HIS OWN WORST ENEMY
World Backlash Builds Against Bush
by
William Thomas
"BLOOD IN THE WATER"
Part 1 of a two-part series

For every precipitous action there is an equal, opposing reaction. Whether Taliban fanatics blowing up the world’s oldest Buddhas and executing women for the “crime” of being feminine - or a quick-draw Texan ripping up his country’s Constitution and threatening to blast everything in sight - the Koran and the Bible sternly warn, “You will reap whatever whirlwind you sew.” These are laws of physics and karma. There are no exceptions.

Just five months after a series of rapid-fire horrors traveled at the speed of televised light to stun the entire planet, the most popular presidents in American history has managed to turn international solidarity over Sept. 11 into global condemnation of policies that went virtually unchallenged during his father’s slaughter of hundreds of thousands of families in the Persian Gulf.

Like father, like son. With G. W. Bush, there are no subtleties of state craft. Suddenly this shoot-first, think-later president is in everyone’s face.

But Bush’s bellicose contention that countries who do not sign off on his agenda and accusations “are with the terrorists” – and liable to be carpet-bombed by B-52s – is not playing well in places like Pyongyang, Paris, Moscow and Berlin. A global backlash is building against the bullying bluster of a president increasingly seen as leader of the world’s most dangerous rogue nation.

The days of Ronald Reagan’s joking reference to launching an atomic attack on an “evil empire – and getting away with it – appear to be over. In the wake of another president’s targeting three more “evil” nations, global leaders and a computer-connected citizenry are standing to denounce what they are calling a reckless warmonger.

Sprung like a trap from implausibly coordinated events that provided perfect pretext for foreign invasion and score-settling, a well-oiled administration’s swiftly gathered momentum toward militarism and martial law many considered unstoppable is faltering in the face of widespread condemnation.

As a major hitter on the world stage, this Bush-leaguer is proving a poor pretender. En route to being safely sequestered in his dad’s presidential library, a former Texas governor’s private correspondence with Enron Corp was picked off by a Freedom of Information request and published widely. One letter from the former oil giant’s CEO asks Gov. Bush to persuade the President of Uzbekistan to sign off on a $2 billion venture “to develop Uzbekistan’s natural gas and transport it to markets in Europe and Kazakhstan and Turkey.” As Ken Lay reminded G. W., “This project can bring significant economic opportunities to Texas.”

It can also bring a whole passel of trouble. There is blood in the water, and for once it does not belong to the innocent. Enron is not the only wound afflicting the Bush administration. As the world media circles like sharks sensing struggle, the sound of floundering grows around a president plunged over his head by IOU’s to his corporate cronies, and an unraveling cover-up of the biggest betrayal of the American people since his father okayed the sale of chemical and biological weapons to Saddam Hussein.

Even more worrying for those who facilitated and profited from the Sept.11 attacks, the mainstream media is beginning to question the official version of the events surrounding this new millennium’s Pearl Harbor.

This analogy is more apt than most Hollywood-indoctrinated filmgoers suspect. Anyone wondering how American military and intelligence officers could have looked the other way in the months leading up to the massacre of some 3,200 people in three states can ponder the words of Lt. Commander Joseph J. Rochefort. Referring to the deaths of more than 3,000 American military personnel whom he helped betray one sunny Sunday morning after using code-broken communications intercepts to track Japanese carriers to the island of Oahu, Rochefort remarked to a naval historian: “It was a pretty cheap price to pay for unifying the country.” [Robert Stinnett, Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor]

The “conspiracy theories” condemned by George Bush are coming from mainstream media reporting. A sampling of world press exclusives:

SUPER SICK “SUPER-TERRORIST”

An ailing bit-player named Osama bin Laden was most likely relegated to terrorism’s back bench before the takedown of Twin Towers built by eugenicists David and Nelson Rockefeller. The French and Arab press have long reported on bin Laden’s bouts with renal failure. [“Bin Laden Seriously Ill, Orders House Call” World Tribune Feb. 7, 2000]

With his life depending on constant use of a dialysis machine, living in cave is ludicrous. Egyptian journalist Essam Deraz says this less-than-Super Terrorist suffers so severely from low blood pressure, he has to lie down for hours at a time. The London-based Al Hayat daily newspaper quotes sources suggesting that his illness had “led to a cessation of activities by bin Laden.”

Chief terror lieutenant Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri have taken over al Qaeda. Speaking of al Zawahiri, The Guardian recently reported that in view of bin Laden’s debilitating illness, “Even to say he is bin Laden’s right-hand man may understate his importance. Some analysts believe that in his current role in Afghanistan, al Zawahiri has taken over control of much of bin Laden’s terrorist finances, operations, plans, and resources.” [Executive Intelligence Review www.larouchpub.com]

US INVASION PLANS PUBLISHED IN JUNE, 2001

In late June 2001, the US and Russia reached a decision to invade Afghanistan. [“US ‘Planned Attack on the Taleban’” BBC Sept. 18, 2001]

India and Iran publicly announced that they would “facilitate” the coming US-Russian invasion of Afghanistan. [www.indiareacts.com/Story33.htm]

The following month, during a UN-sponsored Afghan-networking session in Berlin, former Pakistan Foreign Secretary Niaz Naik was told by senior American officials that military action would commence in Afghanistan before the snows began in mid-Oct. The choice Washington offered its Taliban allies was stark. As former French spook Jean-Charles Brisard recalled, “At one moment during the negotiations, the US representatives told the Taliban, ‘either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs’.”

Two months before the events of Sept. 11 provided a pretext for seizing access to the world’s last major oil, natural gas and heroin supplies, Naik learned that Washington would launch its operation from bases in Tajikistan, where American advisers were already in place. At least 17,000 Red Army troops were placed on standby in Uzbekistan. [Bin Laden, The Forbidden Truth by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie; “US troops training in the ‘stans’” The Guardian Sept. 26, 2001]

American officials told Naik that the plan was to kill or capture Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and install a transitional government. Vowing not to take “yes” for an answer, Washington said it would not drop its invasion plan, even if bin Laden were to be surrendered immediately by the Taliban. [“US and U.K. vowed to take joint military action” The Financial Times Sept. 21 2001; “Threat of US strikes passed to Taliban weeks before US attack” The Guardian Sept. 22, 2001]

WASHINGTON REFUSES HAND-OVER OF OSAMA BIN LADEN

“Was the war necessary?” asked the Toronto Star. “The Taliban’s unprecedented offer to extradite bin Laden to a third country, well before the Sept. 11 attacks, was reported by The Times of London” in February, 2001. The official reason for US reluctance was that it wasn’t sure a case against him could stand up in court.

