Filed under: 9/11, 9/11 commission, 9/11 commission report, 9/11 Truth, al-qaeda, bin laden, Dana Perino, False Flag, inside job, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, nation building, neocons, occupation, Pentagon, Propaganda, State Sponsored Terrorism, Tony Snow, War On Terror, White House, World Trade Center | Tags: khalid sheikh mohammed
On 7th Anniversary Of Attacks, White House Claims Bin Laden Was Not The ‘Mastermind’ of Sept. 11
Think Progress
September 10, 2008
Tomorrow marks the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In a press conference today, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino about the administration’s ongoing efforts to find Osama bin Laden, calling him the “mastermind” of 9/11. Perino interrupted the reporter, claiming bin Laden was not the true “mastermind” of the attacks:
Q But Osama bin Laden is the one that — you keep talking about his lieutenants, and, yes, they are very important, but Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of 9/11 –
PERINO: No, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind of 9/11, and he’s sitting in jail right now.
Watch it:
Perino seems to be attempting to justify the White House’s failure to catch bin Laden by suggesting he was not the “mastermind.” But in September 2006, former press secretary Tony Snow stated:
Osama bin Laden, mastermind of September 11th, the person that many people talk about and still have concerns about, calls this fight, the fight in Iraq, “the third world war.”
While Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has admitted to being the “architect” of 9/11, bin Laden was not inconsequential; he approved and executed the attacks. KSM in fact, brought the idea to bin Laden, who according to the 9/11 Commission, “wanted to hit the White House, Pentagon and U.S. Capitol,” not just the World Trade Center.
Perino suggested that it would take “superpowers” to catch bin Laden. “So there are human limitations to any — this is not the movies, we don’t have superpowers,” she said. It didn’t, however, take “superpowers” to capture bin Laden at Tora Bora in late 2001, where he escaped in part because of a lack of troops.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/w..be-by-white-Americans-or-Europeans.html
Expert: Al Qaeda is in league with U.S. against Iran
http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/30296
Mexico, U.S. Find No Terror Ties To Al-Qaeda
http://news.yahoo.com/s/a.._ylt=AuNTlKJ7MDLJwUXp5g2DTVO9IxIF
No Consensus As To Who Was Behind 9/11
http://www.newsmeat.com/…&buyerId=newsmeatcom&buid=3281
“There is no such organisation as ‘Al Qaeda’”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/world..e-really-scared-of.html
Filed under: Dana Perino, DEBT, Economy, George Bush, Iraq, Iraqnam, joe stiglitz, Military, nation building, neocons, occupation, Troops, US Economy, Vietnam, War On Terror, war spending, White House | Tags: Congressional Research Service, CRS
At $648 Billion, Cost Of Iraq War Almost Equal To Vietnam
Think Progress
July 26, 2008
In his 1999 book, A Charge To Keep, President Bush said he had “learned the lessons of Vietnam” about “never again ask[ing] the military to fight a political war.” After launching the Iraq war, in April 2004, Bush rejected the analogy that Iraq was turning into a quagmire like Vietnam:
Q: How do you answer the Vietnam comparison?
BUSH: I think the analogy is false.
Last August, however, President Bush reversed course and embraced the Vietnam analogy, stating Vietnam taught us that “the price of America’s withdrawal” is steep and painful.
In a new report, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reveals that the real similarity between Iraq and Vietnam is in the price of staying. In constant FY2008 dollars, the Vietnam war cost the U.S. $686 billion. The Iraq war, at just over five years old, is priced at $648 billion:
CRS notes, “All estimates are of the costs of military operations only and do not reflect costs of veterans benefits, interest on war-related debt, or assistance to allies.” Thus, the actual costs of the Iraq war are likely much greater, as Nobel Prize economist Joe Stiglitz reported in his book, The Three Trillion Dollar War.
It is unlikely, however, that the White House is concerned about these mounting costs. In October, the CBO conservatively said the wars may cost $2 trillion over the next decade. “I’m not worried about the number,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said in response, calling the estimate “pure speculation.”
Indeed, “the price of America’s withdrawal” from Iraq may be an alternative that Bush should strongly consider.
