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	<title>NO QUARTER &#187; Pentagon</title>
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	<pubDate>Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:30:51 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>Hannity and Rep. Joe Sestak On Barack Obama&#8217;s Cancelled Military Visits [Riverdaughter Update Below]</title>
		<link>http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/26/hannity-and-rep-joe-sestak-on-barack-obamas-cancelled-military-visits/</link>
		<comments>http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/26/hannity-and-rep-joe-sestak-on-barack-obamas-cancelled-military-visits/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:30:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>NoQuarter</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Pentagon]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Soldiers/Veterans]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Rep. Sestak, you are one of my heroes.  I know that you have to go along with the Democratic party &#8212; and the funding of your reelection campaign is at stake (ahem) &#8212; but I am sorry that the party used you like this:

&#8220;So if you want my take on this, if you want [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Rep. Sestak, you are one of my heroes.  I know that you have to go along with the Democratic party &#8212; and the funding of your reelection campaign is at stake (ahem) &#8212; but I am sorry that the party used you like this:</p>
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<p>&#8220;So if you want my take on this, if you want to remember one thing about this trip, is that Barack Obama chose to work out rather than see the wounded troops because he couldn&#8217;t bring Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson, and Brian Williams with him.&#8221; &#8212; Sean Hannity</p>
<p>See my original story, &#8220;<a href="http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/24/barack-skipped-visiting-wounded-troops-in-germany/">Barack Skipped Visiting Wounded Troops in Germany</a>.&#8221;  And check out <a href="http://www.memeorandum.com/080725/p131#a080725p131">Memorandum.com</a>&#8217;s coverage of the controversy.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s more from &#8220;The Sean Hannity Show&#8221; (syndicated AM radio), July 25, 2008 <em>(SusanUnPC&#8217;s Note: I disagree with many of Hannity&#8217;s political views, particularly on health care, but on this issue he is 100% correct. Obama could have gone &#8220;solo&#8221; to visit the troops. That would have been the right thing to do. I cannot fathom his excuse that he didn&#8217;t go because his campaign staff wasn&#8217;t permitted to accompany him.)</em></p>
<p>Sean Hannity: &#8220;You know I&#8217;ve found one article &#8212; I hadn&#8217;t known this &#8212; I was telling you earlier the Obama campaign tried to blame the Pentagon. Here he was scheduled. He wanted to go visit this military hospital. It was on the campaign sheet to go visit the military hospital in Germany. And we find out that the only restrictions the Pentagon wanted to impose was their rule against turning visits by politicians into campaign events. <span id="more-3802"></span></p>
<p>&#8220;And, by the way, you know, I know for a fact because I talked to these kids when I went to Walter Reed and Bethesda, that literally the president would sneak on over often to go see these, kids &#8212; you never heard about it, it was never reported. As a matter of fact, I remember I was out there with Ollie North and they said, yeah the president was just here, two days ago, whatever it was. And you know, same thing with Donald Rumsfeld. Donald Rumsfeld used to go over there all the time, but he didn&#8217;t turn it into a campaign event.</p>
<p>&#8220;Anyway, so Obama has it on the schedule. The Pentagon says, look, you can come but they&#8217;re going to impose their rule against turning a visit by a politician into a campaign event. Now this is what we finally are finding out here. All the Pentagon said is they advised Obama&#8217;s staff &#8212; yeah of course he can visit the hospital and injured personnel in Germany but only in his capacity as a Member of Congress, in other words without the trappings of a political campaign, which by the way, it&#8217;s unfair to use sick soldiers who risked their lives as a political prop.</p>
