Bang! Bang!

September 28th, 2007

That’s two smoking guns going off, directing our attention back to the little Decider and his eagerness to take us into Hell in the Middle East; not that they will help us impeach him … we’ve found so many smoking guns stuffed down Dubby’s pants, at this point, that the Oval Office looks like the corporate headquarters of the NRA.

Here’s two bits that have bubbled up from the Dark Secrets File that prove … one more time … that this is Bush’s war and profiteering from chaos is his dance.

On that topic, I’ve added a great blog-bit from Bill Maher, his most recent “New Rule,” last, that illustrates the book-cooking and dissembling that our failed American CEO cottons to — while today he stumps to “protect democracy” by denying sick little kids … and admits that Global Warming is real, announcing that America will now “lead the way” by expanding nuclear power and asking nicely … again … for Big Oil to mind their manners.

Sigh.

Jude

Saddam Offered Exile, But Neo-Cons Unleashed Carnage Anyway
What could have been saved? A trillion dollars, a million lives, the global
reputation of the U.S. - but that wasn’t the plan
Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet
Thursday, September 27, 2007

Neo-Cons could have saved a trillion dollars, spared over a million lives and prevented tens of thousands of dead and injured U.S. soldiers but decided to unleash carnage anyway, after it was revealed last night that Saddam Hussein offered to step down and go into exile one month before the invasion of Iraq.

“Fearing defeat, Saddam was prepared to go peacefully in return for £500million ($1billion),” reports the Daily Mail.

“The extraordinary offer was revealed yesterday in a transcript of talks in February 2003 between George Bush and the then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar at the President’s Texas ranch.”

“The White House refused to comment on the report last night. But, if verified, it is certain to raise questions in Washington and London over whether the costly four-year war could have been averted.”

According to the tapes, Bush told Aznar that whether Saddam was still in Iraq or not, “We’ll be in Baghdad by the end of March.”

Why didn’t the Neo-Cons take Saddam’s offer? After all, the invasion was about “weapons of mass destruction” and “spreading freedom”, we were told. With the dictator gone, the U.N. and American forces were free to roam the country in search of the non-existent weapons while setting up the “utopian democracy” that Iraqis now live under.

The Neo-Cons didn’t take the offer because the invasion of Iraq was not about Saddam Hussein, it was about making fat profits for the military-industrial complex by bombing the country back into the stone age, slaughtering countless innocents in the process, seizing control of oil factories, and setting up military bases as a means of launching the Empire’s next jaunt into Iran.

The invasion of Iraq was about having a justification to stay there indefinitely and break the country up into different pieces as was the plan all along.

Here’s what $1 billion could have saved us.

- At least $200 million every single day that could have been spent on fighting poverty, building schools, taking men to Mars, ad infinitum.

- At least $1 trillion that the Iraq war will eventually cost if we ever leave. A trillion is a million millions.

- At least 1 million dead Iraqis according to the latest numbers, along with millions more that will die in the years to come as a result of depleted uranium poisoning, malnutrition, cholera and all manner of other horrors brought about by the invasion.

- Over 1.1 million displaced Iraqis who have been forced to leave their new “utopian democracy” and another million who have been forced to leave their homes due to sectarian violence and persecution.

- Over 3800 dead U.S. soldiers since the invasion began.

- 300 dead coalition soldiers since the invasion began.

- Anything from 23,000 to 100,000 injured U.S. soldiers since the invasion began.

- The reputation of the U.S. around the world as the most hated nation on earth.

- The ballooning deficit and the probable eventual collapse of the U.S. dollar and the economy.

Thanks Neo-Cons - I hope it was worth it.

Bush threatened nations that did not back Iraq war: report
AFP
9/26/07

MADRID (AFP) - US President George W. Bush threatened nations with retaliation if they did not vote for a UN resolution backing the Iraq war, according to a transcript published Wednesday of a conversation he had with former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar.

In the transcript of a meeting on February 22, 2003 — a month before the US-led invasion of Iraq — published in El Pais newspaper, Bush tells Aznar that nations such as Mexico, Angola, Chile and Cameroon must know that the security of the United States is at stake.

He says during the meeting on his ranch in Texas that Angola stood to lose financial aid while Chile could see a free trade agreement held up in the US Senate if they did not back the resolution, the left-wing paper said.

The confidential transcript was prepared by Spain’s ambassador to the United States at the time, Javier Ruperez, the paper said.

The White House did not challenge the accuracy of the transcript, with national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe declining to comment.

Prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, Washington unsuccessfully lobbied the 15 members of the UN Security Council for a second resolution paving the way for military action against Iraq if Saddam Hussein failed to comply with demands to disarm.

But during the meeting with Aznar, Bush made it clear the US would invade Iraq by the end of March 2003 whether or not there was a UN resolution to authorize it, El Pais reported.

