Three blockbuster stories were ignored by the US mainstream news media over the last few days:
Blockbuster #1: Numerous writers in alternate media, and the foreign press, most notably Sidney Blumenthal, ripped away the veils of illusion to reveal a 1996 Neo-Con manifesto entitled “Clean Break” as the poisonous source of the present horrors being visited upon the peoples of Lebanon, Israel and Palestine
Blockbuster #2: Four of the 9/11 widows, who lead the struggle to avenge the slaughter of the innocents by learning what there is to learn from 9/11, have issued a statement insisting that the 9/11 Commission “failed in its duties” and questioning the “veracity” of its final report.
Blockbuster #3: A group of Congressional Democrats, led by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has released a sweeping report documenting over two dozen violations of US federal laws and regulations by the Bush-Cheney regime (some of them multiple times), which have resulted in the waging of war on false premises, the persecution of whistleblowers, the torturing of prisoners, the abrogation of the Bill of Rights, etc.
Of course, the blackout was particularly egregious on the network and cable TV Sunday morning propapundigandist shows.
Cokie Roberts’ weird riff on how the likely defeat of the Petainist Sen. Joe Lieberman by insurgent Ned Lamont would be “disastrous” for the Democratic Party is illustrative of the profound disconnect between reality and the fantasy world of the propapunditgandists. (See Media Matters for the full story)
Perhaps most disturbing about this disconnect is that it seems to be deepening (at least at the higher pay rates) as the Bush-Cheney grip on the body politic loosens. Even the cooked corporatist polls reveal the public’s lack of confidence in the Bush-Cheney policies and displeasure with their style of governance.
It would have been an encouraging sign for freedom of the press in the USA if, as the Bush-Cheney cabal sank in the polls, the propapundigandists indulged in a smidgen of reality-based analysis, but it looks like they have collectively decided to allow their own credibility to go down with the ship and be lost forever -- or they assume that despite what the polls say now, or the exit polls say on election night, power will not change hands in the nation’s capitol. Either way, it is dishonorable.
Here are excerpts from these three blockbusters, with links to the full text:
The National Security Agency is providing signal intelligence to Israel to monitor whether Syria and Iran are supplying new armaments to Hezbollah as it fires hundreds of missiles into northern Israel, according to a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation. President Bush has approved the secret program….The neoconservatives are described as enthusiastic about the possibility of using NSA intelligence as a lever to widen the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and Israel and Hamas into a four-front war….In order to try to understand the neoconservative road map, senior national security professionals have begun circulating among themselves a 1996 neocon manifesto against the Middle East peace process. Titled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," its half-dozen authors included neoconservatives highly influential with the Bush administration..."A Clean Break" was written at the request of incoming Likud Party Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and intended to provide "a new set of ideas" for jettisoning the policies of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin….By using NSA intelligence to set an invisible tripwire, the Bush administration is laying the condition for regional conflagration with untold consequences -- from Pakistan to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Israel. Secretly devising a scheme that might thrust Israel into a ring of fire cannot be construed as a blunder. It is a deliberate, calculated and methodical plot.
Sidney Blumenthal, The Neocons' Next War, Salon, 8-3-066
Four widows instrumental in getting Congress to push President Bush to create the 9/11 Independent Commission are insisting that it "failed in its duties" on the heels of two recent news reports which allege that some commissioners knew they were being "deceived" by NORAD officials, and the widows are now questioning "the veracity of the entire Commission’s report," RAW STORY has found. In a statement released today by Patty Casazza, Monica Gabrielle, Mindy Kleinberg, and Lorie Van Auken - 1/3 of the Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Independent Commission - the widows refer to the commission's mandate (Section 602 of Public Law 107-306).
Full transcript of statement:
Statement Regarding Pentagon’s Alleged Deception
August 4, 2006
Mandate of the 9/11 Commission
The 9/11 Independent Commission was established by law to “... ascertain, evaluate, and report on the evidence developed by all relevant governmental agencies regarding the facts and circumstances surrounding the attacks;...“make a full and complete accounting of the circumstances surrounding the attacks, and the extent of the United States' preparedness for, and immediate response to, the attacks...” Recent stories in the Washington Post, the New York Times, as well as the release of the transcripts of the NORAD tapes in Vanity Fair, clearly show that the 9/11 Commission failed in its duties. According to current reports, the Commission knew that it had been deceived by NORAD....We fought to establish the 9/11 Independent Commission because we believed that American citizens would be better served if our nation’s vulnerabilities were uncovered and then fixed. Unfortunately, once again the failure to fully and properly investigate all areas, not follow all leads and not address the need for accountability, whether it be bureaucrats lying at a hearing or personnel with questionable performance of assigned duties, continues to leave this Nation and its citizens vulnerable and at risk. The 9/11 Commission was derelict in its duties. What we needed from them was a thorough investigation into the events of September 11th. Inexcusably, five years later, we still do.
