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08/22/2005
Terrosists may pose as homeless for surveillance; Somerville connection
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Asking for increased vigilance in the wake of the London bombings, the government is warning that terrorists may pose as vagrants to conduct surveillance of buildings and mass transit stations to plot future attacks.
"In light of the recent bombings in London, it is crucial that police, fire and emergency medical personnel take notice of their surroundings, and be aware of 'vagrants' who seem out of place or unfamiliar," said the message, distributed via e-mail to some federal employees in Washington by the U.S. Attorney's office.
It is based on a State Department report that was issued last week. The State Department had no immediate comment Monday.
The warning is similar to one issued by the FBI before July 4, 2004 that said terrorists may attempt surveillance disguised as homeless people, shoe shiners, street vendors or street sweepers.
The e-mail stresses that there is no threat of an attack and that it is intended to be "informative, not alarming."
Homeless people easily blend into urban landscapes, the message said.
"This is particularly true of our mass transit systems, where homeless people tend to loiter unnoticed," the e-mail said.
It referred to a recent incident in Somerville, Mass., in which a police officer became suspicious about someone dressed as a street person. The officer questioned the man, discovered he had a passport from a "country of interest" -- typically a Middle Eastern or South Asian nation -- and a checkbook with a questionable address, the e-mail said. The investigation is continuing, it said.
The incident happened in early July, Somerville city spokesman Mark Horan said, when the man walked back and forth in front of the Social Security office in Somerville's Davis Square and kept looking in the windows.
"This was right after one of the London bombings," Horan said. "There was an even higher degree of sensitivity."
The man was evasive about what he was doing but wasn't arrested. Somerville police didn't investigate further but passed the information on to the FBI, Horan said. There haven't been any
similar incidents in Somerville, he said.
The FBI in Boston did not immediately return a call for comment. Three British citizens were indicted in the United States earlier this year on charges they conducted surveillance of the New
York Stock Exchange and other East Coast financial institutions in 2000 and 2001.
Discovery of the alleged terrorist plan last year prompted the Homeland Security Department to raise the terror alert for the targeted buildings, located in New York, Washington and Newark,
N.J. Security in those cities also was tightened.
Homeland Security also raised the terror alert for mass transit following the July 7 bombings in London. The alert was lowered on Aug. 12.
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GOP Senator Says Iraq Looking More Like Vietnam
POSTED: 2:22 pm EDT August 21, 2005
UPDATED: 2:28 pm EDT August 21,
2005
WASHINGTON -- A leading Republican senator said Sunday the longer the U.S. spends in Iraq, the more that conflict starts looking like the Vietnam War.Vietnam veteran Chick Hegel, of Nebraska, told ABC's "This Week" the U.S. needs to draft a strategy to leave Iraq. A "stay the course" policy isn't working," Hagel said, adding that more troops isn't the answer, either.Fellow Republican Senator George Allen said the Iraq war is different than Vietnam, because the enemy is so different. The Virginia lawmaker told ABC the terrorists in Iraq -- with no uniting political philosophy -- are very different from the communist-guided North Vietnamese. The militants in Iraq need only disrupt the country, not "win the hearts and minds" of the Iraqi people, Allen said.Both Allen and Hagel are considered possible candidates for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008.
Anti-War Ad Refused By Utah Braodcaster
A TV station in Salt Lake City is refusing to air an anti-war ad that features "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan -- the woman who's been staging a vigil near President George W. Bush's Texas ranch. She lost a son in Iraq.The ad shows Sheehan pleading with Bush for a meeting. She also accuses him of lying about the reasons the U.S. invaded Iraq. And, Sheehan adds, "it's time to admit mistakes and bring our troops home now."The ad is already running on other TV stations in the Salt Lake City area. But KTVX, an ABC affiliate, found it "inappropriate commercial advertisement" that could "be offensive to our community in Utah. "After a week in seclusion at his Texas ranch, Bush is heading out on the road for a pair of speeches focusing on Iraq and the war on terror.On Monday, the president is scheduled to address the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Salt Lake City. After that, he'll be making his first visit as president to Idaho, spending two days at a resort there before speaking to military families Wednesday near Boise.Aides say the president has been mixing ranch work with recreation, while getting his daily White House briefings.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, PWN3D!! The religio-fascist deserves it.
Privately owned + Policy of the station = THEY CAN DO ANYTHING THEY WANT! In other words, it's the "a man's home is a man's castle" thing that comes in play, in presidence.
And he got fired from a AM right wing staton! An ABC affiliate (seeing I know people in the broadcast industry) HA!! Someone upstairs gained the sense to fire him. Good!
They're not going to.
1. Compromise their ratings and lose listeners because of his islamophobic ignorance. Ratings = money.
2. They're not going to take the risk of losing advertising revenue due to advertisers pulling their ads from the station because of his islamophobic attacks. Advertisers = money.
3. The last thing they need is flamage from listeners and islamic organizations because of his islamophobic attacks. Listeners = ratings.
4. They're not going to risk getting fined or face loss of license by the FCC because of his islamophobic shit.
And of course you use a far right wing psudo-source to parlay your anti american information. World News Daily labeling CAIR as a terrorist organization with no backup to save themselves.... What a joke.
It only serves your testimony that even you believe that all islamics are terrorists.
You only added more gasoline to my fire.
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...
Shooting blanks now?
nerd
Fucktard. Go back to sleep.
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Don't let the bed bugs bite.
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didnt you mean to say arguement
No. I meant to say "nookoolar". Not Nuclear.
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Dishonoring her and her son by bashing them with lies. Real intelligence.
Thanks for admitting you have no argument you can defend. The same applies to iglost.
:zzz: Translation:
You're welcome. -
i began to read it and then when i came across
"SHEEHAN: I want to ask the president, why did he kill my son? "
i had no more interest..
why waste time on an ignorant left wing robot..
Interested or not, read the entire transcript. You might actually learn something for the first time in your useless existance, right wing robot or you will get hanged with igloo in my hanging post (sig).
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who said i supported her?
too bad she has no intelligence to bash
Dishonoring her and her son by bashing them with lies. Real intelligence.
Thanks for admitting you have no argument you can defend. The same applies to iglost.
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"Supporting" her and Casey by bashing her intelligence now? :zzz:
Translation:
Yes. -
"Supporting" her and Casey by bashing her intelligence now? :zzz:
Translation:
Yes.
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another edit..another weak response
4 MORE YEARS ! 4 MORE YEARS!
HIP HIP HURRAY!
Is that all you got? What about addressing the text of the interview instead of my posting habits? Oh wait.... You just admitted I'm right and debunked Igloos propaganda and you realize this obviously. It is also quite clearly obvious neither of you two "useful idiots" can't defend your bullshit any longer. Thank you. It's great to know once again my point is proven.
And besides, He only has 3 years left. And he can't get "4 MORE YEARS!"
He would have done both his terms (constitutionally) unless of course you're comptimplating dictatorship which is no surprise to me.
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Translation:
Yeah I know. You caught me lying. -
SHEEHAN: I want to ask the president, why did he kill my son?
real intelligence
"Supporting" her and Casey by bashing her intelligence now?
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Bitter? No headstones of wartime veterans for you to pull down?
Cooper read the words: "You are free to go and leave us alone, but what am I going to tell your million sisters in Iraq? Should I ask them to leave Iraq, too? Should I leave, too? And what about the 8 million who walked through bombs to practice their freedom and vote? Should they leave this land, too? Your son sacrificed his life for a very noble cause? No, he sacrificed himself for the most precious value in this existence; that is freedom," they wrote.
Like the word of one dentist is universal. Anyhoo...
You lied. Cooper did not that made up bullshit from your propaganda slut puppies and there is no such thing. This is what he cited in the interview imbecile.
COOPER: I want to read you something that was in the "Washington Post." It was in a Robin Wright column, I think, on Sunday, an article. This quoting a senior official in policies since the 2003 invasion. I quote, "what we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground. We're in the process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in, and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning." That's pretty stunning. Do you agree that it was never realistic, that what you laned early on was never realistic?http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/17/acd.01.html
"Well, Anderson, we're still -- we're getting away from what, what the president said when he went to Congress and asked for the authority to invade Iraq. He said (the United States needs to invade) because they had weapons of mass destruction, and he said because there was a link between Saddam (Hussein) and Al-Qaida, and those have been proven to be wrong."She did not say that.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/17/acd.01.html
ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES
Cindy Sheehan and the Anti-war Movement; Pro-Bush Voices
Aired August 17, 2005 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone.
Live from Crawford, Texas, a mother's protest, a battle on the home front over the war in Iraq. It is 7:00 p.m. on the east coast, 4:00 p.m. in the west, and 6:00 p.m. here in Crawford, Texas. This special edition of 360 starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: It started out as a grieving mom on a lawn chair demanding to see the president. Now, Cindy Sheehan's speaking for the nation's anti-war movement. Tonight, we're live from Crawford, Texas, with Cindy Sheehan.
She lost her son to war. But so have thousands of other parents across the country who are still standing by the president. Tonight, a 360 look at how other military parents are mourning their fallen children.
What's a president to do when faced with a mother who lost her son in battle? Tonight, should the president have a second meeting with Cindy Sheehan?
And reality Iraq. How do the soldiers putting their lives on the line feel about Sheehan's protest and then facing the enemy every day?
Live from Crawford, Texas, this is a special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360, "Crossroads: Battle on the Home Front."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Good evening from the small town of Crawford, Texas, where President Bush is on vacation. The last several days, this tiny town in the heart of Texas has become the most visible front line in a nationwide battle over the war in Iraq.
The war here at home is a war, really, of words, of heart-felt emotions, of anger, and of loss. By now, you know about Cindy Sheehan, the mother who lost her son, Casey, in Iraq. She set up camp waiting to talk to the president.
She's not alone. There are reporters, TV trucks, political operatives, and public relations specialists. It is a media circus, some have called it. Let's take a look at what it looks like on a typical day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) COOPER (voice-over): Today, another press conference, more questions. Cindy Sheehan's protest continues.
CINDY SHEEHAN, SON KILLED IN IRAQ: This is the way I can honor my son's memory, by standing up and doing what I know is right, too, at whatever it costs me.
COOPER: It began just 11 days ago. A solitary mother camped outside the president's Crawford, Texas, vacation home. She vowed to stay until he met with her face-to-face, or until his summer holiday ended.
SHEEHAN: I want to ask the president, why did he kill my son?
COOPER: She wasn't alone for long. Within days, the numbers grew along this Texas roadside. Other parents who had lost sons and daughters to the war, seasoned antiwar protesters, political consultants, P.R. professionals, all made Cindy's cause their own. And, of course, the ever-present media there to cover it all. The story suddenly seemed to transcend Cindy Sheehan.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cindy Sheehan...
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST, MSNBC: Cindy Sheehan.
BILL O'REILLY, HOST, FOX NEWS: Mrs. Sheehan bears some responsibility for this and also for the responsibility of other American families who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq who feel that this kind of behavior borders on treasonous.
