- There is not much joy this month in seeing that events
over the last year have unfolded exactly the way I said they would. Having
just returned from my 25th and 26th lectures since last November in New
Haven, Conn. and at nearby Wesleyan University, I look back and see that
for seven months I have been publicly stating that we would be invading
Iraq by fall 2002.
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- I see that since last December, and in every lecture
since my first at Portland State University, I have said clearly and unequivocally
that we are witnessing a sequential war to control the largest reserves
on a planet that is running out of oil.
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- I look back at our economic analyses and the two warnings
we published on Sept. 9, 2001 and July 8, 2002 and see that the U.S economy
is behaving exactly the way we predicted it would behave. And from our
stories last month on Iraq and Saudi Arabia I see politics being played
as a kind of theater of the absurd, as all of the pieces fall into place
for a swift invasion of Iraq and a likely simultaneous occupation of Saudi
Arabia's oil fields.
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- And there is no glee at all in the fact that, as we had
clearly stated as early as mid-September of last year, that Afghanistan,
which had virtually no opium growing on Sept. 11, is once again the world's
leading producer. The great heroin epidemic we predicted is now flooding
across Russia and Western Europe.
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- I note with little satisfaction that plans for mass vaccinations
are moving ahead even as the federal government announces on the one hand
a plan for "voluntary" immunization of the population within
days of an alert, while at the same time pushing MEHPA (The Model Emergency
Health Powers Act) through state legislatures. MEHPA would make it a crime
-- possibly a felony -- to refuse those same "voluntary" vaccinations.
And the punishment would be carried out by the states.
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- And a recent AP story headlined "Evidence Contradicts
Bush 9-11 Denial," following on the heels of dramatic testimony by
the charismatic and eloquent 9-11 widow Kristen Breitweiser, along with
ever more damning revelations in the joint House Senate 9-11 intelligence
committee have proved that FTW's allegations a year ago of foreknowledge
were more than justified. Strange, isn't it, that it has now been classified
as to what the president was told before the attacks? If he knew what we
now know the intelligence agencies knew, he is at the very least a proven
and untrustworthy liar. Bush's known actions before, during and since the
attacks are impeachable offenses. Perhaps some brave member of Congress
will ultimately take to the floor and say so.
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- Anything is possible as the economy approaches a near-certain
meltdown this October, which may well see the Dow below 6000 after devastating
third quarter earnings reports become official and the explosion of a $50
trillion derivatives bubble occurs. I can see no better combination of
factors than a bloody war, threats of or actual terrorist attacks, and
draconian health legislation that will allow for the immediate confiscation
of property and the uncontested quarantine of anyone as convenient methods
to control an angry population that may soon be going hungry and cold.
President Bush has made it clear that he wants the Homeland Security Act
-- with all of its suppressive powers -- signed before the Iraqi invasion
and, as of Oct. 1, we will have the Northern Command in place that will
place both Mexican and Canadian troops under U.S. command.
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- There has been some hope that dramatic last ditch efforts
in the U.N. and elsewhere, together with an increasing number of significant
protests both in the U.S. and Europe might derail the plans for war. They
may actually delay the invasion for a short while, but that's all. A wise
analyst will follow the troops rather than the rhetoric. The massive buildup
for the invasion has continued unabated. These troops cannot remain so
heavily forward-deployed for long without being used. Recent convenient
deployments to Yemen and Djibouti only confirm my previously-stated suspicions
that Saudi Arabia is just as much a target as Iraq.
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- The Asia Times, in a story published Sept. 30, also confirms
the position taken by FTW about eight weeks ago that the move against Iraq
and Saudi Arabia is a move to break the back of OPEC and drastically reduce
prices by increasing production from the only two countries in the world
that can open oil taps wider. This position was also noted on a Sept. 28
Fox News show by former CIA Director James Woolsey, who has had a habit
of addressing FTW themes in interviews. Woolsey noted that Iraq is currently
exporting only 1 million barrels of oil a day and that this could be increased
by 3- to 4 million barrels per day as a price "control" measure.
When asked if Saddam might scorch the earth and attempt to destroy his
oilfields Woolsey replied, "Saddam is capable of anything." He
then implied that the U.S. was prepared for that contingency by recalling
that Saddam had tried that tactic in 1991, and the U.S. had quickly restored
production. "But we could do the same thing again," said Woolsey
and "get the fields online quicker than anyone thought."
