Stop the Crime of the Century

> Please read the following article written by a
> political science
> professor at Hofstra University. It speaks of an
> important truth that
> is not being told to the American people. Many of
> us who read the
> British press know about it, but the majority of
> Americans are being
> kept in the dark by an American media that has given
> up on reporting the
> truth in news. As suggested by the author, I am
> writing the New York
> Times and the Washington Post today. I hope more
> people will feel
> inclined to do the same. However, given the apathy
> so far of the
> majority of Americans to the nefarious deeds of the
> Bush administration,
> I don't have too much hope that, even if this story
> were splashed in
> headlines on page one of every newspaper in the
> country, the Bush
> supporters would pay the least bit of attention to
> it. They are like a
> hypnotized bunch of zombies, following their neocon
> "masters" wherever
> they may lead them. The rest of us who have not
> been "zombified" have a
> chance to refuse to follow. But it does take a
> little effort and
> action--and the strong determination of "Hell, NO,
> I won't Go!"
>
>
> EXCERPT:
>
> Did you know that there now exists in the public
> domain a 'smoking gun'
> memo, which proves that everything the Bush
> administration said about
> the Iraq invasion was a lie? If you live in
> Britain you probably do,
> but if you live in the United States, chances are
> minuscule that you
> would be aware of this.
>
> Think about that for a second. Apart from 9/11, has
> there been a more
> important story in the last decade than that the
> president lied to the
> American people about the reasons for invading Iraq,
> and then proceeded
> to plunge the country into an illegal war which has
> alienated the rest
> of the world, lit a fire under the war's victims and
> the Islamic world
> generally, turning them into enemy combatants,
> locked up virtually all
> American land forces in a war without end in sight,
> cost $300 billion
> and counting, taken over 1600 American lives on top
> of more than 15,000
> gravely wounded, and killed perhaps 100,000 Iraqis?
>
> Could there be a bigger story? "How Do Japanese Dump
> Trash?", perhaps,
> which ran on page one of today's (May 12) Times?
>
> Notwithstanding our worst horrors and fears these
> last four years,
> American democracy is in deeper trouble than we
> knew. Now is the time
> for patriots to act.
>
> We must begin by demanding coverage of this
> explosive evidence by the
> leading organs of American journalism. If the
> American people remain too
> jaded or frightened to demand the heads of those who
> deceived them so
> thoroughly, they're entitled to inherit the
> consequences of their own
> failures. However, they cannot make that choice
> until they know the facts.
>
> Please therefore, for the sake of innocent Iraqis,
> for the sake of
> American soldiers, and for the sake of American
> democracy, do two things
> 'write now':
>
> * First, send a message to the New York Times and
> the Washington Post,
> demanding that they cover this most significant of
> stories. Top brass at
> the New York Times can be emailed at the following
> addresses: Executive
> Editor Bill Keller at executive-editor@nytimes.com
> <mailto:executive-editor@nytimes.com>, and Managing
> Editor Jill Abramson
> at managing-editor@nytimes.com
> <mailto:managing-editor@nytimes.com>. For
> the Washington Post, try National Editor Michael
> Abramowitz at
> abramowitz@washpost.com
> <mailto:abramowitz@washpost.com>, and Associate
> Editor Robert Kaiser at robertgkaiser@yahoo.com
> <mailto:robertgkaiser@yahoo.com>.
>
> * Next, forward this article on to everybody you
> know, and ask them to
> write the Times and the Post as well, and then to
> forward this article
> in turn to everyone they know. With some luck,
> perhaps we can achieve a
> critical mass which can no longer be ignored by
> these papers, with the
> electronic media then to follow.
>
> In any case, we are evidently going have to take
> this country back
> ourselves, without even the benefit of a competent
> media to report the
> news.
>
> Fortunately, we possess the greatest weapon of all,
> the truth.
>
>
>
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_17682.shtml
>
---------------------------------
Stop the Crime of the Century From
AxisofLogic.com

Global Empire
Stop the Crime of the Century
By David Michael Green
May 15, 2005, 16:57

In Iraq, there is a crime of breathtaking
proportions taking place. Breathtaking, but not
necessarily surprising. We know from the historical
record that governments will lie and deceive, and
we've rarely seen one as immoral and venal as the Bush
administration.
What has turned this crime into an astonishing
demonstration of the depth of American democracy's
decay is the complicity of the media establishment in
hiding the original crime, and in thus doing so,
ripping a gaping hole in the fabric of our political
system.
Did you know that there now exists in the public
domain a 'smoking gun' memo, which proves that
everything the Bush administration said about the Iraq
invasion was a lie? If you live in Britain you
probably do, but if you live in the United States,
chances are minuscule that you would be aware of this.

