For years, the Bush Administration was denounced for the false statements and intelligence that led to the Iraq invasion. Even after it was shown that there were no weapons of mass destruction, many Americans continued to believe that Iraq was being invaded as a response to the 9-11 attacks. Now, in the latest morphing of the Bush and Obama Administration, our new Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wasted no time in re-casting Iraq in the same flawed image. In a public appearance, Panetta told troops that they were in Iraq because of the attack on 9-11.
At Camp Victory, Panetta told troops that “[t]he reason you guys are here is because of 9/11. The US got attacked and 3,000 human beings got killed because of Al-Qaeda. We’ve been fighting as a result of that.” As his boss transformed into Donald Rumsfeld before his eyes, Doug Wilson, Panetta’s spokesman, ran forward to tell reporters that “I don’t think he’s getting into the argument of 2002-2003.” Instead, he insisted that statement was just one more example of “a plain-spoken secretary.” The last time I heard “plain-speaking” as an excuse for chronic misstatements was a guy named Donald Rumsfeld, the “plain-speaking” Defense Secretary under George Bush. Of course, Rumsfeld was an award-winning plain speaker.
Panetta also later said that we were close to the final destruction of Al Qaeda. Presumably he meant in Afghanistan. However, his aides had to retract a statement by Panetta that the U.S. would keep 70,000 troops in Afghanistan until 2014 — in contradiction to statements by the President.
One could actually hope that our Secretary of Defense would be at least up to speed on the reason for one of our current wars as well as the previously announced plans for the withdrawal of thousands of troops from another war under his administration. Of course, there are so many of them, it may be difficult to keep track.
Source: Yahoo
AY:
More fuel for your fire:
The origin of AIDS and HIV has puzzled scientists ever since the illness first came to light in the early 1980s. For over twenty years it has been the subject of fierce debate and the cause of countless arguments, with everything from a promiscuous flight attendant to a suspect vaccine programme being blamed. So what is the truth? Just where did AIDS come from?
http://www.avert.org/origin-aids-hiv.htm
AY,
The picture just keeps getting uglier and uglier doesn’t it? I wonder if Senior is still getting his daily briefings? What a dumb question … of course he is.
Got Osama but lost Pakistan. -bdaman
No. Got Osama and helped push America a little further down the rathole. Next stop, DOD.
Yesterday’s news, but:
http://www.pravasitoday.com/fake-vaccination-drive-held-by-cia-to-nail-down-osama
Excerpt:
Guardian reported that the CIA organised the fake vaccination programme in the town as it believed Osama was hiding there.
It recruited a senior Pakistani doctor to carry out the vaccine drive in Abbottabad.
As part of the elaborate effort, the “project” was initiated in a poorer part of town to make it look more authentic, officials said.
Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, has arrested the doctor, Shakil Afridi, for cooperating with American intelligence agents.
CIA hatched the plan after American intelligence officers were able to track down an Al Qaeda courier, Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti, to Osama’s high-walled Abbottabad compound.
The idea was that DNA from any of Osama’s children living in the compound could be compared with a sample from his sister who died in Boston in 2010. It would have been evidence that the family was present.
Afridi, the health official in charge of Khyber, went to Abbottabad in March.
The media report said that the doctor bypassed the management of the Abbottabad health services and paid hefty sums to low-ranking local government health workers who participated without any knowledge about the operation.
Posters were put up and in March health workers administered hepatitis B vaccine in a poor neighbourhood on the edge of Abbottabad called Nawa Sher.
Instead of giving the second dose in that area, the nurses moved to Bilal Town where Osama lived.
“The whole thing was totally irregular,” a Pakistani official was quoted as saying.
A nurse called Bakhto entered the Osama compound to administer the vaccines.
Sources said that the doctor waited outside and instructed her to take in a handbag that was fitted with an electronic device.
It is, however, not known whether the CIA got any Osama DNA. One source suggested the operation did not succeed.
The CIA has refused to comment on it. (end excerpt)
America… “winning friends and influencing people” the world over.
TY Blouise,
You know I am reading the W book…something pretty much that I read to get stimulated for the day…The part that sticks out in my mind right now is the Antiretroviral drugs that they (we) helped the AIDS epidemic with….I was unaware that Randall Tobias was appointed the US Diplomat to over see the administration of the drugs that WE sent them….It probably doesn’t dawn on most but he was the former CEO of ELI Lilly….hmmmmmmm…..I am getting the feeling that an entire nation was used as guinea pigs, lab mice whatever you want to call them….ALL at US TAXPAYERS expense….I think the tab was about 1 billion of US DOLLARS so all of the Drug Manufactures could test these unsuspecting folks….Call me suspicious of the motive of the US and Pharmacologist and I’ll say it louder….Its Cruel and Unusual Punishment to use Prisoners in the US prisons as lab mice…..but we can use an entire nation…..damn…..
AY got it exactly right … exactly right!
This is an example that supports the notion that propaganda spreads like a disease because it is a disease.
We can’t seem to cure the disease with elections any more.
