High Plains Grifter: The Life and Crimes of George W. Bush
Hey folks,
I ran across a pretty interesting series of articles, written last week by Jeffrey St. Clair, editor of CounterPunch.org and the author of several books, including Imperial Crusades. I’d encourage you to read them. Though I’ve read most of the material elsewhere, Mr. St. Clair did a pretty good job of hitting the high points with an ascerbic wit, and a sometimes over-the-top meaness, that, when viewed in the context of the Bush administration’s tactics, seem unfortunately appropriate. As sad as that is to say. Note: Be sure to scroll down once the page loads. There is a subscription section at the top that may take up the full page at lower browser resolutions. The articles are below that section.
There were two rather shocking quotes in Part One. Barbara Bush on Good Morning America, about the escalating
body count in Iraq: “Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many,” the Presidential Mother
snapped.” It’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?” In this
article, Mr. St. Clair spares no venom for the elder Mrs. Bush.
George Soros was one of the wealthy investors (as was Mohammad bin Laden, father of Osama) that bailed out Harken Oil (one of Bush’s early business failures). Interesting tidbit, when viewed in the light of how desperately Mr. Soros now is to get Bush out of the White House. One of the investors in Harken was George Soros, who explained the bail out of Bush in frank terms. “We were
buying political influence. That was it. Bush wasn’t much of a businessman.”
(Cheney) later rationalized the decision not to depose Saddam (in the first Gulf war) or support uprisings by
Iraqi and Kurdish rebels, predicting that the fall of the Ba’athists would destabilize the entire region. How
right you were, Dick.
Part Three: More Pricks Than Kicks
This administration’s Iran/Contra doppleganger could be the alleged leaking of state secrets to Israeli
intelligence by members of the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans, namely Larry Franklin and Douglas Feith.
Here’s something I didn’t know: “Feith himself is no stranger to such inquiries into leaking classified
information to the Israelis. In 1982, Feith was fired from his position as an analyst on Middle East issues in
the Reagan administration’s National Security Council on suspicion of leaking material to the an official with
the Israeli embassy in Washington.” Wow. Didn’t know that. I just hope this story gets the coverage it
needs.
Part Four: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
The maintenance of this creepy state of affairs depends on the mainlining of anxiety, inculcating an
ever-tender sense of trauma in the psyche of the populace. Thus, the color-coded terror alerts, issued with the
precision of a metronome.
Look for Part Five: The House Rules on Tuesday, at http://www.counterpunch.org.
Lee