Must Read Articles:


Chas Freeman—

"Wars end only when the defeated accept defeat, not when the victor declares victory. ... Arrogant daydreams that inspire military actions can become humiliating nightmares that produce political debacles."

.::The Cost of 'Arrogant Daydreams'::.

David Podvin—

Conservatives explode in rage when the current disaster is compared with Vietnam - there is nary a rice paddy in view! But the parallel is unmistakable: America has again put its soldiers in a chaotic killing field where they are unable to distinguish friend from foe. In seeking to justify this endeavor that they insist in no way resembles the Vietnam War, Republicans have dusted off all their arguments from the Vietnam War: if we fail to subdue these ideologues, it will have a domino effect…we better fight the enemy over aid and comfort there or we will have to fight them over here…it may have been a mistake to get in, but it would be a bigger mistake to get out…to disagree with the war is to give to the enemy…

.::Greed and Hubris::.

France & US Work Together Again

.::United Nations, April 13 (IPS)::. The United States and France have intimidated Caribbean countries into delaying an official request for a probe into the murky circumstances under which Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted from power in February, according to diplomatic sources here.

The two veto-wielding permanent members of the 15-nation Security Council have signalled to Caribbean nations that they do not want a U.N. probe of Aristide's ouster.

— Dubya's Alleged "News Conference" —

"Free societies are hopeful societies..."

I'm sure that's what his cronies were thinking when they hand-picked the new leaders of Iraq — people will feel free when an occupying nation chooses the right leaders for you. I'm even more sure that's what his people were thinking when they shut down Muqtada al-Sadr's newspaper.

"I feel it in my soul..."

That bastard is SOULLESS!

"We've had some success with the decision I took..."

Then he goes on to cite the nation of Libya and how finding mustard gas on a turkey farm made the world safer. Oh' yeah, we're much safer from al Queada because Quaddafi gave up the ghost. Fallujah would have been 20 times worse had we not found that mustard gas in Libya, eh'?!!

"Nobody likes to see dead people on their television screens... it's gut wrenching..."

So, if we don't see the dead bodies being unloaded from the planes, we won't know that our soldiers are dying because of a lie about weapons of mass destruction and we'll all feel so much better about a unilateral invasion of a sovereign nation.

"I wish you'd given me that written question ahead of time so I could prepare for it."

That lying sack of skin. He got those questions ahead of time; probably days ago.

I'm open for suggestions. I look forward to seeing what the 9/11 Commission comes up with...

Of course he does, he hand-picked the people on the commission. Whatever they come up with will downplay his role in the disaster we call the 'war on terrah'.

"Let Me Step Back & Review My Thinking..."

...so said the tongue-tied buffoon occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That man hasn't had a thought in his head since he gave up cocaine & alcohol in his early 40's.

This entire "press conference" is yet another scripted charade by the misadministration that's ruining this country!!

Did I Hear the Word D-R-A-F-T?

Dubya said:

"If additional forces are needed, I will send them."

We already know our Armed Forces are stretched too thin, that people are not re-enlisting, and that enlistment numbers are flatlining. How will we continue to occupy Iraq in the coming years without injecting fresh blood into the military without conscription?

First Misspoken Word of Dubya's Press Conference Speech:

Insticated ... he later pronounced it properly, but damn, he was only a half a sentence into his schtick and he flubbed it already.

Nightmarish Images

A short clip of GeeDubya flashed across my television screen this evening. He was at a press conference stammering and stuttering about being "comforted" because the FBI was "doing its job." He was spinning feverishly and the effort showed in his face; it was strangely flush, he had an obvious look of desperation in his eyes, and he allowed his mouth to hang open as if in a stupor.

He's feeling the pinch, and no one deserves the pain more than he does!

A Jordanian Newpaper Writes About Condoleeza (tha' Skeeza)

As for you, .::black Condoleeza Rice::., swallow your tongue, remember your origins and stop talking about liberation and freedom. Have you not been taught by your cowboy masters that 'slaves' cannot liberate themselves, that they are not capable to capture the large Islamic world whose cultural roots are planted in the depths of history. The slaves who are happy with their enslavement, O Condoleeza, will continue to be enslaved. They will never be free and will never free others.

