Veteran: War based on greed
Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major and founding member of the elite Delta Force commando unit, charged Monday that the president’s policy is based on cultural arrogance and corporate greed rather than sound military strategy.
Haney said his concerns are military, not political, and he is surprised more “dyed-in-the-wool” Republicans are not speaking out.
“I don’t care if it was the pope in charge; wrongdoing does not recognize partisanship,” he said. “I had the same problem with (former President) Clinton and the Democrats — you should clean up your own mess.”
“At every turn, in the upper levels of our administration, they refused to listen to what they did not want to hear,” Haney said.
“Rumsfeld said the generals are getting all the troops they ask for, but they’ve gotten the word not to ask,” he said. “If you don’t play ball, you don’t get that other star or that book deal or the chance to sit on corporate boards when you retire.”
Despite what supporters claim, he said, criticizing Bush’s decisions is not unpatriotic.
"It is the duty of every American citizen to stand up and say it when something is wrong,” he said. “This administration has wrapped itself in the troops. They’ve learned from Vietnam to say, ‘If you don’t support me, you don’t support the troops,’ but they’re hiding behind those kids.”

Imperial Overreach is Accelerating the Global Decline of America
The Bush administration stands guilty of an extraordinary act of imperial overreach which has left the US more internationally isolated than ever before, seriously stretched financially, and guilty of neglect in east Asia and elsewhere. Iraq was supposed to signal the US's new global might: in fact, it may well prove to be a harbinger of its decline. And that decline could be far more precipitous than anyone has previously reckoned. Once the bubble of US power has been pricked, in a global context already tilting in other directions, it could deflate rather more quickly than has been imagined.

Is It Safe Yet? 911Truth.org Hits Prime Time on CNN
Will Charlie Sheen's declaration of disbelief in the "official conspiracy theory" make it safe for the rest of us to finally say what we really think about September 11th?

The Anti-Empire Report
I'm often told by readers of their encounters with Americans who support the outrages of US foreign policy no matter what facts are presented to them, no matter what arguments are made, no matter how much the government's statements are shown to be false. They include amongst their number those who still believe that Iraq had a direct involvement in the events of September 11, that Saddam Hussein had close ties to al Qaeda, and/or that weapons of mass destruction were indeed found in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
My advice is to forget such people. They would support the outrages even if the government came to their homes, seized their first born, and hauled them away screaming, as long as the government assured them it was essential to fighting terrorism (or communism). My (very) rough guess is that they constitute no more than 15 percent of the population. I suggest that we concentrate on the rest, who are reachable.
--a survey showed that conservatives were happier than liberals or moderates.
In my own case, if my happiness were based solely on the objective conditions of my particular life -- work, social relations, health, adventure, material comfort, etc. -- I could, without hesitation, say that I'm very happy. But I'm blessed/cursed with a social conscience that assails my tranquility. Reading the hundred varieties of daily horrors in my morning newspaper -- the cruelty of man, the cruelty of nature, the cruelty of chance -- I'm frozen in despair and anger. Often, what makes it hardest to take is that my own government, at home and abroad, directly and indirectly, is responsible for more of the misery than any other human agent. I would have been incredulous, during the first half of my life, to think that one day my own government would scare me so. But if I were a conservative, I could take great comfort, even happiness, in convincing myself that it's largely "the bad guys" who are being hurt and that the US-caused horrors are for the purpose of extending democracy, freedom, and other joys to the dark corners of the world. And at a profit.

Will Durst
Impeachment? Hell no, impalement.
Why are we sick of George W. Bush? Pick a reason.

Gestures of conscience bring solace
What will tomorrow say about today?
I think I know. I think tomorrow will ask how we could have shrugged off the very real possibility that the president broke the law. I think tomorrow will want to know how we could have meekly and quiescently allowed our civil rights to be abridged. I think tomorrow will be perplexed by our tolerance of obvious incompetence and brazen untruths. I think tomorrow will wonder how we could have turned blind eyes and disinterested ears to mounting evidence that the war in Iraq was predestined and 9/11 just a convenient pretext.
History's verdict is all we have left. And when tomorrow calls today to account, some of us want to be able to say we stood up. We called out. We were not silent.
It is small solace, but it is solace nonetheless.

