Meditation Focus #112

Thwarting An Imminent Coup d'etat
Through The Power of Love



Hello,

What follows is the 112th Meditation Focus suggested for the next 3 (THREE) weeks beginning Sunday, June 6, 2004.

THWARTING AN IMMINENT COUP D'ETAT THROUGH THE POWER OF LOVE

1. Summary
2. Meditation times
3. More information related to this Meditation Focus
4. Humanitarian Vigil for Darfur, Sudan

Global Spiritual Event: The June 8 Venus Transit

For your convenience, material received from different sources in the past few days in relation to the Venus Transit has been compiled and archived at http://www.aei.ca/~cep/VenusTransit.htm



1. SUMMARY

The world is now in the clutch of a potential risk that may tilt the balance of things either towards the Light or towards a precipitous decline into a time of great darkness. It is believed, from spiritual sources that the worst aspects of plans now afoot to terrorize the American public and much of the world into submission under a dictatorial regime designed to perpetuate the power of an elite cabal can and will be prevented. Nevertheless, it is also believed that with global assistance from Light Servers and awakening souls all over the world, this situation can become an epochal turning point that will precipitate the long-heralded new era of universal peace, love and harmony on Earth. Here is briefly what is at stake.

Faced with a growing debacle of its plan for occupation and control of Iraq now turned into a grueling quagmire, faced also with almost universal revulsion following the revelations of widespread torture in Iraq and a near complete loss of credibility at home and abroad, it is being surmised that the unelected Bush Administration and the secret operatives controlling it have resolved that only an extreme pseudo-terrorist attack or series of attacks will suffice to create the needed crisis conditions to either turn the tide of public opinion in their favor, or cancel altogether the planned November 4 elections and impose a military regime under permanent martial law. The signs indicating that such is their plan are too numerous to ignore and too convincing to characterize as mere conspiracy theories. The mood in the White House is desperate and such desperate actions, implemented by rogue elements within the US government, are not only possible, as shown during their first big terrorist event on 9/11, but also are becoming increasingly likely -- unless these plans are thwarted by U.S. military elements fed up with current policies and the torture scandal befalling them, as well as by a coalition of off and on planet Light forces combining their efforts to both erect a wall of Light around those planning these actions and shower the dark entities behind this cabal with the redeeming Power of Love, so as to make them either retreat from directing these planned actions or have a change of heart and come back to the Light, as is always possible.

Please dedicate your prayers and meditations, as guided by Spirit, in the coming three (3) weeks, and especially in synchronous attunement at the usual time this Sunday and the following two Sundays, to contribute in fostering throughout the world a sense that unjust, cruel actions by governments, no matter their apparent legitimacy or rationale, must no longer be allowed so that a new era of peace, justness, kindness, compassion, forgiveness and cooperation may soon arise on Earth and bring the entire human family into united actions to end all sufferings and desecration of Life, ensuring a fair sharing of resources and a happy, fulfilling life for all souls. May we let the Light of Love grow exponentially in our hearts and may we all unite as one vibrant collective community of brothers and sisters, increasingly aware of our unity with All That Is, for the Highest Good of All.


This whole Meditation Focus has been archived for your convenience at http://www.aei.ca/~cep/MeditationFocus112.htm


"Are the warnings valid of new and perhaps even more broadly-based terror attempts prior to the US election? Yes, they are indeed valid, and how could they not be when the very same few people who order the warnings to be reported are the ones who plan and direct the terrorist activities? They directed the September 11, 2001, coordination of planes hitting the twin towers and the destruction of part of the Pentagon and the crash of the plane in a field. The truth of this will be exposed sufficiently to implicate the instigators at a level where thinking minds will know that the highest officials were complicit in planning and executing those events. Before I speak more of that day, I shall repeat what always I have said in conjunction with the validity of terrorist alerts. The aid of civilizations far advanced of you spiritually, intellectually and technologically has been and will continue to be at the ready to prevent the direst of the predictions, from major explosions to nuclear war."

- Matthew Ward -- Taken from his just received June 5 message included in full below.



2. MEDITATION TIMES

i) Global Meditation Day: Sunday at 16:00 Universal Time (GMT) or at noon local time. Suggested duration: 30 minutes. Please dedicate the last few minutes of your Sunday meditation to the healing of the Earth as a whole. See the Earth as healthy and vibrant with life, and experience the healing of all relations as we awaken globally to the sacredness of all Life and to our underlying unity with All That Is.

ii) Golden Moment of At-Onement: Daily, at the top of any hour, or whenever it better suits you.

These times below are currently corresponding to 16:00 Universal Time/GMT:

Honolulu 6:00 AM -- Anchorage * 8:00 AM -- Los Angeles * 9:00 AM -- Mexico City, San Salvador & Denver * 10:00 AM -- Houston * & Chicago * 11:00 AM -- Santo Domingo, La Paz, Caracas, New York *, Toronto *. Montreal *, Asuncion & Santiago 12:00 AM -- Halifax *, Rio de Janeiro & Montevideo 1:00 PM -- Reykjavik & Casablanca 4 PM -- Lagos, Algiers, London *, Dublin * & Lisbon * 5:00 PM -- Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Geneva *, Rome *, Berlin *, Paris * & Madrid * 6:00 PM -- Ankara *, Athens *, Helsinki * & Istanbul * & Nairobi 7:00 PM -- Baghdad *, Moscow * 8:00 PM -- Tehran * 8:30 PM -- Islamabad 9:00 PM -- Calcutta & New Delhi 9:30 PM -- Dhaka 10:00 PM -- Rangoon 10:30 PM -- Hanoi, Bangkok & Jakarta 11:00 PM -- Hong Kong, Perth, Beijing & Kuala Lumpur +12:00 PM -- Seoul & Tokyo +1:00 AM -- Brisbane, Canberra & Melbourne +2:00 AM -- Wellington +4:00 AM

+ means the place is one day ahead of Universal Time/Greenwich Mean Time.

* means the place is observing daylight saving time (DST) at the moment.

You may also check at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/full.html to find your current corresponding local time if a closeby city is not listed above.



3. MORE INFORMATION RELATED TO THIS MEDITATION FOCUS

This complement of information may help you to better understand the various aspects pertaining to the summary description of the subject of this Meditation Focus. It is recommended to view this information from a positive perspective, and not allow the details to tinge the positive vision we wish to hold in meditation. Since what we focus on grows, the more positive our mind-set, the more successful we will be in manifesting a vision of peace and healing. This complementary information is provided so that a greater knowledge of what needs healing and peace-nurturing vibrations may assist us to have an in-depth understanding of what is at stake and thus achieve a greater collective effectiveness.

Rogue Bush Backers prepare Super 9/11 False Flag Terror Attacks (June 2)
http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/print.php?storyid=355

(...) In the case of Spain, US elites have been shocked by the failure of the March 11 terror attacks to accomplish their obvious goal of stampeding support to the right-wing, neo-falangist government of Jose Maria Aznar. Due to the intelligence and courage of the Spanish people, these attacks in effect backfired, as Aznar's blatant lying secured the election of the anti-Bush candidate, Zapatero. US elites have been profoundly concerned that the terror weapon, which they had regarded as a sure-fire means of coalescing support around an existing government, can also bring down that government. Their main conclusion seems to be that, for guaranteed success, the terrorism must be so colossal that the planned elections can simply be cancelled, as Aznar tried but failed to do.

The three principal leaders of world aggression, Bush, Blair, and Sharon, are now engulfed by domestic political crises threatening them with ouster over the short term, with increased danger of prosecution and the wrecking of their political machines amidst recrimination for the Iraq and other disasters. Bush and his neocon handlers in particular face a rising tide of hatred in their own armed forces, especially in the US Army, which has born the brunt of their utopian aggressive policies. Bush's handlers are also worried that their man's reputation as an anti-terror leader, his only conceivable basis for asking to be returned to office, has been deeply tarnished by Condoleezza Rice's wretched performance and attendant revelations during the April-May hearings of the Kean-Hamilton Commission on 9-11. This has gone so far that only a new large-scale terror event could restore Bush's credentials, they reason.

Concomitantly with these events, the New York-London financial system has begun to exhibit symptoms of severe instability leading to systemic crisis. The US is now running a merchandise trade deficit of over $500 billion, and a federal budget deficit which actually approaches $750 billion. This is a bankrupt state. Interest rates on US government securities have risen sharply since early April, and the resulting rising interest rates have raised fears of an explosion of the housing bubble of the past years.

This is expressed by the de facto bankruptcy of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which represent trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities, and whose implosion would wreck US capital markets. The Federal Reserve now says that even the biggest banks may not be too big to fail. For the average person, the net impact of this new turbulence is readily seen in the sky-high price of gasoline, building materials, and related commodities. An integral feature of the post-coup regime now being planned would be to keep these bankrupt institutions alive with the help of government bailouts.

Because of the manifest bankruptcy of the United States, the Anglo-American finance oligarchs fear the termination of the US dollar as a reserve currency. This would take the form of a dumping of the dollar as the currency in which the posted price of oil is expressed by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, and other OPEC states. The former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir Mohammed has issued repeated calls for such a measure, and also urged Moslem countries to sell off their US Treasury securities, for financial as well as political reasons. The far stronger and more stable euro would be the beneficiary of these moves, and it is the euro which would prove to be far more attractive to most countries in a world divided into currency blocks.

