Letter From a Military Mom

It wasn’t that long ago that the military command in Iraq started pulling computer access to various units. Seems some of the troops were writing emails home to family, to friends, to various anti-war groups and the like, and the military was getting a bit disconcerted by that. After all, can’t have your own troops pretty much turning the “official news” on its head now can you? So what do you do? You shut them up and any way that you can. Let them know they are monitored works pretty good.

But, what about the “moms” back home that are writing on the internet? Moms like Robin Vaughan, whose letter detailing her recent experiences with the Department of Defense and the Army is below.

Moms writing back and forth to “sons and daughters” in Iraq, who might “slip” and tell “mom” what life is really like in Iraq; Can’t have that now, can we? What if the “moms” start telling others what their sons and daughters are telling them (at least the ones that are still able to access a computer). Can’t have that people might turn against the war ON Iraq. I guess we better threaten and intimidate the moms so they’ll keep their mouths shut, stay off the internet and just go home and be a mom

This is pretty much what has happened to Robin Vaughan, the mother of a young man who was in Iraq.

Read Robin's letter....

The Making of the Enemy

Having been born and grown up in the U.S. until the age of 48, I can bear witness to this article, for it outlines the manipulation of the American public by the 'elite'. It is the story of 'how America works'. For most of my 48 years in the U.S., I, too, bought into this matrix of manufactured 'reality'. In WW2, it was, of course, the Japanese and Germans who were the 'enemy'. Right after that, the 'Red Menace', the so-called 'Communists', specifically Soviet Russia. I remember the atmosphere during the times of Joe McCarthy. I remember the warnings and training we got regarding an atomic bomb attack. Then Korea and after that, Viet Nam, and a new chapter of the 'Red Menace'. China, too, was always in the background. Bomb shelters. And so on. When Soviet Russia collapsed, a new enemy was needed, and manufactured.

Ladies and gentlemen: I now present to you your newest and latest enemy: Fanatic Muslim Terrorists. And of course, Muslims are generally fanatical, backward, hot-headed, willing to give their lives for their cause; they are 'ragheads', the new equivalent of 'black hats'. Oh yes, and they are 'not like us Christians'. They hate us for our freedoms, and present a great threat to the American people. Just look what they did on 9/11.

Yeah, sure.

Whether in the newspapers, on TV news, or just in books and films, there was always the thread of "white hats" and "black hats", this discription coming from the earlier days of 'cowboys and Indians'. Yes, the Indians were our first 'enemy'. So this article rings true to my experience.

I finally, and very gradually, over some years, began to see through this when I met some real confrontations in my own life, and began - and I emphasize 'began' - to start thinking with a more open mind in the 1980s. And for me, the rest is history, as they say. One more thing: Internet has been the biggest boon to me once I started thinking more with an open mind.

The manufacture, marketing and dissemination of bogeymen enemies, both real and fictional, for a long time endemic in American society, has always worked to perfection, becoming the inertia used to control the population. It becomes the energy needed to maintain America’s permanent wartime economy. The creation of unseen bogeymen into supernatural evildoers fits the perfect mold of how the American citizenry has been brainwashed over the years through the use of Hollywood movies and television, with the constant themes of good versus evil, of fantasy and sensationalism, and of course the always needed happy ending, where the good guy always triumphs over the villain.

From Indians to Mexicans to Spanish to Filipinos to Germans to Soviets to Communists to Vietnamese to Arab Muslims to the future Chinese an external enemy has always been a threat, a thorn on our side, seemingly rising out of thin air, molded by the hands of greed addicts, warmongers, criminal capitalists and authoritarian corporatists, allowed to be born in order to cover up for the real and much more dangerous enemy.

External enemies have always existed in our reality because they are an invaluable tool to those who aspire to control the people and the resources of the planet. What was the Cold War but a charade used to gain control of and dominate southern nations, rich in natural resources and cheap labor, and to control their people, and hence their economies, both through market colonialism and the use of proctors? What is the so-called war on terror but a charade for the geostrategic race being waged to control the oil fields of the Middle East and Central Asia, knowing full well that oil is not finite and that the nation that controls the oil will invariably control the world?

Read on ....

Help de Bibic-kinderen

Dit verhaal in het Nederlands.

This log is in Dutch, as it pertains to a Serbian family that lived in the Netherlands for 5 years as refugees, and were not allowed to stay here. In a nutshell, they now are homeless and penniless drifters in their own country, having no papers, no rights and nowhere to live, nor a means of surviving.

