[Imc-seattle-community] $7 Billion Law Suit Against Bush

[melissa roberts]

Does anyone have a copy of the suit filed?

thanks,
-melissa


Socio-Political $7 Billion Law Suit Against Bush
> >
> >All Along the Watchtower
> >By William Rivers Pitt
> >t r u t h o u t
> >Opinion Thursday, 20 June, 2002
> >
> ><http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.21A.pitt.watchtower.htm

Stanley Hilton, a San Francisco attorney and former aide to Senator Bob
> >Dole, filed a $7 billion lawsuit in U.S. District Court on June 3rd. The 
>class-action suit names ten defendants, among whom are George W. Bush, Dick 
>Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Norman Mineta.
> >
> >Hilton's suit charges Bush and his administration with allowing the
> >September 11th attacks to take place so as to reap political benefits
> >from the catastrophe. Hilton alleges that Osama bin Laden is being used 
>as a scapegoat by an administration that ignored pressing warnings of the 
>attack and refused to round up suspected terrorists beforehand.
> >
> >Hilton alleges the ultimate motivation behind these acts was achieved
> >when the Taliban were replaced by American military forces with a regime 
>friendly to America and its oil interests in the region.
Hilton's plaintiffs in this case are the families of 14 victims of 9/11, 
numbering 400 people nationwide. These are the same families that
> >rallied in Washington recently to advocate for an independent
> >investigation into the attacks. The current 9/11 hearings are being
> >conducted by Congress behind closed doors, a situation these families
> >find unacceptable.
> >
> >Mr. Hilton, by filing his lawsuit, has joined the ranks of an
> >ever-increasing body of Americans who subscribe to what they call the
> >LIHOP Theory. LIHOP stands for Let It Happen On Purpose. The LIHOP
> >Theory puts forward the accusation that Bush and his people allowed the 
>September 11th attacks to take place, despite the fact that they had
> >been repeatedly warned of an impending strike.
> >
> >The LIHOP Theory is straightforward: In the months before 9/11, American 
>intelligence agencies received ominous warnings from the intelligence 
>services of nations like Israel, Russia, Egypt and Germany. These warnings 
>were pointed - an attack involving hijacked aircraft and prominent American 
>landmarks was imminent, our security forces were told. Bush himself was 
>briefed of these warnings weeks before they happened.
> >
> >Instead of responding vigorously to these warnings, the Bush
> >administration and its security apparatus did nothing.
> >
> >LIHOP is, of course, the purest breed of conspiracy theory, involving
> >high-ranking members of government from both parties, as well as the
> >CIA, FBI and NSA. Like all good conspiracy theories, LIHOP is surrounded 
>by disturbing facts and bits of evidence that are difficult to ignore.
> >
> >The warnings from all those foreign intelligence services, after all,
> >are quite real. Egypt, Germany, Russia and the Israelis were vociferous 
>in their concerns. The German intelligence service BND told US and Israeli 
>intelligence that Middle East terrorists were "planning to hijack 
>commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of 
>American and Israeli culture." The BND's information came through Echelon, 
>the American- controlled network of 120 satellites that
> >monitors all worldwide electronic communications.
> >
> >Egypt voiced similar warnings that same month regarding aircraft
> >attacks. Delivered just before the G-8 summit in Genoa, Egypt's alert
> >carried such weight that anti-aircraft batteries were placed around
> >Columbus Airport in Italy.
> >
> >The Russians warned the US that same summer of 25 pilots who had been
> >trained for suicide missions, and Putin himself delivered the warning
> >"in the strongest possible terms" to the US government.
> >
> >The Israeli intelligence service Mossad delivered a warning to both the 
>FBI and the CIA detailing "a major assault on the United States" against "a 
>large-scale target" that was "very vulnerable."
> >
> >The Washington Post has reported that the NSA intercepted two messages on 
>September 10, 2001, warning that something was going to happen the next 
>day. "Tomorrow is zero hour," was one of the messages. The NSA's charter is 
>to intercept, translate and pass on to FBI and CIA operatives important 
>electronic signals from all across the globe.
> >
> >The Echelon satellite network which provided the German BND with their 
