To: Raymond Duray who wrote (1309 ) 7/25/2003 5:44:40 PM From: Don Earl Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 20039 Ray, I've had a few courses on how that sort of scam is put together, plus quite a few years of practical application in reading corporate press releases. Virtually every statement that came out of the Bush Cartel in the build up to the illegal invasion of a sovereign nation used that kind of phrasing. There were also more than a few places where they threw caution to the wind on technicalities and flat out lied. The current strategy appears to be to focus on the "16 words" in order to draw attention away from the reams of other bogus slanders. The sad part is most Americans are so close to being functionally illiterate that understanding the English language at that level is beyond them. In the same vein, because they are functionally illiterate, the majority turn to TV news rather than print media, for the simple reason that reading is too cumbersome a chore for them to deal with, and the deception is that much easier to carry off. Several people in a position of trust using "I believe" statements, which denote opinion rather than fact, is enough to totally baffle the average person. Hearing those kind of claims on the news, the "I believe" part gets left out in assimilating information. The news media is also fairly crafty in editing. It's fairly common to see the original reported in context, but for the following 10 broadcasts it's whittled down to a point where only the intended lie is left. As an art form displayed at that level of perfection, it's really rather impressive. As a way for public servants to communicate with those who hired them to do a job, it's absolutely terrifying.