Tag: George W. Bush

Senate Intelligence Committee Phase II Report Released

Reported by David Kurtz at Talking Points Memo the Senate Intelligence Committee has released its “Phase II” report on pre-War Iraq Intelligence-

Report on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government officials Were Substantiated by Intelligence Information

Report on Intelligence Activities Relating to Iraq Conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group and the Office of Special Plans Within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy

Both .pdf.

David also attaches portions of a summary press release from the office of Senator Jay Rockefeller.

  • Statements and implications by the President and Secretary of State suggesting that Iraq and al-Qa’ida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al-Qa’ida with weapons training, were not substantiated by the intelligence.
  • Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information.
  • Statements by President Bush and Vice President Cheney regarding the postwar situation in Iraq, in terms of the political, security, and economic, did not reflect the concerns and uncertainties expressed in the intelligence products.
  • Statements by the President and Vice President prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq’s chemical weapons production capability and activities did not reflect the intelligence community’s uncertainties as to whether such production was ongoing.
  • The Secretary of Defense’s statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information.
  • The Intelligence Community did not confirm that Muhammad Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 as the Vice President repeatedly claimed.

Bush lied.

People died.

Bush wants to annex Iraq

Patrick Coburn has a chilling piece in the Independent about what Bush is trying to push through the puppet government of Iraq.  The subhead gives a nice summary:

Bush wants 50 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors

The deal would effectively tie the hands of the next administration unless the Iraqis can muster the political courage to reject it. Since the Bush administration has done everything possible to keep the terms secret to ward off an Iraqi backlash, the least we can do is make sure the leak spreads to flood proportion.

Since the story has now broken on the DD front page, courtesy of Mishima, I thought I would focus on a few key contradictions based on quotes from the article.

Paydirt! McCain Forced to Whine, “I’m *not* Bush III”

 This is what I’ve been looking for:  “In Speech McCain Denies he’s Bush III”.

“You will hear from my opponent’s campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I’m running for President Bush’s third term,” McCain plans to say. “You will hear every policy of the President described as the Bush-McCain policy.

Yup.  You can, indeed, count on that Senator McPander to Bush.

This is WONDERFUL NEWS.  Now we’ve got ‘im where we want ‘im:  McVerbTense says:  “I’m not Bush’s third term!”  To which the Democratic Party, its nominee, the progressive blogosphere and anyone who doesn’t want to see more insanity in the White House respond:  “Yes, you are!”

And, what’s McKeatingFive say?  “No, I’m not!”  

To which we respond, “Well, actually, yes you are!”

And, from there, it’s just turtles all the way down.

Forcing McHuggyBush to get into a circular argument-cum-whine about the degree to which he’s a shameless suck-up to the Worst President Ever is an argument that we can, and should, take all the way to November.  “Bush’s Third Term” needs to be repeated ad infinitum for the next 4 months.  Keep this in mind.

Mu . . .

With Liberty And Justice For All: US Secret Prisons, Then and Now: 2001-2005, 2008

Crossposted from ePluribus Media.

_____

My country ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing…

____

What happens when the checks and balances of our government are compromised, and justice is undermined?

What happens when the most criminally corrupt group of criminals rule with nearly complete control of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government for nearly two full Administrations, and the media fails to oppose, to challenge and to expose them?

Criminal malfeasance. Negligence. Dereliction of duty. Failure — multiple failures: failure to uphold the law, failure to act, failure to uphold the duty and responsibility of office.

Actively undermining the just due process of the law and Constitution. Actively interfering with the proper operation of government.

War crimes.

Eight years of crimes, unaccountable to anyone and protected by the entire Republican party — and Joe Lieberman.

McClellan, Writing and Truth

Is this a Judas move? So asks Bill O’Reilly:

Milder reactions have emanated from the White House, ranging from being “puzzled”, intimating that McClellan didn’t write this book because it “doesn’t sound like him, it sounds like a left-wing blogger”, that this is an “out of body experience”, that McClellan was “disgruntled”, that “something dramatically has changed”, that the editor “tweaked some things in the past few months” and “wrote a lot of it”…

…and on, and on, and on.

But the process of writing is sitting in front of a blank screen, staring into one’s soul.

morning-in-america: meet shit storm

Just had to react to this.

Another book. Another inside look at the Bush administration. Another portrait of the organized crime ring running the White House and the country. This time the story, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, appears to have been written by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.

I use the word appears in attributing authorship to McClellan because, in fact, McClellan may have been hijacked. By aliens. The left. Or, even worse, the fucking facts may have contaminated his version of the truth.

From George W. Bush via current White House Press Secretary Dana Perino…

“He [Bush] is puzzled, and he doesn’t recognize this as the Scott McClellan that he hired and confided in and worked with for so many years.”  

A SOFA for Iraq: How Long Will We Stay

Presently the only legal justification for the US occupation of Iraq is the UN Security Council mandate. In 2006 and again in 2007 the elected Iraqi Parliament attempted to block the extension of the mandate but were “cleanly excised” from the legislation process.

In 2006 the parliament’s efforts were by-passed by the appointed Iraqi Cabinet. In 2007 their resolution was passed, became law of the land and was received in good order by the UN special envoy, Ashraf Qazi, but never distributed to the Security Council members, as is required under the U.N. resolution that governs the mandate.

