Written on Christmas Eve 1513
By Fra Giovanni

I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep.
There is nothing I can give you which you have not.
But there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.
Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.
Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering,
Cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you
will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power.
Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you.
Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there.
The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Your joys, too,
be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering,
that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.
Courage then to claim it; that is all!
But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together,
wending through unknown country home.

And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings,
but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and
forever, the day breaks and shadows flee away.

DURING THIS HOLIDAY SEASON “Duchess Blog” BRINGS YOU NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH & LIBERAL NEWS

'THEY' DESTROYED NEW ORLEANS
Kenneth Cooper, AlterNet
When it comes to explaining why the levees broke, many otherwise reasonable New Orleanians are quick to believe in conspiracy theories.
http://www.alternet.org/katrina/30044/

SAYING GOODBYE TO TOOKIE
Bianca Jagger, AlterNet
The execution of a reformed criminal was a grave miscarriage of justice, but there is still hope that Tookie's passing can lead to the end of the death penalty in California and nationwide.
http://www.alternet.org/story/30046/

THE MORALITY OF 'MUNICH'
Jordan Elgrably, AlterNet
Spielberg's startling new film, 'Munich,' is an incisive argument against the use of violence to resolve the Mideast conflict.
http://www.alternet.org/movies/30040/

THE WAR ON XMA$
Will Durst, AlterNet
If corporate America doesn't have a merry, profitable Xma$, then the terrorists have won.
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/30049/

A TIME TO IMPEACH
Doug Ireland, Direland
President Bush may find himself in deep trouble after ordering and defending illegal wiretaps of U.S. citizens -- a crime for which Richard Nixon was nearly impeached.
http://www.alternet.org/story/29826/

[Duchess Note – Impeaching just Puppet King Georgie will not solve the whole mess we’re in right now. It is important to dig deep and clean out ALL the bad roots of this evil festering regime. And believe me; these evil corrupt roots go deep.]

THE NYC TRANSIT STRIKE: ILLEGAL BUT NOT IMMORAL
Judith Mahoney Pasternak, AlterNet
Those who care about workers' rights know that going on strike is not only a last resort, but sometimes the only way change can happen.
http://www.alternet.org/story/29963/

IS THE U.S. BECOMING A POLICE STATE?
Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet
Martin Luther King -- the most celebrated dove in American history -- was spied on because he was considered a threat. That means none of us is safe.
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/29919/

IRAN'S VICTORY REVEALED IN IRAQ ELECTION
Robert Scheer, AlterNet
Tehran's rogue regime now looms larger than ever over the region and especially over its oil.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/29952/

GIVING SO IT MATTERS
Bishop V. Gene Robinson, AlterNet
It's not enough to pull drowning victims out of the river; we need to walk back upstream and find out who's throwing them in.
http://www.alternet.org/story/29579/

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF PEACE
Dana King / 30 Minutes Bay Area
December 18, 2005
http://cbs5.com/30minutes/local_story_350231908.html

AMERICAN IDIOT
By the band Greenday
[Duchess Note – Check out their new live CD/DVD called “Bullet in the Bible”. This CD is from a gig in England and it really rocks the house.]

Don’t wanna be an American idiot
Don’t want a nation under the new media
And can you hear the sound of hysteria
The subliminal mind f--k America
Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We’re not the ones meant to follow
For that’s enough to argue

Maybe I am the faggot America
I’m not a part of a redneck agenda
Now everybody do the propaganda
And sing along to the age of paranoia
Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Everything isn’t meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We’re not the ones meant to follow
For that’s enough to argue

Don’t want to be an American idiot
One nation controlled by the media
Information age of hysteria
Calling out to idiot America
Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Everything isn’t meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We’re not the ones meant to follow
For that’s enough to argue

THREE KNOCKS ON THE WAR ON TERROR
Mick Youther
http://www.opednews.com

Terrorists have not attacked America again, because they don't need to-- There is nothing they can do that could compare to the damage the Bush Administration is inflicting on America—to our reputation, our environment, our domestic programs, our quality of life.

1. It has been pointed out by a number of people that terror (or terrorism) is a tactic, and you cannot declare war on a tactic. Bush’s declaration of a “War on Terror” after 9/11 is comparable to FDR declaring a “War on Surprise Attacks” after Pearl Harbor.

2. “We’re fighting them over there, so we don’t have to fight them over here,” is catchy, but what does it mean? Does the Bush Administration actually believe that terrorists march forward in a line like the Redcoats in the Revolutionary War; and if we can just hold that line “over there”, the terrorists won’t be able to get “over here”?

President Bush insists that, by sacrificing thousands of lives in Iraq, he is somehow protecting our liberty and freedom and making us safer here at home—he just never explains how. He cites the train bombings in Madrid as an example of what happens to countries that refused to “fight them over there”. Bush’s logic is impeccable, except Spain did join us in Iraq and did not leave until long after Bush had declared “Mission Accomplished”; and London’s subways were bombed even though Britain is still fighting the terrorists “over there”.

