[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: Nader: Bush family profited from Iraq War

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>
>Washington Times
>February 25, 2005
>
>Nader: Bush family profited from Iraq War
>
>By Sebastian Christ and Philipp Heinz
>
>Washington, DC, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Ralph Nader, consumer
>lawyer and former presidential candidate, claimed
>Thursday that several of President Bush's family
>members and their political allies profited from
>insider deals regarding the war in Iraq.
>
>Nader urged more public and congressional focus on what
>he called the "institutionalization of corruption and
>secrecy."
>
>Nader also used his announcement of the "Stop the War"
>campaign by the so-called Democracy Rising activist
>group for an overall attack on the Bush administration.
>
>Nader, who ran in the last election for president as an
>independent after the 1996 and 2000 campaigns as the
>Green Party candidate, said the administration was
>doing business with "corporate criminals" and the
>agency and department heads responsible for this
>corruption continued to serve in office.
>
>"Never in American history has there been more
>corruption without anybody being required to resign.
>The corruption, even when exposed, continues on a base
>that the corrupters are not held accountable and those
>who receive the benefits of the corruption are not held
>accountable," Nader said.
>
>Nader and the Democracy Rising activists handed out a
>list of names of Bush family members that they say are
>"profiteers" of the war in Iraq. The list includes
>former president George H. W. Bush, who "only recently
>resigned as a board member of the finance giant the
>Carlyle Group."
>
>According to Democracy Rising, Carlyle was 43rd among
>federal contractors with $676.5 million in contacts in
>2002, but one year later it moved to 11th place with
>$2.1 billion in contracts, "partly from the war on
>terrorism and partly from Iraq."
>
>Other names listed include the president's brothers
>Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Marvin P. Bush and Neil Mallon
>Bush and the president's uncle William H. T. Bush.
>
>Not all of Nader's ire was directed at the Bush family.
>He also blamed the Democratic Party for a lack of
>political pressure on the government, saying: "The
>political system is not doing its job. Why did John
>Kerry and John Edwards not question the Bush family's
>involvement in the Iraq war contracts? Well, John Kerry
>was put in the defense by the Swift boat veterans. That
>reflects the lowering of political pressure in the
>system."
>
>Nader finished third in November's U.S. presidential
>elections. Bush, the Republican Party nominee,
>collected 60.6 million (51 percent) of the votes cast
>while Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., running on the
>Democratic ticket with Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., had
>57.3 million votes (48 percent). Nader was third with
>about 407,000 votes -- about 1 percent of votes cast.
>
>Nader posited a three-point plan for a U.S. withdrawal
>from Iraq within six months. Nader also called for
>continued development aid and international
>peacekeepers from Islamic and countries with experience
>in nation building.
>
>As he has done before, Nader accused the administration
>of not reporting the appropriate numbers of casualties
>of the war in Iraq. "Bush does not count troops who
>suffer serious diseases in Iraq or commit suicide," he
>said.
>
>According to Nader, more than 10,000 members of the
>military should count as casualties. About 1,475 U.S.
>military personnel have been killed in Iraq, Pentagon
>figures show.
>
>Nader also pointed to the Iraq Commission, criticizing
>its secrecy. Bush created the commission in response to
>David Kay's search for weapons of mass destruction in
>Iraq.
>
>"Institutionalization of secrecy is dangerous for a
>democratic society," Nader said. "The American people
>deserve to know how and when intelligence information
>about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were
>manipulated by the president and his advisers in order
>to plunge the nation into war."
>
>Nader also decried the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections as
>undemocratic.
>
>"This election was a farce. The candidates were pre-
>selected," Nader said. He complained that the
>candidates had to be approved by the U.S.-backed
>"Independent Election Commission of Iraq" and, in
>addition, needed to have a secondary education.
>Administration officials were unavailable for comment
>late Thursday.
>
>Virginia Rodino, steering committee member of United
>for Peace and Justice, criticized Bush in the same news
>conference for his budget policy, saying the U.S.
>people "understand the connection between the war
>budget and the abolishment of social programs."
>
>Rodino said that the strategy of many anti-war groups
>in the 2004 U.S. elections was a mistake. She referred
>to the presidential campaign as a "fiasco" because
>United for Peace and Justice supported Kerry, a "pro-
>war candidate."
>
>On March 19, one day before the second anniversary of
>the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, her group is
>planning a "global day of action" in major U.S.
>cities.
>
>http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050224-052103-7928r.htm
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand