Replies: 25 Comments
Comment #1: Dr Alan H Levinson said on 9/15/05 @ 8:08pm ET...
I'm not surprised. The Republicans have spent the entire Bush administration dodging acountability for everything, claiming propriety every step of the way. As '06 approaches, you watch as Bush slowly finds ways of making information and documents disappear, or become untouchable in his quest for "national security". Suddenly the entire library of paperwork, documentation, memos et.al. will be unavailable...regardless of FOIA requests.
At some point, the Repubs will have to get the news that defending this creep will serve no purpose except to improve their golf game due to all the free time they'll have following the '06 mid-terms.
I hate this president and his cronies. I am nauseated, appalled and depressed by their obviously unethical behaviors. I remember reading a rather nasty joke that ended in the unfortunate statement, "Lee Harvey Oswald...where are you now that we need you." Personally, I hope Bush resigns and goes down in history as the worst president ever.
Alan
Comment #2: Neerav Trivedi said on 9/15/05 @ 8:10pm ET...
Mr. Conyers and my dear fellow member of Conyers Blog:
This is truly a sad day for Truth and Justice, to find out tthe truth of why we went into war in Iraq in the first place while President Bush's poll numbers on this issue continues to drop,m as well as his overall numbers.
I am deeply saddened and disheartened to hear this news, but we must press on nonetheless with Downing Street Minutes (DSM) and other relevant documents to get Bush and his cronies accountable for this illegal war in Iraq.
This post and the act by the neo-con/pro-Bush Republicans in Congress to stop an investigation into the fabricated evidence into the pre-war intelligigence that led us into this pitiful, illegal war in Iraq is anotehr way they will do anything to help Bush and his evil cronies to stay in power, and demonstrates how corrupt the Republican politivcians in our nation's legislature is.
Already, 1,897 young Americans have died for a war in which Bush lied to us to get us into. There were no WMDs and Saddam Hussein was never a threat to anyone!
Thousands of Iraqis and Americans have died, and of recent, two suicide bombings nad attack by Iraqi insurgent gunmen have killed over 200 innocent fellow Iraqis. Now, all of the terrorist insurtgents (many of them associated with Al Queda) are baning together to start a civil war in iraq before the Iraqi people vote on thier constitution on October 15th.
Is this why 1,897 fellow Americans died needlessly in Iraq? Mr. Conyers, fellow member of Conyers Blog, I ask you this?
Either way, the whole point of Conyers Blog was this.....Iraq & DSM. Rovegate, Coingate and Palegate, along with Hurricane Katrina and the Patriot Act were mere sub-branches of our true purpose of or coming topgether on this blog, which is to investigate this Iraq War.......why we went there and what is really going on.
We must press on with out investigation into the Iraq War intelligence (including the famous "Downing Street Minutes") until Bush can be held accountable by the American people.
Mr. Conyers, fellow members of Conyers Blog, we are down, but we are NOT out. Remember the major rally coming up on September 24th - 26th. That is our chance to redeem ourselves from this defeat and come back stronger than ever on this Iraq issue that we have been pursuing all spring and summer. We need to get the Mainstream Media to cover this, as well as all of the major newspapers and blogs.
I know Cindy Sheehan and the "Gold Star Mothers for Peace" will be there, and they and the American people, along with the innocent Iraqis who are getting neddlessly slaughtered by terrorists, and those of our soilders over there in Iraq, who are starting to see the truth about why they are there in Iraq who will be with us that wekend in spirit.
Let's keep pushing forward......the Truth will win out, as well as Justice. Push foward and never look back!!!
There is a famous quite in Hinduism and in their scripture:
"Truth always triumphs".
God Bless you Mr. Conyers and all that you have done for us, and God Bless everyone here on Conyers Blog for all the work that they are doing in the name of Truth, Justice, Freedom and Democracy!!!
- Neerav B. Trivedi,
Chief of Headquarters 21A
Member, Conyers Blog Activist Corps
Comment #3: cali said on 9/15/05 @ 8:55pm ET...
