "In a series of
little-noticed executive orders intended to ease the tax burden on
corporate America, the Bush administration has implemented a number of new
policies that will provide corporations with billions of dollars in tax
relief without the consent of Congress. The actions include new
regulations, notices of new rulemaking, and tax collection policies on
issues ranging from tax-free compensation for corporate executives to tax
deductions for 'intangible' assets to greatly expanded tax accounting
flexibility for small- and medium-sized businesses. Many of the
business-oriented actions taken by the Treasury Department since the
beginning of the year are so arcane that few members of Congress,
including those with jurisdiction over tax policy, were familiar with the
new regulations and revenue procedures."


Bush
Plans Massive Invasion of Iraq WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL DECLARATION OF WAR
- We Must Elect a Democratic Congress to Impeach Bush!



Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress - NOT THE
PRESIDENT - the power "to declare war." But George W. Bush is
openly planning to use 70,000 to 250,000 American troops to INVADE IRAQ
- WITHOUT A DECLARATION OF WAR! Has Bush simply scrubbed the
Constitution??? Call your Senators and Representatives (202-224-3121)
and demand immediate hearings on Bush's ILLEGAL plan to invade Iraq. And
get busy registering every young voter in America who will be sent to
fight and die in Iraq to make Bush's oil and weapons puppeteers
infinitely richer. We must sweep ALL Republicans out of office in
November, and sweep in a Democratic Congress that will IMPEACH GEORGE
BUSH.


Carville
Reads Letter from Democrats.com Member Sam Park



Letters from Democrats.com
members are getting results! Here's an exchange from Crossfire on
4-25-02. "CARVILLE: 'I understand the GOP elite has sent out the
word for top GOP leaders to stay off CROSSFIRE because they can't stand
the heat. Waaaa! Da wittle cry babies.' Sam Park, Van Nuys, California.
I tell you something, Sam, about these people. They can give it, but
can't take it. And I found out something about this right-wing crowd.
They all got glass jaws. The good ones that come over here... CARLSON:
They all come on here. And I must say, to think that they're going to be
ignoring to be... CARVILLE: Why is Marc Racicot telling -- he's the
chairman of the Republican party! CARLSON: That is absolutely...
CARVILLE: He's a weenie. From the left, I'm James Carville."
Congratulations to Sam Park!



December
7, 2001 was Another 'Day of Infamy' - Bush Let Bin Laden Escape into
Pakistan!



According to the LA Times, in November 2001 Osama Bin Laden was holed
up in the caves of Tora Bora, and anti-Taliban forces were eager to
capture him, but Bush chose to drop expensive "daisy cutters"
built by his defense contractor buddies, instead of spending a few
dollars for anti-Taliban guns and food. Did Bush REALLY want to get Bin
Laden? One top commander's aide said "I don't think the U.S. wants
to capture Osama. We know where he is, we tell him, and they do
nothing." "Around Dec. 7, the soldiers overheard Bin Laden on
the radio. He was still in Tora Bora, but 'they were getting ready to
move,' said Haji Zahir, another senior Afghan commander. The next
morning, tribal scouts said they saw Bin Laden picking his way over the
hills on horseback. The Saudi exile was flanked by four Al Qaeda guards,
commander Haji Khalan Mir said." Bush let Bin Laden walk into
Pakistan! Was this utter negligence, or does Bush want Bin Laden to live
- to justify a permanent "war against terror"???



Bu$h
Arranges Ransom to Terrorists - Congressional Investigation of Treason
Needed



A. F. Nariman writes: "ABC News has just released a breaking
news story reporting that the Bush Administration was involved in
arranging $300,000 in ransom payments to the Abu Sayyaf rebel group in
the Philippines…to secure the release of an American missionary couple…
What's wrong with this picture?…Abu Sayyaf group is an arm of bin
Laden's Al Qaeda network of terrorists…. in Bush's own words, 'If you
are a terrorist, or you harbor a terrorist, you are a terrorist.'…
these actions can be construed as treason under Article III, section 3
of our U.S. Constitution, which reads: 'Treason against the United
States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering
to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort… Let us hope…that
'giving aid to the enemy' is a greater crime, and one more worthy of
impeachment than having adulterous sex in the Oval Office, or committing
perjury to hide one's shame. Certainly, the Senate and House need to
investigate this matter post haste."