<p>&#8220;Obama apparently cancelled the visit and went to work out instead. He went to work out and then said it would be inappropriate as part of a trip financed by his campaign. Well, as John McCain said, it&#8217;s never inappropriate if you are a United States Senator to visit a sick soldier. It&#8217;s never inappropriate. There&#8217;s not one taxpayer in the country that would have any opposition to this nor is there any rules against this. The only difference is the only restriction that was placed is that they don&#8217;t want to have candidates, you know, using the appearance for some type of political benefit. That wasn&#8217;t enough. He had to bring along of course the entourage and the multiple 10,000 media press secretaries along with him.</p>
<p>&#8220;So if you want my take on this, if you want to remember one thing about this trip is that Barack Obama chose to work out rather than see the wounded troops because he couldn&#8217;t bring Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson, and Brian Williams with him.&#8221;</p>
<p><center>###</center></p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong></p>
<p>From a very clever, imaginative story by &#8220;madamab&#8221; at <em>The Confluence</em>, <strong>&#8220;<a href="http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/bill-burtons-secret-weapon-a-play-in-one-scientific-act/#more-2748">Bill Burton’s Secret Weapon: A Play in One Scientific Act</a>&#8220;</strong>:</p>
<blockquote><p>AXELROD: Okay, Bill, we&#8217;ve got several things that need our immediate attention. First off, as you know, President Obama&#8217;s foreign-policy experience has now been brought up to parity with John McCain&#8217;s after his week-long tour of Europe and the Middle East. So we&#8217;re all good there. However, <a href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/obama-on-tonigh.html">we estimated that a million people would attend his speech in Berlin</a>, and even with <a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/07/24/will-media-report-concert-obamas-berlin-speech">two free concerts thrown in</a>, <a href="http://patriotroom.com/?p=608">we were nowhere near that number</a>. Can we figure out how many people attended?</p>
<p>BURTON: No problemo! [addressing the box on his desk] Computer, how many people attended the Berlin rally?</p>
<p>COMPUTER [in sultry female voice]: Please press the green button. [BURTON does so.] Your answer is: Two hundred thousand.</p>
<p>AXELROD: Great, great. I&#8217;ll send it out now. [notates the number in his iPhone and quickly sends it off to his press mailing list] Okay, next item is: The President skipped a visit to the troops while in Berlin <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0708/DoD_spokesman_says_Obama_camp_was_reminded_of_political_rules.html">because the Pentagon wouldn&#8217;t allow him to bring in his cameras</a>. How do we make it clear that President Obama does not, in fact, think of the troops as just a campaign prop?</p>
<p>BURTON [drawing in his breath]: Oooooh, that&#8217;s a tough one. Let&#8217;s see what our girl can come up with. Computer, what is the reason for Obama&#8217;s skipping his visit to the troops?</p>
<p>COMPUTER: Please press the red button. [BURTON does so.] Your answer is: I.A.C.F.</p>
<p><span id="more-2748"></span></p>
<p>AXELROD [confused]: IACF?</p>
<p>BURTON [embarrassed at the faux pas]: Um, that stands for &#8220;It&#8217;s All Clinton&#8217;s Fault.&#8221; I keep telling her that is no longer an acceptable response, but she keeps defaulting to it - I don&#8217;t know why. [addressing computer] Computer, please give alternate reason.</p>
<p>COMPUTER: Please press the red button. [BURTON does so.] Your alternate reason is: George W. Bush.</p>
<p>AXELROD: George W. Bush? What does she mean by that?</p>
<p>BURTON [nervously]: Search me. [both think for a moment]</p>
<p>AXELROD: Wait, wait! I&#8217;ve got it! We&#8217;ll say the Pentagon stopped him from going. They were worried that it would look like a campaign visit. Brilliant, Bill! Gotta love that machine. [BURTON is visibly relieved. AXELROD dashes off another communique to the press corpse.] &#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/bill-burtons-secret-weapon-a-play-in-one-scientific-act/#more-2748">Read all</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
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		<title>Barack Obama In &#8220;Open Disagreement&#8221; With Military Commanders</title>
		<link>http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/21/barack-obama-in-open-disagreement-with-military-commanders/</link>
		<comments>http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/21/barack-obama-in-open-disagreement-with-military-commanders/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:27:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>NoQuarter</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[ABC News]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[ABC News correspondent Terry Moran interviewed Barack Obama who got a bit testy during the exchange.