As early as March 1996, the government of Sudan offered to extradite bin Laden to the United States. US officials turned down the offer, preferring perhaps said the ‘Post, to use him “as a combatant in an underground war.” In other words, as a US government agent. [“Sudan offered to turn over Osama bin Laden” Washington Post Oct. 3, 2001]

“THE GREAT GAME” - HIGH STAKES IN CENTRAL ASIA

As former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler told CNN’s viewers, French insiders are charging that the present administration, “just shortly after assuming office slowed down FBI investigations of al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a deal with the Taliban on oil - an oil pipeline across Afghanistan.” Butler added, “Now, if there is to be a pipeline through Afghanistan, obviating the need to deal with Russia, it would also cost less than half of what a pipeline through Russia would cost. So financially and politically, there’s a big prize to be had. A pipeline through Afghanistan down to the Pakistan coast would bring out that Central Asian oil easier and more cheaply.” [CNN Reports Jan. 8, 2002 07:34 ET]

As former German intelligence overseer Andreas von Buelow told the daily newspaper Tagesspiegal, the events of Sept. 11 “fit perfectly in the concept of the armaments industry, the intelligence agencies, the whole military-industrial-academic complex. This is in fact conspicuous. The huge raw materials reserves of the former Soviet Union are now at their disposal, also the pipeline routes and [heroin routes].” [German daily Tagesspiegel Jan. 13, 2002]

BIN LADEN SAVED BY AMERICAN SURGEON, MET WITH CIA - JULY, 2001

On or about July 4, 2001 Osama bin Laden was flown by a private Saudi jet to the American Hospital in Abu Dubai. According to Le Figaro, during his stay, “the local representative of the CIA was seen by many people taking the elevator and going to bin Laden’ room.” Various Arab diplomats and French intelligence sources said that “precise information was communicated to the CIA concerning terrorist attacks aimed at American interests in the world, including its own territory.” [“Bin Laden Met With CIA In July In Overseas American Hospital” Agence France Presse Oct. 21, 2001]

After receiving 10 days of life-saving treatment for renal failure from an American surgeon specialist, America’s “Most Wanted” man with a $5 million bounty on his head left an American hospital unmolested. [“Bin Laden underwent treatment in July at Dubai American Hospital” Washington Times Oct. 31, 2001]

BUSH LEARNED OF WTC BEFORE LEAVING FOR FLORIDA CLASSROOM

It turns out that President Bush knew of the World Trade Center air strike before departing for the Booker School on that fateful morning. As the president was leaving his hotel suite, ABC reporter John Cochran saw Bush’s adviser whisper something in his ear. Cochran asked the President, “Do you know what’s going on in New York?” As Cochran reported on-air, “He said he did, and he said he will have something about it later.” [ABC News Special Report Sept. 11, 2001]

The head of a country under violent attack then proceeded to an unnecessary appointment that could have exposed him to the next stage of a terrorist assault. “When we walked into the classroom,” Bush later explained to a young boy at a public forum, “I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake. And something was wrong with the plane, or - anyway, I’m sitting there, listening to the briefing, and Andy Card came and said, ‘America is under attack’…Anyway, it was an interesting day.” [White House Press Release Jan. 5, 2002]

Where was President briefed? What was a television doing on in a grade school classroom during a presidential visit? How could George Bush possibly have watched the first plane hit the WTC when that footage was not broadcast until after the second Trade Tower collapsed?

The press declined to ask these and other obvious questions for nearly four months. Then, during the first of a five part TV series probing 9.11, “Insight” media analyst Barrie Zwicker pointed to the president’s odd behavior: “He continues to listen to a student talk about her pet goat. Why? It’s another 25 minutes until he makes a statement, even as flight 77 is making a bee-line for Washington, DC…Why?” [Vision TV Jan. 21, 2002]

“Who was watching the skies,” the Miami Herald wanted to know. “Forty-five minutes. That’s how long American Airlines Flight 77 meandered through the air headed for the White House, its flight plan abandoned, its radar beacon silent…Even with the transponder silent, the plane should have been visible on radar, both to controllers who handle cross-continent air traffic and to a Federal Aviation Administration command center outside of Washington, according to air traffic controllers.” [“Who watched as flight plan was aborted?” Miami Herald Sept. 14, 2001]

On Sept. 11th, the Andrews Air Force Base website boasted of two combat-ready squadrons of jet interceptors protecting the US capital. Located just 12 miles from the White House, two armed fighters sat “cocked and locked” on round-the-clock “ready alert”.

Tight FAA-USAF coordination routinely scrambles these fighters whenever an aircraft strays from its assigned flight path, But on Sept. 11 they weren’t launched until a Boeing 757 was diving on the Pentagon. On Sept. 12th, all mention of F-16 and F-18 fighters was removed from the Andrews AFB website. Overnight, the base became home only to “a transport squadron”.

“Whatever the explanation for the huge failure,” Zwicker continued, “there have been no reports, to my knowledge, of reprimands. This further weakens the ‘Incompetence Theory.’ Incompetence usually earns reprimands. This causes me to ask – and other media need to ask – if there were ‘stand down’ orders?” [Vision TV Jan,. 28, 2001]

The navy and army commanders betrayed by their superiors at Pearl Harbor were court-martialed. On Oct. 1, 2001, while the toxic ruins of the WTC still smoldered, Gen. Richard B. Myers, commander of the east coast’s air defenses during 9-11, was promoted to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (William Thomas, All Fall Down]

SHOOTDOWN OVER PENNSLYVANIA

The FAA reported that all four indestructible titanium Cockpit Voice Recorders from the doomed flights were destroyed in explosions that left alleged terrorist ringleader Atta’s paper passport unscathed. But at least one CVR survived intact. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Accuracy in Media for a transcript of the recorded cockpit conversations of the hijacked Boeing 757 that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11 was refused by the FBI because “it could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”

“What enforcement proceedings?” AIM wants to know. “If the passengers succeeded in getting into the cockpit, there should be evidence of the struggle on the CVR. If that is what happened, why doesn’t the FBI release the transcript that would prove it?” AIM adds, “When American Flight 587 crashed in New York shortly after takeoff, the government released detailed information from the CVR within 36 hours.”

