Sludge Report #146: A Tip-Off From Langley

Monday, 27 January 2003, 4:33 pm
Column: C.D. Sludge

In This Edition: War within days or war within weeks? - How Reliable A Guide To The Future Is Colin Powell - Would Powell Lie? - A Tip-Off From Langley – Where To Look For The Trigger! - What To Make Of All This?

NOTE: Authors of this report will be anonymous and wide ranging, and occasionally finely balanced. Indeed you are invited to contribute: The format is as a reporters notebook. It will be published as and when material is available. C.D. Sludge can be contacted at sludge@scoop.co.nz. The Sludge Report is available as a free email service..Click HERE - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/myscoop/ to subscribe...

Sludge Report #146:

War Within Days Or War Within Weeks?

This is the question allegedly answered by Colin Powell speaking in Davos. And one more month is the word according to the former General and hero of Gulf War I.

But over at Mike Ruppert’s bat cave, word is the attack will be launched during the President’s State of the Union address on Tuesday (Wednesday Morning NZT).

January 24, 2003, 1930 PST (FTW) - Serious international developments are indicating that the first stages of the U.S. invasion of Iraq will begin unilaterally no later than next Wednesday and most likely as the President delivers his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night.

The Associated Press reported today, in a story little noticed by mainstream American press, that the Japanese government had today urged all Japanese citizens to leave Iraq as soon as possible. Japan has large numbers of its nationals working in Iraq in various trade and oil-related business ventures. According to a second report today on CNN Headline News the Japanese advisory was specific that all Japanese citizens should be out of the country by next Wednesday at the latest.

The Japanese alert was followed by a simultaneous advisory from the U.S. State Department issuing a worldwide alert to all Americans traveling overseas. According to another AP story, State Department officials tried to downplay the significance of the warning, "but officials were unable to say when the last such advisory had been issued." A worldwide alert for U.S. citizens is extremely rare and suggests that the administration is concerned about a global backlash against Americans traveling overseas. Cautionary advisories are normally isolated to specific countries or geographic regions.

Meanwhile the Glasgow Sunday Herald has a more conventional view.

There is clearly a conflict of opinion here. So let’s examine the evidence.

(REFERENCES:

* U.S. - IRAQ INVASION LIKELY TO BEGIN WITH STATE of the UNION, Tuesday
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/012403_invasion.html

* Oil is key as Bush agrees month delay
http://www.sundayherald.com/30905)

How Reliable A Guide To The Future Is Colin Powell?

The first barrier to Mike’s theory is of course Colin Powell’s speech at Davos.

Powell has in the past been used as a dupe, as cover for an illegal White House foreign policy initiative, namely an attempted Coup in Venezeula on April 11th 2002.

(REFERENCES:

*Powell At Davos - War But Not Within Days
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0301/S00137.htm

** Sludge Report #133 - Powell’s Red Herring Mission
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0204/S00111.htm)

Would Powell Lie?

Possibly. Earlier last year Ari Fleischer made it clear that if the USA chose to attack it would not be telegraphing its intentions to the enemy.

A Tip-Off From Langley

Of course nothing in the world of Journalists is better than informed insiders. And from an impeccable source on Sunday Sludge received this…

“-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Sunday, January 26
Subject: Soon

Prepare for the smoking gun needed for the Iraqi invasion.”

Where To Look For The Trigger

So we have precedent, means, motive and evidence (albeit thin) of implementation already underway.

All that remains is for the provocation plan to be implemented, that is, the trigger pulled.

When looking for a trigger point for an imminent U.S. strike on Iraq, there is one obvious situation that looks particularly capable of providing some justification for seemingly righteous United States wrath.

And that has been provided by the pre-eminent master of the art of provocation in the contemporary world - Israel’s Ariel Sharon.

A National Leader willing to launch an illegal invasion of a neighbouring country two days before a general election should surely have no qualms about engineering a little war provocation in the Gulf.

And there of course numerous ways such a provocation can be provided. A dirty bomb scare in Tel Aviv. Anthrax in Haifa.

All that is needed is utter ruthlessness, political desperation, and a complete absence of moral qualms and respect for the rule of law.

These are all qualities that Sharon has displayed buckets of over the last 24 hours.

(BACKGROUND REFERENCE:

From the time of an earlier provocation..
* Sludge Report #53 - Waiting For The Trigger Point
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0103/S00073.htm)

What To Make Of All This?

The above is not intended to be a definitive answer to the question posed initially. Indeed it is not even expressing a view on whether the attack will occur this week. Suffice to say that we could be in for a surprise.

And of course the decision to pull the trigger may or may not have yet been taken.

But if startling new evidence seemingly providing a rational (or irrational but passionate) justification for a strike against Baghdad emerges in the next few days, then we can only pray that the world’s media is now sufficiently awake to give it the scrutiny it deserves.

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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