I’ve only read (quickly) the Executive Summary (available here in PDF format). The media is saying that the report is critical of the Clinton and Bush administrations, but I don’t quite get that from the Executive Summary. Certainly, the summary has pretty harsh criticism for certain instututions (the CIA, FBI, etc.) across both administrations, but as for the administrations themselves, … 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
Wait For It . . .
TODAY: Bush: U.S. probes possible Iran links to 9/11 WASHINGTON (CNN) — Iran is harboring members of al Qaeda, and the United States is investigating whether the Iranian government had a role in the September 11, 2001, attacks, President Bush said Monday. YESTERDAY: Halliburton Subpoenaed Over Unit’s Iran Work HOUSTON (Reuters) – A U.S. grand jury issued a subpoena to … Read More
How To Show You Are Tough On Terrorism: Lie
Federal prosecutors in Iowa claim they built 35 terrorism-related cases in the two years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Wow! Thirty-five terrorism cases? In Iowa? That’s surprising news to me. It also came as surprising news to the judge who tried some of the cases: "If there have been terrorism-related arrests in Iowa, I haven’t heard about them," said … 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
Energetic Response
We all remember the hubbub several months ago regarding the Bush White House’s "ho-hum" response to the August 6, 2001 PDB ("Presidential Daily Briefing") — the one with the headline saying: "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S.". As you may recall, Condaleeza Rice dismissed the August 6 PDB as an "historical document" that said "nothing new". She and the … 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
Voting While Under Attack
I’m only half-following the story about the balloon being floated regarding the suspension of elections (if there is an AQ attack or something). And my thoughts on it are in the formative stages. Still, my initial reaction is that the Constitution does not permit the President to suspend presidential elections. Why not? Quite simple. Article II, Section 4 says that … 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
Who Al Qaeda Wants For President
I normally don’t like to cut & paste wholesale from other blogs/sites, but this comment from Atrios makes too much sense to ignore: The entire debate over the past three months about how Al Qaeda really wants to influence the election is collectively the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, and that’s after a year of mainlining campaign coverage from the … 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
Political Opportunism > Winning the War?
Not a new story, but a more detailed version of the old one. From The National Review: A third source, an official who works under ISI’s director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis "have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before [the U.S.] election is [an] absolute must." What’s more, this source … 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