Tom Engelhardt: Neocons In Cheney's Office Fund al Qaeda-Tied Groups... And No One Cares?

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/49275/

Neocons in Cheney's Office Fund al Qaeda-Tied Groups ... and No One Cares?

By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com. Posted March 17, 2007.

Seymour Hersh's recent report that Iran-Contra veterans working out of Dick Cheney's office are using stolen funds from Iraq to arm al Qaeda-tied groups and foment a larger Sunni-Shia war is a very big deal.

Let me see if I've got this straight...

- snip -

Imagine. All this and much more (including news of U.S. military border-crossings into Iran, new preparations that would allow George W. Bush to order a massive air attack on that land with only 24-hours notice, and a brief window this spring when the staggering power of four U.S. aircraft-carrier battle groups might be available to the President in the Persian Gulf) was revealed, often in remarkable detail, just over a week ago in "The Redirection," a Seymour Hersh piece in the New Yorker. Hersh, the man who first broke the My Lai story in the Vietnam era, has never been off his game since. In recent years, from the Abu Ghraib scandal on, he has consistently released explosive news about the plans and acts of the Bush administration.

Imagine, in addition, that Hersh went on Democracy Now!, Fresh Air, Hardball with Chris Matthew, and CNN Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer and actually elaborated on these claims and revelations, some of which, on the face of it, seem like potentially illegal and impeachable offenses, if they do indeed reach up to the Vice President or President.

Now imagine the response: Front-page headlines; editorials nationwide calling for answers, Congressional hearings, or even the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into some of the claims; a raft of op-ed page pieces by the nation's leading columnists asking questions, demanding answers, reminding us of the history of Iran-Contra; bold reporters from a recently freed media standing up in White House and Defense Department press briefings to demand more information on Hersh's various charges; calls in Congress for hearings and investigations into why the people's representatives were left so totally out of this loop.

Uh ...

All I can say is: If any of this happened, I haven't been able to discover it.

MORE

[DireStrike]

1. Maybe it's a pre-emptive "no one cares?"?

Seems like whatever news is released, nobody cares. Seems we could have video footage of bush and cheney admitting they brought down the towers and everybody would just shrug.

It's the first I'm hearing of this.

[Morgana LaFey]

13. It's not that no one cares

It's severe outrage overload. It's beyond most people's ability to comprehend, including mine.

That's the same reason I know intellectually that MIHOP is in all probability what went down on 9-11, but emotionally I can only go as far as LIHOP.

It's like the day DH, son and I stopped at the Grand Canyon on our 10-day cross country move from one coast to the other in 2 cars with several pets. We were all exhausted. We got to the very first lookout, some 65 miles or so north of Flagstaff, got out and spent about 20 minutes. DH and DS made a couple of snowballs and threw them over the edge. I took a few photos. We marveled at a plane about eye level going thru the canyon.

Then we got back into our cars and drove away: in our weakened, debilitated, exhausted state, it was too much. As we drove away I said to myself: You're going to regret leaving so soon. But I never did, really. What I DO regret is not yet having another chance to see it. But on that day, we saw as much as we could bear.

This news from Seymour Hersch is more than people can bear to take in and comprehend.

[babylonsister]

2. Rec'd. As usual, the blogs have to scream long and loud before anyone

takes notice.

[Robbien]

6. Maybe signing MediaMatters petition

will help a bit
Urge the networks to make their Sunday shows more balanced.
http://mediamatters.org/sundayshowreport/online_version/#since_the_midterm_election

I strongly believe getting the GOPers off and the Dems on is a good start.

[babylonsister]

7. I will; thanks. nt

[fed-up]

3. 5th rec-off to the Greatest with this story-"Imagine if" nt

[Triana]

4. I've gotten some pretty dumb, blank stares and...

...stony silences about Plamegate, too. Seems the 'Merkin public is misinformed, non-informed, and desensitized enough that they are just - asleep - ZZzzzzzzzzzzz.

[Hissyspit]

5. .

[seafan]

8. Seymour Hersh: The Redirection (March 5, 2007)

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/05/070305fa_fact_hersh

Yes, this administration is now funding al Qaeda-affiliated groups. The same rhetorical question applies.... *Where is the mainstream media on this?*


Everyone, please send this article to Congresspeople en masse.

[Nikki Stone1]

9. Not a surprise: Al Qaeda is necessary to keep the American public scared

...

[rodeodance]

10. even with my cynicism-I am surprized this seems dead.

[Hissyspit]

14. Not me. Too complex for people paying half of half-attention.

It could take off again, but I don't really know what it requires. I guess that's part of the theme of the article.

[DireStrike]

11. kick for WTF?

[happydreams]

12. Al Qaeda "safe-haven" built by Halliburton.... K&R!!!

...Did the Bush administration need to "recruit detainees" among the civilian population and pass them off as "terrorists"?

Did they need to boost up the numbers "to fill the gap" resulting from the several thousand Al Qaeda fighters, who had been evacuated on the orders of Donald Rumsfeld and flown to safety? Were these "terrorists" needed in Kashmir in the context of a CIA covert op?

Whatever the motivation, we are dealing with a diabolical intelligence operation.

Some 660 people from 42 countries, are currently being held in the Camp Delta concentration camp in Guantanamo. While US officials claim that they are "enemy combatants" arrested in Afghanistan, a large number of the civilian detainees have never set foot in Afghanistan. They were kidnapped in several foreign countries including Pakistan, Bosnia and Gambia on the West Coast of Africa, and taken to the US military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, before being transported to Guantanamo.

Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), the British subsidiary of Vice President Dick Cheney's company Halliburton has a multimillion dollar contract to expand the facilities of the Guantanamo concentration camp including the construction of prisoner cells, guard barracks and interrogation rooms. The objective is to bring "detainee capacity to 1,000" (Vanity Fair, January 2004).........

........A major war in Central Asia and the Middle East, supposedly against international terrorism, has been launched by a government which is harboring international terrorism as part of its foreign policy agenda.

In this context, the hidden agenda behind "Operation Enduring Freedom" launched in October 2001, was precisely to ensure that Al Qaeda leaders (i.e. US sponsored intelligence assets) be able to escape. This operation was an integral part of the propaganda ploy. Al Qaeda fighters were flown to safety to keep the war on terrorism alive. ...MORE (Sy Hersh also cited in article)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO403D.html

[TheConstantGardener]

15. IMPEACHMENT

Funding the DIRECT ENEMY is not worth impeachment?