tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-135008452007-10-10T21:04:02.403-07:00GeorgiaBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-56808642709199983382007-10-10T21:02:00.000-07:002007-10-10T21:04:02.463-07:00

Five years ago today the House passed J. H. Res. 114, which authorized the President (presumably in perpetuity) to use any force “necessary” against the “continuing” threat to the nation posed by Iraq…just in case Iraq did in fact pose a threat. The vote was 296-133. On Oct. 11, 2002 the Senate followed suit, by a vote of 77-23. So began the quagmire. The lop-sided Congressional votes smoothed

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-69994033975690745752007-09-27T18:13:00.000-07:002007-09-27T18:15:35.923-07:00

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Republicans expressed shock, shock, when John Kerry disparaged George Bush's pretense that a "Coalition of the willing" had joined the invasion of Iraq. Kerry described it as "trumped-up, so-called coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought, and the extorted." I recalled that feigned Republican outrage the other day while perusing the so-called

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-50321993558204410882007-06-17T01:35:00.000-07:002007-06-17T01:36:30.857-07:00

Next Saturday the respected British Channel 4 will air a television documentary on the pre-war planning for Iraq that will present a "devastating account of the chaotic preparations for the war", according to a preview in today's Observer. Blair told many colleagues (including, we now learn, the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock) that all was well with the planning before the invasion. According

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-81317990992930400332007-06-10T21:19:00.000-07:002007-06-10T22:13:07.211-07:00

The Independent reveals that the head of the British Navy in 2003 sought private legal advice about whether it would be a crime under international law to take part in invading Iraq. Admiral Sir Alan West, the First Sea Lord, approached lawyers to ask whether Navy and Royal Marines personnel might end up facing war crimes charges in relation to their duties in Iraq. The extraordinary steps taken

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-44262893037956785602007-05-02T10:32:00.000-07:002007-05-02T16:58:00.507-07:00

George Tenet is not the only figure complicit in selling the invasion of Iraq who has been trying to burnish his reputation in regard to that fiasco. Today Geoff Hoon, then British Defense Secretary, gives a self-serving interview to the Guardian. Hoon says nothing however about the July 23, 2002 war council whose deliberations are recorded in the Downing Street Memo. In fact, he has the gall to

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1170349738953481322007-02-01T09:07:00.000-08:002007-02-01T09:08:58.976-08:00

The former head of CIA operations in Europe, Tyler Drumheller, continues to spill the beans about the Bush administration's determination to attack Iraq notwithstanding the evidence. You may recall that last October Newsweek had this short article: The CIA won't say so, but the U.K. initially opposed war in Iraq. A new book by Tyler Drumheller, former chief of the CIA's European ops, describes

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1166166029947418872006-12-14T22:52:00.000-08:002006-12-14T23:00:29.963-08:00

On November 9, I wrote about the on-going struggle in the British House of Commons to break the stranglehold of the Official Secrets Act: More explosive charges from former British UN diplomat. Many MPs want to get documents out in public regarding the run up to the Iraq War, and Tony Blair's role in manipulating intelligence to make a case for invading Iraq. Former British diplomat Carne Ross

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1163829234893633512006-11-17T21:52:00.000-08:002006-11-17T21:53:54.916-08:00

Just the other day the White House Domestic Propaganda Bureau (more of that later) insisted vehemently that there's no difference between the views of Tony Blair and George Bush on Iraq. They might want to rethink that. Today on al-Jazeera TV, Blair agreed with interviewer David Frost that the invasion of Iraq had "so far been pretty much of a disaster". A somewhat tactless admission, given all

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1163052176666933872006-11-08T21:17:00.000-08:002006-11-09T17:22:27.483-08:00

The former First Secretary of the British delegation to the U.N., Carne Ross, who resigned his position in protest over the Iraq war, has made some pretty stiff allegations against the war mongering of Tony Blair and George Bush. Last summer, he alleged that he and all his diplomatic colleagues knew that the Blair government was mischaracterizing the intelligence on Iraq in order to make a case

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1162951423407822882006-11-07T16:55:00.000-08:002006-11-07T18:03:43.650-08:00

In recent weeks, Henry Porter has published two excellent commentaries at the Observer that seek to refocus attention on the British government documents from 2002 that show that Tony Blair was conspiring with George Bush to gin up a war in Iraq. The first asked why Blair has remained in office given all the evidence of wrongdoing and deception that has emerged, particularly the Downing Street

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1160808640070508622006-10-13T23:46:00.000-07:002006-10-13T23:51:44.976-07:00

Laura Rozen has a rather remarkable post about the genesis of the Iraq War, which has gotten virtually no attention. That's all the more surprising because she's discussing allegations made in Bob Woodward's new book, which people have been pawing over frantically for inside information about how and why the White House has failed in Iraq. This particular passage from State of Denial did in fact

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1160538900098032532006-10-10T20:03:00.000-07:002006-10-10T20:55:38.496-07:00

This week the Guardian has published extracts from the weekly diary kept by the former British Home Secretary, David Blunkett. Tomorrow's extracts concern the planning for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Blunkett has come across as a sniveling suck-up to Tony Blair, and more interested in the personal politics within the Cabinet and perceived slights to him, than in actual policy. As a

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1159723894546347982006-10-01T08:53:00.000-07:002006-10-01T10:31:34.566-07:00