COOPER: In these 11 days, Cindy Sheehan has gone from protester to public figure. According to Video Monitoring Service, her name has been mentioned 20,585 times in television news broadcasts. She's even starred in a local TV ad.
SHEEHAN: How many more soldiers have to die before we say, "Enough"?
COOPER: Some of the president's Crawford neighbors are fed up with the noise, the cameras that are now crowding country roads. Some have staged protests.
On Sunday, one landowner fired a shotgun in the air. And on Monday, another man was arrested for mowing down wooden crosses bearing the names of fallen soldiers with his pickup truck.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: There are so many opinions in the debate going on across the nation, so many thoughts about what Cindy Sheehan is doing here. Over the next hour, we're going to cover the story from all the angles, from all around the country, a full and fair report.
The battle on the home front, a battle reignited when one mother came to Crawford and demanded to speak to the president. That mother, of course, was Cindy Sheehan. She's now just holding a vigil. She's holding court to the media. Every day, Sheehan gives interviews and meets with supporters and helpers who make sure her message is received loud and clear.
Some call her a savvy political radical and a pawn for the left. Others say she's simply making a stand and deserves the help she's getting to get her message out. CNN's Dana Bash was with Sheehan before at dawn today and tried to keep up with her.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 5:45 a.m., pitch black, you can barely make out the trailer where Cindy Sheehan sleeps. But she's up. So is Michelle, the P.R. rep hired to coordinate her media push.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... like ten different stations. Part of why we agreed to do it early is at least it covers a few things.
BASH: Sheehan's schedule is scratched on a piece of notebook paper. Her office, a lawn chair on a dark Crawford field. The simple look belies a sophisticated effort to maximize what she calls her 15 minutes of fame.
Morning drive radio, Seattle.
SHEEHAN: I'm waiting for the president to come out and talk to me.
BASH: D.C...
SHEEHAN: ... the war has got back on the front page of the news where it belongs.
BASH: Buffalo...
SHEEHAN: I'm not being financially underwritten by anybody.
BASH: Over and over, she's asked whether liberal groups now helping her, like anti-Bush Moveon.org, are diluting sympathy for a grieving mother's cause.
SHEEHAN: Nothing is happening that's not aligned with the vision or the mission.
BASH: The sun's finally up, shower time at Crawford's Peace House, a liberal meeting place now coordinating Cindy's vigil. She logs in to read some of 1,500 e-mails and checks out one of many boxes sent by strangers, supplies and some roses.
Then off to the demonstration site, a five-mile drive towards the Bush ranch she's taken several times a day for nearly two weeks.
BASH (on-screen): Do you really think there's any chance at this point that he's actually going to come and meet with you? SHEEHAN: Well, nothing's impossible. The movement has taken hold. And it's going to go on with or without me, or with or without a meeting with George Bush.
BASH (voice-over): Here, Cindy does a lot of meeting and greeting.
SHEEHAN: Where are you from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from -- well, now, I'm from Figussa Springs (ph), Colorado.
BASH: Unsolicited offers to help, the ACLU this time. She declines.
SHEEHAN: Well, they've been really good about letting us express our First Amendment rights.
BASH: Thinner crowds. Only 30 or so people now, but she's savvy.
(on-screen): Behind me is something that happens every day. Cindy Sheehan holds a press conference at 10:30 in the morning to announce something or react to something. It's a primary tactic in her efforts to keep momentum of her story going.
(voice-over): So are the interviews around the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And how long are you intending being here for?
BASH: The BBC, Mexican television.
SHEEHAN: ... memories of our fallen heroes.
BASH: It's a typical day and a pace she is determined to keep up until the president leaves. And a movement she hopes is even longer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Critics of Sheehan have made a lot of the fact that she's backed by Moveon.org, in one case by Ben Cohen, whose paid some of the expenses of a P.R. firm. Who is backing Cindy Sheehan?
BASH: Well, you just really named two of the biggest groups, if you will, that are behind her. And it's interesting to note that they actually weren't behind her before she came here. She really did come here as a grieving mother in a lawn chair with her sister.
And it was when the groups realized that she was here, realized that she was getting a little bit of attention, that they sort of jumped in and decided to help her. As a matter of fact, Ben Cohen's, it's called True Majority, they told me that they essentially have written a blank check to the P.R. firm that's helping her. They say they send us a bill, we'll pay it. COOPER: And that's raise suspicions among a lot of conservatives, especially when we talk to some of them a little bit later on tonight. Dana Bash, thanks very much for that.
There are, of course, mothers all across the country whose sons and daughters were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. They, too, mourn the losses of their children. Unlike Sheehan, many of them support the war in Iraq still and they still stand by the president.
Tonight, CNN's Gary Tuchman with other mothers, other perspectives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joshua Lucero was the oldest of seven children. The 19-year-old from Arizona was killed in an explosion west of Baghdad. Joshua's mother, like Cindy Sheehan, is devastated. Unlike Cindy Sheehan, Tina Lucero believes the president needs to stay the course.
TINA LUCERO, LOST SON IN IRAQ: She's handling it wrong and that her anger's toward our president. And that is something that's just bothered me.
TUCHMAN: As servicemen and women die, and as time goes by, parents' opinions about the war sometimes change day-to-day. Some grieving mothers don't know what to think. What they share is immense pride in their children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To me, he was my baby, my baby boy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had already told him he was a hero, and he was brave, and what a wonderful husband he was.
TUCHMAN (on-screen): What would you like people to remember about him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, how brave he was and what a great person to serve our country, and that he was there and he believed in it.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): But there are many who believe Cindy Sheehan's viewpoint doesn't serve her son, Casey's, legacy well. One such person is the mother of slain serviceman Justin Johnson.
JAN JOHNSON, LOST SON IN IRAQ: I believe that we should stay the course. We need to be there. To me, in a way, she's disgracing Casey, because Casey was over there trying to serve his country and help the Iraqi people.
TUCHMAN: Their children were committed to the cause. That's why many of these parents say they need to be, too.
LUCERO: I feel that my son had a job to do, and he did it very well. And it was unfortunate that it came to this, but it was his decision going to Iraq, you know, joining the military. TUCHMAN: The views differ. The heartache, though, is most similar.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: So many mothers, so many fathers, so many brothers and sisters, so much loss. Coming up next on this special of 360, my one- on-one interview with Cindy Sheehan. We're going to cover a lot of ground, including some controversial remarks that she has reportedly made in the past. I'll ask her about them.
Plus, Sheehan now says the president was cold when they met in private. Other mothers tell a different story. We're going to take a look at what happens when the president meets with the families of troops killed in Iraq.
And a little later, Vietnam protests from the past. Now emotions are growing once again, this time over the war in Iraq. Are we approaching a tipping point? This special edition continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How dare anybody give her a hard time for her right to free expression, to a mother of a fallen soldier? She has absolutely the right to protest against this presidency and this war. Why can't we support the mother of a fallen soldier? It's just -- this is ridiculous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I pray that President Bush refuses her request. How dare she! I think she should be arrested for disturbing the peace and creating such havoc.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COOPER: Some 360 feedback. We've been asking you to call in with your thoughts about what is happening here in Crawford, and this debate that is going on around the country. The number is 866-NY-AC- 360. We'll play some of your comments throughout the program. Just leave your name and a recorded message.
Cindy Sheehan says that President Bush was cold to her when he talked to her about her son, Casey's, death last summer. Other parents who lost a son or daughter in Iraq tell a different story about their meetings with President Bush. They say the president was caring and comforting.
CNN's Elaine Quijano investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are no official public pictures to illustrate the private moments, when President Bush meets with the families of fallen U.S. troops. The White House will only describe the visits as emotional.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I grieve for every death. It breaks my heart to think about a family weeping over the loss of a loved one. I understand the anguish that some feel about the death that takes place.
QUIJANO: The administration intentionally keeps those difficult conversations private, careful not to exploit or be seen as exploiting families' grief.
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president views that as one of his most important responsibilities, to visit with the families and provide them comfort.
QUIJANO: But Cindy Sheehan, the mother angry at President Bush over her son, Casey's, death in Iraq last year, does not remember feeling comforted when Mr. Bush visited with her last summer.
SHEEHAN: He came in very jovial, and like we should be, you know, happy that he -- that our son died for his misguided policies.
QUIJANO: Her recollection stands in stark contrast to others' memories. Frank Adamouski, whose son, Jimmy, was killed in Iraq two years ago, did not want to speak on camera, but told CNN, after his meeting with the president in 2003, he felt Mr. Bush was sincere in his compassion for the loss of life and added, "Nobody wants to end this more than he does."
Senator John McCain also defends the president, saying any charge of insensitivity on his part is false.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN ®, ARIZONA: I've been with the president when he has met with the families. And he has expressed, I think incredibly, his sympathy, and his concern, and his love for the men and women who have sacrificed and their families.
QUIJANO: As for Cindy Sheehan, the president has said he sympathizes with her. The White House won't comment specifically on their meeting last year, but one official said the president has met with some 900 family members of 272 fallen troops and has always acted in a manner befitting his office.
Elaine Quijano, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, we talked with Cindy Sheehan a little bit later on about her meeting with President Bush. We have a lot of news to cover tonight. Erica Hill from Headline News joins us with some of the day's other top stories in "The World in 360."
Good evening, Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Anderson, we start off with a wave of bloodshed in Iraq. Two car bombs ripping through a bus station in Baghdad today. At least 43 people were killed, nearly 100 others injured. Another explosion was reported near a hospital. As of now, no group has claimed responsibility.
Meantime, in Gaza, forced out. This was the scene today. Israeli troops evicted Jewish settlers. The soldiers went house-to- house removing men, women and children. Meantime, in the West Bank, an Israeli settler shot three Palestinian laborers to death.
And in London, disturbing allegations about the shooting death of a mistaken terrorist. ITV News says the man gunned down by police in a London subway station last month was not wearing a heavy coat but just a light denim jacket. Also, the Brazilian immigrant reportedly didn't try to run from police and ITV states he was shot seven times in the head. The new details are based on independent police investigation documents leaked to ITV news.
And, Anderson, that's the latest from Headline News at this hour. We'll hand it back over to you in Crawford.
COOPER: Yes, really disturbing report out there out of London. We'll certainly be following that. Erica, thanks. We'll check in with you in about 30 minutes.
Still to come tonight in this special edition from Crawford, Texas, is Iraq another Vietnam? Are the antiwar demonstrations like the ones against the Vietnam War? Opponents like to draw parallels to the two wars and the two demonstrations. But how similar are they really? And are the protests now as strong as the protests back then? We'll take a close look.
Also tonight, the president's backers also demonstrating here in Crawford. We'll visit their camp and also talk with two people supporting the war who have personal ties to the conflict. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miss Sheehan just utterly makes me sick. She should at least be original. She's ripping something out of John Kerry's 1971 playbook.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I support the cause in Texas. A lot of parents feel that way. I think a peaceful protest is important. That's what we did in the '60s and '70s. It did help bring the Vietnam War to a stop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Some of the strong emotions on all sides of the debate from our viewers. We've been asking you to call in with your thoughts on what is happening here in Crawford and also the debate really raging around the nation about the war in Iraq. The number is 866-NY- AC-360. We'll play your comments throughout the program tonight.