Disgraceful and disgusting.
We have to keep fighting until we get through to the rest of America. How can anybody in America let them get away with this after what we have seen for the last couple of weeks.
President Bush more than anybody else wants to find out why it took place and how it took place to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Senator Frist and Speaker Hastert have indicated that Congress will conduct a thorough investigation modeled after some of the most serious investigations that Congress has ever undertaken: the 1973 Watergate Committee, the 1987 Iran Contra Committee, the 1994 and 1995 Whitewater Committees and the 1997 Campaign Finance investigation.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Excerpts_Bush_speech_t_0915.html
Comment #4: epppie said on 9/15/05 @ 8:55pm ET...
What's so important, Rep. Conyers, is that you keep asking questions. It is such an important thing to do and to persist in.
Comment #5: hpcharlie said on 9/15/05 @ 9:07pm ET...
Find out all Congressional Members who voted to "Investigate and Impeach President Clinton" and see how they voted regarding the Valerie Plame/CIA Leak. Those who refused to investigate Plamegate need to be "Recalled" at all levels from city, county, state and Demand a Recall for being guilty of accomplices to "Treasongate!"
These people have no morals, integrity or ethics, and placing the interest of the "GOP Party" before Democracy is a "breach" of these Congressional Reps Fiduciary Duty to their constituents!
THEY ARE "SLIME BALLS!"
Charlie C.
Dallas TX
Comment #6: Nolip said on 9/15/05 @ 10:44pm ET...
Somewhere,in some bill passed long ago lies the loophole to force these cowardly Republicans to initiate an investigation and gather evidence surrounding the Downing Street Memo. What happened when Benedict Arnold was caught or when the Rosenbergs were prosecuted; isn't there something in those proceedings that could be used to turn the table on the Republicans and force them into creating a commission, gather the evidence put aside or initiate impeachment proceedings. What I'm suggesting is something like this: Call out F. James Sensennbrenner as a co-conspirator in the tangled Wilson-Rove-Plame mess. Force him into having to defend himself (just as the Republicans have done to many democrats). In the process of having to defend himself the Republicans will have to gather evidence regarding the Downing Street Minutes. Ethical? I dunno...effective...possibly... but you have to think like your enemy in order to defeat your enemy (or at least beat him at his own game)
Comment #7: Nolip said on 9/15/05 @ 10:55pm ET...
Who knew?
“WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman said Thursday.”
Weldon: Atta Papers Destroyed on Orders
Comment #8: Nolip said on 9/15/05 @ 10:58pm ET...
“WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 - The drive to pour tens of billions of federal dollars into rebuilding the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast is widening a fissure among Republicans over fiscal policy, with more of them expressing worry about unbridled spending.”
G.O.P. Split Over Big Plans for Storm Spending
Comment #9: alizaryn said on 9/15/05 @ 11:10pm ET...
Have you seen this?
"The Justice Department and the special counsel investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity pressed Congress to block legislation that would compel the administration to turn over documents related to the case, the department said in a letter released on Thursday."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050916/pl_nm/bush_leak_dc
Comment #10: Nolip said on 9/16/05 @ 7:14am ET...
Fitgerald doesn’t want any hearings because he says it will interfere with his investigation. Fine! but we’re almost into October and nothing has come out of his office and his charter is about to expire so either start naming names and removing the bad guys from office or shut up and get out of the way.
CIA leak investigator warns against document release
Comment #11: Nolip said on 9/16/05 @ 7:16am ET...
The Presidency doesn’t need repair. It needs a complete overhaul with Bush and all his henchmen removed.
Bush speech a bid to repair presidency
Comment #12: Nolip said on 9/16/05 @ 7:29am ET...
