Sludge Report #148 - A Nest Of Vipers, But Whose?

Tuesday, 11 March 2003, 1:39 pm
Column: C.D. Sludge

In This Edition: A Nest Of Vipers On Penn. Ave. (And Across The Pacific In The Lodge Too…) - But What Of Our Guardians In The Fourth Estate? – WHOSE VIPERS? Did George Bush Junior Work For Langley Like His Dad? What Did The Dim Son Do When He Was AWOL? - Richard Perle Is A Spy - Richard Perle Is A Also War Profiteer - War Is Just A Racket: History Always Repeats

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 #148

A Nest Of Vipers On Penn. Ave. (And Across The Pacific In The Lodge Too…)

It is probably a bit unkind to vipers to say so, but here at Scoop we have of late being making much of George W. Bush's administration's use of deceit in the information war.

And Sludge has now decided it is probably perfectly reasonable to add Australian PM John Howard to the list of pathological liars who are leading the world to war.

The official US and Australian PR strategy for the war is now more than clear. To misquote Robert The Bruce, the motto being followed at propaganda central in both Canberra and Washington these days is: "If at first you don't convince, lie, lie again".

For fairness's sake Sludge is not including Tony Blair among this nest of vipers at this point, not because he is not lying (he is) but because he has at least done his best to answer as many questions as possible on why the world must now go to war. Blair's recent appearances on ITN and MTV were examples of the most high-church self-flagellating imaginable, worthy indeed of Henry the 2nd mourning his friend Bishop Beckett, and for this he deserves some small credit.

At a press conference here in Wellington yesterday Sludge was privileged to view one of the main protagonists of the plot to destroy peace on earth in action in person.

Australian PM John Howard's strategy in answering questions on his planned war is exactly the same as that displayed by the, apparently medicated , US President (a.k.a. The Xanax Cowboy) at his press conference last Thursday (Friday NZT). Namely:

1) avoid answering all questions unless they are patently self-serving, instead;
2) waffle on at length mentioning a lot of buzzword phrases;
3) mention terrorism, 911 (and in Howard's case Bali) as frequently as possible;
4) claim that making the decision to go to war is troubling you greatly personally, but that it is the burden of leadership; and,
5) never allow a follow-up question, as someone may take you up on one of the lies in your previous answer.

Sludge highly recommends the following articles for further reading by the inimitable Dennis Hans on the subject of the techniques of official deceit.
- http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0303/S00040.htm
Dennis Hans: Bush the Fork-Tongued Scaredy Cat
- http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0303/S00011.htm
Dennis Hans: The Disinformation Age
&
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00061.htm
Exposing Bush and His "Techniques of Deceit"

Dennis says it far better, and therefore it will suffice here to use just one example from Howard's display of sophistry yesterday.

Leaving aside the diversion in the opening sentence alluding to the world being in agreement that this is all about Iraq (the current crisis is not about Iraq disarming, it is about the US, Australia and the UK contemplating tearing up the International Rule of Law), consider the following:

"I mean, we have a common view, all of us, we want Iraq disarmed, we’d love to see it occur peacefully, now that requires in my view a united expression of world opinion through the Security Council and it involves a recognition on the part of the Iraqis that the game is up. Now you won't, in my view, get those two things occurring if you don’t have a united expression of opinion in the Security Council."

Good point, John. Only thing, isn't the answer also obvious?

If you want unanimity in the UN Security Council then why are you holding a gun to its head?

Why does the world have to have a vote this week? And why does the world have to agree to the US and UK solution to the crisis, seemingly without argument for the world to become a safer place?

Of course noone was able to ask the Australian PM these questions.

But What Of Our Guardians In The Fourth Estate?

What indeed? Fortunately for the incumbent inhabitants of the Lodge, in Canberra, and the White House, in Washington D.C., the Security and Defence reporting community in the international media is sufficiently compromised that the repeated lies of our leaders have their desired impact.

Sludge can only speculate at the reasons for this failure, but it seems relatively clear on the basis of what they report that a fairly large number of the wire reporters based in places like Pakistan, Egypt, Amman, Venezuela, Saudi and other hotspots are not actually journalists at all.

And even if a correspondent is attempting to do their job in good faith, what are they to do? Where are they forced to get their information from? A: The Security forces, the very same spooks, generals and police inspectors whose information they are supposed to be scrutinising, and critically reporting on.

How, for example, can a reporter confirm or verify a statement made about a military or police action at which no-one other than the police are present. Moreover, given that the security forces themselves are now openly engaged in what they call "information warfare", who can even expect them to tell the truth about such things. And yet their every utterance is repeated verbatim as if it is gospel truth.

Thanks to the Internet's ability to make all publications available to a single researcher in real time we now have a new tool available for the purpose of verifying such reports, comparative anlaysis. Perhaps the best possible recent evidence of the way in which spooks are talking to spooks and the conversations are ending up in our news papers verbatim is the ever so strange case of the alleged "Capture" of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

The world owes a debt of gratitude to another North American writer, Paul Thompson, for revealing the full extent of media duplicity in this case in such a timely fashion. It is probably thanks to his work that the Pakistani authorities have taken the unprecedented step today of holding a news briefing about their captives alleged confessions.