When we hear about protests like the one here in Crawford, or reports about the president's low approval ratings, we're often reminded of the war that's become the benchmark of unpopular battles, the conflict in Vietnam. For all the similarities opponents may bring up, there are still some glaring differences between then and now.
CNN's Bruce Morton takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The emotion is there at Camp Casey. What's different is the scale.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest or defend the war in Vietnam. Hard hats battled students in the streets. Chicago police battled antiwar demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic convention. The Vietnam War tore America apart.
The Iraq War hasn't done that yet. It's a smaller war, for one thing. More than 1,800 Americans have died in Iraq. The black wall honoring the Vietnam dead contains 58,000 names.
It was different in scale and different in kind. During Vietnam, we had the draft. I can remember draftees looking at reporters and saying, "You guys are crazy. We have to be here. You don't." They did have to. Young men worried they might be called; parents worried about their sons.
Today's military is all-volunteer. Casey Sheehan joined it, knowing presumably that he might have to go to war.
In other ways, the war hasn't directly affected most Americans. The president has not raised taxes to pay for it, hasn't asked Americans to change their driving habits to lessen their dependence on Mideast oil. Still, emotions are growing in the country.
Former Senator Gary Hart remembers Vietnam and sees some parallels.
FMR. SEN. GARY HART (D), COLORADO: It's a cumulative matter. Certain public opinion-makers tilt from one side to the other against the project, the invasion, the war, whatever it is. And then activists in a particular party begin to follow. And then the public at-large gets involved. And I think that's exactly where we are in Iraq right now.
MORTON: In Vietnam, the consequences were dramatic, the end of a presidency.
LYNDON JOHNSON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.
MORTON: Hard to imagine anything like that now. Camp Casey is still very small.
Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: It started out as a grieving mom on a lawn chair demanding to see the president. Now, Cindy Sheehan speaking for the nation's antiwar movement. Tonight, we're live from Crawford, Texas, with Cindy Sheehan.
And reality Iraq. How do the soldiers putting their lives on the line feel about Sheehan's protest and then facing the enemy every day? 360 continues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We are coming to you live from Crawford, Texas, which has become a flash point on the home front battle over the war in Iraq, a battle of words being fought every day across this country, in living rooms, on college campuses, in towns, large and small.
But really, for the last 11 days, this battle has been particularly strong right here in Crawford, just miles away from President Bush's ranch. This is where Cindy Sheehan, a mother who lost her son, Casey, in the war in Iraq, chose to sit by the road to protest the war and to ask President Bush to meet with her again.
Cindy Sheehan joins me now live. Cindy, thanks for being with us.
First of all, you have talked about moving this camp. Is that going to happen and when?
SHEEHAN: It's going to happen tomorrow. Yes, we're going to move it up the road a little bit closer to George Bush's ranch.
COOPER: There has been a lot of criticism for you. There's been a lot of support for you, as I'm sure you know, on the Internet, all around, on radios, on television. You've associated yourself with groups, Moveon.org, other protesters. Ben Cohen has funded some of the efforts here.
Do you worry about tainting your message by linking yourself with far-left groups or very liberal groups?
SHEEHAN: Well, actually, I think that became a little bit of a problem last week, towards the end of the week. But I have refocused on the message, and I'm trying to keep the media on point with the message.
They're not funding me. You know, I came here on my own dime. And people from all over the country, the donations are pouring in. And this is really a grassroots thing.
COOPER: And where is that going? That's going to, what, public relations groups to help you organize them? SHEEHAN: The funding from the people in the country is going for water, food. The only thing I'm aware of that Moveon is paying for is the P.R. firm.
COOPER: Do you consider yourself a radical? I mean, some have been calling you a radical. And clearly, some of the essays you've written -- I mean, you've called President Bush a terrorist, the worst terrorist in the world. You've called the war in Iraq blatant genocide. That's pretty radical.
SHEEHAN: I think I am pretty radical, but only on this issue. You know, this is my issue. I just want the killing to stop. I don't want any other mother to go through what I'm going through, Anderson, whether she be Iraqi or American.
And that's what keeps me going, is knowing that people are in harm's way for no reason. I can't stand that.
COOPER: And what happens to Iraq if the -- I mean, you want U.S. troops to pull out. What happens to Iraq?
SHEEHAN: There actually has been some studies that our presence there is fueling the insurgency. We need to pull back our military presence. We don't need a military presence in the country.
You know, if we were truly there to liberate them, you know, liberators leave when the job is done. Occupiers stay. And it looks like we're occupying, because there's bases of size of Sacramento, California, there.
COOPER: You know, Senator Joe Biden, who has been critical of President Bush for quite some time, he doesn't say we should pull-out. He says, in fact, it would be a mistake to pull-out. John Kerry says that it would be a mistake, as well.
Basically, their argument is, basically, handing Iraq over, whether you like it or not, Iraq is now the front line in the war on terror. Whether it was supposed to be, whether it was initially, they say it is now. Do you believe it is now, the front line in the war on terror?
SHEEHAN: No, I don't. You know, I believe that, like I said, our military presence there is fueling the insurgency. And there are studies -- a study from Saudi Arabia and a study from Israel -- that said that most of these people who have become suicide bombers or have become terrorists are actually just rising up against the occupation, and they never even thought of doing that before America invaded. So I believe a lot of the violence would stop.
COOPER: It's day 11. I mean, how does this go on? How long can you stay here?
SHEEHAN: It's going on, like I've always said, until he meets with me or until August 31st.
COOPER: But, you know, it's very unlikely at this point he's going to meet with you.
SHEEHAN: Well, you know what, Anderson? Miracles are happening every day at Camp Casey.
COOPER: Has it gone beyond that for you? I mean, does it matter to you, really whether you meet with him or not?
SHEEHAN: Well, what I know is that if he meets with me today, and we go home tomorrow, or if we leave August 31st, a movement has started. And it's bigger than me. You know, it's bigger than all of us. And it's going to continue. And that's going to be the peace movement until our troops are brought home.
COOPER: Cindy Sheehan, I appreciate you joining us tonight.
SHEEHAN: Thank you very much.
COOPER: In a moment, we're going to talk with some parents who have lost loved ones in the war, very different points of view. But first we wanted to show you a little bit behind the scenes, what it's like here at this place they're calling Camp Casey in this crossroads not too far from President Bush's ranch. This is what I saw in my reporter's notebook.
(voice-over): Eleven days camped out in Crawford, Cindy Sheehan's protest has developed its own routines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We came to support Cindy and feed everybody some good veggie food.
COOPER: There's food on the grill, cases of coffee, and hundreds of crosses by the side of the road.
(on camera): I count about 90 or so pro-Sheehan protesters who are here. What's interesting about this camp, Camp Casey as they call it, is that even though this place has become a flash point in the debate over the war, it's actually pretty quiet here most of the time. I mean, there's no marching, there's no chanting. People who are here are sitting and talking. They just want to make their presence known.
(voice-over): Julie (ph) came to protest but now finds herself mourning. Her pen pal Rusty, a soldier in Iraq, was killed on Sunday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's not my boy and I'm grieving deeply. And I know that he's not my son. But you know what? He's my son and your son and he's her brother. And we should all grieve deeply for our losses.
COOPER (on camera): You see a lot of women here with buttons, pictures of their children, some who died on 9/11, some who served in the war in Iraq, or Afghanistan. There are liberal groups and political operatives working behind the scenes helping Cindy Sheehan in part funding what she's doing here.
But most the people you actually meet in the camp are women who say they've never protested a day in their life before. They may have long opposed the war, but until Cindy Sheehan stood up, they said they really never thought about getting involved. Patricia Helke (ph) just arrived today. Helke is a schoolteacher who says she wishes President Bush had been in her seventh grade class.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would have loved to have taught him.
COOPER: You would have loved to have taught President Bush?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he would be a different man today.
COOPER: There are opposing voices here. This past weekend, a large number of pro-Bush demonstrators came. They're supposed to come again next weekend. But during the week, you don't see a lot of protesters supporting President Bush or the war in Iraq.
(voice-over): Today for a few hours, Bethany Berry (ph) came to show the president her support. She's 18 years old and her father is serving in Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't have to like Bush, but for me, to be an American is to support your leaders. It's to support your troops. It's to support your nation. And to me, they are not supporting him.
COOPER: For the most part, local residents like Bethany are tired of the protest. Even if they support Cindy Sheehan's right to be here, they wish the cameras would leave, along with this Camp Casey. They wish this whole thing would just go away.
(on camera): Well, as we always do on 360, we're working hard to present all sides of this story here in Crawford. We owe it to the people serving to do that. We owe it to the people here and across the country to do that.
There are a number of people here who, like Cindy Sheehan, have direct ties with the war. They don't agree with her. My next two guests fall into that category. Darrell Ankarlo is a radio talk show host in Texas. His son Adam was serving in Iraq, served in Fallujah. He's going back there soon. Also joining me is Gary Qualls, whose son, Louis, died in Fallujah last November at the age of 20. Gary, again, I'm so sorry for your loss.
GARY QUALLS: Thank you, sir.
COOPER: When you see this protest here, what do you think?
QUALLS: I think it's basically centered on a self-centered idea. And the functions that's going for behind that for supporting our troops is completely wrong.
COOPER: Do you think it's disrespecting the troops?
QUALLS: Yes, sir, morally. And underminingly (ph), yes, it can and will affect their morale.
COOPER: Because they say -- a lot of the protesters here and Cindy Sheehan will tell you, look, I want everyone to come home, and I'm working for the troops. You don't believe that?
QUALLS: No, sir, because after 9/11, and we've been hit by terrorists, like the same groups ever since the '70s, we've lost 200 here, a few hundred there, 17 here. And now all of a sudden they hit us in New York and we lost 3,000. And we can't afford to ever do that again.
COOPER: Darrell, the mood -- what a lot of people here tell you is, look, the mission is undefined. Why are U.S. troops over there? Do you feel the mission is undefined?
DARRELL ANKARLO, SON SERVED IN IRAQ: You know what? I think the mission is definitely defined, and I think the mission is going to take some time. Everybody keeps saying, well, we're killing so many people, we're losing so many people. We did not know who was winning World War I two years into it, World War II, two years into it, Vietnam War two years into it.
So what's going on is here we've got this groundswell. And that's why I have a problem with the message that's been carefully orchestrated with the PR firm who goes like this every time you come back on from the break. This is very orchestrated.
COOPER: It happens at every demonstration.
ANKARLO: Which is absolutely amazing to me, because what they're trying to do is, this is a campaign for representatives and senators and the upcoming elections. They're trying to take over with just one voice who turns into many to say this is a bad war, it's an unholy war, it's an incorrect war. I'm saying to the president, stay the course. You know what the mission is. I've got a son who's invested in it. And I'm going to stand by him.
