Fw: Tom Cahill: 'Beyond Treason'

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Cahill" <tcahill@mcn.org>
To: <Recipient list suppressed>
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 1:18 PM
Subject: Tom Cahill: 'Beyond Treason'

> "Beyond Treason"
>
> By Tom Cahill
>
> August 30, 2005
>
>
>
> America's ship-of-state is sinking, torpedoed by the totally fraudulent
and
> murderous war in Iraq.
>
> And a second torpedo is about to strike the foundering vessel. When the
> full impact of the use of uranium munitions in Iraq reaches the American
> public, this could finish off the US government, Democrats as well as
> Republicans. With such loss of Washington's credibility, what could
> follow is an economic collapse that could make the Great Depression of
> the 1930s seem like a mere, temporary "market adjustment."
>
> If Cindy Sheehan has an "accident" or is "suicided," it's too late for
> Washington's demise. She has already awakened enough of the American
> public and given them a transfusion of enough courage to think and speak
> out louder and more clearly about the outrage that is the war on Iraq.
>
> The second "torpedo" running straight and true at the ship-of-state may be
> a film produced by the American Gulf War Veterans Association
> (www.GulfWarVets.com) titled "Beyond Treason." It is a powerful expose of
> the absolute criminal insanity of the United States military/industrial
> complex--not just during the Bush regime but going all the way back to the
> Truman Administration. The film is an example of the highest and best use
> of communications technology and is also a tremendous blow to the
> credibility of the corporate media which has forever been the Ministry of
> Propaganda for the US government.
>
> I made the mistake of watching "Beyond Treason" early yesterday
> morning. As a military veteran, a father and a grandfather, I was so
> appalled by the horrors depicted in "Beyond Treason," that I was deeply
> depressed the rest of day and went to bed with a sense of dread and
> hopelessness. But as an activist for more than four decades, I've had to
> become resilient. And having been already acquainted with much of the
> information presented in the film, I awoke this morning in a fury of
> righteous indignation. For years I have felt thoroughly betrayed by the
US
> government. Now I'm so enraged, I feel like an enemy alien in my own
country.
>
> What affected me most in "Beyond Treason" is the way the information was
so
> skillfully presented and--most of all--the color stills of horribly
> deformed babies born to American veterans of Desert Storm 1991. They are
> all victims of so-called "depleted" uranium, an obscene term coined by
some
> spin doctor deep in the putrid bowels of the Pentagon.
>
> While in Iraq as a human shield during the US-led invasion in 2003, I
> visited hospitals in Baghdad and Basra and saw children dying before my
> eyes. Hospital staff wouldn't let us see the worst deformed children but
> showed us photos. Those images of Iraqi babies now reinforced by the
> photos presented in "Beyond Treason" of American infants will remain with
> me the rest of my life.
>
> If you have read this far and are still not moved to action, you need to
> see some stats and facts.
>
> * Desert Storm 1991 lasted little over four days and less than 150
> Americans were killed in action. It was touted by the Pentagon as the
> "greatest military victory in US history."
>
> * Since 1991, between ten thousand (10,000) and fifteen thousand (15,000)
> American veterans of that battle have died from the "depleted" uranium
used
> to harden the steel in US munitions and armor.
>
> * Almost a half million (425,000) Desert Storm 1991 vets are chronically
> ill and dying from what US Army doctors call a "mystery disease" or "Gulf
> War Syndrome" which in reality is sickness primarily from radiation.
>
> * More than two hundred thousand (209,100) Desert Storm 1991 veterans of
> the above listed half million are already receiving disability benefits
> from the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is one of the hidden costs
of
> the war covered up by the Department of Defense. Already the Iraq War is
> the fourth most financially costly (in 2005 dollars) conflict in US
> history, more expensive than WW I.
>
> * The tons of uranium waste from US nuclear power plants used in uranium
> munitions and armor, still being used in Iraq is the equivalent of almost
> a half million (400,000) atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki in 1945, according
> to Leuren Moret, a scientist and leading whistleblower on uranium
munitions.
>
> * Sandstorms are blowing the fine uranium dust all over the Mid East
> including Israel. If it gets into the jet stream, why couldn't it spread
> all over the world like after Chernobyl blew up in 1986?
>
> * I was in Iraq only six weeks and tested positive for radiation when I
> returned home. Imagine what the American soldiers in Iraq for six months
> and longer will have to deal with. In the near future casualties of Gulf
> War 2003 and the occupation could dwarf those of Desert Storm and could be
> a third torpedo if the second one doesn't finally sink the country.
>
> Who's responsible for this insanity? It's not just George Bush
> and his close cohorts who should be indicted by some court they don't
> already own or intimidate.
>
> Dwight Eisenhower, former commanding general of US Army Forces in Europe
in
> WW II, in his farewell address as president of the USA in January 1961,
> warned of the threat of the "military/industrial complex." He even coined
> the term, a euphemism for fascism which in turn is a coalition of high
> ranking government officials, top military officers and CEOs of big
> corporations.
>
> Pres. John Kennedy took Pres. Eisenhower's warning seriously, and was
> assassinated, many of us believe, because JFK tried to control and
downsize
> the "complex" which includes the vast US intelligence community of which
> the CIA and FBI are only mid-sized agencies.
>
> For decades rubber stamp for "the complex" has been the US Senate
> Committee on Armed Services? Among the illustrious Republican senators
are
> John McCain of Arizona and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina. Among the
> Democrats are those star "liberals" (as the far Right calls them) Edward
> Kennedy of Massachusetts and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
>
> It was Sen. Clinton--already campaigning for president 2008--who just a
> month ago suggested the US should send 100,000 more troops to Iraq. This
> was of course shortly before Cindy Sheehan cornered the master of the
> universe like a rat in his own home in Crawford, Texas. I couldn't find
an
> e-mail address on the web site of the Senate Armed Service Committee, but
> here is the committee's postal address:
>
> U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services
> 228 Russell Senate Office Building
> Washington, DC, 20510
>
> Please don't let me be the only one to drop the Senators a fan
> letter. If you've seen "Beyond Treason" and trust it's sources, demand
> don't request that the senators see the film too. After all, aren't they
> servants of the people?
>
> Every American should be forced to see "Beyond Treason" as German
civilians
> were forced by order of then Gen. Eisenhower to visit the Nazi death
camps
> immediately after liberation in 1945. Justice would be further served if
> the Americans responsible for the use of uranium munitions were tried for
> war crimes in Nurenberg, Germany. This should include former
> commanders-in-chief George H. W. Bush and William Clinton.
>
>
> The essayist served in US Air Force intelligence in Germany in the
> Fifties. He has been an activist for peace, justice and the environment
> all his adult life. A few months after returning from Iraq in 2003, he
> witnessed (along with Sen. Kennedy and others) Pres. Bush sign into law
the
> Prison Rape Elimination Act. Memos from his FBI files indicate it may
have
> been COINTELPRO that set him up to be beaten, gang-raped and otherwise
> tortured while jailed for civil disobedience because of his "anti-Vietnam
> (war) activities." Recently he was nominated for the Agape Foundation
> Peace Prize for 2005.
>
>
>