A History: False Alarms... vs. The News They Buried (continued)
The following article was written by Robert Dreyfuss and taken from the September 21st Issue of Rolling Stone Magazine under the Foreign Affairs section, pages 42-49, with the title "Phony War." It serves to illustrate the amount of sheer misunderstanding and lack of factual knowledge our government possessed(es) in exercising scare tactics in an effort to frighten the American people into perpetual submission. It was published here in two parts. This is the second and final part.
*This blogger would like it to be noted that the blogger does not believe whatsoever in the importance of bipartisanship (consigning of ieals to a particular group, namely Democratic, naturally more liberal, or the Republican, more conservative, parties). This blogger believes it to be senseless in this day and age to squabble over petty differences when there is so much more at stake. It is also this blogger's contention that the reader should take into account that the two-party system may just be a smoke screen or a method of distraction to keep us arguing like rivaling siblings unaware of their father's hard hand and their mother's whorings. In any event the most this blogger could encourage is for the reader to keep an open mind and make up their minds for themselves. Thank you.*
PART II
A History: False Alarms... vs. The News They Buried.
by Robert Dreyfuss
"May 20, 2003
THE THREAT
For a second Memorial Day in a row, country is placed on ORANGE ALERT following warning that "Al Qaeda has entered an operational period worldwide."
THE REALITY
No specific threat ever cited; alert issued because of what the Department of Homeland Security calls "the heightened vulnerability associated with the Memorial Day holiday."
THE REAL NEWS
Two weeks after Bush declared "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" in Iraq, administration's plan to implement Iraqi self-rule was postponed "indefinitely" due to looting and lawlessness.
July 29, 2003
THE THREAT
Homeland Security warns that new, 9/11-like strikes are in the works: "At least one of these attacks could be executed by the end of the summer."
THE REALITY
Not one of the alleged attacks ever materialized.
THE REAL NEWS
Days earlier, the Bush administration revealed that the CIA forewarned the president about the lack of evidence for his claim that Saddam was seeking uranium from Africa.
December 21, 2003
THE THREAT
ORANGE ALERT for the holidays. Ridge warns that threat of attack is "perhaps greater now than at any point since 9/11." Six flights are canceled because several passengers match terror watch list.
THE REAL NEWS
The alert came after 9/11 Commission chair Tom Kean suggested the 9/11 attacks could have been thwarted. Bush is also under fire for failing to find weapons of mass destruction.
May 26, 2004
THE THREAT
Memorial Day again: "They are going to attack and hit us hard," warns senior intelligence official. ASHCROFT relats an Al Qaeda threat that "ninety percent of the arrangements for an attack in the United States were complete."
THE REALITY
The threat Ashcroft attributed to Al Qaeda was actually made by a discredited group that falsely claimed credit for the Madrid train bombings. This group "is not really taken seriously by Western intelligence," says one expert.
THE REAL NEWS
the ABU GRHAIB torture scandal has come to a full boil.
June 14, 2004
THE THREAT
A shopping mall in Columbus, Oh. is threatened by Al Qaeda bomber, "The American heartland was targeted for death and destruction," Ashcroft declares.
THE REALITY
The Somali suspect whose indictment Aschcroft trumpeted had been in custody for seven months. The charges against him made no mention of a shopping mall.
THE REAL NEWS
John Kerry leads Bush by seven points in early Ohio polling.
July 8, 2004
THE THREAT
TOM RIDGE warns that "Al Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process."
THE REALITY
The plost did not exist: Says a top European spy, "I am aware of no intelligence, nothing that shows there will be an attack before the U.S. presidential election."
THE REAL NEWS
Two days earlier, JOHN KERRY tapped JOHN EDWARDS as his running mate.
August 1, 2004
THE THREAT
ORANGE ALERT. Citing "new and unusually specific" intelligence, Ridge details a threat to the Citigroup building and the New York Stock Exchange. Adds Bush, "We wouldn't be, you know, contacting authorities at the local level unless something was real."
THE REALITY
The president allowed his own daughters to do a photo-op at one of the targeted buildings. Perhaps that's because the "new" intelligence was actually three years old. "There is nothing right now that we're hearing that is new," says a senior law-enforcement official.
THE REAL NEWS
Alert came three days after Kerry took the Democratic nomination at the party's convention in Boston.
October 6, 2005
THE THREAT
FBI warns of Al Qaeda subway bombing "on or about October 9th, 2005." Bush claims to have foiled ten terror plots since 9/11.
THE REALITY
A counterterrorism official calls the warning unfounded: "There was no there there." None of the plots cited by Bush were operational.
THE REAL NEWS
Bush's nomination of HARRIET MIERS to the Supreme Court is failing."