George Bush: (Taps the microphone) “Is this thing on?” Anyway…my fellow Americans, I stand before you tonight not as your president but as your policy maker. I want you to know that I don’t acknowledge doing any of this mess in Nawleans. I do know that my policies about the environment, especially the ecosystem in and around Nawleans, as well as my economic policies, which directed necessary funds to reinforce the levees around Nawleans to boondoggle projects in Alaska, are what made this city fall into the toilet bowl. In fact I’ve asked my good friend Karl Rove to oversee the clean up of the toilet bowl.
But hey, I’m here to tell you that as you’re conquering zero I’m gonna rebuild the mess I made and just to show you that there are no hard feelings, I’m going to spend every last dollar left in the treasury to do it. So, here’s to you terrorists and other natural disasters…don’t come knockin’ on our door because I’m George Dubya Bush your “If it ain’t broke, I’ll break it for you” pres z dent.
"This great city shall rise again," Bush tells nation
Comment #13: LeslieB said on 9/16/05 @ 11:21am ET...
Sad news, but not unexpected. We can't let this die because the Plame case may have compromised more than one undercover agent and more than one CIA operation, undermined the entire CIA [i.e., future recruitment domestically and abroad], and politicized intelligence at a time when terrorism has increased worldwide while Bush continues to antagonize our allies.
*
NoLip, regarding Weldon's assertions about Atta documents. I'd be very careful about anything that wingnut Weldon says. As far as accuracy goes, Weldon doesn't have a good track record. He repeatedly makes assertions, which may have some basis in fact, that he totally blows out of proportion and embellishes.
*
Regarding New Orleans: I'm very worried that the Bush administration and the EPA are both encouraging New Orleans to reopen when the environmental impact has yet to be assessed. As a New Yorker, I recall the EPA telling New Yorkers that the air was safe by the World Trade Center, and that people could clean up their homes with a wet rag. It wasn't true: the air was toxic. The EPA lied. And many people, including many heroes of 9/11, have had their health seriously affected as a result.
Hurricane Katrina laid waste to chemical plants, oil refineries, platforms and undersea pipelines, and who knows what else. In order to dry out New Orleans, this toxic soup is being pumped right back into the lake. Because the sewage plants were also knocked out by the hurricane. It's an environmental disaster. People shouldn't be moving back so quickly. Plus, I wonder what will happen to the poor if and when they return? Will they be able to return?
Comment #14: Sandra said on 9/16/05 @ 12:23pm ET...
Congressman Conyers,
I had thought this would be the case regarding the DSM when after visiting my congressman's office personally in pursuit of his co-sponsorship and assistance.
However, all is not lost. This is but one minor roadblock and as you have found there are many other roads, channels, and tunnels, into the Ivory Towers!
---------------
On another issue that I've been following for quite some time that I am becoming increasingly concerned about especially, in light of recent events:
FLU 'ODDITIES' BREAKING NEWS
Last updated: 09/16/2005 03:20:51
Mice infected with deadly plague are missing in N.J. 15 Sep 2005
Authorities are searching for three mice infected with bubonic plague that disappeared from a research laboratory about two weeks ago.
The mice went missing from the lab of the Public Health Research Institute, which is located on the UMDNJ campus and conducts bioterrorism research for the federal government.
CLG - Flu Oddities
The DOD/Pentagon has in advance contracted ROCHE for vaccines to the Avian Flu for military and government personnel only (storage is under Defense contract protection @ warehouse in Philly)...
I fear, just as with the gutted and ill prepared FEMA 'front' and the gutted CDC and DOH last year without adequate flu vaccine and contamination of British/US supply; as well as the Anthrax scare and lack of adequate Cipro supply... that once again the public is not protected by this criminal coup' we know as our 'elected officials' aka Pharm-Govt Terrorists.
The Gulf of Mexico off our coast here has become a polluted diseased ridden cess pool. The human cost of which we may never know.
It has become clear to me that our government's actions and lack thereof clearly show a pattern that they are trying to kill us all.
Because of this, I have begun to advance the goals of the Disclosure Project and their request for full congressional hearings.
If you are still in possession of your briefing from May 2001 National Press Club that was provided to the Bush/Cheney administration as well as every member of congress and the senate, I would strongly ask at this time that you or your staff review it.
