Cheney Tried to Stifle Dissent in Iran NIE
WASHINGTON — A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear program, and thus make the document more supportive of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s militarily aggressive policy toward Iran, according to accounts of the process provided by participants to two former Central Intelligence Agency officers.
But this pressure on intelligence analysts, obviously instigated by Cheney himself, has not produced a draft estimate without those dissenting views, these sources say. The White House has now apparently decided to release the unsatisfactory draft NIE, but without making its key findings public.
A former CIA intelligence officer who has asked not to be identified told IPS that an official involved in the NIE process says the Iran estimate was ready to be published a year ago but has been delayed because the director of national intelligence wanted a draft reflecting a consensus on key conclusions — particularly on Iran’s nuclear program.
The NIE coordinates the judgments of 16 intelligence agencies on a specific country or issue.
There is a split in the intelligence community on how much of a threat the Iranian nuclear program poses, according to the intelligence official’s account. Some analysts who are less independent are willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the alarmist view coming from Cheney’s office, but others have rejected that view.
The draft NIE first completed a year ago, which had included the dissenting views, was not acceptable to the White House, according to the former intelligence officer. “They refused to come out with a version that had dissenting views in it,” he says.
As recently as early October, the official involved in the process was said to be unclear about whether an NIE would be circulated and, if so, what it would say.
Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi provided a similar account, based on his own sources in the intelligence community. He told IPS that intelligence analysts have had to review and rewrite their findings three times, because of pressure from the White House.
“The White House wants a document that it can use as evidence for its Iran policy,” says Giraldi. Despite pressures on them to change their dissenting conclusions, however, Giraldi says some analysts have refused to go along with conclusions that they believe are not supported by the evidence.
In October 2006, Giraldi wrote in The American Conservative that the NIE on Iran had already been completed, but that Cheney’s office had objected to its findings on both the Iranian nuclear program and Iran’s role in Iraq. The draft NIE did not conclude that there was confirming evidence that Iran was arming the Shiite insurgents in Iraq, according to Giraldi.
Giraldi said the White House had decided to postpone any decision on the internal release of the NIE until after the November 2006 elections.
Cheney’s desire for a “clean” NIE that could be used to support his aggressive policy toward Iran was apparently a major factor in the replacement of John Negroponte as director of national intelligence in early 2007.
Negroponte had angered the neoconservatives in the administration by telling the press in April 2006 that the intelligence community believed that it would still be “a number of years off” before Iran would be “likely to have enough fissile material to assemble into or to put into a nuclear weapon, perhaps into the next decade.”
Neoconservatives immediately attacked Negroponte for the statement, which merely reflected the existing NIE on Iran issued in spring 2005. Robert G. Joseph, the undersecretary of state for arms control and an ally of Cheney, contradicted Negroponte the following day. He suggested that Iran’s nuclear program was nearing the “point of no return” — an Israeli concept referring to the mastery of industrial-scale uranium enrichment.
Frank J. Gaffney, a protégé of neoconservative heavyweight Richard Perle, complained that Negroponte was “absurdly declaring the Iranian regime to be years away from having nuclear weapons”.
On Jan. 5, 2007, Pres. George W. Bush announced the nomination of retired Vice Admiral John Michael “Mike” McConnell to be director of national intelligence. McConnell was approached by Cheney himself about accepting the position, according to Newsweek.
McConnell was far more amenable to White House influence than his predecessor. On Feb. 27, one week after his confirmation, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee he was “comfortable saying it’s probable” that the alleged export of explosively formed penetrators to Shiite insurgents in Iraq was linked to the highest leadership in Iran.
Cheney had been making that charge, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, as well as Negroponte, had opposed it.
A public event last spring indicated that White House had ordered a reconsideration of the draft NIE’s conclusion on how many years it would take Iran to produce a nuclear weapon. The previous Iran estimate completed in spring 2005 had estimated it as 2010 to 2015.
Two weeks after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in mid-April that Iran would begin producing nuclear fuel on an industrial scale, the chairman of the National Intelligence Council, Thomas Fingar, said in an interview with National Public Radio that the completion of the NIE on Iran had been delayed while the intelligence community determined whether its judgment on the time frame within which Iran might produce a nuclear weapon needed to be amended.
Fingar said the estimate “might change”, citing “new reporting” from the International Atomic Energy Agency as well as “some other new information we have”. And then he added, “We are serious about reexamining old evidence.”
That extraordinary revelation about the NIE process, which was obviously ordered by McConnell, was an unsubtle signal to the intelligence community that the White House was determined to obtain a more alarmist conclusion on the Iranian nuclear program.
A decision announced in late October indicated, however, that Cheney did not get the consensus findings on the nuclear program and Iran’s role in Iraq that he had wanted. On Oct. 27, David Shedd, a deputy to McConnell, told a congressional briefing that McConnell had issued a directive making it more difficult to declassify the key judgments of national intelligence estimates.
That reversed a Bush administration practice of releasing summaries of “key judgments” in NIEs that began when the White House made public the key judgments from the controversial 2002 NIE on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction program in July 2003.
The decision to withhold key judgments on Iran from the public was apparently part of a White House strategy for reducing the potential damage of publishing the estimate with the inclusion of dissenting views.
As of early October, officials involved in the NIE were “throwing their hands up in frustration” over the refusal of the administration to allow the estimate to be released, according to the former intelligence officer. But the Iran NIE is now expected to be circulated within the administration in late November, says Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and founder of the anti-war group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
The release of the Iran NIE would certainly intensify the bureaucratic political struggle over Iran policy. If the NIE includes both dissenting views on key issues, a campaign of selective leaking to news media of language from the NIE that supports Cheney’s line on Iran will soon follow, as well as leaks of the dissenting views by his opponents.
Both sides may be anticipating another effort by Cheney to win Bush’s approval of a significant escalation of military pressure on Iran in early 2008.
© 2007 Inter Press Service
Impeach Cheney. Save the world.
I second that. Impeach Cheney for world peace!
Well, Duh!!! Tell me something I don’t already know. Fudging the Facts is the Modus Operandi of this Cabal of neocon extremist warmongers.
Dims that don’t support Kucinich’s call for impeachment of Cheney should be targeted for defeat. They must be put on notice that they will be charged with complicity in high crimes and misdemeanors as well.
Hitler tried the “Murder For Peace” program almost 70 years ago. It failed. That kind of program won’t work.
God in heaven, I HATE the people in the Bush administration. They’re arrogant liars, dictators, bullies, warmongers, torturers, scofflaws, and felons.
They’re conceited, autocratic, insolent, swaggering, despotic terrorists.
Feel free to add to the list…
And this in the US is completely in line with Israel’s new demand that El Baradei be sacked from the international atomic agency because the IAEA also concludes that Iran is far off from any possible A-bomb construction. The likudnik-neocon fanatics dont want or need any evidence, they just “know” that their Destiny is to attack Iran and accelerate world chaos to the apocaliptic scale. They will also make a lot of money in the process.
Amen to Jaded Prole. in my view of thinking we need to stop calling them the “Bush” administration or the Republicans or the democrats. There all in it together. They all have a lot of 0’s in their paychecks and few of them give a damn about the majority of earths population.
Vote for change. Not for a democrat simply because the word democrat.
