November 21, 2005
Back from the Axis For Peace conference, November 17 and 18 in Brussels, which was amazing, a gathering of people from many countries who came together to work toward finding ways to peace.Among many distinguished voices at the event was Philip Berg, who has filed a lawsuit against the Bush administration on the basis of anti-racketeering laws. Berg is suing on behalf of his client Manuel Rodriguez, who was one of the survivors of the WTC collapse. Rodriguez told the 9/11 Commission he heard explosions in the basement of the WTC before planes crashed into the building. But the commission, controlled by the White House, was not interested in this information and it never appeared in the report. It obviously would have destroyed the credibility of the administration's already incredible official myth about the attacks.
More on the conference later.
Meanwhile Bob Woodward, intelligence insider who posed as an independent reporter is now showing his true colors in his behavior regarding the investigation of Patrick Fitzgerald, whom Woodward has called "a junkyard dog." Now Woodward chimes in that he knew about Valerie Plame's identity, in an attempt to get his buddy Libby, and his other buddy Cheney, out of danger. It's all very creepy. As Jackie Newbury puts it, is Woodward Mr. Run-Amok?
November 22, 2005
Visions of Peace in Brussels
November 22: Here it is upon us. This day should never go by without being acknowledged as the anniversary of the day that a young U.S. president was gunned down like a dog on the streets in Dallas in the great state of Texas, home of the oil billionaires.It was not a random event as our government would like us to think. It was part of a clear historical pattern. Many would argue as to the exact interpretation of that pattern. But it's hard to deny that it is an extremely important part of a historical pattern that leads from World War II to today. So let us give it its due recognition, and hope that some day historical clarity will descend upon that event. Or better, that the ruling power structure of the land will get a little more in synch with the vast majority that does recognize that the government's myth about that event is not historically true. And the differences between the government's version of the story and that believed by the vast majority of Americans is a significant difference.
Upon This Rock: The significance of that event has been discussed thoroughly elsewhere, and firmly established so it need not be rehashed here. But anything said tonight on the eve of the awful anniversary should be prefaced by some acknowledgment of it. Many chains of events fan out from that moment. It is an enormously significant juncture in American history.
But though time is short, what I did want to communicate to my friends tonight is the story of the Axis For Peaceconference in Brussels last Thursday and Friday, November 17 and 18.
The driving force of the event was Thierry Meyssan, the French author who was one of the first to manage to get the idea in print that what happened on 9/11 had a very different significance than virtually 99 percent of the American media were playing. (See The Big Lie) Meyssan is also the president of The Voltaire Network.
James S. Robbins of the National Review sums up the right wing approach to the idea that the government's conclusion about 9/11 -- proclaimed unanimously by the ubiquitous American mass media within minutes after the second plane hit is wrong. The very idea is whacky and could only be entertained by the most feebleminded, according to the mainstream media. Just like the people who think Kennedy was not assassinated by the archetypal Lone Nut are themselves seen as nuts and laughed at melodramatically on TV by such astute analysts as Sam Donaldson and George Will.
But even though those guys laugh it off as though only a fool could believe such a thing, the vast majority of Americans does believe it, and has never believed the official story. The number of believers in the official myth is even smaller in other countries. And though the falseness of the 9/11 story is still only understood by a minority of Americans, that number is growing. Remember the Zogby poll that said that 49% New York City dwellers believe that the government knew the attacks were coming and let them happen.
I have to report this from a personal point of view, though the event itself had a universal quality and the story deserves to be told to a universal audience. It was amazing from the point of view of an American to be among intellectuals from many countries throughout the world who had all given considerable thought to the matters of war, particularly to the drive of conquest launched by George Bush and his band of merry Neocons.
It is the central fact of current world events -- the unbridled aggression of the United States -- and that was unavoidably clear at this gathering of "opinion leaders" from around the world. The United States is the problem. Not China. Not Russia. Not Cuba. Not Iraq. But the United States. Even the so-named Jewish Democracy with the Wall could not commit its atrocities without robust killingry support from the United States.
One of the main points about America I try to get across to people I meet abroad is that it is difficult to fully appreciate the power of the U.S. media if you have not lived in the U.S. or spent a considerable amount of time here. Americans live in an "aquarium" as one speaker said. Americans live in a fantasy world all to themselves, thanks to the massive power of the centralized media over so vast a land.
In Europe there are many alternative voices in a small space, with the media from many countries, the diversity of cultures and languages. In the States, the information about politics is relatively monolithic, and has a singular view when it comes to the Bush's and their fellow racketeers.
So an American in the European capital, surrounded by people from multiple countries, suddenly finds himself in an environment where no one gives even a passing nod to what is told to Americans on their mass media. It has little reality to anyone but Americans.
There were speakers from a huge variety of countries: Syria, Morrocco, Palestine, the U.K., Lebanon, the U.S., Russia, Germany, Poland, Chile, France, the Belarus Republic, Italy, Peru, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, Mexico, Cuba, Uruguay, Colombia, China, Iraq, Venezuela, Hungary, Spain, Dubai, Egypt, Argentina, Iran, India and other places. Many are so transnational now, it's hard to place them.
But hearing them speak, seeing their breadth of knowledge as a whole, and how singularly they view the actions of George Bush and company was a powerful experience. I will be sorting it out for some time.
Tomorrow I want to pass on many of the things that were said at the conference which struck me so powerfully I wrote them down.
Meanwhile, here are some links about Thierry Meyssan:
Pravda: "Pure fiction" The Guardian, "A bizarre book" U.S. State Department "conspiracy theorist Thierry Meyssan". Funny. They call it stupid, but the U.S. government feels compelled to comment on it, to restate the theory in a very limited way, emphasizing the outer fringes of the idea instead of the firm center, making it sound ridiculous. Still, some of the statements in the official report are ridiculous. Like, "We were never able to ascertain the source of the money that funded the attacks, but ultimately it doesn't matter..." Doesn't matter? It's one thing to say you don't know. That's reasonable. It's another to say it doesn't matter. That's ludicrous.
More and more people are seeing the lies behind the bogus war against Iraq and therefore questioning other things the Bush administration has said. The reviews of Meyssan's book that were so damning in 2002 when it appeared would not get away with being so smugly assured now.
Finally, a positive one: 911dossier.co.uk. "911 was a grand coup. In a minor coup, some General takes over the government of a single country. In a Grand Coup the entire world order is transformed. The whole Enlightenment heritage has been abandoned: constitutional government, civil liberties, balance of powers, government accountability. International law has been abandoned, and national sovereignty is becoming a subject for nostalgia buffs. Police state legislation has been passed not just in the USA, the alleged target of 'terrorism', but throughout he West, in the so-called 'modern democracies'. In the EU, the official definition of 'terrorism' now includes any civil disobedience whose objective is to 'change the economic system'." The New York Times at world-action.co.uk: "It is nonetheless puzzling why so many of the French have been willing to pay the equivalent of $17 for 'The Horrifying Fraud.' Is it a symptom of latent anti-Americanism? Is it a reflection of the French public's famous distrust of its own government and mainstream newspapers? Or has the French love of logic been tickled by the apparent Cartesian neatness of a conspiracy theory?" MediaReviewNet: "Thierry Meyssan’s book is a perfect prelude to anyone who wishes to peruse the 900 page document which has recently been released, dealing with the events of September 11, 2001. It will also make you wonder why you never looked at the events of that fateful day more clearly." And By the Way, Re Woodward -- An excellent analysis of why Woodward's stories about why he never came forth with what he knew before don't add up at Americablog No Blame in this Chess Game -- Cheney says, "We never had the burden of proof," and that it had been up to Saddam Hussein to prove to the world that he didn't have such weapons. Good logic if it was all about Saddam Hussein, but it's the American people who are the losers in that raw deal. Cheney and Bush indeed had the burden of proof to take the country into war. Since they didn't have the proof, they got around it by lying. Yahoo Senator Byrd: "The intelligence agencies are in the control of the White House. All information given to the Congress was cleared through the White House, and the President had access to an enormous amount of data never shared with the Congress. There was a filter over the intelligence information that the Congress received, and that filter was the Administration which was actively engaged in hyping the danger and lusting after this war in Iraq. Remember the talk of weapons of mass destruction, mushroom clouds, and unmanned drones? The so-called proof for war was massaged before it was sent to the Congress to scare members and leaked to reporters to scare the people."
November 23, 2005
Axis for Peace: Part Three
One could write a large book about the Axis For Peace conference in Brussels last week. Much more happened than can be easily reported. It was an experience I will ponder for a long time and keep wringing more out of it. The chemistry of that particular event will continue produce new perspectives. I'd like to share some scattered impressions and paraphrases, too multiplicitous to organize in a more orderly form.The event took place at the Residence Palace in Brussels at 155 Rue de la Loi, near the area where the European Union does its thing. It's an elegant old building, with a geodesic dome-topped addition where most of the mingling took place between sessions.