If you are not able to locate this imporatant briefing from government and military personnel an additional copy and/or contact can be made through: Disclosure Project.org
The continual ravaging of this world by the oil vampires in search of every drop of fossil fuels at the expense of human life was totally unecessary when for years our government has been well aware of alternative clean energy and space age technology. In their greed and self-serving ideology, they chose death, disease, and destruction of all living things rather than embrace the life and health of the entire globe.
It's time for this charade to end.
Comment #15: clbrune said on 9/16/05 @ 1:30pm ET...
No surprise, but as others have said, the fight isn't over.
The downing street minutes remain tangible evidence of the persistent reality: we were lied into war.
Politics sold it, politics filtered intelligence, and politics attacked whistleblowers and dissenters--regardless of the damage it cost our country and its people.
The fact that the Republican party is placing partisanship above the greater good makes this fight even more important.
Please keep up the good fight, thank you.
Comment #16: Sandra said on 9/16/05 @ 1:56pm ET...
It's time: R E S I G N "Ultra-Catastrophe" Chertoff
The perpetual and misleading war on terror began with this Israeli man and his repeated criminal obstruction of justice.
As long as he is in control of our 'Homeland Security' we are all at risk. It's time to expose them all and ask the hard questions.
The first question to the senate must be their vote with his confirmation (98-0).
Biography -Michael Chertoff
----
Chertoff: Katrina scenario did not exist
However, experts for years had warned of threat to New Orleans
Monday, September 5, 2005; Posted: 2:55 p.m. EDT (18:55 GMT)
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff talks with reporters Saturday during a news conference.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defending the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.
CNN.com - Katrina.Chertoff
"I think we have discovered over the last few days that with all the tremendous effort using the existing resources and the traditional frameworks of the National Guard, the unusual set of challenges of conducting a massive evacuation in the context of a still dangerous flood requires us to basically break the traditional model and create a new model -- one for what you might call kind of an ultracatastrophe," Chertoff said.
-----
Chertoff Blames Refugees and the Dead for Their Fate
Democrats.org
-----
This Homeland Security diagram is posted for clarity.
Look where FEMA is
Department of Homeland Security Organizational Chart
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CLG - Background Articles: Chertoff
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Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's Top Gremlin
Spreading Mischief from DoJ to the Federal Bench
Counterpunch.org
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9/11 Terrorists Back in the US (South Florida). The FBI and Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff has some explaining to do.
Wayne Madsen Report
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And, finally --- for everyone that missed the four-part investigation series in the fall of 2001 on the Fox network, here's your copy:
Information Clearinghouse
Comment #17: LeslieB said on 9/16/05 @ 2:27pm ET...
Whoops, I'm confusing the Downing Street memos with the Plame case. They are related, however. It's Friday.
Chertoff: Knight Ridder has a great article up here. The gist is that as New Orleans flooded, Chertoff attended a briefing on avian flu in Atlanta. Chertoff claims Brown was in charge, he didn't know the levees had broken, etc.
So essentially as Bush was playing guitar, Cheney was house-shopping, Condi was shoe-shopping, Rumsfeld was at a ballgame, the person in charge, Chertoff, didn't know he was in charge, he had less information than people watching the TV news, and, anyway, he had other priorities.
Comment #18: Sandra said on 9/16/05 @ 4:14pm ET...
Criminally Negligent: Homeland Security & Chertoff
by CHRISTOPHER BOLLYN (AMERICAN FREE PRESS)
Photo: The son of an Israeli Mossad agent, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, not Michael Brown, was in charge of managing the national response to Hurricane Katrina.
Because Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff delayed federal assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. he is criminally negligent.
Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is the government official legally responsible for the delayed and inept federal response to Hurricane Katrina. But will he be held accountable for the suffering and lives lost due to his failure to act?
As the nation watched the horrific scenes of devastation and became aware of the widespread human suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina and the catastrophic flood that followed, the pressing questions were: "Where is FEMA? Where is Homeland Security? Where is the federal assistance?"
