"Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."
Sir Walter Scott
Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice to Deceive
Kevin Zeese
September 16, 2007
The Power of the Truth and the Power of the People are Synergistic.
Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice to Deceive
This war started on a pack of lies and continues with more lies piled on. To end this war we must break the tangled web of deceit with the truth.
The lies of Petraeus are so obvious as we see the failure in Iraq every day. They are so obvious I’m not going to use my limited time to dissect them here but I will express amazement at the regard the Congress, especially the Democrats, showed to someone practicing such obvious deception.
President Bush is perhaps the boldest deceiver – calling a country we are occupying our “ally,” and claiming the draw down of troops is due to success, rather than admitting it is to relieve an exhausted military that is fighting a failed occupation.
Bush’s lies have gotten bolder and bolder as Congress fails to exercise their constitutional duty to impeach this president who defines ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’
But let’s talk about some more difficult truths – about the situation we face as a country, as a peace movement and as citizens.
What is it in our culture and politics that makes Bush possible?
What is it that makes Hillary Clinton the front runner – despite being wrong on the war and deeply indebted to the corporate powers and the right wing pro-Israel lobby that wanted this war and wants a war with Iran?
What is it that makes Barak Obama a peace candidate to some – even though he voted to fund this war, would consider a military attack on Iran, would use the military in Pakistan without that government’s approval, and is advocating an expanded military by 100,000 more troops? Sen. Obama is not peace candidate.
My fellow Americans, we are living in a manipulated democracy where corporate-militarists rule. We must remember the role Halliburton and the oil industry play in making occupation pay for war profiteers.
But, we are not powerless. Those in power know they lack the support of the American people and are forced to manipulate elections and the media to keep control. They are forced to use the power of police and the courts to try and suppress demonstrations like these. Is everyone aware that a SWAT team was used to arrest those posting flyers for this rally? And $35,000 in fines have been levied for legally placed posters? The establishment shows they fear the power of the people. Their actions demonstrate that we do have the power to end this war.
How can we use the power we have, to stand and face our situation – one of life and death – for our country and our world?
Let’s make the truth viral. Stay fully informed. Visit DemocracyRising.US and get our weekly newsletter to stay aware of the latest news from our nation’s capital and from Iraq which you can share with friends, neighbors, family and colleagues. Become a virus of truth by being fully informed and spreading the word.
Let’s use our economic power – to support peace groups that stand strong on war and peace.
Let’s use our economic power to create a new economy one that is not oil-based, but green and sustainable; when we do we will weaken the military industrial complex and no longer fight wars for oil.
Let’s use our economic power to boycott those who profit from or support war.
Use our economic power for mass walk-outs from work – for an hour, or a day, or longer.
And, our political power.
Yes, the system is stacked against us but we have power - more power than we realize because it is mostly untapped.
Our political power is not just in voting, the peace movement has the power to shut down this Congress, to shut down this city – the modern Rome – if we are organized enough and fearless enough to do so.
As voters we must first organize as peace voters. Sign the voters pledge at Voters For Peace.US – say you will only support peace candidates by signing the peace pledge at VotersForPeace.US.
We cannot compromise on the issue of life and death, war and peace or the survival of our planet. These are issues of no compromise.
Those who recognize the importance of peace cannot use their votes for those who compromise on these life and death issues.
Not only should peace voters refuse to give their vote to war wafflers, we cannot give our money or our time to them. Indeed, we should give our money and time to insurgents who challenge the corporate-militarist parties from within and more importantly to greens, libertarians and independents who oppose the corporate-militarist parties.
If we want to end militarism we must use our electoral power to end militarism.
If the people want to take back their government it begins with us – us insisting on what we want. In the next election, you cannot waste your vote on candidates who disagree with you on the fundamental issue of war and peace. Voting for war wafflers is a crime of democracy – because you have been manipulated to vote for what you don’t want.
Recognize your power, do not fear your power, use your power – when we use our power than power will return to the people, the government will return to the people and war will become an embarrassment of history.
Kevin Zeese is the Director of VotersForPeace.US and DemocracyRising.US.
Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice to Deceive
This war started on a pack of lies and continues with more lies piled on. To end this war we must break the tangled web of deceit with the truth.
The lies of Petraeus are so obvious as we see the failure in Iraq every day. They are so obvious I’m not going to use my limited time to dissect them here but I will express amazement at the regard the Congress, especially the Democrats, showed to someone practicing such obvious deception.
President Bush is perhaps the boldest deceiver – calling a country we are occupying our “ally,” and claiming the draw down of troops is due to success, rather than admitting it is to relieve an exhausted military that is fighting a failed occupation.
Bush’s lies have gotten bolder and bolder as Congress fails to exercise their constitutional duty to impeach this president who defines ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’
But let’s talk about some more difficult truths – about the situation we face as a country, as a peace movement and as citizens.
What is it in our culture and politics that makes Bush possible?
