Expose the Links between Al Qaeda and the Bush Adminstration by (Michel Chossudovsky)
"When people across the US find out that Al Qaeda is not linked to Saddam but is in fact a creation of the CIA and that the terrorist warnings are fabricated, the legitimacy of the Bush Administration will tumble like a deck of cards. The perceived enemy will no longer be Saddam, it will be Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, et al. Why is this important for the antiwar movement? This relationship of the Bush Administration to international terrorism, which is a matter of public record, indelibly points to the criminalisation of the upper echelons of US State apparatus... A precondition for breaking the legitimacy of the Bush Administration is to fully reveal its links to international terrorism and its complicity in the tragic event of 9/11. This objective can only be achieved by effectively curbing its propaganda campaign and spreading the truth through a grassroots citizen's information campaign. ... There are documented links between Al Qaeda and senior Bush Administration officials including Sec. Colin Powell and Deputy Sec. Richard Armitage. Documented by the US Congress, there are links record between President Clinton and Al Qaeda. The Chairman of the 9/11 Investigation Commission Thomas Kean appointed by President Bush was a business partner of a powerful member of the bin Laden family. There is evidence of dubious links involving members of the US Congress, including Senator Bob Graham and Rep. Porter Goss, chairmen of the Senate and House committees on Intelligence.. Colin Powell and Richard Armitage had high level talks with the former ISI Chief General Mahmoud Ahmad in the immediate wake of 9/11. There is also extensive evidence of business links between the Bush and bin Laden families."

The Disinformation of Richard Clarke (Scott Loughrey / Centre for Research on Globalisation)
"The apparent defection of former counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke is a propaganda coup for the Bush Regime. ... it is hard not to believe that Clarke’s defection is a hoax."

New Chairman of 9/11 Commission has business ties with Osama's Brother in Law (Michel Chossudovsky)
Now you would think that being a business partner of the brother in law and alleged financier of "Enemy No. 1" would be considered a bona fide "conflict of interest", particularly when your mandate --as part of the 9/11 Commission's work-- is to investigate "Enemy No. 1".

9-11 Commision Chairman Kean's Link To bin Laden's Brother-in-law (Tom Flocco)
"Kean's pre-9/11 oil links to bin Laden's brother-in-law were severed just prior to appointment and FBI translator's letter and calls to chairman charging security and espionage breaches were unanswered for a year."

Found at Starbucks: The Pentagon's Papers (Common Dreams / Center for American Progress)
"...as the Washington Post reports today, one of them – obviously readying himself to prep Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld – left his notes on the table. Talking points, hand-written notes on spin tactics, and a hand-drawn map to the Secretary's house were found by a resident of DuPont Circle, who made them available to the Center for American Progress."

Clarke challenges Rice to reveal secret emails (Guardian Unlimited)
Clarke calls the White House's bluff: "Mr Clarke called on his principal critic and former employer, the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to release the entire record of their emails in the months up to the September 11 terror attacks to prove his contention that the White House did not then take the threat of al-Qaida seriously. He also agreed to Republican demands to declassify testimony he gave to the Senate two years ago - to "prove" there were no inconsistencies. "Let's take all of my emails and all the memos I sent to the national security adviser and her deputy from January 20 to September 11 and let's declassify all of them."

Promising To Deliver Osama, Pakistan Receives $100 million A Month From US, Among Other Gifts (Sebastien Sainclair / AxisofLogic)
"Pakistan hasn't yet delivered al-Qaeda No 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri to the United States in exchange for its recognition as a major ally, but the diplomatic bonanza will yield rich pickings, including arms and ammunition, in the coming days. Following its designation as a "major non-Nato ally" earlier this week, Pakistan is now eligible for purchase of excess defense articles and equipment the US may leave behind once it leaves the region. ... the MNNA designation also allows a country to purchase depleted uranium and US reserve stockpiles. The US will also write-off USD 460 million debt of Pakistan under the previously agreed American financial assistance package. An agreement to this effect would be formally signed next month between the two countries. The United States government is reportedly paying Pakistan 100 million dollars a month for logistics support in the global war against terrorism. The "logistics support payments" increased by 83.3 per cent during July-December 2003 to total 581 million dollars, or about $97 million dollars a month."

