Letter Never Sent Tell me when to go.

Bush Junior and his crew are concerned with what the women think about the ‘war on terror’. Concerned that Americans are losing their taste for world domination the Bush gang has tried to enlist Oprah Winfrey to steer the opinions of her estimated 22 million predominantly female viewers. They had hoped to stake their claim on television as the world liberators of oppressed women. Unfortunately, this claim is laughable. The US actively supports governments like in Saudi Arabia who are as bad or worse as the Taliban with regards to gender equality. This attempt to justify the US actions in terms of increasing the freedom of Afghan women is really funny. Every time I see someone on TV speaking earnestly about how the US has freed Afghan women I have to be cynical. A scant few months ago the US was an active supporter of the Taliban regime.

Bush’s political advisers are concerned that some key voting groups, while supportive of the war on terrorism, may be growing weary of the constant talk of killing and brutality. The Oprah strategy was devised to dampen the images of global violence.

Despite the rebuff from Winfrey, the president has begun to push that message. He told audiences in three states this week how the young girls finally have been liberated from Taliban rule and are resuming their studies after being banned from schoolrooms in 1996.

“I like to assure my fellow citizens that we don’t seek revenge, we seek justice,” Bush told a Dallas political gathering Thursday, taking a break from his Easter vacation at his Texas ranch. “And it’s important for the young in America to understand that when we went into Afghanistan, we went in not as conquerors, but as liberators.”

Don’t you feel like a liberator? I’m sure all the thousands and millions of Afghans who have had their country invaded and their homes bombed and their families murdered by US bombs feel ‘liberated’.

There have been further reports of American troops abusing Afghans. The soldiers beat them and kicked them. Then shaved their hair and beards, which they are required by their religion to wear, before releasing them four days later. Classy. Makes you proud to be an American.

In an effort to shift focus away from the Government’s development and mishandling of anthrax there comes a timely story in the New York Times. As more evidence comes out that the anthrax that killed 3 people was developed by the United States it becomes necessary to remove scrutiny and place it back onto the mysterious and elusive Al Quaeda. The New York Times article, “US Says It Found Quaeda Lab Being Built to Produce Anthrax”, contains the routine half-truths and innuendo common to US propaganda. It is necessary to interpret the language carefully in order to derive any really useful information.

In an article that suggests Al Quaeda had plans to develop chemical/biological weapons there is astonishingly little substance. The news value is low and the ‘news’ consists mainly of statements of belief attributed to government officials. You hear these sort of phrases often: ‘US says’, ‘Government believes’, ‘According to a confidential assessment’, ‘American officials have repeatedly asserted’. None of those who speak for our government, these officials, are named. So in this case, vague statements are made, the statements consist mainly of the juxtaposition of the words anthrax and Al Quaeda, there is the absence of evidence, and the statements are anonymous. The conclusion is that this is just your ordinary manipulation of public opinion. The sort of thing once practiced in the Soviet Union. The story turns out not to be what Al Quaeda is really doing, but what the US wants to make sure we think they’re really doing. The New York Times journalist does point out the lack of evidence to support these claims by the government, but the overwhelming theme is that these ghostly terrorists are out to develop germ weapons. That’s not to say I think Al Quaeda (if it even exists) or any other terrorist organization would be above using chemical or biological agents. I would not put the use of biological weapons past any group who wished to do violence against others. However, even as Al Quaeda is suspected of planning to develop chemical weapons we know for certain that the US has. The US biological weapons program is advanced and well financed. And unlike any shadowy terrorist organization the United States has shown the proven ability to develop and use chemical and biological weapons against human beings. If you can drop atom bombs or fly planes into buildings you would most likely not be troubled by biological agents.

The point is, I suppose, that the US has no credibility in leading the fight against terrorism. No matter how often it tries to portray itself as the champion of freedom and goodness, the truth remains. Instead of the military acting to defend the people of the United States from violence they have become hired killers and tools of a machiavellian foreign policy.

Thank goodness for the ACLU (membership 35$). They’re trying to block the use of an x-ray security machine that can view your body through clothing [pic].

NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union today called upon Orlando International Airport to remove a controversial new X-ray body-scanning device that can see through clothing and show a person’s naked body.

“This body-scan technology is nothing more than an electronic strip search,” said Barry Steinhardt, ACLU Associate Director. “This technology brings an extraordinary potential for abuse. We certainly should not be using it in our airports before other, less intrusive alternatives have been tried out.”

Steinhardt cited as an example of a less-intrusive approach another technology being tested in Orlando, a particle analyzer that blows air on passengers as they walk through a short corridor and reacts if any explosives particles are detected.

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One journalist’s experience trying to find out about shadow government bunker ‘Site-R’. This piece also illustrates the operating mentality of the FBI and other fascist cogs. *chuckle* I’m heartened to know that if and when we are attacked with nuclear weapons our fearless leaders will be snug and safe deep in their underground burrows:

It is officer Powers, the cop the candle lady told me about. And he immediately lets known his displeasure.

