Study: Bush Led US To War on ‘False Pretenses’
A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The study concluded that the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”
The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration’s position that the world community viewed Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat.
“The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world,” Stanzel said.
The Center for Public Integrity, a research group that focuses on ethics in government and public policy, designed the new Web site to allow simple searches for specific phrases, such as “mushroom cloud” or “yellowcake uranium,” in transcripts and documents totaling some 380,000 words, including remarks by President Bush and most of his top advisers in the two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them, or had links to al Qaeda, or both.
“It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al Qaeda,” according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism, writing an overview of the study. “In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003.”
Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.
Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq’s links to al Qaeda, the study found. That was second only to Powell’s 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al Qaeda.
The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews.
“The cumulative effect of these false statements - amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts - was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war,” the study concluded.
“Some journalists - indeed, even some entire news organizations - have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, ‘independent’ validation of the Bush administration’s false statements about Iraq,” it said.
There is no startling new information in the archive, because all the documents have been published previously. But the new computer tool is remarkable for its scope and its replay of the crescendo of statements that led to the war. Muckrakers may find browsing the site reminiscent of what Richard Nixon used to dismissively call “wallowing in Watergate.”
Online resources
Center for Public Integrity:
www.publicintegrity.org
Fund for Independence in Journalism:
www.tfij.org/
The New York Times contributed to this report.
© 2008 Associated Press
This is not new news! We know bush/cheney lied us into war! The question is what is congress going to do about it, and sadly I think the answer is NOTHING. The dems are too spinless and the republicans are still too loyal to their war criminal president. YES HE IS A WAR CRIMINAL!
Ok Nancy, NOW TELL US AGAIN WHY IMPEACHMENT IS “OFF YOUR TABLE.”
And also to my Congressman Henry Waxman who recently was given an AWARD from the ACLU which HAS ENDORSED IMPEACHMENT.
And John Conyers, that “leader” of the Judiciary who DID HAVE a resolution for impeachment BEFORE gaining the majority in the house…WHAT is holding him up? Wexler, who is ON his committee has taken the lead from Kucinich in demanding hearings. And, yet,nothing.
The Democrats were put into the majority to END THE WAR and HOLD THIS ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNTABLE!!! Neither of these have been done, and, thus, the extremely low “approval” ratings. They think that if they DO these things, they’ll jeopardize the chance of gaining the White House.
Here’s the NEWS FLASH DEMS: Your spineless refusal to hold investigative HEARINGS into impeachment is what will jeopardize gaining the White House…particularly if McCain’s star continues to rise…and the divisive Hillary is the nominee.
This country needs a UNITER, much more than a divider, and that accounts for the flocking of the young and independents to the campaign of Obama…although his position on Iraq is not appreciably different.
How many of us really want to experience the Hill and Bill show for another eight years? Really!!! Make sure you answer that before voting if you are in one of the Tsunami Tuesday states like I am in California.
###
There is no reason this cannot be pursued through the courts. It ought to be a goal of those concerned about preserving constitutional government to work on bringing a case against the administration regardless of who is in control of the executive branch. There will be a lot of people saying we should just move on to dealing with whatever current problems exist and forget about what happened and those voices will claim to speak for reconciliation. We must ignore them and make sure that leaders are ultimately held accountable for their actions.
I wish America really was the land of the free and home of the brave.
God help America!
I cannot even get to the website they listed in the article
Really? Now they talk about it?
I remember when my wife was looking for a publisher for her book “No Questions asked : News Coverage Since 9/11″ she was getting so much crap from publishers and journalism professors that she almost gave up.
She spend months documenting the lies and how the media blindly reported them and published them without asking any questions (the title of the book says it all).
You can see the highlight of the book at:
http://www.noquesitonsasked.org
and some really good reviews on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0275993353
This was 4 years ago and now, we finally hearing the statistics of the lies, but you can not change the history, you can not bring back the 3900 American soldiers, or 100s of thousands of Iraqis, or millions of people around the world who have suffered so badly due to these lies.
I really wish we had heard about the statistics in 2004, when Bush was popular, or even while he was lying, maybe then we could have stopped this madness and saved so many lives that have perished due to the crimes of this arrogant bastards,
“….. issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.”
Indeed.
And here’s another one, propagated, presumably unwittingly, by this author.
Now it may indeed be that WHOEVER did the WTC arson/murders could rightly be called a “terrorist.” We won’t know until we have a trial and prove who did it and why.
But the word “terrorist” has become practically synonymous with “Arab” or “Islamic” or “brown person.” There’s no conclusive evidence to support that assumption. Or even any unlaughable evidence.
Yet, how many times is this repeated as if a proven fact?
Got to give the devil his due: it’s a great scam.
Liberty & Justice,
SJ
www.spartacusjones.com
No Shit!! Come on people, don’t you see? Impeachment will never happen until MSM starts doing their job. Cindy Sheehan delivered over 8,000 hand-written letters from citizens demanding impeachment to Nancy Pelosi; Congressman Wexler has produced 200,000+ signitures from his on-line petition demanding Impeachment.
Have any of you heard ANYTHING at all about this movement from MSM?
Just as they have manipulated who is seen in the presidential debates, they are making sure that the people hear nothing about impeachment.
Got Fascism??
Excuse me - That’s Congressman Waxman.
“This is not new news!”
Sure isn’t — and if anyone thinks, for even one-second, that any reporter/agency finds this ‘news’, either, then they’ve “drunk the kool-aid”.
Anyone reasonably well-read (much-less reporters/agency-heads/editors, etc.) knew before most-here did that the ‘lies were coming’ — long before even 9/11 was ‘reality’.
Did you expect any different from your ‘MSM’?
Why?
[Click my Name]
Cosmicharlie “Impeachment will never happen until MSM starts doing their job.”
Unfortunately, they are doing their job. Their job is what they get paid for. They get paid by promoting their sponsor’s interests, during the ads, and the rest of the time. RMurdoch and his paid minions are certainly doing what their paymasters want.
the Government could do things to pressure the MSM to live up to it’s Constitutional imperative, being one of the pillars of democracy and all. But where are you going to find a government that would do that, in the interests of you and me, at the expense of the industry that provides cover for their crime?
Expecting the MSM to help is like expecting the market to regulate itself. HA! Don’t buy the line that government and regulation are evil - that was planted in your brain by the MSM against your own self interest.
“The New York Times contributed to this report.”
I’m guessing the NYT added the last sentence: “Muckrakers may find browsing the site reminiscent of what Richard Nixon used to dismissively call ‘wallowing in Watergate.’”
Did we need any more evidence that US democracy is not only dead but buried and almost completely decayed? When the US corporate media became purely a propaganda organ of the corporate oligarchy it was inevitable.
Linda Sutton makes some good points, but I doubt seriously we will get the “Hill and Bill show” for eight years. First off, HRC would probably lose to McCain. And even if she were allowed by the corporate media and oligarchy to win, it seems likely it would be in accordance with some agreement whereby she would get one term before the permanent Republican control of the US government began. I can see how Hill and Bill would agree to that because she would gain immortality as the first US female president and Bill would get to live in the Whitehouse, and the spotlight, for four more years.
And the corporate oligarchy may agree to that as Hillary seems non-threatening as the most pro-corporate Democrat of all time and, since there is likely to be a depression, and possibly a serious terrorist attack as blowback for Iraq, and maybe Iran, it is better to have a Democrat in office to blame such catastrophes on and thereby to permanently remove the Democratic Party as a serious threat (there are a few non-corporate Democrats, after all).
Maybe we should hire Monica Lewinski (sp?) to approach George.
That might get impeachment back on the table.
Liar Liar, Pants on Fire!
“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” Adolf Hitler
How is it I knew what this study has found to be the case as far back as 2003? Me and a few million others who weren’t listened to over the media din of war-drum beating. Congress is as complicit in this massive war crime as the Bush crime family itself, and they couldn’t have pulled any of it off without full media complicity. So those who would play any real role in impeaching the bastards are the same as those who are responsible for the entire fucking thing! Who really thinks they’re all going to impeach and imprison themselves?
