A Giant Sucking Sound: a President Perot TL
- Thread starter MaskedPickle
- Start date
- Status
What's woth the tittle. "A giant sucking sound"?
IIRC, that's what Perot referred to NAFTA as in OTL- a giant vacuum that would suck US jobs down to Mexico.
What's woth the tittle. "A giant sucking sound"?
It's what Ross Perot used to describe the sound that all the jobs going from America to Mexico is NAFTA was signed, in one of the presidential debates.
I continue to love reading this TL when on break at work. It has a little bit of everything: dystopia, utopia, humor, and bio & nuclear terrorism Very entertaining. (that sounds awful after mentioning nukes...)
Very entertaining. (that sounds awful after mentioning nukes...)Great round of updates MP, I agree with Cylon your TL does provide a nice break, especially with all the stuff I'm having to read at Law School right now lol. I do think you have a great grasp of Perot's personality, that I think most would find it difficult to get a hold. I especially agreed with your take that Perot despite his rather combustible nature, might indeed become much more internally reflective of his actions; such as seeing the tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombings and how from his policies and rhetoric that he has been able to stir up some intense passions between the extreme Left. And im afraid to say that its likely going to be a slow decline, in the enjoyment of the trappings of the Presidency that may culminate in 1996.
But all things aside...I think Democrats may still have a legitmate shot at winning the next election, as I feel like Clinton's DLC Centrist strategy may not have been totally discredited by his loss, but quite the contrary, that it might be emboldened as a "I told you so" kind of alternate approach to third way politics. And you know who is still my vote for the nomination...
But all things aside...I think Democrats may still have a legitmate shot at winning the next election, as I feel like Clinton's DLC Centrist strategy may not have been totally discredited by his loss, but quite the contrary, that it might be emboldened as a "I told you so" kind of alternate approach to third way politics. And you know who is still my vote for the nomination...
« Send a message to the Pentagon immediately. Tell them there is a situation at Nagoya. »
-Lt. Col. Jeffrey Goines, officer on duty at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa Prefecture, May, 15 1995, 6.35 AM local time
« I had woken up early in order to make my training exercices in the morning, that my doctor recommended to me due to my heart problems. The anthrax terror campaign caused a great deal of stress in my staff, and caused mass hysteria among the American residents in Japan, which I had to meet and reassure on orders of President Perot. The cyanide attack at Shijuku station, which had killed thousands, augmented the pressure a bit more.
When I took a break and went to the window of my personal residence, located at the top of a Tokyo skyscraper. My attention was immediately catched by the unusual shade of the skyline, on the southwest of Tokyo : unusual because it was difficult to barely see something in the skyline by dawn, furthermore in such a contamined city as Tokyo. The sky around there was extremely bright, red bright, as for a sunset, but it was soon followed by very large clouds, or so it seemed at this distance. I was fascinated for a while, and then I came back to my room.
My chief of staff called me on my private line, saying that we were receiving no news from Nagoya, as one switchboard operator from the embassy was speaking with a panicked US resident living there, a Toyota executive, and then everything was cut. All attempts to call him back were vain. I decided to call the American consul in Nagoya on a secured line in order to ask him if there was something wrong there : after all, this city was the seat of most of the information networks of Japan, as of most automative business, in addition to be one of its busiest ports and the third most-populated city. I received no response : not as if the line was cut, but as if there was no network. I was a bit puzzled, but then I dressed up, and I went to the embassy.
I never found out what was going on ; when I remember everything, I remember I could see people in the streets looking at the TVs on display, listening to the radio, all looking astonished and frightened. « Another Aum Shirinkyo attack », I thought. I was right, but not entirely.
The embassy was in a fever of excitement. I was greeted by my chief of staff, who told me what happened, and told me the President was waiting for me, on the other side of the phone.
Until I reached my office and my phone, I was feeling deezy, not able to focus on anything. »
-Former Secretary of State and 2003 Peace Nobel Prize Laureate Richard Holbrooke in his autobiography, Blessed are the Peacemakers, 2009
JAPANESE PORT OF NAGOYA WIPED OUT BY A NUCLEAR BOMB ; 2 MILLION DEAD EXPECTED, IMPORTANT TRADE PORT VANISHED, COUNTRY PARALYSED
-CNN Breaking News, May, 14 1995
We were literally astonished, all the staff along with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of Commerce, the National Security Advisor, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, the CIA and FBI Directors, and all… The President had just put the phone back after speaking with Ambassador Holbrooke who immediately put the blame on the Aum Shirinkyo cult, and we were now receiving images from a camera embarked on the USS Carl Vinson, which happened to be near Nagoya at the time.
We could still see the mushroom cloud rising from the ashes of the city, barely distinguishing the lights of the city on fire, the boats left without home port and drifting… An atmosphere of total apolcaypse. Total anihilation. What Armageddon might have looked.
I never saw the President like that, and he was my father-in-law. His eyes were filled with tears, he remained dumb, shocked, gaping and staring.
The only thing he said after five minutes was : « Please, Jeane. Tell me it’s not my fault. »
-From The President’s Son-in-Law : Memoirs from Washington, by former White House Counsel Clay Mulford
JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER PROCLAIMS STATE OF EMERGENCY ; HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS ON WEST OF NAGOYA TO BE RELOCATED TO AVOID FALLOUT
-CNN Breaking News, May, 15 1995
Rough estimation by CNN of Nagoya's bomb blast radius
« Since the beginning of my administration, I have committed all my efforts on the foreign field to nuclear disarmement, in order to reduce the terrible power mankind has to be able to destroy itself in a few hours and send the planet back to the Ice Age. This despicable act of absolute terrorism against the innocent citizens of Nagoya are the definitive evidence that nuclear amement has to be stopped at all cost, and the remaining weapons got to be desactivated and dismantled.
It’s all the more symbolic that Japan was stricken by this terrible weapon, almost fifty years exactly after our own air force dropped two atomic bombs in the end of the Pacific War on this country. But since, Japan has become one of our best allies in the world, a valuable economic partner and a model of democracy ; it is the duty of every American to share the mourning of each Japanese citizen and to make everything he can to help relieve this country. I have spoken with Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, and he has accepted that the US Pacific Fleet takes the road to Nagoya in order to begin the first relief efforts to the survivors of this terrible explosion, soon to be joined by volunteers of the American Health Services, the American Red Cross, and so on… »
-National televised address of President Ross Perot, May, 15 1995
The nuclear bomb that has detonated in the Japanese city of Nagoya, sparking this unspeakable tragedy, has been identified as coming from a Soviet military stock that was located in Chuguyevka Air Base, in Primorsky Krai. The bomb was around 1, 4 kilotons, and given the first reports on the nuclear blast, it most likely detonated between the Naka and Atsuta wards in Nagoya. The military commander in charge of that military arsenal has been immediately arrested, has admitted to having sold military weapons to Japanese private envoys and will be court-martialed in a few times.
-Press statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense, May, 15 1995
JAPANESE SEA TRADE TRAFFIC RESUMED AFTER 48 HOURS, JAPANESE ECONOMY HEAVILY DISRUPTED
-Financial Times, May, 16 1995
« I will never resign : a samurai must never surrender in the face of adversity, and remain straight and right in the midst of disasters. My sense of duty commands me to remain as Prime Minister, and so the needs of national unity. Fifty years after the first two atomic bombs of world history were dropped on our cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and in a year where our country had been already endowed by a massive earthquake in Kobe, our country is once more victim of the nuclear plague, but not during military operations : it is an act from Japanese citizens against their fellow countrymen, fighting not for a righteous cause but for an insane cult leader that claims to bring on early the end of times, and decided to spend all his efforts into destroying his own country.