Phil
Gramm Wins Battle for Enronomics, So Every State Can Get 'Enroned' Just
Like California



Sen. Phil Gramm (R- TX) blocked an amendment introduced by California
Democrat Dianne Feinstein that would have closed the loophole that
allowed Enron to hide wholesale prices from buyers and control markets.
"Just because Enron is bankrupt doesn't mean the party's over for
these energy traders. The regulatory framework that allowed Enron to do
what it did is still intact," said Tyson Slocum, a senior
researcher with Public Citizen. "This is a modest attempt at
regaining accountability over our electricity markets, and the Senate
couldn't even muster the votes. The fact that Phil Gramm played a key
role in blocking these reforms illustrates that Enron's legacy is still
strong in the U.S. Congress."



Bu$h
Rule Will Let Coal Miners Fill Valleys and Streams With Debris



Katharine Seelye reports in the NY Times, "The Bush
administration is preparing to allow the coal mining industry to fill
waterways and valleys with the rock and dirt from mountaintop mining,
particularly in West Virginia... Environmentalists oppose the
regulation, saying that filling streams and valleys destroys the
ecosystem of the waterways and forests... and is a serious rollback of
the Clean Water Act. [Christie Whitman says] 'It is not a giveaway to
the mining industry -- It does not allow activity that isn't already
under way.' " Environmentalists say that the permitting process is
illegal, and has already erased more than 1,000 miles of streams in
Appalachia. Hey, Christie -- since George Bush has already stolen an
election, does that make stealing elections legal?

Wednesday, May 15, 2002

It's
Iran-Contra II - Bush Pays Al Qaeda Ally for Hostages!!!


Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal exploded when a Lebanese newspaper
revealed that Reagan officials - Ollie North and John Poindexter -
delivered arms to Iran in exchange for US hostages, after Reagan vowed
never to pay ransom. Well Shrub made the same promise - and now ABC News
has revealed, "The United States was involved in arranging a ransom
payment to the Abu Sayyaf rebel group in the Philippines meant to secure
the release of an American missionary couple kidnapped nearly 11 months
ago, but the couple has not been freed, ABCNEWS has learned."
WHAT??? As ABC reports, Abu Sayyaf is Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda
affiliate in the Philippines! So Bush helped raise $300,000 to PAY AL
QAEDA RANSOM FOR HOSTAGES! This means BUSH HIMSELF SUPPORTS TERRORISM!
We demand a Senate investigation!


Greg
Palast Debunks Lies about Chavez and Venezuela


Investigative journalist Greg Palast interviewed Hugo Chavez a few
weeks before the failed coup. Here Palast reveals the real reasons for
the failed US-supported Chavez coup attempt. "What neither Bush nor
the papers told you is that Chavez's real crime was to pass two laws
through Venezuela's national assembly. The first ordered big plantation
owners to turn over untilled land to the landless. The second nearly
doubled, from roughly 16% to 30%, royalties paid for extracting
Venezuela's oil. Venezuela was once the largest exporter of oil to the
USA, bigger than Saudi Arabia. This explains Chavez's unpopularity - at
least within that key constituency, the American petroleum
industry."


Bush likes the Venezuelan Coup attempt, the lying AWOL SOB...


Otto
Reich's Bloody Fingerprints Are All Over Venezuela's Coup


The man in charge of Bush's Latin American policies - Assistant
Secretary of State Otto Reich - has bloodstained hands from his past
support for terrorism (enter "otto reich" in our search
engine). So it comes as no surprise that Reich tried to mobilize
international support for the Venezuelan coup only hours after it
happened, as revealed by Joshua Micah Marshall in Salon. Reich lied to a
roomful of Latin American ambassadors by "handing out copies of a
State Department press release that blamed Chavez's overthrow on Chavez
himself and denied that any coup had even occurred. Reich then gave a
tortured reading of the Venezuelan constitution in an attempt to
illustrate that Chavez's apparent military overthrow really wasn't
unconstitutional at all." Reich's nomination was so controversial
that he was never confirmed by the Senate - instead, Bush arrogantly
appointed him while the Senate was in recess. We demand Reich's
immediate removal from office!


