The Washington Post has completely whitewashed new revelations concerning how close Saddam Hussein came to obtaining a nuclear bomb by failing to mention the fact that the provider, Khan Research Laboratories, was shielded from investigation by the U.S. government for decades.
“As troops massed on his border near the start of the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein weighed the purchase of a $150 million nuclear “package” deal that included not only weapons designs but also production plants and foreign experts to supervise the building of a nuclear bomb, according to documents uncovered by a former U.N. weapons inspector,” reports the Post today.
“The offer, made in 1990 by an agent linked to disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, guaranteed Iraq a weapons-assembly line capable of producing nuclear warheads in as little as three years.”
However, the report completely fails to even mention the fact that Khan Research Laboratories, the source from which Saddam would have procured a nuclear bomb, was protected from investigation by the U.S. government since at least the mid-1970’s, as investigative journalist Greg Palast exposed in a 2001 BBC report.
In 2004, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb program, admitted sharing nuclear technology via a worldwide smuggling network that included facilities in Malaysia that manufactured key parts for centrifuges.
Khan’s collaborator B.S.A. Tahir ran a front company out of Dubai that shipped centrifuge components to North Korea.
Despite Dutch authorities being deeply suspicious of Khan’s activities as far back as 1975, the CIA prevented them from arresting him on two occasions.
“The man was followed for almost ten years and obviously he was a serious problem. But again I was told that the secret services could handle it more effectively,” former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers said. “The Hague did not have the final say in the matter. Washington did.”
Lubbers stated that Khan was allowed to slip in and out of the Netherlands with the blessing of the CIA, eventually allowing him to become the “primary salesman of an extensive international network for the proliferation of nuclear technology and know-how,” according to George W. Bush himself, and sell nuclear secrets that allowed North Korea to build nuclear bombs.
“Lubbers suspects that Washington allowed Khan’s activities because Pakistan was a key ally in the fight against the Soviets,” reports CFP. “At the time, the US government funded and armed mujahideen such as Osama bin Laden. They were trained by Pakistani intelligence to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Anwar Iqbal, Washington correspondent for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, told ISN Security Watch that Lubbers’ assertions may be correct. “This was part of a long-term foolish strategy. The US knew Pakistan was developing nuclear weapons but couldn’t care less because it was not going to be used against them. It was a deterrent against India and possibly the Soviets.”
In September 2005 it emerged that the Amsterdam court which sentenced Khan to four years imprisonment in 1983 had lost the legal files pertaining to the case. The court’s vice-president, Judge Anita Leeser, accused the CIA of stealing the files. “Something is not right, we just don’t lose things like that,” she told Dutch news show NOVA. “I find it bewildering that people lose files with a political goal, especially if it is on request of the CIA. It is unheard of.”
Having armed once branch of the “axis of evil,” it’s no surprise that Khan was also used in an attempt to arm Saddam Hussein with nuclear weapons, opening up another perfect justification for Iraq to subsequently be invaded and occupied by U.S. forces.
Although the 2003 invasion was sold on the lie that Saddam was hiding weapons of mass destruction which proved to be non-existent, it wasn’t for the want of trying, since efforts to arm Saddam with nuclear weapons via the Khan network were a mere continuation of the U.S. government’s program to provide Saddam with chemical and biological weapons, tools used to commit atrocities that were later cited by the U.S. as one of the primary reasons for the attack.
Of course, since the Washington Post is a mouthpiece for the new world order and the Bilderberg Group that owns it, in covering the Khan-Saddam connection writer Joby Warrick knows that his bosses wouldn’t be pleased if he actually gave you more than half the story, which is why his article amounts to nothing more than a misleading whitewash.
Obama“19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder 3,000 people. . . As we know the men belonged to alqaeda . . . Alqaeda’s base of operations were in Afghanistan.”
Actually the ’19 hijackers’ were Saudi Arabians.
Obama“(Afghanistan) is the epicenter of violent extremism practiced by alqaeda, from (Afghanistan) we were attacked on 9/11, and it’s from here that new attacks are being plotted as i speak. Because we know that alqaeda and other extremist seek nuclear weapons and we have every reason to believe that they would use them.”“We have to take away the tools of mass destruction. . . “
This is precisely what the Bush administration’s rationale; “The attacks from 9/11 came from Iraq or Afghanistan so we must fight alqaeda there so they don’t come to our shores with weapons of mass destruction.”. One shouldn’t have to argue any longer that Obama is just another puppet like George W. Bush, bending-over for the royal internationalist oligarchs that want global military dominance throughout the mideast region.
Many have warned long before the 2008 elections that Obama is a war candidate and is no different from McCain, Bush or Cheney on foreign policy. Many didn’t listen, and now we are stuck in Afghanistan which will cost us financially, spiritually and not to mention many more lives of U.S. soldiers. Obama is continuing to besmirch the name of Americans, causing more tension against Americans and incubating violent hatred against the west, terrorism that supposedly Obama wants to prevent from happening.
Even the former Soviet Union is warning Obama that a war against the Taliban futile and will only create more resistance in the region.:
The administration of the Nobel peace laureate, President Barack Obama, has authorized an expansion of drone attacks on Pakistan’s troubled tribal regions, a new report says.
The New York Times report also says US and Pakistani officials are discussing the possibility of CIA operated drone strikes in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province for the first time.
The purported aim of the American air strikes is to target militants. But Pakistani media outlets say the raids have mostly killed civilians.
The unpopular strikes were initiated under the George W Bush administration in 2006.
Use of drones has increased since the Nobel peace laureate, Obama, became president.
Obama has repeatedly vowed to expand the controversial strikes that have raised anti-US sentiments across Pakistan.
The development also comes as Obama has announced his intention to deploy 33,000 more troops to Afghanistan and his top commander in Afghanistan says that Washington is not planning an early exit from Afghanistan.
Although nearly 110,000 foreign troops are present in Afghanistan after more than eight years of US-led invasion, they have not been able to establish stability in the war-ravaged country.
Obama’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan was condemned by Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich.
“The war is a threat to our national security. We’ll spend over $100 billion next year to bomb a nation of poor people while we reenergize the Taliban, destabilize Pakistan, deplete our army and put more of our soldiers’ lives on the line,” the Ohio congressman said in a statement.
In a recent interview with the Daily Beast last week, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Adviser from the Carter administration and adviser to President Barack Obama, made a highly contentious statement regarding the U.S.-Israeli alliance. When asked how the U.S.would respond to Israeli jets using Iraqi airspace in order to stage an attack on Iran, Brzezinski was quoted as saying: “We are not exactly impotent little babies. They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? … We have to be serious about denying them that right. That means a denial where you aren’t just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a Liberty in reverse.”
“A liberty in reverse” is a reference to the controversial encounter between Israeli jets and the American vessel U.S.S. Liberty in 1967that resulted in the sinking of the U.S. Navy ship.
Brzezinski who is said to have a reputation for such rhetoric, found his calls for “a Liberty in reverse” dimly viewed by many in Jewish leadership.
For example, Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham H Foxman, responded to Brzezinski’s quip with this: “Here is an international legal expert and he doesn’t even know that the US does not control sovereignty over Iraqi airspace. Putting that aside, Zbigniew Brzezinski has always had a nasty streak when it came to Israel…. it is better that we can now see it, and it is out in the open.”
The Obama administration quickly distanced itself from any association with Brzezinski quite some time ago. Former Ambassador Dennis Ross, senior adviser on Middle East affairs to the Barack Obama campaign, told New Jersey Jewish News in October of 2008,“Brzezinski is not an adviser to the campaign… there is a lot of disinformation that is being pushed, but he is not an adviser to the campaign. Brzezinski came out and supported Obama early because of thewar in Iraq. A year or so ago they talked a couple of times. That’s the extent of it, and Sen. Obama has made it clear that on other Middle Eastern issues, Brzezinski is not who he looks to. They don’t have the same views.” http://pimpinturtle.com/2009/09/28..
Israeli fighter jets have been allowed to use Saudi airspace to launch go-it-alone air strikes on Iranian nuclear installations, says a recent report.
The issue has been discussed in a closed-door meeting in London, where British Intelligence Chief Sir John Scarlett, his Israeli counterpart, Meir Dagan, and Saudi official have been present, Daily Express reported.
According to the report, Scarlett has been told that Saudi airspace would be at Israel’s disposal should Tel Aviv decide to move forward with his military plans against Iran.
The British daily added the likelihood of an Israeli attack against Iran has increased significantly after the country announced plans to launch its second enrichment facility in the central city of Qom.
Press TV contacted the Saudi Embassy in Tehran for information on the report. The embassy, however, was reluctant to elaborate.
In line with its policy of nuclear transparency, Iran announced the construction of a second enrichment plant in a letter to the UN nuclear watchdog on September 21. The new plant is due to produce enriched uranium up to 5 percent.
The letter was sent 12 months before the agency’s regulations oblige its member states to inform the body of new developments.
With eyes firmly fixed on Iran’s nuclear progressions, the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to bomb the country’s enrichment facilities out of existence.
Tel Aviv accuses Tehran of nuclear weapons development – a charge rejected by both Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog, which has so far made “21 unannounced inspections” of the country’s nuclear facilities.
The UN nuclear watchdog in its previous reports has confirmed that Iran only enriches uranium-235 to a level of “less than 5 percent.”
Uranium, which fuels a nuclear power plant, can be used for military purposes only if enriched to high levels of above 90 percent.
Details of the controversial Israeli plans to attack Iran emerged after John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, recently told a group of intelligence analysts that “Riyadh certainly approves” of Israel’s use of Saudi airspace in the event of war with Iran.
Bolton, had previously said he had discussed the possibility with Saudi officials in closed-door meetings. “None of them would say anything about it publicly but they would certainly acquiesce in an overflight if the Israelis didn’t trumpet it as a big success.”
The recent revelations follow a flurry of media reports in July, which suggested the Saudi government had approved the use of its airspace for an attack.
While Saudi officials deny having diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv, an Israeli defense source has confirmed that the Mossad spy agency maintained “working relations” with the kingdom.
According to a study published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a military exchange between Iran and Israel could result in the death of as many as 6 million people.
The Keating Five scandal, and John McCain’s role in it, has received relatively little mention in presidential campaign coverage, and at least one Fox News host seems dedicated to keeping it that way.
