Top 10 George W. Bush Conspiracy Theories By Liberals!
July 27, 2004 Keath Milligan
George W. Bush is quite a man - he is simultaneously a dimwitted
bumpkin stumbling through an illegitimate presidency and a diabolical
mastermind, orchestrating insidious global plots involving dozens of
governments and shadowy intelligence organizations. At least, this is
what you have to conclude if you buy into the plethora of conspiracy
theories that revolve around the president and his administration.
Fueled by intense hatred of Bush and spread like wildfire at
light-speed on web logs, online forums and campus bulletin-boards, the
current administration finds itself the target of more conspiracy
theories and
extreme charges than likely any other in history. They run the gamut
from simply ignorant to elaborate accounts of espionage, intrigue and
government cover-ups. All that's missing is Elvis and alien
abductions.
While most of these never find their way out of the wild-eyed world of
far-left paranoia, a few stand out for being repeated most often -
frequently in the mainstream press and by the Democratic
establishment.
So buckle the chinstrap on your tin-foil hat, find a comfy spot on the
grassy knoll and let's have a look at the Top 10 George W. Bush
Conspiracy Theories:
1) Bush "stole" the election
Right from the start, George W. Bush's administration garnered the
dubious honor of being one of the most controversial in history. The
election debacle in Florida sparked a firestorm of charges of criminal
conduct, voter intimidation and election-rigging. In the end, Bush was
ruled the victor in court, but the experience left Democratic voters
with an intense resentment and the belief that the election was
"stolen" that has simmered ever since.
But in subsequent analysis, most observers concluded that Bush won the
election legitimately. In fact, a comprehensive study conducted by USA
Today and The Miami Herald found that had Al Gore been given his wish
and a hand-count ordered, Bush would have won by an even larger
margin. USA Today wrote, "Bush would have won by 1,665 votes - more
than triple his official 537-vote margin - if every dimple, hanging
chad and mark on the ballots had been counted as votes." The New York
Times and other news organizations reached similar conclusions.
2) Bush is a draft-dodger/deserter
Perhaps as ‘pay-back', this one showed up early in the 2000 race.
However, it was quickly put down by the Gore campaign and the
Democratic mainstream for fear it would be compared to similar charges
made by
Republicans against Bill Clinton - which many believe backfired
against the GOP.
It came up again in the early days of the Democratic primaries, though
- this time not to be put back down any time soon. After John Kerry
was criticized for equating national guard service to "draft-dodging",
the
focus of the charges shifted to whether or not Bush was "AWOL" during
a part of his service.
The story had pretty much died early this year when the credibility of
one of the key witnesses came into question and several others came
forward to defend the president. But it flared up all over again when
it
was revealed that some records of Bush's service records were
inadvertently destroyed. This triggered a new round of speculation
that the destruction of the documents could only be the result of a
White House cover-up and the documents were proof that Bush was
"AWOL".
It was later found, however, that the records had not, in fact, been
destroyed and they showed nothing to support the "AWOL" claims.
3) Bush wants to create a dictatorship
While comparing political opponents to Hitler is nothing new, it's
fairly common practice in European elections, it typically has not
been a topic for serious political discussion in the U.S. - until now.
Mainstream Democratic candidates, pundits and strategists now
routinely and flippantly compare Bush to Hitler and his supporters to
Nazi's.
Under intense criticism, MoveOn.org was forced to remove an ad from
its web site featuring a montage of Bush and Hitler, but not after
attempting to hide it several times by renaming it.
Al Gore, opening speaker of the 2004 Democratic National Convention,
joined the fray earlier this year and possibly coined a new term when
he compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler and said, "The
administration works closely with a network of rapid response digital
Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for
undermining support for our troops." If you recall your history,
you'll remember that ‘Brown Shirts' or Sturmabteilung
(‘Stormtroopers') were a brutal Nazi paramilitary group.
The Patriot Act, passed by an all but unanimous congress (98 to 1 in
the Senate and 356 to 66 in the House), is most-often cited as "proof"
of this conspiracy to overthrow Democracy in the U.S. While the issue
is a worthy topic of debate, suggestions that its motivations are
based on anything other than combating terrorism are simply unfounded.