Bush's
Fatherland Security Office Is Modeled On Richard Nixon's Evil Plans for
an Imperial Presidency


"Most people have long forgotten Richard Nixon's plans to
reorganize the Executive Branch after the 1972 election. He planned to
exercise the powers of the presidency more aggressively than any
president ever had, and a cornerstone of his plan was cutting off
Congressional oversight...Bush has structured the White House homeland
security operation as if modeled on Nixon's old (and discredited)
governing plans. All the... policymaking is being undertaken at the
level of the White House staff - where it is immune from Congressional
oversight. As a result, the government is being run in secrecy more
typical of a big corporation than an open, democratic society. The White
House Office of Homeland Security was [ostensibly] created to give
Americans both real safety and reassurance. Yet its structure,
characterized by secrecy, is actually reason for concern. Most troubling
is its similarity to the Nixon model, which was designed to hide abuses
of power." So writes John Dean.


Rep.
Kucinich: 'Secret Government Is Not An Acceptable Substitute for
Self-Government'


Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) walked out on a House Government Reform
Committee briefing by Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge after saying
he should testify publicly. Afterwards, Kucinich stated: "This is a
very serious matter that a Director who speaks for the President on
matters of national security is not accountable to the Congress, not
accountable to the press and not accountable to the people. Homeland
Security has a $38 billion budget. There's been no public process to
review this $38 billion budget. So you have a Director who is not
accountable to the Congress, not accountable to the press, and not
accountable to the people." This is exactly what Bush wants - an
Imperial Presidency. Let's Impeach Bush!


href="http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=122&row=0"
target="_blank">Greg Palast Reveals More Details on Katherine Harris' Felonious Felon
Purge


href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745318460/scottsupakbaldmo"
target="_blank"> src="http://supak.com/images/greg_palast_best_democracy.jpg"
alt="The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast"
align="right" hspace="16" vspace="8" width="60"
height="90">
After 18 months of research, Greg
Palast has obtained the "scrub list"
that Katherine Harris and her predecessor sent to
county officials to remove "felons."
Highlighted examples include "David
Butler," a name which appears 77 times in
Florida phone books; Thomas Cooper, flagged for a
conviction in 2007 (!); Rev. Willie Dixon,
scrubbed despite a rare official pardon; and
Johnny Jackson Jr., who never went to Texas but
matched the name of a Texas felon; and Wallace
McDonald, who was scrubbed for the misdemeanor of
sleeping on a bus-stop bench in 1959. "Of the
'matches' on these lists, the civil-rights
commission estimated that at least 14 percent - or
8,000 voters, nearly 15 times Bush's official
margin of victory - were false." No corporate
media outlet has ever reported on the felon purge
- because it proves Jeb helped George steal
Florida in a "high-tech" stolen
election.

href="http://www.politicalamazon.com/enron-white.html"
target="_blank">Why Army Secretary
Thomas White Should Resign


PoliticalAmazon.com has extensive information
about the unethical behavior of "Enron Whore
Army Secretary Thomas White", including recent
news about his dozens of phone calls to Enron.
Political Amazon neatly documents his "little
White lies" and hammers home the hypocrisy of
the right-wing, who pushed for Clinton's impeachment
on the flimsiest of charges yet now let Shrub's
corrupt cabal get away with murder!


href="http://www.tennessean.com/nation-world/archives/02/03/15331563.shtml?Element_ID=15331563"
target="_blank">Gore Rips Bush Energy Policies and
Secrecy