Locally televised interviews with eyewitnesses, and the Philadelphia Daily News reported people in the area seeing the plane shot down by a pursuing F-16 flying under “weapons free” orders issued by the president. Ignoring the tricky question of how a plane allegedly flown straight into the ground by mutinying passengers came apart in mid-air. the FBI claimed that major debris - including a half-ton section of one of the plane’s wing-mounted engines - were “blown by the wind” nearly eight miles from the main crash site. [“Shoot-Down Order Issued On Morning Of Chaos” USA Today Sept. 17, 2001; “Shoot down over Pennsylvania” New York Times Sept. 15, 2001; Philadelphia Daily News Nov. 15]

Taking dead AIM, the media watchdog suggested that Flight 93 “may have been hit by a heat-seeking missile from an F-16.” [“What Are They Hiding About Flight 93?” Accuracy in Media Dec. 28, 2001]

INTELLIGENCE EXPERTS DISPUTE OFFICIAL STORY

A German intelligence expert was one of the first officials to take issue with Washington’s version of 9.11. Andreas von Buelow served for 25 years on a parliamentary commission overseeing all three branches of German intelligence. His book, In the Name of the State details the criminal activities of secret services, including the CIA.

Von Buelow observed: “The planning of the attacks was technically and organizationally a master achievement. To hijack four huge airplanes within a few minutes and within one hour, to drive them into their targets, with complicated flight maneuvers! This is unthinkable, without years-long support from secret apparatuses of the state and industry. in the analysis of political processes..

“I wonder why many questions are not asked,” von Buelow mused. “For 60 decisive minutes, the military and intelligence agencies let the fighter planes stay on the ground; 48 hours later, however, the FBI presented a list of suicide attackers. Within 10 days, it emerged that seven of them were still alive.”

Another problem with the official story was that Atta nearly missed the flight he allegedly hijacked when his shuttle was delayed. “If this Atta was the decisive man in the operation, it’s really strange that he took such a risk of taking a plane that would reach Boston such a short time before the connecting flight,” says von Buelow. “Had his flight been a few minutes late, he would not have been in the plane that was hijacked. Why should a sophisticated terrorist do this?” [Tagesspiegel Jan. 13, 2002]

Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, architect of the Afghan holy war that created the Taliban, agrees. “I can’t believe that it’s just those 19 people and they all got killed and that’s that. There must be a very elaborate command-and-communications system, a logistics system, people who provided the safe haven as well as the training. And it is simply not possible that someone got six months training flying the aircraft. You can fly a jumbo jet like that. It’s all bunkum. There had to be somebody manipulating the air traffic control, somebody who switched off the warning system for the Pentagon. Someone who asked the Air Force not to scramble for 24 minutes those people are still inside America.” [“The Pashtun Code” by Isabel Hilton The New Yorker Dec. 3, 2001]

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL

A New Yorker correspondent interviewed more than a hundred “living martyrs” looking for “the shortest path to heaven”. “All were deeply religious,” reporter Hassan wrote. Daily prayers, abstinence and the bolstering presence of a personal minder leave no time, inclination or permission for partying. But the FBI reports that these un-Islamic suicide bombers of Sept. 11 got drunk in bars, frequented strip joints, used credit cards in their own names - and did everything they could to attract attention to themselves. They also flunked out of every flight school they entered. [William Thomas, All Fall Down]

EARLY WARNINGS

The “surprise” attacks of Sept.11 came as no surprise to intelligence agencies, the World Trade Center’s biggest tenants, and even Bronx high school students. In June 2001, German intelligence warned the CIA that Middle Eastern terrorists were “planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture.” [Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Sept. 14, 2001]

On Aug. 18, a CIA cable flagged “IMMEDIATE Urgency” warned the White House that “two Bin Laden related individuals” had entered the US and that two other suspected terrorists should be barred from entering. [“CIA notified White House in early Aug. of an impending terrorist attack” Los Angeles Times Oct. 18, 2001]

Also in Aug., President Valdimir Putin ordered Russian intelligence to warn Washington “in the strongest possible terms” of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings. The warnings continued “for weeks”. Russian intelligence informed the White House that 25 pilots had been specifically trained for suicide missions. Boxcutters subsequently found on two diverted airliners forced to land in Canada, raises the estimated number of hijackers to 25 and attack aircraft to six. [“Russia warns US of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings. Interview with President Putin MS-NBC Sept. 15, 2001]

On Aug. 28, the FAA sent a warning to airlines and airports that passengers with links to terror networks intended to fly on US airlines. [Cambio Magazinen (Mexico); Reuters Aug. 28, 2001]

The week before Sept. 11, a Pakistani student at Brooklyn’s New Utrecht High School pointed at the Twin Towers during a heated political argument and declared, “Look at those two buildings. They won’t be here next week.” Several days before the attack, a Jersey City student of Middle Eastern origins also warned classmates not to travel into lower Manhattan on the morning of Sept. 11. Many members of a Bronx mosque were also warned to stay out of lower Manhattan on Sept. 11. [“Some Got Warning: Don’t Go Downtown on Sept. 11” New York Daily News Oct. 12, 2001]

US corporations had already been tipped by a State Department warning issued worldwide. A copy of State’s Sept. 7 memo received by former Secretary of State George Schultz at his San Francisco office warned that Americans “may be the target of a terrorist threat [from] extremist groups with links to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda organization”. [All Fall Down]

This timely bulletin also reached airports, where at least one prestigious passenger was warned. When San Francisco’s mayor called on Sept.10 to check the status of a flight he was planning to take into New York the following day, a return call from a person Willie Brown described as an “airport security man”, told him to be “extra cautious about air travel” on Sept. 11. [San Francisco Chronicle Sept. 14, 2001]

Just as in Oklahoma City, the FBI offices on the 22nd floor of the WTC were also deserted when they were destroyed by evidence-destroying explosions – before the building came down.

