February 2004 — Information Clearing House
Digest February 26-29 2004
Date: 29 Feb 2004
301 DAYS … AND STILL NO WMD FOUND IN IRAQ.
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Aristide Flees Haiti; Judge Claims Power:
Haiti’s beleaguered President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and flew into exile Sunday. Gunfire crackled throughout the capital as it fell into chaos, and the United States said international peacekeepers ˜ including Americans ˜ would be deployed soon.
tinyurl.com/3ytv2
27 February 2004
Is the British state in disarray or what? It’s one disaster after the next for Blair’s ‘mini-imperium’ and in spite of all the calls to ‘move on and put Iraq behind us’, like a bad meal the issue of why the war and invasion and all the lies used to justify it, the issues just won’t go away.
The dirty tricks campaign mounted against members of the UN Security Council that included bullying, bribery and blackmail by the US to get the half dozen recalcitrant members to endorse its invasion of Iraq (a campaign that amazingly failed), has yet again exposed the bumbling English political class as an inept and divided servant of US capital.
26 February 2004
“[In 1825] Haiti was obliged to repay more than it received…. France’s King Charles X ordered former French slaves to pay 150m francs [over $2 billion at today’s prices] before France would grant diplomatic recognition to Haiti, Latin America’s oldest republic. A French diplomat recently told me, without irony, that during François Mitterrand’s presidency, “Haiti still owed us part of that debt”.” [1]
So what else has changed in the following 179 years? Not very much and predictably, the media is doing a hatchet job on Haiti’s Aristide. A piece by Andrew Gumbel in Saturday’s Independent (21/02/04 p. 21) is pretty typical. Headed “The little priest who became a bloody dictator like the one he once despised” is an outrageous rewriting of the history of Haiti with nary a mention of the role that the US has played in the island’s sorry history for the past 179 years including refusing to recognise the world’s first independent Black republic until 1864, fearful of the example it set for its own enslaved African population.
February 2004 — Information Clearing House
Digest February 20-25 2004
Date: 25 Feb 2004
Note:
A reader forwarded the following comments in relation to an article ‘The Coming Implosion of the American Empire’ posted on site 02/24/04. I thought it worthwhile to bring it to your attention.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5765.htm Thanks to Mark for providing the info.
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297 DAYS … AND STILL NO WMD FOUND IN IRAQ.
19 February 2004
The National Endowment for Democracy that ‘celebrated’ its 20th anniversary this year has a long and less than illustrious past. It’s dead hand has descended on a number of countries over the past two decades including Nicaragua, El Salvador, Venezuela (currently also on-going) and of course Haiti.
February 2004 — Information Clearing House
Digest February 13-19 2004
Date: 19 Feb 2004
291 DAYS … AND STILL NO WMD FOUND IN IRAQ.
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U.S. to Send Military Team to Haiti :
The Bush administration said Thursday it would send a military team to Haiti to assess the security of the U.S. Embassy there, but stressed that it is still looking for a political solution to the bloody uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040219/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/us_aristide_6
17 February 2004
Haiti, yet another US foreign policy disaster area, Western press coverage has been predictably less than forthcoming over the deteriorating situation. Indeed, trying to find out anything meaningful at all about the current situation has proved to be extremely difficult. Aside that is from what has become a de facto methodology of reportage of events on the island (or indeed in any country that can be called ‘un-developed’ and yet another ‘failed’ state).
16 February 2004 — www.unansweredquestions.net/ – www.911independentcommission.org
February 16, 2004. The Family Steering Committee believes that President Bush should provide sworn public testimony to the full ten-member panel of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
Collectively, the Commissioners are responsible for fulfilling the Congressional mandate. Therefore, each Commissioner must have full access to the testimony of all individuals and the critical information that will enable informed decisions and recommendations. Before an audience of the American people, the Commission must ask President Bush in sworn testimony, the following questions:
1. As Commander-in-Chief on the morning of 9/11, why didn’t you return immediately to Washington, D.C. or the National Military Command Center once you became aware that America was under attack? At specifically what time did you become aware that America was under attack? Who informed you of this fact?
2. On the morning of 9/11, who was in charge of our country while you were away from the National Military Command Center? Were you informed or consulted about all decisions made in your absence?
3. What defensive action did you personally order to protect our nation during the crisis on Sept. 11? What time were these orders given, and to whom? What orders were carried out? What was the result of such orders? Were any such orders not carried out?
