Perhaps it is the sheer number of lies that US government officials have to remember from the War on Terror playbook, or was it just foot-in- mouth disease that led our newly appointed defense secretary to tell US troops in Baghdad last week that “9/11 was the reason they were in Iraq.” Argh!
He said, “You guys are here is because of 9/11. The US got attacked and 3,000 human beings got killed because of Al Qaeda.” Panetta said that to about 150 soldiers at the Camp Victory US base. It’s amazing. No one laughed.
The real lie, you may remember, that got us into Iraq was that Saddam Hussein supposedly had Weapons of Mass Destruction and was about to use them at any second. We were warned about the imminent nuclear mushroom on the horizon. The lie was repeated cumulatively by Bush and cadre between 900 to 1,000 times in the run-up to and through the shock-and-awe preemptive war on the innocents, which makes it a serious crime, as in mass murder.
Previously, an extensive visit by then UN weapons inspector Hans Blix turned up no WMD, not a one. Another investigation, by Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to Africa in search of the transport of yellow-cake uranium from Niger to Saddam turned out to be another lie, this one from Italian intelligence.
Wilson reported the sham in a definitive New York Times op-ed, What I didn’t Find in Africa, that won him the enmity of the Bush cadre. His wife Valerie Plame, a high level CIA operative, was outed and had to resign, thereby exposing many of her contacts to torture, death or both. A film was even made about the whole dirty business, called Fair Game.
The film reported, too, the attempt made to discredit Wilson as getting the investigative job (and pay) because his wife had him hired. All the lies were traced back to Cheney’s office and his assistant Scooter Libby, who was convicted of outing Plame by leaking information to the press. George W. Bush commuted Libby’s 30-month prison sentence, calling it “excessive.”
Just the mention of the words “Al Qaeda” sends shivers through the mind of Americans. But Al Qaeda, as you must know by now, was the name of a file on Bin Laden’s laptop, which meant “the base,” that is the group of men bin Laden worked with and relied on in the Mujahadeen to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. This same Mujahadeen were recruited, trained, armed and paid for by the CIA. It became their “brand name” for terror in the Middle East, a new product on the shelf of war tools, for nation building and house-cleaning.
Think you can remember all that, Mr. Panetta? There’s more . . .
We attacked Afghanistan supposedly because Osama bin Laden was hiding there, somewhere on the border between it and Pakistan. We missed him the first time in Tora Bora when he was cornered but escaped on an alternate route out of town. The claim was we didn’t have enough soldiers to cover both routes. Was that when Osama settled in a mansion just outside Abbottabad in northwest Pakistan? Obama confirmed originally that the US had the body of Osama Bin Laden and no Americans were harmed in the operation to kill him.
Well, let’s look at that. Three choppers arrived near bin Laden’s “compound.” A US Navy SEALs team of assassins were in one chopper. Yet, after the purported murder of bin Laden, two of the choppers took off and the third crashed and fell to the ground.
After the ugly notion of bin Laden buried at sea enraged the Muslim world further, the Western world never saw the purported “real deal” photos on TV or elsewhere. It was said to be too nasty to show photos of the dead bin Laden; only some D.C. politicos, whose word may or may not be truth, saw them. For the VIP viewers to say these are fake or not bin Laden would have been indiscreet and very dangerous for them. Lastly, the falling approval ratings of Obama spiked at the murder, winning him the “Tough on Terror” rating of the month.
Lastly, the real intention to take over Afghanistan after the 10-year war in which the Russians were defeated was to grab the routes from the Caspian Basin countries for oil and gas pipelines down through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean, curiously along the route of our bases. Are you listening, Mr. Panetta? In fact, to this day, we are still trying to destabilize the countries surrounding the Caspian Sea, most lately Kyrgyzstan, splitting north from south in an ugly civil war, reports Russia Today TV.
What Iraq and Afghanistan obviously had most in common was not the 9/11 attack on America or being the targets of the so-called War on Terror. The two nations’ common elements were the treasures of oil, gas, trillions in minerals and strategic real estate. This led Obama, thanks to pre and post Osama, to pick up the ball on the war and “surge” 30,000 more US troops into Afghanistan, making the battle 10 years old, the longest in US history. Oh how the devil is in the details, Mr. Panetta. Amazing!
Also, a stream of local dignitaries and family members were bin Laden’s visitors as well as the local CIA agent, the newspaper reported. The agent was widely recognized locally, Le Figaro said, and later told several friends of the meeting.
