THE HANDSTAND


THE HANDSTAND	DECEMBER 2003
"Dude, Where's My Country ? " by Michael Moore. " November 6, 2003 Three Weeks in a Row, on New York Times Bestseller List I'm back home after visiting 39 cities in 23 days on my book tour and I want to thank everyone who came by to see me. It was our biggest tour yet, with five to ten thousand people a night filling basketball arenas and county fair grounds across the country. In many cities there were thousands more of you who couldn't get in (4,000 people pounding on the door in Baltimore was quite a sight!). Next time we do the football stadiums! The book went immediately to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. And it is still at #1 after three weeks! It is also #1 in the L.A. Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle and most other lists in the country. It took one year for "Stupid White Men" to sell a million copies in the United States. It took "Dude, Where's My Country?" just three weeks. That should give you some indication of the level of concern/frustration/anger in the country right now over what the Bush administration is up to. All over America, this is what I saw on the tour: Tens of thousands of average Americans who don't like their commander-in-chief lying to them in order to start a war. Not a night went by where I didn't have parents or siblings of soldiers in Iraq coming up to me, many of them in tears, pleading with me to "do something" to help bring their loved ones home from this war without end. It was heart-wrenching, and I never knew quite what to say except to tell them that they were not alone and that all of us are doing our best to get rid of George W. Bush. But that's a year away. How many more of our children will be sent to their deaths for another no-bid multi-billion dollar Halliburton contract in the next 12 months? What was amazing to me on this tour was that some of the biggest and most enthusiastic crowds were in hard-core Republican areas like Stockton, California and Wooster, Ohio. I get it when 13,000 show up and try to squeeze in as they did at Berkeley's Greek Theatre. But when five or six thousand show up in places like Pullman, Washington (on the Idaho border) or Ypsilanti, Michigan, I'm convinced that there has been a shift, a real shift, in public opinion, and the only question now is what are WE going to do? This week the Senate gave Bush the $87 billion he was looking for to continue the debacle in Iraq. But the Republicans knew that voting for this might come back to haunt them, so they asked the Democrats if they could just have a "voice vote" so no one's name would have to be recorded as having voted in favor of sending the nation into permanent debt (a debt that may not be paid off in our lifetime). The Democrats, afraid of appearing "unpatriotic," agreed to the deal. This was actually a compliment to all of YOU, as both parties know that the people are simmering and the only way they can get away with continuing this war is to do so in hiding (like the way they hide the body bags from public view as they return home). What they don't get is that we are not going to let them off the hook so easily, and we will force them to take a stand sooner or later. How many more deaths will it take? Not many, if what I saw this past month on the road across America is any indication. I have many stories to tell you about the people I encountered, the things I saw and heard, and the strange hope and optimism I now have that we can turn things around. I'm sorry I couldn't keep the diary I wanted to on my web site, but we were traveling to two cities on most days and I was lucky to find time for a few hours sleep. Fortunately, our webmaster has been able to put up lots of good stuff each day and I hope you have a chance to visit it from time to time. I'm off to Europe tomorrow for the book's release in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria. If you live there, come on by to one of the events. In the middle of all this I've been shooting my next movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11," and I'm happy to report that it's looking good and is on schedule for release late next summer. Thanks for granting me the privilege of, once again, having the #1 book in the country. I am grateful for the support and I am buoyed by how large -- and how deep into mainstream America -- our little "community" has grown. Don't despair -- we will stop this war, we will create a better life for those who struggle every day, and we will reclaim our White House. Not a bad to-do list for the next 12 months! Yours, Michael Moore www.michaelmoore.com mmflint@aol.com Up in Heaven, Alexander the Great, Frederick the Great and Napoleon are looking down on events in Iraq. Alexander says, "Wow, if I had just one of Bush's armoured divisions, I would definitely have conquered India." Frederick the Great states, "Surely if I only had a few squadrons of Bush's air force I would have won the Seven Years War decisively in a matter of weeks." There is a long pause as three continue to watch events. Then Napoleon speaks, "And if I only had that Fox News, no one would have ever known that I lost the Russian campaign." Without Honor By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t \| Perspective Monday 10 November 2003 Very nearly 40 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the month of November began.33 more were killed in October, and 16 more died in September. The total losses, to date, creep towards 400. Few American citizens are aware of this, because the Bush administration has made it policy to deliberately hide these honored dead from the media. No cameras are allowed inside the Dover, DE facility that receives the ruined