Bush
Buddies’ Blunders and Bluster Bare Deceit
By
Joel Garduce, Center for Anti-Imperialist Studies
Bulatlat.com
On
the run-up to the second globally-coordinated anti-war mass actions in the
world’s emerging First Quarter Storm of 2003, the Bush regime and its minions
in London and Manila were in desperate throes to justify an impending war now
perceived widely as unholy following its rejection by no less than Pope John
Paul II.
Unites
States (U.S.) State Secretary Colin Powell’s recent presentation before the
United Nations tried to convince the world that Saddam possessed weapons of mass
destruction despite findings to the contrary by the UN weapons inspection team
led by Hans Blix. Powell, however, touted satellite photos that could easily be
mistaken for anything; intercepted phone conversations among Iraqi officials
that were of doubtful veracity; and an Iraq dossier given to him by Blair which
Powell found up-to-date and rigorous.
No
sooner than the last words came out of Powell at his UN presentation, our
favorite little brown American came out endorsing Powell’s show, claiming even
that her favorite U.S. ex-general had made the definitive case for invading
Iraq.
Downright
dishonesty by Blair, Powell
But
so soon after Powell’s bravado, came the shocker of a revelation from British
media: the dossier prepared by Blair’s staff and cited by Powell was a
flagrant plagiarism of a graduate student’s research, down to the punctuation
errors! Worse, the dossier’s Iraq data was culled from 12 years ago, just
after the 1991 Gulf War.
Blair
had nowhere to hide; 10 Downing Street admitted the plagiarism and horrendous
scholarship. This ignominious boo-boo shot down whatever shred of credibility
Powell’s UN show had, and exposed the dishonesty of the Bush-Blair rah-rah
team.
Bush’s
partners at Big Media thought as well. The implications of the blunder must not
be articulated in U.S. mainstream media, lest Powell be thought by millions of
Americans as an unthinking diplomat easily taken to deceptions wittingly laid by
his own allies.
Time
for another terror alert!
So,
conveniently, the Bush spin doctors spun yet another terror alert on the
unsuspecting American public, ratcheting up the hysteria beyond yellow,
medium-level alert to orange, high-level alert. To complete the dramatics, talk
about packing up on duct tape dominated the U.S. airwaves.
Hardly
had Americans completed their panic-buying list, comes Powell on the media
forefront once more. Thinking his UN claims linking Saddam to the evil al-Qaeda
had to be further reinforced in the U.S. public’s mind, Powell went on air in
front of a Senate panel on Feb. 11 to claim he had read the transcript of a
video tape of “bin Laden – or who we believe to be bin Laden” --- that
will be shown later that day on the Al-Jazeera Arab satellite station. Powell
said the man he believed to be bin Laden in that video spoke of how he is “in
partnership with Iraq.” We all know what that means: the bearded Osama---remember
him as the supposed mastermind terrorist of 9/11?---is in cahoots with the
mustachioed Saddam!
The
Bin Laden tape fiasco
Only
problem was, when Powell gave his Senate testimony, Al-Jazeera chief editor
Ibrahim Hilal in Cairo said his station had no such tape of bin Laden, and had
to deny therefore that it will air a new tape of bin Laden speaking to the Iraqi
people. Despite Al-Jazeera’s denial, CNN buttressed Powell’s claim and
insisted that the tape will be played.
And
lo and behold! Just as Powell and CNN so boldly and “precognitively”
predicted, the bin Laden tape did emerge and was aired. (And how did they get to
know that, even ahead of Al-Jazeera itself??) As expected from a bin Laden tape,
the man in front of the camera ranted against America and threatened more
attacks.
But
surprise, the man Powell believed to be bin Laden didn’t endorse Saddam. He
even called on the Iraqi people to rise up and oust the “infidel” Saddam,
something bin Laden’s supposed arch adversaries in the Bush administration can
find complete common cause with.
Hey
wait! That doesn’t jibe with Powell’s claims of a Saddam-bin Laden/al-Qaeda
partnership! So rather than paint Powell as a liar, the transcript had to be
changed.
And
that is what you will currently hear and read in all news accounts of this new
purported bin Laden tape, including those on the Internet.
Unfortunately for the warmongers, some dumb, unpatriotic, terrorist-loving
Americans made the mistake of making a screen capture of the pertinent section
of the original news account at the MSNBC website. And so, here is the screen
capture (underscoring supplied):
Sheesh!
Gloria
and Blas’ diplomatic duplicity
Meanwhile,
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople
felt compelled to comfort their utterly isolated American patrons by pulling off
a propaganda blitz of their own. They expelled Iraqi diplomat Husham Hussein on
unsubstantiated charges of consorting with the bandit group Abu Sayyaf and
even-- heaven of heavens! –- the National Democratic Front.
The
problem with this diplomatic move is that, apart from the flimsy accusations,
Gloria and Ople are indulging in bloody diplomatic deceit. For in the case of
confirmed American terrorist Michael Terrence Meiring – who was actually
caught with explosives in his possession last May 2002 – Gloria and
Ople turned a blind eye to the U.S. embassy’s coddling of this CIA operative,
whose vice consul Michael Newbill actually paid for the terrorist’s medical
bills.
Why,
oh why, rabid antiterrorists Gloria and Blas, did you not ever declare U.S.
Embassy vice consul Newbill persona non grata, and even reprimand U.S.
Ambassador Ricciardone for his incompetence at curbing terrorist coddlers under
his watch, in keeping true to your pronouncements that your government will
train its guns on anyone who harbors terrorists, whoever they may be?
Hmmm?
Sadly,
the bumbling deceit doesn’t stop there. A BBC report last February 13 claimed
that the Philippine ambassador to Iraq was abducted, along with her family. But
when local AM station dzMM interviewed Grace Escalante, charge d’affaires and
acting ambassador to Iraq, at 10:40 a.m. last Valentine’s Day, the Filipino
diplomat vehemently denied being abducted, and assured the public the Iraqi
government was treating her quite nicely.
Big
media part of the Bush team
This
trail of blunders and bluster confirms the intimate involvement of Big Media in
this oil-soaked war being pushed by Bush and Co. Clearly from the incidents
above, Big Media plays a major role in covering up the dodder, desperation and
brazenness of the Bush gang. It’s key to keeping in check the teeming hundreds
of millions from thinking for themselves and unmasking the schemes of oppression
by the powerful few.
The
power elite has the gall to do whatever it takes in advancing their
antidemocratic designs, for they will be ably aided by Big Media to cover up
whatever bloody mess ensues, to fiercely conceal the actual depths of world
crisis and who actually created the crisis, and hold us uninformed of the keys
to our authentic liberation---we, the G6B, the Group of 6 Billion---from
megaoppressors and megaterrorists.
We
need to free our minds from this enslavement, and aim to equip ourselves with
the analytical tools that will truly liberate us. Free from this mental
captivity, we can thus think for ourselves, turn Big Media on its head,
reacquaint ourselves with the truth hidden by the matrix of lies, and step up
our work for genuine peace and freedom.
There
are signs we’re getting there. As this piece goes to press, the
globally-coordinated anti-war protests commenced with a 10,000-strong anti-war
rally here in Manila; an unprecedented demonstration in Melbourne, Australia,
with about 500,000 coming together; and scores of thousands more in Seoul, south
Korea; Auckland, New Zealand; Canberra and Sydney, also in Australia; Tokyo,
Bangkok, and Sarajevo, Bosnia. At least 600 flashpoints would have dotted the
weekend anti-war global map. As the world turned this February 14 and 15, thus
spread the sunshine. CAIS/Bulatlat.com
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