Activism is critical

Since the notion of invading Iraq was first openly broached by our ersatz Administration 3 years ago the idea seemed so mad and misbegotten I did not believe it could be happening. Surely our Congress would not approve it, I thought; and Congress must, under our system, give permission for war. Little did we know that the Supreme Court-selected Bush Admin. was so dead set on taking over Iraq, they did not care what the premise was, only how to sell it to gullible Congress and ordinary citizens - most of whom were still so shocked and frightened by Sept. 11, 2001 that they were not thinking clearly, more's th pity.

Now that more than half of our fellow citizens realize the enormity of the Iraq blunder, now that there is even some written proof to back up those few of us who foresaw the calamity of the war's aftermath, it is vital that we join together to keep the momentum rolling.

The admirable John Conyers has done a courageous thing in gathering such credible spokespeople as Ambassador Wilson and Cindy Sheehan (Gold Star Families for Peace). Their informed testimony, and that of Jonathan Bonifaz and the others who were at the Conyers-chaired meeting on Thursday the 16th, in that tiny room hidden away from most of the world, must be heard loud and clear all over the land. I am glad that C-SPAN has repeated their broadcast, but it's not enough. Most Americans do not watch C-SPAN, unfortunately. They don't believe a story until it's on CNN or MSNBC, etc. That is why it is incumbent upon those of us who know the story to spread it.

Each one of us must nag our local cable channels, our national cable channels, and the broadcast networks, to run this story more than once. We must demand of our newspaper editors that they discuss this story.

No longer can patriotism be assumed to be tied to pro-war Americans. As Cindy Sheehan and other bereaved family members know, the best way to support troops is to keep them out of unnecessary wars, such as Iraq.

Talk, write, shout about this story. The Downing Street Memos is the equivalent of the Pentagon Papers, in my opinion. What George Bush and his cronies have done in starting an unjustified, pre-emptive war with no end in sight is worse than the Watergate break-in - far worse, given the number of lives lost. Don't let them get away with it! We owe it to our dead veterans to work hard to stop this madness.

What Is The Mission??

"I want those families to know: One, we're not going to leave them — not going to allow their mission to go in vain. And two, we will complete the mission, and the world will be better off for it," Bush said.

What Is The Mission??

Ari Fleischer ?

Granted he's under non-disclosure, But why did he resign?
Ari certainly backed up the presidents claim of WMDs. Who put him up to that?

If any one is interested in a story that TREMENDOUSLY lends itself to the Downing Street Minutes story, let me know and I will be happy to send you a 30minute interview of a former Pentagon official who witnessed firsthand how Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, (and the neoconservatives) knowingly and deliberately created false intelligence to support their pre-existing plans to go to war. The footage was shot about 2 years ago, yet it is completely in sync with the revelations of the Downing Street Memo, Richard Clarke's story (that the administration was looking for war rationals immediately after 9/11) and so many other facts.

The video footage is from a film I purchased, titled "Hijacking Catastrophe" and the interview is with Karen Kwiatkowski. The film was released almost 2 years ago and only appeared in a few small theatres. I was fortunate to live in the only town in the state of Washington that hosted the film, and by mere chance I stumbled across the film, then bought a copy.

I spoke with the production company and the producers gave me the okay to distribute "Fair Use" copies of the interview, at no charge. If you are interested please let me know and I will send you a CD-ROM of the video ASAP. I'll even pay the shipping costs.

This story needs to be heard...

To my knowledge Karen Kwiatkowski's story has received little to no press attention, except an article in Salon a long time ago. Following is a except from the Salon article (which I copied from the "Timeline 1" link on afterdowningstreet.org)

I STRONGLY recommend everyone watch this video, here is a quick glimpse of some of what Karen talks about in her interview:

May 2002 Karen Kwiatkowski says:
"From May 2002 until February 2003, I observed firsthand the formation of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans and watched the latter stages of the neoconservative capture of the policy-intelligence nexus in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq... I saw a narrow and deeply flawed policy favored by some executive appointees in the Pentagon used to manipulate and pressurize the traditional relationship between policymakers in the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies. I witnessed neoconservative agenda bearers within OSP usurp measured and carefully considered assessments, and through suppression and distortion of intelligence analysis promulgate what were in fact falsehoods to both Congress and the executive office of the president. (Salon)

Peace,
Brian

wheels777@msn.com

PS The production company is interested in putting the video online, but they do not have the resources to do so. Does anyone know of a website or someone who might be willing to host the interview online? If so, please contact me soon. I am awaiting a reply from the folks at this site (afterdowningstreet.org), but figure that the more sites we can get this video on the better. Thanks. Please contact me with any ideas or contacts.

“We must all hang together, or assuredly, we shall all hang separately.