Patty Casazza
Monica Gabrielle
Mindy Kleinberg
Lorie Van Auken
Ron Brynaert, Group of 9/11 widows 'question the veracity of the entire Commission’s report', Raw Story, 8-4-06
In brief, we have found that there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice-President and other high ranking members of the Bush Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraq; permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their Administration; and approved domestic surveillance that is both illegal and unconstitutional. As further detailed in the Report, there is evidence that these actions violate a number of federal laws, including:
· Making False Statements to Congress, for example, saying you have learned Iraq is attempting to buy uranium from Niger, when you have been warned by the CIA that this is not the case.
· The War Powers Resolution and Misuse of Government Funds, for example, redeploying troops and initiating bombing raids before receiving congressional authorization.
· Federal laws and international treaties prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, for example, ordering detainees to be ghosted and removed, and tolerating and laying the legal ground work for their torture and mistreatment.
· Federal laws concerning retaliating against witnesses and other individuals, for example, demoting Bunnatine Greenhouse, the chief contracting officer at the Army Corps of Engineers, because she exposed contracting abuses involving Halliburton.
· Federal requirements concerning leaking and other misuse of intelligence, for example, failing to enforce the executive order requiring disciplining those who leak classified information, whether intentional or not.
· Federal regulations and ethical requirements governing conflicts of interest, for example, then Attorney General John Aschcroft’s being personally briefed on FBI interviews concerning possible misconduct by Karl Rove even though Mr. Rove had previously received nearly $750,000 in fees for political work on Mr. Ashcroft’s campaigns.
· Violating FISA and the Fourth Amendment, for example intercepting thousands of communications “to or from any person within the United States,” without obtaining a warrant.
· The Stored Communications Act of 1986 and the Communications Act of 1934, for example, obtaining millions of U.S. customer telephone records without obtaining a subpoena or warrant, without customer consent, and outside of any applicable “emergency exceptions.
· The National Security Act, for example, failing to keep all Members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees “fully and currently informed” of intelligence activities, such as the warrantless surveillance programs.
The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution,
and Coverups in the Iraq War, and Illegal Domestic Surveillance, Final Investigative Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff, 8-4-06
Related Posts:
Hard Rain Journal 8-1-06: Ray McGovern on the Neo-Con Amateur Hour Performance of "No Exit"
Hard Rain Journal 6-25-06: Ray McGovern, Ann Wright and RFK, Jr. -- Voices of Courage and Conscience
Hard Rain Journal 7-28-06: Lebanon Update -- Cheney-Zawahiri Synergy, Poisonous Blossoming of Malign Neglect, & Israelis Smashing the Mirror
Hard Rain Journal 7-25-06: As the Next Bait & Switch Get Pulled, Remember Osama Bin Laden & the Child Brides of Afghanistan
Hard Rain Journal 7-19-06: Neo-Con Fingerprints on the Israeli Offensive in Lebanon, Meanwhile in Afghanistan...
Hard Rain Journal 7-17-06: Middle East Update -- Voices of Reason From Within The Whirlwind
Hard Rain Journal 6-15-06: Foreign Affairs survey of 100 US policy leaders grades Bush-Cheney "failed" at 1.8 out of 10
Hard Rain Journal 6-14-06: Wrongly Premised “War on Terrorism” has Increased Danger from Terrorism, and Ignored Greater Risks
Words of Power #23: A Reality Check, What A Real World War on Terrorism Would Look Like, and a US Mid-Term Election Strategy
Words of Power #21: Judith Miller, Ken Lay, Florida, 9/11 and The Return of The Forbidden Truths?
Words of Power #15: Bring Me the Head of Osama, Nero Fiddles while the Planet Burns, Religion as the Crystal Meth of the People, & The Democrats' Plan
GS3 Intelligence Special Supplement (2-4-06): Iran, Hamas, Islamic Fundamentalism, Terrorism, Geopolitical Hegemony, The Great Game & Danish Cartoons
Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net
Israel, Lebanon, Bush, Cheney, Hezbollah, Geopolitics, Middle East, Iran, Syria, Ned Lamont, 9/11, Sidney Blumenthal, John Conyers, US Constitution
