Hard to know who to give credit to for this one (perhaps the Village Voice), but someone gets kudos for finding this State Department document entitled The Network of Terrorism. It was posted on the U.S. State Department website in November 2001. Anyway, on page 12 of that document, we find a list of countries — and a map — … Read More
Richard Perle Is Very Surprised Today
“A year from now, I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush.” – Richard Perle, September 22, 2003 (one year ago today)
Selfish Pessimist Ruins Laura Bush Rally By Asking Questions
HAMILTON — The Pennington mother of a soldier killed in Iraq was arrested and charged with trespassing after she interrupted first lady Laura Bush’s speech yesterday. Sue Niederer was arrested after she was escorted from the Colonial Fire Co. hall on Kuser Road where the Republican rally was being held yesterday morning, according to Hamilton police Lt. James Kostopolis. Niederer … Read More
Never Mistake A Mirror For A Window
Via Kevin Drum, we hear from William Arkin, a military analyst with the L.A. Times, who opines about the military blunders of the Bush Adminstration. One of them, one still not learned, is: Never mistake a mirror for a window. With dismaying frequency, Bush, Rumsfeld and senior military leaders have made critical decisions on the basis of what they thought … Read More
That’s It? We’re Done? We Won? Cool!
The president on May 2, 2003: "The Battle of Iraq is one victory in the broader war on terror that began on September 11th, 2001, and still goes on." On May 3, 2003: "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that still goes on." On July 21, 2004: "I want to be the peace president. … Read More
On Pre-War Intelligence and Post-War Lies
A hat tip to Eric Alterman who realizes that he is going to be branded as an anti-Semite for merely pointing to this article from the nation’s leading Jewish newspaper. The article describes the recent Senate Intelligence Committee Report dealing with pre-war intelligence. It also refers to the Knesset report — the Israeli equivalent of the Senate report. The money … Read More
How To Correct Mistakes
You bury them. And the bigger the mistake, the deeper you bury the correction. From Tuesday’s Washington Post on page A02: A story in the July 12 Sports section should have indicated that the top four finishers in the men’s 100-meter dash at the U.S. Olympic trials were separated by eight-hundredths of a second. A story in the July 11 … Read More
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
The scene is a courtyard adjacent to a police station in Baghdad. Saddam is there with several prisoners. An eyewitness tells the story: "The prisoners were against the wall and we were standing in the courtyard when [he] said that he would like to kill them all on the spot. [He] said that they deserved worse than death – but … Read More
Children in Iraqi Prison
I saw this story two days ago, and figured it would be a U.S. news story in a day or so (instead of just in Germany, and Norway, and elsewhere in Europe). But maybe I was wrong. Anyway, depressing as it is . . . . Norwegian authorities reacted with shock and disgust Tuesday to a documentary on German TV … Read More
“Prime Example” Not So Prime Really
Bush Says Massacre at Halabja Shows Evil of Hussein’s Rule By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, March 15, 2003 – President Bush today held up the March 16, 1988, chemical attack on the civilians of Halabja, Iraq, as a prime example of the evil Saddam Hussein perpetrates. Bush stressed the nature of the Iraqi dictator’s regime in his … Read More
Two-Faced Jim Hoagland
In October 2002, the Washington Post’s Jim Hoagland wrote an editorial criticizing the CIA because it had (up until then) been unwilling to recognize the danger of Saddam Hussein. He said, in part: it is no surprise that Bush has until now relied little on the Langley agency for his information on Iraq. There is simply no way to reconcile … Read More
Are You Telling Me . . .
. . . that of all those terrible terrible things that we said about Saddam — the fact that he was a threat to the United States, the fact that he plotted to kill former President Bush, the fact that he harbored known enemies of the United States, etc. etc. etc. — we couldn’t find anything to prosecute him for … Read More
Drum Explains It All
What is a "lie"? What is a "deception"? What is it that the left accuses the Bush White House of doing? Kevin Drum explains the difference here. Now basically, Bush & Co. — technically speaking — don’t lie . . . usually. I’ll let Kevin explain: Let’s take this statement from Dick Cheney on "Meet the Press" last year: "If … Read More
Oh, Yes You DID!
Cheney gets busted in another lie. Transcript, CNBC’s “Capital Report,” June 17, 2004: Gloria Borger: “Well, let’s get to Mohammed Atta for a minute, because you mentioned him as well. You have said in the past that it was quote, “pretty well confirmed.” Vice President Cheney: No, I never said that. BORGER: OK. Vice Pres. CHENEY: Never said that. BORGER: … Read More
Orwellian Memo Discovered
The Washington Post reports about an interesting memo from Republican pollster Frank Luntz. Knowing that how you frame the issues is more important than the issues themselves, Luntz offers Republicans some talking points on phraseology. With voter anxieties about Iraq shadowing this year’s campaign, pollster Frank Luntz has some advice for fellow Republicans: Mind your language. Luntz, according to a … Read More