Appearing Thursday morning on Fox & Friends, radio host Mike Papantonio tried to remind viewers about McCain’s intervention with federal regulators on behalf of real estate mogul Charles Keating, who was trying to avoid regulations of a savings and loan he owned during the S&L crisis of the 1980s.
F&F’s Steve Doocy told Papantonio to “pipe down,” called him “rude” and demanded he “cut it out.” A show producer could be overheard saying “cut his mike.”
As Papantonio tries one last time to explain the details of the Keating Five scandal, Doocy again cuts him off.
“This is not the History Channel,” he says.
Papantonio’s apparent crime was interrupting fellow guest Michael Reagan, the conservative radio host, who was arguing that it would be unfair to judge McCain based on his actions 20 years ago.
“It has everything to do with what’s happening today,” Papantonio said before being told to pipe down.
Regardless of whether Papantonio was being rude, preserving an orderly debate certainly could not have been Doocy’s goal in silencing the guest. Not two minutes before his admonition that Papantonio was “being rude,” Doocy repeatedly interrupted his guest to deliver talking points that might as well have been written by the McCain campaign.
At least three times Doocy interrupted Papantonio as he argued that McCain’s political gambit to “suspend” his campaign and delay Friday’s debate was more a response to his flagging poll numbers than an attempt to fix the economic crisis. Doocy wasn’t buying it.
“If Barack Obama wants to do so much for the economy, why doesn’t he go to his day job and work in the US senate?” he asked Reagan, cutting off Papantonio’s argument.
China Blames Wall Street Meltdown On Fed Overissuance Of Currency
Paul Joseph Watson & Yihan Dai Prison Planet September 19, 2008
China’s state media today reports on the real reason behind the Wall Street meltdown and a subject that the mainstream US media dare not mention – the Federal Reserve’s overissuance of currency – which the Chinese say is part of a wider agenda to justify increased control over the global economy.
The Bush administration today announced a plan to use hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money to buy up up bad mortgages and other debts. The process of injecting more fiat money into an already over-inflated system had the desired effect – the Dow Jones shot up 450 points – but the dollar, following a brief jump, began to plummet.
According to numerous Chinese state media news sources today, the Federal Reserve’s continued zeal for propping up the market by injecting illusory liquidity is part of an agenda to gain trust and grease the skids for increased government intervention in financial markets.
China Finance , China News and Chaobao Financial News, all state owned media outlets, slammed the Fed for taking action that will only make long term economic conditions worse and devalue the dollar by “creating money that does not exist which leads to the inflation of liquidity,” a policy contrary to China’s position as a holder of vast reserves of US dollars.
The analyst quoted by Chaobao Financial News highlighted “that when there is market failure, the paramount purpose of government intervention should be saving the market for the benefit of the people: Relief, Recovery and then Reform,” and that “Protecting the rights of people who are suffering in the housing market and as a result of high oil prices should be treated as a priority.”
The analyst added that by concentrating on saving just a few large financial companies, the Fed is creating wider financial chaos while arousing anger and suspicion by “only protecting and encouraging large companies’ wrong doing.”
CEIBS Professor of Economics and Finance Xu Xiaonian told a conference yesterday that “The fundamental source of Wall Street’s meltdown is caused by Federal Reserve overissuing currency.” He cautioned that the US government has already exceeded its scope in terms of intervention compared with their usual policy.
Similar sentiments were echoed by economist Zuo Xiaolie, who said that the amount of money injected into the market will have little real impact, but that such measures are a “Narrow minded way that the Federal Reserve uses to diversify the pressure of currency adjustment to other countries, which leads to the devaluation of the dollar, causing imbalance in the global economy.”
“The amount of money that has been put into the market can not fundamentally save the market,” said Xiaolie, adding that the move was merely part of an agenda to “regain the trust and justify future further intervention in the economy.”
On Wednesday, China’s official People’s Daily newspaper, the voice of the ruling Communist party, said that the US had unleashed economic “weapons of mass destruction” and set off a “financial tsunami” by allowing Wall Street lenders to trade in subprime debts and unstable financial derivatives, according to a Press TV report.
China has previously threatened to liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries, amounting to $1.33 trillion, if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation. The Communist power has also repeatedly expressed its anger at the Fed’s indifference to the weakening dollar. If China were to dump the dollar it would likely set in motion a chain of events that would lead to a collapse of the greenback.
We know we are in trouble when the Chinese Communist Party sound like bastions of sound money policy and fiscal conservatism in comparison to the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve, who in creating more money out of thin air continue to bail out their friends on Wall Street while the economic future of hundreds of millions of American citizens is sold down the river.
China accuses U.S. of financial Weapons of Mass Destruction
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward revealed to Larry King last night that the U.S. has embarked on a “secret killing program” in Iraq which has dramatically reduced attacks on coalition troops by wiping out terrorists, but what could this secret weapon possibly be?
The program — which Woodward compares to the World War II era Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb — must remain secret for now or it would “get people killed,” Woodward said Monday on CNN’s Larry King Live.
“The top secret operations will “some day in history … be described to people’s amazement,” Woodward told King.
While he would not reveal the details, Woodward said the terrorists who have been targeted were already aware of the capabilities.
“The enemy has a heads up because they’ve been getting wiped out and a lot of them have been killed,” he said. “It’s not news to them.”
