The Case Against George W. Bush

The Case Against George W. Bush
by Ron Reagan

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/073104Y.shtml

Moonie leader 'crowned' in US senate

24 June 2004 07:22

The United States senate was used for a bizarre ritual in which the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the head of the Unification church, was "crowned" and declared himself the messiah in the presence of more than a dozen Republican and Democratic members of Congress, it was reported on Wednesday.

"Emperors, kings and presidents ... have declared to all heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's saviour, messiah, returning Lord and true parent," the 85-year-old Korean "Moonie" cult leader told several hundred guests at the meeting in one of the Senate's office buildings on March 23, according to the Washington Post.

He also claimed endorsement from Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Hitler, who had all been reformed and reborn through his church's teachings -- an idiosyncratic version of Christianity which rejects the use of the cross as a symbol and denounces homosexuals as "dirty dung-eating dogs".

An account of the ceremony was first published by a Washington investigative journalist, John Gorenfeld.

According to a transcript of the event, Moon declared: "I am God's ambassador, sent to Earth with his full authority. I am sent to accomplish his command to save the world's six billion people, restoring them to Heaven with the original goodness in which they were created."

The glittering event in the Senate's Dirksen building reflected Moon's extraordinary influence in US politics. He owns the conservative newspaper the Washington Times and the US news agency United Press International.

His fiercely conservative attitudes towards homosexuality and pre-marital sex have won him the endorsement of leading Republicans, including the president's father, George Bush, and John Ashcroft, the attorney general, who participated in one of Moon's "prayer luncheons" days before the president's inauguration in January 2001.

Leading black Democrats also played a prominent role in the March ceremony.

An Illinois congressman, Danny Davis, wore white gloves and carried a purple cushion bearing a medieval-style "international crown of peace", which was placed on Moon's head, at an event at which 100 Americans from 50 states were also given lesser "national" and "state" peace awards.

The event was an "innocent ceremony," Davis told The Guardian. "It was a banquet to give out awards. I didn't have any way of knowing Reverend Moon would say he was the messiah, or whatever he said."

Davis acknowledged that "three or four individuals directly related to Reverend Moon" took part in a fund-raiser for his primary campaign in Illinois earlier this year, but said small sums of money were involved.

Other members of Congress who attended the event said they had been fooled into going by being told only that people from their constituencies would be honoured at the ceremony.

A spokesperson for a Democratic senator from Minnesota, Mark Dayton, said: "We fell victim to it. We were duped."

It was unclear who gave permission for the Senate office building to be used.

During the ceremony Moon invoked the blessing of all America's past presidents. He also claimed to have communed with other big names in history.

He told his audience: "The five great saints and other leaders in the spirit world, including communist leaders such as Marx and Lenin, who committed all manner of barbarity, and dictators such as Hitler and Stalin, have found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons."

It is not the first time he has claimed posthumous backing. His followers recently took out a two-page advertisement in the Washington Times to run a testimonial to him, quoting 36 former presidents "from the vantage point of heaven". - Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

8/8/04 Run Against Bush!

Can't give 10K to defeat Bush? Run 10K instead! Please join us on Sunday, August 8th on Joe Michael's Mile (aka Cross Island Parkway Promenade in Queens) in a Run/Walk/Rollerblade/Bike Against Bush. There are already Runs Against Bush in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Help us launch the movement in Queens! For more information about this event and other similar events, visit www.runagainstbush.org. To register for this event, visit http://runagainstbush.kintera.org/faf/home/ccp.asp?ievent=52851&ccp=36...

losing three trillion smackeroos

After declaring $3 trillion can not be accounted for, Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim has left the building. He will join Booz Allen Hamilton through the traditional revolving door for government-corporate insiders.

A former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense from 1985-1987 and Pentagon Comptroller since 2001, Zakheim was responsible for mismanaging more than $400 billion annually, as Pentagon discredited audits have persisted year after year.
...
In the context of 9/11 it also needs to be pointed out that Rabbi Dov Zakheim was Chief Executive Officer of System Planning Corporation's International Division until President George W. Bush appointed him Undersecretary of Defense and Comptroller of the Pentagon.
...
The Department of Defense has never received a clean financial audit.

As recently as the December 18, 2003 audit by GAO (General Accounting Office), the Pentagon's 'War on Iraq Scam' and other Information Technology (IT) Fraud yielded $1.6 billion in "losses," money "missing" and otherwise unaccounted for.

In an article from "Government Executive" magazine ("Bye Bye Budgeteer," May 2004) Zakheim admitted, "...we are in the business of fighting wars.

We are not in the business of balancing books."

