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Second Quarter of 2002 April 2002 ... May 2002 ... June 2002 |
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4/01/02a http://www.thenation.com/docPrint.mhtml?i=20020415&s=nichols (040102a) FEATURE STORY | April 15, 2002 Enron: What Dick Cheney Knew by JOHN NICHOLS In the spring of 2001 the severity of the California energy emergency had inspired demands for government action, and Enron had a problem. Officials in California were arguing that federal price caps on wholesale energy sales would prevent profiteering and stabilize wildly fluctuating energy markets, and even some Republicans were saying that caps made sense. But the caps would cost Enron--which had come to dominate energy markets by taking advantage of deregulation--a fortune. Enron CEO Kenneth Lay knew he needed high-level help. So he arranged to meet with a man who had headed a corporation with extensive business ties to Enron and who had been a prime recipient of Enron's political largesse. Vice President Dick Cheney cleared his calendar for an April 17 private meeting with Lay regarding what aides described as "energy policy matters" and "the energy crisis in California." At the meeting Lay handed Cheney a memo that read in part: "The administration should reject any attempt to re-regulate wholesale power markets by adopting price caps...." The day after he met with Lay, Cheney gave a rare phone interview to the Los Angeles Times that had one recurrent theme: Price caps were out of the question. Dismissing the strategy as "short-term political relief for the politicians," Cheney bluntly declared, "I don't see that as a possibility." 4/01/02b http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-033102melt.story (040102b) SUNDAY REPORT Arctic Ice and Way of Life Melting Away for Eskimos Nature goes awry, bringing vast climatic and cultural changes, and baffling residents and researchers alike. By USHA LEE McFARLING, Times Staff Writer YANRAKYNNOT, Russia -- The native elders have no explanation. Scientists are perplexed as well. The icy realm of the Eskimo--the tundra and ice of Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland--has started to thaw. 4/01/02c http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,677118,00.html (040102c) Britons join 200 in human shield Peter Beaumont in Ramallah, Martin Wainwright, Monday April 1, 2002 The Guardian More than 200 international volunteers, including some 50 Britons, deployed themselves in Ramallah and two refugee camps at Bethlehem last night in an attempt to form "human shields" for Palestinian families.
4/02/02a http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0402-05.htm (040202a) Published on Tuesday, April 2, 2002 in the Los Angeles Times Bush Fiddled While Mideast Burned by Robert Scheer There is enough blame to go around for the events that have turned the Camp David promise of peace into the killing fields of the Mideast without dragging in President Bush. To ignore the arrogant failure of this administration, however, is to deny the obvious: From its first day in power, it showed no interest in securing peace between Israel and the Palestinians, quickly squandering years of difficult progress made under President Clinton. 4/02/02b http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june02/ns_4-1.html (040402b) MARGARET WARNER: Now, some perspective from two men who've been deeply involved in MidEast diplomacy. Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State and National Security Adviser for Presidents Nixon and Ford. And Zbigniew Brzezinski was National Security Adviser to President Carter. Welcome to you both. Mr. Brzezinski, beginning with you, the reports from the region are pretty horrific. How dangerous do you think this situation is? Assessing the situation ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: It's pretty abysmal and quite dangerous. First of all, Mr. Arafat may be killed. In the report we just heard talk about the possibility of people being extracted from his office, from his immediate environment. There probably would be resistance to that. If he is killed, Mr. Sharon can then claim it was an accident. Secondly, the whole thing is degenerating into more widespread violence between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and that's deplorable. Thirdly, I think Israel's international position is very badly damaged. A country which started off as a symbol of recovery of a people who were greatly persecuted now looks like a country that is persecuting people. And that's very bad. MARGARET WARNER: Do you think this could spin out of control? ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: Well, it could spin out of control. In the meantime the United States and Israel are increasingly isolated internationally. This could hurt our ability to conduct the war on terrorism and last but not least-- and this worries me a great deal -- I think the Palestinians are being turned, largely by Mr. Sharon, into something like the Algerians: People absolutely determined to wage urban guerilla warfare brutally, ruthlessly, at any cost at enormous self-sacrifice. 4/02/02c http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5334 (040402c) An Oil Company Proves Bush Wrong On Climate Change CEO John Browne Demands Government Help Seth Dunn is a Research Associate at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington DC. He focuses on energy and climate change issues. The Bush administration has made a mantra of the claim that mandatory greenhouse gas reductions would be prohibitively expensive, costing millions of jobs, cutting into gross domestic product, and harming U.S. competitiveness. The "fatal flaw" of Bush's argument (to borrow a favorite administration phrase about Kyoto) is that his estimates are based on theoretical economic models that don't fully capture how environmental policy affects technological change. As a graduate of Harvard Business School, which pioneered the "case study" method of examining real-world corporate experiences, Bush should know better. In fact, I have a case study for him to read. It's about a leading global energy company that is proving the President wrong. Speaking at Stanford Business School on March 11, 2002, BP chief executive John Browne announced that his company had met its self-imposed target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions -- nearly eight years ahead of schedule, and at no net cost to the company. It was Browne who, five years earlier at Stanford, had sent shock waves through the energy industry by announcing that his company had decided that the risks of climate change justified precautionary action. The following year, Browne set another first in the energy industry by pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from his firm's operations by 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2010,nearly twice the average cut called for by the Kyoto Protocol. At Stanford, he revealed that "we've delivered on that target," well ahead of time. BP had reduced emissions by more than nine million tons below their 1990 level.
4/05/02a http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/schaeffer.html (040502a) Clearing the Air When Eric Schaeffer resigned as the Environmental Protection Agency's chief of enforcement in late February, he pushed the Bush administration's environmental record into the spotlight. by Bill Hogan April 1, 2002 For 12 years, Eric Schaeffer worked several steps away from the Washington spotlight. That all changed in late February, when Schaeffer resigned from his post as chief of enforcement for the Environmental Protection Agency, complaining that the White House was undermining anti-pollution efforts. 4/05/02b Taiwan-gate: The scandal that threatens to destroy the Bush White House http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemId=13083 (040502b) By Celeste Harrison Whitlow Online Journal Contributing Editor April 1, 2002?In an ever-widening scandal involving a Taiwanese government secret "slush fund," the purpose of which was to covertly influence other countries' (including the United States and Japan) politics, leaked Taiwanese government documents name two Bush appointees as receiving money from this "slush fund" for services, including convincing Bush to agree to $4 billion worth of sophisticated arms sales to Taiwan. Carl Ford, appointed by GW Bush to assistant secretary of defense for intelligence and research, and James Kelly, appointed by GW Bush to assistant secretary of state for East Asia, are the American officials named as being "paid off" to covertly influence U.S. politics. Their efforts included accepting millions from this secret slush-fund, and it appears that this money may have been, at least in part, funneled by contributions made by Carl Ford (while working for a Washington PR firm, Cassidy and Associates) to the GW Bush presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee. In eye-opening revelations which have shocked Taiwan, and set Washington panicking over the "radioactive" political fall-out from these covert Taiwanese efforts (aided by Bush "administration" officials) to influence American politics: * The "slush fund" was set up by Taiwan's ex-president Lee Teng-hui through the Taiwan National Security Bureau. Lee, although no longer president, is still very active in Taiwanese politics. * It is reported that there were two secret slush funds which contained NT$3.5 billion. * The purpose of these two slush funds was to buy political favors overseas, including in the United States and Japan.
4/08/02a http://www.willpitt.com/WillPitt.htm http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.01A.WRP.Fools.htm (040802a) This Sinking Ship of Fools Recent events in the Middle East have proven beyond a shadow of doubt that the Bush administration's complete lack of engagement with Israel and Palestine will stand as a historic example of deadly poor judgment. What we see is an administration that is hopelessly in over its head, groping for a solution far past the time when one could be reached, and all the while hedging its bets to keep a conflict with Iraq on the table. 4/08/02b "Now, with Bush's unconscionable and craven remarks, we know, for certain, that Ari was, once again, just a messenger reflecting "Royal Court" opinion. The other day, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman asked of Bush, in relation to the administration's unconscionable use of "the war on terror" to advance issues favorable to Bush contributors and the right wing: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" (see http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/05/opinion/05KRUG.html?ex=1019012605&ei=1&en=59284cdde8e9721e) (040802b) 4/08/02c http://www.buzzflash.com/buzzscripts/buzz.dll/content http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/2002/04/06_Spoiled.html (040602c) WHO WILL DENOUNCE THE SPOILED RICH KID WHO RUNS THIS NATION AS AN EXTENSION OF BUSH INCORPORATED? A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL It is time for the Democratic leadership to climb out if its timid stupor and stand up for the guiding principles and inherent decency of this magnificent democracy. On Friday, April 5th, George W. Bush, the man occupying the White House, personally accused Bill Clinton of being the cause of violence in the Middle East. George Junior, the pampered Vietnam War evader, who is used to having his family's servants do his dirty work, finally tossed his cowardly patrician body into the mud and wallowed in it. (See http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020406/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_clinton_4)
4/09/02a http://www.counterpunch.com/madsenanthrax.html (040902a) April 8, 2002 Anthrax and the Agency Thinking the Unthinkable By Wayne Madsen Now that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has officially put the anthrax investigation on a back burner, it is time for Americans to think the unthinkable: that the FBI has never been keen to identify the perpetrator because that perpetrator may, in fact, be the U.S. Government itself. Evidence is mounting that the source of the anthrax was a top secret U.S. Army laboratory in Maryland and that the perpetrators involve high-level officials in the U.S. military and intelligence infrastructure. FBI Debunks Anthrax-Hijacker Link Coming shortly after the hijacked airliner attacks on New York and Washington, the anthrax attacks on the U.S. Congress, major media outlets, and the U.S. Postal System were, at first, blamed by the Bush administration on Al Qaeda or Iraq. However, on March 23, the FBI officially announced that "exhaustive testing did not support that anthrax was present anywhere the hijackers had been." This statement came after a rather weak story based on conjecture appeared in The New York Times. The article reported that a Fort Lauderdale emergency room doctor treated Saudi hijacker Ahmed Alhanzawi in June 2001 for acutaneous anthrax lesion on his leg. Although the doctor, Christos Tsonas, did not think the lesion was caused by anthrax at the time he cleansed and treated the wound, he later changed his mind after realizing Alhanzawi was one of the hijackers.
4/10/02a http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/04/05/global_warming/index.html (041002a) Watson, come here, I want to fire you Angry at his predictions of global warming, the Bush administration and the energy industry strive to unseat a prominent scientist. By Damien Cave April 5, 2002 | "I don't think we know the solution to global warming yet, and I don't think we've got all the facts." -- George W. Bush, second presidential debate. So far, President Bush has practiced the skepticism that he preaches. Along with creating an energy plan widely perceived to be dictated by the energy industry, he's done little to increase automobile fuel efficiency and has rejected the Kyoto Protocol -- an international attempt to reverse global warming by cutting down on fossil fuel use and its attendant carbon dioxide emissions. 4/10/02b http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2002/04/10/usat-poll.htm (041002b) 04/09/2002 - Updated 08:11 PM ET Poll: USA leans Democratic for Congress By Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll Democrats bounce back WASHINGTON ? The Republican lead in the race for control of Congress this fall, fueled by President Bush's leadership in the war on terrorism, has faded as the shock of Sept. 11 recedes and Americans turn more attention to domestic concerns. A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows that if elections for the House of Representatives were held today, 50% of registered voters would cast ballots for the Democrat in their district; 43% would vote for the Republican.
4/12/02a http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.11D.SG.George.htm (041202a) Dear George | Are you an Eco-Terrorist? By Scott Galindez t r u t h o u t | April 9, 2002 Dear George, There are several issues this week that make me wonder if you are more dangerous to the future of our planet than Osama Bin Laden ever could be. 4/12/02b http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/04/11/international.court.ap/index.html Nations approve first permanent world war crimes tribunal Ratification comes despite U.S. opposition April 11, 2002 Posted: 12:53 PM EDT (1653 GMT) UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Despite vehement U.S. opposition, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal will come into force on July 1 after receiving more than the 60 needed ratifications Thursday from U.S. allies and nations around the globe.
4/15/02a http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13A.Extend.Probe.htm (041502a) t r u t h o u t | Statement Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney Congresswoman McKinney Presses for Investigation of Bush Administration Links to 9-11, April 12, 2002 The need for an investigation of the events surrounding September 11 is as obvious as is the need for an investigation of the Enron debacle. Certainly, if the American people deserve answers about what went wrong with Enron and why (and we do), then we deserve to know what went wrong on September 11 and why. Are we squandering our goodwill around the world with what many believe to be incoherent, warmongering policies that alienate our friends and antagonize our allies? How much of a role does our reliance on imported oil play in the military policies being put forward by the Bush Administration? And what role does the close relationship between the Bush Administration and the oil and defense industries play, if any, in the policies that are currently being pursued by this Administration? 4/15/02b http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34565-2002Apr11.html (041502b) Democrat Implies Sept. 11 Administration Plot By Juliet Eilperin Friday, April 12, 2002 Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) is calling for an investigation into whether President Bush and other government officials had advance notice of terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 but did nothing to prevent them. She added that "persons close to this administration are poised to make huge profits off America's new war." In a recent interview with a Berkeley, Calif., radio station, McKinney said: "We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11th. 4/15/02c http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41557-2002Apr12.html (041502c) Where's the Press? E. J. Dionne Jr. wants to know where Al Gore went and why he hasn't heard more from him lately [ op-ed, April 8]. In fact, Gore has been sharply critical of the Bush administration in a number of dimensions and a number of places. It is just that all national political reporters -- including your paper's -- have cut off Gore's microphone. Dionne should take a step back and look at the record: On March 26, in another of a seemingly endless series of failures of the commercial news media, it was not reported that the candidate for president in the most recent election (who received more votes than his opponent and according to polls is the leading contender to challenge the president at the next election) gave a speech sharply critical of the current government's energy policies. At Tennessee Technical University he blasted the administration for its collusion with the energy industry and for undermining a generation of laws guaranteeing citizens an open and transparent government. But it was not in your paper or any of the nation's other newspapers, nor was it reported on network television news.
