Senate WMD Report Whacks CIA, Not Bush: does not examine how Bush and his senior aides handled flawed intelligence
Senate WMD Report Whacks CIA, Not Bush: "July 9, 2004 by David Corn

The United States went to war on the basis of false claims. More than 800 Americans and countless Iraqis have lost their lives because of these false claims. The American taxpayer has to pay up to $200 billion--and maybe more--because of these false claims. The United States' standing in the world has fallen precipitously because of these false claims. ...

The debate is over--or it should be. According to the report released today by the Senate intelligence committee, the intelligence community--led by the CIA--"overstated" and "mischaracterized" the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. ...

The 500 page report repeatedly details instances when the intelligence community botched its job by ignoring contrary evidence, embracing questionable sources, and rushing to judgments that just so happened to fit the preconceived notions of the Bush Administration. If CIA director George Tenet had not said good-bye to the CIA the day before the report came out, he would deserve immediate dismissal. But the report--justifiably harsh in its evaluation of the CIA--is part of an effort to protect Bush and his lieutenants. The political mission: make the CIA the fall guy. ...

The report does not examine how Bush and his senior aides handled and represented the flawed intelligence. Senator Pat Roberts, the Republican chairman of the committee, has delayed that portion of the investigation ...
...
Even without the Senate intelligence committee doing a single stitch of work regarding Bush's use of the intelligence, this report demonstrates that Bush hyped the threat to get his war. And weeks ago, when the independent, bipartisan 9/11 commission declared it had not found evidence of "collaborative relationship" between Hussein and Al Qaeda, Bush and Cheney insisted that there had been a "relationship." The Senate intelligence committee report is yet another reason to dismiss anything Bush and Cheney have to say on this subject.
- posted by Editor @ 9:13 PM

U.S. conservatives edgy about Iraq war: 'It's costing us a lot of money, isolating us from our allies and friends,'
TheStar.com - U.S. conservatives edgy about Iraq war: "Jul. 11, 2004. 04:01 PM | Some Republicans fear that angry right-wingers will sit out the election

WASHINGTON (AP) � When an influential group of conservatives gathers in downtown Washington each week, they often get a political pep talk from a senior Bush administration official or campaign aide. They don't expect a fellow Republican to deliver a blistering critique of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war.

But nearly 150 conservatives listened in silence recently as a veteran of the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations ticked off a litany of missteps in Iraq by the Bush White House.

'This war is not going well,' said Stefan Halper, a deputy assistant secretary of state under President Reagan.
'It's costing us a lot of money, isolating us from our allies and friends,' said Halper, who gave $1,000 to George W. Bush's campaign and more than $83,000 to other GOP causes in 2000. 'This is not the cakewalk the neoconservatives predicted. We were not greeted with flowers in the streets.''"

Conservatives, the backbone of Bush's political base, are increasingly uneasy about the Iraq conflict and the steady drumbeat of violence in postwar Iraq, Halper and some of his fellow Republicans say. The conservatives' anxiety was fueled by the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal and has not abated with the transfer of political power to the interim Iraqi government. ...

- posted by Editor @ 6:38 PM

Interrnational Court - Historic ruling on Israeli 'occupation': "stated that the occupation and the settlements are illegal"
Scotsman.com News - International - Historic ruling on Israeli 'occupation': "Sat 10 Jul 2004 | DAN WALDMAN

FOR the first time, an international court has ruled that land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war is occupied territory.

The ruling was a boost for Palestinians, but Israel insists it won�t change its policy.

Yesterday�s decision by the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands referred to the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and Israeli settlements in these areas as a violation of the Geneva conventions.

The statements came in a ruling on a 425-mile-long barrier in the West Bank, built by the Israelis to protect themselves against militant attacks.
...
However, an expert in international law said the ruling carried weight, describing it as a landmark in the conflict.

"Since 1967, Israel claimed that the West Bank was not occupied territory," said Eyal Benvenisti, a senior law professor at the University of Tel Aviv. "It based this on its own peculiar interpretation. That interpretation was rejected today."