Bush the "Incompetent"
Over the last seven years, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has played a game of word association as part of its regular presidential polling, asking, "What one word best describes your impression of George W. Bush?" No options or suggestions are offered. The latest results — from a sample of 710 people done in March — aren't good for the President. Until this month, the word most associated with President Bush had always been "honest." Now the leading answer is "incompetent" (given by 29 people), followed by "good," "idiot" and "liar." "Honest" has slipped to 5th, tied with "Christian."

Explosive Testimony:
David Ray Griffin
“[T]here was just an explosion [in the south tower]. It seemed like on television [when] they blow up these buildings. It seemed like it was going all the way around like a belt, all these explosions.”--Firefighter Richard Banaciski
"I saw a flash flash flash [at] the lower level of the building. You know like when they demolish a building?”--Assistant Fire Commissioner Stephen Gregory
“[I]t was [like a] professional demolition where they set the charges on certain floors and then you hear 'Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop'."--Paramedic Daniel Rivera
The above quotations come from a collection of 9/11 oral histories that, although recorded by the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) at the end of 2001, were publicly released only on August 12, 2005. Prior to that date, very few Americans knew the content of these accounts or even the fact that they existed.

Time for the true story about 9/11
The radical Bush Doctrine in foreign policy is founded on the official story of 9/11. The administration used our fear of terrorism to sway public opinion and justify its actions. We are slowly awakening to how the Bush administration manipulated our support for its preemptive invasion of Iraq, but most are still asleep.
According to a survey done by Stars and Stripes, 85% of our troops believe they are in Iraq because of Saddam Hussein's involvement in the attacks of 9/11/01. Much of the public believes the report of the 9/11 Commission provided a correct account of the events of that day. These beliefs are based on a misunderstanding of the facts.
Saddam Hussein was not connected to the 9/11 attacks, and the 9/11 Commission’s report is full of omissions and distortions. One of the largest is that it did not mention Building 7. This building was not hit by an aircraft, but it crumbled just the same. Evidence shows that Building 7 was demolished by pre-positioned explosives.
The official government story is a conspiracy theory, namely that 19 hijackers conspired, under the guidance of a man in a cave, to defeat the most sophisticated air defense system in the world.
Physical evidence including searing sub-basement temperatures and sulfur from cutting charges, shows explosives were used to cut through the core support columns below ground level.
The government’s own investigators admit they have no reasonable explanation for what happened to WTC 7. Alas, they did not consider controlled demolition.
Regarding WTC7, the FEMA report states "Prior to September 11, 2001, there was little, if any, record of fire-induced collapse of large fire-protected steel buildings."
If you dropped a steel beam from the top of the 47 story Building 7, it would take about 6 seconds to hit the ground. WTC7 actually hit the ground in about 7 seconds, at nearly free fall speed. If each collapsing floor hit the floor below and paused for only 1/2 second, the time to crumble into a pile only 2 stories high would have been over 20 seconds. WTC7 had multiple steel core and perimeter support columns. In order for it to be brought down into its own tight footprint, all the core and perimeter columns would have to be broken at essentially the same time. The only way this can happen is through controlled demolition, using pre-positioned explosives.
There is a widespread cultural taboo against noticing the inadequacy of our government’s explanations. This is because the implications are too disturbing for most to consider.

Deranged, Disconnected, and Dangerous
By William Rivers Pitt
There was an article in the Washington Post ten days ago that was, in no uncertain terms, the most frightening and disturbing report I have seen in months. It wasn't about mass casualties in Iraq, or about a looming civil war there, or about terrorism, or the bursting budget, or spying on Americans. It was about a rug.
"Nothing says power like the Oval Office," begins the article. "The paintings of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The bust of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The desk used by both Roosevelts. And then there's the rug. Don't forget the rug. President Bush never does. For whatever reason, Bush seems fixated on his rug. Virtually all visitors to the Oval Office find him regaling them about how it was chosen and what it represents. Turns out, he always says, the first decision any president makes is what carpet he wants in his office. As a take-charge leader, he then explains, he of course made a command decision - he delegated the decision to Laura Bush, who chose a yellow sunbeam design."
The article goes on to describe, in writhing detail, how George W. Bush inserts the Oval Office rug into virtually every conversation he has. If a discussion veers away into matters of import, Bush steers it back to the rug. "He loves his rug," said Nicolle Wallace, the White House communications director, in the Post article. "I've heard him describe it countless times."
The article, to be sure, was meant to be lighthearted. It left me, however, in a state of deep disturbance. All he can talk about is his rug? With everything that is going on these days, he wants to focus on the rug. Dead soldiers? Rug. Civil war? Rug. Complete and total failure? Complete and total rug.
The man is deranged, disconnected, dangerous. It appears, finally, that a significant portion of the country now sees this clearly. Only 33% of Americans, according to the latest Pew poll, approve of Mr. Bush and the job he is doing.

John Burns, Back from Baghdad: U.S. Effort In Iraq Will Likely Fail
A day after returning to the U.S., after another long term as bureau chief in Baghdad, John F. Burns of The New York Times said on Bill Maher's live Friday night HBO program that he now feels, for the first time, that the American effort in Iraq will likely "fail."
Speaking from Cambridge, Mass., where he was speaking at a conference on the Vietnam war, Burns observed that he had been on the ground for 24 hours and, of all the people he had interacted with so far, "no one supports this war."

A Lawless and Incompetent Leadership
By Ralph Nader
Retired General William Odom, former head of the National Security Agency and security adviser to Ronald Reagan, wrote that the Iraq war "is serving the interests of Osama bin Laden, the Iranians, and is fomenting civil war in Iraq." He describes the Iraq war as "the most strategic foreign policy disaster in U.S. history."

Cursor's email from Centcom
On March 2, Cursor received the following email from Centcom, apparently as part of its "engagement" of bloggers.
From: Gehlen, SPC Garth P. (USA)
Date: Mar 2, 2006 8:05 AM
Subject: CENTCOM
To: mediapatrol@cursor.org
Greetings Cursor,
My name is SGT Gehlen and I work at the US Central Command public affairs office. I found your site linked on "truth laid bear" and I wanted to invite you to visit our website at:
http://www.centcom.mil
Our site provides news/press releases, images and casualty reports from the CENTCOM area of responsibility, including anti-terrorism activities. I wanted to contact you because you are interested in the CENTCOM AOR. If you are interested in signing up for our newsletter, you can do so at:
http://www.centcom.mil/sites/uscentcom1/
Shared%20Documents/newsletter-signup.asp
I also wanted to invite you to place a link to the CENTCOM website on your page if you think that is something your readers would be interested in. If you have any questions or would like any additional information, please contact me and I will do what I can to help. Let me know what you think. Thank you for your time.
SGT Gehlen
USCENTCOM Public Affairs

(Mike here. Don't bother. You will not catch me participating in US military propaganda. Sincerely Yours, Mike Campbell: Godmonster.)

Twilight's Last Gleaming
This is twilight's last gleaming. Attention must be paid. Democracy is dying.
Bush and Company wants us to be afraid. Republicans sell us fear as they sell out America.
Democrats wait in the wings, picking up their pieces of silver to keep mum. Both political parties capitalize on all the fear.
When it comes time for voting, here is what I will remember: the silence.
If there is a voice for America, let them speak now.
Hunter S. Thompson warned, "Big dark coming soon." Big dark is here.
Our Constitution hangs by a thread. Make no mistake, this is twilight's last gleaming. It's time to defend America, not sell it down the river of corporate greed. It is time to stand up, not slink away to fight another day, because there are no more days.
Democrats, you want my vote? Earn it! Get up off your ass and take a stand! Take back America. Stop whimpering. Throw out your Republican-lite Bush lickspittles and suit up for battle.

Resolution to Impeach Bush-Cheney Passes 7-3
On Tuesday, February 28, 2006, the City and County of San Francisco became the first large municipality to call for the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney, by a 7-3 vote. Supervisors Sean Elsbernd, Michela Alioto-Pier, and Sophie Maxwell cast the dissenting votes (Sup. Jake McGoldrick was absent for the vote). Sup. Chris Daly commenced his introduction of Agenda Item 27 with "I initially thought this ... would be a noncontroversial piece of legislation. Perhaps it still is, maybe not-a-unanimous-vote piece of legislation. But if you remember when we took our oath of office we swore to uphold the Constitution."
Sup. Daly again called attention to the strongest argument for impeachment, Bush lying to the American people about the reason for preemptively attacking Iraq based on forged documents regarding Saddam Hussein's "alleged" intent to purchase yellowcake from Niger: "Bush knowingly included false and misleading evidence in his January 2003 State of the Union Address stating Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from Niger to build nuclear weapons."
"This is a war that this country entered into under false pretenses, a case made by the President of the United States of America."
"He lied to the American people."