4/16/02a http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0415-02.htm (041602a) published on Monday, April 15, 2002 in the Seattle Times The Arctic Meltdown: Quick Thaw Alarms Natives and Scientists by Usha Lee McFarling YANRAKYNNOT, Russia ? The native elders have no explanation. Scientists are perplexed as well. The icy realm of the Eskimo ? the tundra and ice of Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland ? has started to thaw. 4/16/02b http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0414-07.htm (041602b) Published on Sunday, April 14, 2002 by Reuters: G8 in Open Disarray Over Kyoto Protocol by David Ljunggren BANFF, Alberta (Reuters) - The divisions between the world's leading nations over the Kyoto protocol on global warming deepened dramatically on Sunday, when an informal discussion on climate change ended in disarray with both the United States and Canada looking increasingly isolated.
4/17/02a http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/world/1369921 April 17, 2002, 9:57AM White House denies coup role, Opponents' visits said part of normal 'diplomatic traffic' By BENNETT ROTH Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau Venezuelan national guardsmen stand in front of a looted business Tuesday in the working-class neighborhood of Catia in Caracas. After three days of protests and looting that ended in the ouster and then surprising return to power of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelans were carrying on with normal life as stores reopened and a crush of traffic returned to Caracas streets. Although the administration appeared initially to welcome Chavez's removal from power, Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said the White House did not encourage the overthrow of the elected leader of Venezuela during the meetings. 4/17/02b http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0416-01.htm (041702b) Published on Tuesday, April 16, 2002 by OneWorld.net United Nations: Israeli Assault Starves Palestinian by Kalyani Hunger and malnutrition are stalking Palestinians trapped in territory that has been under a concerted siege by Israeli forces since the end of last month, the United Nations food body warned Monday.
4/18/02a http://www.mapcruzin.com/news/rtk041702a.htm (041802a) 8 Power Plants Kill 5,900 Each Year Resource: Asthma and Poor Air Quality: A Deadly Mix. A complete copy of the report is available at http://www.rffund.org. For Immediate Release April 17, 2002 Contact: Rob Kaplan 202-478-6130 mobile 202-422-5019 Report Estimates Pollution from Eight Utilities Leads to Nearly 6,000 Premature Deaths Yearly Former EPA Official Will Form Environmental Integrity Project Pollution from eight utility companies cited by the Justice Department in 1999 and 2000 for violating the Clean Air Act leads to nearly 6,000 premature deaths yearly, according to a report released today. The analysis also estimates that pollutants from these companies lead to 140,000 asthma attacks and 14,000 cases of acute bronchitis every year. The study was prepared by Abt Associates (http://www.abtassoc.com), one of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) primary technical consultants on clean air. It is based on likely emissions in 2007 considering expected reductions under the federal government's current acid rain program. 4/18/02b http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=136&row=0 (041802b) Don't believe everything you read in the papers about Venezuela Guardian UK Wednesday, April 17, 2002 E-Mail Article Printer Friendly Version by Greg Palast Contrary to the reports of a spoon-fed western press, Hugo Chavez was not unpopular and did not resign, says Greg Palast Here's what we read this week: On Friday, Hugo Chavez, the unpopular, dictatorial potentate of Venezuela, resigned. When confronted over his ordering the shooting of antigovernment protesters, he turned over the presidency to progressive, democratic forces, namely, the military and the chief of Venezuela's business council. Two things about the story caught my eye: First, every one of these factoids is dead wrong. And second, newspapers throughout the ruling hemisphere, from the New York Times to the Independent to (wince) the Guardian, used almost identical words - "dictatorial", "unpopular", "resignation" - in their reports.
4/19/02a http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0414-04.htm (041902a) Published on Sunday, April 14, 2002 in the Los Angeles Times Iraq War: The Coming Disaster by Immanuel Wallerstein NEW HAVEN -- George W. Bush is a geopolitical incompetent. He has allowed a clique of hawks to induce him to take a position on invading Iraq from which he cannot extract himself, one which will have nothing but negative consequences for the United States--and the rest of the world. He will find himself badly hurt politically, perhaps fatally. And he will rapidly diminish the already declining power of the United States in the world.
4/20/02a http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/21/opinion/21GORE.html (042002a) April 21, 2002 The Selling of an Energy Policy By AL GORE NASHVILLE Under the presidency of George W. Bush, the environmental and energy policies of our government are completely dominated by a group of current and former oil and chemical company executives who are trying to dismantle America's ability to force them to reduce the extremely dangerous levels of pollution in the earth's atmosphere. The first step was to withdraw from the agreement reached in Kyoto to begin limiting worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases. Then the administration canceled an agreement requiring automobile companies to make the leap to more fuel-efficient vehicles.
4/22/02a http://www.nrdc.org/legislation/rollbacks/rollbacks.pdf (042202a.pdf) Environmental Legislation: In Depth: Report Rewriting the Rules The Bush Administration's Assault on the Environment Executive Summary As this is written on the eve of Earth Day 2002, our nation's environmental landscape is changing for the worse. Agencies throughout the Bush administration are taking explicit directions from big corporate polluters, allowing these corporations to rewrite the agency rules that give life to America's environmental laws. These policy changes will harm every American. The landmark environmental laws passed since 1970 are collectively among the most popular and successful laws ever enacted. These laws, and the regulatory safeguards they spawned, have profoundly improved the quality of life in America. They have reduced smog in our cities, stemmed the flood of sewage and toxins into our waterways, reduced lead in our children's blood, rescued threatened wildlife like the bald eagle from the brink of extinction, revolutionized hazardous waste disposal, protected our wetlands, and preserved many of our remaining unspoiled forests and wild lands. Now, however, these safeguards face the gravest assaults since the Newt Gingrich Congress of 1995, and perhaps ever. 4/22/02b http://www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=5746 April 22, 2002 | 8:46 AM Once again, the supposed masters of foreign policy serving George W. Bush have displayed arrogance and incompetence. South of the Border, Democracy Works by Joe Conason It was a good week for democracy in Latin America, and not such a good week for democracy in Washington and New York. Beyond those immediate observations, we know far less at the moment than we need to know about the events leading up to the coup and countercoup in Venezuela. Who was killed in the violent street demonstrations of April 11? Who did the shooting? When did the State Department learn that a coup was imminent? What did our diplomats (and military attachés) say to the plotters? Why did the White House and the National Security Council ignore our treaty obligations to oppose the unlawful overthrow of an elected President?
4/23/02a http://www.pacificnews.org/content/pns/2002/apr/0417scandal.html Slush-Fund Scandal May Push U.S. Off East Asian Stage By Franz Schurmann, Pacific News Service, April 17, 2002 While media coverage concentrates on the Middle East, another drama unfolds in East Asia. Revelations in Taiwan of immense slush funds created by former president Lee Teng-hui could paralyze the Bush administration at a time of challenge in East Asia and crisis in the Middle East. News of a scandal involving slush funds in Taiwan finding their way into U.S. politics is starting to make news in American media. U.S. coverage of the Taiwan scandal has focused on the corruption angle of the story, especially since large sums were allegedly donated from the slush fund to the Bush presidential campaign.
4/24/02a http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0423-05.htm (042402a) Published on Tuesday, April 23, 2002 in the Guardian of London: Diplomacy US Style The Removal of Jose Bustani Demonstrates George Bush's Contempt for Cooperation by George Monbiot Tony Blair might believe he belongs to an international coalition, but George Bush has other ideas. Bush's international war against terrorism has not stopped him from waging a parallel war against cooperation. Two weeks ago, the US ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna failed, for the first time, to attend a meeting of the comprehensive test ban treaty. This may suggest that America is no longer prepared to abide by the rules against the testing of nuclear warheads. A week ago, the Washington Post revealed that the Pentagon had told the Central Intelligence Agency to investigate Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, in the hope of undermining his credibility. When the CIA failed to discover any evidence of wrongdoing, the deputy defense secretary is reported to have "hit the ceiling". On Friday, the US government succeeded in dislodging Robert Watson, the chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Dr Watson had been pressing member nations to take the threat of global warming seriously, to the annoyance of the oil company Exxon Mobil. Last year, it sent a memo to the White House requesting that he be shoved. 4/24/02b http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0422-01.htm (042402b) Published on Monday, April 22, 2002 in the Chicago Tribune: McKinney Draws Fire With Call for Probe by Salim Muwakkil Rep. Cynthia McKinney's call for an investigation into whether the Bush administration had advance notice of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and failed to act because of economic interests has triggered a national avalanche of scorn. Pundits and politicians alike lit into the Georgia Democrat with invective so vituperative, one might have thought she was nabbed in a cave consorting with Osama bin Laden. 4/24/02c http://www.counterpunch.com/epa0422.html April 22, 2002 EPA Ombudsman Resigns Accountability in Handling of Superfund Sites Threatened CounterPunch Wire Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Ombudsman Robert Martin resigned today, ending a long-running battle to preserve his office and its ability to independently investigate cases where the agency mishandled Superfund sites. Background on the EPA Ombudsman issue can be found at http://www.pogo.org/hazmats/hazindex.htm.
4/25/02a http://www.ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-21-07.html Sonar Killed Whales, Navy Admits By Cat Lazaroff WASHINGTON, DC, December 21, 2001 (ENS) - The U.S. Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service have released a report acknowledging the role that the Navy's tactical sonar played in the strandings of 17 marine mammals in the Bahamas last year. The report is the agency's first official admission that sonar may contribute to whale beachings.
4/26/02a http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0426-02.htm (042602a) Published on Friday, April 26, 2002 in the London Telegraph Global Warming 2002 'Warmest for 1,000 Years' by Charles Clover THE first three months of this year were the warmest globally since records began in 1860 and probably for 1,000 years, scientists said yesterday. In recent years more and more people have accepted that climate change is happening and will affect the lives of our children and grandchildren. I fear we need to start worrying about ourselves as well.
4/30/02a http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/9/rozen-l.html (043002a) The Enemy Within? The FBI's anthrax investigation turns on itself By Laura Rozen Issue Date: 5.20.02 When anthrax first turned up in letters to journalists and members of Congress last October, much of the public, still shaken from the September 11 attacks, naturally assumed that the perpetrator was an outside terrorist group like al-Qaeda. But as investigators have honed in on domestic facilities and possibly even domestic suspects, the FBI faces a difficult test. Suppose the attacks were an inside job -- by, say, one of the U.S. Army's own biowarfare scientists. What scientific authorities could the FBI turn to if it's effectively investigating the very labs that do its testing? 4/30/02b For InterPress Service © Hazel Henderson, April 2002 www.hazelhenderson.com http://www.hazelhenderson.com/Globocop%20v.%20Chavez.htm http://www.hazelhenderson.com/editorials/globocopVOPEC08-00.html (043002b) GLOBOCOP v. VENEZUELA'S CHAVEZ: Oil, Globalization and Competing Visions of Development The military coup and swift reinstatement of President Chavez in Venezuela left the US with egg on its face. Keys to the US's increasing irritation with Chavez' populist Bolivian revolution were his reinvigorating of OPEC, opposition to US-backed corporate globalization and free trade, oil and competing visions of development. 4/30/02c http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4403366,00.html http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=6643 (043002c) American navy 'helped Venezuelan coup' Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles Monday April 29, 2002 The Guardian The United States had been considering a coup to overthrow the elected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, since last June, a former US intelligence officer claimed yesterday. It is also alleged that the US navy aided the abortive coup which took place in Venezuela on April 11 with intelligence from its vessels in the Caribbean. Evidence is also emerging of US financial backing for key participants in the coup. Both sides in Venezuela have blamed the other for the violence surrounding the coup. Wayne Madsen, a former intelligence officer with the US navy, told the Guardian yesterday that American military attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup. "I first heard of Lieutenant Colonel James Rogers [the assistant military attaché now based at the US embassy in Caracas] going down there last June to set the ground," Mr. Madsen, an intelligence analyst, said yesterday. "Some of our counter-narcotics agents were also involved." |
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5/01/02a http://www.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=272 (050102a) The War at Home: Federal Law Enforcement Officials Follow International Terrorism's Money Trail from Northern Virginia to Saudi Arabia, but President Bush Says That's Far Enough A Special Report from Democrats.com 29 April 2002 By David Lytel In an exclusive interview with Democrats.com, French intelligence analyst Jean-Charles Brisard, co-author with Guillaume Dasquie of Bin Laden: The Hidden Truth said they stand by their version of events first published last November, that the September 11 attacks followed the breakdown of secret negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban. More recently, Brisard reports, new information has come to light that reveals the extent of Saudi Arabia's role in financing terrorist activities against Americans and Israelis. 5/01/02b http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2002/0204un.html (050102b) The U.S. Hit List at the United Nations by Ian Williams April 30, 2002 Quietly, and without the fanfare that accompanies the campaign in the mountains of Afghanistan, the administration has begun a long march through multilateral institutions. At the UN and elsewhere, the U.S. has mounted a campaign to purge international civil servants judged to be out of step with Washington in the war on terrorism and its insistence that the U.S. have the last word in all global governance issues. 5/01/02c http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4403366-103681,00.html (050102c) Schumer: Justice Dept. Undermining Environment By Elaine S. Povich and Tom Brune Washington Bureau May 1, 2002 Washington -- The Justice Department has been quietly undermining environmental laws by settling or refusing to appeal court decisions on industry challenges that tilt against strict environmental regulation, according to a study by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).
