Abramoff Knew US Would Invade Iraq in March, 2002

[kpete]

Abramoff Knew US Would Invade Iraq in March, 2002
by jorndorff
Sat Sep 30, 2006

Newly-disclosed e-mails from the Minority Chair of the House Government Reform Committee Henry Waxman http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/abramoff/index.asp provide new areas of insight into Jack Abramoff's closeness to the Bush administration. Most shocking of all (at least of those I've been able to read so far) is that Abramoff off-handedly mentions "the upcoming war in Iraq." The date--March, 2002.

The following is available in doc dump two, page 26:

From: Jack Abramoff
To: 'octagon1'
Monday, March 18, 2002 8:31 AM
Subject: RE: Sunday

I was sitting yesterday with Karl Rove, Bush's top advisor, at the NCAA basketball game, discussing Israel when this email came in. I showed it to him. It seems that the President was very sad to have to come out negatively regarding Israel, but that they needed to mollify the Arabs for the upcoming war on Iraq. That did not seem to work anyway. Bush seems to love Sharon and Israel, and thinks Arabfat , is nothing but a liar. I thought I'd pass that on.

Conclusion--this is yet another piece of evidence that the invasion of Iraq was long-before conceived as absolutely inevitable and necessary by the Bush administration.

more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/1/0185/88184

[driver8]

1. This makes me absolutely sick.

How much proof do people need that this war was in the planning stages before 9/11??

I hope Conyers is keeping up to date on all of this info. He'll need it to begin impeachment hearings.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. The DLC Will Stop Conyers

They'll never let a fellow Republican be impeached. Unlike torture and warrantless wiretapping, protecting a Republican will be worth going to the mat.

[SammyWinstonJack]

39. Didn't bu$hco have a plan to invade Iraq ten days into his

mis Administration? I could have sworn that I read that here. :shrug:

[raccoon]

93. Maybe you're referring to THE PRICE OF LOYALTY?

Paul O'Neill said that the Bush admin was hell bent (good phrase, that) on invading Iraq from the moment they seized power.

[newspeak]

94. and, your right on

sieze power-that's what they did--actually, stole the power, usurped the power.

[Hav]

2. .

Wow. How much worse can it get? That is really damning and should not be forgotten.

[Drifter]

3. But, didn't we know about it sooner than that ...

Not as a matter of fact, but more of a "I bet the awol cowboy will use 9/11 as a reason to invade Iraq".

Cheers
Drifter

[focusfan]

10. If anyone had listened in 2000

911 or the war would not have been a surprise.All chimpy talked about was war Saddam missles.When people ask what I thought about Bush,I said if you want war and oil prices out of control go ahead vote for the son of a bitch I wouldn`t.Turns out I was 100 percent right.

[elehhhhna]

84. Welcome to DU, focusfan!

[justgamma]

4. Well duh.

Shrub was sending out signals in 1999 that he was going to war with Iraq. What's more is most of us here knew that it was going to be an urban "Vietnam".

[July]

5. "There are no war plans on my desk."

Or words to that effect. Uttered by one George W. Bush not long before he started his dick-waver's war.

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. That's because there is nothing on Georgie's desk

they're afraid he would throw up on them. They always keep all the plans on Cheney's desk.

[Karenina]

53. BWHAHAHAHA!!!

:rofl:

[Tin Man]

20. your quote is correct - spoken by Bush on June 13, 2002

link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020613-8.html

[PADemD]

57. Read about the Millenium Challenge '02 War Games run by

JFCOM in Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, page 102.

[sandnsea]

97. They were on Rumsfelds' and Franks' desk

They were planning the war since December 2001. Woodward wrote about it 2 years ago.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17347-2004Apr16.html

[salin]

7. Couple this item *with a timeline* - this is around 6 mo.s before the vote

in Congress.

This is around the time that Blair and Bush meet to discuss Iraq - it would be very interesting to map THIS email to whether it was before or after Bush meets with Blair, wouldn't it?

Sadly the public tends to forget the timeline - and lumps it altogether and shrugs.

Would also be very interesting to know if any of Abromoff clients were in the war-profiteering business - as this info would position him to sell such clients "services" to the WH.

[MagickMuffin]

12. Email from the Senate Indian Affairs Hearings:

I have been doing research and trying to catalog all the pages of emails, invoices, checks, etc. for months now. I still haven't decoded everything, but here's some of my efforts.


