from Raw Story
Tape: Top CIA official confesses order to forge Iraq-9/11 letter came on White House stationery
John Byrne Published: Friday August 8, 2008
In damning transcript, ex-CIA official says Cheney likely ordered letter linking Hussein to 9/11 attacks.
A forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ordered on White House stationery and probably came from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new transcript of a conversation with the Central Intelligence Agency's former Deputy Chief of Clandestine Operations Robert Richer.
The transcript was posted Friday by author Ron Suskind of an interview conducted in June. It comes on the heels of denials by both the White House and Richer of a claim Suskind made in his new book, The Way of The World. The book was leaked to Politico's Mike Allen on Monday, and released Tuesday. read
from Raw Story
Book claims White House ordered faked letter to tie Saddam and 9/11 (AFP)
Published: Tuesday August 5, 2008
A new book by author Ron Suskind alleges that the White House ordered the CIA to fabricate a letter purportedly showing links between deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The book, "The Way of the World," was immediately attacked by the White House, the CIA and former CIA director George Tenet who is alleged to have passed the White House order to senior CIA operators.
"There was no such order from the White House to me nor, to the best of my knowledge, was anyone from CIA ever involved in any such effort," Tenet said in a statement.
In an interview with National Public Radio, Suskind said his account came from the former head of the Near East Division, Rob Richard, and others "right in the thick of this operation."
"Tenet turns to Richard, as he remembers it, and says, 'Listen, Marine' -- Richard is a former marine -- 'you're not going to like this, but here goes."
According to Suskind, the White House gave Tenet a letter to be rewritten in the hand of Tarir Jallil Habbush, a former Iraqi intelligence chief in CIA protective custody after the 2003 US invasion.
The letter, dated July 2001, had Habbush saying Iraq had hosted Mohammed Atta, the lead September 11 hijacker, who "displayed extraordinary effort and showed a firm commitment to lead the team which will be responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy," according to the book.
"The idea was to take the letter to Habbush and have him transcribe it in his own neat handwriting on a piece of Iraqi government stationery to make it look legitimate," Suskind wrote.
"CIA would then take the finished product to Baghdad and have someone release it to the media," he wrote.
The July 2001 dated letter surfaced in Britain in December 2003.
Suskind does not say who ordered it to be fabricated but claims it came from the "highest reaches" of the White House.
Mark Mansfield, a CIA spokesman, denied that the agency was involved in forging the letter, and dismissed the book in scathing terms as belonging in the "fiction section."
Tenet said: "It is well established that, at my direction, CIA resisted efforts on the part of some in the administration to paint a picture of Iraqi-Al Qaeda connections that went beyond the evidence.
"The notion that I would suddenly reverse our stance and have created and planted false evidence that was contrary to our own beliefs is ridiculous," he said.
The book also says a British intelligence official secretly met with Habbush before the war in Amman, and that Habbush told him that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
Suskind says President George W. Bush knew of the intelligence before the invasion.
Habbush was later resettled and paid five million dollars.
Book claims White House ordered faked letter to tie Saddam and 9/11 (AFP)
Published: Tuesday August 5, 2008
A new book by author Ron Suskind alleges that the White House ordered the CIA to fabricate a letter purportedly showing links between deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The book, "The Way of the World," was immediately attacked by the White House, the CIA and former CIA director George Tenet who is alleged to have passed the White House order to senior CIA operators.
"There was no such order from the White House to me nor, to the best of my knowledge, was anyone from CIA ever involved in any such effort," Tenet said in a statement.
In an interview with National Public Radio, Suskind said his account came from the former head of the Near East Division, Rob Richard, and others "right in the thick of this operation."
"Tenet turns to Richard, as he remembers it, and says, 'Listen, Marine' -- Richard is a former marine -- 'you're not going to like this, but here goes."
According to Suskind, the White House gave Tenet a letter to be rewritten in the hand of Tarir Jallil Habbush, a former Iraqi intelligence chief in CIA protective custody after the 2003 US invasion.
The letter, dated July 2001, had Habbush saying Iraq had hosted Mohammed Atta, the lead September 11 hijacker, who "displayed extraordinary effort and showed a firm commitment to lead the team which will be responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy," according to the book.
"The idea was to take the letter to Habbush and have him transcribe it in his own neat handwriting on a piece of Iraqi government stationery to make it look legitimate," Suskind wrote.
"CIA would then take the finished product to Baghdad and have someone release it to the media," he wrote.
The July 2001 dated letter surfaced in Britain in December 2003.