In another of a seemingly endless series of
failures of the commercial news media, it was
generally NOT reported today that the candidate for
president in the most recent election (who received
more votes than his opponent and according to polls
is the leading contender to challenge the president
at the next election) gave a speech sharply critical
of the current government's policies. He blasted the
administration for its failed energy policies and
for undermining a generation of laws guaranteeing
citizens an open and transparent government. But
none of this was in your newspaper or on your
television news, was it?


href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/27/business/27ENER.html"
target="_blank">The Bush Administration Lied About
Spencer Abraham's Contacts with Energy Executives


"As he helped the Bush administration write
its national energy report last year, Energy
Secretary Spencer Abraham heard from more than 100
energy industry executives, trade association
leaders and lobbyists, according to documents
released by the Energy Department. Mr. Abraham did
not meet with any representatives of environmental
organizations or consumer groups, the documents
show. In a press release on Monday night, the Energy
Department summarized the secretary's calendar by
saying that Mr. Abraham met with 36 industry
representatives on task force matters. Most news
organizations reported that figure today. But Mr.
Abraham actually met with 109 representatives of
energy industry companies and trade associations...
18 [of which] contributed a total of $16.6 million
to the Republican Party since 1999, nearly three
times what they gave to the Democratic Party."
So reports the NY Times. We demand ALL of Cheney's
Secret Energy Task Force documents!

Monday, May 06, 2002



href="http://www.politicalamazon.com/bush-chinese.html"
target="_blank">Here Is ANOTHER Huge Bush Scandal -
TAIWANGATE!


In the past week, Taiwan has been rocked by the
revelation that ex-president Lee Teng-hui operated a
$100 million slush fund to buy influence overseas.
Part of this money was used to buy influence in the
US through two people NOW IN TOP POSITIONS IN THE
BUSH ADMINISTRATION. Carl Ford was a lobbyist for
Taiwan at Cassidy and Associates, which was
reportedly paid $1.5 million from the slush fund to
gain influence with Bush, and reportedly gave
$1-$1.75 million to Bush and the Republicans in 1999
and 2000. Ford's reward was being appointed
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and
Research, where he engineered Bush's sale of $4
billion in high-tech weapons to Taiwan last year.
The sale included submarines built by General
Dynamics - ANOTHER client of Ford's. James Kelly ran
the Scaife-funded Pacific Forum (connected to CSIS),
which received $100,000 from the slush fund. Kelly
is now Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia.
This scandal has received NO coverage in the US!


href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4380933,00.html"
target="_blank">FBI Raids Republican
Front Group Tied to Grover Norquist


Last week, the FBI raided a Saudi-backed charity
called the Safa Trust because of suspicious
transfers. The Trust is a major supporter of the
Islamic Institute, "which was set up to
mobilise support for the Republican party. It shares
an office in Washington with the Republican activist
Grover Norquist, [who serves on its Board]. The
institute, founded in 1999 to win influence in the
Republican party, has helped to arrange meetings
between senior Bush officials and Islamic leaders...
Its chairman, Khaled Saffuri, and Mr Norquist
cooperated to arrange the meetings... The institute
has also received money from abroad, including
$200,000 from Qatar and $55,000 from Kuwait."
Why is this coming out now? Has Ashcroft been
holding up this investigation for political reasons?


Flight
93 Evidence Mostly Points to Shootdown by Military
Jet


At 9:58 a.m. on 9-11, Dick Cheney ordered the
military to shoot down Flight 93 three times, with
"a fighter in the area." At 10:06, Flight
93 crashed near Shanksville, PA. Before the crash,
ground witnesses heard explosions followed by quiet,
and saw the plane flip. Debris - including human
remains and a one-ton engine part - was found as far
as 8 miles from the crash site on a breezeless day.
Witnesses also saw an unmarked white jet flying low
nearby. Did a military jet - either an F-16 or a
specially-equipped government plane - shoot off an
engine under orders from Dick Cheney? The Pentagon
denies it, and the cockpit tape offers few clues.
The truth will not be known until the government
releases the complete results of its investigation,
including the two flight recorders, radar readings,
the debris field map, and passenger phone call
records. We demand a Blue Ribbon investigation!


