Buzzflash on king george …..  

‘Okay, so let's get this
straight. 

Bush admits he selectively leaked
classified information that wasn't declassified until days after he and Cheney
had Scooter Libby leak it to Judith Miller, the pro-war megaphone for the New
York Times publication of Bush lies. Bush "authorizes" this leak at a
time that he is claiming that if he ever finds the leaker, he will basically
fire him, meaning himself. Then he continues a public and Department of Justice
vendetta against leakers, but not himself: the leaker-in-chief. 

‘It’s been three years since the U.S. launched its war
against Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Of course now
almost everybody knows there were no WMDs, and Saddam Hussein posed no threat
to the United States. 

Though some of our soldiers
serving in Iraq still believe they are there because Saddam Hussein was
involved in 9/11, even the administration now acknowledges there was no
connection. Indeed, no one can be absolutely certain why we invaded Iraq. The
current excuse, also given for staying in Iraq, is to make it a democratic
state, friendly to the United States. 

The administration of President George W. Bush
is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of
bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key Iranian suspected nuclear weapons
facility, The New Yorker magazine has reported in its April 17 issue. 

‘As Morpheus explained: “The
Matrix is a system Neo, and that system is our enemy. When you are inside, you
look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters, the
very minds we are trying to save. Until we do, these people are part of that
system and that makes them our enemies. 

You have to understand that most
of these people are not ready to be unplugged and many are so hopelessly
dependent on the system, they'll fight to protect it.”’ 

 
‘From the beginning, there were
ominous signs that the Iraqis weren't going to play the game right. More than a
few neo-con hearts were broken by the Iraqi refusal to greet us with flowers
and champagne as we marched into Baghdad, and the snub still hurts. Just this
week, Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum and an unrepentant hawk,
complained about "the ingratitude of the Iraqis for the extraordinary favour
we gave them: to release them from the bondage of Saddam Hussein's
tyranny." 

From today’s SMH
Letters page …… 

In the firing line

Apart from cameras that should always be working, one of the key airport
security measures is to check for gunpowder residue on selected travellers. A
few days ago airport security guards stopped me for a check even though I had
not fired a gun for 40 years, but the Irish clay pigeon shooting team was
allowed to pass. 

From American Progress …..
American
Progress 

The US Withdraws Support From UN Human Rights
Council  

In 1946, under the leadership of Eleanor
Roosevelt, the United States led the way in creating the first U.N. human
rights commission.  

‘Opposition politicians and human rights
campaigners reacted with dismay Tuesday to British Defense Secretary John
Reid's call for international
laws, including the Geneva Conventions, to be redrawn to
ensure states could counter global terrorism and undertake military
interventions.  

The threat of terrorism should
not be used as justification for a watering-down of fundamental human rights,
Liberal Democrats Shadow Defense Secretary
Nick Harvey warned. 

‘"Imperial overreach" is too fancy a term for
what the Bush administration has actually done. While its officials have talked
a great game when it came to achieving "victory" in Iraq and
exporting democracy to the Middle East, its main exports have turned out to be
mayhem and ruins. And those it can continue to export. 

With every new move, yet more rubble, yet more terror, and
undoubtedly yet more terrorists in Iraq and, sooner or later, in the wider
region will be created. This is where the most essential choices made by the
President, Vice President, and their chosen officials in the days after
September 11, 2001 have taken us.’ 

From American Progress ….. 

Yesterday, George Will used prime
space in the Washington
Post and other major papers to suggest — not only is global warming
not the result of human activity -global warming may not exist at all. In a
one-two punch, this morning columnist Robert Novak used his regular space in
the Washington Post to suggest that global warming - if it even exists - would
only impact us so far in the future that our technological advances should be
able to handle it. Neither of these columns is based in scientific fact - their
only purpose seems to be to bolster the position of the administration. 

‘The first official recognition that the Iraq war
motivated the four London suicide bombers has been made by the government in a
major report into the 7 July attacks. 

Despite attempts by Downing Street to play down
suggestions that the conflict has made Britain a target for terrorists, the
Home Office inquiry into the deadliest terror attack on British soil has
conceded that the bombers were inspired by UK foreign policy, principally the
decision to invade Iraq.’ 

‘"Today, we had a meeting at the White House of some
of the top educators from all around the country and I asked them the one
question that nobody’s been askin’: Is our children learning?" Then he can
look genuinely surprised and puzzled when the audience starts laughing. It will
all come so naturally to him.  

Or he could talk about how hard
he’s working to strengthen the economy to "put food on the American
people." Or he could tell us how he has warned "outsiders" not
to meddle in the internal affairs of sovereign Iraq. Again, the laughter will
likely take him by surprise and when he reacts with surprise it will evoke
further laughter.  

‘This is the news from Iraq according to Donald Rumsfeld
and the Bush administration.  

A week after the US Defence
Secretary criticised the media for " exaggerating" reports of
violence in Iraq, The Independent has obtained examples of newspaper reports
the Bush administration want Iraqis to read. 

They were prepared by specially
trained American "psy-ops" troops who paid thousands of dollars to
Iraqi newspaper editors to run these un-attributed reports in their
publications. In order to hide its involvement, the Pentagon hired the Lincoln
Group to act as a liaison between troops and journalists.