We have been way too tolerant in the past with these kinds of persons, and now what we reap is what we sow. Tolerance is a major pillar of democracy, but there can be no tolerance in face of such traitors, of such monsters, of such maniacs. I have given orders to detain and even shoot on sight any suspected member of the Aum Shirinkyo cult, and if Shoko Asahara is finally captured, along with his associates, there will be no way to clemency for him, not even being able to quit his jail alive ; not only Shoko Asahara is to be found dead or alive, but he will be immediately charged with high treason and sedition and will risk death sentence, which he will most certainly receive after a fair trial.
This is not a martial law, nor this is the beginning of a dictatorship : it is just a necessary response to the current threat on our national security. I have received the support of the Emperor, the government, the Self-Defense Forces and the LDP deputies here present. I wish not to return to the most terrible hours of this country’s history. As such, I will not seek the Socialist Party leadership in the next general election in 1996. »
-Speech of Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi before the extraordinary session of the Japanese Diet, May, 16 1995
UN SECURITY COUNCIL APPROVES HUMANITARIAN RELIEF MISSION TO NAGOYA
-New York Times, May, 19 1995
JAPANESE STOCK MARKET COLLAPSES, FOREIGN INVESTORS FLEE JAPAN
-Financial Times, May, 21 1995
« This terrible tragedy in Japan show, alas, that we are in troubled and dangerous times, and that this country needs strong leadership. I already sought my party’s nomination, but now I’m more determined than ever to win it. Believe me, this is not a candidature from a black candidate, but from an American candidate. »
-Fmr. Gov. Douglas Wilder (D-VA), at a meeting in Richmond, VA, May, 21 1995
US MILITARY FACILITIES IN SOUTHERN UGANDA ATTACKED BY HUTU RWANDAN NATIONALISTS ; RUMOURS OF MASSACRES CONTINUE IN BURUNDI
-New York Times, May, 23 1995
« My country has been hit three times in fifty years by nuclear fire, each time against innocent civilians. In polite terms, we call nuclear weapons non-conventional weapons ; but any reasonable man, any decent leader should now denounce them as criminal ones as, since their creation, they have only hit civilian innocents. (applause) Russia and the United States, once the greatest enemies on Earth, spent all their efforts and money on building a deadly arsenal that would wipe out at least ten times all life on Earth and that never actually served, and now they’re making efforts into dismantling them. Six countries officially have a nuclear arsenal, and some other really have some. In a better world, couldn’t we live without such a terrible weapon ? »
-Japanese Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly, May, 27 1995
SENATORIAL COMMITEES STAFF TO BE REDUCED BY NEW CONGRESS BILL
-Washington Post, June, 3 1995
FRANCE, UK JOIN START III TALKS, SPEAKING OF TOTAL DISARMEMENT ; CHINA MAKES NO COMMENT, NOR INDIA
-The Guardian, June, 5 1995
« Of course, if we were to recognize that the state of Israel actually holds nuclear weapons, we would immediately join the disarmement talks, but there should be a recognition first. »
-Israeli Prime Minister Yithzak Rabin, quoted in Times Magazine, June, 6 1995
« We need a deep reform in the US political system, and Ross Perot can’t bring out about. If I was President, now that I’m leaving Senate, I surely would ! »
-Sen. Bill Bradley (D- NJ) on the Tonight Show with David Letterman, June, 9 1995
« Since I have spoken at the Democratic convention back in 1988, there were talks on seeing me as the future President of the United States, the first female to hold the Oval Office. I felt honored, but there were others to say : « If the woman goes to work, who would care for the kitchen ? » I don’t know if I cook well, and I think that if David divorced me, there must be a reason. (laughs) But gentlemen, believe me, it’s not an easy work to be governor of this great state of Texas, and yet, I managed to handle it.
-So your main adventage is to be the first female electable candidate to the Democratic nomination, or even the presidential election itself ?
-Yes, I’m a woman, but I’m also a politician. And after all, I would only be the third Texan in a row to go to the White House. »
-Gov. Ann Richards (D-TX) on Larry King Live, June, 9 1995
JAPANESE CRISIS BEGINS TO TOUCH SOUTH KOREAN, TAIWANESE, PHILIPPINE ECONOMIES
-Financial Times, June, 11 1995
« With this horrible thing that has happened in Japan, people need to get fun ! Please, go to see Batman Forever ! Tim Burton again made an awesome job, and Michael Keaton kicks ass as the Dark Knight again.
-As of the bad guys ? They are as frightening as Shoko Asahara ?
-Sure ! I always dreamed to play the Riddler, although I would have liked to play the Joker. Linda Hamilton is also excellent as Dr. Chase Meridian, and of course Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent. It’s like seeing Lando Calrissian turning batshit insane !
-Hahaha ! Well, Robin, you will return to your self-promotion later… About Japan, I’ve heard you were interested in Japanese culture, especially animated movies. There are now rumours of a joint project between prominent Japanese cartoonists about making an anti-nuclear movie…
-Well, I don’t if it’s true, but if Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Oshii and Hideaki Anno associate into an animated movie, it cancertainly be awesome. »
-Robin Williams interviewed on the Tonight Show with David Letterman, June, 15 1995
« I certainly have admiration for Governor Campbell, Governor Wilson, Governor Alexander, Mr. Buchanan, Senator Gramm, Senator Lugar, but they all have the same problem : they don’t have any idea of how the executive system is going on, how the presidency works from the inside. Only Governor Alexander has had a cabinet position, and I served well before him in the same capacity. I saw how President Perot, who had no executive or even elective experience prior to his election, was confused with the White House process, and me, who led the War on Drugs for two years, I see how failed is his policy on that point. That’s why I’m planning to run as the only competent candidate to the Presidency of the United States ».
-Former Secretary of Education William Bennett (R-NY) on the McLaughlin Group, June, 19 1995
« Well, I have just received a report from the situation in Haneda Airport. As you all know, Shoko Asahara had been identified two hours ago with many associates and bodyguards on the way to Haneda Airport, where he had obtained access to a private plane who, according to the airport authorities, was scheduled to reach either South Korea or the Philippines. A police was sent to Haneda Airport in order to arrest the cult leader, but his bodyguards responded with heavy fire, carrying automatic weapons with them. The police forces engaged there received backup from the Special Armed Police which managed to break the shootout and gun down all assaillants. I repeat, Shoko Asahara is dead. His corpse has already been identified, and will be cremated as soon as possible, and his ashes dispersed in a secret location. Many other Aum Shirinkyo executives are still on the loose, but we can hope that things will get better now. »
-Intervention from the Japanese National Police Agency’s spokesman, June, 22 1995
The aftershocks of the terrible earthquake that has hit Japan on March, 11 continue, and even with exceptional relief efforts, incidents continue to happen. Among them, we have just learnt the collapse of three reactors from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, located near the epicenter of the earthquake and its aftershocks. Fortunately, the Fukushima power plant, in its time one of the most powerful nuclear power plants in the world, has been closed down by the Japanese government in 1996, among the first applications of the ban on nuclear industry and electricity in Japan by the newly-elected government. « Seeing another building collapse is not good news », said Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, « but had this power plant been still working, things would have been worse. »
And this news comes with the release in Blu-Ray Format of Barefoot Gen, the cult 1998 anime engaged against nuclear destruction, an animated adaptation of Keiji Nazakawa’s manga on the dealings of a young Hiroshima survivor, co-produced on the wake of the Nagoya Disaster by well-known cartoonists Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Oshii and Hideaki Anno. It was also the directorial debut for the late Satoshi Kon, and remains the only animated film to have received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, before the Best Animated Feature award was created.