bodies of our troops. No cameras are allowed inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center to film the thousands of soldiers who have been catastrophically wounded in Iraq, nor are cameras allowed inside the facility at Ft. Stewart in Georgia where the wounded await treatment in conditions they have described as inhumane. No Bush official has been to a single funeral for any of the fallen, because that would bring unwanted publicity onto the ruinous casualties we have suffered. The Pentagon is doing its part as well. The term "body bags" was dispensed with during the 1991 Gulf War for the kinder, gentler euphemism "human remains pouches." The term has been changed again by the Pentagon. Today in Iraq, soldiers killed in the line of duty are placed inside "transfer tubes" for their anonymous, unnoticed trip home. American soldiers killed in Afghanistan were roundly filmed as they returned home, and the images of their flag-draped caskets were broadcast all across the country with broad and honored fanfare. President Clinton was present to welcome home the coffins of soldiers killed in Kosovo. Pictures of the coffins carrying sailors killed in the bombing of the USS Cole were also widely broadcast. President Bush Sr. was on hand to welcome the caskets of soldiers killed in Lebanon and Panama. The men and women killed in Iraq are afforded no such honor. They are a dirty little secret, hidden from view lest they cause political discomfort to the administration that got them killed. The Bush administration has taken to hiding from even the most obvious signs that, once upon a time, this war served their propaganda purposes. When George W. Bush declared an end to combat operations in Iraq aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, his televised image was framed by a massive banner that read "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED." At the time, the administration was more than happy to take credit for the banner. Full and specific credit, at the time, was given to Scott Sforza, a former ABC producer hired by the administration to work for the White House Communication's Director. Mr. Sforza can be credited for those snappy backdrops draped around Bush when he speaks, the ones with the catch-words repeated ad nauseam. Sforza spent several days "embedded" aboard the Abraham Lincoln to organize the event for full media effect, going so far as to hand-pick the Navy personnel to be displayed, and to choose the color of the clothes they would wear. Once it became clear that the only mission that had been accomplished in Iraq was the looting of the American Treasury, the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of American troops, the unnecessary maiming of thousands more, and the ruination of our reputation around the world, George W. Bush himself went out of his way to disavow any involvement with the braggadocio of the banner. In an October 28 press conference, Bush said, "The 'Mission Accomplished' sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished." And so the military, again, is left holding the bag for Bush, who has fled even from the presence of the memory of the fallen. Let us remember a few things. George W. Bush and his administration pushed for this war based upon the premise that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, and that he would give those weapons to Osama bin Laden for use against us. The public record for this is clear and unequivocal, as is the fact that this administration, day after day, connected the attacks of September 11 to the war on Iraq as a means to frighten the American people into supporting the war. There is, in fact, a page on the White House's own website (whitehouse.gov) entitled 'Disarm Saddam Hussein.' It can be found with a simple search, and contains the administration's central argument for why war was necessary, and necessary now, and necessary even without the support of the international community. Again, the claims on this page are clear and unequivocal. According to 'Disarm Saddam Hussein,' war with Iraq was necessary because Iraq was in possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, as well as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX gas. For those of you without your calculators, 500 tons equals 1,000,000 pounds. Along with this, Iraq was in possession of nearly 30,000 munitions capable of delivering these chemicals. Beyond this fearful armament, 'Disarm Saddam Hussein' claims that Iraq and Saddam Hussein enjoyed the company of a variety of al Qaeda terrorists. Saddam Hussein was little more than the Mayor of Baghdad in the years, months and weeks before the war. He was trapped in his palaces, unable to launch even a single fighter in his own airspace, militarily emasculated by years of sanctions and weekly bombing raids by American forces, with vast regions to the north and south totally beyond his control. It is these northern regions that enjoyed the company of occasional al Qaeda fighters, in places where Saddam Hussein dared not show his face. To say that Hussein was working with these terrorists is the same as saying Bush was working with the September 11 terrorists in the weeks before the attack, simply because they all happened to be in the same country at the same time. Beyond that, recall that Hussein was a secular dictator who spent 30 years killing every Islamic fundamentalist he could get his hands on. Osama bin Laden hated and despised Saddam Hussein, and called repeatedly for his death. The last of these calls came last February, when bin Laden publicly asked the Iraqi people to rise up and kill their Socialist infidel leader. The idea that Hussein would give any weapons at all to bin Laden is absurd on its face. It is even more absurd to imagine this transfer when greeted with the reality that the reported 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 1,000,000 pounds of sarin, mustard and VX gas, and the 30,000 munitions to deliver the stuff has absolutely, positively failed to appear. Iraq has been invested by the U.S. military, scoured by UNMOVIC weapons inspectors, and scoured again by Bush's hand-picked inspector, Dr. David Kay. Nothing, but nothing, has been found. Best of all is the fact that right now, as you read this, at this very moment, almost a year after the war began, claims that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger for the development of a nuclear weapons program remains on this White House web page. The Niger uranium claim has been proven to be utterly fraudulent, based upon crudely forged documents so laughable that America stands embarrassed before the world because Bush used them to justify his war. Yet the claim remains seated on his website, even now. Not only has history proven this war to have been cynically contrived, but history has also proven beyond question that it was not necessary. Weapons inspectors could easily have determined that Iraq was not in possession of any weapons. A favorite talking point these days is that we had to invade because the United Nations was not doing its part. Hogwash. The Bush administration wrote Resolution 1441 from top to bottom, and pointedly included the words "Weapons Inspectors" in the text. The Security Council unanimously approved it. Many believe the U.S. wrote 1441 fully expecting Iraq to reject it because of those inspections, but Iraq turned that thinking on its head and welcomed the inspectors in. Immediately, the Bush administration began denigrating the very inspections they mandated with 1441, and began denigrating the United Nations for expecting them to live up to the bargain they authored. It was recently revealed that Saddam Hussein essentially surrendered on the eve of the war, throwing his country open to American forces in whatever capacity the Bush administration felt was necessary to guarantee that Iraq was not a threat. The Bush administration spurned this offer and rolled out the blitzkrieg, beginning a process that has killed hundreds of American soldiers, wounded thousands more, and consigned tens of thousands of civilians to die in the dust. Veteran's Day is upon us. A just world would see a long parade of veterans wending its way past the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, past the Korean War Memorial, past every statue and plaque commemorating the service, and that full measure of devotion, given to this nation by men and women beyond number. In a just world, the parade would halt on the ground that, someday, will bear the names of the men and women who have died, and will die, in this Iraq war. In a just world, George W. Bush would be required to stand upon this ground and be spat upon by every person in that long, proud parade. In a just world, Bush would be made to visit the home of every American family who has had a beloved brother, sister, mother, father, husband or wife delivered to them in secret inside a "transfer tube." In a just world, he would be made to explain his lies, and further be made to apologize for using the wretched memory of September 11 against the American people in a process of criminal deception that got an incredible number of people killed. Then again, a just world would have left George W. Bush in the dustbin of history as a thrice-failed oilman who lacked even the courage to complete his stint in the National Guard while better men went off to war in Vietnam to die in his place. ### William Rivers Pitt is the Managing Editor of truthout.org. He is a New York Times and international best-selling author of three books - "War On Iraq," available from Context Books, "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," available from Pluto Press, and "Our Flag, Too: The Paradox of Patriotism," available in August from Context Books. .Intellectual terrorism - By Humayun Gauhar Hi Pakistan Without wishing to sound paranoid or obsessive about conspiracies galore, one cannot entirely rule out the nagging feeling that something foul is afoot, a diabolical plan unfolding which either gathered pace after September 11 or was triggered off by it. The objective of the plan is to protect American capitalism and make even more money in the process, through fresh orders to the arms industry to replenish used stocks (which the destroyed country would pay for) and reconstruction after destruction. We've all heard of the guy who set up a bicycle repair shop. To keep his business going he would place nails, broken glass and other sharp objects on the road near his shop so that they would puncture the tyres of hapless cyclists who would perforce have to bring their custom to him. This is not unlike a diabolical plan: destroy a country to place orders for more weaponry with your arms industry and get your infrastructure companies to rebuild it. Then destroy another country and then another and so forth. Not unlike the alien race in the movie 'Independence Day' which would consume all the resources of one planet, then move on to another. It goes without saying that the Americans stopped them, led by their brave President , though this one wasn't a draft dodging dried-out drunk. Thus, to keep the wheels of capitalism moving and to make more money, yesterday's friends become today's enemies and will perhaps be tomorrow's friends again, as witness the Americans releasing the former Taliban Foreign Minister and reportedly discussing the installation of a 'moderate' Taliban government with him! The