After many months of investigation and testimony, the 9/11 commission
concluded that pre-emptive action and removing the "walls of
separation" between intelligence and law-enforcement agencies are
critical to
protecting the country from devastating terrorist attacks. This is
precisely what the Patriot Act does.
4) Bush is an Israeli tool
Often targeted at ***** Cheney rather than specifically at the
President, repackaged and revamped for a new generation and a new set
of issues, this rhetoric is nonetheless the same old "Jews control
everything"
baloney espoused by white supremacists and anti-Semitic groups
world-wide. What is new is who is spewing it.
Frequently accented by updated versions of anti-Zionist conspiracy
theories dating back to the 19th century - demonization of Jews,
challenges to the legitimacy of Israel as a state and the charge that
the U.S. government is somehow ‘controlled' by Israelis have long been
favorite themes of many in Europe. Americans, with the exception of
some fringe hate groups, have historically been strong supporters of
Israel. American liberals have also typically been pro-Israel and
sympathetic to the Jewish people.
However, with Mid-East violence dragging on, a growing number of,
mostly younger, liberals in this country now express solidarity with
the Palestinians and condemn Israel - and by extension, the U.S. for
its
support. Today's anti-war protests often feature young people wearing
kafiya (traditional Arab head-dress), Hamas-style paramilitary gear
and other examples of ‘Palestinian chic' meant to show their support
for the
intifada. Let's hope they grow out of this real soon.
5) Bush is a Saudi tool / ‘blood for oil'
The Bush family has had a relationship with the Saudi Arabian bin
Laden family (yes, that bin Laden family) since the 1970s. Let your
imagination go wild.
Long before the September 11th, 2001 attacks, opponents of George H.
Bush used this connection to suggest that his administration was
improperly influenced by the Saudis in the first Gulf War and helped
fuel the original "blood for oil" theme. It was resurrected later to
be used against the younger Bush, but gained little traction.
The conspiracy theorists stitch together accounts from unnamed
sources, hearsay and circumstance to paint murky pictures of
questionable business deals, secret diplomatic maneuverings and
special considerations given to the Saudis. All are bound together by
a common presumption that because there is a relationship, it must
therefore be an inappropriate relationship.
Just when it appeared these stories were destined to wither and die,
the 9/11 attacks occurred and the airwaves and internet were set
ablaze with renewed and updated versions of these accounts plus a new,
and far more sinister, accusation…
6) ‘Bush knew'
This one contends that Bush had specific foreknowledge of the 9/11
attacks and could have prevented them, but chose not to. From here, it
dovetails into a myriad of sub-theories ranging from Orwellian
conjecture about keeping the public in fear to elaborate "wag the dog"
scenarios of incredible evil.
The charge has been kept alive well into the presidential race. In
2003, then Democratic frontrunner, Howard Dean, picked up the theme on
national radio and said Bush "was warned ahead of time" about 9/11.
Later asked to clarify, Dean admitted he didn't believe this to be the
case but added "we don't know and it would be nice to know."
Indeed, many signals were missed by both the Clinton and Bush
administrations. As then-CIA director George Tenet put it, "the system
was blinking red". However, the 9/11 commission's investigation
concluded that a combination of bureaucratic and procedural barriers
and a "lack of imagination" among intelligence and national security
organizations led to the failure to predict and prevent the attacks.
In
fact, the report shows that Richard Clarke, then counter-terrorism
chief and author of Against All Enemies, one of the pre-eminent texts
supporting this theory, considered the scenario of suicide hijacking
of airliners to be "just one more speculative theory among many".
The commission's report cites many intelligence failures leading up to
the attacks, but does not support any assertion that the president or
members of his administration intentionally allowed the tragedy to
occur.
7) Bush allowed bin Laden's family to ‘escape' after 9/11
Shortly after September 11th, it was learned that many Saudi citizens,
including many members of the bin Laden family were allowed to leave
the country immediately after the attacks. Craig Unger's book House of
Bush, House of Saud brought further attention to the story and the
author challenged the 9/11 commission to find out who authorized the
flights. The ensuing firestorm of charges and debate dominated the
news for weeks.
As it turns out, it was none other than Richard Clarke who authorized
the flights. In March, with the release of his book pending, Clarke
testified before the 9/11 commission that he had "refused to approve"
the flights and referred them to the FBI, who issued the approval.
