Josh Marshall: What we learned from tonight's 60 Minutes broadcast

[cal04]

(snip)
I just got off the phone with Drumheller. But before we get to that, let's run down the key points in the story.


(snip)

The White House, as Drumheller relates it, was really excited to hear what Sabri would reveal about the inner-workings of Saddam's regime, and particularly about any WMD programs. That is, before Sabri admitted that Saddam didn't have any active programs. Then they lost interest. Now, if you didn't see the episode you can catch most of the key facts in this story at the 60 Minutes website. But here's an angle I'm not sure we're going to hear much about.

Drumheller's account is pretty probative evidence on the question of whether the White House politicized and cherry-picked the Iraq intelligence. So why didn't we hear about any of this in the reports of those Iraq intel commissions that have given the White House a clean bill of health on distorting the intel and misleading the country about what we knew about Iraq's alleged WMD programs? Think about it. It's devastating evidence against their credibility on a slew of levels. Did you read in any of those reports -- even in a way that would protect sources and methods -- that the CIA had turned a key member of the Iraqi regime, that that guy had said there weren't any active weapons programs, and that the White House lost interest in what he was saying as soon as they realized it didn't help the case for war?

What about what he said about the Niger story? Did the Robb-Silverman Commission not hear about what Drumheller had to say? What about the Roberts Committee? I asked Drumheller just those questions when I spoke to him early this evening. He was quite clear. He was interviewed by the Robb-Silverman Commission. Three times apparently. Did he tell them everything he revealed on tonight's 60 Minutes segment. Absolutely. Drumheller was also interviewed twice by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (the Roberts Committee) but apparently only after they released their summer 2004 report.

(snip)
"I was stunned," Drumheller told me, when so little of the stuff he had told the commission's and the committee's investigators ended up in their reports. His colleagues, he said, were equally "in shock" that so little of what they related ended up in the reports either.

more
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/008284.php

[fooj]

1. It's time to hold these lying, rat bastards accountable.

What they have allowed is nothing short of treason.

[flyarm]

9. THEY ARE ALL SCARED ..

SHITLESS!..and therefore i fear our election in nov is in peril...again........

fly

[suziedemocrat]

21. Exactly!!! There is no way we will have fair election in November.

The Democrats have been asleep at the wheel and the Republicans can't win in a fair election - and if they lose they know they might be looking at jail time.

(I hope I'm wrong.)

[Pierzin]

10. What is News Is Not New to those of Us Who Knew

:rofl: :rofl:


Next I am trying out for Dr Seuss-er I mean Don Rumsfelds'- Cat In the Hat tape-
I listen to Stephanie Miller waaaay too much, and she loves to run that tape of Rumsfool "Not knowing what we knew when yada yada.."

But seriously,
The Real Deal here is how a traditionally conservative(Mainstream Media) show like 60 Minutes ran this to its main audience in Red State America. How should the Moral Majority Repukes react to this?
If they rebuked the story before now, how can they since 60 Minutes ran it? Should they consult Karl Rove before going in front of the cameras? Where is their integrity, their honesty which they bore us with in every election cycle?
I can't help but wonder if the end of the piece wasn't edited out so they could fit the Howard Schultz piece in there. It felt kind of forced.
I have heard Joe Wilson and others speak for months and months on this topic, and this country doesn't seem to care. Our military went to war based on a lie, again. That is the real crime.:cry:

If our current spine-less leaders in congress do not do the right thing perhaps accountability will come from the state houses. Check this out:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0423-26.htm

Peace!

[renate]

16. welcome to DU

:hi:

[alarcojon]

17. Cat in the Asshat?

Welcome to DU :toast:

[girl gone mad]

18. This would have been really brave reporting by 60 minutes...

had they done it 2 or 3 years ago.

Where were they? I didn't learn one new thing from the report.

[wtmusic]

32. In context it would seem "brave"

but in reality it would be merely "responsible". All the media bastards have the blood of thousands on their hands.

[gulliver]

2. The answer was in Dan Bartlett's quote on the show.

Bartlett said (paraphrasing) that a bi-partisan commission had found no evidence that the White House applied any pressure to intelligence analysts. That's the key. The Bushies didn't put pressure on analysts to change their stories or provide support for the war. They simply cherry picked analysts who were already saying what they wanted to hear and ignored the others. I really think that ridiculous level of distinction seems to have protected the Bushies from their obvious crime of negligence and failure to do due diligence on a matter of war.

[TomInTib]

5. That was parsing to the 99th degree, wasn't it?

I commented to my SO on that at the time.

Notice the WH gave no interview, only that no-substance crap from Bartlett.

[Erika]

8. I disagree totally

Bartlett pretends. It is insane for anyone to believe Bush didn't know Hussein had no WMD's. Where are you coming from?

Most of us who fought against the W's war against Iraq knew there was no plausible belief that Hussein was a threat.

