http://www.rense.com/general27/911.htm 8-2-2
As we approach the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it might be
useful to see how far an ordinary citizen's knowledge has progressed one year
on. So here, in the way of a summing-up, based on journalistic documentation,
is a list of things we Americans have learned since last September -- some of
which might prove useful in the run-up to the November elections.
1. We've learned that Bush & Co.'s "war on terrorism" has morphed from finding
and destroying those responsible for the 9/11 mass-murders (15 SAUDIS) to a
worldwide campaign to install a Pax Americana, by force if necessary. In other
words, neo-imperialism, reminiscent in many ways of the old Roman Empire or,
closer to our own time, the British Empire.
2. We've learned that Bush & Co. has no desire to rethink any of its policies
abroad, the same policies that isolate it and that generate hatred, suspicion
and terrorism in so many regions of the globe. Rather than reconsider its
policies, or try to accomplish its ends through diplomacy and alliances and
cultural/economic initiatives, in its arrogance it continues to bully and
threaten others, insult its European and other allies, disregard international
treaties and courts, engage in unilateral actions without regard to the
national interests of others, and, in general, simply throw its massive weight
around. The prevailing attitude seems to be: We are the one Superpower, get
used to bending to our will.
3. We've learned that Bush's national-security leadership was alerted months
ahead of 9/11 (and, it has admitted, no later than August 6) that a major air
attack from al-Qaida was in the works, along with the likely targets, but did
nothing to try to prevent those attacks or warn anyone about them. Caught in
their own lies, they blame "the system," especially elements in the FBI, for
"not connecting the dots." More than 3000 Americans died as a result of this
malfeasance.
4. We've learned that plans already were in the works prior to 9/11 for the
evisceration of Constitutional guarantees of due process of law. The White
House hustled the so-called USA PATRIOT Act through a frightened Congress in a
patriotic blur, just a few days after the attacks, with few, if any, of the
legislators having had time to read the final version.
5. We've learned that prior to September 11, the Bush Administration was
negotiating with the Taliban about a pipeline desired by a U.S.-led energy
consortium that would cross through Afghanistan. When the Taliban balked, the
U.S. negotiators told them they either could accept a "carpet of gold" or face
a "carpet of bombs." The Taliban backed away from the deal and refused to hand
over Osama bin Laden; shortly after the terror attacks of 9/11, the U.S. began
bombing in Afghanistan. The devotion of BUSH to OIL/GAS/ENERGY/ENRON type
agendas are not laudible.
6. We've learned that now with the Taliban having been overthrown, and a
U.S.-friendly regime installed in Kabul, the pipeline project is back on track,
designed to carry energy supplies across Afghanistan from the Caspian Sea area
to near India. Hamid Karzai, the new leader of Afghanistan, formerly was a
consultant on the payroll of the pipeline folks; likewise, the new U.S. special
envoy to Afghanistan.
7. We've learned that Bush & Co.'s Homeland Security Act includes programs that
bear an amazing resemblance to totalitarian programs from the fascis/communist
end of the spectrum: getting the military (restricted heretofore to activity
outside the U.S.) involved in domestic policing, signing up neighborhood and
block snoops to work for the central government, investigating what books
citizens are checking out and buying, denouncing those deemed insufficiently
patriotic or suspicious because of their views, etc. Remind you of Stalin's
Russia, Castro's Cuba, Hitler's Third Reich, the Stasi of East Germany? (There
also are prototypes of patriotic youth leagues being tried out in cities, which
could become a national program.) A kind of martial-law coming to a
neighborhood near you. (Not odd as The Gehlen Org spawned Bush way back when,
in his early OSS days, that is NAZI spies brought here to work in CIA) Once a
Nazi always a Nazi, I guess.
8. We've learned that Ashcroft/Bush are shredding Constitutional due-process
guarantees in their move toward total control: already they have compromised
attorney-client privilege, removed habeus corpus protections, locked up folks
with no charges, secreted citizens at military installations which puts them
out of reach of the judicial system, violated privacy in rifling through
personal telephone and email communications, etc. etc. When the
ambiguously-worded PATRIOT Act was first brought up, Ashcroft and Bush told us
not to worry, promising that these rules would affect only non-citizens. Since
that time, American citizens have been handled in similar fashion. Coming to a
neighborhood near you.