Normaal gesproken, schrijf ik alles in het Engels (mijn moedertaal). Maar toevallig ben ik deze webpagina tegengekomen en mijn hart ging meteen uit voor deze mensen. Maar....wat kan ik doen?

Nou, ik kan hun verhaal doorgeven en de boel een beetje daglicht geven. Het is toch een exemplaar van ellende........helemaal door politiek. Inclusief de oorlog in dat gebied en zelfs Bill Clinton. Vandaar verdient het een ereplek in mijne weblog. Voor het verhaal, ga gewoon naar de website van Lucia van de Kamp, die hun verhaal opschrijft en doet haar best om de situatie te verbeteren. Onderaan is haar webpagina url. Enkele woorden van haar website volgen.

Normen en waarden, Na ruim 5 jaar uitgezet, het hoe en de gevolgen…

We zijn in de herfst-vakantie naar Servië gegaan met de kleding en de persoonlijke spullen. Vader Smail zwerft in de bossen, want hij is bang voor de mannen die hem zoeken. We hebben gezien dat 4 mannen het huis doorzochten! Moeder Esma is vertwijfeld, de kinderen hebben geen recht op school, medische verzorging e.d. Het gezin is niet geregistreerd, hebben geen papieren en zijn de burgerrechten kwijt.

Lees hun verhaal hier....

Gulf War1 Syndrome is uranium poisoning

DU munitions

We've been using nuclear weapons in the Gulf War1, ex Yugoslavia and now in Iraq. The only thing is this form of nuclear weapons works in slow motion. The numbers of people affected in this article are only U.S. military. Think of the people living in those countries who were exposed, and still are.... And DU is considered a WMD, by the way. Guess what? Saddam did not have WMD, but we did, and we used them. A lot.

Heads roll at Veterans Administration Mushrooming depleted uranium (DU) scandal blamed

“Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of ‘Disabled Vets’ means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!” The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.

...a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military.”


“The long-term effects have revealed that DU (uranium oxide) is a virtual death sentence,” stated Berklau. “Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist, who retired from the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, and was also involved with the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in the soldiers (from the 2003 Iraq War) as ‘spectacular … and a matter of concern!’”

Read on ....

Is the U.S. Becoming a Police State?

I think a more accurate question would be: To what degree has the U.S. become a Police State?

Martin Luther King, the most celebrated dove in American history, was spied on because he was considered a threat. That means none of us is safe.

"Special collection program'' is the euphemism that the National Security Agency uses for spying on American citizens without a warrant.

If you think it disrespectful to discuss dictators, President Bush and the Constitution in the same column, be sure to give John Dean a call. The former White House counsel under President Nixon wrote a paper in 2002 in which he discussed the possibility of a America becoming a ''constitutional dictatorship."

'The distinction between a 'constitutional dictator' and a strong president is remarkably thin, if nonexistent,'' he wrote. All this eavesdropping business reminded me of C. William Michael's 2002 book 'No Greater Threat: America After September 11 and the Rise of the National Security State.'

Read on ....

Demand Censure for Bush-Cheney Misconduct

Sorry, Mr. Conyers. While I'm not against what you're doing, it is too little and too late. There is massive evidence, more than sufficient for an immediate impeachment process, by both international and U.S. constitutional law. By the time your procedures could have any effect, Bush and Cheney will have served out their terms and done even more damage. Saddam is guilty of crimes against humanity; but Bush, Cheney and others are guilty of many more, and more severe, crimes against humanity. Saddam is engaged in a phoney trial, the odds stacked against him and FOR HIDING THE U.S. INVOLVEMENT.

Why not have a fair trial for both sides?

We need action; and we need it now!

Here's Conyer's piece; perhaps well meant, but too little and too late:

Stand with Congressman ConyersDemand Censure for Bush-Cheney MisconductInvestigate Impeachable Offenses I am taking steps against the Bush Administration’s handling of the Iraq War and its collection of intelligence. I am going to need you to stand with me in fighting for accountability.

Join me to demand censure for Bush and Cheney in addition to the creation of a Special Committee to investigate impeaching the Bush Administration for its widespread abuses of power. I have sought answers from the administration to questions arising from the Downing Street Minutes, the Valerie Plame leak, and scores of other abominable abuses of power that pervade the activities of this White House. 121 Members of Congress and many citizens like you have joined me in asking these questions of the President.