On Sept. 11, Federal Emergency Management Agency official Tom Kennedy told Dan Rather on-air that an elite FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team arrived in NYC the night before the “surprise” attacks. “We’re currently one of the first teams that was deployed to support the City of New York in this disaster. We arrived on late Monday night and went right into action on Tuesday morning.”

A flustered FEMA rep later told WorldNetDaily that “In the heat of the moment”, Kennedy had misspoken. Two FEMA teams, he corrected, were sent into Ground Zero the next day. It’s unlikely a paramilitary team leader would mistake a mission start two days before. If the “fast-reaction” teams actually arrived 24 later, sending them in Wednesday morning to the scene of one of the biggest disasters in US history would have been almost useless. And there is no way Kennedy could have claimed they were the “first team” deployed. The FEMA manual, “Emergency Response To Terrorism” features the World Trade Center on its cover?

WHO BENEFITS, WHO GAINS?

In the weeks leading up to Sept.11, the Bush ship of state was listing heavily. World leaders were bashing Bush’s for reneging on Kyoto’s carbon cutbacks. At home, his Big Oil cabinet faced certain congressional defeat over their bid to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Intended as $300 billion dollar “fix” for corporations addicted to weapons contracts, Bush’s treaty-busting “Missile Defense Shield” also faced a congressional thumbs down. Plus the economy was a major minus. During the previous three weeks, the Dow had dropped a dizzying 900 points, taking $1 trillion into the digital void.

By late Oct., the really excellent news for President Bush was that he remained President Bush. Completed in late Aug., a $2 million media scrutiny of 170,000 uncounted Florida votes was about to be announced by the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times and CNN. According the London Telegraph, the results spelled “bye-bye Bush”. A New York Times journalist involved in the recount project revealed that the Gore victory margin was big enough to create “major trouble for the Bush presidency if this ever gets out.”

Steven Goldstein, speaking for the owners of The Wall Street Journal, told reporters that the recount results would be kept from the public. “Our belief is that the priorities of the country have changed, and our priorities have changed,” Goldstein said. [“Media suppress the news that Bush lost election to Gore” The Telegraph Oct. 22, 2001]

US WAR CRIMES

Several men captured at Hazar Qadam and held for two weeks say US troops hit them with fists and gunstocks; they bound them and then walked on their backs. One detainee noted, “They said, ‘You are terrorist! You are Al Qaeda! You are Taliban!” Villagers claimed that after the commando attack at Hazar Qadam they found the bodies of men who had been handcuffed. One local says the white plastic handcuffs bore the words “Made in USA. “The US criminal code defines a “war crime” as conduct prohibited by Articles 23, 25, 27 and 28 of the Hague Convention of 1907.

The Hague Convention’s Article 25 prohibits “the attack or bombardment, by whatever mean, of towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings which are undefended.”

On October 21, Washington Post reporter Molly Moore described that night in the hamlet of Thoral a US missile cut through a trailer containing 27 frightened villagers - mostly children - fleeing a bombing raid on a nearby town. Many of the children were ripped apart by the bomb. A half -hour later, after the injured and dead had been taken to a house, two missiles struck that home. Local witnesses told Moore that 21 members of two farming families - all but four were infants or children - were killed in the attacks.

“Blasting civilians, mistreating captives, executing prisoners who are bound--whether these actions (if proven) qualify as war crimes or not, they are out of sync with the President’s lofty rhetoric and they undermine the United States’ claim to moral leadership in the war on terror.” [“US Mis-strikes in Afghanistan: Accidents or Possible War Crimes?” The Nation Feb.13, 2002]

"THE PROFITS OF FEAR"

Part 2 of a two-part series

Presidential profiteering from the wars they engineer has a long and dishonorable history in the USA. As a director of USArms, President Bush senior cashed in on arms and uniform sales during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. That costly conflict was triggered when Bush’s Harken drilling firm “slant-drilled” from Kuwait into Iraq. Invoking “executive privilege”, the elder Bush evaded lawsuits launched against him by returning American veterans charging their commander-in-chief with “treason”. [William Thomas, Bringing The War Home]

Between September 1998 and last winter, Halliburton head Dick Cheney oversaw $24 million in sales of oil-industry equipment and services to Iraq. The man Bush Jr. picked as his vice-president also dealt extensively with Burma’s brutal regime. [“Cheney Made Millions Off Oil Deals with Hussein” San Francisco Bay Guardian Nov. 13, 2000]

THE CARLYLE CONNECTION

Every time Bush boosts defense spending in response to Sept. 11, the Wall Street Journal reports, the big beneficiaries are the Bush and bin Laden’s families.

The Carlyle Group is a small but extraordinarily well-connected investment bank that grew overnight into a multi-billion dollar arms player by paying fire-sale prices for bankrupt military-suppliers - just before they were handed massive government contracts.

The Carlyle “investment club” counts among its sales staff and directors former CIA director Frank Carlucci, James Baker III, George Bush senior, and the billionaire bin Laden family. [William Thomas, All Fall Down]

An outraged Judicial Watch chair and general counsel Larry Klayman told the press, “The idea of the President’s father, an ex-president himself, doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror attacks of Sept. 11 is horrible. President Bush should not ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group.” [“Carlyle Group - The World’s Largest Private War Contractor” Wall Street Journal Sept. 27, 2001]

MADE IN AMERICA ANTHRAX

On Oct. 5, America’s anthrax scare was sparked by the death of Bob Stevens at the National Enquirer. DNA tests traced the Ames strain of anthrax taken from contaminated envelopes mailed to Congressmen and famous media personalities to the US Army’s biowar center at Fort Detrick, Maryland. [“Capitol Hill Anthrax Matches Army’s Stocks 5 Labs Can Trace Spores to Ft. Detrick” Washington Post Dec. 16, 2001; “Terror anthrax lined to type made by US” New York Times Dec. 3, 2001]

Meeting illegally behind closed White House doors, top CEOs of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America secured contracts for supplying untested and potentially hazardous biowarfare antidotes. Soon after the anthrax scare began, Michigan’s Bioport Corp. landed an exclusive $29 million contract with the Department of Defense to “manufacture, test, bottle and store the anthrax vaccine.” [“The Pharma Cartel” Newswatch Dec. 21, 2001]

Founded by Fuad El-Hibri, a Saudi financier and close personal friend of the bin Laden family - and run by a former US Navy Admiral who had supplied anthrax to Saddam Hussein - Bioport was on Fort Detrick’s distribution chain for Ames Iowa anthrax.

