Regime Change Begins at Home

CIA Officials complaining of pressure over Iraq Reports

Monday March 24, 2003
FORGED IRAQ DOCUMENTS

Analysts at the CIA are complaining about the pressure they have been put under, to make their intelligence reports conform to the Bush Administration's policies on Iraq.

"There is a possibility that the fabrication of these documents may be part of a larger deception campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) wrote to FBI Director Robert Mueller on March 13. Comments from South Africa Independent Media Center

It was one of the White House's strongest arguments for war.
Then, two weeks ago, it all came crashing down. The letters, it was revealed, were hoaxes -- crude forgeries discredited by nuclear weapons experts and disowned by the Central Intelligence Agency

Why has the news media ignored a Congressman's assertion that White House officials used evidence they knew to be false to build their case for war? Article from Mother Jones, March 23, 2002

Who Lied to Whom?
March 31, 2003
One senior I.A.E.A. official went further. He told me, “These documents are so bad that I cannot imagine that they came from a serious intelligence agency. It depresses me, given the low quality of the documents, that it was not stopped. At the level it reached, I would have expected more checking.” Article by Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, (reprinted at Global Policy).

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One person’s unbiased story is another’s flagrant propaganda.

NEW

China gets tired of the U.S. issuing reports on China's human rights violations, and issues its own report on the U.S.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2002, Released by the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor March 31, 2003
The U.S.'s report on China

China replies with its own report on "The US Human Rights Record in 2002" April 3, 2003, posted by the Federation of American Scientists.

[This would be hilarious if it weren't so deadly true.]

Santa Cruz branches tell patrons that FBI may spy on them

Libraries post Patriot Act warnings
The signs, posted in the 10 county branches last week and on the library's Web site, also inform the reader that the USA Patriot Act "prohibits library workers from informing you if federal agents have obtained records about you."

Section 215 of the act allows FBI agents to obtain a warrant from a secret federal court for library or bookstore records of anyone connected to an investigation of international terrorism or spying.

Unlike conventional search warrants, there is no need for agents to show that the target is suspected of a crime or possesses evidence of a crime. As the Santa Cruz signs indicate, the law prohibits libraries and bookstores from telling their patrons, or anyone else, that the FBI has sought the records. Article from SF Chronicle, March 10, 2003

From The New York Times, April 4, 2003:
Librarians Use Shredder to Show Opposition to New F.B.I. Powers:

"That is the nice thing about living in this town," said Elizabeth Smith, a waitress, who dropped by the central library today to use the Internet. "They call something like this to our attention that is being ignored in so many other parts of the country."

"...at a meeting of library officials last week, it was decided the materials should be shredded daily. "

"The basic strategy now is to keep as little historical information as possible," said Anne M. Turner, director of the library system. Article from NYT, registration required.

A Resolution on the USA PATRIOT Act and Related Measures that Infringe on the Rights of Library Users
Library Joint Powers Board Resolution 2003-02
"WARNING: Although the Santa Cruz Library makes every effort to protect your privacy, under the federal USA PATRIOT Act (Public Law 107-56), records of the books and other materials you borrow from this library may be obtained by federal agents. That federal law prohibits library workers from informing you if federal agents have obtained records about you. Questions about this policy should be directed to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. 20530." from the Santa Cruz, California Library Web site.

Cities From Cambridge to
Berkeley Reject Anti-Terror Measure

"... the Massachusetts cities of Cambridge, Northampton and Amherst and the township of Leverett, as well as the town of Carrboro, N.C., all passed resolutions that call the USA Patriot Act a threat to the civil rights of the residents of their communities." - from ABCNews. July, 2002

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Britain's 'intelligence' report on Iraq revealed as plagiarism

Colin Powell recommends report to U.N Security Council.

The British government's latest report on Iraq's non-compliance with weapons inspections, which claims to draw on "intelligence material," has been revealed as a wholesale plagiarism of three old and publicly-available articles, one of them by a graduate student in California. The compiler did not even clean up the typos or standardize the spelling.
» Article from FAS (Federation of American Scientists).

Brit intelligence plagiarizes student's work for evidence dossier,
» from CSMonitor.com

"The dossier may not amount to much but this is a considerable embarrassment for a government trying still to make a case for war." As reported by BBC News

Britain's intelligence dossier, "Iraq - Its Infrastructure of Concealment Deception and Intimidation" took an embarrassing hit tonight after Downing Street was accused of plagiarism. Feb. 6, 2003 Article from London's Channel 4 News.

» The page as removed from 10 Downing Street

The page of 10 Downing Street from Google's cache

The broken link on the U.S. State Dept site.

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Long and worth the loading wait and read:

The Arrogant Empire, Part 1

[In this article it says Saddam "gassed 60,000 of his own people in 1986." It is reportedly 5,000 killed by gas, and thousands injured, and it was 1988. Newsweek issued a correction.]