Suskind does not say who ordered it to be fabricated but claims it came from the "highest reaches" of the White House.
Mark Mansfield, a CIA spokesman, denied that the agency was involved in forging the letter, and dismissed the book in scathing terms as belonging in the "fiction section."
Tenet said: "It is well established that, at my direction, CIA resisted efforts on the part of some in the administration to paint a picture of Iraqi-Al Qaeda connections that went beyond the evidence.
"The notion that I would suddenly reverse our stance and have created and planted false evidence that was contrary to our own beliefs is ridiculous," he said.
The book also says a British intelligence official secretly met with Habbush before the war in Amman, and that Habbush told him that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
Suskind says President George W. Bush knew of the intelligence before the invasion.
Habbush was later resettled and paid five million dollars.
Another 'Suicide' for servicemen who stopped the nukes from leaving Minot Air Force Base. This death brings it to seven.
The officer who commands an air force wing in Alaska has died of a gunshot wound that likely was self-inflicted, authorities said Monday.
Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Tinsley suffered a gunshot wound to his chest late Sunday night and was pronounced dead within a half hour, said Col. Richard Walberg, who assumed command at Elmendorf Air Force Base after Tinsley’s death.
The weapon was likely a handgun, Walberg said. (How can it be 'likely' when it was a suicide? What did he do, throw the gun away after he died?)
Medical responders who rushed to Tinsley’s home on base were unable to save him. Tinsley’s wife and college-age daughter were home at the time.
Tinsley was named base commander in May 2007. He had served as an F-15 instructor pilot, F-15C test pilot, wing weapons officer, exchange officer and instructor with the Royal Australian Air Force.
His previous 22-month assignment was executive officer to the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. T. Michael “Buzz” Mosely, who resigned in June under pressure in an agency shake-up.
Mosely, the Air Force military chief, and Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne, the agency’s civilian head, were held accountable for failing to fully correct an erosion of nuclear-related performance standards. One concern was a cross-country flight in August of a B-52 carrying armed nuclear weapons.
Walberg said Tinsley was not under investigation or undue stress.
“As far as stress, sir, this job, by nature of being an Air Force officer in a nation at war, is stressful,” he said. “Undue stress, no.”
Representatives of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology will do a report and declare whether Tinsley’s cause of death was suicide, Walberg said. Such reports take about 30 days.
read the story
The officer who commands an air force wing in Alaska has died of a gunshot wound that likely was self-inflicted, authorities said Monday.
Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Tinsley suffered a gunshot wound to his chest late Sunday night and was pronounced dead within a half hour, said Col. Richard Walberg, who assumed command at Elmendorf Air Force Base after Tinsley’s death.
The weapon was likely a handgun, Walberg said. (How can it be 'likely' when it was a suicide? What did he do, throw the gun away after he died?)
Medical responders who rushed to Tinsley’s home on base were unable to save him. Tinsley’s wife and college-age daughter were home at the time.
Tinsley was named base commander in May 2007. He had served as an F-15 instructor pilot, F-15C test pilot, wing weapons officer, exchange officer and instructor with the Royal Australian Air Force.
His previous 22-month assignment was executive officer to the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. T. Michael “Buzz” Mosely, who resigned in June under pressure in an agency shake-up.
Mosely, the Air Force military chief, and Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne, the agency’s civilian head, were held accountable for failing to fully correct an erosion of nuclear-related performance standards. One concern was a cross-country flight in August of a B-52 carrying armed nuclear weapons.
Walberg said Tinsley was not under investigation or undue stress.
“As far as stress, sir, this job, by nature of being an Air Force officer in a nation at war, is stressful,” he said. “Undue stress, no.”
Representatives of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology will do a report and declare whether Tinsley’s cause of death was suicide, Walberg said. Such reports take about 30 days.
read the story
FAKE TERROR - THE ROAD TO WAR AND DICTATORSHIP
It's the oldest trick in the book, dating back to Roman times; creating the enemies you need.
In 70 BC, an ambitious minor politician and extremely wealthy man, Marcus Licinius Crassus, wanted to rule Rome. Just to give you an idea of what sort of man Crassus really was, he is credited with invention of the fire brigade. But in Crassus' version, his fire-fighting slaves would race to the scene of a burning building whereupon Crassus would offer to buy it on the spot for a tiny fraction of it's worth. If the owner sold, Crassus' slaves would put out the fire. If the owner refused to sell, Crassus allowed the building to burn to the ground. By means of this device, Crassus eventually came to be the largest single private land holder in Rome, and used some of his wealth to help back Julius Caesar against Cicero. read
It's the oldest trick in the book, dating back to Roman times; creating the enemies you need.