This needs to be on the frontpage of every newspaper across the country, and on the television news. Of couse, this will not happen because as all of us know, the MSM is in bed with the Bush Administration. It also needs to be directed to Nancy “impeachment is off the table” Pelosi (like she is going to do anything with it… hell she and Steny Hoyer could not efficiently run a lemonade stand). This madness needs to stop, NOW!
Anney -
To me, cheney looks - not mean, not vicious - just miserable, wretched even. Look at the picture, his misery is almost palpable.
My nephew has autism and he looks the same way - it’s like every moment he lives is a moment of misery for him. Cheney has been alive a long time and that’s a lot of moments of misery. I don’t like to be around my nephew - and often choose not to – simply because the misery that emanates from him is not energy that I want in my life. Unfortunately, his immediate family (including his parents) doesn’t much like to be around him, either. My nephew has said to me that nobody loves him.
This seems to be mr. dick. No one likes him (he lost an election to a dead man, remember?). And so, like a child who has no coping mechanisms, he spreads his misery like a cancer - just like my nephew - because he doesn’t know any other way.
How very, very sad.
Which is not to say that he shouldn’t be held accountable for his actions – just like when I give consequences to my nephew for hitting his brothers. But like I learned with my nephew, spouting anger at a person who is already so wretchedly miserable simply makes them more miserable and more desirous to spread that misery around.
Are the American people really so stupid as to fall for this yet again??….oh….never mind…American Idol is on…
Cheney has only fear to use to convince people he is right, So he will join Israel’s company and try to nullify Mr. Baradei and his organization. If someone that high up completely contradicts the official line, then that person, and what they have to say, has to be removed from the discourse. Soon we won’t be hearing much from him. He will wind up like the Bishop in Jack London’s 1907 “IRON HEEL”: “`Not a word that he uttered will see print. “You have forgotten the editors. They draw their salaries for the policy they maintain. Their policy is to print nothing that is a vital menace to the established. The Bishop’s utterance was a violent assault upon the established morality. It was heresy. They led him from the platform to prevent him from uttering more heresy. The newspapers will purge his heresy in the oblivion of silence. The press of the United States? It is a parasitic growth that battens on the capitalist class. Its function is to serve the established by moulding public opinion, and right well it serves it.”
Hoa binh
According to Zoe Lofgren(D-CA), my representative, actions like this aren’t “high crimes and misdemeanors…”
Which I am sure sounds like all the letters received by all of you fron your representative as well.
Is there an “Office of Special Plans” in the Pentagon for Iran? Anyone know what Doug Feith is up to these days?
When I first glanced at the photo of Cheney and saw your title I misread, Cheney tried to smile, which seems unlikely but for him a smile and a sneer are probably the same thing.
iowairish
Why are you trying to paint Dick Cheney as a victim? He isn’t autistic. Do you think all people would be “good” if they just weren’t “victims”? I know lots of people who were victims of all kinds of abuse as well as people born with disabilities. Those things didn’t make those people evil. Peoples’ choices make them evil.
Interestingly enough i was a patient in a Swiss hospital today and an elderly woman suffering from dementia in the next bed called me over. She asked if I were American (my accent is a give away even to those mentally impaired). Then she said “Je detest W.” and proceeded to list the wrongs of him and Cheney as if she were a regular reader of commondreams.org I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. If only the AMerican people were as aware as this woman.
“To me, cheney looks - not mean, not vicious - just miserable, wretched even. Look at the picture, his misery is almost palpable.”
http://onegoodmovemedia.org/movies/njenson/mp3/dickisakiller.mp3
[His ‘misery’ is the only-thing this guy ever learned to ’share’…]
iowairish -
Looking at Cheney he seems so unhappy. Frankly he moves his face like drug addicts. Unlikely he does illegal street drugs, but I bet he’s addicted to prescription drugs. His doctors are over medicating him. Prescription drug addiction happens in the best of families.
The man doesn’t feel well, ever. And he takes it out on the rest of us. Those of us from dysfunctional families intuitively understand what’s going on in the Cheney family — Talk about dysfunctional!!!
Hoa Binh,
Is an extremely cogent thinker. I think he is an Americam patriot in the good sense.
I believe that if the majority of the writers here represented were equal to the population at large and we had new votor laws like those in Maine and Connecticut there might be some rapid changes in this country for the better.
IKE
You know, the media must hate Cheney deep down as much as we do. They ALWAYS use a really snarly picture of him. I don’t believe he looks like that every minute.
Isn’t Inter Press Service one of the major news wire agencies like Reuters (and others). This is not some obscure publication.
I find it even more frightening (not that I’m frightened) that even though this man’s actions are thoroughly exposed to the light of day and are a matter of common knowledge, no one seems willing - or worse, able - to stop him, and the rest. Such a viscous destructive machine - so deadly.
Couple this with the takeover of the us military by millenial evangelicals who not only envision, but welcome a “final battle”, and you have the makings of an powerful death cult.
Now I am afraid - but not going to let a little fear stop me.
The National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, and all of the research and policies developed in the public sector, have to reflect the will of an informed and responsible public.
The public does not want or need fossil fuels so the Middle East oil game is completely unnecessary, its costs are completely unjustified, and as public policy, it must be completely destroyed.
Destruction of US fossil fuel policies is accomplished through solidarity in individual responsibility to shift our exchange/association away from the power centers and toward our local economies.
We can get our energy from renewable sources produced responsibly in small independent enterprises. Let’s stop feeding the fossil/nuclear godzilla with our individual energy choices and start providing sustained opportunity for local self-determination and prosperity.
Nice photo of Dick….
this guy has got to be taking on a transformation state of Satan in this pic
hello everyone maybe you heard about this document
read the whole thing but theres one part that i would like every one to see first
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
it all so goes on and says that long standing governments shouldn’t be change for light and transient causes but i will have to say this government is guilty of war crimes against humanity and should be punished it the pull extent by the people
on another note people shouldnt fear there governments,governments should fear there people
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Cheney doesn’t matter. What matters is that Likud wants it. Which means that Likud’s proxy in Israel’s satellite country (US), AIPAC, wants it. If they want a US war with Iran, they’ll get it. Oh, crap, now a bunch of us “hillbillies” will have to go die in a war for Israel’s security.
Get rid of AIPAC, and away goes the threat of another unncecessary war.
This is the most evil, corrupt administration in our history. It owes its success to the unswerving support of the Democratic caucus of the Republican party.
I sent an email to Ayatollah Khamenei, offering to swap him Cheney for Ahmadinejad; It must have gotten caught in an NSA spam filter.
Isn’t it a repetition of “the story of Iraq”????? If the US government has blamed the US intelligence agencies after invading and killing more than a million innocent Iraqis, it will do the same after bombing Iran and killing innocent Iranians. The loyalists of Shah of Iran, who live in the US, take the place of the Iraqi, Chalabi, to show to the world that the intelligence has come from INSIDE IRAN.
What a wicked, evil, and blood-thirsty country the US is!!!!!!!! It is beyond human comprehension that such “human beings” exist on this planet.
Look at the face of the US VICE PRESIDENT? Isn’t he an embodiment of evil and wickedness??? A MONSTER WHO ENJOYS KILLING INNOCENT CHILDRN, WOMEN AND MEN.