Zakheim, an ordained rabbi, is leaving Pentagon finances in shambles with more than 5,000 different financial systems supposedly in place. That means 5,000 open-ended opportunities for fraud.

If his position was Chief Financial Officer of a major corporation, Zakheim would be charged with criminal conspiracy, negligence and thousands of counts of fraud. As it is, he is joining the so-called private sector.

After all, privatizing government fraud through the control of accounting and IT systems in federal agencies is the most lucrative scam in America.
...
http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?C...1#Post292782012

The Republican Frenzy (feeding on itself)

Members of Congress should not hire gays in their offices, a religious leader said Tuesday, prompting the senator who had organized the news conference to take back the podium.

"You're seeing representatives of various religious groups," Sen. Sam Brownback said. "Now, not all of us agree with everything that each of us says."

The Kansas Republican had invited religious leaders of varying faiths to speak on gay marriage.

Gay marriage is the "ultimate attack on God," said Rabbi Yehuda Levin, of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis and the Rabbinical Alliance. Levin later made the comment about members of Congress employing gays, saying such lawmakers would bow to the pressures of "homosexual political operatives."

To them, Levin warned, "We, the normal family people ... we will out you the good, old-fashioned way this November in the voting booths."

God does not approve of homosexuality, so he could never approve of gay marriage, said Barrett Duke, representing the Southern Baptist Convention.

Gay couples should have civil rights such as insurance and health care, said Bishop Harry Jackson of the Hope Christian Church in Bowie, Md. But "there are such things as sacred rights versus civil rights," Jackson said. "The sacred right of marriage is what we are here to protect."


From: Article
by ELIZABETH WOLFE, Associated Press Writer

The Despoiling of America

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5646.htm

The Despoiling of America
How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State

By Katherine Yurica

With Editorial and Research Assistant Laurie Hall
Originally Published by the Yurica Report

The First Prince of the Theocratic States of America

It happened quietly, with barely a mention in the media. Only the Washington Post dutifully reported it.[1] And only Kevin Phillips saw its significance in his new book, American Dynasty.[2] On December 24, 2001, Pat Robertson resigned his position as President of the Christian Coalition.

Behind the scenes religious conservatives were abuzz with excitement. They believed Robertson had stepped down to allow the ascendance of the President of the United States of America to take his rightful place as the head of the true American Holy Christian Church.

Robertson’s act was symbolic, but it carried a secret and solemn revelation to the faithful. It was the signal that the Bush administration was a government under God that was led by an anointed President who would be the first regent in a dynasty of regents awaiting the return of Jesus to earth. The President would now be the minister through whom God would execute His will in the nation. George W. Bush accepted his scepter and his sword with humility, grace and a sense of exultation.

As Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court explained a few months later, the Bible teaches and Christians believe “… that government …derives its moral authority from God. Government is the ‘minister of God’ with powers to ‘revenge,’ to ‘execute wrath,’ including even wrath by the sword…”[3]

George W. Bush began to wield the sword of God’s revenge with relish from the beginning of his administration, but most of us missed the sword play. I have taken the liberty to paraphrase an illustration from Leo Strauss, the father of the neo-conservative movement, which gives us a clue of how the hiding is done:

“One ought not to say to those whom one wants to kill, ‘Give me your votes, because your votes will enable me to kill you and I want to kill you,’ but merely, ‘Give me your votes,’ for once you have the power of the votes in your hand, you can satisfy your desire.”[4]

Notwithstanding the advice, the President’s foreign policy revealed a flare for saber rattling. He warned the world that “nations are either with us or they’re against us!” His speeches, often containing allusions to biblical passages, were spoken with the certainty of a man who holds the authority of God’s wrath on earth, for he not only challenged the evil nations of the world, singling out Iraq, Syria, Iran, and North Korea as the “axis of evil,” but he wielded the sword of punishment and the sword of revenge against his own people: the American poor and the middle class who according to the religious right have earned God’s wrath by their licentiousness and undisciplined lives.

To the middle class he said, “I’m going to give you clear skies clean air and clean water,” then he gutted the environmental controls that were designed to provide clean air and water. The estimated number of premature deaths that will result: 100,000.[5] He said to the poor and to the middle class: “I’m going to give you a prescription drug program, one that you truly deserve.” Then he gave the drug industry an estimated $139 billion dollars in increased profits from the Medicare funds and arranged for the poorest of seniors to be eliminated from coverage, while most elderly will pay more for drugs than they paid before his drug benefit bill passed.[6] After that he arranged for the dismantling of the Medicare program entirely, based on the method outlined by his religious mentors.[7] He said to the people of America, “I’m going to build a future for you and your children,” then he gutted their future with tax breaks to the rich and a pre-emptive war against Iraq, and the largest spending deficit in history.[8]

This article is the documented story of how a political religious movement called Dominionism gained control of the Republican Party, then took over Congress, then took over the White House, and now is sealing the conversion of America to a theocracy by taking over the American Judiciary. It’s the story of why and how “the wrath of God Almighty” will be unleashed against the middle class, against the poor, and against the elderly and sick of this nation by George W. Bush and his army of Republican Dominionist “rulers.”

