Is Bush Cutting Cheney Loose?

Maybe it's finally happening:

White House 'Discovers' 250 Emails Related to Plame Leak

By Jason Leopold
Friday 24 February 2006

The White House turned over last week 250 pages of emails from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. Senior aides had sent the emails in the spring of 2003 related to the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald revealed during a federal court hearing Friday.

The emails are said to be explosive, and may prove that Cheney played an active role in the effort to discredit Plame Wilson’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of the Bush administration’s prewar Iraq intelligence, sources close to the investigation said.

Sources close to the probe said the White House “discovered” the emails two weeks ago and turned them over to Fitzgerald last week. The sources added that the emails could prove that Cheney lied to FBI investigators when he was interviewed about the leak in early 2004. Cheney said that he was unaware of any effort to discredit Wilson or unmask his wife’s undercover status to reporters.

What is Going on with Europe?

France is accusing Iran of pursuing military nuclear technology.

In Germany, the former Foreign Minister and leader of the formerly pacifist Green Party, Joshka Fischer, is advocating that Europe intervene militarily for generations in the Middle East. Fischer’s statement in Suddeutsche Zeitung, quoted in this article by Peter Schwartz:

“The Middle East will go through a deep crisis of transformation lasting perhaps two to three decades, which bring great risks and dangers,” writes Fischer. Europe will not be able to “stand aloof from the dislocation, crises and conflicts of this region, which is so central to its own security.” The crisis will force “Europe to grow up very fast in security policy terms .” It must begin to “think about a second line, beside the elements of partnership, dialogue, cooperation and the aid given to transform [the region], to include security guarantees and elements of an effective and simultaneously convincing defence [policy].”

In plain language, this means that in future Europe should increasingly pursue its interests in the Middle East using military means. Apart from diplomatic and economic activities (“partnership, dialogue, cooperation”), military activities (“security guarantees and defence”), will increasingly come to the fore.

What this means is that the Powers in Europe are behind the “Long War” in general and the bombing of Iran in particular.

What is becoming clear, with the ascension of Merkel in spite of the rejection of right-wing policies by German voters and the seemingly inevitable rise of the neocon Sarkozy in France is that, just as in the United States, there is no ‘politics’ when it comes to important matters. We in the United States, therefore, cannot wait for elections (which can easily be rigged and even if fair both choices have been vetted by the Powers that Be); we need to impeach Bush and Cheney now, put them on trial for war crimes and treason along with leading neocons and their collaborators.

More Evidence that Neocons Helped SUPPLY Iran with Weapons

More evidence that the Bush necocons were actively involved in supplying Iran with nuclear material in order to justify an invasion. Raw Story published this:

Outed CIA officer was working on Iran, intelligence sources say
02/13/2006
Filed by Larisa Alexandrovna

The unmasking of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson by White House officials in 2003 caused significant damage to U.S. national security and its ability to counter nuclear proliferation abroad, RAW STORY has learned.

Acording to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.

Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program.

While many have speculated that Plame was involved in monitoring the nuclear proliferation black market, specifically the proliferation activities of Pakistan's nuclear "father," A.Q. Khan, intelligence sources say that her team provided only minimal support in that area, focusing almost entirely on Iran…

The damages

Intelligence sources would not identify the specifics of Plame's work. They did, however, tell RAW STORY that her outing resulted in "severe" damage to her team and significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation.

Plame's team, they added, would have come in contact with A.Q. Khan's network in the course of her work on Iran.

The only way what they did makes sense, is if they didn't want the A.Q. Khan group to be prevented from supplying weapon material to Iran. They want an excuse to invade Iran. That's why they did all they could to ensure the election of Ahmedinejad to be able to demonize him.

Time for a Conscience Network

It’s time for a Conscience Network. An effective network of people who have consciences and who have awareness.

It has become even more clear lately that, in fascist times like these, politics is dead.

There can be no politics when the polis is dead. There is power and power plays but no politics in the traditional sense. In the United States, the Democratic party is rolling on their back and exposing their belly to the Republicans like submissive dogs. The Patriot Act will be renewed, Alito was confirmed and a nuclear attack on Iran has complete support in the upper levels of both parties.

What, in such times, can be done?

