Bush, Osama and a bit more on timing

From the Herald Sun:
(An Australian paper)

Domestic spying necessary: Bush
From correspondents in Washington
26jan06

US President George W. Bush said today that a controversial domestic spying program that some critics say is illegal was necessary in light of new threats on an audiotape from Osama bin Laden.

"I'll continue to reauthorise this program for so long as our country faces a continuing threat from al-Qaeda and related groups," Mr Bush said during a visit to the National Security Agency (NSA), which runs the surveillance initiative.
"Listen to the words of Osama bin Laden and take him seriously. When he says he's going to hurt the American people again, or try to, he means it," he said.

"I take it seriously. And the people of NSA take it seriously. And most of the American people take it seriously as well."

Wow...isn't it great of Osama to come through with the tape just as the Administration impliments it's plan to spin the illegal NSA spying mess into a "Terrorist Surveillance Program" and, as Karl said, a drive to victory in the 2006 elections. Osama..."Oops, You did it again!"

Osama says, "Timing is everything"

Osama is there when we need him. Okay, when Team Bush needs him

On the eve of the 2004 election, polls showing a race too close to call, and he was there to remind the American people that the face of evil is still out there, sending us some cryptic political analysis and reacquainting us with the type of fear that makes W acceptable to half of America.

What great timing that was.

And now, after a botched attack in Pakistan, a growing domestic spying scandal that includes monitoring Quakers, checking your internet searches, tapping your phone calls and generally keeping tabs on as much as they can...comes Osama to the rescue.

As if on cue.

With Abramoff looming over the GOP for the upcoming 2006 Congressional election and the Congress ready to start hearings on the NSA, Rove announces that the GOP will win with a strategy of national security. On the post-9-11 mentality. On fear.

So, Osama's bizarre message--bereft of expected Islamic hues and calls to Allah, but rather filled with odd request for a truce, the rebuilding of Afghanistan and Iraq and an Oprah-like book club recommendation--comes just as the White House and Rove make there push to frame the debate. Rove makes his big speech about the fear-security campaign strategy. Cheney, Bush and Gonzales start selling illegal wiretapping as a terrorist monitoring program. Dan Bartlett says Osama can still plot attacks...and the White House continues to benefit from the occasional appearance of Osama in our news cycle.

Now, that's if you believe Osama keeps on churning out recordings. Although the CIA "verified" it, no major news organization has checked it out for themselves, asked about the methodology used to verify the tape or even turned those experts who question the authenticity of the tape. Well, ABC did consult one expert at Duke University who thought it was a fake, But it was one web article. It did not make it into the news cycle.

Many of Osama's previous tapes have been called into question. At least, top analysts in Europe have done so. Not here, of course.

Think about how useful an alive and kicking Osama is to the Administration. We never caught him...and we have sworn depositions from Air Force personnel that they evacuated nearly 100 Taliban and Al Qaeda "leaders" from the battle of Tora Bora...flying them on C-130s to Pakistan. They were pissed.

But the lawsuit for which they gave those depositions was frozen by John Ashcroft because of national security.

Osama may be dead. But it doesn't matter. Our government is paying hundreds of millions of dollars to place propaganda around the world. Look up the Lincoln Group, among others. That's what they do. And John Rendon of the Rendon Group talks openly about placing news articles in foreign sources so they will cycle into the US press and, therefore, sell the idea of war to the American people He did so in the lead up to the first Gulf War. And has done so ever since.

Osama and others seem to be alive, using websites and making tapes. They "leak" them, I guess, to Al Jazeera and we cannot seem to trace them back to the source. Can't we at least take out the websites? Knock out the servers? I guess not.

So, Osama keeps on coming through, on time and with a Jason-like resilience. And the fear that has blinded so many of us may just blind enough of us to keep all the amazing scandals that spin like a hundred tops around the White House and the GOP from hitting them in 2006. They all may topple first, as Osama and Rove spin their own magic. Right on cue.

With Enemies Like This...

Guess what? Iran got plans for nuclear weapons from....the CIA!

