SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (415488)6/16/2003 9:55:45 PM
From: jlallen  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 769667
 
More crapola.....

You Bush hating morons make me sick....our national security is job #1 and Bush is doing the job....not always perfectly...but damn well nevertheless......



To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (415488)6/16/2003 10:31:42 PM
From: jlallen  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 769667
 
Ooops!!!

"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." -- From a letter signed by Joe Lieberman, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara A. Milulski, Tom Daschle, & John Kerry among others on October 9, 1998

"Saddam's goal ... is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed." -- Madeline Albright, 1998

"The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retained some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capability. Intelligence reports also indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons, but has not yet achieved nuclear capability." -- Robert Byrd, October 2002

"What is at stake is how to answer the potential threat Iraq represents with the risk of proliferation of WMD. Baghdad's regime did use such weapons in the past. Today, a number of evidences may lead to think that, over the past four years, in the absence of international inspectors, this country has continued armament programs." -- Jacques Chirac, October 16, 2002

"The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow." -- Bill Clinton in 1998

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members, though there is apparently no evidence of his involvement in the terrible events of September 11, 2001. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security." -- Hillary Clinton, October 10, 2002

"I am absolutely convinced that there are weapons...I saw evidence back in 1998 when we would see the inspectors being barred from gaining entry into a warehouse for three hours with trucks rolling up and then moving those trucks out." -- Clinton's Secretary of Defense William Cohen in April of 2003

"Iraq is not the only nation in the world to possess weapons of mass destruction, but it is the only nation with a leader who has used them against his own people." -- Tom Daschle in 1998

"I share the administration's goals in dealing with Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction." -- Dick Gephardt in September of 2002

"Iraq does pose a serious threat to the stability of the Persian Gulf and we should organize an international coalition to eliminate his access to weapons of mass destruction. Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to completely deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." -- Al Gore, 2002

"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction." -- Bob Graham, December 2002

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." -- Ted Kennedy, September 27, 2002

"As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." -- Nancy Pelosi, December 16, 1998

"Even today, Iraq is not nearly disarmed. Based on highly credible intelligence, UNSCOM [the U.N. weapons inspectors] suspects that Iraq still has biological agents like anthrax, botulinum toxin, and clostridium perfringens in sufficient quantity to fill several dozen bombs and ballistic missile warheads, as well as the means to continue manufacturing these deadly agents. Iraq probably retains several tons of the highly toxic VX substance, as well as sarin nerve gas and mustard gas. This agent is stored in artillery shells, bombs, and ballistic missile warheads. And Iraq retains significant dual-use industrial infrastructure that can be used to rapidly reconstitute large-scale chemical weapons production." -- Ex-Un Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter in 1998

rightwingnews.com



To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (415488)6/16/2003 10:38:00 PM
From: jim-thompson  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 769667
 
Here is Loppy, you know the guy with the funny looking lop sided head that takes an 80 buck hair cut to deal with his mop>>

Kerry was a supporter of the "People's Peace Treaty," a supposed "people's" declaration to end the war, reportedly drawn up in communist East Germany. It included nine points, all of which were taken from Viet Cong peace proposals at the Paris peace talks as conditions for ending the war.

One of the provisions stated: "The Vietnamese pledge that as soon as the U.S. government publicly sets a date for total withdrawal [from Vietnam], they will enter discussion to secure the release of all American prisoners, including pilots captured while bombing North Vietnam." In other words, Kerry and his VVAW advocated the communist line to withdraw all U.S. troops from Vietnam first and then negotiate with Hanoi over the release of prisoners. Had the nine points of the "People's Peace Treaty" favored by Kerry been accepted by American negotiators, the United States would have totally lost all leverage to get the communists to release any POWs captured during the war years.



To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (415488)6/17/2003 12:21:51 AM
From: Skywatcher  Respond to of 769667
 
CIA Takes Charge Of Frantic WMD Search
By Vincent Morris
The New York Post

Monday 16 June 2003

WASHINGTON - The White House, accused of misleading the public about how dangerous
Iraq was leading up to the war, has now ordered the CIA to try to find evidence Saddam Hussein
amassed weapons of mass destruction.

CIA Director George Tenet is taking over the search from the Pentagon, which only managed
to turn up some mobile labs that offered inconclusive evidence of weapons production.

Tenet will have direct responsibility over the 1,300 soldiers and civilians hunting for the
weapons, according to a new report in Time magazine.

The world is still waiting for a clear sign that Iraq posed as great a threat to the world as the
White House claimed it did.

Before the war, Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered a scathing speech on Saddam to the
United Nations, and President Bush repeatedly cited the dangers the dictator posed as he
worked to convince the world last winter that war with Iraq was justified.

Now, the failure to find weapons of mass destruction thus far is mushrooming into a bigger
problem by the day for the Bush administration.