I saw many speakers, one after the other, who blew my mind, just continued to blow my mind as I entered into an irreversible process, a transformation. Although the event was organized by Thierry Meyssan and Voltaire Network, the way it would manifest and play out was not strictly under anyone's control.
Here were thinkers -- earnest, passionate people, gathered to consider the matter of peace, people from many countries and cultures. It was a marvel unfolding.
Khales Al-Jalabi, a leader of the non-violent movement in the Arab world, had to confront a situation where there was no Arabic translator on hand at that moment. There were headphones in the arms of the chairs that took care of most of the translations. But in this case the Arabic translator was not on hand. He said he would go ahead in English, but "to go deep , I need Arabic." Here are some rough notes from what he said in English. Man has been to the extreme limits of violence. He cannot reinvent war anymore. The peak of war logic was the use of the atom bomb. As Bertrand Russel said, the state is at the origin of the logic of war and degeneration. War is the development of the phenomenon of the struggle between states. The state today does not exist to meet the needs of mankind. The most important question facing us is how to free men from relationships of power. Syria was the supreme empire. The Syrians used tanks. It was like the atomic bomb at that point. When it rose to its highest power it fell because of the force it used. Now it is possible to bring down all the regimes without violence. In 50 years we got rid of three-fourths of the totalitarian regimes. All totalitarian regimes will end in the same way -- so will the U.S.
Abdullah Al Humood, the dean of the communication department of the Imam Mohammed de Ryad University in Saudi Arabia: You cannot compare resistance fighters with terrorists even if American propaganda tries to. Two thousand seventy five Americans have been killed in Iraq; 15,000 wounded. Half of those are disabled. Al-Zarqawi is just used by the U.S. to deform the resistance by labeling them as terrorists. The Americans have not only used conventional weapons against civilians. They've used white phosphorous, which is against treaties. Italian TV broadcast a film showing that the U.S. used white phosphorous. American propaganda is always the same. They say the resistance fighters are not from Iraq, they're from Syria. Only 3 percent of the population are resistance fighters. The U.S. wants to impose peace through volence, not through negotiations. All the houses were destroyed in Fallujah; 1,700 people were killed. It's not the first time. The suburbs have been destroyed in other parts of the country. At Abu Ghraib, the U.S. violated international conventions and treaties. 60,000 have been sent to jail. There are still more resistance fighters. More American soldiers are being killed. An f18 aircraft was shot down. The government is doing nothing to help individual citizens. They want just clean water. They have no fuel, no petrol, even as they are a major producer of oil, a founding father of OPEC.
Piotr Ikonowicz, a Polish journalist: We have an antidemocratic regime. After 15 years we are a colony. We are under the direct influence of the U.S. Poland is colonized. We've recently seen reports of clandestine CIA prisons in Poland and Romania. The right wing government has promised to deploy U.S. nuclear weapons on Polish soil. Why are Polish people in Iraq? The Polish people understand the fight of resistance. We respect it. We had a similar experience. All occupying forces call resistance forces terrorists. Polish people have nothing. Many would just die if they respected the law, but they choose a military career because they fear unemployment. We have 20% unemployment. It's a serious problem when you have no benefits. Iraq -- the social situation -- there is 80% unemployment. Why do Iraqi people become military police? Not for the American' capitalist imperialist aggression. It causes people to work against their own interests, because of unemployment. The suicide rate for economic reasons is very high. The same with aggression. It's not for the American people, it's for the lobby that elected Bush. In Poland 80% are against the war, yet we are in Iraq. The solution is to stop the lies, the brainwashing, the propaganda. Why do the American people support aggression? Because Bush lied to them. If the American people had known they wouldn't have supported it. There may not have been a war. We're ready to explain the situation. Iraq is every country. The cause is for social justice, resistance against capitalism. Subhi Toma, an Iraqi sociologist, a political prisoner in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, a political refugee in France. There was an important debate in the U.S. Senate, a move to force the administration to define the objectives of the war. It was rejected by the Senate, but at least there was a debate. If they can't secure the oil it will be a desperate situation for Bush and the U.S. It is still bad for us, but we believe in the victory of our people because it is a fair cause. But the great American empire will not allow that. It will leave a lot of damage. The civilian war is already there. The U.S. attacks mosques, churches. The Americans recruited Shia as police to destroy Sunni cities. We think America will have to leave. Every day is another trauma, more difficulties. The struggle spreads out of Iraq. George Bush led not to more democracy, but to more barbarity. It is best for him to leave. He has less freedom to carry out his policies than he though. The Bush team wants to find a way to improve the situation. Rumsfeld and Saddam had a meeting in prison. Rumsfeld proposed that if Saddam can bring an end to the resistance he will have a golden exile. Saddam made a counter proposal: Leave and the Iraqi people will decide. Now the U.S. is taking poor people as mercenaries, the poor in Ecuador, Colombian mercenaries whose profession it is to kill. Poverty is the greatest danger to world society... The main elements of the resistance army are the Iraqi army. It was a powerful army. We have a patriotic tradition. It was founded to fight against the British occupation. They are well-trained, competent technologically. Networks publish information. The resistance is the emanation of desire of all Iraqi communities. It's not what Bush says -- from Jordan. How can we accept such a stupid theory? The Iraqi resistance can strike when it wants. It is protected by the Iraqi people... Two British soldiers were caught dressed as resistance fighters. There is other evidence they are committing atrocities to give a bad image to the resistance. Soldiers planted a bomb in a truck at a check point to make a 90-year -old man a suicide bomber. There have been other incidents. To be continued...