Ohio & Black Box Voting

.::BELMONT COUNTY, OH::.

Ohio voters planning to use the revolutionary touch-screen technology can likely forget it - at least for this year. A legislative committee says voters who use electronic machines should be able to confirm their choices with a paper receipt. Because the current voting boxes do not offer that option, the board has ordered Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to cancel $128 million worth of Ohio voting machine contracts.

Congrats to all the Ohioians who understand that democracy ceases to exist when we stop participating in it!

CARICOM Stakes Out the Middle Ground on Haiti

The .::Trinidad and Tobago Express::. reported about the CARICOM summit in St. Kitts.

Instead of knuckling under to the immoral demands of the US, and the meaningless .::pronouncements::. of the US-installed Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue —he suspensed Haiti's membership in the organization on March 15th because of Jamaica's decision to offer Aristide temporary refuge —CARICOM decided not to recognize Haiti's new government of criminals, but definitely not to ignore the needs of the Haitian people.

Latortue has .::openly embraced::. the former FRAPH members (Guy Philippe, et al) comprising the armed opposition. "Aristide associates and politicians from his Lavalas Family party are being illegally held captive by armed rebels, Human Rights Watch said... Others are in hiding or have been killed." What more is needed for principled citizens and organizations of the world to openly denounce Latortue and his supposed authority over the Haitian people?

It would behoove CARICOM to remember that riding the fence will give one splinters, and deals with the devil always result in the dealee being badly burned.

A New Generation of Recruits

...Mr. Muaimy .::said::. American soldiers had humiliated him in front of his children.

"They searched my house," he said. "They kicked my Koran. They speak to me so poorly in front of my children. It's not that I encourage my son to hate Americans. It's not that I make him want to join the resistance. Americans do that for me."

What intellectual, psychological or social dysfunction blinds the Bush cabal and their vengeful supporters to the obvious results of their "war on terror?"

If It's Not Wrong When the Government Does It ...

The television station A&E is airing an .::Investigative Report::. about the increasing number of women being sent to America's prisons. A sub-segment deals with battered women who killed or assaulted their abusive spouses.

My question is this:

If the U.S., as a nation, is supported by a number of its citizens in invading another country based on what they might do, why does our judicial system lock up women who kill their abusive spouses based on a pattern of inflicting great physical harm?

Our troops were deployed 8,000 miles to invade, occupy and control another country to "prevent" them from harming U.S. citizens. The women who killed their spouses were batttered and had their lives threatened in their own homes.

Pre-emptive violence is the same, whether employed by the state (our nation) or by an individual. If current mores in this country condone it, these women need to be immediately let out of prison.

Condoleeza "Tha' Skeeza" Rice Surpasses Her Masters' Expectations

According to the negress, the Administration didn't act on the information provided by Richard Clark because it was waiting for more "actionable" intelligence.

What is "actionable" intelligence anyway? I think she means they wanted a more specific PLAN.

The best (most outrageous) lie of all is refuted by Coleen Rowley in an interview on .::Democracy Now::.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, yesterday, Dr. Condoleezza Rice said that all of the field offices knew about the potential threats. What did you understand at the time, Coleen Rowley?

COLEEN ROWLEY: Well, you know, historically the FBI has been investigating al Qaeda for a long time. Obviously, the first 1993 World Trade Center attacks brought that into focus. So, al Qaeda certainly was considered a threat, but what I'm talking about is any special urgency, especially during the summer of 2001 which would have made people, especially the mid-level management people, more aware of information, little pieces of information that were generated to them. And again, if you read -- reread the letter and the fact that the .::Phoenix Memo::. and the information that came in from our office and other offices simply was not acted on --

AMY GOODMAN: I just want to interrupt for one second. On August 15, Zacarias Moussaoui was taken into custody. To refresh people's memories -- three weeks before the September 11th attacks. At that point when the alleged 20th hijacker is taken into custody, at a point when -- well certainly, if information was gathered and if in fact he was a part of this, and you could get information, perhaps the September 11 attacks could have been avoided -- averted, can you talk about what you understood the threat level to be, and if you understood how high the people in Washington -- how seriously they were treating things at this point?