Here's Why Condi Rice Won't Testify Under Oath Before the 9/11 Commission (BuzzFlash)
Bush Did Nothing to Prevent 9/11 Hijackings. The Source of this Allegation: Condi Rice. In 2002, as news of the August 2001 briefing began to emerge, the Bush Cartel hauled out Condi to "explain" that it was true that Bush had been warned that it was highly possible that Al-Qaeda hijackings might occur in the near future, but that Bush wasn't told specifically about plans to attack the World Trade Center or Pentagon so he didn't take action to protect them. ... "U.S. intelligence officials informed President Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes." [ABC News, 5/16/03])

Here's Why Condi Rice Won't Testify Under Oath Before the 9/11 Commission (BuzzFlash)
Bush Did Nothing to Prevent 9/11 Hijackings. The Source of this Allegation: Condi Rice. In 2002, as news of the August 2001 briefing began to emerge, the Bush Cartel hauled out Condi to "explain" that it was true that Bush had been warned that it was highly possible that Al-Qaeda hijackings might occur in the near future, but that Bush wasn't told specifically about plans to attack the World Trade Center or Pentagon so he didn't take action to protect them. ... "U.S. intelligence officials informed President Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes." [ABC News, 5/16/03])

Heads-Up To Ashcroft Proves Threat Was Known Before 9/11 (Harley Sorensen / San Francisco Gate)
"They might have been surprised by the ferocity of the attacks, but the highest-ranking members of the George W. Bush administration knew before Sept. 11 that something terrible was going to happen soon. Bush knew something was going to happen involving airplanes. He just didn't know what or exactly when. His attorney general, John Ashcroft, knew. His national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, knew. They all knew. And, in spite of its apparent ineptness, the FBI knew, too."

Bush Admits Negligence; Condoleezza Rice Refutes (Center for American Progress)
"More evidence emerging this week that the White House received repeated warnings before 9/11 of an imminent Al Qaeda attack... internal government documents showing how the Administration downgraded and tried to slash funding for counterterrorism before 9/11... National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice this week reiterated the President's "ignorance" defense, but in doing so repeated a lie that she had previously admitted was a lie... she admitted privately to the 9/11 Commission that she had "misspoken." Yet, even after this admission, she proceeded to repeat the same dishonest claim, writing in a Washington Post op-ed this week that "we received no intelligence that terrorists were preparing to attack the homeland using airplanes as missiles." As one FBI terrorism expert said, the Administration's "ignorance" defense is "an outrageous lie. And documents prove it's a lie. Rice claimed this week that "No al Qaeda plan was turned over to the new administration." But the 9/11 Commission reported, "On January 25th, 2001, Richard Clarke forwarded his December 2000 strategy paper and a copy of his 1998 Delenda plan to the new national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice." [No wonder she wouldn't do this under oath. The evidence is getting harder to deny. -smug]

GOP donors double dipping with Nader (DallasNews)
"Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is getting a little help from his friends - and from George W. Bush's friends." ... Once again, the Republicans really have their campaign strategy down to a science. Clever buggers. Am I the only one just now becoming aware of this tactic?

The Secret History of George W Bush and the Alabama National Guard (The MadCow Morning News)
"Evidence unearthed in our investigation indicates that George W. Bush, while supposedly serving in the Texas Guard in 1971, may instead have been detailed to the massive covert operation of the U.S. government going on at that very moment in Central America. Did George W. Bush take part in Operation Condor?"

We should have had orange or red-type of alert in June or July of 2001 (Eric Boehlert / Salon.com)
A former FBI translator told the 9/11 commission that the bureau had detailed information well before Sept. 11, 2001, that terrorists were likely to attack the U.S. with airplanes.

Governor Bush vs President Bush (John Stewart / Comedy Central)
HAH! a great piece by John Stewart with video clips of Bush contradicting himself.

Ghost Town: My Rides Through Chernobyl Area
A surreal tour of the areas surrounding the Chernobyl meltdown. Caution: disturbing and depressing.