Spreading anthrax to panic Americans into stockpiling an unsafe vaccine benefits Bioport. But only the Battelle Memorial Institute could supply electrostatically-charged Ames anthrax under the Defense Department’s “Project Jefferson”. Battelle worked closely with Bioport in requesting “urgent funding” for anthrax vaccines under a billion-dollar DOD Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program. [“The Pharma Cartel” Newswatch Dec. 21, 2001]

It turns out that Battelle commissioned top anthrax expert, William Patrick III “to deliver a report on the powdered anthrax’s prospects for being spread through the mail.” [Wall Street Journal editorial, Dec. 24, 2001]

Killing five of 18 infected persons, envelopes filled with electrostatically-charged Ames anthrax sent to US senators and media personalities could contaminate an entire room. In Nov., the White House ordered to the FBI to drop its investigations of US firms known to be working with anthrax. [“FBI Told To Lay Off Anthrax Firms” New York Times Nov. 9, 2001; “FBI accused of dragging its heels after former government worker is questioned twice over attacks” The Guardian Feb. 20, 2002]

FBI BLOCKS TERRORIST PROBE LEADING TO SEPT. 11

On Aug. 17, three weeks before “Black Tuesday”, US intelligence officials intervened to block an investigation of a terrorist suspect who might have alerted authorities to the Sept. 11 plot. The New York Times confirmed that the FBI “held back its own agents last Aug. from opening a criminal investigations of a man who investigators now suspect was meant to be the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks.”

Zaccarias Moussaoui was arrested on immigration charges after an instructor at a flying school in Eagan, Minnesota called the FBI’s Minneapolis office to report that a new Middle Eastern student wanted to practice turning a heavy aircraft - without learning how to land or take off. When he was picked up in Boston, the feds found “several passports, technical information on Boeing aircraft and flight manuals” in Moussaoui’s possession.

The bust was flagged by French intelligence agents, who sent a dossier to the FBI linking the Islamic militant to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. A joint FBI-CIA anti-terrorist panel reviewed Moussaoui’s file. Records showed the mysterious Moussaoui had already received 57 hours of flight training from a school in Oklahoma. But senior FBI officials denied repeated requests from Minneapolis FBI agents for a wider investigation into Moussaoui’s intentions. [“FBI held back its own agents last Aug. from opening a criminal investigation” New York Times Oct. 6, 2001]

In the years leading up to Sept. 11, the FBI was actively tracking four to six separate bin Laden cells in the USA. According to ex-CIA chief Stansfield Turner, the cells were completely “bugged”. Every phone line, cell phone and email was intercepted. Yet FBI director Robert Mueller subsequently stated, “There were no warning signs that I’m aware of that would indicate this type of operation in the country.” [“Ex CIA chief Turner says FBI was tracking four to six bin Laden cells” Los Angeles Times Oct. 28, 1993]

According to CNN, “Two weeks before the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., FBI agents descended on an Oklahoma flight school asking questions about a man now suspected of having a link to those attacks.” [“FBI at Airman Flight School” CNN Sept. 18, 2001]

Ordered to drop their investigation into Moussaoui, angry agents in Minneapolis passed their information to David Schippers. The Chicago attorney who spearheaded the Clinton impeachment effort personally took the Moussaoui matter to the Attorney General. Ashcroft refused Schippers’ request for an investigation. [“Government Had Prior Knowledge” The Alex Jones Show Oct. 1, 2001]

SEPT. 11 PLOTTER FREED

One month after the Manhattan massacre, former ISI director-general Lt-Gen Mahmud Ahmad sought “immediate retirement” at the insistence of US authorities, who confirmed that the former Pakistan intelligence head ordered Sheikh Umar Sayeed to wire $100,000 to Sept. 11 ringleader Mohammed Atta. The government of India had supplied the Sheikh’s mobile phone number, which the FBI used to trace and establish the links between Ahmad, Atta and Sayeed. [“India helped FBI Trace ISI-terrorist links” Times Of India Oct. 12, 2001]

Ahmad’s abrupt resignation signaled that senior Pakistani Army commanders were aware of the World Trade Center plot in advance, and helped move funds to make it happen. The ISI remains directly linked with its CIA creators. So the feds at Foggy Bottom must have known, too.

TAKING IT TO THE BANK

It wasn’t the first time senior FBI officials had moved to block investigations into bin Laden and his family. Nearly one year before the attacks, the FBI’s Director of Anti-Terrorism John O’Neill quit his post after complaining to French authors Brisard and Dasquie that “the main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were US oil corporate interests and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it.” O’Neill became head of security in New York’s World Trade Center. He died on Sept. 11.

The FBI learned that the Binladen Group, the Carlyle Group and the Bushes bank at Citigroup, where two retired CIA directors serve as directors. America’s second largest bank has long been involved in the documented laundering of drug money, including the recent purchase of a Banamex, a Mexican bank known to launder drug profits. [“FBI and US spy agents say Bush spiked bin Laden probes before 11 Sept.” The Guardian Nov. 7, 2001]

Osama bin Laden’s family also banks at the London branch of Deutsche Bank AG. This bank was involved in processing insider trades on United Airlines stocks just before Sept. 11. On Sept. 15, as German investigators probed Deutsche Bank’s “short-selling” of sensitive stocks, Mayo Shattuck suddenly resigned - “effective immediately” - as head of the Alex Brown unit of Deutsche Bank.

The investment bank used to place massive “put options” on United Airlines stock in the days before Sept. 11 was managed until 1998 by “Buzzy” Krongard - current executive director of the CIA. Krongard helmed the A.B. Brown bank when it was acquired by Banker’s Trust in 1997. This mega-bank is one of 20 big US banks accused by Senator Carl Levin of laundering dirty drug money by passing it through legitimate accounts.