The Despoiling of America

The Despoiling of America: "The Despoiling of America
How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State
By Katherine Yurica
With Editorial and Research Assistant Laurie Hall
Originally Published by the Yurica Report
The First Prince of the Theocratic States of America
It happened quietly, with barely a mention in the media. Only the Washington Post dutifully reported it.[1] And only Kevin Phillips saw its significance in his new book, American Dynasty.[2] On December 24, 2001, Pat Robertson resigned his position as President of the Christian Coalition.
Behind the scenes religious conservatives were abuzz with excitement. They believed Robertson had stepped down to allow the ascendance of the President of the United States of America to take his rightful place as the head of the true American Holy Christian Church.
Robertson�s act was symbolic, but it carried a secret and solemn revelation to the faithful. It was the signal that the Bush administration was a government under God that was led by an anointed President who would be the first regent in a dynasty of regents awaiting the return of Jesus to earth. The President would now be the minister through whom God would execute His will in the nation. George W. Bush accepted his scepter and his sword with humility, grace and a sense of exultation.
As Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court explained a few months later, the Bible teaches and Christians believe �� that government �derives its moral authority from God. Government is the �minister of God� with powers to �revenge,� to �execute wrath,� including even wrath by the sword��[3]
George W. Bush began to wield the sword of God�s revenge with relish from the beginning of his administration, but most of us missed the sword play. I have taken the l"

Pentagon Deputy's Probes in Iraq Weren't Authorized, Officials Say

By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — A senior Defense Department official conducted unauthorized investigations of Iraq reconstruction efforts and used their results to push for lucrative contracts for friends and their business clients, according to current and former Pentagon officials and documents.

John A. "Jack" Shaw, deputy undersecretary for international technology security, represented himself as an agent of the Pentagon's inspector general in conducting the investigations, sources said.

In one case, Shaw disguised himself as an employee of Halliburton Co. and gained access to a port in southern Iraq after he was denied entry by the U.S. military, the sources said.

In that investigation, Shaw found problems with operations at the port of Umm al Qasr, Pentagon sources said. In another, he criticized a competition sponsored by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority to award cellphone licenses in Iraq.

In both cases, Shaw urged government officials to fix the alleged problems by directing multimillion-dollar contracts to companies linked to his friends, without competitive bidding, according to the Pentagon sources and documents. In the case of the port, the clients of a lobbyist friend won a no-bid contract for dredging.

Shaw's actions are the latest to raise concerns that senior Republican officials working in Washington and Iraq have used the rebuilding effort in Iraq to reward associates and political allies. One of Shaw's close friends, the former top U.S. transportation official in Iraq, is under investigation for his role in promoting an Iraqi national airline with a company linked to the Saddam Hussein regime.

The inspector general's office — which investigates waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon — has turned over its inquiry into Shaw's actions to the FBI to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, the sources said.

The FBI also is looking into allegations, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, that Shaw tried to steer a contract to create an emergency phone network for Iraq's security forces to a company whose board of directors included a friend and one of Shaw's employees.

Shaw, who held top positions in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, declined to comment for this article. In previous interviews, he has denied any financial links to the companies involved or receiving any promises of future employment or other benefit..................

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/ir...-home-headlines

Thousands of eligible voters are on felon list

BY ERIKA BOLSTAD, JASON GROTTO AND DAVID KIDWELL

dkidwell@herald.com


More than 2,100 Florida voters -- many of them black Democrats -- could be wrongly barred from voting in November because Tallahassee elections officials included them on a list of felons potentially ineligible to vote, a Herald investigation has found.

A Florida Division of Elections database lists more than 47,000 people the department said may be ineligible to vote because of felony records. The state is directing local elections offices to check the list and scrub felons from voter rolls.

But a Herald review shows that at least 2,119 of those names -- including 547 in South Florida -- shouldn't be on the list because their rights to vote were formally restored through the state's clemency process.

That's a potentially jarring flaw, critics say, in a state that turned the 2000 presidential election to Gov. Jeb Bush's brother George on the narrowest of margins -- 537 votes.