I have just completed a thorough review of this administration’s misconduct and have produced a 250-page report that provides evidence suggesting further steps to be taken. [A copy of the report may be found at RawStory.com, and also at CensureBush.org where additional action items may be found.

Conyers' piece.....

Some of the evidence for impeachment....

Sign the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime

A fair number of Americans read this blog, and this is addressed to them. I have signed it, too. I am still an American citizen, even though I have lived in the Netherlands for many years now. Dutch citizenship is denied me without an expensive legal process, if I wish to keep my social security (AOV); just another example of American 'freedom'.

Sign the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime

Your government, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.

Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it.

Your government puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.

Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.

Your government suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.

Your government is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.

Your government enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.

People look at all this and think of Hitler — and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.

Millions and millions are deeply disturbed and outraged by this. They recognize the need for a vehicle to express this outrage, yet they cannot find it; politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of the challenge, and people sense this. There is not going to be some magical "pendulum swing." People who steal elections and believe they're on a "mission from God" will not go without a fight. There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into "leaders" who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.

Continued here, where you can also sign....

Iraqis Glad 2005 Over, Dim Hopes for 2006

Al Qa'im hospital (right), the reality of Bush's "Operation Iraqi Freedom".

Dahr Jamail's first-hand reports read quite differently than the "news" that is presented to us in the West. I've subscribed to his reports for quite a while now, and find the difference astounding. If you really want to know what is happening in Iraq on the ground, to the people, then Jamail's reports are an absolute necessity. You will NOT read and see this in 'normal' news.

I will warn you: It is extremely disturbing. You will be confronted with the reality of what is happening in Iraq. It is nothing like the "news" reports that are presented to us. Few will be able to read and view all that Jamail brings, for it not only is shocking in itself, but confronts us with the reality of the lies and corruption of our own governments.

You can subscribe - cost free - to Jamail's reports as well. Then you, too, will have first-hand information of some of what is really going on. The subscription url is: http://dahrjamailiraq.com/email_list/

Meanwhile, you can also visit his complete website at: http://dahrjamailiraq.com/


BAGHDAD, Dec 20 (IPS) - Despite the parliamentary elections last week and temporary ease in violence, Iraqis remain bitter about the outgoing year, and sceptical of 2006.

Asked about her hopes and expectations for 2006, the doctor says: "I only want a normal life far away from the interests of those bastards who invaded our country. I don't care about the elections and politics and the new political parties because these are just a small part of the strategy of the invaders."

This article, and much, much more continues here....

9/11 Black Boxes not missing, FBI has them.

9/11: Missing Black Boxes in World Trade Center Attacks Found by Firefighters, Analyzed by NTSB, Concealed by FBI

One of the more puzzling mysteries of 9-11 is what ever happened to the flight recorders of the two planes that hit the World Trade Center towers. Now it appears that they may not be missing at all. Counterpunch has learned that the FBI has them. Flight recorders (commonly known as black boxes, though these days they are generally bright orange) are required on all passenger planes. There are always two-a flight data recorder that keeps track of a plane's speed, altitude, course and maneuvers, and a cockpit voice recorder which keeps a continuous record of the last 30 minutes of conversation inside a plane's cockpit. These devices are constructed to be extremely durable, and are installed in a plane's tail section, where they are least likely suffer damaged on impact. They are designed to withstand up to 30 minutes of 1800-degree heat (more than they would have faced in the twin towers crashes), and to survive a crash at full speed into the ground.

Read on....

Bush’s Snoopgate

Bush’s SnoopgateThe president was so desperate to kill The New York Times’ eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper’s editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn’t just out of concern about national security.

Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story—which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year—because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker.

Dec. 19, 2005 - Finally we have a Washington scandal that goes beyond sex, corruption and political intrigue to big issues like security versus liberty and the reasonable bounds of presidential power. President Bush came out swinging on Snoopgate—he made it seem as if those who didn’t agree with him wanted to leave us vulnerable to Al Qaeda—but it will not work. We’re seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

Read further....

U.S. Warns Turkey Of Air Strike On Iran And Syria

It's getting obvious the build-up for another invasion is in the works. Oh yeah, Iran's new bourse, selling oil in Euros, is to begin in March.

But they have >gasp!< nukes!

Yeah, right. And so did Saddam (who also changed to selling oil in Euros in Nov. 2000).

In an overlooked story, the Turkish press reported last week that CIA Director Porter Goss went to Ankara recently and informed the Turkish government that Iran already has nuclear weapons and they should be ready for "a possible US air operation against Iran and Syria".

