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How Bush Won the War in Iraq – Really!

Greg Palast for Vice Magazine

If you thought it was “Blood for Oil”–you’re wrong.  It was far, far worse.

Because it was marked “confidential” on each page, the oil industry stooge couldn’t believe the US State Department had given me a complete copy of their secret plans for the oil fields of Iraq. Actually, the State Department had done no such thing. But my line of bullshit had been so well-practiced and the set-up on my mark had so thoroughly established my fake identity, that I almost began to believe my own lies.I closed in. I said I wanted to make sure she and I were working from the same State Department draft. Could she tell me the official name, date and number of pages? She did.
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How Bush won the war in Iraq – really!

Greg Palast 

For Vice Magazine

If you thought it was “Blood for Oil”–you’re wrong.  It was far, far worse.

Because it was marked “confidential” on each page, the oil industry stooge couldn’t believe the US State Department had given me a complete copy of their secret plans for the oil fields of Iraq. Actually, the State Department had done no such thing. But my line of bullshit had been so well-practiced and the set-up on my mark had so thoroughly established my fake identity, that I almost began to believe my own lies.I closed in. I said I wanted to make sure she and I were working from the same State Department draft. Could she tell me the official name, date and number of pages? She did.

Bingo! I’d just beaten the Military-Petroleum Complex in a lying contest, so I had a right to be stoked.

After phoning numbers from California to Kazakhstan …more

Fear of Chavez is Fear of Democracy

Greg Palast 

Bush: If it’s our oil, why do Venezuelans get to vote on it?chavezwtext.jpg
GOP panicked that counting votes in Venezuela will spread to Florida

Monday December 3, 2007

The Family Bush can fix Florida. They can fix Ohio. But it’s just driving them crazy that they can’t fix the vote in Venezuela.

[Note: Watch the reports taken from the Palast BBC investigations in Venezuela in the newly released DVD, “The Assassination of Hugo Chavez.“]

The Bush Administration and its press puppies – the same ones who couldn’t get enough of the purple thumbs of voters of Iraq – are absolutely livid that this weekend the electorate of Venezuela had the opportunity to vote.

Typical was the mouth-breathing editorial by the San Francisco Chronicle, that the referendum could make Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s President, “a constitutional dictator for life.” And no less a freedom fighter than Donald Rumsfeld, from the height of the Washington Post, said that by voting, Venezuela was “receding into dictatorship.” Oh, my!

Given that Chavez’ referendum was defeated at the ballot box, we now know that, as a dictator, Chavez is a flop. Of course, without meaning to gainsay Secretary Rumsfeld, maybe Chavez is not a dictator.

Let’s get clear exactly what this vote was about. Firstly, it was a referendum to change the nation’s constitution to end term limits for President.

fdr1.jpgOh, horror! Imagine if we eliminated term limits in the US! We could end up stuck with a president – like Franklin Roosevelt. Worse, if Bill Clinton could have run again, we’d have missed out on the statesmanship of Junior Bush. While US media called Chavez a “tyrant” for suggesting an end to term limits, they somehow forgot to smear the tyrant tag on Mr. Clinton for suggesting the same for the America.

We were not told this weekend’s referendum was a vote on term limits, rather, we were told by virtually every US news outlet that the referendum was to make Chavez, “President for Life.” The “President for Life” canard was mis-reported by no less than The New York Times. …more

Bush’s Fake Sheik Whacked:
The Surge and the Al Qaeda Bunny

Greg Palast 

A special investigative report from inside Iraq
Bush and Abu Risha Photo by AFP

Monday, September 17, 2007- Did you see George all choked up? In his surreal TV talk on Thursday, he got all emotional over the killing by Al Qaeda of Sheik Abu Risha, the leader of the new Sunni alliance with the US against the insurgents in Anbar Province, Iraq.

Bush shook Abu Risha’s hand two weeks ago for the cameras. Bush can shake his hand again, but not the rest of him: Abu Risha was blown away just hours before Bush was to go on the air to praise his new friend.

Here’s what you need to know that NPR won’t tell you.

1. Sheik Abu Risha wasn’t a sheik.
2. He wasn’t killed by Al Qaeda.
3. The new alliance with former insurgents in Anbar is as fake as the sheik – and a murderous deceit.

How do I know this? You can see the film – of “Sheik” Abu Risha, of the guys who likely whacked him and of their other victims.

Just in case you think I’ve lost my mind and put my butt in insane danger to get this footage, don’t worry. I was safe and dry in Budapest. It was my brilliant new cameraman, Rick Rowley, who went to Iraq to get the story on his own.

Rick’s “the future of TV news,” says BBC. He’s also completely out of control. Despite our pleas, …more

Slippery Backroom Deals of the Iraqi Oil Law

Greg Palast 

aw-radio-logo2.gifListen to Palast explain the oil game in Iraq, the deal behind the U.S. attorney scandal, Hillary Clinton’s shameful corruption and her husband’s pardon of arch-criminal Mark Rich, and the deal struck by Republicans to impeach Bill only for the silly sex scandal instead of his felonious relationship with the Indonesian Riady family billionaires as long as the Democrats promised not to expose the Republican’s felonious connections to the American Koch family billionaires.