Notice more emails from Octagon1
Page 109-110: Oct. 19, 2001 @ 3:45 am email from Octagon1 (Shmuel Ben Zvi) to Jack Re: Haskacha Pratis! Details equipment to be purchased for IDF. Mentions Raytheon & FLIR supplying equipment. Also mentions the Zohar/Moshiach/Rome and the World Trade Center.

This email was concerning the Sniper's School in Israel, that Casino Jack was funding through his Athletic Academy
Page 110: Date: Oct. 18, 2001 @ 11:18 pm email from Octagon1 to Jack Re: Weekend Forcast Wild, Details concerning the Sniper's Schools successes.
Request for more equipment.


Page 111: Date: Oct. 18, 2001 @ 3:24 pm email from Octagon1 to Jack Re: Thermal Vision, requesting equipment from Russia.

This email concerns buying equipment from Russia.
Page 111-112: Date: Oct. 15, 2001 @ 3:36 am, email from Vadim, Assistant to Mrs. Nevskaya NAFTASIB to Jack: Re: Thermal Vision Equipment, Details the cost of the Thermal Vision Equipment.

I'm pretty sure they went with Raytheon for the equipment.

I need to find more time to devote to finishing my research. What makes it so difficult is the pdf's are photocopies, not actual pdf's. So, it becomes challenging on some of the docs.

I can check the dates around the time of the OP dates and see what I can find out.

[salin]

14. Good work...

I will be facinated to read what you find.

All that is missing is Abramoff sitting with Perle on the Defense Policy Board (remember when Perle was forced off of the Chairmanship b/c he had set up a consulting/venture capital group - that appeared to be trading on his insider information from his position on the DPB... of course he was allowed to keep his seat on the DPB, he just had to give up the chairmanship.) Okay - I am being a wee bit sarcastic as I know Abramoff wasn't in the part of the cabal that was the DPB and related groups ala Perle... however, I do have to wonder if he pulled some of the same type of profiteering due to his knowledge. And this email in the OP clearly demonstrates some insider info .. and when does casino jack NOT indulge in opportunistic profiteering?

Dollars to donuts something is there.

Btw, I will be offline during the week - if you find something later in the day or week - please drop me a link in my PM. Thanks! I really think something big could be there.. and when these scandals intersect they seem to get very, very explosive.

[MagickMuffin]

25. Did a quick search and nothing turned up about that topic

However, one important detail about the emails between Casino Jack and Octagon1 is the Sniper's School. This was a secretive operation. They exchanged emails over a period of a few days. This was in 01. From the OP, they were still communicating in 02.

When did Casino Jack start funding these Israeli militias?
What was their purpose?
Who else knew about this?

I would like to know what other kinds of arms he was arranging as well.
Was Casino Jack selling arms to both sides?
I don't think it would surprise me if he did. He was one greedy bastard.

Will try to do more research on that connection.

[MagickMuffin]

75. Casino Jack's Black Op's EXPOSED.....

and how he used back channels to hid his funding and supplying of money and weapons..... This article describes the Syria, Lebanon, Israeli connections.

Reform Party of Syria's Farid Ghadry has been a featured speaker at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and is himself a member of AIPAC. When repeated calls to his organization went unanswered, I visited the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the RFP. Reform Party of Syria is the office of "super-Zionist" lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Middle Gate Ventures, Abramoff's 'political advisory company' partners with RFP. Abramoff is a top Beltway lobbyist now under intensive FBI investigation concerning, among other things, his proposed $9 million fee to get Gabon's president an Oval Office session with Bush.

As a College Republican in the 1980s, Abramoff founded the International Freedom Foundation, a project linked to the South African Defence Forces. The International Freedom Foundation was the PR branch of sister NGO Strategic Communications, a covert organization charged by former spy Craig Williamson in the Weekly Mail and Guardian for 2/24/95 with being involved with frame-ups, extreme violence and dirty tricks campaigns.

According to the Weekly Standard (12/20/04), one Abramoff venture was his organization of a 1985 global "summit" of underworld thugs. With Citizens for America sponsorship, Contra leaders, guerilla rebels and right wing 'freedom fighters' from around the world convened in the African hinterlands to strategize. During this period, Abramoff's membership/financial transactions with the secretive Council for National Policy, which included Oliver North and Richard Secord, became a template for how to mask money that still remains partially hidden. (Nizkor Project)

Recently Abramoff's interventionism has focused on the Middle East. Tomflocco.com reveals that Abramoff's long-time employer, Greenberg Traurig, partially financed a Homeland Security Government Contract Team trip to Israel for the US House/Senate Armed Services Committee and defense contractor CACI (accused of Abu Ghraib torture). The delegation reviewed IDF "resistance to interrogation techniques" used in Palestine, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. The Lebanon Daily Star reported that the group visited Beit Horon "the central training camp for the anti-terrorist forces of the Israeli police and border police" and were able to "witness exercises related to anti-terror warfare." Legislators' names were not disclosed.