CIA’S GOSS REPORTEDLY WARNED ANKARA OF IRANIAN THREAT During his recent visit to Ankara, CIA Director Porter Goss reportedly brought three dossiers on Iran to Ankara. Goss is said to have asked for Turkey’s support for Washington’s policy against Iran’s nuclear activities, charging that Tehran had supported terrorism and taken part in activities against Turkey. Goss also asked Ankara to be ready for a possible US air operation against Iran and Syria. Goss, who came to Ankara just after FBI Director Robert Mueller’s visit, brought up Iran’s alleged attempts to develop nuclear weapons. It was said that Goss first told Ankara that Iran has nuclear weapons and this situation was creating a huge threat for both Turkey and other states in the region. Diplomatic sources say that Washington wants Turkey to coordinate with its Iran policies. The second dossier is about Iran’s stance on terrorism. The CIA argued that Iran was supporting terrorism, the PKK and al-Qaeda. The third had to do with Iran’s alleged stance against Ankara. Goss said that Tehran sees Turkey as an enemy and would try to “export its regime.”

Read on ....

Repeat of the same, only more.

Peace on earth, goodwill toward men. Bush style.

Bush uses lies, fear-mongering to defend war in Iraq, police state measures at home.

In his nationally televised address from the White House Oval Office Sunday night, George W. Bush reprised (repeated)the barefaced lies, distortions and appeals to fear and political backwardness that characterized the last such speech delivered by the US president, announcing the onset of the unprovoked US “shock and awe” onslaught against Iraq 33 months ago.

This time around, however, Bush found himself compelled to argue against those who “conclude that the war is lost and not worth another dime or another day”—a description that applies to many millions of Americans. He was forced to acknowledge that the attempt to quell resistance to the US occupation has been “more difficult than we expected,” and, while touting the turnout in Sunday’s Iraqi parliamentary elections, he admitted that the vote “will not mean the end of violence.”

The speech was sandwiched between Bush’s live radio address Saturday and a White House press conference Monday, both of which he used to defiantly defend his secret and illegal use of the National Security Agency to spy on US citizens, arguing for what amounts to dictatorial powers.

The essential framework of this defense was the same as that utilized to drag the American people into this war in the first place—the lie that the invasion of Iraq was a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington and constituted an essential battle in the “global war on terror.”

Read on ....

US Holding Children in Prison Camps as POW's

This is beyond sick.

Today, I started reading former President Jimmy Carter's new book, "Our Endangered Values". In it, he revealed something that is absolutely horrifying--the US is holding children as young as 8 years of age who have been captured in Afghanistan and Iraq in prison camps--namely, the one in Guantanamo, Cuba. Worse yet, Donald Rumsfeld knew about it. Read a short excerpt below:

After visiting six of the twenty-five or so U.S. prisons, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported registering 107 detainess under eighteen, some as young as eight years old. The Journalist Seymour Hersh reported in May 2005 that Defense Secretaary Donald Rumsfeld had recieve a report that there were "800-900 Pakistani boys age 13-15 in custody."

Continued. . . .

Tricky Headlines

“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Israel should be wiped off the map, the official news agency IRNA reported, dampening hopes Iran would temper its hostility toward the Jewish state...." reads the Reuters report, and we've all seen it.

Why on earth would Ahmadinejad say such a thing? Is that not political suicide?

Yes, it is. And that's why that saying was attributed to him. Most of us remember the many words used in the drum-up toward war with Iraq, and now the very same thing is going on with Iran. And these words, like so many used against Iraq, are untrue. Demonizing an "enemy" is an old trick.

But here's what failed to get reported in the mainstream news.

Reuters participates in a propaganda campaign against Iran

In order to justify a military operation against Iran, the neoconservatives have started to create a record. The have put a lot of effort into making people believe that this country is ruled by dangerously crazy people who are trying to make a nuclear bomb to be used. In view of such a danger, the only answer is to wage a preventive war. Within this context, the U.S. press agency Reuters, one of whose representatives is, since the summer, a member of the War Room of the Pentagon, launched an insidious operation against Iran.

On October 26, 2005, Reuters wrote: “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Israel should be wiped off the map, the official news agency IRNA reported, dampening hopes Iran would temper its hostility toward the Jewish state. Support for the Palestinian cause is a central pillar of the Islamic Republic which officially refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist. “Israel must be wiped off the map,” Ahmadinejad told a conference called "The World without Zionism," attended by some 3,000 conservative students who chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."