New York Times Reports Illegal Florda Vote Purge ... Three Years After Killing Story(Greg Palast)
It only took the NY Times 3+ years to pull their heads half-way out of their ass... "The New York Times has uncovered Katherine Harris' wipe out of thousands of voters ... only three years after killing the story exposed by the BBC TV and the Guardian. Here, 'News Dissector' Schechter, formerly of ABC's 20/20, asks how the Times could editorialize on a story they never ran in the first place. And note the Times still can't bring itself to say that the color of illegally purged voters is ... Black."

Bush says had no advance warning on 9/11 (Reuters):
"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of the government, to protect the American people," Bush said.

I know we forget quick, George, but give us a little credit...

May 19, 2002: A bad call? (The Observer)
"The [Presidential Daily Brief] was passed to the President on the afternoon of 6 August [2001], while he was on vacation at his beloved ranch at Crawford, in Texas.... At the heart of what is potentially the biggest scandal to blight the presidency since Watergate is that memo passed to Bush on 6 August, warning that Osama bin Laden's organisation was poised to hijack US aircraft to wage a terror campaign. And according to yesterday's Washington Post, the memo left little doubt that the hijacked airliners were intended for use as missiles and that intended targets were to be inside the US."

Quote of the Day:
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both.
-James Madison

DOJ Asked FBI Translator To Change Pre 9-11 (Tom Flocco / Sibel Edmonds)
"FBI translator Sibel Edmonds was offered a substantial raise and a full time job to encourage her not to go public that she had been asked by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to retranslate and adjust the translations of [terrorist] subject intercepts that had been received before September 11, 2001 by the FBI and CIA."

UNICEF Nigerian Polio Vaccine Contaminated with Sterilizing Agents Scientist Finds
"A UNICEF campaign to vaccinate Nigeria's youth against polio may have been a front for sterilizing the nation. ... This is not the first time UNICEF has been embroiled in a controversy over sterilizing agents in vaccines. LifeSiteNews.com reported that in 1995, the Catholic Women's League of the Philippines won a court order halting a UNICEF anti-tetanus program because the vaccine had been laced with B-hCG, which when given in a vaccine permanently causes women to be unable to sustain a pregnancy. The Supreme Court of the Philippines found the surreptitious sterilization program had already vaccinated three million women, aged 12 to 45. B-hCG-laced vaccine was also found in at least four other developing countries."

Terror experts 'almost quit' in frustration with Bush
"...the President's daily, top-secret, intelligence briefing from the CIA on 6 August 2001, which the White House has refused to release. It is known however that this "PDB" warned of the possibility of terrorists using airliners for an attack - leading to accusations of a cover-up."

New York Firefighters Discuss Bombs in WTC Towers (LibertyForum / PrisonPlanet)
"In this clip you will hear a discussion between New York Firefighters from September 11 where they describe the WTC and the fact that it looked like detonators were planted in the towers. There is a little profanity in this clip. "

Eating Fossil Fuels(From The Wilderness)
A very important article about the importance of oil and gas in the production of food, and how the end of cheap oil is going to cause enormous problems with agriculture.

The Big Lie About AIDS (Gary Null / Penthouse Magazine)
This will challenge everything you know about AIDS.

BOOK4SALE: Anthrax vaccine - Anthrax: A Deadly Shot In The Dark, Unmasking the Truth Behind a Deadly Vaccine (Lt. Col. Tom Heemstra)
"People are sick and dying from a vaccine that was supposed to protect them.
Are you next? The anthrax vaccine is untested, unsafe, ineffective, unethical, and illegal. Tom Heemstra, a former F-16 Fighter Squadron Commander, takes you deep into politically charged controversy and exposes the truth about the unsafe, untested, unethical and illegal anthrax vaccine. The Department of Defense's mandatory Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP) resulted in illness and death - from a vaccine that was supposed to protect our military forces."

US Govt/Mil/Intel Experiments on Populace - Illegal Aerial-Aerosol "Vaccines" (Parapolitics Forum)
Scarlet Cloud drills point to illegal aerosol "solution"

US tried to plant WMDs, failed: whistleblower (Daily Times (Pakistan))
"According to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy Lt Commander and 28-year veteran of the Defense Department (DoD), the Bush administration's assurance about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was based on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plan to "plant" WMDs inside the country. Nelda Rogers, the Pentagon whistleblower, claims the plan failed when the secret mission was mistakenly taken out by "friendly fire", the Environmentalists Against War report."