Finally, there are signs that the absurd myth propagated by the US government and the controlled corporate media about the events of 9-11 is fraying. Although the Kean-Hamilton Commission has been on the whole a half-baked farce, it has unavoidably produced a number of facts as a by-product of its proceedings - facts which have begun to undermine public belief in the Myth. David Ray Griffin's book The New Pearl Harbor has emerged as a runaway best-seller in the wake of similar books in France and Germany, and is now among the top ten on amazon.com. Calls have multiplied for a serious independent international truth commission on 9-11 to do the work the Kean-Hamilton cover-up has refused to address. A dismantling of the 9-11 myth would lead, in all probability, to the collapse of the US Republican Party and related institutions in the context of a general party re-alignment.

Taken together, these developments would add up to the collapse of the entire US imperialist system. The protagonists of the coming terror are determined to disrupt these processes, imposing on the world a regime of unilateral US diktat and military intervention, with a domestic police state to make sure that no opposition emerges on the home front.

(...) The situation of the party of terrorism inside the United States is uncertain. The political leaders who would be the beneficiaries of new terror attacks would be figures like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Ashcroft, Ridge, and the neocon Gestapo (as Colin Powell calls it) in general. The main agencies for their dictatorship would be FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), Ridge's Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the FBI. The US military, especially the US Army, has now become profoundly disillusioned with the Bush-Cheney preventive war policy. They also resent being scapegoated for the Abu Graib atrocities, which were ordered by CIA, DIA, and Cheney's mercenary contractors. Some generals now realize that a successful terror coup, which would have the result of cementing the current gang in power for the foreseeable future - without benefit of checks and balances - would guarantee that US forces would be fed into meatgrinders far worse than Iraq.

In addition to Syria, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba, a post-coup USD regime could not avoid collision with China and/or Russia. It remains to be seen whether this awareness will be enough to motivate the US military to do something to stop the coup which is now imminent. Similar considerations apply to the State Department, which has virtually no place in the post-coup world eagerly planned by the neocons.

CLIP - Read this whole article below or at http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/print.php?storyid=355

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Matthew - June 5, 2004

S: Matthew, dear, you said you want to give me a message for sending out.

MATTHEW: Yes, Mother, I do. Fear-filled reports are flying on the Internet and in your mainstream media covering all bases from natural disasters to a crash in the world economy to heightened terror alerts. Although some of these are put out with good intentions to inform of impending or potential events, as usual some are strategically designed to instill fear and thus your discernment of all available information is necessary. Before I address these current reports, I want to emphasize yet once again that Earth is moving in accordance with her intention to reach fourth density and proceed into fifth. Please do not let fear deter you from going along with her! I ask that you keep this in mind as I continue.

You may instantly dismiss all reports of natural disasters changing coastlines, submerging islands, or destruction of vast areas. While there will be more quakes and volcanic eruptions and storms to further relieve negativity, nothing of the predicted severity will happen, and your extraterrestrial brothers and sisters have the technology to greatly alleviate the effects of the forthcoming necessary geological events just as they have been doing for decades.

Generally I do not speak in great detail about situations nor do I address the United States economy, but that situation is becoming an alarm bell that, considering its domino effects, is ranking in potential ramifications with terrorism. The latter long has been at the forefront of your news reports by dark intention, and the former has been kept from you until no longer can the state of the economy remain hidden.

Mother, twice recently you have been asked by individuals about matters related to money, and in both cases I replied that a renewed and stronger attack on all avenues of funding for light services and products has been initiated by the dark forces. I advised the requestors’ that anticipated funding would be delayed, but to keep focused positively and eventually the money would be available.

This applies well beyond the plans of light-filled individuals being suspended temporarily—it is a global situation that will have repercussion from top to bottom. This is not surprising to thinking minds that have been seeing stock markets bloated beyond a modicum of good sense. The United States, considered the wealthiest country on the planet, would be more accurately denoted as bankrupt.

Except at the higher levels, there is a perpetual cycle of investment and loss, rising prices and reduced or lost incomes. Property is being purchased with minimum down payments and low interest rates, and increasingly owners are losing their jobs and thence their homes. Unemployment figures are much higher than reported; corporate mergers that wipe out smaller businesses and theft by top management continue; and retirement funds have been stolen by the billions, creating financial hardship for people who depend upon those to sustain them after their working years. Whether out of necessity or frivolous spending, credit card use with its usurious interest rates adds to the worsening situation. Diverting your attention from these situations is the media’s emphasis on trivial matters and entertainment and the meaningless promises of the two leading presidential candidates.

Further, income tax laws allow great loopholes for the wealthiest while additionally burdening those who still have small incomes. At this point, few people are aware that the Federal Reserve System that governs the United States monetary system is not part of that government but rather is a banking consortium with the Internal Revenue Service as its private tax collector. Most of the unprecedented national debt is owed to the Federal Reserve System, which orders currency to be printed by the Treasury Department, buys it at a tiny fraction of the face value and then lends it to the government at actual face value. Not only is this usury on a gargantuan scale, but there is no foundation whatsoever for all the Federal Reserve notes in circulation.

A severe imbalance like this cannot be sustained by individuals or a nation—and the imbalance WILL BE righted, do not doubt this! But in the short-term, financial situations will continue to deteriorate until reforms are in place to turn this around.
Although I am speaking for myself today and not as the appointed spokesperson for many, in this I can say “we” because at this vibrational level, all souls know that NESARA—National Economic Security and Reformation Act—must be implemented before desperately needed economic and political reforms can be instituted. We are equally aware that just as there are people dedicated to making this US legislation known in that country as well as the rest of the world, there also are non-believers. That is understandable, as the act is being denied by the very ones who will lose their power as soon as it is implemented. And the masses are not yet aware that this divinely inspired program based on US constitutional law exists.

I repeat what I have said before: Your world’s good fortune in this instance is that familiarity with NESARA or belief in it isn’t necessary—your steadfast thoughts and desires for peace and harmony are enough, as their collective energy is what is manifesting a world of love and peace. That is the intent of NESARA, to end the reign of the dark powers that generation after generation have initiated all forms of violence, unjustness, suffering, disease and inequity for millennia. Specifically the act’s provisions include constitutional means to end the current unlawfully elected presidential administration; reverse its policies that are so destructive to all life forms on Earth; and cancel the Federal Reserve’s hold on the US economy, which reverberates globally, and restore a sound basis of precious metals to the monetary system. Where any truthful information about the rampant deception and corruption of this current regime—and many before it—is known, surely these measures can be recognized as essential preludes to your living in a harmonious world!

Not all members of the current Congress and all government agencies approve of the president’s draconian efforts to control the affairs of other countries even as domestic affairs are reaching untenable levels of hardship and injustice. Moreover, it is in conjunction with powerful persons of equally dark intent throughout the world that this administration’s aims are not national security, but world domination.

And that brings me back to the issue of global terrorism that often I have addressed in prior messages. Are the warnings valid of new and perhaps even more broadly-based terror attempts prior to the US election? Yes, they are indeed valid, and how could they not be when the very same few people who order the warnings to be reported are the ones who plan and direct the terrorist activities? They directed the September 11, 2001, coordination of planes hitting the twin towers and the destruction of part of the Pentagon and the crash of the plane in a field. The truth of this will be exposed sufficiently to implicate the instigators at a level where thinking minds will know that the highest officials were complicit in planning and executing those events.

Before I speak more of that day, I shall repeat what always I have said in conjunction with the validity of terrorist alerts. The aid of civilizations far advanced of you spiritually, intellectually and technologically has been and will continue to be at the ready to prevent the direst of the predictions, from major explosions to nuclear war. Although monitoring has been diligent, false information by one of the dark forces misguided the Earth teams so that prevention of the train bombings in Spain was thwarted, and since that time, scrutiny has been tightened both on the surface and beyond the planet. Additional ETs with extraordinary powers of both perception and self-protection have taken form on the planet, surveillance teams in spacecraft have increased their vigilant missions, and the reporting systems between them and their colleagues on Earth have been expanded. And not least, people formerly convinced that they were being truthfully informed now are realizing that they were supporting the dark side, and they have joined the ranks of the active lightworkers.

Now then, I shall mention some of the facts of 9/11 that we in these stations of light know as truth and that can be verified by those among you who are considered experts in their fields. The planes were remotely controlled by measures designed to override any manual maneuvers by pilots. The towers were designed to withstand the force of the largest planes hitting them directly. The towers collapsed due to controlled demolition measures, by explosives strategically located and detonated in timely rhythm; witnesses reported hearing explosions prior to the buildings falling. Both the Pentagon and the plane that crashed in the field were hit by scalar beam weaponry. Regarding the Pentagon, the beams were aimed at the section where a communications group had been recently relocated. Results of a major airliner hitting that building at top speed would have penetrated more deeply and devastated more broadly than photos of the destruction showed; further, no one saw any plane approaching that building and there was no way a plane could have struck as the damage showed without being seen at near ground level.

There is much more to consider concerning all that happened that day: Why were many employees in the towers warned prior to September 11th not to report for work that day? Why were standard procedures for intercept planes in no-fly zones not followed, and especially so around the Pentagon after the towers were struck?