Impeach Cheney, then turn him over to the International Court and try him for crimes against humanity. After he is convicted, send him to Abu Graib for further punishment.
anney {quote} “Why are you trying to paint Dick Cheney as a victim?”
That wasn’t my intention. As I said in my first post, mr. dick needs to be held accountable. mr. dick and all of the bush cabal have committed criminal deeds and need to be brought to justice.
Finding a periodic feeling of compassion for a life that has caused so much harm in the world doesn’t, in any way, pardon or mitigate the actions. Quite the contrary. Accountability and justice for harmful actions is the ONLY compassionate response. Victimization would suggest pity and pity is an aggressive (passively) response.
And yes, I do believe that everyone has the potential to act ‘good’ (i.e., gently with an attitude of not harming). And everyone as the potential to act ‘bad’ (i.e. harmfully). I have done both - many times - as I’m sure you have, too. But just because I act ‘good’ doesn’t mean that I AM good. Just because I act ‘bad’ doesn’t mean I AM evil.
jail Cheney for war crimes!
There are so many pictures of Cheney looking like a bulldog ready to bite someone……LOL
The Democrats who are against Dennis Kucinich’s attempt to impeach Cheney are not Democrats. They are Republicans who continue to betray us.
Dennis Kucinich is the Man! I will write his name in if it’s not on the ballot.
Allow me to post a question: can the rapture be jump-started by man? This could explain some of W’s actions. I don’t get the impression that Cheney is particularly spritual (if at all). His god seems to be oil. Meanwhile Christians for Israel seem to be focussed on maintaining Israel so that everything will line up for the rapture. WWJD? I suspect he would throw the lot of vipers out of the temple. Let’s do it for Him and for the world!
He looks like he could star in the movie 28 weeks later!
Seriously, is Cheney photogenic or what? That Jon Stewart impersonation isn’t too far from reality!
More proof that they indeed DO want to bomb Iran.
Remember, they said they would NOT attack Iraq either, and they did.
Lies, all fucking lies.
and Christians too.
I love that picture. Perfect. Who needs rifles to shoot people in the face with when you have teeth like that?
He looks like the guy watching the varsity QB kiss his girl.
mrif59: Or maybe it’s cheney’s look after the varsity QB turned him down and went for the girl instead.
Maybe the QB is kissing Cheney’s wife, Lynne. Who the hell would want to do that?
If you don’t get hung up on his hate and anger, you can see the helpless frightened child peeking out from behind his eyes…poor him, poor us.
Anney @ 12:32pm:
“God in heaven, I HATE the people in the Bush administration. They’re arrogant liars, dictators, bullies, warmongers, torturers, scofflaws, and felons. They’re conceited, autocratic, insolent, swaggering, despotic terrorists.
Feel free to add to the list…”
~Thanks for the invite Anney.
I think I’ll opt for *STARK STARING MAD* as my own considered understanding of the dogpile which now so *tragically* misrules the USA, -to the detriment of the rest of the planet, -as well as the decent, *intelligent* US citizens who saw all this coming from a mile off, ~ but who couldn’t seem to explain it to the ’slow learners’ at the back of class…
_______________
Denny @ 2:43pm:
“This guy has got to be taking on a transformation state of Satan in this pic”
~ I think the link forged between the Prince of Darkness and the ‘Prints of Bush-mess’ (Cheney) is now incontrovertible Denny.
But *damn* he does it so well!!
~Who else but a *genuine expert* in LIES and DECEIT could so successfully have a huge swathe of purported ‘Christians’ rooting so risibly and so strongly for the Anti-Christ!!
Gotta hand it to him, -that’s quite a coup…
ALthough I agree with the spirit of the proposal, the talk about impeaching Cheney is stupid and irresponsible. Do you know what it takes to impeach a member of the administration? Remember the impeachment of Bill Clinton? The House voted to impeach him, but the Senate didn’t. By the time the impeachment process is completed, his term of office will be over. Get Real!
What’s this? Our former Secretary of War is re-writing SpyGrams so he can make war and plunder our treasury again? This is like Deja Vu - all over again and again and again…rational people are moving to Euros.
What is Cheney going to tell us next?? The earth is flat, sun revolves around it, and that he is an honest individual!!! What a joke!! These guys must think we were all born yesterday.
on and on and they remain.why?
soon there will be no food or water…
Here’s my intuit-hit.
* Iran refuses US treasury notes for anything (oil).
* We launch cruise missiles.
* Russia & China respond & they through out - FLOOD US $$ everywhere.
* Our US economy collapses–we are in Chaos–most in fear.
* The super secret military pulls off a fake, (mock) negative ET landing (s).
* Martial law is imposed due to the most scariest “realities” taking place.
I’m waiting for Big Dick, Condi and Little George to tell us that the dirty bomb attack is imminent and that those airstrikes on Iran will be quick and painless. For us, that is.
Oh, and BTW, the Iranians will also greet us as liberators.
All the old fatcats like Cheney, Bush and Giuliani that want to “get tough on terrorists” need to buy a plane ticket to Baghdad or Kabul and do some fighting themselves instead of getting our children and grandchildren killed or maimed.
America’s $,economy,trust,faith,respect,value have all lost 60% since Bush/Cheneyco took the throne in the last coup ,bad(junnta) management needs replacing.
Impeach-prosecute…before it really is too late and it spreads more.
Pssst. Have you heard from intelligent sources, that (whisper) “yellow cake from…,,, to Iran….”
“Don’t worry, be happy” said the babble-on spokesman. Buy a hemi. Ignore the $3-5 sign at the station. We have a good 3 month supply to take care of you gas needs, fighter plane needs, navy needs, etc.,,,,etc.,,,,,etc.
Hey Hank,
If a terminally ill man raped and sodomized your mama, should we just let him go cause he’ll “be dead soon anyway”?
That line of thinking is just plain stupid.
It takes only a vote to impeach. What takes awhile is the hearings. But we shouldn’t bother to have them, cause you don’t want to know what’s going on. Better to keep your head in the sand and wait it out. So what are you going to do when, because there are no consequences, the next idiot in chief continues with more of the same? Wait them out too?
Let’s all sit around with our heads up our collective ass and by the time my grandchildren grow up they can live in “big brother” land and democracy will be just a quaint memory.
It’s folks like you that are fueling the idiocy of the american people, buying all the crap BUSHCO can sell you. That’s patriotism in a nutshell. Don’t air your dirty laundry in public, sweep it under the rug and hope nobody notices.
Hope that spewing the partiesline buys you some peace, but be sure it won’t be peaceful for long. After we attack Iran, there will be someone else we “need to go after”, there will be “domestic terrorists” we need to take out, there will be rights we need to give up….all to keep from letting the world know that our elected officials have no clothes, hearts, or brains.
Yeah, that’s the spirit.
Great plan.
Let’s just hope that your not the one they toss in jail without charges and without representation. Let’s hope it’s not your kids or your family that is deemed “enemy combatants”. As long as it’s somebody elses family, you can keep your eyes closed in that dark, dark hole.
PS Clinton was impeached. The senate voted not to remove him from office. Big Difference.
It seems, thanks to Kucinich, that the process of impeachment has begun and even the opportunistic Dims may not be able to stop it.
