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NIEs: Waste of Time? Cindy Sheehan
BushCo and the Fox "News" generation have a long history of ignoring National Intelligence Estimates (NIE). I would say that they ignore the NIEs at their own peril, but BushCo has suffered nothing for its denial of truth and exploitation of fear. As a matter of fact, BushCo's quest to be the global hegemon has proceeded without any kind of check. Fox "News" seems to be thriving and the leader of that Empire, Rupert Murdoch is able to usurp more media outlets in his quest for unchallenged propaganda power as the ad hoc Minister of Dis-Information.
Literally millions of people have suffered horribly for BushCo's crimes, and that's just in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here in our own country (Love it or Leave it) bulldozers are demolishing low income housing in the Gulf States that were harmed due to the very callous incompetence of the Federal Government and to for immoral profit privatization of everything, even education. There has always been a war on poor people in this country, but Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath only highlighted how deeply racist our Nation and its policies really still are. The Every Child Left Behind Act has been designed to transform our children into a generation of cannon fodder and is just another example of how everything George touches turns to rancidi garbage. Our country hovers near the bottom of the global education barrel and is another example of how we are allowing BushCo to make an international laughingstock out of we here in the US.
On August 6th, 2001, exactly 36 days before 9-11, George was handed an NIE that was actually titled: "Bin Laden determined to strike in the US." George was on yet another vacation in Crawford at the time and according to Ron Susskind, he told the agent who handed him the briefing "Okay, you covered your ass, now." The date of August 6th is stuck in my mind forever, because exactly four years later I marched for the first time down Prairie Chapel road demanding to meet with George and ask him the question: "What Noble Cause?" That question is still unanswered and month upon month only brings more ignobility with no end in sight.
We all now know that BushCo ignored warnings from the Clinton Administration about the danger that al-Qaeda posed and we also know that they ignored intelligence that Bin Laden was determined to strike. But after we were attacked on 9-11, we also know that Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby, in particular, visited the CIA on numerous times to cherry pick the intelligence that let to the misguided and disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq. Bin Laden is still at large and two countries have been destroyed for nothing.
Now we have the NIE that says that Iran has no nuclear weapon program and has not had one since 2003. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersch claims that BushCo has known at the highest levels about this intelligence for over a year, but they have all been beating their evil drums of war against Iran, nevertheless.
Was anyone really surprised when George ignored the latest NIE and in fact has spun it for the nefarious neocon agenda? The NIE did what it was designed to do; it estimated that even if Iran were to resume their uranium enrichment program today, they would have one bomb by 2010 or 2015. This is plenty of time to enforce the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and follow its path of inspections and verifications to ensure that countries use their nuclear technology for only peaceful energy purposes. Even though I am personally opposed to nuclear energy, if Iran, or any other sovereign country, wants the technology, then stringent guidelines should be followed. We can also use this time to disarm all already existing nuclear weapons: from Isreal to Pakistan, from India to the US and everywhere in between: such destructive devices should not be in the hands of any country! It especially frightens me that someone as fundamentally irresponsible and dangerous as George Bush has his finger on the button of our enormous arsenal. If we should be worried about anyone being the harbinger of armageddon, it is he.
In no way can we afford another front in George's Global War OF Terror. With our federal deficit at record highs, we can't afford it monetarily. With our armed forces past the breaking point, we can't afford it militarily. With many internal social systems and infrastructure systems crumbling, we can't afford it as a suffering nation. With babies and other innocents being killed in our names already, we can't afford it in our souls. An invasion of Iran would not be a "cakewalk" even more profoundly than the invasion of Iraq was not. We would lose more of our flesh and blood for the lies of BushCo and to profit the pigs of war.
It can be very frustrating and infuriating to most people that the crimes of BushCo go unpunished and unchecked by Congress, Inc, but it is very personal to me.
On the day my son, Casey, was killed in Iraq, I fell on the floor screaming in anguish. That scenario has been repeated thousands of times here in the US and hundreds of thousands of times in Iraq and Afghanistan. So tragic and so unnecessary, but so unnoticed by many Americans.
There are millions of people who are still alive who need our support.
To restore the rule of law and order and sanity to this world, George and Dick must be impeached and removed from office.
How much more evidence does Congress, Inc need? Perhaps each and every member needs to be smacked up one side of the head with a copy of the Constitution and to follow up, a smack on the other side with a copy of the Geneva Conventions?
"People before Politics"
*Update on the 10,000 Impeachment letters to Nancy Pelosi Campaign.
We currently have close to 7,000 letters. We must take 10,000+ letters.
We will be delivering them to the Speakers office in San Francisco on Jan 3, 2008.
Please if you have not already sent a letter send one today. Encourage all of your
friends and family to do so also.
Send the letters to:
Nancy Pelosi
c/o Cindy Sheehan
1260 Mission St.
San Francisco Ca. 94103
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