People were fooled; that’s all.
“By a lie, a man… annihilates his dignity as a man.” Immanuel Kant
The neocon defense will be that the bush adminstration simply had “faulty intelligence”. (Another lie).
The fact is that the ‘war’ and all the occurrences to date were planned out long before bush ever assumed office. The final blow to America started with the faked elections in 2000 and 2004. It continued with the controlled demolition of the WTC (the great magic act that hypnotized nearly everyone). There’s the continued shell game with Bin Laden (keep your eye on him) to divert your thinking away from more important issues.
The lies, imprisonment, torture, accusations, faked video, faked audio, “presidential candidate cicus”, designer tasers, and racism are simply indicators that the country is in it’s death throes.
The final destruction of the country and the end of our Constitution will occur in a nuclear holocaust of our own design. (The one rapidly approaching)
I honestly hope that somehow the real America will rise up out of the ashes the same way a forest comes back after a fire. Time will tell.
Cosmicharlie___ Nice idea, getting Monica and George togeter. But realize, in that case, the MSM would spin it as a good thing. Nothing but important business being taken care of, like she is helping him with his morning prayers while studying the Iran problem and our economic woes. Makes a huge difference in America who is paying which piper.
Where is the legal profession in this debate? Why are they silent? Is creativity dead in the legal profession? Are their professional organizations intimidated into silence by Cheney and Bush? Where are their leaders? What are their ideas?
Right on, madlib. The question is how we ordinary citizens can stop this whining and actually DO something. How do WE citizens take court action against these lying bastards?
Secondly, please stop putting down the MSM and recognize the significance of what this study means from The Center for Public Integrity. It means that HISTORY has caught up with these lying bastards before they’re out of office. This is a big, important step for the record toward nailing them as the criminals they are.
From the toilet’s eye view this report is VERY important!
Find out what’s going on and what you can do about it.
Naomi Wolf - The End of America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc
The biggest lie was the one they told themselves, that lying to us was smart.
It only took the media SEVEN YEARS to report what many of us knew from the beginning–AND BEFORE?!?!
So this means Kucinich HAS been right all along?!
Does this mean there is STILL time for a Kucinich comeback?!
Does this mean MAYBE impeachment has more jet fuel to push it?!
Does this mean there is STILL TIME to save our country?!
Does this mean NOW the sleeping masses MIGHT start to clear their eyes and minds and get on the same page with the rest of us?!
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! BUT…WE CAN HOPE!!!
The Dems called me begging for money last night. I told them I might consider contributing when Pelosi gets onboard with impeachment.
Bush could only have done this due to a non-opposition.
It was in the Washington Post yesterday, the entire report and links necessary.
“Secondly, please stop putting down the MSM”
Honestly it is a surprise that the AP picked up on this story.
I bet you, however, that it was stuck back on page 10 of section C
The story made MPR/NPR this morning with a long segment.
Maybe “better late than never,” but I’m still not contributing money to NPR.
Re:Cosmicharlie “Impeachment will never happen until MSM starts doing their job.”
While I agree with your comments whole-heartedly, I do have a little trouble with the statement above. I would argue that the MSM is doing their job and doing it quite well; that job being the waging of a successful campaign of mass disinformation to support the status quo. After all, to do anything less would result in a roll back of their lucrative advertisement contracts.
Unlike the Soviet or Nazi propaganda of the 20th century, the current MSM is much better at doling out the BS than any Marxist or Fascist ever dreamed of. Through exclusion, marginalization and special interest (no interest) stories, the MSM actually is able to convince a majority of Americans that they offer ‘fair and balanced’ coverage. Knife and fork issues are completely absent with little or no discussion about national health care, minimum wage, the deterioration of unions, alternative foreign policy opinions, runaway corporate crime, the disparities in taxation or the insane expenditures on anything related to Homeland Security or the Pentagon. In fact unless the MSM makes an issue of something (like the article above), the public deems it to be of no importance.
The dumbing down of the general population is a living testimonial of our subservience to corporate America. Independent studies can and will point out an infinite number of crimes and misdemeanours perpetrated against the citizenry, but without the complicity of the MSM in exposing the culprits, changes won’t occur.
peterrb2 “The question is how we ordinary citizens can stop this whining and actually DO something.”
There are plenty of citizens out there ACTIVELY taking it to the streets daily. (myself included) If I’m whining about anything it’s that MSM is not portraying what is really happening. The activism
in this country and around the world is huge. You just don’t hear about it. The Bu$h administration and MSM effectively just ignores
it all.
I don’t understand why everyone is so surprised at this report. Why did it take so long to be produced? Why has congress not acted? What actions can we take since it is clear the government doesn’t care about us and elections do not provide much in the way of tangible change? I have listened to the candidates and conclude that all, no matter their party, are far out of touch with the people. Is it time to take to the streets?
dreamertoo: “The biggest lie was the one they told themselves, that lying to us was smart.”
Of course it was smart! We are (still) witnessing the largest wealth re-distribution project in U.S. history. Things could have gone better, sure, but the bottom line is, the rich got richer even faster than usual, and to that Mr. Bush has been resoundingly successful.
Lying to us? You say that as if the people are more than a puddle in the street that our dear leaders can’t simply walk around, soak up or drain. They’re all lying, all the time, and will continue to lie until there is a real consequence. Lying to We the People is not only smart for them …it’s a complete no-brainer!
We must write to all congressional democrats and demand they cease so-called debates under MSM control. They can have debates and the media can, or refuse to, cover them. We, the people, will see, hear, or catch up to them. We don’t need the likes of Wolfy Schlitzer, Chris Matthews, Tucker . . .
Debates: Candidates actually debate among themselves until they have exhausted any-given issue even if it takes many hours. . . IF, of course, they bother to discuss real ISSUES of concerns to the vast majority of citizens. This ‘30 second limit’ to respond to significant issues’ is garbage.
No need for a host or moderator . . . except when the candidates
recycle their arguments or beat a subject to smitherines . . .
We must not allow MSM to dictate policy with the lives of so many are at stake . . .
Meanwhile, democrats running for president will not get the support of the majority if they continue to refuse to hold BUSH-CHENEY (and those who supported and aided them including MSM) accountable in a court of law for crimes against American citizens and humanity in general. Those who trashed the Contitution, and lied to start the war - causing the death of over a million, mostly innocent, people who just wanted to get through the day, must pay for what they have done.
It’s getting press now because U.S. wants to use preemptive Nuclear Strikes as was reported yesterday. And Russia last week came out with a statement of preemptive Hydrogen Bomb attacks against the west to any country that wants to threaten its allies. The corporations that control this country are now concerned. That’s why we have a release of a report now.
Hundreds of democrats also helped lead us into war, and keep us there.
Millions of alleged “liberals” and “peace activists” then voted for these democrats in 2002,2004,2006, and presumably in 2008.
Liberals and peace activists must be closet warmongers, or morons.
Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats sold us out.
Vote Cindy Sheehan for Congress.
Cindyforcongress.org.
Break the one party system.
prariedog and cosmicharlie have it:
VOTE FOR CINDY SHEEHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Of course it was smart! We are (still) witnessing the largest wealth re-distribution project in U.S. history. Things could have gone better, sure, but the bottom line is, the rich got richer even faster than usual, and to that Mr. Bush has been resoundingly successful.” (Stilba)
Actually, the wealth redistribution that Bush did does not serve the rich anymore that it serves the poor; it’s only intent was to create dissension and strife.
Americans, obsessed with money, have confused hate with greed.
alexnosal,
Consider using the abbrev. “CM” (Corporate Media) instead of “MSM” (Mainstream Media). Getting out of Iraq, restoring the middle-class, alleviating poverty, etc. are actually the mainstream ideas. (The CM represents a minority/extreme interest, as the number of lies required to justify the invasion of Iraq demonstrates.)
