Newsweek has the exclusive story: Aug. 15, 2005 issue – During the 2004 presidential campaign, George W. Bush and John Kerry battled about whether Osama bin Laden had escaped from Tora Bora in the final days of the war in Afghanistan. Bush, Kerry charged, "didn’t choose to use American forces to hunt down and kill" the leader of Al Qaeda. … Read More
It’s Constantinople, Not Istanbul
GWOT (the global war on terror) became GSAVE (the global struggle against violent extremism) only a week ago. Now it’s back to GWOT: GRAPEVINE, Tex., Aug. 3 – President Bush publicly overruled some of his top advisers on Wednesday in a debate about what to call the conflict with Islamic extremists, saying, "Make no mistake about it, we are at … Read More
Word Choice
As we all know by now, George Orwell Bush has deemed that the “war on terror” be renamed the “struggle against violent extremism”, so that history will not depict him as losing a war, but engaging in a struggle. I’m not sure it gets him where he wants to be. After all, Mein Kampf translates to “my struggle”. And the … Read More
It Was A Summary Execution
Mark Honigsbaum Thursday July 28, 2005 The Guardian Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead in the head, was not wearing a heavy jacket that might have concealed a bomb, and did not jump the ticket barrier when challenged by armed plainclothes police, his cousin said yesterday. Speaking at a press conference after a meeting with the Metropolitan police, … Read More
Kerry Was Right; Bush Was Wrong
. . . about the “war on terror” "I will use our military when necessary, but it is not primarily a military operation. It’s an intelligence-gathering, law-enforcement, public-diplomacy effort. And we’re putting far more money into the war on the battlefield than we are into the war of ideas. We need to get it straight." — John Kerry, April 13, … Read More
Perjury About Abu Ghraib
Not that anyone is going to do anything about it—this is, after all, a Republican White House and Congress—but: WASHINGTON – (KRT) – An Army general who has been criticized for his role in the treatment of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has contradicted his sworn congressional testimony about contacts with senior … Read More
Flypaper Schmypaper!
The flypaper theory, which was false and stupid before last week, is now (in light of the London attacks) demonstrably false and stupid. But that doesn’t stop administration officials from making bone-headed and offensive arguments like this: Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Fran Townsend, the president’s homeland security adviser, said that the war in Iraq attracts terrorists “where we have … Read More
Moral Clarity vs Factual Clarity
Matt Yglesius says what I have been thinking for a long time. The reason why the right is inept at fighting the war on terror is because they simply have no interest in accurately surmising the driving force behind our enemies. Instead, the right just wants to paint the bad guys with broad brushes, and ignore the nuances of their … Read More
Terrorists Heart Bush
Remember that ridiculous meme during the past election that the terrorists were rooting for John Kerry to win? Apparently, just the opposite: Two French journalists who were held hostage in Iraq told a British documentary program that their captors believed George W. Bush’s re-election as US president would help radicalize Iraqis. Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were seized in … Read More
U.S. Fesses Up: It’s Torture We’re Doing
GENEVA (AFP) – Washington has for the first time acknowledged to the United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq, a UN source said. The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted to the UN Committee against Torture, said a member of the ten-person panel, speaking on on … Read More
9/11 Wives
As someone who worked pro bono for several 9/11 survivors to receive compensation from the September 11 Victim’s Fund, I find these two stories (this one and this one) to be very discouraging. In the first story, the widow of the 9/11 victim stands to lose much of her husband’s pension. Her husband was a pilot of one of the … Read More
Freedom On The March?
Another Middle East Country, another election. BINT JBEIL, Lebanon – Hezbollah and its Shiite allies claimed victory in southern Lebanon in Sunday’s second stage of national elections, a vote the militant group hopes will prove its strength and send a message of defiance to the United States. Hundreds of Hezbollah supporters drove through the streets of Beirut waving the group’s … Read More
Religious Degradation
Deborah Pearlstein ties the ends together and gives the big picture: Newsweek’s missteps in reporting particular allegations of religious degradation initially obscured the broad truth that religious degradation was a tactic expressly approved by the Department of Defense. A memo signed by Rumsfeld in November 2002 listed “removal of clothing” as a permissible interrogation technique, along with “removal of facial … Read More
Re-evaluation of GWOT
An important WaPo piece discusses a possible shift in the administration’s terrorism policies. Apparently, the Global War On Terrorism thing just isn’t working, as we find ourselves “drifting” and lacking a sense of what to do next. Digby takes his scissors to the possible policy change. Here’s WaPo: Much of the discussion has focused on how to deal with the … Read More
Qu’ran Mishandling Confirmed
Developing story, but here’s what is known so far: WASHINGTON – U.S. officials have substantiated five cases in which military guards or interrogators mishandled the Quran of Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay but found “no credible evidence” to confirm a prisoner’s report that a holy book was flushed in a toilet, the prison’s commander said Thursday. [Source] Of course, the … Read More