We need to put the pressure on our mis-representatives to support it and we need to make sure that the only politician willing to pursue justice and defend the constitution against all odds gets the credit. He has earned the presidency and we should not settle for less.
Hank said he agreed with “the spirit of Impeachment”. So Hank, think about this: The Constitution says that once the House votes for Impeachment, the President does not have the power of pardon whether or not the Senate votes to convict. “The President has the power of pardon except in cases of impeachment”.
This is the most important power of the House alone but is always ignored when the subject is discussed.
This Congress is not going to get anything done with the Bush Veto so it would be the best thing for us and the planet for the Impeachment debate to last through this term…. not as good as impeachment, but much better than sweeping it under the rug.
Doing them both together would be the best Justice but it looks like at this point we need to impeach Polosi first.
With Cindy, we will be much better next year in every way.
I hope a lot of American’s have learned their lesson in voting Republican. But, from some of the comments I have read I don’t think so. I think 2008 will be another fascist Republican warmonger in office. Because people won’t stick together and vote for someone who can be elected. They are dissatisfied (as I am) with Democrat’s so they will waste their vote on some third party candidate who has about as much chance of winning as a snowball in hell does! Then spend the next four years whining about the fascist Republican’s! We have what we deserve in the White House folks! We elected him and haven’t found the backbone to demand this bunch of thugs be impeached! People should be livid over the squandering, high crimes and abuses this administration has committed. But, no one seems to be able to find their voice! So get used to the abuses guys…it isn’t over yet!
I don’t believe in free will, but the sickest among us should not be making decisions that effect the well being of everyone on the planet.
Cheney is up to his old tricks again, I see!
Playing with the intelligence and once more going forward with a phony case for war! Cheney belongs behind bars. He does not need just impeaching; he needs a jail cell! Impeach and imprison!
Isn’t a picture worth a thousand words: What you see in Cheney in this photo is a spoiled brat who will have a bloody tantrum if you don’t give him what he wants. Iago incarnated.
Excuse my profanity, but “son of a bitch” are the only words I can find for this sob.
Judi, right; both George Bush and Dick Cheney are out-of-control, spoiled brats that demand their way or else. In fact, doesn’t that describe all fascist Republicans? Bullies to the core.
The poor, feeble Democrats are scared to death of them………LOL
Actually, I think the Democrats just go along with the Rethuglicans because they’re part of the same one-party fascist system, unfortunately.
“Democracy, more than any other political system, depends on a modicum of honesty.”
Norman Mailer
Cherry picked North Korean intelligence too?
N. Korea Offers Evidence to Rebut Uranium Claims
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 10, 2007; Page A01
“This is now in the process of being clarified,” a senior South Korean official said in an interview. “The North Koreans are now ready to prove that they did not intend to make a uranium-enrichment program by importing some materials.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/09/AR2007110902364.html?nav=rss_email/components
In response to peacemaker, I wouldn’t consider a vote for a third party candidate a “wasted” vote. If a Democrat (eg., Hillary) is going to serve the same corporate, pro-Israeli, militaristic interests as the Republican candidate, and if, as a result of third party voting by disgruntled citizens the Republican wins again, then we do indeed get what we deserve and maybe next time we get a real choice. I have a feeling that things need to get worse before they get better because the American people, by and large, are lazy, stupid, and delusional. When the source of our collective outrage becomes the actions of our government and not the price of a gallon of gas, then we will be on the right track.
Impeaching Cheney:
1) will be a way to prevent the bastards from bombing Iran
2) will send a message to the world that the USA is not quite as hopelessly lost as they might have thought
3) must be followed by the impeachment of Bush
4) must also be followed with criminal prosecution of both Cheney and Bush for their crimes against humanity, and their contempt for the U.S. Constitution and the human race
5) and the election of Dennis Kucinich - the only real man in the race for president
peacemaker–please clarify what “we” you are talking about. Don’t you know yet that BushCo was installed in office. We, the people did NOT elect him. Before you make such claims read some of the volumes of evidence about the total rigging of the elections. In 2000, Gore won even Florda, in spite of all the rigging there and had around 5 million more polular votes nationwide. In 2004, they didn’t need to storm the recount effort like the fascist thugs that they aredid in 2000, and have the SCOTUS crown W. They just rgged every state they could get their hands on. Kerry likely won the popluar vote by 11 million. He knew and admitted he knew that New Mexico’s results were fraudulant and yet he conceded, despite cries and pleas from the voters who trusted him to insure that their every vote would be counted.
SO spare me the bullshit that WE elected Bush. He and his crime family staged a coup and the Dems collaborated! It’s not rocket science and I am sick and tired of people refusing to see just how much work we have to do to take our government and our lives back from those who feel entitled to have it all.
starofthesea
I couldn’t agree more, and I don’t have a lot of confidence that the vote in 2008 will be without fraud either.
Is there any way we could get Ralph Nader’s help to oversee the election process (someone Americans trust)?
starofthesea agreed and I feel like Hillary vs Guiliani has already been selected for us…what a sham the whole system has become!
NIE redacted.
It was too positive.
No doubt about it! Dennis Kucinich is the Man!
Speaking truth to the corruptly emboldened kleptocracy…
Watch/hear
KUCINICH: Takes House Floor, Moves for Cheney Impeachment
27 min -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJYbgouqlMw
Prior to our attack on Iraq, the NIE was pressured by Cheney/Bush to alter their annual intelligence report to Congress. They caved in under the White HOuse pressure at the request, or orders of, the Director of the CIA, George Tennent. Apparantely they are not doing so again. ____ So far at least.
In Sept of 2001, Goerge Tennet briefed Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld in the Oval Office with a top secret report which reported Saddam did NOT have ANY weapons of mass destruction and Iraq was not purchasing ANY enriched uranium from Africa. Colin Powell was not privey to that CIA briefing. In anger, Bush demanded that Tennet destroy that top secret document and never speak of it again. Tennent obeyed.
In Oct of that year, Colin Powell briefed Congrss and the public with the altered CIA report. Based upon the lies and shortly after their flawed briefing, Congress voted to give Bush the authority to attack Iraq. Powell later was branded as the one who misled Congress and the American public.
DREAMERTOO, You ask, is there any way we could have someone we trust to oversee the election votes? I would answer with a, big “NO”.
We the people have no say anymore, we are just “the flock”, and that is how it is. Of course that is becaue, we the people, have been asleep at the wheel and have allowed it to happen. If we the people had any real say, Cheney/Bush would have been impeached long ago.
For one explanation of recent events that makes sense and may explain many other things in our lives, a little time spent— perhaps as little as 30 minutes or so, may enlighten—- just copy and paste or type into ” Google search” the following:
THE PSYCHOPATH - The Mask of Sanity
CHENEY Has to have the USA invade IRAN, in order to keep his dirty Haliburton cash flowing in…so he can disappear to south amercia wit hthe rest of the Nazis to avoid his War Crimes trial.
Like the soldier who raped the 14 year old Iraqi girl and then killed her and her family and set her body on fire, Cheney needs to expand the violence to Iran to cover up his crimes.
Plus, every once in a while he needs to fulfill his urge to shoot somebody.