And in other news: People are asking how Woodward fell so far, from exposing a corrupt administration, to protecting one. Did the oligarchy call in its favors of one of its beneficiaries? Did someone who knows his secrets and the skeletons in his closet call him forth and say, Bob, it is your turn to come through. You know we can ruin you if we tell what we know. If we reveal who and what you really are. Now we are in a tough spot and we need you. Your free ride is over. Time to pay up. The Bush administration is desperate. It is pulling out all of its aces. Check out reports on the Woodward travesty: Palm Beach Post; L.A. Times: "Woodward's disclosure was motivated not by a sudden pang of conscience, as it turns out, but by the sudden necessity of testifying under oath before a federal grand jury. Along the way, he incidentally revealed not only that he had concealed this information from his editors and readers for fear of subpoena, but also that he had in the interim gone on several television shows to trash the special prosecutor investigating the affair. Moreover, it now emerges, the reporting that went into his last best-selling book, "Plan of Attack," involved the submission of written questions in advance to Vice President Dick Cheney, a fact he never bothered to share with the book's readers."; "The Fall of Woodward" by James Carroll; Robert Parry: "Woodward and Washington's tipping point."
November 25, 2005
Meetings with Remarkable People
Axis for Peace, Part 4
As a continuation of Axis for Peace: Part Three I'm going to put down some rough paraphrases of people who spoke at the Axis For Peace conference November 17 and 18 in Brussels. Most of these people were being translated in real time. I took notes, and am transmitting only a general outline of their messages.
Zaina Fayyad, a journalist for Arab News Broadcasting -- Hello from an Arabian person thirsty for peace. The Axis for Peace represents a hope for mankind under threat by new viruses. The Islam way of saying hello is 'salaam', which means peace. We lost our youth, our economy. These occupants are stealing our resources before our eyes and the organizations can do nothing. The U.N. is losing its power, becoming an instrument in the hands of occupants and terrorists. Zionism is unable to change the destiny of mankind. I see the threat against humankind. The occupant who slaughtered the Indians and black people is an oppressed country. It is not free. They are trying to have a clash of civilizations. We prefer peace negotiations instead of starting wars everywhere. I am an Arabic person coming from a civilization that's been developed over centuries. Why do the occupants choose to carry out attacks instaed of peace negotiations? I call for unity, to give the right value to all civilizations in the world. Let's try to support each other to live a better life. General Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy on Geopolitical Affairs, former chief of the Department for General Affairs of the Soviet Union's ministry of defense -- I'm here to talk about terrorism. Studies have shown that terrorism occurs where there is a systematic crisis. Today there is a systematic crisis of the global world. There is a crisis in the major philosophical contructs of humanity, economics and security. We are seeing a fight for wealth and to reduce the right of equality. The great powers are not interested in life. It is a secondary concern. Their economic policies are designed to support a small group of transnational companies. Today the U.S. tries to impose its system on everyone and control almost everything. Security for the U.S. means access to all natural resources, no matter where they are located. The oligarchy, led by a small elite, imposes its values, wages war against all countries that do not support it. How does the U.S. wage war? Through international terrorism waged on other countries and to export terrorism. The media become an instrument of war. If you look at 9/11 you must come to the following conclusions. The attack put an end to the Yalta and Potsdam agreements. It has freed the hands of the U.S. to launch activities that were forbidden by international organizations, including the U.N. A small elite came to power that is open to using terror to fight against movements that try to fight for freedom. In the present climate we see a reactivation of mob activity and drug dealers. What shall we do when confronted with intellectual terrorism? It is necessary to revisit the role of the U.N. To have a better world we need a second country such as Russia. If the division of wealth is too wide, it creates important problems in the future. The future of humanity will depend on higher considerations than just the drive to acquire more resources. Webster Tarpley, historian and