COOPER: Do you -- you have lost a son. You have made a terrible sacrifice. Do you feel for Cindy Sheehan?
QUALLS: Yes, sir, I certainly do. As a single parent, I've raised two boys practically by myself. So I've had to play the dad, the father, and the mom role as well. And I know it hurt me deeply and it still does. And I've only got one son left. And he, too, wants to serve.
But if it takes the sacrifice of my whole family, to help protect the welfare of this country, to protect our way of life, and our freedoms of speech, then I guess as an American, I have to make that sacrifice. That's our duty for our country, and for this world.
COOPER: If your son who's 16 now -- is that right?
QUALLS: Yes, sir.
COOPER: You said he's a big guy, plays football. If he wanted to serve, you would want him to?
QUALLS: Yes, sir. I won't stop him. That's his freedom of choice. Cindy's son did the same thing. He put his best foot forward. My oldest son put his best foot forward. I did 28 years.
COOPER: Do you feel like you know what the mission is? Do you feel it's a good and noble mission?
QUALLS: Yes, sir. Our mission is to see to the health and the welfare and the security of our country.
COOPER: And you feel we're doing that in Iraq?
QUALLS: Yes, sir. By eliminating the terrorists, that will ensure the security of our country. We'll be a safer nation. We have to take that course.
COOPER: What do you think people don't know about protesters here about what's happening here?
ANKARLO: You know, Cindy came to Dallas back in March, and she was a part of the program called Eyes Wide Open. And they had booths out there that, by the way, were loaned to them, and shoes out there that were given to them. And they said, these are the boots of the dead. These are the shoes of the 100,000 civilians that we have killed.
How do you support your troops, yet call them murderers? And that's what she's doing. And that's my problem with this. How do you say, I'm here for you troops, I'm with you, I'm behind you. Oh, by the way, you're a murderer. That's what happened in Vietnam, Anderson.
In Vietnam we started aiming at the presidents and then we started going after the troops. It's not going to happen again. We had too many people spat upon too many people cursed at. It's not going to happen again. My son, whom I spoke with on Saturday, I said, do you have a message for Cindy Sheehan? And he's in the Marines -- oh-rah (ph).
And he said, here's the deal. You tell her that all of the brothers in Iraq and all of us stationed back here at home are tired of her undercutting the military expeditions here. She's getting people killed. That's from the Marines. That's not me politicizing something, that's a marine speaking his heart.
COOPER: Darrell, we're going to leave it there. Thank you for being here. Good luck to your son going over. And Gary, again, thank you for coming. I'm so sorry for your loss.
QUALLS: Thank you, sir. God bless America, and God bless George W. Bush.
COOPER: Many different opinions here in Crawford, Texas. Next on this special edition from Crawford, will President Bush possibly change his mind and meet Cindy Sheehan face to face once again? We'll here from a White House communications director ahead, and we're covering all the angles.
We'll also talk with Democratic strategist Joe Trippi to hear how he responds to critics who say that Sheehan is using sympathy for her son to push an agenda. All angles represented. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Listen, I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan. She feels strongly about her position. And she has every right in the world to say what she believes. This is America. She has a right to her position. And i've thought long and hard about her position. I've heard her position from others, which is, get out of Iraq now. And it would be a mistake for the security of this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, that was President Bush not too far from here last Thursday when he commented for the first time on Cindy Sheehan's anti- war protest right here in Crawford, Texas.
Now days later, and with the demonstrators still here, is there a chance that President Bush will actually meet with Cindy Sheehan? Earlier I spoke with Nicole Devenish, the White House communications director. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Nicole, this protest has been going on for 11 days now. It's been getting a lot of attention around the world. Was it a mistake for the president not to meet earlier with Cindy Sheehan?
NICOLE DEVENISH, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: The president has met with Cindy Sheehan. And I think the president treasures the opportunity that he gets to visit with families who either have men and women serving in the war against terror, or in the more sad occasion, who have lost loved ones in the war against terror.
COOPER: What is the war against meeting with her? Does it send a bad message? Does it make the president look weak? What is the thinking?
DEVENISH: Well, you know, I'm not going to go into our decision for everything that -- every decision that's made here. But the president understands that Mrs. Sheehan is grieving for the loss of her son and she has a disagreement about our policies. And I think anyone that is trying to make a point, and she obviously, in addition to being grieving the loss of her son, is making a point. She can rest assured that we've heard that side of the argument. And in the consideration about the best way to protect America and keep people safe here at home, we believe that engaging the enemy in places like Iraq and Afghanistan is the best way to do so.
COOPER: I want to read you something that was in the "Washington Post." It was in a Robin Wright column, I think, on Sunday, an article. This quoting a senior official in policies since the 2003 invasion. I quote, "what we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground. We're in the process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in, and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning." That's pretty stunning. Do you agree that it was never realistic, that what you laned early on was never realistic?
DEVENISH: I'm not sure how to respond to an unnamed official. And I'm not sure who that is. I'm not sure you or I have any way of knowing with what expertise he or she speaks. But I can tell you, the president gets his -- takes his cues and gets his advice about what's happening on the ground in Iraq based on what his generals and commanders see and experience.
COOPER: Well, let me just try it a different way. I mean, do you believe that the White House -- does the White House believe they were completely realistic in their planning for the war and for after the war, for the peace?
DEVENISH: Well, I don't think after 9/11 that anyone had any delusions about the viciousness of the enemy we face, of the ferocity with which they were fighting.
COOPER: No, we're not talking about 9/11, I'm talking about the war in Iraq.
DEVENISH: We're talking about the same enemy. We're talking about the same enemy. We're talking about an enemy that shares an ideology that believes that our way of life and our freedoms here are diametrically opposed to their grim vision for recreating the Middle East to a terror base and launch attacks.
COOPER: But I was asking about the war in Iraq and you're talking about 9/11. I thought the 9/11 commission said really there was no linkage between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein?
DEVENISH: Well, I think everybody understands that those who attacked in London on the subway and those who attacked on 9/11 and many of the foreign fighters in Iraq share an ideology. Many of them share -- many of them are followers of Osama bin Laden. So, I don't think it's up for debate that they all share a goal of ending our way of life and of attacking Americans.
COOPER: 61 percent -- I mean, yeah, I'm sure you see these polls. "Newsweek" magazine says 61 percent of Americans are unhappy with the way President Bush is handling Iraq. New CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, some 54 percent of Americans think we should have never sent troops there in the first place. How concerned are you about this movement right now, about sentiment in the United States toward Iraq, toward the war?
DEVENISH: Well, it's obviously very important that our troops understand that Americans are 100 percent united behind them. And so, obviously, it's of concern when there's a focus on different views. But this is a discussion that I think we welcome.
COOPER: We don't take sides in this show. So from your perspective, when people see Cindy Sheehan out here, when they see the candlelight vigils tonight, what do you want people seeing this to be thinking? DEVENISH: Well, I think people should thank Cindy for the service that her son -- obviously he gave his life protecting this country. Her son is a hero in the war against terror.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Coming up next, on this special edition of 360, live from Crawford, covering all the angles, Democratic strategist Joe Trippi response on to Nicole Devenish's comments on the demonstration here in Crawford.
Also a little later tonight, two former soldiers who served in Iraq, one is for the war, the other against. We'll hear their opinions ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back to the special edition of 360 "Crossroads: The Battle on the Homefront Over the War in iraq." These are live pictures of a vigil in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. One crowd supporting the war, right next to them, another vigil where the crowd is calling for president to withdraw troops from Iraq and supports what Cindy Sheehan is doing here in Crawford.
Now, we don't take sides on 360. We try to get all the angles. Let you decide. Before the break we talked about the protest in Crawford with White House communications director Nicole Devenish.
Now let's go back to Washington and talk with Democratic strategist Joe Trippi. Last week he hosted a conference call with Cindy Sheehan for liberal Internet bloggers. Joe, thanks very much for being with us.
I tried to get Nicole Devenish at the White House to answer the question why the president wouldn't meet with her. Let me ask you the flip side, why should President Bush meet with Cindy Sheehan? He met with her once before. He's met with many other mothers. He's down here in Crawford. He's on vacation. But he's also working. Why should he meet her?
JOE TRIPPI, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think, you know, what's going on here, you'r show has shown this, is the amazing sacrifices of all these military families, those who believe in the president and support him and those like cindy sheehan who oppose the war and want to ask him questions about it.
When you think of it in those terms, and so little sacrifice by the American people, I think it's courtesy and common sense that the president would meet with a dissenting mom who lost her son in the war, and who, frankly, is asking questions that now a majority of Americans in the polls are showing have similar questions, similar concerns about this war, and similar questions that they want answered.
So I think if he met with her, it would be a very good thing for our democracy to have the president show he wants to meet -- that he's willing to meet with somebody who dissents from he's view.
COOPER: But Joe, as you know, Cindy Sheehan's critics will say, look, she doesn't want to meet to hear what he has to say, she doesn't want to meet to have her mind changed. She wants to meet, because she has a specific agenda and she wants the publicity and she wants to vent to the president.
TRIPPI: You know, I think Cindy Sheehan is exactly what she is, a mom who went to Crawford with a lawn chair, because she wanted to see the president and ask him some questions. I think -- I think when you put it in -- that's what this is about. Do you think the president of the United States should meet with a mom who lost her son who has questions about this war and her son's death. Yes or no.
COOPER: But in all fairness, he has met with her.
TRIPPI: He met with her over a year ago. And a lot has changed in that year. We have the Downing Street memos. We have the president saying that the mission was accomplished, the mission wasn't accomplished since then. We have Dick Cheney saying the insurgency is in its death throes. It's not in its death throes.
I mean, a lot of information has changed. And so, too, has the view of the American -- it's not just Cindy Sheehan, the American people have changed their opinions on this war and on this president from a year ago and where they are today. She has got legitimate questions. I think the president should have met with her. He should meet with her.
And this would all -- and then you'd actually -- what has happened here is, this woman stood up and said the president's wrong. And what that has created is this huge debate in this country, this discussion across the kitchen table, across the neighbor's fence and at work, and that's an amazing thing to have happened. We're finally having a debating about this war, a discussion about this war. And if that's all this woman did is accomplish, that's an amazing thing. We need to have that debate and discussion in this country.
COOPER: Do you advise Cindy Sheehan to stay here as long as she can?
TRIPPI: I think she should stay through the end of August, as she said. And I think she should continue to make her case as is her right as an American.
I mean, again, with so few -- so few Americans have been asked to sacrifice the way these families have. Her family paid the ultimate sacrifice. The least we can -- all of us can do who haven't sacrificed anything, got tax cuts during the war, and a bunch of other things, we go on with our lives every day, the president -- our sacrifice, hey, Mr. President, meet with this woman.
COOPER: Joe Trippi, we'll leave it there from your perspective. Thank very much.