So it makes sense that bin Laden would seek a more permanent address, not necessarily a cave, in which to recover. But by no means was his residence a “million dollar mansion.” According to local real estate mavens, it was somewhat dumpy, about $250,000 in value, and with SUVs parked around it.
Remember, too, that Osama was taken off the list as the Most Wanted man in the world for the crime of 9/11 by the FBI. They simply said there was “not enough evidence” to sustain that claim and removed it.
Returning to Camp Victory, Panetta’s spokesman, Doug Wilson quickly jumped in to say that “I don’t think he’s [Panetta] getting into the argument of 2002–2003” [i.e. WMD], as the reason for the Iraqi invasion,” trying to yank the hoof out of his boss’s mouth . . .
“He has made it clear that the major threat to this country is coming from Al Qaeda and terrorist groups and he has also made clear that wherever we are in the world today, that [Al Qaeda] is a principle reason for a military presence,” Wilson added, meaning anywhere, everywhere, anytime.
Wilson was surprised a few days earlier when Panetta first shoved his hoof in his mouth, telling reporters the US intends to keep 70,000 troops in Afghanistan until 2014. The truth is a little different, reports the Navy Times. The United States forces and its NATO allies plan to withdraw 10,000 troops by the end of this year, 2011, according to administration and Pentagon officials. Then they aim to bring an additional 20,000 home by the end of next year 2012, accounting for basically all the extra forces the president ordered to Afghanistan in late 2009 to turn around a flailing war effort.
Still, NT reports, “That would leave some 70,000 troops in unstable Afghanistan in a war likely to see more American lives lost.” The hope is to “end the combat mission and fully turn over control to Afghan forces by the end of 2014,” a transition period that may (or may not) finally bring the war to an end. Panetta’s aides immediately redacted his remarks.
In closing, Panetta went on to say that the death of the Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, was “one of the proudest moments of [his] life.” As former CIA-director, Panetta had overall responsibility for tracking down the Al Qaeda chief. Or so they say. Rumors among neighbors still claim bin Laden has been seen in the shadows of the “mansion,” walking about. We’ll never know. But we have elevated our drone attacks on Pakistan, killing many innocents. And now the Pakistanis hate us, too.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer, life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.
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Panetta’s 9/11 gaff
Posted on July 18, 2011 by Jerry Mazza
Perhaps it is the sheer number of lies that US government officials have to remember from the War on Terror playbook, or was it just foot-in- mouth disease that led our newly appointed defense secretary to tell US troops in Baghdad last week that “9/11 was the reason they were in Iraq.” Argh!
He said, “You guys are here is because of 9/11. The US got attacked and 3,000 human beings got killed because of Al Qaeda.” Panetta said that to about 150 soldiers at the Camp Victory US base. It’s amazing. No one laughed.
The real lie, you may remember, that got us into Iraq was that Saddam Hussein supposedly had Weapons of Mass Destruction and was about to use them at any second. We were warned about the imminent nuclear mushroom on the horizon. The lie was repeated cumulatively by Bush and cadre between 900 to 1,000 times in the run-up to and through the shock-and-awe preemptive war on the innocents, which makes it a serious crime, as in mass murder.
Previously, an extensive visit by then UN weapons inspector Hans Blix turned up no WMD, not a one. Another investigation, by Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to Africa in search of the transport of yellow-cake uranium from Niger to Saddam turned out to be another lie, this one from Italian intelligence.
Wilson reported the sham in a definitive New York Times op-ed, What I didn’t Find in Africa, that won him the enmity of the Bush cadre. His wife Valerie Plame, a high level CIA operative, was outed and had to resign, thereby exposing many of her contacts to torture, death or both. A film was even made about the whole dirty business, called Fair Game.
The film reported, too, the attempt made to discredit Wilson as getting the investigative job (and pay) because his wife had him hired. All the lies were traced back to Cheney’s office and his assistant Scooter Libby, who was convicted of outing Plame by leaking information to the press. George W. Bush commuted Libby’s 30-month prison sentence, calling it “excessive.”
Just the mention of the words “Al Qaeda” sends shivers through the mind of Americans. But Al Qaeda, as you must know by now, was the name of a file on Bin Laden’s laptop, which meant “the base,” that is the group of men bin Laden worked with and relied on in the Mujahadeen to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. This same Mujahadeen were recruited, trained, armed and paid for by the CIA. It became their “brand name” for terror in the Middle East, a new product on the shelf of war tools, for nation building and house-cleaning.
Think you can remember all that, Mr. Panetta? There’s more . . .
