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Global Eye -- Prior Engagement By Chris Floyd
Last week's outpouring of stories in the mainstream press about the Bush regime's criminal carelessness in safeguarding the citizens of the United States surely came as no surprise to anyone. The facts were always out there, in plain sight. You just had to sift through the sludge -- the spin-gobbling, self-serving prose of the corporate media -- to find the truth. The Bush regime never had much interest in protecting America from terrorism; their priorities lay elsewhere -- enriching the elite, raping the land, gutting democracy and "projecting dominance" over all the earth. That's why Bush ordered federal agents to back off their investigations of Osama bin Laden and his family (which had long-standing business connections with Bush's family). That's why Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the CIA to end its remote monitoring of bin Laden and rejected a request to shift $800 million from "missile defense" to counter-terrorism. That's why Attorney General John Ashcroft told the FBI that he "didn't want to hear it" when they begged for more resources to fight terrorism. That's why Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill fought international efforts to crack down on off-shore money laundering schemes used by terrorists, mafias -- and wealthy backers of the Bush regime. And that's why Bush deep-sixed a bipartisan study on enhancing "homeland defense" and ignored a similar expert effort detailing actions to upgrade security on domestic airline flights. These recommendations -- many of which were put in place after Sept. 11 -- were available to Bush throughout the summer, as reports from around the world pointed urgently, frantically, to an imminent attack on U.S. soil, most likely with airplanes. But he chose to ignore them, to leave them unimplemented. And that's why when U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein approached Vice President Dick Cheney -- on Sept. 10 -- to voice her concerns over the dire situation, she was told that the great man might be able to make time for her little worries -- in about six months or so. Other priorities, you see: enriching, raping, gutting, projecting. The regime did take the time to negotiate with the Taliban that summer, promising the rabid religious fascists a "carpet of gold" if they'd dump bin Laden and allow Bush's oil pals to build a pipeline through Afghanistan. And when that deal fell through, they did take the time to draw up a plan for attacking Afghanistan and punishing the Taliban for its intransigence. This was, in fact, the very war plan later launched in mid-October. Bush had it in hand on Sept. 10. So that's how the nation's "defenders" spent the ominous summer of 2001: whoring with terrorists, trying to get in bed with them, then plotting to kill them when the sordid tryst fell through. Upgrading security, "connecting the dots" of intelligence reports, enhancing homeland defense -- this was of secondary importance. It detracted from the main goal. And the Bush Regime is justly renowned for its discipline: they keep their eyes on the prize. And what is the prize? Dominance of the Central Asian oil fields. Whoever controls them will control the two biggest economies of the 21st century: China and India. The potential wealth is staggering, incalculable. That's why the region has to be nailed down. That's why military bases have to be planted there (built and maintained by Cheney's company Halliburton -- a very profitable little sideline). That's why the pipeline has to go through. And that's why any international treaties -- like Kyoto -- that might limit or reduce oil-based energy consumption must be derailed. Those potential oil profits have to be protected. Think how many people have already died to secure them! That's why any institutions -- like the International Criminal Court -- that might limit the ability of the world's only superpower to impose its will wherever it sees fit must be undermined and ignored. That's why safeguards regulating weapons of mass destruction -- like the ABM Treaty, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, or the Convention on Chemical Weapons -- must be trashed or crippled. Even the treaty signed by Bush and Putin this week is a crude sham, allowing the Bush Regime to develop whole new generations of nuclear weapons for "missile defense." In fact, the Regime has already earmarked $30 billion for new nuclear weapons production over the next five years alone. And anyway, the gossamer-like "restrictions" of the treaty can be dissolved at a mere 90 days' notice, should the Regime need to wave an even larger fasces at the world. Absolutely nothing must be allowed to interfere with the achievement of Central Asian dominance: the Holy Grail of the energy elite and its corporate outriders. Nothing -- not democracy, not morality and certainly not the safety of the suckers back home -- is more important. The death of 3,000 innocent people in the United States was an unintended consequence of this ruthless Grail quest. But like everything else, it was fair game to be exploited. The Bush Regime used the terrorist attack as a great leap forward in its dominance strategy. It gave perfect cover for the already-planned assault on Afghanistan, it hastened the plantation of Central Asia, it obscured the Regime's systematic abrogation of international treaties, and it abetted Bush's efforts to expand and legitimize his unelected rule, and stamp out dissent at home. It's all about priorities -- not "incompetence." The regime is very competent in pursuing its priorities. It's just that these priorities don't include the preservation of innocent lives. It's just that these priorities are -- what's the word we're looking for, Mr. Bush? -- evil. What Went Wrong?
Missed Signals and Intelligence Failures The
Training-Wheel President Making
the World Safe for Nuclear Weapons US Tells of Covert Afghan Plans Before Sept. 11 White
House Commission on Aviation and Security What We Knew:
Warnings Given, Stories Missed Officials Told to Back Off on Saudis Before Sept. 11 Threat of US Strikes Passed to Taliban Weeks Before NY Attack The US Ignored
Foreign Warnings Too Afghanistan,
the Taliban, and the Bush Oil Team US Planned Attack on Taliban Has Someone Been Sitting on the FBI? FAA
knew of Moussaoui arrest US Oil Company Favored for Afghan Pipeline White House Eyes New Nuclear Arms Forgotten Victims Soldiers of Fortune: Dick Cheney's Halliburton US Rejects All Support for New Court on Atrocities Diplomacy, US Style Bin Laden's Family Link to Bush No Warning: Bush and the Taliban |
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