“I have Karl Rove’s emails”

Greg Palast 

Read the Interview with Palast from the Dollars & Sense magazine spring issue about to hit the streets Dollars & Sense: In the new edition of your book, ARMED MADHOUSE, you report on the theft of the 2008 election. How do know what they’re doing? Any way to stop them?

Palast: I know because I have Karl Rove’s emails. No kidding. He and his team aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer. They sent copies of their plans to GeorgeWBush.ORG instead of GeorgeWBush.COM addresses — and, heh heh, they ended up in my in-box. Who says this job ain’t fun?

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18 Missing Inches in New Orleans

Greg Palast 

The Department of Homeland Security, after a five-year hunt for Osama, finally brought charges against... Greg Palast.

As America crawled toward the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attack, Homeland Security charged me and my US producer Matt Pascarella with violating the anti-terror laws. Don't you feel safer?
And I confess: we're guilty. ...more

Found: Saddam’s Weapon of Mass Destruction

Greg Palast 

[Washington]

This photo of condemned Iraqi ex-strongman Saddam Hussein amid exotic weapons of mass destruction, taken just before the liberation of Iraq, was released Saturday by the White House. Still from Video- Courtesy of NY Times

Proclaiming that the long-awaited evidence of Saddam’s deadly weaponry was now irrefutable, Presidential spokesman Tony Snow displayed the picture of Saddam with bow and arrows [read the original NY Times article] at a special briefing for the Washington press corp.

“These are ‘dirty’ arrows, capable of delivering radioactive materiel wherever shot,” said Snow. …more

I Want To Hurt Somebody

Greg Palast 

Joao Silva, New York TimesFriday, November 3, 2006 for The Guardian (London)

It was pure war-nography. The front page of the New York Times yesterday splashed a four-column-wide close-up of a blood-covered bullet in the blood-soaked hands of an army medic who’d retrieved it from the brain of Lance Cpl. Colin Smith.

There was a 40 column-inch profile of the medic. There were photos of the platoon, guns over shoulders, praying for the fallen buddy. The Times is careful not to ruin the heroic mood, so there is no photograph of pieces of corporal Smith’s shattered head. Instead, there’s an old, smiling photo of the wounded soldier. …more

Silenced by the Drums of War by Jeff Cohen

Greg Palast 

Cable News ConfidentialJeff Cohen http://jeffcohen.org/ is the founder of the media watch group FAIR. For years he was an on-air pundit on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC-as well as senior producer of MSNBC’s primetime Donahue show in 2002/2003. This is adapted from his new book, Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.

Greg Palast will be appearing with Jeff Cohen this Saturday, October 7th, in New Haven Connecticut. The talk will benefit for WPKN’s “Between the Lines” program. Info at http://www.btlonline.org/

Silenced by the Drums of War

by Jeff Cohen

September 11th made 2001 a defining year in our country’s history. But 2002 may have been the strangest. It began with all eyes on Osama bin Laden and ended with Osama bin Forgotten – as the White House turned …more

Was The Invasion of Iraq a Jewish Conspiracy?

Greg Palast 

wolfowitzchina 1 2Tikkun Magazine JULY/AUGUST 2006

Did the Jews do it?

The US Congress will open hearings this week on the War in Iraq — a wee bit late one might think. But one question at the forefront of the minds of many on both the Left and the Right is sure not to be asked: Did the Jews do it? I mean, after killing Jesus, did the Elders of Zion manipulate the government of the United States into invading Babylon as part of a scheme to abet the expansion of Greater Israel? …more

Greg Interviewed on Democracy Now! — About Armed Madhouse

Greg Palast 

Greg Palast on His New Book “Armed Madhouse : Who’s Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats, Bush Sinks, The Scheme to Steal ’08”

Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.orgMonday, May 15, 2006 — Investigative journalist Greg Palast joins us in the Firehouse Studio to discuss the follow-up to his best-selling book “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.” [includes rush transcript ]

Telecom giant Verizon has been sued for giving the National Security Agency the phone records of millions of Americans. …more

Bush Didn’t Bungle Iraq, You Fools
The Mission Was Indeed Accomplished

Greg Palast for The Guardian

Get off it. All the carping, belly-aching and complaining about George Bush's incompetence in Iraq, from both the Left and now the Right, is just dead wrong.
On the third anniversary of the tanks rolling over Iraq's border, most of the 59 million Homer Simpsons who voted for Bush are beginning to doubt if his mission was accomplished. But don't kid yourself ...more

OPEC and The Economic Conquest of Iraq

Greg Palast 

By special arrangement with Harper's magazine, we are reproducing here for the first time the entire updated article on the US government's secret schemes for seizing control of the oil fields of Iraq -- for the benefit of US oil majors and OPEC. ...more