We've got to find out what's coming up at the top of the hour in a few minutes on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Hey, Paula.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Anderson, there are Web sites these days for just about everything. At the top of the hour, we're going to visit one I think a lot of you simply aren't not believe. It's especially for married people looking for a partner to cheat with. It's been a success since day one. And now both nearly 500,000 subscribers.
What's your spouse doing on the computer while you're not watching? We're going to catch up with a man who is behind this Web site and who claims, even though he's gotten rich off it, he's not promoting infidelity. You'll hear his story coming up at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Go figure, Anderson.
COOPER: I want to hear how he sells that one. That will be interesting, Paula.
ZAHN: I'm waiting for his explanation.
COOPER: I know. It's going to be a good one, no doubt. Paula, thanks. That's at the top of the hour.
Coming up next, though, on 360, two very different opinions on the war in Iraq from two former soldiers who were there who served. We'll talk with them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, it probably wouldn't be fair to spend all this time tonight talking about -- I should also just thank all the people who did call in just for a moment. Because we received just -- we were inundated with telephone calls. We haven't been able to obviously get them all in, but that was just one of the viewers you heard. But we've been airing them throughout this hour with different points of view as there are different points of view on this issue across the country.
But we wanted, tonight, to spend some time talking not just with demonstrators and protesters and people here in the home frost, but people who have served in Iraq, soldiers, veterans, brave members of the military who were there. Joining me now are two veterans of the war, William Epler is in Omaha, Nebraska, and Adam Righter (sic) is in Atlanta, Georgia. Adam, thanks very much for being -- Adam Reuter, I should say -- I'm sorry, Adam.
William, let me start off with you. You served in Iraq for six months. You support the president. What do you think of Cindy's protest? Has it crossed the line and dishonored her son and other troops like yourself?
WILLIAM EPLER, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: I don't have any problem with honest dissent. And I sympathize with her. Her son served, serve honorably, he wanted to go, he volunteered just like I did. But when you get to the point where you have extreme left fringe groups such as Code Pink and MoveOn.org, all of these people aligning themselves to this, connecting their names to it, it diminishes her message and marginalizes what she was trying to do originally.
COOPER: Well, her defenders will say, William, what is wrong with getting the message out? And if she's helping to get the message out? You say, what, you think she's becoming like a pawn of the left?
EPLER: I think she's getting exploited to some degree. And whether she's a grieved mother that is stricken down so hard with grief, or if she's a willing accomplice in this, I couldn't tell you. That's her -- only she can answer that question.
COOPER: Adam, let me get your perspective. You were against the war. You believe the country was misled about the reasons for going into it in the first place. But you don't agree with Cindy Sheehan in all of these things. She believes American troops shoudl get out immediately. Do you agree?
ADAM REUTER, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: I'm in big support of Cindy Sheehan. I think she's got a great message going on right now. And I'm really proud that she's down there speaking to other soldiers who are now getting behind Cindy's message. And as far as the exit strategy of where she thinks it would be best to pull all the troops out, that's where I differ in opinion. I don't think it's a win-win situation. I think no matter which way you look at it, people are going to die.
COOPER: And Adam, you're no longer there, but you would have gone back. You had to leave for medical reasons. But even though you don't support the war, you would have gone back?
REUTER: Correct. Yes, sir.
COOPER: Why?
REUTER: During your deployment, you get such a camaraderie with your fellow soldiers, that you would -- I feel guilty now not being there. But at the same time, I'm glad I'm not, for my family's sake. I have a son. But...
COOPER: It's for the people you left behind you were serving with.
William, you know, put us in the perspective of someone who is there, over there. Do you think Cindy Sheehan's message is demoralizing to someone who is currently serving?
EDLER: No, I don't at all. I find it hard to believe that people are actually standing up and putting down a grief-stricken mother. I don't understand how people can come on television, or blog reports. And they're entitled to their opinions. But I just don't understand how somebody can sit there and criticize a mother who's paid a big sacrifice.
COOPER: Let me put the same question to William. William, do you think it demoralizes troops who are over there now?
REUTER: It can have that effect. I don't think -- because the troops on the ground, they know the reality of the situation. They know that progress is being made. And it doesn't get a lot of attention, because building schools, and helping the Iraqi people, all the stuff we do over there doesn't make news. Explosions, and troops getting killed makes news. And that's all we see back home.
What she can -- what effect she does have is here in the home front. She's demoralizing the nation. And when you see this 24/7, you see the anti-war protests, you see -- she gets so much media attention. There's a circus down there surrounding her, when that gets out...
COOPER: I appreciate you -- you think that is demoralizing.
William, I appreciate you coming in tonight. And Adam as well. We're out of time. I want to thank all the people who have made this special possible live from Crawford, Texas. Prime-time coverage continues now with Paula Zahn -- Paula.
END
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
This is most likely the reason why you purposely did not post the interview. Because you know you lied. So this is how you "honor" her and her son? With anti American propaganda that spew lies about her and her son?
Try citing your bullshit with links to the source next time. Keeping exposing yourself as an imbecile with the IQ of a shit kernal. Keep showing your "support" for Cindy Sheehan and her son by bashing and dishonoring her and Casey with your anti-American crap.
You seriously need help.
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Song for Cindy Sheehan
David Rovics
Casey was a good boy
He treated people well
And his momma loved him
Anyone could tell
She'd send him off to school
Pack his lunch with care
When he came back home she hugged him
With her fingers in his hair
Cindy, she loved Casey
And when all is said and done
She is every mother
And he was every mother's son
When Casey was a little older
He spent his time each week
In that church in Vacaville
In the service of the meek
In the service of his city
In the service of the lord
With his momma in the pews
All the time they could afford
And if their love alone could save us
Then the world would be one
She is every mother
And he was every mother's son
People thought the priesthood
Was where he'd someday be
So some folks were surprised
When he joined the army
The recruiter told him
He wouldn't have to fight
Cindy hoped this was the case
And prayed for him every night
That was before they sent him
To the desert with a gun
She is every mother
And he was every mother's son
His truck had no armor
And when it came under fire
It and half the soldiers in it
Became a funeral pyre
Cindy, she was sleeping
The moment Casey died
And she knew she'd never see him
Standing by her side
There was no consolation
No safe place she could run
She is every mother
And he was every mother's son
The president, he told her
He died for a noble cause
But Cindy's wondering
Exactly what that was
Since they never found the weapons
And now that Casey's gone
It seems that oil is the game
And Casey was the pawn
Cindy's got some questions
And so does everyone
Because she is every mother
And he was every mother's son
-
http://www.angelfire.com/sk3/spkhntrca/Casey.html
AN OPEN LETTER TO GEORGE BUSHNovember 4, 2004
Dear George,
You don’t mind if I call you George do you? When you sent me a letter offering your condolences on the death of my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq, you called me Cindy, so I naturally assume we are on a first name basis.
George, it has been seven months today since your reckless and wanton foreign policies killed my son, my big boy, my hero, my best-friend: Casey. It has been seven months since your ignorant and arrogant lack of planning for the peace murdered my oldest child. It has been two days since your dishonest campaign stole another election…but you all were way more subtle this time than in 2000, weren’t you? You hardly had to get the Supreme Court of the United States involved at all this week.
You feel so proud of yourself for betraying the country again, don’t you? You think you are very clever because you pulled the wool over the eyes of some of the people again. You think that you have some mandate from God…that you can “spend your political capital†any way that you want. George you don’t care or even realize that 56,000,000 plus citizens of this country voted against you and your agenda. Still, you are going to continue your ruthless work of being a divider and not a uniter. George, in 2000 when you stole that election and the Democrats gave up, I gave up too. I had the most ironic thought of my life then: "Oh well, how much damage can he do in four years?" Well, now I know how much you have damaged my family, this country, and this world. If you think I am going to allow you another four years to do even more damage, then you truly are mistaken. I will fight for a true vote count and if that fails, your impeachment. Also, the impeachment of your Vice President. The only thing is, I'm not politically savvy, and I don't have a Karl Rove to plan my strategy, but I do have a big mouth and a righteous cause, which still mean something in this country, I hope.
All of this lying, fooling, and betraying must be “hard work†George. You really think you know what hard work is?
George, let me tell you what “hard work†really is.
Hard work is seeing your oldest son, your brave and honorable man-child go off to a war that had, and still has, no basis in reality. Hard work is worrying yourself gray and not being able to sleep for 2 weeks because you don’t know if your child is safe.
Hard work is seeing your son’s murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you’re enjoying the last supper you’ll ever truly enjoy again.
Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son…your first born…your kind and gentle sweet baby.
Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday. Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big “baba†into the ground. Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both.
But, Dear George, do you know what the hardest work of all is? Trying to digest the fact that the leader of the country that your family has fought for and died for, for generations, lied to you and betrayed your dear boy’s sense of honor and exploited his courage and exploited his loyalty to his buddies. Hard work is having your country abandon you after they killed your son. Hard work is coming to the realization that your son had his future robbed from him and that you have had your son's future and future grand-children stolen from you. Hard work is knowing that there are so many people in this world that have prospered handsomely from your son's death.
George, I must confess that I and my family worked very HARD to re-defeat you this time, but you refuse to stay defeated. Well, we are watching you very carefully. We are going to do everything in our power to have you impeached for misleading the American people into a disastrous war and for mis-using and abusing your power as Commander-in-Chief. We are going to scream until our last breath to bring the rest of our babies home from this quagmire of a war that you have gotten our country in to: before too many more families learn the true meaning of Hard Work. We know it is going to be an uphill battle, knowing how Republican Congress is, but thanks to you, we know the meaning of Hard Work and we’re not afraid of hard work at all.
The 56,000,000 plus citizens who voted against you and your agenda have given me a mandate to move forward with my agenda. Also, thanks to you and your careless domestic policies, I am unemployed, so this will be my full-time job. Being your political downfall will be the most noble accomplishment of my life and it will bring justice for my son and 1125 (so far) other brave Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis your lies have killed. By the way, George, how many more innocent Iraqis are your policies going to kill before you convince them that you are better than Saddam? How many more of their cities are you going to level before you consider that they are liberated? If you really had any moral values, or if you were an honorable man at all you would resign. My son was a man who had high moral values and true courage. Humanity lost a bright light on April 04, 2004. I will live the rest of my life missing Casey desperately. Thank you for that, George. Have a nice day.
God Bless America!! We surely need it!
Cindy Sheehan
Broken hearted mother of a True American Hero: Spc Casey Austin Sheehan, KIA 04/04/04 Sadr City, Baghdad
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, always."
- Gandhi
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Crawford Vigil Is Not Over
Exclusive Interview with Cindy Sheehan After Mother's Stroke: "I Want to Get Back As Soon As Possible"
Broadcasting on location from Crawford, Texas, Democracy Now! brings you the voices of military families and anti-war activists who are speaking out against the occupation of Iraq. Cindy Sheehan left Crawford last night to attend to her sick mother, but we caught up with her on her way out of Texas. [includes rush transcript] Cindy Sheehan had to leave Crawford temporarily after her mother suffered a stroke. She spoke with Democracy Now! in the airport on her way to Los Angeles. She said that also she left her vigil without meeting with President Bush, she said, "This Camp Casey movement is bigger than me. It's growing, it's bigger than any of us." Cindy Sheehan went on, "I believe that it is my right and responsibility as an American to question our government when our government is wrong. I'm not one of the immature patriots who say my country right or wrong because my country is wrong now, and my country-the policies of my country are responsible for killing tens of thousands of innocent people, and I won't stand by and let that happen anymore."
