Importance Of Downing St Memo Lies In Fact THEY ARE DOING IT AGAIN

[althecat]

Hi am posting this, yet another Downing Street Memo thread, because there is an important point about this that needs to be made clearly in isolation. This point came to me after watching the excellent Olbermann report on the memo. Congresswoman Slaughter was asked why she was asking the question... she replied that she wanted the truth. As well she might... but there is a better reason. Similarly Krugman's report today is another breakthrough but it too misses the main point.

So lets be simple and clear about this...

The key importance of the Downing Street Memo lies in the fact that

THEY ARE DOING IT AGAIN WITH IRAN

I.E. They are going to again fix the intelligence and facts around the policy. That's what the appointment of Bolton to the UN is all about. That's why a killer - John Negroponte - has been appointed as Intelligence Tsar. That's why a grossly partisan appointment - Porter Goss - has been made to the CIA. And that's why Condi Rice has been bumped into the SOS chair and Stephen Hadley - another corrupt crony with his fingers all over 911 failure - is the National Security Advisor. This is not rocket science...

A couple of links...
Another yarn from the Sunday Times (and another goody)
Revealed: Israel plans strike on Iranian nuclear plant
& some background
Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran

Al

edited to make it prettier

[Cobalt Violet]

1. Scary.

[jaxx]

2. Sanctions anyone?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7869442/ We saw what they did for Iraq.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/575337.html Israel speaks.

[althecat]

5. There is a very scary advert on that second one..

It links to this - http://israellawcenter.org/mission.shtml

[jaxx]

9. Makes you wonder what side of the wall it's on

People laugh, but I think Israel has a huge say in our mid-east plans. They get the nukes, nobody says anything......but the others are terrorists because they want some too. Who's to say Sharon is a calm, collected man that won't push the button?

[althecat]

15. That mission thing struck me as something akin to war rubber-necking....

Can you imagine the Irish advertising for an up front look at the front lines in Northern Ireland.

- Ride in an armoured car in the falls road
- Get a briefing from MI6 and RUC officials

....

truly sick

[oxbow]

40. Unfortunately, there is a VERY powerful jewish-hawk lobby in DC

This from my int'l conflict resolution professor, a jewish man! I stood in awe that he could say these things about his own people. Most would shirk from such an indictment, no matter how true it was. He's a truly moral man if I ever met one.

[pbartch]

35. PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS THREAD about the Downing Street Memo

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1789261

[althecat]

38. Checked and kicked...

[knowbody0]

3. i see them aiming at Venezuela as well

now the "landless" are protesting in Brazil. Latin America is bubbling with inspiration from Chavez.

[althecat]

7. Good point and North Korea...

...cept. they already have Nukes. And are allied to the nuke bristling Chinese. So that might be a dangerous course of action. That said Iran is definitely the first target.

Watching this second term for the past six months I have been amazed at how much they have been keeping their powder dry. They are clearly preparing for something grossly unpleasant.

- there has been an almost complete spring cleaning of the upper levels of bureaucracy;
- congress is being run in an iron fist like manner;
- and the media management skills are being finely honed.

Unfortunately like so many others around here. I fear that all this is a foretaste of something truly poisonous.

[radfringe]

24. and Syria too

Rice points finger at Syria on Iraq violence
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16383730.htm
16 May 2005 15:46:47 GMT
Source: Reuters

SHANNON, Ireland, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice revived U.S. allegations on Monday that Syria had allowed foreign fighters to cross into Iraq and fuel the Iraqi insurgency.

Rice otherwise gave a relatively upbeat assessment as she returned from a brief visit to Iraq, saying she was confident the Iraqis would write a constitution by August 15 and include more Sunni Muslims in drafting it.

---snip---

"We're going to go back and look again at what the neighbors can do -- particularly the Syrians -- to stop support for these foreign terrorists who we believe are gathering on Syrian soil and coming across," she told reporters as she flew home.

"Their unwillingness to deal with the crossings of their border into Iraq, is frustrating the will of the Iraqi people ... (and) killing innocent Iraqis."

Rice also repeated U.S. accusations that Syria backs anti-Israeli militant groups and said it was likely to try to influence parliamentary elections in Lebanon through a lingering intelligence presence in its neighbor.

"The Syrians have managed to get themselves in a situation of standing in the way of the progress of people in the Middle East and I would think that wouldn't be a very comfortable place for a Syrian regime to be," Rice said.
============

average polls rating: Congress has a DISAPPROVAL of 59%
midterms are just around the corner
repugs are losing ground on domestic issues
repugs only have FEAR to use as a tool - so what's it going to be? Terror attack or invasion of Iran or invasion of Syria or all three?