Scandal at the U.N. (NY Times)
"The cover-up in the office of the U.N. secretary general of a multibillion-dollar financial fraud known as the Iraqi oil-for-food program is beginning to come apart. ... Journalist Claudia Rosett charging that the U.N.'s secretive oversight of more than $100 billion in Iraqi oil exports and supposed humanitarian imports was 'an invitation to kickbacks, political back-scratching and smuggling done under cover of relief operations.' After checking with Kurdish sources in Iraq, I reported that half the money allocated to their people had been blocked by Saddam 'conspiring with bureaucrats in the U.N. Plaza.'"

HR 3077 - Action Alert
Government to cut funding to universities that employ anyone critical of US policy

MoveOn.org: Democracy in Action
Donald got caugt and confronted about lying about the immediate threat of Iraq on Face the Nation. (Video)

LEADER ARTICLE
Nuclear Bombshell: The Truth that John Kerry Knows (Times of India)
"The myth that A Q Khan's proliferation activities were conducted without the knowledge of the Pakistani army chiefs and prime ministers and further that the US administration was fully satisfied with this explanation stands demolished."

Citizens find Bush guilty of Afghan war crimes (Japan Times):
A citizens' tribunal Saturday in Tokyo found U.S. President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms during the U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in Afghanistan in 2001.

US government faked Bush news reports (The Guardian / Information Clearinghouse)
TV news reports in America that showed President George Bush getting a standing ovation from potential voters have been exposed as fake, it has emerged. The US government admitted it paid actors to pose as journalists in video news releases sent to TV stations intending to convey support for new laws about health benefits.

Rove Admits Smear Campaign Against Wilson ()
President Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, told the FBI in an interview last October that he circulated and discussed damaging information regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame with others in the White House, outside political consultants, and journalist.

The new Pentagon papers (Karen Kwiatkowski/Salon.com)
A high-ranking military officer reveals how Defense Department extremists suppressed information and twisted the truth to drive the country to war.

Noam Chomsky on the US and Haiti (Z Magazine)
Required reading. No exceptions. Yes, this means you.

CIA director disputes Cheney assertions on Iraq (Jonathon S. Landay / Knight Ridder Newspapers)
CIA Director George Tenet on Tuesday rejected recent assertions by Vice President Dick Cheney that Iraq cooperated with the al-Qaida terrorist network and that the administration had proof of an illicit Iraqi biological warfare program. Tenet's comments to the Senate Armed Services Committee are likely to fuel friction between the White House and intelligence agencies over the failure so far to find any of the banned weapons stockpiles that President Bush, in justifying his case for war, charged Saddam Hussein with concealing.

Warren Buffett keeps out of the depreciating dollar (Guardian)
The grim future of the dollar...

The Anthrax Mystery - Is it about to be unveiled? (Justin Raimondo/AntiWar.com)
Lots of good information about the real Anthrax stories...

'Kelly was Murdered' Says UK Intelligence Insider (Simon Aronowitz/ThoughtCrimeNews.com/PrisonPlanet.com)

The Coming Implosion of the American Empire (Gary North/LewRockwell.com)
"The American Empire is scheduled to depart from Iraq in June. The unofficial word is out in Washington: Karl Rove has told President Bush that the body count, however much reduced by strange definitions of what constitutes a battlefield death, is going to cost him the election if it continues through the summer. Dutifully, the Commander-in-Chief has announced a June deadline for the transfer of Iraq's sovereignty to "the Iraqis," meaning whichever remnants of the coalition of the suppressed will still officially deal with him on his terms."

Mossad Exposed in Phony 'Palestinian Al-Qaeda' Caper (Liberty Forum)
"The United States government has been provided with concrete evidence that the Israeli Mossad and other Israeli intelligence services have been involved in a 13-month effort to 'recruit' an Israeli-run, phony 'al-Qaeda cell' among Palestinians, so that Israel could achieve a frontline position in the U.S. war against terrorism and get a green light for a worldwide 'revenge without borders' policy."