For the weapon to be comparable to the atomic bomb, one would speculate that it must employ some kind of exotic new technology and is potentially related to neutron bomb and electromagnetic weapons research.
As far back as 2002, a Cox News Service report entitled Super-Secret Microwave Weapons May Be Used In Iraq, speculated that the military was preparing to utilize high-powered microwave weapons that send bursts of electromagnetic energy which completely disable enemy electronic devices.
However, Woodward’s discussion of the secret weapon wiping out alleged terrorists in large numbers suggests it may be a far more barbaric device than an EMP weapon, which would more traditionally be used against standing armies rather than scattered insurgents.
One possibility is that the weapon is something similar that described to film maker Patrick Dillon by Iraqi infantryman Majid al-Ghazali – a frightening giant flame-thrower type device that instead shoots out “concentrated lightning bolts” or radiation bursts that result in vehicles and people being almost literally liquidized.
During a street battle in Baghdad on April 12 2003, Al-Ghazali describes witnessing American troops unveil an oddly configured tank which “suddenly let loose a blinding stream of what seemed like fire and lightning, engulfing a large passenger bus and three automobiles.”
“Within seconds the bus had become semi-molten, sagging “like a wet rag” as he put it. He said the bus rapidly melted under this withering blast, shrinking until it was a twisted blob about the dimensions of a VW bug. As if that were not bizarre enough, al-Ghazali explicitly describes seeing numerous human bodies shriveled to the size of newborn babies. By the time local street fighting ended that day, he estimates between 500 and 600 soldiers and civilians had been cooked alive as a result of the mysterious tank-mounted device.”
Al-Ghazali adds that following the battle, U.S. troops were scrupulous about burying the evidence of the weapon’s deadly consequences, but that telltale signs remained which he showed to journalist Dillon.
Dillon, a battlefield medic in Vietnam, Somalia and Kosovo, stated, “I’ve seen a freaking smorgasbord of destruction in my life, flame-throwers, napalm, white phosphorous, thermite, you name it. I know of nothing short of an H-bomb that conceivably might cause a bus to instantly liquefy or that can flash broil a human body down to the size of an infant. God pity humanity if that thing is a preview of what’s in store for the 21st century.”
An interview with Majid al-Ghazali can be viewed below along with a further exploration of exotic weapons systems being employed in Iraq. Aid workers and others have backed up reports of terrifying new weapons systems being deployed that cause horrific injuries and agonizing deaths. Woodward’s characterization of the victims merely as “terrorists” conceals the fact that a great number of the victims of these brutal weapons are no doubt innocent people caught up in the fighting.
In damning transcript, ex-CIA official says Cheney likely ordered letter linking Hussein to 9/11 attacks
A forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ordered on White House stationery and probably came from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new transcript of a conversation with the Central Intelligence Agency’s former Deputy Chief of Clandestine Operations Robert Richer.
The transcript was posted Friday by author Ron Suskind of an interview conducted in June. It comes on the heels of denials by both the White House and Richer of a claim Suskind made in his new book, The Way of The World. The book was leaked to Politico’s Mike Allen on Monday, and released Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the White House released a statement on Richer’s behalf. In it, Richer declared, “I never received direction from George Tenet or anyone else in my chain of command to fabricate a document … as outlined in Mr. Suskind’s book.”
The denial, however, directly contradicts Richer’s own remarks in the transcript.
“Now this is from the Vice President’s Office is how you remembered it–not from the president?” Suskind asked.
“No, no, no,” Richer replied, according to the transcript. “What I remember is George [Tenet] saying, ’we got this from’–basically, from what George said was ’downtown.’”
“Which is the White House?” Suskind asked.
“Yes,” Richer said. “But he did not–in my memory–never said president, vice president, or NSC. Okay? But now–he may have hinted–just by the way he said it, it would have–cause almost all that stuff came from one place only: Scooter Libby and the shop around the vice president.”
“But he didn’t say that specifically,” Richer added. “I would naturally–I would probably stand on my, basically, my reputation and say it came from the vice president.”
“But there wasn’t anything in the writing that you remember saying the vice president,” Suskind continued.
A blockbuster new book from investigative journalist Ron Suskind adds another revelation to the growing canon demonstrating the lengths to which President Bush and members of his administration lied, misled and deceived the American people to pursue its invasion of Iraq.
Bush allegedly ordered the CIA to forge a handwritten letter from the head of Iraq’s intelligence service to Saddam Hussein that purported to link the Iraqi dictator to the ringleader of the hijackers who toppled the Twin Towers on 9/11, according to news accounts of Suskind’s new book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism. Such use of an intelligence service to influence domestic political debate could be an impeachable offense, Suskind writes.
According to Suskind, the administration had been in contact with the director of the Iraqi intelligence service in the last years of Hussein’s regime, Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti.
“The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001,” Suskind writes. “It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq – thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice President’s Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link.” […]
The author claims that such an operation, part of “false pretenses” for war, would apparently constitute illegal White House use of the CIA to influence a domestic audience, an arguably impeachable offense.
The faked letter was first reported as genuine by the conservative London Sunday Telegraph in December 2003. Right-wing commentators and Bush defenders harped on that disclosure as evidence of Saddam Hussein’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks. According to Suskind’s book, the CIA had been protecting Habbush in the early months of the invasion; the agency persuaded the Iraqi intelligence chief to write the letter in his own handwriting and paid him $5 million.
CBS White House correspondent Bill Plante reported Tuesday that Suskind’s sources had seen a draft of the letter written on White House stationary.
The Way of the World is Suskind’s third book on the inner workings of the Bush administration, joining The One Percent Doctrine, which outlined the often extreme anti-terror policies advanced by the likes of Vice President Dick Cheney, and The Price of Loyalty, which painted a picture of the early day’s of Bush’s presidency with the help of ousted former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill.
Predictably, the White House is unhappy with Suskind’s latest offering and the Bush administration is relying on its trademark push-back of insulting the messenger. White House spokesman Tony Fratto insulted Suskind, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work with the Wall Street Journal, as a practitioner of “gutter journalism,” and called the allegations “absurd.”
Suskind appeared Tuesday on NBC’s Today Show for interviews about the latest book.
John Conyers is now taking the position that no one at Friday’s impeachment hearing can accuse Bush or Cheney of any crime, or any impeachable offense, or dishonorable conduct, or even lying.
Moreover, Conyers is now saying that he will shut the hearing down if anyone does accuse the boys of crimes, impeachable offenses, or otherwise being naughty.
“Apparently the rules of Congress are designed to allow impeachable offenses to be discussed only in impeachment hearings. Apparently this didn’t occur to Chairman Conyers when he decided to hold a non-impeachment impeachment hearing. As a result, his hearing may be quickly shut down, and he will have a choice of holding a real impeachment hearing, resigning, or dropping the pretense that he intends to resist Cheney and Bush in any way whatsoever.”
This was reported a few days ago, but it got surprisingly little attention, and it seems worth flagging in light of Obama’s trip abroad. Check out this little nugget buried in that New York Times piece on Barack Obama’s cast of 300 or so foreign policy advisers:
Another person who has contributed outside advice is former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, whom Mr. Obama has been wooing. Mr. Powell, a Republican, has a friendship of decades with Mr. McCain, but friends say he has felt excluded from Mr. McCain’s foreign policy operation and was impressed when Mr. Obama called on him in June. Mr. Powell also met around the same time with Mr. McCain.
Powell recently met with Obama and has made it clear that he won’t let any endorsement be dictated by party allegiance, so neglecting him seems like a pretty big oversight on the McCain camp’s part. Could Obama’s wooing of him eventually pay off?
As November’s American presidential elections approach, Barack Obama’s message on Iraq is being widely interpreted as “flip-flopping” and a “retreat” from a previously unequivocal stance of fully withdrawing the US occupation forces. This is to misunderstand Obama, who is not someone who shoots from the hip. There is much more to his words than cursory reading could unravel.
His remarks before the 2003 invasion resonated well within the American antiwar movement. His scathing references to the Bush administration’s folly and his demands for “ending the war” were probably decisive in winning him the Democratic party nomination against Hillary Clinton, whose vote for war in 2003 ultimately crippled her credibility as the commander-in-chief who would bring it to an end.
Obama himself has reacted angrily to claims of a policy U-turn: “For me to say I’m going to refine my policies is I don’t think in any way inconsistent with prior statements and doesn’t change my strategic view that this war has to end and that I’m going to end it as president.” Earlier this month he resorted to an op-ed article in the New York Times to emphatically state: “On my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war.”
Radioactive Waste From Iraq Wars Dumped in U.S. Doug Rokke, Ph.D. American Free Press July 21, 2008
During the summer of 1991, the United States military had collected artillery, tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, conventional and unconventional munitions, trucks, etc at Camp Doha in Kuwait.
As result of carelessness, this weapons depot caught fire with consequent catastrophic explosions resulting in death, injury, illness and extensive environmental contamination from depleted uranium and conventional explosives.
Recently the emirate of Kuwait required the U.S. Department of Defense to remove the contamination. Consequently, over 6,700 tons of contaminated soil, sand and other residue was collected and shipped back to the United States for burial by American Ecology at Boise, Idaho.
When Bob Nichols, an investigative journalist, and I contacted American Ecology we found out that they had absolutely no knowledge of U.S. Army regulations and all of the medical orders dealing with depleted uranium contamination, environmental remediation procedures, safety and medical care.
They had never heard of Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for dealing with hazardous waste such as radioactive materials and conventional explosives byproducts.
The trans-shipment across the ocean, unloading at Longview, Washington State port, transport by rail, and burial in Idaho not only endanger the residents of these areas, but pose a significant agricultural threat through introduction of pests, microbes etc. foreign to our nation.
Sadly, the known adverse health and environmental hazards from uranium weapons contamination are in our own backyard. The EPA has listed the former Nuclear Metals-Starmet uranium weapons manufacturing site in Concord, Mass. on the EPA’s Superfund National Priority List because it poses a significant risk to public health and the environment.
Consequently, the community in which our nation was born on April 18, 1775, is now the location of America’s own closed dirty bomb factory that will endanger the health and safety of the descendants of the Minutemen.
The previous delivery of at least 100 GBU 28 bunker buster bombs containing depleted uranium warheads by the United States and their use by Israel against Lebanese targets has resulted in additional radioactive and chemical toxic contamination with consequent adverse health and environmental effects throughout the Middle East. Israeli tank gunners are also using depleted uranium tank rounds, as photographs verify.