√ Inside Iraq’s Oil Machine” by Luke Mitchell.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/12/0081830
… it has been relatively easy for oil smuggling inside of Iraq and at the tanker terminal without meters to measure oil flow.
The latest, but 18 month old NIE report was finally released and published by The New York Times yesterday. The NIE report states, Iran STOPPED their nuclear program entirely in 2003. Meanwhile, Bush and Cheney have been telling the world and our Congress, that Iran has actively been attempting to produce nuclear weapons. They knew that was another lie. They knew of the intelligence in the Top Secret NIE report 18 months ago. They thought until yesterday, they had squashed that report, like they had managed to squash Tennants top secret report that Iraq had no WMDs in 2001.
Now that the pussy is out of the sack, the White House staff are in a full mode of damage control,__ Red Alert. Whoop-
Whoop- whoop.__ Lie-lie-lie.
Within hours of the new NIE report being published, the White House Spinners were on the air and explaining that the “new” NIE report, PROVES that Bush and Cheney have been absolutly correct all along, telling us that Iran is on course to have atomic weapons.
Early this morning Bush had a press conference and when questioned if he was aware of the NIE report last year, he replied with, he was aware there was new intelligence concernig Irans nuclear program to have clean energy, but he didn’t know what was in that Top Secret report until a few days ago.
Why a bolt of lightening didn’t strike him in the head right then after mouthing that incredible lie is beyond me. ___ Will our press and media maintain pressure on this most important story? __ Probably not. __We’ll soon see.
I often wonder, “Why don’t they just let him have his heart attack and die?”
Then I muse, “Perhaps he is so evil, even God doesn’t want him.”
Which leads to the final musing, “Did he make a pact with the devil? Is that why he is still alive?”
Final thought, “How long, dear God, must this go on?”
He doesn’t have a heart, that is another lie.
To answer your last question, you might ask Bush, God talks to him on a daily basis.
What a vicious looking bastard. Looks like he bites……..LOL
Contempt for thoughtful analysis. A classic feature of rulers drunk on power.
To the omnipotent man, analysis is a PR tool. The tool functions by granting the illusion of respectability to plans hatched completely by hormones and the crocodile brain.
The answer is known before the analysis begins. The decision process is unaffected by data, evidence, and all the foundations of critical thinking as typically honored in western culture going back to Ancient Greece.
The idea is, apparently, to subjugate the cerebral cortex to the animal passions of lust. The specific brand of lust is avarice.
iowairish is right. Who would choose to be that ugly, miserable excuse for a man? He was not born that way. I’ve seen pictures of him from forty years ago. But an old man is responsible for his face. His old pictures and current photos are like a before/after of Dorian Grey.
Karma is a bitch, as I’m sure dick would tell you if he were honest. If I could I would neither add to nor relieve his suffering. We all make our own heavens and hells. Unfortunately others sometimes have to live them with us.
We are ALL connected. He represents the worst in all of us. After all, it was his kind who got elected by using racists code words and encouraging the middle class to join the rich in making slaves of the poor.
Like I said, Karma is a bitch. Now we middle class dummies are finding ourselves
enslaved along with the poor. What goes around…
“that long black cloud is coming down”, slowly but surely. His eyes have the look of one in despair; such havoc his misery has unleashed.
For all you misguided ‘end timers’ I would like to point out Armageddon is not a time for you to choose; it is God’s will alone to decide the when. If you are trying to speed it up through your own foolish acts, then don’t count on being included in the rapture, because you will be guilty of either murder or suicide. Although I don’t recognize the Bible as the incontrovertable uncontestable irrefutable ‘word’, I have read enough of it to proffer to you believers that murder & suicide are the worst of SINS. You are entitled to your own beliefs, but you are NOT entitled to drag we who seek peace down into oblivion because of your dogmatic non-rational non-thinking insanity. This applies to ANY people of ANY ‘faith’ worldwide.
I posted this comment under another article, but thought it might be more appropriate here.
I was browsing the archives at Thom Hartman’s site, and came across an interview he did back in July with Paul Craig Roberts, former undersecretary of the Treasury during the Reagan administration.
It was absolutely chilling to hear this man, who has spent all of his working life in public service as a conservative Republican, vowing now never to vote for another Republican again under any circumstances. And he says the only way to save the country is to impeach.
But more to the point of this discussion, he is convinced that Bush & Co. has no intention of letting themselves or the neocons in the Repubs go down in flames in the 2008 election. Because, he says, he knows the complete cast of characters in the administration and how they think.
Roberts says the reason the Dems don’t want to move on impeachment is that they visualize a huge Democratic electoral victory next year on all levels of government. Their plan is to resist impeachment calls until they win the election, thereby letting an enraged electorate “take them out.” This way, they don’t have to go through the messiness of an impeachment proceeding that they think could possibly backfire on them. And they will still get into office.
Roberts says this is a foolish plan, primarily because Bush, Cheney, and all their neocon friends have made enormous progress in pushing the PNAC agenda thus far, and they are not going to simply and quietly “go away,” just because the voting public may want to boot them out.
His contention…and this is coming from a life-long conservative…is that there WILL be a fear-producing event that will turn the elections back to the Republicans or give the administration the impetus to declare martial law, and, as he said, this event will be either real or “orchestrated.” (Most likely the latter)
He even gave Hartmann the text of a speech he predicts Bush would give right after the event, blaming the entire attack (or whatever it is) on the Democrats, the liberals, the progressives, the anti-war crowd, etc. Even Hartmann seemed stunned.
I recommend you all listen. It’s only a 10-minute interview, but it’s frightening.
Use the link below and then scroll down to the calendar for July. It’s the July 19 program.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/archive.htm
for miserable COWARDS who did everything humanly possible to avoid ever, ever putting themselves in danger or serve their country with anything remotly resembling HONOR, Bush and Cheney sure love the idea of war….
they are WAR VOYEURS and PROFITEERS
from Kem Patrick: “Within hours of the new NIE report being published, the White House Spinners were on the air and explaining that the “new” NIE report, PROVES that Bush and Cheney have been absolutly correct all along, telling us that Iran is on course to have atomic weapons.”
I heard this on the news and my jaw dropped. Doublespeak, anyone? But tell me, just HOW do they get away with this? And then Bush claims he didn’t know about this until just last Wednesday. Come on! I hope Keith Olbermann jumps all over this nonsense. I don’t have much hope the rest of the MSM will take them to task.
This is not news, this is supposition and op-ed. Just because Cheney supports an aggressive stance towards Iran, it does not necessarily follow that he “obviously instigated” a plot to delay or alter the NIE. Certainly, it seems very likely, but it really a guess more than a statement. Even the unnamed sources do not specifically cite Cheney as the reason for the delay.
The author of the story is jumping to conclusions without having any back up. This is sloppy reporting.
Interviewer: “VP Cheney, why did you not serve in Vietnam?
Cheney: “I had other priorities.”
That’s nice. My father had OTHER PRIORITIES too, Jack Ass, but he went. When will Americans wake up? How can anyone serve under these draft dodgers and feel confident about it? It AMAZES ME! They are a bunch of war profiteers. Bush is still claiming Iran is a threat despite the current weapons report. I think they all need straight jackets. I have no other rational explanation.