Abramoff also works with the World Zionist Organization and the Christian Coalition to bankroll illegal Israeli settlement activities. According to Israeli prosecutor Talia Sasson they are part of a larger international problem. Some $60 billion worldwide has been illicitly funnelled to Israeli settlements via different foreign donors, quasi-NGOs and secret military accounts.

In one such case, according to Senate testimony and news reports in Newsweek and The New Republic, an Abramoff charity, Capital Athletic Fund, underwrote sniper scopes, camouflage suits, thermal imagers, night vision goggles, hydration tactical tubes, shooting mats and other paramilitary equipment through Greenberg Traurig to right wing settler Shmuel Ben-Zvi. Abramoff wanted to help ultraorthodox settlement Beitar Illit "neutralize terrorists" and wrote to Ben-Zvi; "Thanks brother. If only there were another dozen of you the dirty rats would be finished." Apparently angling for cover and a tax deduction, Beitar Illit seminar director Ben-Zvi suggested invoicing the weaponry to the Israeli Defence Forces on 'Sniper Workshop' stationery with a sniper logo and letterhead to qualify it as an educational entity. Payments were partially run through "Kollel Ohel Tiferet," an entity not publicly listed or traceable. Beitar Illit Mayor Yitzhak Pindrus claims never to have heard of it. (Newsweek, 5/2/05)

Abramoff dollars may also have found their way to the Israeli Defense Forces' Lebanon Border Unit, the civilian SF troops that patrol the Israel-Lebanon border. Yaagal, supposedly disbanded after Israel's 2000 pullout from south Lebanon, still conducts clandestine reconnaissance, plans ambushes and carries out cross-border incursions into Hezbollah-held areas of south Lebanon. As so often with lobbyist Abramoff's entities, the tools and trails remain murky.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11336.htm

The part in bold I found particulaly interesting. Ollie, Secord, Casino Jack, and others to strategizeon how to conceal their ill gotten gains.

[The Straight Story]

61. Got some links?

Would like to help in tracking down more info and need a good place to start.

[MagickMuffin]

77. Here's the deal:

I could send you the pdf's. I don't remember where I found the files. So, as of now I don't have a link. But the pdf's are from the Senate Indian Affairs. They were photocopied and therefore can't be copy and pasted. :grr:

I wish I knew where I could find the original pdf's, it would make my life easier.

So, what I have done is provide myself with an outline of what was in the emails. Such as who, when, topics. I also note what pages numbers to quickly find the info. Some of the emails are extremely long. There are also playbooks/guides

I haven't worked on them in quite a while, since I have my daily comic, and working on a video.

But if you like to help I could provide you with the files. If you aren't interested in helping I understand and will try to finish soon.

The time period in which this covers is Jan. 01-July 03.....

[rainbow4321]

78. Indianz.com has a whole section on Abramoff

I'm coming to this thread late so I don't know if this is what some of you guys are looking for...they have direct links to "evidence" pdf files datingback to pre-2001. They also have sections of their webpage just about Abramoff and the fallout from his crimes, etc..

http://indianz.com/News/2006/016010.asp

Sounds like you already have the pdf files info but the indianz.com webpage has been a good source for everything Abramoff. Makes for a good read.

http://indianz.com/Politics/Abramoff/

[elehhhhna]

90. see post 88 for links to pdfs

[elehhhhna]

89. See post 88.

Google is my friend!

[elehhhhna]

87. Here's some good stuff for you, with links etc.!

NAFTASIB: BACK AND WEIRDER THAN EVER. Over at The New Republic, Michael Crowley summarizes some newly released emails from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee's investigation into Jack Abramoff, et al. I find this bit especially intriguing:
There is one last, even more bizarre, twist to the new information about Abramoff's West Bank connection. It comes in the form of an email to Abramoff, which details prices of thermal vision devices, from a Russian man named Vadim. His complete email address has been redacted by the Indian Affairs Committee, but his email domain is still legible: naftasib.com. As Abramoff scandal junkies know, Naftasib is a Russian oil and gas company which helped to arrange and underwrite a murky and much-discussed 1997 trip Tom DeLay took to Moscow with Abramoff. According to the Post, DeLay met with Naftasib executives while in Moscow, for reasons that have never been entirely clear.
Why would someone at Naftasib be helping Abramoff procure military equipment? Well, the Post has also reported that Naftasib "has business ties with Russian security institutions." And the email from Abramoff's correspondent, Vadim, includes an email signature identifying him as "Assistant to Mrs. Nevskaya." That is presumably Marina Nevskaya, a Naftasib executive who reportedly served as an instructor at a Russian military intelligence school.

