A WONDERFUL TIME TO BE ALIVE


Amid all the ‘bad’ news that we hear endlessly in our media, there are stories that portend great things. For example, medical and scientific breakthroughs seem to occur almost daily now.

Last Tuesday it was reported that people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (RP) had real hope of a total cure – and soon! In a new potential treatment for a disease that kills the cells of the retina, scientists at Optobionics in Wheaton, Ill., have built tiny chips that are implanted behind the retina. These artificial chips so far are not only replacing the ‘dead’ cells, but they are also stimulating nearby damaged cells into working again.

These scientists are flabbergasted at this unexpected result.

Indeed, it is too early to know the ultimate success of this treatment. But it gives hope to the millions who suffer from the other major retinal disease, macular degeneration.

Over 20 million people worldwide suffer from these two forms of blindness.

Can you imagine the happiness and joy all of them must feel today just knowing that positive progress is being made in their behalf?

Similarly, spinal cord injuries affect millions and, up until recently, there has been little hope for these paralyzed and often ‘forgotten’ souls. Now, however, scientists in Zurich and elsewhere have made astounding progress in one of medicine’s most vexing problems: how to regenerate central nervous system nerves.

We can have an arm or a leg accidentally cut off and re-attach it and get those nerves to re-grow. But those are our ‘peripheral’ nerves. They will grow back together.

The nerves of our central nervous system are a different story and scientists can’t get them to grow back together. And until they do, paralysis will continue.

I personally witnessed a research experiment in Zurich 11 years ago where rats were intentionally paralyzed and then their spinal cords were induced to grow back together. The problem over the past 11 years is getting the much more complex human spinal cord nerves to re-attach and begin to convey messages from the brain.

My point is this: Every day that goes by – and we read sad, depressing tales of murder, violence and hopelessness – many, many good things are being developed that will give hope to so many downtrodden people.

For that we should all be grateful.

And we should all remember one thing: Whatever woes we may go through, others have it much, much worse.

BOOT ON NEIL CAVUTO TODAY
John LeBoutillier will be on Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto Show at 4PM East Coast time today to discuss an Arab boycott of American products.

PROJECT INDEPENDENCE

July 4, 2002

The East Room, the White House at 9 p.m.

Seats filled with members of Congress, auto company executives, oil and
energy company executives and members of the media.

The president and the vice president walk in and stand behind the podium
featuring the presidential seal.

All major networks and cable news stations go "live" to what has been billed
as an "epic" presidential address to the nation.

The president begins:

"My fellow Americans, 30 years ago - in 1972 - Apollo astronauts arrived on the moon and deployed an electric car. Over the next three days of that particular mission they drove for miles around the surface of the moon collecting rock samples and deploying seismic measuring equipment.

"Their Apollo spacecraft that took them to and from the moon was powered by hydrogen fuel cells, which provided them with enough electricity to run the onboard computer systems and pilot what was then the most sophisticated piece of equipment ever made by mankind.

"If we built and used fuel cells 30 years ago - and even drove a
non-petroleum-powered car on the moon - then it is high time we change the
way we manufacture and consume energy here on Earth.

"Furthermore, we must face facts: We are so reliant on imported oil that foreign governments can exert tremendous leverage on us and on our allies. We need to break this reliance - and now!

"And we also need to face one other fact: As good as the internal combustion engine has been to our society and to our needs, it also has contributed to all sorts of pollution problems. The depleted ozone layer, dirtier air and perhaps even global warming all can be traced to these engines and their byproducts.

"Therefore, the vice president and I are here to announce an unprecedented project. Beginning today, I am announcing a joint project combining the best federal scientists and all the federal spending we need with the best private scientists from both the energy companies and the auto industry - plus more money from these private firms - to build and mass-produce fuel cell powered cars, SUVs, vans, trucks and buses within three years.

"The goal: to replace each and every internal combustion engine within five years and to mass-produce fuel cell vehicles for every American consumer at a price that is comparable with present-day cars. And to have America once again lead the world in a new auto technology that we can export worldwide.

"We can no longer be threatened - even subtly - with a potential oil embargo by our so-called allies.

"And we can no longer have our democratically elected allies feeling that we are so reliant on their sworn blood enemies that we may waver in our support in order to keep the pipeline open.

