The Pentagon was considering poisoning Afghanistan's food supply

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.newsdissector.org/blog/2002/02/24/baywatch-over-bosnia/

POISONING PEOPLE AS A POLICY

"Deep inside the sixth of eight glowing articles in its series "10 Days in September," about what wonderful crisis managers George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice are, The Washington Post, on February 1, buried the following bit of information: The Pentagon was considering poisoning Afghanistan's food supply.

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld prepared a briefing for Bush on September 17, Bob Woodward and Dan Balz reported. Rice, head of the National Security Council, "and Frank Miller, the senior NSC staffer for defense, went with the President to the Pentagon. Before the briefing, Miller previewed the classified slide presentation prepared for Bush and got a big surprise," Woodward and Balz reported.

"One slide about special operations in Afghanistan said: Thinking Outside the Box-Poisoning Food Supply. Miller was shocked and showed it to Rice. The United States doesn't know how to do this, Miller reminded her, and we're not allowed. It would effectively be a chemical or biological attack--clearly banned by treaties that the United States had signed, including the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

"Rice took the slide to Rumsfeld. 'This slide is not going to be shown to the President of the United States,' she said.

"Rumsfeld agreed. 'You're right,' he said.

"Why this wasn't a major story in itself is beyond me: The Secretary of Defense wanted to propose to the President that he poison Afghanistan's food supply!"

[fooj]

1. Pure evil.

[benburch]

3. As if the "Depleted" uranium wasn't ENOUGH! nt

[fooj]

4. Poisoning a food supply? Holy F*cking Shit!

[benburch]

5. "I tremble for my country when I consider that God is just..."

"...and his justice cannot sleep forever." -Thomas Jefferson

[fooj]

7. Wow Ben...that is really powerful.

REALLY powerful.

Jefferson was SOOOOOOOO right, eh?

[nashville_brook]

20. the sleeper must awaken

[EFerrari]

2. Just when you think they can't top themselves, they do.

:wtf:

[hopeisaplace]

6. tell me this isn't true, tell me this is an absolute fabrication,

please. I hope this wasn't true.

[NNN0LHI]

15. Looks like it was considered

http://www.slate.com/?id=2062824

Why did the Washington Post go soft on the Pentagon?

Did the Pentagon really consider poisoning the Afghans' food supply in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks? The Washington Post unearthed some evidence that it did—and then promptly buried the news deep inside its recent forest-decimating yawnfest on the early days of the administration's response to 9/11. (Get the short version of the eight-part series from Mickey Kaus' excellent "Series-Skipper.") It's a tale that deserves further examination.

Here's the key passage served up by reporters Bob Woodward and Dan Balz: snip

Pentagon officials said later that their own internal review had caught the offending slide and that it never would have been shown to the president or to Rumsfeld.

The passage is on point regarding the illegality of poisoning food, but with its talk that this would "effectively" be banned by the 1972 biological weapons treaty, it's making the issue seem narrower and murkier than it really is. Food poisoning is plainly banned by the keystone international conduct-of-war treaty—The Hague's Laws and Customs of War on Land, which was ratified by the U.S. in 1902. Its Article 23 states: "it is especially prohibited o employ poison or poisoned arms." What part of this 10-word passage didn't the Pentagon planners understand?

And who were they anyway? We know, thanks to the marvels of source-greasing, that once alerted by Miller, Rice and Rumsfeld bravely took a firm stand against the slide. (Although one suspects that if Miller hadn't made the catch, they might well not have.) But who put the slide there in the first place? At minimum, Woodbalz seem phenomenally incurious about this. Or worse still, maybe they know but decided to protect the malefactor. After all, they never name that "two-star general" dispatched to give the brief. Why not? Presumably the poison suggestion came from him or somebody under his command. Doesn't the public deserve to know the identity of the knucklehead(s)?

[hopeisaplace]

18. thanks for the article info, ..yes imo, knuckleheads should be outed. n/t.

[Union Label]

8. All the players in this FUCKING evil cabal

belong in Gitmo!

[Pepper32]

9. Hey, why do you hate America? A country must have a right to defend

...themselves! Right??? :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[blonndee]

10. Remember the yellow food packages they dropped

that were packaged almost identically as cluster bombs?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1624787.stm

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/29/ret.bomb.warnings/index.html

I had a picture but I can't get photobucket to upload it tonight.

[jonnyblitz]

33. I remember that. nt

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Reckon]

13. You might try looking here:

It's on page 5 of Combating Terrorism: 'It Starts Today'.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071800703.html

Edit:
Here's a link to the series : 10 Days in September

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/news/postseries/tendaysinseptember/

[cynatnite]

16. Thanks for the link...

I do think this was taken out of context. Everyone, but Rummy, knew how ludicrous and outright insane of an idea it was. There was never any serious thought to putting it to use.

bush and condi may be stupid and crazy, but they know a bad PR move when they see one.

[Stargazer99]

19. It should have never been proposed in the first place

This administration talks about morality!!! Bush supporters have breached the line between morality and evil.