&#8220;And then we sat down with [Barack Obama] to talk about what has become an open disagreement between military commanders here and Obama, over his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq on a 16-month timetable.&#8221; &#8212; Terry [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>ABC News correspondent Terry Moran interviewed Barack Obama who got a bit testy during the exchange.</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>&#8220;And then we sat down with [Barack Obama] to talk about what has become an open disagreement between military commanders here and Obama, over his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq on a 16-month timetable.&#8221; &#8212; Terry Moran</strong></p></blockquote>
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<p><strong>Transcript . Barack Obama ABC Interview . July 21, 2008</strong></p>
<p>ABC&#8217;s Terry Moran: &#8220;And then we sat down with [Barack Obama] to talk about what has become an open disagreement between military commanders here and Obama, over his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq on a 16-month timetable. Did General Petraeus talk about military concerns about your timetable?&#8221;</p>
<p>Barack Obama: &#8220;You know, I would characterize the concerns differently. I don&#8217;t think that they&#8217;re deep concerns about the notion of a pullout per se. There are deep concerns about, from their perspective, a timetable that doesn&#8217;t take into account what they anticipate might be some sort of changing conditions. And this is what I mean when I say we play different roles. My job is to think about the national security interests as a whole, and to have to weigh and balance risks, in Afghanistan, in Iraq. Their job is just to get the job done here. And I completely understand that.&#8221;</p>
<p>Moran: &#8220;But the difference is real. Commanders here want withdrawals to be based on conditions on the ground. Obama emphasizes his timetable, but he insists he would remain flexible. I&#8217;m going to try to pin you down on this.&#8221; <em>(continued below)</em> <span id="more-3725"></span></p>
<p>Obama: &#8220;Here let me say this, though, Terry, because, you know, what I will refuse to do, and I think that, you know &#8221;</p>
<p>Moran: &#8220;How do you know what I&#8217;m going to ask?&#8221;</p>
<p>Obama: &#8220;Well, then if I don&#8217;t get it right, then you can ask it again.&#8221;</p>
<p>Moran: &#8220;All right.&#8221;</p>
<p>Obama: &#8220;Is to get boxed in into what I consider two false choices, which is either I have a rigid timeline of such and such a date, come hell or high water, we&#8217;ve gotten our combat troops out, and I am blind to anything that happens in the intervening six months or 16 months. Or, alternatively, I am completely deferring to whatever the commanders on the ground says, which is what George Bush says he&#8217;s doing, in which case I&#8217;m not doing my job as commander-in-chief.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>Appeal to Adm. Fallon: Speak Out on Iran BEFORE</title>
		<link>http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/05/20/appeal-to-adm-fallon-speak-out-on-iran-before/</link>
		<comments>http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/05/20/appeal-to-adm-fallon-speak-out-on-iran-before/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2008 14:01:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ray McGovern</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[To Admiral William Fallon (USN ret.), With Respect
(Open Appeal for Straight Talk on Iran)
By Ray McGovern
May 19, 2008
Dear Admiral Fallon:
I have not been able to find out how to reach you directly, so I have drafted this letter in the hope it will come to your attention.
First, thank you for honoring the oath we commissioned [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>To Admiral William Fallon (USN ret.), With Respect<br />
(Open Appeal for Straight Talk on Iran)<br />
By Ray McGovern</p>
<p>May 19, 2008</p>
<p>Dear Admiral Fallon:</p>
<p>I have not been able to find out how to reach you directly, so I have drafted this letter in the hope it will come to your attention.</p>
<p>First, thank you for honoring the oath we commissioned officers take to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  As you are doubtless aware, that oath has no expiration date; it remains on active duty, so to speak.</p>
<p>You have let it be known that, even though you are now retired, you do not intend to speak, on or off the record, about the looming war with Iran.</p>
<p>You are acutely aware of the dangers of attacking Iran, but seem to be allowing an inbred reluctance to challenge your erstwhile commander in chief to trump that oath, and to prevent you from letting the American people know of the catastrophe about to befall us if, as seems likely, our country attacks Iran.<br />
<span id="more-2608"></span><br />
Two years ago I lectured at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.  I found it highly disturbing that, when asked about the oath they took upon entering the academy, several of the “Mids” thought it was to the commander in chief.  This brought to my mind the photos of German generals and admirals (as well as top church leaders and jurists) swearing personal oaths to Hitler.  Not our tradition, and yet…..</p>
<p>I was aghast that only the third Mid I called on got it right—that the oath is to protect and defend the Constitution, not the president.</p>