- Cindy Sheehan, her son Casey was killed in Iraq in April 2004. She is the co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
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JUAN GONZALEZ: We head now to Crawford, Texas, where Amy Goodman is reporting today from the grounds of Camp Casey, just down the road from President Bush's property. Well, Amy, I’m guessing Karl Rove didn't invite you in.
AMY GOODMAN: No, we're right outside the ranch, although we did drive down George W. Bush Highway to get here. We're at Camp Casey, Juan. It's just outside of President Bush's ranch, where he is vacationing now. We're somewhat near a Secret Service checkpoint, so the Secret Service is changing shift right now. Behind me people are waking up, about a hundred people slept here last night. The signs say that “Bush should speak to Cindy,†it says. Another just says “Welcome to Camp Casey.†Casey, of course, is Cindy Sheehan's son, Casey Sheehan, who died in Iraq, as she says on 04/04/04. That's [April] 4, 2004.
Last night, when we came into Ft. Worth – to Dallas/Ft. Worth airport, we actually crossed paths with Cindy. She was planning to stay here during the entire time that President Bush is vacationing, but yesterday afternoon she learned in a telephone call that her mother had suffered a stroke in Los Angeles, California, and so she and her sister Dee Dee dropped everything here, and they raced to Waco to the airport, flew off to the airport, where we were just coming in from New York, the Democracy Now! crew. We met her at her gate and sat down and had a conversation with Cindy to find out how she's doing, but also to find out what her plans are.
This is Cindy Sheehan, the woman who began it all here just a few weeks ago when she left a Veterans for Peace annual meeting in Dallas and headed to President Bush's ranch, asking if he would simply have a meeting with her. I asked her yesterday at the airport how her mother was.
CINDY SHEEHAN: It’s too early to tell. She was still in the emergency room when we left, so we didn't get any messages from my brother, who is there with her right now. So, hopefully, the status hasn't changed since we last talked to him.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think it means for you to leave Crawford, for you to leave the ranch where President Bush is vacationing?
CINDY SHEEHAN: Well, it's kind of ironic, because this morning I gave two interviews, one to Air America and one to “Nightline†early this morning. And I said, you know what, this Camp Casey movement is bigger than me. It's growing. It's bigger than any of us. And even if I had to leave today, it would keep on going. And if we leave August 31 without the President speaking to us, it's going to keep on. It's growing. It's organic. It's here, and nothing is going to stop it. And just because I’m gone, things will just carry on as normal. I want to get back as soon as possible, because I did say I would stay there until President Bush spoke with me until he left on August 31. I hope if he comes out and speaks to the other moms that they give him hell, though.
AMY GOODMAN: How many other moms are there there of people who are in Iraq or who have died in Iraq?
CINDY SHEEHAN: We have about six moms there. They're Gold Star moms. And there's probably -- I don't -- of women who have -- who have children over there right now, it's hard to tell. Maybe about the same or a little bit more.
AMY GOODMAN: Your reaction to the more than 1,500 vigils that were held around the country on Wednesday night?
CINDY SHEEHAN: It, to me, is just absolutely amazing and so gratifying that something I did – like, I was just a spark that just lit this fire, and it's blazing, and it's out of control now. Like I said, we don't need the spark anymore, and I am just -- I’m just so grateful that the universe chose me to be the spark, but also that America has responded. But I’m grateful and amazed, but I’m not surprised, because I have seen this coming.
AMY GOODMAN: If you get this meeting with President Bush, what will you say to him?
CINDY SHEEHAN: I want to ask him what was the noble cause that Casey and the others have died for, because he keeps on saying that they died for a noble cause, and I don't think a war of aggression against a nation that was no threat to the United States of America is a noble cause. And I’m not going to let him tell me about keeping America safe for freedom and democracy, because he told us before he invaded that it was about weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein with some kind of a link to al Qaeda. And that's been proven wrong, and it's been proven wrong consistently, and the Downing Street memos prove that as early as July of 2002, they knew that that was wrong and they had to fabricate the intelligence to fit their policy of invading Iraq. And that means that my son's murder was premeditated.
AMY GOODMAN: Where did your son die?
CINDY SHEEHAN: He died in Sadr City, Baghdad, in an ambush on April 4, 2004.
AMY GOODMAN: What was his understanding of why he was going there?
CINDY SHEEHAN: He thought it was probably for oil, and he didn't want to go. He didn't agree that the President was using his troops wisely. And I begged him not to go, and he said, “Mom, I have to go. My buddies are going.†And if I had known that, you know, if I had known what was going to happen to him, I think I probably would have tried to force him into Canada or something, but, you know, he was an adult, and he thought it was his duty, and so I was as supportive as I could be. He was only there for five days, though, before he was killed.
AMY GOODMAN: There is a major rightwing attack on you led by Bill O'Reilly, the Drudge Report. They call you a traitor. Your response?
CINDY SHEEHAN: I believe that it is my right and responsibility as an American to question our government when our government is wrong. I’m not one of the immature patriots who say my country, right or wrong, because my country is wrong now, and my country -- the policies of my country are responsible for killing tens of thousands of innocent people, and I won't stand by and let that happen anymore. And I believe that anybody who tries to tell me that I don't have the right to say what I’m saying, they're unpatriotic, they're un-American, and their attacks are not going to stop me.
AMY GOODMAN: Are you going to follow President Bush back to the White House? Are you going to follow him from now on?
CINDY SHEEHAN: We're going to do a bus tour from Crawford to D.C. on the 31st, and it's going to -- we're going to take three buses through different parts of the country, going through different cities, picking up different people, and we're going to converge together on D.C. on September 24th for the big United for Peace and Justice rally. And I won't be able to be on those buses because I have commitments. My whole entire month of September is committed. And it was even before I decided to do this, so I’m going to be meeting up with everybody on September 24 in D.C. And then we'll see where we're going to go from there.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you plan on taking up the same vigil in Lafayette Park outside the White House?
CINDY SHEEHAN: There's a group of us planning on doing that. I won't, of course, be able to be there 24 hours a day forever, but it's going to be like a rotating vigil. And then when he goes back to Crawford, we'll go back to Crawford.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Cindy Sheehan, she was speaking to us at Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport, as she caught the next plane to Los Angeles to see her ailing mother. Her mother had a stroke yesterday. She is 74 years old. Cindy Sheehan, co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, also founder of Camp Casey, named for her son, Casey Sheehan, who died April 4, 2004, in Iraq in Sadr City.
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- Cindy Sheehan, her son Casey was killed in Iraq in April 2004. She is the co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace.
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Why the 'Chickenhawk' argument is un-American: Part I
Ben Shapiro (archive)
August 17, 2005 | Print | Recommend to a friend
Who is qualified to speak on matters of national security? According to the American left, only pacifists, military members who have served in combat and direct relatives of those slain in combat or in acts of terrorism. The rest of us -- about 80 percent of voters -- must simply sit by silently. Our opinions do not matter. You want disenfranchisement? Talk to the political left, which seeks to exclude the vast majority of the American populace from the national debate about foreign policy.
The bulk of the left in this country refuses to argue about foreign policy rationally, without resorting to ad hominem attack. The favored ad hominem attack of the left these days is "chickenhawk." The argument goes something like this: If you believe in any of the wars America is currently fighting, you must join the military. If you do not, you must shut up. If, on the other hand, you believe that America should disengage from all foreign wars, you may feel free not to serve in the military.
This is the argument made by hate-America radicals like Michael Moore, who defines "chickenhawk" on his website thus: "A person enthusiastic about war, provided someone else fights it; particularly when that enthusiasm is undimmed by personal experience with war; most emphatically when that lack of experience came in spite of ample opportunity in that person's youth." The "chickenhawk" argument was the implicit centerpiece of John Kerry's presidential campaign -- Kerry hyped his military service and denigrated George W. Bush's military service, all the while focusing on the fact that he, unlike President Bush, was anti-war. Kerry's campaign underling, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, made the argument explicit during April 2004: "They shriek like a hawk, but they have the backbone of the chicken," he said of the Bush Administration. "The lead chickenhawk against Sen. Kerry [is] the vice president of the United States, Vice President Cheney." Not coincidentally, Lautenberg utilized Moore's exact "chickenhawk" definition in making his point.
The "chickenhawk" argument is dishonest. It is dishonest because the principle of republicanism is based on freedom of choice about behavior (as long as that behavior is legal) as well as freedom of speech about political issues. We constantly vote on activities with which we may or may not be intimately involved. We vote on police policy, though few of us are policemen; we vote on welfare policy, though few of us either work in the welfare bureaucracy or have been on welfare; we vote on tax policy, even if some of us don't pay taxes. The list goes on and on. Representative democracy necessarily means that millions of us vote on issues with which we have had little practical experience. The "chickenhawk" argument -- which states that if you haven't served in the military, you can't have an opinion on foreign policy -- explicitly rejects basic principles of representative democracy.
The "chickenhawk" argument also explicitly rejects the Constitution itself. The Constitution provides that civilians control the military. The president of the United States is commander-in-chief, whether or not he has served in the military. Congress controls the purse strings and declares war, no matter whether any of its members have served in the military or not. For foreign policy doves to high-handedly declare that military service is a prerequisite to a hawkish foreign policy mindset is not only dangerous, but directly conflicts with the Constitution itself.
The "chickenhawk" argument proves only one point: The left is incapable of discussing foreign policy in a rational manner. They must resort to purely emotional, base personal attacks in order to forward their agenda. And so, unable or unwilling to counter the arguments of those like Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and President Bush, they label them all "chickenhawks." By the leftist logic, here are some other "chickenhawks": John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton.
American soldiers fight for the right of all Americans, regardless of race, class or past service, to speak out on foreign policy issues. If they fight for the right of pacifist anti-military fifth columnists like Michael Moore to denigrate their honor, they certainly fight for the right of civilian hawks to speak up in favor of the highest level of moral and material support for their heroism.