9. We've learned much about the dangers of religious fundamentalism in Islam,
but we've also learned about dangers posed by our own religious fundamentalists
-- eager for a Christian theocratic society, symbolized most recently by a
Secret Service agent scrawling on a Muslim suspect's refrigerator "Islam Is
Evil, Christ Is King" -- and the extraordinary power they wield within the Bush
Administration, represented most openly by John Ashcroft, who in frame-of-mind
resembles a Taliban mullah.
10. We've learned that the FBI, focusing now on foreign terrorists, doesn't
seem energized with the same zeal to catch domestic terrorists, such as
abortion-clinic arsonists -- and especially the anthrax-dispenser. Though the
FBI seems to know that the anthrax villain probably worked at a government
bio-lab, nobody has been arrested, or even targeted as a prime suspect. (THEY
TELL US that after going thru his trash bin, no powder was found, So all bets
AND THE GUY...are off the hook,) It may not be likely, but the unsaid is
finally being asked: Could this dangerous terrorist actually be working for the
government? HUH? OUR GOV kill a Nat'l Enquirer reporter who'd written up the
BUSH gals as doped up trash? NAHHHHHHHHHHHHH. The White house Used as a
personal vendetta? C'mon!
11. We've learned that the HardRight of the Republican Party has taken control
-- of the House leadership, of the Supreme Court, of the White House, of much
of the conglomerate-owned media -- and has demonstrated its willingness to do
nearly anything to maintain that power. (Only the courageous defection of Sen.
Jim Jeffords from GOP ranks is standing in the way of HardRight total control
of all three branches of government.) More and more truly objectionable
HardRight judges are being nominated by Bush in an e ffort to stack the
judiciary for decades to come. This by a man who lost the election by more than
half-a-million votes, coming into his White House residency, with no popular
mandate, only because his supporters on the Supreme Court installed him there.
12. We've learned that to break the momentum of the HardRight, all energy for
the upcoming November elections (less than 90 days away, let us not forget)
must be expended in electing Democrat candidates and defeating Republican ones.
The objective conditions are just not ripe yet for anything more than trying to
move the country back toward the middle of the political spectrum. We
progressives more in tune with the Greens (Green candidates are being supported
secretly in many states by the Republicans, to try to defeat Democrats) will
have to wait. The difference between Democrats and Republicans may seem small
to Greens and others, but, as we've learned in a painful way under Bush&Co.,
that difference is immense when it comes to foreign and domestic policy and its
actual effects on real people, here and abroad.
13. We've learned that Cheney is up to his ears in Halliburton irregularities,
and may well be liable for indictment for participating in financial fraud. In
addition, we've learned that Cheney, who was the head of the task force that
came up with a corporate-friendly rather than a consumer-friendly energy
policy, has refused to turn over to Congress the requested documents that will
reveal how that policy was arrived at and which industry leaders (other than
Enron's Kenny Boy) helped shape it.
14. We've learned that Bush knew in advance, as a member of the Harken Audit
Committee, that Harken Oil was going to release negative financial news, and he
was a true insider, who knew that his Poppa's war on IRAQ (like the next week),
would cancel the Harken Drilling contracts. Curious George and sold his shares
before that, reaping a fortune. He may be liable for indictment for
insider-trading and other Harken irregularities. (Even if Bush and Cheney are
not indicted, they are the last people on earth who should be speaking about
corruption in the corporate financial world, as these hypocrites benefitted
from that very corrupt system. As did most of Bush's corporate-derived cabinet.)
15. We've learned that Bush & Co. were mightily opposed to any reform of
corporate financial reporting, but when more and more companies were caught in
such corrupt practices and the mood of the country shifted -- mainly because so
many folks, especially seniors, lost huge chunks of their pensions and
portfolio holdings when the Stock Market tanked as a result of investors'
losing confidence in the numbers provided by corporations -- they jumped on the
bandwagon and pretended they were reformers all along. In the background, they
are trying to help their corporate supporters water down, and otherwise get
around, the new rules. To that end, Bush&Co. have appointed Harvey Pitt and
Larry Thompson, two tainted corporate types, to head up the "investigations" of
corporate wrongdoing. Break out the whitewash and let the FOXES paint the
bloody HENHOUSE!