[seemslikeadream]

4. Yes they are

Patrick Fitzgerald, indictments please. We can't wait till the Fall.

[Erika]

6. We don't have the troops or the $ to go into Iran!

or North Korea. Nor does this administration have the trust of the American people any longer.

[althecat]

8. Circumstances can easily change on that front...

... all you need is another pearl harbour.

[Erika]

10. Two questions

What country has the capability to do that to us or our territories?
Do you think the elite GOP kids would volunteer or accept being drafted?

Where is the money to finance future military operations going to come from? I guess that's a third question.

Bush has burnt us out already.

[althecat]

13. Three answers...

What country has the capability to do that to us or our territories?

- It happened in September 911.
- A more realistic scenario this time around might involve an attack on Israel. Or if Israel launches an attack on Iran and Iran declares war on Israel does the US have a choice (well of course the answer to that is yes... but practically speaking with this president and this house of congress and this bunch of religious nutters ringing in their ears.)

Do you think the elite GOP kids would volunteer or accept being drafted?

Nope. But them's the breaks. Some like JFK will others like Bush, Cheney and Rush Limbaugh won't. They all managed to dodge the draft last time. No reason to think they won't be able to do so again.

Where is the money to finance future military operations going to come from?

You are correct that it will cost a great deal. Unfortunately the capacity for the Federal Reserve to print money to prop up the economy to enable * to get elected seems to have no limit. I can't see why it would have any limit when it came to proceeding to war against Iran.

[Erika]

16. We are shipping 10 mil a day to Israel out of our taxes

It is not our territory. And we have sufficiently armed them that they could decimate a country in its entirety without any U.S. help.

What happened on 9/11 was that a bunch of Saudi religious zealots chose to pick a few targets in the U.S. and used our commercial airlines to do so. There was NO country involved. Iraq was no danger to us.

I will reiterate what country is capable of attacking us?

We are not printing money to finance our operations, we are borrowing it from primarily Japan and China.

[Erika]

17. kick

[althecat]

18. Did you read this quote in the Times article?

"The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed. "

- And remember that this is the Murdoch Press that this is appearing in. Mindyou I expect the editor of the Sunday Times has not long to go before finding himself transferred to an outer Manchester community paper...

As for 9/11 the events of last week in Washington illustrated that it could happen again extremely easily.

And finally.... on the money question... there is more than one opinion on what is up with the US economy. Borrowing money from China and Japan is part of the story. If you really want to understand more on that front I would suggest having a look at the statements of Ben Bernanke.... particularly this one.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0212/S00010.htm

[Erika]

19. I will ask yet again

what country can attack us again other than through some renegade plot as Saudi zealots did on 9/11?

I will ask you again who is going to pay for this and do the fighting? Your link to printing money showed no specifics and even if we are going to print money and continue the borrowing, who is going to pay for it?

[Erika]

20. and who are going to fight Bush's wars? n/t

[althecat]

27. Mexicans and poor folk from the Carolinas

[althecat]

21. You are quite persistent...

1. Saudi or Iraqi zealots can create another pretext again.. do you really think that if there was another major attack on US soil and people pointed at Iran the US public wouldn't be happy to follow * whereever he desired?

2. The point of the quote I referred to is that Israel can drag the US into another conflict by without the need for another pearl harbour?

and

3. So long as the world keeps buying oil in $$$ the US can print them and finance whatever wars it needs to with them. And since the fact that oil is denominated in $$$ is largely dictated by the presence of aircraft carrier battle groups around the globe that seems to be a practical approach in the immediate future. But even if that were not the case... ask yourself who financed WWII?... bankers.. and bankers seem to be quite happy to finance wars in the future as they tend to make bucket loads of $$$ by doing so. The Federal Reserve is just the biggest bunch of bankers.

[smoogatz]

31. Another attack would be a simple matter

it wouldn't have to be anything as elaborate as 9/11. Truck bombs are remarkably effective, low-cost and low-tech WMD, as we learned in Oklahoma City. Attacks on soft targets such as refineries, chem plants, financial centers or even big shopping malls or casinos would be devastating and, at the moment virtually impossible to prevent. It wouldn't have to be al Qaida--numerous Hizbollah cells are known to be operating in the US. And we all know who provides the lion's share of Hizbollah's support.