So there you have it. A rich Washington lobbyist apparently schemed to use money from Indian tribes to buy paramilitary equipment from Russian oil executives and send it to Israeli settlers in the West Bank. What could be simpler?

Now, in some ways, the notion that this was an international gun-running operation would be more palatable than the alternative theory that the Russian government was, via Naftasib, bribing Tom DeLay into opposing military action in Kosovo. Loyal readers will recall that Tapped was exploring various Naftasib-related strands back during the spring. Classic posts reveal that Abramoff-Naftasib ties date back at least to 1996, and that Naftasib's role in financing DeLay's trip was common knowledge in Russia before it was revealed to anyone in the United States. See also this 1997 report from the Russian Reform Monitor:
House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) goes to Russia on a "fact finding" trip bankrolled by influence peddlers tied to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. The trip is part of a lobbying effort to promote Chernomyrdin among conservative leaders in Washington, paid for by Chelsea Commercial Enterprises Ltd., headquartered in the Bahamas but whose principals reside in Moscow. Washington lobbying operations are run from Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, a large law firm registered since February with the clerk of the House as a paid agent of the Bahamian company to "generate support for Russian government's policies" of what it calls "progressive market reforms" and for bilateral trade.
The Moscow portion of the DeLay trip is sponsored by A.O. NaftaSib, a Russian oil company tied to Chernomyrdin. NaftaSib describes itself as "a major shareholder" in Gazprom, and says that two of its "largest clients" have been the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). According to its promotional literature, "NaftaSib met all of the needs for oil products for the Black Sea Fleet, the Baikal Military district and the 14th Army located in Moldavia from 1992 to 1995." One of the escorts in Moscow is NaftaSib Executive Vice President Marina V. Nevskaya, whose NaftaSib biography describes her as having taught at the Military Diplomatic Academy. The Military Diplomatic Academy is a training school for GRU military intelligence.

"Moldavia" is actually Moldova, the much-forgotten 15th Soviet Republic, which, at the time, was under Russian military occupation in order to prevent the country from merging with, or otherwise falling under the influence of, Romania. The Russian Interior Ministry doesn't run parks like our Department of the Interior; it's a domestic security agency which oversees paramilitary and intelligence forces.
--Matthew Yglesias




http://www.prospect.org/archives/archives/2005/06/index.html

[elehhhhna]

91. Here's the MONEY quote:

"A rich Washington lobbyist apparently schemed to use money from Indian tribes to buy paramilitary equipment from Russian oil executives and send it to Israeli settlers in the West Bank."

Iran Contra Redux?

[MagickMuffin]

98. I Blogged about this February 24, 2006

I totally forgot that I did my comic on this until I was about to work on todays project. Go check it out there is a link to a Boston Globe article that I used for my commentary. I would add it here but then you wouldn't have to go to my site:evilgrin:

I will post a snipet from the article:

Separately, several former Abramoff lobbying partners have told the Globe that a key connection between Abramoff and Russia is an obscure Dutch firm called Voor Huisen.

Voor Huisen was one of Abramoff's biggest clients, paying $2.1 million in lobbying fees to Abramoff and his partners from 2001 to 2004, according to public records that were filed by Abramoff in the US Senate.

But there has been no explanation as to why the company had paid such large fees, and Abramoff's former partners say they are not aware of work that would justify that level of payment.

Voor Huisen has been shrouded in mystery, and is rarely mentioned in the thousands of articles about Abramoff. A Dutch magazine, Vrij Nederland, reported last month that Voor Huisen was a shell company that had no activity and no assets. Dutch records do not list any shareholders.

However, several of Abramoff's former partners, who also lobbied for Voor Huisen, said in interviews this month that they were told the Dutch company was connected to Naftasib executives.

I am however posting the comic.

[elehhhhna]

88. THE PDF's are HERE:

http://indian.senate.gov/public/_files/Report.pdf#search=%22Senate%20Indian%20Affairs%20Committee's%20investigation%20into%20Jack%20Abramoff%22

[Old and In the Way]

13. This was the month that Bush said OBL wasn't important.

We had already let him go in Tora-Bora....that exercise was strictly theater, a pretext to get troops on the ground in the ME. Their actions and words were already starting to shift from terror to Iraq.