In 70 BC, an ambitious minor politician and extremely wealthy man, Marcus Licinius Crassus, wanted to rule Rome. Just to give you an idea of what sort of man Crassus really was, he is credited with invention of the fire brigade. But in Crassus' version, his fire-fighting slaves would race to the scene of a burning building whereupon Crassus would offer to buy it on the spot for a tiny fraction of it's worth. If the owner sold, Crassus' slaves would put out the fire. If the owner refused to sell, Crassus allowed the building to burn to the ground. By means of this device, Crassus eventually came to be the largest single private land holder in Rome, and used some of his wealth to help back Julius Caesar against Cicero. read
From RawStory
Red Cross finds Bush administration guilty of war crimes
Andrew McLemore
Published: Saturday July 12, 2008
In a secret report last year, the Red Cross found evidence of the CIA using torture on prisoners that would make the Bush administration guilty of war crimes, The New York Times reported Friday.
The Red Cross determined the culpability of the Bush administration after interviewing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, according to the article.
Prisoner Abu Zubaydahwho said he had been waterboarded, "slammed against the walls" and confined in boxes "so small he said he had to double up his limbs in the fetal position." read more
Red Cross finds Bush administration guilty of war crimes
Andrew McLemore
Published: Saturday July 12, 2008
In a secret report last year, the Red Cross found evidence of the CIA using torture on prisoners that would make the Bush administration guilty of war crimes, The New York Times reported Friday.
The Red Cross determined the culpability of the Bush administration after interviewing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, according to the article.
Prisoner Abu Zubaydahwho said he had been waterboarded, "slammed against the walls" and confined in boxes "so small he said he had to double up his limbs in the fetal position." read more
The Power of Nightmares
• In the video, top ranking CIA operatives admit that al-Qaeda is a complete and total fabrication by the CIA. They plainly state that NO SUCH ORGANIZATION HAS EVER EXISTED AT ANY TIME. The fantasy was spun in January 2001 by Jamal al Fadl, a Sudanese who had been with Bin Laden in the early 1990s. Jamal al Fadl stole money from Bin Laden, and then sought protection in the USA. The FBI and CIA paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to create the al-Qaeda fiction. In fact, al Fadl invented the name al-Qaeda.
• In the video, top ranking CIA operatives admit that al-Qaeda is a complete and total fabrication by the CIA. They plainly state that NO SUCH ORGANIZATION HAS EVER EXISTED AT ANY TIME. The fantasy was spun in January 2001 by Jamal al Fadl, a Sudanese who had been with Bin Laden in the early 1990s. Jamal al Fadl stole money from Bin Laden, and then sought protection in the USA. The FBI and CIA paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to create the al-Qaeda fiction. In fact, al Fadl invented the name al-Qaeda.
From McClatchy
General who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes
WASHINGTON — The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account.
The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices. read
General who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes
WASHINGTON — The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account.
The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices. read
From Huffington:
On Father's Day: Remember the Kids Left Fatherless by the War
As many of us celebrate, or at least mark, Father's Day today, feel free to spend at least a moment to ponder the countless children left fatherless by our war in Iraq. The numbers in Iraq, of course, are staggering but for now let's just consider the nearly forgotten here in the U.S.
American fatalities are listed in our newspapers, and I write several times a week about how families react to the individual deaths, particularly of the noncombat variety. Ceremonies are held, flags presented, tributes published. But there (even for me, I confess) the stories always end.
As has been asked in so many other contexts: What about the children? Especially on Father's Day.
On Father's Day: Remember the Kids Left Fatherless by the War
As many of us celebrate, or at least mark, Father's Day today, feel free to spend at least a moment to ponder the countless children left fatherless by our war in Iraq. The numbers in Iraq, of course, are staggering but for now let's just consider the nearly forgotten here in the U.S.
American fatalities are listed in our newspapers, and I write several times a week about how families react to the individual deaths, particularly of the noncombat variety. Ceremonies are held, flags presented, tributes published. But there (even for me, I confess) the stories always end.
As has been asked in so many other contexts: What about the children? Especially on Father's Day.
From Peace in Space
PARLIAMENT OF CANADA: NDP MP TAKES STRONG STAND AGAINST UNETHICAL WEAPONS - BC Southern Interior MP tabled a motion on abolishing depleted uranium arms
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 12, 2008
NDP MP TAKES STRONG STAND AGAINST UNETHICAL WEAPONS
BC Southern Interior MP tabled a motion on abolishing depleted uranium arms
OTTAWA – NDP MP Alex Atamanenko (BC Southern Interior) - tabled a motion (M-509) on Wednesday calling on the government to take a leading role in helping to abolish the use of depleted uranium (DU) in armaments and munitions. The motion also calls for the government to cease the deployment of our military and civilian personnel in regions where these weapons have been or will be used.