Florida -- one of just six states that don't allow felons to vote -- has come under intense criticism over its botched attempts to purge felons since the bitterly contested 2000 presidential election, when myriad problems prompted many elections officials to ignore the purge altogether.

The new list is causing its own problems, raising more questions about the fairness and accuracy of the state's efforts to purge the voter rolls of ineligible voters.

State elections officials acknowledge there may be mistakes on the list but insist they have built in safeguards to make sure eligible voters are not removed by local election offices. They say they have warned election offices to be diligent before eliminating voters, and have flagged possible cases in which voters on the list may have regained their rights.

''We have been very clear that this database is not to be considered the final word,'' Paul Craft, chief of the division's bureau of voting systems, said Thursday. ``We have told the local supervisors they need to be very careful with it.''

INCREASES RISKS

Yet local officials, already overburdened preparing for the election, say shifting the burden to them is opening the door for major problems.

''I have never seen such an incompetent program implemented by the DOE,'' said Leon County elections chief Ion Sancho.

Sancho said his office has already found people in the state's felon voter database who have received clemency.

Miami-Dade County Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan said she, too, intends to err on the side of voters.

''This concerns me,'' Kaplan said of The Herald's findings. ``That's why I'm not having my staff jump to start any process until we can make 100 percent sure that it is the correct person.''

Craft said his office continuously checks the database against a list of felons who have received clemency -- which includes the right to vote -- and that 10,000 felons have already been taken off the list because of the clemency match.

Craft and other elections officials on Thursday declined to discuss why The Herald found another 2,119 voters in the database who have received clemency.

''We can't speculate on the methodology you used,'' Craft said. ``It is a matter that requires further investigation.''

CLOSE SCRUTINY

Elections officials said some voters with clemency could have been left on the list because records show they registered to vote before their rights were restored.

Dawn Roberts, director of the Division of Elections, said the process used to clean the voter rolls has been ''vetted at the highest levels of the Department of Justice'' and negotiated with civil rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP.

Those assurances offered scant consolation to Mary Catherine Lane, 51, of Miami, who was 18 when she was arrested for robbery in 1972.

''That just makes me angry,'' Lane, a registered Democrat, said when told she was on the list.

''I got a pardon on Dec. 14, 1998, signed by Gov. Lawton Chiles and everything. And now they're doing this to me? I served every day of my sentence plus some for bad behavior,'' she said.

`DON'T LIKE IT'

Norman Carter, 45, of Fort Lauderdale, also on the list, keeps his May 20, 2003, clemency papers folded in his Bible.

''I don't appreciate it, I don't like it and I wish I knew what I could do about it,'' said Carter, a Democrat, convicted of dealing in stolen property in 1988.

''I know how critical these elections have been lately,'' he said.

Of the 2,119 people who obtained clemency, 62 percent are registered Democrats, and almost half are black. Less than 20 percent are Republican. Those ratios are very close to the same in the list of 47,000 voters who the local elections officers are supposed to review and possibly purge from the registration rolls.

''It's just not right,'' said state Rep. Chris Smith, who represents and lives in a Fort Lauderdale neighborhood hit hardest by the list, the city's historic black neighborhood.

''Those who have been disenfranchised before seem to be continually disenfranchised by our archaic laws,'' Smith said.

WERE NEVER TOLD

Several of the three dozen voters on the state list interviewed by The Herald were not aware that their rights had been restored through the clemency process.

''I'm upset because I had clemency all these years and nobody told me,'' said Roger Maddox, 51, a Miami Democrat who received clemency in 1977 for a 1973 theft conviction.

''Now I'm on a purge list . . . man,'' he said.

Maddox said he intends to visit the Miami-Dade elections office to get his name removed from the list. ``Give me the number, man. This is crazy.''

Craft said it is possible that some names are incorrectly included in the database because the match was less then perfect when elections officials made their comparisons.

To identify registered voters with felony convictions, the Division of Elections compared names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and other identifying information.

Elections officials said there are 311 voters who may have clemency who were left on the list.

''But in each case the database is flagged so the supervisors of elections know there was a match of some kind,'' Craft said. ``The supervisors know automatically that those 311 potentially have clemency.''

SOME NAMES FLAGGED

County elections supervisors interviewed acknowledged that some of the names are flagged. But they wonder why it is that already overburdened elections employees should investigate facts the state has not been able to definitively answer itself.

Kay Clem, elections supervisor in Indian River County, said her staff ``is dealing with terms they've never heard of before. We need a lot more training.''