<p>Attack Iran: Trash the Constitution</p>
<p>No doubt you are very clear that an attack on Iran would be a flagrant violation of the Constitution of the United States, which stipulates that treaties ratified by the Senate become the supreme law of the land; that the United Nations Charter treaty—which the Senate ratified by a vote of 89 to 2 on July 28, 1945—expressly forbids attacks on other countries, unless they pose an imminent danger; that there is no provision allowing some other kind of “pre-emptive” or “preventive” attack against a nation that poses no imminent danger; and that Iran poses no imminent danger to the United States or its allies.</p>
<p>You may be forgiven for thinking: Isn’t 41 years of service enough; isn’t it enough that I resigned in order to remove myself from a chain of command with no conscience or respect for national or international law—that I shuddered at the thought of being charged in some earthly or heavenly court as a war criminal, if I “just followed orders” and helped start an unprovoked war on Iran?  Isn’t making my misgivings known to journalists last year, realizing fully that this could be a career-ender—isn’t all that enough?</p>
<p>With respect, sir, no, that’s not enough.  The stakes here are extremely high, and together with the integrity you have already shown goes still further responsibility.  Sadly, the vast majority of your general officer colleagues have, for whatever reason, ducked that responsibility.  You are pretty much it.</p>
<p>In their lust for attacking Iran, administration officials will do their best to marginalize you, but you do not strike me as one likely to be deterred by that.  And, prominent a person that you are, the corporate media surely will try to do the same, if you exposed the lies given as justification for attacking Iran.</p>
<p>Indeed, there are clear signs the media have been given their marching orders to support an attack on Iran—to include pre-censorship of factual stories exposing administration hyperbole and fecklessness, as the White House and the Pentagon paint a dubious portrait of the dangers posed by Iran.</p>
<p>Preparing a Captive Audience for War…</p>
<p>At the CIA I used to analyze the Soviet press, so you will understand when I refer to the Washington Post and the New York Times as the White House’s Pravda and Izvestiya.  Sadly, these days it is as easy as during the days of the controlled Soviet press to follow our own government’s evolving line with a daily reading of our own controlled press.</p>
<p>In a word, our newspapers are dutifully revving up for war on Iran, and are even trotting out some of the most widely discredited cheerleaders for war on Iraq—the New York Times’ Michael Gordon of aluminum tubes fame, for example, who is again parroting what he gets from administration officials and casting it as news.</p>
<p>In some respects the manipulation and suppression of information in the present lead-up to an attack on Iran is even more flagrant and all encompassing than in early 2003 before the invasion of Iraq.</p>
<p>It seems entirely possible that you are unaware of a recent misadventure that speaks volumes about this—unaware precisely because the media have put the wraps on it.  So let me adduce one striking example of what is afoot here.  The example has to do with the studied, if disingenuous, effort over recent months to blame all the troubles in southern Iraq on the “malignant” influence of Iran.</p>
<p>Sadly, some of your erstwhile colleagues are among the dramatis personae.</p>
<p>…But Covering Up Fiasco</p>
<p>Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen told reporters on April 25 that Gen. David Petraeus would be giving a briefing “in the next couple of weeks” that would provide detailed evidence of “just how far Iran is reaching into Iraq to foment instability.”  Petraeus’ staff alerted U.S. media to a major news event in which captured Iranian arms in Karbala would be displayed and then destroyed.</p>
<p>Small problem.  When American munitions experts went to Karbala to inspect the alleged cache of Iranian weapons they found nothing that could be linked credibly to Iran.</p>
<p>News to you?  That’s because this potentially embarrassing episode went virtually unreported in the media—like the proverbial tree falling in the forest with no corporate media to hear it crash.  So Mullen and Petraeus live, uninhibited and unembarrassed, to keep searching for Iranian weapons so the media can then tell a story more supportive of the orders they have been given to find ways to blame Iran for the troubles in Iraq.  Luckily for them, a fiasco is only a fiasco if folks know about it.</p>
<p>Media suppression of this misadventure is the most significant aspect of this story, in my view, and a telling indicator of how difficult it is to find honest reporting on these key issues.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Iraqis announced that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had formed his own Cabinet committee to investigate U.S. claims about Iranian weapons, and to attempt to “find tangible information and not information based on speculation.”</p>
<p>Dissing the Intelligence Estimate</p>
<p>Top officials from the president on down have been dismissing the key judgment of the National Intelligence Estimate released on December 3, 2007, a judgment concurred in by the 16 intelligence units of our government, that Iran had stopped the weapons-related part of its nuclear program in mid-2003.</p>
