Corroborating O’Neill’s Account

[45th Med]

Official Confirms Claims That Saddam Was Bush’s Focus Before 9/11.

By John Cochran

01/13/04: (ABC News) President Bush ordered the Pentagon to explore the possibility of a ground invasion of Iraq well before the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, an official told ABCNEWS, confirming the account former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill gives in his new book.

Official Confirms Claims by O'Neill

[rumguy]

1. Attn: All media whores

How long will you continue to prop up this incompetent bully?

Fuck you for what you've done to this country...

[tom_paine]

20. They will contiue to do so as long as the crepes are warm and the cocktail

parties are good.

Seriously, is there anything more disgusting than our pampered Media Whores, who have foresaken their duty to the nation and it's people to become well-fed stenographers for a Tyrant?

Sure, there are plenty of things more disgusting, but usually they involve snot, blood, or murder.

[Leilani]

22. How can they be honest?

When they're together at dinners, parties, etc.

Professinal Washington politicos, & Wash.Press Corps:friends till the end.

[tom_paine]

28. Well, reporters have been covering politicians for a long time

What is different is that reporters are no longer workig class people.

They are celebrities, aristocrats, with a vested interest in the Status Quo.

They are different from any reporters this nation has ever seen before and it shows because this generation of reporters has presided over the stunning downfall of a great institution, the American Free Press.

I know I know. The Age of Heart. Yellow Journalism. Sure, but after WWII, they finally were getting it right more honestly and ethically than ever before.

Now...well let's just say bring on the clowns.

[Zhade]

30. Their day will come.

For each of these traitor-enabling whores, there is The Moment - the time when they are of no further use to the elite running the show.

At that point, their services, indeed their lives, become of zero importance to the Imperials.

I wonder, when they eventually realize how little they've sold their souls for, will they find it a worthy trade? Somehow, I doubt it.

[jamesinca]

2. I think it was Noam Chomsky

He said the media will snuggle up to who they think is in charge. If they think Bush is losing his control they will turn on him. They are whores, so the fact that this is even mentioned should tell you that the Bush people are losing control in the medias eyes.

[Just Me]

12. Yeah, BUT, the tide IS changing,...

,...and after the last three years of insanity, I simply cannot bring myself to complain about it even if it involves the "ho-tow" of the media.

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Anybody see Hardball tonight?

Good show. Matthews made it very clear repeating "they got to him".

[rumguy]

4. "they got to him"

Wow. I'm surprised to hear that. Tweety is usually slobbering over the incompetent bully and everything he does.

[Norquist Nemesis]

7. Not lately.

You should catch it on replay. I wish the transcripts were up.

[tom_paine]

21. Yeah, how pathetic is it that Tweety stands out amongst the Whores

for his moral courage?

Just HOW far has Amerikan "journalism" fallen?

I think far enough that these pampered aristocrats would have happily flacked for Stalin, although he would have executed their pathetic asses. Once a betrayer, always a betrayer, I can imagine him saying as he personally administered the bullet behind the ear.

[goforit]

39. Ya, I'll never forgive him for turning election 2000 into fashion show

of Al Gore's wardrobe.

He is and always be classless and caddy.

Boy what's the use of living if all you are is a moraless
pin cushion for the Bushco.

[Virginian]

5. And on Countdown, too.

Keith Oberman also talked about the 180 ONeill did.

Does this mean both of those shows are going off the air to be replaced by "The Abrams Report"?

[BigDaddyLove]

6. Oh God No!!!!!!!!!!!!

:nuke:

[Norquist Nemesis]

8. I hope not too...I'm still going through withdrawals

from losing Buchanan and Press. :( Abrams was better left on CourtTV.

[calimary]

36. Actually, I saw Abrams do an interesting commentary the other night

where he talked about how no WMDs have been found and the whole thing seems to be a house of cards. He actually sounded like he was making sense. For a change. Made me do a double-take as I was leaving the room.

But then again, maybe he was having an off day...

[Blue Gardener]

10. Keith Olberman

The only show I'll watch on MSNBC. He isn't afraid to mince words sometimes. If someone is being an idiot he'll usually point it out.

[Printer70]

9. Contingency Plans- response

The republican response is that contingency plans are drafted for hostile nations, especially since our policy was regime change since 98 and with air patrols over the no-fly zone. What is the response to that?