-Times, April, 11 2011
-Lt. Col. Jeffrey Goines, officer on duty at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa Prefecture, May, 15 1995, 6.35 AM local time
« I had woken up early in order to make my training exercices in the morning, that my doctor recommended to me due to my heart problems. The anthrax terror campaign caused a great deal of stress in my staff, and caused mass hysteria among the American residents in Japan, which I had to meet and reassure on orders of President Perot. The cyanide attack at Shijuku station, which had killed thousands, augmented the pressure a bit more.
When I took a break and went to the window of my personal residence, located at the top of a Tokyo skyscraper. My attention was immediately catched by the unusual shade of the skyline, on the southwest of Tokyo : unusual because it was difficult to barely see something in the skyline by dawn, furthermore in such a contamined city as Tokyo. The sky around there was extremely bright, red bright, as for a sunset, but it was soon followed by very large clouds, or so it seemed at this distance. I was fascinated for a while, and then I came back to my room.
My chief of staff called me on my private line, saying that we were receiving no news from Nagoya, as one switchboard operator from the embassy was speaking with a panicked US resident living there, a Toyota executive, and then everything was cut. All attempts to call him back were vain. I decided to call the American consul in Nagoya on a secured line in order to ask him if there was something wrong there : after all, this city was the seat of most of the information networks of Japan, as of most automative business, in addition to be one of its busiest ports and the third most-populated city. I received no response : not as if the line was cut, but as if there was no network. I was a bit puzzled, but then I dressed up, and I went to the embassy.
I never found out what was going on ; when I remember everything, I remember I could see people in the streets looking at the TVs on display, listening to the radio, all looking astonished and frightened. « Another Aum Shirinkyo attack », I thought. I was right, but not entirely.
The embassy was in a fever of excitement. I was greeted by my chief of staff, who told me what happened, and told me the President was waiting for me, on the other side of the phone.
Until I reached my office and my phone, I was feeling deezy, not able to focus on anything. »
-Former Secretary of State and 2003 Peace Nobel Prize Laureate Richard Holbrooke in his autobiography, Blessed are the Peacemakers, 2009
JAPANESE PORT OF NAGOYA WIPED OUT BY A NUCLEAR BOMB ; 2 MILLION DEAD EXPECTED, IMPORTANT TRADE PORT VANISHED, COUNTRY PARALYSED
-CNN Breaking News, May, 14 1995
We were literally astonished, all the staff along with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of Commerce, the National Security Advisor, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, the CIA and FBI Directors, and all… The President had just put the phone back after speaking with Ambassador Holbrooke who immediately put the blame on the Aum Shirinkyo cult, and we were now receiving images from a camera embarked on the USS Carl Vinson, which happened to be near Nagoya at the time.
We could still see the mushroom cloud rising from the ashes of the city, barely distinguishing the lights of the city on fire, the boats left without home port and drifting… An atmosphere of total apolcaypse. Total anihilation. What Armageddon might have looked.
I never saw the President like that, and he was my father-in-law. His eyes were filled with tears, he remained dumb, shocked, gaping and staring.
The only thing he said after five minutes was : « Please, Jeane. Tell me it’s not my fault. »
-From The President’s Son-in-Law : Memoirs from Washington, by former White House Counsel Clay Mulford
JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER PROCLAIMS STATE OF EMERGENCY ; HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS ON WEST OF NAGOYA TO BE RELOCATED TO AVOID FALLOUT
-CNN Breaking News, May, 15 1995
Rough estimation by CNN of Nagoya's bomb blast radius
« Since the beginning of my administration, I have committed all my efforts on the foreign field to nuclear disarmement, in order to reduce the terrible power mankind has to be able to destroy itself in a few hours and send the planet back to the Ice Age. This despicable act of absolute terrorism against the innocent citizens of Nagoya are the definitive evidence that nuclear amement has to be stopped at all cost, and the remaining weapons got to be desactivated and dismantled.
It’s all the more symbolic that Japan was stricken by this terrible weapon, almost fifty years exactly after our own air force dropped two atomic bombs in the end of the Pacific War on this country. But since, Japan has become one of our best allies in the world, a valuable economic partner and a model of democracy ; it is the duty of every American to share the mourning of each Japanese citizen and to make everything he can to help relieve this country. I have spoken with Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, and he has accepted that the US Pacific Fleet takes the road to Nagoya in order to begin the first relief efforts to the survivors of this terrible explosion, soon to be joined by volunteers of the American Health Services, the American Red Cross, and so on… »
-National televised address of President Ross Perot, May, 15 1995
The nuclear bomb that has detonated in the Japanese city of Nagoya, sparking this unspeakable tragedy, has been identified as coming from a Soviet military stock that was located in Chuguyevka Air Base, in Primorsky Krai. The bomb was around 1, 4 kilotons, and given the first reports on the nuclear blast, it most likely detonated between the Naka and Atsuta wards in Nagoya. The military commander in charge of that military arsenal has been immediately arrested, has admitted to having sold military weapons to Japanese private envoys and will be court-martialed in a few times.
-Press statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense, May, 15 1995
JAPANESE SEA TRADE TRAFFIC RESUMED AFTER 48 HOURS, JAPANESE ECONOMY HEAVILY DISRUPTED
-Financial Times, May, 16 1995
« I will never resign : a samurai must never surrender in the face of adversity, and remain straight and right in the midst of disasters. My sense of duty commands me to remain as Prime Minister, and so the needs of national unity. Fifty years after the first two atomic bombs of world history were dropped on our cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and in a year where our country had been already endowed by a massive earthquake in Kobe, our country is once more victim of the nuclear plague, but not during military operations : it is an act from Japanese citizens against their fellow countrymen, fighting not for a righteous cause but for an insane cult leader that claims to bring on early the end of times, and decided to spend all his efforts into destroying his own country.
We have been way too tolerant in the past with these kinds of persons, and now what we reap is what we sow. Tolerance is a major pillar of democracy, but there can be no tolerance in face of such traitors, of such monsters, of such maniacs. I have given orders to detain and even shoot on sight any suspected member of the Aum Shirinkyo cult, and if Shoko Asahara is finally captured, along with his associates, there will be no way to clemency for him, not even being able to quit his jail alive ; not only Shoko Asahara is to be found dead or alive, but he will be immediately charged with high treason and sedition and will risk death sentence, which he will most certainly receive after a fair trial.