All that can be said for sure following an examination of Thompson's research is that all news in Pakistan is lies. Thompson examined reports from The Washington Post, New York Times, Times of London, Christian Science Monitor and several other publications all reporting on the capture of the Al Qaeda kingpin. Only thing is, they all reported completely different accounts of what happened?

Sure, there is always a bit of a risk of Chinese whispers interfering with the clarity of such reports, but on reading all the evidence<.a> (See… http://www.complete911timeline.org/main/essayksmcapture.html Sludge is certain that most readers will agree that the extent of variation is beyond that which could occur by accident. It seems Pakistani security services aren't very good at the level of message discipline required to tell a convincing lie.

WHOSE VIPERS?
Did George Bush Junior Work For Langley Like His Dad?
What Did The Dim Son Do When He Was AWOL?

Which brings us to the question of who are these vipers working for. On that question we have a few observations to make.

An astute reader of Scoop recently forwarded the following, which albeit pure speculation sheds some most welcome light on one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the past of the present U.S. Commander in Thief. It is also analysis which illuminates the Dim Son's propensity to tell porkies, his obsession with Iraq, and his odd choice of friends.

It concerns the mystery of what George Junior was doing in 1972 when he went Absent Without Leave (AWOL) from his Texas Air National Guard unit.

Those familiar with this story will be aware that there has been considerable speculation (see.. http://www.awolbush.com/) that the reason for his absence might have been his being busted for drug abuse, either cocaine or booze. But the following is an equally compelling explanation, and Occam's Razor suggests it deserves some consideration.

Anonymous of North America writes:

"Yesterday was the first time I had opportunity to see the documents related to the 'absence' of George W Bush from his squadron duties in Texas. Over the years I have come to recognize certain language characteristics from the study of Government documents. Two items stood out from the official papers that are part of Sander Hicks presentation, " Halos and Horns". [NOTE: "Halo and Horns" is a recently released documentary about the publication of the unauthorised biography of George W. Bush "The Fortunate Son"]

FOIA REFUSAL TO RELEASE MORE PAPERS
http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/0303/d6d3ae55a9199aac68b2.jpeg
Click for big version

The first item is the language "Report for this period not available for administrative reasons" I recognized that phraseology to be that often used as a signal marker that additional documents are available but are above the reach of FOIA requests. That sentence is used to mask the fact that that individual has been 'seconded' to another branch of the US government. That masking is used to cover intelligence activities or training with a "national-level organization".

That in itself is code for primarily three agencies or their branches. Those are the FBI, the CIA or the DIA. The first is not within the parameters of the possibilities in this particular case, that leaves the last two.

GEORGE BUSH AND JAMES BATH'S DISCHARGE PAPERS
http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/0303/4c7c8bd5b2668fbd104b.jpeg
Click for big version

The second document that I found intriguing was the precise identical language to dismiss both Bush and James R. Bath from their flying duties. That dismissal allows for reasonable cause why a tighter paperwork trail will not be necessary in the future, as would be needed for a pilot.

That the two men (who were the best of friends) were removed from a definable paper trail within one month each other is significant. Bush heads to summer in Maine for the August period, but is only accountable sporadically thereafter for 3/4 of a year. Bath is free of paper trail in September 1972.

Let's skip ahead a few years, we are into the 1980's, between BCCI and the Savings and Loan/contra funding enterprise, we have two reporters who absolutely confirm that Bath is a CIA asset. That confirmation is above Bath's own statements repeatedly making use of that connection in his nefarious business deals. (That information is easily confirmed by web searches and in the books by Pete Brewton and the Jonathan Beaty. )

Bath brags that he was personally recruited by George Bush Senior in 1976, when Bush was DCI. That would have to be the statement followed by both men as Bush SR. has stated both in official papers and under questioning that he did not join the agency until he was appointed Director by Ford. We now know that to be a patent lie. Bush SR. was recruited directly out of Yale in either 1947 or 1948. He served as a case officer for a group of Cuban exiles and helped orchestra the planning stages of the Bay of Pigs fiasco. There is now a photo available showing Bush on one of his Zapata Oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, giving a pep talk to a groups of AC Cubans commandos. Bush's name again surfaces in the aftermath of the JFK killing, with a memo of having briefed George Bush on the matter from J. Edgar Hoover. Mark Lane's book Plausible Denial makes overwhelming the evidence that Bush was an agent going back to the post Yale days.

With that knowledge but with Seniorr. caught in his own lie where 1976 is the first possible year he could have recruited James Bath, we have to dissect further. Let's change the time frame back four years and plug in the year 1972, specifically the fall of 1972, to the days of September when the paper-trail also ends on Bath.

Let's plug W and best friend James Bath into an agency training program for Officer Recruits. We have 2 agencies available per above. There is no legacy allowance for DIA. But there is for CIA because of SR's position. We know that W barely made the minimum allowable score for pilot training, it would have to be a political clout appointment, .....nepotism.