Filed under: 2008 olympics, Ahmadinejad, airstrikes, Britain, Coup, Dana Perino, diplomacy, dubai, Europe, european union, False Flag, George Bush, Iran, military strike, neocons, Nuke, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Propaganda, Psyops, Shock and Awe, Tehran, United Kingdom, War On Terror, White House, william burns, WW3, ww4 | Tags: Saeed Jalili
U.S. Seeks a Diplomatic Base in Iran
Ewen MacAskill
London Guardian
July 18, 2008
The Bush administration said yesterday that it welcomed the prospect of increased “people-to-people” contact between Americans and Iranians, as it pushed ahead at speed with plans to establish a diplomatic presence in Tehran.
The White House and the State Department refused to deny a Guardian report that a decision has been taken to set up a US-interests section in Tehran, marking the first return of its diplomats to the city since the 1979-81 Iranian revolution.
A source familiar with the decision-making said the Bush administration has either already, or would over the next few days, lodge a formal request with the Iranian government to set up an interests section, a halfway-house to an embassy.
Sean McCormack, the US state department spokesman, responded to questions from reporters by saying: “We are not going to discuss the internal workings of the US government.”
But he went on to pave the way for an announcement by saying that the US is keen to encourage “people-to-people exchanges” and listed a series of contacts between Americans and Iranians, including visits by artists and a planned trip by Iran’s Olympic team to the US.
Bush Sends Top Diplomat To Meet With Iran
AP
July 16, 2008
A top U.S. diplomat heading to Geneva has no plans to meet separately with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, but the mere presence of the Bush administration official at talks between the Iranian negotiator and representatives of other world powers will be a sharp break with past administration policy.
William Burns, America’s third highest-ranking diplomat, will attend talks with the Iranian envoy, Saeed Jalili, in Switzerland on Saturday. The talks are aimed at persuading Iran to halt activities that could lead to the development of atomic weapons. It will be the first time such a high-ranking U.S. official has attended such talks.
Official contacts between Iran and the United States are extremely rare and although Washington is part of a six-nation effort to get Iran to stop enriching and reprocessing uranium, the administration has shunned contacts with Tehran on the matter.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200807..PSyUojyOFktQwZYb.3QA
Filed under: Ahmadinejad, airstrikes, Black-Ops, blackops, Congress, Coup, Dana Perino, False Flag, George Bush, Iran, military strike, nation building, neocons, Nuke, occupation, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Psyops, Seymour Hersh, Shock and Awe, State Sponsored Terrorism, Tehran, Troops, War On Terror, White House, WW3, ww4
White House silent on $400m for covert operations in Iran
http://noworldsystem.com/2008/07/01/hersh-d..ing-of-al-qaeda-in-iran/
Filed under: 9/11, Afghanistan, Air Force, Australia, Britain, condolezza rice, Dana Perino, Europe, Fox News, George Bush, Germany, Iraq, iraqi deaths, Japan, kevin rudd, nation building, neocons, occupation, Pentagon, Propaganda, Saber Rattling, Troops, Uncategorized, United Kingdom, War Crimes, War On Terror, WMD, WW2 | Tags: vincent bugliosi
Australian troops pull out of Iraq
Reuters
June 1, 2008
About 500 Australian combat troops pulled out of their base in southern Iraq on Sunday, fulfilling an election promise by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to bring the soldiers home this year.
A British military spokesman in the southern city of Basra said the pullout from Talil base in Nassiriya was under way, but a spokesman for the governor of Dhi Qar province said it had been completed, with U.S. forces replacing the Australians.
“The Australian battle group is pulling out,” the British military spokesman said.
Australia, a staunch U.S. ally, was one of the first countries to commit troops to the Iraq war. In addition to the combat troops, it also deployed aircraft and warships to the Gulf to protect Iraq’s offshore oil platforms.
Since handing over security of Dhi Qar province to the Iraqis, the main role of the Australian battle group, numbering about 515 soldiers, has been to train and support Iraqi forces.
Rudd, who won elections last November, had promised to bring home frontline troops this year. Polls show 80 percent of Australians oppose the war.