This is not a martial law, nor this is the beginning of a dictatorship : it is just a necessary response to the current threat on our national security. I have received the support of the Emperor, the government, the Self-Defense Forces and the LDP deputies here present. I wish not to return to the most terrible hours of this country’s history. As such, I will not seek the Socialist Party leadership in the next general election in 1996. »
-Speech of Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi before the extraordinary session of the Japanese Diet, May, 16 1995
UN SECURITY COUNCIL APPROVES HUMANITARIAN RELIEF MISSION TO NAGOYA
-New York Times, May, 19 1995
JAPANESE STOCK MARKET COLLAPSES, FOREIGN INVESTORS FLEE JAPAN
-Financial Times, May, 21 1995
« This terrible tragedy in Japan show, alas, that we are in troubled and dangerous times, and that this country needs strong leadership. I already sought my party’s nomination, but now I’m more determined than ever to win it. Believe me, this is not a candidature from a black candidate, but from an American candidate. »
-Fmr. Gov. Douglas Wilder (D-VA), at a meeting in Richmond, VA, May, 21 1995
US MILITARY FACILITIES IN SOUTHERN UGANDA ATTACKED BY HUTU RWANDAN NATIONALISTS ; RUMOURS OF MASSACRES CONTINUE IN BURUNDI
-New York Times, May, 23 1995
« My country has been hit three times in fifty years by nuclear fire, each time against innocent civilians. In polite terms, we call nuclear weapons non-conventional weapons ; but any reasonable man, any decent leader should now denounce them as criminal ones as, since their creation, they have only hit civilian innocents. (applause) Russia and the United States, once the greatest enemies on Earth, spent all their efforts and money on building a deadly arsenal that would wipe out at least ten times all life on Earth and that never actually served, and now they’re making efforts into dismantling them. Six countries officially have a nuclear arsenal, and some other really have some. In a better world, couldn’t we live without such a terrible weapon ? »
-Japanese Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly, May, 27 1995
SENATORIAL COMMITEES STAFF TO BE REDUCED BY NEW CONGRESS BILL
-Washington Post, June, 3 1995
FRANCE, UK JOIN START III TALKS, SPEAKING OF TOTAL DISARMEMENT ; CHINA MAKES NO COMMENT, NOR INDIA
-The Guardian, June, 5 1995
« Of course, if we were to recognize that the state of Israel actually holds nuclear weapons, we would immediately join the disarmement talks, but there should be a recognition first. »
-Israeli Prime Minister Yithzak Rabin, quoted in Times Magazine, June, 6 1995
« We need a deep reform in the US political system, and Ross Perot can’t bring out about. If I was President, now that I’m leaving Senate, I surely would ! »
-Sen. Bill Bradley (D- NJ) on the Tonight Show with David Letterman, June, 9 1995
« Since I have spoken at the Democratic convention back in 1988, there were talks on seeing me as the future President of the United States, the first female to hold the Oval Office. I felt honored, but there were others to say : « If the woman goes to work, who would care for the kitchen ? » I don’t know if I cook well, and I think that if David divorced me, there must be a reason. (laughs) But gentlemen, believe me, it’s not an easy work to be governor of this great state of Texas, and yet, I managed to handle it.
-So your main adventage is to be the first female electable candidate to the Democratic nomination, or even the presidential election itself ?
-Yes, I’m a woman, but I’m also a politician. And after all, I would only be the third Texan in a row to go to the White House. »
-Gov. Ann Richards (D-TX) on Larry King Live, June, 9 1995
JAPANESE CRISIS BEGINS TO TOUCH SOUTH KOREAN, TAIWANESE, PHILIPPINE ECONOMIES
-Financial Times, June, 11 1995
« With this horrible thing that has happened in Japan, people need to get fun ! Please, go to see Batman Forever ! Tim Burton again made an awesome job, and Michael Keaton kicks ass as the Dark Knight again.
-As of the bad guys ? They are as frightening as Shoko Asahara ?
-Sure ! I always dreamed to play the Riddler, although I would have liked to play the Joker. Linda Hamilton is also excellent as Dr. Chase Meridian, and of course Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent. It’s like seeing Lando Calrissian turning batshit insane !
-Hahaha ! Well, Robin, you will return to your self-promotion later… About Japan, I’ve heard you were interested in Japanese culture, especially animated movies. There are now rumours of a joint project between prominent Japanese cartoonists about making an anti-nuclear movie…
-Well, I don’t if it’s true, but if Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Oshii and Hideaki Anno associate into an animated movie, it cancertainly be awesome. »
-Robin Williams interviewed on the Tonight Show with David Letterman, June, 15 1995
« I certainly have admiration for Governor Campbell, Governor Wilson, Governor Alexander, Mr. Buchanan, Senator Gramm, Senator Lugar, but they all have the same problem : they don’t have any idea of how the executive system is going on, how the presidency works from the inside. Only Governor Alexander has had a cabinet position, and I served well before him in the same capacity. I saw how President Perot, who had no executive or even elective experience prior to his election, was confused with the White House process, and me, who led the War on Drugs for two years, I see how failed is his policy on that point. That’s why I’m planning to run as the only competent candidate to the Presidency of the United States ».
-Former Secretary of Education William Bennett (R-NY) on the McLaughlin Group, June, 19 1995
« Well, I have just received a report from the situation in Haneda Airport. As you all know, Shoko Asahara had been identified two hours ago with many associates and bodyguards on the way to Haneda Airport, where he had obtained access to a private plane who, according to the airport authorities, was scheduled to reach either South Korea or the Philippines. A police was sent to Haneda Airport in order to arrest the cult leader, but his bodyguards responded with heavy fire, carrying automatic weapons with them. The police forces engaged there received backup from the Special Armed Police which managed to break the shootout and gun down all assaillants. I repeat, Shoko Asahara is dead. His corpse has already been identified, and will be cremated as soon as possible, and his ashes dispersed in a secret location. Many other Aum Shirinkyo executives are still on the loose, but we can hope that things will get better now. »
-Intervention from the Japanese National Police Agency’s spokesman, June, 22 1995
The aftershocks of the terrible earthquake that has hit Japan on March, 11 continue, and even with exceptional relief efforts, incidents continue to happen. Among them, we have just learnt the collapse of three reactors from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, located near the epicenter of the earthquake and its aftershocks. Fortunately, the Fukushima power plant, in its time one of the most powerful nuclear power plants in the world, has been closed down by the Japanese government in 1996, among the first applications of the ban on nuclear industry and electricity in Japan by the newly-elected government. « Seeing another building collapse is not good news », said Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, « but had this power plant been still working, things would have been worse. »
And this news comes with the release in Blu-Ray Format of Barefoot Gen, the cult 1998 anime engaged against nuclear destruction, an animated adaptation of Keiji Nazakawa’s manga on the dealings of a young Hiroshima survivor, co-produced on the wake of the Nagoya Disaster by well-known cartoonists Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Oshii and Hideaki Anno. It was also the directorial debut for the late Satoshi Kon, and remains the only animated film to have received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, before the Best Animated Feature award was created.
-Times, April, 11 2011
Last edited:
Here we go for a little Batman and Satoshi Kon Easter Eggs...
Presidential candidates as of June 1995:
Freedom:
Incumbent Ross Perot (TX)
Democrats:
Fmr. Gov. Robert P. Casey (PA)
Sen. Joe Biden (DE)
Gov. Evan Bayh (IN)
Sen. Sam Nunn (GA)
Rev. Jesse Jackson (IL)
Sen. John Kerry (MA)
Sen. and 1992 vice-presidential nominee Al Gore (TN)
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (WV)
Fmr. Gov. Douglas Wilder (VA)
Sen. Bill Bradley (NJ)
Gov. Ann Richards (TX)
Republicans:
Gov. Pete Wilson (CA)
Sen. Phil Gramm (TX)
Fmr. Gov. and former Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander (TN)
Pat Buchanan (VA)
Fmr. Gov. Jock McKernan (ME)
Rep. Bob Dornan (CA)
Sen. Richard Lugar (IN)
Fmr. Gov. Carroll Campbell (SC)
Former Secretary of Education William Bennett (NY)
lukedalton - Nay, I think at that point, the Bosnians were widely seen as the victims, and so a face heel turn would be rather difficult.
historybuff, Plumber, Cymraeg, Jotun, Unknown, Cylon_Number_14 - Let's assume it at least: I consider this TL as the 90s-2000s version of A World of Laughter, A World of Tears, the excellent narrative style in less and more concerned with the rest of the world outside the US of A. But I will make everything I can to stay realisitic and not overpass the distance between plain batshit insane dystopia and appearences of what could be, maybe, and I insist, maybe, a better world.
tonykwok - Wow, this guy has the most awesome eyebrows ever in mankind history.