Leave the cave.
References:
Article "Phony War" by Robert Dreyfuss, Object entitled "A History: False Alarms... vs. The News They Buried," Rolling Stone Magazine, Issue 1009, September 21, 2006
*This blogger would like it to be noted that the blogger does not believe whatsoever in the importance of bipartisanship (consigning of ieals to a particular group, namely Democratic, naturally more liberal, or the Republican, more conservative, parties). This blogger believes it to be senseless in this day and age to squabble over petty differences when there is so much more at stake. It is also this blogger's contention that the reader should take into account that the two-party system may just be a smoke screen or a method of distraction to keep us arguing like rivaling siblings unaware of their father's hard hand and their mother's whorings. In any event the most this blogger could encourage is for the reader to keep an open mind and make up their minds for themselves. Thank you.*
PART II
A History: False Alarms... vs. The News They Buried.
by Robert Dreyfuss
"May 20, 2003
THE THREAT
For a second Memorial Day in a row, country is placed on ORANGE ALERT following warning that "Al Qaeda has entered an operational period worldwide."
THE REALITY
No specific threat ever cited; alert issued because of what the Department of Homeland Security calls "the heightened vulnerability associated with the Memorial Day holiday."
THE REAL NEWS
Two weeks after Bush declared "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" in Iraq, administration's plan to implement Iraqi self-rule was postponed "indefinitely" due to looting and lawlessness.
July 29, 2003
THE THREAT
Homeland Security warns that new, 9/11-like strikes are in the works: "At least one of these attacks could be executed by the end of the summer."
THE REALITY
Not one of the alleged attacks ever materialized.
THE REAL NEWS
Days earlier, the Bush administration revealed that the CIA forewarned the president about the lack of evidence for his claim that Saddam was seeking uranium from Africa.
December 21, 2003
THE THREAT
ORANGE ALERT for the holidays. Ridge warns that threat of attack is "perhaps greater now than at any point since 9/11." Six flights are canceled because several passengers match terror watch list.
THE REAL NEWS
The alert came after 9/11 Commission chair Tom Kean suggested the 9/11 attacks could have been thwarted. Bush is also under fire for failing to find weapons of mass destruction.
May 26, 2004
THE THREAT
Memorial Day again: "They are going to attack and hit us hard," warns senior intelligence official. ASHCROFT relats an Al Qaeda threat that "ninety percent of the arrangements for an attack in the United States were complete."
THE REALITY
The threat Ashcroft attributed to Al Qaeda was actually made by a discredited group that falsely claimed credit for the Madrid train bombings. This group "is not really taken seriously by Western intelligence," says one expert.
THE REAL NEWS
the ABU GRHAIB torture scandal has come to a full boil.
June 14, 2004
THE THREAT
A shopping mall in Columbus, Oh. is threatened by Al Qaeda bomber, "The American heartland was targeted for death and destruction," Ashcroft declares.
THE REALITY
The Somali suspect whose indictment Aschcroft trumpeted had been in custody for seven months. The charges against him made no mention of a shopping mall.
THE REAL NEWS
John Kerry leads Bush by seven points in early Ohio polling.
July 8, 2004
THE THREAT
TOM RIDGE warns that "Al Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process."
THE REALITY
The plost did not exist: Says a top European spy, "I am aware of no intelligence, nothing that shows there will be an attack before the U.S. presidential election."
THE REAL NEWS
Two days earlier, JOHN KERRY tapped JOHN EDWARDS as his running mate.
August 1, 2004
THE THREAT
ORANGE ALERT. Citing "new and unusually specific" intelligence, Ridge details a threat to the Citigroup building and the New York Stock Exchange. Adds Bush, "We wouldn't be, you know, contacting authorities at the local level unless something was real."
THE REALITY
The president allowed his own daughters to do a photo-op at one of the targeted buildings. Perhaps that's because the "new" intelligence was actually three years old. "There is nothing right now that we're hearing that is new," says a senior law-enforcement official.
THE REAL NEWS
Alert came three days after Kerry took the Democratic nomination at the party's convention in Boston.
October 6, 2005
THE THREAT
FBI warns of Al Qaeda subway bombing "on or about October 9th, 2005." Bush claims to have foiled ten terror plots since 9/11.
THE REALITY
A counterterrorism official calls the warning unfounded: "There was no there there." None of the plots cited by Bush were operational.
THE REAL NEWS
Bush's nomination of HARRIET MIERS to the Supreme Court is failing."
Leave the cave.
References:
Article "Phony War" by Robert Dreyfuss, Object entitled "A History: False Alarms... vs. The News They Buried," Rolling Stone Magazine, Issue 1009, September 21, 2006
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