href="http://www.fortune.com/indext.jhtml?channel=print_article.jhtml&doc_id=206684"
target="_blank">Yes, Virginia, the
Bin Laden Family DOES Have a Connection to the
Carlyle Group - and That's Just the Tip of the
Iceberg


Fortune Mag. reports, "Are you the sort of
person who believes in conspiracies--the Trilateral
Commission secretly runs the world, that sort of
thing? Well, then, here's a company for you. The
Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C., buyout firm, is
one of the nation's largest defense contractors. It
has billions of dollars at its disposal and employs
a few important people. Maybe you've heard of them:
former Secretary of State Jim Baker, former
Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, and former
White House budget director Dick Darman. Wait, we're
just getting warmed up. William Kennard, who
recently headed the FCC, and Arthur Levitt, who just
left the SEC, also work for Carlyle. As do former
British Prime Minister John Major and former
Philippines President Fidel Ramos. Let's see, are we
forgetting anyone? Oh, right, former President
George Herbert Walker Bush is on the payroll too.
The firm also has about a dozen investors from Saudi
Arabia, including, until recently, the bin Laden
family."


href="http://www.buzzflash.com/theangryliberal/2002/03/tal030702.html"
target="_blank">GOP's $70 Million Clinton Witchhunt
Exposed Sex - But What Would Bu$h Say Under Oath???


"My advice to fellow liberals who are approached by beaming
conservatives with the 'Clinton lied' story is as follows: Pose this
question to the offender: Suppose we had the opportunity to put George
W. Bush on the stand. He would be sworn in and asked the following
questions: 1. 'Please give a full accounting of your alleged cocaine use
during your college and Texas Air National Guard years.' 2. 'Is it true
that you were suspended from flying during your last two years of Texas
Air National Guard service for refusing to take a physical examination
that might have revealed illegal drug use?' 3. 'Is it true that in the
winter of 1971, while dating a woman whose initials were R. L., you
arranged for her to have an illegal abortion at the Twelve Oaks Hospital
in Houston?' 4. 'Besides the 1976 DUI arrest that America learned of
days before the 2000 election, how many other times have you been
arrested for driving while intoxicated?'" So writes the Angry
Liberal in href="http://www.buzzflash.com" target="_blank">BuzzFlash.


href="http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=21"
target="_blank">Bush and Enron Were Oil Partners in
1986!


In target="_blank">the Nation, David Corn writes: "Did George W.
Bush once have a financial relationship with Enron? In 1986, according
to publicly available records, the two drilled for oil together--at a
time when Bush was a not-too-successful oil man in Texas and his oil
venture was in dire need of help. Bush's business association with
Enron, it seems, has not previously been reported. As the details of the
Spectrum-Harken acquisition--which Bush badly needed--were being
finalized, Enron Oil and Gas Company... announced on October 16, 1986,
that it had completed a well producing both oil and natural gas in
Martin County, Texas... Enron held 52% interest in the well... 10%
belonged to Spectrum 7. At that point, Spectrum 7 was still Bush's
company... To spell it out: George W. Bush and Enron Oil and Gas were in
business together in 1986--when Ken Lay was head of Enron... Calls
placed to both the White House and Enron have not yet been
returned." We demand a Special Prosecutor!


href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/business/10BID.html"
target="_blank">Army Secretary Thomas White Rigged
NY Deal for His Old Company - ENRON


When former Enron executive
Thomas White became Army Secretary, he promised to
bring private-sector "efficiency" to the
Army. He sure did - ENRON style. White rigged a
$25 million contract to provide power to Fort
Hamilton in Brooklyn, NY, so that only Enron would
bid. This contract is under investigation by
Rumsfeld's Defense Department - but WE DEMAND A
SPECIAL PROSECUTOR!


href="http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53~454506,00.html"
target="_blank">Did Christie Whitman Lie About
Trade Center Air Safety to Benefit Citigroup?