TheBerlinguer - Man, you should really consider to make a TL with lukedalton on Italy without Berlusconi. You would make it awesome.
Redem - Never thought of it...Funny, as I played to the videogames when I was far more younger.
RamscoopRaider - Since they have received better weapons from the current malaise in the Russian Army, and making their evil deeds in a country affected by the Kobe earthquake, well...
ArKhan, varyar, vultan - Thanks for the answer to the two latters. To the former, well, it was written in the front page...
Historico - Now, happy? Man, I had her re-elected, what did you expected?
Now, let's organize a little contest, who I hope will have more success that my request for a Freedom Party logo (see on page 9, please!): knowing that all candidates are not yet announced (they will be by December 1995), please send me a MP, and I insist, a MP, where you will try to predict the three major tickets for the 1996 presidential election, both candidates for president and vice-president. The winner will have the right to ask me whatever they want on the future of this TL, on any subject, from 1992 to 2012. Thanks a lot!
Presidential candidates as of June 1995:
Freedom:
Incumbent Ross Perot (TX)
Democrats:
Fmr. Gov. Robert P. Casey (PA)
Sen. Joe Biden (DE)
Gov. Evan Bayh (IN)
Sen. Sam Nunn (GA)
Rev. Jesse Jackson (IL)
Sen. John Kerry (MA)
Sen. and 1992 vice-presidential nominee Al Gore (TN)
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (WV)
Fmr. Gov. Douglas Wilder (VA)
Sen. Bill Bradley (NJ)
Gov. Ann Richards (TX)
Republicans:
Gov. Pete Wilson (CA)
Sen. Phil Gramm (TX)
Fmr. Gov. and former Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander (TN)
Pat Buchanan (VA)
Fmr. Gov. Jock McKernan (ME)
Rep. Bob Dornan (CA)
Sen. Richard Lugar (IN)
Fmr. Gov. Carroll Campbell (SC)
Former Secretary of Education William Bennett (NY)
lukedalton - Nay, I think at that point, the Bosnians were widely seen as the victims, and so a face heel turn would be rather difficult.
historybuff, Plumber, Cymraeg, Jotun, Unknown, Cylon_Number_14 - Let's assume it at least: I consider this TL as the 90s-2000s version of A World of Laughter, A World of Tears, the excellent narrative style in less and more concerned with the rest of the world outside the US of A. But I will make everything I can to stay realisitic and not overpass the distance between plain batshit insane dystopia and appearences of what could be, maybe, and I insist, maybe, a better world.
tonykwok - Wow, this guy has the most awesome eyebrows ever in mankind history.
TheBerlinguer - Man, you should really consider to make a TL with lukedalton on Italy without Berlusconi. You would make it awesome.
Redem - Never thought of it...Funny, as I played to the videogames when I was far more younger.
RamscoopRaider - Since they have received better weapons from the current malaise in the Russian Army, and making their evil deeds in a country affected by the Kobe earthquake, well...
ArKhan, varyar, vultan - Thanks for the answer to the two latters. To the former, well, it was written in the front page...
Historico - Now, happy? Man, I had her re-elected, what did you expected?
Now, let's organize a little contest, who I hope will have more success that my request for a Freedom Party logo (see on page 9, please!): knowing that all candidates are not yet announced (they will be by December 1995), please send me a MP, and I insist, a MP, where you will try to predict the three major tickets for the 1996 presidential election, both candidates for president and vice-president. The winner will have the right to ask me whatever they want on the future of this TL, on any subject, from 1992 to 2012. Thanks a lot!
At least they will not have the Fukushima situation... At long least. Added three economic updates: international trade being obviously disrupted by the destruction of one of the largest Japanese ports, the Nikkei goes down four years earlier.
Oh frak you surely don't pull any punch
PS: Ok the nerd in me it's really intrigued by Tim Burton directing a third Batman movie and finally Robin Williams get the part in a movie about comics
PS: Ok the nerd in me it's really intrigued by Tim Burton directing a third Batman movie and finally Robin Williams get the part in a movie about comics
...Damn. I've been reading this TL for a while, and it's great. I feel terrible for the Japanese though...
Any word on India and Pakistan? I can see their nuclear standoff looking a little bit different post-Nagoya..
Any word on India and Pakistan? I can see their nuclear standoff looking a little bit different post-Nagoya..
HO
LY
FUCKTASM.
This...this is bad. Real bad.
PS: Change any other movie, but don't you dare do anything to Fight Club how it was, except maybe make it more successful and give it a couple Oscars!
Yeah, by bad, I meant bad for the world, especially the Japanese.
But the timeline? It's great.
Orville_third
Banned
Campbell is a good choice- but two problems. First, he went into lobbying by this time. Second, if he gets elected...he'll have to resign early or step down. In 2001, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
« It is now confirmed : Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is dead. General Mubarak, who had succeeded Sadat back in 1981, had been the target of numerous assassination attempts ; the last one, that occurred in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia, during the Organisation of African Unity summit. President Mubarak’s motorcade was exiting the convention center to return to its hotel when an assaillant, wearing an explosive belt, came out of the crowd and ran to his limousine, blewing himself up. The car’s armor didn’t resisted to the blast, and Hosni Mubarak died immediately, along with his wife Suzanne. Experts are pointing to the al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, which was already responsible for President Sadat’s assassination… »
-CNN, June, 27 1995
« We now have evidence that Burundian leader Pierre Buyoya, who had seized power in a coup the previous year, has personnaly ordered mass killings of the majority Hutu population, supposedly in retaliation for the massacres the Rwandan Hutus orchestrated on the Tutsis. Both Hutu and Tutsi peoples, as you know, live in the countries of Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire and Uganda, but their numbers tend to vary according to the regions. President Perot having especially asked the United Nations to stop such mass killings, we cannot accept President Buyoya’s deeds and as Secretary of Defense, I have decided to provide Lieutenant General Clark all powers to extend Operation Righteous Strike to Burundi and extend the peacekeeping mission to Rwanda’s neighbouring country. »
-Press conference of Secretary of Defense Colin Powell, June, 28 1995
FIELD MARSHAL MOHAMMED HUSSEIN TANTAWI BECOMES EGYPTIAN HEAD OF STATE, FIRST NUBIAN TO REACH THIS POSITION ; PLEDGES TO CONTINUE SUPPORT TO THE UNITED STATES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
-New York Times, June, 29 1995
EGYPTIAN ARMY LEADS MASSIVE CRACKDOWN ON GAMAAT ISLAMIYA, EGYPTIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD AND OTHER ISLAMIC ORGANIZATIONS
-Washington Post, June, 31 1995
Since the arrest on US soil of the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman, due to his relations with the 1993 World Trade Center attack, the Egyptian radical islamist movement found a new leader in the person of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, who had been implicated into Sadat’s assassination in 1981 and led the Egyptian Islamic Jihad since 1991, managing the terrorist organization from Sudan. The assassination of Hosni Mubarak would be the Islamic Jihad’s most brilliant success, but also its last : the crackdown led by Mubarak’ successor, Mohammed Tantawi, completely anihilated the Gamaat Islamiya, and Zawahiri himself was abducted by Egyptian special forces in Khartoum, with the implied approval of the Sudanese government, and brought back to Egypt. The crackdown revealed that the Egyptian islamists had a plan for a terrorist attack against European tourists at Luxor. Zawahiri died around August-September in unclear circumstances, most likely from torture.
