Bush & Company

Classified British documents, recently published in The Times of London, reveal that President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair secretly agreed to attack Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein—and had discussed creating justifications to support that decision—months before congressional authorization was sought.

Eighty-eight Democratic members of Congress and one Independent have since signed a letter asking the president for an explanation, saying the report “raises troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war as well as the integrity of your own administration.”

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The U.S. State Department and the Italian Foreign Ministry released a statement April 29 declaring that a joint commission had failed to agree on a report into the March 4 killing of an Italian agent by American soldiers in Iraq. No joint report would be issued, it said.

A preliminary report, leaked three days earlier, had cleared soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, who opened fire on a Toyota carrying freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena, the prominent intelligence agent who negotiated her rescue, and a bodyguard at a U.S. military checkpoint.

While U.S. military investigators concluded the fleeing Italians ignored soldiers’ warnings and refused to slow down at the checkpoint, the two Italian investigators did not agree with these findings. Both governments have since issued final reports on their separate conclusions.

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In the biggest counter inaugural demonstration since the swearing-in of Richard M. Nixon, in 1973, a ubiquitous coalition of thousands rallied against the second presidential inauguration of George W. Bush.

“We had to wait about an hour before we actually got through security,” said Grace Burson, an environmental activist from New Haven, Conn. “Around 9 a.m. police came down the line telling us we couldn’t bring in backpacks, big bags, fruit, or eggs… We occupied the front row along the barrier, then we just stood there for 5 hours.”

Denied a heated tent by government officials, citing security concerns, scores of protestors endured frigid temperatures on a freshly fallen blanket of snow in John Marshall Park, where they had been granted a judge’s permit. Many more were blocked from entering the park by security checkpoints throughout the city. International ANSWER, fueled by antiwar sentiment, sponsored the gathering.

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With election 2004 quickly fading into the past, George W. Bush stands poised to be inaugurated as President of the United States, yet again, under dubious circumstances.

Democratic contender, Mass. Sen. John Kerry, conceded his bid on November 3, based on Republican Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell’s initial findings, which showed the president winning the state, thus clinching the election.

Since then, reports of voting machine irregularities persist to stream in from precincts across the nation, with particular uncertainty in the crucial battleground states of Florida and Ohio. Yet, mainstream American media and even Democratic officials have remained largely silent regarding such accounts.

Greg Palast, a reporter who investigated Florida’s 2,000 election debacle for the BBC, has questioned the numbers. According to Palast, about 3% of votes cast are regularly discarded because results are considered inconclusive. In Ohio, alone, more than 92,000 ballots were “spoiled” due to the same type of punch card ballot mishaps previously seen in the sunshine state. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission has calculated that 54% of punch card ballots were cast by African Americans, who vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates.

But, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Warren County, Ohio, Board of Commissioners claimed the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued warnings that the county had been ranked at 10, on a scale of 1-10, as a site for a possible terrorist attack on election day. As a result, the administration building was locked down, preventing anyone from observing the vote count. Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have since denied issuing those warnings.

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“There isn’t a waking moment when I don’t think about what we’ve done over there,” said ex-Marine Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey, who was honorably discharged from Iraq last December after serving 12 years in the military.

The 32-year old North Carolina native visited New Haven, CT., last week as part of a series of speaking engagements, in hopes of revealing the facts about the U.S. led war in Iraq.

“A lot of people ask me why I’m speaking out,” said Massey to a group who had gathered inside a local church to hear his words. “I’ve been called a traitor, looking for fame—you name it. But, I’m doing this to heal myself and to help other Marines who feel the same way I do. I also believe U.S. taxpayers have a right to know what’s going on.”

Massey is one of a growing number of U.S. military personnel who have returned from Iraq disillusioned with the so-called Operation Iraqi Freedom. Massey holds President Bush personally responsible for the debacle, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 U.S. troops, 20,000 Iraqi civilians and an ever-growing number of civilian contractors.

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