Iran-Contra, Amplified

[DUreader]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0811-01.htm


snip



The picture emerging from the latest reports
about the manipulation of intelligence in the
drive to war with Iraq, as well as efforts by
administration hawks to deliberately
aggravate tensions with Syria, Iran, and
North Korea in defiance of official State
Department and U.S. policy, suggest a similar
but much more ambitious scheme at work.

As with Reagan, in this case, too, it is
difficult to determine whether Bush -- or
even his NSC director, Condoleezza Rice --
fully understands, let alone approves, of
what the hawks are doing.

There was some hint of a parallel policy
apparatus dating back just after the
terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001. It was
known early on, for example, that the
Pentagon leadership, without notice to the
State Department, the NSC, or the CIA,
convened its advisory Defense Policy Board
(DPB), headed by Richard Perle, to discuss
attacking Iraq within days of the attacks.

The three agencies were also kept in the dark about a
mission undertaken immediately afterward by former CIA
director and DPB member James Woolsey to London to gather
intelligence about possible links between Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, as if the
CIA or the Pentagon's own Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
could not be trusted.


snip

[DrBB]

1. Adnan Khashoggi, Adnan Khashoggi, Adnan Khashoggi, just keep saying

...Adnan Khashoggi

http://slate.msn.com/id/1006609/

[Wonder]

3. ah yes lunch with the chairman

but of course we understand now that hersh is the worst terrorist in the world, just like now it seems Iran is being PR'd as a threat to the entire world...and the beat goes on.

On edit: memory is a terrible thing to waste.

[Wonder]

2. yeah woolsey is very slick

I saw him dance around Ted Koppel's very pointed questions back now two months ago or so, wherein Koppel was trying to understand how it was the Admin thought it justifed to mislead the public regarding the WMD. At the point (and probably still although wasn't wolfy or perle that just indicated it would take 200 years to find these WMD's), Woolsey's pat response was don't worry we know they are there we will find them, but wasn't it good taking SH down.

I am still reading... the article. If we don't get this Iran contra crew this time, there is no hope. I wonder how the CFR feeds into Iran Contra... anyone have a lead on that?

[Wonder]

6. CFR and Iran Contra AND America's Fishiest First Family

snip

"These people are overly reaching, overly aggressive, overly secretive, and just plain corrupt. I don't trust these people." - Ronald Reagan Jr., on the current Bush administration
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/04/14/
ron_reagan/index_np.html

Sometimes, one simple assertion triggers an avalanche. The above statement, for example, after prompting an obligatory, "Wasn't Iran-Contra aggressive, secretive and corrupt?" conjures a cascade of murkier questions.

Ever since Prescott Bush was penalized for trading with the Nazis and the words "George Bush of the CIA" surfaced on a 1963 FBI report on the JFK assassination, the Bush family has been tied to speculation. But given that the GOP wasted more than $50 million of our tax dollars investigating a failed land deal and a president's sex life, who's in the mood to dwell on boogiemen in the closet? Isn't this administration frightening enough without fueling fears with yesterday's news?

snip

Conventional Conniving

It seems Ronald Reagan Sr. didn't initially trust George Herbert Walker Bush, either. Oddly enough, with organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Trilateral Commission becoming "hot topics" during the 1980 presidential primaries, candidates for the Republican nomination (save George Bush and John Anderson), clamored to prove they weren't associated with either entity. According to the History Channel, not only did Reagan repeatedly express a distrust of these organizations, but promised that CFR and Trilateral Commission member George Bush would not be offered a position in his administration. (This concern didn't extend to others, it seems, because on the day he won the New Hampshire primary, Reagan replaced his campaign manager with CFR member and future CIA Director William J. Casey).

snip

Contempt for Honesty'

In 2000, George H.W. Bush promised the New York Times that his son would "restore honor and integrity" to the White House. "On the subject of 'honor and integrity,' David Corn responded, "let's recall the Iran-contra affair."

Although Congress, responding to public will, made it illegal for the US to support "indirectly or indirectly military or paramilitary operations in Nicaragua," the Reagan/Bush administration bypassed democracy and funded the contras anyway. Selling weapons to the regime that once held Americans hostage to finance this subversion, they also engaged in "foreign policy bribery," lied shamelessly, and pardoned those involved.

Saying that Bush's last minute pardons proved that "powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office - deliberately abusing the public trust - without consequence," Iran-contra independent counsel Lawrence Walsh added that it was "hard to find an adjective strong enough to characterize a president who has such contempt for honesty." http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=9448

When George W. Bush littered his cabinet with recycled Iran/contra criminals, and proved to be a liar on several fronts, honor and integrity went AWOL, just like the president himself. http://www.awolbush.com/.

more... with more... links within article

http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/03/05/06.html

WHO IS WHO IN IRAN CONTRA

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2807/emiran.html

[Wonder]

4. sorry I just have to say that you know what sucks about this?

people (who were regularly ridiculed in common patriotic circles - including myself) have been saying irancontra irancontra from jump on this kettle of rotten fish... and it is only now at this late stage of the game that this is bubbling up to the surface and actually common dreams is NOT a US MAINSTREAM media outlet...

shit even going back to the Reagan Admin who was that old woman in washington that more than once publically called bush sr. out regarding his running the show from the v.p's office...? I don't know what expression would best describe the level of disgust I would attribute to all of this...

and still people balk about pragmatic protocol... and proper channels... there is nothing proper about this... god forbid we talk too much about NN's (I won't even say it outloud anymore)... I guess it's the parallel that no one likes how could the NC's be NN's... oh that is anti-this and anti-that...

On edit: and conspiracy this and tin foil that... bite me!

[pansypoo53219]

5. fuck roadmap

the sheeple are gonna need a bloody globe to figure this gate out.

[Wonder]

7. I guess

[enough]

8. kick (nt)

.