Osama bin Laden, who had been also living in exile in Sudan since his expulsion from Saudi Arabia, managed to left Sudan to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan before being arrested too. He had spent the last years into building his terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda, building links with various islamist groups throughout the world (contrary to what the CIA then thought, he had no relations of any sort with Saddam Hussein), including Dr. al-Zawahiri, and recruited heavily throughout the Middle East and also in Somalia, where the local population had been very hostile to US occupation. The mass hysteria trigerred by the Eiffel Tower attack, the Nagoya nuclear disaster and the Oklahoma City bombing had totally convinced Bin Laden that a spectacular and simultaneous terrorist attack would bring the United States and all the Western world to its knees. Also, he took advantage of the fact that the Perot administration was more focused on Somalia, Rwanda and Iraq to actually look at the situation with islamic terrorism. However, the loss of al-Zawahiri was terrible for his assets, and he had to find another associate.
In Jalalabad, Afghanistan, another well-known terrorist leader was living : Ramzi Youssef had been at large for two years, taking advantage of the FBI’s inquiry of possible Iraqi implication in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which he had personally led, to elope from the United States. He had carried various attempts throughout the world, and had just barely avoided capture in Manila, in the Philippines, where he had commandited various attacks aboard commercial airlines, his plans at the time being focused on a simultaneous bombing of various airplanes combined with an assassination of Pope John Paul II and of President Ross Perot, before his escape from Manila prevented it. Feeling that Pakistan was not secure enough for him, he went to the theocratic Emirate of Afghanistan, a true paradise to the islamic terrorist leaders.
The two men easily became friends on their exile, and began making plans for the near future…
-From Osama Bin Laden : A Life in Holy War, by former National Security Advisor Bruce Reidel
XINHUA NEWS AGENCY ANNOUNCES PLO MISSILE TESTS IN TAIWAN STRAIT
-New York Times, July, 7 1995
BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT PASSES THE SENATE ; PEROT HAILS « GREAT VICTORY FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE », TO BE RATIFIED BY STATES
-Washington Post, July, 9 1995
« I understand that President Perot remains straight on the issues on which he was elected, but can we really speak of reform when we go on to pass exactly the same bills, similar down to the last comma, and when the Freedom Party endorses heavily conservative bills just to maintain a statu quo with Newt Gingrich’s coalition and oppose everything the Democrats say. In my humble opinion, President Perot has such a strange conception of democracy. »
-House Democratic Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO-3) on Meet the Press, July, 9 1995
« I don’t want to divide the black vote in the next Democratic primaries, and I know Governor Wilder and I know he has the same qualities than I have to become the first African American President of the United States of America. Therefore, I will withdraw my campaign and ask my militants to endorse Governor Douglas Wilder’s campaign and hopefully lead him to the Oval Office ! »
-Rev. Jesse Jackson (D-IL) at a speech in Chicago, IL, July, 15 1995
PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY BEGIN MISSILE TESTS JUST A FEW MILES AWAY FROM TAIWAN
-Los Angeles Times, July, 21 1995
« The allegations made by the People’s Republic of China press are preposterous : the decision of the State Department to allow President Lee Teng-Hui to visit his alma mater at Cornell University wasn’t motivated by any will to endanger Sino-American relations, and I’m sure that President Lee doesn’t want either to proclaim his island’s independance by making such personnal visits ».
-Press conference from Secretary of State Jeane Kirkpatrick, July, 23 1995
SAINT-MICHEL TRAIN STATION IN PARIS DOWNTOWN HIT BY GIA BOMB ; 8 DEAD, 118 WOUNDED
-New York Times, July, 25 1995
CHIRAC ASKS ALGERIAN GOVERNMENT TO INVESTIGATE BOMBINGS WAVE IN FRANCE ; « ELSE, I WOULD ASK SUPPORT TO MY FRIENDS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION », SAYS HE
-The Guardian, July, 26 1995
CEASEFIRE BROKERED IN BOSNIA
-New York Times, August, 7 1995
« Coming through a State Department report, we have just been notified of the news of a military coup happening in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, against Saddam Hussein’s regime, which has been subjected to public contestation, in both inner and outer circles of the Iraqi society, since the Gulf War and President Bush’s assassination. The coup seems to be initiated and led by Hussein Kamel al-Majid, Saddam’s son-in-law and head of the Iraqi army. Some reports indicated that Saddam Hussein had been captured by the coupsters, while his immediate family, including his sons Uday and Qusay, are on the loose. What is sure is that the coupsters are now in control of Baghdad, Basra, Mosul and other prominent cities of the country, and have entered in contact with the US government ».
-CNN Breaking News, August, 7 1995
« Saddam got what he deserved by having his son-in-law betraying him, and I hope General al-Majid will make everything to open Iraq to reconciliation with other countries, giving up his father-in-law’s bellicist views and letting the UN inspectors investigate the country. I also call upon him to handle Saddam Hussein to the United Nations, so he can have a trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. »
-Press conference of President Ross Perot, August, 7 1995
« I wish to congratulate President Perot with his will to change the United States relations with the new Iraqi regime. I hope also that justice will be done against the assassin of my father. »
-Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) in a press statement, August, 7 1995
PEOPLE REJOICE IN US CITIES WITH NEWS OF SADDAM’S TOPPLING
-New York Times, August, 8 1995
PEROT’S APPROVAL RATING SKYROCKETS TO THE 60s THANKS TO SADDAM’S DOWNFALL WHILE DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGNS FAIL TO FIND A STABLE FRONTRUNNER
-Washington Post, August, 11 1995
-So, with Saddam now stopped, Somalia secured, our boys cleaning the situation in Rwanda and Burundi, and Japan under international assistance and, in the domestic front, the Balanced Budget Amendment under ratification, the Guns Control Package passed, the Oklahoma City responsibles in jail, the Freedom Party under way and the Internet slowly installed into every home in the US, you can consider your agenda complete, Mr. President ?
-Everybody predicted me a complete quagmire three years ago, but I made it, Larry. (applause) And then I announced on your show that I was running for the White House, myself I couldn’t believe I would be here right now. (applause)
-So, your job here is done ?
-No, Larry. These years were quite exhausting, I confirm that, but I’m ready to run this country for four more years. (massive applause)
-President Ross Perot (F-TX) on Larry King Live, August, 15 1995
SADDAM HUSSEIN EXECUTED IN BAGHDAD PRISON AFTER SHORT TRIAL, UN PROTESTS
-CNN Breaking News, August, 17 1995
« Sen. SNOWE : What decided you at the CIA to back up Hussein Kamil al-Majid in his projects for a coup ?
Gen. CLAPPER : Actually, al-Majid didn’t wanted at first to topple Saddam. He wanted to defect with his brother, Saddam Kamel Al-Majid, also Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law, and to deliver top secret information on Iraq weapons of mass destruction.
Sen. SNOWE : These informations were precisely what the UN investigators looked for. What didn’t you expected ?
Gen. CLAPPER : We knew that Saddam would deny everything and continue to stop the investigations, and furthermore that the bombing campaigns in 1993 and 1994 had effectively destroyed the few that remained of the Iraqi military arsenal.