“My son, much tried by the fate of Ilium, you must know that Cassandra alone declared to me this fortune. Now I recall her predicting these things as our people’s destiny…” - Virgil
So it is with the tale of the 1001 Arabian Lies! Anyone who was awake during the Cold War immediately recognized the spinning of the Web of Lies that has entrapped us and our children for this, the Last American Century.
Now they’re fabricating video-audio in the Straits of Hormuz to draw us into another war. You don’t suppose Congress is so stupid as to fall for that?
Do you?
“Lying to us? You say that as if the people are more than a puddle in the street that our dear leaders can’t simply walk around, soak up or drain. They’re all lying, all the time, and will continue to lie until there is a real consequence. Lying to We the People is not only smart for them …it’s a complete no-brainer!.” (Stilba)
Extraordinary leadership, both Democratic and Republican, is the only thing between you and the gulag.
I didn’t know there was any doubt about it.
Its not more evidence we need, it’s enforcement of the laws.
We can’t expect the dems to do anything about it they want the same, to be held unaccountable. So why would they make the effort to set a president, when they run the risk of having it apply to them.
It’s too late for impeachment? Only because they feel like they own the next presidency so why stir up the hornet’s nest right before they take office?
People in this forum need to commit to getting at least one green party member from each state into Washington.
If our government officials won’t do their sworn duty to uphold the law there should be a way the citizens could launch legal action to achieve justice. We the people would be the 4 ‘rth branch of government.
Since the system seems to have failed I think we might need a slight tweeking of the ground rules. The elite have figured out a way to control the system as it is. We citizens are now left without representation.
What was one of the main reasons we established this country in the first place? Oh yea, it was taxation without representation. Looks like we’re back to square one.
Nancy PeLOUSY just sits there next to the Chimp with her dyed hair, giggling and batting her false eyelashes at him while he winks at her. She will be 68 years old in a couple of months, by the way. I wonder how many face lifts the old gal has had.
We have ONE party, the fascist party, in the U.S., which makes up lies to justify illegal war. We have no democracy. What was that the Chimp said about the terrorists hating us for our “freedom?” What freedom? haha
If the U.S. would remove its military from Arab lands, they’d most likely not hate us.
The sad thing in all of this is you, collectively, would believe the same lies all over again, and resent having to deal with the truth.
In fact, you AREN’T dealing with the truth, but trying to escape from it in a delirium of “democracy” playing the shell game of presidential candidates–who will then tell you the same lies and you will believe them all over again.
What a bunch of wasted lives.
Here’s what baffles me about Obama supporters like Linda Sutton, who posted January 23rd, 2008 9:36 am:
“Ok Nancy, NOW TELL US AGAIN WHY IMPEACHMENT IS “OFF YOUR TABLE.””
She complains bitterly that the Democrats in Congress have failed to hold impeachment hearings, but then says:
“This country needs a UNITER, much more than a divider, and that accounts for the flocking of the young and independents to the campaign of Obama . . ”
Her statements are contradictory. If you want a “uniter” and not a “divider,” then Nancy Pelosi is your kind of Democrat since she has taken impeachment off the table.
On the other hand, if you want to hold Bush and his war criminals accountable, then Obama, the biggest “uniter” (read Republican suck-up) of all, is the least likely of all Democratic presidential candidates to ever call for Bush/Cheney’s impeachment or any congressional investigation of their lies.
You can’t have it both ways.
If you want a “divider” (read fighter for truth and justice) who is willing to take on the Bush gang, then consider the other Dems. I like Edwards.
But I also think the media’s twisting of “the Clintons’” image into one of “divisiveness” indicates that the Republicans and their allies are afraid of what investigations Hillary might launch if she becomes president.
“President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat”.
That’s giving it a name and numbers for real! Fantastic chart. What a great job done. Enough to make anyone optimistic about people’s will to see and speak the truth, and hold Power responsible - in these otherwise bleak times.
Sign the petition if you haven’t already.
http://wexlerwantshearings.com/
“Enough to make anyone optimistic about people’s will to see and speak the truth, and hold Power responsible - in these otherwise bleak times.” (Ullern)
Bleak times they are a changin’.
As you said Spartacus, an economic meltdown is coming down the track like a runaway train. This one is going to be a real bad one.
dreamertoo: “Extraordinary leadership, both Democratic and Republican, is the only thing between you and the gulag.”
Riiiiight. Very extraordinary. I should be so thankful.
The MSM had better be this forum right here, since the traditional media, even absent the motive to deceive the public, is mired in a conventional language from which the truth can not be told. The tradeoff is that we buy out of one monolithic lie and choose instead a benign bedlam in which hundreds of sincerely held opinions contend for credence.
Most commentators are no longer shocked or surprised at these revelations that sinister interests have attempted to control our thoughts and define our reality. But the admirable effort to ferret out the truth may reveal instead that it isn’t there at all, and that the reason we are not getting the truth is likely not because somebody is withholding it from us. The reality with which the media is “out of touch” is to be found nowhere in particular. We live in a kind of cognitive clothes tumbler, a free for all of competing paradigms, all of it made entirely of thought and will and the wish to arbitrate what things will be considered facts and which fictions. To discover that we are in such a metaphysical funhouse is a step toward the recognition that the world is a spiritual battlefield in which secrets tend to melt like snowballs in hell.
Quality Time’s desire to take to the streets echoes the wish of us all to concretize the progressive paradigm. If Unocal can materialize its oil pipelines then we must materialize our brave new world in some showing of pitchforks and fire and blood. But it is the materialism that is the underlying weakness of Western solutions. That is what al Quaeda learned from the Sufis - the power of thought, the power of not being a targetable physical object in a physical place. The World Trade Center was brought down by eight men, eight box knives and a thought, a kind of Normandy invasion that rolled into America undetected by scanners or drug sniffing dogs. Our military hardware goes to war against smoke, trying to eradicate the thought that is the Taliban. Billions of dollars of factual money became fictional money the other day when a panicky thought sent the financial markets into a tailspin.
The reason the scions of industry are so concerned with public opinion is because facts are the children of thoughts. Lacking a eagle’s eye view of our place in history, I would not be surprised if Commondreams, as an incubator of this fearsome weapon, is not an uncommonly good place to be.
spartacus -
Yes, there have been peace talks between elder Bush and the Clintons, and it’s even possible (?) they have reached some agreement about not seeking impeachment of his idiot son. Nevertheless, there is still plenty of animosity there.
My point was not that a President Hillary would launch investigations into the junior Bush war machine — she may or may not, I don’t know. My point was that of all the Democratic candidates, Obama is the least likely to do so — he makes a point of handing olive branches to the Republicans DURING HIS CAMPAIGN FOR THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION. No mystery about what the “uniter” would do as president.
My further point was that the Republicans and their allies (in general) are fearful that a President Hillary MIGHT launch investigations, and their media minions have thus aimed their rhetorical guns on the Clintons, painting them as “divisive,” at a time when the country needs a “uniter.”
Paul B., I like your suggestion for using CM (Corporate Media) instead of MSM. It’s more accurate and allows room for what is now “alternative media” to possibly one day be MSM.
Impeachment would “step on their message” of bipartisan unity”
Excuse me while I puke.
It’s another “well, duh!” moment.
Yes__ Bush, Cheney and their administration staff daily repeated the lies about Saddam and the WMDs, the purchased African uranium and Saddan’s supposed ties to Osama bin Laden. Bush and company had their agenda and of course that was and is control of the Mid-East oil. Those lies were and are, very serious crimes.
Unfortunantly, MOST Americans, including most of our Congress, were not privy to the CIAs and the other intelligence agencies factual intelligence at that time in history. __ Now let us honestly go back to those years and feature what most Americans, citizens who were working daily at their jobs, who read the newspapers, watched the moring and or evening news and heard what our president, __who should be trusted,__ was saying about Saddam. We The People for the most part believed him. __ That is self evident.
