THE TRUTH IS OUT: BUSH KNEW!
May 16, 2002—George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have committed an atrocity worse
than those who hijacked four airliners last Sept. 11, crashed two of them
into the World Trade Center, a third into the Pentagon and the fourth in a
field in Pennsylvania: They and the whole administration lied to the
American people and the world about what they knew about the events leading
up to that fateful day. If ever there was an impeachable offense, this is it
and we must not let them spin away their complicity by foisting the full
blame on the FBI. Nor must we allow the corporate media that could no longer
ignore the truth make another turn to help the Bush administration let the
man behind the desk in the Oval Office, his second in command and his
cabinet escape the consequences of their actions, inactions and lies.
And to think that those of us who could not make what was known prior to
Sept. 11 square with the official line from the Bush administration—an
official line swallowed whole by the corporate media—were called "conspiracy
theorists," "conspiracy wackos" and "conspiracy nutters." Rep. Cynthia
McKinney (D-Ga.) was vilified not just by the right wing but some in her own
party, when she called for a full investigation into Sept. 11 to get to the
bottom of what Bush knew and when he knew it. Well, fellow "conspiracy
theorists," the corporate media through yesterday's disclosures have
admitted we weren't "wackos" or "nutter" after all.
Now you know why on the morning of Sept. 11, when Chief of Staff Andrew Card
came into that Sarasota, Florida, classroom and whispered in Bush's ear,
Bush registered no surprise, shock or outrage—"somber" was the way every
media outlet reported his reaction. Would not any other chief executive—even
an unelected one installed in the White House by the Felonious Five on the
Supreme Court—have immediately concerned himself about the safety of the
children and staff in that school, then departed to attend to his duties as
the nation's leader?
Bush did none of those things. Instead, he sat, for another 20 or so
minutes, listening to the second-graders read a story about a pet goat. Is
this the actions of a person who didn't know what was going down? Would any
reasonable person in similar circumstances show no regard for his own safety
or the safety of those in his company, unless he knew he was in no jeopardy?
Did Bush have to stay in the classroom, until his father, a former president
who just happened to pay a visit to the White House that day, and Cheney
figured out what to do next, in order to make their version of events
palatable to the American people? Hence, the image of Bush II flying hither
and thon around the country and finally taking refuge in a missile silo,
while the American people awaited some words of comfort and reassurance from
the man who claimed to be their leader, instead all they had gotten were
some hastily delivered words—"somber," as the corporate media described
them—the first of which were mumbled in Sarasota, then in an airport hangar
before Air Force One departed for the rabbit hole in Nebraska. That insane
exercise was hardly presidential. Meanwhile, back at the White House, Cheney
was fed Cipro—and that was before anyone even mentioned anthrax—and spirited
off to an "undisclosed location," and the White House and Capitol were
evacuated. It wasn't until late that evening that Bush crept back to
Washington.
For years we have heard the cries of some that it wasn't a matter of if but
when a terrorist act would be carried out on US soil, yet, despite all the
warnings from intelligence agencies around the world, the concerns of two US
flight schools over Arab nationals suddenly seeking commercial flight
training, the arrest of suspected terrorist Zacaria Moussaui last August,
suspected terrorist Mohamed Atta and his merry band learning to fly
commercial jetliners at two flight schools in Venice, Fla., and the concerns
raised by the FBI's Phoenix, Ariz., office that the World Trade Center might
be a target, the Bush administration would have us believe there was nothing
definitive to clue them as to what was about to take place. How stupid do
they think we are?
Apparently, they think we are stupid enough not to see through the anthrax
attacks that were perpetrated on American Media's offices in Boca Raton,
Fla.—home to the supermarket tabloids that had the courage to publish
stories the giant corporate media turned a blind eye to—and US Senate
Democratic leaders Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. Chalk the other poor
suckers who died or became ill from the anthrax up to "collateral damage,"
because they miscalculated the potency of the anthrax and the type of
milling that caused it to easily spread to unplanned places. Now, either out
of further embarrassment—assuming the administration had no hand in
unleashing it—or some other ulterior motive, they refuse to name or charge
the culprit or agent who did the dirty work.
Bush & Company have done everything in their power to hide their deeds in
God, the flag and apple pie—from the nefarious deeds they pulled even prior
to becoming candidates for the White House, stealing the election (with help
from the Supreme Court), burying George W.'s records as governor of Texas in
Poppy Bush's presidential library, surrounding themselves with the worst
criminals from the Reagan and Bush I administrations, striving to keep
Cheney's energy policy dealings secret, to the events surrounding Sept. 11
and the aftermath that produced a shadow government of hand-picked
officials, stripped us of our constitutional rights and engaged us in an
endless war we know not on whom. They have even gone so far as to thwart a
full investigation of Sept. 11 by getting Congress to acquiesce to holding a
joint investigation limited to the behavior of the intelligence agencies, by
appealing to a sense of nationalism in that full disclosure would not be
good for the country in a time of "war."
