So is there anyone left besides the boneheads in the White House who still thinks it was a good idea to go into Iraq? WASHINGTON — The war in Iraq has become "a major debacle" and the outcome "is in doubt" despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by … Read More
GAO Report: No Plan To Get al Qaeda
This is pretty embarrassing: The Bush administration doesn’t have a comprehensive strategy for eliminating Osama bin Laden’s sanctuary in Pakistan’s tribal region and preventing the region from being used for launching terrorist attacks on the United States, the investigative arm of Congress said Thursday. President Bush and his senior lieutenants frequently claim that eradicating the threat that bin Laden’s al … Read More
Top Bush Advisors Approved ‘Enhanced Interrogation’
Explosive report from ABC: Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects — whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding. The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation … Read More
More On The Pre-9/11 “Safe House” Call
Dan Gilmour of the Center for Citizen Media takes journalists to task: A truly extraordinary example of journalistic malfeasance is playing out right now. Attorney General Michael Mukasey told a San Francisco audience last week that the Bush administration was aware in the days before the 9/11 attacks that an Al Qaeda official was making calls from a “safe house … Read More
If The Framers Of The Constitution Read This….
…they would never stop throwing up. I’m talking about this: For at least 16 months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001, the Bush administration believed that the Constitution’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures on U.S. soil didn’t apply to its efforts to protect against terrorism. That view was expressed in a secret Justice Department legal memo dated … Read More
A Smoking Gun? Or A Lie?
Keith Olbermann (see video below) and Glenn Greenwald are on the case, and rightly so. The controversy centers around statements made last week by Attorney General Mukasey. In a speech to telecom leaders showing his support for telecom company immunity in the FISA law, Mukasey made a startling heretofore-unknown revelation. From The NY Sun: Officials "shouldn’t need a warrant when … Read More
World’s Worst Attorney: John Yoo
Holy mother of God: Memo: Laws Didn’t Apply to Interrogators Justice Dept. Official in 2003 Said President’s Wartime Authority Trumped Many Statutes The Justice Department sent a legal memorandum to the Pentagon in 2003 asserting that federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators who questioned al-Qaeda captives because the president’s ultimate authority as … Read More
How’s That Training Of Iraqi Police Going?
Um….. Iraqi police in Basra shed their uniforms, kept their rifles and switched sides Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra. His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers who have spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces … Read More
If This Is Positive….
Today we learn that: American military forces for the first time conducted air strikes on targets in Basra late Thursday, joining Iraqi security forces in trying to oust Shiite militias in the southern port city. …while in Baghdad: U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad, as an … Read More
The Obama Doctrine
Good article in TAP about "The Obama Doctrine". While both Obama and Clinton appear to be similar on the Iraq War (they both want out), Obama seems to be going the extra mile in arguing that he wants to change the mindset that got us into Iraq in the first place. The article looks at the Obama mindset on foreign … Read More
4,000
My blogging has been light, but that may be changing. Sad to fear up again with the sad milestone: The AP is calling America’s 4,000th death in Iraq. UPDATE: Hilzoy’s thoughts…. [Click for much larger image]
The Last Five Years
Happy Fifth Birthday, Operation Iraqi Freedom! U.S. Deaths Confirmed By The DoD: 3988 U.S. Deaths Pending DoD Confirmation: 2 Total: 3990 David M. Herszenhorn, NYT: At the outset of the Iraq war, the Bush administration predicted that it would cost $50 billion to $60 billion to oust Saddam Hussein, restore order and install a new government. Getting at the true … Read More
Sssshhhhhh!
You know that Pentagon study I mentioned yesterday? The one where the Pentagon concluded, after scouring Iraq for evidence, that there was no link between Saddam and Al Qaeda? The Bush Administration is trying to keep it quiet. ABC News reports: The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein … Read More
Fallon Out; War With Iran In?
In a recent article in Esquire, CENTCOM Commander Adm. William "Fox" Fallon openly criticized the idea of a possible war with Iran, which Fallon called an "ill-advised action". Fallon implied that he would resign rather than go to war against Iran. (Fallon is not alone on this; most military leaders are opposed to war with Iran). Breaking news out of … Read More
No Saddam And Al Qaeda Link
Not news to most of us, but there are — amazingly — still people who believe that Saddam has something to do with bun Laden and 9/11: WASHINGTON — An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein’s regime had any operational links with Osama … Read More