Web of cold-blooded lies

[Spazito]

PARIS -- In July 2002, the head of MI-6, Britain's secret intelligence service, briefed Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet on U.S. plans to attack Iraq.

Sir Richard Dearlove ("M" to James Bond fans) reported that U.S. President George Bush had decided to invade oil-rich Iraq in March 2003, in a war "to be justified by the conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. The intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy."

Translation: The U.S. and British governments would concoct charges against Iraq to justify war.

snip

Kudos go to Blair's former foreign secretary, Robin Cook, who refused to be party to the lies and resigned. No senior U.S. official had the guts or ethics to follow Cook's admirable example.

more

http://torontosun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2005/06/12/1083345-sun.html

[JohnyCanuck]

1. What's especially satisfying to read Eric's column

is knowing it's printed in the Toronto Sun a right-wing rag whose other columnists for the most part think that Canada's role in the world, especially since "everything changed" on 9/11, is to suck it up and willingly comply with whatever marching orders we might be issued from the corrupt dip shit in the White House.

[Spazito]

2. I agree, it is delicious and he NEVER pulls his punches

I remember him on CBC as a guest commentator during the run-up to the invasion and he was scathing even then about the 'evidence'.

[JohnyCanuck]

7. Also used to appear regularly on TV Ontario's Studio 2 program.

He was one of the three or four panelists on the foreign affairs segments and usually the odd man out when it came to discussing Bush and the Middle East issues in the run up to war. The other panelists would tend to swallow the kool aide and gave me the impression they thought Bush might be too gung ho and maybe a bit too much of a cowboy for his own good, but his heart was in the right place. Eric would, of course, point out the boy emperor's buck nakedness and that their were other agendas in play in the hype for war including the neocon/Israeli influences etc.

Then all of a sudden, Eric stopped appearing on the show and it was just the other 3 stooges left to debate the issues of the day. I never saw any explanations as to why he was no longer a Studio 2 guest, so I don't know if they canned him because he wasn't PC enough for their taste or if Eric quit for his own reasons. Of course, things have panned out more or less how Eric forecast they would, and clearly he was correct in questioning the validity of the bullshit excuses that were being given to launch the invasion.

[Spazito]

3. Darn it, I have to kick this, even if it is my own thread

because I actually believe it contains more relevance than MJ, go figure eh!

[Coexist]

4. I hate to say I told you so!

D-list celebrities are ALL THAT!

[City Lights]

5. I love this guy!

I emailed it to lots of people, including chris matthews and Keith Olbermann.

[Karenina]

6. Goering, anyone?

<snip>

After Britain's attorney general warned that unprovoked invasion of Iraq would violate international law, Dearlove opined with oily cynicism, "If the political context were right, people would support regime change." Translation: Use propaganda and scare tactics to whip up war fever.

British and U.S. intelligence agencies were ordered to produce "evidence" to justify a war. In the U.S., faked "evidence" and grotesque lies were fed to the frightened public by pro-war neo-conservatives and frenzied national media. The U.S. Congress clapped for war like trained seals.

In October 2002, Bush actually claimed in a national speech that Iraqi "drone" aircraft were poised to shower germs and poison gas on America. Vice-President Dick Cheney insisted this absurd allegation was the "smoking gun" that justified invading Iraq. Blair ordered his cabinet to support the invasion.

<snip>

[H2O Man]

8. The leaders of this administration

lack the moral capacity to tell the truth.