Why was the debris of the towers so quickly collected and disposed of? Where were the remains of the plane claimed to have hit the Pentagon and why were no bodies recovered from the tail section? Why were the “black boxes,” designed to withstand far more heat and impact than they sustained, declared destroyed? Why, within a day or two, were 19 terrorists identified by name and photos, and later, when it was discovered that several were alive, was there no widespread challenge to the original report? Why, after being informed of the first tower being hit, did the US president continue to spend time with young school children instead of immediately departing the room to act as a responsible Commander in Chief would have?

Many other aspects of that day also point to the culpable parties, who needed something of that shocking and tragic nature to start the “war on terrorism” by causing the justification for it. This is what you are seeing today, the extension of the dark plans to weaken not only the invaded countries, but ultimately all countries on the road to global control. This will not happen! Not only I, but other high beings of light have been sending forth this assurance through respected messengers on the planet. We have repeatedly stated the need for you to send love energy to the dark ones as that is the most powerful healing force in the universe. Not hatred of them, but focusing on the opposite of their actions—on peace, justness, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, cooperation—is what will end the darkness on Earth.

We have asked that you participate in this transition because that is your soul level choice, but do not to set a timetable for the completion of Earth’s journey out of darkness. Know that in every moment you have the assistance of your ET family, in every moment hearts and minds are opening and the love-light is expanding, in every moment you are traveling into the higher vibrations of the promised Golden Age, the era of Earth’s return to her Eden self.

Many more messages (143!) from Matthew at http://tinyurl.com/2ewah - See also www.matthewbooks.com

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Date: 04 Jun 2004
From: Carol Brouillet cbrouillet@igc.org>
Subject: 9/11 Truth Movement Urges Scrutiny of Official Terrorists

Press Release - June 5, 2004

Press Contacts - Carol Brouillet
Organizer of the International Inquiry into 9-11, Phase One http://www.communitycurrency.org/InquiryProgram.html
650-857-0927, cbrouillet@igc.org
Jan Hoyer, 9-11 Visibility Project, 816-524-3213 home, 816-517-5271 cell
Link to Phase Two - http://www.911inquiry.org,

9/11 Truth Movement Urges Scrutiny of Official Terrorists

Toronto, May 25-31. Authors, researchers, activists, journalists, and people from around the world converged to participate in The International Citizens Inquiry into 9-11, Phase Two. The flaws in the official story, as well as evidence that the U.S. officials have lied about the events of September 11th, destroyed key evidence, have actively engaged in a cover-up, and appear to be the prime benefactors of the crime, has prompted the participants to alert the public that the criminals behind 9-11 are planning worse attacks.

Webster Tarpley, author of George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992), [on the Internet at http://www.tarpley.net] spoke at length at both Inquiries (Phase One took place in San Francisco last March) about state sponsored terrorism, the psychological, philosophical, and chronological links from the Nazis to the neoconservative entourage in positions of power pushing The Project for a New American Century. (Full article at http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=355). Top government officials are the ones currently guaranteeing the next attacks, trying to terrorize Congress and the public into accepting their rule and submitting to their agenda, as their credibility and popularity plunge.

A former member of Canada's Pearson and Trudeau cabinets, founder of the Canadian Action Party, Paul Hellyer (photo link- http://911inquirytoronto.digitalstyledesigns.com/pages/Paul%20Hellier2_jpg.htm) attended the Citizens Inquiry and condemned the official Inquiry as being very shallow and superficial and noted he would like to see someone in a position of authority ask questions about Bush and foreknowledge, and insist on getting answers. "We have to try and get the truth."

Grandson of Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet who took the blame for the Pearl Harbor attack, Tom Kimmel spoke on the similarity between Pearl Harbor and 9-11. ( His article on the politics of the "National Commissions" is at http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/6373/) Pearl Harbor was the pretext for the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency- supposedly to prevent future Pearl Harbors. While Tom refused to answer "Who was behind the 9-11 attacks?" the pattern he laid out prompted Carol Brouillet, organizer of San Franciscoís Phase One to say-

"9-11 appears to be the pretext for the creation of Homeland Security- and a new "Global Security State"- supposedly to prevent future 9-11s. The "terrorist threat" is the perfect tool to advance corporate globalization and relabel anyone that opposes corporate or government policies anywhere in the world "a terrorist." The real terrorists are the current cabal occupying the White House using 9-11 to launch wars against the constitution, the Bill of Rights, Afghanistan, Iraq, the vast majority of humanity who cherish peace, freedom and life."

Financial analyst Robert McHugh noted in his May 30th forecast (http://www.safehaven.com/article-1597.htm)

"The Federal Reserve has confirmed our Stock Market Crash forecast by raising the Money Supply (M-3) by crisis proportions, up another 46.8 billion this past week. What awful calamity do they see? Something is up. This is unprecedented, unheard-of pre-catastrophe M-3 expansion. M-3 is up an amount that we've never seen before without a crisis - $155 billion over the past 4 weeks, a $2.0 trillion annualized pace, a 22.2 percent annualized rate of growth!!! There must be a crisis of historic proportions coming, and the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States is making sure that there is enough liquidity in place to protect our nation's fragile financial system. The amazing thing is, the Fed's actions mean they know what is about to happen. They are aware of a terrible, horrific imminent event. What could it be?

One can draw no other conclusion except that the Fed is acting irresponsibly in its managing the money supply, in fulfilling its duty to "maintain a stable currency." I reject the notion that the Fed is acting irresponsibly. No, something is up, bigger than we have ever seen in the history of the United States."

There were many financial indicators that "insiders" profited from their foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks. The 9/11 Truth Movement raises the questions- Who benefited? Who had the ability to commit, carry out, and cover-up the crimes? Organizer of the Toronto Inquiry Director Barrie Zwicker stated-

"If we want to learn the truth about 9/11, we will have to find it for ourselves."

Carol Brouillet, U.S. citizen, adds "Our best hope of preventing another attack is by exposing the truth about 9/11 and holding those responsible accountable; it is up to us to rein in a criminal government."

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From: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4636.shtml

June 4, 2004

Bush's Behavior Worries Aides

By DOUG THOMPSON Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue

President George W. Bush's increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader's state of mind. In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as "enemies of the state."

Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home. "It reminds me of the Nixon days," says a longtime GOP political consultant with contacts in the White House. "Everybody is an enemy; everybody is out to get him. That's the mood over there."

In interviews with a number of White House staffers who were willing to talk off the record, a picture of an administration under siege has emerged, led by a man who declares his decisions to be "God's will" and then tells aides to "fuck over" anyone they consider to be an opponent of the administration.

"We're at war, there's no doubt about it. What I don't know anymore is just who the enemy might be," says one troubled White House aide. "We seem to spend more time trying to destroy John Kerry than al Qaeda and our enemies list just keeps growing and growing."

Aides say the President gets "hung up on minor details," micromanaging to the extreme while ignoring the bigger picture. He will spend hours personally reviewing and approving every attack ad against his Democratic opponent and then kiss off a meeting on economic issues.

"This is what is killing us on Iraq," one aide says. "We lost focus. The President got hung up on the weapons of mass destruction and an unproven link to al Qaeda. We could have found other justifiable reasons for the war but the President insisted the focus stay on those two, tenuous items."

Aides who raise questions quickly find themselves shut out of access to the President or other top advisors. Among top officials, Bush's inner circle is shrinking. Secretary of State Colin Powell has fallen out of favor because of his growing doubts about the administration's war against Iraq.

The President's abrupt dismissal of CIA Directory George Tenet Wednesday night is, aides say, an example of how he works.

"Tenet wanted to quit last year but the President got his back up and wouldn't hear of it," says an aide. "That would have been the opportune time to make a change, not in the middle of an election campaign but when the director challenged the President during the meeting Wednesday, the President cut him off by saying 'that's it George. I cannot abide disloyalty. I want your resignation and I want it now."

Tenet was allowed to resign "voluntarily" and Bush informed his shocked staff of the decision Thursday morning. One aide says the President actually described the decision as "God's will."

God may also be the reason Attorney General John Ashcroft, the administration's lightning rod because of his questionable actions that critics argue threatens freedoms granted by the Constitution, remains part of the power elite. West Wing staffers call Bush and Ashcroft "the Blues Brothers" because "they're on a mission from God."

"The Attorney General is tight with the President because of religion," says one aide. "They both believe any action is justifiable in the name of God."

But the President who says he rules at the behest of God can also tongue-lash those he perceives as disloyal, calling them "fucking assholes" in front of other staff, berating one cabinet official in front of others and labeling anyone who disagrees with him "unpatriotic" or "anti-American."

"The mood here is that we're under siege, there's no doubt about it," says one troubled aide who admits he is looking for work elsewhere. "In this administration, you don't have to wear a turban or speak Farsi to be an enemy of the United States. All you have to do is disagree with the President."

The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the record.

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THIS INFORMATION IS ALL OVER THE INTERNET
http://www.google.ca/search?q=Rogue+Bush+Backers+prepare+Super+9%2F11&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

From: http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/print.php?storyid=355

Rogue Bush Backers prepare Super 9/11 False Flag Terror Attacks

INN Preview Exclusive - June 2 (With many pictures)

By Webster Griffin Tarpley

Toronto, May 30 - Intelligence patterns monitored over the US Memorial Day weekend now point conclusively to an imminent new round of ABC (atomic-bacteriological-chemical) terror attacks in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and possibly other nations. These attacks could include nuclear detonations, radiological dirty bombs, poison gas and other chemical weapons, or biological agents, to be unleashed in such urban settings as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, Vancouver BC, or London.

