The Y Squad, Vanity Fair, November, 2018

Dear Vanity Fair,

Adam Ciralsky's  breathless, Reader's Digest worthy recounting of the exploits of the Israeli security apparatus (The Y Squad, November, 2018) fails to mention one their greatest successes;  their part in the destruction of the WTC Twin Towers, thereby laying the groundwork for the war in Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein.  Saddam, as we know, although not a threat to the U.S., was a threat to both Israel and Saudi Arabia, our two most reliable allies in the Middle East.  So it only made sense that the US would work with the Saudi and Israeli intelligence services to create a "new Pearl Harbor" to sway the American people towards going to war.  It worked.

"According to Springmann (Michael Springmann, former head U.S. consular official in Jeddah Saudi Arabia), the Jeddah consulate was run by the CIA and staffed almost entirely by intelligence agents....and 15 of the 19, 9/11 hijackers received their visas through Jeddah." - The Terror Timeline by Paul Thompsom, " September 1987 -March 1989: head  U.S. consular official claims he's told to issue visas to unqualified applicants" 

I'm surprised Adam Ciralsky didn't ask his readers to do an internet search on "Israeli art students"?  A look at of the operations of the Mossad inside the U.S. would have provided a much fuller picture of the reach of Israeli security.

"According to Intelligence Online, more than one-third of the students, who were spread out in 42 cities, lived in Florida, several in Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- one-time home to at least 10 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers. In at least one case, the students lived just a stone's throw from homes and apartments where the Sept. 11 terrorists resided: In Hollywood, several students lived at 4220 Sheridan St., just down the block from the 3389 Sheridan St. apartment where terrorist mastermind Mohammed Atta holed up with three other Sept. 11 plotters. Many of the students, the DEA report noted, had backgrounds in Israeli military intelligence and/or electronics surveillance; one was the son of a two-star Israeli general, and another had served as a bodyguard to the head of the Israeli army." - Christopher Ketcham writing in Salon, May 7, 2002.

Condoleeza Rice

Dear Bay Area Council:

Condoleezza Rice is a war criminal and a traitor.  The attack on Iraq, which she supported and helped sponsor, was based on lies and deceit.  The war against Iraq was a crime against humanity.

It is dismaying that the Bay Area Council is providing a forum for this proven liar and war criminal at the Pacific Summit 2018, Presented by Kaiser Permanente.  I strongly object to Ms. Rice's inclusion in the Summit.  It is especially concerning that, with many of our Iraq War veterans struggling with PTSD, homelessness and addiction, that Kaiser Permanente is presenting a Summit that includes Condoleezza Rice.

Sincerely,

............. 

Letter not sent to Jim Wunderman at Bay Area Council

Do you believe that people should act responsibly and take ownership of their actions?  This has nothing to do with partisan politics.  Prior to 9/11,  as National Security Advisor,  Condoleeza Rice, was one of the key people in charge of the security of our country.  She not only failed to protect us, she took no responsibility for her inexcusable negligence. 

"In July 2001, J. Cofer Black, CIA's counterterrorism chief and George Tenet, CIA's director, met with Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Advisor, to inform her about communications intercepts and other top-secret intelligence showing the increasing likelihood that al-Qaeda would soon attack the United States." - Two Months Before 9/11, an Urgent Warning to Rice,  Washington Post

"On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush  received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal." - NY Times

Condoleeza Rice was part of the select group who received this daily brief; her response,

<sup>"Rice responded to the claims about the briefing in a statement before the 9/11 Commission stating the brief was "not prompted by any specific threat information" and "did not raise the possibility that terrorists might use airplanes as missiles." - Transcript of Rice's 9/11 commission statement.


Rice never apologized, never took responsibility for her inaction.  No one lost their job but over 3,000 people lost their lives.</sup>

...............

Bay Area Council

Dear Mr. Wunderman,

The recent story in the news of the CIA murder of Gul Rahman in Afghanistan put me in mind of what happened at Abu Ghraib and the role Condoleezza Rice played in the U.S. war on Iraq.  I recommend (Bay Area native) David Ray Griffin's extensively documented and well researched book, "Bush and Cheney, How They Ruined America and the World," for more information on the consequences of the war on Iraq.

Sincerely,

Homelessness and the Opioid Crisis

Over the past year I have read a myriad of articles and editorials in the San Francisco Chronicle talking about homelessness and the opioid crisis and one thing is clear: if anyone ever heard the saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” they're not letting on.

The idea of planning for the future is an afterthought for the politicians and developers who want to build their way out of the “homeless crisis.” To say, “we need more houses” is no replacement for saying, “we need to take care of people so that they don't become homeless and/or drug addicts in the first place.”

Hubert Humphrey said “the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” Until this prescription for the general good becomes the policy of our government homelessness and drug addiction will persist.

Money that could have been used to create infrastructure, jobs and a better educated and healthier America went, instead, to the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us against. Hundreds of billions of dollars that should have gone to meet the needs of the American people went down rat holes in Afghanistan and Iraq.  In 2016, 57% of the federal budget was spent on the Department of Defense, wars and weapons programs, according to the American Friends Service Committee; 6% was spent on education.

A federal report from 2011 shows $60 billion lost to war zone contractor waste and fraud alone. Disabled and traumatized veterans return home to families broken by the loss and injury of war and don't get the support or treatment they need.  Homelessness and opioid addiction is the result. “About 11% of the adult homeless population are veterans. Roughly 45% of all homeless veterans are African American or Hispanic, despite only accounting for 10.4% and 3.4% of the U.S. veteran population, respectively,” - National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.

The prison-industrial complex, where corporations run prisons for profit and poor people and people of color are the main “clients” makes it even harder for those on the margins to maintain homes and get jobs. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. The self-serving actions of bankers and government officials during the housing crisis complete the picture of the looting of America's tax revenues and the eviction of people from their homes.

According to Forbes “The Special Inspector General for the Toxic Assets Recovery Program (TARP) summary of the bailout says that the total commitment of government is $16.8 trillion dollars with $4.6 trillion already paid out.” That was in 2016. The banks got the money and have grown even larger but the regular wage earner can't get financing for a home purchase. Could we have had government-backed low interest loans? Of course we could have. With easier credit after 2008, people would be in houses now, not out on the street. The taxpayer's money bailed out the big banks. Nobody could get a home loan while the banks bought back their stock, bought other banks, and bought the houses they foreclosed on. Does anyone think that might have something to do with the current housing crisis?

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and hasn't changed since 2009.  In 2018 California's minimum wage was $11 an hour. “Experts estimate that still buys only about half of what a minimum wage did in 1980,” - San Francisco Chronicle. You can't even pay rent in California with that income.

The leading cause of bankruptcy is medical expenses. Might there be some connection between bankruptcy and homelessness? Single payer universal health care would cost less and provide better care than a system that is drowning in paperwork and regulation. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq marked the beginning of the privatization of military services and supplies. The contract to build Guantanamo went to Halliburton (Dick Cheney's old company.) An unintended irony of the so-called war on terror: the inmates of Guantanamo get better medical services than most Americans, as Michael Moore shows in his film, “Sicko.”

"U.S. spending on the Afghanistan nation-building project over the last dozen years now exceeds $104 billion, surpassing the $103.4 billion current-dollar value of Marshall Plan expenditures, which helped rebuild European nations after World War II"("U.S. aid to Afghanistan exceeds Marshall Plan in costs" San Francisco Chronicle, August 2014). Imagine if $104 billion had been invested in preschools, education, job training, and social services in the US? Helping individual homeless people is important, but if you really want to change people's lives for the better, take a look at where our tax dollars are going and imagine where they could be going.