According to Hugh Kaufman, an
in-house watchdog and longtime EPA critic,
Christie Whitman is letting her family's financial
ties to Citigroup influence EPA decisions.
"Kaufman said Whitman falsely assured New
Yorkers that the air around the World Trade Center
was safe in the days after the structures were
leveled by the Sept. 11 attacks. That, he said,
saved Travelers Insurance, owned by Citigroup,
millions of dollars. And he said Whitman tried to
dissolve the EPA national ombudsman's office,
where he works, so it wouldn't interfere with a
court settlement with Citigroup about
Shattuck." Whitman's husband worked for
Citigroup and still owns stock in the company. The
probe is being conducted by the Justice
Department, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Enron.


href="http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/category.cfm?CategoryId=5"
target="_blank">Bush's Latest Assault on Taxpayers
and the Environment: Making US Pay for Superfund
Clean-up!


The last three presidents, including Reagan and Bush Sr., all
supported the Superfund and its slogan, "the polluter pays."
However, the current Bush wants to give big polluters (and big donors)
a break - at OUR expense! Bush must have known this was a pretty slimy
thing to do, because he tried to hide this insult by burying his
proposal to cut taxes on industrial polluters – the main source of
Superfund money – in an obscure part of his budget. Go to Working
for Change's website to urge your Senators to dump this toxic proposal
and send Bush a message that we refuse to clean up after his cronies'
messes!


href="http://www.foreigncorrespondent.com/archive/the_lust.html"
target="_blank">War on Terror Masks Bush's Grand
Strategy: To Control the World's Oil


"Bush's claims the US
invaded Afghanistan to 'defend democracy' and/or
'stamp out terrorism' is certainly not the whole
story. The Pentagon had drawn up plans to invade
Afghanistan, and US Special Forces were operating
in Kyrgystan, well before 9/11. Over the past five
months, the US has established permanent military
bases in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgystan,
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and facilities in Kazakstan.
In short, a constellation of air and army bases
designed for long-term strategic control of the
region, under the command of the US 3rd Army,
whose headquarters was recently moved from the
southern USA to Kuwait. The so-called 'war on
terrorism' is being used to mask a far grander
imperial design: the overthrow of Saddam Hussein
that will allow the US to a. gain control of
Iraq's huge oil reserves, which are second only to
Saudi Arabia's, and b. secure American control of
the giant Caspian Oil Basin." So writes
Toronto Sun columnist (and Vietnam Vet) Eric
Margolis.

href="http://www.msnbc.com/news/708831.asp"> size="4">Kenny
Who?


KKKarl Rove: “The president knows him. But the idea that he is a
friend in the sense that this is a guy who’s a close intimate is just
ludicrous.”  Bush wrote a note in 1997 wishing Lay a happy
birthday:  “55 years old. Wow! That is really old. Thank goodness
you have such a young, beautiful wife. ... Laura and I value our
friendship with you.”


href="http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/709295.asp"> size="4">It
matters less who has the best arguments


“We are a loyal member of your team and are prepared to do whatever
fits your strategic plan,” Ralph Reed wrote in an Oct. 23, 2000, memo
obtained by The Washington Post. “In public policy,” he wrote, “it
matters less who has the best arguments and more who gets heard - and by
whom.” MSNBC took this story down fast, hid it in their
"stacks," and now it can't even be found by searching the
site! I'm amazed it's even in the stacks!


href="http://www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=5779"
target="_blank">When Will Bush's Own
Insider Trading Be Investigated?


Molly Ivins writes, "When Bush was in the
oil business, his failing company Spectrum 7 was
bought by Harken Energy. Bush and his two partners
got $2 million in stock in exchange for a company
that had lost $400,000 in the six months prior to
the sale. Bush himself got stock worth about
$500,000 and an annual consulting fee of $120,000,
later reduced to $50,000. In June 1990, Bush sold
two-thirds of the Harken stock he had acquired in
the Spectrum 7 deal at $4 a share -- $318,430 more
than it was worth when he got it. A month before
Bush sold his stock... Smith, Barney, Harris, Upham
& Co., the financial consultants hired by Harken,
told Bush... only drastic action could save the
company. So Bush sold his stock before the news
became public. According to U..S. News & World
Report, there was 'substantial evidence to suggest
that Bush knew Harken was in dire
straits.'" 


href="http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=blakeslee20020208"
target="_blank">Is Cheney Hiding
Shady Deals with his Former Company, Halliburton?