Blow Job = high crimes and misdemeanors = impeachment
A warpig administration responsible for the death of thousands, raping the US treasury, spying on American’s, willful ignorance in the face of facts, wiping their asses with the most sacred document ever devised by Man, destroying the people confidence in their Government, politisizing every govt. agency, waging economic war on the working people of America =
Just ‘BIDNeSS’ as usual for the Republican’s
God Bless ‘merica
The guy is a completely unredeemable specimen of the lowest order of the species.
However, in a representative government, one DOES frequently get what one merits and the folks in power must have SOME relationship to the folks that put them there.
There’s nothing to be done for Cheney. The best case scenario is that he has a massive stroke or heart attack and kicks off before he does any more damage.
But the US people should start looking in the mirror to see how much of Cheney is visible there.
If you don’t, you will get another one just like him–or possibly even worse.
Cheney needs to stand a little closer to his microwave tomorrow morning. His appetite for murder and theft is a perversion and must be cured.
It is long past time the piece of execrement that is Cheney was water hosed into the cesspool of history.
You are wrong there JROONEY. The report finally came out yesterday and it had been delayed by Cheney and Bush for 18 months. Read it, that fact was published by The New York Times.
Even you stated it seems VERY LIKELY Cheney put pressure on the intelligence agencies to bury the report, then you say it is sloppy reporting. You ever heard of the term wishy-washy? Well, you certainly fit that term with your comment. Bush and Cheney did the same with the 2001 NIE report and because of that, Congress authorized funding the war with Iraq.
Impeachment is not nearly enough.
Jail the bastard!
To Dick Cheney in the inimitable words of comedian George Lopez, “Fuck You, Puto!”
Please, Cheney would give perfectly honorable putos a bad name.
Nobody needs that kind of negative association.
Take him down, Dennis! Some of us are with you ALL the way!
Call in Fitzgerald to get him and the other asshole behind bars! (NOT the good kind)
“The White House has now apparently decided to release the unsatisfactory draft NIE, but without making its key findings public.”
Are you tired of the “executive privilege” BS yet? I sincerely hope that we are entering a new era of consciousness within the intelligence community. I won’t hold my breath but will certainly keep my eyes open looking for continued progress from that community.
I was of the opinion, The New York Times published the entire NIE report yesterday. The press and media in Isreal are already saying the NIE report is wrong. Of course Bush is saying it is correct, but proves he has been right about Iran working to build nuclear bombs all along. This is rather humerous, except the issue is not.
Whenever I see that picture of Cheney ___ I see Eichmann.
What happened to those commandos Bush authorized to penetrate Iran? Does the NIE not starkly reveal the illegality of the mission?
Hmmm…..”Impeachment if off the table”
Does this surprise anyone? This administration has ruled by fear and will continue to do so. If there really was a threat from radical islam why would this administration want to cut terrorist funding at home in half. This is such a crock and a good majority of the people in this country believe them. That is truly sad. Impeach all of them congress included.
For Godssake….. What more is necessary to put this dreadful man, this blatant barbarian, this evil warmonger and profiteer, where he and his band of thugs belong??
Isn’t this TREASON?? If not, how not??
What DOES he have to do??
Pork George up the arse on the Witehouse lawn???
WAKE THE FUCK UP AMERICA…
Or take what you get…
This is what Chimpy (sorry, not one of the brighter Chimps) meant by “Catapulting the propaganda..”!! We thought that was vaguely slightly funny…
Not funny now though..
How can anybody talk about modifying the National Intelligence Estimate .. to fit the agenda.. We know the knuts do it, but to be so blatant about it??
It is well past time that this poisonous, cancerous bunch of evil bastards were strung up as Enemies of the HUMAN RACE..
As I have written elsewhere, Thomas Jefferson said, “The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”
The Congress and Senate have allowed and assisted the executive in cutting those chains, link by link, for the past seven plus years. We now have a criminal government and no functioning Constitution.
By allowing this to happen, and by blocking impeachment, they have established legal precedent for this criminal government. They are looking forward eagerly toward inheriting it, intact and functioning, for their own use.
BY legal precedent I mean that since it has gone on unchecked for almost eight years by those who are to be the watchdogs of our government, that will pretty well make it legal. Notice that the Supreme Court is either silent, or deciding in favor of the “Unitary Executive.” They are overturning the civil rights and woman’s rights that were so long fought for, they regularly decide in favor of corporate power over labor or the people’s rights.
If the Congress were reestablish the Constitution as the basic rule and guide of our nation and using it properly, impeach the war criminals that are currently running things, then they would not have the current criminal form of government to inherit.
Sorry, but that is the way I see it. I’ve written, called, e-mailed all of my alleged representatives over a hundred times asking for a return of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, intact and functioning, to the Halls of Government. I have never received any answer to that subject whatsoever. I’ve even asked them to please give me some arguments to convince me that having a fascist government is necessary for our safety and happiness. All of it is totally ignored.
They are just giving us lip service and patiently waiting in the wings to inherit the wind and sow the whirlwind, upon We the People.
You just pretty well summed it up there Iibertas.
We have a pair of traitors in the White House - - impeach them and their hench-persons, then try them for treason!
This and some other things that have popped through the cracks indicates the professional military and intelligence brass are stalling Iran and waiting for the radicals to leave the White House. Petraus (like Powell and Tenant were) is a company man, but others have said they would refuse to attack Iran, and someone turned in the B-52/nuke plot beore it hatched. Most of these guys are better educated than Bush (even Yale must do occasional social promotions) and Cheney, and have a better understanding of history and law. They are probably pissed off about 8 years of minders and hacks infiltrating their organizations, too. There might not be a “palace revolt”, but probably many resignations. Another good sign is Condi Rice breaking from the team (Cheney) on Iran.
Since you guys are going to split the opposition, I’m going to hope Huckabee steals the nomination. He seems like an honest decent fellow who might put a stop to the insanity of PNAC. The special interests will turn him into the next Jimmy Carter, but at least we might have 4 years without new military adventures abroad.
These bastards won’t let “the people” have the country back..
They have much too much to lose..
It is the DUTY of the US military, is it not, to defend the country and the Constitution, from all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC.. That line seems pretty clear to me and I’m not an American.
I’ve heard they expect 30 million of us to leave soon. But in February new rules go into effect so that, and this may still be pending, we will have to apply to “Homeland Security” to get on a plane in advance of any flight anywhere…. Dick Cheney has been stocking up on oil, filling the ‘reserves’ and HE’S NOT DONE YET.
Meanwhile, “The Democratic presidential candidates were incredulous that Bush did not know about the assessment’s new finding.
Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called that explanation “unbelievable.”
“Are you telling me a president that’s briefed every single morning, who’s fixated on Iran, is not told back in August that the tentative conclusion of 16 intelligence agencies in the U.S. government said they had abandoned their effort for a nuclear weapon in ‘03?” Biden asked in a conference call with reporters.
“I refuse to believe that,” he added. “If that’s true, he has the most incompetent staff in modern American history, and he’s one of the most incompetent presidents in modern American history.”
…
Biden just realized this? Incompetent? No, just plain EVIL.
Cheney is by far the most dispicable excuse for a human being I’ve ever had the displeasure of sharing this planet with. He’s a snivelling coward of gigantic proportions and like all his kind scream like stuck pigs should they suffer a minor scratch yet they inflict untold misery on others.