<p>Always willing to do his part, the malleable CIA chief, Michael Hayden, on April 30 publicly offered his “personal opinion” that Iran is building a nuclear weapon—the National Intelligence Estimate notwithstanding.  For good measure, Hayden added:</p>
<p>“It is my opinion, it is the policy of the Iranian government, approved to the highest level of that government, to facilitate the killing of Americans in Iraq….Just make sure there’s clarity on that.”</p>
<p>Voicing his various “opinions,” Hayden is beginning to sound like the overly clever lawyers who advised him, orally, that it would be just fine to order NSA to violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and like the other attorneys who approved water boarding.</p>
<p>And, please; tell me why we should care about Hayden’s “personal opinion?”  My neighbor Suzie, who gets her news from FOX, keeps voicing her “personal opinion” that all Muslims want to kill Americans, that generals with blue uniforms are the most trustworthy, and that weapons of mass destruction will still be found in Iraq.</p>
<p>But, seriously, I don’t need to tell you about the Haydens and the other smartly saluting, desk-riding headquarters generals here in Washington.</p>
<p>The Price of Silence</p>
<p>What I would suggest is that you have a serious conversation with a real general, Gen. Anthony Zinni, one of your predecessor CENTOM commanders (1997 to 2000).  As you know probably better than I, this Marine general is an officer of unusual integrity.  Nevertheless, when placed into circumstances very similar to those you now face, he could not find his voice.  And so he missed his chance to interrupt—or at least slow down—the juggernaut to war in Iraq.  You might ask him how he feels about that now, and what he would advise in current circumstances.</p>
<p>Zinni happened to be one of the honorees at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention on August 26,2002, at which Vice President Dick Cheney delivered the exceedingly alarmist speech, unsupported by our best intelligence, about the nuclear threat and other perils awaiting us at the hands of Saddam Hussein.  That speech not only launched the seven-month public campaign against Iraq leading up to the war, but set the terms of reference for the Oct. 1, 2002 National Intelligence Estimate fabricated—yes, fabricated—to convince Congress to approve war on Iraq, which it did ten days later.</p>
<p>Gen. Zinni later shared publicly that, as he listened to Cheney, he was shocked to hear a depiction of intelligence that did not square with what he knew.  Although Zinni had retired two years earlier, his role as consultant had required him to stay up to date on intelligence relating to the Middle East.  One Sunday morning three and a half years after Cheney’s speech, Zinni told Meet the Press. “There was no solid proof that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction…I heard a case being made to go to war.”</p>
<p>Zinni had as good a chance as anyone to stop an unnecessary war—not a “pre-emptive war,” since there was nothing to pre-empt—and Zinni knew it.  What he and other knowledgeable officials could—and should—have tried to block was a war of aggression, defined at the post-WWII Nuremberg Tribunal as the “supreme international crime.”</p>
<p>Sure, Zinni would have had to stick his neck out.  He may have had to speak out alone, since most senior officials, like then-CIA Director George Tenet, lacked courage and integrity.  In his memoir published a year ago, Tenet writes that Cheney did not follow the usual practice of clearing his August 26, 2002 speech with the CIA; that much of what Cheney said took him completely by surprise; and that Tenet “had the impression that the president wasn’t any more aware of what his number-two was going to say to the VFW until he said it.”</p>
<p>It is difficult to believe that Cheney’s shameless speech took “slam-dunk” Tenet completely by surprise.  We know from the Downing Street Minutes, vouched for by the UK as authentic, that Tenet told his British counterpart on July 20, 2002 that the president had decided to make war on Iraq for regime change and that “the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy”</p>
<p>Encore: Iran</p>
<p>Admiral Fallon, you know this to be the case also now with respect to the “intelligence” being fixed to “justify” war with Iran.  And no one knows better than you that your departure from the chain of command has turned it over completely to smartly saluting martinets.  No doubt you have long since taken the measure, for example, of Defense Secretary Robert Gates.  So have I.</p>
<p>I was his branch chief when he was a young, disruptively ambitious, CIA analyst.  When Ronald Reagan’s CIA Director William Casey sought someone to shape CIA analysis to accord with his own conviction that the Soviet Union would never change, Gates leaped at the chance, proved his mettle, and bubbled right up to be chief of analysis.  After Casey died, Gates admitted to the Washington Post’s Walter Pincus that he (Gates) watched Casey on “issue after issue sit in meetings and present intelligence framed in terms of the policy he wanted pursued.”  Gates’ entire career showed that he learned well at Casey’s knee.</p>
<p>So it should come as no surprise that, despite the unanimous judgment of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran stopped the weapons-related aspects of its nuclear program in mid-2003, Gates is now repeating the party line that Iran is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons.  Some of his earlier statements were more ambiguous, but Gates recently took advantage of the opportunity to bend with the prevailing winds and freshen his own loyalty oath—to the president.</p>