America’s unprecedented power scares the world, and the Bush administration has only made it worse. How we got here and what we can do about it now By Fareed Zakaria NEWSWEEK March 24, 2003 issue

"In fact, the debate is not about Saddam anymore. It is about America and its role in the new world. To understand the present crisis, we must first grasp how the rest of the world now perceives American power."
...
"Countries are furtive in their support for the administration not because they fear Saddam Hussein but because they fear their own people. To support America today in much of the world is politically dangerous. Over the past year the United States became a campaign issue in elections in Germany, South Korea and Pakistan. Being anti-American was a vote-getter in all three places."
...
"A war with Iraq, even if successful, might solve the Iraq problem. It doesn’t solve the America problem. What worries people around the world above all else is living in a world shaped and dominated by one country, the United States. And they have come to be deeply suspicious and fearful of us."
...
"In its first year the administration withdrew from five international treaties, and did so as brusquely as it could. It reneged on virtually every diplomatic effort that the Clinton administration had engaged in, from North Korea to the Middle East, often overturning public statements from Colin Powell supporting these efforts. It developed a language and diplomatic style that seemed calculated to offend the world."
...
"Donald Rumsfeld often quotes a line from Al Capone: 'You will get more with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone.'
But should the guiding philosophy of the world’s leading democracy really be the tough talk of a Chicago mobster? In terms of effectiveness, this strategy has been a disaster. It has alienated friends and delighted enemies."
...
"The way the U.S. has been conducting the negotiations [with Turkey] has been, in general, humiliating, says a retired senior diplomat..."
read article from Newsweek

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More by Fareek Zakaria:

This Isn’t About Iraq Anymore

"The poster child for America’s self-defeating machismo is Donald Rumsfeld.
...
Most of Rumsfeld’s tart observations are true. In fact they’re often dead-on. But he is not a columnist, he’s a statesman...
To much of the world his jabs convey an arrogance that speaks not of leadership but domination. Every time Rumsfeld opens his mouth, I think, 'There goes another ally!'"
Article from Newsweek.

Definitely a different perspective you don't read everyday:

The belief that Saddam’s past behavior shows he cannot be contained rests on distorted history and faulty logic

"In the full-court press for war with Iraq, the Bush administration deems Saddam Hussein reckless, ruthless, and not fully rational. Such a man, when mixed with nuclear weapons, is too unpredictable to be prevented from threatening the United States, the hawks say. But scrutiny of his past dealings with the world shows that Saddam, though cruel and calculating, is eminently deterrable."
» Article from Foreign Policy Mag.

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Bush and Blair's propaganda efforts fail -

Confusion over Iraqi nuke report

- Sept. 7, 2002.
Bush and Blair quote International Atomic Energy Agency report providing evidence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction but by Saturday evening the whole issue of the existence of a "new report" was being denied by officials at the White House, the National Security Council, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the supposed author of the alleged report.

The IAEA said it has been reviewing these pictures for more than two years and that there are no new photos or evidence of Iraqi nuclear activity. Article from CNN

The International Atomic Energy Agency says that a report cited by President Bush as evidence that Iraq in 1998 was "six months away" from developing a nuclear weapon does not exist. Article from The Washington Times. Sept. 27, 2002.

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Michael Kinsley, March 28, 2003

Our Kind of Law

If Daniel Patrick Moynihan hadn't died this week of complications from a burst appendix, he might have died of embarrassment. Not necessarily over what his country is doing in Iraq but over what his country's leaders are saying about it. Article from The Washington Post.

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Michael Kinsley, March 21, 2003

By Whose Authority?

Putting all this together, Bush is asserting the right of the United States to attack any country that may be a threat to it in five years. And the right of the United States to evaluate that risk and respond in its sole discretion. And the right of the president to make that decision on behalf of the United States in his sole discretion. In short, the president can start a war against anyone at any time, and no one has the right to stop him. And presumably other nations and future presidents have that same right. All formal constraints on war-making are officially defunct. Article from the Washington Post.

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The Impact of Bush Linking 9/11

March 14, 2003

Polling data show that right after Sept. 11, 2001, when Americans were asked open-ended questions about who was behind the attacks, only 3 percent mentioned Iraq or Hussein. But by January of this year, attitudes had been transformed. In a Knight Ridder poll, 44 percent of Americans reported that either "most" or "some" of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Iraqi citizens. The answer is zero. Article From GlobalPolicy.org

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Regime change begins at home
1 2

I am shocked and awed by the current US regime

Readings:

20-year career diplomat resigns over U.S. policies

From "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam" by George Bush [Sr.] and Brent Scowcroft, Time Magazine, 1998

CIA Officials complaining of pressure over Iraq Reports

China gets tired of the U.S. issuing reports on China's human rights violations, and issues its own report on the U.S.

Santa Cruz branches tell patrons that FBI may spy on them

Britain's 'intelligence' report on Iraq revealed as plagiarism

The Arrogant Empire, Part 1

This Isn’t About Iraq Anymore

The belief that Saddam’s past behavior shows he cannot be contained rests on distorted history and faulty logic

Confusion over Iraqi nuke report

Our Kind of Law

By Whose Authority?

The Impact of Bush Linking 9/11

Further Reading:

Regime change begins at home 1 2

I am shocked and awed by the current US regime

Readings:

20-year career diplomat resigns over U.S. policies

From "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam" by George Bush [Sr.] and Brent Scowcroft, Time Magazine, 1998

CIA Officials complaining of pressure over Iraq Reports

China gets tired of the U.S. issuing reports on China's human rights violations, and issues its own report on the U.S.

Santa Cruz branches tell patrons that FBI may spy on them

Britain's 'intelligence' report on Iraq revealed as plagiarism

The Arrogant Empire, Part 1

This Isn’t About Iraq Anymore

The belief that Saddam’s past behavior shows he cannot be contained rests on distorted history and faulty logic

Confusion over Iraqi nuke report

Our Kind of Law

By Whose Authority?

The Impact of Bush Linking 9/11

Further Reading:

Regime change begins at home
1 2