Despite hundreds of newspaper and other media stories on this missing year. Bush refuses to give a firm statement that could tie him down and be exposed as a lie in the future.

He has and still suffers a tremendous amount of bad press as being AWOL in that period. He made only sporatic appearances in this period, nothing by schedule.

I can add from a personal experience of a friend who was the CIA for 22 years and finally admitted his true vocation, (complete with his secrecy agreement for my inspection) that the very essence of the training period was broken down into weeks so that it could be made to blend into another lifestyle and vocation.

Lets' examine a list of George Bush SR's highlighted accomplishments and the well reported fact in several books that W. holds his father's career in awe, maybe to the point of a mental obsession.

Look what piece of this near mirror image in the career paths of father and son is missing. Does this picture fit too together too well?"

Richard Perle Is A Spy

And while we are on the subject of the Dim Son's strange friends, and who is spying for whom it is worthwhile reminding the world that Richard Perle, one of the lead architects of the present crisis (as opposed to the Dim Son, whose role is presumably trigger monkey), was fired from his job with Senator Jackson's office in the 1970s because he was caught passing classified material to the government of Israel.

See… Google Search On Perle And Jackson

It is further worth noting that Perle (and fellow White House hawk Paul Wolfowitz) were both on the list of officials implicated in assisting Jonathan Pollard to spy for the Israeli Government in 1985.

See… Google Search On Perle Wolfowitz and Pollard

But, naysayers will say, perhaps this particular leopard, bathing now in the glow of his reconstituted legitimacy as an official beneficiary of White House patronage, and having gained a few years and pounds, has changed his spots. On the basis of what follows, Sludge thinks not.

Richard Perle Is A Also War Profiteer

Lets assume for arguments sake that passing secrets to the Israeli's is not enough to disqualify this clown (and close Bush/Rumsfeld adviser) from involvement in organising a military adventure destined to forever alter the nature of our world. Then there is also this:

Sy Hersh from the New Yorker magazine has written an excellent expose concerning recent dealings by Richard Perle. Take it away Sy:

"Perle is also a managing partner in a venture-capital company called Trireme Partners L.P., which was registered in November, 2001, in Delaware. Trireme’s main business, according to a two-page letter that one of its representatives sent to Khashoggi last November, is to invest in companies dealing in technology, goods, and services that are of value to homeland security and defense. The letter argued that the fear of terrorism would increase the demand for such products in Europe and in countries like Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

The letter mentioned the firm’s government connections prominently: “Three of Trireme’s Management Group members currently advise the U.S. Secretary of Defense by serving on the U.S. Defense Policy Board, and one of Trireme’s principals, Richard Perle, is chairman of that Board.” The two other policy-board members associated with Trireme are Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State (who is, in fact, only a member of Trireme’s advisory group and is not involved in its management), and Gerald Hillman, an investor and a close business associate of Perle’s who handles matters in Trireme’s New York office. "

See… Sy Hersh's article ( http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/ ) for much more on Perle.

But Perle of course - street fighter that he is - did not take this lying down and when the allegation of his attempting to profiteer from fear was made on CNN replied by Calling Sy Hersh a "terrorist".

BLITZER: Let me read a quote from the New Yorker article, the March 17th issue, just out now. "There is no question that Perle believes that removing Saddam from power is the right thing to do. At the same time, he has set up a company that may gain from a war."

PERLE: I don't believe that a company would gain from a war. On the contrary, I believe that the successful removal of Saddam Hussein, and I've said this over and over again, will diminish the threat of terrorism. And what he's talking about is investments in homeland defense, which I think are vital and are necessary. Look, Sy Hersh is the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist, frankly.

BLITZER: Well, on the basis of -- why do you say that? A terrorist? PERLE: Because he's widely irresponsible. If you read the article, it's first of all, impossible to find any consistent theme in it. But the suggestion that my views are somehow related for the potential for investments in homeland defense is complete nonsense.

BLITZER: But I don't understand. Why do you accuse him of being a terrorist?

PERLE: Because he sets out to do damage and he will do it by whatever innuendo, whatever distortion he can -- look, he hasn't written a serious piece since My Lai.

- From: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0303/09/le.00.html

Yes Richard, and have you ever written anything that deserves being taken seriously. One of Richard's greatest hits is this: A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm . Read it and weep.

War Is Just A Racket: History Always Repeats

And finally in this edition we have a bit of history showing if any evidence is necessary that there is nothing new under the sun.

"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 . I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. "

- General Smedley Butler about Brown Brothers Bank. From a speech delivered in 1933 by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC. General Butler was twice awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (1914, 1917). General Douglas MacArthur described Butler as "one of the really great generals in American history."

Brown Brothers was the Bush family bank in the days of the Dim Son's Grandaddy Prescott Walker Bush's days. That is, back in the days when the Bush Family were financiers to the German Nazi party. Major General Smedley's comments are so apt at this juncture that they deserve some more exposure.

War is Just a Racket
By Major General Smedley Butler, USMC, 1933

"War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man, to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 . I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

Anti©opyright Sludge 2003

© 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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