Surprisingly, not many people thought of checking the original wire from IRNA “Ahmadinejad: Zionist regime bent on countering world of Islam”, IRNA, October 26, 2005]], that does not cite the words attributed to president Ahmadineyad.

On this basis, Shimon Peres requested that Iran be kicked out of the UN, and the Israeli Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom, compelled the Security Council to make a decision.

However, the facts are very different. President Ahmadineyad never said that he wanted to wipe Israel off the map, but he endorsed the statement made by imam Khomeini that someday the Zionist regime would be wiped from the map (see document below). There is therefore, no such radicalization of Iran, but the same position stated 25 years ago. Neither is there a threat from Iran to kill anyone, let alone to commit genocide against the Israeli people. There is only a position of principle to condemn the Zionism on the same basis as Iran condemns apartheid, racism and anti-Semitism.

Read on ....

Aspartame: UK Parliamentarian Calls For Ban

For those who follow such health issues, this is not new news; for those who are not yet aware, this is. Rumsfeld seems pretty active in the medical money tree; he also is involved in the making of Tamiflu, a supposed antidote to the much hyped "Bird Flu".

Aspartame: UK Parliamentarian Calls For Ban

According to a recent article in The Guardian, Roger Williams, a UK Member of Parliament, called for emergency action to ban the artificial sweetener Aspartame, questioning its safety. The MP said that there was "compelling and reliable evidence for this carcinogenic substance to be banned from the UK food and drinks market altogether". A second article in the same issue of The Guardian reminds us how aspartame was approved by Donald Rumsfeld calling in "political markers" to override the doubts of the FDA's scientists. No honest reassessment of the science on aspartame was attempted as country after country followed the FDA's lead and approved the chemical sweetener. Consumers did and do report many untoward side effects, but apparently there is no mechanism in the FDA to follow up, analyse or investigate such consumer complaints. Betty Martini has been collecting the information, all available on dorway.com and who.net. Several books detail the dangers of the sweetener, but it seems that - barring widespread public protests - there may be no way to get health authorities to break their 'conspiracy of silence'. Aspartame seems pretty much unassailable. Well, a Member of Parliament in the UK takes up arms against the monster and calls for action.

Read on....

U.S. plans nuclear attack on Iran

Former CIA officer: U.S. plans nuclear attack on Iran

The United States is developing a nuclear plan to attack military bases in Iran, said Philip Giraldi, a former CIA intelligence officer. Giraldi said that the U.S. nuclear strike against Iran would take place after a 9/11-style attack on the United States, and that the planned attack would be analogous to the unprovoked invasion of Iraq. The former CIA officer also said that an attack on the U.S. would serve as the pretext for putting the plan into action.

One recent study, released before the election of former Taliban mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency on June 23, asserts that the U.S. assault on Iran has already started. The analysis, prepared by former United Nations nuclear arms inspector Scott Ritter, reveals that the CIA aids Iranian opposition groups. It also said that the Washington plans to stage military attacks against the Islamic republic with U.S. forces from the neighboring Republic of Azerbaijan.

However, a new attack on the U.S. soil could provoke a large sector of the American public and encourage the Bush administration to launch an attack on Iran.

Read on....

White House keeps large 'enemies list'

White House keeps dossiers on more than 10,000 'political enemies'

Spurred by paranoia and aided by the USA Patriot Act, the Bush Administration has compiled dossiers on more than 10,000 Americans it considers political enemies and uses those files to wage war on those who disagree with its policies.

The “enemies list” dates back to Bush’s days as governor of Texas and can be accessed by senior administration officials in an instant for use in campaigns to discredit those who speak out against administration policies or acts of the President.

The computerized files include intimate personal details on members of Congress; high-ranking local, state and federal officials; prominent media figures and ordinary citizens who may, at one time or another, have spoken out against the President or Administration.

Capitol Hill Blue has spoken with a number of current and former administration officials who acknowledge existence of the enemies list only under a guarantee of confidentiality. Those who have seen the list say it is far more extensive than Richard Nixon’s famous “enemies list” of Watergate fame or Bill Clinton’s dossiers on political enemies.

White House insiders tell disturbing tales of invasion of privacy, abuse of government power and use of expanded authority under the USA Patriot Act to dig into the personal lives of anyone the administration deems an enemy of the state.

Read on....