author of George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography and 9/11 Synthetic Terror -- We're here to try to stop the third world war. The greatest pretext for the phony war on terrorism of the neocon fascist madmen is the myth of the events of 9/11. Its components are Osama bin Laden and 19 hijackers with boxcutters and it has become the state religion of those supporting the oligarchy. The only way to defend against it is to deconstruct the myth. It was false flag synthetic terror. The official story is a fantastic myth. Al Qaida is the Arab League of the CIA. The crimes of 9/11 were carried out by computer at CIA headquarters. It's in the tradition of the attack on the Maine and the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which is now admitted to have been a fraud. 9/11 is the work of the same entrenched faction that was behind the Bay of Pigs, the Kennedy assassination and the Iran Contra affair. The collapse of the WTC towers was not caused by impact or fire. They fell by explosives. WTC 7 was brought down because the fires were going out. The Pentagon was not hit by a commercial airplane. On September 11, there were 15 drills that were used to cripple the defense system. Fighter planes were sent to Alaska. It was a coup d'etat, one part of the government attacking another. The pattern is that exercises precede terror attacks. It also happened with the terror attacks in London in July. Some drills have been stopped by citizen protestors. On November 5 there was an extremely large concentration of drills. Any could go live at any moment. The Bush regim is in crisis. A gotterdammerung mentality is spreading through the neocons. Today we need the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, but we need measures to keep their fingers from the nuclear button. If the 9/11 myth is allowed to stand, Bush will retain 30% of the country and will be able to wage war indefinitely. To stop him we must attack his base. We must attack the 9/11 myth. We must support an international commission to destroy the myth. FDR talked about a 'quarantine of the fascist dictator'. Let's join together to quarantine the neocons, to denounce them and bring them down any way we can.
November 26, 2005
Peace in Brussels
Axis For Peace --
Continuing with rough paraphrases of speakers at the Axis For Peace conference November 17 and 18 in Brussels.
Part 5Philip Berg, former deputy attorney general of Pennsylvania, now a lawyer representing survivors and families of victims of 9/11 who believe the White House was behind the attacks. Bush and company either made 9/11 happen or they let it happen. If they let it happen they made it happe and either way they are responsible and should be held accountable. It was an environmental disaster and the most significant event of our history. My client Willie Rodriguez heard explosions in the basement of the North Tower before the first plane hit. He testified to the commission, but his testimony did not appear in the report. Bush and Cheney belong in jail for treason and murder. Together we can find the truth of September 11 and we can do it with an international commission. My belief is that my RICO lawsuit is the most significant lawsuit of our time. The Bush administration has long been violating their oaths of office. They should be impeached. David Ray Griffin said my lawsuit is the vehicle to bring down Bush. We must reach out to antiwar groups and tell them that without 9/11 there would have been no war. They have taken away more rights than any administration in history. In the days before 9/11 put options were taken on United Airlines and American Airlines. There is always a paper trail on those investments. We should find the investor because that would lead us to someone who knew the attacks were coming. In four years they haven't investigated a single person who invested in those options. There were seismic records that showed 24 earthquake-sized explosions that day. Fighter jets were called out 67 times in previous years for airplanes that had gone astray. People who find it hard to believe that the government would orchestrate attacks on its own people should look at Operation Northwoods, in which the Joint Chiefs signed off on a plan to launch terrorist attacks in American cities and blame it on Cuba in order to justify an attack. On September 11 Giuliani was interviewed and said that he was told to evacuate because the towers were going to collapse. No skyscrapers had ever collapsed from fire before. A skyscraper in Madrid burned for 24 hours and didn't fall. Someone who told Giuliani to evacuate had knowledge of what was happening. Giuliani was warned, but not the firemen. As Bruce Springsteen said, love and duty called to the firemen, greed and murder called to their leaders.