>9/11 information last June is part of that system. According to the NSA, 
>the September 10th data was not translated until September 12th, but it 
>stands to reason that they were privy to the same electronic data the other 
>foreign services were using as the basis for their warnings.
> >
> >One US intelligence source claims the data provided "no actionable
> >intelligence," a fair claim given the vagueness of the messages and the 
>volume of material NSA must deal with. Yet in combination with the
> >strident foreign intelligence warnings, the words intercepted by our
> >large electronic ears on September 10th add to the growing questions.
> >
> >Then, there are the threads. A FEMA official told Dan Rather that the
> >disaster agency had been at the World Trade Center on September 10th.
> >Why?
> >
> >Governor Jeb Bush of Florida signed executive order #01-261 on September 
>7th, putting his state's National Guard on heightened alert status, 
>essentially placing Florida under martial law for no demonstrable reason. 
>Why?
> >
> >Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial aircraft in 
>the weeks before 9/11, something he had commonly done since his entry
> >into the administration. Why?
> >
> >At the core of the LIHOP Theory lies motivation - what possible purpose 
>could be served by the Bush administration allowing a terrorist attack to 
>take place on American soil? It is flatly inconceivable to most Americans 
>that Bush and his people could demonstrate such callous
> >disregard for American lives, and accusations that they allowed an
> >attack to happen reek of the worst kind of poisonous partisan politics.
> >
> >LIHOP Theory, however, is not so easily dismissed. Two French
> >intelligence analysts, Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, have 
>published an extensively-researched book entitled "Osama bin Laden: The 
>Forbidden Truth." In it, they allege that the Bush administration put 
>energy policy before national security concerns.
> >
> >According to Brisard and Dasquie, a foundering pipeline project aimed at 
>exploiting natural gas reserves along the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan was 
>revived by the Bush administration when it arrived in Washington in January 
>of 2001. The pipeline project, which sought to bring oil and natural gas 
>from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to a warm water port, had been the 
>brainchild of American petroleum giant Unocal for much of the 1990s.
> >
> >After the destruction of two American embassies in Africa in 1998 by
> >Osama bin Laden, the Clinton administration forbade any American
> >companies from doing business with the Taliban, which had been
> >sheltering bin Laden in Afghanistan. Unocal's pipeline project was
> >frozen.
> >
> >After the Bush administration came to power, Brisard and Dasquie allege 
>that reinvigorating the pipeline project became a high-priority matter of 
>policy. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca was dispatched to 
>Pakistan to discuss the pipeline with Taliban officials in August of 2001. 
>Rocca, a career officer with the CIA, had been deeply involved in Agency 
>activities within Afghanistan.
> >
> >According to documents Brisard and Dasquie claim to hold, the main
> >subject of their discussion was oil. A Pakistani foreign minister was
> >also present at the meeting, and witnessed the exchange.
> >
> >How does this pipeline relate to September 11th? According to Brisard
> >and Dasquie, the main obstacle to the completion of the pipeline was the 
>fact that it had to pass through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The
> >project would receive no international support unless the Afghan
> >government somehow became legitimized.
> >
> >In bargaining for the pipeline, the Bush administration demanded that
> >the Taliban reinstate deposed King Mohammad Zahir Shah as ruler of
> >Afghanistan, and demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden for 
>arrest. In return, the Taliban would reap untold billions in profit from 
>the pipeline. According to Brisard and Dasquie, part of the Bush
> >administration's bargaining tactics involved threats of war if these
> >conditions for the legitimization of Afghanistan were not met.
> >
> >The BBC of London reported on September 18th, 2001 of the existence of 
>war plans on Bush's desk aimed at Afghanistan. Niaz Naik, a former
> >Pakistani Foreign Secretary, stated that the war plans were slated for 
>October of 2001. Conditions set by the Bush administration to avoid war 