COLEEN ROWLEY: I don't have any firsthand information about what the threat level was, and the people in Washington, other than what the comments and the responses that were given from these people to our field office agents here. Again, if you reread the testimony, even from the Joint Intelligence Committee of responses that were given, it does not show that there was any understanding of the urgency of the threat.

See .::Claim vs Fact::. for a complete deconstruction of her lying testimony before the 9/11 Commission.

Capitalism Thrives Where Violently-Imposed Democracy Fails

...The atmosphere .::in Baghdad::. has changed for the worse. At the entrance to the hotel where I am staying, there is a noticeboard near the reception desk. Last year, the pieces of paper stuck on the board were mostly from Iraqis wanting jobs as translators for foreign companies and itemising their qualifications. Today, there are no such notices. Too many translators have been killed or threatened for any Iraqi to advertise the fact that he or she wants to work for a foreigner.

Instead, there are three notices on the board from different companies all advertising armoured vehicles for sale. One of them says it can also offer body armour, adding seductively that this is in "limited quantity in the country". ...

More Troops, More Troops, Iraqi OIL for More Troops

...::word leaked out::. that US generals are "outraged" by their lack of soldiers.

America's generals consider current troop strengths of 130,000 in Iraq inadequate...

...His [General John Abizaid, commander of Central Command] words overrode months of public assurances from the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and other civilian chiefs that more troops are not necessary.

...US forces are so overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan that "there are simply no large units available and suitable for assignment", Novak wrote in his column in The Washington Post.

...Many still in uniform bitterly recall the public dressing-down earned by the then army chief of staff, .::Gen Eric Shinseki::., when he told Congress a month before the invasion, in February 2003, that "several hundred thousand troops" might be needed to occupy Iraq.

That estimate was slapped down as "wildly off the mark" by the deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz. .::Thomas White::., the army secretary and a former general himself, publicly backed Gen Shinseki. Mr White was sacked shortly afterwards by Mr Rumsfeld. ...

The rabid right are experts at telling the lies to start a war, but they're lousy at knowing when one is .::over::. and how many soldiers are required to actually WIN it!

And they called Lani Guiner a "loony" for espousing the same view...

"Democracy entails not just majority rule, but protection of minority rights."

– L. Paul Bremer III, Administrator, Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

Paul Bremer made that statement after giving an overly optimistic yearend .:review:. of the American occupation of Iraq. The belated American allegiance to the protection of minority rights is an effort to keep Iraq’s Shiite majority from thinking too highly of themselves and demanding one man one vote - majority rule - in their multi-religious, multi-ethnic country. The need to satisfy the desires of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds is just one of the issues that was not thought out in America’s rush to establish new military bases and turn Iraq into a cash cow for Halliburton and Bechtel. Only painful desperation would entice a Republican to publicly declare that minority rights are sacrosanct.

...When Lani Guinier was nominated by President Clinton to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights she was called “loony” and a “quota queen” for advocating what Bremer now wants for Iraq. The unfortunate Ms. Guinier was not attempting to create a compliant puppet government. She was talking about bringing justice to the electoral system of the United States, a nation whose majority does not always appreciate minorities making too many demands or even asking too many questions.

.:read the rest:.

From Bad to Worse

.:American Family Voices:. website weighs in on the .:Richard Clark:. brouhaha with a collection of quotes from devout Bushites that belie their claims, and further indict this administration for mishandling intelligence prior to 9-11-01 and lying about the need to invade Iraq.

"Richard Clarke had plenty of opportunities to tell us in the administration that he thought the war on terrorism was moving in the wrong direction and he chose not to." – Condoleezza Rice, March 22, 2004


In fact, Clarke sent an urgent memo calling for a Cabinet-level meeting to discuss the possibilities of an al Qaeda attack back on January 24, 2001. The meeting was delayed for three months, and was held without the presence of Cabinet-level officials.

