Here's a revealing & disturbing video about Vietnam veterans who became part of the anti-war movement which then spread throughout the ranks of the American forces of whom many refused to fight & killed a number of their own officers by an act they refer to as " fraging "- they were also supposed to take part in a strategy of Vietnamization & surge after surge as the body count of US forces escalated daily & this was supposed to be the winding down of the war as US forces "carpet bombed " everything they could & Vietnam became a " FREE FIRE ZONE " " kill them all & we'll sort it out later... NOTE: Beware graphic images & language...
and the Bush Regime is using covert operations to destabilize Iran & making it a new front in the perpetual war against the Terrorists so why do so many innocents have to die as their surviving family and friends take up arms against the invader & occupier..
Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran
By Brian Ross and Richard Esposito
ABC News
Tuesday 22 May 2007
The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.
"I can't confirm or deny whether such a program exists or whether the president signed it, but it would be consistent with an overall American approach trying to find ways to put pressure on the regime," said Bruce Riedel, a recently retired CIA senior official who dealt with Iran and other countries in the region.
A National Security Council spokesperson, Gordon Johndroe, said, "The White House does not comment on intelligence matters." A CIA spokesperson said, "As a matter of course, we do not comment on allegations of covert activity."
The sources say the CIA developed the covert plan over the last year and received approval from White House officials and other officials in the intelligence community.
Officials say the covert plan is designed to pressure Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment program and end aid to insurgents in Iraq.
"There are some channels where the United States government may want to do things without its hand showing, and legally, therefore, the administration would, if it's doing that, need an intelligence finding and would need to tell the Congress," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism official.
Current and former intelligence officials say the approval of the covert action means the Bush administration, for the time being, has decided not to pursue a military option against Iran.
"Vice President Cheney helped to lead the side favoring a military strike," said former CIA official Riedel, "but I think they have come to the conclusion that a military strike has more downsides than upsides."
Anyway here is a bit about Gonzales & his almost flippant attitude in regards to renditions & torture ...
This clip is of Attorney General of America Alberto Gonzales being questioned by Senator Leahy about the Maher Arar case of a Canadian Citizen detained by Americans & sent to Syria where he underwent torture - after being returned to Canada an Inquiry discovered Maher Arar was innocent of any terrorist charges ... Gonzales implies that he has some secret information about Maher Arar & that is why he is still on a " No Fly List " but Gonzales never produces such information on Maher Arar - Once accused the Bush Regime treats individuals as criminals even though the charges don't stick & even when there is no credible evidence against the accused - they simply refuse to accept that they make mistakes & that torture is wrong whether it is done by American soldiers, CIA or any other Americans or when it is done in secret prisons in Syria or anywhere else in the world -
It matters little to these Neocons that it is against American law & International law to deport an individual to a country where torture is practised & that it is likely that the deported person will be tortured - Cheney, Bush , Gonzales , Condoleeza Rice & Rumsfeld believe they are above the law & can make it up as they go along because the United States in their view is now in a perpetual state of WAR...shades of Orwell's 1984...note for instance how Gonzales seems to sneer & smirk & half-laughs at Sen. Leahy's insistence & is surprised that the Senator is onto Gonzales tactics of not really answering questions & asking for more time on a case that goes back three or four years - well he needs more time, I guess to polish up his lies or in the hope the Senator will just forget about this particular issue...besides Gonzales sees his loyalty to the Bush Regime as above his loyalty to the American people or the US Constitution or any oath he may have taken in this regard & so treats the Senator as some old backward fool for taking such things so seriously & as part of who he is & how he functions in his office & his position of authority etc.
From Keith Olbermann about the creation of an oversight independent entity as a result of the 9/11 Commission which instead of being independent from the Whitehouse is not treated any different than other offices within the control of the Executive & the current Whitehouse administration:
as youtube user heathr234 describes it : " Lanny Davis has resigned from the President's Privacy and Civil Liberties board, charging that the White House tried to influence the board's report to Congress."