16. We've learned that Bush & Co., having placed its chips on Ariel Sharon,
continues to have no real desire for a just peace in the Middle East. All it
wants is for the area to be quiet and controlled (thus giving carte blanche to
the Israeli Army's police-state occupation and oppression), so that it can
continue its plans for overthrowing Saddam Hussein in Iraq. And, of course,
there has been no declaration of a State of War by the Congress, neither
against Afghanistan nor against Iraq, and no real debate about the wisdom of a
war against Saddam -- even when the top brass at the Pentagon and in Great
Britain have expressed their opposition to such military adventurism.
17. We've learned that there will be no peace now in the Middle East because
the U.S. is not fully engaged in the peace process, also because neither
extreme in the area wants peace: Sharon thrives on war and brutality, Hamas
needs Sharon's bloody policies to justify its campaign of terror. There are
signs that moderate Palestinians finally are starting to speak out in favor of
a peaceful solution, and there are plenty of land-for-peace Israelis (supported
by many liberal Jews in the U.S.), so the outlines of a peace are out there.
But until the U.S. and U.N. make the commitment to separate the warring
extremists and arrange an equitable treaty both Israel and the Palestinians can
live with -- secure borders for Israel (and an end to suicide bombing), a
viable state for the Palestinians, abandoning of the settlements by Israel,
reparations for Palestinians who lost their homes and property -- there will be
only more bloodshed. And more fertile ground for new generations of terrorists,
in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Islamic world.
18. We've learned that Bush & Co. has been a total disaster for the
environment, in every way: from reneging on its campaign promise to cut
carbon-dioxide and other greenhouse emissions, to backing away from higher
fuel-efficiency in cars (we could cut our dependence on foreign oil 20% just by
increasing fuel efficiency by 5%), to giving breaks to corporate polluters all
across the country, to permitting increased arsenic levels in the water,
thumbing nose at Kyoto conference, etc. etc.
19. We've learned that Secretary of State Colin Powell -- who sees the world in
something other than simplistic black-and-white, us-versus-them dichotomies --
is a man imprisoned in the Bush Cabinet, forced to alter his principled
opinions in the service of Bush & Co.'s stupidly aggressive and ultimately
self-defeating foreign policies. Powell, a moderate conservative, looks like a
raving progressive when measured against his masters. He should resign but
probably won't. That would take NIXONIAN shame which he has none of, having an
IQ of 80
20. We've learned that the tax-cuts provided to the most wealthy are not only
payoffs to the corporate sector that provides support for Bush & Co. By locking
in those tax cuts for ten years (and with humongous chunks of the budget spent
on the "war on terrorism"), Bush & Co. have ensured that innumerable social
programs that aid the less well-off will be cut or eliminated. In short, a
rollback of New Deal/Great Society programs, so hated by the HardRight. (The
HardRight movement to detach prescription drugs for seniors fr om the Medicare
program, and, especially, to privatize Social Security -- even in the face of
recent stock-market disasters -- is part of this same desire.)
Even after all the above shorthand summaries, no doubt I'm leaving out lots of
Bush & Co. dirt, but this list can provide a starting point, and a handy
compilation of enough low and high crimes and misdemeanors to warrant their
removal from power, either through the ballot box or by resignation or
impeachment.
Finally, as we enter August, we know that one of two things will happen in the
summer-doldrums, with the Congress on vacation: Either Bush & Co. will start
its Iraq war and carry out more under-the-radar attacks on important American
social programs, or the media, bereft of their usual Beltway stories, will use
the down time to engage in hard-hitting investigative reporting that will
reveal in even more stark relief the machinations of Bush & Co. illegalities
and other scandalous behavior. But, given the corporate nature of our
corporate-owned media, don't count on it. Instead, we'll probably be flooded
with this summer's Condit-like sex scandal. ___
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D., has taught American politics and international relations
at Western Washington University and San Diego State University; he was with
the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly 20 years.