The Times has a front-pager and an editorial on the new Senate Intelligence Committee report on pre-war Iraq intelligence. Here is the 57 page .pdf on the CIA role and a 172 page .pdf on public statements of various Administration officials. Page 165 of the .pdf is the section of the Minority Views that recites some public statements of Hilary Clinton, Jay Rockefeller, and Dick Durbin.
My To-Do list is lengthening, but dig in.
There was a dubious source code named Joe Wilson who passed on the information that Saddam would use his biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction on US troops if we invaded, in an LATimes op-ed of 2/6/03. The NYTimes, once happy to mention his name, neglects this intelligent bit.
============================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 05:08 PM
shorter intel report:
"Muddle-headed presidents pursue muddle-headed policies"
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 05:08 PM
It sure looks like fun to summarize things you haven't read! Let me try.
shorter "The Brothers Karamazov":
"three guys get eaten by a gorilla"
Posted by: bgates | June 06, 2008 at 05:11 PM
Did the times read the report or did they just read the sound bites from McClellan's "book?"
Posted by: bad | June 06, 2008 at 05:14 PM
---
It sure looks like fun to summarize things you haven't read!
---
George!!! Is that you, W?
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 05:16 PM
The Democrats, confident of victory, lost 49 states because they misread the calendar.
'I was sure it was still 2003' said Howard Dean. 'It's quite embarrassing'.
Posted by: Syl | June 06, 2008 at 05:21 PM
eightnine,
There will be a day when your lot are regarded the same way the Copperheads are now regarded.
Remember, they didn't think we should keep the Union together. Presumably slavery wasn't that big a deal with them, so it didn't matter to them what the south did. Certainly it wasn't worth fighting over.
Posted by: qrstuv | June 06, 2008 at 05:22 PM
The usual shit by the usual suspects.
We have a global credit crunch,global warming,cooling,staying the same but costing a mint,Assorted loop the loops sitting on the worlds energy resources,madmen with nuclear weapons and an unprecedented global migration.
That is just some of it and these berks are living in the twilight zone of half a decade ago.
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 05:24 PM
---
There will be a day when your lot are regarded the same way the Copperheads are now regarded.
---
There will also be a day when your lot will be tagged with the epithet 'Bushist'.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 05:26 PM
Eightnine,
That would only happen if the notion of freedom and democracy becomes as devalued as you would like it to be.
But then the last few years it's become obvious that so-called progressives are deeply and bitterly opposed to democracy anyway.
Posted by: qrstuv | June 06, 2008 at 05:29 PM
Hah, eightnine, you're gonna miss him when he's gone; in fact, you miss him already.
====================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 05:29 PM
"There will also be a day when your lot will be tagged with the epithet 'Bushist'."
OOooohh!! Scary!
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 05:34 PM
George!!! Is that you, W?
You're implying the President would do something you just did, and you think he's an idiot.
Go lay down for a while.
Posted by: bgates | June 06, 2008 at 05:36 PM
---
That would only happen if the notion of freedom and democracy becomes as devalued as you would like it to be.
---
Freedom, eh?
Let's hear a bit from our libertarian friends since on their signature issue.
http://publiusendures.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-obama-could-be-best-dem-president.html
---
I still have every intention of supporting Bob Barr this election as an F-You to the Republicans. But stuff like this gives me hope that a President Obama actually would undo a lot of the harm done by President Bush and Co.:
---
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 05:36 PM
Right, you want to make sure we get attacked right 89? You want the economy to tank, taxes rise, layoffs to happen. You want to lose in Iraq.
Tell us how you love this country again.
Posted by: Jane | June 06, 2008 at 05:43 PM
---
OOooohh!! Scary!
---
It certainly is to John McCain; he's been going to great lengths to avoid appearing with Bush in front of cameras.
But of course we got 'the hug', which is the only pic we need for November.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 05:45 PM
If he's really a libertarian he'll just LOVE that 'shared prosperity' thing Obama is touting!
Not.
Posted by: Syl | June 06, 2008 at 05:46 PM
a President Obama actually would undo a lot of the harm done by President Bush and Co.:
Problem is that he would simultaneously undo a lot of the good done by Jefferson, Madison, and Co.
Don't pretend to be a libertarian and then spout such nonsense. NO libertarian would ever vote for Obama. Even though we are dealing with shades of statism in this election, I assure that Obama is the deepest shade of statism we have to choose from.
Posted by: Soylent Red | June 06, 2008 at 05:47 PM
deepest shade of statism
Now call me a racist for that. Please. Obama wants you to.
Posted by: Soylent Red | June 06, 2008 at 05:49 PM
---
Right, you want to make sure we get attacked right 89?
---
Like when O'Reilly gave terrorists the green light to take out San Francisco?
And Coulter was disappointed that they didn't blow up the NYTimes?
---
Tell us how you love this country again.
---
Yeah, you guys have loved it to death; time for a little less of that kind of love.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 05:50 PM
Then Congressman from Georgia Bob Barr supported the 2002 Iraq Resolution which authorized the use of force.
He used the same arguments that the White House.
Posted by: SteveMG | June 06, 2008 at 05:52 PM
time for a little less of that kind of love.
More nanny state. That's what we need.
Posted by: Obama | June 06, 2008 at 05:57 PM
And a dash of surrender.
Posted by: Obama | June 06, 2008 at 05:58 PM
89 - do you embrace Obama's criminal and racists associates, or do you consider them the price you have to pay to destroy all hope of democracy in the Arab world?
Posted by: bgates | June 06, 2008 at 06:02 PM
---
89 - do you embrace Obama's criminal and racists associates
---
Sure, why not; you guys spent the last 7 years embracing Bush's. All balances out in the end I guess.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 06:04 PM
Another report, does this make something like four in this country alone. Surprised that this bit made it into the time:
graf-
So. The Bush Administration, already saddled with Clinton's War in Iraq, made an unnuanced political case of the Iraq threat based on the best estimates of US intelligence at the time. It took the Rockefeller Committee 5 years to do this. Why?
Oh yea. Oops.
Posted by: RichatUF | June 06, 2008 at 06:05 PM
That's flimsey, not whimsey, eightninesy.
======================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 06:07 PM
And the nanny state thing; haven't noticed republicans being shy about making full use of the levers of Big Government when they were at the helm.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 06:07 PM
Just what is so enervating about libertarians; all this pushing of big levers.
==================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 06:09 PM
I like your style, kim; probably not eye2eye on many issues, but style goes a long way in my book.
You can at least entertain me while you insult me. :-)
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 06:09 PM
eightnine2718281828mu5 Not much of a libertarian,they have names not numbers.
"It certainly is to John McCain; he's been going to great lengths to avoid appearing with Bush in front of cameras."
You know this for a fact,how exactly?
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 06:10 PM
You remind me of a Pauliac I had lovely conversations with on Wizbang 6 months ago. We had fun, fun, fun, 'til the Daddy took the T vowels away.
======================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 06:12 PM
Sir:
Those, uh, you know, criminal and racist associates you, uh, refer to are, uh, not, sort of, uh, the same criminal and racist associates I thought I knew.
Uh, let me clarify...
This is, uh, the exact kind of distraction that, uh, the failed policies of the Bush administration, uh have forced on people, to uh, sort of, make them uh, you know, fearful. I can, uh, no more distance myslef from these, uh, you know, criminals and racists, then I can distance myself from my grandmother.
Uh, what I obviously meant by that statement was, uh, you know, uh...
Hope and Change.
Posted by: Obama | June 06, 2008 at 06:12 PM
"89 - do you embrace Obama's criminal and racists associates
---
Sure, why not; you guys spent the last 7 years embracing Bush's. All balances out in the end I guess."
Not so much the libertarian as the opportunist.
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 06:13 PM
89, which are you looking forward to more - the unabashed racism of an Obama presidency, or seeing an Israeli city get nuked? You can say 'both'. I'm betting it's both.
Posted by: bgates | June 06, 2008 at 06:14 PM
---
You know this for a fact,how exactly?
---
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/05/19/daily77.html?surround=lfn
---
A Tuesday fundraiser headlined by President Bush for U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is being moved out of the Phoenix Convention Center.