[HereSince1628]

11. Do contingency plans typically divide the target nation's

natural resources into blocks available for division among international corporations? I don't think so.

It appears from what I've read so far that the very early plans (10-20 days in to Arbusto's appointment) were mostly earlier neocon documents from the 90's.

Interestingly enough, Suskind writes that in one of the early (2nd or 3rd I think) NSC meetings they were already speculating on ambiguous satellite recon of factories and claiming weapons manufacture. O'Neill apparently felt the table-sized photos gave no indication of the products being made.

[pinto]

13. O'Neill himself said it was a big leap from having a

contingency plan to mounting a pre-emptive strike. A very big leap. The implementation of a contingency plan has to be based on real time events. If a happens we do b, if c happens we do d, etc. B*shco apparently went from contingency plan to implementation and gerry rigged a set of justifications to sell what in their minds was a fait accompli.

[Terran]

14. This is interesting...

The unnamed official corroborating O'Neill was at the same NSC meetings O'Neill was. That would make this person a highly placed official, wouldn't it? So someone in the admin, or may the Pentagon, is doing something to support O'Neill's observations about Bush.

The image of a Dutch dyke springing multiple leaks comes to mind...

I also have to note from the article:

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld disputed O'Neill's account today. "I don't know what meetings he could have been in," Rumsfeld told reporters during a Pentagon briefing.

Oh come on Rummy, he was there or he wasn't. Should be a simple matter of record, like they don't record who attends these meetings. He is such an idiot.

[LeftHander]

15. HAL - Halliburton up to 27.89

Halliburton has consistently set 52 week highs week in and week out since Cheney began publically pumping a Iraq Regime Change in July of 2002.

Interesting fact Grandfather Prescott Bush was on the board of Dresser Industries now part of Halliburton. George HW Bush had worked at Dresser in various functions.

I wonder how much stock the Bush Family had in Dresser which was converted to Halliburton Stock.

Halliburton aquired Dresser in 1998 under Dick Cheney. All Dresser stock was converted and is traded under HAL. Since the Dresser aquisition Halliburton has profited quite well.

What we have here folks is a family fortune tied undoubtedly to the performance of HAL.

There are several large institutional investors in HAL that need to be researched but I would not be surprised to find the Bush family hidden somewhere in the nest of companies.

Bush and Cheney was sent in to make sure HAL rose from near collapse. In July of 2002 HAL was at a mere $9 since that time a 300% increase. Certainly Bush administration's policy of invasion of Iraq lead directly to this increase.

It is all so transparent.

[grok]

16. How to make money without making money.

Ahh. now I got it. I admit it.

In reality, Haliburton is *barely* breaking even on Iraq. Profit wise. with or without minor scandals. It's fairly well documented in an old thread which I posted a couple of weeks ago. The profit margin is too ridiculously low to , in my opinion, to be worthy of the term "profiteering". To many costs associated to working in a war environment.

HOWEVER, I didn't look at the stock price side. Which matters to the guy who doesn't collect dividends, but who buys and sells stocks. In which perception, and not reality matters.

Friends, by hyping up the perception that Haliburton is actually making a killing(the media too) on the Iraq no-bid contracts, we have JUST made Cheney richer. And all those with stock in them. Blind trust or not. And Haliburton isn't actually making a decent profit. The jokes on us.

But at least we are getting some political hay out of it. So maybe it's worth it.

Grok

[On the Road]

17. Halliburton "Barely Breaking Even"

Grok, how do you know this? Is it in a 10-K or other public document? From stock analysts?

[Beetwasher]

18. Nope

Halliburton (or maybe I should say the people who run Halliburton) IS making a killing in Iraq. It's done like this:

Halliburton gets a billion dollars to build schools. You hire a sub-contractor to do this who is in cahoots w/ you. You funnel them money in sub-awards to build the schools. The schools either never get built or get built for far less than what was supposed to be spent to build them. The sub-contractor gives phony invoices for work and supplies to account for the money. The difference between what was supposed to be spent and was actually spent ends up in swiss banks or the Cayman Islands. That's how it works.

Halliburton get's millions to supply food to the troops. They spend far less on the food than they're supposed to, the troops get substandard food, the people who supply the food also supply bloated invoices for it and the difference is funneled into swiss banks and the Cayman Islands. That's how it works.

