As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. We were assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al Quaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11th 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true.
The truth is something entirely different. The truth is to do with how the United States understands its role in the world and how it chooses to embody it.
But before I come back to the present I would like to look at the recent past, by which I mean United States foreign policy since the end of the Second World War. I believe it is obligatory upon us to subject this period to at least some kind of even limited scrutiny, which is all that time will allow here.
Everyone knows what happened in the Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe during the post-war period: the systematic brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless suppression of independent thought. All this has been fully documented and verified.
But my contention here is that the US crimes in the same period have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone acknowledged, let alone recognised as crimes at all. I believe this must be addressed and that the truth has considerable bearing on where the world stands now. Although constrained, to a certain extent, by the existence of the Soviet Union, the United States' actions throughout the world made it clear that it had concluded it had carte blanche to do what it liked.
Full article at nobel.org
http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html
Note: http://nobelprize.org/l...
US Terrorist State - Pinter Speaks
Posted on Friday, December 09 at 09:18 by PatmContributed By
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Frank
on a plane ups the media/gov't security spin by
300%.A fear bombardment by the hidden neo-fascist manipulators... trying to make the public thirst
for more measures of 'protection' (control).
The US is an incarceration nation... they are the world's
leading jailer, with well over 2,000,000 imprisoned
(not including Guantanamo and secret CIA prisons 'round the world').
The US has a republican moral agenda, restricting people's
freedom of choice and persecuting those who act
contrary to biblical/puritanical edicts.
FREEDOM ? HA !!!!!!!!!!!!
(they provoke and polarize, creating even MORE
terrorists, creating more media security spin,
creating more intrusive fascist policies
and an agenda of control and manipulation...)
LAND OF THE ENSLAVED !
Weeze shore be eat up! LOL
Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act.
Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose renewal.
GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.
"I don't give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."
"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"
<br />
Ed Deak.<br />
====================================================<br />
<br />
<br />
Capitol Hill Blue:<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml">http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml</a><br />
_________________________________________________________________<br />
<br />
<br />
Bush on the Constitution: 'It's just a goddamned piece of paper'<br />
By DOUG THOMPSON<br />
Dec 9, 2005, 07:53<br />
<br />
<br />
Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to<br />
meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the<br />
controversial USA Patriot Act.<br />
<br />
<br />
Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period<br />
immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that<br />
liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces<br />
with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose<br />
renewal.<br />
<br />
<br />
GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous<br />
provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at<br />
the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel<br />
Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.<br />
<br />
<br />
"I don't give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the<br />
Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."<br />
<br />
<br />
" Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case<br />
that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."<br />
<br />
<br />
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face", Bush screamed back." It's<br />
just a goddamned piece of paper!"<br />
<br />
<br />
I've talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all<br />
confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution a<br />
goddamned piece of paper.<br />
<br />
<br />
And, to the Bush Administration, the Constitution of the United States is<br />
little more than toilet paper stained from all the shit that this group of<br />
power-mad despots have dumped on the freedoms that goddamned piece of<br />
paper used to guarantee.<br />
<br />
<br />
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, while still White House counsel, wrote<br />
that the Constitution is an outdated document.<br />
<br />
<br />
Put aside, for a moment, political affiliation or personal beliefs. It<br />
doesn't matter if you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent. It<br />
doesn't matter if you support the invasion or Iraq or not. Despite our<br />
differences, the Constitution has stood for two centuries as the defining<br />
document of our government, the final source to determine in the end if<br />
something is legal or right.<br />
<br />
<br />
Every federal official including the President who takes an oath of office<br />
swears to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States."<br />
<br />
<br />
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says he cringes when someone<br />
calls the Constitution a living document.<br />
<br />
<br />
"Oh, how I hate the phrase we have a 'living document," Scalia says.<br />
" We now have a Constitution that means whatever we want it to mean. <br />
The Constitution is not a living organism, for Pete's sake"<br />
<br />
<br />
As a judge, Scalia says, "I don't have to prove that the Constitution is<br />
perfect; I just have to prove that it's better than anything else."<br />
<br />
<br />
President Bush has proposed seven amendments to the Constitution over the<br />
last five years, including a controversial amendment to define marriage as<br />
a union between a man and woman. Members of Congress have proposed some<br />
11,000 amendments over the last decade, ranging from repeal of the right<br />
to bear arms to a Constitutional ban on abortion.<br />
<br />
<br />
Scalia says the danger of tinkering with the Constitution comes from a<br />
loss of rights.<br />
<br />
<br />
" We can take away rights just as we can grant new ones," Scalia warns.<br />
" Don't think that it's a one-way street."<br />
<br />
<br />
And don't buy the White House hype that the USA Patriot Act is a necessary<br />
tool to fight terrorism. It is a dangerous law that infringes on the<br />
rights of every American citizen and, as one brave aide told President<br />
Bush, something that undermines the Constitution of the United States.<br />
<br />
<br />
But why should Bush care? After all, the Constitution is just a goddamned<br />
piece of paper.<br />
<br />
<br />
Cite " The Rant" as your source no less. Go ahead, the catharsis will do you good…
Testify! Demonstrate your moral superiority…
Canada is a different country. We have our opinions which are generally backed up by fact and research. Don't like it? Too bad.