“We have to get rid of Saddam. There are two weeks left. In two weeks we will be ready militarily. We will be in Baghdad at the end of March,” Bush said in the transcript which was translated into Spanish by the newspaper.

“We can win without destruction. We are already planning a post-Saddam Iraq and I think there is a good basis for a better future. Iraq has a good bureaucracy and a relatively robust civil society,” he added.

During the meeting Aznar tells Bush that he is worried by the US president’s optimism.

“I am optimistic because I believe I am right. I am at peace with myself,” Bush responded according to the transcript.

Bush also told Aznar that Saddam wanted to go into exile.

“The Egyptians are speaking to Saddam Hussein. It seems he’s indicated he would be prepared to go into exile if he’s allowed to take one billion dollars (700 million euros) and all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

Asked by Aznar whether Saddam could leave with a guarantee that he would not be prosecuted, Bush replied: “No guarantee. He is a thief, a terrorist, a war criminal.”

“Compared to Saddam, (former Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosovic is a Mother Teresa. When we go in we are going to find many more criminals and take them to the International Court of Justice in The Hague,” he added.

Bush said Saddam could be assassinated or even be ousted from power.

“For me that would be the perfect solution. I don’t want war,” he said in a reference to Saddam’s possible ousting from power, while estimating that the operation to remove his regime by force would cost some 50 billion dollars.

New Rule: Stop Saying Iraq is Another Vietnam, it’s Another Enron
Bill Maher, HuffPo
September 27, 2007

Iraq is Enron, and President Bush is Ken Lay. He’s fighting a war with phony accounting tricks. The Bush administration fudged the numbers to get us into Iraq, and cooked the books to keep us there. “The surge” is simply another in a long series of inflated stock quotes. This past weekend Marcel Marceau passed away at age 84. Doctors say he went quietly. Thus proving that evil thrives when good men stay silent. And just like with Enron, the good men and women who are blowing the whistle on Iraq contractor fraud are being vilified, fired, demoted, and those are the lucky ones.

Last Friday morning the Senate Democratic Policy Committee held a hearing entitled “The Mistreatment of Iraq Contracting Whistleblowers,” just in time to make the Friday news dump. According to the committee more than $10 billion dollars in Iraq reconstruction and military support contracts is unaccounted for. In other words, for every six dollars spent in Iraq one dollar is in question. And folks, it’s a war-zone, you’re dealing with a culture known for its haggling skills, so you’ve got factor in a little skimming, but this is ridiculous. If you stole that much money from the Mafia you’d be dead.

Vicente Fox may have called President Bush a “windshield cowboy,” but Bush has certainly turned Iraq into a wild, wild, west. And here’s another one from the War in Iraq’s this-is going-to-make-you-vomit file. Some Iraq contract whistleblowers have been vilified and fired, others have been detained by the US military and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques.

Donald Vance, a Navy veteran, was working for an Iraqi-owned outfit called the Shield Group Security Company. Vance said he witnessed Shield Group selling guns, land mines, and rocket-launchers to Iraqi insurgents, American soldiers, State Department workers, and Iraqi embassy and ministry workers. Vance described Shield Groups as “a Wal-Mart for guns.” Vance reported this to the FBI, and instead of a pat on the back, he got 97 days at Camp Cropper, a military prison outside of Baghdad. In fact, Saddam’s Hussein’s old crib. Vance was placed in solitary confinement, subjected to head-banging music blaring from dawn to dusk, and interrogators screaming the same questions over and over again in his face.

Also testifying at the hearing along with Vance was Barry Godfrey, a former KBR employee (KBR Halliburton=Cheney) who claimed that he was fired after complaining to his supervisors about fraudulent overcharges.

Also testifying was Bunnatine Greenhouse. Greenhouse is the former highest-ranking civilian contracting official at the Army Corps of Engineers, so I’ll dispense with the “Greenhouse having gas” joke. But Greenhouse was removed from her position when she tried to crack down on “casual and clubby contracting practices” at the Army Corps of Engineers.

Also testifying was Robert Isakson who was a co-plaintiff in a “qui tam” lawsuit (a whistleblower lawsuit) against Custer Battles. No, “qui tam” is not that stuff that Chinese people do in the park, it’s shorthand for the Latin Phrase “qui tam pro domino quam pro seipso,” which dates back to 13th century England, and means, “He who is as much for the King as for himself.” Today, a “qui tam” lawsuit is one brought under the False Claims Act by a private plaintiff on behalf of the Federal or State Government. Isakson won the first civil verdict for Iraq reconstruction fraud against Custer Battles. However, the verdict was overturned by the judge, who ruled that because the CPA was not part of the US government, the “qui tam” statute did not apply.

Meanwhile the Bush administration has not litigated a single case against a contractor alleged to have defrauded the US Government in Iraq. Apparently, like terrorism, this isn’t a law enforcement issue either.

Bill Maher is the host of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” which airs every Friday at 11PM.

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007

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