Paul Craig Roberts: Condi in Europe: Trust Me

[Guest guest]

We called Condoleezza Rice a liar when she was National Security Advisor,

catching her often in misinformation she would say was put forth for national

security reasons. It was obvious the real reason was to cover up for criminal

activities of the Bush Administration.

 

Her lying was rewarded with an appointment to Secretary of State, where she

replaced the lying Colin Powell. Long time readers will remember the list for

Powell. He lied to cover up the Mi Lei massacre in Vietnam, working then for

the Americal Division. He was National Security Advisor to Reagan when

thousands of people were being raped, tortured and murdered in Central America

by mercenaries financed by the Reagan Administration, and covered it up. Who

can forget Powell's U.N. speech to " justify " the invasion of Iraq?

 

This Administration has lied and deceived the American people as a matter of

routine practice. We would all like to know what kind of deals Dick Cheney made

with Big Oil to sell out the American people. Kirk Caraway says if it's not

torture, as Cheney says, then it's okay to use it on Cheney--

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1206-29.htm so maybe we can find out?

 

Lately we've seen the shameless Condoleezza looking straight into TV cameras

and stating that we do not transport prisoners to other countries for the

purpose of torturing them. This careful couching of words is intended to fool

the very dull witted, who will miss that the official documents, of course, do

not mention that these kidnapped people are being shipped for the purpose of

getting them to a location where torture is condoned, but that is what is

happening unofficially.

 

Corporate media miss the obvious, as usual. Evil terrorists torture people,

so they are bad, but we are the good guys. That's the mantra. If you chant it

often enough, it is possible to overlook reality entirely. If you don't count

the bodies, you might even believe democracy is breaking out in Afghanistan,

where warlords now rape and murder routinely, and of course, Iraq, where death

squads come to neighborhoods at night.

 

Paul Craig Roberts, who edited the conservative Wall Street Journal and

National Review, says Condi is a liar. Good to know that even the conservatives

are waking up. Now, if only the corporate media will get involved, a democratic

process might be enabled --Jack

 

 

 

Rendition Unto Caesar

Condi to Europe: Trust Me

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Secretary of State Condi Rice is off to Europe to neither confirm nor to deny

that the US government in an operation known as rendition kidnaps people, often

the wrong ones, and flies them to foreign countries to be tortured.

" Trust me " is her line. According to Reuters, " Irish Foreign Minister Dermot

Ahern said Rice told him in Washington she expected allies to trust that America

does not allow rights abuses. "

Who will trust this woman who, as President Bush's National Security Advisor,

said that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction capable of producing a

" mushroom cloud " over an American city?

Who will trust this woman who, as National Security Advisor, said Saddam

Hussein sheltered al Qaeda terrorists in Baghdad and helped train some in

chemical weapons development (CNN report, Sept. 26, 2002, 1:28 PM EDT)?

Who will trust this woman who won't answer a question but says " trust me " ?

On November 14, 2005, Middle East expert Juan Cole reported that the 911

Commission Report revealed that captured al Qaeda members Khalid Shaykh Muhammad

and Abu Zubayda informed the US government that Osama bin Laden prohibited al

Qaeda operatives from cooperating with the secular Arab nationalist Saddam

Hussein. In the run-up to the Iraqi invasion, this critical information was

withheld from Congress and the American people. Instead, the Bush administration

worked to create the belief that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the

September 11 attacks.

The Bush administration has made it abundantly clear that it believes, with no

apologies, that the ends justify the means. Lying is simply a means to an end.

What Condi Rice is telling Europeans is " pay no attention to our lies; just

accept that we are liars for a good and proper cause. "

What other proof do we need of the Bush administration's low esteem for truth

than the fact, revealed by the Los Angeles Times, that the Bush administration

has been caught paying journalists to write favorable stories about the war in

Iraq? First they rigged the " intelligence " used to start a war; then they rigged

the news reports about the war.

And these people think they should be trusted?

Details of specific rendition cases are so much in the news as to make Condi

Rice's stonewalling absurd. On December 4 the Washington Post reported that in

May of last year the US ambassador to Germany was dispatched by the White House

to inform the German Interior Minister that the CIA had kidnapped a German

citizen, Khaled Masri, and flown him to a CIA prison in Afghanistan where he was

held for five months.

The Americans told the Germans that Masri was innocent and would be released.

The Germans were instructed to say nothing about the incident even if Masri went

public, because the US did not want to acknowledge the rendition program. In

other words, the Bush administration expects any other government that finds out

about its wrongful actions to keep quiet about them even when its own citizens

are victimized.

Gentle reader, who could possibly believe Rice's reassurances that the US

respects the sovereignty of other countries when it is established fact that the

US kidnaps other countries' citizens abroad and flies them off to torture

prisons?

To comprehend the importance of due process, a process that the Bush

administration has destroyed for " suspects " be they American citizens or

foreigners, entertain that on the way to work one morning you are forcefully

intercepted and spirited away to Afghanistan or to Egypt or any of the other

locations of US torture prisons. Why are you there, you wonder. Did a personal

enemy or envious colleague report you on a false charge? Did a tortured suspect

somewhere utter a name that resembled yours?

Nonsense, it can't happen, you say? Alas, it happened to Masri and perhaps

3,000 others who are estimated to have been " renditioned. " According to the

Washington Post, a CIA official said that Masri was kidnapped and held secretly

for five months because the woman in charge of the CIA's Counterterrorist

Center's al Qaeda unit " believed he was someone else. She didn't really know.

She just had a hunch. "

Isn't it reassuring that the US government toys with people's lives on the

basis of female intuition?

This is justice in America, a country that is teaching Iraq about democracy

through force of arms.

Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has

contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary

of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education

was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and

Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be

reached at: paulcraigroberts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you wish to be removed from this list, please let us know

To join the Liberty Underground news service visit

libertyunderground/ where we put out a daily

news/opinion piece which goes beyond the narrow range of corporate media

propaganda.

You may also join our talk group at

libertyundergroundtalk/ if you would like to

participate.

Liberty Underground of Virginia (LUV) is at http://luvsite.org Sign up for

the monthly actions and join LUV here: http://luvsite.org/member.html

Tell your friends about us because some people just don't get it

 

 

" When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have

peace. "

Jimi Hendrix