Clarke's colleague Thomas Maertens, former National Security Council director for nuclear nonproliferation under both Clinton and Bush, remembers that Clarke "was the guy pushing hardest, saying again and again that something big was going to happen," but that Bush officials weren't responsive to the advice of a Clinton administration holdover.

"Ramzi Yousef [convicted of the attempted WTC bombings in 1993] turned out to be Khalid Shaykh Muhammad's nephew. Khalid Shaykh Muhammad is the guy who came up with the idea of using airliners to strike the World Trade Center in about 1996, we believe, when he first suggested that, and who later supervised the attacks of 9/11." – Cheney, March 22, 2004


Another failed gambit from Cheney during his phone-in appearance on Limbaugh's show. This statement is part of a desperate attempt by the Bush team to pin the blame for 9/11 on the Clinton administration. Of course, as usual, Cheney vastly overstated himself and stuck his foot in his mouth, selling out a colleague in the process. Here's why:

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people…would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." – Rice, May 16, 2002


Cheney's comments directly implied that people (meaning people in the Clinton administration) should have predicted that al Qaeda would use a plane as a missile, because Muhammad's plans stretched back to 1996. In a desperate attempt to free the Bush administration from blame, Rice similarly overstated her case as well. In fact, a 1999 report by the National Intelligence Council did issue an alert about this type of hijacking plan.

"The president returned to the White House and called me in and said, I've learned from George Tenet that there is no evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11." – Rice, March 22, 2004

"But just days later, the President met with his National Security Council; the Director of Central Intelligence informed him that there was no link between the September 11th attacks and Iraq." – McClellan, March 22, 2004


It is embarrassing that the White House would even attempt to make this claim after shamelessly using 9/11 as grounds to invade Iraq. In fact, the Bush team had better hope that Rice and McClellan are lying. Otherwise there's no possible way to explain these comments:


"Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own." – President Bush, 2003 State of the Union Address

"We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s." – Cheney on "Meet the Press," September 14, 2003


And, in a letter to Congress, President Bush argued that an attack on Iraq was justified because force was authorized against "nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11."

The Bush White House has been spinning so many half-truths on this issue for so long that it was inevitable that at some point, they were going to overlap and contradict. That point appears to be now. It was perhaps the most poorly constructed web of deceit in recent memory – it only trapped the spider. ...

More links are here, here, and here.

Late, But Great, News

President Aristide did .:arrive in Jamaica:. safely on Monday. He's in an undisclosed location, undoubtedly to avoid any possible assassins sent by the U.S.

What? That's sounds too far fetched? P-shaw! As if the U.S. hasn't publicly contemplated the reinstatement of "legal assassination", as if the U.S. hasn't secretly assassinated leaders of other countries.

Both Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice continue in their roles as Black face clowns for the Gee Dubya administration when they pooh-poohed Aristide's return to the Caribbean. I believe it was Donald Rumsfeld who went 10 steps farther (to the right) when he suggested that the Haitian President not return to the Western Hemisphere!

Good golly Miss Molly! So much for freedom.

Much more to come...

Aristide in Jamaica?

President Aristide was due to land in Jamaica today, accompanied by a delegation that includes: U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Randall Robinson, and attorney Ira Kurzban. I haven't heard the latest yet, but here's hoping for the best...

Press Release from .:HaitiAction.net:.

P R E S S R E L E A S E
March 13, 2004

Both within the United States as well as within the Caribbean community there have been efforts, over the past two weeks, to have President and Madame Aristide returned to the Caribbean. A delegation is now on its way to the Central African Republic to meet with President and Madame Aristide, and to accompany them to Jamaica, where Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has announced the Aristides will be residing for the next several weeks. U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, author Randall Robinson, and attorney Ira Kurzban are the American members of the delegation, and Jamaican parliamentarian Sharon Hay-Webster will be representing the Government of Jamaica and Caricom. Accompanying the delegation are .:Peter Eisner of the Washington Post:. and .:Amy Goodman of Democracy Now:..

The delegation is expected to arrive in the .:Central African Republic:. on Sunday, March 14, and is expected to arrive in Jamaica, along with the Aristides, on Monday March 15, 2004.