Yup! I'm not making this up. We handed over those plans in a "botched" intelligence operation.

Isn't that funny?!

It reminds me of the time Donald Rumsfeld was on the board of a company that sold uranium to North Korea. Back in 1999, that was. Or the time the Bush administration decided, through executive order, to keep on funding the organization that was meant to transfer "peaceful nuclear technology" to North Korea, but actually lead to Kim Jong Il's first nuclear weapon. Yeah, that was during his first term! Cool, eh?

But then there is nothing like the international distribution network of A.Q. Khan...the world's leading nuclear terrorist who spread nuclear weapons technologies and expertise to a variety of rogue nations. Funny, but although he was Pakistani and working right under the nose of the Pakistani ISI, the sefl-same ISI that helped to fund and create the Taliban and Al Qaeda, somehow the Pakistanis and A.Q. got off scot-free. What a lucky break!

You see, after the Soviets couldn't hold up their end of the bargain and the Cold War suddenly came to a screeching halt, America's mighty military-industrial complex found itself in a tough spot. Not much of a enemy left. Not much of a reason to spend more on defense than the rest of the world combined. Not much need for the growth of our expensive nuclear arsenal.

So, the nineties were a "downtime" for the Beltway Bandits...those defense contactors who ride the death and destruction gravy train all the way to their nice, cozy bank accounts in Zurich.

Then came terrorism. And swarthy Arab infidels. And WMDs...of which, we are the world biggest producer. And the rise of the "Rogue State." That nation with little military might, posing very little risk, but...if given the right cocktail of nuclear know-how and demonization...could justify the expansion of the US military and the contracts of beleaguered military moneymakers. Yeah, during the lean Clinton years defense spending dropped all the way down to 1960 levels...during that "lull" in the Cold War! It was what the Project for a New American Century tried to figure out in 2000...how to convince the American people to spend more on defense. They said we needed a "New Pearl Harbor." Now that's funny...considering what we now know about that! Oh, I love declassified documents, don't you?!

So... they'd seen just what the taxpayers could do for them during Reagan... when he Soviet threat was ginned up and sold to the American people. When manipulated intelligence estimates done by Wolfowitz and Perle during Poppy's tenure at the CIA came to cash-laden fruition with method-actor Ronnie leading the anti-Commie charge. We got scared of the Soviets again. The rest was money in the bank.

So here we are again. We created Al-Qaeda with the Saudis and the Pakistanis, we fund and equip North Korea, we hand over plans to Iran and don't seem to give a damn about Uncle A.Q.'s International Nuclear Superstore. And then there is the history of Saddam, the CIA and the Bush team. The love affair was moving, but the breakup was nasty, wasn't it? And I thought April Glaspie did her best to give Saddam some lovin...but Poppy sure turned on his "bottom."

I guess Poppy always been a "top."

Isn't it funny how these things happen? How totally "inept" our CIA is supposed to be? How many friends become enemies and how often we support those who we eventual attack? Isn't it funny how much we find that propaganda is being generated by tax dollars and used to convince us of X and Y?

During the ultra-secret Manhattan Project, the Soviets had a spy working on it. A known communist, he made weekly trips to a Santa Fe train station to pass along his secrets to a Soviet agent. We knew. But he kept on doing it. Why?

Mack White knows. Check this out: Operation Northwoods.

This is all historically sound, historically based. And you can read the Northwoods document yourself...at the National Security Archive. Look it up. You'll see that power needs enemies, military moneymakers need enemies.

Just like W said during his latest "Iraq is a good little war" speech. He pointed out that "the terrorists" wanted to use Iraq as a base. He then told us "That he isn't making this up." Whew...good thing...'cuz it's so hard to tell anymore.

Believe me and Mack White...'cuz you can't make this shit up!

Feeling a bit left out

I would like to announce that I am returning money from Jack Abramoff. Unfortunately, I cannot. I'm here and working, but I'm outta the loop on this one.

Perchance to dream....

Or maybe I should start a support group for those legislators who didn't get money from Abramoff...a sorta lonely hearts club for congressional ne'er do wells.

