Journo Claims Proof of WMD Lies

[FauxNewsBlues]

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7350504%255E2,00.html

AUSTRALIAN investigative journalist John Pilger says he has evidence the war against Iraq was based on a lie that could cost George W. Bush and Tony Blair their jobs and bring Prime Minister John Howard down with them.

A television report by Pilger aired on British screens overnight said US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice confirmed in early 2001 that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been disarmed and was no threat.

(snip)
Pilger uncovered video footage of Powell in Cairo on February 24, 2001 saying, "He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours."

Two months later, Rice reportedly said, "We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."

(snip)

[Cha]

1. "condeleeza valdez"....

That's what Mike Malloy was calling her tonight.

A real "investagative journalist"! What a concept! you mediawhores take note.

[grasswire]

6. I want to...

....see this video of Powell. I hope it surfaces somewhere in CNN's in-box.

[Cappurr]

2. Jesus

I'd like to see those tapes.

[FauxNewsBlues]

3. They will get away with this

We won't see the tapes here. They were aired for the UK though. Our media sucks quite frankly.

[Zhade]

12. Fuck the media, WE DON'T NEED THOSE WHORES.

After all, there are TONS of file-sharing services out there.

As the Diebold Debacle proves, in today's i-society, it's only a matter of time before the goods see the light of day.

:evilgrin:

[frank frankly]

22. right-o

they must HATE the internet by now!

[jayfish]

26. If The Tapes Exist They Must Be...

posted to the internet. This is no time for journalistic glory.

Jay

[Mandate My Ass]

4. I hope he's making copies

and hiding them with instructions where to find them if he vanishes into thin air.

[hang a left]

35. Betcha Ted Kennedy has seen them.

[NJCher]

5. this is great news

Someone somewhere here in America will get those tapes and show them. It's inevitable. I would be thrilled to no end if it was CBS News.

Bravo, John Pilger!!


Cher

[grasswire]

8. I wonder...

...if it's available streamed on the internet from the UK?

[Jack Rabbit]

7. The Frat Boy speaks to the UN in the morning

Tomorrow afternoon would be a fine time for Pilger to show his video to the world.

[Mandate My Ass]

9. How sweet would that be.

If this is true it won't blow over like those "16 words."

[Democat]

10. This is the kind of material we need to run in TV ads

The U.S. media will probably try to bury it, so Democrats will have to buy time to get it known.

[alexwcovington]

11. Gaaah! Fox News Australia!!!

Don't you pay attention to where you get your information?!

[Sliverofhope]

13. I don't know if Pilger is a heavyweight

but he is definately listened to by a core audience. Let's help this get legs if it doesn't on its own, though.

[JoFerret]

57. Pilger is heavyweight

And this is a must read. Pass it around to everyone you know.

[Voltaire99]

68. Pilger is as heavyweight as they come

He's simply less known to soundbite America. Internationally he is recognized for producing films and journalism of the first rank; he has been at it since Vietnam.

[Selwynn]

14. Brutal... its scary that I was actually as right as I said I was....

a year ago... :(

[Mandate My Ass]

15. In THE MIRROR too

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13434081_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-THE%2DBIG%2DLIE-name_page.html

JOHN PILGER REVEALS WMDs WERE JUST A PRETEXT FOR PLANNED WAR ON IRAQ

John Pilger


EXACTLY one year ago, Tony Blair told Parliament: "Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programme is active, detailed and growing.

"The policy of containment is not working. The weapons of mass destruction programme is not shut down. It is up and running now."

Not only was every word of this false, it was part of a big lie invented in Washington within hours of the attacks of September 11 2001 and used to hoodwink the American public and distract the media from the real reason for attacking Iraq. "It was 95 per cent charade," a former senior CIA analyst told me.

A special report by John Pilger, Breaking The Silence: Truth And Lies In The War On Terror, will be shown tonight on ITV1 at 10.45 pm.

Have any British DUers seen this?

[Merlin]

20. This is Pilger in his own words with excellent detail. Thanks for posting.

Of course, the chance of this documentary ever being aired in the US is zilch. But the video clips of Powell will be priceless in the campaign, as will Rummy's scribblings.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

38. I watched his documentary last night

& it was tragic and sobering. The two clips from Powell in Feb 2001 & Condi in June 2001 claiming that Saddam was no threat were remarkable & I can't believe that they haven't been found & aired before. (Winston Smith springs to mind!)