Sen. SNOWE : And so ?
Gen. CLAPPER : So it would have been pointless to maintain US military presence in a still unstable region, as Mubarak’s assassination showed it then, but where Iraq wasn’t a threat anymore.
Sen. SNOWE : How a coup against Saddam Hussein would have changed the US foreign policy ?
Gen. CLAPPER : It changed everything. Saddam was against negotiation, both because of his own behaviour and because of his own pride. But there were many senior military officers who had enough of his whims and knew, through our CIA contacts, that if Saddam was to be toppled, the arms embargo would end and that Iraq would be reintegrated as an US ally, along with all humanitarian aid and all.
Sen. SNOWE : And why Hussein Kamel al-Majid, who was above all a member of Saddam’s court, of his inner circle, was chosen to lead the coup ?
Gen. CLAPPER : We imposed him to the putschists. He already had some international standing, was a well-known face, incarnated continuity, and also really despised his father-in-law.
Sen. SNOWE : That’s why he decided unilaterally to execute Saddam Hussein, without handing him over to the United Nations for a fair trial ?
Gen. CLAPPER : Not exactly. The White House issued a formal complaint on the execution, but back then, everybody was happy that Saddam was gone and dead.
Sen. SNOWE : And you hadn’t any idea of the troubles that the coup would bring on Iraq and in the Middle East ?
Gen. CLAPPER : We had some evidences, but we were not sure. And we didn’t know it would go so far. »
-Testimony of former CIA Director James Clapper before the Senate Committee on Intelligence, April, 3 2010
-CNN, June, 27 1995
« We now have evidence that Burundian leader Pierre Buyoya, who had seized power in a coup the previous year, has personnaly ordered mass killings of the majority Hutu population, supposedly in retaliation for the massacres the Rwandan Hutus orchestrated on the Tutsis. Both Hutu and Tutsi peoples, as you know, live in the countries of Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire and Uganda, but their numbers tend to vary according to the regions. President Perot having especially asked the United Nations to stop such mass killings, we cannot accept President Buyoya’s deeds and as Secretary of Defense, I have decided to provide Lieutenant General Clark all powers to extend Operation Righteous Strike to Burundi and extend the peacekeeping mission to Rwanda’s neighbouring country. »
-Press conference of Secretary of Defense Colin Powell, June, 28 1995
FIELD MARSHAL MOHAMMED HUSSEIN TANTAWI BECOMES EGYPTIAN HEAD OF STATE, FIRST NUBIAN TO REACH THIS POSITION ; PLEDGES TO CONTINUE SUPPORT TO THE UNITED STATES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
-New York Times, June, 29 1995
EGYPTIAN ARMY LEADS MASSIVE CRACKDOWN ON GAMAAT ISLAMIYA, EGYPTIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD AND OTHER ISLAMIC ORGANIZATIONS
-Washington Post, June, 31 1995
Since the arrest on US soil of the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman, due to his relations with the 1993 World Trade Center attack, the Egyptian radical islamist movement found a new leader in the person of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, who had been implicated into Sadat’s assassination in 1981 and led the Egyptian Islamic Jihad since 1991, managing the terrorist organization from Sudan. The assassination of Hosni Mubarak would be the Islamic Jihad’s most brilliant success, but also its last : the crackdown led by Mubarak’ successor, Mohammed Tantawi, completely anihilated the Gamaat Islamiya, and Zawahiri himself was abducted by Egyptian special forces in Khartoum, with the implied approval of the Sudanese government, and brought back to Egypt. The crackdown revealed that the Egyptian islamists had a plan for a terrorist attack against European tourists at Luxor. Zawahiri died around August-September in unclear circumstances, most likely from torture.
Osama bin Laden, who had been also living in exile in Sudan since his expulsion from Saudi Arabia, managed to left Sudan to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan before being arrested too. He had spent the last years into building his terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda, building links with various islamist groups throughout the world (contrary to what the CIA then thought, he had no relations of any sort with Saddam Hussein), including Dr. al-Zawahiri, and recruited heavily throughout the Middle East and also in Somalia, where the local population had been very hostile to US occupation. The mass hysteria trigerred by the Eiffel Tower attack, the Nagoya nuclear disaster and the Oklahoma City bombing had totally convinced Bin Laden that a spectacular and simultaneous terrorist attack would bring the United States and all the Western world to its knees. Also, he took advantage of the fact that the Perot administration was more focused on Somalia, Rwanda and Iraq to actually look at the situation with islamic terrorism. However, the loss of al-Zawahiri was terrible for his assets, and he had to find another associate.
In Jalalabad, Afghanistan, another well-known terrorist leader was living : Ramzi Youssef had been at large for two years, taking advantage of the FBI’s inquiry of possible Iraqi implication in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which he had personally led, to elope from the United States. He had carried various attempts throughout the world, and had just barely avoided capture in Manila, in the Philippines, where he had commandited various attacks aboard commercial airlines, his plans at the time being focused on a simultaneous bombing of various airplanes combined with an assassination of Pope John Paul II and of President Ross Perot, before his escape from Manila prevented it. Feeling that Pakistan was not secure enough for him, he went to the theocratic Emirate of Afghanistan, a true paradise to the islamic terrorist leaders.
The two men easily became friends on their exile, and began making plans for the near future…
-From Osama Bin Laden : A Life in Holy War, by former National Security Advisor Bruce Reidel
XINHUA NEWS AGENCY ANNOUNCES PLO MISSILE TESTS IN TAIWAN STRAIT
-New York Times, July, 7 1995
BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT PASSES THE SENATE ; PEROT HAILS « GREAT VICTORY FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE », TO BE RATIFIED BY STATES
-Washington Post, July, 9 1995
« I understand that President Perot remains straight on the issues on which he was elected, but can we really speak of reform when we go on to pass exactly the same bills, similar down to the last comma, and when the Freedom Party endorses heavily conservative bills just to maintain a statu quo with Newt Gingrich’s coalition and oppose everything the Democrats say. In my humble opinion, President Perot has such a strange conception of democracy. »
-House Democratic Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO-3) on Meet the Press, July, 9 1995
« I don’t want to divide the black vote in the next Democratic primaries, and I know Governor Wilder and I know he has the same qualities than I have to become the first African American President of the United States of America. Therefore, I will withdraw my campaign and ask my militants to endorse Governor Douglas Wilder’s campaign and hopefully lead him to the Oval Office ! »
-Rev. Jesse Jackson (D-IL) at a speech in Chicago, IL, July, 15 1995
PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY BEGIN MISSILE TESTS JUST A FEW MILES AWAY FROM TAIWAN
-Los Angeles Times, July, 21 1995
« The allegations made by the People’s Republic of China press are preposterous : the decision of the State Department to allow President Lee Teng-Hui to visit his alma mater at Cornell University wasn’t motivated by any will to endanger Sino-American relations, and I’m sure that President Lee doesn’t want either to proclaim his island’s independance by making such personnal visits ».