In The Nation, Nate Blakeslee writes:
"Congress's effort to obtain records from Vice
President Dick Cheney's energy task force has now
reached the boiling point. The Enron collapse has
only made Cheney dig in his heels even harder, such
that the whole country is now wondering just what
Ken Lay asked for--that is, recommended--at those
meetings, and what Cheney delivered. But is it
Enron's dealings with the task force Cheney is
trying to hide, or Halliburton's? The huge
Dallas-based oilfield services conglomerate, for
which Cheney served as CEO from 1995 to July 2000,
may yet become Cheney's own poison pretzel."
Blakeslee suggests two possible "favors"
sought by Halliburton: 1) lawsuit restrictions to
limit asbestos lawsuits, and 2) lifting of sanctions
on "evil" Iraq, where Halliburton is the
biggest US contractor.


href="http://www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=5876"
target="_blank">Did Ken Lay Meet with
the Bush Administration on Feb 4 to Concoct a Cover
Story to Protect Bush?


On Feb. 4, Ken Lay was in DC - yet his DC lawyer
said he couldn't accept a subpoena because he didn't
know where Lay was. "BuzzFlash's speculation is
that Lay might have been meeting with emissaries
from the White House to establish a consistent cover
story before Lay 'testifies,' which is now scheduled
for the week of February 11. Remember that there are
certainly grounds to suspect that a Justice
Department 'investigation' is aimed at keeping the
White House from being tainted by the scandal,
rather than getting to the bottom of the truth. Can
you imagine a John Ashcroft Justice Department
actually bringing information to a Grand Jury that
might be damaging to the White House? Dream on. The
right wing Federalist clique has always applied one
standard of justice to Democrats and another, more
lenient one, to Republicans. And remember that Papa
Bush saved his neck from a potential criminal charge
by pardoning his administration's participants in
the illegal Iran/Contra activities."


href="http://www.newscoast.com/frontpage/story.cfm?ID=61726"
target="_blank">Jeb Lied About His Contacts with Ken
Lay


"Gov. Jeb Bush spent up to a half-hour on
the phone last April with Kenneth Lay, the former
chairman of Enron Corp., the now-bankrupt
Houston-based energy conglomerate that had an
interest in breaking open Florida's energy market to
outside companies. The disclosure that Bush talked
to Lay was revealed in public records made available
to several news organizations Wednesday. Bush said
late last month he did not 'recall' meeting or
talking with anyone from Enron during his tenure as
governor, although he said he had met with
representatives of an Enron subsidiary. Lay, who
this week refused to voluntarily testify to Congress
about the demise of his corporation, and Enron were
one of the largest donors in the 2000 election to
President George W. Bush, the older brother of
Florida's governor. Several Enron officials --
including Lay -- also donated money to Jeb Bush's
1998 campaign for governor." So reports the
Sarasota Herald-Tribune.


href="http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-enron-ferc.html"
target="_blank">Ken Lay's Puppet at the FERC Should
Resign


"Enron Corp.'s close ties with the Bush
administration have prompted a call for Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Pat Wood to
resign because of the alleged influence the failed
energy trading company had over his appointment.
Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell said on Saturday he
had urged Wood to quit as the commission begins an
investigation into whether Enron manipulated energy
markets last year to raise electricity prices under
long-term power supply contracts with California.
'Sadly, the integrity of the commission has been
irreversibly compromised due to the circumstances
surrounding your appointment and the FERC's intimate
relationship with Enron, and as such I urge you to
resign as chairman,' the New Jersey lawmaker said in
a letter to Wood on Friday." So reports
Reuters.