Bush links Iraq, Afghan wars to WWII
Press TV
May 28, 2008
US President George W. Bush has linked the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to World War II asking the country for postwar rebuilding.
In a prepared address for Wednesday to more than 1,000 graduates of the US Air Force Academy, released by the White House, Bush framed the graduates’ future to the World War II generation and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to postwar Germany and Japan six decades ago.
Bush said, “After World War II, we helped Germany and Japan build free societies and strong economies. These efforts took time and patience, and as a result Germany and Japan grew in freedom and prosperity and are now allies of the United States.”
He added, “Today we must do the same in Afghanistan and Iraq and by helping these young democracies grow in freedom and prosperity we will once again reap the benefits in generations of security and peace.”
Meanwhile, the country is still in debate over whether the Iraq war has bolstered the US security or weakened it.
Prosecute Bush for Murder
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/30/mcclellan-testify/
McCain Reacts To McClellan: ’Every Intelligence Agency In The World And Every Assessment’ Said Iraq Had WMD
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/29/mccain-mcclellan/
Fox and Friends’ warns McClellan: ‘better not have any skeletons in his closet.’
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/29/fox-a..ot-have-any-skeletons-in-his-closet/
Rice says Iraq war was right thing to do
http://www.rawstory.com/news/.._war_was_right_thing__05292008.html
’US bribing Iraqi MPs to sign deal’
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=57841§ionid=351020201
Pentagon Warns Funding For Iraq Is Drying Up
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080528..AusC5BEgKl9tyjExV2FjjIkb.3QA
Study documents nearly 1,000 lies from Iraq war propaganda campaign
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/lies-j26.shtml
Filed under: bernanke, Britain, central bank, Credit Crisis, Dana Perino, DEBT, ECB, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Euro, Europe, european central bank, Federal Reserve, food prices, gas prices, George Bush, global economy, Great Depression, Greenback, Inflation, interest rate cut, interest rate cuts, Iraq, marc faber, Oil, Petrol, rate cut, russian mafia, S&P, Stock Market, United Kingdom, US Economy, Wall Street, War On Terror, Warren Buffett, Yen | Tags: Standard & Poor
Dollar Declines, Fed May Cut Rates 75 Points
Bloomberg
March 10, 2008
The dollar weakened against the euro and approached an eight-year low versus the yen as traders bet the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates by at least 75 basis points to avert a recession.
The currency traded within a cent of a record low against the euro as futures indicated 96 percent odds the Fed will cut its benchmark rate to 2.25 percent on March 18, 175 basis points more than the Bank of Japan’s and 175 basis points less than the European Central Bank’s. The U.S. currency weakened against a basket of major trading partners to near the lowest since the index began in 1973.
“What’s been driving the market is U.S. economic developments and expected interest-rate differentials,” said Thanos Papasavvas, head of currency management at Investec Asset Management in London. “This is a weak-dollar story. We would expect the Japanese yen and euro to continue appreciating.”
The dollar fell to 102.33 yen by 7:24 a.m. in New York, from 102.67 yen on March 7, when it slid to 101.43, the lowest since January 2000. It dropped to $1.5364 per euro, from $1.5355 at the end of last week, when it declined to $1.5459 a euro, the weakest level since the European single currency’s debut in 1999.
The yen advanced 0.4 percent to 157.20 per euro as the Cabinet Office said Japan’s equipment orders jumped 19.6 percent in January, the fastest pace in more than seven years.
The U.S. currency declined to $2.0197 against the pound, from $2.0134 on March 7, after a government report showed factory-gate in February inflation matched the fastest annual pace since 1991. The dollar also dropped 0.2 percent to 1.0233 against the Swiss franc and 0.5 percent to 5.1361 Norwegian krone.
Faber: Bernanke Will Destroy Dollar
Market Watch
March 9, 2008
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will “destroy the U.S. dollar” by cutting interest rates, investor Marc Faber said.
Bernanke’s reduction in the target rate for overnight loans between banks to 3 percent has spurred a rout in U.S. stocks and gains in oil and gold prices, said Faber, the Gloom, Boom & Doom report publisher who told investors to buy gold at the start of its six-year rally.