Here is one suggestion by Signs of the Times:

Think about it: Bush and the Neocons have been spying illegally for over a year now, and he has the gall to brag about it and shove it in our faces, and to declare that he's going to continue. In the midst of this uproar, he even gets his court pick accepted ensuring that no legal action will ever be taken against him. And while we are on the subject, just WHO have the Neocons been spying on that were such sensitive targets that they couldn't even be bothered with getting a rubber stamp approval?

The object of the illegal spying wasn't really to target innocent Americans as the Neocons would like us all to think.

…The whole thing stinks of a smokescreen. So, what are they trying to hide? What are they trying to distract attention away from? As Paul Craig Roberts has written:

We have reached a point where the Bush administration is determined to totally eclipse the people. Bewitched by neoconservatives and lustful for power, the Bush administration and the Republican Party are aligning themselves firmly against the American people. Their first victims, of course, were the true conservatives. Having eliminated internal opposition, the Bush administration is now using blackmail obtained through illegal spying on American citizens to silence the media and the opposition party.

Before flinching at my assertion of blackmail, ask yourself why President Bush refuses to obey the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The purpose of the FISA court is to ensure that administrations do not spy for partisan political reasons. The warrant requirement is to ensure that a panel of independent federal judges hears a legitimate reason for the spying, thus protecting a president from the temptation to abuse the powers of government. The only reason for the Bush administration to evade the court is that the Bush administration had no legitimate reasons for its spying. This should be obvious even to a naif.[...]

The years of illegal spying have given the Bush administration power over the media and the opposition. Journalists and Democratic politicians don't want to have their adulterous affairs broadcast over television or to see their favorite online porn sites revealed in headlines in the local press with their names attached. Only people willing to risk such disclosures can stand up for the country.

…And that means that all those hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars even, that are flowing into the coffers of various “Political Action” groups are all going to waste. It's all for nothing. Nothing will change. They will spend your money, make a big show, make a good living off of it, and nothing, NOTHING, will change.

…Yes, it is true that everywhere, on all the issues, the people are rejecting the Bush/Neocon agenda from Iraq to Social Security to budget cuts, to funding the war machine, to drilling in the Arctic. But none of it makes one bit of difference to an administration that owns the media, the Intelligence agencies, the military, the Congress and now, the Supreme Court. While the pundits tell us Bush is in trouble, he continues to get his victories on the ground.

Nothing that the political activists have done or said or advertised about has made one whit of difference. Nothing. The same game is being played with Iran that was played with Iraq, and if something doesn't change in a very fundamental way very, very soon, America IS going to be embroiled in a global war that may, indeed, be the end of America.

…As long as the Neocons own the media, the intelligence agencies, the military, the courts, congress AND the voting machines, NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE.

…No amount of money that you give to any political organization is going to make any difference whatsoever.

That's the bad news. Activism based on the old model simply doesn't work against fascism.

Is there any good news? What does work? Can anything work? What can we DO?
We think there IS something that can be done, but it is going to require something that we talk about a lot on this website: Networking, colinearity and nonlinear dynamics. To just briefly explain, colinearity is when a lot of people are networked together, all going in the same direction. Nonlinear dynamics are the laws of physics that tell us that constantly applied pressure can keep building and building until it reaches a “popping” point when EVERYTHING shifts, and no one can know beforehand exactly when, where or how that critical mass will be reached.

We think that the solution to the problems facing America today can't yet be seen because there aren't enough people going in the same direction, all applying the pressure to the same goal/point.

That has got to change. And that can only change by a mass change of thinking. Americans needs to stop wasting energy on the wrong things and start spending it on the right things in the right way at the right time. We think that those who are sincerely working for change need to network together, to support each other not only in word and deed, but financially.

You can donate here.

More Pressure on Bush: Why?

The pressure is increasing on Bush in the last couple of days, probably to make sure he attacks Iran and doesn’t get cold feet.

Libby is fingering higher-ups, which can only mean Cheney, Bush and Rove.

Abramoff is mad that everyone is pretending they don't know him, and is detailing all the friendly meetings he had with Bush.

Michael Brown is putting pressure on Bush by implying that he asked for help for Katrina that was not given. The Bush administration is refusing to release emails which are said to show that they knew well in advance how bad the effects of the hurricane would be on New Orleans and that they knew well before they have admitted that the levee broke.

The Larry Franklin Israeli Spy trial is proceeding.

Reports are that Fitzpatrick is zeroing in on Rove.

An column calling into question the 911 Commission report was published in the Miami Herald last week.

Either the payment of hush money and promises of pardons are not functioning properly or someone who can offer more protection than Bush/Cheney are putting some not so subtle pressure on them to invade Iran. Doesn’t look good.

Knowledge Protects

Many people, especially people in the Heretic’s family, what good is there in focussing on all this scary depressing stuff. Good question. Actually, there are three parts to this question. The three parts, often articulated by Mrs. Heretic, goes something like, “if all these bad things are going to happen and there is nothing we can do about it, why dwell on it? Why not just enjoy the time we have before the collapse?

Let’s take the first part, “if all these bad things are going to happen.” We don’t know with 100% certainty that rough patch we are anticipating (descent into economic collapse, fascism and world war) will take place. It looks likely, though, but we don’t know until it does happen.

Secondly, “and there is nothing we can do about it:” this, I think is wrong. In a linear analysis, we may be nobodies with no power, but in a non-linear sense “nobody is a nobody.” No one knows what action will tip the scales in a different direction. At the very least we want to be able to say we did everything we could to avoid the bad outcome.

As for “why not enjoy every moment?” I do believe we should do that, that we should proceed with joy. Depression will not help anything as it leads to hopelessness and fatalism.

By coincidence, as I was writing this, I took a break to read George Ure’s site and he posted this in response to a question by someone on a radio show,

who asked something to the effect "So if you see this collapse coming, why are
you so chipper?" Simple: I'm an optimistic kind of person by nature - and I'm
well prepared for whatever comes along.

When you see the "handwriting on
the wall" about the economy, come face-to-face with your own mortality once or
twice, and take serious lifestyle changing deliberate actions to increase your
odds of survival, your stress levels drop dramatically, and you can get on with
what humans are supposed to be - namely be happy, self actualizing, smart/clever
quite social animals.

In Laura Knight-Jadczyk’s Cassiopean material, which is where I got “nobody is a nobody,” (there and in Tolkien), there is a phrase, “Knowledge Protects.” In Martha Stout’s, The Myth of Sanity, pp. 53-54, this is addressed in terms of avoiding trauma creation. Discussing how the same event might cause trauma in one person and not in another, Stout writes:

Meaning is the important thing. It determines whether or not the mental corridor to helplessness and death will open up, or remain shut and disregarded by us, as that channel usually does. And the meaning we ascribe to a threatening event is determined in part by 'our ability to anticipate, protect, and know ourselves,' as McFarlane and Girolamo have put it. The more we can anticipate what is likely to happen next, the more we feel that we can protect ourselves, the more we know ourselves in general, the more inoculated we are against being traumatized by the frightening or the painful.

Finally, we have Matthew 24 where Jesus warns that the knowledge that protects is not just positive knowledge but knowledge that helps the knower avoid being deceived:

1: Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2: But he answered them, "You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down." 3: As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?" 4: And Jesus answered them, "Take heed that no one leads you astray. 5: For many will come in my name, saying, `I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. 6: And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7: For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: 8: all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs. 9: "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. 10: And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. 11: And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12: And because wickedness is multiplied, most men's love will grow cold. 13: But he who endures to the end will be saved.

Mossad and the Danish Cartoon Flap

The hand of the Mossad seems clear in this whole Danish Cartoon flap. First they publish cartoons profoundly insulting and offensive to Muslims, a large minority throughout Europe where support for Israel and the Amerisraeli “war on terror” is weak. Then, when Muslims expressed offence, the newspaper apologized and it looked like the whole thing might die down. Then the newspaper reprinted the cartoons and loudly insisted that it was their free-speech right to do so.

If they are so courageous, why don’t they run cartoons showing the Pope as a child molester or insulting Jesus or something? Why insult someone else’s religion and that pretend it is due to lofty principle. This is different than the Salman Rushdie affair, because Rushdie grew up a Muslim.

Someone clearly wants religious conflict to break out again in Europe, now that the French riots have died down. Now whose interests would that serve?