In the western world, only one newspaper reports the suicide of the woman who accused George W Bush of rape (ThoughtCrime News)
Despite the enormity of the story, a virtual news blackout has remained in place since Margie Schoedinger first filed charges against George W Bush in 2002. Schoedinger had accused Bush of rape and other sexual crimes against both her and her husband, only one publication in the USA saw fit to print anything about her or her allegations. That publication was her local newspaper. Schoedinger apparently committed suicide on 22nd September of 2003 but her death only attracted new attention on the internet in November of 2003. Only now has one small-circulation newspaper in the UK run the story of her demise. It found the story so newsworthy it ran its headline on the front page next to the title header.

`Kelly was Murdered' Says UK Intelligence Insider
(ThoughtCrime News)
Michael Shrimpton, a UK national security lawyer, revealed that sources within MI5 and MI6 are furious that Kelly was murdered. With apparent backing from the organisations whose members he claims to speak for, Shrimpton presented their view that Dr Kelly had been murdered by a team of assassins and the charade of an apparent suicide was then played out to cover this up.

Britain Accused Of Spying On UN's Annan
"British agents spied on the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in the run-up to the Iraqi war, the former International Development Secretary Clare Short claimed today. Ms Short - who quit the Cabinet in protest against the war - made the claim while being interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about the implications of the collapse of the case against GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun. Asked whether British agencies had been involved in spying activities against Mr Annan, Ms Short said: 'I know, I have seen transcripts of Kofi Annan's conversations. Ms Short was asked whether she believed that British spies had been instructed to carry out operations within the United Nations on people such as Kofi Annan. She replied: "Yes, absolutely.""

Cartoon steps into the real world (BBC)
"Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who will verify Mr Bush's account of his military service in Alabama in the early 70s."

Burger Flipping Reclassified To Distort Economic Picture? (Congressmen John D. Dingell / Mark A Thornley / Rense)
"Flipping burgers has been reclassified as a manufacturing job. Could this be manipulations to make the jobs situation look rosy? Shameful... I noticed in the recently released Economic Report of the President that there was some consternation in the defining of manufacturing. It could be inferred from your report that the administration is willing to recognize drink mixing, hamburger garnishing, French/freedom fry cooking, and milk shake mixing to be vital components of our manufacturing sector."

DARPA Unmanned Helicopter (Free Press International)

Mosul deputy police chief assassinated (Guardian)
Insurgents today assassinated the deputy police chief of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, in the latest attack on Iraqi police working alongside US-led forces in the country. Hours earlier, a previously unknown militant group, the Mujahedeen Brigades in Iraq, distributed leaflets at police stations in Kirkuk. The leaflets threatened attacks on police and militias who protect "infidel" US personnel.

Bullets claim stirs Iraq equipment row (Guardian)
"A serving soldier reignited the row about equipment shortages during the Iraq war last night, claiming he and his men had been issued with just five bullets each for the entire conflict. "We had five rounds each to defend ourselves. I actually crossed the border with five rounds. The magazine held 30 separate bullets but I was issued with five separate bullets to last the entire hostilities of the war." As well as receiving just five bullets, he claimed the unit's camouflage nets and many of their vehicles and uniforms were green, not desert brown. The report said the men were also short of maps and body armour and instead of radios, they were issued with a mobile phone and instructed to call if they were attacked. Last month, the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, faced calls to resign following the death of Sergeant Steven Roberts, who was killed after being ordered to hand his flak jacket to another unit because there were not enough to go around."

CIA chief predicts war with no end (David Rennie/Telegraph)
"America's assault on al-Qa'eda has scattered its terrorist expertise across the globe, meaning that the United States will be menaced by Islamic extremism "for the foreseeable future", the CIA director, George Tenet, said yesterday. He offered the Senate intelligence committee a bleak vision of a war on terrorism without end, in which even the destruction of al-Qa'eda would not make America safe."

Why I Joined the Carlyle Group and Other Revelation sfrom Former Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) Chair, Arthur Levitt, Jr. (Susan Mazur / From The Wilderness)
"FTW's regular readers will recognize many of the names mentioned by former SEC Chair Arthur Levitt. They will remember that in 2001, just months before September 11 th, FTW decried the purchase of Mexico 's largest drug money laundering bank, Banamex, by Citigroup under then CEO Sandy Weill. They will remember our early post-9/11 stories focusing on the Carlyle Group and its insidious insider connections, as well as the fact that the bin Laden family were investors, and that Osama's brother had been attending a Carlyle meeting just blocks from the White House on that fateful day. The point is that in the financial world Arthur Levitt is regarded as the clean, no-nonsense SEC boss. As the accounting scandals of 2002 destroyed hundreds of billions of dollars in shareholder equity, much of it in pension funds, Washington and New York insiders lamented, “if only Arthur were here.” Now that those scandals have faded from view and contemporary memory Arthur Levitt, the icon, cynically and disingenuously discloses his positions on a wide variety of subjects. We see him now not as a protector of integrity but as a man who is cut from a mold similar to that of one of his predecessors at the SEC, William Casey. The same William Casey who was Ronald Reagan's CIA director and who masterminded an explosion of CIA-shepherded drugs into the bloodstreams of America's children and into Wall Street's stocks, bonds and bank accounts. FTW welcomes veteran international journalist Suzan Mazur to our pages with her elegantly understated sense of outrage."

Amnesty International barred from Guantanamo trials (Guardian)
Amnesty International and two other leading human rights organisations are protesting to the Pentagon about its decision not to let them attend the planned trials of al-Qaida suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba... Lesley Warner, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International, said yesterday: "The US regularly criticises other governments for failing to accommodate trial monitors. "Allowing media coverage while pleading insufficient space for human rights groups smacks of fear of informed criticism, and will only fuel the perception that tribunals will be show trials." Wendy Patten, of Human Rights Watch, said: "The defence department wants to control who can talk to the journalists covering the trials. "The Pentagon has imposed a gag rule on defence lawyers, who can only speak to the press with the military's permission. "Now it wants to shut out experienced trial observers who could provide the public with independent analysis.""

Russia Tests New Wonder Weapon (Wired)
"Russia has successfully tested a hypersonic anti-Star Wars weapon capable of penetrating any prospective missile shield, a senior general said Thursday. The prototype weapon proved it could maneuver so quickly as to make "any missile defense useless," Col.-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, told a news conference."

WHO 'suppressed' scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears in Iraq (Sunday Herald)
"Radiation experts warn in unpublished report that DU weapons used by Allies in Gulf war pose long-term health risk. An expert report warning that the long-term health of Iraq's civilian population would be endangered by British and US depleted uranium (DU) weapons has been kept secret. The study by three leading radiation scientists cautioned that children and adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust containing DU, which is radioactive and chemically toxic. But it was blocked from publication by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which employed the main author, Dr Keith Baverstock, as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges that it was deliberately suppressed, though this is denied by WHO."