Halliburton get's millions to buy fuel. Their supplier overcharges and again, the difference ends up in swiss banks and the Cayman Islands. See?

The inflation of the stock price is just ANOTHER money-making facet of this scheme.

[grok]

23. Show me the money....

Show me the money trail, and show me the WMDs. Same frigging thing. Otherwise, it's just another unproven allegation. At least give me a decent estimate of TOTAL net profit level in Iraq. That's all I ask.

Like you say, Somebody SHOULD be making a mint. but it isn't the stockholder. At least NOT from dividends and NET profit after expenses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/29/international/middleeast/29CONT.html?ex=1074229200&en=9880f5ba8c7cb51f&ei=5070

And of course, they are in perpetual trouble. And under watchful eyes. Maybe they WOULD make a decent profit If they weren't watched so much.

My point is this. This stock price should not be even CLOSE to where it is. They are getting a 300 percent return on investment? Puhleeze, tell me another. It's up there precisely everbody THINKS they are making a killing. Media hype. Anti--Bush/Cheney/Halliburton hype. We are feeding it and THATS why the stock is worth so much. And for that reason SOMEBODY is getting rich. Reminds me of all the internet stock hype of the 90's which fed in on itself. Cheney should be giving us a cut. We deserve it.

The law of unintended consequences. Seems to be alot of that going around nowadays.

Grok

[Beetwasher]

24. Huh?

These are con men. I'm explaining to you how the con works. Believe me or not, I don't give a shit, but that's what's being done.

"And of course, they are in perpetual trouble. And under watchful eyes. Maybe they WOULD make a decent profit If they weren't watched so much."

Uh huh. Yeah, there in so much trouble. As a matter of fact, they were FORCED to accept these no-bid contracts. Get real. Boohoo, Halliburton's watched too much to make a decent profit? Puhleeze, cry me a river...The army just "audited" them because of the ridiculous prices they are paying for fuel, take a guess at what the conclusion was...

Who's watching Halliburton closely? Who's auditing them? Do you even know?

From the article:

"The scope of the contract includes myriad tasks from importing fuels to repairing pipelines, and the costs have increased through task orders and subcontracts, some of which are carried out with limited documentation or disclosure."

--snip--

"Earlier this month, Pentagon auditors questioned the $2.64 per gallon that Halliburton was charging to truck fuel from Kuwait to Iraq, and sought to recover $61 million. In response, company officials said they had actually saved the government money and had put the fuel supply subcontract up for competitive bidding. But there was little paperwork to show that any bidding had taken place, according to government officials familiar with the audit."

I wish the contracts that I negotiate with the gov't had this type of leeway and lax oversight. My job would be much easier.

[grok]

25. So what's the NET total profit level from Iraq?

Tell me your estimate. You seem to know. That's ALL I ask. Not even asking for proof. That would be too much.

Grok

[Beetwasher]

26. I Could Care Less

I'm sure if I cared I could dig around and come up with a figure, but so what?

The point is the big money that's being made would never show up as net profit for Halliburton...The big money that's being made is being charged as expenses and then laundered (yes, that's an allegation. I don't have proof and any proof or money trail would be difficult to come by, these people are the experts at this sort of thing AND they control all the auditing agencies. Where did all of Enron's money go? You'd think there would be some sort of trail there too, wouldn't you? Just ask Waxman what sort of response he's getting to any of his inquiries).

The most apparent evidence supporting my allegations is in the substandard food that's being provided for top dollar, the exorbitant, hardly explained fuel prices and the shoddy work that's being done on other projects (such as construction of schools, power plants, water treatment etc.) that are VERY expensive with nothing to show for the money.

[Zhade]

31. Even if you were right, I wouldn't take that traitor's blood money.

NT!

[grok]

37. You don't have to.

By making Halliburton look like they are making out like bandits, We just made Cheney richer artificially. I Just think it's funny irony.

Maybe there is some truth to the adage that "There is no such thing as BAD publicity."

[DemonFighterLives]

19. I didn't know about all those ties

Like a space odyssey, HAL is taking over.
:kick:

[young_at_heart]

27. In other words, invasion of other countries is A-OK with him?

If this was his very first priority, then what many of us think of as "our country, a democracy", is not what these Bush people evidently think!