You know, or perhaps you don’t realize it, but most of the people who read and blog comments on Common Dreams are very intelligent and are much more aware of what is happening in this world. __ You are a VAST miniority. __ Your messages are only recently being listended to by SOME of the average American citizen. Not enough are still aware as yet. Our press and media ARE controlled by major corporations and the truths are not broadcast to all. We no longer have the Walter Cronkite types on the MAJOR networks.
So yes, for two years, we “blinded” Americans, and most of our Congress, were horribley mis-led by the Bush Cartel. In spite of those two years of criminal lying to us, the very most serious crime Bush and Cheney committed and tha tcrime insured they recieved the necessary votes to attack Iraq, was the horrendous crime, of forcing George Tennnat, the then Director of the CIA, to alter the NIE report.
The factual NIE report stated imphatically, that indeed, __ Saddam had NO WMDs __ and he had not purchased uranium from Africa or from any other place. The report stated that Saddam had absolutely NO ties to bin Laden and had absolutely nothng to do with the 9-11 attacks. __ The report consensus stated that the UN weapons inspector, Hans Bliss, was absolutly correct, and that he should be allowed to continue his inspection and military force was not necessary.
The top secret NIE report WAS alterded, de-classified and WE The People, and our Congress heard exactly the opposite of those truths. A few days later, Congress voted to allow millitary force,__ but ONLY as a last resort and Hans Bliss should be allowed to continue the inspections.
Was Congess duped? Yes indeed, (77) of our Senators were at least and Bush had his Okay. President Bush took the ball and ran with it. Not bad for an insane college cheerleader with a low “C” grade average, a one time convicted criminal, who with the help of his rich and powerful daddy and little brother, stole the presidential election and now he has the power to stay in office forever, if he ever desires to enact those powers, or until he gets old and retires.
There is the crime that tops all of the other lies, __ alterng that most important NIE report in 2002. Had the truth been given with the truthful NIE report, congress would not have voted to give Bush the necessaay authority to invade Iraq.
Isn’t this the Conyers Report rehashed?
The corporate media are covering this because they may possibly have recognized that idiocy in office has brought about uncontrollable economic disaster and that it is time to put impeachment on the table to get rid of these fools, who, as I have been saying for a long time, are not just evil, but also idiotic and hopeless failures!
Or, like the bumper sticker on one of my cars says, “George Bush Jr. couldn’t run a laundromat.” That bumper sticker, by the way, is from the 2000 campaign.
Ah, but the article failed to reveal two truths told by Colin Powell and Condi Rice in early 2001.
Powell said:
Colin Powell, on a visit to Egypt, says that Saddam Hussein “has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.”
2-24-01 in Egypt
Rice said:
Condoleezza Rice says of Saddam, “We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.” However, she says, the administration will continue to apply “pressure.”
7-29-01
Source:
This timeline:
http://www.motherjones.com/bush_war_timeline/
This article failed to mention these truths these key officials told. Where is the balance?
John Edwards as our president, will restore our Constitution, he will fight the mega corporations who now control our government, and indeed have insured our form of government is Fascism. John Edwards knows how to fight them and win. Don’t be fooled by his boyish appearance, __ remember Audie Murphy.
Unfortunantly, the mega corporatins ARE in control and they wilL insure Edwards does not recieve fair press coverage and his message is practically lost in the shit slinging fight by the other candidates. Support John Edwards and help fight the mega corporations now. We do all wish to see the madness end and John Edwards is the only viable candidate, __ who if elected, will end it.
A question that should be asked of everyone in the presidenial debates: Would you be willing to
bring charges against the bush administration of lying and charges of war crimes if you become
president?
~Earthian~ Excellent points. In addition, Colin Powell advised Bush on several occasions, that we should NOT attack Iraq. Powell was also NOT aware the NIE report, had been altered by Tennant, as ordered by Bush and Cheney. Powell was as mis-led then as we and our Congress were.
Just for the record, it is Rep. Jerry Wexler who has taken the IMPEACHMENT articles against Cheney from Rep. Kucinich to the House floor.
And it is important that we as a country follow through with the impeachment hearings. Even if they are not successful, it sends a message to the world that we recognize our mistakes and are making attempts to correct them. If we don’t pursue IMPEACHMENT, then we are viewed as the cowards we have become.
Wow, 7 year old news. I hear we finally landed on the moon too.
GWB could pick up a gun, walk outside and murder anyone he wanted to randomly, with witnesses, and not a damn thing would ever be done about it. Havent you nimrods figured that out yet?! Having dialogue about impeachment LOL. The Bush crime family go to jail?! LOL.
935? The exact number is interesting, but hardly a surprise to me. The elephant in the room that no one dares talk about is the tsunami of lies that defines Dubyuh and his cronies.
I happen to be lucky enough to live in an area (Denver) that currently has an AAR station. I went on a trip to Tx where despite their ~262K sq miles, there is only the droning of Dubyuh love from one end to the other.
Dubyuh swears that his legacy will be one of solid gold, protecting the innocent lambs from the deadly A-rabs. If he is the one to outsource all that legacy, he may be the one to have the last laugh. This is a defining moment for the country of course. While the ashes of this once mighty land settle into a new third world economy, will Americans get the message and fight the good fight to rebuild a better place or will they simply become a real life version of Idiocracy?
Americans ARE a real life version of Idiocracy.
Pelosi needs to forget her ego and start impeachment immediately. Even if the chimp and devil are convicted on their last day it will at least give us the satisfaction of preventing them from collecting government pensions.
Our current ruling clique and two mirror image capitalist corrupt parties (exclude Kucincih and a few others) is pretty much the Stalinist model that failed in the Soviet Union minus some of the limits on the banking community. Yeah, our capitalist elite includes 1% of the population with relatively free hand. But the dishonesty and complicity at the highest levels of government are not far removed from the Soviet Politbureau and Pravda.
If you disagree, please compare an old news clip of the deputies in the Soviet Duma all standing and applauding Krushchev or Breshnev to the ridiculous and embarrassing spectacle we are going to be subjected to coming out of the U.S. Congress next week. 51 standing ovations! If John Lennon rose from the dead he wouldn’t get 51 standing ovations. This is a sign of despotism, not democracy.
Bush deserves a firing squad a thousand times more than a standing ovation, and the boot licking cowardly assholes who will all rise like jack-offs-in-the-boxes next week know it and if they had an ounce of integrity left would demand it. Instead, they will be there in a Kabuki of the Duma.
Politicians lying? Perish the thought! I can’t possibly imagine why they would do such a thing. Next you’ll tell me that mindless consumption is destroying the planet, or that easy credit is driving our nation into economic ruin. I’m going to have to go to bed now. Between this and learning that the Pope is Catholic, today has just been too much.
Dear George,
I told you to invade Iraq. I said nothing about a thousand lies, or killing and wounding a coupla million innocent Iraqis and Afghanis, or killing and wounding over 30,000 Americans, or while we’re on the subject, borrowing a trillion bucks to line the pockets of your (not mine) friends. And what’s with the illegal wiretapping?
Time to come home, George.
Love,
God.
Who cares how new this news is. We ALL know George W. lied as did his sidekick the dick cheney. Congress on both sides has no spine, no guts and no will to do a friggin thing but collect under the table money. I love the old west and the old Texas……if you didn’t like a horse thief or liar or was gunslinger you just strung him up. Maybe that time has come. Send his sorry ass to the International Court and try him with the same results our “legal” system did to Saddam…………Peace Bro. maybe some day soon.
The fact that they lied is not news, but this article isn’t about the fact they lied. It is about a study that aimed to gather and count the lies and keep records of them. That is news. Check out the website, it’s pretty interesting.
Also, these complaints about the MSM making impeachment impossible are just stupid. Go out and do something about it, don’t wait for these poor excuses for journalists to do it for you. The MSM won’t touch it until people show they’re interested and sitting here and posting on Common Dreams, while it might make us feel better, is not going to help. The truth is, as much as I don’t like the MSM and as much as I want Bush and Cheney to be impeached, there isn’t enough support for it to happen. That’s not because of the mainstream media’s dereliction of duty, it’s because of ignorance and apathy on the part of the populace.
