6 Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism
Threat, Mike Mazzetti, New York Times, 2006.
Failed States, Noam Chompsky, p.18-19
7 ibid, p. 20
8 Osama bin Laden said US wants to invade and occupy oil-rich, arab country
Last ibid, p. 22
9 20% of Iraq’s pre-war population has been killed, wounded, exiled or displaced
10 Iraqis want troops out
11 No terrorism in Iraq before invasion: Dying to Win, Pape
12 Cost of the War
Debt and Deficit at 9 Trillion
13 Iraqis see us as occupiers
14 Military Commissions Act of 2006
habeas corpus – Sect. 5; a;
evidence obtained under coercion – Sect. 948r; c;
charges specified – Sect. 948q; b;
Geneva Conventions – Sect. 948b; g;
hearsay evidence – Sect. 949a; b; 2; E; ii;
speedy trial - Sect. 948b; d; 1; A
secret trials - Sect. 949d; d
unlawful enemy combatant - Sect. 948a; 1; A; ii
president interprets Geneva Conventions - Sect. 6; a; 3; A
court have no jurisdiction – Sect. 7; (e)(1)
no charges against US for human rights violations – Sect. 7; 2
Amnesty condemns the Military Commissions Act
ACLU breaks down the Military Commissions Act
15 On December 17, 2005, Bush admittedto the nation that, under his command, the National Security Agency (NSA) has for over four years engaged in a program of widespread warrantless electronic surveillance of phone calls and emails.
-The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows for court authorization of surveillance only when the government produces evidence that the individual who is a target is an agent of a foreign power or foreign terrorist group.
-Congress has mandated that FISA and specific provisions of the criminal code shall be the “exclusive means by which electronic surveillance…may be conducted.”
-Former NSA Whistleblows about Police State
-Whistleblower outs NSA spy room
-Judge Finds Wiretap Violates the Law, Adam Liptak and Eric Lichtblau
-CCR files lawsuit against Dept. of Justice
16-Bush said "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." in his State of the Union Address.
-The documents supporting that statement were forged. Bush has been informed by intelligence officials months before his speech that the sale likely never took place and that the documentary evidence had been forged.
-Bush led people to believe that
Iraq was involved with 9/11 by repeatedly linking them in his speeches. This was so effective that at one point 70% of Americans actually believed Saddam was behind 9/11.
-Bush has since admitted that Iraq was not connected to 9/11.
-Bush has stated that Congress had access to all the same information that the White House had. Thus he should not be blamed for making the mistake of going to war. But Bush was briefed many times about the falsehood of various stories and this information never reached Congress.
-Bush, Cheney, Rice and Powell said that some aluminum tubes
Iraq attempted to buy were intended for use in a uranium centrifuge to create nuclear weapons. These were the only physical evidence he had against Iraq. But it turns out this evidence had been rejected by the Department of Energy and other intelligence agencies long before Bush used them in his speeches.
-Bush still insists that there was
a "relationship" between Iraq and Al Qaeda. But the 9/11 Commission released a report saying, among other things, that there was no "collaborative relationship" between Al Qaeda
and Iraq. The nature of the relationship seems to be that Al Qaeda asked for help and Iraq refused. Al Qaeda was opposed to Saddam Hussein because Saddam led a secular government instead of an Islamic government.
-Bush and his team repeatedly claimed that Iraq possessed mobile weapons labs capable of producing anthrax. Colin Powell showed diagrams of them at his speech before the UN to justify invading Iraq. These claims originated from Curveball, a discredited Iraqi informer who fed Bush many of the stories related to WMD. On May 29, 2003, two small trailers matching the description were found in Iraq. A team of bio-weapons experts examined the trailers and concluded they were simply designed to produce hydrogen for weather balloons. But, for over a year, Bush claimed these were part of Iraq's bio-weapons program. The expert's report was suppressed and only recently made public.
-Bush insisted that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction but his "evidence" consisted mostly of forged documents, plagiarized student papers, and vague satellite photos. The United Nations was on the ground in Iraq and could find nothing. After extensive searches Bush was finally forced to admit that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/14/sprj.irq.documents/index.html
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2003/02/WeeklyReview2003-02-11#2003093001...
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,892045,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1307530,00.html
17 -By November 2001, the police and FBI had already arrested and detained by some estimates up to three thousand Muslim or Arab noncitizens in the United States. These people were not even suspected of terrorism; they were merely non-US citizens who had allegedly violated some immigration procedure. Many of these people effectively disappeared in US jails; a number were beaten and ultimately deported. Guantanamo:
What the World Should Know, Michael Ratner and Ellen Ray
-The US government admits [Guantanamo] is an interrogation camp, though it denies torture is used there. However, the administration admits to using techniques that legally constitute cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, which is prohibited under law. ibid
-Bush rounds up people, holds them indefinitely without charges:
-Renditions: Constraints Imposed by Laws on Torture
-Guantanamo Detainees: Habeas Corpus Challenges in Federal Court
-Bush administration memos on torture
18 -Signing statements, claims he doesn’t have to obey the laws