The goal of these operations would be to produce a worldwide shock several orders of magnitude greater than the original 9-11, with a view to stopping the collapse of the Bush administration, the Wall Street-centered financial structures, and the US-UK strategic position generally. The attacks would be attributed by US/UK intelligence to controlled patsy terrorist groups who would be linked by the media to countries like Iran, Syria, Cuba, or North Korea.

The organizers of the attacks would in reality be substantially the same secret command cell in the United States which set up the 9-11 events and its associated networks, which have been able to continue in operation because of the abject failure of all 9-11 investigations to date to identify them....

These forces are now in a desperate flight forward to escape from their current increasingly grim position. Their goal is now to establish a neocon fascist dictatorship in the United States, complete with martial law, special tribunals, press and media censorship, and the full pervasive apparatus of the modern police state.

The chatter in Washington points to state-sponsored terrorism on a grand scale, with the desperados of the neocon faction calling the shots. The looming event will be an "own goal" of the Americans.

In short, a coup d'etat is being prepared in the United States - not a coup against the existing government, but rather for the purpose of disciplining and dragooning the entire political process for escalated foreign aggression, with the homeland secured by emergency rule. It goes without saying that those associated with such a coup are felons, war criminals, and traitors to their country.

The leading edge of the propaganda campaign designed to establish the credibility of the coming ABC (atomic, bacteriological, chemical) terror wave is the May 26 press conference of Attorney General Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller to announce the coming summer "perfect storm" of terrorism. According to advance wire service reports, "U.S. officials have obtained new intelligence deemed highly credible indicating al-Qaeda or other terrorists are in the United States and preparing to launch a major attack this summer.(AP, 25 May 2004)

The following is a partial grid of evidence backing up this thesis. This overview cannot be exhaustive, but is sufficiently comprehensive to establish that a new pattern does indeed exist.

Official Statements

Since the beginning of April, there has been a qualitative escalation in the urgency and vehemence of the terror demagogy of the Bush administration. Bush and especially Cheney have made terror warning their stock in trade since September 11, 2001, but early April 2004 stands out as a watershed, for reasons which are discussed below.

A dramatic turning point on the way to the current emergency came on April 21, when Bush delivered two speeches which represented a palpable escalation of the tone of his usual demagogy of terrorism and fear. In the afternoon, he assured the Newspaper Association of America, composed of newspaper editors, that Iran "will be dealt with" if they pursue a nuclear development program. Bush went on to characterize the United States as "a battlefield in the war on terror."

He was at pains to build up the stature of Al Qaeda, whose members he emphatically characterized as "smart, tough, and sophisticated." Because the terrorist are so formidable, Bush said that the United States "is a hard country to defend. Our intelligence is good. It's just never perfect, is the problem. We are disrupting some cells here in America. We're chasing people down. But it is - we've got a big country."

Later, Bush spoke to the same themes at a closed-door gathering at the White House. "...On Tuesday evening, Bush told Republican congressional leaders during a meeting at the White House that it was all but certain that terrorists would attempt a major attack on the United States before the election, according to a congressional aide. The leaders were struck by Bush's definitiveness and gravity, the aide said... (Washington Post, 4/22/04)"

Vice President Cheney has been predicting imminent terrorist attacks on the US in many of his speeches since no later than May 20, 2002. On that Sunday, Cheney went on Fox News Sunday to announce that "In my opinion, the prospects of a future attack against the United States are almost certain." For Cheney, the question of a new terrorist assault on the US is "not a matter of if, but when."

Several weeks later, an account published under the title "White House Nightmare Scenario" in US News and World Report reflected the thinking of top Bush officials about the relation between terrorism and the coming US presidential elections. According to this article, 'White House officials say they've got a "working premise" about terrorism and the presidential election: It's going to happen. "We assume," says a top administration official, "an attack will happen leading up to the election." And, he added, "it will happen here." There are two worst-case scenarios, the official says. The first posits an attack on Washington, possibly the Capitol, which was believed to be the target of the 9/11 jet that crashed in Pennsylvania. Theory 2: smaller but more frequent attacks in Washington and other major cities leading up to the election. To prepare, the administration has been holding secret antiterrorism drills to make sure top officials know what to do. "There was a sense," says one official involved in the drills, "of mass confusion on 9/11. Now we have a sense of order." Unclear is the political impact, though most Bushies think the nation would rally around the president. "I can tell you one thing," adds the official sternly, "we won't be like Spain," which tossed its government days after the Madrid train bombings. (US News and World Report, 17 May 2004)

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told Fox News on Sunday, April 19, that the government is bracing for possible terrorist attacks before November's Presidential election. Referencing last month's Madrid bombings, she said the opportunity for terrorists to influence the election may "be too good to pass up for them," and that "the terrorists might have learned, we hope, the wrong lesson from Spain."

Condoleezza Rice's remarks came in the context of a lengthy US tour by Jose Maria Aznar, the defeated Spanish Prime Minister. Aznar was ousted in Spain's March 13 elections, partly because 90% of Spaniards rejected Aznar's subservience to Bush in joining the US invasion coalition in Iraq, and partly because Spanish voters were convinced that Aznar was lying about the March 11 terrorist attacks on commuter trains in the Madrid region. Aznar is counted as a neocon, but his party contains the remnants of Francisco Franco's falangist-fascist apparatus. Aznar is associated with thesis that the March 11 terrorist attacks decided the Spanish elections in favor of the PSOE (socialist) challenger, Zapatero. Aznar also claims that his own defeat was a victory for terrorism, since the newly elected Zapatero, acting in conformity with the will of the Spanish people, withdrew the Spanish troop contingent from Iraq as soon as he had taken office. The Spanish elections were viewed with hysteria by Washington elites, first because of the Spanish quitting coalition, but also because the terrorist attacks had failed to produce the expected effects. The Washington consensus had previously been that terrorism would infallibly stampede the voters of any country into voting for the incumbent, but this time it was the anti-Bush challenger who was the beneficiary. Aznar is known to have attempted to call off the Spanish vote and to continue to ruling by decree, but his efforts were blocked. Aznar's briefing would seem to have included the notion that if there is going to be pre-election terrorism, it needs to be of sufficient magnitude to provide a pretext for calling off all scheduled elections.

On May 20, 2004, various wires reported that in the U.S. between May 16/17 and 19, maneuvers have been conducted by Homeland Security Apparatus, simulating terrorist attacks. On May 19, Yahoo reported a statement made by Lt. Gen. (ret) Patrick Hughes, who told AP in an interview, that while America has become better at predicting and safeguarding itself against attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, he fears that new terrorists "are being made every single day on the streets of the Middle East."

Based on captured material, interviews, and other sources of information, Hughes said he believes al Qaeda wants to strike with something other than a conventional explosive device. It is reported that he worries about chemical and biological attacks, including a dirty bomb.

In mid-April, Aznar began issuing warnings of election-related terrorism. These warning were directed most immediately to Tony Blair and George Bush. Aznar said, "I told George Bush, and Tony Blair and other political leaders to be extremely careful before elections ... and to be very vigilant." But there are also major election campaigns going on in Canada (at the federal level) and in the 25 member states of the European Union for the European Parliament. (Once Noticias, Once-TV, 4/19/04. Mexico)

During his visit to California, Aznar referred more than once about a terrorist attack taking place in the United States in June, 2004, which would lead to a Federal Emergency Management Agency takeover of the U.S. (International Herald Tribune, May 15, 16, 17, Los Angeles Times, May 15)

On May 18, El Pais reported that Aznar had visited Los Angeles, and had then gone to Washington, where he met Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. Present at the meeting, reports El Pais, were various Democratic and Republican Congressmen. Aznar was satisfied with the meeting. After the meeting, during an intervention at the Heritage Foundation, Rumsfeld spoke about how he dealt with the ex-Prime Minister by saying: "In Spain, in Madrid, the terrorists changed the result of the elections, without any doubt. In a premeditated way as consequence of the aim of the terrorists, the election results were changed. I had dinner with Prime Minister Aznar, and he is convinced that this is how it happened," said Rumsfeld. In California, Aznar told the press on Monday that Islamic terrorism has as objective, to influence elections in democratic countries.

"If they could do it in Spain, why would they not intend to do it in another place?" he said and added, "It's important to understand that the terrorists will do everything to change the next elections in the USA.

They will do everything possible to make the U.S. fail." He furthermore said in Los Angeles that he thought that the government of Zapatero sent an "inappropriate message to the terrorists by withdrawing the troops." Aznar on Tuesday had a 40-minute meeting with President Bush in the White House. Present at the meeting were: Vice President Dick Cheney; Condi Rice; Colin Powell; and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. The White House press spokesman identified the meeting as "private" -- "a meeting with a good friend of the President."

An important sidelight on these statements by Aznar is the revelation that the group accused of carrying out the Madrid bombings was thoroughly penetrated by the Spanish police, who had at least informants within that group, according to El Mundo of May 6, 2004. El Mundo reported that among the people arrested for the Madrid bombing, were two police informants.