3. The Department of Homeland Security is a waste, a fraud, a sham—governments boondoggle of the worst kind; because it not only wastes taxpayer money, it offers Americans a false sense of security.

“Since 2001, the federal government has distributed more than $8 billion to help police, firefighters and other ‘first responders’ pay for equipment and training to prepare for terrorist attacks... Unfortunately, these grants have been allocated using a flawed formula that distributes funds widely but does not account for threat levels, vulnerability or the consequences of an attack.” --Co-Chairs of the 9/11 Commission, Kean and Hamilton, 9/11/05

Republicans in Congress know if Homeland Security money went where it is most needed, too much of it would go to the big cities where all those darned Democrats live. So, rather than distribute money based actual security needs, Congress treats Homeland Security money as just another big piece of pork. This leads to money going to the wrong places and being spent on the wrong things. The District of Columbia used federal domestic security money to buy leather jackets and send sanitation workers to self-improvement seminars. Newark, NJ, purchased air-conditioned garbage trucks, and Columbus, OH, bought armor for its fire department dogs. “These are not the priorities of a nation under threat,” said Kean and Hamilton.

Another problem is a lack of prioritization of security threats. Congress sets security-related deadlines without differentiating between banning toenail clippers on airplanes and monitoring the cargo entering our ports (The CIA believes this is most likely means of moving weapons of mass destruction into the United States).

Each year, foreign cargo ships visit U.S. ports some 50,000 times carrying millions of shipping containers. Only 4 to 6 percent of these containers are currently inspected. In spite of this, the Bush Administration’s 2003 and 2004 budgets provided no money for port security grants.

“For the cost of two F-22 fighter jets and three days of combat in Iraq, the nation's ports could be secured against terror.” --Retired Coast Guard Commander Stephen Flynn, The Progress Report, americanprogressaction.org, 12/1/04

Most of America’s security problems are a direct result of White House actions or inactions. The Republicans may control Congress, but the White House has effectively controlled the Republicans since Bush was appointed President in 2000. Now, four years after 9/11; the hodgepodge of “security” measures they have put into place is laughable. They inspect our shoes for bombs before we can board a plane that is carrying tons of un-inspected cargo. They maintain a terrorist watch-list that keeps Yusuf Islam (a.k.a. Cat Stevens) from entering the U.S., while hundreds of thousands of people illegally cross our southern border every year. They declared war to keep Saddam from giving (non-existent) nuclear weapons to terrorists, but they have done next to nothing to assure that terrorists don’t get their hands on one of the 30,000 nuclear warheads left in the Soviet arsenal.

Recent reports indicate that the Bush Administration believes the best way to protect Americans is to spy on non-violent peace activists, environmentalists, and anyone else who happens to disagree with them—never mind the ports, railways, nuclear power plants, chemical plants, refineries, dams, bridges, etc. They will take care of themselves.

“The government should only address those activities that the market does not adequately provide -- for example, national defense or border security. (Did he say border security?) ... For other aspects of homeland security, sufficient incentives exist in the private market to supply protection.” --President Bush's 2002 National Homeland Security Strategy

In BushWorld, the government never has to worry about domestic security. The private sector will solve all our problems—even terrorism. Benevolent corporations will voluntarily spend whatever is necessary to guard their facilities, secure their hazardous materials, and protect our nation’s infrastructure from the evil-doers. They will also meet strict voluntary environmental and safety standards—while guaranteeing their employee pension and healthcare plans. Back in the real world, we have an administration that failed to prevent the “surprise” attacks on 9/11—despite specific warnings from numerous countries and agents in our FBI. Four years later, Hurricane Katrina blew away all illusions that this administration had done anything to increase our nation’s ability to respond to a crisis. Last year, I watched an interview with three security experts. When they were asked, “Why hasn’t the U.S. been attacked again?”—they had no idea.

My theory: Until they acquire a nuclear weapon, there is no reason for terrorists to attack America again. There is nothing they can do that could compare to the damage the Bush Administration is inflicting on America—to our reputation, our environment, our domestic programs, our quality of life. The Bush Administration continues to stretch our military, stretch the budget, and stretch the truth—every time they claim to be doing everything they can to keep Americans safe.

Mick Youther is a retired physiology instructor, now working on regime change in America.

Fog Fact of the Year
By Larry Beinhart
http://www.fogfacts.com/thefacts/

President Bush gave a radio address on December 17 in which he explained why he had to use illegal wiretaps. As usual, he returned to the events of 9/11. He said:

“Two of the terrorist hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon, Nawaf al Hamzi and Khalid al Mihdhar, communicated while they were in the United States to other members of al Qaeda who were overseas. But we didn’t know they were here, until it was too late. … The activities I have authorized make it more likely that killers like these 9/11 hijackers will be identified and located in time.”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/release/2005/12/20051217.htm

To the contrary. It was secrecy – and incompetence – that let al Hazmi board that plane on 9/11.