As for the attack on freedom of speech which the Neocons see as important in the fight against Terrorism in this clip Keith Olbermann on COUNTDOWN examines Newt Gingrich as he jumps on the Neocon bandwagon to rip to pieces the US Constitution :
this is an excerpt of the transcript from the show.
" It’s in the quintessential movie about this city, “Chinatown.” Morty the Mortician turns to Jack Nicholson’s character and says, “Middle of the drought, and the water commissioner drowns. Only in L.A.” Tonight, a real-life equivalent. Middle of a dinner honoring the sanctity of the First Amendment, and the former speaker of the House talks about restricting freedom of speech. Only in the Republican Party.
Gingrich was the featured speaker at the annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment Award Dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire, Monday night, where he not only argued that campaign finance reform and the separation of church and state should be rethought, because they allegedly hurt the First Amendment, but he also suggested that new rules might be necessary to stop terrorists using freedom of speech to get out their message.
Here is his rationalization:
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: " My view is that either before we lose a city, or if we are truly stupid after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that we use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us, to stop them from recruiting people before they get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while destroying us."
OLBERMANN: " If you’re going to destroy freedom of speech, bub, you’ve already lost all the cities.
To paraphrase Pastor Martin Noemuller’s poem about Germany in the ‘30s and ‘40s: First they came for the Fourth Amendment, then they came for habeas corpus, then came for free speech, and there was no one allowed to speak up."
As for the Democrats standing up to the Bush regime concerning the US occupation of Iraq well it appears it is not going to happen even though the administration is at the moment in weak & vulnerable position all the scandals etc. for various reasons ie. fear of losing support from their constituencies or from their wealthy financial backers for their next election campaigns , or for being seen as not patriotic enough -not hawkish enough or whatever in the event they have caved in & accepted President Bush's deal to agree to funding for the Iraq Occupation without any caveats for instance to make the President more accountable or time tables for exiting Iraq - so with the Democrats help the war will continue spiralling out of control & becoming more & more looking like a rerun of Vietnam - so as reported on May 22 by Keith Olbermann with his discussion with Howard Fineman of Newsweek who says" It's worst than you think "...
Another Power Grab by the Bush Administration...
And here is another nail in the coffin of US Democracy as Bush even now is trying to put even more power into the hands of the Executive & himself & Cheney & their well-chosen hand-picked staff to create a more authoritarian form of government meanwhile the Regime is caught up in the middle of all these scandals & the Mess & quagmire that the Iraqi Occupation has become while Democrats sometimes claim they disapprove of his tactics yet do nothing about it while Fox News & the other Big Media outlets which are more akin to Fast Food Chains than they are to real news agencies with Independent , thoughtful & critical & well informed journalists whose analysis mean something or reporters who have spent years working & living in the countries they cover who are not just at the beck & call of the Party in power & those who support them :
This issue which has been under-reported is spelled out in an article by Mathew Rothschild in The Progressive on May 18, 2007: " Bush Anoints Himself as the Ensurer of Constitutional Government in Emergency "
In a new National Security Presidential Directive, Bush lays out his plans for dealing with a "catastrophic emergency."
With scarcely a mention in the mainstream media, President Bush has ordered up a plan for responding to a catastrophic attack.
Under that plan, he entrusts himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the Executive Branch. And he gives himself the responsibility "for ensuring constitutional government."
He laid this all out in a document entitled "National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51" and "Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20."
The White House released it on May 9.
Other than a discussion on Daily Kos led off by a posting by Leo Fender, and a pro-forma notice in a couple of mainstream newspapers, this document has gone unremarked upon.
The subject of the document is entitled "National Continuity Policy."
It defines a "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function."
...The document gives the Vice President a role in implementing the provisions of the contingency plans.
"This directive shall be implanted in a manner that is consistent with, and facilitates effective implementation of, provisions of the Constitution concerning succession to the Presidency or the exercise of its powers, and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 (3 USC 19), with the consultation of the Vice President and, as appropriate, others involved."
As I've mentioned before maybe Americans really do want a " strong man " a benevolent Tyrant as it were in power who will guide them through the darkness & into a pre-democratic or post- democratic age as it were...with the radical Christian right at their side...
Take care,
GORD.
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