We're All Gonna Die

[Guest Gandalf Grey]

We're All Gonna Die

 

By William Rivers Pitt

Created Jul 13 2007 - 9:23am

 

"We are all wired into a survival trip now."

- Hunter S. Thompson

 

Who can forget the incredible scandal that erupted back in May of 2002?

Around about the middle of that month, details began to emerge about the

August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing that specifically warned Bush

about Osama bin Laden's determination to strike the United States.

 

Wait. Actually, everyone forgot, because two days later, the Bush

administration unleashed a blizzard of dire warnings about impending

terrorist attacks. FBI Director Robert Mueller intoned such attacks were

"inevitable," and the Department of Homeland Security announced the

imminent, explosive destruction of all American railroads, along with the

Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.

 

Who can forget the incredible scandal that erupted back in June of 2003?

Over the course of two days, reports emerged about serious doubts held by

the CIA regarding the credibility of the administration's claim Iraq tried

to buy uranium from Niger. On the heels of this, Congress unfurled its 9/11

report, which criticized all levels of the Bush administration for its

performance before and during the attacks.

 

Wait. Actually, everyone forgot, because the Bush administration unleashed

another blizzard of warnings about impending terrorist attacks.

Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security warned terrorists were,

once again, preparing to attack the United States with suicide missions

using commercial airliners as bombs.

 

Who can forget the incredible scandal that erupted back in December of 2003?

9/11 Commission chairman Thomas Keane declared the attacks of 9/11 should

have been prevented. The next day, a Federal appeals court ruled against the

administration on the case of suspected terrorist Jose Padilla, stating

Padilla could not be held indefinitely without being charged.

 

Wait. Actually, everyone forgot, because the Bush administration increased

the terrorism threat level to Orange and claimed more suicide planes were

about to come zooming out of the sky. Six international flights were

diverted due to potential terrorist actions of some passengers who were

later identified as an insurance salesman, an elderly Chinese woman and a

five-year-old boy.

 

Who can forget the incredible scandal that erupted back in May of 2004?

Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared on Meet the Press and stated the

intelligence on Iraqi WMD he'd been given for his UN presentation had been

"inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading."

Horrifying new pictures of the torture, rape and murder of prisoners by

Americans at Abu Ghraib prison became public. The American military

accidentally bombed a wedding party in Iraq, killing 40 civilians.

 

Wait. Actually, everyone forgot, because FBI Director Mueller and Attorney

General John Ashcroft announced they had reports from multiple sources of al

Qaeda's "specific intention to hit the United States hard." The threat

levels were not raised, but dire warnings of impending catastrophe were

offered by the administration for the next several days.

 

The recipe is simple, like the directions on the back of a shampoo bottle.

Damaging reports of Bush administration malfeasance emerge. Warnings of

imminent terrorist-borne doom immediately follow, all spread far and wide by

said Bush administration. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

There are many more instances of this curious timing to be found, but

apparently, no one in the administration is concerned this dubious pattern -

spreading fear among the populace to change the subject, an act of terrorism

itself - might start to wear thin.

 

Who is going to forget the incredible scandals of June and July of 2007? The

Bush administration leaves Nixon in the dust by commuting the prison

sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. This action strongly suggests the

existence of a quid pro quo between Libby and Bush's people to cover up the

criminal activities of powerful officials like Vice President Dick Cheney,

who had recently claimed his office wasn't part of the executive branch to

avoid handing papers over to the National Archives.

 

The administration deploys spurious claims of Executive Privilege to avoid

subpoenas regarding the patently illegal NSA wiretapping of American

citizens. That privilege is extended to deny Congressional access to Harriet

Miers, former White House counsel, regarding the issue of fired US

attorneys. Contempt charges are threatened against Miers, and the NSA

subpoena stonewall comes closer to getting openly challenged in court.

Alberto Gonzales is exposed as having lied to the Senate in his testimony

about FBI abuses of the Patriot Act.

 

Few of the benchmarks for success in Iraq are met. Desperate to halt a tide

of GOP defections from his Iraq policy, Bush again coughs up the totally

discredited link between 9/11 and Iraq, saying, "The same people that

attacked us on September the 11th is a crowd that is now bombing people,

killing innocent men, women and children." The House again votes to withdraw

American troops from Iraq. A new Harris poll on Bush's approval rating is

published. The number reads 26 percent.

 

Wait.

 

Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff all but guarantees devastating new

terror attacks against the United States this summer. He bases this warning

on a "gut feeling." White House spokesman Tony Snow threatens that

withdrawal from Iraq would bring terrorism "to a shopping mall near you."

 

Meanwhile, al Qaeda is alleged to be as secure in Pakistan and Afghanistan

as they were before 9/11, yet no one in the administration connects this new

security to the drain of resources happening in Iraq. Additionally, no one

in the administration points out the fact that, if Chertoff's gut is indeed

correct, and we are indeed attacked again, responsibility for that attack

will fall upon those who manufactured war in Iraq. Never mind the fact that

if an attack is allowed to happen, even a minor one, more of our

constitutional rights and protections will be eviscerated by the very same

people who failed to stop it again.

 

Will everyone forget about the scandals of June and July 2007 amid these

deadly warnings of coming death?

 

Lather, rinse, repeat.

_______

 

 

 

 

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their

spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their

government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are

suffering deeply in spirit,

and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public

debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have

patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning

back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at

stake."

-Thomas Jefferson