Think about that for a second. Apart from 9/11, has
there been a more important story in the last decade
than that the president lied to the American people
about the reasons for invading Iraq, and then
proceeded to plunge the country into an illegal war
which has alienated the rest of the world, lit a fire
under the war's victims and the Islamic world
generally, turning them into enemy combatants, locked
up virtually all American land forces in a war without
end in sight, cost $300 billion and counting, taken
over 1600 American lives on top of more than 15,000
gravely wounded, and killed perhaps 100,000 Iraqis?
Could there be a bigger story? "How Do Japanese Dump
Trash?", perhaps, which ran on page one of today's
(May 12) Times?
Of course not. But then how is it that this is not
being reported in the American mainstream media? How
is it that the two organs most responsible for
coverage of political developments in this country -
the New York Times and the Washington Post - have
failed to splash this across their front pages in bold
headlines, despite the fact that they clearly know of
the story? How, especially, could these two papers sit
on a story like this after both recently issued mea
culpas for their respective failures to critically
cover administration claims of bogus Iraqi threats
during the period leading up to the war, thereby
contributing to the war themselves?
From the Bush administration and the current
generation of Republicans, I expect nothing but the
most debased and vile politics. And, of course, ditto
for Fox News and the rest of the overtly right-wing
media. But I have been naive enough, until now, to
believe that at least some of the American mainstream
media has not climbed completely into bed with those
destroyers of all that is decent about American
democracy. Apparently I've been a fool.
Here is the story we are not being told.
Several days before their election last week (May 5),
a patriot within the highest circle of British
government leaked to the Times of London a memo, which
proves the degree of deceit to which both the
Americans and British publics have been subjected on
the subject of the Iraq war. You were never supposed
to see this document
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html).
It is headlined in bold with this warning: "This
record is extremely sensitive. No further copies
should be made. It should be shown only to those with
a genuine need to know its contents."
The memo provides minutes from a meeting of Tony
Blair's most exclusive war cabinet, held in July of
2002. In the meeting, two of Blair's top officials
report on discussions they had just held in Washington
with officials at the top levels of the Bush
administration.
Before describing the contents of the memo, it is
important to note that nobody in the British
government has denied to even the slightest degree the
authenticity of this document. A highly placed
American source has verified, off the record, that it
is completely accurate in its recounting of the events
described. And Tony Blair's only comment has been that
there is 'nothing new' contained in the memo. This
could not be more false. The memo proves beyond doubt
the following:
* The Bush administration had decided by July 2002, at
the latest, to invade Iraq. The memo says that
"Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush
wanted to remove Saddam, through military action..."
Later in the memo it notes that "It seemed clear that
Bush had made up his mind to take military action".
This means the claims that the president did not have
a war plan on his desk at that time are now proven
lies. It means that the whole kabuki dance of going to
Congress, going to the UN, sending over weapons
inspectors, pulling them out before they could finish
their work, requiring Iraq to report to the Security
Council on its weapons of mass destruction, then
immediately rejecting their report as incomplete and
deceitful - all of this - was a completely counterfeit
exercise conducted for public relations purposes only.
It also means that when former Treasury Secretary Paul
O'Neill and former terrorism czar Richard Clarke
reported that Bush had planned to attack Iraq from the
beginning, they - rather than the administration which
was personally savaging them as loonies - were telling
the truth.
* The Bush and Blair administrations knew that the
argument for war against Iraq was weak. As Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw notes in the meeting, "But the
case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his
neighbors, and his WMD capability was less than that
of Libya, North Korea or Iran". This is proof that
Iraq was never anything like the serious threat it was
portrayed to be before the war, and that both
administrations knew that it was no threat, but
knowingly and completely oversold the necessity for
the war with their massive phalanx of lies and
distortions.
* Because the case was thin, the war would have to be
"...justified by the conjunction of terrorism and
WMD". This proves that former Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz wasn't kidding when he let slip that
the weapons of mass destruction argument was decided
on by the administration for "bureaucratic reasons",
meaning a rationale that all the leading actors within
the administration could agree on as the most
effective public relations device for marketing the
war.
* Both the Bush and Blair administrations manipulated
intelligence to get what they wanted in order to
justify the war, and knew that they were doing
precisely that. As the memo states, "...the
intelligence and facts were being fixed around the
policy". This is the most remarkable statement of all,
as it makes clear that the decision to invade had
nothing to do with facts or any sort of real threat.
Rather, it was simply a preference of the Bush
administration (and probably just a personal one for
Bush), which then became its policy, for which they
then twisted and fabricated information and
disinformation in order to sell the war to a rightly
skeptical public.
* The war was illegal. Kofi Annan and the
international community clearly believed that the war
was a violation of international law. But we now also
