New Details Emerging From Early in the W. House About Plans to Attack Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/31/lt.01.html

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Frustrated that Iraqi gunners were shooting at American planes, within weeks of coming into office, President Bush approved war plans for a massive retaliatory attack on Iraq if a U.S. pilot had been shot down.

CNN has learned that the secret plan Operation Desert Badger called for escalating air strikes within four to eight hours of a shootdown. Pentagon sources say a long list of targets across the country would be hit, crippling Iraqi air defenses and command and control. The plan went far beyond the Clinton administration's 1998 Operation Desert Fox, which hit 100 targets in four days.

President Bush revealed Desert Badger's existence in January, responding to criticism he planned to invade Iraq from the beginning.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Like the previous administration, we were for regime change. And in the initial stages of the administration, you might remember, we were dealing with Desert Badger or flyovers, and fly-betweens and looks.

more

[NNN0LHI]

1. Looks like Clarke was telling the truth after all n/t

[leftchick]

2. Indeed he was telling the truth.....

It was obvious to anyone with a modicum of intelligence Iraq was their target from the start. Good to see this get out. It certainly lends credibility to everything Mr. Clarke had to say about the motives of the misadministration.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. we were dealing with Desert Badger or flyovers, and fly-betweens and looks

What the fuck does this even mean?

[NNN0LHI]

5. I think it means they were trying to get a plane shot down? n/t

[aquart]

8. Thank you. That's how I remember it.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

9. With looks???? BTW, what the hell is a fly-between?

Thanks for translating. But he sure as hell makes no sense when he opens his mouth.

[DrBB]

27. Technical stuff. He's a fighter jock don't forget.

He knows how to talk the lingo. Normal people wouldn't understand.

[fob]

32. I'm Rick James, Bitch!!!

Too funny! Charlie Murphy stories are the best.

[Mari333]

4. will anyone ever link this to PNAC????

the journalists know full well about PNAC. They wont do a damned thing about skewering Bu$h over it and connect the dots . Theres more journalism done in DU on one day then from actual journalists in 2 years.
and they are sitting on it.
they know, we told them all.

[worldgonekrazy]

13. The problem with PNAC

As far as the general public is concerned, PNAC is nothing more than your standard Washington think tank. This is exactly the reason the neo-cons set this up as they did. PNAC represents their plans to anyone interested in looking, yet there is no direct link between PNAC and the administration so you can't link one to the other.

Having said that, journalists COULD point out that MANY members of the current administration literally signed on to the PNAC plan. Still, this doesn't prove that PNAC has any influence over the White House (even though we all know it does).

[Mari333]

23. any journalist who wants to can FOLLOW THE MONEY

the timeline is there and the criminals are there ..follow the money and they will get to the real reasons for this fake war.
FOLLOW THE MONEY

[nodictators]

35. PNAC (really, Cheney's secret plan) is the smoking gun

A number of PNACers, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, wrote to Clinton in 1998, asking him to go after Saddam.

PNAC "Rebuilding America's Defenses" says that a "catastrophic attack" on US would speed up the "transformation" of the military they called for.

Lieberman (crypto-PNACer) and Cheney debated Iraq in the VP debate.

Bush used the term "weapons of mass destruction" in his inaugural address.

N.B. PNAC "Rebuilding" is a public, sanitized version of a secret plan

[ChompySnack]

6. I see they are getting their cover story straight

Since it will be revealed that they were planning on attacking Iraq from day -100, just waiting for something to happen, like 911...

[aquart]

7. I have a problem with this. Maybe it's my memory, but.....

My distinct impression is that the reason they were shooting is that we had stepped up the flyovers in a deliberately provocative manner.

Therefore, Badger was NOT a response to the flyover shootings, the flyovers were an attempt to provoke an excuse for Operation Desert Badger.

[Tempest]

10. U.S. unilaterally expanded the no-fly zone

Iraq protested by was ignored so they started shooting at the planes hoping to down one outside of the no-fly zone to bring condemnation on the U.S.

I'll look for an article from the Guardian I read.

[aquart]

17. So, a month after George took office, he tried to start a war.

That's how I remember it.

[blm]

20. Same as I remember. I thought then he was provoking a war.

.

[worldgonekrazy]

15. I agree

It seems pretty obvious they were trying to provoke a confrontation. If a plane had been shot down by the Iraqis they could have used it as a "Gulf of Tonkin" type event to start a war.

[Kolesar]

11. & fuck with China while they were at it

The bully in the playground looking for a scrap

[Cocoa]

12. the neocons were hoping for dead Americans

praying every night that Saddam would shoot a plane down. Saddam didn't oblige, since he probably knew about the Badger.

[aquart]

14. CNN, February 2001:

<http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/02/18/iraq.sanctions.02/>

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq reported firing on U.S. and British warplanes, an unnamed Iraqi military spokesman told CNN Sunday. He did not say whether the planes struck back at Iraqi targets. U.S. Central Command spokesman Maj. Jeff Blau said he had no knowledge that Iraq had fired at the planes.

However, Blau said he would not know about activity unless Iraqi targets were hit. "I woundn't know unless we struck," Blau said. "I don't know if it took place, but Iraq threatens coalition aircraft routinely."

The action comes two days after air raids aimed at punishing Iraq for threatening planes enforcing "no-fly" zones over its territory.

We attacked with no warning because they were "threatening." What does "threatening" mean? ONE MONTH AFTER GEORGE TOOK OFFICE.

