Antiwar.com Blog

With the Bush administration reeling from the revelations of Richard Clarke exposing its complete incompetence in handling the al Qaeda threat and the Man of Peace^TM assassinating Muslim Sheiks along with whoever else is nearby, David Kay’s speech at Harvard today really kicked the Bushies while they were down. Not that they don’t deserve it.

The former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq warned on Monday that the United States is in “grave danger” of destroying its credibility at home and abroad if it does not own up to its mistakes in Iraq.

“The cost of our mistakes … with regard to the explanation of why we went to war in Iraq are far greater than Iraq itself,” David Kay said in a speech at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

“We are in grave danger of having destroyed our credibility internationally and domestically with regard to warning about future events,” he said. “The answer is to admit you were wrong, and what I find most disturbing around Washington … is the belief … you can never admit you’re wrong.”

The comments by Kay came as the White House sought to fend off accusations from its former anti-terrorism czar, Richard Clarke, who said President Bush ignored the al Qaeda threat before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and focused on Iraq rather than the Islamic militant group afterward.

OK, who’s next?

As for the death of this old bat, let’s just say it ain’t gonna ruin my birthday or the high I’m still on after my alma mater shocked #1 Stanford. But it raises a question some folks will call me an anti-Semite for asking: What in the hell are we doing in the middle of this? I’m not anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian; I’m an American who owes neither side anything. I usually try to be more optimistic and constructive, but if these quarrelsome cousins must exterminate each other over this miserable piece of real estate, why must Americans of any race or ethnicity be parties to the slaughter and targets ourselves? And if Likudniks want to play the race card, perhaps they should explain why we owe Israel more than we owed the more melanin-rich Tutsis.

(Before Professor Horwitz rips into me, he should post a response to this Liberty & Power item.)

Hamas leaders on the Israeli assassination of Yassin:

Announcing Yassin’s death over mosque loudspeakers, the Hamas leadership said: “Prime Minister Sharon has opened the gates of hell – and nothing will stop us from cutting off his head.”

The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades also promised swift retaliation for the killing.

Abu Abeer, spokesman for militant Palestinian groups, warned there would be “swift and serious” repercussions over the attack.

He said: “The Israelis have opened the gates of hell. For us, everything is now permissible after this assassination.“

Has anyone seen an American response to this assassination yet, besides the hapless Rice lamely advocating “calm?” France, the UK, the EU, and the Vatican have all condemned it publicly. You’d think that with thousands of American troops acting as “terrorist magnets” in Iraq, the Americans would want to distance themselves from this inflammatory and criminal act carried out by their “best friends” in the region.

What if opinions like this became even more widespread than they are already?

Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a top Shi’ite Muslim cleric, said in Beirut that U.S. President George W. Bush was as guilty as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

“President Bush was the one who gave the green light to the criminal Zionists to continue the assassination operations against the Palestinians using the most advanced American weapons,” said Fadlallah, who shares Hamas’s objectives.

Please, somebody, tell me that Bush isn’t going to make another “Bring ’em on” speech. With the idiots in charge in Washington, you never know.

I read about this briefly during the election, but this article goes more in depth.

In Spain, however, the objectives were more concrete. Political demonstrations are officially banned in the 24 hours preceding the voting. But this time, activists came together anyway, as millions of text messages and e-mails circulated. Though Spain has relatively few Internet users, its mobile phone penetration, at 94 percent, is among the highest in the world, according to the market researcher Gartner.

On March 13, the day before the elections, text-messaging traffic was 20 percent above the normal rate, the Spanish daily El País reported, citing industry sources; on election day, it was 40 percent higher.

This phenomenom was also responsible for the enormous turnout February 15, 2003, when millions of people demonstrated worldwide against the Bush invasion of Iraq.

Viva la revolución!

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.