<p>In an interview on events in the Middle East with a New York Times reporter on April 11, Gates was asked whether he was on the same page as the president, Gates replied, “Same line, same word.”  I imagine you are no more surprised at that than I.  Bottom line:  Gates will salute smartly and transmit the order, legal or illegal, if Cheney persuades the president to let the Air Force and Navy loose on Iran.</p>
<p>You know the probable consequences; you need to let the rest of the American people know.</p>
<p>A Gutsy Precedent</p>
<p>Can you, Admiral Fallon, be completely alone; can it be that you are the only general officer to resign on principle?  And, of equal importance, is there no other general officer, active or retired, who has taken the risk of speaking out in an attempt to inform Americans about President George W. Bush’s bellicose fixation with Iran.  Thankfully, there is.</p>
<p>Gen. Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, took the prestigious job of Chairman, President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board when asked by the younger Bush.  From that catbird seat, Scowcroft could watch the unfolding of U.S. policy in the Middle East.  Over decades dealing with the press, Scowcroft had honed a reputation of quintessential discretion.  Thus, it was all the more striking when he did what he decided he had to do to warn Americans about what may be the president’s most dangerous fixation.</p>
<p>In an interview with London’s Financial Times in mid-October 2004 Scowcroft was harshly critical of the president, charging that Bush had been “mesmerized” by then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.  “Sharon just has him wrapped around his little finger,” Scowcroft said.  “He has been nothing but trouble.”</p>
<p>Needless to say, Scowcroft was given his walking papers and told never to darken the White House doorstep again.  His very troubling observations have been largely shunned in the media, and banned from polite conversation here in Washington, although the insight they provide is worth a thousand erudite op-eds.  Testifying before Congress on June 16, 2005, I alluded to Scowcroft’s comments, and was widely pilloried in the media the next day for being, you guessed it, “anti-Semitic.”</p>
<p>A Bush Commitment?</p>
<p>There is ample evidence that Sharon’s successors believe they have extracted a commitment from President Bush to “take care of Iran” before he leaves office, and that the president has done nothing to disabuse them of that notion—no matter the consequences.</p>
<p>Speaking at the World Economic Forum at Sharm el Sheikh on Sunday, Bush threw in a gratuitous reference to “Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.”</p>
<p>“To allow the world’s leading sponsor of terror to gain the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations.  For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”</p>
<p>Pre-briefing the press, Bush’s national security adviser Stephen Hadley identified Iran as one of the dominant themes of the trip, adding repeatedly what seemed to be the PR formula of the day; namely, that Iran “is very much behind” all the woes afflicting the Middle East, from Lebanon to Gaza to Iraq, even to Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The Rhetoric is Ripening</p>
<p>In the coming weeks, at least until U.S. forces can find some real Iranian weapons in Iraq, the rhetoric is likely to focus on what I call the Big Lie—the claim that Iran’s president has threatened to “wipe Israel off the map.”  In his controversial speech in 2005, Ahmadinejad was actually quoting from something Ayatollah Khomeini had said in the early eighties.  Khomeini was expressing a hope that a regime that was treating the Palestinians so unjustly would be replaced by a more equitable one.</p>
<p>A distinction without a difference?  I think not.  Words matter.  As you may already know (but most Americans don’t), the literal translation from Farsi of what Ahmadinejad said is “The regime occupying Jerusalem much vanish from the pages of time.”  Contrary to what the administration and corporate media would have us all believe, the Iranian president was not threatening to nuke Israel, push it into the sea, or wipe it off the map—or, as is so often heard, “destroy” it.</p>
<p>President Bush is way out in front on this issue, and this comes through with particular clarity when he ad-libs answers to questions.  On October 17, 2007, long after he had been briefed on the key intelligence finding that Iran had stopped the nuclear weapons-related part of its nuclear development program, the president spoke as though, well,  “mesmerized.”  He said:</p>
<p>“But this—we got a leader in Iran who has announced he wants to destroy Israel.  So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems you ought to be interested in preventing them from have (sic) the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.  I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously.”</p>
<p>Some contend that Bush does not really believe his rhetoric.  I rather think he does, for the Israelis seem to have his good ear, with the tin one aimed at the U.S. intelligence he has repeatedly disparaged.  But, frankly, which would be worse: that Bush believes Iran to be an existential threat to Israel and thus requires U.S. military action?—or that he knows it’s just rhetoric to “justify” U.S. action to “take care of” Iran for Israel?</p>