Experts Call for Release of 9/11 Evidence
A society of experts and scholars has now joined with Judicial Watch in calling for release of videos that are being held by the
Department of Defense, which are essential to understanding events at the Pentagon that transpired on September 11, 2001. Scholars for 9/11 Truth, which is dedicated to exposing falsehoods and establishing truths about the events of 9/11, has gone beyond Judicial Watch by calling for the release of other films and evidence that, its officers maintain, are essential to understanding 9/11.
"We are inclined to believe that these events were orchestrated by the Bush administration in order to instill fear in the American people," Fetzer said. "The use of violence and threats of violence to manipulate a populace based on fear," he observed, "is the definition of terrorism. The release of this vital evidence will help to confirm or to dispel our concerns about what happened on 9/11." Added Wood, "The American people are entitled to know the truth about their own history. If the government has nothing to hide, it should have no objections to releasing all this evidence for experts and scholars to study."
Fetzer also noted today's Zogby International Poll, which shows that 90% of American troops in
Iraq believe that they are fighting to avenge
Saddam Hussein's role in 9/11. "This would be funny if it weren't so sad", Fetzer said. "The administration falsely linked Iraq to 9/11 even though it knew better", he remarked. "Even the Osama Bin Laden 'confession tape' appears to have been faked. We want to know the identity of those who perpetrated these despicable acts."
Scholars for 9/11 Truth maintains its own public web site at www.st911.org. Documentary support for its request is available at www.st911.org/petition/.

The CIA's 'Black Sites'
What are we going to do with the secret prisoners who cannot be tried in our courts?
"What are we going to do with these people [in the CIA secret cells]? . . . Are they going to disappear? Are they stateless? . . . What are we going to explain to people when they start asking questions about where they are? Are they dead? Are they alive? What oversight does Congress have?"
The present answer to Jack Cloonan's last question is this: There is no congressional oversight. Congress has been blocked—by its Republican leadership, the president, Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA chief Porter Goss—from having any oversight at all. The constitutional separation of powers has also fallen into a black hole.
Ethiopia-born Benyam Mohammed, who grew up in Britain, told his attorney, in English, "[At one point] I was chained to the rails [of my cell] for a fortnight. . . . The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night. . . . Plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off."
There is a rising focus around the country on this year's midterm elections. During the campaigning, will there be any mention of the screams in the CIA's underground prisons of darkness? And if there is, how many Americans will care enough to be repelled by their own silent, passive complicity in the growing moral darkness of this nation's leadership?

The Most Dangerous Days
William Rivers Pitt
Wednesday 01 March 2006
The Neil Cavuto show on FOX, of course, was able to locate a bright silver lining in the carnage. The show carried an onscreen caption that read, "All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?"
Hmm.
Wednesday opened with a string of bombings in Baghdad that killed at least 26 people and wounded 65 others. Tuesday saw 75 more people killed in another series of bombings, the worst being five explosions in Baghdad. Since the bombing last Wednesday of the gold-domed Askariya shrine, sacred to Shi'ite Muslims, more than 1,400 people have been killed in Iraq. Bush officials in Iraq and here in America have been scrambling to slap a smiley-face on these horrors, but the threat of all-out religious civil war looms larger by the hour.
There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, no connections to al Qaeda or 9/11. The deep sense of betrayal felt within the populace is very real, and very dangerous to congressional Republicans staring down the barrel of the midterm elections that are nine months away. Patience and perseverance? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

Zogby International
Released: February 28, 2006
U.S. Troops in Iraq: 72% Say End War in 2006
Almost 90% think war is retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11...
Hello people, welcome to reality. Even Bush admits there is no connection between Iraq and 9/11. I don't think this is important to the average American.
"They are all the same kind of people; kill 'em all. We need to nuke all those camel-jockey raghead sand niggers before they hit us again."
I think this is the attitude of many folks I talk to.
So let's sell control of our major eastern ports to people who are sitting on the Strait of Hormuz. Does that make sense to you?
Is this a PR stunt designed to prove the American public cannot be awakened?