4. In your opinion, why was our nation so utterly unprepared for an attack on our own soil?
5. U.S. Navy Captain Deborah Loewer, the Director of the White House Situation Room, informed you of the first airliner hitting Tower One of the World Trade Center before you entered the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida. Please explain the reason why you decided to continue with the scheduled classroom visit, fifteen minutes after learning the first hijacked airliner had hit the World Trade Center.
6. Is it normal procedure for the Director of the White House Situation Room to travel with you? If so, please cite any prior examples of when this occurred. If not normal procedure, please explain the circumstances that led to the Director of the White House Situation Room being asked to accompany you to Florida during the week of September 11th.
7. What plan of action caused you to remain seated after Andrew Card informed you that a second airliner had hit the second tower of the World Trade Center and America was clearly under attack? Approximately how long did you remain in the classroom after Card’s message?
8. At what time were you made aware that other planes were hijacked in addition to Flight 11 and Flight 175? Who notified you? What was your course of action as Commander-in-Chief of the United States?
9. Beginning with the transition period between the Clinton administration and your own, and ending on 9/11/01, specifically what information (either verbal or written) about terrorists, possible attacks and targets, did you receive from any source? This would include briefings or communications from:
* Out-going Clinton officials
* CIA, FBI, NSA, DoD and other intelligence agencies
* Foreign intelligence, governments, dignitaries or envoys
* National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
* Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar
10. Specifically, what did you learn from the August 6, 2001, PDB about the terrorist threat that was facing our nation? Did you request any follow-up action to take place? Did you request any further report be developed and/or prepared?
11. As Commander-in-Chief, from May 1, 2001 until September 11, 2001, did you receive any information from any intelligence agency official or agent that UBL was planning to attack this nation on its own soil using airplanes as weapons, targeting New York City landmarks during the week of September 11, 2001 or on the actual day of September 11, 2001?
12. What defensive measures did you take in response to pre-9/11 warnings from eleven nations about a terrorist attack, many of which cited an attack in the continental United States? Did you prepare any directives in response to these actions? If so, with what results?
13. As Commander-in-Chief from May 1, 2001 until September 11, 2001, did you or any agent of the U,S, government carry out any negotiations or talks with UBL, an agent of UBL, or al-Qaeda?
During that same period, did you or any agent of the U.S. government carry out any negotiations or talks with any foreign government, agents, or officials regarding UBL? If so, what resulted?
14. Your schedule for September 11, 2001 was in the public domain since September 7, 2001. The Emma E. Booker School is only five miles from the Bradenton Airport, so you, and therefore the children in the classroom, might have been a target for the terrorists on 9/11. What was the intention of the Secret Service in allowing you to remain in the Emma E. Booker Elementary School, even though they were aware America was under attack?
15. Please explain why you remained at the Sarasota, Florida, Elementary School for a press conference after you had finished listening to the children read, when as a terrorist target, your presence potentially jeopardized the lives of the children?
16. What was the purpose of the several stops of Air Force One on September 11th? Was Air Force One at any time during the day of September 11th a target of the terrorists? Was Air Force One’s code ever breached on September 11th?
17. Was there a reason for Air Force One lifting off without a military escort, even after ample time elapsed to allow military jets to arrive?
18. What prompted your refusal to release the information regarding foreign sponsorship of the terrorists, as illustrated in the inaccessible 28 redacted pages in the Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry Report? What actions have you personally taken since 9/11 to thwart foreign sponsorship of terrorism?
19. Who approved the flight of the bin Laden family out of the United States when all commercial flights were grounded, when there was time for only minimal questioning by the FBI, and especially, when two of those same individuals had links to WAMY, a charity suspected of funding terrorism? Why were bin Laden family members granted that special privilege � a privilege not available to American families whose loved ones were killed on 9/11?
20. Please explain why no one in any level of our government has yet been held accountable for the countless failures leading up to and on 9/11?
21. Please comment on the fact that UBL’s profile on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives poster does not include the 9/11 attacks.
To your knowledge, when was the last time any agent of our government had contact with UBL? If prior to 9/11, specifically what was the date of that contact and what was the context of said meeting.
22. Do you continue to maintain that Saddam Hussein was linked to al Qaeda? What proof do you have of any connection between al-Qaeda and the Hussein regime?