Today, U.S., British, and now Israeli military personnel are using illegal uranium munitions—America’s and England’s own “dirty bombs.” The U.S. Army, Department of Energy, Department of Defense and British Ministry of Defense officials deny that there are any adverse health and environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing and/or use of uranium munitions. They do so to avoid liability for the willful and illegal dispersal of a radioactive toxic material— depleted uranium.
The use of uranium weapons is a crime against humanity. All governments must force cessation of uranium weapons use. Israel should provide medical care to all DU casualties in Lebanon and clean up all DU contamination.
U.S. and British officials have arrogantly refused to comply with their own regulations, orders and directives that require U.S. Department of Defense officials to provide prompt and effective medical care to all exposed individuals. They also refuse to clean up dispersed radioactive contamination as required by Army regulations.
Dr. Doug Rokke is the former director of the Army’s Depleted Uranium Project. It was his task to clean up the radioactive battlefields of the Gulf War.
Israeli transportation minister Shaul Mofaz has reiterated his previous threats against Iran, saying Israel must be ready to act.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post published late Thursday, Mofaz said sanctions were not effective in halting Iran’s nuclear program and “there will be no choice but to attack Iran to halt the Iranian nuclear program.”
“Israel cannot let Iran get to the point of nuclearization,” Mofaz said. “All options are on the table. If there won’t be a choice other than a nuclear Iran or a military option, it’s clear what our decision has to be.”
“The strategy against Iran has not changed and it will continue to be led by the United States,” Mofaz said, adding Israel could not let Iran ’threaten the entire world.’
Mofaz had told Yediot Aharonot on June 6 that Israel would attack Iran if it did not cease nuclear development.
Following his remarks in June, Israeli officials condemned his threats, calling them ’irresponsible’ and ’cynical.’
His new remarks against Tehran come as even the United States seems to have backed down on its demand that Iran suspend uranium enrichment before entering talks on its nuclear program.
US diplomat William Burns is to be present at the negotiating table on Saturday in Geneva where Iran’s nuclear issue will be discussed.
John Bolton demands US support for Israeli strike on Iran
John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, has said that America should “facilitate” an Israeli attack on suspected nuclear facilities in Iran.
In a Wall Street Journal editorial, the leading voice of Washington’s hawks warned that time is running out for efforts to stop the Islamic Republic’s covert nuclear research programme.
Recent tests of ballistic missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv had demonstrated the external threat posed to the Jewish state by a nuclear-armed Tehran.
While the Bush administration no longer appears interested in military action against Iran, there is no doubt about Israel’s intentions.
American air and naval power in the Middle East, as well as its current control of Iraqi airspace, would mean that an Israeli attack could not take place without the superpower’s tacit consent.
“We will be blamed for the strike anyway, and certainly feel whatever negative consequences result, so there is compelling logic to make it as successful as possible,” Mr Bolton writes.
“At a minimum, we should place no obstacles in Israel’s path, and facilitate its efforts where we can.”
Mr Bolton said that further rounds of United Nations sanctions were no longer a realistic deterrent.
“We have almost certainly lost the race between giving ’strong incentives’ for Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and its scientific and technological efforts to do just that. Swift, sweeping, effectively enforced sanctions might have made a difference five years ago. No longer.”
Iran’s Air Force plans to stage a large-scale combat and defensive drills to beef up deterrence against threats from the US and Israel.
Air Force commander Brigadier General Ahmad Miqani said Tuesday that the armed forces would conduct a military exercise, dubbed Defenders of the Sky of Velayat, to enhance aerial capabilities.
The Iranian Air Force will prove its dominance by immediately crushing anyone who dares to try and penetrate Iran’s airspace, said Brig. Gen. Miqani.
The extensive air maneuvers will follow the six-day drills held by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) directed at demonstrating Iran’s defensive ballistic power.
The IRGC ended an extensive military exercise on Sunday during which Iran successfully test-fired various advanced shore-to-sea, surface-to-surface and sea-to-air missiles.
Iran also tested the upgraded Shahab-3 missile equipped with a one-ton conventional warhead and capable of hitting targets within a 2,000-kilometer range.
Iran will target “32 US bases and the heart of Israel” if it is attacked, the Fars news agency quoted an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying on Saturday.
“If America and Israel shoot any bullets and missiles against our country, Iranian armed forces will target the heart of Israel and 32 US bases in the region before the dust from this attack has settled,” Mojtaba Zolnoor said.
Zolnoor is Khamenei’s deputy representative for the elite Revolutionary Guards, the force which controls Iran’s more potent weaponry, particularly its longer-range missiles capable of striking Israel and US bases in the Gulf.
The United States and its top regional ally Israel have never ruled out attacking Iran over its nuclear drive, which the West fears could be aimed at making nuclear weapons.
There has been concern an attack against Iran could be imminent after it emerged Israel had carried out manoeuvres in Greece that were effectively practice runs for a potential strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.
The US Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, called for tighter sanctions on Iran today after it fired nine test missiles that were capable of hitting American and Israeli bases.
“Iran is a great threat. We have to make sure we are working with our allies to apply tightened pressure on Iran,” the Illinois senator said.