5/02/02a September 11: The circumstantial case By Bill Molson Online Journal Contributing Writer (050202a) Apri1 15, 2002?Since September 11, reports have been dribbling out, one at a time, that are by themselves disturbing, but taken all together lead to a shocking conspiracy involving the highest levels of government. The reports have been scattered across newspapers and Internet sites all around the world, consequently, they have not been collected in one single place to date save for independent news sites on the Internet. For whatever reasons, the corporate media have steadfastly avoided dealing with them in any significant way. Perhaps they do not want to enter thorny speculative ground or be labeled as "conspiracy theorists." Or perhaps they believe the necessary conclusions would offend a nation focused on its own unity and patriotism. Consequently, these facts have been swept under the rug. Yet, they are there for all to see. Here we will examine, and make a circumstantial case, that the CIA and the executive branch knew in advance about the attacks, and may have even encouraged them. Since the smoking gun has yet to be found, this is the best that can be offered. Because the CIA is one of our nation's most important, and most secretive, investigative bodies, it might be impossible to ever ascertain the truth of the matter. However, steps need to be taken now by Congress to deal with these facts on some level, either to prove or disprove them. The people, who are being asked to sacrifice by their government, ought to be told the whole truth. Christian Berthelsen, Scott Winokur, "Suspicious profits sit uncollected," San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 2001 "DCI Tenet Appoints New Executive Director," CIA Press Release, March 16, 2001. Larry Rulison, "Boundless energy: Shattuck relishes steep learning curve at Constellation," Baltimore Business Journal, December 28, 2001. Katherine Q. Seelye, "After Lobbying, Nuclear Industry finds Itself Back on Political Map," New York Times, May 23, 2001. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Anaysis of the Anthrax Attacks, February 5, 2002. Alexandra Richard, "CIA Agent Allegedly Met Bin Laden in July," Le Figaro, November 1, 2001. Translated by Tiphaine Dickson. Melanie Warner, "The Big Guys Work for the Carlyle Group," Fortune Magazine, Monday March 18, 2002. "US Agents told: Back off bin Ladens," Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, November 7, 2001. BBC Newsnight, transcript, November 6, 2001. The Pipeline April 19, 2002?In 1997, two things of note happened in Texas. Representatives of the Taliban, which had recently consolidated its power over most of Afghanistan, came to Houston. They were wined and dined by Unocal, one of the largest energy firms in the United States. Also, the governor of Texas, George W. Bush, was pushing legislation which would allow him to store all of his gubernatorial papers at his father's presidential library, away from the archivists in Austin, and be protected by the Federal Freedom of Information Act rather than Texas state law. "Taliban in Texas for talks on gas pipeline" BBC News Online, December 4, 1997. (050202b) Robert Scheer, "Bush's Faustian Deal with the Taliban," Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2001. George Arney, "US planned attack on Taliban,'" BBC News Online, September 18, 2001. David Leigh, "Attack and counter-attack," The Guardian, September 26, 2001. Lucius Lomax, "W,'s Paper Chase," Austin Chronicle, September 28, 2001. George Monbiot, "America's pipe dream," The Guardian, October 23, 2001. Thomas Walkom, "Did bin Laden have help from U.S. friends?," Toronto Star, November 27, 2001. American Morning With Paula Zahn, transcript. CNN.com, January 8, 2002. Chris Hansen, "Warning Signs," MSNBC," September 23, 2001. Editorial, "Flight 93's secrets / It's time to treat the American people as adults," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 28, 2002. "US Agents told: Back off bin Ladens," Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, November 7, 2001. "Bush asks Daschle to limit September 11 probes," CNN.com, January 29, 2001. April 24, 2002?The terrorists could not have picked a better time to attack America for the Bush administration. George W. Bush's conservative agenda was bogged down in a newly Democratic Senate. The week of the attacks, Newsweek ran a cover story detailing the Bush campaign's skullduggery in the Florida election debacle. The George W.'s overall approval ratings were slipping into the 40 percent range. All that changed on September 11. Once the butt of late-night stand-up comedians, Bush became a national hero literally overnight. His approval ratings rose to never-before-seen levels. The man who lost the election to Al Gore by almost half a million votes was now ranked among the greatest presidents of all time in opinion polls. Dana Milbank, "In War, It's Power to the President," The Washington Post, November 20, 2001 John Markoff, "Chief Takes Over new Agency to Thwart Attacks on U.S.," The New York Times, February 13, 2002 James Dao and Eric Schmitt, "Pentegon Readies Efforts to Sway Sentient Abroad," The New York Times, February 19, 2002 Dan Eggen, "Airports Screened Nine of Sept. 11 Hijackers, Officials Say," The Washington Post, March 2, 2002 "Iran-Contra Alumni in the Bush Government," AP, March 13, 2002 Dave Lindorff, "Planning for Martial Law?," Salon, March 16, 2002 Alfonso Chardy, "North Helped Revise Wartime Plans," The Miami Herald, July 19, 1987 David Corn, "Iran/Contra Rehab," The Nation, March 11, 2002 Lawrence McQuillan, "Backup Plan Secret Creates Rift," USA Today, March 4, 2002 John Kaminski, 'The New USA PATRIOT Act: Are You a Patriot?" Common Dreams, November 11, 2002
5/04/02a May 4, 2002 F.B.I. Told of Worry Over Flight Lessons Before Sept. 11 By JAMES RISEN WASHINGTON, May 3 ? An F.B.I. agent in Phoenix told counter terrorism officials at the bureau's headquarters last July that he had detected an alarming pattern of Arab men with possible ties to terrorism taking aviation-related training, and urged a nationwide review of the trend, according to F.B.I. officials. 5/04/02b http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000031609may04.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dnation http://p089.ezboard.com/ftimelyfrm14.showMessage?topicID=1540.topic (050402b) THE NATION Sept. 11: The lawmakers leading the investigation voice concerns that the CIA and Justice Department are undermining efforts. By GREG MILLER TIMES STAFF WRITER May 4 2002 WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers leading the investigation of intelligence agencies' failures surrounding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are increasingly concerned that tactics by the CIA and the Justice Department are actively impeding their efforts, congressional sources said Friday. Members of the Senate and House intelligence committees are so frustrated with the tactics, sources said, that they intend to complain directly to CIA Director George J. Tenet and Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft. 5/04/02c TruthIsAll (1250 posts) May-04-02, 02:06 AM (ET) Hey Cynthia, you forgot to ask these questions.......LAST EDITED ON May-04-02 AT 02:14 AM (ET) I have compiled a list of relevant questions on 9/11 taken from a recent post asking DUers to list their favorites. In addition, some DUers provided lists of questions posted on other sites which I have included here. I have made an attempt to categorize the list. In so doing, there may be some duplication of questions. This list is fairly long, but there are probably many more questions that need to be asked. Many questions, but will they ever be investigated? Don't let Congress say that we should just: "Move along, nothing to see here" Support McKinney and Kupcinich! ..."I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, and the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, this faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith, for liberalism is not so much a party creed or a set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of Justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves". 9/11: THE BASIC QUESTIONS 1. Why didn't jets intercept the airliners since they had numerous warnings of terrorist attacks? 2. Why did Ashcroft stop flying commercial, citing an unidentified "threat" in July 2001? 3. Why were there no photos or videos of the Pentagon plane? 4. Why didn't the Secret Service hustle Dubya out of the classroom? 5. Where was George H. W. Bush at the time of the attacks? 6. Why did passengers or crew members on three of the flights all use the term box cutters? 7. Where are the flight recorders? 8. Why were the FISA warrants discontinued? 9. How did Bush see the first plane crash on live camera? 10 Why was security meeting scheduled for 9/11 canceled by WTC management on 9/10? 11. How did they come up with the "culprits" so quickly? 12. How did they find the terrorist's cars at the airports so quickly? 13. Why did Shrub dissolve the Bin Laden Task Force? 14. Why the strange pattern of debris from Flight 93? 15. Why was no plane seen at the Pentagon? 16. How extensive was the relationship between the Taliban, the ISI and the CIA? 17. What exactly was the role of Henry Kissinger at UNOCAL? 18. When was it decided to cancel building a pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan? 19. When was the decision made to send the FEMA to New York? 20. Why did FEMA spokesman Tom Kenney tell Dan Rather he was in New York on Sept. 10? 21. Why did the FBI in 1996 close the files to investigate Osama bin Laden's relatives in Washington ? 22. Why did Bush stop inquiries into terrorist connections of the Bin Laden family in early 2001? 23. Who made the decision to have John O'Neill stop investigating Al-qeada accounts? 24. Who gave the decision to give him a security job at the World Trade Center? 25. Did John O'Neill meet anyone of the FEMA in the night of September 10th? 26. What about media reports that hijackers bought tickets for flights scheduled after Sept. 11? 27. Why did none of the 19 hijackers appeared on the passenger lists? 28. Why would devout Muslims frequent bars, drink alcoholic beverages and leave their bibles? 29. Why would the hijackers use credit cards and allow drivers licenses with photos to be Xeroxed? 30. Why did the hijackers force passengers to call relatives? 31. How did the hijackers change the flight plan without law enforcement or the military try to stop them? 32. Which hijacker's passport was found in the WTC rubble? Who found it and what time? 33. How could the FBI distinguish between "regular" Muslims and hijacker Muslims on those flights? 34. Why was there not one "innocent" Muslim on board any of these flights? 35. Did someone go through the passenger lists looking for Muslim names and label them as hijackers?
MOHAMMED ATTA 36. Did the Florida police provide information that Atta was searched because of 1)an expired Visa, 2) driving a car without a license, 3) because of an incident at Miami Airport? 37. Why did Atta leave his bag at the airport and the employees didn't put it on board? 38. Who found his bag? How can we be sure it it was his bag? 39. Why did Atta place a video "how to fly planes", a uniform and his last will into his bag, knowing that he would commit suicide? 40. Why did Atta leave his drivers license in a rental car? 41. When did Atta train on a flight simulator? 42. Did Atta leave the US while in training and then return? 43. Why did Atta decide to study at Opa Locka, a famous hub of 6 Navy training bases and includes government partners like U.S. Coast Guard Air Station, Police (Miami-Dade) Aviation Unit? 44. Why was Atta allowed to study since he was stopped by the police for driving without a license and also for violating his visa?
THE BLACK BOXES AND CRASH VIDEO 45. Why were the Black Boxes never recovered ? 46. Why didn't the FBI release the air traffic controller's protocols? 47. Why did the FBI not release the Flight Data Recorder info? 48. Who video-recorded the first plane hitting the tower? Why did he disappear from the media?
THE HIJACKERS 49. How did the FBI receive a tip from a passenger who boarded a different plane and reached his destination safely that he had a confrontation with two ME men at the Logan airport in Boston? 50. Who tipped the FBI to storm the Westin Hotel in Boston on September 12th? 51. Where did the photos of all 19 hijackers come from? 52. How were all hijackers identified just 2 days after the attack? 53. Why did all 19 names not appear on the passenger list 2 days after the hijacker list was released? 54. Why do none of the names appear on the passenger lists UA and AA gave to CNN? 55. How could the hijackers disable the defense systems? 56. Why did the FBI ignore Bin Laden's family, who left the United States without further investigation 57. What about the supposed hijackers who are still alive? 58. Was there a reason to change the list of the original 19 hijackers? 59. What happened to Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, who have been in jail since September 2001, because of possession of box cutters on a train?Who gave the tip to arrest them? 60. Why did it take 4 months before Ramsi Binalschibhs name was mentioned, since he was a good friend of Mohammad Atta and lived in his apartment in Hamburg? 61. Why did it take 4 months until December 11 to charge Zacarias Moussaoui for the 9/11 attacks when his case was known worldwide for months, but not mentioned in the American media? 62. Whatever happened with Lotfi Raissi, who was arrested in UK for teaching the terrorist pilots? 63. What is the current status of the investigation of Mamoun Darkazanli Import-Export-Company in Hamburg and Al Taqwa Management Organisation in Lugano? 64. Why was Richard Reid able to enter the Paris airport twice and who paid for his hotel? 65. Who hired Zacarias Masspoui to learn how to fly passenger jets in the United States? 66. Why did the FBI or CIA fail to interrogate him between August and December 2001? BIN LADEN 67. Did the CIA monitor Bin Laden in 1998 with the help of 15 Afghan agents, paid $1,000/ month? 68. Where are these agents? Was Johnny "Mike" Spann one? Was John Walker Lindh one? 69. Is an Afghan agent a member of the ISI? Is an Afghan agent working for Bin Laden? 70. When was the first time Tenet mentioned the Al-Quaeda group to any member of the Senate? 71. Why did the Pentagon release a new video version or translation of the Bin Laden Home video? 72. Why it was released only 8 hours after translation by the German magazine MONITOR on December ? 73. Why were the four translators prior US-Government workers? 74. When was the Bin Laden Home Video found and who found it? 75. Who found the video if Northern Alliance and US troops had not yet arrived in Kandahar or Jahalabad? 76. Does the time stamp on the Bin Laden video indicate that it was found two weeks after it was produced? 77. Why was the public not informed who found the video and when? 78. Why according to MONITOR magazine, were the most controversial statements translated incorrectly? 79. Why was the video released? 80. Who gave the final decision to release it? 81. Why is the Bin Laden video of June 2001 in which he praised the attack, available on the Internet? 82. What about Bin Laden's statements on Al-Jazeera in June 2001 about the bombing of USS Cole, which are similar to the statements on the November 2001 home video? 83. Why did Bin Laden state in Umman Magazine in Sept. 2001, that he was not involved in the WTC? 84. Is Bin Laden still on the payroll of the CIA or ISI? 85. Did the Bin Laden Group Inc. help build Tora Bora with the CIA? 86. What was the purpose of the meeting with General Pervez Musharraf in May2001? 87. Why was a statement released that Al-Khalifa bin Laden, who is not the mother of Bin Laden, had a telephone call with Bin Laden on September 9, rather than Alia Ghanem, his mother? Why did Alia Ghanem say she did not believe he planned the attack? ANTHRAX AND MICROBIOLOGIST DEATHS 100. What happened on September 18th, when an employee of Batelle Memorial Institute was involved in a so-called anthrax hoax on that day? Was he arrested? 101. Why did the investigation of that case begin in December 2001? 102. What was in the memo of Dr. Leonard Horowitz, a public health consumer advocate and author of "Death in the Air" on October 1, 2001, almost two weeks before the first anthrax letter was sent from Trenton to the American media building in Boca Raton? 103. What about his letter of Nov. 13 in which he claimed that BAYER is behind the anthrax infections? 104. Did US BioDefense laboratories send the anthrax-laced letters to get a new budget for research? 105. What about the statement of former UN-weapons inspector of Iraq, Richard Spertzel, who told ABC, "... he knows only five scientists in the USA who would be in the situation to produce such a fine, highly developed spore material"? 106. Why did it take 48 hours to inform Bob Stevens that he had anthrax? 107. Why were envelopes never found near Bob Stevens, Amelie Lundgren and Mia Nguyen? 108. How come Microsoft got a hoax anthrax letter from Malaysia on the same day that President Bush said Malaysia might be one of the next targets of the United States? 109. Why did the FBI never investigate the case Don Wiley, a Bioscientist who disappeared 11/13/01? 110. Why did the FBI begin to investigate after his body was found on December 22, 300 miles away? Was there an investigation at the military hydro plant where workers found him? Why did the media write different versions about how, when and where he was found? Why did the police report change 2 months later from suicide to an accident? 111. What was the goal of Bioport in 1997? 112. Did development of anti-anthrax vaccines begin in 1998? 113. When did Bioport decide to produce anthrax vaccines? 114. Was it before or after Sept. 1998 that Admiral Crowe was put in charge of investigations of the August 7, 1998 bombings of Embassy Nairobi and Embassy Dar Es Salaam? 115. Did the schedule for developing anti-anthrax vaccines begin starting in 1998? 116. When did the US Government ask Bayer for help in developing a vaccine? 117. When did Bayer start sending the vaccines to the U.S.? 118. When did Bayer double production of the vaccines? 119. Was the death of Vladimir Pasechnik investigated? He was former director of the Institute of Ultra Pure Biochemical Preparations of the Soviet bio-warfare establishment Biopreparat in November 2001? 120. How are the deaths of scientists Robert M. Schwartz, Dr. Benito Que and Set Van Nguyen explained since all occurred in the same month? Is Set van Nguyen related to the anthrax victim Mia Nguyen? 121. What about the death of Nancy Sonnenfeld (FEMA-Wife)? 122. Why was the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife examining Anthrax in August 2000? 123. Do any employees in Trenton have the same handwriting as printed on the Anthrax envelopes? 124. Is it just a coincidence that the laboratory is also based in Trenton? 125. Did the FBI ever ask Fort Detrick to examine anthrax spores? 126. What about the list of 15-20 labs (maintained by Barbara Rosenzweig) who used Fort Detrick spores? 127. Does the CIA have spores different from those at Fort Detrick? 128. Why did Tommy Thompson, The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and other Bush cabinet members meet secretly (i.e. illegally) in Oct. 2001 with officials of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) to develop plans for their Emergency Preparedness Task Force? 129. Why did he decide on October 25, 2001 to ask Congress for another $500 million to produce Acambis's smallpox vaccine? 130. Why did it take 4.5 hours until Jean Marie Malecki , Director Palm Beach County Health Department, picked up the phone for employees of the AMI-Building, Boca Raton. This is where editor Bob Stevens got anthrax. Why did she wait two days before she visited that building again? 131. Did Walter Gilbert, Director Myriad Genetics ever get official permission from relatives of those killed at WTC to examine their DNA?
FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES 150. Why did General Mahmud Ahmad, former head of the ISI quit his position? 151. Why did retaliation against the Taliban begin the day he stepped down? 152. Who in the ISI paid $100.000 to Mohammad Atta? 153. Why does Ahmad think that another secret service was involved in the WTC attack? Which Secret Service was he referring to? Did other ISI official's believe that? Did officials of the CIA believe that? Did some officials of the Mossad believe that? 154. What was the purpose of Ahmad's visit to Washington on 9/11? 155. Who told Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov to abort an air strike against Afghanistan in May 2000? 156. Did Russian intelligence notify the CIA in 2001 that 25 terrorist pilots had been training for suicide missions, as reported in the Russian press?
KISSINGER 1. What did Kissinger mean that an "outside threat from beyond", a "world government" and "individual rights" who are "willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted", what you mentioned in 1991 on a Bilderberg Conference? 2. What was his role at UNOCAL? 3. Is he in contact with representatives of these companies or institutions: 4. What did he discuss at the Bilderberg meeting last year in May 2001? 5. What was the purpose of his meeting with Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov in July 2001? 6. Why does he write in "Toward a New Diplomacy for the 21st Century" that America doesn't need a Foreign Policy? 7. When was the last time Henry Kissinger met US-Ambassador in Pakistan, Robert Oakley?
THE PURCHASE OF AIRLINE PUT OPTIONS 1. Is it true that the CIA is in possession of PROMIS software? 2. What is the purpose of PROMIS? 3. Did A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, CIA, own any stocks of United Airlines, American Airlines, Merrill Lynch, 4. Morgan Stanley, AXA Re (insurance) which owns 25% of American Airlines, and Munich Re.? 5. What is his connection to Alex Brown, Deutsche Bank? 6. Did he give any insider information about to George Tenet, CIA? 7. Who was the investor who purchased 2,000 UAL put options between August and September 11, 2001? 8. Did Deutsche Bank-Alex Brown own any stocks of UA, AA, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, AXA Re (insurance) which owns 25% of American Airlines, and Munich Re? 9. What about the 2,500 UA-contracts which were "split into 500 chunks each, directing each order to different U.S. exchanges around the country simultaneously." on August 10, 2001? 10. Did Deutsche purchase UAL options in August 2001? 11. Why did DB-AB purchase 4,744 put options on United Air Lines stock as opposed to only 396 call s on September 6-7? What was the purpose of doing that? 12. What is the connection to Wally Kromgaard? 13. Did Deutsche Bank or Wally Kromgaard purchase 4,516 put options on American Airlines as compared to 748 call options on September 10? 14. What was the reason of Mayo Shattuck III re-asssignment on September 15th?
THE TALIBAN AND THE CARPET OF GOLD.. 1. When was the last time they met any representatives of the US-Government? 2. What was the purpose of these meetings? 3. Do the Taliban know Karl E. Inderfurth and State Department counter terrorism chief Michael Sheehan? 4. Do they know which US-Representative said in February 2001: "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs"? 5. When was the last time the Taliban was in touch with this representative? 6. Did Abdul Haq, the former Mujahedin leader executed Sept 2001 by the Taliban, decide in Winter 2000 to attack the Taliban? 7. Did production of opium in Afghanistan fall from 3276 tonnes in 2000 to 185 tonnes in 2001?
GLOBAL HAWK TECHNOLOGY 1. Was Global Hawk technology able to remotely control unmanned planes in 1999 for 27 hours? 2. Did Northrop-Grumman use Global Hawk technology in the war in Afghanistan since October 2001? 3. What is the purpose of unmanned technology? 4. Is Northrup in contact with any engineers of Boeing? 5. Did Northrup install Global Hawk technology in a commercial airplane?
CARRIER AND TROOP MOVEMENTS BEFORE SEPT 11 1. Did two U.S. carrier battle groups arrive in the Gulf of Arabia just off the Pakistani coast before 9/11? 2. Did 17,000 U.S. troops join more than 23,000 NATO troops in Egypt for Operation 'Bright Star' on 9/11? What was the purpose of both of these operations?
BIOCHEMICAL WARFARE 1. When did Tommy Franks learn that he would use Thermobarics in Tora Bora? 2. Does he know if it had been tested on December 12 in Nevada? 3. Who told Franks that Bin Laden might hide in Tora Bora? 4. Is the main purpose of Thermobarics to destroy buried bio and chemical stocks? 5. Was Thermobarics developed for the purpose to use one day in Iraq? 6. When was the first time Franks used Thermobarics? Was it before or after the announcement of the end of ABM Treaty on December 11? 7. When did the US decide to use B61-11, the "nuclear version" of its "conventional" BLU-113 counterpart? 8. Why has the NSA destroyed data collected on Americans or US companies since the Sept. 11 attacks?
ABORTED ATTEMPTS TO GET BIN-LADEN 1. Why did Clinton abort an attack on Bin Laden in October 1999? 2. Who was responsible for that operation? 3. Why was the operation put on hold? 4. Why did Musharraf halt a covert operation to attack Bin Laden in October 1999? 5. Why did the GOP in Congress stop almost every move Clinton made against terrorism? They refused to believe reports and pass necessary legislation. In 1996 Clinton proposed a very extensive anti-terrorism regulation.
RICHARD REID 1. Who hired Richard Reid to threaten a passenger plane in Paris? 2. Who did he send an email to in Pakistan? 3. Has he ever been in touch with the ISI or CIA? 4. Did he know the difference between an explosive and a detonator? 5. How many ounces did he have in his shoes? 6. What size are his shoes? 7. Who build or prepared his shoes?
JOHN WALKER LINDH 1. Has John Walker Lindh ever been in touch with the CIA? 2. Did he ever work for the CIA? 3. Who arrested him in 2001? 4. Why didn't he escape in the tumult to nearby Masar-e-Sharif? 5. Who hired his lawyer, Richard Brohanan? Who paid his lawyer? 6. Why didn't he go to Guantanamo Bay?
DICK CHENEY 1. When did Cheney stop working for Halliburton? 2. Is he still in possession of any Halliburton stock? 3. Is he still in contact with Halliburton? 4. Was Halliburton invited to an oil conference in May 2002? 5. Does Cheney know when that meeting was planned? 6. Did Cheney have influence concerning Halliburton contracts with the Pentagon? 7. What exactly did Cheney decide to do on September 11th? 8. Did he speak with an Air Force Commander or Lt. Gen. Charles F. Wald on that day? 9. When did he inform the president about the hijacked airplanes on September 11? 10. Who called the White House on September 11 at 9:30 PM about a possible threat? 11. Why was no air security at the White House or the Pentagon at 9:30 PM? 12. When and who gave the approval to evacuate the White House at 9:45 PM? 13. What was the purpose of a meeting with Indian opposition leader Sonia Gandhi in June 2001 about a multimillion-dollar debt owed to Enron from a major energy project in Indian Power Plants? 14. When was the last time Cheney spoke with anyone from ENRON?
COLIN POWELL 1. What was the role of Colin Powell? 2. Who decided to give $43 million in aid to the Taliban regime in May 2001? 3. Did he know that production of opium in Afghanistan fell from 3276 tonnes in 2000 to 185 in 2001? 4. What was the purpose of his decision to treat the Taliban prisoners as War Prisoners? Is this decision in any way related to media reports 2 days earlier that Powell may have been involved in negotiations with Indian Power Plants? 5. What was the purpose of his short trip to Latin America on September 11? 6. Who decided that he fly to Latin America on that day? 7. Why would someone threaten him in Afghanistan on January 17, 2002 as Newsweek reported? 8. What was the purpose of Powell meeting with India's foreign minister on April 6, 2001? 9. Did Enron or Cheney ask Powell to help collect a $64 million debt on an Indian plant project?
GEORGE H.W. BUSH 1. When was the last time George H.W. Bush traveled to South Arabia on behalf of the Carlyle Group? 2. What was the purpose of that meeting?
THOMAS WHITE 1. Is Thomas White still in contact with ENRON? 2. Did his contact at anytime influence his decisions? 3. Does he still own ENRON stocks?
DELMART VREELAND 1. Did Vreeland warn Canadian Intelligence in May 2001 about possible terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon? 2. Did he place the warning in an envelope while in prison in Toronto, Canada? 3. Where did he get his information? 4. Whom did he give the envelope to? 5. Why was he placed in jail?