Ladies and gentlemen, may i present the “honorable” members of the house and senate .
Only America’s finest, with the highest degree of integrity, and who put the concerns of the average american, first and foremost, get to walk those hallowed hallways.
They are all beacons of light, in the quest for life, liberty, freedom, and pursuit of happiness for all.
Great humanitarians.
Campaign for Cindy Sheehan and any one else with her courage and moral intergrity. Don’t give a hoot any more about the corrupt republicrats. The time to start escaping the two party trap and creating an independent poeple’s movement is here.
Oust Pelosi and bring impeachment on the table.
Okay, now that what many of us already knew, before Iraq was attacked, is out in the open, WHAT are the useless jackasses in Congress going to DO about it??
Nothing!
lillulu, question asked, and answered.
I are hear Spartacus.
vangelaras has it right about the independent pary movement. But it has to be truly independent, a true grassroots movement, with the people actually thinking for themselves. This will be a long hard climb to take the voting populace out of their dumb downed state they have been in for decades.(By the way this also applys to smug Canadians who think that because we have five parties to vote for that Canada is better off.)
If an independent party does not have real credible policies that address isssues for all people, you end up with the situation where some votes are siphoned off and the status quo maintains. The NDP and Green Party are shining examples of this process.
Don’t just sit there, DO SOMETHING!!
PERHAPS IF WE ALL DEMANDED OUR LEGISLATORS TAKE ACTION AND IF WE CONTACTED EVERYONE WE KNOW TO DO THE SAME.
It might be ing in the wind but we’ve got to do something besides whine and say we all knew it or complain about the do-nothing congress.
I’ve already done this and presented myself as a patriot who is not willing to accept “false statements” as business as usual in the administration of this nation.
~BIXONA~. You have an opinion there, are you carrying the ball? Actually bud, it is the media that is MOSTLY at fault, for not broadcastng the truths daily on the issue, which they have been well aware of for several years.
Now you tell us to go out and do something. About the last tme anyone attempted to do something productive, she was arrested. Cindy Sheehan went straight to Conyers office with thousands of petitions and ended up being jailed. Conyers is the one person now who is holding up the impeaachmet process.
So if you know how to get him active, spit it out. I’m sure we’ll all listen and even follow sound advice. Just talkng, as you acccuse us of, is exactly what you are doing here.
I do sometimes hate this edit feature, I ask to edit, to correct Bixona to Bizona and in big letters, it says EDITING and won’t allow me to correct my stupid errors.
Now that we know they lie, can we trace it back to when it started and see that it has been built on lies for the longest time. Until the lies are fully traced we cannot respond effectively to the problem. Part of the problem now is that the opposition, those who expose the lies, still base their solutions on a system that rest on former lies. Go back to Lincoln. There the lies took deep root in the country. Go back and see where we really lost liberty. Go back and see when the Constitution was really gutted. What do we replace the current system with? Do you really think it will be fixed? After several generations of public education and higher institutes of learning, we have too many “smart” people who want to fix what cannot be fixed. And it will not be.
You people mostly are so involved in the intricacies of all of this you cannot see the forest for the trees. I think most of you who write here are so much a part of that very fascist system you complain about. If it was just a little less fascist, you would return to your democracy that is just a little less theft. Same on the Capitalistic Right. Just a little less theft. If the people are truly free, there is no big centralized government period. Why are you trying to rearrange a big centralized government. Have I missed something?
The smarter people get the more they think they are qualified to choose for others. You want to do away with the big corporations. Of course we should. They have used big government to steal from the people. Then you want to replace it with another big system that steals from the people and put it where the very smart socialists want it put. All the same.
When does liberty, the right to choose, become sacred again, the purpose for which all government exists. When does government again become the instrument to protect people so they can worship, live, trade, build, according to their own convictions. Whose religious or philosophical view are to dominate. When will people learn to live and let live. When will we be allowed to gather on the land with those of similar conviction and live as we understand best according to conscience.
When the socialists get in power, they will do exactly like the Capitalists, force their religion on others and give it another name.
But I will keep trying to see what I am missing.
I do believe that ~Spartacus~. I also believe that some CIA operatives told members of the press that the 2002 NIE report, had been altered by Tennant. That should have been the news story of the century. SHOULD is almost as big a word as IF.
KEM_PATRICK,
We The People for the most part believed him?
If that was so then We The People need to get their bullshit filter adjusted. Congress went along because they wanted to go along and not because they were duped. I remember John Conyers musing about another Gulf of Tonkin resolution during the corptocracy’s runup to the rape and plunder of Iraq and the lynching of it’s president.
“The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world,”
What’s this? Yet ANOTHER lie from the White House? Of course! Lies WORK!
But the UN never endorsed invasion! And how many Americans were asked pre-invasion if they were prepared to accept 1.2 million dead Iraqis, 3 trillion dollars and counting war debt, and 10 to 15 years occupation turmoil, motivated by petro-economic empire ambition? This calls for a revolution!
Excellent, Linda Sutton, but sadly Waxman gets an ACLU award only for shreiking from his little cage. Even the ACLU is prepared to side with the establishment. Who’s ready for a revolution?
The database/interface created by Public Integrity sounds like an invaluable innovation for public access to the kind of information we need for self-governance. Can’t see it right now cuz of traffic. With a steady evolution in information dissemination we’ll build support and have our revolution soon enough and shove the capitalist beast back down into the harness to pull the public cart on orders of the public will.
We already started our revolution. We’re shifting our exchange/association away from the beast and toward our local economies. Enjoy the benefits, people!
~WHATFOOLS~ It is self evident, that We The People DID indeed support Bush in 2003. Had the NIE report NOT been illegally altered, and the truth of the intelligence agencies reports concerning Saddam and Iraq been presented, We The People would NOT have supported Bush.
Your ‘assumptions’ of what all of the members of the Congress were aware of, and what their opinions were concernig Iraq and Saddam are just that, your assumptions. Had the truth been told when that NIE report was made public, Congress would NEVER have voted to allow Bush to use military force, no matter what some of them may have desired, because we the people would have had shit fits and voted most of them out of office.
That altered NIE report is the KEY to the entire disaster. And yes, I agree, we the people have to get educated, but because of our bought and paid for press and media, it is very difficlt to educate the public. That too is self evident and I’m sorry if you disagree with my opinion on that issue. That’s my opinion, based upon what is sadly obvious.
I am so sorry people, 100 entries but you have all missed the point! Even if Sadaam was biulding an atom bomb, and even if he was behind Al Qaeda, YOU STILL CAN’T DO THAT! Capice? The US has many atom bombs, why can’t Iraq? What about diplomacy? It was working well. If indeed Al Qaeda attacked the US, what about the reasons? If you break your neighbors windows and he pisses on your lawn in return, is it ok to kill his wife and kids? What is wrong with you belligerent people? War is a NO NO. Got it? If you had held to the principle that war is to be avoided at all costs you wouldn’t have acted the way you did and you would not have been fooled. I wasn’t! I said to myself: “sorcerer’s apprentice”. That was my opinion. What was yours? I’m pissed off at all of you.
Okay ~Lizard~ you aren’t alone and I don’t blame you for your anger, __ or even hatred by many.
Unfortunantly, most of us Americans were misinformed and the press and media we have is owned by the ones who love and want war. It wasn’t just a broken window, or pissing on the lawn that got Americans pissed off. It was 9-11 and the fact that most of us, falsly believed, that was just the first shot. Most believed Bush’s lies, that Saddam was behind 9-11 and would continue that type of actions. However, if we’d had the true NIE report, we Americans by far, would never have approved attacking Iraq.
but what did you do?
Everybody knows the Neocons lied us into Iraq and now, along with the Israelis, are currently trying to lie us into attacking Iran despite the 2007 NIE on Iran.
