The
Ron Paul Breakthrough
Is
he really antiwar?: "Paul
Calls for Congressional Declaration of War with Iraq."
~ Roger Kulp Albuquerque
Eric Garris
replies:
Ron
Paul used the same tactic used by antiwar members of Congress for many years.
In fact, his "Declare War" resolution was cosponsored by many antiwar Democrats.
Mike Gravel did
the same thing over the Vietnam War when he was in the Senate. In fact, his
"Declare War" resolution was cosponsored by many antiwar Democrats.
The Congress hasn't
declared war since 1941, and it is accepted that there would be much less intervention
if Congress was required to declare war in each case (as the Constitution mandates).
Ron had publicly stated that he would vigorously oppose his own resolution,
but he wanted it debated.
I have known Ron
Paul personally for 32 years. He is opposed to all U.S. intervention into the
affairs of other nations.
Heat
Turns Up on Blackwater Inquiry
The
claim that Blackwater is outside the law simply is not true. In fact, private
military contractors are accountable several times over. First, they are accountable
to the tightly written terms of their State Department contracts. As a result
of congressional legislation, they are also accountable to FBI investigation
and U.S. criminal prosecution. Finally, the claim that they are immune from
Iraqi prosecution is mostly false. Order 17, issued in 2004, stipulates that
"Contractors shall be immune from Iraqi legal process with respect to acts performed
by them pursuant to the terms and conditions of a Contract or any subcontract
thereto." In other words, contractors getting drunk and causing trouble in their
spare time get no immunity. This is quite different from national military forces,
which are unequivocally "immune from Iraqi legal process." In this regard, Blackwater
is actually MORE accountable than the U.S. military.
~ Aaron R. Linderman
Brussels'
End
If
the article is just in all aspects and information, it dramatizes a little bit
the situation. Dramatization is a source of paranoia and misinformation, which
are used by several states to pursue their objectives. I'm Belgian, and I don't
care about what happens now in my country. There was no hard repression. Some
neo-Nazis were taken by the police out of the demonstration. It's possible for
the country to be divided into two parts.
~ Francois Barzin
Nebojsa
Malic replies:
Monsieur
Barzin,
Believe me, I
do not wish to create more drama or sensationalize things. The demonstration
and its accompanying repression were just an illustration of tensions that objectively
exist. It is not up to me to judge whether Belgium should split or remain together;
that's up to the folks living there. I do, however, have the right to point
out the incongruity of advocating a European super-state when its own source,
Belgium, is disintegrating. I don't know to what extent, if any, other governments
are involved in the current Belgian crisis. But I do wish the people who live
in what is today Belgium to resolve their differences peacefully (and if that
means partition, so be it), rather than in the manner of Yugoslavia which
had much foreign "assistance" in its bloody divorce.
Bush,
Oil – and Moral Bankruptcy
I
love and appreciate McGovern's work. Just one comment: When are we going to
stop saying things like "an unnecessary, counterproductive war," and start talking
war crimes – the highest crime on the planet. The UN Charter is not just international
law. It was ratified by the Senate and is U.S. law, equal to any other part
of the constitution that George W. swore to uphold.
Whether we impeach
and convict in the Senate or not, Bush et al. must be tried for war crimes
once they are out of office and surrender their diplomatic immunity from prosecution.
To do otherwise is to allow our leaders to get away with mass murder. This will
only encourage future leaders to do more of the same in the name of "protecting
the national interest."
~ Chris Meyer
'A
Coup Has Occurred'
During
Oliver North's Iran-Contra phase, the White House was using – by today's standards
– fairly basic telex and e-mail technology. Thousands of messages and policy
statements passed between those working secretly on various projects. Back-channel
contacts with Iran, with whom at the time Iraq was at war, were under way. The
reason for the contacts was to enable North and McFarlane to secretly supply
arms to Iran. Meanwhile Dow Chemical was selling chemical precursors to Iraq.
Then there was the secret arming of the mujahedin in Afghanistan, notably with
the help of Vincent Cannistraro. Then there was Cannistraro's successful 1986
attempt to persuade Dewey Claridge to sign off on an illegal international program
of CIA kidnappings and renditions. There was Richard Stark's joking discussion
of the possibility of manufacture of evidence to bring down the government of
Yemen. These and many other projects were revealed in the 4,000 or so messages
that survived in spite of Poindexter and North's attempt to delete them, on
the specious excuse that they were "clearing out the files ready for the next
administration." The messages formed the basis of the Tower Commission investigation,
which in turn led to the Iran-Contra trials.
Sadly, the system
was then changed. It has now become unbreakable. As one example, the Lockerbie
bombing took place 19 years ago. It was known that Cannistraro was put in charge
of the CIA team at Lockerbie. Much was revealed in the trial, but nothing whatever
emerged as regards CIA involvement in the investigation, and Cannistraro did
not appear as a witness, so, in effect, the shutters came down.
And the word "Lockerbie"?
Where is it in the National Security Archives?
In fact, it is
nowhere. If we go by official records in the NSA, or declassified records, Lockerbie
never happened. As with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's 914 page
memoirs, the event never took place.
~ Peter Biddulph,
Worcestershire, England, LockerbieTruth.com
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