Clem said her office is hiring a private company to investigate the 365 names that appear on its list.

''This is putting us in a very precarious situation,'' Clem said.

INVESTIGATE VOTERS

All county elections supervisors are required to investigate each voter on the list, verify whether or not he or she is eligible to vote, then notify by mail suspected felons who have not had their civil rights restored.

The certified letter is supposed to name a time and place voters can appear to explain why they should remain on the rolls.

If supervisors suspect the letters were not received, they're supposed to publish at least one notice in the local newspaper.

If there's no response within 30 days, supervisors must remove the person from the rolls.

No one interviewed by The Herald -- including 53-year-old Walter Gibbons of Miami Gardens, a Vietnam veteran convicted of drug possession in 1973 -- had yet received a letter.

''I don't think it's fair that they're trying to stop me from voting, because everybody that commits a crime does not stay a criminal,'' said Gibbons, an ordained minister granted clemency in 1978. ``I had my error in life, but that was a long time ago, over 30 years now, and I'm a different person.'

Herald staff writers Debbie Cenziper, Casey Woods, Maria Herrera and Trenton Daniel contributed to this report.

US plans huge show of force in Pacific

By Ching Cheong
HONG KONG: Seven aircraft carriers to move within striking distance of China; Taiwan forces slated to join in drill


The United States is planning a massive show of force in the Pacific Ocean near China to register a point with Beijing.

In an exercise codenamed Operation Summer Pulse 04, it is expected to arrange for an unprecedented seven aircraft carrier strike groups (CSGs) to rendezvous in waters a safe distance away from the Chinese coastline - but still within striking distance - after mid-July.

This will be the first time in US naval history that it sends seven of its 12 CSGs to just one region.

According to a Department of Defence statement, Summer Pulse is to test out a new Fleet Response Plan (FRP) aimed at enhancing the American Navy's combat power and readiness in a time of crisis.

The FRP calls for the despatching of six 'forward deployed' or 'ready to surge' CSGs to a trouble spot within 30 days, and an additional two within 90 days.

Although the statement does not say where the seven CSGs will exercise, the Status of the Navy website said the USS Carl Vinson, Abraham Lincoln, John C Stennis and Kitty Hawk were in the Pacific Ocean as of yesterday.

The USS Enterprise and Harry Truman are in the Atlantic Ocean while USS George Washington is in the Persian Gulf.

According to a posting on Sina.com, an influential website in China, the signs point to a gathering of all seven CSGs in the Pacific.

Sources in Beijing say China's reading is that Summer Pulse is being mounted with it as the target audience, a suspicion reinforced by reports that Taiwanese forces are slated to join in the drill.

Clearly, given Beijing's repeated warning that it will use force, as a last resort and whatever the cost, to stop Taiwanese independence, the US feels it needs to send Beijing a message.

From past deployment patterns, the US usually despatches one CSG to a trouble spot as a reminder of its presence.

It did so several times in the past when tension was high in the Taiwan Strait.

It sends two to indicate serious concern, as was the case when China test-fired missiles over the strait in 1996.

In a combat situation, it deploys three to four, which was what it did in the Gulf War in the early 1990s and the recent Iraqi war.

But never before has it sent in peace time seven CSGs to the same theatre.

The implications for China are grave.

According to Kanwa Defence News, which specialises in Chinese military matters, Beijing can cope with just one CSG currently.

'But in five to 10 years, it can certainly take on seven,' said Mr Chang Hong-yi, head of Kanwa, in an interview with The Straits Times.

'China's military potential is enormous and in terms of military technology, the gap with the US is closing fast,' he added.

However, a Chinese military source who declined to be identified is more sanguine.

'Even now, China can easily take on two CSGs,' he said but conceded that there was no way it could face seven all at the same time.

This means that if China has to wage war over Taiwan, it has to be able to land and seize control of the island within the first 30 days.

Otherwise, under the FRP, six CSGs may well arrive to join in the battle.

'All this leaves China with no choice but to start and end the war with lightning speed,' said the source.

Politically, Summer Pulse is likely to be seen by many Chinese as naked intimidation.

'This is gunboat diplomacy in the 21st century,' the source remarked, adding that it would remind the Chinese people of their century-long deep humiliation by Western powers - and put Sino-US relations at peril.

WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN:

ONE aircraft carrier is sent to a trouble spot as a reminder of US presence. This was done several times in the past, when tension was high in the Taiwan Strait.

TWO carriers show serious concern, as was the case when China test-fired missiles over the strait in 1996.

THREE OR FOUR are sent in combat situations - as in the Gulf War in the early 1990s and the recent Iraqi war.

Sending SEVEN carriers in peace time to the same region is unprecedented. The US plan to do this after mid-July, in the Pacific Ocean near China, is a message to Beijing for its threat to use force to stop Taiwanese independence.

-- The Straits TimesPublication Date: 2004-06-30
http://www.asianewsnet.net/template.php?No=265

Kerry Campaign Response to Vice President's Speech in New Orleans

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor..._orleans158_xml


To: National Desk


Contact: Chad Clanton or Phil Singer, 202-464-2800, both of John Kerry (news - web sites) for President


WASHINGTON, July 1 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by John Kerry for President:


Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said: "Clearly, the American people are losing confidence in the President's handling of the war on terror and the Bush Campaign is running scared. The fact is that week after week after week, there's a new story about the White House manipulating intelligence or angering crucial allies in the war on terror or spreading our military too thin. In the nine months before the September 11 attacks, this President didn't have a single cabinet-level meeting on terrorism. The facts speak for themselves and it's time for the White House to take responsibility."


AMERICAN PUBLIC SEES THROUGH BUSH'S EXAGGERATIONS


Majority of Americans Say Bush Exaggerated Claims About Iraq (news - web sites). "And by a 53 percent-42 percent margin, voters say Mr. Bush 'exaggerated information' to make the case for war, underscoring the toll on his credibility from the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, among other controversies." (WSJ, 6/30/04)


Majority of Americans Say War Has Increased Threats. "A majority of Americans say that the Iraq war has increased terrorist threats, not reduced them, and that the U.S. economy is headed for long-term trouble." (WSJ, 6/30/04)


Sharp Decline In Bush's Approval On Terrorism. "Mr. Bush's handling of terrorism -- which Americans applauded by 2 to 1 in January -- now splits the electorate with 48 percent approval, 47 percent disapproval. (WSJ, 6/30/04)


Sharp Decline In Bush's Handling of Iraq. "On Iraq, the issue voters rate most important, the poll results are especially worrisome for the president. Though 56 percent of voters continue to approve of Mr. Bush's decision to remove Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) from power, a 51 percent majority now says the war hasn't been worth its human and financial costs." (WSJ, 6/30/04)


BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IRAQ AND AL-QAEDA HAVE BEEN DEBUNKED


FALSE CLAIM: IRAQI INTEL OFFICIALS ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIP WITH BIN LADEN AT SUDAN MEETING


Bush: "This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and Al Qaeda. we did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. for example, Iraqi intelligence officers met with bin Laden, the head of Al Qaeda, in the Sudan. There's numerous contacts between the two." (Bush, 6/17/04)


-- Fact: 9-11 Commission Found That Iraq Never Responded To Osama's Requests Following Sudan Meeting. "The commission's report did not specifically address that distinction or Mr. Zarqawi's role. It found that an Iraqi intelligence officer met with Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) in Sudan in 1994, but that Iraq never responded to Mr. bin Laden's subsequent request for space to set up training camps and help in buying weapons." (NYT, 6/17/04; Washington Post, 6/17/04)


-- Fact: Bin Ladin's Requests of Iraq Went Unanswered. According to an internal Iraqi intelligence report obtained by the New York Times, while bin Laden was based in Sudan from 1992- 96, he met with Iraqi officials to discuss teaming up against Saudi Arabia. But, "a request from Mr. bin Laden to begin joint operations against foreign forces in Saudi Arabia went unanswered. There is no further indication of collaboration...The document contains no statement of response by the Iraqi leadership under Mr. Hussein to the request for joint operations, and there is no indication of discussions about attacks on the United States or the use of unconventional weapons." (NY Times, 6/25/04)


FALSE CLAIM: ZARQAWI IS "BEST EVIDENCE" OF LINK BETWEEN SADDAM AND AL QAEDA


Question: "The Vice President who I see standing over there said yesterday that Saddam Hussein has long established ties to Al Qaeda. As you know, this is disputed within the U.S. intelligence community. Would you add any qualifiers to that statement and what do you think is the best evidence of it?"