"The Canadian government must take strong and decisive action to help rid the world of this environmental and toxic health hazard. Long lasting and often deadly effects on soldiers and innocent civilians alike have been well documented," said Atamanenko. "Our military does not use depleted uranium weapons and we should not be deploying our soldiers to fight with armies who do." read
PARLIAMENT OF CANADA: NDP MP TAKES STRONG STAND AGAINST UNETHICAL WEAPONS - BC Southern Interior MP tabled a motion on abolishing depleted uranium arms
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 12, 2008
NDP MP TAKES STRONG STAND AGAINST UNETHICAL WEAPONS
BC Southern Interior MP tabled a motion on abolishing depleted uranium arms
OTTAWA – NDP MP Alex Atamanenko (BC Southern Interior) - tabled a motion (M-509) on Wednesday calling on the government to take a leading role in helping to abolish the use of depleted uranium (DU) in armaments and munitions. The motion also calls for the government to cease the deployment of our military and civilian personnel in regions where these weapons have been or will be used.
"The Canadian government must take strong and decisive action to help rid the world of this environmental and toxic health hazard. Long lasting and often deadly effects on soldiers and innocent civilians alike have been well documented," said Atamanenko. "Our military does not use depleted uranium weapons and we should not be deploying our soldiers to fight with armies who do." read
From UrukNet.Com - Warning Strong Images at Link
FALLUJAH, Jun 12 (IPS) - Babies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say.
The new cases, and the number of deaths among children, have risen after "special weaponry" was used in the two massive bombing campaigns in Fallujah in 2004.
After denying it at first, the Pentagon admitted in November 2005 that white phosphorous, a restricted incendiary weapon, was used a year earlier in Fallujah.
In addition, depleted uranium (DU) munitions, which contain low-level radioactive waste, were used heavily in Fallujah. The Pentagon admits to having used 1,200 tonnes of DU in Iraq thus far.
Many doctors believe DU to be the cause of a severe increase in the incidence of cancer in Iraq, as well as among U.S. veterans who served in the 1991 Gulf War and through the current occupation.
"We saw all the colours of the rainbow coming out of the exploding American shells and missiles," Ali Sarhan, a 50-year-old teacher who lived through the two U.S. sieges of 2004 told IPS. "I saw bodies that turned into bones and coal right after they were exposed to bombs that we learned later to be phosphorus.
"The most worrying is that many of our women have suffered loss of their babies, and some had babies born with deformations."
"I had two children who had brain damage from birth," 28-year-old Hayfa' Shukur told IPS. "My husband has been detained by the Americans since November 2004 and so I had to take the children around by myself to hospitals and private clinics. They died. I spent all our savings and borrowed a considerable amount of money."
Shukur said doctors told her that it was use of the restricted weapons that caused her children's brain damage and subsequent deaths, "but none of them had the courage to give me a written report." read
FALLUJAH, Jun 12 (IPS) - Babies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say.
The new cases, and the number of deaths among children, have risen after "special weaponry" was used in the two massive bombing campaigns in Fallujah in 2004.
After denying it at first, the Pentagon admitted in November 2005 that white phosphorous, a restricted incendiary weapon, was used a year earlier in Fallujah.
In addition, depleted uranium (DU) munitions, which contain low-level radioactive waste, were used heavily in Fallujah. The Pentagon admits to having used 1,200 tonnes of DU in Iraq thus far.
Many doctors believe DU to be the cause of a severe increase in the incidence of cancer in Iraq, as well as among U.S. veterans who served in the 1991 Gulf War and through the current occupation.
"We saw all the colours of the rainbow coming out of the exploding American shells and missiles," Ali Sarhan, a 50-year-old teacher who lived through the two U.S. sieges of 2004 told IPS. "I saw bodies that turned into bones and coal right after they were exposed to bombs that we learned later to be phosphorus.
"The most worrying is that many of our women have suffered loss of their babies, and some had babies born with deformations."
"I had two children who had brain damage from birth," 28-year-old Hayfa' Shukur told IPS. "My husband has been detained by the Americans since November 2004 and so I had to take the children around by myself to hospitals and private clinics. They died. I spent all our savings and borrowed a considerable amount of money."