OOOO Dat der sounds like ‘n insult eh? Dems is fighten words but there isn’t a ‘merican anywhweres aboot ta do ma fighten for me. I guess dat all I can do is complain aboot it anyways… Ide, haul my fat arse off da chesterfield and waddle over to da ice box to get me anoder beer but Hockey nignt on da cbc just came on and I like to see the odder people like me dat have no teeth, eh?
>>Canada is a different country. <<<
Yup, and so is the USA.
>>>We have our opinions which are generally backed up by fact and research. Don't like it? Too bad.<<<
Yeah, by “The Rant”… What a coincidence that the “facts” rubes like you chose to believe invariably confirm your preexisting prejudices. What are the odds? Eh?
is so obsessed with Canada, that it shows his
subconscious frustration in being an American
under Neo-Fascist 2005 Republicanism.
"Attack the reasonable, benevolent pacifist
to the North ! They dare to incorporate
modern European social democracy ! And
since they ideologically oppose the
current manifestation of Republicanism,
they must be Anti-American by definition !"
(repressive American right-wingers live
in a pool of lies, resentment, manipulation
and total frustration... and sometimes they
repeatedly post here and demonstrate it in
an angry, relentless and lucid manner)
is so obsessed with Canada, that it shows his
subconscious frustration in being an American
under Neo-Fascist 2005 Republicanism. <<<
I am not anti-Canadian, I am actually pro-Canadian. Why would I be anti-Canadian? I have a house in the Maritimes, friends and family up there. If I had “subconscious frustration” about being an American you would have thought I would have fled all this “oppression” for the absolute freedom from government intervention that I have long come to expect from the government of Canada, especially Nova Scotia.
I really AM pro Canadian. I just don’t think whining about the USA is any way of proving it. I think that is actually counterproductive and pretty stupid and for some reason I haven’t grown tired of reminding people like you that they are idiots.
>> "Attack the reasonable, benevolent pacifist
to the North !<<<
Ill have to close down viveleamerica now, the site that celebrates all things American by denigrating all things Canadian. “Reasonable, benevolent, pacifist”? You aren’t a bit full of yourself are you? Reasonable isn’t the first word that springs to mind when I read your rants.
>> They dare to incorporate
modern European social democracy !<<<
Look how well it is working for "modern Europe"… Like you have any idea…
>> And
since they ideologically oppose the
current manifestation of Republicanism,
they must be Anti-American by definition !<<<
Naah, since they say things like: “the only way you can deal with them is to kill them” (That was “spuds’ on this forum) referring to us “bastards” or “go the fuck back to the USA” when they see someone driving a car with a US license plate… That is the sort of thing that identifies them as anti-American. Rants like:
>>FREEDOM ? HA !!!!!!!!!!!!
(they provoke and polarize, creating even MORE
terrorists, creating more media security spin,
creating more intrusive fascist policies
and an agenda of control and manipulation...)
LAND OF THE ENSLAVED !<<
Demonstrate a pathological bigotry, a overwhelming ignorance about the USA and incidentally, a fundamental disregard of basic English grammar. In short, they demonstrate that you are an idiot, and again, for some inexplicable reason, I enjoy reminding you of that. Idiot.
>> (repressive American right-wingers live
in a pool of lies, resentment, manipulation
and total frustration... and sometimes they
repeatedly post here and demonstrate it in
an angry, relentless and lucid manner)<<<
Not repressive, not particularly right wing, telling the truth and not even particularly angry so sorry, you are still an idiot. “Relentless and lucid”…
Well thank you for acknowledging my lucidity. I wish I could return the complement.
As much as everyone blathers on about how inclusive and multicultural they are are - there is only room for one opinion in here. And since it starts from the premise that america is the root of all evil, it is almost always drivel backed up be extrem prejudice.
As a westerner living near the border, I always felt more kinship with my neighbours in North Dakota than in Ontario, Quebec. But now I see I may have something in common with the Atlantic Seabord as well.
Pls keep calling bullshit. There is a lot of young readers in here and we need to keep the Ed Deak's and Dave from indoctronating them into hate.