This paper published an exclusive report given by Rafa Zhueri, who was among those arrested after the March 11 terror bombings. Zhueri revealed that he worked for years as police informant for a part of the Spanish Civil Guard (UCO Undidad Central Operativa). The article is headlined "I informed the Civil Guard that an Asturian offered me dynamite."

The Kean-Hamilton Commission of 9-11 has not produced any serious insights into those events, but it has served as a propaganda soapbox for figures such as the former Navy Secretary and establishment operative John Lehman. In the recent New York sessions of the commission, Lehman stressed repeatedly that the overwhelming consensus among US officials is that new terror attacks are coming soon. This view was shared by former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

The former leader of the US Central Command, Gen. Tommy Franks, told the magazine Cigar Afficionado earlier this year that he considered it possible that the US would be under emergency rule in the coming months.

(Photo: FEMA CIO Barry West)

Exercises and Incidents

On May 11-12, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) ran a large-scale exercise involving more than 2,500 federal employees, to determine how the federal government could continue operating in the face of a massive terrorist attack or other catastrophe. The government employees went to more than 100 secret sites, as part of a training exercise to prepare them to operate under catastrophic conditions. The exercise, called "Forward Challenge '04," was in preparation for over a year, according to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who spoke to reporters from an undisclosed location. (Washington Post, May 14)

There is also an unprecedented pattern of local and regional preparations for emergency rule and continuity of government operations. For example, Florida television station Wftv.com reports May 19th under the title "Massive Mock Terror Drill Will Span Three Local Counties", that Daytona International Speedway (Florida) will be the second stage of a three-part mock terror drill across Central Florida. This is to be "one of the largest and longest mock terror drills ever conducted in Central Florida since 9/11." The wire says that "dozens of emergency agencies will take part from all across Central Florida, with more than 1000 responders and actors who will play victims of a simulated attack." The newswire nynewsdayd.com, under the title "City stages mock explosion in subway to test emergency protocols", was reporting May 16th that Lower Manhattan was swamped with 1,000 police, firefighters, and land emergency personnel responding to a simulated bombing involving scores of casualties.

"The terror response drill, part of a joint city-federal plan to beef up response efforts, it is reported, came just two days before the 9/11 commission was scheduled to be in New York to grill local officials about Gotham's emergency preparedness...." The drill "was the first large scale test of a new protocol aimed at clarifying the roles of firefighters and cops at disaster scenes." Yahoo furthermore reports on May 17th that in Idaho one of the largest disaster drills was staged over three days in southwest Idaho, conducted by the department of Homeland Security. The State of Georgia declared "state of emergency", because of a summit of the group of eight industrialized nations, which begins June 8.

There is also an intensive pattern of incidents pointing in the direction of a terrorist attack on rail systems, on the Madrid model. This pattern includes suspicious activity in the Northeast rail corridor between Washington and Boston. A Philadelphia television station reported the discovery of a wireless transmitter carefully hidden in the gravel along the SEPTA (Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority) rail tracks in Philadelphia. An infrared sensor, painted black and buried in the trackside ballast, was found along the SEPTA tracks, which could be used as a triggering device. It sends a signal when something crosses its infrared beam. (WPVI News, Philadelphia, May 20)

On May 1, New York City police found five empty suitcases at Penn Station, New York FBI headquarters, and other sensitive points. According to The New York Post, the police feared that these empty suitcases represented "a test by terrorist bent on a Madrid-type attack" on commuter trains. (New York Post, May 2, 2004)

There is also an uptick in the detected activities of foreign intelligence services, such as the Mossad, on US territory. According to a Florida newspaper, for the second time in two weeks Israelis in a moving van were detained near a U.S. nuclear facility, this time at the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base near St. Marys, GA., near Sea Island, host of the G-8 Summit next month." (Jacksonville Times-Union, 21 May 2004)

On May 6, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that the new head of the British intelligence service MI-6 will be John Scarlett. The choice immediately caused protests from British political opposition leaders. Scarlett was the author and stubborn defender of the now-totally-discredited and artificially sexed-up "Iraqi WMD" report issued by the Blair government in support of the US-UK war drive. Dr. David Kelley lost his life in the scandal that developed around the manipulations in this report, but the role of the government was whitewashed in the inquiry conducted by Lord Hutton of the Law Lords. This appointment means that MI-6 will lack the leadership of a competent and independent professional who might act to prevent the coming terrorism, and will instead be under the domination of a political hack of dubious judgment and loyalty. (Wire services, May 6)

In addition, the US government appears to have imposed an embargo on the sharing of critical anti-terror intelligence with European authorities. Whatever the intent, the net effect of this blackout is to screen certain activities in the US from scrutiny by the allies. In an article published May 6 the German economic paper Handelsblatt reported in reference to a similar article which appeared in the Wall Street Journal, that Spanish investigators, like many of their colleagues in Europe, find it very difficult to obtain information from US circles which are engaged in the fight against terrorism.

Mentioned is the case of Spanish Judge Balthazar Garzon who reportedly was unable to proceed with certain investigations on Al Qaeda after Sept 11th, like the case of Al Qaeda member Ramzi Binalshibh, who is imprisoned in an unknown location. The problem is compounded by the fact that the anti-terrorism fight in the US is being conducted by non-public military courts and military intelligence, neither of which, as the article claims, is sharing testimony and evidence with their European colleagues for further use. (Handelsblatt, May 6; Yahoo wires, May 7)

Propaganda Buildup

Lurid accounts of coming ABC terrorist attacks are proliferating in the US media. Whatever, the subjective intentions or motivations of the authors, these accounts objectively serve as propaganda preparation for terror attacks, specifically by introducing to the US public the alien notions of emergency rules, martial law, and the state of siege, all of which are favorite themes of neocon writers going back to the Nazi Carl Schmitt.

A particularly fulsome example is the article by Michael Ignatieff which appeared on May 2, 2004 New York Times Magazine. Here are some excerpts:

"Consider the consequences of a second major attack on the mainland United States -- the detonation of a radiological or dirty bomb, perhaps, or a low-yield nuclear device or a chemical strike in a subway. Any of these events could cause death, devastation and panic on a scale that would make 9/11 seem like a pale prelude. After such an attack, a pall of mourning, melancholy, anger and fear would hang over our public life for a generation.

An attack of this sort is already in the realm of possibility. The recipes for making ultimate weapons are on the Internet, and the materiel required is available for the right price. Democracies live by free markets, but a free market in everything -- enriched uranium, ricin, anthrax -- will mean the death of democracy. Armageddon is being privatized, and unless we shut down these markets, doomsday will be for sale. Sept. 11, for all its horror, was a conventional attack. We have the best of reasons to fear the fire next time.

A democracy can allow its leaders one fatal mistake -- and that's what 9/11 looks like to many observers -- but Americans will not forgive a second one. A succession of large-scale attacks would pull at the already-fragile tissue of trust that binds us to our leadership and destroy the trust we have in one another. Once the zones of devastation were cordoned off and the bodies buried, we might find ourselves, in short order, living in a national-security state on continuous alert, with sealed borders, constant identity checks and permanent detention camps for dissidents and aliens.

Our constitutional rights might disappear from our courts, while torture might reappear in our interrogation cells. The worst of it is that government would not have to impose tyranny on a cowed populace. We would demand it for our own protection. And if the institutions of our democracy were unable to protect us from our enemies, we might go even further, taking the law into our own hands. We have a history of lynching in this country, and by the time fear and paranoia settled deep in our bones, we might repeat the worst episodes from our past, killing our former neighbors, our onetime friends."

The coming of martial law to the US in the wake of a new large-scale terror attack was also the theme of Ted Koppel's Nightline broadcast of April 7, 2004. Here Koppel was joined by former terror czar Richard Clarke and the Reagan White House chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein. The broadcast was titled "The Armageddon Plan", and featured questions of continuity in government (COG) after an attack that had decimated the US Congress.

Koppel asked Duberstein: "Aren't we left for at least the foreseeable future with some sort of martial law anyway?"

Duberstein replied: "You have to suspend rights."

Koppel elaborated: "And during that period, then, and given the sense of panic that is inevitable under circumstances like this, the executive branch of government takes on extraordinary power doesn't it?"

Clarke chimed in: "I think in any war where Washington were destroyed, inevitably, there would be a period of, for lack of a better term, something like martial law." Also taking part in this broadcast was James Mann of the Brookings Institution, author of the new book Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet, published this year by Viking. This work contains an extensive discussion of COG operations, which also figure in John Dean's new boom comparing the Bush administration to the Nixon regime. (Nightline, April 7, 2004)

The Washington Post used the release of the latest set of Nixon administration tapes to issue what can only be interpreted as a signal piece, indicating to the witting that the operation is indeed on. This piece bore the headline" Haig Said Nixon Joked of Nuking Hill." The content involves a telephone conversation between Nixon's then Chief of Staff, Gen. Alexander Haig, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in March 1974 - a few months before Nixon was forced out of office. "I was told to get the football," reports Haig to Kissinger, a reference to the codes used by the president to order nuclear attacks. In response to a question from Kissinger, Haig specifies that the request is for "His nuclear black bag. He is going to drop it on the Hill." The context is Nixon's growing fear of his own looming impeachment. The message is that a nuclear bomb will detonate on the US Congress.