adage is that when you can no longer make money by their friendship, eliminate them and steal their wealth. I referred to Michael Moore's new book, 'Dude, where's my country?' a couple of articles ago. He theorises that either the Saudi government was responsible for the September 11 attacks or disgruntled Saudi princes were. I suggested that in that case it was no more outlandish to suggest that Israel did it. In the same book Moore tells us how closely linked famous American families were to the Bin Laden family, amongst others. And in another book , 'Sleeping with the Devil', author Robert Baer tells of the humungous amounts of money the Saudis paid out over the years to US establishment figures and the corporations they were or are associated with. Baer disingenuously calls it 'protection money'. Protection is a racket and protection money is paid to Mafiosi. Who were the Mafiosi that the Saudis paid protection money to? None other than famous, powerful American establishment figures and their corporations. Most diabolically, the effort also is to subliminally convince us that it is the Saudis, not Israel, that has penetrated the American establishment and thereby influenced the US decision-making process. Osama's brother Salem bin Laden, who died in a 1988 plane crash, started visiting Texas in 1973 and, says Moore, "later bought some land, built himself a house, and created Bin Laden Aviation at the San Antonio airfield." They own part of Microsoft and Boeing and have donated 2 million dollars to Harvard. Bush Sr. became consultant to the Carlyle Group after leaving office, "one of the nation's largest defence contractors." One of the investors in Carlyle (2 million dollars) was the Bin Laden family. Carlyle also owned CaterAir, which Bush Jr. headed till 1994. Moore wonders whether that is why 24 members of the Bin Laden family were secreted out of America after September 11, before any US officials could interrogate them. Was it friendship or to keep their traps shut, or both, or what? The BBC reported the Taliban visiting Texas to meet Unicol while Bush Jr. was governor to discuss the building of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan (and hopefully to gas-starved India). As to another important US figure, Security Adviser Condeleezza Rice was a board member of Chevron,which merged with Texaco in 2001. Chevron named an oil tanker after Rice. Chevron Texaco have done and are doing a lot of business with Saudi Arabia. Saddam was their man too. Donald Rumsfeld visited him in Baghdad in the early Eighties to discuss the progress of the Iran-Iraq war. Saddam was presented the key to the city of Detroit. No one remembers that because the media have hidden it. Yes, important establishment Americans and their corporations made the Arabs part with a lot of their money, particularly the Saudi government and private sector. Now a single hyperpower, the US feels that it cannot afford the risk of their economy being dependent on the whims of a potentate of a desert family to which the fates mistakenly gave so much oil. To decrease their dependence on Saudi surplus oil, they captured Iraq and its vast oilfields, but that was not enough. I showed last week how the Saudis came to America's rescue in every oil crisis, like the 1973 embargo, the Iran-Iraq war, the 1991 Gulf War and after September 11. Every time an extra five to nine million Saudi barrels daily saved the day, so dependent are the Americans on them. Robert Baer talks about possible terrorist attacks to put enough Saudi oil out of action as to seriously undermine the US economy. With Iraq not coming under control, and unlikely to, the Saudi surplus remains as crucial as ever. What if, wonders Baer, the Abqaiq extra light crude complex accounting for seven million barrels daily, was taken out of commission by a terrorist attack? The global economy would be finished. Michael Moore let's the cat of the diabolical plan out of the bag : "A major chunk of the American economy is built on Saudi money. They have a trillion dollars invested in our stock market and another trillion dollars in our banks. If they chose suddenly to remove that money, our corporations and financial institutions would be sent into a tailspin, causing an economic crisis the likes of which has never been seen. Couple that with the fact that the 1.5m barrels of oil we need daily from the Saudis could also vanish on a mere royal whim, and we begin to see how not only you, but all of us, are dependent on the House of Saud. George, is this good for our national security, our homeland security? Who is it good for? You? Pops?" Robert Baer makes possible internal unrest and instability in Saudi Arabia an excuse for illegally occupying the country and trampling on its sovereignty and independence. He draws a demonic picture of millions of Shi'as working in Aramco and the Saudi oilfields and terminals, Shi'as who could ignite the biggest fire except for the one in Hell. What if this instability were to spill over into the neighbouring oil sheikhdoms? Iraqi oil would be nowhere enough to fill the gap. Baer cuts out the frills and comes to the point, the bald truth : "That's why we in the West - Washington D.C., in particular - have to face up to our part in cultivating the virus that has infected Saudi Arabia. And that is why we must consider putting to sleep the host, the House of Sa'ud, if it can't or won't cure itself. At the very least, we will have to consider seizing the oil fields." So there you have it. The truth is out: "...seizing the oil fields." This is intellectual terrorism at its best. Just try it. Make my day. You will achieve what Muslims have been unable to. You will unite them, to protect the Holy land. .