[salin]

15. right on!

I really think there could be some great campaign ads if one put a timeline together with:

a) the fighting in Afghanistan - and the escape of OBL
b) snippage from one of the news reports of troop drawdowns in early 2002 and troop buildup in the Gulf around this same time
c) bush's statement per OBL being not relevant, and bush doesn't really think about him anymore

then cut to footage from Katrina

Ask: How many other disasters and/or threats to National Security will Bush and the GOP allow the US to be unprepared for... ? Can we really *afford* the risk to our safety of letting these people continue to direct "national security"?

Btw, :hi: great to see you!

[Old and In the Way]

24. Hi backatcha!

:hi:

[Tin Man]

18. March 13, 2002 - Bush on OBL - "I truly am not that concerned about him."

Those words were astonishingly truthful. As we now see from the Abramoff email and the Downing Street Memos, during March of 2002 Bush was already deeply involved in the secret planning of the Invasion of Iraq, a strategic policy he and the PNACers felt more important than simply catching OBL.

link to Bush's "not that concerned" presser:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html

[Pryderi]

96. EXACTLY! This is Abramoff's "Downing Street Memo"

[Canuckistanian]

60. If I recall correctly, didn't they start talking about war in Sept?

Wasn't it Andy Card who said, "You never roll out the new product until after Labor Day?"

Obviously, the "new product" had already been designed and manufactured (literally).

All it took was a gullible public to buy that product, hook, line and sinker.

[elehhhhna]

85. Uh, don't you mean Bush, Blair & JeffyLube Gannon...?

[KittyWampus]

9. But The Iraq War Resolution allowed force ONLY AS A LAST RESORT

do you mean that Bush and the NeoCons had no intention of trying diplomacy.

[salin]

11. Please do not let this drop off the page due to Foley...

I just found this 2005 item from the washington post about Blair and Bush's meetings and discussions regarding early Iraq planning. The article is part of the dripping out of the Downing Street Memos. Note the timing of the passage I have snipped - then go back and look at the date of the Abramoff email.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/27/AR2005062701584_pf.html

LONDON -- In the spring of 2002, two weeks before British Prime Minister Tony Blair journeyed to Crawford, Tex., to meet with President Bush at his ranch about the escalating confrontation with Iraq, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sounded a prescient warning.

"The rewards from your visit to Crawford will be few," Straw wrote in a March 25 memo to Blair stamped "Secret and Personal." "The risks are high, both for you and for the Government."

snip

"I think there is a real risk that the administration underestimates the difficulties," David Manning, Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote to the prime minister on March 14, 2002, after he returned from meetings with Condoleezza Rice, then Bush's national security adviser, and her staff. "They may agree that failure isn't an option, but this does not mean they will necessarily avoid it."

snip

These themes would be repeated regularly in the first six Downing Street memos, composed between the March 7 cabinet meeting and Blair's trip to Crawford a month later.

...more at link.

For those paying attention at the time, and at the time of the release of the Downing Street Memos - the time-line is utterly not surprising. It seemed obvious. But things are so much more powerful (when talking to fence sitters - or those still sympathetic to the GOP - but starting to grow skeptical or disgruntled) - when one can place things in time-line perspective. Here you have it - Jack Abramoff, who the WH claims to barely know ... referring to the "upcoming war" even before Bush and Blair begin to have talks about it. Long before Congress votes to give authority to 'force inspections with threat of force...'

[Octafish]

16. ''Arabfat''

De-humanizing the "enemy."

Most NAZI-like.

[Sydnie]

19. I caught that too

but, coming from a man that worked to support apartheid, why should we be surprised? :shrug:

[Tin Man]

17. Zoiks! maybe Abramoff was a customer of Dione Warwick's Psychic Hotline???

either that, or the Invasion of Iraq was fait-accompli 12 months before it actually began. :shrug:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

21. So they were disclosing classified info to a sleazoid lobbyist?

Not only did Bush plan to invade Iraq a year before he said he "decided," they fucking *told* Abramoff about it? Wow. Each time I think they couldn't sink any lower, I find out they did.

[BuyingThyme]

47. And America's favorite casino guy is talking Israel with Rove?

There's so much in these few words.