-Press conference from Secretary of State Jeane Kirkpatrick, July, 23 1995
SAINT-MICHEL TRAIN STATION IN PARIS DOWNTOWN HIT BY GIA BOMB ; 8 DEAD, 118 WOUNDED
-New York Times, July, 25 1995
CHIRAC ASKS ALGERIAN GOVERNMENT TO INVESTIGATE BOMBINGS WAVE IN FRANCE ; « ELSE, I WOULD ASK SUPPORT TO MY FRIENDS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION », SAYS HE
-The Guardian, July, 26 1995
CEASEFIRE BROKERED IN BOSNIA
-New York Times, August, 7 1995
« Coming through a State Department report, we have just been notified of the news of a military coup happening in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, against Saddam Hussein’s regime, which has been subjected to public contestation, in both inner and outer circles of the Iraqi society, since the Gulf War and President Bush’s assassination. The coup seems to be initiated and led by Hussein Kamel al-Majid, Saddam’s son-in-law and head of the Iraqi army. Some reports indicated that Saddam Hussein had been captured by the coupsters, while his immediate family, including his sons Uday and Qusay, are on the loose. What is sure is that the coupsters are now in control of Baghdad, Basra, Mosul and other prominent cities of the country, and have entered in contact with the US government ».
-CNN Breaking News, August, 7 1995
« Saddam got what he deserved by having his son-in-law betraying him, and I hope General al-Majid will make everything to open Iraq to reconciliation with other countries, giving up his father-in-law’s bellicist views and letting the UN inspectors investigate the country. I also call upon him to handle Saddam Hussein to the United Nations, so he can have a trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. »
-Press conference of President Ross Perot, August, 7 1995
« I wish to congratulate President Perot with his will to change the United States relations with the new Iraqi regime. I hope also that justice will be done against the assassin of my father. »
-Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) in a press statement, August, 7 1995
PEOPLE REJOICE IN US CITIES WITH NEWS OF SADDAM’S TOPPLING
-New York Times, August, 8 1995
PEROT’S APPROVAL RATING SKYROCKETS TO THE 60s THANKS TO SADDAM’S DOWNFALL WHILE DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGNS FAIL TO FIND A STABLE FRONTRUNNER
-Washington Post, August, 11 1995
-So, with Saddam now stopped, Somalia secured, our boys cleaning the situation in Rwanda and Burundi, and Japan under international assistance and, in the domestic front, the Balanced Budget Amendment under ratification, the Guns Control Package passed, the Oklahoma City responsibles in jail, the Freedom Party under way and the Internet slowly installed into every home in the US, you can consider your agenda complete, Mr. President ?
-Everybody predicted me a complete quagmire three years ago, but I made it, Larry. (applause) And then I announced on your show that I was running for the White House, myself I couldn’t believe I would be here right now. (applause)
-So, your job here is done ?
-No, Larry. These years were quite exhausting, I confirm that, but I’m ready to run this country for four more years. (massive applause)
-President Ross Perot (F-TX) on Larry King Live, August, 15 1995
SADDAM HUSSEIN EXECUTED IN BAGHDAD PRISON AFTER SHORT TRIAL, UN PROTESTS
-CNN Breaking News, August, 17 1995
« Sen. SNOWE : What decided you at the CIA to back up Hussein Kamil al-Majid in his projects for a coup ?
Gen. CLAPPER : Actually, al-Majid didn’t wanted at first to topple Saddam. He wanted to defect with his brother, Saddam Kamel Al-Majid, also Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law, and to deliver top secret information on Iraq weapons of mass destruction.
Sen. SNOWE : These informations were precisely what the UN investigators looked for. What didn’t you expected ?
Gen. CLAPPER : We knew that Saddam would deny everything and continue to stop the investigations, and furthermore that the bombing campaigns in 1993 and 1994 had effectively destroyed the few that remained of the Iraqi military arsenal.
Sen. SNOWE : And so ?
Gen. CLAPPER : So it would have been pointless to maintain US military presence in a still unstable region, as Mubarak’s assassination showed it then, but where Iraq wasn’t a threat anymore.
Sen. SNOWE : How a coup against Saddam Hussein would have changed the US foreign policy ?
Gen. CLAPPER : It changed everything. Saddam was against negotiation, both because of his own behaviour and because of his own pride. But there were many senior military officers who had enough of his whims and knew, through our CIA contacts, that if Saddam was to be toppled, the arms embargo would end and that Iraq would be reintegrated as an US ally, along with all humanitarian aid and all.
Sen. SNOWE : And why Hussein Kamel al-Majid, who was above all a member of Saddam’s court, of his inner circle, was chosen to lead the coup ?
Gen. CLAPPER : We imposed him to the putschists. He already had some international standing, was a well-known face, incarnated continuity, and also really despised his father-in-law.
Sen. SNOWE : That’s why he decided unilaterally to execute Saddam Hussein, without handing him over to the United Nations for a fair trial ?
Gen. CLAPPER : Not exactly. The White House issued a formal complaint on the execution, but back then, everybody was happy that Saddam was gone and dead.
Sen. SNOWE : And you hadn’t any idea of the troubles that the coup would bring on Iraq and in the Middle East ?
Gen. CLAPPER : We had some evidences, but we were not sure. And we didn’t know it would go so far. »
-Testimony of former CIA Director James Clapper before the Senate Committee on Intelligence, April, 3 2010
Ding dong, the bitch is dead.
Presidential candidates as of June 1995:
Freedom (incumbent):
President Ross Perot (TX)
Democrats:
Fmr. Gov. Robert P. Casey (PA)
Sen. Joe Biden (DE)
Gov. Evan Bayh (IN)
Sen. Sam Nunn (GA)
Sen. John Kerry (MA)
Sen. and 1992 vice-presidential nominee Al Gore (TN)
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (WV)
Fmr. Gov. Douglas Wilder (VA)
Sen. Bill Bradley (NJ)
Gov. Ann Richards (TX)
Republicans:
Gov. Pete Wilson (CA)
Sen. Phil Gramm (TX)
Fmr. Gov. and former Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander (TN)
Pat Buchanan (VA)
Fmr. Gov. Jock McKernan (ME)
Rep. Bob Dornan (CA)
Sen. Richard Lugar (IN)
Fmr. Gov. Carroll Campbell (SC)
Former Secretary of Education William Bennett (NY)
vultan, John Fredrik Parker, historybuff, lukedalton, Plumber - Thanks!
azander12 - And it is said that India is not willing to enter the extended START III talks, and as the Pakistani nuclear program is still undergoing by now...
Orville_third - I know for his Alzheimer, and given the Perot administration's harsh laws for reducing lobbying, I think Campbell would try everything instead to become President...
Presidential candidates as of June 1995:
Freedom (incumbent):
President Ross Perot (TX)
Democrats:
Fmr. Gov. Robert P. Casey (PA)
Sen. Joe Biden (DE)
Gov. Evan Bayh (IN)
Sen. Sam Nunn (GA)
Sen. John Kerry (MA)
Sen. and 1992 vice-presidential nominee Al Gore (TN)
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (WV)
Fmr. Gov. Douglas Wilder (VA)
Sen. Bill Bradley (NJ)
Gov. Ann Richards (TX)
Republicans:
Gov. Pete Wilson (CA)
Sen. Phil Gramm (TX)
Fmr. Gov. and former Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander (TN)
Pat Buchanan (VA)
Fmr. Gov. Jock McKernan (ME)
Rep. Bob Dornan (CA)
Sen. Richard Lugar (IN)
Fmr. Gov. Carroll Campbell (SC)
Former Secretary of Education William Bennett (NY)
vultan, John Fredrik Parker, historybuff, lukedalton, Plumber - Thanks!
azander12 - And it is said that India is not willing to enter the extended START III talks, and as the Pakistani nuclear program is still undergoing by now...
Orville_third - I know for his Alzheimer, and given the Perot administration's harsh laws for reducing lobbying, I think Campbell would try everything instead to become President...
- Status