ZGram - 6/20/2004 - 'Revolt in Washington'

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

Zgram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

June 20, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

As you know, I usually stay away from news or events having to do 
with Iraq, but I believe the content of the following two Zgrams is 
significant.  It was sent to me under the subject line, "REVOLT IN 
WASHINGTON":

[START]

  Prestigious Group of Top Washington Officials Demands Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld Go 

  Washington "Regime Change" Demanded By Many Former Top Officials

  "Over nearly half a century we have worked energetically in all 
regions of the world, often in very difficult circumstances, to 
build, piece by piece, a structure of respect and influence for the 
United States that has served our country very well over the last 60 
years. Today we see that structure crumbling under an administration 
blinded by ideology, and a callous indifference to the realities of 
the world around it. Never before have so many of us felt the  need 
for a major change in the direction of our foreign policy." 

  Mid-East Realities - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - 19 June 2004:  

They could have titled this "General Hoar goes gunning for the 
neocons".  And he's not just any old General.  General Hoar retired 
with 4-stars and not long ago commanded the forces that today General 
Abizaid commands that control the greater Middle Eastern region.   He 
now joins another of those rarified top Generals, Anthony Zinni, in 
quite openly declaring revolt against the current American government 
and the Pentagon "civilian leadership".   One wonders though why 
there haven't been any significant resignations at the highest levels 
from the still-serving active ranks of the military, State 
Department, and CIA.  Not very inspiring in so far as contemporary 
Washington.   Yet indeed it was an unprecedented event last week in 
Washington with such a collection of former top senior officials 
quite literally calling for 'regime change' against those the current 
Generals continue to salute 'yes sir' -- Cheney, Wolfowitz, Feith, 
et. al. (Š)

    National Security Mandarins Assail Bush and Cheney

   Executive Intelligence Review dated 25 June 2004 - by Jeffrey Steinberg:

A prestigious group of several dozen retired American diplomats and 
military commanders held a standing-room-only press conference in 
Washington today, to assail the Bush Administration's disastrous 
foreign and national security policy record, and demand that the 
Administration be swept out of office in the November elections. The 
ad hoc group, which calls itself Diplomats and Military Commanders 
for Change, includes 27 retired generals, admirals and Ambassadors, 
who have served in both Democratic and Republican administrations 
over the span of the entire post-World War II era.

  Among the leading signators on the group's statement, which was read 
at today's National Press Club event are:  Ambassador Chas. W. 
Freeman, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia; Admiral William 
J. Crowe, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former 
Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Committee, 
and former Ambassador to the Court of Saint James; General Joseph P. 
Hoar (USMC), former Commander in Chief of the U.S. Central Command; 
Samuel Lewis, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel; Jack Matlock, former 
U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union; Donald McHenry, former U.S. 
ambassador to the United Nations; General Merrill McPeak (USAF), 
former Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force; Phyllis Oakley, former 
Assistant Secretary of States for Intelligence and Research; and 
Arthur Hartman, former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.

  In her opening remarks at the Washington press conference, 
Ambassador Phyllis Oakley explained that ``to be involved in an act 
that will be seen by many as political if not partisan is for many of 
us a new experience. As career government officials, we have served 
loyally both Republican and Democratic administrations....   For many 
of us, such an overt step is very hard to do and we have made our 
decisions after deep reflection. We believe we have as good an 
understanding as any of our citizens, of basic American interests. 
Over nearly half a century we have worked energetically in all 
regions of the world, often in very difficult circumstances, to 
build, piece by piece, a structure of respect and influence for the 
United States that has served our country very well over the last 60 
years. Today we see that structure crumbling under an administration 
blinded by ideology, and a callous indifference to the realities of 
the world around it. Never before have so many of us felt the need 
for a major change in the direction of our foreign policy.... 
Everything we have heard from friends abroad on every continent 
suggests to us that the lack of confidence in the present 
administration in Washington is so profound that a whole new team is 
needed to repair the damages.''

  After reading a brief official statement from the group, Ambassador 
Oakley opened the press conference to questions, which went for 
nearly one hour. Some of the most dramatic exchanges came in response 
to questions from two correspondents for {Executive Intelligence 
Review} who attended the conference. {EIR} White House correspondent 
Bill Jones pressed the panelists--a dozen of the signators--to ``name 
the names'' of the Administration officials who had done so much 
damage to U.S. national security and prestige worldwide.