Balderdash! The only war is in Bush and Cheney's minds and it is a war for
oil. Pity the troops sent to Afghanistan, Georgia and the other Central
Asian countries, and Colombia. Nationalism is not patriotism. Nationalists
blindly do their leaders' bidding. Patriots ask questions.
But the cat is halfway out of the bag now and it is incumbent upon us to
make sure it comes all the way out. Whether the corporate media recognize
it or not, we who have been laboring on the Internet have had a hand in
finally opening their eyes. There are some things that even the corporate
media can't abide. However, we must make sure their eyes stay open and that
they don't succumb to some pitch from Bush, Cheney, Ari Fleischer or anyone
else in the administration. This administration has told lie after lie after
lie, then, when caught in a lie that doesn't fly, comes up with more lies.
We demand not only a full investigation into Sept. 11 and Cheney's oily
dealings, but also bills of impeachment to be drawn up against Bush, Cheney,
all the other dirty hands in the administration and the five Supreme Court
Justices who saddled us with these criminals. If these people are allowed to
remain in office, considering what they have done in just under 16 months,
we, our children and our children's children will have no future.
Extreme Vigilance Must Be Exercised
While time will tell if the disclosures of yesterday and the
administration's sweating bullets today were the turning points for a
brighter future without any Bushes and their friends in control of this
country, undercurrents have come into being that could damage, if not
destroy, many of the great efforts being made on the web to get the truth out.
In the last several months, we have encountered some peculiar proposals of
help; offers that at first glance might seem reasonable to the uninitiated.
Some of those proposals called for setting up non-profit publications in
order to be able to seek badly needed financial support from foundations. A
bad idea. Why? Because non-profits are prohibited from engaging in partisan
politics—of course, you wouldn't know that from the way some right wing
publications conduct themselves and get away with it. Because foundation
grants—and there are few foundations that support Democrat, liberal or
progressive causes—come with strings attached. Do something your foundation
benefactors don't like and they pull the money.
Another proposal was for pooling our resources into a single publication
that would be governed by an editorial board. Another bad idea. Under normal
circumstances, you would say there is safety in numbers, so circle up the
wagons. But for us, our survival depends on the Earth First! model in that
we are scattered everywhere, meaning there is no single head to chop off. If
one goes down, the others carry on. That doesn't mean we don't cooperate
with one another in striving to get the word out to the people. It's also a
bad idea because each effort on the web has its own voice, which means
readers are given a broader take on the issues. Why would we trade that for
journalism by consensus? And journalism by consensus is precisely what an
editorial board would produce.
Recently, another proposal has popped up—one which hints at the prospect of
money for those who sign on, seeks to set up a non-profit corporation to
apply for grants, would subject the members' work to an editorial board for
the ostensible purpose of peddling it to established old line outlets, such
as The Nation, and even to the corporate media (print and broadcast). Some
on our side have already signed on to this scheme. Were they lured by the
whiff of a prospect of receiving some compensation for their work?
Undoubtedly, some of the people who have put forth these proposals are
sincere in wanting to help and desire nothing more than to build a louder
voice. Others, however, remind us of the agents who infiltrated the Vietnam
War era's anti-war movement. Why pull the plug on the Internet if you can
destroy us from the inside?
As badly as each of us needs financial support, we must be very wary of such
proposals and weigh them carefully before signing on. Know the people you
are dealing with. Get to the bottom of their motives. As the old saw says,
"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
And Now for that Dastardly Subject: Money
As Thomas Paine said, "When the people fear the government, you have
tyranny. When the government fears the people, you have freedom."
Online Journal exists for you, its readers, because an informed people are
an empowered people and it takes an empowered people to keep government in
check. We have no corporate sponsors. We receive no money from foundations.
We have no sugar daddies. All we have are our readers and if every one sent
in a minimum of $10, we would have a mountain of cash to work with.
As a sage reader pointed out, I am uncomfortable asking you for money. I
freely admit that. I know how hard you work for your money. I also know that
some of you have made personal sacrifices to support Online Journal. To say
I am grateful to you all would be an understatement. But without your
financial help, there would be no Online Journal. Please help us to go
beyond just paying our monthly expenses. It isn't easy being a shoestring
operation when there is so much work to be done.
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