[The_Casual_Observer]

21. Invasion of Iraq was inevitable

The buildup of troops in the gulf began sometime in early 2002, the pretext at the time was a massive joint force training exercise. CENTCOM was relocated just for this occasion. Anybody who cared knew exactly what the realintentions were, but almost no one cared.

Hardly anybody cares about anything except who is "out" on survivor and how late the walmart is open, so shit like this is easy to pass off on the public. The public has very little in the way of intesections with what is really going on.

[Turbineguy]

16. OK, now I recall Candidate Bush

talking about kicking Saddam out before he was pRez. No doubt Rove told him to shut up about that stuff. Am I wrong?

[damnraddem]

18. And the real joke is: the no-fly zones had Saddam contained.

There was no need for Badger, much less the Invasion. The job was already being accomplished.

[David Zephyr]

19. This Is Slick W.H. Spin to Provide "Motive" For W's Early Iraqi Obsession!

Everyone now knows that from BEFORE Bush became President in January 2001, that the PNAC crowd and George Bush were planning to invade Iraq.

Richard Clarke's sworn testimony, Paul H. O'Neill's book, "The Price of Loyalty", have now confirmed this truth.

Further, Judicial Watch has revealed that the Vice President's early "energy meetings" had maps of Iraqi Oil Fields.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT's "news story" should simply read as follows:

"Within weeks of coming into office, President Bush approved war plans for a massive retaliatory attack on Iraq."

INSTEAD OF:

"Frustrated that Iraqi gunners were shooting at American planes, within weeks of coming into office, President Bush approved war plans for a massive retaliatory attack on Iraq if a U.S. pilot had been shot down."

The latter falsely ascribes a favorable motive to Bush's early determined warmongering and which is shameful on the part of CNN, the network that allowed their anchor, Aaron Brown, to call the first night of bombing in Baghdad, "Great fun! Great fun!"

This "new story" is just more public relations spin to paint a "good reason" for Bush's wanting to make war against the people of Iraq.

Bush's early obsession was clearly only about three things:

1.) Personal revenge to make up for his father's failure to take out Saddam Hussein in the first war;

2.) Oil profiteering by the Cheney cronies;

3.) A gift to Ariel Sharon who foolishly believed that a War with Iraq would make Israel safer, instead of creating the vacuum and civil war and terrorist quagmire that Iraq has now become.

[callous taoboy]

22. Did anyone

else, no matter how creeped out about bush you were prior to 9-11, just have a feeling in your gut that the WH was totally obsessed with Iraq after 9-11? Myself, I've NEVER trusted bush, but the call to war with Iraq seemed to come out of nowhere and be attached to nothing that had been occuring at the time. As the decision to attack got red-hot I felt in my gut that we were headed down the wrong path. It's almost hard to put into words what I was feeling.

[salin]

25. The first inkling I had

was in his first major speech after 9-11 (a day or two later - after he stopped running around the country). He used language that expanded beyond the event and terrorists and, if I recall, was even broader than "countries that harbor terrorists" (which would have referred to Afghanistan.) I turned to my mother, with whom I was listening to the speech, and said... "he is going to go after Iraq."

It hadn't occurred to me prior to that moment - and I am not sure why that was my immediate reaction. Suggests that the lower level indications (language, etc.) must have planted that impression in my mind. Perhaps - that suggestion was from paying a little bit of attention to stories such as the one's linked in this thread.

[kysrsoze]

26. Funny, I said the same thing....

right after he was (s)elected. I was visiting a friend in the Bay Area and said, "He's going to start a war just like his dad did." Like me, I'm sure you were 100% positive when the thought hit you.

[salin]

30. The thought hit me with 100% certainty

exactly as you suggest. Complete clarity.

[cliss]

24. The fog in the crystal ball is clearing....

looks like we got the transparency in the government that we all wanted...

The question is, what comes next? Because we all know there's a Chapter 2.

[pacifictiger]

28. I keep reading the steady drip of how

"the previous administration was for regime change."
I seem to recollect that they adopted that policy at the urging of several advisors following a letter that was received from - guess who - the same people that we now know were instrumental in the formation of the pnac plan of pax americana. It would be interesting to learn more about the rationale and circumstances preceding the adoption of this policy by the clinton admin. Is it just another case of subliminally planting the "dont blame us they started it" strategy by the Bushies?

[snippy]

34. "the previous administration was for regime change."

Whenever I hear some shittohead say that I always ask:

"How many madmen invaded Iraq while Clinton was in office?"

[trapper914]

29. No-Fly Zones

Were these even legal under international law? I remember trying to find mention of them in the UN resolutions to no avail.

U.S. planes violated Iraqi airspace regularly and DIDN'T expect to be fired upon? Did Iraq not have the right to protect its own sovereignty?

[Oilwellian]

31. I seem to remember

Clarke testifying to the 911 Commission that taking out Iraq's air defense systems was a common event under Clinton. The Bushies are desperate.

[revcarol]

33. My son-in-law is a pilot who had three tours in the northern

no-fly zone. He said the policy was to obliterate the places the missiles came from and the radar sites that directed them.Avoid civilian targets. Evidently their planes' electronic equipment can tell the place from which the missiles came.

Shortly before the war, his assignment became to bomb everything in the northern part of the country that was NOT identified as totally civilian, PLUS bomb all electric transmission facilities, water facilities, etc. He became VERY upset because he knew he was bombing civilian stuff.(a war crime) This was softening up Iraq for the invasion.

[Gin]

36. May that reptilian * rot in the hell of his own making.

Gin

[malachibk]

37. Desert BADGER?!?!

That's is, by far, the lamest thing I've ever heard. Who the f**k is afraid of a badger?