  Ambassador William Harrop, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel, 
Zaire, Kenya and Guinea, before becoming Inspector General of the 
State Department and Foreign Service, responded.  He made it clear 
that the group holds President Bush personally responsible for taking 
the advice of the five or six well-known neo-conservatives who have 
shaped the Administration's disasterous policy course, particularly 
in Iraq and the larger Southwest Asia region.  He characterized Bush 
as a ``forceful President who is in charge,'' and who listens to the 
neo-cons ``because he wants to.'' Ambassador Harrop made it clear 
that, while the group has no formal ties to John Kerry or his 
Presidential campaign, they are committed to the idea that the Bush 
Administration must be swept from office in November.

  {EIR} Senior Editor Jeff Steinberg put the issue of the torture at 
Abu Ghraib on the table, asking for the group's perspective on war 
crime prosecutions of top Bush Administration officials. Ambassador 
Robert Oakley, former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Somalia and Zaire 
responded.  He said that the legal accountability of Administration 
officials was, in his view, secondary to the moral accountability, 
which has created a ``moral disaster'' for the United States. He 
reminded the audience that the U.S. purportedly went into Iraq to 
change the regime, because Saddam Hussein had been guilty of 
atrocious crimes, at places like Abu Ghraib. The invasion, according 
to Team Bush, was to be a ``transforming event,'' bringing human 
rights, democracy and other American values to Iraq and to the region 
as a whole. ``What does it say to the Muslim world when the United 
States engages in the same kinds of torture and crimes at the same 
Abu Ghraib? This,'' he concluded, ``is a moral and political 
disaster.''

  Ambassador Chas. W. Freeman, Jr. continued, recounting his 
experience as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert 
Storm in 1991. He said that at that time, the U.S. military had 
impressed him greatly, and he was proud of the caliber of the U.S. 
armed forces.  He then charged that the Bush-Cheney Administration 
had nearly destroyed the U.S. military through the Iraq war fiasco. 
He said that the kind of occupation duty and internal security work 
that has been thrust on a totally untrained and unprepared U.S. 
military and reserve force has been ``morally corrosive.'' This 
destruction of the U.S.  military, he warned, is the ``great unspoken 
disaster of this misadventure'' in Iraq.
                                       - Debunking the 9/11 Myth -

  Two other speakers--Ambassador Robert Keeley, former  U.S. 
ambassador to Greece and Zimbabwe; and H. Allen Holmes, former U.S. 
ambassador to Portugal, former Assistant Secretary of State for 
Politico-Military Affairs and former Assistant Secretary of Defense 
for Special Operations--both debunked the Bush-Cheney myth that ``the 
world changed irreversibly after 9/11.'' Both men denounced this as a 
lie and an excuse to permit the President of the United States to 
ignore international law and do whatever he wishes.

  Ambassador Holmes recounted his five years as a member of the 
Clinton Administration's working group on counter-terrorism, headed 
by former National Security Council official Richard Clarke. He 
charged that the Bush Administration used the tragic events of Sept. 
11, 2001 to pursue an Iraq war that destroyed all of the 
international support and good will that had been generated by the 
American action in Afghanistan to unseat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. He 
and other speakers charged that the Bush Administration abandoned the 
Afghanistan mission in order to go to war against an Iraq that posed 
no ``imminent threat'' to the United States or anyone else; and, as a 
result, both Afghanistan and Iraq are near the breaking point.

  While the members of the group said that they have no immediate 
plans to take their harsh critique, and their call for regime change 
in Washington, directly to the American people through nationwide 
tours or other activities, the weight of their attack on the Bush 
Administration's disasterous track-record, is certain to carry 
considerable weight--both inside and outside the Washington Beltway. 
It comes at a moment when the United States Congress is showing a 
long-overdue willingness to directly challenge the Administration's 
lies and crimes, and when the U.S. intelligence community--both 
civilian and military--is becoming increasingly more vocal and active 
in exposing the ``high crimes and misdemeanors'' by top ranking White 
House officials.

[END]

Tomorrow: "The Neo-Cons Have Had Their Day
Now It's Time for a Clean Sweep!"


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