<p>What You Can Do</p>
<p>Admiral Fallon, you can surely speak authoritatively about what is likely to happen—to U.S. forces in Iraq, for example—if Bush orders your successors to begin bombing and missile attacks on Iran.  I imagine you have spent more than one sleepless night sorting through the full array of Iranian options for serious retaliation.</p>
<p>And you could readily update Scowcroft’s remarks, by drawing on what you observed of the Keystone Cops efforts of White House ideologues like Iran-Contra convict Elliot Abrams, supported by amateurish covert action operatives and Israeli intelligence, to overturn by force the ascendancy of Hamas in 2006-07 and Hezbollah.  (Abrams pled guilty to two misdemeanor counts of misleading Congress about the Iran-Contra affair, but was pardoned by the first President Bush on Dec. 24, 1992.)</p>
<p>Clearly, it is the arch-neoconservative Abrams, aided, instructed, and abetted by the vice president, who is running U.S. policy toward the Middle East.  And it is just as clear that the status of the secretary state has been reduced simply to “frequent flyer.”</p>
<p>It is easy to understand why no professional military officer would wish to be in the position of taking orders originating from the likes of Abrams—not to mention the vice president.</p>
<p>If you weigh in, as I believe your (non-expiring) oath to protect and defend the Constitution dictates, you might conceivably prompt other sober heads and courageous hearts to speak out.  I hope you will agree that an attack on Iran can still be prevented, but it seems that this will take more outspokenness and energy than those of us who see what is coming have been able to muster so far.  And the controlled press is a huge problem.</p>
<p>Were you to speak out strongly at this stage, the media could not ignore you.  I cannot bring myself to believe that you, like so many on the Hill, would be cowed at the prospect of being pilloried by FOX and branded anti-Semitic.  And, who knows; perhaps some of those former subordinate officers who admire you for what you have done, will be encouraged to go and do likewise.</p>
<p>And, in the end, if profound ignorance and ideology—supported by a captive corporate press and abetted by political parties supine before the Israel lobby—enable an attack on Iran, and the Iranians, for example, take thousands of our troops hostage in southern Iraq, you will be able to look in the mirror, and at the rest of us, and say at least you tried.</p>
<p>You will not have to live with the remorse of not knowing what you might have made possible, had you been able to shake your reluctance to speak out.</p>
<p>Leadership does not end with retirement; neither do oaths.</p>
<p>Respectfully,</p>
<p>/s/</p>
<p>Ray McGovern<br />
Steering Group<br />
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)</p>
<p>Ray McGovern, a veteran Army intelligence officer and then CIA analyst for 27 years, now works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington.</p>
<p>The original version of this article appeared on Consortiumnews.com.</p>
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		<title>So Who Is This Bill Ayers??</title>
		<link>http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/04/17/so-who-is-this-bill-ayers/</link>
		<comments>http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/04/17/so-who-is-this-bill-ayers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:20:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Uppity Woman</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Bernardine Dohrn]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Bill Ayers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Chicago politics]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Current Affairs]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Patriotism]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Pentagon]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Weather Underground]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[So who is Bill Ayers, you ask? Nobody in particular if you are an Obama Fan. I mean Obama Rocks!!!! Yes We Can!! I mean all Ayers was is just the leader of the terrorist group the Weather Underground in the &#8217;70s. Ohhhhhhhhhh pooh pooh, Obama fans say! That&#8217;s a longggggg time ago!!! Barack was [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So who is Bill Ayers, you ask? Nobody in particular if you are an Obama Fan. I mean Obama Rocks!!!! Yes We Can!! I mean all Ayers was is just the leader of the terrorist group the Weather Underground in the &#8217;70s. Ohhhhhhhhhh pooh pooh, Obama fans say! That&#8217;s a longggggg time ago!!! Barack was 8 years old! Ayers is a nice guy now! He hasn&#8217;t blown anything up lately or anything! Stop bothering our Messiah! All Ayers did was bomb a few buildings, right? Let&#8217;s give him another chance! I mean so what if he helped Barack with his campaigns. Lay off the guy!</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>I won&#8217;t lay off the guy. Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn (now married to Ayers) were two of the most infamous domestic terrorists ever to be allowed to continue to walk the earth in America, thanks to a screw up in the surveillance. But that didn&#8217;t stop Ayers from bragging on what he did.</p>
<p>&#8220;i don&#8217;t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn&#8217;t do enough&#8221;<br />