Chickenhawk in Whine Sauce
Young Ben Shapiro, fondly known to some as America’s Worst Law Student™, has had it, had it, just had it with being called a chickenhawk. So Ben whipped up a new column — “In Praise of Chickenhawkery: Part I†— to defend himself:
The favored ad hominem attack of the left these days is “chickenhawk.†The argument goes something like this: If you believe in any of the wars America is currently fighting, you must join the military. If you do not, you must shut up.Of course, nobody is telling Ben to shut up — least of all people like me who devote a weblog to ridiculing what people like Ben say. We’re just calling Ben a hypocrite. It’s Ben who’s telling people who are calling him a chickenhawk to shut up:
The “chickenhawk†argument is dishonest. It is dishonest because the principle of republicanism is based on freedom of choice about behavior (as long as that behavior is legal). . . .Um, unless of course we’re talking about legal homosexual behavior which Ben thinks is all icky:
The rise of the homosexual movement is a textbook example of societal amorality devolving into societal immorality. The rationale behind societal amorality is the myopic question: “How does my immoral behavior hurt you?†The answer is: It may not, in the short term. But when society sanctions your immoral behavior, that does hurt me.Ben now pulls out what he thinks are his big guns, so to speak:
The “chickenhawk†argument also explicitly rejects the Constitution itself.Go get ‘em, Tiger! Argue that calling you a hypocrite is unconstitutional!! (Now you know why we like to call Ben America’s Worst Law Student™.)
Ben, of course, saves his best argument for last:
By the leftist logic, here are some other “chickenhawksâ€: John Adams [and] Benjamin Franklin . . . .At the time of the Revolutionary War, Adams and Franklin were, respectively 41 and 70, both a bit long in the tooth to be expected to enlist in the army. Ben, however, is 21. I don’t think its unfair to say that Ben may also be America’s Worst History Student.
I don’t know about you, but I just can’t wait for “In Praise of Chickenhawkery, Pt. II.â€
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THE LIE OF THE CENTURY
"All war is based on deception." -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
There is nothing new in a government lying to their people to start a war. Indeed because most people prefer living in peace to bloody and horrific death in war, any government that desires to initiate a war usually lies to their people to create the illusion that support for the war is the only possible choice they can make. President McKinley told the American people that the USS Maine had been sunk in Havana Harbor by a Spanish mine. The American people, outraged by this apparent unprovoked attack, supported the Spanish American War. The Captain of the USS Maine had insisted the ship was sunk by a coal bin explosion, investigations after the war proved that such had indeed been the case. There had been no mine.
Hitler used this principle of lying to his own people to initiate an invasion. He told the people of Germany that Poland had attacked first. The Germans, convinced they were being threatened, followed Hitler into Poland and into World War 2.
FDR claimed Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack. It wasn't. The United States saw war with Japan as the means to get into war with Germany, which Americans opposed. So Roosevelt needed Japan to appear to strike first. Following an 8-step plan devised by the Office of Naval Intelligence, Roosevelt intentionally provoked Japan into the attack. Contrary to the official story, the fleet did not maintain radio silence, but sent messages intercepted and decoded by US intercept stations. Tricked by the lie of a surprise attack, Americans marched off to war.
President Johnson lied about the Gulf of Tonkin to send Americans off to fight in Vietnam. There were no torpedoes in the water in the Gulf. LBJ took advantage of an inexperienced sonar man's report to goad Congress into escalating the Vietnam
It is inescapable historical reality that leaders of nations will lie to their people to trick them into wars they otherwise would have refused. It is not "conspiracy theory" to suggest that leaders of nations lie to trick their people into wars. It is undeniable fact.
This brings us to the present case.
Did the government of the United States lie to the American people, more to the point, did President Bush and his Neocon associates lie to Congress, to initiate a war of conquest in Iraq?
This question has been given currency by a
memo leaked from inside the British Government which clearly indicates a decision to go to war followed by the "fixing" of information around that policy. This is, as they say, a smoking gun.But the fact is that long before this memo surfaced, it had become obvious that the US Government, aided by that of Great Britain, was lying to create the public support for a war in Iraq.
First off is Tony Blair's "Dodgy Dossier", a document released by the Prime Minister that made many of the claims used to support the push for war. The dossier soon collapsed when it was revealed that much of it had been plagiarized from a student thesis paper that was 12 years old!
The contents of the dossier, however much they seemed to create a good case for invasion, were obsolete and outdated.
This use of material that could not possibly be relevant at the time is clear proof of a deliberate attempt to deceive.
Then there was the claim about the "Mobile biological weapons laboratories". Proffered in the absence of any real laboratories in the wake of the invasion, photos of these trailers were shown on all the US Mainstream Media, with the claim they while seeming to lack anything suggesting biological processing, these were part of a much larger assembly of multiple trailers that churned out biological weapons of mass destruction.
The chief proponent of this hoax was Colin Powell, who presented illustrations to the United Nations on February 5th, 2003.
This claim fell apart when it was revealed that these trailers were nothing more than hydrogen gas generators used to inflate weather balloons. This fact was already known to both the US and UK, as a British company manufactured the units and sold them to Iraq.
Colin Powell's speech to the UN was itself one misstatement after another. Powell claimed that Iraq had purchased special aluminum tubes whose only possible use was in uranium enrichment centrifuges. Both CIA and Powell's own State Department confirmed that the tubes were parts for missiles Saddam was legally allowed to have. Following the invasion, no centrifuges, aluminum or otherwise were found.
Powell also claimed to the United Nations that photos showed "Decontamination Vehicles". But when United Nations inspectors visited the site after the invasion, they located the vehicles and discovered they were just firefighting equipment.
Powell claimed the Iraqis had illegal rockets and launchers hidden in the palm trees of Western Iraq. None were ever found.
Powell claimed that the Iraqis had 8,500 liters (2245 gallons) of Anthrax. None was ever found.
Powell claimed that Iraq had four tons of VX nerve gas. The UN had already confirmed that it was destroyed. The only VX ever found were samples the US had left as "standards" for testing. When the UN suspected that the US samples had been used to contaminate Iraqi warheads, the US moved quickly to destroy the samples before comparison tests could be carried out.
Powell claimed that Iraq was building long-range remote drones specifically designed to carry biological weapons. The only drones found were short-range reconnaissance drones.
Powell claimed that Iraq had an aggregate of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical and biological warfare agents. Powell gave no basis for that claim at all, and a DIA report issued the same time directly contradicted the claim. No biological or chemical weapons were found in Iraq following the invasion.
Powell claimed that "unnamed sources" confirmed that Saddam had authorized his field commanders to use biological weapons. No such weapons were ever used by the Iraqis to defend against the invasion and, of course, none were ever found in Iraq.
Powell claimed that 122mm warheads found by the UN inspectors were chemical weapons. The warheads were empty, and showed no signs of ever having contained chemical weapons.
Powell claimed that Iraq had a secret force of illegal long-range Scud missiles. None were ever found.
Powell claimed to have an audio tape proving that Saddam was supporting Osama Bin Laden. But independent translation of the tape revealed Osama's wish for Saddam's death.
Colin Powell's UN debacle also included spy photos taken from high flying aircraft and spacecraft. On the photos were circles and arrows and labels pointing to various fuzzy white blobs and identifying them as laboratories and storage areas for Saddam's massive weapons of mass destruction program. Nothing in the photos actually suggested what the blobby shapes were and inspections which followed the invasion, all of them turned out to be rather benign. In at least one case, the satellite Powell claimed had taken one of the pictures had actually been out of operation at the time. And many questioned why Powell was showing black and white photos when the satellites in use at the time over Iraq took color images.
Another piece of evidence consists of documents which President Bush referenced as in his 2003 State of the Union Speech. According to Bush, these documents proved that Iraq was buying tons of uranium oxide, called "Yellow Cake" from Niger. Since Israel had bombed Iraq's nuclear power plant years before, it was claimed that the only reason Saddam would have for buying uranium oxide was to build bombs.
This hoax fell apart fast when it was pointed out that Iraq has a great deal of uranium ore inside their own borders and no need to import any from Niger or anywhere else. The I.A.E.A. then blew the cover off the fraud by announcing that the documents Bush had used were not only forgeries, but too obvious to believe that anyone in the Bush administration did not know they were forgeries!
In the end, the real proof that we were lied to about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found. That means that every single piece of paper that purported to prove that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was by default a fraud, a hoax, and a lie. There could be no evidence that supported the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction because Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. In a way, the existence of any faked documents about Iraq's WMDs is actually an admission of guilt. If one is taking the time to create fake documents, the implication is that the faker is already aware that there are no genuine documents.
What the US Government had, ALL that they had, were copied student papers, forged "Yellow Cake" documents, balloon inflators posing as bioweapons labs, and photos with misleading labels on them. And somewhere along the line, someone decided to put those misleading labels on those photos, to pretend that balloon inflators are portable bioweapons labs, and to pass off stolen student papers as contemporary analysis.
And THAT shows an intention to deceive.
Lawyers call this "Mens Rea", which means "Guilty Mind". TV lawyer shows call it "Malice aforethought". This means that not only did the Bush Administration lie to the people and to the US Congress, but knew they were doing something illegal at the time that they did it.
All the talk about "Intelligence failure" is just another lie. There was no failure. Indeed the
Army agents who erroneously claimed that missile tubes were parts for a uranium centrifuge received bonuses, while the Pentagon smeared Hans Blix, and John Bolton orchestrated the firing of Jose Bustani, the director of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, because Bustani was trying to send chemical weapons inspectors to Baghdad.The President of the United States and his Neocon associates lied to the people of the United States to send them off on a war of conquest.
Defenders of the government will point to the cases listed at the top of the page as proof that lying to the people is a normal part of the leader's job and we should all get used to it. And because "Everybody does it" that we should not single out the present administration. But this is madness. We do not catch all the murderers, yet when we catch a murderer, we deal with them as harshly as possible, in order to deter more murderers.
Right now, we have the criminals at hand. and, while other leaders in history have lied to start wars, for the first time in history, the lie stands exposed while the war started with the lies still rages on, to the death and detriment of our young men and women in uniform. We cannot in good moral conscience ignore this lie, this crime, lest we encourage future leaders to continue to lie to use to send our kids off to pointless wars. Lying to start a war is more than an impeachable offence; it the highest possible crime a government can commit against their own people. Lying to start a war is not only misappropriation of the nation's military and the nation's money under false pretenses, but it is outright murder committed on a massive scale. Lying to start a war is a betrayal of the trust each and every person who serves in the military places in their civilian leadership. By lying to start a war, the Bush administration has told the military fatalities and their families that they have no right to know why they were sent to their deaths. It's none of their business.
Our nation is founded on the principle of rule with the consent of the governed. Because We The People do not consent to be lied to, a government that lies rules without the consent of the governed, and ruling without the consent of the governed is slavery.
You should be more than angry. You should be in a rage. You should be in a rage no less than that of the families of those young men and women who have been killed and maimed in this war started with a lie.You need to be in a rage and you need to act on that rage because even as I type these words, the same government that lied about Iraq's nuclear weapons is telling the exact same lies about Iran's nuclear capabilities. The writing is on the wall; having gotten away with lying to start the war in Iraq, the US Government will lie to start a war in Iran, and after that another, and after that another, and another and another and another because as long as you remain silent, and as long as you remain inactive, the liars have no reason to stop.
As long as you remain inactive, the liars have no reason to stop.
None.
It is time to fire the liars.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is
for good men to do nothing" .
