Back                                                        More distortions:                                                   8-18-06

I'm getting sick and tired of all the rhetoric and distortions. Especially on Fox News. Let's get something straight. For news, though it claims to be fair and impartial, it is well known as a right wing news organization.

I was listening to the Beltway Boys and couldn't believe some of the things they were saying. First, either they aren't very well informed (And I hope that is the case.) or they were misleading by deception. Let's go through some of the things they were talking about:

First they hinted, very strongly, that the U.S. was heavily involved with the investigation that that led to the intervention of the terrorist plot to take liquid explosives onto planes flying from Great Britain to the United States. Wrong: The tip came from Pakistan to Great Britain where the British Secret Service (MI 6) put their agents onto the case, even putting two agents undercover in the group. The only part we played was to pull the plug when we found out about it. (Something that has angered MI 6.) I heard a British press conference on, I think it was C-Span, where the British government gave praise to Pakistan and talked about the investigation. Not once in the 20 or so minute conference did they mention the U.S. CIA. I also heard on C.N.N. that MI 6 wanted to wait longer and because the alert went out to soon they might have missed catching some of the people who were involved.

Question: Since liquid explosives have been used at least once before and since we broke up a plot, originating in the Philippians, to blow up planes flying to the U.S. across the Pacific. Why did it take so long to put a defense in place?

The most recent try to add money to the homeland security budget (As all the ones in the past.) to fund screening of liquids at airports was rejected by the Republican majority in congress, along with a Democratic proposal to force railroads to detour chemical and other dangerous freight cars around major cities. (Something I personally feel is a good idea and worth the cost since one tanker car filled with liquid chlorine if ruptured in New York City would kill tens of thousands.) It wouldn't be hard for anyone to walk into a fright yard at night and plant plastic explosives under the chassis of a tanker car and set off an explosion from anywhere by radio or a cell phone. (The Democrats have been stopped again and again by the majority party from stiffening our security,) You tell me why the 9-11 commission recommendations have not been fully implemented.) In a recent statement by the non-partisan commission the chairman Tom Kean (R) and the full commission gave one A- and several Fs for implementation of their recommendations. Do you still think we are doing enough to fight terrorism?

They (The Beltway Boys.) kept talking about the Democrats "Cutting and running." Let me remind them that Ronald Reagan was the one who "cut and ran." from Lebanon when our troops were killed in the bombing of their barracks in Beirut and that George Bush Sr. was the one who didn't finish the Gulf War. (That was the correct decision.) Very few Democrats are talking about "Cutting and Running." from Iraq and none are talking about leaving Afghanistan. In fact they have been trying to get more troops into Afghanistan where they are sorely needed.

I've explained why I thought, from the very beginning, that the war in Iraq was a mistake, but I also said as most democrats have that we can't leave it in the condition that we have now put it in, but we do need a new strategy and the administration's only answer is "Stay the course." That statement sounds like the same one that the captain of the Titanic used when they first saw the iceberg.

I'm starting to believe that the only solution to Iraq is that it be divided into three separate states. A Kurdish state in the north; a Sunni state in the center; and a Shiite state in the south. The same way India was divided when the Moslems were given Pakistan and Bangladesh.

There are differences between "Cutting and Running" and intelligent war planning. The same goes for the war on terrorism. There is an intelligent way to fight it and it isn't with un-thought out bravado. George Bush and his policies have created more terrorists then we have killed or captured by ten fold. How long before we start winning the hearts and minds of the people of the Middle East.

The 9-11 commission has started a web site to inform the public where congress and the administration has been falling short on defending the American people. I've added it here  http://www.9-11pdp.org/  read for yourselves their short comings and then decide for yourselves which party will make you safer.

Another thing I keep hearing is that since we haven't had an attack on American soil we must be doing something right but I keep seeing things like a cargo container being pulled aside and searched for explosives after being unloaded in California. If that container had a dirty bomb it might have already to too late. Or how about the attack on the New York subway system that was called off by Ayman Al-Zawahiri because it wasn't dramatic enough. Remember that it was 8 years between the first bombing of the twin towers and 9-11. They are not going to give up and we had better be ready.         Al