Bribery and Extortion Out in the Open Inside the Bush White House: Turkey Turns Down Six Billion Dollar Bribe and Asks for Twice as Much.
Here the US iscaught red handed in trying to bribe teh president of Turkey to allow us an advanced base for our weapons of mass destruction.
From Reuters Feb 16, 2003
"President Bush (news - web sites) met with Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis and others at the White House on Friday, but U.S. and Turkish negotiators have yet to strike a deal that would allow American forces to use Turkish bases as a springboard for an invasion of Iraq from the north.
On top of an estimated $6 billion in grants that would be provided to Turkey in the event of a war, the Bush administration is offering backing for up to $20 billion in loans that Ankara could secure through private banks.
As a condition for U.S. backing, Washington is demanding that the loans fall under the terms of Turkey's program with the International Monetary Fund (news - web sites).
It is unclear whether Ankara will accept the offer, which has ballooned in size in recent days. Turkey, which says it suffered massive economic damage from the Gulf War (news - web sites), has been pressing Washington for billions of dollars more."
And this from Reuters Feb 18, 2003
“We're working closely with the Turks," Bush told reporters. "We
have great respect for the Turkish government. They've had no better friend
than the American government, and hopefully we can come up with an agreement
that's satisfactory to both parties. We're still working it."
In exchange for Turkish help, the United States is offering
Ankara an aid package that includes about $6 billion in grants and up to $20
billion in loan guarantees. So far Turkey has balked at the offering, seeking
twice that amount.
Fleischer said negotiations had reached a crucial stage.
"It ... will be settled one way or another rather soon," he said. "We continue to work with Turkey as a friend. But it is decision time. We will find out what the ultimate outcome is."
Now all of this is going on arrogantly in the open, despite
that current polls show that over 80% of the Turkish peopel are opposed to a
US war on Iraq. Are there any controls on who in Turkey this money will go to
or for what, or rather it's best that we do not ask? Can you imagine how many
text books could be bought with that or how many homeless hosued and clothed?
How many operations for dying citizens could be arranged or how many hospitals
built and staffed? There exist many alternatives than paying the high costs
of war, and this is just one example out of many. If the people of this democracy
demanded an honest government that was responsible to future generations, then
policy would so reflect that. Whose money is being spent for Bush’s war?
Who is going to pay for this and other very costly and indirect costs for Bush’s
war? Yes, it certainly isn't George Bush..
Truth and Integrity demands nothing less that 100 % of our loyalty. The rest is neurotic compensation of which if it is neurotically held onto, disqualifies the former.
I pledge allegiance to the planet on which I stand
One Earth
One People
One Being
One Rich and Vast Great Integrity
Intelligent, Interconnected, and Whole
One Spirit
One Love
Great Peace
RESISTANCE by John Trudell from his book, Stickman
"We want to be free of a value system that is being imposed on us. We do
not want to participate in that value system. We don't want to change that value
system. We want to remove it from our lives forever.
"We must never underestimate our enemy. Our enemy is committed against us twenty-four hours a day. They use one hundred percent of their effort to maintain their materialistic status quo. One hundred percent of their effort goes into deceiving us and manipulating us against each other. We have to devote our lives, we have to make our committment, we have to follow a way of life that says we are going to resist that forever ... a resistance: something that we can pass on as strength to the coming generations."
"A resistance where organizational egos don't get in the way. A resistance where individual egos do not get in the way. A resistance where the infiltrators and the provocateurs and the liars and the betrayers and the traitors, they do not get in the way ... a resistance of consciousness. This is our obligation to the earth. And only by fulfilling our obligation to the earth can we fulfill our obligations to the people.
"We must go beyond the arrogance of human rights. We must go beyond the ignorance of civil rights. We must step into the reality of natural rights because all of the natural world has a right to existence and we are only a small part of it. There can be no trade-off."
Using current events to disclose the sacred (and dislodge the scariness) in every day life.
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