Bush: "Zarqawi's the best evidence of connection to Al Qaeda affiliates and Al Qaeda. He's the person who's still killing. He's the person, remember the e-mail exchange between Al Qaeda leadership and he himself about how to disrupt the progress toward freedom."(Bush, Rose Garden, 6/15/04)

-- Fact: CIA (news - web sites) Chief Said Zarqawi Operated Independently of Saddam. In a statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) in March 2004, "CIA Director George J. Tenet described Zarqawi's network among other groups having 'links' to al Qaeda but with its own 'autonomous leadership... own targets (and) they plan their own attacks.' Although Zarqawi may have cooperated with al Qaeda in the past, U.S. officials say it is increasingly clear he had been operating independently of Osama bin Laden's organization." (Washington Post, 6/16/04; Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, 3/9/04)

-- Fact: Intelligence Unsure of Claim That Zarqawi Treatment in Iraqi Hospital Provided Connection Between Hussein Regime and Al Qaeda. In his presentation before the U.N. Security Council on how Iraq poses a threat to the international community, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) argued that the Iraqi government was sympathetic to al Qaeda because it harbored Zarqawi for two months during the summer of 2002 and granted hospital care to him. However, according to Newsweek, "American officials know only a few basic facts about Zarqawi's two-month stay in Baghdad last summer. ... The Iraqi government's role in arranging for the treatment is 'unknown,' U.S. officials confess, and the hospitalization does not prove any Iraqi government 'complicity.'" (Newsweek, 3/3/03; Department of State, "Remarks to the United Nations (news - web sites) Security Council," 2/5/03)

-- Fact: Zarqawi Operated Outside Saddam's Control. In his presentation to the United Nations Security Council, Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed that one of the links showing Iraq was tied to al Qaeda was that the terrorist network, Ansar al-Islam, maintained a training camp in northeastern Iraq. Zarqawi was widely regarded to be the "leader" of Ansar al-Islam prior to the war against Iraq. However, according to the AP, "Ansar al-Islam operated in a region of northern Iraq that was outside of Saddam's control before the war. It was bombed by U.S. warplanes during the fighting." (Washington Post, 3/19/04; AP, 1/23/04; Department of State, "Remarks to the United Nations Security Council," 2/5/03; MSNBC.com, 3/2/04)

FALSE CLAIM: MUHAMMAD ATTA MET WITH IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS

Gloria Borger: Well, you know that Muhammad Atta the ringleader of the hijackers actually met with Iraqi intelligence.

Vice President Cheney: I know this. In Prague in April of this year as well as earlier. And that information has been made public. The Czechs made that public. Obviously that's an interesting piece of information. (Cheney on 60 Minutes II, 11/14/01)

Richard Perle: Muhammad Atta met (a Saddam collaborator in Prague) prior to September 11. We have proof of that, and we are sure he wasn't just there for a holiday. The meeting is one of the motives for an American attack on Iraq. (Agence France Presse, 9/9/02)

-- Fact: 9-11 Commission Found That Prague Meeting Could Not Have Happened. CNN's David Ensor reported: "The (9-11) commission made public a photo of Mohamed Atta withdrawing money in Virginia April 4th and spoke of him using his cell phone in Florida April 6th through 11th, so he couldn't have been in Prague meeting an Iraqi intelligence officer April 9th as administration officials have suggested and, in fact, the commission said Iraq was not involved in 9/11." (CNN Newsnight with Aaron Brown, 6/16/04)

BUSH ADMINISTRATION IGNORED TERRORISM FOR THE NINE MONTHS BEFORE 9/11

Ashcroft Didn't Want To Hear About Al Qaeda. Acting FBI (news - web sites) Director Tom Pickard testified before the 9-11 Commission that when he tried to brief Ashcroft on July 12, 2001 about the terror threat inside the United States, Ashcroft told him he did not want to hear about it anymore. Despite Ashcroft's testimony before the 9-11 Commission that he did not brush Pickard aside, two senior FBI officials, including the head of the FBI Criminal Division at that time, have confirmed that Ashcroft dismissed Pickard's warnings about Al Qaeda. (NBC, "Nightly News," 6/22/04; National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States hearing, 4/13/04; NBC, "Nightly News," 6/22/04)

Bush Counterterrorism Coordinator Said Bush Didn't Act. Richard Clarke said Bush Ignored Terrorism Before 9/11 "frankly, I find it outrageous that the president is running for reelection on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe." (CBS 60 Minutes, 3/21/04)

Bush Taskforce On Terrorism Never Met. On May 8, 2001 "Bush announced a new Office of National Preparedness for terrorism at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (news - web sites). At the same time, he proposed to cut FEMA's budget by $200 million. Bush said that day that Cheney would direct a government-wide review on managing the consequences of a domestic attack, and 'I will periodically chair a meeting of the National Security Council to review these efforts.'" Neither Cheney's review nor Bush's took place." (Washington Post, 1/20/02)

Bush Himself Admitted No Sense Of Urgency. In his interview with journalist Bob Woodward for Woodward's book Bush at War, "the president himself acknowledged that Osama bin Laden had not been a central focus in the eight months before the attacks. 'I was not on point,' Mr. Bush was quoted in the book as saying. 'I have no hesitancy about going after him. But I didn't feel that sense of urgency, and my blood was not nearly as boiling.'" (New York Times, 3/29/04)

Former Bush NSC Staffer: Bush Team Not As Focused On Terror As Clinton. Army Lt. General Donald Kerrick, who served under both presidents Clinton and Bush, "noticed a difference on terrorism. Clinton's Cabinet advisers, burning with the urgency of their losses to bin Laden in the African embassy bombings in 1998 and the Cole attack in 2000, had met 'nearly weekly' to direct the fight, Kerrick said. Among Bush's first-line advisers, 'candidly speaking, I didn't detect' that kind of focus, he said. 'That's not being derogatory. It's just a fact. I didn't detect any activity but what Dick Clarke and the CSG were doing.'" (Washington Post, 1/20/02, emphasis added)

Bush Ignored the 8/6 PDB that warned of an Imminent Al Qaeda attack inside the US. Bush received a PDB on August 6 entitled, 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack in US.' However, according to a senior administration official, "We can't give you any information about the President's reaction. We don't know the President's reaction, and it would not be the sort of thing that we would discuss." (White House Background Briefing, 4/10/04)


http://www.usnewswire.com/

The Bush/Cheney Top 10 Environmental Insults

10. Endangered Species? They don’t vote
George Bush always takes care of the mining and logging industries even when the survival of endangered species is at stake. The Administration has failed to adequately fund endangered species conservation programs and has repeatedly sought broad exemptions from the Endangered Species Act.


9. Taking Environmental Cops Off the Beat
George Bush’s first budget proposal slashed $500 million in Environmental Protection Agency spending including a $25 million cut enforcement funds and the elimination of 270 EPA enforcement jobs. Those draconian cuts were blocked by Congress but Bush did cut 210 enforcement jobs. Enforcement activities are also way down and Bush’s 2004 budget could make things even worse.

8. Drillin’ Their Way Through Our Energy Problem
The Bush Administration has an insatiable appetite for coastal oil drilling. The President advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve and the Administration fought vigorously to make it easier to drill for wells off California’s shores. They only gave up the fight after being defeated twice in court. Now, the Administration is trying to rewrite federal roles to limit the amount of influence that states have on decisions affecting their coastlines.

7. Hooked on Foreign Oil
George Bush pays lip service to reducing our dependence on foreign oil but he doesn’t take action. His first budget cut funding for renewable energy research by 50 percent. The Administration has repeatedly sided with industry and passed up the opportunity to bring about a meaningful decrease in auto emissions.

6. Ground Zero Cover-Up
High-ranking Bush administration officials instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to downplay the dangers of air pollution at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attack. The EPA repeatedly reassured the public that the air at ground zero was safe to breathe despite the presence of high levels of dangerous substances at the scene.

5. The Logging Industry’s Best Friend
The Administration’s deceptively named “Healthy Forests” initiative poses a grave threat to our natural resources. Our forest policy is starting to resemble the wishlist of the logging industry. Bush proposes to exempt a number of logging activities from the protections of the National Environmental Policy Act and to sharply curtail judicial review of federal logging decisions.

4. Wasting Time on Toxic Waste
George Bush has assembled a dismal record on toxic waste cleanup. The Administration’s Superfund site cleanup rate is 50 percent slower than during President Clinton’s second term and designation of new Superfund sites has dropped significantly.

3. Broken Promises on Global Warming
President Bush could have recognized the growing scientific consensus and confronted the problem of global warming. Instead, Bush rejected the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Academy of Sciences and called for “further study” of the issue. In the meantime, he retracted a campaign pledge to support laws reducing carbon pollution and withdrew from the Kyoto Protocols without presenting an alternative.

2. Water Water Everywhere, With a Few Drops of Arsenic to Spare
President Bush has undermined the Clean Water Act at nearly every turn. Almost immediately after Bush took office, the EPA weakened controls on raw sewage discharge and tried to throw out President Clinton’s standards for arsenic in drinking water before a public outcry forced them to retreat. And that was just the beginning. President Bush proclaimed October 18, 2002 through October 17, 2003 “The Year of Clean Water.”

1. “Clear Skies”? Not to Our Eyes
President Bush’s “Clear Skies” initiative undercuts protections for soot, smog and toxic mercury, weakens pollution safeguards and relies on voluntary action from power plants to curb carbon dioxide emissions. It does nothing to clear our skies, yet President Bush continues to believe that by using the right words, the American people can be deceived.