Blogger jorndorff makes an important observation today based upon one of the emails of corrupt Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose texts were released recently. In this message, dated March 18, 2002, Abramoff mentions in an off-hand manner "the upcoming war on Iraq". Here is Abramoff's email (from page 26 of this PDF): From: Jack Abramoff To: 'octagon1' Monday, March 18, 2002 8:31 AM

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1151030825697474872006-06-22T19:42:00.000-07:002006-06-22T21:24:37.723-07:00

Today there's a slight break in the virtual news blackout about the state of the notorious "Phase Two" investigation into the White House's use and abuse of intelligence before the invasion of Iraq. Since 2004 the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the notorious shill Pat Roberts, has been promising to let this thing be completed. All the while, he's been throwing up

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1150953037866613152006-06-21T21:51:00.000-07:002006-06-21T22:10:37.886-07:00

Senator Santorum held a breathless news conference on Wednesday afternoon (along with the hapless Rep. Hoekstra) to announce that the Army had discovered WMD in Iraq, finally. The ever vigilent junior Senator from Pennsylvania has been pushing for the release of this information for months, he tells us. Just as you'd suspect, the facts were trivial. The military in Iraq discovered around 500

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1150159914255572422006-06-12T17:49:00.000-07:002006-06-12T18:01:05.246-07:00

Today in the LA Times Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, urged anybody in government who has access to them, to leak documents that would show the true story of how and why we invaded Iraq. This is pretty heady stuff for the MSM. Today, there must be, at the very least, hundreds of civilian and military officials in the Pentagon, CIA, State Department, National Security

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1149574180457045182006-06-05T22:59:00.000-07:002006-06-05T23:15:03.966-07:00

Ken Silverstein just posted an interesting piece at Harpers, Creating the Inevitable: The CIA visits Iraq in April 2002. He's been talking to CIA types, who tell him that they'd figured out already by spring or summer of 2002 that the Bush administration had decided to overthrow Saddam Hussein by force. Not surprising news, at this stage, but important none the less. One thing is of particular

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1146462538780803412006-04-30T22:39:00.000-07:002006-05-02T01:51:08.403-07:00

The anniversary of the publication of this shocking document provides an occasion to reflect on what we have learned during the last year. Last spring the memo's appearance was greeted with confusion, timidity and indifference. Misinformation abounded. Clearing away all that underbrush was critical, but what did it get us? With the gruesome truth exposed, the national media and government averted

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1145935233437140272006-04-24T19:10:00.000-07:002006-04-24T20:33:21.713-07:00

So said the report about the manipulation of intelligence before the invasion of Iraq on 60 Minutes yesterday. In part, the CBS report covers the well-known story of the fake documents allegedly from Niger, and how the White House clung to the yellowcake allegation long after it had been discredited...and how even months after the invasion of Iraq the White House was leaking misleading

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1144817643224646212006-04-11T21:51:00.000-07:002006-04-11T21:54:03.246-07:00

Even after the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration went on cherry-picking the "evidence" for Iraqi WMD. Just as before the war, if Bush wanted to promote a story, the story was promoted. It was no surprise to learn from the Plame investigation, for example, that the "facts" about Iraqi contacts with Niger that the White House leaked to journalists in June/July 2003 included a fair dose

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1144621019916463232006-04-09T15:15:00.000-07:002006-04-09T15:16:59.940-07:00

Last night I called attention at Daily Kos to a remarkable claim in this Sunday's Washington Post. The front-page article refers to an unpublished, and presumably classified, document the White House received in January 2003, apparently before the now infamous State of the Union Address on Jan. 28. This memo states unequivocally that reports alleging Iraq sought to buy uranium from Niger are "

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1143866418357104142006-03-31T20:10:00.000-08:002006-03-31T21:04:36.563-08:00

What we've been saying about the campaign of deception regarding the Iraq invasion: All true. The new article by Murray Waas proves it, as if you needed further proof. But if you're still the skeptic, there's your proof. The evidence has been piling up for the last year, layer after layer of leaked documents and insider disclosures. Each one adds further details, here another lie, there a

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1143599902170888622006-03-28T18:07:00.000-08:002006-03-28T19:08:17.976-08:00

The so-called White House minutes that raised a furor in Britain in early February, which I wrote about here at the time, finally is getting serious attention in the US. Yesterday Don van Natta published a detailed report about it in the New York Times, which finally set American journalists on the scent. The chatterers on the cable news programs suddenly began to twitter about the White House

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1141965978777584392006-03-09T20:39:00.000-08:002006-03-09T20:47:16.056-08:00

Four years ago, two memos were prepared to help Tony Blair chart the path to war. One of them read in part A legal justification for invasion would be needed. Subject to Law Officers advice, non[e] currently exists. This makes moving quickly to invade legally very difficult. That ought to have been the end of that. But, oddly, it was not. The road to Baghdad is strewn with documents recording in

: smintheus ::tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13500845.post-1141438259297753972006-03-03T17:22:00.000-08:002006-03-03T18:10:59.323-08:00

The fine investigative reporter at the National Journal, Murray Waas, has revealed further documentary evidence that George Bush, his Vice President, and closest advisors engaged in a campaign of deception in the months before the invasion of Iraq. Those who've been following the Downing Street memo story may remember that, when it first appeared, many apologists for the President were heard to

: smintheus ::