[lowflyer10]

29. Waste of time.....

This is the biggest non-issue yet. Any president in this day and age, if he's smart, would have had plans shelved for an invasion of Iraq, in case he needed it. The reason I know is that I've been in the military for 18 years. We get all kinds data calls all the time for hypothetical scenarios. Sadaam Hussein is a dead ringer. This pre-planned invasion thing probably did happen. So what if it did. Doesn't mean a thing to voters. Let's turn our energy to something productive, please. Like how the war in Afghanistan is going. Not well I would say since poppy production is through the roof. The economy. People will only listen to disproved conspiracy theories (or completely unbelievable ones) for so long. It's like the sky is falling everywhere and all the time. GET OFF CONSPIRACIES and talk about something ANYONE WOULD BELIEVE. I can't believe all these conspiracy theories I'm hearing. The average person is going "so what, he planned an invasion. he didn't do it until after Sep 11th" AND after Afghanistan (an important point, I might add) He didn't go straight for Baghdad, which strips away this supposed obsession with Sadaam. Whether he had it or not, isn't important to most voters. And the fact that he didn't go in on SEP 12th (and waited a year and a half longer) is making this conspiracy thing go nowhere. WASTED ENERGY.

EDIT: If you want corroboration, you need only ask the Bush* administration. They'll corroborate it for you. They already have. They've confirmed they had plan.

[Zhade]

32. Bullshit.

He did NOT plan it after Iraq, and the documents to prove it are out there.

Being here on DU, you should already know this fact.

[lowflyer10]

33. Plan what after Iraq?

[DemonFighterLives]

34. Since you believe in no conspiracies

How do you suppose that all stadard operating procedures failed on 911? The containment on Saddam and Osama was working until this totally inept bunch was placed in power. The average person doesn't suspect a thing. If I had to put my life on the line for shrub and the Pnac crowd, I would have to think seriosly of fleeing to Canada.
I can follow the pre-planned whatever, but the fact remains that America used to stand for good and just things to put it simply. We are now out there floundering on this administrations ideology of a good thing. They have No clue. The rest of the world is scratching their heads.

[lowflyer10]

35. Are you telling me that you actually believe

you can convince voters that the president INTENTIONALLY let 911 happen? That's impossible to prove. Impossible. You may believe that's what happened. Personally, I don't. Too far fetched. But getting enough voters convinced to get a dem nominee 51% of the electoral votes would be a futile effort. That's my point. I'm no Bush* fan. But this conspiracy thing is a total waste of time. It will NOT make a difference because you can't prove it. You'll never be able to prove it.

EDIT: Just like the repugs could never prove that Clinton dropped bombs and killed innocents during the Lewinsky thing. Noone believes that...

[DemonFighterLives]

40. Of course I can't convince anyone

Only lead them to the information that is available. Why are there so many peculiar and coincidental things happening since 2000? I'll just leave you with that.

[lowflyer10]

41. There are many peculiar and coincidental things happening

every day. There always has been. The WTC was attacked once before, too. That doesn't mean it has anything to do with who's in the Oval Office. You can see anything you want if you try hard enough. That doesn't mean the rest of the world will. For every coincidence you name (which you haven't done yet-and that's not a swipe) I could probably come up with a at least dozen plausible explanations for each one them. No sitting Democrat leaders have come within a mile of this bush* conspiracy thing. Only DEAN (who is a hopeful, and, in my opinion, not very likely) office holder has even come close to saying it. Even he backed away from it. There's a reason. It's fear. Not of bush* but of voters thinking they're looney. Mainstream voters out there don't have the time or patience to digest a complicated conspiracy when all they get is "well aren't you aware of all these strange coincidences going on? well if you don't then you're a right-wing ideologue. AND you're lazy and illiterate to boot." Sorry, mainstream voters are not lazy or illiterate. They have lives to live. So if there's undeniable proof of a conspiracy--a slam-dunk so-to-speak, bring it on out. I'd be all over it. I'm no bush* fan. But I'm into fighting efficiently. This is a waste of effort. Period. I'm on your side. I'm just offering my opinion here on how to better focus on removing the current sitting president.

[goforit]

38. OMG!!!......Thank you ABC!!!!.....United with CBS, eh?

Hmmmm........

Let me ask the media one question,

Wouldn't it be nice to be free of the iron grip
of the Bushco felons?