Canadian newspapers, by contrast, used an all-purpose AP wire story with very different emphasis. The Montreal Gazette headline, for example, stressed another incident in which Nixon was too drunk to talk to UK Prime Minister Ted Heath. Here the headline was "Mr. Nixon can't come to the phone - he's sozzled." This version contained no mention of nuking the Congress. The Toronto Star version of the AP wire had a headline about Nixon being drunk, and relegated the question of nuking the US Congress to the last paragraphs.

The White House now possesses its own "Continuity of Government" Commission, a kind of Committee of Public Safety which appears to be developing plans for the imposition of authoritarian rule. This is a board made up of Establishment worthies, starting with former presidents Carter and Ford, and including such figures as Newt Gingrich, Lloyd Cutler, Alan Simpson, Kenneth Duberstein, Jamie Gorelick (also of the Kean-Hamilton Commission), Tom Foley, Leon Panetta, and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach. This is a bi-partisan body that would seem to be engaged in forming a consensus in the oligarchical elite circles in favor of the need for police state measures to preserve the system.

The following are some of the main danger points that emerge from recent press accounts. It must however be stressed that large-scale attacks could of course occur anywhere and anytime.

Memorial Day weekend - opening of US World War II Memorial in Washington DC

June 8: Group of 8 summit in Sea Island, Georgia

NATO summit in Turkey Olympics in Athens

July: Democratic National Convention in Boston

August-September: Republican National Convention in New York City

Why, and Why Now

The reasons for the genocidal crimes now being prepared are to be found in the stunning reverses suffered by the Bush regime over the last several months. These can be identified as follows:

During April, Iraqi resistance forces have initiated a national uprising against the invasion of their country. The failure of the vaunted US military machine before Fallujah and Najaf has ended the myth of US superpower invincibility, and set off uncontrollable processes of disintegration throughout the global system. The US is politically and militarily defeated, and the neocons are responsible.

During May, the war crimes and atrocities carried out by US, UK and other coalition forces in Iraq have wrecked the moral credibility of the United States and its allies, making these aggressive powers into an object of absolute execration around the world.

As a result, the ad hoc "Coalition of the Willing" assembled by the Bush regime has begun to disintegrate, with Spain, Honduras, El Salvador, Kazakhstan, and Norway either leaving Iraq or announcing their departure. The Netherlands are expected to defect within 4 to 5 weeks. Previously, anti-Bush political forces had been defeated in elections in Germany, South Korea, Spain, and most recently India. Governments subservient to Bush in Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Denmark, and other countries now face a grim electoral future, with further pullouts from Iraq as the likely result. The entire alliance system created by the US at the end of World War II is now a dead letter.

In the case of Spain, US elites have been shocked by the failure of the March 11 terror attacks to accomplish their obvious goal of stampeding support to the right-wing, neo-falangist government of Jose Maria Aznar. Due to the intelligence and courage of the Spanish people, these attacks in effect backfired, as Aznar's blatant lying secured the election of the anti-Bush candidate, Zapatero. US elites have been profoundly concerned that the terror weapon, which they had regarded as a sure-fire means of coalescing support around an existing government, can also bring down that government. Their main conclusion seems to be that, for guaranteed success, the terrorism must be so colossal that the planned elections can simply be cancelled, as Aznar tried but failed to do.

The three principal leaders of world aggression, Bush, Blair, and Sharon, are now engulfed by domestic political crises threatening them with ouster over the short term, with increased danger of prosecution and the wrecking of their political machines amidst recrimination for the Iraq and other disasters. Bush and his neocon handlers in particular face a rising tide of hatred in their own armed forces, especially in the US Army, which has born the brunt of their utopian aggressive policies. Bush's handlers are also worried that their man's reputation as an anti-terror leader, his only conceivable basis for asking to be returned to office, has been deeply tarnished by Condoleezza Rice's wretched performance and attendant revelations during the April-May hearings of the Kean-Hamilton Commission on 9-11. This has gone so far that only a new large-scale terror event could restore Bush's credentials, they reason.

Concomitantly with these events, the New York-London financial system has begun to exhibit symptoms of severe instability leading to systemic crisis. The US is now running a merchandise trade deficit of over $500 billion, and a federal budget deficit which actually approaches $750 billion. This is a bankrupt state. Interest rates on US government securities have risen sharply since early April, and the resulting rising interest rates have raised fears of an explosion of the housing bubble of the past years.

This is expressed by the de facto bankruptcy of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which represent trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities, and whose implosion would wreck US capital markets. The Federal Reserve now says that even the biggest banks may not be too big to fail. For the average person, the net impact of this new turbulence is readily seen in the sky-high price of gasoline, building materials, and related commodities. An integral feature of the post-coup regime now being planned would be to keep these bankrupt institutions alive with the help of government bailouts.

Because of the manifest bankruptcy of the United States, the Anglo-American finance oligarchs fear the termination of the US dollar as a reserve currency. This would take the form of a dumping of the dollar as the currency in which the posted price of oil is expressed by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, and other OPEC states. The former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir Mohammed has issued repeated calls for such a measure, and also urged Moslem countries to sell off their US Treasury securities, for financial as well as political reasons. The far stronger and more stable euro would be the beneficiary of these moves, and it is the euro which would prove to be far more attractive to most countries in a world divided into currency blocks.

Finally, there are signs that the absurd myth propagated by the US government and the controlled corporate media about the events of 9-11 is fraying. Although the Kean-Hamilton Commission has been on the whole a half-baked farce, it has unavoidably produced a number of facts as a by-product of its proceedings - facts which have begun to undermine public belief in the Myth. David Ray Griffin's book The New Pearl Harbor has emerged as a runaway best-seller in the wake of similar books in France and Germany, and is now among the top ten on amazon.com. Calls have multiplied for a serious independent international truth commission on 9-11 to do the work the Kean-Hamilton cover-up has refused to address. A dismantling of the 9-11 myth would lead, in all probability, to the collapse of the US Republican Party and related institutions in the context of a general party re-alignment.

Taken together, these developments would add up to the collapse of the entire US imperialist system. The protagonists of the coming terror are determined to disrupt these processes, imposing on the world a regime of unilateral US diktat and military intervention, with a domestic police state to make sure that no opposition emerges on the home front.

What the Neocons Fear

The neocons are also deeply concerned about their own personal fate. During their assent, this exceptionally ideological and close-knit faction has by its arrogance and incompetence made many enemies. During May, there have been repeated editorial calls for the firing of not just Rumsfeld, but also of Wolfowitz and the other neocons who have made such a mess of the Pentagon. The demand to oust Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz has also been raised by the veteran Republican Senators who exercise great authority within that body. According to press accounts, Senators Warner and McCain led a group of about a dozen senior GOP leaders who called on Bush to demand the sacking of Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz as a matter of urgent political expediency. Bush reportedly sat stony-faced and said nothing.

Time magazine and the New York Times have both published reports that the investigation of Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress (INC) may, in fact, involve a hunt for someone in the White House or Pentagon who could be guilty of treason in passing top secret intelligence to Chalabi. The information that Chalabi and his intelligence chief Aras Karim Habib are alleged to have passed to the government of Iran "was highly classified, and known only to a few in the U.S. government,'' wrote Time's Romesh Ratnesar.

"The probe will examine whether U.S. officials illegally transmitted state secrets to the INC. The investigation could ultimately reach high-ranking civilian officials at the Pentagon and the Defense Intelligence Agency who had dealings with Chalabi and his organization.'' Ratnesar cites "a senior U.S. official'' as his source. New York Times reporters David Johnston and Richard Oppel, Jr. also citing ''government officials,'' called the information "so highly classified that federal investigators have intensified their inquiry to find out whether anyone in the American government gave the material to Mr. Chalabi.''

They also cite ''intelligence officials'' saying that the probe, by the FBI, centers on the handful of U.S. officials with regular contact with Chalabi in Washington, and an even smaller number who had access to the intelligence. ''Most of them are at the Pentagon,'' they wrote; however, Chalabi himself, on "Meet the Press'' on May 23, acknowledged three personal meetings with Vice President Cheney. Right-wing columnist Robert Novak, in a Washington Post op-ed on the Chalabi scandal, comments on a different angle within the Republican Party and the uniformed military:

"Republican Senators, who do not yet want to be quoted by name, feel there must be some accountability for this massive blunder, as there must be for the prisoner abuse scandal. They want the President at least to consider firing Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and perhaps others of the neo-con gang. Rumsfeld the senior Republican Congressional leaders are backed in this, by high U.S. military brass. (Time, May 25, NY Times May 24, 2004)

Richard Perle is the target of a huge civil suit growing out of his involvement in the fraudulent conveyances and embezzlement carried out by the neocon press baron and moneybags Lord Conrad Black, who appears to have taken money from Hollinger to help fund neocon think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute. Perle has worked closely with the purloining Lord in recent years, and might also face criminal charges in this case.

There is also the special prosecutor investigating the leaking to Robert Novak of the fact that Valerie Plame, the wife of Bush critic Ambassador Joseph Wilson (who exposed the fraud of the Bush 2002 State of the Union charges that Iraq had sought uranium yellowcake in Niger) was working for the CIA. Prime suspects are Bush's political strategist Karl Rove, and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Revealing the identity of a CIA agent is a serious felony under federal law.