However, as per Secretary-General Moon’s report to the Security Council dated Oct. 15, the law that had been passed by the duly elected legislature of Iraq had become nothing more than a non-binding resolution.

The existing UN mandate under which US forces remain in Iraq will expire in December. Let’s take a look at what comes next.  

A SOFA for Iraq: How Long Will We Stay

Presently the only legal justification for the US occupation of Iraq is the UN Security Council mandate. In 2006 and again in 2007 the elected Iraqi Parliament attempted to block the extension of the mandate but were “cleanly excised” from the legislation process.

In 2006 the parliament’s efforts were by-passed by the appointed Iraqi Cabinet. In 2007 their resolution was passed, became law of the land and was received in good order by the UN special envoy, Ashraf Qazi, but never distributed to the Security Council members, as is required under the U.N. resolution that governs the mandate.

However, as per Secretary-General Moon’s report to the Security Council dated Oct. 15, the law that had been passed by the duly elected legislature of Iraq had become nothing more than a non-binding resolution.

The existing UN mandate under which US forces remain in Iraq will expire in December. Let’s take a look at what comes next.  

The Hardest Workin’ Men in SnowBiz, Bush & McBush

Image Hosted by ImageShack.usSo the bottom line is that of a total of approximately 2,535 days as president, most of them during a time of war, Bush spent all or a part or 908 days, an incredible 36 percent of his time, on vacation or at retreat places. Hard to believe, but true. Nine hundred and eight days is two and a half years of Bush’s presidency. Two and a half years of the less than seven years of his presidency in which his main goal was to kick back and have fun.

.

A great read from Vincent Bugliosi at HuffPo

Most of us agree that he should spend even more time on vacation; be it in Crawford, Paraguay or Leavenworth, but when many American’s have sacrificed their lives, family members and large sums of tax dollars to fund this fool’s fantasy, he has been working on “clearing my mind”.  I would include beautiful as an adjective but then it wouldn’t be a direct quote, but I’m sure astute readers here will make the genetic connection.

The brush clearin’, bike ridin’, segway fallin’, perch fishin’ golfin’, joggin’ CIC (Clown-in-Chief) needs  to “clear his mind”.

In fact, he himself admitted to the magazine Runners World (August 23, 2002) that after the Afghanistan war began: “I have been running with a little more intensity . . . It helps me to clear my mind.”

…  

“It’s interesting that my times have become faster . . . For me, the psychological benefit [in running] is enormous. You tend to forget everything that’s going on in your mind and just concentrate on the time and distance.

UPDATED: Just when you thought that perhaps Bush really was telling the truth…..

YEAH, I know!  Fooled you, huh?  NOT!  Bush telling the truth is akin to Sky = ruby red, Water = dry, Republicans = compassionate conservatives, etc.

In ANOTHER telling tale of BushCo malfeasance, former White House spokesman Scott McClellan writes in his soon to be released book that Bush and his advisers used pure propaganda on the run up to the war with Iraq and that they spent the first week of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy in complete denial.

From CNN:

The spokesman who defended President Bush’s policies through Hurricane Katrina and the early years of the Iraq war is now blasting his former employers, saying the Bush administration became mired in propaganda and political spin and at times played loose with the truth.

AT TIMES played loose with the truth, Scottie? That may be the understatement of our new century!  

In excerpts from a 341-page book to be released Monday, Scott McClellan writes on Iraq that Bush “and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war.”

“[I]n this regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security,” McClellan wrote.

McClellan also sharply criticizes the administration on its handling of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

“One of the worst disasters in our nation’s history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush’s presidency,” he wrote. “Katrina and the botched federal response to it would largely come to define Bush’s second term.”

The Legacy of George Bush. Killer. Criminal.

Crossposted Sunday May 25 at Big Orange

On  December 12, 2000 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Florida Supreme Court’s plan for recounting Florida’s ballots was unacceptable, and that no constitutionally valid recount could timely be completed by the December 12 deadline. This decision ended the recounts, and effectively installed the loser of the popular vote as President of the United States of America. The vote was certified according to Florida state election law by Katherine Harris, the Republican Secretary of State who had been the Florida co-chair of Bush’s campaign. Bush’s younger brother, Jeb Bush, was the governor of Florida. Though it was obvious to all that Harris and Jeb Bush had manipulated the election to favor the governor’s brother, it was too little, too late. Gore was eventually found to have won Florida by 543,895 more popular votes than Bush.

Below the fold is a graphic account of the tragedy and legacy of the worst president in history.

Mr. McGoo? No truer words ever could have been spoken!

Dear All,

As I see a certain “friend” of mine is occupying the top spot, on this the day after his birthday, to which so many of us have been celebrating, his mere existence, in fact, and with absolutely no wish to intrude, pre-empt or diminish the importance of the latest episode of “Through the Darkest of Nights,” of which episodes, I am a great fan, I really feel a great need to give you all something to think about — on this terribly sad eve of Memorial Day.  

***********

First, I want to alert you all to a fact — I tried 5 times to post the following on www.johnconyers.com (I had successfully posted one just before this attempt).  I received a pop-up message, as follows (was not able to copy), but wrote it down:

“Windows Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http:/www.johnconyers.com/comm…

Operation aborted.”

As I said, I attempted to diary the information listed below five times:  sumting wong!

Load more