“The tragedy of 9/11 was a result of the failure to see the facts that were in front of us. On April 1st, 2001 Oklahoma State Trooper C. L. Parkins stopped one of the future hijackers, Nawaf al Hazmi, for speeding. Al Hazmi had been photographed at an Al Qaeda meeting in Malaysia. He was known to the CIA as a terrorist. They suspected that he might be in the US illegally. The CIA was, theoretically, looking for al Hazmi. Parkins ran al Hazmi’s California license through the computer and checked for warrants. Nothing came back. The CIA had not distributed the information. Trooper Parkins wrote al Hazmi two tickets totaling $138 and let him continue his journey.”

Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin, Larry Beinhart
Nation Books, 2005, page one

That was neither the first nor the last time that al Hazmi and al Mihdhar could have been stopped:

Nawaf al Hazmi set off the alarms for both the first and second metal detectors and was then hand-wanded before being passed [to board the plane they were about to hijack] … Khalid al Mihdhar, and Majed Moqed were flagged by CAPPS.The Hazmi brothers were also selected for extra scrutiny by the airline’s customer service representative at the check-in counter. He did so because one of the brothers did not have photo identification nor could he understand English, and because the agent found both of the passengers to be suspicious. … Mihdhar and Moqed placed their carry-on bags on the belt of the X-ray machine and proceeded through the first metal detector. Both set off the alarm, and they were directed to a second metal detector. Mihdhar did not trigger the alarm and was permitted through the checkpoint. We asked a screening expert to review the videotape of the hand-wanding, and he found the quality of the screener’s work to have been “marginal at best.” The screener should have “resolved” what set off the alarm; and in the case of both Moqed and Hazmi, it was clear that he did not.

The 9/11 Commission Final Report (www.gpoaccess.gov/911/)

The 9/11 Commission even produced a boxed set of missed opportunities to have grabbed the terrorists based on information that was known but not shared.

Operational Opportunities

1. January 2000: the CIA does not watch list Khalid al Mihdhar or notify the FBI when it learned Mihdhar possessed a valid U.S. visa.

2. January 2000: the CIA does not develop a transnational plan for tracking Mihdhar and his associates so that they could be followed to Bangkok and onward, including the United States.

3. March 2000: the CIA does not watch list Nawaf al Hazmi or notify the FBI when it learned that he possessed a U.S. visa and had flown to Los Angeles on January 15, 2000.

4. January 2001: the CIA does not inform the FBI that a source had identified Khallad, or Tawfiq bin Attash, a major figure in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, as having attended the meeting in Kuala Lumpur with Khalid al Mihdhar.

5. May 2001: a CIA official does not notify the FBI about Mihdhar’s U.S. visa, Hazmi’s U.S. travel, or Khallad’s having attended the Kuala Lumpur meeting (identified when he reviewed all of the relevant traffic because of the high level of threats).

6. June 2001: FBI and CIA officials do not ensure that all relevant information regarding the Kuala Lumpur meeting was shared with the Cole investigators at the June 11 meeting.

7. August 2001: the FBI does not recognize the significance of the information regarding Mihdhar and Hazmi’s possible arrival in the United States and thus does not take adequate action to share information, assign resources, and give sufficient priority to the search.

8. August 2001: FBI headquarters does not recognize the significance of the information regarding Moussaoui’s training and beliefs and thus does not take adequate action to share information, involve higher-level officials across agencies, obtain information regarding Moussaoui’s ties to al Qaeda, and give sufficient priority to determining what Moussaoui might be planning.

9. August 2001: the CIA does not focus on information that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a key al Qaeda lieutenant or connect information identifying KSM as the “Mukhtar” mentioned in other reports to the analysis that could have linked “Mukhtar” with Ramzi Binalshibh and Moussaoui.

10. August 2001: the CIA and FBI do not connect the presence of Mihdhar, Hazmi, and Moussaoui to the general threat reporting about imminent attacks.

The 9/11 Commission drew the logical conclusion – less secrecy, not more secrecy. What all these stories have in common is a system that requires a demonstrated “need to know” before sharing. This approach assumes it is possible to know, in advance, who will need to use the information. Such a system implicitly assumes that the risk of inadvertent disclosure outweighs the benefits of wider sharing. Those Cold War assumptions are no longer appropriate. What the 9/11 Commission would not do, for political reasons, was make the point that the leaders of the country in the months prior to 9/11 adamantly refused to focus on Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and potential terrorist attacks on the United States. When information was put in front of them, they ignored it, brushed it off, or rebuffed it. They were adamantly focused on finding an opportunity to invade Iraq. They let their subordinates know both positions. Which presumably had a trickle down effect that said, in effect, “don’t tell me about Al Qaeda, no one wants to know! Bring me the head of Saddam Hussein!”

The facts – that knew about Nawaf al Hamzi and Khalid al Mihdhar, that we knew that they were international villains, that we knew enough to have stopped them – have not only been published, they have been published in the official record of the events. Yet nobody appears to have checked the record and then challenged the president on his claim. The facts are there, but lost in the fog.

Larry Beinhart is the author of http://www.nationbooks.org/book.mhtml?t=beinhart2
"Wag the Dog". Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin. All available at http://www.nationbooks.org