The year before Krongard became the third highest-ranking executive in the CIA, Bankers Trust was absorbed into Deutsche Bank, forming Europe’s biggest blockbuster bank. Deutsche Bank was next named the hub of insider trading activity connected to insurance company Munich Re. European regulators are currently examining unusually heavy and extremely profitable “short-selling” in Munich Re shortly before to 9.11. [“CIA Executive Director “Buzzy” Krongard Managed Firm That Handled “Put” Options On UAL” Michael C. Ruppert’s From The Wilderness Oct. 9, 2001; “BushLaden” Jared Israel’s Emperors Clothes Oct. 8, 2001]

Did Deutsche Bank’s CIA-connections tip that financial giant to the impending terror attacks? Does al Qaeda do its banking there? According to the Washington Post, three men believed to be at the controls of planes that slammed into the World Trade Centre and the Pennsylvania countryside - Mohamed Atta, Marwan al Shehhi and Ziad Jarrahi - shared the same Hamburg apartment with three men alleged to be part of the al Qaeda network. All three men repeatedly flunked out of American flight schools. [“SEC Investigating Trading in Shares of 38 Companies; Asks Brokerages to Review Records” The Associated Press Oct 2, 2001; “Computer Experts Probe Sept. 11 Deals” Reuters Dec. 18, 2001]

WASHINGTON SUPPORTS TALIBAN, REFUSES TO HIT BIN LADEN

On July 12, 2000 packed Congressional hearings on “Global Terrorism and South Asia” erupted after Representative Dana Rohrabacher accused the State Department of “treachery and hypocrisy” in Afghanistan.

A veteran Afghan-hand, Rohrabacher named two high-ranking American officials who had visited the region and discouraged opposition leaders from attacking the Taliban when they were vulnerable to defeat. Instead, Washington officials tricked the Taliban’s opponents into disarming. This duplicity allowed the Taliban to wipe out all opposition forces except Mahout’s Northern Alliance, which was driven back to the northern border.

“Let me just say that some of my sources of information informed me of where bin Laden was, they told me they knew and could tell people where bin Laden could be located. And it took me three times before this administration responded,” Rohrabacher riposted. “When my contact was actually contacted, they said that the people who contacted them were half-hearted, did not follow through, did not appear to be all that interested.” [William Thomas, All Fall Down]

On more than one occasion in Afghanistan, the Pentagon admits they had Osama bin Laden in the cross-hairs of a drone armed with Hellfire missiles - and did not take the shot because permission from higher authority to fire was not granted in time. On at least 40 other occasions, the remotely-piloted robot planes drones have fired on unidentified individuals on the ground. None of the victims were bin Laden. Some were later found to be identified as tall villagers scrounging for scrap metal, As well as five members of the new government en route to the inauguration. [[“US spurned chances to kill Bin Laden: Drones often had al-Qaida leader in sights” The Guardian Nov. 24, 2001]

BUSH BLOCKS 9.11 PROBES

As a congressional investigation threatened to expose inconsistencies, illegalities and possible treason in a far-ranging White House cover-up, President Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to limit congressional investigations into Sept. 11. The president’s personal intervention in a probe leading to the Oval Office followed a rare call to Daschle from Vice President Dick Cheney making the same request.” [“Don’t go there: Bush Asks Daschle to Limit Sept. 11 Probes” - CNN Jan.30, 2002]

On Nov. 22, 2001 Congressional leaders agreed to delay their queries into government failure to prevent the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon for another year, when the trail will be cold. [“Inquiries Into Failures of Intelligence Community Are Put Off Until Next Year” New York Times Nov. 23, 2001]

CRACKS IN THE COVER-UP

Bush’s intervention did not stop world experts from publishing their views. Reports by Nafeez Ahmed, executive director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development in Brighton, England are carried by Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian and The Independent. In his series on the “Great Deception”, Barrie Zwicker told Canadian viewers: “In The War on Freedom, Causes and Consequences of 9-11, Ahmed writes that Osama bin Laden is merely a piece in a chess game. The stakes of the game are the last of the world’s oil reserves.”

According to Ahmed, the Bush administration’s grip on power is intended “to pursue a drastic unlimited militarization of foreign policy on a massive and unprecedented scale required by long-standing elite planning, while crushing domestic dissent and criminalizing legitimate protest.”

Ahmed’s own conclusion is that documentation “strongly suggests the United States, or more precisely significant elements of the US government, military and intelligence, had extensive foreknowledge of the 11th Sept. attacks, and were in various ways complicit in those attacks.” [“The Great Deception” Vision TV Feb 4, 2002]

MISADVENTURES IN VIRTUAL REALITY: THE BIN LADEN VIDEO

A confessional videotape reportedly recovered from a hastily vacated al Qaeda villa in Jalalabad shows a fuzzy figure resembling Osama bin Laden explaining that he never expected the Trade Towers would fall down after being hit by two martyr-planes.

The audio quality of “bin Laden’s” voice was so poor, translators could not be certain whether they were hearing “we did” or “they did” – a crucial distinction in establishing culpability. [“The Bin Laden Tape” Vancouver Sun Dec. 14, 2001; “Bin Laden Translation Omitted Sections” ABC NEWS Dec. 21 2001]

“I believe the evidence against him is not solid. I think the video they produced is doctored,” said bin Laden’s mother, Alia Ghanem. “The voice is unclear and uneven. There are too many gaps and the statements are very unlike him.” [“Mom says it’s not bin Laden” London Daily News Dec. 22, 2001]

Describing the tape as “fabricated,” Islamic affairs specialist Hani al Sibaei observed that it “boggled the mind” that an organization like Al Qaeda would create such a simple-minded video and it behind in a private home. [“Hani al Sibaei says not bin Laden” Al Jazeera Satellite News]

“It’s a real scandal,” laughed another analyst at the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo over the jape. When a visitor from Saudi Arabia arrives, his voice is clear and there are frequent close-ups. But Bin Laden’s voice is always muffled and the camera never zooms in on him.” [“Bin Laden videotape was result of a sting” The Observer Dec. 16, 2001; “The Camera That Couldn’t Shoot Straight - Osama Gump?” www.counterpunch]

NEW YORK TIMES SLAMS “DICTATOR”

When a President-select remarked that his job would be “a heck of a lot easier if I was the dictator”, few pundits predicted George Bush would re-invent himself as chairman of the Soviet-sounding Supreme National Security Council. But when Bush curtailed cherished American rights and freedoms, even the New York Times took exception. In an editorial accusing the president of seizing dictatorial power, veteran commentator William Saffire warned Americans, “A president of the United States has just assumed what amounts to dictatorial power to jail or execute aliens.”

