Bush's brand new enemy is the truth

[JoFerret]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,1177418,00.html

Clarke's claims have shaken the White House to its foundations

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday March 25, 2004
The Guardian

One of the first official acts of the current Bush administration was to downgrade the office of national coordinator for counterterrorism on the National Security Council ....

Terrorism was a Clinton issue: "soft" and obscure, having something to do with "globalisation", and other trends ridiculed from the Republican party platform. "In January 2001 the new administration really thought Clinton's recommendation that eliminating al-Qaida be one of their highest priorities, well, rather odd, like so many of the Clinton administration's actions, from their perspective," Clarke writes in his new book, Against All Enemies. ...

But his account need not stand on his reputation alone.
...

Rice now claims about terrorism that "we were at battle stations". But Bush is quoted by Bob Woodward in Bush At War as saying that before September 11 "I was not on point ... I didn't feel that sense of urgency". Cheney alleges that Clarke was "out of the loop". But if he was, then the administration was either running a rogue operation or doing nothing, as Clarke testifies.

Bush protests now: "And had my administration had any information that terrorists were going to attack New York City on September 11, we would have acted." But he had plenty of information. The former deputy attorney general, Jamie Gorelick, the only member of the 9/11 commission to read the president's daily brief, revealed in the hearings that the documents "would set your hair on fire" and that the intelligence warnings of al-Qaida attacks "plateaued at a spike level for months" before September 11. Bush is fighting public release of these PDBs, which would show whether he had marked them up and demanded action.

The administration's furious response to Clarke only underscores his book. Rice is vague, forgetful and dissembling. Cheney is belligerent, certain and bluffing....<snip> Bush is the Oz behind the curtain, but unlike the wizard, the special effects are performed by others. Especially on terrorism and September 11, his White House is at "battle stations" to prevent the curtain from being pulled open.

[billbuckhead]

1. The month before 9-11,* was at his Crawford Tx battlestation cutting brush

Remember that ridiculous 30 day August vacation while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was boiling all over TV. While intelligence warnings were spiking, Bush was cutting brush and modeling his blue jean outfit.

[PaDUer]

2. ROFLMAO!

These pukes wouldn't know the truth if it snuck up and bit them on the ass!

[belle]

3. Seriously. Just how stupid does he think we *are*?

[Dhalgren]

7. Look at how stupid they either actually are,

or how stupid they are attempting to appear - that should answer your question, as to how stupid they think we are.
Seriously, these people are either too stupid to hold "greeter" jobs at Wal-Mart or think that the average American is too stupid to notice. It's got to be one of the two. I mean Condi comes out and says "We never dreamed of them flying airplanes into buildings" (or something close to that) - then they come out with "we were at battlestations"? Puuuullleeeese!

[Sunny_Sunshine]

35. Hey, Greeters at Wal-Mart need to know where everything is

And they need to be able to help you find it. These * folks can't find their butts with both hands.

[neverforget]

8. It was the summer of the shark and Gary Condit. Our crack media

at it's finest! :puke:

[susu369]

15. You nailed it

LOL - although it really is NOT funny.

[JoFerret]

13. That entire summer

the Middle East was left to erupt without any attempt from the Bushies. They weren't going to get their hands dirty with any of that mushy Clinton peace and diplomacy stuff. They were the grown-ups.

[Just Me]

50. That's cause they were too busy planning their War on Truth!!!

LIHOP was underway and their covert propaganda plan was in the works.

[snippy]

14. But that was after six grueling months as president.

He was tired and confused. He needed the rest to refresh his indifference and greed. Just think what might have happened if the LordGodBush had not rested after all that fund raising. We could have been vulnerable to an attack. And after all, even though he was on vacation he still received the August 6, 2001 intelligence briefing warning of the upcoming attacks.

[WyLoochka]

20. I remember what you did in '01 Bush*

You "agonized" all summer about stem cell research. According to your staff, at the time, you held lengthy discussions, almost daily, on the subject and finally announced your typically wrong-headed decision Aug 9. That was your top "priority" in summer '01 - we remember.

[snippy]

21. And then he lied about the number of existing lines available for research

Ho hum. Another day, another Bush lie.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

28. Junior was making sure that he wasn't anywhere near high-value...

...target areas. He knew it was coming and he wasn't taking any chances.

JMHO.

[nolabels]

30. In a elementary school in Florida reading about the Fuzzy Caterpillar

Must of had to leave before the math lesson, I would guess :silly:

[dax]

39. Bravo-=finally someone cuts the elephant out of the herd

So MANY elephants in the room-so few hunters! No one on the commission is even commenting on the glaring fact that when they had the highest level of alerts in history-summer of 2001-BUSH WAS ON VACATION and noone is talking about the investments in the oil pipeline by Unocal which was why Bush did not want to go after the Taliban or Afghanistan-they thought they could maybe work with the Taliban. Karzai their puppet-was a lobbyist for the oil company building the pipeline. Why don't we put HIM on the stand and start tracking down the fucking MONEY. I listened tp the entire hearings and it just made me sick-the simple softball questions contrived and framed by that neo-con Zelicog-in-the-wheel to let each witness say they didn't make any mistakes, did everything they could, and even if they did more they couldn't prevent what happened. So how come CIA payed RENT on some of the hijackers' apartments? how come they let them in? when are they going to talk about that. it is a whitewash-I am sure the families are furious. I wish I could write the questions and get my own list of who I want to talk to!

[Robbien]

4. Oh my lord not another war. WOT War on Truth. . . .eom

[Manix]

5. It is just nice to see that the "war president" bullshit is shattered,once

and for all.

[fishnfla]

6. its his same old enemy

the truth, that is

[bpilgrim]

9. ***BATTLE STATIONS***

Richard Clarke is the 'Tipping Point' he just delivered the 'TERRORISM PAPERS' :nuke:

governments are being changed, troops are pulling out, bodies and debt are stacking up and the neoCONs are getting a lesson in just how big the world really is.

kerry needs to talk about change, point out how OUT THE LOOP this admin is and give HOPE to the people of this country again.

hope he is getting some tips from the big dog ;->

peace

[goclark]

10. Smoking Gun For anyone else

Clarke's book should be the smoking gun for these thugs but it won't be.

Sorry to say that the majority of people in the USA are ASLEEP!

I mentioned the Hearings to 5 people today and they were not aware of them. These are retired people with college degrees,not that the degree will help them stay awake :)

Please give me a pep talk because I am so afraid that the public won't get all the details and only hear Condi on faux tonight.

[ronatchig]

11. Well goclark,

Here it is , In your circle every one may be asleep in their comfortable little towers of ivory, but on the ground here in NC(a hot bed of conservative politics) where factories are shut, children are dead from an illegal war, and food, gasoline, property taxes, and cost of living in general are rising at a dizzying pace, most that I talk to are very aware of the problem-Bush et. al.

Me thinks you may be drinking from the kool aid a bit too much. It is a neocon meme that the electorate is stupid and unaware.Luckily it is false. Many voters (and non voters have their time consumed by a little thing called survival, my friend.

The republican party loves to instill a sense of futility in opposition voters. You see, you are powerless before the masters thereby empowering them. Well, I got some news for ya, Bushco is going down like a morning turd and no amount of propaganda is going to stem the tide against him.

My personnel hope is that the stupid little bastard will take the unregulated free market to hell with him whence they came.

[goclark]

29. I am Strongly ABB

I wasn't saying that all of my friends are asleep. All of them are ABB and are putting money and time into the campaign.

I would not say that because many of my friends are retired and have attended college that we are not aware of the world. We have been African American for too long to believe that BushCo is good for anyone. :silly:



We have relatives in SC and talk with them every week about what is going on with their health care , I know the sting of poverty.

I do believe that even the retired were not glued, to the Hearings in record numbers.

My wish is that they run the Hearings on a major station from beginning to end.

[yardwork]

36. I share many of the same concerns. A lot of my neighbors seem asleep.

...and I live in a liberal part of North Carolina.

We need to figure out a way to make sure that this information gets out. Too many people are too busy to pay much attention to details. They are struggling to deal with lack of health insurance, lay-offs, rising fuel costs, and other problems. Those with family and friends in the service are preoccuped with their loved ones' safety, for good reason.

In short, W's clan has ensured that most Americans are too worn out to notice what they are doing to us.

[llmart]

44. Liberal part of NC???

Where's that???

[calimary]

43. Well, that is a grievous insult to morning turds everywhere, but...

I think you are correct.

I was out today (GRANTED, this is Southern California, where I take comfort in the fact that I live in Henry Waxman's district) and got to talking with a former paratrooper who's down on his luck now. He was saying bush was going to go to hell, and that everybody was going to wind up telling Bill Clinton "all is forgiven."

Don't know if bush is the talk of the town yet, but you look for little signals. It's true, there are some, probably many, who will RESOLUTELY remain in denial. Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust like the White House.

While driving home, I was thinking that because of the grace and class of Richard Clarke, opening his remarks before the 9/11 commission with an apology and an admission of responsibility (which the 9/11 families noted with appreciation), it just further contrasted his integrity against the bushies' total lack thereof.

And I was thinking that probably the ONLY thing that could get bush back on track at this point would be for him to do likewise - do a down-on-his-knees apology to the nation, in public, admit he was wrong, admit he lied, and take responsibility for this. THAT would help his case, because Americans tend to be rather forgiving, especially to reformed cads. But we don't have to worry about that happening (unless, of course, he's possessed by somebody else's spirit one of these days), because that's just not his life-long pattern. His track record of behavior is one of NEVER accepting responsibility for ANYTHING, EVER. He's never been held accountable, and for all his many fuck-ups, big and small, he's always been bailed out - from his corporate crap to his Air National Guard "service" to his Texas two-step to his stints at Harvard and Yale. Somebody, either his daddy or his daddy's rich buddies, have always stepped in and "fixed" things for him. And his mommy endowed him with a sense of princely entitlement, probably right along with the mother's milk he suckled. He's arrogant, petty, selfish, and mean-spirited. He feels the world owes him a living, and as he told Bob Woodward in Woodward's book, "Bush at War," he felt - AS PRESIDENT - that he didn't owe anybody any explanations, but that everybody else owed it to him. So it is not in his nature to do the correct thing. Won't happen. Barring a lobotomy, of course. Or a possession by another, different, and more highly-evolved spirit.

The only problem with all this is that it's happening in late March, and NOT closer to the general elections. But this IS, very much indeed, a body blow.

By the way - note my sig line.

[ronatchig]

12. double post

Well I may have had a bit too much of the purple stuff this am too . lol

[sidpleasant]

23. re: the sleeping electorate

I live in a suburb of Boston that's dependably Republican; GOP voters outnumber Democrats by something like 4 to 1. A few days ago I was astounded to hear a neighbor say that he didn't know who he was going to vote for in November. This guy makes "jokes" about welfare recipients, the poor, and immigrants that border on racist. Even though he lives in a house worth almost 7 figures in a town with low (by Boston standards) property taxes he constantly complains about how the government is taking all of his money. In short he's a hard core Republican. If a guy like that is even slightly considering voting for Kerry I think it means that Bush is in big trouble.

[susu369]

17. Too sweet - Out of the Loop

passed down from George I to George II. The bu$hes will implode!

[Just Me]

53. Yup. Clarke and O'Neill should be recruited as Republicans for Kerry!!!

Make that covert operator, Zell-ous, eat sh*t.

[calimary]

55. Yeah, right. Clarke just said on "Meet the Press" that he's not only

not working for the Kerry campaign, not GOING to work for the Kerry campaign, won't work for a Kerry White House, and won't work for/run for anything in government again. He said 30 years is enough. Also refused to say who he'd vote for in 2004 - that it's his business only, and he won't endorse anybody. Including Kerry. Match that with the partisans trying to take him down and throw partisan shit at him.

[dbt]

16. It was August, 2001, when Putin warned the Regime

"In the strongest possible" terms that a terrorist attack upon the US was imminent. There's a smoking gun, IMO. After all, bu$h and Pootie-Poot were soulmates by that time, no? And if ya don't listen to yer soulmate, you are, at the very least, a dumbass!

:evilgrin:
dbt

[snippy]

18. The truth is not a "new" enemy to Bush.

Bush is the most compulsive and incessant liar in the history of American politics.

John McCain has an illegitimate Negro daughter and Richard Clarke had complete access to Bush and Rice which proves that Clarke was out of the loop which is Clinton's fault even though everyone except Bush himself knows where he was during his Alabama National Guard service which was after he volunteered to go to Viet Nam which is Clinton's fault but before he was no longer required to take a flight physical and the 60 lines of embryonic stem cells prove that republican science is better than sound science but the Bush administration did not reveal the identity of a covert CIA operative which resulted in 2,000,000 new jobs being created because democrats support terrorism and are not good Americans just as the Jews were not good Germans which is Clinton's fault and the White House is cooperating with the 9/11 commission since Bush did not ignore either the repeated warnings of the dangers of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden or the August 6 2001 intelligence briefing specifically warning of the upcoming 9/11 attacks because the mission of the United States is to bring freedom to every single person in the world which will cut the deficit in half if you do not count those parts of the deficits which will increase under Bush which is Clinton's fault but the boxes from China were labeled "Made in USA" which resulted in 2,600,000 new jobs being created even though the $400 billion decorative medicare turkey was not labeled $550 billion which proves that government spending has gone down if you do not count the increased government spending under Bush which is Clinton's fault and Bush's plane to Baghdad was spotted because before Saddam bought the uranium and became an urgent but not imminent threat which is Clinton's fault Bush had no plans on his desk to invade Iraq since the aircraft carrier was too far offshore for the Navy to make a large enough banner to describe the WMD we have found in Iraq some of which Saddam was giving to Osama for following Saddam's plans and using Iraqi hijackers on 9/11 which is Clinton's fault but everyone who pays income taxes got a tax cut which created 3,000,000 new jobs and allowed Iraqi oil revenue to pay for the cost of the reconstruction of Iraq after the invasion by a small number of troops who would be greeted with floral program related activities except for the dead and wounded brought home secretly which is Clinton's fault since Bush is the one who hugs the mothers and the widows and the wives and the kids and that is why Bush who is responsible for good economic numbers but not bad economic numbers which is Clinton's fault wrote the poem that he did not write blaming Laura for dropping the dog.

Ridiculing Bush for his compulsive and incessant lying needs to become common, especially among Americans who do not follow politics. Ridiculing Bush for his administration's compulsive and incessant law breaking needs to become common among Grand Jurors.

FIRE THE LIAR

[donhakman]

19. Clark said it was either a "Rogue operation or nothing at all"

That is a pretty brave introduction of a dangersous concept.
I am sure the administration will hang together or...
they will hang seperately

[SammyWinstonJack]

34. LOL! Man, that's great!

:thumbsup:

[Athame]

25. all I can say is

Whadda Tour de Force!! :thumbsup:

[JoFerret]

54. Indeed: Look at this list

http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs_108_2/pdfs_inves/pdf_admin_iraq_on_the_record_rep.pdf

<<<This database identifies 237 specific misleading statements about the threat posed by Iraq made by these five officials in 125 public appearances in the time leading up to and after the commencement of hostilities in Iraq. The search options on the left can be used to find statements by any combination of speaker, subject, keyword, or date.

The Special Investigations Division compiled a database of statements about Iraq made by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell, and National Security Advisor Rice. All of the statements in the database were drawn from speeches, press conferences and briefings, interviews, written statements, and testimony by the five officials.

This Iraq on the Record database contains statements made by the five officials that were misleading at the time they were made. The database does not include statements that appear in hindsight to be erroneous but were accurate reflections of the views of intelligence officials at the time they were made.

The Iraq on the Record database contains statements from the five Administration officials most responsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on the Iraq war: President George Bush; Vice President Richard Cheney; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; Secretary of State Colin Powell; and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

The statements in the database are drawn from 125 public statements or appearances in which the five officials discussed the threat posed by Iraq. The sources of the statements are 40 speeches, 26 press conferences and briefings, 53 interviews, 4 written statements or articles, and 2 appearances before congressional committees. Quotes from the officials in newspaper articles or other similar secondary sources were not included in the database because of the difficulty of discerning the context of such quotes and ensuring their accuracy. Statements made by the officials before March 2002, one year before the commencement of hostilities in Iraq, were also not included.

The database contains statements about Iraq from the five officials that were misleading based on what was known to the Administration at the time the statements were made. In compiling the database, the Special Investigations Division did not assess whether “subjectively” the officials believed a specific statement to be misleading. Instead, the investigators used an “objective” standard. For purposes of the database, a statement is considered “misleading” if it conflicted with what intelligence officials knew at the time or involved the selective use of intelligence or the failure to include essential qualifiers or caveats.

The database does not include statements that appear mistaken only in hindsight. If a statement was an accurate reflection of U.S. intelligence at the time it was made, the statement is excluded from the database even if it now appears erroneous.

To determine whether a statement was misleading, the Special Investigations Division examined the statement in light of intelligence known to the Administration at the time of the statement. The primary sources for determining the intelligence available to the Administration were (1) the portions of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that have been released to the public, (2) the February 5, 2004, statement by Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet entitled Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction, (3) the recent report of the nonpartisan Carnegie Endowment for International Peace entitled WMD in Iraq: Evidence and Implications, and (4) news and other reports quoting U.S. officials regarding the intelligence available to the Administration on Iraq.

In general, hypothetical and implied statements about threats posed by Iraq were not included in the database of misleading statements. A few such statements were included, however, where they implied a threat in evocative and frightening language. These statements were misleading because the effect was to instill in the public the perception that the threat actually existed.

To be conservative, the Special Investigations Division excluded hundreds of statements by the five officials that many observers would consider misleading. For example, the five officials made numerous claims that Iraq “had” stockpiles of chemical weapons. Many of these statements were misleading in that they implied that Iraq possessed these stockpiles currently and did not acknowledge the doubts of intelligence experts. Nevertheless, these statements were not included in the database when they were expressed in the past tense because Iraq did possess chemical weapons at least as late as the early 1990s and used them during the 1980s.<1>

Investigators also excluded scores of statements of certainty that Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction” prior to the war. To many observers, these statements would be misleading because they implied that Iraq possessed nuclear weapons without acknowledging the divisions among intelligence officials about whether this was the case. The Special Investigations Division excluded these general “weapons of mass destruction” assertions, however, because of the ambiguity inherent in the phrase.

The Special Investigations Division asked two leading independent experts to peer review this report for fairness and accuracy. These two independent experts are: Joseph Cirincione, senior associate and director of the Non-Proliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Greg Thielmann, former acting director of the Office of Strategic, Proliferation, and Military Affairs in the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. These experts judged that this report is a fair and accurate depiction of the Administration’s statements.

<1> United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission, Unresolved Disarmament Issues: Iraq’s Proscribed Weapons Programmes, UNMOVIC Working Document (Mar. 6, 2003). >>>

[nolabels]

22. Clarke knows the whole 9/ 11 could have been prevented and seems..........

to have be painting it that way. I still holding on that it was LIHOP /MIHOP. Hell for all I can speculate is that Clarke is getting in there to muddy the waters. If Clarke can make look they were bumbling fools instead letting the other thing swirl that there was INTENT. He will have succeeded in his little twisted way. He probably knows there was intent, but doesn't have the exact smoking gun, but with insider like this one never knows.