Shukur said doctors told her that it was use of the restricted weapons that caused her children's brain damage and subsequent deaths, "but none of them had the courage to give me a written report." read
The War in Iraq Is Pure Murder
By Chris Hedges, Tomdispatch.com. Posted June 6, 2008.
We have embarked on an occupation that is as damaging to our souls as to our prestige and power and security. Troops, when they battle insurgent forces, as in Iraq, or Gaza or Vietnam, are placed in "atrocity producing situations." Being surrounded by a hostile population makes simple acts, such as going to a store to buy a can of Coke, dangerous. The fear and stress push troops to view everyone around them as the enemy. The hostility is compounded when the enemy, as in Iraq, is elusive, shadowy and hard to find. The rage soldiers feel after a roadside bomb explodes, killing or maiming their comrades, is one that is easily directed, over time, to innocent civilians who are seen to support the insurgents. read
By Chris Hedges, Tomdispatch.com. Posted June 6, 2008.
We have embarked on an occupation that is as damaging to our souls as to our prestige and power and security. Troops, when they battle insurgent forces, as in Iraq, or Gaza or Vietnam, are placed in "atrocity producing situations." Being surrounded by a hostile population makes simple acts, such as going to a store to buy a can of Coke, dangerous. The fear and stress push troops to view everyone around them as the enemy. The hostility is compounded when the enemy, as in Iraq, is elusive, shadowy and hard to find. The rage soldiers feel after a roadside bomb explodes, killing or maiming their comrades, is one that is easily directed, over time, to innocent civilians who are seen to support the insurgents. read
From Unknown News:
Soon I'll be dead, by Grandpa
June 2, 2008
Have I mentioned lately that I'm increasingly glad that I'm old? Soon I'll be dead (nothing fatal, just an actuarial statement -- I'm 70, almost as old as John McCain, so I'm a lot closer to the end than the beginning).
The country I grew up in has already been killed and buried, and the criminals who killed it are getting away with it.
My father was killed defending America from real enemies in World War II. My older brother was killed in Korea, and they told him he was defending America too, but I never figured out what he was defending America from. I was lucky enough to be a Marine while America was between wars, but my son was killed in Vietnam, and again, you tell me what his death had to do with defending America. Nothing, like the nothing our boys are fighting and dying for in Iraq today and Iran tomorrow.
Shouldn't it at least take a pretty clever criminal mind to sink a nation, loot the treasury, launch outlandish phony wars, and get away with everything? Everything I ever believed in has been completely trashed and the traitors who did this to America are laughing as they get away with it all. These crooks Bush and Cheney don't seem terribly bright and they did everything in broad daylight... on television... but nobody seems to want them punished except a huge majority of little people like you and me and Helen and Harry. The people in power, people in Congress and in the media who really could punish this gang of low-life thugs, they're just always conveniently looking the other way like little kids told to face the wall. They'll be staring at that wall right up until it crumbles on them.
But on the bright side pretty soon I'll be dead, and make my way out of here.
I'll get to escape the ugliness they've built where the United States of America used to be. You poor suckers are stuck here.
Grandpa
Soon I'll be dead, by Grandpa
June 2, 2008
Have I mentioned lately that I'm increasingly glad that I'm old? Soon I'll be dead (nothing fatal, just an actuarial statement -- I'm 70, almost as old as John McCain, so I'm a lot closer to the end than the beginning).
The country I grew up in has already been killed and buried, and the criminals who killed it are getting away with it.
My father was killed defending America from real enemies in World War II. My older brother was killed in Korea, and they told him he was defending America too, but I never figured out what he was defending America from. I was lucky enough to be a Marine while America was between wars, but my son was killed in Vietnam, and again, you tell me what his death had to do with defending America. Nothing, like the nothing our boys are fighting and dying for in Iraq today and Iran tomorrow.
Shouldn't it at least take a pretty clever criminal mind to sink a nation, loot the treasury, launch outlandish phony wars, and get away with everything? Everything I ever believed in has been completely trashed and the traitors who did this to America are laughing as they get away with it all. These crooks Bush and Cheney don't seem terribly bright and they did everything in broad daylight... on television... but nobody seems to want them punished except a huge majority of little people like you and me and Helen and Harry. The people in power, people in Congress and in the media who really could punish this gang of low-life thugs, they're just always conveniently looking the other way like little kids told to face the wall. They'll be staring at that wall right up until it crumbles on them.
But on the bright side pretty soon I'll be dead, and make my way out of here.
I'll get to escape the ugliness they've built where the United States of America used to be. You poor suckers are stuck here.
Grandpa
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