DETROIT -- When listening to politicians, it is not what they say that's important. It's what they don't say, ignore or cover up.
That's what people in a free society should be focusing on and asking the politicos the questions that make them accountable. When they duck or squirm, you know you're on the right track.
The president is set to announce the U.S.-led invasion and the armed campaign to oust Saddam Hussein's government are over.
What he won't say is that the military occupation of Iraq will last indefinitely. The cost and consequences of that will be revealed at a later date. Later, like in after the 2004 election.
George W. took off his war face at a visit last week to a tank plant in Lima, Ohio, and his tone and themes made it clear the political season, in full spring blossom, is now upon us.
The Bush administration's chief political operative, Karl Rove, has already thought out the 2004 presidential election and it will be financed with the biggest campaign war chest ever stuffed.
Rove has decided to hold the New York City Republican national convention in early September, the latest date in the party's history.
The party planners and their media whores will tell us the late date is so the president can devote more time to building democracies in the Middle East and creating jobs for American workers.
Call me cynical, but, like Vito Corleone, I just don't believe in coincidences.
The Rove political calendar is solely timed to be close to the Sept. 11 anniversary, and that tells you everything you need to know about the approach the Bush team will use in campaign 2004.
A couple of important national security issues that won't be mentioned at the GOP convention are the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the U.S.
Bush initially OPPOSED THE CREATION OF BOTH. Not necessary, he said, and he only changed his positions under great political and public pressure, especially from the families of the Sept. 11 victims.
The burden of homeland security falls heavily on state and local governments. The administration has done little to ease that burden, as state governments are facing the worst fiscal crisis since the Depression and programs from education to health care for children are being slashed.
The commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has run into problems from the beginning, nearly all the result of Rove's political plotting.
You knew Bush was never serious about the commission when his first choice to chair the panel was Henry Kissinger.
Kissinger bailed out when he learned he'd have to reveal the list of the foreign clients and corporations he represents. Too much truth in that for both Kissinger and his sponsors in the White House.
Funding and staffing for the commission have been frustrated and delayed.
The starting point for the commission is supposed to be a review of the work of the secret House-Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on the Sept. 11 attacks, but commission member Tim Roemer tried to review transcripts of those hearings and was stopped cold. Roemer was a member of the House Intelligence Committee that conducted the initial inquiry. He's already seen the material and has a sense of what should be pursued.
Most inquiring minds would like to know just what the axis of arrogance -- Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft -- might have known about suspected al-Qaeda terrorist plots in the months preceding Sept. 11.
Did the bungling reach higher up in the Justice Department?
Ashcroft was busy at the time planning another campaign in the forever-failing war on drugs, while Rumsfeld was transfixed on Star Wars II, a missile defense shield that made all other defense issues get lost in space. And Cheney, who has a hand in everything, what was he thinking about terrorist threats in the first six months of the Bush administration? We know he was meeting with Enron executives to shape national energy policies.
What advice did the three of them provide to the president in dealing with intelligence about bin Laden's plans?
The American people and the families of the Sept. 11 victims deserve the truth and Bush can tell his attorney general to provide it.
Those families are making progress in the landmark $1 trillion lawsuit they filed against leading members of the Saudi royal family. The suit charges the Saudis gave millions of dollars to covertly finance the operations of al-Qaeda. The Bush administration has done nothing to help the families get information that supports this connection.
One of the targets in the suit is Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi defense minister who's accused of authorizing the payments.
His American lawyers are arguing that the Sept. 11 lawsuit is a "broadside indictment of Saudi government, religion and culture." It probably is, and for good reason.
The prince's lawyers chose to stay away from the facts, saying their client should be immune from any U.S. legal action and dismissed from the case altogether.
Lawyers for the families say the claim that the prince was acting in his official capacity opens the door to discovery proceedings, where people with knowledge about how the royal funds were spent will be forced to testify.
And who do you suppose is representing the prince in his efforts to keep the truth to himself?
By golly, it's the prestigious Houston law firm, Baker Botts. That's Baker as in James Baker, the former Secretary of State and eternal Bush family fixer and political valet. Baker also serves as counsel to the Carlyle Group, a private international investment banking firm with substantial interests in Saudi Arabia. George Bush the elder is a paid consultant to the Carlyle Group.
A former member of the firm is Robert Jordan, who represented George W. Bush when he had his little problem with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Today, Jordan just happens to be U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Are the Saudis using political clout? Or is this just coincidence? See Vito Corleone above.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 29 2003 |