>involved the Taliban's handing over of bin Laden and the acceptance of King 
>Zahir Shah. Naik went so far as to doubt that America would hold
> >off on war even if these conditions were met.
> >
> >The result, according to the French analysts, was total disaster. The
> >Bush administration fundamentally misunderstood the Taliban regime - to 
>bring back the King and hand bin Laden over to the West would have been 
>tantamount to suicide for the Taliban. Instead of acquiescing to the 
>hard-sell tactics of the Bush administration, the Taliban unleashed
> >their pet attack dog, Osama, upon America. They were going to lose
> >everything, and chose to attack first in the hope that all-out war would 
>break out in Central Asia and rally other Muslim nations to their cause.
> >
> >Motive suddenly becomes far more clear. The Bush administration very
> >much wanted the Unocal pipeline to go through, and put intense pressure 
>on the Taliban to see it happen. As this was happening, American 
>intelligence services were flooded with warnings of an impending attack 
>upon American targets by bin Laden and Al Qaida.
> >
> >The decision was made - let the attack come, and in the ensuing outrage 
>American forces can carve out the guts of the Taliban government like a 
>ripe gourd, replacing them with a 'legitimate' regime more receptive to the 
>pipeline plan.
> >
> >Did the Bush administration have an inkling of the massive death and
> >destruction that would come on September 11th? Those who espouse the
> >LIHOP Theory disagree on this point. Some believe that FEMAs presence at 
>Ground Zero on the day before the attack, coupled with specific language 
>within the international intelligence warnings pertaining to aircraft and 
>high-profile targets, are prima facie evidence of specific prior knowledge.
> >
> >Others believe that the Bush administration only knew vaguely that an
> >attack would come, but not where or when. They did not foresee the level 
>of destruction, and were caught flat-footed when those planes appeared 
>along the New York skyline.
> >
> >In the end, LIHOP Theory can encompass either view. Whether they had
> >specific knowledge beforehand, or merely decided to let some attack
> >happen somewhere, the final results were the same. The Taliban were
> >routed and replaced by an interim government headed by a man named
> >Harmid Karzai.
> >
> >Karzai was recently elected President of Afghanistan in his own right, 
>legitimizing the Afghanistan government. Soon after this, Karzai
> >announced the impending construction of a pipeline that would exploit
> >Turkmenistan's natural gas reserves He named Unocal as the lead company 
>for the project. Before becoming President, Karzai was an advisor to 
>Unocal.
> >
> >For LIHOP Theorists, the evidence is clear. The Bush administration got 
>the pipeline it wanted. Along the way, they used the horrors of 9/11 to 
>place themselves above reproach. In the patriotic fervor that resulted from 
>the attacks, both the press and the Democratic opposition were bracketed by 
>the administration-espoused idea that any questions or
> >criticism were tantamount to treason.
> >
> >The passage of the PATRIOT Anti-Terror Act has given the US government 
>sweeping abilities to snuff dissent by defining it as terrorism, thanks to 
>the loosely-defined wording of the bill. Bush enjoyed stratospheric 
>approval ratings that persist to this day, and American citizens were given 
>new enemies to hate. The Defense Department, and the weapons contractors 
>who cater to them, received billions from the federal budget to do with as 
>they pleased in order to address the objects of that hate.
> >Even the most hardened political observer must admit the dismal truth - 
>September 11th was the greatest thing ever to happen to the Bush
> >administration.
> >
> >Attorney Stanley Hilton has brought LIHOP Theory into the federal court 
>system with his class-action suit, and with the families of 9/11 victims he 
>represents. It will be interesting to see what transpires when these two 
>facts collide in an American courtroom.
> >
> >Given the current climate, it does not seem likely that much will come of 
>it. After all, these conspiracy theorists are just a bunch of nuts.
> >Right?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.21A.pitt.watchtower.htm
> >William Rivers Pitt is a teacher from Boston, MA. His new book, 'The
> >Greatest Sedition is Silence,' will be published soon by Pluto Press.






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