Well...lookie what appeared in my mailbox with DSM subscription

[MelissaB]

Haley: Iraq war critic speaks at Democrat-sponsored forum

By Susan Haley/ Commentary
Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Residents from throughout the South Shore participated in the recent forum "Intelligence Information and the War in Iraq" which was sponsored by the Hingham Democratic Town Committee and the Young Democrats Club at Hingham High School.

An audience of approximately 85 listened as the forum's featured speaker, William Rivers Pitt, detailed the current situation in Iraq: oil production seriously compromised, electricity available only for a few short hours during the day, deplorable conditions in local hospitals, clean water a precious commodity and daily attacks directed against our forces and the civilian population. While the recent election ratified an Iraq Constitution, 97 percent of the Sunni population of Iraq voted against the proposal. Not only have we lost nearly 2,100 American soldiers in the fighting, but the number of seriously wounded American soldiers is the equivalent of the elimination of an entire Army division. Mr. Pitt concluded this portion of his remarks by reminding people that our nation was told that our soldiers would be greeted with flowers as liberators.

How did we arrive at this point? Mr. Pitt urged audience members to visit the web site: www.newamericancentury.org , a website established by a group of prominent neoconservatives in 1997. Among the founding members are Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, recently indicted Cheney Chief of Staff I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, and former Under Secretary of Defense and current head of the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz. Mr. Pitt stated that documents and essays found at that website, some of which were written before 2000, detail what is now the established foreign policy of the United States. The removal of Saddam Hussein and establishment of a new government in Iraq was an important element of that policy.

Mr. Pitt continues to believe, as he had outlined in his 2002 book written before the war, "War on Iraq, What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know," that the Bush Administration misled this nation into war with Iraq. He pointed as evidence to the Downing Street Memo, which contains the actual minutes from a July 23, 2002 British Cabinet Meeting (acknowledged as authentic by the British government). In the memo, a British government official states that the Bush Administration will be going to war with Iraq and that the facts to justify the war will be fitted around this policy.
The Downing Street Memo is significant because Congress and the American people were not "warned" about the "imminent threat" from Iraq until September, 2002. Mr. Pitt spoke about the formation of the Office of Special Plans (OSP) in the Pentagon and the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) both in August of 2002. Their mission, he stated, was similar to "pitching and catching." OSP would "pitch" information that Iraq was a threat (leaving out any information that caused doubt about this assertion) and WHIG was the "catcher" charged with selling or marketing this information. It is this sort of "intelligence" which produced the infamous 16 words in the President's State of the Union Address alleging that Saddam Hussein had recently sought to purchase nuclear material from an African nation. Subsequent disclosure that a previous CIA-sponsored investigation had found no evidence to support the claim, ultimately led to the exposure of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame and the current indictment of Mr. Libby. He noted that more information about this timeline could be obtained from the website: www.downingstreetmemo.com.

More: http://www2.townonline.com/hingham/opinion/view.bg?articleid=376790

[Auntie Bush]

1. Thanks for the post. Good for Will. n/t

[Independent_Liberal]

2. Kick!

[WilliamPitt]

3. Cool!

I didn't know they'd done a write-up of the thing.

Thanks for posting this!

[MelissaB]

4. Thanks for talking about the DSM,

and you're welcome!

[LiberalVoice]

9. Will, pardon my french but...

...you are the fucking man! :D

Happy Turkey Day everyone!


Zak

[fed-up]

5. kicked and recommended-great article! n/t

[Poet Lariat]

6. I like it ! ! ! Millions more need to hear it...

Recommending.

[WiseButAngrySara]

7. Excellent! Thanks so much for posting. I wish Will's audience had

included the entire Nation, but until then, I'm e-mailing to family and friends, some of whom are still in the dark about PNAC. This article has the link included, as well as the link for DSM.

:kick: and Recommended!

[AuntiBush]

8. Thank you for posting this.

It needs to be out here, again & again till everyone sees it.

Will Pitt works tirelessly for all of us. :patriot:

[ngGale]

10. Yay, for Will...

:thumbsup:

[IndyOp]

11. That is the way progress happens - one small group of people at at time -

one person, one roomful now knows what is happening and why. They will never listen to the corporate news again in the same way...

:kick:

[Pachamama]

12. Love Will...and I think its key that all of us do what he just did...

...getting the word out about PNAC and the New American Century as well as about the Downing Street Minutes...

Do you all realize how few people know about them? Its rather incredible, really...

But I have found that everytime I tell people about it, even the most educated and well read people who often express complete ignorance in any details around them other than having heard of them and maybe an article or two, have never actually visited the website and especially read the actual documents, not to mention the infamous White Paper about the defense strategy for America....(I forget the actual title, but its the one so many on the DU know and reference). I've actually downloaded it (all 90 pages) and hand it out to people. The friends and family who read it all have the same reaction - shock, disgust and absolute awe that the Neocon cabal occupying the White House actually had a blueprint for what they are doing...and it was written over a decade before they came to office!

Information and truth are power....spread the word!