The U.S. is now in a “de-leveraging” phase where banks make fewer loans, stunting economic growth, Faber said. He estimated that a U.S. recession began two or three months ago.
“In the U.S., they pursue essentially economic policies that target consumption, which in my opinion is misguided,” Faber said in an interview with Bloomberg Television from Chicago. “They should pursue economic policies that stimulate capital investment and capital formation.”
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is down 9.7 percent since Sept. 18, when the Fed began cutting the fed funds target to 3 percent from 5.25 percent. The dollar has lost 9.2 percent of its value versus the euro, crude oil futures gained more than 29 percent and gold added 34 percent during that time.
Further interest-rate cuts may spur inflation and reduce the value of 10- and 30-year Treasuries, Faber said, calling the bonds “a disaster waiting to happen.” Ten-year notes fell to a four-year low of 3.44 on Jan. 22.
Press Secretary Perino: I’ll Be Fired If I Talk About the Dollar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Cvg9deslg
Recent News:
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Buffett warns: $516 trillion Derivative bubble is a disaster waiting to happen
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor..7D&dist=MostReadHome
Studies: Iraq Costs US $12B Per Month
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7372200
Surging costs of groceries hit home
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How Low Can The Dollar Go? Zero Value
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Fed Doing In The Dollar
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More Leading Economists Say US Is Now In Recession
http://infowars.net/articles/march2008/100308recession.htm
Central Bankers Voice Food Inflation Fear
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7366076
Bush: It Is Clear Economy Has Slowed
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.._economy&printer=1
Britain shivers as US hits recession
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article3510563.ece
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Filed under: 4th amendment, 9/11, amnesty, Barack Obama, Big Brother, chris dodd, Dana Perino, Dianne Feinstein, DNI, FISA, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, NSA, Senate, Surveillance, US Constitution, War On Terror, warrentless wiretap, White House
Senate OKs Telecom Immunity
AP
February 12, 2008
The Senate voted Tuesday to shield from lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without court permission after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
After nearly two months of stops and starts, the Senate rejected by a vote of 31 to 67 a move to strip away a grant of retroactive legal immunity for the companies.
President Bush has promised to veto any new surveillance bill that does not protect the companies that helped the government in its warrantless wiretapping program, arguing that it is essential if the private sector is to give the government the help it needs.
About 40 lawsuits have been filed against telecom companies by people alleging violations of wiretapping and privacy laws.
The Senate also rejected two amendments that sought to water down the immunity provision.
One, co-sponsored by Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, would have substituted the government for the telecoms in lawsuits, allowing the court cases to go forward but shifting the cost and burden of defending the program.
The other, pushed by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, would have given a secret court that oversees government surveillance inside the United States the power to dismiss lawsuits if it found that the companies acted in good faith and on the request of the president or attorney general.
Bush Admits Telecoms Spied
Raw Story
February 12, 2008
In Oval Office address, president pledges veto of any temporary FISA expansions
Well, he finally dropped the “allegedly.” President Bush at long last admitted what everyone has suspected for years — the nation’s telecommunications companies closely cooperated with the National Security Agency and his administration to implement large-scale spying on Americans.
Bush was praising the Senate for approving his long-sought update to a foreign surveillance law. Critics say the bill legalizes his warrantless wiretapping program, which was implemented outside the boundaries of the law, and frees phone and internet companies from any responsibility for violating customers’ privacy.
“The senate bill also provides fair and just liability protections for companies that did the right thing and assisted in defending America, after the attacks of Sept. 11,” Bush said.
As recently as his State of the Union address, Bush would only call for legal immunity for companies “believed to have assisted” in his so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program.
Bush’s admission came a day after his press secretary similarly acknowledged phone company cooperation. Also Tuesday, the Director of National Intelligence sought to suppress as “Top Secret” evidence of a phone conversation between a telecom company representative and a DNI lawyer.
Speaking from the Oval Office Wednesday morning, Bush threw down the gauntlet and issued a stern warning to the House. He admonished the chamber for failing to rubber-stamp the White House approved bill, which 18 Democrats joined every Republican and Joe Lieberman to do Tuesday. Democrats in the House, on the other hand, approved a bill updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance without granting legal immunity.