Sources familiar with the situation said the Bush-McCain event was not selling enough tickets to fill the Convention Center space, and that there were concerns about more anti-war protesters showing up outside the venue than attending the fundraiser inside.
Another source said there were concerns about the media covering the event.
---
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 06:17 PM
Who left the door to the monkey house open today?
More importantly, when are we going to kick off drunken NIE writing?
Posted by: Soylent Red | June 06, 2008 at 06:20 PM
"Sources familiar with the situation said the Bush-McCain event was not selling enough tickets to fill the Convention Center space, and that there were concerns about more anti-war protesters showing up outside the venue than attending the fundraiser inside."
That o numb one puts Bush and McCain together,maybe not with anyone else but definitely together.
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 06:21 PM
Anytime you're ready, Soylent, take it away..
Posted by: Clarice | June 06, 2008 at 06:27 PM
More from the Times-
The report on Iraq on Thursday was especially critical of statements by the president and vice president linking Iraq to Al Qaeda...
Now why was it that NYT worked overtime, with some creative leaking from the DNI, to pull the Harmony Documents off the net where researchers and scholars had access. I remember this project...Iraqi Perspectives Project...they produced this not widely read report* which the media has generally ignored. AT had a useful write up.
*written in that wonderful NIEese with such clear and useful phrasing as, "...these documents do not reveal direct coordination and assistance between the Saddam regime and the al Qaeda network, they do indicate that Saddam was willing to use, albeit cautiously, operatives affiliated with al Qaeda..." Then further in the report it details direct coordination and assistance to "al Qeada affiliated groups" and Zawahiri. As if Saddam's caution was a sign of benevolent intent.
Posted by: RichatUF | June 06, 2008 at 06:31 PM
---
or seeing an Israeli city get nuked?
---
Yeah, I remember the nukes flying the last time the dems were in the whitehouse. Of course the Trilateral Commission covered it all up right after they blocked laetrile sales.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 06:33 PM
eightnine,
There will be a day when your lot are regarded the same way the Copperheads are now regarded.
Remember, they didn't think we should keep the Union together. Presumably slavery wasn't that big a deal with them, so it didn't matter to them what the south did. Certainly it wasn't worth fighting over.
Presumably slavery wasn't a big enough deal to fight over in Lincoln's mind either, seeing he said in 1861 that he wasn't opposed to the first 13th Amendment which would have made slavery a States' rights issue, and said in 1862 that if he could save the Union without freeing a single slave, he would do it.
That's good ol' Abe for you, a principled man for ALL of the people!!!
Posted by: Lincoln is overrated | June 06, 2008 at 06:33 PM
Abe the Opportunist; not quite the same ring as the Great Emancipator
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 06:35 PM
"Yeah, I remember the nukes flying the last time the dems were in the whitehouse. "
Harry S Truman - Hiroshima - Nagasaki.
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 06:37 PM
First, we must choose a country. Since I am hungry for Chinese, and in need of beer, I will leave the decision up to all of you.
Perhaps beer and Chinese will help drive away the trolls.
Posted by: Soylent Red | June 06, 2008 at 06:39 PM
How about an NIE on the last "intelligence report"?
Introduction: In the last 5 years the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has access to documentation and personnel, and has a significant budget to investigate these matters, has undertaken an investigation into the unnuanced political statements Bush Administration figures regarding Iraq between Sept 12 2001 and Feb 2003. We have found many of these statements unnuanced, at times belligerent, and sometimes the Bush Administration made complete statements which were political in character and intent.
Posted by: RichatUF | June 06, 2008 at 06:41 PM
OT, but self parody doesn't get any better than this:
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan | June 06, 2008 at 06:42 PM
As always. Ne pas feedez les trolls. They have no attention span when they are ignored. Well.
Of course, they have no attention span when they are not ignored, either.
Posted by: sbw | June 06, 2008 at 06:42 PM
---
Harry S Truman - Hiroshima - Nagasaki.
---
Republicans are quite happy putting lead down range; it's the contemplation of return fire that makes them wet their pants.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 06:45 PM
Via Jonah Goldberg at NRO
From San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford:
Who needs to slog through musty old information, facts and figures, etc... when one can just let the light vibrate the truth into your soul?
Posted by: bad | June 06, 2008 at 06:47 PM
bad-
B♥O will stop the tides and heal the planet. I must be a step down for him to only be running for President.
Posted by: RichatUF | June 06, 2008 at 06:50 PM
darn...I must be ...It must be...maybe I need coffee instead.
Posted by: RichatUF | June 06, 2008 at 06:50 PM
Hoe much of this will voters endure before they start dying of treacle poisoning?
Posted by: Clarice | June 06, 2008 at 06:51 PM
bad:
I was just getting ready to go hunt and gather my Chinese when I read that.
I can now barely muster the appetite for a won ton.
Thanks knucklehead.
Posted by: Soylent Red | June 06, 2008 at 06:52 PM
---
Who needs to slog through musty old information, facts and figures, etc...
---
Precisely! It's just like Bush thinking with his gut!
Which in retrospect makes perfect sense since it's the most advanced organ of contemplation he's got.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 06:52 PM
---
I must be a step down for him to only be running for President.
---
Well, some of Bush's followers claimed they sensed God in the whitehouse. Guess maybe he took that too literally.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 06:53 PM
sbw,
So true,but this one is so wonderfully stupid
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 06:54 PM
---
Hoe much of this will voters endure before they start dying of treacle poisoning?
---
Apparently you didn't live through the Dark Ages of the Noonan-era speeches.
It was morning in America 24/7/365. And for many folks it never got old.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 06:57 PM
Precisely! It's just like Bush thinking with his gut!
89, I was referring to myself and other voters, not Obama, in the slogging comment.
Posted by: bad | June 06, 2008 at 06:58 PM
Yes,there is Mr Lightworker,then there is Mrs Lightworker,the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Tony Rezko. Was Mark Morford a Hippy?
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 07:02 PM
So tell me, eightnine, what would a juiced up libertarian living in Basra do.
=================================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 07:03 PM
We must have gotten some new friends from that "Tom is a ra****" Hilzoid thread...
Thought numbers would be banging on the 10% rise in unemployment, the end of oil as we know it, and the saber rattling from Iran and Israel...TEOTWAWKI...PANIC...It's all Bush's fault...
Posted by: RichatUF | June 06, 2008 at 07:04 PM
Where is the rhetoric going to go as we approach the election and MSM is trying to give Obama a bump? He'll have to become a healer to top this stuff.
Posted by: bad | June 06, 2008 at 07:05 PM
bad,
Thinking of Obama as a Lightweight Vibrator explains quite a bit about the tingle those people were feeling.
Posted by: Rick Ballard | June 06, 2008 at 07:06 PM
"it's the contemplation of return fire that makes them wet their pants."
This country has been run by scared republicans for too long. The scared-dog foreign policy of the last 8 years, lashing out without proper forethought has caused great damage to the United States. A scared base supported the actions of scared men, making the US look scared.
Bush explained himself in an interview last year saying, "I had to act. I don’t care if it created more enemies. I had to act."
"Acting" is more important to this man than acting wisely.
Posted by: pasta | June 06, 2008 at 07:10 PM
Thinking of Obama as a Lightweight Vibrator explains quite a bit about the tingle those people were feeling.
You, sir, are a gentleman on whom one may always rely. Bravo!!!! Bravo!!!
Posted by: bad | June 06, 2008 at 07:11 PM
---
So tell me, eightnine, what would a juiced up libertarian living in Basra do.
---
1) Get the hell out of Dodge.
2) Lead the dissipated existence of a heroin addict
3) Become a terrorist; hours are good, pay is OK, retirement plan sucks though
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 07:16 PM
How is option 2 going?
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 07:18 PM
You smell like an anarchist wolf in libertarian sheep clothing.
=======================================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 07:20 PM
---
How is option 2 going?
---
Unfortunately not as promising as option 3.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 07:20 PM
Kim,
Yes,these anarchists are getting themselves organised.
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 07:23 PM
---
You smell like an anarchist wolf in libertarian sheep clothing.
---
Would that it were true; anarchism requires real commitment, and not concordant with full time employment.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 07:23 PM
OK, from Basra to Bay Ridge. How do you protect yourself from the Ahmadi-Nejad's ICBM's?
==========================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 07:24 PM
Easily concordant with full time employment. Just put on your political invisibility cloak. Walk Tall.
================================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 07:26 PM
"Easily concordant with full time employment. Just put on your political invisibility cloak. Walk Tall."
Or be self employed.
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 07:28 PM
I may have had one pot o' cha too many. Is the NIE we were supposed to have done our homework for tonight about the Persian Bomb or about 'Bush Lied, People Died'? The chauffeur burned my notes boiling the water.
=======================================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 07:31 PM
Kim
The cloak of invisibility reverse your Casimir force.
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 07:36 PM
Well, you've helped me to an insight; it's the Libertarian indulging his inner Anarchist when he neglects international security.
=============================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 07:37 PM
---
How do you protect yourself from the Ahmadi-Nejad's ICBM's?
---
My current job has some involvement with preventing that.
At a strategic level, MAD works for me; I have no problem bombing Iran if the situation requires it.
I'm a realpolitik sort of guy.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 07:38 PM
So this is the big report, which has no actual findings available. CIA responses
were classified (to prevent embarassment)
I see the hand of Steven Kappes in this.
No facts, no wonder Hagel & Snow signed on.
Posted by: narciso | June 06, 2008 at 07:41 PM
OK, C, Pete and I think we have the doorway cleared. You may proceed.
===============================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 07:42 PM
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Or be self employed.
---
I'm a software consultant and anarchism is not high on my employer's list of positive attributes.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 07:42 PM
Well, there's still a madman with a ticking bomb outside. Looks fake though.
===========================
Posted by: kim | June 06, 2008 at 07:43 PM
darn...I must be ...It must be...maybe I need coffee instead.
I'd go for the coffee Rich.
Posted by: Pofarmer | June 06, 2008 at 07:52 PM
A scared base supported the actions of scared men, making the US look scared.
Yeah, running from Somalia, bombing a pill plant, and cruise missling a few camels. That took real guts.
Posted by: Pofarmer | June 06, 2008 at 07:53 PM
I have no problem bombing Iran if the situation requires it.
Yeah, unfortunately they will probably have bombed somebody first.
Posted by: Pofarmer | June 06, 2008 at 07:55 PM
narciso
So this is the big report, which has no actual findings available.
But lots of statements...sort of like a report card. No one quite made the cut to Oracle of Delphi or Nostradamus. You might be interested in this bit from the Times, ...new details about a series of clandestine meetings in Rome and Paris between Pentagon officials and Iranian dissidents in 2001 and 2003.... Remember when that was a big deal at the time (was it Hersch that wrote it up?), and Ledeen had a role in 'the plot'. Those meetings were "ill advised".
Posted by: RichatUF | June 06, 2008 at 07:58 PM
I once actually registered as a Libertarian. It lasted one election cycle. I discovered that each and every one of my new colleagues was a moron. I had a nightmare vision of a slippery slope leading to the preposterous buffoon Barr.
Plus ca change...
Posted by: Danube of Thought | June 06, 2008 at 08:02 PM
There was a soft thud on the flat roof above his head,a thin sprinkle of dust fell onto his keyboard,almost absently he blew off the dust and looked up.There was no sound except the night breeze through the palm grove,he began work again....suddenly another trickle of dust sprinkled his keyboard.Methodically ,without haste,he saved his work,entered the code word and shut down his laptop computer,unplugged it and began packing it into its black leather carrying case.
There was a coughing sound outside in the corridor..followed by something heavy and soft hitting the tiled floor.He started towards the window when the door flew open and framed there in the moonlight was the figure of a man.
Posted by: PeterUK | June 06, 2008 at 08:12 PM
Why would the situation require it if there was nothing to fear?
Posted by: JB | June 06, 2008 at 08:13 PM
I think it would be quite nice if Obama were able to undo some of the damage of the past seven years. He could start by restoring the Taliban to power, ditto the Saddam regime (regrettably, Saddam himself probably cannot attend, although no one should rule out anything when dealing with a Messiah), getting Libya's nuclear program restarted, and restoring Al Qaeda to its status quo ante bellum. Talk about your good ol' days!
Posted by: Danube of Thought | June 06, 2008 at 08:18 PM
"I'm a software consultant and anarchism is not high on my employer's list of positive attributes."
Just so. In one's off hours, indulge libertarian dreams of sugar plums. By day, strive mightily to keep one's boss happy.
Bravely spoken, Mr. 89. Next time I need a courageous software consultant, you'll be at the top of my list.
Posted by: Danube of Thought | June 06, 2008 at 08:21 PM
National Intelligence Estimate China
Key Judgements
1. China, formally known as the People Republic of China or the place where we get stuff, reputedly has a lot of people.
[Classified] Indicates these are the states with which it shares boundaries:
Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km, India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea 1,416 km, Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423 km, Mongolia 4,677 km, Nepal 1,236 km, Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40 km, Tajikistan 414 km, Vietnam 1,281 km
regional borders: Hong Kong 30 km, Macau 0.34 km
Coastline:
Posted by: Clarice | June 06, 2008 at 08:26 PM
"reputedly has a lot of people." (Mostly boys and no little girls)
Posted by: Ann | June 06, 2008 at 08:33 PM
---
By day, strive mightily to keep one's boss happy.
---
You gotta serve somebody.
---
Next time I need a courageous software consultant
---
You suppose that such a thing exists; I harbor no such illusions, having worked in the field for many years.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 | June 06, 2008 at 08:33 PM
Ya know, since Barack Hussein has this wild, light, aural, super do good feeling thing going on. You would think that somebody, anybody, could point to something where his Hopey/Changeyness has actually, ya know, used his powers of good, to, like, help somebody. I mean, besides endowing the Hospital his wife works at with a few million and getting a convicted felon/fundraiser to help him out on a house deal.
If Rezko had been working with McCain, do you think we'd be hearing a little more about this in the news? I never heard one snip about the Rezko trial on the news.
Posted by: Pofarmer | June 06, 2008 at 08:37 PM
For the folks working on the drunken NIE...
By an amazing coincidence tonight is Amateur Espionage Night on Turner Classic Movies.
Right now there is a Bob Hope spy caper on, but at 10 pm Eastern begins Our Man in Havana, from the Graham Greene novel, directed by Carol Reed (The Third Man) and starring Alec Guinness and Burl Ives. After that at midnight Eastern is Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, one of my all-time favorites.
Picture Joe Wilson on a terrace in Niger sipping mint tea and imagining himself in a Graham Greene or John Buchan novel and you have yourselves the perfect setting with which to proceed.
Posted by: Porchlight | June 06, 2008 at 08:40 PM
It really pisses me off, it shouldn't, but this is a report, where the sources are unnamed and unevaluated. Notes from the Italian version of Craig Unger, Bonini,'s Collussion, suggests one name was Ars Habib, the Kurdish born supposed Iraqi agent; who was allegedly an Iranian agent.
Another figure, Ali, a former minister in the Shah's service, provided information including tips on the 9/11 plot, and other
operations; to Congressman's Weldon's staff.
(But this was pre 9/11; and what does that have to do with Iraq, anyways) Backchannels can always be tricky; witness FeridounNezhi Nejad, the IRCG official behind the Beirut and later Buenos Aires attacks, who was one of the Iranian envoys. Then again when Fmr
IRGC General turned diplomat?, Mohzen Rezai
chat with the likes of Michael Hirsh; we're
supposed to take his insights at face value.
We are expected to believe that Kappes, the
resident Iranian expert, couldn't discover the bonafides behind these witnesses; or that he does know and it would discredit his
conclusions.
Posted by: narciso | June 06, 2008 at 08:57 PM
89,
I'm not a numerologist, but your posts lead me to hazard a guess. 8+9=17. Seems a tad young, but your posts are quite adolescent. More likely,you reference your birth year, which makes you almost 30. Shame on you. Grow up and grow a pair. Your betters are fighting and dying for your freedom to be a snarky little shit.
Posted by: Old Dad | June 06, 2008 at 09:04 PM
How often do Lightworkers CHANGE lightbulbs?
Posted by: bad | June 06, 2008 at 09:04 PM