December 1, 2005
Sketches
More on the Axis For Peace (6)
Happy December! We've made it to the month of the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. It's a holy month, if you choose to observe it.I want to share more of the notes I took at the Axis For Peace conference. It was such an extraordinary event, a unique confluence of forces and movements, that I feel I was witness to something extremely valuable and want to share whatever I can of it, no matter how primitive and inadequate the means at my disposal to capture an event of such magnitude.
Again I emphasize, I'm sharing notes of remarkable statements, most often heard in real-time translation. These blurbs are not meant to portray the eloquence of the speakers, which was in many cases extremely powerful. By the power of the event itself, the collection of human energies and the sparks created, each person's statement rang with an extra force drawn from the energy generated by the whole.
Jacques Cheminade, head of the French political party Solidarité et Progrès and a presidential candidate in 1995 and in 2007 -- We now have a situation in which we have power in the hands of a few people fighting a pre-emptive war against anything that opposes them, and they represent the oil industry. Pompidou foresaw that there would be something worse than the Stalin regime in the west. It's a mental war, a war against friends, enemies, rational people waged not through pamphlets but through media. The coverage of the media is something that would have been inconceivable a few years ago. It is an operation that destroys culture, replacing it with a counterculture, constant mental conditioning to adopt fascism. The culture is now in the hands of a very perverse elite. It is against the culture of life, of civilization and religion. It destroys the capacity of human beings. Democracy has been perverted. For them it means imperialism. Freedom is a mental prison. Real democracy is the way out of the aquarium in which we have been placed.
Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala, an Afro-French humorist and movie actor (translated from French) -- Humor is a way to measure freedom of speech. At this time things are quite tense. I don't know if you can call it totalitarian, but ... It used to be that we could discuss sensitive issues. Now some topics cannot be discussed. I could make jokes about Africans eating people, but when I spoke about Israel, I was forbidden to work. The reaction was quite violent. Today a war is being waged in the cultural realm in the whole world. When people are forbidden to laugh we are at a very perilous place. Humor in a society is a channel. It can be the best way to communicate. The fight to preserve our memory is essential. The first freedom is the freedom to think. We are in a society where we are deprived of that freedom. I am very worried. In today's world, no one knows anything. Culture is imposed by the state. Where does culture start, and stop? We are being sold a cultural package that is very violent and has nothing to do with democracy.
Marcin Domagala, editor in chief of Glos Samoobrony, the Polish Self Defense center-left party publication -- Since 1989, Poland has changed language and culture. In the early '90s, we started to believe in our own power. Over the last 15 years, that belief was destroyed. The country has been engulfed by the mass promotion of foreign brands, western brands. The are attractive, colorful, like Coca Cola. They are tough competition for Polish brands. If you are wearing Polish clothes you are treated as if you are indecent. The press promotes foreign cultural standards, anglo saxon names. We forgot our own names for things. We are using the English names. We have started to see how the media is working. Polish newspapers are under American and German control. We need to show Europe that our culture is very attractive. To be continued...
December 2, 2005
Frame Up -- Now the witness whose testimony made the case that Syria was behind the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister has recanted, saying he was paid off... Now the Syrian government is demanding a new look at the evidence. ABC At the Axis For Peace conference Mohamed Mezeel, editor of the international page in the U.A.E. Gulf News, said, "The US administration uses the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister as a pretext to carry out its pre-existing policy against Syria. The US wants creative chaos in Syria."
Randi Rhodes on Air America said today, "The neocons want chaos in the middle east so they can steal."
Continuing with ideas from the Axis for Peace:
Mateusz Piskorski, Polish MP, journalist and political analyst -- I hope this is a first step toward building an alternative world order. Poland unfortunately sent troops to Iraq. This is very tragic because Poland has experience with occupation, with torture. Poland was the first victim of the German National Socialists. I represent the only political party in Poland that opposed the invasion of Iraq. The Soviet occupation was not as bad as the occupation we are facing now. Then Polish troops were not sent to Afghanistan and Iraq. We are a Trojan Horse for the US in the EU. The Polish media is controlled by international corporations and presents a totally false picture of what is going on in Iraq. Poland will participate in the Strategic Air Defense. The CIA has landed may times in Poland. Now they have discovered the secret CIA prisons. Poland is being used as an agent of US policy in the Middle East. We don't yet have the restriction of rights, but we have censorship. We need a strategy for world peace and sovereignty. We need a new ethics, respect for sovereignty. We must reject old doctrines of right and left. No system is good for all.