What is it that makes Hillary Clinton the front runner – despite being wrong on the war and deeply indebted to the corporate powers and the right wing pro-Israel lobby that wanted this war and wants a war with Iran?
What is it that makes Barak Obama a peace candidate to some – even though he voted to fund this war, would consider a military attack on Iran, would use the military in Pakistan without that government’s approval, and is advocating an expanded military by 100,000 more troops? Sen. Obama is not peace candidate.
My fellow Americans, we are living in a manipulated democracy where corporate-militarists rule. We must remember the role Halliburton and the oil industry play in making occupation pay for war profiteers.
But, we are not powerless. Those in power know they lack the support of the American people and are forced to manipulate elections and the media to keep control. They are forced to use the power of police and the courts to try and suppress demonstrations like these. Is everyone aware that a SWAT team was used to arrest those posting flyers for this rally? And $35,000 in fines have been levied for legally placed posters? The establishment shows they fear the power of the people. Their actions demonstrate that we do have the power to end this war.
How can we use the power we have, to stand and face our situation – one of life and death – for our country and our world?
Let’s make the truth viral. Stay fully informed. Visit DemocracyRising.US and get our weekly newsletter to stay aware of the latest news from our nation’s capital and from Iraq which you can share with friends, neighbors, family and colleagues. Become a virus of truth by being fully informed and spreading the word.
Let’s use our economic power – to support peace groups that stand strong on war and peace.
Let’s use our economic power to create a new economy one that is not oil-based, but green and sustainable; when we do we will weaken the military industrial complex and no longer fight wars for oil.
Let’s use our economic power to boycott those who profit from or support war.
Use our economic power for mass walk-outs from work – for an hour, or a day, or longer.
And, our political power.
Yes, the system is stacked against us but we have power - more power than we realize because it is mostly untapped.
Our political power is not just in voting, the peace movement has the power to shut down this Congress, to shut down this city – the modern Rome – if we are organized enough and fearless enough to do so.
As voters we must first organize as peace voters. Sign the voters pledge at Voters For Peace.US – say you will only support peace candidates by signing the peace pledge at VotersForPeace.US.
We cannot compromise on the issue of life and death, war and peace or the survival of our planet. These are issues of no compromise.
Those who recognize the importance of peace cannot use their votes for those who compromise on these life and death issues.
Not only should peace voters refuse to give their vote to war wafflers, we cannot give our money or our time to them. Indeed, we should give our money and time to insurgents who challenge the corporate-militarist parties from within and more importantly to greens, libertarians and independents who oppose the corporate-militarist parties.
If we want to end militarism we must use our electoral power to end militarism.
If the people want to take back their government it begins with us – us insisting on what we want. In the next election, you cannot waste your vote on candidates who disagree with you on the fundamental issue of war and peace. Voting for war wafflers is a crime of democracy – because you have been manipulated to vote for what you don’t want.
Recognize your power, do not fear your power, use your power – when we use our power than power will return to the people, the government will return to the people and war will become an embarrassment of history.
Kevin Zeese is the Director of VotersForPeace.US and DemocracyRising.US.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/37805
Report Ties Dubious Iran Nuke Documents to Israel
An Elaborate Intelligence Ruse?
By GARETH PORTERA report on Iran’s nuclear programme issued by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month generated news stories publicising an incendiary charge that U.S. intelligence is underestimating Iran’s progress in designing a "nuclear warhead" before the halt in nuclear weapons-related research in 2003.
That false and misleading charge from an intelligence official of a foreign country, who was not identified but was clearly Israeli, reinforces two of Israel’s key propaganda themes on Iran – that the 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran is wrong, and that Tehran is poised to build nuclear weapons as soon as possible.
But it also provides new evidence that Israeli intelligence was the source of the collection of intelligence documents which have been used to accuse Iran of hiding nuclear weapons research.
The Committee report, dated May 4, cited unnamed "foreign analysts" as claiming intelligence that Iran ended its nuclear weapons-related work in 2003 because it had mastered the design and tested components of a nuclear weapon and thus didn’t need to work on it further until it had produced enough sufficient material.
That conclusion, which implies that Iran has already decided to build nuclear weapons, contradicts both the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, and current intelligence analysis. The NIE concluded that Iran had ended nuclear weapons-related work in 2003 because of increased international scrutiny, and that it was "less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005".
The report included what appears to be a spectacular revelation from "a senior allied intelligence official" that a collection of intelligence documents supposedly obtained by U.S. intelligence in 2004 from an Iranian laptop computer includes "blueprints for a nuclear warhead".
It quotes the unnamed official as saying that the blueprints "precisely matched" similar blueprints the official's own agency "had obtained from other sources inside Iran".
No U.S. or IAEA official has ever claimed that the so-called laptop documents included designs for a "nuclear warhead". The detailed list in a May 26, 2008 IAEA report of the contents of what have been called the "alleged studies" – intelligence documents on alleged Iranian nuclear weapons work — made no mention of any such blueprints.