Bush to Limit Testimony Before 9/11 Panel (NY Times)
"President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have placed strict limits on the private interviews they will grant to the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, saying that they will meet only with the panel's top two officials and that Mr. Bush will submit to only a single hour of questioning. The commission, which has 10 members and is bipartisan, said in a statement that it had also been informed by the White House that Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, had rejected its request that she testify in public about the intelligence reports that reached her desk before the Sept. 11 attacks." I'm sure Condoleezza declined to testify because the first question asked of her would be, "How did you know of the pending disaster when you told San Francisco Mayor, Willie Brown, not to fly on the week of 9/11?"
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 — President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have placed strict limits on the private interviews they will grant to the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, saying that they will meet only with the panel's top two officials and that Mr. Bush will submit to only a single hour of questioning, commission members said Wednesday. The commission, which has 10 members and is bipartisan, said in a statement that it had also been informed by the White House that Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, had rejected its request that she testify in public about the intelligence reports that reached her desk before the Sept. 11 attacks. Democratic members of the panel said the administration's moves raised new questions about its willingness to cooperate with the commission, which is investigating intelligence and law enforcement blunders in the months and years before the 2001 attacks. The White House initially opposed creating the panel. Republican Congressional leaders have criticized the investigation's pace. Speaker J. Dennis Hastert said he would not support and might block any legislation that extended the life of the panel, which is scheduled to complete its work in May. The commission called on Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney to reconsider their decision against meeting with all 10 members of the panel. "President Bush and Vice President Cheney have agreed to meet privately with the chair and vice chair but prefer not to meet with all members," the statement said, referring to the chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican and former governor of New Jersey; and vice chairman, Lee H. Hamilton, a Democrat and former House member from Indiana. "We hope the president and the vice president will reconsider." The panel said it was "disappointed" by Ms. Rice's decision not to testify at a public hearing, adding, "We believe the nation would be well served by the contribution she can make to public understanding of the intelligence and policy issues being examined by the commission." Ms. Rice has submitted to several hours of questioning at a private session. Her spokesman, Sean McCormack, said the decision against public testimony was made at the recommendation of administration lawyers who warned of separation-of-powers issues. "Based on law and practice, White House staff members have not testified before legislative bodies," Mr. McCormack said, "and this is considered a legislative body." The commission's statement suggested that the panel had received promises of greater cooperation from former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore, who have agreed to meet in private with all members. Ms. Rice's predecessor, Samuel R. Berger, is scheduled to testify in public next month. A White House spokeswoman, Erin Healy, would not offer details of the White House's reasoning in trying to limit the meeting to Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton, and Ms. Healy said she was unaware that the White House had wanted to limit the president's interview to one hour. "The president looks forward to meeting with the chairman and the vice chairman to provide the information necessary for the commission to complete its work," Ms. Healy said. "He's also confident that they'll be able to share that information with the rest of the commission." In interviews, Democratic members of the commission were openly critical of the limits that the administration was trying to place on the interviews and of Ms. Rice's decision not to testify in public. "This is not acceptable," said Richard Ben-Veniste, the former Watergate prosecutor and a Democrat on the commission. Mr. Ben-Veniste said the commission believed that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney needed to meet with all 10 members and that it might consider a subpoena for Ms. Rice if she refused to testify in public. Republicans on the panel, including Mr. Kean, said that while the White House should allow Ms. Rice to testify publicly and place fewer restrictions on the interviews with Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, that was not meant to suggest criticism of the White House. "We appreciate the president giving us the time and the vice president, and we would respectfully suggest that all 10 commissioners should participate," Mr. Kean said, adding that he was disappointed by Ms. Rice's decision because "she was so very good in her private testimony — she was articulate, candid, helpful." He said he doubted that the panel would consider a subpoena.

Whistleblower: Cleared,
Government: Accused of cover-up, Case for war: An official secret
"Tony Blair faced fresh questions about the legality of the war on Iraq last night after prosecutors dropped charges against a whistleblower who had threatened to expose secrets in court. Katharine Gun, a former employee at GCHQ, the top-secret electronic eavesdropping centre, was charged with leaking secrets about preparations for the conflict but walked free from the Old Bailey when the case against her collapsed. The Crown Prosecution Service triggered accusations of a cover-up when it refused to go into the reasons why, after nearly a year, it had decided to offer no evidence against Ms Gun. Ms Gun said she was proud of her decision to leak the fact that the US had requested British help in "dirty tricks" against wavering members of the United Nations Security Council before the war. Ms Gun, 29, had been charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act after leaking a top-secret e-mail revealing US plans to bug delegates at the UN Security Council before a crucial vote on the conflict."

Bin Laden 'surrounded' (Sunday Telegraph)
"A BRITISH Sunday newspaper is claiming Osama bin Laden has been found and is surrounded by US special forces in an area of land bordering north-west Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Sunday Express, known for its sometimes colourful scoops, claims the al-Qaeda leader has been 'sighted' for the first time since 2001 and is being monitored by satellite. The claim is attributed to "a well-placed intelligence source" in Washington, who is quoted as saying: "He (bin Laden) is boxed in.""
We're being conditioned for Osama to be trotted out dead just before election time...

Osama to be handed to US if caught in Pakistan - Sify.com
"Pakistan Monday indicated that it will hand over Osama bin Laden to the United States if he is caught on its soil... Kasuri said that an amnesty offered by President Pervez Musharraf, where foreigners surrendering in Pakistan will not be handed over to any power, would not apply to bin Laden... If "somebody had committed a crime against the United States that is separate issue", he said. (aren't we special?) ... Britain's Sunday Express newspaper quoted a US intelligence source as saying bin Laden was "boxed in" in an area 16 kilometres square "north of the town of Khanozai and the city of Quetta""

US Still Pays Millions To Group Providing Fake Iraqi Intel (By Jonathan S. Landay, Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott/Knight Ridder Newspapers)
"The Pentagon has set aside between $3 million and $4 million this year for the Information Collection Program of the Iraqi National Congress, or INC, led by Ahmed Chalabi. . . . furthermore suggests that some within the administration are intent on securing a key role for Chalabi in Iraq's political future."