[The Cleaner]

22. Why Were 9/11 Terrorists Seen on Abramoff's Sun Cruz Boats?

SunCruz Casinos turns over documents in terrorist probe

TAMPA, Fla. - SunCruz Casinos has turned over photographs and other documents to FBI investigators after employees said they recognized some of the men suspected in the terrorist attacks as customers.

Michael Hlavsa, chairman of the gambling cruise company, said Wednesday two or three men linked to the Sept. 11 hijackings may have been customers on a ship that sailed from Madeira Beach on Florida's gulf coast.

9/26/01 By VICKIE CHACHERE Associated Press Writer and Florida Times-Union

Source: http://www.casinowatch.org/terrorists/terrorists_at_casinos.html

[mod mom]

23. Exactly...another weird coincidence-right?

[rzemanfl]

36. For the all you can eat buffet? n/t

[blogslut]

26. who is octagon1?

n/t

[Tin Man]

27. MagickMuffin says octogon1 is Shmuel Ben Zvi (see post 12 above)

Shmuel Ben Zvi is the Director of Israel Radio International
http://www.israelradio.org/director.htm

[blogslut]

29. thanks!

:hi:

[leveymg]

80. He's not just a right-wing journo - Brig Gen & head of IDF finance

... the financial planning for the military, and coordinating these with Ministry of Finance. The current Advisor is Brigadier-General Dr. Shmuel Ben-Tzvi. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Advisor_to_the_Chief_of_Staff

Financial Advisor to the Chief of Staff
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Financial Advisor to the Chief of Staff is a role assumed by the head of the Budgeting Directorate of Israel’s Ministry of Defense. The Advisor is responsible for handling the budgeting for the Israel Defense Forces arms, the financial planning for the military, and coordinating these with Ministry of Finance. The current Advisor is Brigadier-General Dr. Shmuel Ben-Tzvi.

[Tin Man]

81. Good stuff

Thanks, I didn't look deep enough. Evidently, Gen. Ben-Zvi was also on the Abramoff "payroll". As originally reported in the LATimes:

In the December 2002 e-mail, Halpern advised Abramoff to end his $3,560 monthly stipend to Shmuel Ben Zvi, a Jewish settler, and to stop buying "spy equipment," including night vision goggles and camouflage, which Ben Zvi was using to equip paramilitary units in the West Bank.

http://www.condition.org/lat5625.htm

[leveymg]

86. NPR - here's another source on the Abramoff-Ben-Zvi $$$ connection

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5048921

But, not able to find anything else about Gen. Ben-Zvi or broadcaster Ben-Zvi or Right-wing settler/snper enthusiast Ben-Zvi to pin down if these are one and the same individual. There's also a Shlomo Ben-Zvi identified as an Israeli publisher with ties to extremist RW.

[TacticalPeek]

28. Same time frame when he started pulling back from catching UBL.

Did war compromise al-Qaida hunt?

By Lisa Myers and Aram Roston
NBC NEWS

July 29 2003 -- Senior terrorism experts are asking whether the United
States could have done much more to go after Osama bin Laden if it
had not diverted counterterrorism resources away from Afghanistan and
into Iraq. NBC's Lisa Myers reports.

In early 2002, the U.S. campaign against al-Qaida — "Operation
Enduring Freedom" — was revving high. U.S. commandos readied
themselves for lightning strikes in the dusty plains of Afghanistan
or the deserts of Yemen; aerial drones buzzed the skies rigged with
cameras and missiles, controlled by technicians on the ground;
surveillance planes high overhead listened for electronic whispers of
Taliban holdouts.

BUT, AS "Operation Enduring Freedom" kept al-Qaida on the run, the
White House was already planning for war against Iraq. Sources say
that in the spring of 2002, key weapons in the war against terror —
such as the commandos, the drones and the high-tech surveillance
planes — were rotated out of Afghanistan. Now experts tell NBC there
was a clear tradeoff as the United States let up on al-Qaida to
pursue regime change in Iraq.

A former national security official in the Bush administration tells
NBC News Senior Investigative Correspondent Lisa Myers the White
House was warned that the buildup against Saddam might provide a
respite for Osama bin Laden and his henchmen. "There were decisions
made," says Flynt Leverett, a former director at the National
Security Council in the Bush White House, "to take key assets, human
assets, technical assets, out of theater in Afghanistan in order to
position them for the campaign to unseat Saddam."

snip

NBC News has learned that in one still-classified incident in Yemen,
commanders wanted to engage what sources call a "viable mission
against an al-Qaida target." After all, in the past they had used the
missiles on the remotely piloted drones to strike at terrorists. But
in this case, because of the Iraq war, there was not a Predator they
could use. The al-Qaida target got away.

