George H. W. Bush, speaking about the US shooting down of a civilian Iranian airline in 1988, which killed 290 people, including 66 children.
We are now in a mini-media uproar about the Scottish pardoning of Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am 103. Great indignation flows from the talking heads! 270 people died!
And the man convicted was pardoned!
The man responsible for the shooting down of the Iranian airline, Captain William Rogers, was not convicted or imprisoned. He was given a medal.
The US in 1988 was backing Iraq in its (US sponsored) war against Iran.
Saddam Hussein, our man in Iraq, had attacked Iran in 1980, after the 1979 Iranian revolution had deposed the US man in Iran, the Shah. The US supported Iraq, but also sold arms to Iran, because the Reagan White House was also attacking Nicaragua illegally and needed the money. By the way, Israel was the country who actually delivered the arms. The illegal guns-for-drugs operation was run out of the White House basement by Oliver North, now a well-paid right wing talking head, and "investigated" by a committee headed by Lee Hamilton, who later "investigated" 9-11.
In 1988, the US started militarily attacking Iranian targets, and this culminated in the shooting down of the civilian airline, killing everyone on board.
Immediately after the war crime, the US put out a cover story, claiming that the civilian airliner was not on its flight path, that it was descending towards the US warship, and that it didn't respond to signals.
These claims were all lies, but the truth came out in dribbles, buried in the back pages, and then put back down the memory hole for the propaganda parts.
The United States has never apologized for or admitted wrong doing for shooting down the airliner. No one was ever prosecuted or punished for it. Vice-President George H. W. Bush said repeatedly that he didn't care about the facts, he wouldn't apologize for America.
Six months later, Pan Am 103 was shot down over Scotland.
At first, the US blamed Iran-backed Palestinians for the crime, but, in the meantime, Saddam Hussein had fallen out of favor. He seemed to think that the US owed him for the attack on Iran. When he told the American ambassador that Kuwait was slant-drilling Iraqi oil, and he was planning on attacking them,
she said "We have no position on your border dispute with Kuwait".
He was punk'd!
The US organized international backing for their attack on Iraq, and part of the deal with Iran was blaming two Libyans for the bombing of Pan Am 103, instead of the Palestinians. Libya wasn't cooperating with the US.
But they did hand the two over in 1999, and after a "trial", one was convicted. Abdelbasit Ali al-Megrahi.
But on appeal, a Scottish court found that he had suffered a "miscarriage of justice", and the defense was planning on showing that the US had lied about evidence and bribed witnessses to get the conviction. Pan Am hired investigators to help them prove that they weren't liable and they found some interesting facts. Maybe the Palestinian terrorists planned to blow up that plane, but their efforts were facilitated by the very same drugs for guns terrorists that were working with Oliver North!
(And who was on that plane, although others were warned against boarding? A team of DIA investigators looking into the drug-running of Oliver North and his terrorist buddies.)
So, suddenly, Megrahi was released on "compassionate" grounds.
Now we have the villain of the day, BP, being accused of interfering with the justice system. Well, we can't have that!!
What I'm curious to see is if they use their original story in the propaganda attack on Iran.
It wouldn't be unprecedented.
The gas attack on the Kurds was said to be done by the Iranians, back in 1988, when the US backed Saddam.
Then, in 2002, it became Saddam's attack! (Is this getting confusing?)
Would they have the nerve to use this issue to heap anger onto BP, and then change the story to whip up hysteria against Iran?
I wouldn't put it past them!
Remember that within 6 months after the US attack on Iraq in 2003, the story was that Saddam had refused weapons inspections.
And, within 2 days, Georgia's attack on South Ossetia became a Russian attack on Georgia.
We'll see. After all, they just don't care about the facts!
4 comments:
The US behavior is pure slime, and yet they gloss it over with smoke on TV. Genius? Or do they? Maybe the citizens agree. The lies are too bold!
Can they really be so stupid as to believe all this stuff? Is this a puzzle or a dilemma?
(Germans in the 30's?)
"We must never forget. This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people." Obama.
Is this believable by even a Moron?
"I will never apologize for the United States of America." Bush Senior.
G.H.W. does not give a shit about the "United States of America". (Junior might, if as simple as he appears.) No real slick is so encumbered. His best buddies are Saudis, of course.
Why should a few facts get in the way of a good story?
Tell the big lie and keep telling it. For one thing, very few people remember what happened last week, much less years ago in a foreign country no one really cares about. A few squawks from a diligent reporter here and there can easily be silenced by relentless forward-march of the corporate media in promoting the lie of the moment.
"And who was on that plane, although others were warned against boarding? A team of DIA investigators looking into the drug-running of Oliver North and his terrorist buddies."
Very interesting. I had not heard this before, however it does not surprise me anymore. Who else was on that plane? A top scientist from Merck & Co., Inc. who had recently developed an effective vaccine for AIDS and was traveling to a scientific conference to discuss his results. He was also heading up a team to design a world class research facility to manufacture this vaccine. There were a number of companies (and others?) who did not want this vaccine to be developed. There were, and still are, massive profits being made by pharmaceutical companies on the current, expensive, stay-on-them-for-life AIDS treatment cocktails (reverse transscriptase inhibitors, etc.). The vaccine threatened these profits.
I worked in research at the company at the time and everyone was absolutely shocked and saddened when we learned about the terrorist attack and the death of Dr. Irving Sigal. A lot of hope for eradicating this horrible disease suddenly evaporated with that attack. Gradually, the more I learned about this incident, the less sense it made and the more suspicious I became that there were some powerful people/entities that wanted him dead because he was the only one who could have seen this breakthrough project through to completion. Apparently, there were others on that plane that TPTB wanted dead, as well. Dr. Sigal is listed on the passenger list of victims of the crash on the website, www.victimsofpanamflight103.org/victims, as follows: "Sigal, Irving Stanley, research biologist, 35 years, born 23.05.53, Pennington, New Jersey, American, seat number 13B". May he rest in peace...and may God help us all.
P.S. It was not long after that, a few years later, that the "coup" happened at Merck - another fascinating, complex and diabolical story in itself. It has never been the same company, since. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, I left the company in 2000 and have never looked back. I have toyed with the idea of writing a novel about it. It is a story that needs to be told. But in retrospect, it is yet another tragic example, a microcosm, perhaps, of what is happening in and to America today: the covert criminals are taking over everything and getting by with it because most people do not have a clue what is going on - and those who do are ridiculed, shouted down and/or branded as "conspiracy nuts". Think network of moles, dupes and "experts" in which the corporate media plays a crucial role. I just hope people wake up, while there is still something left of our country to save, but it's not looking good.
That is very interesting.
I would encourage you to write that novel. The more people understand what's going one, the less likely it is that they will put up with it.
Maybe.
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