Quit trying to blame it on the CIA...

[2pac Shakur]

We all know it was the White House that wanted this war.
Their close circle of friends made many billions on this war.
But some of you ostriches believe that it was just a mistake?
Oops, Dick Cheney did it again?
There is no such thing as coincidence.

Fury over Pentagon cell that briefed White House on Iraq's 'imaginary' al-Qaeda links
By Julian Coman in Washington
(Filed: 11/07/2004)


A Senior Pentagon policy maker created an unofficial "Iraqi intelligence cell" in the summer of 2002 to circumvent the CIA and secretly brief the White House on links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qa'eda, according to the Senate intelligence committee.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...ixnewstop.html

In particular, Pentagon officials insisted that more should be made of an alleged meeting between the September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi official in Prague in April 2001. The CIA judged reports of the meeting not to be credible, a verdict vindicated on Friday by the Senate committee report.
Most remarkably, on September 16, 2002, two days before the CIA was to produce its postponed assessment, Mr Feith's cell went directly to the White House and gave an alternative briefing to Vice-President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and to the National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's deputy.

The briefing contained the section alleging "fundamental problems" with CIA intelligence-gathering. It also gave a detailed breakdown of the alleged meeting between Atta and an Iraqi agent.

The following week, senior Bush officials made confident statements on the existence of a link between Saddam and al-Qa'eda. Mr Tenet would learn of the secret briefing only in March 2004.

http://whatreallyhappened.com/

[The Diabolical Biz Markie]

Originally Posted by 2pac Shakur

Their close circle of friends made many billions on this war.

Source?

A "billion" is hard to "make". That is more than the annual net income of most publicly traded companies. "many billions" would be even harder to make.

[2pac Shakur]

Originally Posted by Shekky_Tree

Source?

A "billion" is hard to "make". That is more than the annual net income of most publicly traded companies. "many billions" would be even harder to make.

Halliburton has received many billions in contracts.
That's just a start.
Not to mention the Carlyle group.
I bet Bush is really upset about this terrible mistake.

[2pac Shakur]

[2pac Shakur]

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

http://www.fas.org/man/smedley.htm

[The Diabolical Biz Markie]

I hate to waste a finance 101 lesson on you--but...

This would be the income in billions for the 30 component companies of the Dow Jones Index.

"making" even $1B in a whole 12 months would pretty much put you at the bottom of this list, which are 30 of biggest companies in the US.

So, someone making "many billions" would be doing pretty darned well, depending on your definition of "many".

You are saying that Bushes "friends", made "many billions of dollars" as a result of the Iraq War.

Who, and how much, and how do you know?

I am saying BS, because it just isn't as easy to make a billion dollars as you make it seem. And, you'll note, Halliburton is not on the list. I think the key distinction you need to make is the difference between "revenue" and "net income". "Net income" is more appropriately "what you make".



Symbol Income (trailing 12 mos)
XOM 19.8
C 18.7
GE 15.7
JPM 12.4
MO 9.5
MSFT 9.4
AIG 9.2
WMT 9.1
JNJ 9.0
IBM 8.0
INTC 7.1
MRK 6.6
PG 5.6
SBC 5.5
KO 4.6
HD 4.4
AXP 3.1
HPQ 3.0
VZ 2.8
MMM 2.6
GM 2.6
UTX 2.5
DIS 2.1
BA 1.9
MCD 1.6
AA 1.4
HON 1.4
CAT 1.3
DD 1.1
PFE 0.9

[2pac Shakur]

Originally Posted by Shekky_Tree

I hate to waste a finance 101 lesson on you--but...

This would be the income in billions for the 30 component companies of the Dow Jones Index.

"making" even $1B in a whole 12 months would pretty much put you at the bottom of this list, which are 30 of biggest companies in the US.

So, someone making "many billions" would be doing pretty darned well, depending on your definition of "many".

You are saying that Bushes "friends", made "many billions of dollars" as a result of the Iraq War.

Who, and how much, and how do you know?

I am saying BS, because it just isn't as easy to make a billion dollars as you make it seem. And, you'll note, Halliburton is not on the list. I think the key distinction you need to make is the difference between "revenue" and "net income". "Net income" is more appropriately "what you make".



Symbol Income (trailing 12 mos)
XOM 19.8
C 18.7
GE 15.7
JPM 12.4
MO 9.5
MSFT 9.4
AIG 9.2
WMT 9.1
JNJ 9.0
IBM 8.0
INTC 7.1
MRK 6.6
PG 5.6
SBC 5.5
KO 4.6
HD 4.4
AXP 3.1
HPQ 3.0
VZ 2.8
MMM 2.6
GM 2.6
UTX 2.5
DIS 2.1
BA 1.9
MCD 1.6
AA 1.4
HON 1.4
CAT 1.3
DD 1.1
PFE 0.9

If you want to say that technically speaking, Bush's very close friends won't make "billions", fine.
But you can't argue with me that they will be making a sh*tload of cash. That's the point I was making.
Only an ostrich would think this war were about anything else.
You can put away your graphs and pie charts now, poindexter.

[The Diabolical Biz Markie]

Originally Posted by 2pac Shakur

If you want to say that technically speaking, Bush's very close friends won't make "billions", fine.
But you can't argue with me that they will be making a sh*tload of cash. That's the point I was making.

OK. I'll make it easier for you. Just "who", "how" and "how do you know". I'll leave you along on "how much" because clearly numbers aren't your long suit.

Only an ostrich would think this war were about anything else.

"being an ostrich" <==> "asking you for some data to support your claims"

[krank]

Originally Posted by Shekky_Tree

OK. I'll make it easier for you. Just "who", "how" and "how do you know". I'll leave you along on "how much" because clearly numbers aren't your long suit.

"being an ostrich" <==> "asking you for some data to support your claims"

Owners of Halliburton shares are doing well



Not necessary for companies to make their money in one year as future expected income reflected in current share price.

Originally Posted by yahoo

For the three months ended 3/04, revenues rose 80% to $5.52 billion. Net income from continuing operations and before accntg. change rose 29% to $76 million. Revenues reflect the additional activity on government services projects in the Middle East in the KBR group. Net income was partially offset by lower operating margins.

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.]

what does the Canadian Institute of Actuaries have to do with anything?