Where would the troops come from? At the moment, according to Sy Hersh, Bushco is NOT planning a full-scale invasion of Iran. They're planning air strikes and special forces attacks on nuclear and military targets, in the hope that the Iranian people will seize the opportunity and rise up against the mullahs. I know it sounds preposterous, but if you think back to what Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice and Cheney were all saying before the Iraq invasion (we'll be greeted as liberators, Iraqi oil will pay for everything), it rings true--the same kind of magical thinking is in place.

Who would pay for it: you, your kids and your grand-kids. That's what deficit spending is all about. It's like a credit card with a multi-trillion dollar limit--except that the bank is the American people. Don't forget--the entire adventure in Iraq could have been funded with Bush's tax-cuts for the rich, with plenty left over. Bushco doesn't care about deficits--they care about oil, and Iran has plenty.

[FogerRox]

39. Troops in Iraq--they just gotta turn around and march into Iran

[pbartch]

36. THE DOWNING STREET MEMO --- take action

http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/takeaction.html

Eighty-eight members of Congress asked President Bush to address the Downing Street Memo on May 6, 2005. The White House has yet to respond. Contact the President and urge him to address the explosive allegations in the memo. As Americans, we deserve to know the truth.

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Comments: 202-456-1111
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

ASK GEORGE.............explain the memo!!!!!

[ElectroPrincess]

30. Where is the money (BILLIONS I recall) that Bremer walked off with?

perhaps they'll get it started with that nice little "chunk of change" ... well, beyond the present paying-off of Pakistan,Egypt, Jordan and Turkey to be complicit concerning the numerous illegal (and immoral?) international acts committed in the name of Freedom on The March.

[annabanana]

29. We will have post draft and SS sell off..

These two things would give them the liquidity to do what they want.

[Pacifist Patriot]

33. We didn't have the troops or money to go into Iraq.

Didn't stop them.

[EFerrari]

11. Exactly n/t

[lala_rawraw]

12. Scott Ritter said this:(

[althecat]

14. kick...

[leftchick]

22. So....

can my family and I come and make NZ home?

:scared:

[althecat]

26. If you promise to leave your guns behind...

and your mindless media :)

[leftchick]

28. I have no guns...

and I never watch the mindless media. I keep telling my husband we need to relocate to NZ. He said what would we do for a living? I said we could get jobs at one of those great wineries in
"quality control".

;)

I can dream.

[Swamp Rat]

23. Yes

And if they can't get recruitment up or a draft isn't implemented, they will go nuclear. Gotta get that oil NOW!

Who's gonna stop them from using bunker busting nukes?

Who?

[althecat]

25. Great pic swamp rat...

:)

[Helga Scow Stern]

32. Good point, al.

Sometimes it takes an "outside" eye to see what we are embroiled in. The propaganda is getting so thick here.

[althecat]

Thanks OJ...

I find this Newsweek thing incredible. But then it is just the latest in a big string of ..

- Jeff Gannon/Guckert
- Dan Rather getting the boot for telling the truth about shrub
- That CNN boss getting the boot for telling the truth about journos being targetted.
and now Newsweek...

[althecat]

34. Thanks OJ...

I find this Newsweek thing incredible. But then it is just the latest in a big string of ..

- Jeff Gannon/Guckert
- Dan Rather getting the boot for telling the truth about shrub
- That CNN boss getting the boot for telling the truth about journos being targetted.
and now Newsweek...

[wiggs]

37. Not only are they doing it again...

...it's something that's been done many times before. Iran in the 50's was regime change by covert action. Panama, Ecuador, Chile, Indonesia, African countries... and many others. We dumped Chavez in Venezuela too, but he bounced back.

For the last 50 years, we've been building empire one way or another by stepping on other countries. Iraq is the latest, but won't be the last, as long as the neocons are here.

Sadly, this is our track record. One might be tempted to think of an American empire as "progress" or the as the spread of democracy, which is good. This is definately not the case. Problem is, it leaves enslaved countries destitute, hopeless, and in shambles while their national treasures, land, and cheap labor are raped by other governments and global corporations.

You are right cat, it is not rocket science...it is plainly transparent when you know the history, the players, and the telltale signs. I expect many people can't believe that our apple pie country could do these things. I expect many more won't even stand for listening to the truth about Iraq, Iran, Panama, Bolton, and the rest.

There's this tremendous inertia in the country to believe good things about ourselves and put blinders on. Seems like getting past the stuck-ness is like Einstein's equation...the more enlightenment and truth there is, the heavier the lies and stubborness becomes. The worse the outrage, the more complete and evil the cover up is.

In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Perkins says that Iraq is the key to the Middle East. What good is the key if you don't use it to open doors? Iran and Syria next. Saudi Arabia is in on it, so they are safe.