Dear Editor,
For two years, I have traveled in and out of Laurel, Md., home to the National Security Agency (it controls 85 percent of the “spy” budget for the United States).
In addition to traveling, I have read books by James Bamford such as Puzzle Palace, Body of Secrets and Pretext for War. I have also read journal articles such as Foreign Policy Review, Journal of Intelligence and Counter Intelligence.
The war in Iraq was planned before the election of 2000 by a pro-Israeli think-tank in the Pentagon.
The plan was presented to then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996 and he rejected it. The plan, called Clean Break, involved Israel planning the foreign policy for the United States and allowing Ariel Sharon to have his way with Palestinians.
I find it offensive that a foreign country planned and implemented foreign policy for the United States. Would we, for instance, allow Canada to plan a war for us?
We have lost our credibility with our friends and completely destroyed our credibility with friendly Arab nations. It is the first time in the history of the United States that this happened.
The plan for the war in Iraq became the top priority only 10 days after Bush was inaugurated.
This administration refused to listen to CIA and other intelligence agency briefings about the possibility of a terrorist attack.
Richard Clarke, a career anti-terrorist, resigned March 2003 because he was not listened to by the Bush administration. For this reason, in spite of adequate warnings, Sept. 11 happened.
The Commander-in-Chief was ensconced in an elementary school in Sarasota, Fla., posing for a photo-op for the 2004 election. He was too busy to take command, when NORAD might have been able to shoot down the airliners.
Since Bush declared the war over in May 2003, approximately 1,100 American lives have been lost. Countless thousands of innocent civilians have been killed. All of this was unnecessary.
In See No Evil, Robert Baer describes how Chalabi was planning a coup against Saddam Hussein in 1995, when Robert Baer was recalled to the CIA by Anthony Lake. This coup would not have required any Americans at all and would have been completed by Arabs.
Subsequent to the NO GO on the coup, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in November 1995 at a Tel Aviv peace rally by an extreme right-wing Israeli.
I submit to you that re-electing Bush is fraught with potential for the entire Middle East to be in war. If we continue allowing Ariel Sharon to engage in his genocidal policies, the United States will be the loser.
Our Vice President, Richard Cheney, has profiteered from the deaths of our servicemen and women. By controlling subcontracts from the Pentagon, the cronyism has paid off for those working for the companies with which the vice president is associated such as Halliburton. I find this extremely offensive as a taxpayer.
Rita J. Rodgers

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