Iran demonstrated its military force with the test-flight of nine long and medium-range missiles in the strategic Strait of Hormouz, through which 40% of the world’s oil passes.
Army uses “Calmatives”, non-lethal Chemical Weapons The US Army’s XM1063 projectile is designed to be ’non-lethal’ – but is it peaceful or hovering on the brink of illegality?
Is the XM1063 a stink bomb, a banana skin, or a bad trip? It’s hard to know. XM1063 is the code name for the US army’s new secret weapon which will “suppress” people without harming them, as well as stopping vehicles in an area 100m square. But is it a violation of chemical weapons treaties, or a welcome move towards less destructive warfare using non-lethal weapons?
Exactly how it works is classified, but we have established some details. The first part of the weapon is an artillery round – or as the army puts it, “a non-lethal personal suppression projectile” – fired from a 155mm howitzer, with a range of 28km. It scatters 152 small non-explosive submunitions over a 1-hectare area; as each parachutes down, it sprays a chemical agent. Development was overseen by the US Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Centre (Ardec).
A presentation by the makers, General Dynamics, says the XM1063 will “suppress, disperse or engage personnel” and “deny personnel access to, use of, or movement through a particular area, point or facility” (=see PDF).
Smelling it out
Experts suggest three possible payloads: an existing riot-control agent, malodorants or a new chemical agent. Existing agents include CS gas and a form of pepper spray. But these seem unlikely choices, because their effects only last minutes, and could wear off before friendly forces arrive. They could also face a legal challenge: the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the use of riot control agents in warfare
“The matter is further complicated if pepper gas was used as the irritant since this is a plant toxin,” says Steve Wright of Leeds Metropolitan University. “Such toxins are explicitly banned.”
The possibilities seem to boil down to anti-traction agents (which make the whole area impossibly slippery), a malodorant or some novel chemical agents.
Anti-traction agents are possible, but seem unlikely because research in this area (such as Darpa’s Black Ice program) still seems to be at an early stage. It would be unusual for an agency to still be doing basic research when another is about to field a finished product.
A malodorant is a super stinkbomb with a truly intolerable smell. The Pentagon has been working on such chemicals for years, and a recent US army briefing on future artillery concepts specifically mentions artillery-delivered malodorants. (see PDF)
This might sidestep the Chemical Weapons Convention with the argument that malodorants are not chemical weapons. However, Ralf Trapp, an independent disarmament consultant formerly with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, challenges this interpretation.
“That argument rests on the assumption that there are no other toxic effects of these chemicals, and that one can control the dose so that one never crosses into the dose range for toxic effects,” says Trapp. “It also is based a concept of toxicity that is centuries out of date – malodorants do have a physiological effect and toxicity is not limited to lethality.”
Finally, there is the possibility that the US has decided to ignore the convention and use new non-lethal chemical agents. This approach has supporters in high places. Before the Iraq war in 2003, Donald Rumsfeld pushed for rules of engagement that would allow US forces to use non-lethal chemicals.
Until the 1980s, the US maintained stockpiles of a chemical incapacitant known as BZ or Agent Buzz. BZ is a psychoactive chemical causing stupor, confusion and hallucinations lasting for more than 24 hours. It has an evil reputation, but this is based largely on rumour as few facts are available. Most people have only heard of BZ in connection with the film Jacob’s Ladder. This depicted soldiers exposed to a secret chemical weapon in Vietnam with terrible results, including permanent psychosis.
“We are reaping the whirlwind today because of government secrecy in the past,” says Jim Ketchum, who ran the BZ testing program in the 1960s. “It has allowed critics to make unsupportable claims about agents such as BZ without rejoinder from the government research community.” Although the US is known to have been active in this area since 2000, no comments are available from researchers on non-lethal chemical agents – now termed “calmatives”, whatever their chemical action.
Ketchum has written a book, Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten, about his experiences of testing BZ on hundreds of volunteers. The effects are very different to those portrayed by Hollywood. None suffered physical harm, mental breakdown or any lasting after-effects. Rather than driving subjects berserk, it has a sedative action. But unlike the fentanyl used in 2002 by Russian police when they stormed a Moscow theatre where Chechen rebels were holding hostages, BZ does not rely on sedation for its effects and does not carry the same risk.
Clouding the issue
Ketchum is now retired, and his successors have had decades to develop more effective and safer agents. But strict secrecy is still in place and there is no information about current research. Ketchum argues that the use of incapacitants would save lives, especially in situations where insurgents are mixed with the civilian population. Others believe that such agents are not just illegal but a step towards unlimited chemical weapons.
“It shouldn’t be forgotten that the horrors of gas warfare in the first world war began with teargas, followed up with lethal firepower,” says Wright.
As a sideline, the XM1063 projectile also has a “vehicle area denial” component composed of nanoparticles. The US army has researched chemicals to interefere with engine combustion in the past, including work with ferrocene (normally used as an anti-knock additive) which prevent engines from working, with the idea is that this would stop any vehicle within the affected area. However, the potential health risks are unknown, especially when nanoparticles are involved.
Testing of the XM1063 was completed successfully last year and it is due for low-rate production from 2009. Ardec says that the production decision is on hold awaiting further direction from the program manager. It seems the decision on whether to enter a new age of chemical warfare now rests with the military rather then civilians. Unless put under pressure, the US Army seems unlikely to give any details of what’s in the surprise package until it is used. And maybe not even then.
Concerned that the 35 articles of impeachment he introduced a month ago might be too much for members of the House Judiciary Committee to handle all at once, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) simplified things Thursday.
The former Democratic presidential candidate introduced a single article to impeach President Bush, accusing him of deceiving Congress to convince lawmakers to authorize his invasion of Iraq more than five years ago.
“Yesterday in the House, we had a moment of silence for the troops,” Kucinich said during a Capitol Hill press conference. “Today it is time to speak out on behalf of those troops who will be in Iraq for at least another year, courageously representing our nation while their Commander-in-Chief sent them on a mission that was based on falsehoods about the threat of WMDs from Iraq.”
Kucinich spoke outside a House office building with the Capitol dome gleaming behind him as he distributed to news organizations, including RAW STORY, the text of his impeachment article. Its title: “Deceiving Congress with Fabricated Threats of Iraq WMDs to Fraudulently Obtain Support for an Authorization of the Use of Military Force Against Iraq.”
Neo-Con news outlets are busy recycling a debunked 2005 report that stated Iran could be planning to detonate deadly EMP bombs above American cities, presumably in the belief that the public will now believe the same snake oil salesmen that pushed non-existent weapons of mass destruction and Saddam’s mythical biological drone armies as reasons to invade Iraq in 2003.
“More than four years after a stunning report about America’s vulnerability to a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack was released to Congress, the House Armed Services Committee will hear testimony from the scientist who issued the warning and who believes Iran is pursuing such an option,” reports World Net Daily.
William R. Graham, chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, will present an updated brief to the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, during which he will push the notion that Iran, in addition to its non-existent nuclear weapons program which last year’s NIE clearly stated had ended in 2003, is still pursuing the production of an EMP weapon
“Briefly, a single nuclear weapon exploded at high altitude above the United States will interact with the Earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetic field to produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) radiation down to the Earth and additionally create electrical currents in the Earth,” states the 2005 report.
“Few if any people would die right away. But the loss of power would have a cascading effect on all aspects of U.S. society. Communication would be largely impossible. Lack of refrigeration would leave food rotting in warehouses, exacerbated by a lack of transportation as those vehicles still working simply ran out of gas (which is pumped with electricity). The inability to sanitize and distribute water would quickly threaten public health, not to mention the safety of anyone in the path of the inevitable fires, which would rage unchecked. And as we have seen in areas of natural and other disasters, such circumstances often result in a fairly rapid breakdown of social order.”
If anything of this nature were to happen then the very Neo-Cons that are yearning to stage a false flag event in order to justify a military attack on Iran would be the primary suspects.
The EMP fraud is merely the updated version of Saddam’s deadly biological UAV drones that we were warned would disperse terror over American cities during the propaganda build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
At the time, Fox News told us that, “Iraq could be planning a chemical or biological attack on American cities through the use of remote-controlled “drone” planes equipped with GPS tracking maps, according to U.S. intelligence.”
The Washington Post has completely whitewashed new revelations concerning how close Saddam Hussein came to obtaining a nuclear bomb by failing to mention the fact that the provider, Khan Research Laboratories, was shielded from investigation by the U.S. government for decades.
In a recent interview with the Daily Beast last week, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Adviser from the Carter administration and adviser to President Barack Obama, made a highly contentious statement regarding the U.S.-Israeli alliance. When asked how the U.S.would respond to Israeli jets using Iraqi airspace in order to stage an attack on Iran, Brzezinski was quoted as saying: “We are not exactly impotent little babies. They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? … We have to be serious about denying them that right. That means a denial where you aren’t just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a Liberty in reverse.”
Israeli fighter jets have been allowed to use Saudi airspace to launch go-it-alone air strikes on Iranian nuclear installations, says a recent report.
China’s state media today reports on the real reason behind the Wall Street meltdown and a subject that the mainstream US media dare not mention – the Federal Reserve’s overissuance of currency – which the Chinese say is part of a wider agenda to justify increased control over the global economy.
In damning transcript, ex-CIA official says Cheney likely ordered letter linking Hussein to 9/11 attacks
John Conyers is now taking the position that no one at Friday’s impeachment hearing can accuse Bush or Cheney of any crime, or any impeachable offense, or dishonorable conduct, or even lying.
This was reported a few days ago, but it got surprisingly little attention, and it seems worth flagging in light of Obama’s trip abroad. Check out this little nugget buried in that New York Times 
Israeli transportation minister Shaul Mofaz has reiterated his previous threats against Iran, saying Israel must be ready to act.
John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, has said that America should “facilitate” an Israeli attack on suspected nuclear facilities in Iran. 
Iran’s Air Force plans to stage a large-scale combat and defensive drills to beef up deterrence against threats from the US and Israel.
Neo-Con news outlets are busy recycling a debunked 2005 report that stated Iran could be planning to detonate deadly EMP bombs above American cities, presumably in the belief that the public will now believe the same snake oil salesmen that pushed non-existent weapons of mass destruction and Saddam’s mythical biological drone armies as reasons to invade Iraq in 2003.
noworldsystem.com 