What I didn’t know until a couple of days ago is that Sibel Edmonds, the FBI translator turned ‘whistleblower on the Neocons’, had penetrated so deep into the heart of this Neocon lie machine and still poses possibly our greatest hope in destroying these war criminals. This is currently breaking news all over the world except America where the US Supreme Court has tried to gag her.
Check out the link below - it provides a fascinating overview of the Sibel Edmonds story and will BLOW YOUR MIND
http://www.video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1991080575212848283
The only people missinformed about Sudam was the unites states people, any 10 year old in other countries could have told you it was all lies. The only countries to follow the lies were Britiian and The Aussues. They were being good merican puppies.
@KEM PATRICK January 23rd, 2008 2:44 pm
I was aware of the falsification of intelligence, but its importance had
not really hit me. Thanks to you posting, I can now see that the
alteration of the intelligence was an ESSENTIAL part of the deception.
Despite this, I still do maintain that ANYONE who bothered to do the
research could have known that the entire case for war was if crock of
shit, if ONLY they had bothered to do some of their own research, . ANYONE certainly includes every member of congress
and it certainly includes all journalists. None of the lies,
individually, held up to any scrutiny.
After all this time I remain horrified, amazed and somewhat stunned how
everyone fell for the lies of 2002/2003. Of course, crowds can be
manipulated into violence by deception, but people normally come to
their senses the next morning and regret it. But to manage to sustain
the deception for the best part of year, is amazing. The people never
even woke up months later and decided that they had been conned!
Somehow the MSM managed to change the rationale to one that we
supposedly invaded to impose democracy. And people more or less forgot
the original reasons. Now, apparently, we invaded to get rid of Saddam.
If the MSM can pull that off, I have to ask what CANT they do?
Here in Brisbane in late 2002, the peace movementhere had a visit from
the USA from “StarHawk” (or was it “StarBucks”). No matter, she claimed
to be a practicing witch. She told the audience that it was witchcraft.
Witchcraft was being used, she said. The Iraq decption was witchcraft,
she said, and that it takes a witch to be able to see it.
That explanation of the apparent mass stupidity seems to me as good as
any other explaination. I either have to believe her explanation or
else I have to believe that the MSM has a truly powerful hold on
people’s minds.
Again: War is bad! even if 9-11 had not been a false flag operation, war is still bad! The United States has NEVER been attacked. That is why it is so cavalier about war, and THAT IS WHAT IS WRONG! THE ATTITUDE, NOT THE LEADERS. With the right attitude you would not have been fooled or gone to war. i sense this attitude amongs the posters, AND YOU ARE THE BEST OF THE BUNCH! I think I,ll go have a nice cry.
Hundreds of lies led us to war? That may be but only ONE lie really mattered, “George Bush won the election”.
Hundreds of lies continue to circulate about Barack Obama. I wonder if there’s any coincidence?
“I did though at least expect him to correct the false statements he made when he was trying to protect the Presidency. Instead, he talked about it as though I had laid it all out there for the taking. I was the buffet and he just couldn’t resist the dessert.”- Monica Lewinsky
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2004-06-25-lewinsky-clinton_x.htm
“When I think of the person that I thought was Bill Clinton, I think he had genuine remorse. When I think of the person that I now see is 100 percent politician, I think he’s sorry he got caught.”-Monica Lewinsky
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/03/04/lewinsky.interview/
I don’t want to present myself as some kind of singular figure…I think what is different is the times…I think we’re in one of those times right now. I think that we’re bogged down in one of those times right now…I think Kennedy moved the country in a fundamentally different direction…I think the Republican approach has played itself out…What I’m saying is is that I think the average baby boomer has moved beyond the issues of the 60s, but our politicians haven’t….”-Barack Obama
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/VIDEO/80115026&oaso=news.rgj.com/breakingnews
18 minutes in
“Obama-Reagan Context You Have Not Read”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/18/172928/040/265/439089
“As Blair has said, in war there will be civilian was well as military casualties. There is, too, as both Britain and America agree, some risk of Saddam using or transferring his weapons to terrorists. There is as well the possibility that more angry young Muslims can be recruited to terrorism. But if we leave Iraq with chemical and biological weapons, after 12 years of defiance, there is a considerable risk that one day these weapons will fall into the wrong hands and put many more lives at risk than will be lost in overthrowing Saddam.” -Bill Clinton, March 18, 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,916233,00.html
“During a campaign swing for his wife, former President Bill Clinton said flatly yesterday that he opposed the war in Iraq “from the beginning” - a statement that is more absolute than his comments before the invasion in March 2003.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/us/politics/28clinton.html
braithwa842,
I agree the news I consume led me to understand that there was no threat what-so-ever.
I don’t know if anyone fell for it, it certainly, facilitated plausible deniability.
They (war-meisters) knew the political gravity of the issue at the time.
Few dems felt like they could say no to protecting America (as it was framed to the ignorant masses of who 60% thought Iraq was responsible for 911).
But they can claim they were fooled.
They are politicians after all and democrats at that.
There’s your title for the definitive book on the Iraq occupation:
“935 Lies”
Be prepared to face this the George Soros/Center for Public Integrity connection in any debates in which you might raise this study.
If you don’t stand and insist on the truth, you sit down and comply when lies are told. A war based on lies is simple mass murder. The mass murder continues right now — some innocent souls will die in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years to come. Some who will die have yet to be born. To not prosecute and hold those accountable for mass murder is governance by barbarism. It is governance by beings who have checked out of the human race — they are unfeeling machines that no longer have a notion of what it is to be human.
Many Americans still believe Saddam was behind 9/11….LOL….how pathetic. These imbeciles don’t know their ******* from a hole in the ground. This dumb country deserves the rotten leaders it has. If they did a little reading instead of watching sports and the rest of the garbage on TV and drinking beer, they’d have a clue.
_____________________________________________
Excerpt: “No, the military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan are not directed against terrorism. They are territorial in nature. Mr. Bush intended from his first days in office to invade the two countries: as early as late January, 2001, his Administration was developing the decisions and beginning the preparations for both military incursions. 9/11 was in the distant future, so the conflicts cannot be exercises in counter-terrorism, as the Bush Administration frequently and dishonestly insists. They are premeditated wars of unprovoked conquest and occupation.
In December of 2002, 3 months before his country was invaded, Saddam Hussein invited the Bush Administration to send U.S. troops into Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction, and he said he could prove Iraq was not involved in 9/11. His entreaty was turned aside by President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Two months later Hussein promised unlimited access to the FBI to search for WMD’s, support for the US position on Israel and Palestine, and even some limited rights to Iraq’s oil. All this was rejected. Finally, in desperation Saddam Hussein offered personally to depart Iraq for exile in Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Once again he was refused by the White House, and soon thereafter cruise missiles pounded Baghdad and U.S. tanks rolled across the border from Kuwait.” — Richard Behan
http://www.counterpunch.org/behan01162008.html
Find the Truth About Bush’s Wars
Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach!
Regime change was not the objective: that could have been achieved bloodlessly with Saddam Hussein’s exile. Combating terrorism couldn’t possibly have been the objective, either: when President Bush invaded Iraq, there was no sign of al Qaeda in the country at all. There had to be some other purpose.
The “leaders” that the corporate governments select are chosen because they are damaged goods and are easily controlled. They are disposable and are easily replaceable when they get dirty, like the soiled posters on billboards, so that the ire of the people is bated and needs to begin again from scratch for each puppet. The corporate government’s, especially notable when referencing the U.S., have always lied to get into their wars and the wars are/were always about profit and control of resources. The only difference now is that information in the world is the real globalization and the scumbag crooks which run corporate governments have to try defend their evil deeds to a wider audience.
@Lord Trigo January 23rd, 2008 4:14 pm
That mad me laugh out load.
I am starting love such sarcasm.
Hakori, wrong question. The question is “will we get candidates nominated and an election held before W etal decide they can’t risk that?”
The question of impeachment raises questions of double jeopardy barring any other proceedings.
When these people are willing to do evil, it puts the rest of us at a competitive disadvantage.