What was truly incredible was two segments from Afghanistan:

The first concerned the female minister -- heralded by Bush in his 2002 State of the Union address (she was in congress & received a standing ovation) who shortly after was hounded out of office by the warlords & now lives in fear of her life. He also spoke to women from RAWA who are documenting atrocities against women, just as life under the Taliban (the most horrific was the story of 35 women and their children who had been gang raped by milita & decided to drown themselves rather than have to go through that again).

The second was on the financial side -- I can't recall exact figures, but basically only a minor percentage of financial aid is actually going towards reconstruction -- the rest is funding the new army & paying off warlords & their milita. He spoke to a minister who said the sum they got for reconstruction -- some $200 million a year -- paid government/civil service wages, electricity, water -- and that was it.

Although I was familiar with Ray McGovern (sp?)'s comments, it was especially chilling to hear Pilger ask him if he agreed with Norman Mailer that the US was entering a pre-fascist phase ... McGovern replied that he hoped that was the case, because a lot of people he speaks too believe that the US is there already. (A sense reflected by the military minder who stopped Pilger interviewing Douglas Feith when the subject of civilian casualties was brought up -- & by the smarmy question John Bolton asked at the end of his interview: "So are you a member of the communist party?"

I wish I could get this online, but totally lack the facilities -- however I'm sure they'll be somebody over here who will do so. I'd keep an eye on UK Indymedia or similiar.

You may also want to try and contact Carlton for a video through:
[e-mail]


In the meantime, this article from Saturday's Guardian by Pilger covers more ground:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1044925,00.html

[Mandate My Ass]

47. Thank YOU!!

I will check out both links as well as indymedia. Truly mind-boggling.

[JoFerret]

58. http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1044925,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1044925,00.html
Must read Guardian story. What liars, liars.

[Sliverofhope]

16. Come on people

Kick, kick, kick. I want to see FIRE by this one. This is a big story. Let's get it out there.

[fizzana]

18. Kick them when they're down

It's becmoing obvious that Bush and his administration don't react well under pressure. The climate is right for these videos to get enough exposure in the U.S.

Ultimately Media Whores are whores and whores are not too particular about who they fuck as long as they get to fuck someone. The real right wing whores won't budge but the Tweety's of this world could be just as happy going after Bush if they think he is trule vulnerable.

The above is not meant to insult those who make a living by providing sexual releif for the populace. These people happen to have far more integrity than the people who dominate our media.

[karlschneider]

17. The part of the story quoted below has been KNOWN for a long time:

Pilger also claims that six hours after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he wanted to "hit" Iraq and allegedly said "Go Massive ... Sweep it all up. Things related and not."
--------------------------------------------------------------

I've seen scans of the memo Rummy sent on this. Goddammit this needs to be disseminated widely.

Now I need to find those scans. Grumble.
:grr:

[candy331]

19. It's

about time we see some video footage other than Osama/Sadaam.

[The_Casual_Observer]

21. The common man is finally becoming aware

that there were no WMD in Iraq before the occupation. This footage reminds me of the picture of OJ wearing them "ugly-assed shoes". It can only get worse for w, how could it possibly improve with the course of action he is taking?

The analysis of approval poll today indicated that somehow things could still get better for w, like with past 1st term Presidents. However, it would appear that this guy had created problems unlike anything in history, that can't be fixed anytime prior to the election, and will most likely get considerably worse before then.

[Sliverofhope]

23. Hopefully the relative quiet is because of the lateness

I hope that there isn't a glum feeling that this will be totally ignored, because that's too depressing to even think about.

[ima_sinnic]

24. kick for the insomniacs

. . . well, here on the East Coast of the U.S., that is--I know for somebody somewhere, this is the middle of the day
:)

[laconicsax]

25. Here's the transcript of the speech straight from the state department

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2001/933.htm

the paragraph in question:
We will always try to consult with our friends in the region so that they are not surprised and do everything we can to explain the purpose of our responses. We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq, and these are policies that we are going to keep in place, but we are always willing to review them to make sure that they are being carried out in a way that does not affect the Iraqi people but does affect the Iraqi regime's ambitions and the ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and we had a good conversation on this issue.

[Bush_has_Parvo]

28. Wow--great find!

I can't believe the chutzpah of these criminals--they leave evidence of their crimes on their website.

[bluedog]

44. Powell "IFS"

SECRETARY POWELL: May I just add a p.s. that if I was a Kuwaiti and I heard leaders in Baghdad claiming that Kuwait is still a part of Iraq and it's going to be included in the flag and the seal,



"if" I knew they were continuing to try to find weapons of mass destruction, I would have no doubt in my mind who those weapons were aimed at.



They are being aimed at Arabs, "not at the United States or at others." Yes, I think we should...he has to be contained until he realizes the errors of his ways.

[proud patriot]

27. Yowza

I look forward to the video :D

[Bozita]

29. Jon Stewart would probably show the video of Rice and Powell...

...on The Daily Show.

Once he's done celebrating and recovering.

[sventvkg]

30. Bump this up.....We need to get a copy of this and bombard out leaders and

press with it...Send to some of the candites for use in commercials...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

31. Here's a related thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=127925

[Scairp]

32. OH MY GOD

I cannot believe our media is letting this pass. What a pack of unadulterated cowards.

[remfan]

33. This was when they were trying to sell bush's "smart sanctions"

as the "new and improved" way of dealing with Iraq. They were trying to soften public opinion about Iraq's capabilities so the administration wouldn't look "soft" on Saddam with the new policy (Cheney had already called for the lifting of sanctions in the 90s).

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NNN0LHI]

36. Funny that 60 Minutes couldn't find this video BEFORE Bush invaded Iraq?

WTF?!?!

Don

[oldcoot]

79. That would have been nice

Investigative journalism appears to be a dying art in the United States.

[Padraig18]

37. Kick

:kick:

[tinnypriv]

39. I saw it - some transcripts from memory

Great documentary. :)

Some transcripts:

.....

John Bolton:

.....

BOLTON: Done? Right, ok. [interview ends, both stand up]

PILGER: Yep, thanks.

BOLTON: Hey, you must be a Labour party member, right?
[laughs]

PILGER: Oh no, the Labour party is conservative in our
country. [laughs]

BOLTON: Oh right. Communist party member? You a communist
party member?

...

Doug Feith:

...

PILGER: I think, considering the studies done that it is a
fair figure to say that several thousand civilians have been
killed by the United States since 9/11, isn't it?

FEITH: I don't accept those numbers.

MILITARY MINDER: Cut the camera. You, stop taping.

[tape stopes, Feith leaves the room and the interview is
cancelled]

...

Kristol:

...

PILGER: 72 countries have been on the end of either military
attack or covert operations, carried out by the United States,
since WWII.

KRITOL: That is ludicrious! [laughs]

...

[shirlden]

40. John Pilger and a handful of

other foreign journalist are trying to save the world from us. That is very sobering and sad.
I never thought I would see the day, I was so ashamed to be an American. Are we truly this hard-hearted and greedy ?

:cry:

[Zero Gravitas]

41. Bring It On

Of course this will be ignored by the corporate media in the US, but we need to get clips of POwell Condiliar Rice saying these things and send them all over the net.

[Dhalgren]

42. Kick!

.

[Padraig18]

43. Kick

:kick:

[ET Awful]

46. yet another KICK

[zekeson]

45. Kick this one!

How anyone of any intelligence can continue to support the murderous Bush* regime amazes me. This puts all the evidence on the table for those who were too ignorant to seek the information and connect the dots on their own. There is now no excuse to allow this bastard to continue.

[Nottingham]

48. Oh we got Video Now Baby! Words from their Own lips

Oh OUCHIE!:bounce: I love it!

[Nottingham]

49. This is the second great story to come out of the London Mirror

Its because the other media's are bought out and our being suppressed if its the Mirror its all over ASIA! :bounce:

[DrBB]

50. Send this to KENNEDY!!

I don't know if this is the full, adequate answer to Judy Woodruff's "Do you have proof" question re his charge the war was a "fraud," but it's pretty damn close. I've emailed him a brief quote and the links to the Aussie story as well as the Senate Dept. transcript. I think the more of us who send him this, the better chance some staffer will take note and make use of it.

Damn, I wish I'd seen this yesterday. Kennedy was here at the Aquarium, along with half our congressional delegation and Sen. Jeffords. Kennedy reiterated his "fraud" charge to the press after the main press conference was over (a thing about enviro policy--and pretty good too). Place was crawling with staffers. I probably could have gotten this directly to him. Damn!

http://kennedy.senate.gov/

Here's laconicsax's link to the State Dept transcript (can't hurt to have it up here repeatedly!)

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2001/933.htm

[reprobate]

53. I think Kennedy knew about this when he made the accusation.

But, yes. By all means send him a copy. I'm doing that now.

[Android]

51. This is huge!

Kick!

[central scrutinizer]

52. kick

back to the top

[JohnOneillsMemory]

54. KICK! Add to the blooper reel of BushNazis greatest lies!

The video evidence for Mr and Mrs TV Nation is growing fast...
Colin and Condi dismiss Saddam as a threat in early '01. WOW.

[Padraig18]

55. Kick for pure merit

:kick:

[psychopomp]

56. Let's see how long the transcript stays online

at the State Dept.'s homepage.

This even tops the Rummy-Saddam handshake pic. Spot on! Spin your way outta this Dumbya!

[Sliverofhope]

67. Everyone, get a copy of the transcript

To prove that it existed!

[TacticalPeek]

59. If anyone sends these tapes to a major media type,

be thoughtful and include a 10-day course of Cipro.

:tinfoilhat:

[mistertrickster]

60. This is a smoking gun for sure -- time to fire up the e-mails.

It's not just the lies . . . it's the ARROGANCE they show in how they lie. Bush now admits there's no link between Saddam and Al Qaeda--he doesn't even bother to lie about how he lies.

[mistertrickster]

61. Crikey, I'm bumping this again--The mods may want to start a link

on the DU start page. I think this could be big, folks.

[Padraig18]

62. Kick!

:kick:

[swinney]

63. Colin on Video--

Want to bet it will never appear on FOX News.

[peacetalksforall]

64. Every Congressperson has got to speak up and

tell us what they were told and why they believed it when Wolfkowitz, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld made their case to them.

They have to tell us why they voted for this.

They are as guilty as the cabal administration.

Feb 2001 - Powell: None
June 2001 - Rice: None
Scott R. - None
Blix - None found
June? 2003- Kelly poof!
Rumsfeld - 9-11 + six hours - Get Iraq

And don't we have to demand what those countries on the U.N. Security Council who didn't vote with France, Germany, and the others were convinced of when they heard the U.S. make their plea - was it Colin holding up the vial?

WHAT WAS EVERYONE TOLD WHO BLESSED THIS ADMINISTRATION?

Don't let your congressperson or candidate off the hook.

This is how we detroy our country, our future.

[Sliverofhope]

65. Kick

Almost been 24 hours, and this most important story is widely ignored. Keep it alive, spread the word.

[PennyLane]

66. Might as well...........

JUMP!:bounce:

[Matilda]

69. "St. John" Pilger is adored by the peace movement in Australia

because we know he always gives the facts, checked and double-checked, he has never sold out, and he speaks from the heart. He is sidelined and mocked by most mainstream journos, who've long ago
sold their souls and hate him because he shows them what they could
have been if they'd kept their integrity. The title "St. John" was
given to him by one of our most fanatic rightwingers, Miranda Devine,
but it suits him well.

The ABC, our public broadcaster, have shown his docos in the past, and I hope they show this one, although they've been in a bit of
trouble recently with the government for being "un-American" in their
coverage of the invasion of Iraq - John Howard thinks we're already
in the Union. Not that they were anti-American at all - they just
didn't go for all the spin.

I'm sure of one thing - Pilger doesn't lie.

[dudeness]

72. gday matilda

join me in e-mailing the ABC and SBS to insist they air this doco in oz..

[Padraig18]

70. Kick

:kick:

[dudeness]

71. support pilger

go out and buy a book..i can highly recommend..heroes or new rulers of the world..bravo pilger ..australias greatest export

[go fish]

73. MSNBC just aired video

Video of Colon just shown on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

[Bozita]

74. Cheers for Keith Olbermann

Welcome to DU, go fish.

[TeeYiYi]

75. Wow. I didn't think this video would ever see the light of day. . .

. . . I wonder if it is now or ever will be available online.
With any luck, a Quicktime movie of it will show up soon.

TYY

[TeeYiYi]

76. PS--->>

Yeah. Welcome to DU 'go fish'! :grouphug: :party: :bounce: :toast:

TYY

[Bozita]

77. Wonk does a lot of video and audio work...

...and he does it well.

[TeeYiYi]

78. Yeah. Wonk is the best . . .

. . . I was hoping he'd see my post. I imagine he's busy recording the final installment of Sacred Balance tonight.

Wonk Rules! I Love Wonk! Me and Wonk 4 EVR! :7

TYY

[SaintLouisBlues]

80. Kick

n/t