We attacked Afghanistan supposedly because Osama bin Laden was hiding there, somewhere on the border between it and Pakistan. We missed him the first time in Tora Bora when he was cornered but escaped on an alternate route out of town. The claim was we didn’t have enough soldiers to cover both routes. Was that when Osama settled in a mansion just outside Abbottabad in northwest Pakistan? Obama confirmed originally that the US had the body of Osama Bin Laden and no Americans were harmed in the operation to kill him.
Well, let’s look at that. Three choppers arrived near bin Laden’s “compound.” A US Navy SEALs team of assassins were in one chopper. Yet, after the purported murder of bin Laden, two of the choppers took off and the third crashed and fell to the ground.
After the ugly notion of bin Laden buried at sea enraged the Muslim world further, the Western world never saw the purported “real deal” photos on TV or elsewhere. It was said to be too nasty to show photos of the dead bin Laden; only some D.C. politicos, whose word may or may not be truth, saw them. For the VIP viewers to say these are fake or not bin Laden would have been indiscreet and very dangerous for them. Lastly, the falling approval ratings of Obama spiked at the murder, winning him the “Tough on Terror” rating of the month.
Lastly, the real intention to take over Afghanistan after the 10-year war in which the Russians were defeated was to grab the routes from the Caspian Basin countries for oil and gas pipelines down through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean, curiously along the route of our bases. Are you listening, Mr. Panetta? In fact, to this day, we are still trying to destabilize the countries surrounding the Caspian Sea, most lately Kyrgyzstan, splitting north from south in an ugly civil war, reports Russia Today TV.
What Iraq and Afghanistan obviously had most in common was not the 9/11 attack on America or being the targets of the so-called War on Terror. The two nations’ common elements were the treasures of oil, gas, trillions in minerals and strategic real estate. This led Obama, thanks to pre and post Osama, to pick up the ball on the war and “surge” 30,000 more US troops into Afghanistan, making the battle 10 years old, the longest in US history. Oh how the devil is in the details, Mr. Panetta. Amazing!
Remember, Osama was a sick man. He entered the US hospital in Dubai in July of 2001 for kidney dialysis. UPI reported that a CIA agent allegedly met with bin Laden while the Saudi underwent treatment for kidney problems. France’s Le Figaro newspaper reported it as well.
Also, a stream of local dignitaries and family members were bin Laden’s visitors as well as the local CIA agent, the newspaper reported. The agent was widely recognized locally, Le Figaro said, and later told several friends of the meeting.
So it makes sense that bin Laden would seek a more permanent address, not necessarily a cave, in which to recover. But by no means was his residence a “million dollar mansion.” According to local real estate mavens, it was somewhat dumpy, about $250,000 in value, and with SUVs parked around it.
Remember, too, that Osama was taken off the list as the Most Wanted man in the world for the crime of 9/11 by the FBI. They simply said there was “not enough evidence” to sustain that claim and removed it.
Returning to Camp Victory, Panetta’s spokesman, Doug Wilson quickly jumped in to say that “I don’t think he’s [Panetta] getting into the argument of 2002–2003” [i.e. WMD], as the reason for the Iraqi invasion,” trying to yank the hoof out of his boss’s mouth . . .
“He has made it clear that the major threat to this country is coming from Al Qaeda and terrorist groups and he has also made clear that wherever we are in the world today, that [Al Qaeda] is a principle reason for a military presence,” Wilson added, meaning anywhere, everywhere, anytime.
Wilson was surprised a few days earlier when Panetta first shoved his hoof in his mouth, telling reporters the US intends to keep 70,000 troops in Afghanistan until 2014. The truth is a little different, reports the Navy Times. The United States forces and its NATO allies plan to withdraw 10,000 troops by the end of this year, 2011, according to administration and Pentagon officials. Then they aim to bring an additional 20,000 home by the end of next year 2012, accounting for basically all the extra forces the president ordered to Afghanistan in late 2009 to turn around a flailing war effort.
Still, NT reports, “That would leave some 70,000 troops in unstable Afghanistan in a war likely to see more American lives lost.” The hope is to “end the combat mission and fully turn over control to Afghan forces by the end of 2014,” a transition period that may (or may not) finally bring the war to an end. Panetta’s aides immediately redacted his remarks.
In closing, Panetta went on to say that the death of the Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, was “one of the proudest moments of [his] life.” As former CIA-director, Panetta had overall responsibility for tracking down the Al Qaeda chief. Or so they say. Rumors among neighbors still claim bin Laden has been seen in the shadows of the “mansion,” walking about. We’ll never know. But we have elevated our drone attacks on Pakistan, killing many innocents. And now the Pakistanis hate us, too.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer, life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.