Out law lobbiest, no immunity for goverment officials, treason should be punishable by public hanging. One law, one justice,one people. Every communist regime came in with smiles and promises of protection from someone against another people while sustaining hard ship on the people, without the above safe gaurds above we are vulnerable to deliberate deceptive crooks with money.
Do you honestly think communist crooks would come crashing over our borders with tanks ? Thats why the CIA should be independent of white house and operated as a seperate branch over seen by elected judges,in coperation with special operations of the armed forces. We should be discussing the amount of cash bounty instead of the brand of justice to be applied to the many traitors of our national enterest in wahington. This is like a free for all at the expense of the american public.
On the MSM question, many years ago, around the time of Dan Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, I knew an investigative reporter who had been in the FBI. I asked him if he was censored by his paper.
“No,” he said, “I’m not censored. None of us are. However you soon learn what will be published and what won’t. Eventually, you decide not to write for the circular file.”
That pretty well sums it up. You learn to write what will be printed. That’s how you make your living. The mavericks and the investigative journalists don’t get printed.
Of course now there is the net.
Here’s Nancy Pelosi in response to all this:
“No….not yet. No…not yet. No…not yet. No….not yet. No….not yet.”
Here’s the question I would pose to Nancy Pelosi: What WOULD it take for you to put impeachment on the table?! WW III??!
Big_Money said:
“cpotts, what you said.
Progressives risk falling into, or have repeatedly fallen into, the same “brand allegiance” trap as everyone else. Well, most of them, anyway.
“Ooo, he’s a conservative! He must be evil, therefore everything he says must be a lie! Everything he does must be theft!”
Ooo, that’s right. Whether from the right like Hitler, Mussolini, Pinochet and Bush, from the left, like Stalin, Pol Pot, Caescescu and the Red Brigades, or from the Xtian, Zionist and Taliban clergy, conservatives ARE evil. The nice little old conservative lady that voted for Bush can’t escape culpability. Conservative Republicans and Conservative Democrats are evil. No matter how conservatives try to rationalize this with their disgustingly assertive self righteousness and vaunted knowledge of the pseudoscience of economics, the incontrovertible fact is that the conservative worshippers of Mammon are behind every bestiality to befall humanity. That’s why Jesus was a liberal.
Congress is derelict, the president is derelict, the vicepresident is derelict, the elites are criminal,the media is complicit. Everybody is at fault except…….WHERE ARE THE MARCHES TO IMPEACH AND STOP THE WAR??? Where are the cracked heads and shot students? Where is the anti-war concert? Zip. All the people want is to keep their job and feel that life is improving. Beyond that, they will pick for president whoever they think will do anything to defend America’s interests, because that must be good for the bottom line.
Eventually, the people will feel the pinch of poverty, and then they will be receptive to REAL change, but it may not be the kind of change we’re hoping for.
What would it take to make Pelosi put impeachment on the table? She would have to feel she might lose her job if she doesn’t. I don’t think the people want her out, so I don’t think she thinks she’ll lose her job. Or maybe she already has a better job. I guess she’s not aware of the huge marches all over the country demanding impeachment.
That said, I don’t hate conservatives. I hate what they do.
Jesus was a humanist. Like the Cubans.
~DOUGWAGNER~ “Hundreds of lies continue to circulate about Barak Obama”.
Care to share a few and who told the lies Doug? And why would that, if true, have anything to do with the lies Bush and his admin people told about Iraq?
But since you have changed the subject Dougie, I’ll write this. Bill Clinton said that Obama did speak out against the Second Gulf War (when he was a State senator,) but when elected to the US Senate, Obama has supported Bush and the Iraq War every time a vote came up. That’s not a lie, that’s a fact.
In spite of that fact , Obama has continually criticized Hillary and John Edwards for their initial vote on the isssue. In essense, Obama is lying by deception and you Dougwagner, you do the same. You get paid for it?
Jesus was God’s only son. He has nothing to do with this issue. BTW, I’m certain that’s not the God who talks to GWB.
Is this not America the Land of the Free.
No, this is America the land of warrrnetless spy’s and surveillance stalkers.
The war was just phase one of this administrations plan to destroy the constitution by fear.
Right now, thanks to this Administration and the USA Patriot act, spy networks are growing all over the country. That’s right, yours and mine tax dollars are being used to build spy networks made up of civil watch groups, church groups, lodges, etc, being led by first responders and trained by the DHS.
And trust me when I tell you, they are not being trained properly to respect our rights.
They are being trained using cointell pro \ red squads stalking and psychological torture techniques.
All this under disguise of the patriot act and fear.
So any potential troublemaker or political enemy, or someone wise to what they are doing is a subject for training new recruits and then destruction of their reputation and life.
Read about gang stalking and then DHS abuses.
Why?? Money, and power. At the present pace of recruitment and dollars being spent, one in every Fifteen Americans will be paid government spy.
Keep us in fear by building watch lists and creating a whole new core of civil hero’s. Most of them are told a pack of lies about the suspects and they don’t care, they get off on the game and the money.
Also, to keep the money they invent suspects.
God help you if you live in Florida, they will fly in from all over the US to participate in the surveillance, stalking,torture, and vacation at taxpayer expense.
By the way, if any of this rings true to you, don’t bother telling anyone your being followed, they wont believe you. Wait for the word to get out and hope that your name appears on a list that is uncovered by sunshine laws. Maybe there will be a class action suit. Where are the lawyers when you need one?
Really sick stuff.
I leave you with this statement. If you like it pass it on, maybe we can appeal to the true Patriots of this Land.
I solemnly swear, I will not join a group that conducts unlawful , warrentless, spying and surveillance on fellow American citizens.
I vow to protect the Constitution of the United State form enemys forigen and domestic.
This is my word, my bond, and my oath as an American citizen.
God’s only son…then.
this article is years too late. when i saw the title i was like “duh”!
“I solemnly swear, I will not join a group that conducts unlawful, warrantless, spying and surveillance on fellow American citizens. I vow to protect the Constitution of the United State form enemies foreign and domestic. This is my word, my bond, and my oath as an American citizen.”
Ditto.
There was evidence in abundance early on that Iraq had nothing to do with 911, and that it had NO WMDs, but the elites wanted war, so war it was. Why call a million antiwar protestors 10,000? Accidental under-reporting? No, calculated.
Our democracy has been hijacked. I am not sure what it will take to get it back. Vote Green, vote Paul, vote Kucinich.
Kudos! Thanks for putting it all in a data base for us, making it even harder for spineless Democrats to find a rock to hide under.
In a true democracy the people’s will wouldn’t be thwarted:
Impeach Bush/Cheny
Dissolve the Supreme Court
Disband the Congress
Flush the toilet. And start over.
With all these lies about Iraq and everything else, we need a Democrat we can trust as President, not two we can’t.
How can we trust the Clintons when their personal greed is totally out of control. Bill is cashing in his Presidency, again, while Hillary tries to move them back into the White House. They’ll be billionaires from our votes by the time they’re done with us!
This is getting disgusting. Okay we know that the Clintons say Bill is just like any old spouse campaigning for their mate. And they are right of course, except that he was the President of the United States!
Now we learn that Clinton is raking in another $20 mil from a multi-billionaire friend for admittedly throwing around his Commander-in-Chief influence to benefit some investment fund. Of course Bill won’t disclose the details of his investment, just like he and Hillary won’t disclose the details of their $500 million dollar “charity” which employed some of their key campaign staffers and to which their campaign contributors have donated tens of millions of dollars. Just like Hillary won’t disclose the official records of her experience as First Lady which she says makes her more qualified than the other candidates. How can they stand for transparency when they obfuscate to mask their greed??
I am sick of this. It’s disgusting. The Clintons have cashed out the Presidency to the tune of Dick Cheney money. When is America going to call them on this?? This is not leadership. It’s greed. Pure and simple. And it’s part of a pattern of smarmy questionable gains - see them in Hillary’s bio on Wikipedia, including the amazing $100,000 she made in 10 months on a $1,000 investment, the $1 million blind trust when Bill took office in 1993 that the Clintons rapidly turned into a whopping $23 million.