Or maybe even he was feeling a little unloved, mostly I would question his motives, but even more than that, some of the veracity of his testimony from just yesterday is in question. When you get people lying about there lying the truth gets to be a very tricky subject. I kind of doubt he had prior knowledge of intent, but after it happened, I bet he put together the pieces real quick. It seems not inconceivable that he trying to keep the dam from breaking. It is very close

Anybody want to go in about his fudging about the one flight of the Bin Ladden and the Saudi nationals

[Tellurian]

24. Where is the "outcry" for Bush to testify?

Old Hyde said: "No One Is Above The Law?"

Where is old Henry Hyde and his profound quotation now, when matters of National Security are the issue?

[4dsc]

26. Clarke Praises Bush Team in '02

What did I miss about this memo??

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,115085,00.html

[bpilgrim]

27. typical marketing speel

we're doing everything we can to keep america safe, blah, blah, blah...

he's written plenty of them for 4 presidents.

if this is the only distraction they got they are done.

peace

[mouse7]

33. You missed that it was given on background

Fox News broke journalism ethical standards by releasing to the public an interview given on background.

Bob Kerrey slammed FOX for that.

Clarke handled the question about it anyway. He said doing the backgrounder was an assigned Dumbya administration task, and he was putting the "best face" on Dumbya counter-terrorism record because he'd been assigned to do it.

[yardwork]

37. The points Clarke makes in this statement are contradictory.

He opens with "there was no plan on al Qaida passed from Clinton to Bush..." Then he goes on to say that "the plan" was implemented. Then he says the plan was not implemented.

I wonder if he deliberately presented contradictory "facts" in this W-assigned interview in order to raise questions in the interviewers' minds?

If so, apparently they weren't listening.

More people need to step forward and stop telling lies for W.

[maggrwaggr]

31. The truth has always been Bush's enemy

not just now.

Bush's war on terror = a war on truth.

I like that.

[Stockholm]

32. Good article but ...

the title sucks, has not truth always been Bush´s enemy?

[eablair3]

38. Presidential Daily Briefings before 9-11 "would set your hair on fire"

wow, ... I'd like to see those get released.

[Zomby Woof]

40. new enemy my ass!

An lifelong enemy that runs in the family. Fucking asshole.

[moondust]

41. Loyalty always trumps truth.

That's just how it is in dictatorships.

[JoFerret]

42. Clarke stays cool as partisanship heats up

Good WP article and worth it if just for the Kerry campaign animation on the front page.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22218-2004Mar24.html

[Habibi]

45. But--

"Bush is fighting public release of these PDBs, which would show whether he had marked them up and demanded action."

This is puzzling to me, cynical soul that I am. Are they not able to alter the PDBs and then release them to "prove" that the Wiz, I mean the Rez, was "paying attention to terrorism"?

[louis-t]

46. Cheney alleges Clark was out of the loop.....

Condiment Rice has backed down from that statement already. Says he WAS in the loop. Rove must be losing his mind trying to keep the spin going.

[demdave]

47. Not LBN...clearly labeled COMMENT

[Demonaut]

48. truth..what truth?, we make it up as we go along

that's the truth

[AlCzervik]

49. Bush the untruth teller

Bullshit has been the coin of the realm since the squatter in chief was selected by a group of "Activist" judges. i think people are so surprised by the truth now because they havent heard it for so long. I for one am optimistic that the tide is indeed turning and karma has come for the Shrub Cabal.

[Demonaut]

51. I may be late but welcome to DU

and you're right the tide is starting to turn

[AlCzervik]

52. Thanks for the welcome!

there will be a reckoning soon!