SAUDI-BINLADIN-GROUP.COM 1.Was the domain created on September 11th, 2000? 2. Who paid for that domain? 3. Are they also owners of Iridium Satellites? 4. When did they end contact with relatives of the Bush family?
THE CARLYLE GROUP 1. When was the last time George H.W. Bush traveled to Saudi Arabia on behalf of the privately owned Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense contractor in the U.S.? 2. What was the purpose of that meeting? 3. When did he resign from Carlyle Group? 4. Is he still in touch with any of their representatives?
STEPHEN LANDER, Director MI5 1. Did Lander monitor a phone conversation between Zacarias Moussaoui and Richard Reid in Dec. 2000? 2. What did Lander tell representatives of the CIA about Zacarias Moussaoui? 3. Why did he stop monitoring Djamel Beghal, member of Takfir-wal-Hijra (financed by Osama bin Laden) in August 2001?
BIN LADEN IN DUBAI 1. Did Bin Laden in July 2001 enter an American hospital in Dubai? 2. Did he arrive on July 4, 2001 on a flight from Qetta, Pakistan to American Hospital? 3. Was he at the hospital July 4-11, 2001? 4. Did Bernard Koval, CEO of American Hospital, ever speak with Doctor Terry Callaway about that visit? 5. Why did he change his statements about this story not being true and that he "asked around"? 6. What is the difference between Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis and Continuous Cycling Peritoneal Dialysis? 7. Did Koval know Larry Stevens? 8. Can Koval explain why Richard Labeviere, author of "Terror Dollars" (about illegal Al-Quaeda accounts), wrote the story about Osama Bin Laden's kidney operation?
GEORGE W. BUSH 1. What exactly happened on September 11 and at what time was President Bush informed? 2. Why was President Bush scheduled to visit a school in Florida? 3. Who scheduled the time of the visit? 4. When exactly did Bush learn about the first crash into the WTC? 5. How could he have seen that on TV? 6. Why didn't he interrupt his school meeting as soon as he learned of the first plane crash? 7. Did Bush ever wonder how Bin Laden was able to hear the first plane crash live on the radio? 8. Which radio station he was listening to? 9. Can Bush explain how Bin Laden's Home Video was found only two weeks after it was produced? 10. Why did Bush decide to release Bin Laden's Home Video? 11. What is the purpose of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC) in Fort Benning, Georgia, where terrorists have been trained for undercover agents in South America? Bush stated "if any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents, they have become outlaws and murderers themselves". So what does he think about Fort Benning? 12. What is the role of Zalmay Khalilzad (former UNOCAL) in the National Security Council ? 13. What is the current role of Zalmay Khalilzad (former UNOCAL) in Afghanistan? 14. When was Bush's last contact with anyone from ENRON? 15. Why was China admitted to the WTO on September 13 after 15 years of unsuccessful attempts? 16. Why did Bush postpone the release of Ronald Reagan's records? 17. How does Bush feel about the need to investigate the CIA's mistakes? 18. Does Bush agree with senators John McCain, Joseph I. Lieberman, Porter J. Goss, former C.I.A. clandestine case officer and a Florida Republican, RichardC. Shelby and Ron Paul, US Congressman, who want an investigation and have said "Secret government is winning out over open government"? 19. Did he know before he left his hotel that morning on the way to the schoolthat the 1st tower had been hit?ABC news reported that morning that he was asked by reporters if he was aware of events in NYC and he answered yes. If so, why did he later say he first heard of it was when he was at the school? 20. Why did Bush continue to sit in that classroom reading to children when he should have been conferring with his advisors? 21. Why did Bush say that he and Card initially thought it was an accident involving a small plane? 22. Given all the information sources available to the POTUS and his staff how could his people not have known the kind of plane involved? 23. Why didn't they know at this point, as did the FAA and NORAD, that aircraft were hijacked? The Battalion Chief in the 9/11 video was seen and heard asking for military backup immediately after the building was hit. 24. How come the NYFD knew it was terrorism right away but the POTUS and his aides just calmly went about their business?
TONY BLAIR 1. Were 25,000 British troops and the largest British Armada since the Falkland Islands War, part of Operation 'Essential Harvest' pre-positioned in Oman, the closest point on the Arabian Peninsula to Pakistan before September 11, 2001? 2. When did he begin to place SIS-Special Forces in Afghanistan? Why?
THE SUN-SENTINEL 1. Did Gloria Irish own unit 1504 at the Delray Racquet Club, 755 Dotterel? 2. Did she rent that property to Hamza Alghamdi in August 2001? 3. Why did the media not report about a connection of the Sun-Sentinel and thehijackers? 4. Why did it first appear that the hijackers had something to do with the anthrax attacks? 5. Why has this connection or coincidence never appeared in the media again? 6. What was the connection between husband Michael Irish (SunSentinel) and Bob Stevens (who died from Anthrax)?
WARNINGS 1. When did Vladimir Putin warn the CIA about a possible terrorist attack and what was their reaction? 2. What was the purpose of the meeting between Christina Rocca, director of Asian affairs at the State Department and the Taliban ambassador Mollah Abdul Salam Zaeef in Islamabad in August 2001? 3. Why did she oversee the delivery of Stinger missiles in the 80s to Afghan mujaheddin? 4. Did Walid Arkeh in Seminole County jail inform the FBI in August 2001 about an attack on America? What was the reaction of the FBI? 5. Why did Dr. Jeffrey Starr, U.S. department of defense, visit Tajikistan in Jan 2001? 6. When did Jean-Claude Cousseran, Director DGSE , French Secret Service inform the CIA about terrorist attacks on America? What was their reaction? 7. What does he know about the monitoring of Djamel Beghal, member of Takfir-wal-Hijra (financed by Osama bin Laden) and Kamel Daoudi? Did he ever inform the CIA about that? And when? 8. When did Italian Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini inform the CIA about a possible attack on the American president "with the use of an airplane"? What was their reaction? 9. When did President Mubarak, Egypt, inform the CIA about a possible attack on America with an "airplane stuffed with explosives"? What was their reaction? 10. When did Efraim Halevy , Director of Mossad since 1998 (unconfirmed) inform the CIA about a possible attack with "200 terrorists" on America? What was their reaction? 11. Is it true he warned Ariel Sharon not to travel to New York on September 11 to speak at a festival? 12. Did a caller to Loxley Banks, Director Radio Cayman Islands talk show, give several warnings of an imminent attack on the U.S on Sept. 3 -10? 13. The London Times reported that someone from the FAA warned Salman Rushdie not to travel to the United States on September 3rd? If this is true, who was it? 14. Did the FBI investigate the two men who met Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi in Harry's Bar at the Helmsley Hotel in Manhattan on September 8,2001? 15. Who does Abdullah Abdullah (Northern Alliance) believe killed Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud on September 9, 2001? 16. When and why did he decide to attack Kabul on September 11 at 5:30 PM? 17. When did he decide to invade Masar-i-Scharif 18. Did the CIA helped him provoke a tumult? 19. Did he ever meet John Walker Lindh? 20. Why was Major John Kenny, Commander Wright Patterson Air Base, Dayton placed on high alert on September 10? Did he inform companies in Dayton to shutdown their offices? 21. Why was Colonel William M. Dietrick , Commander Defense Language Institute in Garrison, Monterey on high alert on September 10? 22. Why did one of Kenneth (Ken) Weinbrecht (President SAMS ) executives say on September 10, that he was a 'Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target US forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act.'" 23. Did Jean-Louis Bruguiere, French anti-terrorism, inform the CIA on September 10 about a possible terrorist attack? If so, what was their reaction? 24. Why did Atta and hijacker Abdulaziz Alomari checke into a Portland, Maine motel (unidentified) on September 10? 25. Why was the Portland, Airport, according to eye-witnesses, in full charge of more military officials and soldiers than usual, weeks before September 11, 2001? 26. Why, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported, was Mayor Brown warned to be "cautious in your travel" the night of September 10? Who warned him? 27. Why did Alex Diamandis, Odigo Vice President of Sales and Marketing, receive a warning on his messenger service about a possible attack on America on September 11, 2001? At which time? 28. When did Dr.August Hanning , President BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst Germany) inform the CIA that "Middle Eastern terrorists are 'planning to hijack commercial aircraft ?" What was their reaction? Did he allow an Iranian prisoner in Hamburg call to the CIA in Summer 2001 about an attack on America? What was their reaction?
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL/GLOBAL HAWK 1. Why did Kenneth Waldie, Stanley Hall, Herbert Homer and Peter Gay of Raytheon travel on Sept. 11? 2. 2. Can Global Hawk technology be used for at least 27 hours? 3. Is Global Hawk technology used in commercial airplanes? 4. Did Danielle O'Brien, air traffic controller, inform another air traffic control center about a plane traveling fast southwest of Dulles after spotting it 8:18 AM on September 11? 5. Who was informed and what happened?
THE PENNSYLVANIA CRASH 1. Why didn't Dr. James G. Roche, Secretary of the Air Force try to reach the airplanes in NYC (7 minutes time for McGuire AFB in New Jersey ) and at the Pentagon (10 minutes time)? 2. Did Roche ever try to shutdown the plane in Pennsylvania? 3. Can Roche explain why magazines of that plane were found 20 miles away from the crash? Andrews AFB is 13 miles away. He had one hour and fifteen minutes to respond to the plane that hit the Pentagon. What happened during that time? 4. Eexplain why many ear-and eye witnesses, including workers of the road construction company New Enterprise saw or heard F-16 jets ? 5. Why did President Bush say only one week later that he tried to shutdown that plane? 6. Who gave that decision?
DEFENSE ALERTS AND MOVEMENTS 1. Why did George Bush leave Barksdale Air Force Base aboard Air Force One and flew to an Air Force base in Nebraska on 1:48 PM on September 11 and returned to Washington at 4:30 PM? 2. What exactly did Donald Rumsfeld do that day before he arrived at the Pentagon around 3:55 PM? 3. How did Rumsfeld know at 5:30 PM on September 11 that the plane in Pennsylvania could have been headed for one of three possible targets: CampDavid, the White House or the U.S. Capitol building? 4. Can he explain why early media reports told us that no squadrons of combat-ready fighter jets have been at Andrews and later changed their reports that they haven't been on high alert only? 5. Why was Air Force Lt. Col. Vic Warzinski, another Pentagon spokesman, so sure on September 11 that aircraft was coming your way? 6. What did the D.C. Air National Guard in Washington do on September 11? 7. Can he explain what those 3 fighters did from 9:40AM until 9:55 AM when they finally turned towards Flight 93 and were 60 miles out at 10:06 am? 8. Can he explain why Air Traffic Controllers in a Nashua Telegraph article did report an F-16 was circling Flight 93 and was in visual range at the time of crash? 9. Can he confirm a witness report that National Guard F-16's have been at Hancock field in Syracuse NY in the air early that morning before 9AM? 10. How could the hijackers know how to disable defense systems? 11. What was the official reason that fighters of the 305th Air Wing, McGuire Air Force Base, NJ did not intercept the 2nd hijacked plane in NYC? This would have been possible within 7 minutes after 8:48 AM 12. Why did none of the 459th Aircraft Squadron (Andrews AFB) fighters intercept the plane which crashed into the Pentagon? Andrews AFB is 10 miles from Washington DC. 13. Col. Ken McClellan, Air Force spokesman said on September 11, that Mohammad Atta attended the International Officer's School at Maxwell/Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, and was seen by eye-witnesses? What was McClellan doing there? Why did he later deny the report? 14. Why did he decide not to shutdown ECHELON base Bad Aibling in Germany as planned for 2002? 15. What is the reason that none of any Air Force fighters reached the hijacked plane in time? 16. Many eye- and witnesses think that the plane in Pennsylvania was shot down. What is the scientific explanation why the magazine of the airplane was found many miles away? 17. Why did Jack Kelly, idefense.com, inform USA Today only 12 minutes after the first crash (8:48AM), that terror groups using Web encryption may have been responsible? And why was he so sure before the second crash at 9:03 PM? 18. Did Kelly serve with the U.S. government where he managed several significant programs for the information warfare and intelligence communities? 19. Did Joseph J. Esposito, Chief of NYPD try to contact the Pentagon at 9:06 AM on September 11? What was their reaction? 10. Why didn't General Elwood "Pete" Quesada of the FAA inform President Bush between 8:15 and 9:05 about four simultaneously hijacked planes? Who did he inform and what was their reaction?
THE WTC COLLAPSE 1. What does Nicholas Scoppetta of FDNY know about the latest reports of the WTC destruction? 2. Can he explain why many witnesses saw and heard more than two explosions in the WTC? 3. Can he explain why both Twin Towers and Building 7 collapsed in that way? 4. Can he explain why a gas tank was in Building 7? 5. Can he explain why there were no passengers in the subway under the WTC? 6. Can he explain why there was no guard at the gold reservoir under the WTC? 7. Why did Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, Director CDC prepare, as CNN reported, emergency-response teams on September 11 at 11:16 PM?