href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/05/business/05REED.html"
target="_blank">More Evidence that
Enron's Hiring of Ralph Reed on Behalf of Bush was a
Crime


According to the NY Times, "Lobbying the Pennsylvania
legislature was also the stated reason that Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's
political adviser, recommended that Enron give Ralph Reed, a Republican
strategist with ties to religious conservatives, a consulting contract,
which it did. Mr. Reed never had to lobby in Pennsylvania — his hiring
came after a deregulation bill was passed." So why did Enron pay
Reed hundreds of thousands of dollars? To pay for his consulting
services to the Bush campaign. This served two purposes: 1) it was an
extremely valuable - and absolutely ILLEGAL - corporate contribution to
Bush; and 2) it concealed Bush's relationship with the radical
rightwinger Reed, so Bush could pretend to be a "moderate".
This crime should be investigated by the Justice Department, but guess
who picked John Ashcroft - Reed's mentor, Pat Robertson. We demand a
Special Prosecutor!


href="http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/saturday/news_c3b5f72b552622a000c3.html"> size="4">Noelle
Bush Is Getting Away with Drug Abuse, Deadly Driving
and Perjury - Because She's Jeb's Daughter and
George's Niece


Once again, a Bush is getting away with a crime,
thanks to powerful family ties. Jeb's daughter
Noelle, 24, was busted for trying to buy drugs.
(Unlike the terror-supporting pot users in Bush's TV
ads, Bush family drug abusers don't buy drugs on the
street. Instead, they impersonate doctors and write
themselves fraudulent prescriptions.) Noelle then
PERJURED herself in Florida court when she swore she
had no prior arrests - she WAS arrested for
shoplifting lingerie in 1995 and paid a $305 fine.
To conceal her criminal record, Noelle gave Florida
police a different Social Security number - yet
ANOTHER fraud. Noelle also received more than 12
driving tickets (including driving 95 MPH in Palm
Beach County) with 4 crashes, including one
influenced by drugs - why was she never arrested, or
her license revoked? Call State Attorney Willie
Meggs at 850-488-6701 and demand that Noelle be
prosecuted like any other drug abusing, recklessly
driving perjurer - for her own good, and ours!


href="http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0208-09.htm"
target="_blank">While Bush Declares
War on Terror, He Harbors a Terrorist in Florida


Over the objections of Congress, Bush recently
appointed Iran-Contra propagandist Otto Reich to
head US relations with Latin America. Reich
"was alleged to have used his influence to try
and get a US visa for a convicted terrorist, Orlando
Bosch, jailed in Venezuela in 1976 for the bombing
of a Cubana airliner with 73 people on board. Bosch
had already been convicted of a terrorist attack in
Miami on a Polish merchant vessel bound for Cuba and
jailed in the US. According to US justice department
records: '.... Bosch has personally advocated,
encouraged, organised and participated in acts of
terrorist violence in this country as well as
various other countries.' Amazingly, Bosch was
granted a pardon by George Bush senior in 1990 and
is now in Florida... Although many countries seek
Bosch's extradition he remains free, protected by
the same government that warns other countries that
they are either for or against terrorism." So
writes Duncan Campbell in the Guardian of London.


href="http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=14"
target="_blank">Bush's Budget: It's
The Greed, Stupid


The Nation's John Nichols writes, "Bush
wants to drain the Social Security trust fund, with
a proposal to divert more than $2 trillion in Social
Security and Medicare surpluses over the next ten
years... to cut 30% of the funding from the federal
program that trains doctors at children's
hospitals... to cut Low-Income Home Energy
Assistance Programs that help Americans heat their
homes in winter by 15%... to cut 15% of the budget
for repairing dilapidated public housing units... to
cut 13% of the funding for Corps of Engineers public
works programs designed to prevent flooding of
communities, homes and farms... to cut 10% of the
funding for the National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health's efforts to reduce job-related
deaths, injuries and ailments... to cut federal
funding for environmental protection programs,
transportation improvements and aid to farm families
that are being driven off the land by the thousands
each year." Why? To make the rich richer,
that's all.