In using the phrase "blueprints for a nuclear warhead", the unnamed official was evidently seeking to conflate blueprints for the reentry vehicle of the Iranian Shehab missile, which were among the alleged Iranian documents, with blueprints for nuclear weapons.
When New York Times reporters William J. Broad and David E. Sanger used the term "nuclear warhead" to refer to a reentry vehicle in a Nov. 13, 2005 story on the intelligence documents on the Iranian nuclear programme, it brought sharp criticism from David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security.
"This distinction is not minor," Albright observed, "and Broad should understand the differences between the two objects, particularly when the information does not contain any words such as nuclear or nuclear warhead."
Article continues at CounterPunch
November 11, 2009Andrew Cockburn
The Crafting of a Loophole
Mike Whitney
A Small "d" Depression
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Where's the Jobs Stimulus?
Jeff Nygaard
Iranian Irrationality? Maybe Not
Stewart J. Lawrence
Honduran Regime Reneges on Political Deal
James Ridgeway
The End of the Little Red Cars: Memories of East Berlin
Eamonn McCann
Blood on Their Hands
Michael Ortiz Hill
Unbecoming War and Terrorism
Sheperd Bliss
From Oklahoma City to Fort Hood
Walter Brasch
"This is Jenna Bush Reporting ... "
November 10, 2009
Ellen Cantarow
Heroism in a Vanishing Landscape
Dean Baker
How to Raise $140 Billion a Year From Wall Street Banks
Rose Ann DeMoro
The Truth About the House Health Care Bill
Ramzy Baroud
Inch by Inch, House by House: How Israel Won the Settlement Battle...Again
Peter Lee
The Dalai Lama Sticks His Thumb in the Dragon's Eye
Dave Lindorff
Blaming the Workers
Roberto Rodriguez
Running Past PTSD (Or My Susto Profundo)
Winslow T. Wheeler
The Self-Dismembering F-35
Alan Farago
The Rising Tide
Joseph Grosso
The Legacy of Albert Parsons
November 9, 2009
Patrick Cockburn
Leave Afghanistan to the Afghans
Linn Washington
Fox Finds a New Black Boogeyman
Carl Ginsburg
To be Young and Unemployed Forever
Jeff Leys
War Funding, 2010
John A. Murphy
Can Lieberman Save Single Payer? Why Progressives Should Back a Filibuster
John Halle
Bard and the Lobby: Final Thoughts on the Kovel Affair
Bouthaina Shaaban
Clinton Dances With Netanyahu
James Ridgeway
Heath Care: Winning a Battle, Losing the War
Dave Lindorff
The Kafka Economy
David Macaray
The Philadelphia Transit Strike
Stephen Fleischman
The Tea Party System
Website of the Day
Cap-and-Trade: The Huge Mistake
November 6-8, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
Too Fat to Fight
Mark Grueter
Inside the American University of Iraq
Paul Craig Roberts
The Evil Empire
Patrick Cockburn
Friendly Fire
Gareth Porter
Karzai's Cabinet of Warlords
Mike Whitney
The Battle of Seattle, 10 Years Later
James Bovard
How the Media Enables Government Lies
Dean Baker
Don't Touch the Banks!
Robert Lawless
Empires and the Sullying of Anthropology
Saul Landau
Afghanistan: a War Without Logic
Jayne Lyn Stahl
Black Ops and Fort Hood
Stephanie Westbrook
My Memories of Fort Hood
M. Shahid Alam
How Eurocentric Are You?
Marc Levy
Walking With Mr. Muhammad
Franklin Lamb
Obama's Mid-East Mess
Ron Jacobs
A New Map of Hell
David Ker Thomson
Afternoon With Tulip
John V. Whitbeck
Moment of Truth
Julien Mercille
Drugs and Afghanistan: the UN's Misleading Report
Rannie Amiri
Egypt's Next Unelected President?
John Ross
Legalize It!
David Michael Green
Can You Hear Us Now?
Carl Finamore
Strike One for Hotels in San Francisco
Farzana Versey
The Farce of Fatwas and Political Expediency
Missy Comley Beattie
No to Single Payer, Yes to Prayer?
Charles R. Larson
Business as Usual in India
David Yearsley
Anna Magdalena, Music and the Art of Dying
Kim Nicolini
"Paranormal Activity:" a DIY Horror Film
Poets' Basement
Three Poems by Devreaux Baker
November 5, 2009
Pam Martens
The Fire Sale of America
Vijay Prashad
The Great Heretic
Brian Gallagher
The Soldiers From Standard Oil: Harvard, ROTC and American Foreign Policy
Norman Solomon
The Next Phase in Health Care Apartheid
Nadia Hijab
The Battle for Palestinian Representation
Joseph Shansky
And the Winner in Honduras is ... the United States?
Andy Thayer
Questions and Answers From Maine
Tracy Rosenberg
Pacifica and the Barbarians Who Pay the Bills
Website of the Day
All Folked Up
Dictionary of Secret Societies
Featured Blogs
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=27f88917-f01f-4ad0-99ef-c907f5716b85)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment