Copyright © 2004 Gene Michael Stover. All rights reserved. Permission to copy, store, & view this document unmodified & in its entirety is granted.
These are my own notes about what the government of the United States has done during the first presidential term of George W. Bush. The purpose of these notes is to help me organize my facts & thoughts so that when someone asks why I won't be voting for George W. Bush in November 2004, I'll be able to tell them concisely & precisely.
The Bush administration claims that Saddam Hussein helped Al Qaeda. They imply, maybe without making a literal claim, that Saddam Hussein collaborated with Al Qaeda for the airplane hijackings of 11 September 2001.
Note this concisely informative paragraph from [edi04]:
The President did not specifically claim that Saddam Hussein's regime was involved in the September 11 attacks, but the Administration was certainly content for the American public to acquire that impression. And as recently as the week of 19 June 2004, Mr Bush and Mr Cheney publicly referred to Saddam's ``long-established ties with al-Qaeda'', as though these ``ties'' were incontrovertible fact.
In January 2004, Colin Powell said that Saddam Hussein had not helped Al Qaeda ([Cor04]) but that considering the connection earlier had been warranted.
In June 2004, in an interview with Hafiz Mirazi of Al-Jazeera television, said Saddam Hussein was helping Al Qaeda. [Cor04]
As of June 2004, the US government claims that evidence of a connection between Hussein & Al Qaeda is that Zarqawi has had communications with Al Qaeda, but these communications happened after the US invated. Besides that, Zarqawi is a member (or lead?) of Ansar al-Islam, which is not Al Qaeda & claimed it opposed Saddam Hussein. It even operated from a part of northern Iraq which Hussein did not control. ([Cor04])
Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction, but they were consumed or destroyed in 1991, & the rest were destroyed by United Nations's weapons inspectors in the following years. By 2001, Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
Besides violating their human rights, the United States government has not obtained a lot of information from the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. ([sta04])
George W. Bush does not respect human rights.
Everything about Guantanamo Bay prison is a violation of human rights by the United States government.
Though he probably did not order anyone to torture anyone, President Bush claimed the right to by-pass laws against torture. Donald Rumsfeld gave permission for guards to strip prisoners & threaten them with dogs. President Bush claims the right to suspend or ignore the guildelines of the Geneva Convention. ([Hun04]) Notice that these facts were part of the White House's presentation to demonstrate that Bush did not order anyone tortured. This is how a governmental administration demonstrates that it respects human rights?
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The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks in the United States begins its investigations, which end in June.
The items in this chapter are loose notes, in whatever order I put them here. Any given note in this chapter will probably be removed as I research it & incorporate it into the rest of this article.
South Korean businessman beheaded. I think it was on Monday, 22 June 2004. I think it was in Iraq. It was done because South Korea plans to send troups to Iraq, but these are not troups for combat. They are supposed to help reconstruction. His captors made him plead for his life by pleading the South Korean government not to send its soldiers. South Korea did send the soldiers (or did not speak up to agree that they would), so his captors beheaded him. His Kim Sun Il. (The family name is Kim, & I may have misspelled his name.) I guess the organization which beheaded him was Al Jezera (said NPR).
BBC said the group is named Matheism Al Jihad.
Congressman Waxman corrects a report that said terrorism was at a low in 2003. In fact, acts of terrorism were at a 20 year high in 2003. An earlier government report was in error, said Colin Powell. The discrepancy was caused by the original report's failure to account for some acts of terrorism in Turkey(?).
``Linked with'' Al Qaeda? They say that all the time, but there are two Z-guys who helped Bin Laden, & they don't like each other. And one of them is dead.
Notes while listening to the news on National Public Radio channel KUOW.
Also called ``the 9/11/ commission''.
An independant, bipartisan panel, managed by Philip Zelikow, charged with determining whether the American forces acted appropriately on 11 September 2004.
When formed? Comprised of what members?
It was created to investigate the conduct of the American forces during the hijackings of 11 September 2001.
Its report was delivered in June 2004, & among its conclusions were:
fixme: Get a link to the commission's report.