If they were simply investors, I would have no problem with these gains. It’s capitalism baby. But that’s not what they ran on. That’s not what they told us. Surprise - another lie! Their platform was not to lead our Nation to get the big bucks. They did not run to not lead our Democratic Party - where have you been Bill for anyone but yourself over the past 7 years?? It’s to the point where even the Democratic Party elders have gone public to tell Bill to grow up.
It’s time to end this. It’s time to end the Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton cycle. I am a Democrat. A staunch Democrat. But I am for them because I think they are more moral and have better values. If it’s Hillary versus McCain I just don’t know. I was having doubts before Bill did the pile on Obama and cashed out his Presidency for this additional $20 mil, and now I really don’t know . . . This is the kind of stuff that turns my stomach.
Obama is worth just over a million. This Rezko stuff is a tiny droplet in the ocean compared to the massive Clinton greed and scandals. Obama has run a clean campaign. He’s been far ahead on POLICY - he was against the Iraq war from the start and he didn’t fall for the patently idiotic Bush bill to declare Iran’s military to be “terrorists” (Clinton lost my respect when she voted for that one, unbelievably, just last Fall). Clinton is playing catchup to Obama on policy, whether it’s her bailout plan or saying we should be more aggressive in going after bin Ladin. Clinton is a bonfire wherever she goes. She will never unify America - she can’t even unify her party. She will burn us up. And without unity there can be no real change, only another leg in the Bush-Clinton saga.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120097424021905843.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/MutualFunds/HillaryClintonMidasTouchAtWork.aspx?page=1
It only took one lie: The American People are not Safe!
Then they were like: “Who can we bomb?”
~DUXK SOUP~ You sound exactly like ~DOUGWAGNER~.
Let me repeat this. __ UNTIL he became a presidential candidate, Obama spoke out against the Iraq war ONLY,__ ONLY, when he was an Illinois State Senator. __ After he became a US Senator, Obama supported Bush on the Iraq issue, EVERY TIME he voted. He just says he has been against the war and Iraq occupation. His votes tell a far different story. So Please, don’t attempt to spread Obama’s distrotions of the truth. Most of the readers here aren’t stupid.
You also state, Obama has been far ahead on POLICY. you only mention Hillary. Well, John Edwards is far ahead of all of the leading contendors on POLICY. __ That is why Martin Luther King Jr. endorsed John Edwards. __ Check it out.
Don’t waste your time people. I have come to the conclusion that dougnwagner isn’t even real. He is actually a computer program written by Obama supporters that automatically responds to any mention of Obama’s name with the same 3 or 4 arguments; for example, there’s the one about he didn’t vote for the war initially, or Federalist #10 etc. If you scan around different posts you’ll see what I mean. How clever!
The program utilizes fuzzy logic which embedded into the software. Fuzzy logic enables it to come up with variations of the same theme that appear to be human-written and new but are actually the same computer generated stuff you read last time.
George Orwell actually predicted the invention of fuzzy logic and you can read about it in an addendum to 1984. He foresaw that the job of the propagandists would some day be so overwhelming that an invention would be needed to enable them to efficiently complete their tasks and have enough time to spend with their families.
Ok it is clear that everybody agrees there are many bad things afoot. But what is there to be done? Let me go basic here:
Impeach Cheney? How is this to be done?
- marches?
- clear indication Pelosi will lose if no impeachment?
- legal recourse to force congress to act?
- sue for the enforcement of petitions for Article V convention that congress repeatedly ignores?
- legal recourse when congress violates the law?
- Available means to legally compel the Attorney Gen to enforce laws?
Since there are no marches and Pelosi is not in danger and there is no law at present, this all amounts to nothing.
Therefore, you have to get the people interested in marching and throwing Pelosi out. How is that going? Should we bitch about MoveOn etc.? What role should the ACLU play? Should we support it? Pressure it to do more?
These are my concerns. I would like to do more than complain.
The issue is the American people.
Fuck the American people. Kiss your ass goodbye. That obscene U.S.A. flag won’t even serve as asswipe in the new world.
GOD, GUNS & MONEY (PT 1)
(RADIO EDIT)
GOD, GUNS & MONEY IS ALL SOME UNDERSTAND
BUT JESUS NEVER WALKED AROUND WITH A WEAPON IN HIS HAND
THE SCENE IS SCARY WHEN THE INSANE RULE THE DAY
GOD, GUNS & MONEY THE AMERICAN WAY
GOD, GUNS & MONEY EACH ONE TO REVERE
SAVE ME, FALSE PROTECT ME, BRING ON THEM LAZY YEARS
THE PICTURES CRAZY, COMPASSION’S IN THE GRAVE
GOD, GUNS & MONEY THROW YOUR HANDS UP AND RAVE
GOD, GUNS & MONEY CAN’T TAKE AWAY THE FEAR
OF SELF-CREATED NEURO-SPIN IN A LOCKED OUT HEMISPHERE
PSYCHIATRIST ARE RICHER, PHARMACEUTICALS PAVE THE WAY
GOD, GUNS & MONEY THE DRUGS THAT WE CRAVE
GOD, GUNS & MONEY ALL THREE WORK IN STRIDE
A DEADLY COMBINATION DESIGNED TO TURN THE TIDE
THE STORM IS BREWING, HEAT RISING HIGH
GOD, GUNS & MONEY WON’T SOMEBODY TELL ME WHY?
WE’RE DROWNING DEEP IN LIES
TO KEEP AN ILLUSION ALIVE
DARK CLOUDS HOVER IN THE SKY
WHERE BRAVE EAGLES USED TO FLY
GOD, GUNS & MONEY BRING A CHILL DEEP TO MY BONES
WHEN I HEAR INNOCENT VILLAGERS DIED IN A FREE FIRE ZONE
MIDDLE FINGER FOREIGN POLICY, DIPLOMACY EXTINCT
GOD, GUNS & MONEY HOW SICK CAN WE THINK?
GOD, GUNS AND MONEY, WHEN WILL THE BUBBLE BURST?
THEY’LL CUT THE TONGUE RIGHT FROM YOUR MOUTH, THE ARTISTS WILL BE FIRST
IF YOU VOTED FOR IT YOU SHOULD BE SENT OFF TO WAR
GOD, GUNS AND MONEY JUST WAIT FOR WHAT’S IN STORE
GOD, GUNS & MONEY GIVE THE RIGHT TO PLUNDER LAND
THOUGH THE CHICKENHAWKS CAN’T EVEN FIND THEIR ASS WITH
BOTH THEIR HANDS DOCTRINE’S IN MOTION, THE CRUSADES IN FULL SWING
GOD, GUNS & MONEY CROWN AMERICA KING
Words & Music by Brian Stoltz
© 2005 Long Overdue Music Co. (ASCAP)
Paul Bramscher: Thanks for finally letting me know that “MSM” is an acronym for “mainstream media.” That one’s been driving me crazy! I agree with you that from now on it should be called “CM” for “corporate media.” Corporations own every piece of it; not mainstream Americans. They are the ones that are harmed by what passes for news in this country.
I don’t remember where I heard this, but it still applies: The mainstream is shallow, slow-moving, and polluted. It’s the tributaries where all the fun is.
This sure is news, considering that 6% of new yorkers have never heard of 9/11.
There is one thing everyone should keep in mind when boasting about how this (great) collection of data proves that this administration was lying … the collection itself doesnt prove that!
Because, technically, a person is only lying … when they know the truth but tell you something else. Of course, Bush and co. made some incorrect statements, but back then all the experts told them so. You know, they were all just repeating what the intel community would tell them.
Of course that is utter nonsense. But still - in order to prove that Bush and co. were LYING one has prove that they KNEW that their statements were incorrect … while the words came out of their mouth. Like the famous “i am not going to present this bullshit” Powell statement.
I think that the very fact this report has been issued by two non profit organisations will harm it’s credibility. We who read Common Dreams, and m