The White House ordered the CIA to forge a hand-written letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein fabricating a visit by an al-Qa'eda operative two months before the September 11th attacks, according to a new book.
Ron Suskind claimed in "The Way of the World" that the letter was designed to portray a fictitious link between the dictator's regime and al'Qa'eda as a justification for the Iraq war.
Branding Mr Suskind's book "gutter journalism", the White House flatly denied as "absurd" any notion that it had ordered any forgery.
Suskind writes that the letter's author, Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, had been in contact with the Bush administration and MI6 before the March 2003 invasion.
"The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001," Suskind writes.
The above if from the
Telegraph of London's "
Letter linking Iraq and al-Qa'eda was forged by US spies says new book" and it is not just a US story.
Gareth,
Polly and
Pru are among the British community members e-mailing to share their outrage over the
Guardian of London's policy of carrying New Labour's water instead of reporting the news. The
Guardian is not a news outlet, it is a club newsletter for New Labour. And Americans should be paying attention to this because Gordon Brown has gotten away with carrying out a hugely unpopular and illegal war as a result of enablers. Tony Blair made the call and England hope they would have "change" with Blair out. There's a lesson in there for the US and there's a lesson in the refusal of Democratic Party organs refusing to hold Barack accountable for any pledge he breaks.
The Nation and
Guardian have a little partnership and that goes a long way towards explaining why neither outlet is worth the paper it's printed on. Neither outlet defines their role as providing information. Both see their role as turning out the votes for their respective parties. It's not journalism, not even advocacy journalism. It's the worship and repeating of spin.
While we're on the topic of those not doing their job, M-NF. ICCC reports the death toll for US service members so far this month has already reaced
6. Four of those died on Saturday. On Sunday, M-NF was announcing two. Here are the names of the dead:
We've noted repeatedly for years that the Defense Department's job is only to release the names. Before the name is released, M-NF is supposed to have already made the announcement of a death. That is how it is supposed to work and for any who still can't grasp that, for some reason M-NF included the policy in
a death announcement Monday:
Multi-National Division – Baghdad is not the release authority for the names of U.S. service members who have died while serving in Iraq. The names of the servicemembers are announced through the U.S. Department of Defense Official Website at http://www.defenselink.mil/ . The announcements are made on the Website no earlier than 24 hours after notification of the service member’s primary next of kin.
They know the policy . . . they just don't follow it.
A lot of people not doing their jobs. That's the alleged 'alternative' press, that's M-NF and, as Ron Jacobs points out, that the peace 'movement.' From Ron Jacobs' "
Jerry Garcia Meets Barack Obama" (
Dissident Voice):
Just look at the major national antiwar organization United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and their public stance regarding the desire of organizers of the protests at the upcoming Democratic convention to stage a large antiwar march at the convention. According to a recent press release from some organizers of the march, Leslie Cagan of UFPJ told some Denver organizers, "We don't think it makes sense to plan for a mass march that might not end up being all that mass!" In other words, UFPJ is refusing to help build support for the march.
There can only be one reason for UFPJ's stance. That reason is UFPJ's allegiance to the Democratic Party. This allegiance is not an allegiance found among the grassroots of UFPJ but at the top. It involves a political misunderstanding of the Democrats' role in maintaining the US empire and a fear of losing funding from elements of UFPJ that are tied to the Democratic Party. Ignoring the fact that it is the Democratic Congress that has kept the Empire's wars going, UFPJ continues to call the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "Bush’s Wars." Besides the attempts to silence the antiwar voice in the streets, there are also ongoing attempts by Democratic Party manipulators to keep antiwar language out of the Party's platform. This is in spite of a statement signed by the progressive wing of the party demanding that the language be included. If 2004 is any indication, there will be no antiwar language in the 2008 Democratic Party platform.
Margo notes
this from Team Nader -- and this is from yesterday so there's only 1 day left in the contest (it ends at midnight tonight):
Only Two Days Left in Contest
Posted by The Nader Team on Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 03:20:00 PM
ShareThis
Only two days left in our Win Dinner with Ralph E-mail Contest.
Many thousands of you have signed on.
And a select few of you are competing for the grand prize of a dinner with Ralph.
This morning, Ramy Mousa from Baton Rouge, Louisiana tops the leader board with 263 friends that have joined our network.
But many more thousands of you haven't even played.
So, we'd like you to try it.
You bring us the e-mails of your friends, neighbors and countrymen.
We feed them up-to-the minute breaking news about the two corporate candidates - Obama and McCain - and the growing challenge by Nader and Gonzalez.
Nader/Gonzalez is an unconventional campaign, in many ways.
One, there is no national convention.
We're running as independents.
Two, we have a broad range of support.
Take Iggy Pup here, for example.
We asked Iggy.
Iggy, who ya going vote for?
Iggy, being on our e-mail list, knew that Nader/Gonzalez would shift the power from the corporations back into the hands of the people.
Check out Iggy's answer in this just released Nader/Gonzalez video.
But it's not enough for Iggy to be plugged in.
Or for you to be plugged in.
We have to spread the word far and wide.
And one way to do it is to build our network of supporters.
Just bring us five new e-mails, and you can be part of a special invite-only conference phone call with Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez.
But you have to get going.
The contest ends the day after tomorrow - Thursday August 7 - at 11:59 PM on the West coast.
There are other great prizes.
But most importantly, you'll be helping us spread the word.
About the candidacy that will stand up to the two corporate parties in November.
So, help us out - find five people right now that will join our network of supporters.
Click here to get started.
If you are already in the game, thank you.
You can track your ranking on our leader board.
Find more friends and family and colleagues, and watch yourself move on up.
We'll be announcing the winners in a week or so.
Thank you for joining.
Together, we are making a difference.
Onward.
The Nader Team
PS: We invite your comments to the blog.
Your contribution could be doubled. Public campaign financing may match your contribution total up to $250.
ShareThis