Palestinian officials hailed the decision as significant.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erakat said: "This is the first time the international court has stated that the occupation and the settlements are illegal. I hope Israel will stop thinking it is above the laws of man." ...
- posted by Editor @ 6:30 PM

The United States Has Lost its Moral Authority by US Senator Ernest F. Hollings
The United States Has Lost its Moral Authority by US Senator Ernest F. HollingsJune 23, 2004
...
In 1996, a task force was formed in Jerusalem including Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser. They submitted a plan for Israel to incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Clean Break. It proposed that negotiations with the Palestinians be cut off and, instead, the Mideast be made friendly to Israel by democratizing it. First Lebanon would be bombed, then Syria invaded on the pretext of weapons of mass destruction. Afterward, Saddam Hussein was to be removed in Iraq and replaced with a Hashemite ruler favorable to Israel .

The plan was rejected by Netanyahu, so Perle started working for a similar approach to the Mideast for the United States . Taking on the support of Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Cambone, Scooter Libby, Donald Rumsfeld et al., he enlisted the support of the Project for the New American Century.

The plan hit paydirt with the election of George W. Bush. Perle took on the Defense Policy Board. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith became one, two and three at the Defense Department, and Cheney as vice president took Scooter Libby and David Wurmser as his deputies. Clean Break was streamlined to go directly into Iraq .

Iraq , as a threat to the United States , was all contrived. Richard Clarke stated in his book, Against All Enemies, with John McLaughlin of the CIA confirming, that there was no evidence or intelligence of "Iraqi support for terrorism against the United States " from 1993 until 2003 when we invaded. The State Department on 9/11 had a list of 45 countries wherein al Qaeda was operating. While the United States was listed, it didn't list the country of Iraq .

President Bush must have known that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq . We have no al Qaeda, no weapons of mass destruction and no terrorism from Iraq ; we were intentionally misled by the Bush administration.
...
... Heretofore, the world looked to the United States to do the right thing. No more. The United States has lost its moral authority.
- posted by Editor @ 6:23 PM

Kerry: Bush personally misled him into casting his vote supporting the war: Edwards said VP Dick Cheney likely pressured the CIA
Boston.com / News / Politics / Presidential candidates / john kerry / campaign: "Kerry and Edwards criticize Bush administration for misleading the nation
By Glen Johnson and Raja Mishra, Globe Staff | July 10, 2004

RALEIGH, N.C. -- John F. Kerry and John Edwards yesterday accused the Bush administration of misleading the nation and manipulating intelligence analysts to win support for the invasion of Iraq, though both senators stood by their votes authorizing the war.

Kerry has for months expressed increasing skepticism about the Iraq war, but his newly chosen running mate has been relatively quiet on the topic. Back in October of 2002, Edwards was among the most hawkish of the Democrats in Congress, even co-sponsoring the Iraqi war resolution in the US Senate.

But yesterday, during an interview on their campaign plane in which the candidates also discussed the possibility of financing their campaign outside the public funding system, Edwards said Vice President Dick Cheney likely pressured the Central Intelligence Agency to skew its work in support of the war.
'We know that Dick Cheney spent significant amounts of time at the CIA. We know that the administration was aware, because all of us were becoming increasingly aware, of the problems within the intelligence community,' he said."

Kerry said Bush personally misled him into casting his vote supporting the war by indicating that the administration would exhaust diplomatic options before using force. In fact, Kerry said several Middle Eastern leaders, including the Saudis, told him the Bush administration was committed to war more than a year before the actual invasion. But he choseto set aside his concerns after receiving assurances from President Bush.

"The president went back on his word," said Kerry. "I take that personally." He added: "Evidence is mounting significantly that they made a decision then framed an argument to support it. I think there are very serious questions about that that remain to be answered." ...
- posted by Editor @ 4:14 PM

Dave Lindorff: Liberation as Martial Law: Evidence of democracy and freedom [scarce as] weapons of mass destruction
Dave Lindorff: Liberation as Martial Law: "July 8, 2004
How Bush-style Democracy Came to Iraq
Liberation as Martial Law
By DAVE LINDORFF
Well, now we know why nearly 900 Americans and over 10,000 Iraqis died over the last 15 months, and why we Americans have forked out $200 billion in war taxes: so the long-suffering people of Iraq could have the blessings of martial law, enforced by the U.S. military.

So much for President Bush's latest cobbled-together, retroactive excuse for the Iraq War-bringing democracy to the Middle East.
That belated justification was demolished with 'Prime Minister' Ilyad Allawi's announcement of plans to declare martial law in any parts of Iraq he deems to be overrun with what he calls 'terrorists.'