Countervailing Tendencies?

The situation of the party of terrorism inside the United States is uncertain. The political leaders who would be the beneficiaries of new terror attacks would be figures like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Ashcroft, Ridge, and the neocon Gestapo (as Colin Powell calls it) in general. The main agencies for their dictatorship would be FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), Ridge's Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the FBI. The US military, especially the US Army, has now become profoundly disillusioned with the Bush-Cheney preventive war policy. They also resent being scapegoated for the Abu Graib atrocities, which were ordered by CIA, DIA, and Cheney's mercenary contractors. Some generals now realize that a successful terror coup, which would have the result of cementing the current gang in power for the foreseeable future - without benefit of checks and balances - would guarantee that US forces would be fed into meatgrinders far worse than Iraq.

In addition to Syria, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba, a post-coup USD regime could not avoid collision with China and/or Russia. It remains to be seen whether this awareness will be enough to motivate the US military to do something to stop the coup which is now imminent. Similar considerations apply to the State Department, which has virtually no place in the post-coup world eagerly planned by the neocons.

Sidney Blumenthal, a former advisor to the Clinton Administration, now with Salon.com, wrote a piece in the Guardian on how the U.S. officer corps has turned against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The piece, by, is headlined "America's Military Coup." Retired General William Odom, who was the head of the National Security Agency, the main US electronic spying center, and who is now at the Hudson Institute, is quoted saying: "It was never in our interest to go into Iraq. It is a diversion from the war on terrorism; the rationale for the Iraq war (finding WMD) is phony; the US army is overstretched and being driven into the ground; and the prospect of building a democracy is zero. In Iraqi politics legitimacy is going to be tied to expelling us. Wisdom in military affairs dictates withdrawal in this situation. We can't afford to fail, that's mindless. The issue is how we stop failing more. I am arguing a strategic decision." Another military figure told Blumenthal that Rumsfeld was "detested" and that "if there's a sentiment in the army it is: support our troops, impeach Rumsfeld." Blumenthal then references an essay by Lt.Col. Charles Dunlap, which had received a prize in 1992 from then General Colin Powell.

The title of the piece was "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012," which was a cautionary tale of how the U.S. military launched a coup because of the failures of the government. (Guardian, May 13, 2004) Former CENTCOM commanders Zinni and Hoar have also published attacks on the Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz policies. One account suggested that, given the degree of military hatred against the administration, any other country would have already witnessed a military coup.

The US Congress ought to be particularly concerned, since one of the most plausible coup scenarios features the destruction of the US Capitol and its adjacent office buildings, exterminating large numbers of Senators, Congressmen, and staff. Incredibly, the Congress is conniving in its own liquidation through the bill ordering instant elections to replace deceased Congressmen which is now making its way in to law. The gullible lawmakers would seem to be signing their own death warrant, since if there is anything that would facilitate the erection of a police state, it is the lack of an intact and functioning legislative branch - a fact illustrated all too well by the Nazi burning of the German Reichstag shortly after Hitler's seizure of power. But will the Congress act?

France, Germany, and Russia are the countries with the best recent track record in opposing the illegal aggressions of the US government. They need to ponder the devastating challenge to their vital national interests that would be represented by the events now leading toward a coup d'etat in the United States. They must mobilize their forces, including their intelligence agencies, to expose, disrupt, and frustrate the preparations now being made. The same imperative applies to the other Europeans, China, India, the Arab and Islamic states, and the Latin Americans. None could hope to avoid costly confrontation with a post-coup US bandit regime. Enlightened self-interest ought to dictate that they take all possible measures to prevent the terror actions which are the only means the US neocons have of consolidating their power.

But supporters of civilization around the world cannot wait for the actions of their government. There are concrete and highly effective measures they can and moist take at once to defend the survival of humanity. They should:

What to Do?

Make this analysis into the basis for a parliamentary question in your nation's parliament.

Bring this analysis to alternative media outlets, or to major media wherever possible. In the US, bombard talk radio hosts with the demand that they speak out against this new state-sponsored terrorism.

Inform trade union leaders. They should announce that their response to a state-sponsored terror coup in the US would be an open-ended general strike.

Bring this analysis to the attention of lawyers, jurists, university students, civil liberties groups, humanitarians, and other persons of good will. Ask them to join in warning public opinion about what is being prepared.


Webster Griffin Tarpley is a historian and journalist based in Washington DC. He is the author of the best-selling critical study George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992), on the internet at http://www.tarpley.net.

---

See also:

Be afraid...but at least know why (May 26)
http://www.alternet.org/election04/2004/05/002025.html
The big news right now is the FBI warning that at some unspecified time using some unspecified method an unspecified place will suffer a terrorist attack. Some are understandably suspicious that this is the first of several tactics various agencies and departments will employ at the direction of the administration to garner support for the flailing Bush re-election campaign.

More "Washington whispers" about possible pre-election terrorist attack
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/may2004/terr-m25.shtml
"In the 'Washington Whispers' section of this week’s US News & World Report, columnist Paul Bedard reports: 'White House officials say they’ve got a 'working premise' about terrorism and the presidential election: It's going to happen.' Bedard quotes a top administration official as asserting, 'We assume an attack will happen leading up to the election,' and that it will happen in Washington, D.C. Bedard continues by noting, 'Unclear is the political impact, though most Bushies think the nation would rally around the president [sic]... There is an obvious question raised by these discussions: Are top officials in the Bush administration planning to allow such an attack in order to reap political advantage? Anyone who would dismiss this possibility as an outlandish conspiracy theory underestimates both the depth of the administration’s crisis and the criminality of those who set its policy. This is a government that came to office by means of theft and intimidation, gaining power only through the intervention of the Supreme Court on an explicitly anti-democratic basis." (...) What worked once may work again. This is a government composed of indictable war criminals who would think nothing of sacrificing the lives of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people in pursuit of its agenda. Indeed, such sacrifices have already been made and will be made again.It is also an administration that confronts an intractable crisis. The revelations of torture of Iraqi prisoners have been met with worldwide revulsion. The administration’s Iraq policy is in shambles as the US occupation confronts the opposition of the vast majority of the Iraqi people. Support within the United States for the Bush administration is at an all-time low, even according to opinion polls that generally overestimate Bush’s popularity. On the economic front, the government faces the prospect of rising inflation spurred by escalating gasoline prices over the coming months. There is nothing more dangerous for the ruling elite than a political debacle combined with an economic crisis. And there is nothing more dangerous for the American people than a ruling class in panic. (...) The quoted Washington official’s statement warning that the US “won’t be like Spain” can be interpreted in two ways. Either the Bush administration is determined to manipulate a terror attack to benefit the Republican Party in the elections, or it may use such an attack to call off the elections altogether.

New York Times’ Safire predicts “major terror attack in the US” on eve of 2004 election
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jan2004/saf-j03.shtml

Coup d'Etat in Washington and "The Dollar Paper Tiger" (June 3)
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/FRA406A.html
Recent events in Iraq that require no further elucidation here make this essay now more timely than when it was written.For this essay is a combination of two related articles:First, my earlier paper focusing on the 2000 [Election] Coup d'Etat. This paper related to the illegitimacy of the Bush government and the long standing agenda of the Cheney group which has made another Coup within the Bush Coup.Secondly, my paper on the paper tiger, concerning the underlying Achilles heels vulnerability of American power that rests only on the paper dollar and the military Pentagon. CLIP

Navy to Deploy Carrier Groups to Test Rapid Readiness (BUT WHY NOW???)
http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=1902088
A major exercise soon to be underway will have a large part of the Navy fleet deploying out of Norfolk. WAVY News 10 has learned the Navy is sending seven carrier strike groups out to sea. The exercise is designed to test the Navy's new rapid deployment readiness. Several Norfolk-based carrier strike groups will participate. The USS George Washington is already deployed. Two others, the USS Enterprise and USS Harry S Truman will leave soon. Other carriers involved in the exercise include the USS John F. Kennedy, the USS John S. Stennis, and the USS Ronald Reagan - which left Norfolk on Thursday. While the Navy won't say where the seven carrier groups are going, the carriers not already deployed are expected to be gone for only one to two months. Click here to view this video report: http://www.wavy.com/video/carrier-leaving.ram

US navy plans 'show of force' off oil-rich West Africa
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040604152723.wk8gbenw.html
LAGOS (AFP) Jun 04, 2004 - A US navy battlegroup is to make a "show of force" in the oil-rich waters of the Gulf of Guinea, off west Africa, diplomats said Friday, as Washington hones plans to escape its dependence on unstable Middle Eastern supplies by securing more African crude. The foray by a heavily armed carrier group into the waters off Nigeria, Sao Tome, Equatorial Guinea and other African oil producers, comes at a time when fuel prices are topping the US political agenda and security crises in the Gulf region are pushing demands for greater diversification in energy supplies.An Abuja-based US diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity that the Gulf of Guinea was "a place where there is not normally an American presence" and described the operation as "a show of force." "Operation Summer Pulse '04 aims to demonstrate the capabilities of the US navy; before we only had two or three operations involving aircraft carriers at any one time," he said, adding that seven carrier groups are to be deployed in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Guinea. "The navy wants, through this exercise, to demonstrate to the world that, even with all its current responsibilities, it can still position half-a-dozen aircraft carriers with all the necessary support ships in the four corners of the world, at the same time," he said. CLIP