&#8211;Bill Ayers, September 11, 2001<br />
<a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&#038;sec=&#038;spon=&#038;pagewanted=1">No regrets for a love of explosives</a></p>
<p>Let&#8217;s talk about the little ole silly things Ayers and Dohrn did:</p>
<p>Weatherman, AKA Weather Underground Organization, was a violent U.S Radical Left group. They called themselves a revolutionary organization whose purpose was to carry out a series of attacks to overthrow of the Government of the United States.<br />
<span id="more-2204"></span><br />
The Weather Underground believed that militancy was far better than nonviolent protests. Their goal was to thwart the US Government using guerrilla warfare to achieve a revolution. They wrote a &#8220;Declaration of a State of War&#8221; against the United States government.</p>
<p>So what exactly DID Obama&#8217;s friend, campaign ally and Woods Foundation Colleague and his wife do?</p>
<p>For starters, the Weather Underground claimed credit for a bombing in Chicago, which they referred to as a &#8220;kickoff&#8221; of what they called their &#8220;Days Of Rage&#8221;. Their book. entitled, &#8220;Prairie Free&#8221;, strongly called for a unified Communist Party.</p>
<p>The Weather Underground blew up several Chicago Police cars at that time as well.</p>
<p>Next, these slime balls held a &#8220;war council&#8221; to firm up plans to remain underground and commit acts of sabotage against the US Government. They bombed several police cars in Berkley. Then they detonated a bomb at the San Francisco Police Department, during which one officer was killed and several others were injured. When 36 sticks of dynamite were discovered at a police precinct in Detroit, Bill Ayers just happened to be in town.</p>
<p>Later, several of the Underground&#8217;s own members died when they accidentally blew up their own bomb factory in New York. No loss. The bomb was intended to be used at an officer&#8217;s dance at Fort Dix. The bomb they were going to use was packed with nails for maximum damage. Fortunately those nails ended up stuck in their own miserable dead asses instead. Then another bomb factory was discovered in Chicago&#8217;s North side. Their weapons cache was also discovered in an apartment in Chicago&#8217;s South side. Then they blew up the National Guard building in DC.</p>
<p>Nice people huh? Would you go to their house?</p>
<p>While they continued to hide from indictments, Bernardine Dohrn issued a &#8220;Declaration of A State Of War&#8221;.</p>
<p>They claimed credit for the explosion of the San Francisco Hall of Justice, which never occurred. Later, an undetonated explosive device was discovered on the premises. Then the NY City Police headquarters was bombed. Then they bombed the Presidio Army Base in San Francisco in honor of the anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.</p>
<p>Think I am done talking about the Underground yet? Nope.</p>
<p>They then helped Timothy Leary escape from prison, and bombed the Marin County courthouse. After that they bombed the Queens Traffic Court building. They bombed the Harvard Center For International Affairs. A few of them fled to Cuba, where I hope to God they still reside if they aren&#8217;t dead.</p>
<p>Next, they bombed the US Capital. Another of their bomb factories was discovered in San Francisco. Then they bombed the office of California Prisons, The New York Department of Corrections in Albany, NY, and William Bundy&#8217;s office at MIT Research Center.</p>
<p>Nope. I&#8217;m not done yet. This stuff was all in a day&#8217;s work for Bernardine and Bill.</p>
<p>They bombed the Pentagon.</p>
<p>They bombed the 103 Police Precinct in New York.</p>
<p>Then they bombed the ITT buildings in both New York and Rome, Italy.</p>
<p>They bombed the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.</p>
<p>They bombed the Office of California of Attorney General.</p>
<p>They bombed Gulf&#8217;s Pittsburgh headquarters.</p>
<p>Then they bombed the Anaconda headquarters.</p>
<p>They bombed the State Department.</p>
<p>They bombed the Banco De Ponce in Puerto Rico as well as the Kennekot Corporation.</p>
<p>They also committed the Brinks Robbery in conjunction with the Black Liberation Army.</p>
<p>So, let me ask you: If you had any judgment at all, and if you billed yourself as a &#8220;Uniter,&#8221; would you go to Bill Ayers&#8217; home and be on the Woods Fund with him for years? Would you take a political contribution from him and let him introduce you around? Would you mind if your sister brought Bill Ayers home to meet the family?</p>
<p>Think about it. I&#8217;ll wait.</p>
<p>While you are waiting, here&#8217;s a little video to introduce you to the fear and misery these bastards generated with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn at the helm. Then tell me that this is just another &#8220;boneheaded&#8221; affiliation that Obama made for himself&#8211;or that he just &#8220;didn&#8217;t know&#8221;. Or that because it is 40 years later, and on 911 of all days, Ayers said &#8220;I feel we didn&#8217;t do enough&#8221;  that you would want to be caught standing next to him. Perhaps, since Ayers and Dohrn &#8220;didn&#8217;t do enough,&#8221; these two crazies would like to make up for lost time.</p>
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<p><a href="http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com/">Hyper Educated Uppity Woman</a></p>
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