[hootinholler]

24. "Bad PR move"????

Um this isn't about PR, it is about war crimes committed on our names. That such a blatantly illegal suggestion would rise to the level of cabinet officials is outrageous!

I want an investigation, NOW!

-Hoot

[cynatnite]

26. For them it's about PR...

Sorry, I wasn't clear about that.

An investigation would be required if it was implemented. If there was an investigation for every suggestion made, no matter how stupid and insane, every administration would be dealing with several hundred at any given moment.

[hootinholler]

30. Several hundred at first...

Look our military is smart, they will figure it out real quick.

This suggestion wasn't fed upward, things just don't work that way.

-Hoot

[cynatnite]

32. Somebody offering a stupid suggestion...

doesn't mean it has to be investigated.

I don't want bush and his cohorts investigated for idiotic suggestions. I want them investigated for lying about WMD, outing Plame, signing statements, Halliburton, torture, domestic spying and the rest of the crap they actually did.

Investigating a suggestion will lead to one place...NOWHERE.

I have no idea what you meant by the military remark.

[NNN0LHI]

17. Thank you. Here is the direct link to the actual page below

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071800703_5.html

<snip>Rumsfeld still wanted the president to have a detailed briefing. Special operations were going to be enormously important, he was sure, so a two-star general was sent from the Special Operations Command to brief the president.

Rice and Frank Miller, the senior NSC staffer for defense, went with the president to the Pentagon. Before the briefing, Miller reviewed the classified slide presentation prepared for Bush and got a big surprise.

One slide about special operations in Afghanistan said: Thinking Outside the Box -- Poisoning Food Supply. Miller was shocked and showed it to Rice. The United States doesn't know how to do this, Miller reminded her, and we're not allowed. It would effectively be a chemical or biological attack -- clearly banned by treaties that the United States had signed, including the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

Rice took the slide to Rumsfeld. "This slide is not going to be shown to the president of the United States," she said.

Rumsfeld agreed. "You're right," he said.

Pentagon officials said later that their own internal review had caught the offending slide and that it never would have been shown to the president or to Rumsfeld.

[Reckon]

12. Is this thread related to

this:

"A United Nations official has harshly condemned the United States policy of dropping food aid to Afghanistan while bombing the country.

Jean Ziegler, whose job is to defend the right to food, described the US actions as "totally catastrophic for humanitarian aid".

He said that because the food drops were not targeted, "the man with the gun picks it up. So Americans are feeding the Taleban every night."
"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1600694.stm



hmmmmmmm!!!

[Rex]

14. 6 years of high crimes.

And the M$M gets down on their KNEES to service the evil. Makes ya wonder.

[Bluebear]

21. 'Thinking Outside the Box-Poisoning Food Supply'

What kind of ghoulish mind even THINKS like this?

[Kailassa]

23. The type who studied genocide and the art of disguised dictatorship

at the feet of their Nazi heroes who were brought to America , pampered and hidden by the American government after WWII.

[NMMNG]

22. Those people are pure evil scum

To think that they consider themselves above the terrorists. :eyes:

[NobleCynic]

25. People, they rejected the idea

Doesn't that mean that, against all odds, the administration actually did something right?

As a side note, that this topic made it that far shows how disturbed our military leadership is becoming.

[annabanana]

27. No. The fact that it was even there to be rejected

means that someone thought it ought to be considered. THAT is unacceptable.

[cynatnite]

34. Well, presidents before bush have had stupid ideas...

not just him.

I would bet previous administrations came up with just as many insane and stupid ideas for all sorts of situations that were never implemented.

This was nothing more than one of many ideas that got tossed before it ever went before bush.

Besides, what's unacceptable are some of the ideas they actually implemented...like invading Iraq, outing a CIA agent...need I say more? I think our energy is better spent on what they actually did...not an idea that was never used.

[NNN0LHI]

28. They say they rejected the idea

They also said Iraq had "Winnebagos Of Death" and was going to cause mushroom clouds over New York.

And we don't torture either.

Don

[KoKo]

29. No WONDER Chimp travels with a Personal Taster...and Porta Potty....

Sheesh...with the policies he's put in place he must be worried for sure about his own safety. This explains it All! Why they fly into their "Democrtic Expriments" under cover ...only announcing visits as "SURPRISE!"

They are like Romans under Caligula's rule...where no one was safe and all bodily functions needed to be scrutinized because someone was ALWAYS out to GET YA!

GASP! And we've learned that whatever the Bushies/Cheney's are afraid of they practice on their VICTIMS...in this case experimenting on the Afghani's. Don't you wonder why they are de-regulating our OWN AMERICAN FOOD SAFETY? Our Environmental Regs? ...and all the rest?

What they would do to the Afghani's they would do to us and anyone who gets in their way. So...they protect themselves from their own darkest stuff because ...THEY KNOW that "EVIL LURKS."

[spanone]

31. God help us.

[SoCalDem]

35. They "said" they didn't want to show it to him because.....

He'd get all glowy and say.. "Hot DAMN..now we're talkin'..Do it "