The common sense question is this: How could Cheney include Iraq’s oil resources as part of our energy policy if we had no diplomatic or business relationship with them? Iraq was under sanctions. What business did Cheney have with Iraq’s energy infrastructure? No dealings with Iraq were possible unless something drastic were to happen, like an invasion and occupation. How could he have anticipated such a change when only an event like 9/11 would have made that possible?

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A new military judge has been named to the trial of accused September 11 mastermined Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other defendants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a Pentagon official said Monday.

Colonel Stephen Henley was tapped to replace Colonel Ralph Kohlmann, who will retire in April, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Kohlmann, who is the chief judge of the military commissions at Guantanamo, stepped down because he realized that the September 11 trial would not be completed by the time he retired, the official said.

The USG Open Source Center translates an article from the Persian Afghan press alleging that French troops were at one point close to capturing Usamah Bin Ladin in Afghanistan, but that American forces stopped them from doing so. It says that a forthcoming French documentary containing interviews with the French soldiers provides proof for the allegation. The argument is that the Bush administration needed Bin Ladin to be at large in order to justify its military expansionism.

TVNL Comment: Bin Laden is a CIA friendly and his family has a 30 year friendship & business relationship with the Bush family.

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That the Bush administration would conspire with 'rich men' in order to perpetrate the capital crime of aggressive war and mass murder is nothing new. Rome attacked and invaded Dacia for its gold. The 'empire' itself was sold by the Praetorian Guard to the Patrician Didius Julianus for Greek Drachmas --not worthless Roman sesterces. Is it so unusual that a bankrupt American empire would attack and invade Iraq for its oil? Simply --that is what happened!