"No, my fellow Americans, as longtime oil men, the vice president and I know that the time has come to choose a new path into the future - a path powered by hydrogen extracted from water with no dangerous byproducts and no pollution. Yes, we will still need all the domestically produced oil and gas to run our power plants and to warm our homes. But the fuel cell vehicles will break our dependence on foreign oil and help to clean our atmosphere.

"One other thing, please: In the next few days you will hear the naysayers and the negativists come out of the woodwork to say this cannot be done. We Americans are optimistic people - and now is the time we should not brook negativity and words such as "can't," "never" and "impossible."

"We have been assured that this can be done. Three years and we will all begin driving vehicles the likes of which mankind could only dream of a few years ago.

"So, my fellow Americans - and to all watching around the world on this birthday of the greatest nation God ever created - let us celebrate our past and our future. This will be a future filled with new opportunities and new freedoms.

"And let us celebrate this new chapter in our history - known forever as Project Independence."

NO COINCIDENCE

This evening's suicide bombing in Rishon Letzion, Israel is NO COINCIDENCE!

16 dead Israelis and over 40 injured - just at the very exact moment Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was meeting with President George W. Bush - is a carefully planned event aimed at scuttling any chance for a peaceful resumption of cease-fire talks.

What a disgrace!

Israel should never have 'played ball' with Colin Powell's ham-handed attempt to play both sides. Twenty years ago Arafat was trapped like a rat in Beirut and the Reagan State Department rescued him. We witnessed the awful sight of US Marines escorting this career murderer to safety.

Now, 20 years later, we have done it again. We have freed this killer - and, guess what, he has killed again!

What a disgrace!

Would we be 'rescuing' Osama bin Laden if we knew where he was trapped?

Would we 'rescue' Saddam if rebel forces had him trapped in Iraq?

No!

But, to appease the so-called moderate Arabs - the ones who finance terror - we have once again allowed this cancer to spread his poison.

The so-called Bush Doctrine - we won't harbor or allow anyone to harbor terrorists - is a total sham.

BOOT ON HANNITY AND COLMES TONIGHT

John LeBoutillier will be on Fox News Channel's HANNITY & COLMES tonight to debate former Rep. Pete McCloskey about Israel, Sharon and the House of Representatives' Resolution of support for Israel.

Please watch!

WHY THE DEBUNKING?


This week the Bush Administration – or forces within it – deliberately debunked the Czech intelligence report that lead-hijacker Mohammed Atta had met with an Iraqi agent in Prague just months before the 9-11 attacks.

Within hours of the September 11 attacks, the Czechs had told the US government that they had followed the Iraqi agent because he was suspected of planning an attack on the broadcast headquarters of Radio Free Europe in Prague. During this surveillance the Czechs had seen the agent, Al-Anari, meeting at a café at the Prague airport with Mohammed Atta who then immediately boarded a flight for the United States.

For some inexplicable reason the Bush Administration was never happy with this report. Off the record to members of the media they scoffed at it and downplayed it, often disparaging the source.

This week the Administration tried to kill the Atta-Iraq link once and for all. They simultaneously leaked a story to the WASHINGTON POST, NEW YORK TIMES and NEWSWEEK specifically denying that the Prague meeting ever happened. They even trotted out the new FBI Director to disclaim any evidence that such a meeting ever took place. Director Robert Mueller claims they “exhaustively combed through airport records, car rental receipts and found no evidence that Atta was in Prague on the day in question.”

They also now have the Czech Prime Minister – the very man who originally reported it to us – saying his government no longer stands by this report. (Wonder what pressure and threats to 'change' his story he has experienced from the CIA since he reported the meeting to us?)

Why is the Bush Administration so hell-bent to disprove an Iraqi connection to 9-11?

Especially when the Administration so desperately wants to remove Saddam’s regime from power?

Why not just let the Atta - Al-Anari meeting stand as one further piece of evidence that Saddam has got to go?

Why expend so much energy to prove that such a meeting did NOT occur?

Some conjecture:

1) As a longtime ‘victim’ (in the POW/MIA issue) of USG ‘debunking’ I no longer believe ANYTHING our government says, finds, denies or proclaims. There is ALWAYS an ulterior motive – and the truth is the last consideration.

2) The CIA is somewhere behind this latest example of USG debunking. They have a motive – and we do not yet know what it is.

3) The media is, as usual, the unwitting dupe of the US Government. And this very same media rarely asks a cynical question because they’ll lose their ‘access’ and ‘contacts.’