David Kelly "Taken Out" By Assasination Team Says British National Security Lawyer (Rense)

Friends of terrorism (Guardian Unlimited)
"Bush's decision to bring back Otto Reich exposes the hypocrisy of the war against terror."

Kissinger Had a Hand in 'Dirty War' (Insight)
Newly released U.S. documents obtained by Insight show that in 1976 Secretary of State Henry Kissinger played a key role in assuring Argentina's military rulers that their antiterrorist campaign involving the disappearance, torture and assassination of at least 15,000 people, many of whom were not combatants, would not be criticized by the United States on human-rights grounds.

PNAC Memo: Regime Change for Iran (Liberty Forum)

Richard Perle Resigns From Advisory Panel (ABC News)
Richard Perle, a lightning rod for critics of the Bush administration's national security policies, informed Rumsfeld more than two weeks ago he was quitting the Defense Policy Board. Perle is a leading figure of the "neo-conservative" ideological school, and outlines his strong views on wielding U.S. military power against Islamic radicals in his new book, "An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror" [-- haha!]

Hastert to block 9/11 commission extension (CNN)
"He does not want this to be delayed any further and become a political football in the middle of the campaign. "I can't understand the logic of denying this short but necessary extension of time to complete our work, given the fact that the bipartisan members of the commission unanimously supported the extension, and the White House has publicly indicated it would support it," he said. Commissioners have frequently complained that the White House and other agencies have impeded access to documents, information and officials."

CIA Cash Funded Drugs Trade (Nick Peters/scotlandonsunday.com)
"While Peru's disgraced former spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos awaits trial in a maximum security jail in Lima, it has emerged that millions of dollars donated by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency not only helped him amass a small personal fortune, but was also responsible for one of the most embarrassing espionage debacles of recent years. Skimming off money that the CIA intended for use in Peru's anti-drug trafficking efforts, Montesinos set up a major arms deal in the Middle East that funnelled 10,000 AK47 rifles to left-wing FARC guerrillas in Colombia, thereby fomenting the very uprising that America has pledged $1.3bn to stamp out."

Montesinos witness 'found shot dead' (BBC)
"A retired Peruvian army general described as a key witness in the corruption trial of former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos has been found dead in an apparent suicide."

The Bush dynasty and the Cuban criminals (Guardian Unlimited)
"The brother of President George Bush, the Florida governor, Jeb Bush, has been instrumental in securing the release from prison of militant Cuban exiles convicted of terrorist offences. The Bush family has also accommodated the demands of Cuban exile hardliners in exchange for electoral and financial support."

The Doors of Perception: Why Americans Will Believe Almost Anything (Tim O'Shea/thedoctorwithin.com)
"We are the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever known. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and inexorably erased. The doors of our perception are carefully and precisely regulated."

In Your Face (Michael Ruppert/From The Wilderness Publications)
- Connections between Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force, 9/11 and Peak Oil "On the Table"
- July '04 Supreme Court Ruling on Secrecy, Task Force Documents Obtained through FOIA Suit on Collision Course as Cheney Duck Hunts with Scalia

Stand Down: Was 9/11 Lack of Air Defense Deliberate? (Mark Elsis)
One of the most complete accounts of an unmistakable stand-down.

No Hijackers For 911 (John Kaminski/Rense)
"Repentant arms dealer reveals disgruntled U.S. military on the verge of revolt: Pentagon arms salesman Donn de Grand-Pre, author of three books that allege 9/11 was an inside job, set the record straight, because he was the man who organized that conference. That 72-hour non-stop symposium by a group of military and civilian pilots concluded the flight crews of the four passenger airliners involved in the 9/11 tragedy had no control over their aircraft."

IMPENDING STAGED CAPTURE OF BIN LADEN (Alex Jones / Prison Planet)

RFID Tags in New US Notes Explode When You Try to Microwave Them / RFID Tags Already in Euro Notes (Steve Watson / Propaganda Matrix)

Memoir reveals CIA role in blast (Mercury News)
"In January 1982, President Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural-gas pipeline."