Evidence of democracy and freedom are about as easy to dig up in occupied Iraq as those weapons of mass destruction, which at least British Prime Minister Tony Blair has now admitted probably don't exist (though he still insists they used to be there).

Allawi's decision to dispense with civil liberties in Iraq before they even got started should come as no surprise. The man, appointed through the machinations of the U.S. occupation authority under the recently departed L. Paul Bremer, is no democrat. A former member of Saddam Hussein's brutal Baath Party, and later by his own admission an asset on the CIA payroll, he may be called a prime minister, but this is just in keeping with a long U.S. tradition of putting puppet leaders in positions of dictatorial authority, while conferring on them titles that have the ring but not the substance of democracy."
- posted by Editor @ 8:17 PM

AP: Iraq insurgency larger than thought: "Too much U.S. analysis is fixated on terms like 'jihadist,'
AP: Iraq insurgency larger than thought: "7-8-2004 | By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraq insurgency is far larger than the 5,000 guerrillas previously thought to be at its core, U.S. military officials say, and it's being led by well-armed Iraqi Sunnis angry at being pushed from power alongside Saddam Hussein.

Although U.S. military analysts disagree over the exact size, dozens of regional cells, often led by tribal sheiks and inspired by Sunni Muslim imams, can call upon part-time fighters to boost forces to as high as 20,000 _ an estimate reflected in the insurgency's continued strength after U.S. forces killed as many as 4,000 in April alone.

And some insurgents are highly specialized _ one Baghdad cell, for instance, has two leaders, one assassin, and two groups of bomb-makers."
...
Civilian analysts generally agreed, saying U.S. and Iraqi officials have long overemphasized the roles of foreign fighters and Muslim extremists.

Such positions support the Bush administration's view that the insurgency is linked to the war on terror. A closer examination paints most insurgents as secular Iraqis angry at the presence of U.S. and other foreign troops.

"Too much U.S. analysis is fixated on terms like 'jihadist,' just as it almost mindlessly tries to tie everything to (Osama) bin Laden," Cordesman said. "Every public opinion poll in Iraq ... supports the nationalist character of what is happening." ...
- posted by Editor @ 8:08 PM

Translator in eye of storm on retroactive classification: AG Ashcroft retroactively classifies info to keep it out of court
Boston.com / News / Nation / Translator in eye of storm on retroactive classification: "Translator in eye of storm on retroactive classification
By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff | July 5, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Sifting through old classified materials in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, FBI translator Sibel Edmonds said, she made an alarming discovery: Intercepts relevant to the terrorist plot, including references to skyscrapers, had been overlooked because they were badly translated into English.

Edmonds, 34, who is fluent in Turkish and Farsi, said she quickly reported the mistake to an FBI superior. Five months later, after flagging what she said were several other security lapses in her division, she was fired. Now, after more than two years of investigations and congressional inquiries, Edmonds is at the center of an extraordinary storm over US classification rules that sheds new light on the secrecy imperative supported by members of the Bush administration.

In a rare maneuver, Attorney General John Ashcroft has ordered that information about the Edmonds case be retroactively classified, even basic facts that have been posted on websites and discussed openly in meetings with members of Congress for two years. The Department of Justice also invoked the seldom-used ''state secrets" privilege to silence Edmonds in court. She has been blocked from testifying in a lawsuit brought by victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and was allowed to speak to the panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks only behind closed doors. ...
- posted by Editor @ 9:19 PM

Israelis say Sharon is expanding outposts: count 53 outposts Israel is required to dismantle, twice the 28 reported to US last week
Israelis say Sharon is expanding outposts: "7-7-2004 | By PETER ENAV, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM - In a display likely to increase U.S. displeasure with Israel, an opposition lawmaker and former general Monday showed photos of four West Bank outposts he said proves the government is deceiving Washington by expanding the enclaves instead of taking them down.

The settlement watchdog group Peace Now said it has counted 53 outposts Israel is required to dismantle under the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan _ or nearly twice the 28 named in a government list handed to the Americans last week.

"There is a clear-cut case of flagrant deception and a breaking of the promise to the Americans," legislator Ephraim Sneh from the Labor Party told reporters in displaying the "before" and "after" photos. ...
- posted by Editor @ 5:53 PM