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- As the invasion plans appear more and more unstoppable,
the heavy shuttle diplomacy taking place in the Arab world between Egypt,
Syria, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states indicates that the OPEC/Muslim
world sees the plan also. They want to slow the U.S. down and prevent the
invasion. While staving off an inevitable collapse of the U.S. economy
by drastically reducing oil prices (including heating oil and fuel for
power generation) just before winter, the Bush Administration would also
gut the national incomes of most countries in the region. Our immediate
economic instability would be immediately transferred to the Middle East.
The Saudi monarchy, awaiting the imminent passing of King Fahd, must see
this clearly. The civil war between Princes Abdullah and Sultan that looms
from that event alone might turn into anarchy if the Saudi government is
suddenly unable to meet the domestic financial obligations that keep it
in place.
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- What seems clear to me now is that the administration
has thought through all of these contingencies and has prepared for them.
The administration's arrogance is as frightening as its power. I have recently
learned from trusted sources on Capitol Hill that the Armed Services committees
have quietly begun planning for a reinstitution of the draft. That harkens
back to my June 2000 essay, "When the Children of the Bull Market
Begin to Die." The eventual drafting of our youth is to me as much
a certainty as anything else I have written about thus far. Reserve units,
now having been called up for more than a year, are nearing the breaking
point. A bloody and protracted war -- something the rest of the world may
now be hoping for -- will overextend our military, and the draft will be
essential as the criminals occupying the Executive Branch desperately attempt
to make their grasp meet their reach. I think that there is better than
a 50-50 chance that nuclear weapons will be used on the battlefield by
either the U.S. or Israel within the next six months.
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- Russia and China wait as close to the sidelines as possible.
China will be the ultimate endgame as it competes with growing demand for
dwindling supplies of energy. And should the U.S. stumble, China will exert
herself even more on the world scene.
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- I am reminded of where this country was in 1967-68 as
the U.S. government, faced with massive domestic riots over civil rights
and anti-war protests, found that it had 550,000 troops overseas and not
enough at home to keep the peace. It was then that the assassinations of
MLK and RFK became both inevitable and necessary. As yet, no leader of
such stature had emerged, and I don't know if one will. Rep. Cynthia McKinney
of Georgia, ousted by a clever and well executed plan, was one hope. But
the ruling elite's science of population and political control has come
a long way since the 1960s.
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- Most of our critics, notably David Corn of The Nation
and self-anointed media critic Norman Solomon, have gone silent as both
our reporting and predictions have been completely validated by events.
And both Corn and Solomon have also revealed themselves to be agents of
the U.S. State Department run by Colin Powell and career covert operative
and criminal Richard Armitage. Last November in a story published on Alternet
Corn wrote, "I had been dispatched to Trinidad by the U.S. State Department
to conduct a two-day seminar on investigative reporting for local journalists
(your tax dollars at work!)..." And just recently Norman Solomon of
the Institute for Public Accuracy traveled with sitting congressman Nick
Rahall and others on what CNN described as an official delegation to meet
with officials of the Iraqi government.
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- I make these points because it seems to me that the learning
curve of activism has not matched that of the oppressor. It is true that
the Internet may prove itself to be the saving grace of mankind. But I
look back at all the dedicated activists of the last 30 years and ask what
have they accomplished? Human rights are worse. The environment is worse.
Globalization is batting near 1000. Military spending has skyrocketed.
And there seems to be nothing that can stop the empire's progression. (That
is what I labeled it in January 2001).
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- Visionaries like Catherine Austin Fitts (www.solari.com)
continue to demonstrate how our government is not a government but a criminal
enterprise run for the benefit of corporations and syndicates. Her writing
about alternative economic models that succeed without killing attracts
far too little attention. And while FTW is growing, we are constantly short
of funds as we continue to provide the most accurate reporting, analysis
and predictions in the marketplace of ideas.
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- This is all because most of the people in this country
still avoid the hard realities and try to cure symptoms rather than the
causes of this great illness that envelops our country. Just recently I
was in Washington, D.C. and attended several seminars at the Congressional
Black Caucus. One seminar, on COINTELPRO, the FBI's domestic suppression
operation of the '60s and '70s, featured Martin Luther King III who said,
"We are a sick nation. Every day we are getting sicker."
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- I could not agree more.
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- But Julius Caesar has crossed the little river called
the Rubicon with his legions and is heading toward Rome. The Republic is
dead. And throughout human history it was at these times, when answers
were hard to find and darkness seemed unstoppable, that a part of the human
spirit persisted -- "I will not give up. I will not go quietly. I
will not surrender." It was at these moments that faith demonstrated
its true power, that courage found itself in the heart, and that the human
race justified its existence in the universe.
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