Mass Rally & March on June 5
http://www.internationalanswer.org/news/update/052204j5.html
Thousands at the White House will say: "Bush and Rumsfeld - Guilty of War Crimes" - "I plan to be in Washington DC on June 5 at the peace rally. We will be marching from Bush's White House to Rumsfeld's house and I am hoping that everyone who cares about peace in this country will join us."– Michael Berg --- Michael Berg, the father of Nicholas Berg who was murdered in Iraq, will be a speaker at the June 5th Speak Truth to Power mass demonstration and speak-out in front of the White House. This rally will reflect the grassroots voices of those who have suffered and are suffering because of the Bush administration's war in Iraq, Palestine, Haiti and right here against working people in the United States. The Speak Truth to Power rally will feature the voices of the mothers and fathers of soldiers who oppose the war; those in the Muslim and Arab communities whose families have been ripped apart through raids, detentions, and secret hearings; representatives of the working class communities in Washington, DC and elsewhere who are suffering because of the destruction of social programs; we will hear the voices of the people of Haiti and the Philippines and Korea who are living under U.S. military intervention and occupation. June 5 is the anniversary of the Israeli seizure of the West Bank and Gaza and we will hear the voice of the embattled Palestinian people who to this moment are having their children shot and their homes razed as the U.S.-backed violence escalates. Following the People's Speak-Out, thousands of people will march through working class neighborhoods and arrive at the home - the mansion - of Donald Rumsfeld. Coming as it does just three and a half weeks before the June 30 phony "transfer of sovereignty," the June 5 rally and march will be a powerful challenge by the people to the administration and its plans for continued occupation. The people of the world and the world media will be looking on June 5th to see if the people stand against the Bush administration's wars of aggression. CLIP

Apprehension and Frustration Neo-Cons on the Brink (June 4, 2004)
http://counterpunch.org/madsen06042004.html
Having just hit the half-century mark age wise, I can't remember a time when Americans were more apprehensive and frustrated than they are today. Sure, there was Watergate. But thanks to our then working system of checks and balances, the American political system righted itself and did not capsize as some doomsayers predicted. After Richard Nixon's resignation, the newly-sworn in President, Gerald Ford, said America's national nightmare was over. Unlike 1974, 2004's nightmare - called the George W. Bush administration - shows no signs of abatement. And for that reason, a majority of Americans with IQs representing a semblance of education are growing increasingly restless. How and when this simmering boil among Americans will overflow is anyone's guess but the consequences may shock advertising sponsored political pundits, corporate newspaper editors, and bought-and-paid for pollsters. From the halls of the Pentagon to the State Department, the offices of constitutional lawyers to political insiders, and the analytical shops of the Central Intelligence Agency to the Defense Intelligence Agency, people have had it with the ideologues (neo conservatives, evangelical dominionists, Christian Zionists, reactionary Catholics, expansionistic Israel Firsters, creative destructionists, Moonies, apocalyptic fundamentalists, and plain old fascists and assorted other kooks) who have nested and reproduced within the three branches of our Federal government. The growing restlessness in America now crosses political party lines, age, racial, and ethnic groups, religious affiliations, and income brackets. CLIP

The Fact Behind the Fictions: the U.S. and Israel Plan Permanent Occupations
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/June_2004/0406006.html
(...) Bush and Sharon had good reason to smile at their April White House meeting. The United States will soon have permanent military bases on the borders of Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Israel, with U.S.-backing, now has virtual control over all of Palestine, Gaza, and part of Syria. The U.S.-Israeli partnership is on the verge of becoming a new Middle East empire. But even the most powerful empires don’t last. Rome, the Ottomans, Portugal, Spain, and Britain all overreached themselves and eventually were forced to give up their conquests. The U.S.- Israel alliance may be triumphant at the moment, but if the people in the Arab world who have had enough of colonialism, oppression, and autocratic rule have their way, that triumph will not endure for long.

Guess who's at super-secret Bilderberg meeting today (June 4, 2004)
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38783
Italy hosts 50th-anniversary confab of mysterious society of world leaders-- The 50th anniversary conference of the elite Bilderberg group – which many believe conspires semi-annually to foster global government – is under way in Stresa, Italy. The conference, which began yesterday and will run through Sunday, is being hosted at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees. Since 1953, the Bilderberg group has convened government, business, academic and journalistic representatives from the U.S., Canada and Europe with the express purpose of exploring the future of the North Atlantic community. According to sources that have penetrated the high-security meetings in the past, the Bilderberg meetings emphasize a globalist agenda and promote the idea that the notion of national sovereignty is antiquated and regressive. 'Shadowy aura' "It's officially described as a private gathering," noted a BBC report last year, "but with a guest list including the heads of European and American corporations, political leaders and a few intellectuals, it's one of the most influential organizations on the planet." And according to a current BBC report (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3773019.stm) on the conference in Stresa: "Not a word of what is said at Bilderberg meetings can be breathed outside. No reporters are invited in and while confidential minutes of meetings are taken, names are not noted. The shadowy aura extends further – the anonymous answerphone message, for example; the fact that conference venues are kept secret. The group, which includes luminaries such as Henry Kissinger and former UK chancellor Kenneth Clarke, does not even have a website." (...) Some observers are even speculating that President Bush will make an appearance at this year's event, just as Bill Clinton did at the group's 2000 meeting. By coincidence, it just happens that Bush will be in Italy over the weekend … CLIP

George W. Bush: Getting His Orders at Bilderberg? http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=67&contentid=1290
(...) According to Tony Gosling of Bilderberg.org, the participants include the usual cast of World Class Criminals from the U.S., including Features Editor Max Boot of the Wall Street Journal, Senator Jon Corzine (D- NJ), Senator John Edwards (D-NC), Douglas Feith, Defense Department Undersecretary, Donald Graham, Chairman and CEO, Washington Post Company, Henry Kissinger, Chairman, Kissinger Associates Inc, Richard Perle, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, closet gay Republican Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition and, of course, the New World Order Godfather himself -- David Rockefeller, Sr.

Tens Of Thousands March Against Bush Visit To Rome (June 04, 2004)
http://tinyurl.com/2bplg

Veracity Series #7: Tenet Down - Many More To Go (June 4)



4) HUMANITARIAN VIGIL FOR DARFUR, SUDAN

Here are some of the latest developments in Darfur Sudan. Please also keep this situation in mind during your meditations in the coming two weeks to help ensure that peace prevail there as well and humanitarian assistance is provided in a timely manner to everyone in need of such assistance.

From: http://usinfo.state.gov/usinfo/Archive/washfile_feature4.html

Humanitarian Situation in Darfur Nearing Crisis, Says USAID

June 2, 2004

Natsios calls on donors to act together to prevent further deaths

By Tara Boyle
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Continuing ethnic conflict, the approaching rainy season, and Sudanese government obstruction have made the Sudanese region of Darfur "unquestionably the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world today," according to the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Speaking to journalists at the Foreign Press Center in Washington June 1, USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios pointed to the international conference on the situation in Darfur going on in Geneva as an important opportunity for the international community to coordinate its policies and push for peace with a "unified donor voice" to prevent further deaths in the region.

"We're running out of time, and the more people who die, the more bitter will be the memories, [and] the more difficult it will be to have a political settlement, which is the only solution to the conflict in Darfur," he said. By the same token, he said, "I think it's important that we not have the donor governments giving mixed signals to either side of the conflict. We need to all say the same thing."

Since last year, Arab militias backed by the Sudanese government have launched a campaign of violence against non-Arab civilians living in Darfur. According to USAID, the attacks have forced more than 200,000 refugees to flee across the border into Chad, while another 800,000 to 900,000 civilians have been displaced within Sudan.

In April, the government of Sudan signed a temporary cease-fire with the main opposition groups in Darfur and agreed to disarm Arab militias, known as jingaweit. Observers say that the cease-fire has been broken repeatedly over the last two months, complicating the efforts of international relief agencies.

A second obstacle for donors, Natsios said, is the approaching rainy season, which will make it difficult to reach refugees living in remote parts of Darfur. "It's very important during the month of June that we build up food stocks to make sure people can survive, since many of their crops have either been destroyed or they were not permitted, because of the conflict, to plant them."

USAID officials have predicted that hundreds of thousands of people could die by this fall in Darfur from disease, malnutrition and other causes.

"You've got a combination of weakened human beings in an exposed situation, without shelter, without sanitation -- and then the rains come. That's where you get your body count," said Roger Winter, USAID assistant administrator for democracy, conflict and humanitarian assistance, who spoke briefly at the press conference.

Since February 2003, the U.S. government has allocated more than $97 million in aid to Darfur and neighboring Chad. Natsios said that 30,000 tons of wheat are being delivered to the region and that the United States will provide "even more resources in the future."

But the relief supplies are not reaching those who need them -- primarily because the Sudanese government has blocked humanitarian organizations from reaching refugees in remote areas, according to Winter.

"There will be a substantial body count, even if the [Sudanese] government does everything right from here on out," he added.

The conflict in Darfur continues despite the signing of a peace agreement in Naivasha, Kenya, May 26, ending the country's 21-year civil war. That agreement was signed by the government of Sudan and rebels in the southern part of the country but did not resolve the separate conflict in the Darfur region.



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