Antiwar.com Blog

Billmon has written the best analysis yet of the astonishing transformation (kind of like David “Come Clean George” Kay on steroids) of Richard Clarke from senior career bureaucrat to whistleblower. Well, Billmon says it better:

He’s no mild-mannered reporter — more like a human bulldozer — but Richard Clarke also appears to have ducked into a phone both and come out a changed man. The former career securocrat has ripped off his suit and tie and put on his tights and cape. And he’s going after Shrub like Superman going after one of his many imposters:

“I find it outrageous that the President is running for re-election on the grounds that he’s done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We’ll never know.”

That’s what’s going out on 60 Minutes tomorrow night, when Clarke’s interview with Leslie Stahl is aired. What effect it will have on Bush’s entirely undeserved public reputation as an anti-terrorism gunslinger is anybody’s guess. Ditto for Clarke’s book, due for release on Monday. But there’s no question Clarke is giving the White House the Lex Luthor treatment.

Now maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I find this rather remarkable. Clarke is a SES man — Senior Executive Service, the top tier of the career civil service — and one who has served seven presidents, five of them Republicans. I can’t recall any previous examples of a career executive of Clarke’s rank and caliber going so publicly ballistic on a sitting president.

I’m going to quote the CBS article at length. See for yourself the devastating accusations Clarke is levelling against the Bush neocons and enablers. Continue reading “Keystone Kops vs. Al Qaeda”

I am so sorry I missed the Eric Alterman episode! I’ve been trying to catch at least part of Miller’s show every evening–anticipating the moment when Miller finally breaks down and slips constant guest David Horowitz some tongue on live TV–but I somehow missed Tuesday night’s fracas. How much longer can Miller last? Granted, it’s CNBC, where they’ll let any idiot embarrass himself for as long as he wants, but not without viewers.

I came across this article and suddenly realized they’re right…Tony is trying to slip away unnoticed and miss the gala one year Shock and Awe Anniversary Party.

Hey, Tony, no speeches or Liberation Parties? Nothing?

Remember this, Tony?

The future of the Iraqi people is one reason why much of our discussion has focused on humanitarian issues. Again here we have the ship, the Sir Galahad, loaded with tonnes of supplies destined for the people of Iraq. The other immediate humanitarian priority is to re-start the UN oil for food programme which the President and I discussed and which I will be discussing with Kofi Annan later this evening, and this is urgent. We also discussed the post-conflict issues. Contrary to a lot of the comment on this, the position is exactly as the President and I set out in the Azores, namely that we will work with the UN, our allies and partners and bilateral donors. We will seek new UN Security Council resolutions to affirm Iraq’s territorial integrity, to ensure a rapid delivery of humanitarian relief, and endorse an appropriatepost-conflict administration for Iraq.
[…]
And the other reason why I think it is important that we act, and why indeed we have many, many allies, is because people do know that this is a brutal regime. That is not the reason for us initiating this action, that is in relation to weapons of mass destruction, but it is the reason why if we do so as we are doing.

You guys pretty much blew that deal, didn’t you? No wonder you aren’t celebrating.

Scroll down for my exchange with Steven Horwitz. That’s all for today.

George “Howdy-Doody” Will inserts one of the warbots’ favorite new formulations (“Neocon” = Jewish = You’re an antisemite) into his March 15 op-ed in the Washington Post. Big mistake, George.

Karen “Bunker-Buster” Kwiatkowski lets him have it.

Wendy McElroy connects the dots to expose the CNN blunder:

A headline in the Pakistan “Daily Times” reads “CNN ends up with `much egg on its face.” Yesterday, I mentioned that — after providing blanket coverage of the imminent capture of al-Qaida’s #2 man al-Zawahiri (which has not occurred and is unlikely to do so) — CNN abruptly dropped the story and barely mentioned it for hours. The background on what happened is an instructive glimpse into the media’s mindset and the influence it exerts. Aaron Brown — CNN’s lead anchor and host of NewsNight With Aaron Brown — was in Pakistan to cover US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s “anniversary” visit when the opportunity to interview President Pervez Musharraf arose. Musharraf told Brown about a military operation in South Waziristan, stating that the resistance being offered suggested militants might be defending a “high-value target.” He said it was “very likely” the possible target had been surrounded. Sensing they had a global exclusive — the biggest story since the capture of Saddam Hussein — CNN ran with it, sensationalizing both the form and substance. Suddenly, al-Zawarhiri by name was surrounded and about to be captured any moment, thus raising worldwide expectations and tensions. (Note the contrast between Thursday’s article from CNN and one today on the same matter.) As events unfolded and non-US media began to comment, it became clear that nothing about the battle was “imminent” and fierce conflict might rage for days or weeks. And, so, in live satellite broadcasts, Brown began to backpedal, lowering time expectations. It became unclear that al-Zawahiri was still among the besieged or ever had been there. And, so, top news executives at CNN exerted fast control. No retractions. Just bury the story as though it had not been reported. It was a blunder of Biblical proportions that made the world a little more nervous and news a lot more untrustworthy.