The Abramoff Lobbying Mafia will dwarf the combined corruption of the Teapot dome, ABSCAM and the Capitol Post Office scandals. Today we heard it could involve up to 60 legislators and staffers. One White House official is indicted. Karl Rove and Tom Delay pop up more than those annoying plastic gophers at a kiddie arcade. We are collectively traveling into the Heart of Darkness. We are seeing exactly why this town is The Whore of Babylon.

Whores offer services for money. And that's what this town is all about. Legalized bribery abounds, and it's hard to take seriously the shock of Sen. Conrad Burns, among others, at the revelation that Abramoff and his team of former Delay staffers duped him into a massive bribery scandal. Campaign contributions of any size come sealed with the wax of implied reciprocation. Junkets and PACs and non-profit front groups process payment for services rendered.

Yes, I know...it's always been that way. Sure. But not like this. Not this thoroughgoing, pernicious and with the intention of gaming the system to enrich a bevy of political functionaries. And no, this is not different from the Enron scandal, what the big pharma companies get out of the close ties between the Bushies and Eli Lilly or the other, massive scandal that still hasn't fully aroused the media--Halliburton.

You see, good ol' Reagan Revolutionaries--Abramoff worked for Reagan's campaigns--talk about cutting taxes, but they realize that taxpayer dollars are a golden stream that will never stop flowing. Particularly during a national security build-up. Money flows when there is a enemy to bloat up through gamed intelligence, managed perceptions and dire warnings from the Bully-shit Pulpit. Abramoff came of age during Reagan's war on Central America. He worked to place stories and gin-up support for the Contras. Yes, that's right...he was part of Iran-Contra.

Jesus Christ, people...do you realize how many of the current power whores feeding off of 9-11 were part of Iran-Contra? And don't get me started about Michael Ledeen (an apologist for Fascist Italy, evidence indicated that he probably placed the false Niger-Uranium document in Italy)!

Anyway...back to the Whore of Babylon....

Although this mess rightly inspires outrage and there is some hope that a few heads will tumble down the Capitol steps...let's be honest. We've had all the evidence we've needed to conclude that this democracy is a sham, that we're in the midst of a corporate-fascist oligarchy and that our government truly is a whore bought out by the highest bidder. Government power in the form of military might is whored out to protect and abscond resources--see Operation Iraqi Liberation, to lease off at cut-rate prices our nation's dwindling resources, to fund the military-industrial complex that does the dirty work of protecting globalization's investments, to control the public debate and media...to suck up tax dollars from the working and middle classes and dole them out to the oligarchs. Abramoff is merely one, high-falutin' pimp who got caught driving his purple Cadillac between K Street and Pennsylvania avenue.

The really big pimps...those who make money off of war and military hardware, will happily see Abramoff sacrificed on the altar of collective justice to appease the gods of an American ideal that no longer exists. This pimp will be off the streets, and many will say justice is done and it's time for reform. But the Whore will keep on spreading her tax-funded legs to those who come calling. I fear that Jack will be the next Martha. Yes, there is no comparison in terms of scale...Martha was truly a little fish...but the effect could be the same. Nail Jack and keep the damage down to a minimum.

You can see it already in the lack of attention being paid to Delay's fingerprints. Or Jack's ties to Rove and Interior Secretary Gale Norton...barely being discussed.

Okay, I'm rambling a bit....

There may be a backlash in the upcoming election...but corporate cronies at Diebold have enough paperless voting machines in place to keep me paranoid about the outcome of an outrage-fueled voter revolt. I don't see the post-Watergate dynamic being allowed to repeat itself.

What's really sticking in my craw is that Abramoff had former Mossad assassin on retainer, funded a Israeli sniper school in the West Bank and was part of a Mafia hit on a business partner who got in the way of is SunCruz deal. He was part of Iran-Contra, so that "style" of politics was very familiar to him. And it's the style of politics we've had since JFK was gunned down. Please look a little harder at the dynamic. The government is a front for racketeering on so many levels, in so many ways. And we are, like those Indian Tribes Jack marked, in a perpetual shakedown.