Safire reminded readers that the president, in his own words, “dismisses ‘the principles of law and the rules of evidence’ that undergird America’s system of justice. He seizes the power to circumvent the courts and set up his own drumhead tribunals - panels of officers who will sit in judgment of non-citizens who the president need only claim ‘reason to believe’ are members of terrorist organizations. His kangaroo court can conceal evidence by citing national security, make up its own rules, find a defendant guilty even if a third of the officers disagree, and execute the alien with no review by any civilian court.” [Congressional photo-op Dec. 18, 2000; “Seizing Dictatorial Power” New York Times Nov. 15, 2001]

BRITAIN DEMANDS EXPLANATION OF GUANTANAMO BAY PHOTOS

Soon after the Pentagon released the first photos of disorienting prisoners kneeling blindfolded, shackled and ear-muffed in sensory deprivation inside 6 by 8-foot cages in a US military detention center in Cuba, Whitehall’s cheerleading of Washington’s attacks on Afghanistan turned into angry demands for an explanation of such treatment of unconvicted Afghan detainees.

“Manacled hand and foot, they kneel in submission. Is this how Bush and Blair defend our civilization?” the normally right-wing Mail Sunday asked on its front page. A worried Foreign Affairs spokesman wanted to know, “What sort of effect will these pictures have in capitals like Cairo or Amman?” [ABC News Reuters Jan. 20, 2002]

BUSH BACKS DOWN ON TRIBUNALS

In early Jan., following a worldwide outcry, the NY Daily News reported, “President Bush’s controversial guidelines for trying terrorists by military tribunals are being significantly softened.”

An official involved in the tribunals review said the administration was “surprised by the depth and scope of the reaction” and has scaled back some of Bush’s harsher provisions to make the plan more palatable to critics. “The final regulations,” reported the Daily News, “will require unanimous death-penalty verdicts and mandatory appeals.”

The revised regs “are more in keeping with federal court standards. Terrorist defendants would be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, a unanimous verdict would be needed to impose the death penalty and a three-judge panel, possibly including retired civilian judges, would hear appeals of all convictions.” [“Retreat On Military Tribunals After Uproar” Daily News Jan. 6, 2002]

PENTAGON BACKPEDALS FROM OFFICIAL POLICY OF LIES

Efforts to “manage” international reactions backfired big time when it was reported that the Pentagon had hired the Rendon Group. “Well known for running propaganda campaigns in Arab countries,” reported the New York Times, the Washington-based PR firm “has done extensive work for the Central Intelligence Agency.” [“Pentagon Readies Efforts To Sway Sentiment Abroad” New York Times Feb. 19, 2002]

Pouring gasoline instead of water on the PR conflagration, the Pentagon proudly announced that its Orwellian Office of Strategic Influence, “calls for the planting of false stories in the foreign press, phony Emails from disguised addresses and other covert activities to manipulate public opinion.” In the uproar that followed, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld promised the press that the Pentagon will not tell any whoppers to the American people. [Pentagon Press Release Feb. 20, 2002; “Rumsfeld: Office won’t use media to spread lies” Chicago Tribune Feb. 21, 2002]

“AXIS OF EVIL” SPEECH IGNITES WORLDWIDE POLITICAL MELTDOWN

These gaffs fanned a worldwide firestorm ignited by the president’s ill-advised State of the Union address. Referring to Iran, Iraq and North Korea, the president of country with a penchant for bombing anyone, anywhere, anytime thundered: “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.” [GW Bush, State of the Union address Jan. 29, 2002]

Pointing out the only commodity held in common by these three regimes, columnists like New York’s Robert Lederman quickly dubbed Dubya’s blunder, his “Axis of Oil” speech.

IRAN “HONORED” TO BE US TARGET

Iran’s Foreign Minister retorted, “The Islamic Republic of Iran is honored to be the target of wrath and anger of the most hated Satan in the world. The president of the United States is talking like a person who is thirsty for blood, he threatens the countries and nations of the world.”

“With these arrogant statements, the American government has further unveiled its true image as a hegemonic power that wants to dominate the whole world through force,” Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi told the Islamic Republic News Agency. “We, besides rejecting American accusations, believe that the world will not tolerate US hegemonic ambitions.” Underlining that Arab ire was directed not at Americans but at their government, Iran invited Americans “to ask their politicians to stop looking for war and help cultivate a peace based on justice.” [“Iran ‘honoured’ to be US target” AU News Feb. 1, 2002]

SAUDIS SEE THE

The kingdom that produced and provided passports to nearly all of the alleged Sept. 11 suicide bombers escaped the erratic swing of Bush’s cross-hairs. But speculation grew “that Washington could lose its most vital Arab support base,” over a Fundamentalist Texan’s targeting of Islamic nations. A former Saudi senior diplomat undiplomatically suggested, “If the United States had wanted to arrest bin Laden, they could have done so easily without taking the trouble to launch this fanciful war…they could have caught him long ago.” [“Saudi denounces US agenda behind bombing campaign” AU News Jan. 21, 2002]

MOSCOW MAD

Pravda weighed into the fray, denouncing the Bush administration for “Demonizing US Enemies”. [Pravda, Feb. 4, 2002]

EUROPE FREAKS OUT

Five days later, Chris Patten, head of the European Union’s international relations, blasted American foreign policy - accusing the Bushwhackers of a dangerously “absolutist and simplistic” stance towards the rest of the planet. As EU officials teetered on the widest rift to open between Europe and the US in half a century, Patten said it was time “European governments spoke up and stopped Washington before it goes into unilateralist overdrive.”

Patten’s blast came as French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin warned Washington to avoid “the strong temptation of unilateralism.” Calling the “axis of evil” phrase, “deeply unhelpful,” Patten said, ”I find it hard to believe that’s a thought-through policy.”

