'The people have a right to know (that they're played for suckers)'
by Benjamin Roberts, 2006

How much times do we see American politicians and leaders spouting off about how 'the American people have a right to know.' Especially when it is something they want to push through that is more in their interest than that of the American people. The truth is that Americans expect to be informed and kept up to the minute on what is going on around them. This is borne out by 24 hour cable news, being able to check email while on the go, call forwarding, and most recently the constant briefings in the sniper case that gripped Washington, America, and the world. So you see it everywhere.

Americans do expect to know what is going on. But if we think for one moment that those parroting the phrase that the American people have a right to know have any intention of keeping us informed, then we are terribly mistaken. The truth is that more often than not they want us to know what they want us to know. Using a combination of smoke and mirrors and censorship, they play us for fools and suckers. Nowhere is this more pronounced in recent times than in this current Bush Administration.

Recently, Bush was on TV talking about how the General Accounting Office wanted documents about his Administration's connection with Enron and the stock market disaster. He bragged defiantly how he refused to give them such information. Wait a minute. The GAO is as the name implies. From what I gather it is an agency that keeps government accountable and earnest. They should be promptly furnished information of what is going on, so we the citizens can know what is going on. But Bush is blatantly claiming that he refused them information. Is this in keeping with democracy, transparent government, and our leaders oft touted claim of our right to be informed? We have a situation where hard working everyday Americans put away their pennies for a rainy day nest egg. This nest was plundered by the unscrupulous captains of industry. All indications are that these power drunk greedy men were well connected to our government, and we are not allowed to know the facts? So much for America's right to know.

Not so long ago Iraq submitted an extensive military inventory document to the United Nations. This single copy document listed the weapons in Iraq's arsenal, and must surely have included invoices of what was purchased and from whom. Guess what. The Bush Administration pirated the document before the other Security Council members got to see it and removed 8,000 pages from this document. They claimed it was 'sensitive' information. What? Sensitive to who? The truth is that many of those pages listed the American companies that had been assisting Iraq, in violation of American law, in its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction. The Administration did not want the world, but most especially Americans, to know about this. So much for our right to know.

The Bush Administration is poised to attack Iraq because it accuses it of harboring weapons of mass destruction. It claims to have evidence to back up its charges. The UN says to date its inspectors have found no evidence of such weapons. Should Bush not be at this time be falling over himself providing intelligence data to the world and to Americans to counter this finding? Instead he is positioning himself to attack Iraq without showing Americans such convincing information. Should our citizens not be made aware of such evidence before allowing their sons and daughters to be marched into battle to shed innocent blood, along with theirs? Do they have a right to know George Bush?

In the Persian Gulf War, father Bush and his government heavily censored what took place in the war. We were fed video pictures of smart bombs going down chimneys and cruise missiles detonating at airfields. General Norman Swarzhkof came on TV, rosy cheeked and beaming with delight as he informed us how precision bombing and surgical strikes had minimized loss of Iraqi lives and given us a resounding victory. When Swarzhkof was asked how many Iraqis had been killed his countenance changed as he blanched, squirmed and said, 'we will never know.' What? Don't we have a right to know? So Americans came away feeling at peace, with the impression that we did not kill much soldiers and innocent civilians. This quickly turned out to be a false impression, when the Red Cross provided numbers showing that many thousands of Iraqis had died at the hands to America. Now do you see why Americans have a right to know?

A few days ago an Israeli government delegation was here seeking $15 billion in aid from this country. There was no report of their being here, what was being negotiated, or what was the outcome. For all we know they might still be here negotiating. When Richard Boucher, a White House spokesman, was asked about it he refused comment on anything having to do with these meetings, only saying, 'we always take care of our friends.' Wait a minute. Is this the Twilight Zone? $15 billion dollars of American citizens money given to bankroll a government, allowing them to build more West Bank settlements in violation of UN resolutions, produce more massacres like in Jenin, and finance and facilitate their military in its attacks on Palestinian civilians. Is this safe for America? While Americans are losing jobs and collecting unemployment benefits another country is siphoning $15 billion of their resources, and they are not allowed to know anything about it? Does America belong to Richard Boucher, George Bush, and his cast of characters? If America was striking such a deal with say Libya or Iraq, one could envision such deafening silence, because it would be illegal and embarrassing. Israel is touted as America's friend. Why the silence? Is it because the deal does not withstand the test of daylight? Ask George Bush?

Newspaper and TV headlines these days leaves one not knowing whether to keep a serious straight face or burst out laughing. Around the beginning of this year we were asked by our government to be on the lookout in helping to apprehend a group of terrorists in this country, somewhere near the New York area, who were on a mission to undertake terrorist activity against US citizens. Faces were splashed across prime time TV screens. One of the faces was that of an upstanding Afghani, in Afghanistan, who has never been in, or near America, from what reports indicate. After seeing his face as one of the dangerous suspects, the man made a ruckus in setting the record straight. It was at this point that US intelligence admitted that it was some kind of wild goose chase. First, why are we as citizens, novices in intelligence, being asked to help find terrorists in the first place when we pay professionals to do that? Is it because the government wants us to feel they are on the job, and we are in this together as part of a potent crime solving team. These are the same people who refuse to tell us how they were connected with stock market highwaymen who robbed us, and that $15 billion dollars of our money is being generously doled out to a foreign government while our jobless benefits are allowed to run out.

If that were not enough intelligence drama for one month, the government now tells us that they are searching for Iraqi spies in America. Yes, the Associated Press is carrying a report today about how the FBI is scouring the country looking for an Iraqi spy cell operating in the United States. Desperation reigns as the Bush Administration grab at straws in an attempt to convince America and the world of a credible reason to attack Iraq. On top of weapons of mass destruction, threat to Saudi Arabia, threat to Israel, starving his people, and empty chemical warhead shell casings, we now tack on an ominous Iraqi spy cell on American soil. If you conclude that this last gasp spy business sounds like fiction, you are not far off. The racy action adventure novel, 'Jackals of Samarra,' employs a scenario of a fictional military confrontation between the US and Iraq. It makes reference to an Iraqi sleeper cell operating in America. Maybe our intelligence maestros read this book. If not then maybe they should, since the fictional scenario outcome might help them blow the case wide open.

The Iraqis are accused by America of having weapons of mass destruction. Our government is using the weapon of mass fear to divide and rule, just as Prince Metternich did in controlling the Austrian Empire. Americans are told that they have a right to know, and actually do expect to be informed. In its behavior the Bush power elite is telling them 'you have a right to know...nothing, or whatever mumbo jumbo we want to feed you.' My 'weapon of mass deduction,' also known as my brain, is telling me that George Bush is taking the American citizen for a ride as he smirks and mumbles, 'Nothing beats a good ole American sucker.'

Ben is a newsletter editor, freelance writer and published author. His previous articles include: *George Bush vs Robin Hood (CounterPunch.com 11-4-02, SmirkingChimp.com 11-5-02), Underestimating George Bush's Intelligence (CounterPunch.com 11-13-02,Trinicenter.com 11-15-02), *Is Bush A Good Role Model For Our Children? (SmirkingChimp.com 11-29-02), *Bush War On Iraq: A Case of a Drowning Man Grabbing At Straws (SmirkingChimp.com 12-11-02) and, *United States Foreign Policy: A Comedy of Errors (SmirkingChimp.com 1-2-03). He can be emailed for a more comprehensive listing of his articles. His book Jackals of Samarra, can be found at www.iUniverse.com, and at all the major Internet book outlet sites. Be prepared for a surprise reading this action adventure novel set in the Gulf, as today's news headlines seem to be ripped right out of its pages. Definitely a case of life imitating art. Ben can be contacted by email at: grandt730@aol.com