know that the British Attorney-General, who has to
rule on this point (the question of the legality of
launching a war is far less significant,
unfortunately, in the American political tradition),
"said that the desire for regime change was not a
legal base for military action. There were three
possible legal bases: self-defense, humanitarian
intervention, or UNSC authorization [which was never
ultimately obtained from the Security Council]. The
first and second could not be the base in this case.
Relying on UNSCR 1205 of three years ago would be
difficult. The situation might change of course." Yes,
of course. Then, again, if it didn't, one could always
just lie about it.
* Knowing that the war was neither legal nor morally
justifiable, the American and British governments
therefore sought to find a way to make the war
politically acceptable by baiting Saddam. As the memo
notes, "We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to
Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors.
This would also help with the legal justification for
the use of force". And, "The Prime Minister said that
it would make a big difference politically and legally
if Saddam refused to allow in the UN inspectors". And,
"If the political context were right, people would
support regime change".
* Well before the war was 'justified', even in the
bogus sense of Washington's and London's inspections
and UN resolutions game, it had already begun. The
memo states that the "US had already begun 'spikes of
activity' to put pressure on the regime".
* Finally, it is worth noting that, even putting legal
and moral questions aside, the memo also substantiates
the sheer strategic incompetence of the
administration, a failure which has, of course,
produced excessive loss of life. It states that "There
was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath
after military action".
Let's review the bidding here.
We now have definitive, verified and undenied evidence
documenting a panoply of lies told to the American and
world publics about the invasion of Iraq, a bloody war
which was neither legally nor morally justified,
despite overt attempts to make it so by those who
wished to launch it.
On top of that crime, we can now also add that of
America's fourth estate, which has completely
abdicated its role and responsibility to present this
crucial bombshell of information to the public.
It gets worse, however. Eighty-nine members of
Congress have taken note of the items described above,
as well as a separate secret briefing for Blair's
meeting, in which it was agreed that "Britain and
America had to 'create' conditions to justify a war",
and have sent a letter to the president
(http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/letters/bushsecretmemoltr5505.pdf),
demanding a response.
And, yet, still there is no coverage from our press.
It appears that demanding that the government respect
the will of the people is no longer enough in American
democracy. We must now also carry the burden of
demanding that the media do its job and cover
developments which are unfavorable to the national
kleptocracy of which these giant media corporations
have become a part.
That noise you hear? It's the sound of America's
Founders spinning in their graves. And well they
should, for this scenario is precisely the massive
concentration of power they most feared. All branches
of the government are now in the hands of the same
party (meaning, effectively, there virtually are no
branches any longer).
The so-called opposition party facilitates Republican
rule through the flattery of imitation, when it hasn't
gone into hiding instead. The public is frightened and
ill-informed. And now this. To this hall of shame list
must be added a mainstream press which a week ago
seemed only biased and intimidated, but now appears
entirely complicit. We are now living precisely the
nightmare of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and the
rest. It must stop. We cannot have a prayer of an
informed public curbing the worst excesses of American
government if, in fact, that public is not informed.
Sad as it is, if we ever hope to reclaim American
democracy, it appears we must now fight for outrageous
news to be aired, if we ever expect that news to
outrage.
Notwithstanding our worst horrors and fears these last
four years, American democracy is in deeper trouble
than we knew. Now is the time for patriots to act.
We must begin by demanding coverage of this explosive
evidence by the leading organs of American journalism.
If the American people remain too jaded or frightened
to demand the heads of those who deceived them so
thoroughly, they're entitled to inherit the
consequences of their own failures. However, they
cannot make that choice until they know the facts.
Please therefore, for the sake of innocent Iraqis, for
the sake of American soldiers, and for the sake of
American democracy, do two things 'write now':
* First, send a message to the New York Times and the
Washington Post, demanding that they cover this most
significant of stories. Top brass at the New York
Times can be emailed at the following addresses:
Executive Editor Bill Keller at
executive-editor@nytimes.com, and Managing Editor Jill
Abramson at managing-editor@nytimes.com. For the
Washington Post, try National Editor Michael
Abramowitz at abramowitz@washpost.com, and Associate
Editor Robert Kaiser at robertgkaiser@yahoo.com.
* Next, forward this article on to everybody you know,
and ask them to write the Times and the Post as well,
and then to forward this article in turn to everyone
they know. With some luck, perhaps we can achieve a
critical mass which can no longer be ignored by these
papers, with the electronic media then to follow.
In any case, we are evidently going have to take this
country back ourselves, without even the benefit of a
competent media to report the news.
Fortunately, we possess the greatest weapon of all,
the truth.
David Michael Green (pscdmg@hofstra.edu) is a
professor of political science at Hofstra University
in New York.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0513-20.htm

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