What he leaves out of the picture is the spermanator of W, while sitting as head of the CIA….another family dynasty….set up the head of Iraq and the the head of Iran was a little Leary of .the head of Iraq….while getting ready to run for President….so the Office could be handed to RWR and he would still run the previous offices held…….
And don’t forget…Iraq has OUR OIL…..they may own the sand…..but that IS OUR OIL…..just look at how much American Business’s and Oil Folks have invested in those country’s……
I am feeling Argentina on my mind……
I do no think that they wanted another Cuba taking American Businesses again….But hey… that’s just me….
So what was the question…..
I’m sure Leon will run the Pentagon with the same truthfulness and integrity that he’s brought to the Catholic Church’s U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops National Review Board convened to addresses their pedophilia scandal. Me and my father are pretty much polar opposites politically speaking. We do agree on some topics though. One topic we agree on is that as a politician and administrator, Leon Panetta would make a fine used car salesman provided you didn’t let him have uncontrolled access to the key box.
This wasn’t the slip up of a doddering idiot, although it was spoken by an idiot who wants, (like his equally stupid boss) to invade Iran.
During Toledo’s fireworks there was a “remembrance” of 9/11. 9/11 and Al Qaeda are being spoken of again and again in order to propagandize the people. This creates fear and hatred while making certain no one is questioning why we are in 6 hot wars, have a giant palace in Iraq and Afghanistan, 1000 bases around the world, and more drones than than anyone can count . While cutting SS, Medicare and Medicaid are “necessities”, the Pentagon received about 17 billion more than it asked for just last week. That’s quite interesting. Where did that money come from?
This will also provide the justification for staying in Iraq and expanding into more wars, as well as going after Al Qaeda in the US. This is a real money maker for the MIC and it’s the creation of the MIC.
So, no this wasn’t a slip up, it was deliberate. We are being lied to. The method is the big lie.
P.S. HenMan, excellent idea!
The real question is, are there any real democrats left in this administration? More and more this admin from the top down has become a branch of the republican party….I don’t see any place left in the Dem. party for me anymore…..If I wanted to be a Republican I would have joined their party……
Bdaman:
I must have been asleep. Precisely when did Pakistan become ours? And if it isn’t ours, how can we lose it? The fact is that we have been bribing the powers that be in that country with billions of dollars to persuade them to make what has always been a half-assed effort to eradicate terrorist enclaves. The bin Laden raid was embarrassing to Pakistan because it made blatantly obvious the game they’ve been playing for years. It might actually be in our interests if Pakistan turns to its good friend China.
Got Osama but lost Pakistan. I hear Obama is about to call up Jerry Maguire
“Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. Show you the money.”
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan could pull back troops fighting Islamist militants near the Afghan border if the United States cuts off aid, the defense minister said on Tuesday in an interview with Pakistani media.
The United States Monday said it would hold back $800 million — a third of nearly $2 billion in security aid to Pakistan — in a show of displeasure over Pakistan’s removal of U.S. military trainers, limits on visas for U.S. personnel and other bilateral irritants.
“If at all things become difficult, we will just get all our forces back,” Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said in an interview with the Express 24/7 television to be aired later on Tuesday.
The television aired excerpts of the interview Tuesday.
“If Americans refuse to give us money, then okay,” he said. “I think the next step is that the government or the armed forces will be moving from the border areas. We cannot afford to keep military out in the mountains for such a long period.”
In Pakistan, the defense minister is relatively powerless. Real defense and military policy is made by the powerful Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, and the head of the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha.
Monday, the military said it could do without U.S. assistance by depending on its own resources or turning to “all-weather friend” China.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/pakistan-could-pull-troops-afghan-border-u-cuts-110058894.html;_ylt=ArZB0.NMHNsZQHv2IXCcW0mYn8h_;_ylu=X3oDMTNlcmI5YXZjBHBrZwM2MzI0OTNlNy1hZTNlLTM5NTMtYWU1Zi01NzdhZTExOTFlYzQEcG9zAzcEc2VjA0xhdGVzdE5ld3MgTGlzdGluZwR2ZXIDYTkyMWFkZjAtYWM3
How reassuring it is to know that we can move forward in the new century with Leon McNamara Panetta and David Westmoreland Petraeus.
Pennetta was an idiot, is an idiot and will , most probably, always be an idiot. We need fewer men like him in positions of power.
Panetta’s drinking something way heavier than Kool-Aid, fersure.
Maybe it’s time for Panetta to retire.
Well said, HenMan!
In the wacky game of musical chairs that has resulted in the Head of the CIA becoming Secretary of Defense, and the U.S. Army Commander of Iraq and Afghanistan becoming Head of the CIA, I have a suggestion for the next zany move. Put President Obama in prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas and make Bradley Manning President of the United States. This will give each of them some perspective on the other’s views and be in the spirit of compromise that our President has so fully embraced. It will also put the Nobel Peace Prize into the hands of a man who has earned it.
Well, regardless of what Panett’s press secretary suggested, at near its most fundamental interpretation, Panetta can be seen as institutionally finally telling the truth. We are in Iraq exactly because of 9/11. Not because of weapons of mass destruction, but because 9/11 provided the necessary excuse for those who wanted to start a war with Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein to do so.