Bush has pleged to veto any bill without immunity, and he said Tuesday that he would not accept any more temporary FISA extensions. By midnight Saturday, when a stop-gap extension expires, Bush said he will get what he wants or do nothing to stop what he says are vital gaps in intelligence collection re-open.
On the eve of a vote to give telephone companies immunity for their alleged participation in the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretap program, White House spokesperson Dana Perino admitted that the companies actually spied.
Because they were patriotic.
“The telephone companies that were alleged to have helped their country after 9/11 did so because they are patriotic and they certainly helped us and they helped us save lives,” Perino told reporters at Tuesday’s press briefing.
The admission, while possibly a verbal slip-up, was first noticed by Ryan Singer, of Wired.
The Senate gave the phone companies immunity by a 69-29 vote. It passed wiretapping bill in its entirety just before 6pm ET, 68-29.
Earlier this afternoon, the immunity measure’s staunchest opponent, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), announced he would abandon his effort to block the bill with a filibuster, arguing that the House, which has passed an immunity-free bill, would be a better place to try to strip immunity from Congress’s final piece of legislation.
“We lost every single battle we had on this bill,” Dodd said on a conference call Tuesday with reporters and bloggers. “And the question is now, Can we do better with the House carrying the ball on this bill?”
The bill to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, including a provision granting retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that facilitated government spying, passed the Senate on a 68-29 vote Tuesday evening.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS..0&session=2&vote=00020
Bush Presses House To Approve Spy Bill
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/…1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
Senator Dodd on retroactive immunity: ‘We’ve just sanctioned the single largest invasion of privacy in American history’
http://www.theseminal.com/2008/02/12/retroactive-immunity-whats-next/
Filed under: CIA, Dana Perino, Dick Cheney, false information, George Bush, Impeach, Iraq, joseph wilson, Karl Rove, scooter libby, Scott Mcclellan, Valerie Plame, War On Terror, White House
Bush ‘involved’ in CIA leak case
BBC
November 21, 2007
A former White House press secretary has said the US president was involved in misinforming the public over the leaking of a CIA agent’s identity.
In an excerpt from his book, Scott McClellan says George W Bush helped mislead the public over the role in the affair of two White House aides.
The CIA agent, Valerie Plame, says her identity was leaked because her diplomat husband opposed the Iraq war.
The White House said Mr Bush would not ask anyone to pass false information.
Lawsuit
Mr McClellan’s book is not scheduled for publication until April and the excerpt released was brief.
It refers to a White House press conference he attended in 2003.
WHAT IS CIA LEAK CASE ABOUT?
Libby was found guilty of lying to the FBI and a grand jury over revelations about CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity
Critics said the White House leaked Ms Plame’s identity to undermine her husband, ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson
He had publicly cast doubt on the Bush administration’s case for war in Iraq
The alleged cover-up, rather than the leak itself, was the subject of the Libby trial
At the conference, Mr McClellan told journalists that the two aides Karl Rove and Lewis “Scooter” Libby were “not involved” in leaking Ms Plame’s identity.
The excerpt reads: “There was one problem. It was not true.
“I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice-president, the president’s chief of staff, and the president himself.”
Mr McClellan, who served as press secretary from 2003 to 2006, and his publisher later clarified the excerpt.
Peter Osnos of Public Affairs Books said Mr McClellan was not suggesting Mr Bush deliberately lied.
“He told him something that wasn’t true, but the president didn’t know it wasn’t true,” Mr Osnos said. “The president told him what he thought to be the case.”
Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, is the only person charged over the affair. He was sentenced to 30 months in jail for obstructing an inquiry into the leaking of the identity.
However, Mr Bush intervened in July to prevent Libby from serving a prison term.
Ms Plame said Mr McClellan’s excerpt was “shocking” and that she believed Mr McClellan had been “sent out to lie to the press corps”.
Current White House press secretary Dana Perino said: “The president has not and would not ask his spokespeople to pass on false information.”
In July a judge dismissed a civil lawsuit brought by Ms Plame against Mr Cheney and other Bush administration officials.
She maintained her cover had been blown after her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador, said the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence on Iraq to back its case for war.
noworldsystem.com 