MISCELLANEOUS 1. When did Dr.August Hanning , President BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst Germany)inform the CIA that "Middle Eastern terrorists are 'planning to hijack commercial aircraft ?" What was their reaction? Did he allow an Iranian prisoner in Hamburg call to the CIA in Summer 2001 about an attack on America? What was their reaction? 2. When did Tayseer Allouni , Kabul correspondent Al-Jazeera, receive his first video from Bin Laden? Can he explain why the first video on October 7 2001, the day of the retaliation, looked like it was recorded in the morning? 3. Did Tom Simmons (former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan), Karl Inderfurth (former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs) and Lee Coldren (former State Department expert on South Asia) decide or announce in a July 2001 meeting that an attack was planned on the Taliban in October 2001? 4. Why did Ms. Barbara Bodine, US ambassador to Yemen stop John O'Neill from investigating Al-Quaeda accounts in July 2001? 5. Did Niaz Niak, former Pakistani Foreign Secretary say in mid July 2001 that the USA planned military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban? 6. Did Hameed Gul, retired Pakistani general of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, say that a secret service was involved in the attack on America? 7. Why did Tommy Thompson, The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and other Bush cabinet members meet secretly (i.e. illegally) in Oct. 2001 with officials of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) to develop plans for their Emergency Preparedness Task Force? Why did he decide on October 25, 2001 to ask Congress for another $500 million to produce Acambis's smallpox vaccine? 8. Why did it take 4.5 hours until Jean Marie Malecki , Director Palm Beach County Health Department, picked up the phone for employees of the AMI-Building, Boca Raton. This is where editor Bob Stevens got anthrax. Why did she wait two days before she visited that building again? 9. Why did Mayor Guilani sell WTC rubble to India for recycling and also China? Who made that decision? 10. What was the purpose of U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain's phone call on October 10, 2001 to the Pakistani oil minister? Why was she sure that a previously abandoned Unocal pipeline from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to the Pakistani coast for the purpose of selling oil and gas to China, was back on the table in view of recent geopolitical developments? 11. What exactly was found on Z. Moussaoui's computer after 9/11, when local agents were given a Federal Intelligence Security Act (FISA) warrant, which they had requested six weeks previously?This ties directly into the question of the administration's dealings with the Taliban, its reluctance to investigate Saudi nationals, etc. 12. Why the attack on Cynthia McKinney for asking: 1) why has there been no investigation of the 9-11 attack? and 2) did Bush/CIA/NSA know of it beforehand, and allow it to happen? 13. Why is the Bush administration so strongly against a real investigation into the events of 9-11? 14. Why did the US give 43 million dollars to Afghanistan back in May or June of 2001 15. Why did Bush toss the Hart-Rudman terror security study (developed over a 2 year period) and instead assign responsibility to Cheney and FEMA? 16. Why did Ashcroft stops flying commercial, citing an unidentified "threat" in July 2001? Why did the FBI and Justice not identify the form, origin and time of the threat? 17. Why did Bush stay in Texas for the month of August and Cheney in Wyoming? 18. Why no photos or videos of the Pentagon plane? And there's not a single credible frame of film or second of video of this? Also, why hasn't a similar flight path graphic ever been published? 19. Why didn't the Secret Service hustle Dubya out of the classroom a half-second after Andy Card told him, "Mr. president, the nation is under attack"? 20. Why did they leave him exposed to danger for two and a half minutes in the classroom and another half-hour in the school before he returned to the relative safety of Air Force One? 21. Where was George H. W. Bush at the time of the attacks? 22. Why did passengers or crewmembers on three of the flights tell people on the ground that the highjackers had "box cutters"? 23. Where are the flight recorders? 24. How did they find a passport that just "happens" to belong to one of the hijackers in the WTC rubble and they can't locate even ONE flight recorder? 25. Why no investigative reporting of the Pentagon scene? The photos do not show much, but then photographers were not allowed, initially, to photograph the scene, if I remember correctly. 26. Why was the series of recommendations Al Gore also put together in 1996 on airport security called by Republican congress "paranoid" and too harsh. Why did the airline industry, lobbying against it, consider it too expensive and impractical. 27. Why was the Hart-Rudman report on the potential dangers of terrorism in the homeland. The results of the research ignored by Bush? 28. Why were FISA warrants disallowed by Bush? 29. Why did the US pull the plug on Muslim websites Monday September 10, 2001? 30. Why did the Saudi bin-Laden-group have a website with a PRE-SET expiration date of Sept. 11, 2001? 31. Why were the bin Ladens flown out of the U.S. on private jets the day after the 9/11? 32. Why did Cheney say that everyone in the White House started taking Cipro on September 12 when the first anthrax letter wasn't postmarked until September 18. 33. Why did Bush dissolve the Bin Laden Task Force? What would have happened had this focused and knowledgeable group been in place 9 months before 911? 34. Why was metallic debris found 8 miles from the crash site of the plane that went down in Penn? They said it went straight down and left a small hole in the ground. If they found metallic debris from the plane 8 miles away it was either shot down or a bomb exploded in the plane. 35. Why did they not let the media or any reporters take video or photos of the crash site?
5/06/02a http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/05/ED124842.DTL (050602a) Bernard Goldberg's book, "Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News," has ridden near the top of the best-seller lists for weeks. Chronicle columnists Debra J. Saunders and Stephanie Salter take up the debate today. Bernard Goldberg's specter of a powerful, liberal "media elite" reminds me of the old notion that women sleep their way to the top: If such a ploy actually worked, wouldn't there be a lot more women in high places? 5/06/02b http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/050602a.html (050602b) David Brock & the Watergate Legacy By Robert Parry May 6, 2002 David Brock's tell-all Blinded by the Right parallels another account by a young man who came to Washington and found a home in Republican circles. That confessional book was Blind Ambition by Richard Nixon's White House counsel John Dean, who described how his drive to succeed led him to join the crimes of Watergate. 5/06/02c http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0218/cotts.php (050602c) Week of May 1 - 7, 2002 Press Clips by Cynthia Cotts The 'Times' Condones Censorship, Venezuelan Style Quid Pro Coup Question for media tycoons: How do you land a puff piece on the front page of the New York Times business section on Sunday? Answer: Attempt to secretly stage a political coup, and then try to censor any critical news coverage of the coup. That's how a cynic might see the Times' April 28 profile of Venezuelan billionaire Gustavo Cisneros. The story included lots of info about Cisneros's business holdings and political connections, but only a passing reference to the fact that he is suspected of having masterminded the failed coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. As Newsweek, The Miami Herald, and the St.Petersburg Times had already reported, Cisneros is accused not only of bankrolling the coup, but also of promoting it on his TV network Venevisión, and then censoring TV news on the day the coup fell apart.
5/07/02a http://www.msnbc.com/news/748622.asp Enron memos detail Calif. schemes: Docs describe how energy traders drove up power prices WASHINGTON, May 6 ? California's two senators called for a criminal probe into Enron Corp.'s trading activities Monday after federal energy regulators released documents describing how the bankrupt energy giant used trading strategies with names like "Death Star" and "Fat Boy" to manipulate electricity supplies and boost profits in the state. THE FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION said Enron turned over three documents discussing how it reaped $30 million in profits from one trading scheme in 2000, leading up to California's power blackouts which began in January 2001. 5/07/02b http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/printarticle/gam/20020504/UMURDN (050702b) Scientists' deaths are under the microscope By ALANNA MITCHELL, SIMON COOPER AND CAROLYN ABRAHAM COMPILED BY ALANNA MITCHELL Saturday, May 4, 2002 ? Print Edition, Page A1 It's a tale only the best conspiracy theorist could dream up. Eleven microbiologists mysteriously dead over the span of just five months. Some of them world leaders in developing weapons-grade biological plagues. Others the best in figuring out how to stop millions from dying because of biological weapons. Still others, experts in the theory of bioterrorism. Throw in a few Russian defectors, a few nervy U.S. biotech companies, a deranged assassin or two, a bit of Elvis, a couple of Satanists, a subtle hint of espionage, a big whack of imagination, and the plot is complete, if a bit reminiscent of James Bond. 5/07/02c http://www.liberalslant.com/LS4.htm (050702c) The Contra Government By: Bridget Gibson - 05/06/02 The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy. - Alex Carey Bush has taken our Security Exchange Commission and given it to the very folks that it is to monitor. He has taken the Environmental Protection Agency and given it to the polluters. He has taken the State Department and given it to a radical fringe. He has taken the Justice Department and given it to a fundamentalist zealot. He has taken the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and given it to the power companies. He has taken the Department of the Interior and given it to the companies that will profit from the removal of public resources.
5/08/02a http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-000032651may08.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Doped%2Dmanual EDITORIAL Make Enron Pirates Answer It was a scam after all. As California faced desperate electricity shortages in 2000 and 2001, power giant Enron was manipulating the market to drive up prices and turn modest power shortages into critical ones. This arrogant behemoth, since brought down by its own hubris, toyed with the public health and safety of California to boost its own profit, and there's finally a smoking gun to prove it. 5/08/02b http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020507/ap_on_re_us/campaign_finance_2&printer=1 RNC Sues Over Campaign Finance Law Tue May 7, 1:02 PM ET By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Republican National Committee (news - web sites) on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn campaign finance restrictions reluctantly signed into law in March by President Bush (news - web sites). The RNC is challenging several parts of the law, including a ban on unlimited campaign donations known as "soft money" that it and its Democratic counterpart can now collect from corporations, unions and others. 5/08/02c RNC: http://www.rnc.org/ Lawsuits: http://www.law.stanford.edu/library/campaignfinance/ http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/site/viewru.htm by Ted Rall NEW YORK-It is impossible to overstate the importance of tossing George W. Bush back onto the unemployment lines in 2004. His illegitimate presidency isn't even half-over, yet Bush's disreputable cabinet of tin-pot gangsters has already succeeded in causing irreparable harm to our great nation. This inferior man, a dimwitted former cheerleader who as the do-nothing governor of Texas allotted a full 15 minutes to deciding whether or not to sign death warrants has presided over the greatest systemic dismantling of the American Dream since the disastrous reign of Herbert Hoover. When President Clinton left office in January 2001, he left behind a balanced budget and the expectation that we would pay off the entire federal deficit within eight years. The resulting interest savings could have gone to tax cuts, spending or both. But George W. Bush trashed years of fiscal discipline in mere months-all to line the pockets of his wealthy donors with extravagant tax cuts they neither needed nor deserved. And that cynical cash grab wasn't enough-now he's pushing to make their disastrous kickbacks permanent! 5/08/02d VIOLENCE IN ISRAEL, THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK AND GAZA STRIP, AND PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TERRITORIES On April 3, 2002, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) launched a major military operation in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, home to some fourteen thousand Palestinian refugees. Read "Jenin: IDF Military Operations" at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/ Also encourage Israeli and Palestinian officials to investigate allegations of excessive or indiscriminate use of force involving harm to civilians and civilian property and hold accountable persons found responsible. In addition, urge Israeli and Palestinian officials to permit independent media and human rights groups full and unimpeded access to monitor the impact of military operations on civilians, to investigate violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and to prosecute anyone found responsible for wrongdoing. Take action at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/israel/action.htm
5/09/02a http://www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=13291 (050902a) Five questions Putting Bush in the hot seat, given the chance By William Rivers Pitt / truthout.com 05.09.02 | I often fantasize about having one hour alone with George W. Bush, armchair to armchair as it were, so I might put five questions to him. The questions change from week to week; this busy administration hardly passes a day without saying or doing something that, twenty years ago, would have obsessed the national media for weeks. Below are the questions I'd ask if he called me down there tonight. They'll probably change twice before Monday, but only if we're lucky. 1. What is the true nature of the Saudi Arabian connection to 9/11, and why has this connection not been a priority for Bush's State Department? Just today, American Undersecretary of State John Bolton gave a speech to the conservative think tankers at the Heritage Foundation entitled, "Beyond the Axis of Evil." In it, he leveled a military finger at Lybia, Syria and Cuba, accusing them of pursuing development programs for the creation of weapons of mass destruction. The silence surrounding Saudi Arabia has been huge. How can we fail to pursue Saudi Arabia with the Bush Doctrine guiding our way? Nations that sponsor terrorism, or have terrorists operating freely within their borders, are in grave danger of invasion and destruction. This Doctrine was established in Afghanistan, and it appears many other countries face a similar fate. Yet Saudi Arabia, a veritable birthing bed for international terrorism, escapes taint. 2. Why has the Bush administration not been the loudest, most strident advocate for a far-reaching investigation into 9/11 and why did the government's lead investigator into 9/11 quit? On the eve of Bush's State of the Union address, it was reported that he and Cheney issued a request to Senate Majority Leader Daschle that many interpreted as a veiled threat. Soft-pedal the 9/11 investigation, Bush and Daschle said. Don't interfere. What role did a planned natural gas pipeline through the subcontinent play in 9/11? What role does it play in the post-9/11 international relations situation?As this happened on this administration's watch, how is it they have failed to push relentlessly for answers that will undoubtedly enhance our security? 3. What, precisely, is the legal basis for a war with Iraq? The resolution agreed to by Congress and the White House on September 14th gave Bush wide latitude to "use all and necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks." Iraq falls under neither heading. No proof whatsoever has linked Saddam Hussein or his government to the 9/11 terrorists. No proof exists that he intends to help any entity or nation to perpetrate future attacks. 4. Where is the anthrax killer? There is not much to add after the initial query. There's a killer with deadly poison in hand wandering free in this country. The evidence points directly to home-grown terrorism. What is the status of this investigation, and how is it that such a dangerous killer has escaped detention? 5. What role did America play in the recent failed coup in Venezuela? When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was ousted from office in a coup perpetrated by Venezuelan military officers and businessmen early in April, the Bush administration fell over itself in a rush to welcome the new government into the family of nations. Never mind that Chavez won two popular elections in that democratic nation. As administration officials admitted, winning an election does not necessarily convey legitimacy. The collapse of the coup and the reinstatement of Chavez left a large wad of egg on the face of the Bush White House. As the story behind the failed coup has begun to coalesce, several prominent American officials have been named by the foreign media, and by Chavez himself, as having had a hand in the overthrow. Among them are: * Eliot Abrams, member of the White House National Security Council, once convicted for lying to Congress about the Reagan administration's role in the Iran/Contra scandal, is reported to have given American approval for the coup; * Otto Reich, senior White House policy advisor on Latin America, once the American ambassador to Venezuela under Reagan, met several times with Pedro Carmona, the erstwhile coup leader ousted after 24 hours of rule. Reich, after the coup began, gathered the Latin American ambassadors to him and stated bluntly that democracy had not been violated in Venezuela, and that America would support Carmona; * John Negroponte, American ambassador to the United Nations, former ambassador to Honduras under Reagan who held that post during the worst atrocities of the Iran/Contra affair, was reportedly warned of the coup as early as last January; * Lt. Colonel James Rodgers, assistant military attaché to Venezuela, who was spotted with the coup plotters right up to the moment the plot unfolded. What is the truth behind all of this? Where are America's hands, and are they as dirty as they seem? As Venezuela leads OPEC, and is a major petroleum source for the United States, are we dealing with yet another foreign policy fiasco based upon oil? How can the Bush administration condone the overthrow of a democratically-elected government? 5/09/02b http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2D050902coal http://www.waterconserve.info/articles/reader.asp?linkid=10853 (050902b) Environment: Bush's decision to allow dumping into streams "must fail," he says. By ELIZABETH SHOGREN Times Staff Writer May 9 2002 WASHINGTON -- A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the U.S. government to stop permitting coal companies to put tons of dirt and rock from their mountaintop mining operations into streams and valleys, a practice that has permanently changed the topography of Appalachia. Just last week, the Bush administration rewrote the Corps of Engineers' clean water regulations to allow companies to continue filling valleys with the mining dirt, which already covers 1,000 miles of streams across Appalachia. 5/09/02c http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0509-01.htm (050902c) Published on Thursday, May 9, 2002 by OneWorld.net Bush Approach on Mideast Conflict "Out of Step" with U.S. Public, Poll Shows by Jim Lobe The United States public may not be nearly as supportive of the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as recent actions by Congress and the Bush administration suggest, according to a surprising new poll released in Washington Wednesday.
5/10/02a http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020509/ap_to_po/enron_investigation_11&printer=1 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/680906/posts (051005a) Daschle: `Somebody ought to go to jail' for Enron price manipulation Thu May 9, 7:24 PM ET By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said Thursday he believes Enron Corp. broke laws while manipulating electricity supply and prices during the California energy crisis. 5/10/02b http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/2002/05/08_Bush_Oil.html (051002b) Bush Absorbing Enron's Afghanistan Interests May 8, 2002 by Harry Neville As early as last year, Bush publicly showed support for just such projects. For example, on 11/28/01, he issued a statement saying, "These [Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline] projects will help diversify U.S. energy supply and enhance our energy security, while supporting global economic growth."
5/14/02a http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,714425,00.html (051402a) Opec chief warned Chavez about coup Greg Palast Monday May 13, 2002 The Guardian The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, had advance warning of last month's coup attempt against him from the secretary general of Opec, Ali Rodriguez, allowing him to prepare an extraordinary plan which saved both his government and his life, an investigation has revealed. The warning - revealed by a Newsnight investigation to be shown on BBC2 tonigh - explains the swift and safe return of Mr. Chavez to power within two days of his April 12 capture by military officers under the direction of the coup leader, Pedro Carmona. Until now, it was unclear why Mr. Carmona - who had declared himself president - and the military chiefs who backed the coup surrendered without firing a shot. The answer to the mystery, Newsnight was told by a Chavez insider, is that several hundred pro-Chavez troops were hidden in secret corridors under Miraflores, the presidential palace. 5/14/02b http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2D000033882may13 http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0716-01.htm (51402b) CAPITOL JOURNAL Smoking Gun Shoots Down Bush View of Power Crisis George Skelton May 13 2002 SACRAMENTO That deep, mellow voice of Vice President Dick Cheney still resonates in my ear. It's accentuated now by reverberations from the Enron smoking gun. "Frankly, California is looked on by many folks as a classic example of the kinds of problems that arise when you do use price caps," Cheney told me in April of last year. "Your problem is that your demand for electricity is up and your supplies have actually declined.... "Ultimately, of course, the peak power period this summer will exceed any capacity the state has and you'll end up in those rolling brownouts. There's no magic wand that Washington can wave." The power pirates--many of them pals and political patrons of Cheney and President Bush--were reaping profits of 400% to 600%. The cost of electricity that private utilities (Edison, PG&E, SDG&E) were sending consumers soared from $7.4 billion in 1999 to $27.6 billion in 2000 and seemed headed for $70 billion in 2001. Demand had not been up significantly; indeed, it then was falling. Supplies were rising. There was a magic wand Washington could wave. And it finally did get waved in June after dogged goading by Gov. Gray Davis, other West Coast Democrats and a new Democratic U.S. Senate. 5/14/02c http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0514-02.htm (051402c) Published on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 by Reuters Expert Warns World is Warming Faster Than Forecast by Eva Sohlman LONDON - Planet earth is warming up faster than previously expected, the head of a leading climate research institute said on Monday.
5/15/02a http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/683850/posts (051502a) Summer FBI Memo Cites Flight Schools, Bin Laden Wed May 15, 5:06 AM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - A memo by an FBI (news - web sites) agent last summer urged the bureau's headquarters to investigate Middle Eastern men enrolled in American flight schools and named Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), suggesting followers could use the schools for terror operations, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. 5/15/02b http://www.brook.edu/views/op-ed/ohanlon/20020428.htm (051502b) Did Military Misstep Let Bin Laden Escape? The Baltimore Sun, April 28, 2002 Michael E. O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies Was Osama bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora in the first half of December? And did the U.S. decision to rely on Afghan militias and Pakistani troops, rather than American forces, to seal off escape routes from those mountains permit bin Laden to escape during the intensive bombing campaign of that month?
5/16/02a Newspaper: Echelon Gave Authorities Warning Of Attacks http://www.bizreport.com/news/2137 (051602a) By Ned Stafford, Newsbytes FRANKFURT, GERMANY, 13 Sep 2001, 1:16 PM CST U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies received warning signals at least three months ago that Middle Eastern terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture, according to a story in Germany's daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). The FAZ, quoting unnamed German intelligence sources, said that the Echelon spy network was being used to collect information about the terrorist threats, and that U.K. intelligence services apparently also had advance warning. The FAZ, one of Germany's most respected dailies, said that even as far back as six months ago western and near-east press services were receiving information that such attacks were being planned. 5/16/02b http://old.smh.com.au/news/0111/07/world/world100.html (051602b) US agents told: Back off bin Laden US special agents were told to back off the bin Laden family and the Saudi royals soon after George Bush became president, although that has all changed since September 11, it was reported today. And the BBC2's Newsnight program also said the younger George Bush made his first million 20 years ago with an oil company partly funded by the chief US representative of Salem bin Laden, Osama's brother, who took over as head of the family after his father Mohammed's death in a plane crash in 1968. The program said it had secret documents from the FBI investigation into the terror attacks on New York and Washington which showed that despite the myth that Osama is the black sheep of the family, at least two other American-based members of it are suspected of links with a possible terrorist organization. 5/16/02c Lawmakers Seek Hijack Threat Papers Thu May 16, 4:20 PM ET By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Corespondent WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats led angry calls on Thursday for President Bush to hand over a top-secret CIA (news - web sites) briefing and an FBI (news - web sites) memo that warned of potential hijackings by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s terrorist network weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks. "What we have to do now is find out what the president ? what the White House ? knew about the events leading up to the events of 9-11, when they knew it and, most importantly, what was done about it," said House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo. Republican Sen. Richard Shelby (news, bio, voting record) of Alabama, vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said, "There was a lot of information. I believe and others believe, if it had been acted on properly we may have had a different situation on Sept. 11." 5/16/02d http://www.house.gov/mckinney/news/pr020516.htm http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/051602_mckinney.html (051602d) Statement of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney on Terrorist Warnings May 16, 2002 Several weeks ago, I called for a congressional investigation into what warnings the Bush Administration received before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I was derided by the White House, right wing talk radio, and spokespersons for the military-industrial complex as a conspiracy theorist. Today's revelations that the administration, and President Bush, were given months of notice that a terrorist attack was a distinct possibility points out the critical need for a full and complete congressional investigation.
5/20/02a http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,718312,00.html (052002a) Bush knew of terrorist plot to hijack US planes Terrorism crisis - Observer special Jason Burke and Ed Vulliamy in New York Sunday May 19, 2002 The Observer George Bush received specific warnings in the weeks before 11 September that an attack inside the United States was being planned by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, US government sources said yesterday. In a top-secret intelligence memo headlined 'Bin Laden determined to strike in the US', the President was told on 6 August that the Saudi-born terrorist hoped to 'bring the fight to America' in retaliation for missile strikes on al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in 1998. 5/20/02b http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/nation/3282968.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp (052002b) Posted on Fri, May. 17, 2002 Airlines in Sept. 11 attacks got no specific warnings BY INA PAIVA CORDLE AND JAY WEAVER Miami Herald American Airlines and United Airlines, which each lost two planes in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said Thursday they were never warned of a specific hijacking threat, though the White House was told in August that Osama bin Laden's terrorists might hijack U.S. planes.
5/21/02a http://www.mediawhoresonlines.com http://archive.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=7445 (052102a) PHOENIX MEMO WENT TO FRUSTRATED NYC PATRIOT-MARTYR John O'Neill, FBI Hero, Got Word in July, Was Rebuffed, "Retired" In Anger NY Times, Incredibly, Reports And Then Blows Huge Story A Crucial Piece Of The Bush Scandal Puzzle? In a stunning revelation, the New York Times has reported that among the two FBI office counter terrorism chiefs who received the now famously neglected Phoenix memorandum last July was none other than John O'Neill -- then the top counterterrorist officer in the FBI's New York City's office, and the FBI's leading expert on Osama bin Laden. The last straw came in July 2001, when (as he told the French authors Guillaume Dasquié and Jean-Charles Brisard in an interview), O'Neill became fully aware that the Bush administration, anxious over negotiations for a Caspian Sea oil pipe line, had decided to back off of tracking bin Laden and opposing the Taliban, lest it risk alienating powerful Saudi families. Instead of going after the Taliban and bin Laden, the Bush Administration decided to negotiate and try to buy off the Taliban and bin Laden. Unfortunately for the Administration, the pipe-line negotiations broke down in August. And on September 11, bin Laden struck. Connect the dots? Well, duh! O'Neill got the Phoenix message. No one would listen. No one. The Bushies had backed off bin Laden. So O'Neill changed jobs -- and went on to die a martyr's death. While all the people who ignored him, on up the chain to the Oval Office, live on -- ghoulishly making political hay out of his sacrifice and their own incompetence -- and, in a sense, their own perfidy. 5/21/02b http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/21/national/21INQU.html?pagewanted=print&position=top (052102b) May 21, 2002 Ashcroft Learned of Agent's Alert Just After 9/11 but Bush Was Not Told By DAVID JOHNSTON and DON VAN NATTA Jr. WASHINGTON, May 20 ? Attorney General John Ashcroft and the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, were told a few days after the Sept. 11 attacks that the F.B.I. had received a memorandum from its Phoenix office the previous July warning that Osama bin Laden's followers could be training at American flight schools, government officials said today. 5/21/02c http://www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=13331 Pipeline dream The emerging connection between oil plans and the 9-11 attacks By William Rivers Pitt / truthout.com | Some months ago, a book was published in France entitled 'Osama bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth.' The authors, Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasique, described a connection between the September 11th terrorist attacks and a stalled plan to build a pipeline to exploit the vast natural gas fields along the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan.
5/22/02a Feds to File Lawsuits Over 2000 Vote http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002/05/21/florida-lawsuit.htm (052202a) Tue May 21, 6:23 PM ET By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The government will file three lawsuits against Florida counties alleging voting rights violations resulting from the bitterly disputed 2000 presidential election, a Justice Department (news - web sites) official said Tuesday. Two other lawsuits also will be filed, in Missouri and Tennessee, by the department's civil rights division, Assistant Attorney General Ralph Boyd told the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites). The lawsuits will allege different treatment of minority voters, improper purging of voter rolls, "motor voter" registration violations and failure to provide access to disabled voters, Boyd said. Other charges, he said, include failing to allow voters with limited proficiency in English to have assistance at the polls and failing to provide bilingual assistance.