4) There may very well be forces inside our government who want to protect Iraq and prevent a war with Saddam. Those forces have from the first few minutes after 9-11 began purposely directed the investigations and attention solely to Osama bin Laden – and away from Iraq.

5) There is strong evidence – never debunked by anyone – that Iraq was behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. And also much evidence that Saddam and Osama have worked together in other attacks on American interests. For the same inexplicable reason, the US Government never seems to want to explore that link. For example, the mysterious trip by Iraq's top nephrologist last May to Afghanistan reportedly to treat Osama for his chronic kidney problems.

Conclusion: something is “going on” that we do not yet – and may never – know.

But it smells fishy – as things emanating from the CIA often do.


How do we, the American people, find the real truth? We need an honest and independent assessment of the intelligence - given under oath - and in public. Therefore, we need a joint House-Senate Committee hearing - on national TV - with witnesses ranging from the Czech Prime Minister to the various FBI agents who have been muzzled so far and threatened not to talk about 'warning's they reported before 9-11.

We need all of this to determine who is telling the truth.

And this Joint Committee can not have any CIA or Executive Branch personnel as staffers, thus rigging the inquiry.

Let us make this - once and for all - a clean investigation so we can all have faith in what we learn.

PEACE CAN NOW HAPPEN



Political Prediction: A comprehensive peace treaty in the Israeli-Palestinian war may indeed now be possible.

The siege and the suicide bombings and the outside pressure and the political realities – combined with the US desire to topple Saddam Hussein – are all contributing to a moment when a peace can be reached. Here is how:

As the New York Times reports today (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/01/international/middleeast/01DIPL.html) President Bush is going to “lean” on Prime Minister Sharon while Crown Prince Abdullah and the other Arabs are going to lean to Yasser Arafat. Their goal is to resuscitate the 2000 peace plan that was almost agreed to before Arafat and his hard-liners tried to extort even more from Ehud Barak and an eager-for-a-legacy Bill Clinton. The current intifada was then launched and everything deteriorated. Israel reacted by electing Ariel Sharon.

Since the current wave of suicide bombings, Israel has moved ‘right’ – and Sharon has never been more popular. Thus, he is where Menachem Begin was 25 years ago: only he can make peace with the Arabs and survive politically.

Similarly, Arafat has shot his wad. He cannot continue the intifada and defy his funders forever. If the Saudis want him to make a peace with Israel, then he will be hard-pressed to refuse.

And George W. Bush has an ulterior motive for helping to bring about a settlement: Iraq.

Clearly Team Bush is determined to remove Saddam before the 2004 election. But they cannot do it unless and until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at least calmed down. And, if it were settled, that would pave the way for an all out assault on Iraq.

Politically, this could happen. Yes, both sides will hold out and try to wrangle everything they can. Who can blame them? That is how to negotiate.

But Israel’s Sharon is a career general who has seen too much death and destruction. Contrary to his public image, he is a warm and caring man who actually showed too much restraint until this current wave of suicide bombings. Indeed, his poll ratings were dropping as he refused to retaliate. His rival from the Right, Bibi Netanyhu, was climbing in those polls. Finally Sharon sent the Israeli Defense Forces into the West Bank to root out the killers and terrorists. Now Sharon is again the most popular politician in Israel.

Now – and perhaps only now – can he sell a deal to his people. It is a “only Nixon can go to China” moment.

Of course there will be the sticky issue of Israeli settlers on the West Bank. Sharon encourages even more settlements. This will have to be resolved. So, too, will be Jerusalem.

But the Time for Peace has arrived. The entire world wants to see this conflict settled. And as long as the United States stands firm behind Israel’s security, then the Arafat dream of “driving Israel into the sea” is not going to happen – ever.

The key will be to see if the un-trustworthy Saudis can make the murderer Arafat buckle and accept peace. He has lived his entire life based on a simple premise: kill Jews. Now he is going to be asked to accept them as neighbors and even as partners.

This will be the real test for Arafat.

Of course the whole deal will be done quietly – and then a huge international ‘Peace Conference’ will be held to dot the I’s and cross the t’s. Many leaders will take credit and there will be smiles all around. The deal will be greased and sweetened by lots of US cash – just the way we arranged things at Camp David 25 years ago. (we still pay Israel and Egypt more than $8 billion per year for Camp David to remain in place.)

And then the US will be free to do what it really wants: get Saddam before he gets us.