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Just Another Week for The Bush Administration and the U.S. Media 05/12/03: Florida (Independent Media TV) - Over the past week, a series of very controversial activities by Bush, and his administration have come to light. One could easily connect all these reports together, and find a pattern of activity that is scathing to the Bush Administration. These stories are headlines around the world, and in the alternative media in the United States, but as usual, these stories escape the headlines of ANY newspaper or television news. I'm so sick of hearing about the liberal media. It is one of the biggest lies perpetuated by the right-wing media. For years we heard about Clinton lying about oral sex with someone other than his wife. For years we also heard about Whitewater. $40 million was spent investigating this, and all the Republicans found was Bill Clinton was not a faithful husband, and lied about it. We knew this before he was elected. That doesn't even come close to just one week for the Bush Administration. Ask yourself why the following isn't being looked into further. A LITTLE HISTORY Before we get into the recent activities of the Bush league, it's important to remember a few things. Cheney was CEO of Halliburton from 1995-2000. Under Cheney's watch, Halliburton was convicted of over charging the government for services, and forced pay a $2 million fine. The Tallahassee Democrat reported, "During the VP's time at the company helm, the number of Halliburton subsidiaries registered in tax-friendly locations ballooned from nine in 1995 to 44 in 1999. The result? A dramatic drop in Halliburton's federal taxes, which fell from $302 million in 1998 to less than zero - to wit, an $85 million rebate - in 1999." Because of this Halliburton was accused of doing Enron type accounting for the time period when Cheney was CEO. Fortunately for Cheney he was Vice President of the United States of America and appears to have used his influence over the Bush appointed Security and Exchange Commission Director. We must also remember that Cheney is still receiving annual compensation of up to $1 million dollars a year, or deferred compensation as Cheney put it. JUST ANOTHER WEEK Now for recent activities within the Bush Administration; on May 1st, 2003, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that, "In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld," Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif) said, "Halliburton Co. subsidiaries and joint ventures had done business in Iran, Iraq and Libya, in spite of U.S. sanctions against those countries." You may have heard that Halliburton had a controversial no bid contract in Iraq. The administration stated it was only to put out any oil well fires in Iraq, because they had expertise in that area. Well the administration lied. As reported by the Chicago Tribune on May 8th, 2003. The contract, which no other company was allowed to bid on, gives Halliburton control of Iraq's oil industry. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stated, the Halliburton subsidiary "actually had been authorized under the original contract to operate and distribute oil produced in Iraq". On May 9th, 2003, The Guardian in London reported that Halliburton bribed Nigerian officials with 2.4 million dollars in order to avoid paying a up to a 5 million dollar tax bill. Halliburton reported this to the Security and Exchange Commission, on May 8th, 2003. On May 9th, 2003 The Washington Post reported that, "The Bush administration today offered the Security Council a resolution calling for the elimination of more than a decade of international sanctions (and U.N. Control of the oil) on Iraq and granting the United States broad control over the country's oil industry and revenue until a permanent, representative (not an interim) Iraqi government is in place". The same article also states, "Although the resolution underscores the right of the United States to administer Iraq and its resources for an initial 12 months, it notes that its authority would be automatically renewed each year until the Security Council decided to end it". Keep in mind that the United States has veto power on the Security Council. So the United States could veto any resolution trying to bring the U.S. control of the oil to an end ! If that isn't incredible enough for you, it gets better. The Washington Post reports on May 9th, 2003 that Bush stated in a speech at the University of South Carolina, that he wants to "launch a U.S. - Middle East Free Trade Area" over the next 10 years. I guess this would be to insure that Halliburton would not be paying taxes to our government for the oil they are stealing from Iraq on their no-bid contract. Forgive me if I don't believe that they wait 10 years to give a tax break for oil imports from the Middle East. Or perhaps 10 years is accurate, as their evil plan try to redraw the map in the Middle East may be over in 10 years. Of course we wouldn't want to mention that we had this "imminent threat" from Iraq, and that they have not found any weapons of mass destruction. And that the Bush Administration has lied to us with garbage intelligence and forged documents. To start a war that the American tax payer is paying for, AND now Bush is pushing a tax break for the wealthiest of the wealthy. I know you knew all of this because it was in the headlines of all of our newspapers and all our television news, or maybe you heard that he is doing this to free the Iraqi people. Yeah that's it. No, you didn't hear about it? Then we should ask ourselves why. Why aren't these headlines?. OTHER RECENT TOP STORIES IGNORED BY OUR MEDIA On May 1st, 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that U.S. solders paraded around 4 naked Iraqi prisoners. "We ... saw four naked Iraqi guys with four American soldiers," said Norwegian reporter Line Fransson, who witnessed the incident along with a photographer colleague. "We thought they were going to the bathroom. They went into a building, and a minute later [the soldiers] pushed them out into the main street." The naked men had the Arabic phrase "Ali Baba, Haram" ("Thief, Unclean") written in marker on their chests, an allusion to the old tale "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves". Where is Rumsfeld quoting the Geneva Convention and condemning the treatment of prisoners of war. On May 9th, 2003, the Guardian from London reported, "Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, sat on the board of a company which three years ago sold two light water nuclear reactors to North Korea - a country he now regards as part of the "axis of evil" and which has been targeted for regime change by Washington because of its efforts to build nuclear weapons. Mr Rumsfeld was a non-executive director of ABB, a European engineering giant based in Zurich, when it won a $200m (£125m) contract to provide the design and key components for the reactors. The current defence secretary sat on the board from 1990 to 2001, earning $190,000 a year. He left to join the Bush administration." On May 9th, 2003, the Associated Press reported that Presidential Candidate and former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) believes the President is holding back releasing the report on 9/11 by the independent commission in charge of investigating what went wrong. "The only reason that delay has occurred is because the administration does not want our report to be available to the American people," said Graham. I guess it has just been another week for the Bush Administration and for American Media. Nothing to be concerned about. I guess I can go back to sleep now, everything is fine.
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