What's more, members of the CIA's elite special activities division
and the Army's entire 5th Special Forces Group (Green Berets), who'd
hunted down hundreds of al-Qaida terrorists, were pulled out of
Afghanistan. The 5th, based in Fort Campbell, Kent., specializes in
the Middle East and Central Asia. These soldiers are the ones who
speak Arabic and Central Asian languages, so it's only natural that
they were some of the first to head to Afghanistan. But in May 2002,
according to Army Special Operation Command spokesman Maj. Rob Gowan,
the 5th Group was pulled out of Afghanistan and brought back to Fort
Campbell. The 5th Group would deploy later for Iraq.
In Afghanistan they were replaced chiefly by the 3rd Special
Forces Group, which is trained culturally and linguistically to
operate in sub-Saharan Africa. The A-Team members speak French and
various African languages, which would be of no value in the craggy
Hindu Kush mountain range. Other Green Berets stepping into
Afghanistan came from the 7th Group, which specializes in Latin
America and has Spanish language skills.

Rick Francona, a retired Air Force colonel and an NBC News analyst,
says that another valuable resource in the war against al-Qaida was a
high-tech surveillance plane called the RC-135 "Rivet Joint." "It's
not just the platform itself, it's the linguists that man the
platform," Francona says. "They were being really overworked."

:grr:

This is also when he told some Senators etc. at the WH "Fuck Saddam - we're taking him out".

One thing all this points up is the sniveling complicity of the press. And that Lisa Myers article is practically disappeared from the internets.

[ck4829]

30. K&R

[salin]

31. yet another kick

Abramoff knows six months before congress votes to allow the action.

[BuyingThyme]

32. This should be front page news for every fucking newspaper.

[nam78_two]

33. highly recommended/nt

[rzemanfl]

34. When did the media start saying "not if, but when?" It was a long

time before the resolution. Abramoff did not necessarily have insider knowledge, he probably did, but he has plausible deniability on this, I believe.

[Straight Shooter]

41. Plausible deniability if this e-mail occurred in a vacuum.

When you place it on the timeline of events and the players involved leading up to and after the invasion, you'd have to be in a major state of denial to believe that Jack didn't know exactly what was coming down the pike.

[Garbo 2004]

35. K & R n/t

[Straight Shooter]

37. Think of how much money you can make if you know a war is coming.

War colors financial strategies. It's undeniable.

"Arabfat." Looks like the Repubs have a real penchant for namecalling.

[Pachamama]

More proof that this War on Iraq was planned & that the big Money Interest

and ISRAEL all knew about it coming....

:kick:

[kath]

38. heck, I knew the minute he stole his way into office that he was going to

invade Iraq. (actually, suspected it long before. And on Sept 11, 2001, I knew that he now had the perfect excuse to do so).

[BrklynLiberal]

40. k&r

[TheFarseer]

42. when did they start talking about invading Iraq?

It was not until summer that they really started talking about it if I'm remembering correctly.

[eallen]

43. The official line was that Saddam could avoid war by meeting UN demands...

The fact that the adminstration was already committed to the war, and that the entire interaction with the UN leading to the war a charade, was the administration's most salient deceit in the leadup to war.

[Warpy]

44. I told people about it in the summer of 2000

It was no secret, Stupid was campaigning on the violent overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

People out there just plain don't listen.

[brettdale]

45. kick

kick

[BuyingThyme]

46. Kos seems to be better at this than the New York Times. Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/washington/29abramoff.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

No surprise there.

[spuddonna]

48. Whoa! K&R!!

Time to get more coffee! :)

[Homer Wells]

49. K&R

The plot persists in thickening!

[BuyingThyme]

50. kcik

[Ksec]

51. another link that shows Bush lied about Iraq

We have sooo much proof that the war intel was being customized for Bushs war and that he lied to all of America for its reasons. That should be enough to impeach this SOB when we win the House and Senate.

[Ksec]

52. Im still lookin for that clip of cheney with the smoldering WTC

in the background, saying Iraq was to blame for this. I explicity remember this because I threw the remote control across the room and the batteries spilled out.

[DemReadingDU]

54. evening kick

[livingonearth]

55. Here are Bush's words:

"I want to remind you that it is his choice to make as to whether or not we go to war. It's Saddam's choice. He's the person that can make the choice of war and peace. Thus far, he's made the wrong choice. If we have to, for the sake and the security of the American people, for the sake of peace in the world and for freedom to the Iraqi people, we will disarm Saddam Hussein. And by we, it's more than America. A lot of nations will join us."

These were the ending words of Bush's press conference on March 6, 2003

[Raksha]

72. I can remember hearing those words. I'll never forget them,

because those were the words that confirmed for me that Bush is a liar and a psychopath, although I had known it for at least a year anyway.

"It's Saddam's choice"? WTF??? What choice did Saddam have at that point? What could he have done to avert that war, which was clearly Bush's choice and the culmination of a plan set in motion years before? He only confirmed it with that bit of Orwellian doublespeak: "It's Saddam's choice."

Welcome to DU, livingonearth! :toast:

[Independent_Liberal]

56. Can anybody link Abramoff to AIPAC?

I know he has some Pakistani-ISI connections. I wouldn't be surprised.

[Jcrowley]

62. Go here

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Eric_Cantor

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/rw/358

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_08/006871.php

[Tom Joad]

63. gotta stop aipac. Gotta StopAIPAC.org

Go to the website. www.stopaipac.org

[civildisoBDence]

58. There's rushing to war, and then there's premeditated manipulation

of the people in rushing to war.

Their scandals are starting to overlap like a Seinfeld episode.

Newsprism

[Gregorian]

59. Mohammed Atta on SunCruz.

You know, this stuck out like a sore thumb over at DKos.

This is before 9/11/01.

[MagickMuffin]

70. Sept. 5, 01

Atta and pals were on SunCruz. Of course I haven't heard anymore details about it.

Such as:

What was he doing there?
Who else was he there with?
How long was he there?
Did he know Jack and Adam?
How many times he visit SunCruz?
Why hasn't any more info been released about this?

Was he given the Final Details for the Attack on our country?

Inquiring minds and all......

[The Wielding Truth]

64. Wow...... Smoking^#% Gun......

k&r

[earthboundmisfit]

65. This has gotta stay front and center

It's damning damning damning

[K8-EEE]

66. 70th KICK!!!! B-U-S-T-E-D!!

Seriously...how busted is this??

[mhatrw]

67. This is important! n/t

[OneBlueSky]

68. do you think there's anyone in government of the media who . . .

doesn't now know that Bush was determined to invade Iraq from the time he was first selected? . . .

(hell, since before he was selected!) . . .

'course, it's always nice to have documentation . . . :evilgrin:

[usregimechange]

69. Kick!

[usregimechange]

71. and I will kick her again, twice, with stank.

[TahitiNut]

73. Well, a year is plenty of time to make investments in Halliburton

... and other crony corporations. They had to let Jack-off know so he could manage the Indian contributions in ways that made him the most protits, right?

[brettdale]

74. Kick

kick

[file83]

76. That's just fucking great....

...not only did Bush go to war illegally - jackasses like Abramoff with no security clearance just sorta "knew" about impending war plans? What kind of operation does that Bush have running up there in Washington?

[IdaBriggs]

79. Yawn. I knew about it November, 2000. Duh. nt

[Pachamama]

82. How can the media not be talking about this???? I know there is lots in

the news, but I think this is about as huge of a smoking gun and info as you get....along with the revelation that Condi Rice and George Tenet had a meeting that they FAILED TO TELL THE 9/11 COMMISSION!!!

So - here we have two major, major revelations:

1) That a Lobbyist named Jack Abramoff with unprecedented access to the White House (he basically had the keys!) as well as to Congress, seems to have known about the planned and upcoming War on Iraq (before it happened and when it supposedly according to the White House themselves, was not an option), once again proving that the War on Iraq was part of the Bush Agenda all along and that they lied to the American people, but that it also proves the roles and power of the lobbyists and special interests who profit from this war.

2) That Condi Rice and George Tenet had a meeting in July of 2001, prior to 9/11 about threats from Al Qaida and that they failed to tell the 9/11 Commission about it. Why? What else have they not told the 9/11 Commission that they knew then? What else have the American Public and families of 9/11 victims not been told?

Two major issues (and ofcourse there are many more) but all you hear on the news right now is the Mark Foley sex scandal. Not that mind you that the Foley sex scandal isn't newsworthy and something to be pursued in pointing out the continuing hypocrisy and possible coverup by the GOP, but even the above mentioned topics are being lost in all that....probably much to the delight of the White House.

[elehhhhna]

83. "Prince" Bandar was told BEFORE Colin Powel!

[lostnfound]

92. kick nt

[BuyingThyme]

95. kcik

[Marr]

99. "Arabfat"...? How old are these guys?