Bush’s simplistic “You’re either with us, or you’re on the side of the terrorists” is not playing well in a Europe determined to sign cooperative trade agreements with the same Iranian state Washington calls an “evil” sponsor of terror. Taking a page from White House connivance with the country responsible for the Tiennenman Square massacre, the rape of Tibet, and cheap consumer goods made with forced labor, Patten insisted that Europe’s policy of “constructive engagement” with Iranian moderates and North Korea is much more likely to bring results than a US policy consisting of “more rhetoric than substance”.

The Guardian reported that Bush’s pivotal Axis of Evil speech “appears to have been the last straw for EU policymakers.” Referring to Patten’s protestations, the British daily explained, “The commissioner’s remarks represent the most public statement yet of what has become a growing sense of alarm in Europe’s capitals at the increasingly belligerent tone adopted by Washington.”

A senior EU official stated, “It is humiliating and demeaning if we feel we have to go and get our homework marked by Dick Cheney and Condi Rice. We’ve got to stop thinking that the only policy we can have is one that doesn’t get vetoed by the United States.”

Patten chided Washington for showing much more interest on blowing things up than in tackling terror’s root causes. “Frankly, smart bombs have their place but smart development assistance seems to me even more significant,” he said. The EU’s international spokesman called on Europe’s 15 member states “to put aside their traditional wariness of angering the US and to speak up, forging an international stance of their own on issues ranging from the Middle East to global warming.” [“Fury at president’s ‘axis of evil’ speech” The Guardian Feb. 9, 2002]

N. KOREA CALLS BUSH, “KINGPIN OF TERRORISM”

Condemned for stockpiling and selling missiles by a country threatening the globe with nuclear overkill, North Korea nearly went ballistic. Calling the American president a “politically backward child”, Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry branded Bush as a “typical rogue and a kingpin of terrorism” for visiting South Korea after his speech “to review plans for war.”

North Korea stopped short of criticizing South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung. After meeting with Bush, Kim said his government would not give up its “Sunshine Policy” of engaging the North. Obviously upset to see years of rapprochement with the North jeopardized by Bush’s inflammatory remarks, the South Korean leader added, “Bush and his group are well advised to stop acting recklessly.” [North Korea Calls Bush ‘Kingpin of Terrorism’ ABC News Feb. 23, 2002]

AMERICANS REACH OUT: LOVE IS THE ANSWER

Oddly enough, none of the alleged Sept. 11 hijackers came from Afghanistan, where at least 5,000 city dwellers and villagers have died. For 10 long days and nights US prowling above the winter clouds pulverized the rocks of Zhawar. When the jet’s low whirr rises to a roar, villagers take cover. “All the mountains are shaking,” says Khali Gul from the small hamlet of Kaskai. “We are very afraid of these planes. We just want this to stop.”

Fifteen people were killed in Shudiaki village, says Noorz Ali, rattling down the dry river bed in a pickup truck piled with his belongings: a wheelbarrow, a brass basin, and four baby goats – as he joins the exodus of bombed-out villagers for the plains.

“The village is completely flattened. My house was destroyed, and my neighbours were killed,” he says. “There were so many bombs I lost count. The dead remain there in the village. Everybody else has left. Everyday, the Americans are dropping bombs. Last night there were six and this morning there were five. We are very afraid of the bombs, and we are very angry at the Americans. There is no reason for this. The camps are empty, but still the Americans are dropping their bombs.” [“US jittery at symbolic meetings of grieving families” The Independent Jan. 15, 2002; “The Taliban may have vanished but the conflict is far from over for many in Afghanistan” The Guardian Jan. 15, 2002]

On Oct. 17, 2001 Najiba Shakar was buried by a Made In The USA bomb in the rubble of her own home. Her once pretty face criss-crossed with scars, she is in pain and has difficulty standing up or talking. Lasar leant forward and gently touched her arm. “I am sorry, I am so very sorry,” she said, wiping her eyes.

“Her life, all her dreams and ambition, have been destroyed,” said Najiba’s husband. “We do not blame you for what had happened, you too have suffered greatly. But no one has ever explained to me why my home, in the middle of a residential area, nowhere near the military, was bombed.”

Their son, 15 year old Mohammed Biyuqra said, “The Americans are angry because they had one day of war. We have had 23 years of it.”

“There is no heroism is bombing innocent civilians. So many people, especially politicians, seemed so keen to get angry on our behalf,” said Ms Lasar. “It seemed the only people not in a rage were the families of the victims.”

Kelly Campbell lost her brother-in-law Craig Amundson in the Pentagon attack. “My anguish is compounded exponentially by fear that Craig’s death will be used to justify new violence against other innocent victims,” said Ms Campbell.

Amundson’s widow told reporters, “I have heard angry rhetoric by some Americans, including many of our nation’s leaders who advise a heavy dose of revenge and punishment. To those leaders, I would like to make clear that my family and I take no comfort in your words of rage. If you choose to respond to this incomprehensible brutality by perpetuating violence against other innocent human beings, you may not do so in the name of justice for my husband.”

Abdul and Shakila Amiri lost their five-year-old daughter, Nazila, in an American air strike on the morning of Oct. 17. She was playing with her younger brother and sister close to their home when it was hit by a type of bomb glorified on the pages of glossy Pentagon propaganda magazines available on newsstands across America.

Basir and Shakila’s savings were spent on the funeral; they now live hand to mouth, facing eviction because of unpaid rent. “An innocent life lost is a terrible thing, wherever it is. The life of my daughter was precious, but so were the lives of all those who died in America…We can only grieve for each other,” Nazila’s father said.

LOST IN SPACE?

Does it make sense for six billion people to allow a few politicians and CEOs to rip off the last “resources” needed to navigate Spaceship Earth? On an increasingly crowded space colony hurtling through the cold, irradiated vacuum of deep space, scarcity and failing life-support systems seem incentive enough to pitch in together to save our ship.

Every Trekkie knows we ought to be working together patching the solar radiation shielding, repairing the fresh water recyclers, and protecting the last forest-and-plankton oxygen exchangers. Thanks to made-for-each other maniacs like George Bush and Osama bin Laden, some day soon a rising world outcry will restrain all bombers everywhere from indulging in destruction that invariably makes a circle leading back to their own homes and families.

As I learned in a “terrorist” camp, just before the guns began firing: Most people just want to be heard. When we embrace our enemies, we will no longer have enemies. And the circle of violence will be broken.