. . . why did the U.S. Cybersecurity Chief just suddenly resign today from the Office of Homeland Security, because of "what he considers the department’s lack of attention paid to computer security issues"? (Source) Can’t be good news for Bush on the day following the debates.
Nice Find
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
Welcome To America, Terrorists!
No kidding. These guys really are terrorists in every sense of the word — attempted assassination of a world leader, murder and conpiracy to murder consulates and other dignataries (including an American citizen), firing a bazooka at a U.N. building, . . . the list goes on and on. They flew into Miami last month, and KNOWING WHO THEY WERE, … Read More
February 19, 2002 and the Bush Cover-up
(1) February 19, 2002 Rewind to that date. This was only 5 months after 9/11/01. The United States had barely begun its invasion of Afghanistan. This was loooong before the Bush White House starting rolling out (and marketing) its new "product" — the Iraq War. According to Bob Graham, he ran into a very dejected General Tommy Franks on that … Read More
We Can’t Win the War On Terror
Several months ago, and I can’t seem to locate where, I made the point that we can’t actually WIN a war on terror, since "terror" is a tactic and not an enemy. Which is why, I added, that it is wrong to claim that it IS a "war". It seems Kerry agrees with me: When asked whether we can "win" … Read More
Bush Administration Officially Goes ‘Round The Bend
The better title for this post is "Trust But Verify", but that was already taken. But seriously, what is up with this? In a significant shift in U.S. policy, the Bush administration announced this week that it will oppose provisions for inspections and verification as part of an international treaty that would ban production of nuclear weapons materials. For several … Read More
Skanks
Back here, I posted about an article in the New Republic, the gist of which was this: A White House aide asked the Pakistani government (specifically, their intelligence agency) to find or kill a high-level al Qaeda operative, adding "it would be best if the arrest or killing . . . were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July" — … Read More
Final Report of the 9/11 Commission
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
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
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
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
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
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
The Terrorism Opinions
The Supreme Court has ruled on three cases involving terrorism detainees. I’ve only browsed the opinions, but one thing is clear: if Bush thinks he can do whatever he wants regarding prisoners by virtue of being a "war president", THAT myth is shattered. That’s not to suggest that Bush got his ENTIRE ass handed to him today. The SCOTUS opinions … Read More