“Are you an American?” he shouts, shaking his head. “Do you speak English?

I answer yes to both.

“Do you read English?”

Before I can answer that question, he shouts again, demanding that I take my hands out of my pockets because, he says, “it makes me want to shoot somebody.”

Then he launches into his take on the media.

“Our boys are dying over there. Unacceptable. You guys in the media, don’t you think that Saddam Hussein was watching CNN?” …
Then Powers.

“Tell your buddies in the media to keep the body count down,” he says. “Now, I don’t expect to see you up here again. Understand?” …

And, this is from the secretive fellow who wanted to sell the reporter photos of Site R over the internet:

“Howard, I am letting you know ahead of time that what I am giving you will be the largest story since Sep 11, the governments secret base. It is nicknamed the underground pentagon, it has 5 buildings, each 3 stories, a helipad, a national satellite comm. center,direct lines to the president, moscow, norad, and other top notch organizations. Not only can I get you the pics, and/or film but I can give you the layout of any activities. So chump change will not be accepted for me risking my career. I know the shadow gov is the hottest thing going so be generous. Hope to do business soon. Mike.”

From Texans for Public Justice:

A little more than a year after more than 200 “Pioneers” narrowly helped put him in the White House, George W. Bush has rewarded at least 43 of these elite fundraisers with federal appointments. The Bush “Pioneers” raised a minimum of $100,000 for Bush by bundling together contributions of up to $1,000 (the legal limit) from other individuals. Bush’s 43 Pioneer appointees delivered more than $4.3 million to Bush’s presidential race. Collectively they also gave $204,000 to Bush’s two gubernatorial races.

“Political patronage is alive and well in the Bush White House,” said Craig McDonald, Director of Texans for Public Justice. “Rewarding big donors with ambassadorships is a sure-fire way to keep the campaign money rolling in. If Congress outlaws soft money, Pioneer bundling will become a blueprint for the future of special-interest politics in Washington.”

The highest-ranking Pioneers are Terrorism Czar Tom Ridge (a former Pennsylvania Governor) and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao (an ex-Heritage Foundation Fellow and the wife of U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell).

Other Pioneers who received Bush appointments include:

• 19 U.S. ambassadors to countries from Austria to Uruguay
• Five members of the Energy Department Transition Team that first envisioned Bush’s supply-side energy policy (including ex-Enron CEO Ken Lay) and
• Two seats on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

More on the ‘Pioneers’ and their backgrounds available here.

Which is more likely, that the bodies of an estimated 500-800 Al Quaeda supposedly killed by our military vanished into thin air, or that our government is full of shit? Amazingly, the brilliant success and firefight reported by the US Military at Shahikot has resulted in a paltry handful of actual dead ‘terrorists’. The US killed more people crashing helicopters in the past few weeks than they have the phantasmic Al Quaeda.

Want a glimpse of how things really work? Follow the battle between the tech industry and hollywood to stop ‘piracy’. Michael Eisner of Disney Corp., who has suggested executing pirates, is up at Capitol Hill trying to force the government to come up with mandated technological barriers to prevent copying. There is no representation for the public. The entire debate is between the manufacturers and the content producers. At issue, is the reality that people don’t check with Hollywood before changing things. Despite their best measures to control everything big media is seeing that people all over the world are doing what comes natural thing…sharing. The internet has freed books, music, and video. Why should people be compelled to pay for something which they can borrow or copy from someone else? I say, fuck Michael Eisner, Jack Valenti, and all the other leeches like them. Piracy will continue even if people have to use camcorders to copy movies. Their is no hope to protect books. Text is what computers do best. You can download a book that someone scanned and ocred and it will be anywhere from 50-100 Kilobytes. That’s nothing. You could have 1500 books per 700 MB Disc. Movies are more of a problem, but there is no way to stop it without preventing people from creating videos entirely which would be nearly impossible.

Online one can find anything. Millions of people are involved in a large-scale process to share what they have. People are collaborating to create a virtual limitless library of culture. You can find sewing patterns, crochet patterns, recipes, television episodes, movies, music, music videos, books, comic books, and even scans of magazines like Playboy. All of these things shackeled by copyright. It is an exciting time to be alive.

America Still Has an Office of Disinformation. It’s Called the Pentagon from CommonDreams.org

In all frankness, the only thing more dishonest than an Office of Strategic Influence aimed at deceiving foreigners is the suggestion that the Bush administration, or any other since the Second World War, likes to tell Americans the truth.

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Pat Buchanan is blunt on the new American nuke policy:

Why would we use nuclear weapons on Iraq in retaliation for an attack on Israel, when Israel has its own nuclear weapons? Under what conceivable circumstances would we use atomic weapons on Syria? Does the United States claim a right of first use of atomic weapons against any “rogue state” that develops a weapon of mass destruction? If so, where does the president get the authority to launch such wars? Or was this document leaked to intimidate the “Axis of Evil”? Is it perhaps a product of the Office of Strategic Influence, the now-defunct disinformation agency of the Pentagon?

Read the rest here.