However, as the investigation moved forward, Clarke's original
testimony came into question and in May, Clarke completely
contradicted himself and claimed sole responsibility for authorizing
the flights.
9/11 commission report concludes that 1) no flights of Saudi nationals
took place before airspace was officially reopened; 2) there is "no
evidence of political intervention" in the authorization of the
flights
and 3) the FBI did, in fact, screen all Saudi nationals who left on
charter flights.
8) Bush made up Iraq-al Qaeda connection to justify war
Critics of the Bush administration, including many who voted to give
the president authorization to invade Iraq, charged that there was no
connection between Iraq and terrorism. Once again, Richard Clarke was
at
the center of the controversy. "There's absolutely no evidence that
Iraq was supporting al Qaeda, ever" he is quoted as saying in early
2004. And once again, his words are contradicted by the official 9/11
commission report.
The commission concluded that while Iraq was not involved in the
planning or orchestration of the WTC attacks (which the Bush
administration never contended), it did find "extensive and troubling"
contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda. In fact, the report found that
Richard Clarke himself believed there was an Iraq-al Qaeda connection
and quotes him as speculating that a large Iraqi presence at chemical
facilities in Khartoum was "probably the direct result of the Iraq-al
Qida [sic] agreement".
9) Bush made up the notion of Iraqi WMD to justify war
Through the mid and late nineties and well into the Bush
administration's first term, current and former leaders, advisers and
intelligence officials believed Iraq possessed weapons of mass
destruction and feared Saddam Hussein would use them just as he did on
his own citizens in Halabja.
Sandy Berger, former Clinton National Security Adviser, and more
recently former Kerry consultant, said the following in 1998, "He
[Hussein] will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has
ten times since 1983."
Former Clinton administration Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
said in the same forum, "For the risks that the leaders of a rogue
state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or
our allies is
the greatest security threat we face."
The Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 was passed by an overwhelming majority
in congress and signed in 1998 by then President Clinton. It called
for regime change in Iraq.
10) ‘Bush lied'
Of all the charges against the president, few have received as much
coverage and attention as this one. President Bush's 2003 State of the
Union speech included the following famous "16 words" that would seed
one of the most damning conspiracy theories of all:
''The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently
sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." -President
Bush, State of the Union address, 2003.
Shortly after the address, the CIA dispatched Joseph C. Wilson IV to
Africa to investigate further. Upon returning, Wilson wrote a New York
Times editorial with the snarky title "What I Didn't Find in Africa".
In it Wilson concluded that the Iraqis never sought uranium and
charged the Bush administration with taking the country to war under
false pretenses.
The story exploded. It instantly became front page news all over the
world and the ‘Bush Lied' meme would be forever seared into the
public's collective conscience. Wilson landed a book deal, ‘Bush lied'
web sites, bumper stickers, t-shirts and other items were everywhere
and Bush's approval rating was dropping fast. The Democrats finally
had the "smoking gun" they needed against Bush.
Wilson was treated as a whistle-blowing hero by the media and the
Democrats. The John Kerry campaign hosted Wilson's web site, "Restore
Honesty", promoted his book and quoted his editorials often. But the
first cracks in the story started to show, ironically, when Wilson's
own book was released. Many questioned the apparent inconsistencies
between the book and Wilson's earlier Times editorial.
Then in late June the story was blown apart by a rapid-fire salvo of
reports that not only contradicted what Wilson reported regarding
Iraq's
attempts to acquire uranium, but also contradicted statements he had
made regarding his wife's role in recommending him for the assignment.
The first was a Senate Intelligence Committee report, critical of the
CIA for its role in Iraq WMD intelligence, which revealed that both
French and British intelligence agencies had warned the US about
possible Iraqi attempts to acquire uranium. Then the Financial Times
reported that three European intelligence services were aware of
possible illegal uranium trade involving Niger and at least five other
countries, including Iraq. Finally, the British Butler commission,
tasked with investigating MI6 intelligence handling leading up to the
Iraq war, concluded that reports of an Iraq-Niger uranium connection
were credible and that Bush's statements were "well-founded".
The Kerry campaign has since removed all references to Joe Wilson from
its web site.
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Keath Milligan
Austin, Texas
http://keathmilligan.net - News, Tech, Politics, Software
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Liberals Hate America!
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