--Edmund Burke
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U.S.C. TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 47 § 1001.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, WHOEVER, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by ANY trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or USES any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry; shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
(
Subsection (a) does not apply to a party to a judicial proceeding, or that party's counsel, for statements, representations, writings or documents submitted by such party or counsel to a judge or magistrate in that proceeding. © With respect to any matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch, subsection (a) shall apply only to—
(1) administrative matters, including a claim for payment, a matter related to the procurement of property or services, personnel or employment practices, or support services, or a document required by law, rule, or regulation to be submitted to the Congress or any office or officer within the legislative branch; or
(2) any investigation or review, conducted pursuant to the authority of any committee, subcommittee, commission or office of the Congress, consistent with applicable rules of the House or Senate.
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SO HERE IS WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO
The Bush administration and their friends in the media want this story to go away. More than want it to go away, they are in a panic, and will do everything they can to stop it. They will use every dirty trick, every paid shill, every presstitute that they can. Already there is a report that the Michael Jackson jury is "expected" to reach a verdict just before the Conyers hearings.
So, I want YOU to copy this article off, post it everywhere. This article is placed in the public domain. Mail it to your friends. Then send it to your local media and your Congresscritters and have everyone you know do the same. Get on the phones. Flood their offices.
The term is "Viral Marketing" where you get the people who need a product to market it for you. Well, this nation NEEDS this "product". It needs to know that this war was started with lies. INTENTIONAL lies. And they need to know there is something they can do about it, and that is to start pounding on the doors of power.
Because when a flood of such messages reaches the Congress and the media, what they will hear is that there is no more time. Either they will deal with these lies and the liars, in full, or they will lose all credibility as a government and as media.
A government that lies to the people cannot be the legal government of this land. Make sure that they understand that YOU understand that the Constitution does not allow the government to lie to the people. Calling themselves the government does not make it so if they act unconstitutionally and illegally. The Constitution is the original "Contract with America" and a government that lies stands in clear breach of that contract.
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But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
-- "The Declaration of Independence"
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repeating yourself only makes you look stupider than you already are
for the record..
Bush will NEVER be impeached
4 MORE YEARS!
Have a nice day
$10,000.00 says he's going to lose control of congress in the '06 mid terms, Bush gets Clintoned, and the GOP loses control of the White House in '08. Call, raise, or fold.
SDMF.
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http://www.angelfire.com/sk3/spkhntrca/Casey.html
AN OPEN LETTER TO GEORGE BUSHNovember 4, 2004
Dear George,
You don’t mind if I call you George do you? When you sent me a letter offering your condolences on the death of my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq, you called me Cindy, so I naturally assume we are on a first name basis.
George, it has been seven months today since your reckless and wanton foreign policies killed my son, my big boy, my hero, my best-friend: Casey. It has been seven months since your ignorant and arrogant lack of planning for the peace murdered my oldest child. It has been two days since your dishonest campaign stole another election…but you all were way more subtle this time than in 2000, weren’t you? You hardly had to get the Supreme Court of the United States involved at all this week.
You feel so proud of yourself for betraying the country again, don’t you? You think you are very clever because you pulled the wool over the eyes of some of the people again. You think that you have some mandate from God…that you can “spend your political capital†any way that you want. George you don’t care or even realize that 56,000,000 plus citizens of this country voted against you and your agenda. Still, you are going to continue your ruthless work of being a divider and not a uniter. George, in 2000 when you stole that election and the Democrats gave up, I gave up too. I had the most ironic thought of my life then: "Oh well, how much damage can he do in four years?" Well, now I know how much you have damaged my family, this country, and this world. If you think I am going to allow you another four years to do even more damage, then you truly are mistaken. I will fight for a true vote count and if that fails, your impeachment. Also, the impeachment of your Vice President. The only thing is, I'm not politically savvy, and I don't have a Karl Rove to plan my strategy, but I do have a big mouth and a righteous cause, which still mean something in this country, I hope.
All of this lying, fooling, and betraying must be “hard work†George. You really think you know what hard work is?
George, let me tell you what “hard work†really is.
Hard work is seeing your oldest son, your brave and honorable man-child go off to a war that had, and still has, no basis in reality. Hard work is worrying yourself gray and not being able to sleep for 2 weeks because you don’t know if your child is safe.
Hard work is seeing your son’s murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you’re enjoying the last supper you’ll ever truly enjoy again.
Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son…your first born…your kind and gentle sweet baby.
Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday. Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big “baba†into the ground. Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both.
But, Dear George, do you know what the hardest work of all is? Trying to digest the fact that the leader of the country that your family has fought for and died for, for generations, lied to you and betrayed your dear boy’s sense of honor and exploited his courage and exploited his loyalty to his buddies. Hard work is having your country abandon you after they killed your son. Hard work is coming to the realization that your son had his future robbed from him and that you have had your son's future and future grand-children stolen from you. Hard work is knowing that there are so many people in this world that have prospered handsomely from your son's death.
George, I must confess that I and my family worked very HARD to re-defeat you this time, but you refuse to stay defeated. Well, we are watching you very carefully. We are going to do everything in our power to have you impeached for misleading the American people into a disastrous war and for mis-using and abusing your power as Commander-in-Chief. We are going to scream until our last breath to bring the rest of our babies home from this quagmire of a war that you have gotten our country in to: before too many more families learn the true meaning of Hard Work. We know it is going to be an uphill battle, knowing how Republican Congress is, but thanks to you, we know the meaning of Hard Work and we’re not afraid of hard work at all.
The 56,000,000 plus citizens who voted against you and your agenda have given me a mandate to move forward with my agenda. Also, thanks to you and your careless domestic policies, I am unemployed, so this will be my full-time job. Being your political downfall will be the most noble accomplishment of my life and it will bring justice for my son and 1125 (so far) other brave Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis your lies have killed. By the way, George, how many more innocent Iraqis are your policies going to kill before you convince them that you are better than Saddam? How many more of their cities are you going to level before you consider that they are liberated? If you really had any moral values, or if you were an honorable man at all you would resign. My son was a man who had high moral values and true courage. Humanity lost a bright light on April 04, 2004. I will live the rest of my life missing Casey desperately. Thank you for that, George. Have a nice day.
God Bless America!! We surely need it!
Cindy Sheehan
Broken hearted mother of a True American Hero: Spc Casey Austin Sheehan, KIA 04/04/04 Sadr City, Baghdad
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, always."
- Gandhi
To the "useful idiots" Igloo and headpusher. Agenda is a bi-partisan issue. Losers.
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"fagboy"
nice choice of words
Did Cindy Sheehan teach you that?
Your mother taught me that.
headpusher...it is clear this destruction dude has some serious mental issues.....post after post show there is something seriously, and sadly, wrong with him...I mean his last post, he actualy took the thigs I was saying about him, and just used it back in his own post. Weird. And his twists and use of make believe statements/meaning is just as strange.There used to be someone on this board called normalnoises, who after a while showed that he was mentally disturbed. Sometimes I think this destruction weirdo is the same person. Anyway, after a while, most just chose to ignore normalnoises posts, becaue it was clear you were dealing with an unstable person.
I suspect the same with destruction. I mean after you read through this thread, his words and his thinking is scary disturbing, and it has become very clear he is mentally unstable. On top of being one of the dumbest persons to come around in a long time.
Although it was fun kicking the snot out of him, we may have to start ignoring this walking defect, or at least continue to ask him to seek medical attention before he causes harm, or worse, reproduces.
Have a good weekend.
Translation:
Support the troops - destroy their memorials.Then get the fuck out!
Oh, she left Crawford to head back to California to be with her mother who suffered a stroke (like you really give a fuck because you don't you self centered eaf), but she vowed to return to Crawford.
SDMF
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"fagboy"
nice choice of words
Did Cindy Sheehan teach you that?
See that? You just proved my point about Igloo and yourself. Thank you.
Loser.
Subsection (a) does not apply to a party to a judicial proceeding, or that party's counsel, for statements, representations, writings or documents submitted by such party or counsel to a judge or magistrate in that proceeding.
An Open Letter To George Bush
in Useless Blabber
Posted
Dear George and Dick
by Cindy Sheehan
by Cindy Sheehan
Dear George and Dick,
I apologize (not really, you don't deserve my apologies) for the familiarity, but I don't call the people responsible for my son's death: Mr, or Sir, nor do I have any respect for the offices that you have defiled. The only thing you both mean to me is pain and devastation. George and Dick, you are both shameful cowards who are sending our brave young people to die to make yourselves and your buddies unbelievably and fabulously wealthy. Neither of you have any idea of the true human, sorrowful cost of war nor do you care that you are ruining lives by the thousands and thousands. You both disgust me beyond belief. You are not, never have been, and never will be my President or Vice President.
This is what your irresponsible and reckless policies took from me: One year and four days ago my son, Casey Sheehan, was one of the consequences of your lies and betrayals. One of the tens of thousands that your arrogant, pre-emptive, imperialistic policies have killed. I don't know how any of you can sleep at night...I know I can't.
I have wanted to write this letter for over a year.
We know the intelligence leading to the war was "dead" wrong and gleaned from a known liar (your administration likes liars...familiarity, and all), so I have a question for you...
Why are Americans and Iraqis still dying every day?
Then, George and Dick...you both go around spewing the lying filth that "freedom is on the march in Iraq." Well, I have a challenge for both of you: if you believe in freedom so much in Iraq...then send your own children over there to fight and perhaps die in the occupation without the proper training, equipment, food, water, supplies, armor, or protection. If you aren't willing to send your own children to die for this most grievous bull-crap, THEN BRING THE REST OF OUR CHILDREN HOME...NOW!!! The definition of a just war is one that you are willing to have your own children die for. Apply the definition. Then send your own children if you believe this aggression is just...if not THEN BRING THE REST OF OUR CHILDREN HOME...NOW!!!
Do the right thing and BRING OUR TROOPS HOME, NOW!! Not one more drop of blood, not one more penny for this travesty. Do not let our other children be killed for the ephemeral and ever changing "Mission." My son's death will have meaning and not be in vain if it is for peace: if our troops are withdrawn immediately from this abomination that is Iraq.
I dare both of you to do the honorable thing and read about my son...my first-born...my pride and joy...my love...I wish you would read it and weep, but I know neither of you give one flying flip about me, my family, or Casey.
I pray that either one of you, or both of you, grow a vestigial conscience and pray for forgiveness for the killing that your ignorance and arrogance have caused. One time I ran over a kitten and killed it and I was devastated for days...how do either one of you look at yourselves in the mirror? How do you live with the fact that so many innocent people are dead because of your beliefs and actions? I know I couldn't. I know I would have a hard time living with myself if I was responsible for one death, let alone legions of deaths. I really hope someone grows some courage in the House of Representatives and you both are impeached soon.
Again, I reiterate. Celebrate the new found "Culture of Life" in your hypocritical administration. BRING OUR TROOPS HOME. NOW!!!
Do I sound angry? You better believe I am. My son's future was stolen from him. My future with my son is now gone. I never even got to say good-bye to him.
If you have any questions, or would like to hear anymore of my ideas, please feel free to contact me.
Peace,
Cindy Sheehan
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/sheehan4.html