The only pleasure in life for them is kill,kill,and kill some more, their appetite for murder is insatiable. Who do you think the people are blowing up US soldiers in Iraq. Who do you think was behind 9/11, and worst of all who is behind Cheney.
The American people have to consider their future in this next election, neither the Democrats nor the republicans have the American peoples welfare in mind, only their own. A new party has to be formed and formed quickly but as a first step stop using the TV and newspapers, cut them completely out of your life and become very active in your local community, limit the power of the many religious organisations who are standing solidly behind Cheney and his thugs.
Nonsense…
“Believe-it, the NIE is no ‘ruse by Intel to stop any-attack’…in fact, the ‘ruse’ was the pretense that any attack against Iran was actually-desired or intended (we didn’t spend covert-billions and all that ‘hard work’ over-decades creating this Ruse of ‘Islamo-fascism’ [an oxymoron, of-itself] and ‘required’-GWoT [currently best-justified and rationalized in the ME/Caspian by our expensive paper-tiger, Iran] just to now ’show our hand now’ and waste all that by/with any ‘attack’). [Nor would we have any carrier-group a ’sitting-duck’ in Strait if we feared-one in return…duh!]
When the Shaw ‘weakened’, these self-same NIE-’Strategists’ manipulated all parties-concerned (as they did in ‘53, only in-obverse) to absolutely-insure a so-called ‘Islamic-Revolution’ there — and directly received/achieved ‘payment’&control by having the ‘returned-from-France Ayatollah-Kocamami’ hold our CIA-hostages long enough to usher-in R&B-41 and their ‘conservative/pro-business-Era’ here [the ‘October non-Surprise’, remember?], followed by a HUGE-degree of interaction between this nascent ‘false-Enemy’ and the Mossad/CIA/MI-5&6 [itself following that hugely-BS ‘Carter rescue-attempt’], and diverse South American/Argentinian covert-entities, coordinated power-plays in the Gulf including countering our out-of-favor/’weakening-himself’ Saddam, and we forced subsequent Iranian money-trails and ’support’ for-and-to the ‘terror’ purportedly against-Israel and all those multiple-schemes regarding ISI-laundered and joint US/Israel/Iranian-nonsense re: Afghanistan, Paki-’terrorism’, Syrian false-fronts with Lebanese-targeting, and Hamas/’Infantada’/Hezbollah-baiting, Kurdish&other ‘instigation’ and abuse, and Intel-’feedback’ on a scale unheard-of — even during the height of the ColdWar. Follow-that with some basic observation of just how eager Iran has been, since well-before ‘9/11′, to covertly-AND-overtly ‘cooperate’ regards any real-terrorism and “What does that all tell you?” That we find it in our-Interests to attack-Iran, or that we instead continue to USE-it (in exactly the same-fashion we ‘used’ the USSR in decades-past)?
[Did you not note the ’smirks’ on Ineedajob at Columbia, or B-43 just-yesterday — if you don’t know ‘why they are smirking’, you are just not paying-attention…nor did you notice how ‘frowny’ B-41 was when ‘the USSR-’fell’…]
Iran has NOT been ‘under threat’ — it’s much-ballyhooed nuclear-program would still be at the stage it was when the Shaw reluctantly allowed the CIA/Westinghouse to ‘nudge-it’ into-such, had we and Israel/Britain not deliberately-allowed/directed our Paki/ISI-minions and Franco-enablers to elevate-it into today’s-’threat’…in furtherance of this overall Propagandist/’GreatGame’-ruse and ‘joke’ towards a perfect/endless-’GWoT’. Israel and the US have NO (current) ill-intent towards Iran [quite the opposite] — nor does Iran towards the ‘West’ [also, quite the opposite].
I’ve been telling-all this for months-now — perhaps this ‘leaked/surprise’ NIE-report will ‘offer some Evidence’?”
Can’t we all ‘get a clue’?
During a recent visit to LA, despite the anger that I see bloggers display on these pages, I found no evidence whatsoever of political opposition by ordinary Americans to these horrific rapes by the Bush gang. No demos, no strikes, no robust antiwar discussions even. Nothing that you’d see in places like Brazil, or Pakistan, or even Burma, say. Just shopping, minding their own business, the usual. It was surreal. There seems to be a fear of getting caught up in opposition to the Bushies, sort of like being surrounded by Stasi agents. An honourable liberal church in Pasadena has been effectively gagged by the Bush IRS. Activists are barred from crossing borders. East Germany 2007. No wonder the Dims aren’t doing anything. Their constituencies aren’t pressuring them. There are many wonderful and humane Americans — some of whom blog on CD — but the vast majority, despite the few demonstrations we’ve seen so far, seem paralysed. That makes all Americans complicit in these War Crimes.
“Surreal”? What did you expect…it was ‘typical’ (as it may-as-well be — none of that crap changed/altered/reversed or influenced ANYTHING even back in the 60’s/70’s…).
But, ‘I take your point’…
The reason Iraq cost so much American young life and resources in the trillions is based on agencies created to advise the president. In the ideal situation they would be non-partisan so they could not be manipulated by the administrations that usually appoints their hacks to support their distorted points of view.
THE ENTIRE SYSTEM OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT has to be revised to reflect an objective opinion based in experience of those agencies charged with security and understanding of where America fits in the affairs of nations. It is not the bastion of freedom as presently held nor is it the citadel of democratic thought. University think tanks should be advising all divisions of government.
I do not think that the USA is anything more than an oligarchy seeking maximum advantage economically and militarily to continue its way of life and power. I do not see that major changes whether Democrat or Republican rule the USA or that revision in the government policies or organizations happening very quickly.
The point of view above: that the American people reflect the quagmire America has created in the world and the results represented by its agencies and government is not far off the mark. There are at least two factions voting in the USA for direction of America and its world position, both support elements of violence and power to achieve hegemony of the USA with its naive view of the world and its people.
Iran is yet another example of distorted vision and a government steeped in paranoia mixing in the affairs of nations it considers to be alien TO ITS POINT OF VIEW!
It’s weird, but it’s true. Every time I see this particular picture of Dick Cheney, it reminds me of Gestapo agents. They looked just as scary and mean.
Yesterday on CNBC, Chris Matthews blsted Bush for his obvious lies, especially for his last lie, that he was UNAWARE of the contents of the NIE report until last week. I do believe at this point, this issue will not go away for Bush. It was well covered by the media and the press yesterday. We’ll see if they continue to cover it. Matthews was flabbergasted by it all and it seemed to be apparent he has jusr had a rude awakening of what Bush really is.
Then Senator Biden came on the program and said in so many words, that Bush was a damn liar and had destroyed our nations credibility world wide, and that made him very angry. Well, Biden is a late comer to speak out, for one who is in a position to know what Bush has already done. CREDIBILITY? How can one destroy something they destroyed four years ago?
Then Biden said that he would not say we attacked Iraq for oil, but he would say, we did so to control the oil in the Mid-East. What a double talking pimp. That is saying the same thing, if it was for CONTROL of the oil, __ then it was for oil.