5/23/02a http://www.bushwatch.net (052302a) Pre-9.11 And The BushAdmin. It's All Clinton's Fault, Right? by Kent Southard The following are all uncontroversial facts reported in the mainstream media: On or about Jan. 20th, 2001, as the Clinton administration transitioned to the Bush, NSC chief Sandy Berger briefed Condi Rice extensively on the terrorism threat posed by bin Laden, telling her she would be spending more time on this threat than she ever imagined. At the Dept. of Defense, William Cohen was performing the same courtesy for Don Rumsfeld, again with a sharp reminder of the terrorist threat in the form of a hand-written letter to Rumsfeld containing the phone numbers of people in the Pentagon Rumsfeld needed to speak to directly on the subject. On Jan. 26th, the CIA confirmed to the new Bush administration that bin Laden and Al Qaeda were responsible for the attack on the U.S.S. Cole which killed 17 American sailors. The response of the Bush administration was to cease Predator drone surveillance flights to track bin Laden, reassign the cruise-missile equipped submarine stationed in the Indian Ocean with the specific mission of targeting bin Laden, reassign the AC-130 gun ships on scramble alert that could be on top of bin Laden after a six hour flight, suspend the special forces operations targeting bin Laden already based in Uzbekistan for the purpose thanks to a treaty signed by Bill Clinton. 5/23/02b http://www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=13365 (052302b) Poppies for planes Robert Scheer - Creators Syndicate 05.22.02 - A full-scale investigation is in order as to why this nation was so poorly prepared to fend off an air-piracy attack by a terrorist group that had already killed many Americans and attempted air hijackings, and yet had total access to our flight schools. Until Sept. 11, the Bush administration was simply too distracted and/or incompetent to maintain the American pressure on Osama bin Laden begun in 1998 under President Clinton. As Newsweek reports this week, Clinton National Security Advisor Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger was "totally preoccupied" with the prospect of a domestic terror attack. He warned his replacement, Condoleezza Rice, "You will be spending more time on this issue than on any other." Despite many warnings like Berger's, including the recently revealed Central Intelligence Agency briefings last summer, the new administration treated the so-called war on drugs as more important than terrorism, and even made overtures to the Taliban leadership. While the State Department was playing footsie with the Taliban, Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department also was downshifting anti-terrorism efforts to transfer focus to violent crime and drugs, reports Newsweek. At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld blocked an attempt to move $800 million from his pet missile defense program into counter-terrorism. The administration simply was not focused on terrorism until it was too late. |
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6/06/02a http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0606-02.htm (060602a) Published on Thursday, June 6, 2002 in the Long island, NY Newsday U.S. Is Icing Our Warming Report by Bill McKibben The federal government sent a report to the United Nations Friday admitting what every other important institution in the world has long insisted: that global warming will wreak massive damage on every corner of the planet. On this continent, the Bush administration concluded, entire ecosystems would likely disappear, while heat waves stifled the plains and cities, and disappearing snow packs left the West Coast dry and thirsty. 6/06/02b http://www.environmentnepal.com.np/news_d.asp?id=98 (060602b1) http://www.populationconnection.org/Reports_Publications/Publications/publication323.html (060602b) Bush vs. the EPA By A Boston Globe Editorial, 6/5/2002 NO SOONER had the Bush administration grudgingly reported for the first time that manmade sources of greenhouse gases are major contributors to global warming than President Bush dismissed the report by his own the Environmental Protection Agency. While the report made it clear that the administration will still not take serious steps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the principal contributor to global warming, Bush's disdainful reference yesterday to ''the report put out by the bureaucracy'' strikingly demonstrates how isolated the administration's environmental specialists are from its policy makers.
6/10/02a http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A15269-2002Jun7¬Found=true (61002a) White House Faces Disclosure Suit Group Says Government Had Braced for Anthrax Attacks Associated Press Saturday, June 8, 2002; Page A11 A conservative group is suing the Bush administration for access to documents about last fall's anthrax attacks, asserting that top officials might have known the bioterrorist attack was coming. Judicial Watch said yesterday it has yet to receive documents from several agencies after filing requests under the Freedom of Information Act. The group says the documents will show who knew what, and when. Judicial Watch, which also has sued for documents about Vice President Cheney's energy task force, represents U.S. postal workers at the Brentwood post office in the District. Two workers from Brentwood died of inhalation anthrax before officials closed the site, which had handled anthrax-laden letters headed to Capitol Hill.
6/11/02a http://democrats.senate.gov/~dpc/pubs/107-2-203.html (061102a1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-1798811,00.html http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/000413.html (061102a) WASHINGTON (AP) - White House press secretary Ari Fleischer fessed up: President Bush didn't actually read that 268-page Environmental Protection Agency report on climate change, even if he said he did. The president's spokesman then joked that his frankness might cost him his job.
6/17/02a What Congress Does Not Know about Enron and 9/11 May 31, 2002 For Immediate Release By Atty. John J. Loftus http://www.john-loftus.com/enron1.htm (06172a) About the author: As a former federal prosecutor, John Loftus had an insider?s knowledge of high level intelligence operations, including obstruction of Congressional investigations. Loftus resigned from the Justice Department in 1981 to expose how the intelligence community had recruited Nazi war criminals and then concealed the files from Congressional subpoena. After appearing on an Emmy Award winning segment of 60 Minutes, Loftus has spent the next two decades writing histories of intelligence cover-ups, and serving as an unpaid lawyer helping other whistleblowers inside US intelligence. A captured Al Qaida document reveals that US energy companies were secretly negotiating with the Taliban to build a pipeline. The document was obtained by the FBI but was not allowed to be shared with other agencies in order to protect Enron. Multiple sources confirm that American law enforcement agencies were deliberately kept in the dark and systematically prevented from connecting the dots before 9/11 in order to aid Enron?s secret and immoral Taliban negotiations. The suppressed Al Qaida document tends to support recent claims of a cover-up made by several mid-level intelligence and law enforcement figures. Their ongoing terrorist investigations appear to have been hindered during the same sensitive time period while the Enron Corporation was still negotiating with the Taliban. An inadvertent result of the Taliban pipeline cover-up was that the Taliban?s friends in Al Qaida were able to complete their last eight months of preparations for 9/11 while the Enron secrecy block was still in force.
6/18/02a http://www.democrats.com/view2.cfm?id=7918 (061802a) 15-Jun-02 The FBI has had nearly 9 months to figure out which right-wing government or industry scientist - among only a few dozen possibilities - killed 5 Americans with weaponized Anthrax, and tried to kill two powerful Democratic Senators. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg of the Federation of American Scientists has privately named the prime suspect for the FBI and the media - and publicly described him in detail - but the FBI's investigation continues to drag on. Rosenberg will meet privately with staffers for Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Tom Daschle, D-S.D, who were sent the most lethal letters by the Anthrax terrorist, to increase the pressure on the FBI. Has Mueller truly fixed the FBI, or is the FBI only capable of investigating Democrats?
6/19/02a http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/trifecta_jun02.html (061902a) How Bush Hit the 'Trifecta' on 9/11--and the Public Lost Big-Time It is sickening to contemplate an administration intentionally looking the other way while terrorists scheme so that whatever havoc they wreak can provide cover for the president to raid Social Security. by Brad Carlton Bush, in the weeks before September 11, pledged to honor the sanctity of the Social Security lock box except in the event of recession, war, or a national emergency. But after "everything changed" on 9/11, he reportedly gloated to his budget director, Mitch Daniels, "Lucky me--I hit the trifecta!" At the time, this comment (a variation of which is being recycled for laughs at current GOP fundraisers) seemed merely offensive. But in light of revelations that Bush's August 6 briefing memo was titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike U.S.," Bush's "luck" and weird prescience are worth more than passing scrutiny.
6/20/02a http://www.webprowire.com/summaries/147417.html (062002a) US Heard 'Tomorrow Is Zero Day' on Eve of Attacks Wed Jun 19, 5:49 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence intercepted two messages the day before the Sept. 11 attacks that indicated an event was planned the following day, but the communications were not translated until Sept. 12, government sources said on Wednesday.
6/20/02b The Propaganda Preparation for 9/11 by Chaim Kupferberg http://globalresearch.ca/articles/KUP206A.html (062002b) CRG's Global Outlook, premiere issue on "Stop the War" provides detailed documentation on the war and September 11 Order In the immediate aftermath of the destruction of the World Trade Center, the finger of guilt was directed toward the only plausible author for such a sophisticated and ruthless act of terror - Osama bin Laden. John O'Neill And while I was a bit taken at how quickly - and confidently - the fingers were pointing only hours after the 9/11 bombings, I was positively shaken by the first red flag that popped up. His name was John O'Neill - or more precisely, he is the seam that shows. Dated September 12, in a Washington Post article by Vernon Loeb, it was revealed that O'Neill, who died in his capacity as head of security for the World Trade Center, was also formerly the New York FBI Counter terror chief responsible for the investigation into Osama bin Laden. That could perhaps be written off as one of those freak synchronicities. It was the other items - reported quite blandly, in that "there's nothing to see here, folks" tone - that gave me that sinking feeling. Apparently, O'Neill had a falling-out with the Ambassador to Yemen over his investigative style and was banned from returning there. But then there was that other nugget that I had trouble digesting - that O'Neill had resigned from a thirty-year career in the FBI "under a cloud" over an incident in Tampa - and then left to take up the security position at the WTC (only two weeks before!). The seam that shows... For the bulk of his career, like most of his FBI colleagues, John O'Neill was largely unknown to the public at large - respected in his circle, to be sure, yet scarcely meriting much mention in the media - beyond being referenced now and then as an expert on counter terrorism. Yet in the few months leading up to September 11, O'Neill was now suddenly the subject of a series of seemingly unrelated controversies - the first, in July, involving his dispute with the State Department over the conduct of the bin Laden investigation in Yemen; and the second, in August, in which he was reported to be under an FBI probe for misplacing a briefcase of classified documents during an FBI convention in Tampa.
6/21/02a http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/062102a.html (062102a) Bush's Grim Vision By N at Parry June 21, 2002 In the nine months since Sept. 11, George W. Bush has put the United States on a course that is so bleak that few analysts have as the saying goes connected the dots. If they had, they would see an outline of a future that mixes constant war overseas with abridgment of constitutional freedoms at home, a picture drawn by a politician who once joked, "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier so long as I'm the dictator." The dots are certainly there. Bush's speech at West Point on June 1 asserted a unilateral U.S. right to overthrow any government in the world that is deemed a threat to American security, a position so sweeping that it lacks historical precedent. "If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long," Bush said in describing what he calls a "new doctrine" and what some acolytes have dubbed the "Bush Doctrine."
6/21/02b http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_2039000/2039214.stm http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/062102a.html (062102b) Even though the Clinton administration had succeeded in winning convictions against both Islamic and domestic terrorists in open court, Bush was demonstrating his Clint-Eastwood-style impatience for such legal niceties. Though many Americans may feel little sympathy for Padilla, a street tough who allegedly consorted with al-Qaeda terrorists, the principle behind the case is clear: Bush is arrogating to himself the unilateral right to judge whether an American citizen is part of a terrorist cabal and thus can be stripped of all constitutional rights
6/25/02a Published on Tuesday, June 25, 2002 by the Electronic Intifada http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0625-05.htm (062502a) Bush's Speech - A Vision of Permanent War by Ali Abunimah CHICAGO -- George Bush's much-anticipated speech on how to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, weighed in at 1,867 words. By my count, more than one thousand words were devoted to criticizing and making demands of the Palestinians, while just 137 words dealt with what Israel should do. The speech was so pro-Israeli that Jerusalem Post reporter David Horowitz told National Public Radio that the Sharon government may feel they could have written it themselves. Bush's apparent call on the Palestinians to get rid of Yasir Arafat immediately grabbed the headlines. Is there anything hopeful in this speech? I cannot find anything unless it is Bush's call--eventually--for an independent Palestinian state and an Israeli withdrawal. In the final analysis, Bush's speech having failed to offer the only thing that can at this point stop the spiral towards disaster--a clear timetable, guaranteed by the international community to end the Israeli occupation and return to political negotiations,--may only make things worse.
6/25/02b Jonathan Freedland Wednesday June 26, 2002 The Guardian http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mgj-discuss/2002-June/000709.html (062502b) The core of the president's message was that the Palestinians must embark on a sweeping process of internal reform before they can even think about getting back to the negotiating table. Also, for all his flaws, Arafat has an asset none of his rivals can match. He is still, thanks to his long history, Mr. Palestine: his signature on a compromise deal is the only one that could persuade his people to accept it. By rushing his exit now, Bush is depriving any future peace agreement of the only Palestinian who could deliver it. This is a foreign policy failure for George Bush. If he were a Democrat, both the Washington press corps and Congress would already be racking it up alongside the unextinguished threat from al-Qaida and the continued freedom from captivity of Osama bin Laden. Those failures, and now the guarantee of further slaughter in the Middle East, should be prompting hard questions about Bush and his war on terror. America needs to snap out of its post-9/11 torpor of consensus and realize there is a leadership problem in the US - and his name is George Bush.
6/28/02b http://www.msnbc.com/news/773123.asp?0dm=C14SO Hitting the trifecta Bush's favorite joke about 9/11 is not only in bad taste, its a lie President Bush has told his 'trifecta' joke at several GOP functions, including this June 14 event in Houston for Texas Governor Rick Perry, left. By David Neiwert June 27 ˜ Professional stand-up comedians know that Sept. 11 jokes are radioactive. Not even the bravest have tried to turn the deaths of some 3,000 people into a laughing matter. But President Bush has forged ahead anyway. Bush has now been telling the same, spectacularly tasteless joke to a variety of mostly Republican audiences as part of his stock stump speech for the better part of four months now. The joke as he tells it: "You know, when I was running for president, in Chicago, somebody said, would you ever have deficit spending? I said, only if we were at war, or only if we had a recession, or only if we had a national emergency. Never did I dream we'd get the trifecta." |