The fact that tens of thousands of American citizens were left stranded for days on end without the essentials of life and that bloated corpses lay rotting in the streets of New Orleans for more than ten days shocked the nation.
Conspiracy Planet.com
--------
Chertoff should be outed
from Michael Moore.com
September 14th, 2005 11:43 am
Chertoff delayed federal response, memo shows
By Jonathan S. Landay, Alison Young and Shannon McCaffrey / Knight RIdder
WASHINGTON - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earlier this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show.
Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff designated him as the "principal federal official" in charge of the storm.
As thousands of hurricane victims went without food, water and shelter in the days after Katrina's early morning Aug. 29 landfall, critics assailed Brown for being responsible for delays that might have cost hundreds of lives.
But Chertoff - not Brown - was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government's blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disasters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by President Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director.
But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn't shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department.
"As you know, the President has established the `White House Task Force on Hurricane Katrina Response.' He will meet with us tomorrow to launch this effort. The Department of Homeland Security, along with other Departments, will be part of the task force and will assist the Administration with its response to Hurricane Katrina," Chertoff said in the memo to the secretaries of defense, health and human services and other key federal agencies.
On the day that Chertoff wrote the memo, Bush was in San Diego presiding over a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Chertoff's Aug. 30 memo for the first time declared Katrina an "Incident of National Significance," a key designation that triggers swift federal coordination. The following afternoon, Bush met with his Cabinet, then appeared before TV cameras in the White House Rose Garden to announce the government's planned action.
That same day, Aug. 31, the Department of Defense, whose troops and equipment are crucial in such large disasters, activated its Task Force Katrina. But active-duty troops didn't begin to arrive in large numbers along the Gulf Coast until Saturday.
White House and homeland security officials wouldn't explain why Chertoff waited some 36 hours to declare Katrina an incident of national significance and why he didn't immediately begin to direct the federal response from the moment on Aug. 27 when the National Hurricane Center predicted that Katrina would strike the Gulf Coast with catastrophic force in 48 hours. Nor would they explain why Bush felt the need to appoint a separate task force.
Chertoff's hesitation and Bush's creation of a task force both appear to contradict the National Response Plan and previous presidential directives that specify what the secretary of homeland security is assigned to do without further presidential orders. The goal of the National Response Plan is to provide a streamlined framework for swiftly delivering federal assistance when a disaster - caused by terrorists or Mother Nature - is too big for local officials to handle.
Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, referred most inquiries about the memo and Chertoff's actions to the Department of Homeland Security.
"There will be an after-action report" on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Perino said. She added that "Chertoff had the authority to invoke the Incident of National Significance, and he did it on Tuesday."
Perino said the creation of the White House task force didn't add another bureaucratic layer or delay the response to the devastating hurricane. "Absolutely not," she said. "I think it helped move things along." When asked whether the delay in issuing the Incident of National Significance was to allow Bush time to return to Washington, Perino replied: "Not that I'm aware of."
Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, didn't dispute that the National Response Plan put Chertoff in charge in federal response to a catastrophe. But he disputed that the bureaucracy got in the way of launching the federal response.
"There was a tremendous sense of urgency," Knocke said. "We were mobilizing the greatest response to a disaster in the nation's history."
Knocke noted that members of the Coast Guard were already in New Orleans performing rescues and FEMA personnel and supplies had been deployed to the region.
The Department of Homeland Security has refused repeated requests to provide details about Chertoff's schedule and said it couldn't say specifically when the department requested assistance from the military. Knocke said a military liaison was working with FEMA, but said he didn't know his or her name or rank. FEMA officials said they wouldn't provide information about the liaison.
Knocke said members of almost every federal agency had already been meeting as part of the department's Interagency Incident Management Group, which convened for the first time on the Friday before the hurricane struck. So it would be a mistake, he said, to interpret the memo as meaning that Tuesday, Aug. 30 was the first time that members of the federal government coordinated.
The Chertoff memo indicates that the response to Katrina wasn't left to disaster professionals, but was run out of the White House, said George Haddow, a former deputy chief of staff at FEMA during the Clinton administration and the co-author of an emergency management textbook.
"It shows that the president is running the disaster, the White House is running it as opposed to Brown or Chertoff," Haddow said. Brown "is a convenient fall guy. He's not the problem really. The problem is a system that was marginalized."
A former FEMA director under President Reagan expressed shock by the inaction that Chertoff's memo suggested. It showed that Chertoff "does not have a full appreciation for what the country is faced with - nor does anyone who waits that long," said Gen. Julius Becton Jr., who was FEMA director from 1985-1989.
"Anytime you have a delay in taking action, there's a potential for losing lives," Becton told Knight Ridder. "I have no idea how many lives we're talking about. ... I don't understand why, except that they were inefficient."
Chertoff's Aug. 30 memo came on the heels of a memo from Brown, written several hours after Katrina made landfall, showing that the FEMA director was waiting for Chertoff's permission to get help from others within the massive department. In that memo, first obtained by the Associated Press last week, Brown requested Chertoff's "assistance to make available DHS employees willing to deploy as soon as possible." It asked for another 1,000 homeland security workers within two days and 2,000 within a week.
The four-paragraph memo ended with Brown thanking Chertoff "for your consideration in helping us meet our responsibilities in this near catastrophic event."
According to the National Response Plan, which was unveiled in January by Chertoff's predecessor, Tom Ridge, the secretary of homeland security is supposed to declare an Incident of National Significance when a catastrophic event occurs.
"Standard procedures regarding requests for assistance may be expedited or, under extreme circumstances, suspended in the immediate aftermath of an event of catastrophic magnitude," according to the plan, which evolved from earlier plans and lessons learned after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "Notification and full coordination with the States will occur, but the coordination process must not delay or impede the rapid deployment and use of critical resources."
Should Chertoff have declared Katrina an Incident of National Significance sooner - even before the storm struck? Did his delay slow the quick delivery of the massive federal response that was needed? Would it have made a difference?
"You raise good questions," said Frank J. Cilluffo, the director of George Washington University's Homeland Security Planning Institute. It's too early to tell, he said, whether unfamiliarity with or glitches in the new National Response Plan were factors in the poor early response to Katrina.
"Clearly this is the first test. It certainly did not pass with flying colors," Cilluffo said of the National Response Plan.
Mike Byrne, a former senior homeland security official under Ridge who worked on the plan, said he doesn't think the new National Response Plan caused the confusion that plagued the early response to Katrina.
Something else went wrong, he suspects. The new National Response Plan isn't all that different from the previous plan, called the Federal Response Plan.
"Our history of responding to major disasters has been one where we've done it well," Byrne said. "We need to figure out why this one didn't go as well as the others did. It's shocking to me."
Chertoff's Aug. 30 memo is posted at www.krwashington.com
Comment #19: Sandra said on 9/16/05 @ 4:18pm ET...
Thanks Leslie... I had just finished reading that article when you posted it.
Posted on Thu, Sep. 15, 2005
As New Orleans flooded, Chertoff discussed avian flu in Atlanta
By Shannon McCaffrey, Alison Young and Seth Borenstein
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the U.S. official with the power to order a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina, flew to Atlanta for a previously scheduled briefing on avian flu on the morning after the storm swept ashore.
Knight Ridder Washington
Comment #20: Sandra said on 9/16/05 @ 4:50pm ET...
Cheney wasn't just house hunting in Maryland for that multi-million dollar estate...that was just a cover for what he was doing behind the scene.
Wednesday :: Sep 14, 2005
While Chertoff Dithered, Cheney's Office Wanted Power Restored To A Fuel Pipeline
Thanks to Josh Marshall, note that while Michael Chertoff was unable to decipher his job and failed to act for days, Dick Cheney's office directed a local utility company to drop everything and restore power to a pipeline, even if it meant that doing so would shut down the only fully operating hospital in the region.
Clearly, the White House had its priorities.
The Left Coaster
p.s. Per the above organizational chart does anybody really believe that Chertoff didn't know what was going on?
Comment #21: Sandra said on 9/16/05 @ 5:08pm ET...
On the Homeland Security chart, a KEY position is the "Undersecretary of Preparedness" which is said to have assumed the role of all preparation for disasters (Brown had NO responsibility for Preparedness), while FEMA was relegated to after action response...the design of which is flawed on its face.
Who is the "Under Secretary of Preparedness?" As far as I can tell, there ISN'T ONE. Chertoff dismantled a functioning organization and FAILED TO REPLACE THE MOST IMPORTANT FUNCTION.
DISMANTLED FEMA
"To increase overall preparedness, particularly for catastrophic events," Chertoff announced a reorganization of FEMA on July 13, 2005. He dismantled the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate, of which FEMA comprised the bulk and was headed by a full under secretary.
Chertoff then split FEMA into two parts. The first part kept the name FEMA and had a director, not an undersecretary, who reported to Chertoff. It was, however, stripped of any preparedness functions, and dealt solely with response and recovery.
With the rest, Chertoff created the Directorate for Preparedness. The new directorate was tasked with facilitating grants for responder training, citizen awareness, public health, infrastructure, and cyber security.
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DID ISRAEL ATTACK THE UNITED STATES WITH CHERTOFF'S AID?
Author: Phillip Yardley
It is a little known, but historical fact that Israel has attacked the United States several times. Yet, we now know that our New Homeland Security Chief helped Israel to do so.
Full article here is worth a good read: Portland Indymedia.org
-----
The USS Liberty Veterans Association has filed a formal
Report of War Crimes Committed Against U.S. Military Personnel,
June 8, 1967, by elements of the Israeli military forces. The Report has been filed with the Department of Defense.
USS Liberty.org
Submitted to the Secretary of the Army in his capacity as Executive Agent for the Secretary of Defense, June 8, 2005.
Comment #22: LenaDavid said on 9/17/05 @ 4:26am ET...
Tolstoy wrote "God Sees The Truth But Waits" given the Tribulations that the Bible predicts that we are seeing every day in the news He won't wait much longer.
I used to think that eternal damnation was too harsh but the seeing the deliberate mass murders, torture and pure evil of the Bush Crime Family and their supporters, I wonder, do they think their satan worship will keep them alive forever?
Though not Christians they obviously know the Bible and that in Isaiah it is stated in the strongest terms that, God will annul their contract with satan and death and they will be without any cover in the Last Judgment and forever when they are locked in hell with satan and hell and all it contains will be thrown in the Lake of Fire forever.
But to the one who suffer now, God will wipe away all tears and their will be no more suffering and death for the victims of evil. The ones kept out of heaven forever is "he who maketh and telleth a lie." and the Bush Crime Family are famous for their lies.
Comment #23: LenaDavid said on 9/17/05 @ 7:46am ET...
Arlo Guthrie
1913 Massacre
by Woody Guthrie
Take a trip with me in nineteen thirteen
To Calumet, Michigan in the copper country
I'll take you to a place called Italian Hall
And the miners are having their big Christmas ball
I'll take you in a door and up a high stairs
Singing and dancing is heard ev'rywhere
I'll let you shake hands with the people you see
And watch the kids dance 'round the big Christmas tree.
There's talking and laughing and songs in the air
And the spirit of Christmas is there ev'rywhere
Before you know it you're friends with us all
And you're dancing around and around in the hall
You ask about work and you ask about pay
They'll tell you they make less than a dollar a day
Working their copper claims, risking their lives
So it's fun to spend Christmas with children and wives.
A little girl sits down by the Christmas tree lights
To play the piano so you gotta keep quiet
To hear all this fun; you would not realize
That the copper boss thug men are milling outside
The copper boss thugs stuck their heads in the door
One of them yelled and he screamed, "There's a fire"
A lady she hollered, "There's no such a thing;
Keep on with your party, there's no such a thing."
A few people rushed and there's only a few
"It's just the thugs and the scabs fooling you."
A man grabbed his daughter and he carried her down
But the thugs held the door and he could not get out.
And then others followed, about a hundred or more
But most everybody remained on the floor
The gun thugs, they laughed at their murderous joke
And the children were smothered on the stairs by the door.
Such a terrible sight I never did see
We carried our children back up to their tree
The scabs outside still laughed at their spree
And the children that died there was seventy-three
The piano played a slow funeral tune,
And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon
The parents, they cried and the men, they moaned,
"See what your greed for money has done?"
Comment #24: LenaDavid said on 9/17/05 @ 7:56am ET...
SATAN COMES AS A MAN OF PEACE by bob dylan
Bush's Hand Making Devil's Horns - Commentary on Bush's Last Speech
Yale secret society posing as fraternity Skull And Bones Salute
Look out your window, baby, there's a scene you'd like to catch,
The band is playing "Dixie," a man got his hand outstretched.
Could be the Fuhrer
Could be the local priest.
You know sometimes
Satan comes as a man of peace.
He got a sweet gift of gab, he got a harmonious tongue,
He knows every song of love that ever has been sung.
Good intentions can be evil,
Both hands can be full of grease.
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
Well, first he's in the background, then he's in the front,
Both eyes are looking like they're on a rabbit hunt.
Nobody can see through him,
No, not even the Chief of Police.
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
Well, he catch you when you're hoping for a glimpse of the sun,
Catch you when your troubles feel like they weigh a ton.
He could be standing next to you,
The person that you'd notice least.
I hear that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
Well, he can be fascinating, he can be dull,
He can ride down Niagara Falls in the barrels of your skull.
I can smell something cooking,
I can tell there's going to be a feast.
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
He's a great humanitarian, he's a great philanthropist,
He knows just where to touch you, honey, and how you like to be kissed.
He'll put both his arms around you,
You can feel the tender touch of the beast.
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
Well, the howling wolf will howl tonight, the king snake will crawl,
Trees that've stood for a thousand years suddenly will fall.
Wanna get married? Do it now,
Tomorrow all activity will cease.
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
Somewhere Mama's weeping for her blue-eyed boy, (FALLUJAH MASSACRE)
She's holding them little white shoes and that little broken toy
And he's following a star,
The same one them three men followed from the East.
I hear that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
I paid fifteen million dollars, twelve hundred and seventy-two cents
I paid one thousand two hundred twenty-seven dollars and fifty-five cents
See my hound dog bite a rabbit
And my football's sittin' on a barbed-wire fence
Well, my temperature rises and my feet don't walk so fast
Yes, my temperature rises and my feet don't walk so fast
Well, this Arabian doctor came in, gave me a shot
But wouldn't tell me if what I had would last
Well, this woman I've got, she's filling me with her drive
Yes, this woman I've got, she's thrillin' me with her hive
She's calling me Stan
Or else she calls me Mister Clive
Of course, you're gonna think this song is a riff
I know you're gonna think this song is a cliff
Unless you've been inside a tunnel
And fell down 69, 70 feet over a barbed-wire fence
US former soldiers testifying in Refugee Court in Canada speak of the military surrounding rural villages in Iraq with razor-sharp barbed wired effectively turning
them into Concentration Camps?
Now New Orleans Evacuees behind barbed wire. GOT DEMOCRACY?
Comment #25: rainbowsally said on 9/27/05 @ 10:10pm ET...
Thanks for keeping on the DSM issue, John. The DSM is even more important
than the 9/11 disaster because it potentially explains how it happened.
I noticed that we seem to be thinking the GOP might collapse under its own
weight. Not likely. The problem, as the Honorable Henry Gonzalez put it
is the "nazification of America."
His astute assessment can be found in the 103rd Congress along with some
other very interesting unresolved historical data.