Then Biden repeated his ‘THREAT’, that if Bush attacked Iran he would attempt to have him impeached. Evidently Biden believes that Bush should be impeached if he commits a crime. Evidently Biden is selective of the crime. Bush has already committed a long list of impeachable crimes, and in the process, has destroyed our military and bankrupted our treasury and us. Why hasn’t Biden and 99 other Senators demanded impeachment for Bush and Cheney for the numerous crimes they have already committed and not wait for them to bomb Iran? Biden is another whore and pimp who is a candidate for the presidency. Bush is far worse and he is our president.
Again, point-taken — but I must wholeheartedly-disagree. America, and its economy/policies/governance/agendas-included is a VAST mix of competing and/or aligned Interests FAR/FAR more complex than any ‘oligarchy’ you can readily characterize/conceive-of.
It is, of-course, amoral and self-serving and ‘dangerous’ in-the-extreme, but you cannot/should-not think of it as an ‘easy to define’ or correct over-Simplification. [If you actually want to ‘change the Beast’ (and “be careful what you wish-for” if so-doing!), first attempt to ‘understand it’…]
‘Americans’, as in ‘man on the street’, are no-more “responsible” for the actions of their State than my Labrador is for my political-views or economic-actions…[and I tire of hearing-otherwise…if you think you have any ‘power’ in this evolved-arrangement, prove it by actually ‘doing something’ — and, good-luck with that…]
Why do you think Dick has so many heart problems? He’s his own worst enemy. Not to mention the World’s.
Oh come off it:
When you sell you patrimoney–or your soul–for a plate of lentils, those lentils look like Dick Cheney and George Bush.
Apparently you couldn’t be bothered to read my previous exhortation for you folks to LOOK IN THE MIRROR.
You are not going to change the degraded soul of your country by painting it pink.
RE: namoses December 4th, 2007 6:20 pm
You are absolutely correct that our real enemy in the ME is a little country called Isreal, but you forgot to mention the most dangerous lackey in this administration who holds dual US/Isreali citizenship, though…Chertoff. Aside from the truth of ‘no man can serve two masters’ isn’t this a blatant conflict of interest? Oh, I forgot, the USA is now Isreal Lite, and the tail wags the dog, so I guess keeping Isreali spies employed is just somethng our massa(master) demanded. Yassa, boss, issa steppin’!
www.natvan.com/who-rules-america/
Sorry about that, the whole link didn’t post:
http://www.natvan.com/who-rules-america/wra.pdf
I remain baffled by reports that allude to Iran’s exportation of “high-tech weapons like ‘explosively formed penetrators’.”
In the pictures I saw, w/ munitions laid out by US Army folks, the shells and their “liquor sleeves” (they look like single-malt scotch containers) had markings in English. (Left over, no doubt, from the Iran/Iraq war when the US was supplying both sides.)
And here’s how you can make a shape charge (”explosively formed penetrator” in neo-ArmySpeak). They are definitely NOT “high tech”:
They can be cooked up by sticking a detonator through a hole in the bottom of an empty #10 can from the mess hall—or garbage dump—warming up an unfused artillery shell until the high explosive melts, pouring it into the can, two thirds of the way up, stuff a copper cone, point down, into the squishy explosive. You might need a stronger blast tube than the #10 can–a length of cast iron sewer pipe might do the trick.
Let set for an hour to harden, mount triggering device, install, wait for the “guests” to arrive, then serve.
The disks of copper can be cut or punched from a sheet of copper or cut out with tin-snips and spun into a cone by any tinker in an Arabian market stall. Calling these things “high tech” — from the propaganda lexicon–would be like calling a FESROP “high tech” (pronounced “FEZ rahp,” a Field Expedient Scrounged ROck for Pounding [I made that up]).
(PS: The shells, of course, were looted from the myriad (1,000+) ammo dumps Saddam’s army had spread around the country, as he/they expected to be fighting a guerilla war. Kind of a WWII Field Marshal Rommel tactic. The looting started even before April 9, 2003, when Baghdad “fell.”
(The US military was focusing on “WMD”s, not conventional ammo. And there weren’t enough soldiers to “secure” the dumps (guard them), and I guess the search for the ghost WMDs was so frenetic, the troops had no time to blow the dumps or “depots.”
(Sad, because c. 50% of our US casualties are caused by roadside bombs (IEDs) and the shape charges because we didn’t take care of the ammo dumps.)
Great post there TheNinth.
Sounds like the MSM bandwagon is starting to take on a few passengers. Olberman, Matthews, Raddatz (ABC), ol’ what’s her name that got yelled at by Perino. They are starting to lose their fear of the Bush White House and the neocon apologists. Maybe more will start venturing out from the bunker.
Two things Gore Vidal said that should be kept in mind:
1. Americans never learn. It’s part of our charm.
2. If you want to understand American politics, all you have to know is that it is composed of only one political party–with two wings on the right.
Those were quoted here in the Mexican political magazine Milenio by Morris Berman–who lives in Guanajuato now.
Berman said that the US is not a society but a group of individuals that compete against each other and are unhappy because of it–that the ambience is one of AUTISTIC HOSTILITY.
My feeling exactly.
Guess I’m not an American then. Dang and I was born here. I ften see a far different American, there are many good ones, many of those blog here at CD.
There a many lousy people who are Americans, some are politicians. I’ve run across some lousy people who were not Americans. All of humanity is the same. Some are great, some are good, some not so good, __ some are evil. Then some are both evil and insane.
Quick–somebody give the veep an enema to put him out of his misery.
Give him an enema and he’d lose 190 pounds.
I know the dems have taken impeachment of bush/cheney off the table, with the exception of Drennis Kucinich–the most level headed member of congress. But how much longer will this travesty these criminals have made of our democracy be allowed to continue? When are the republicans in congress going to do the right thing, rater than the partisan thing, and call for their heads? Nothing less than our democracy is at stake!
Before Tenant made is famous “slam dunk” statement, the VP was over at the CIA on a regular basis trying to influence intelligence reports on Iraq. Not much intelligence involved in forcing preconceived conclusions into reports that are suppose to be based on facts.
After reading, many of the posts regarding the latest NIE report I realize I need not add anything. However, I thought I would impart something I am doing to try to change the direction our Great Republic has been heading. Many are changing to independent. I applaud this as the Dems and Reps are the same and need to be ousted in their entirety.
Of all the candidates, the only one worth considering is Ron Paul. Yes, he is a Rep but it would behoove everyone to take a close look at Mr. Paul. There is a reason the media depicts him as a “kook”. He has consistently voted constitutionally regardless of popularity of issues or his parties’ preferences. If you research him in depth, you will see he is the only hope for the future of America. I would like to encourage anyone with a brain and a love of the Constitution and Bill of Rights that has served us so well for so long to do whatever it takes to be able to vote for him in the primary. Some states allow independents to choose a party to vote for in the primary, some only allow independents to vote for independents. I have changed to (Agh…) Republican so I can cast my vote for Mr. Paul in the primary. The day after the primary, I will change back to Libertarian. (After some research, I have decided the Libertarian Party hold the same values as I do. If I could not find a party I felt represented my beliefs I would be independent.) I am encouraging everyone to do whatever he or she has to in order to vote Ron Paul during the primary. If we cannot get him past the primary, we will be stuck with one of the other idiots that currently dominate the campaign.
Happy Holidays to everyone and lets get going! Let us see if we can TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY!!