23. Which individuals, governments, agencies, institutions, or groups may have benefited from the attacks of 9/11? Please state specifically how you think they have benefited.
The Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Independent Commission – http://www.911independentcommission.org
13 February 2004
Former US Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie
In reading the endless media reports on the lack of WMD in Iraq, there’s not a single report in the corporate press that raises the issue of why except of course for the state’s mantra of ‘faulty intelligence’ followed by the endless litany of accusation and counter-accusation between governments and their various ‘intelligence’ agencies.
February 2004 — Information Clearing House
Digest February 6-12 2004
Date: 12 Feb 2004
284 DAYS … AND STILL NO WMD FOUND IN IRAQ.
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Sept. 11 Panel to Ask for Bush Testimony:
The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will soon ask President Bush, former President Bill Clinton and their vice presidents to testify in public about possible warnings they might have received from U.S. intelligence sources before the attacks.
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040212/ap_on_re_us/sept_11_commission
6 February 2004
What a way to run capitalism! But then the entire enterprise has been somewhat problematic since day (91)1 so-to-speak. But this past week has I think been quite an eye-opener for a lot of people (aside from the millions who had their eyes open from the beginning).
As predicted, Blair has done his best to reset the agenda re the ‘dictionary’ definition of WMD but then what other choice does he have? Blair’s capos Reid, Straw, Hain, Hoon et al have been working overtime trying to do damage control but it’s the performance of Margaret Beckett’s that took the cake this week, as she has revealed herself as shrill bordering on the hysterical when she rounded on anyone who dared question what a WMD is let alone where (‘the 45-minutes are not important’) and then capped it by trying to compare Blair to Churchill (‘We’ll deceive them on the beaches, we’ll deceive them in the air’ etc).
February 2004 — Information Clearing House
Index February 1-6 2004
Date: 6 Feb 2004
278 DAYS … AND STILL NO WMD FOUND IN IRAQ.
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Iraq threat was limited, troops told:
Australian troops fighting in Iraq were told in an official briefing days before entering the country that Saddam Hussein did not have the capability to launch weapons of mass destruction against its neighbours.
www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/06/1075854063537.html
4 February 2004
Hard to know where to begin what with Blair desperately seeking solutions. Kay, Jones, Powell and co, all spilling the beans (not, I add of the ricin kind) and jumping ship in what now looks remarkably like a total rout for the imperium. Blair protests in Parliament that Saddam’s ‘plans’ are pretty much the same thing as actually having the weapons (gasps of disbelief) and then not content with this, he goes on to say that ‘battlefield weapons’ are actually WMDs but by another name (more gasps of disbelief).
3 February 2004
Aish! Well I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised but in an op-ed piece in today’s Independent (03/02/04) by Mary Dejevsky headed “Let’s be honest: journalists failed as well”, we are told that:
“We journalists failed to ask pertinent questions that could have at least cast doubt on the information the government supplied…. How could so congenitally sceptical a breed allow this to happen?”
Good question Ms Dejevsky, it’s a pity that instead of exploring the real reasons you firstly, fall back on a failing memory:
“It is hard now to think back to September 2002 and January 2003 when the Government issued its two dossiers on Iraq’s Weapons.”
2 February 2004
“I saw evidence that was categoric on Saddam possessing chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Now I saw the evidence, so did the Prime Minister, so did other cabinet ministers. That informed our decision to go topple him. I think we were right in doing so, but let’s wait and see what the jury finds out in the end.”
So says Peter Hain, Leader of the Commons and former anti-apartheid activist and if you believe this statement, you’ll believe anything.
But what is this statement based upon? The September 2002 dossier? The ‘dodgy’ February 2003 dossier or the stuff that nobody else has ever seen? Perhaps it’s Hans Blix’s final report to the UN? Perhaps it was the fairies at the bottom of the garden?
1 February 2004
“US officials knew in May Iraq possessed no WMD”.
So goes the headline in the Observer (01/02/04) but the reality is that the US government knew in 1991 that Iraq possessed no WMD as did the UK government. So what’s the argument all about? Why is it so important that a ‘battle royale’ is being conducted around the existence or otherwise of WMD? For what the headline reveals is the ‘wheels within wheels’ approach to selling a war nobody but the warmongers wanted.
The New Dark Age 