Nightline: A conversation with General Anthony Zinni

[coda]

Looks to be good.

[jab105]

1. Wow...this is good!!

watching now.....

[scarletwoman]

2. QUITE good so far!

I wish Koppel would let Zinni run on a bit more -- he keeps jumping in with new questions before the General finishes his point...

sw

[jab105]

4. Nightline really should be an hour long....

having a comedy show like Jimmy Kimmel on after Nightline makes no sense!

[coda]

10. I agree.

Half hour just doesn't get it done.

[FlemingsGhost]

11. Jimmy Kimmel in any television time slot makes no sense.

Whadda wank-fest.

The man is nothing without Adam Corolla. And vice-versa...

[FubarFly]

3. They had a plan for Iraqi reconstruction years ago?

Oh my. This should be interesting.

[blm]

5. "They" as in who?

Clinton, Gore and Kerry worked on one, but, NOTHING like Bush's plan.

[FubarFly]

6. They = The Pentagon, in 98

2 extra divisions used immediately for security

Also let the regular Iraqi army know that they weren't the enemy, and use them.

[blm]

8. Yes...that was the Clinton-Gore-Kerry plan.

They wanted to target Saddam with overwhelming groundforce, NOT widespread bombing to lessen civilian casualties. Then secure the country WITHOUT occupying it.

[FubarFly]

14. You wouldn't happen to have a link would you?

I'd like to read up on this.

[blm]

15. I know there were hearings....

Kerry even had Scott Ritter testify, but, that was when Ritter was saying that Saddam still had capabilities and that was why Kerry was for going in. Heck, even Kucinich was for it then.

There should be some way to access the transcript of the hearings from back then.

[FubarFly]

16. Thanks.

I'll keep looking. This is what I've found so far.

---
http://www.biu.ac.il/Besa/meria/journal/2000/issue1/jv4n1a3.html

THE IRAQ LIBERATION ACT (1998)

On September 29, 1998, a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators introduced a bill entitled the Iraq Liberation Act (ILA) to “establish a program to support a transition to democracy in Iraq.” (19) The bill, which passed the Senate unanimously without amendment, outlines Iraq’s transgressions from its invasion of neighboring Iran in 1980 to its unilateral suspension of cooperation with UNSCOM the previous August. The act stipulates that U.S. policy should seek the removal of Saddam Husayn and assist in replacing his regime with a democratic form of government. The U.S. is also to provide military assistance to the Iraqi opposition in the amount not to exceed $97 million, in addition to funding the United States Information Agency effort to publicize the opposition’s struggle.

Concurrent with the signing of the ILA into law by President Clinton, Radio Free Iraq began broadcasting to Iraq. Then, in November 1998, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Martin Indyk, met with a delegation of 17 representatives from Iraqi opposition parties, urging them to work jointly towards the goal of forming a new government in Baghdad. The Iraqi group identified by the United States to spearhead opposition is the London-based Iraqi National Congress (INC). Early in 1999, the United States appointed Frank Ricciardone as Special Representative for Transition in Iraq (SRTI) and charged him with uniting the INC’s political platform and facilitating Washington’s contacts with the various Iraqi groups. (20)

On August 11, 1999, eight senators and congressmen who were the principal proponents of the ILA sent a letter to President Clinton expressing their “dismay over the continued drift in U.S. policy toward Iraq.” (21) They pointed to four areas to which they believe the Clinton administration had not given proper attention. The first area addresses the absence of international weapons inspections in Iraq the letter and argues that the “whole point of Operation Desert Fox was” that the world could not afford to allow Saddam Husayn to reconstitute his WMD capabilities. However, following Desert Fox the administration is still unsure of what is taking place inside Iraq. (22) Other countries have also raised this criticism. In a commentary representative of his country’s views, French journalist Alain Gresh wrote that the United States launched Operation Desert Fox to restore UNSCOM’s right to conduct its weapons inspection and OMV in Iraq. However, many months have passed without UN inspectors in Iraq and the United States seems to be very relaxed about this state of affairs. (23)

[FubarFly]

17. More...

19) “Iraq Liberation Act of 1998” United States Senate, document S.2525, September 29, 1998 <http://www.senate.gov/legislative/index.html>. The ILA was introduced by six Republican senators (Lott, McCain, Helms, Shelby, Brownback and Kyl) and two Democratic senators (Kerrey and Lieberman).

20) For an official U.S. account of the steps taken towards the implementation of the ILA see “Letter to Congressional Leaders Reporting on Iraq’s Compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolutions” Public Papers of the Presidents, March 3, 1999 <http://web.lexis-nexis>

21) The letter is signed by U.S. Senators Lott, Leiberman, Helms, Kerrey, Shelby and Brownback and US House of Representative members Gilman and Berman. For a text of the letter see <http://www.nci.org>.

[blm]

18. They did want to end the UN sanctions against Iraq

since it was hurting the poor of Iraq more than anyone else. Plus, Bin Laden had Saddam targeted for assassination and overthrow and Clinton did NOT want to see Bin Laden in control of what chemical and bioweapons HAD been in Iraq, nor the Iraqi oil production.

It is a much more complex story than the media will ever get into. There are so many layers to it, with various pressures to factor in from different groups on the left and on the right.

[FubarFly]

19. Here's a transcript of the hearings. Interesting reading.

http://www.ceip.org/programs/npp/ritter.htm

[coda]

7. "imminent"

That's how he heard it too. :-)

[Cush]

9. not good for bushie

"I don't think he had them, he didn't want to be caught with the smoking gun. I think he had the framework set for when sanctions were finally lifted"

[scarletwoman]

12. There WASN'T AN IMMINENT THREAT.

Said it straight out!

DAMN, it's over! This REALLY needs to be an hour long program! But I suppose we ought to consider ourselves lucky that it's still on the air at all. Remember when they talking about replacing Nightline with Letterman? *sigh*

sw

[scarletwoman]

13. Pretty good closing statement by Koppel...

To loosely paraphrase: (re: changeover in administrations) "New blood/fresh starts can be good. But institutional memory is also important. Too much of one at the expense of the other can lead to messy situtations." (Not the exact words, but hopefully a transcript will be forthcoming)

Anyway, rather a pointed dig at the bush* junta, imho...

sw