Tenet has already enlisted former U.N. weapons inspector David Kay for some advice in the
search.

The report in Time suggests that the mission may be a no-win situation for Tenet, who had
been looking for a chance to retire before he was put in charge of the new search.

Meanwhile, news of the CIA push came as top lawmakers yesterday said they might consider
a new round of public hearings to determine whether the American people were deliberately
misled about Saddam's weapons.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Congress is
determined to find out whether anyone connected with the decision to go to war with Iraq felt
"coerced" into claiming there were weapons of mass destruction there.

A separate probe into charges that Bush may have lied or stretched the truth to build support
for the war against Iraq is about to kick off in the House.

The House Intelligence Committee holds meetings this week to interview intelligence personnel
and review updates on efforts to find the weapons.

Rep. Jane Harman of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said yesterday that if any
evidence surfaces that the White House lied, "it will undercut the moral justification for this war."
CC



To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (415488)6/17/2003 12:22:54 AM
From: Skywatcher  Respond to of 769667
 
Burying The Number Of Civilian Deaths In Iraq
By Derrick Z. Jackson
The Chicago Tribune

Monday June 16, 2003

Whenever reporters asked about civilian deaths in the invasion of Iraq, U.S. military officials
reflexively plunged into a numbing prattle about the precision of our weaponry, precaution to
avoid needless carnage and promises to investigate possible mistakes.

In late March, after an American missile hit a marketplace in Baghdad and killed plenty of
people--Iraqi officials said 58--Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart of Central Command said: "With every
one of those circumstances, we ask the component ... who may have had forces involved,
whether it's land, sea, or air, to do an investigation, and that takes a number of days to do that.
The air component in this case is completing his review. We think that will be complete within
the next day or so. And as soon as ... the review is completed, we'll make that available.

"As to what do we determine to be the cause, I think certainly there are a number of
possibilities. We want to make sure that if in fact there was an error on our part, that we found
that out and made that available."

A couple of days later, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, the deputy director of operations for Central
Command, said: "There is an ongoing investigation; still I think we are starting to come to a high
degree of closure on it. We are still accounting for every weapon system that we released into
the Baghdad area. And once we've gotten to closure on that, I think we will be able to say one
way or another what role we may have played, or not."

On April 1, Brooks was asked by a reporter if he could give a date to give the results of the
investigation. Brooks responded by saying: "Well, I can't give you a date. I mean, it takes as
long as it takes. And it ought to be thorough. We're not going to waste time with them, but we
are going to be thorough about the work that's being done. ... Our designs are to minimize the
casualties to civilians as much as we can. We'd like to see that be zero. That is not something
that's ever been achieved in warfare. We believe our efforts have driven it as low as it has ever
been driven in warfare."

Two and a half months after the prattle, we now have the terrible truth. There never was an
investigation. That fact was embedded (pun intended) in an Associated Press report last week
that it has so far counted 3,240 Iraqi civilians killed in the invasion, including nearly 1,900 in
Baghdad. The AP quoted Central Command spokesman John Morgan confirming the
nonexistence of an investigation.

Americans should be shocked that journalists are piecing together a history of the war that our
military is trying to bury with the bodies.

The AP report said it took pains to exclude from its count all records of hospital deaths that
did not distinguish between civilians and soldiers. It also noted that many other victims didn't die
in hospitals but were lost in the rubble or buried immediately, according to Islamic custom. As a
result, it said, "hundreds, possibly thousands of victims in the largest cities and most intense
battles aren't reflected in the total."

The numbers are ominous, since in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, 3,500 civilians died in the
fighting, and in the months after, 111,000 Iraqis died from the destruction of the nation's health
care and transportation infrastructure, according to Beth Osborne Daponte, a professor at
Carnegie Mellon University.

Last week, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked whether he felt any remorse
over the mounting number of civilian deaths given that no weapons of mass destruction have yet
been found. Fleischer did not speak about the people killed by American missiles. All he said
was: "I think when you take a look at all the mass graves that have been discovered all around
Iraq, I think the world breathes a sigh of relief that a brutal dictator like Saddam Hussein, who
had no regard for human rights, has been removed from power so that the Iraqi people can at
long last have a life and build a future that's based on freedom and opportunity, not on tyranny."

Fleischer said that even before the AP figures were widely known. This is a White House in
clear denial. The world and even many Iraqis may breathe sighs of relief right now, but things will
change dramatically if the White House and the Pentagon keep choking on lies and deceptions.

Americans were outraged when 3,000 people were killed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,
2001. Now, between Afghanistan and Iraq, our vengeance has killed way more than that. We
rightly demanded that the world care about our innocent dead. Now we wrongly ignore the
people we killed. We not only bombed innocent people, we bombed our own innocence.
CC