[flyarm]

13. i agree with you Erika..who remembers the RETIRED SPOOKS

letter they wrote to * before the war calling the so called intel bullshit..they were getting inside info from the current spooks that it was all bogus lies...

and they desparately tried to get that info to the American people..they even called press conferences..that no press covered..

this info was all over the internet...i made hundreds of copies of the retired spook letters to bush ...and handed them out to everyone i could...

if we here online knew it was all bullshit..the media and congress sure as hell should have and could have known it wall all bogus bullshit!

fly

[wtmusic]

33. "Most of us knew...."

At the time it seemed like common sense. As the search for WMDs turned up less and less, the drumbeat grew louder and louder, and the timetable moved faster and faster.

Something stunk.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

14. Only if you believe that the commission was bi-partisan....

...no frickin' way. Give me a break.

We all knew that Cheney was going to the CIA on a regular basis to apply pressure to those analysts, and a lot of it. If you believe Cheney and Bartlett's version, then you have to believe everyone else is lying about that pressure.

[dennis4868]

29. That's not true.....

at the end of the so-called "bi-partisan" report the dems including evidence that some CIA agents did feel the perssure from the White House to give them what Cheney-Bush wanted.

[Norquist Nemesis]

37. That "bi-partisan" comment in the first line says it all

Why is it necessary to make a point of saying it is a "bi-partisan" commission...unless one is trying to tattoo Partisan (read: Liberal/Democrat) onto the forehead of CBS and the person being interviewed who is critical of Bush etal.

It also ties into the recent CIA employee who leaked to Dana Priest. All I heard yesterday from the local yokel pundits was that 'she gave THOUSANDS of dollars to Democrats and worked on the Kerry campaign'. How lame! :eyes: So, because she didn't get her money's worth with her candidate winning, she's going to take revenge? All for partisan politics? :eyes:

These guys never stop! Any criticism is (according to them) for reasons of partisan politics.

[robinlynne]

38. But they found no evidence because they never finished the investigation.

The republicans just stalled it and stalled it.

[TomInTib]

3. I had always assumed that witnesses such as Mr Drumheller had not

been called to report to those committees.

This is outrageous, but, unfortunately, par for the course.

bastards

[mike_c]

4. the bush administration has misused the office of the president...

...and they've been aided and abetted by the republican party in congress, with the cooperation of much of the democratic party leadership, at least during the first four years.

[Canuckistanian]

6. So, I guess Phase II isn't going to be any big revelation, either

If Roberts and Robb-Silverman didn't bring out the evidence from the turned Saddam loyaslist, it's never going to come out, at leat when it matters.

Pretty damning evidence.

Even if they do get off scot-free on this, say buh-bye to their historical legacy.

At least I can take confort in that.

[0007]

22. I'm not sure that the average citizen can concentrate long

enough to grasp this whole story.

We just have a whole of chipping away until the light can be seen by all.

[wtmusic]

7. There was little public reaction to the release of the "Downing St. Memo"

and ever since I hold out little hope for news like this "getting legs". How many times do you need to prove someone is a war criminal? What's the magic number?

[Pierzin]

12. Good Point

[pacalo]

11. I wonder about why Tenet stepped on his own men to follow

this cabal.

I remember watching Nightline one night when Koppel interviewed some scruffy looking guy from the CIA just days after Larry Johnson, Jim Marcinkowski, & Vince Cannistraro testified at a Democratic hearing about how Cheney stood over analysts' shoulders, pressuring them to find evidence of WMD; that Cheney was the first VP in history to visit Langley analysts. The scruffy guy on Nightline was clearly there for damage control & I remember thinking how transparent he was, & that if a housewife like me could see through him, he was doing more damage than good for this administration. Clearly, I thought, he had been sent by Tenet/Cheney.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

15. If Tenet was part of the NeoCon Junta, then why did he demand...

...that the Department of Justice begin a CRIMINAL investigation of the betrayal of Valerie Plame and her entire WMD-tracking global network? You know that the leaks started just after that date, and have gotten more numerous over time, particularly after Tenet resigned.

The only quote that supports the idea that Tenet was pushing the idea of WMDs in Iraq came from Woodward's book. But, the only possible sources for the "slam dunk" quote had to have been members of the NeoCon Junta who were present at Crawford for that meeting.

No...Tenet's not part of the NeoCon lash-up. Far from it, IMHO.

[Disturbed]

19. "Tenet's not part of the NeoCon lash-up. Far from it,"

Tenet caved into the Bush Regime. He allowed the cherry picking. He sat behind Powell as the lies about Iraq's non-existent WMDs were being spewed at the UN. He seems to have regret about this. He did try to expose Chalabi as the charlatan that he is, which in my view is why Tenet was fired. Yeah, he moved on the V. Plame Brewster Jennings exposure as he should have.

[Jensen]

26. and he got his medal of "Freedom" from * as a "Thank YOU"

[worldgonekrazy]

40. Its difficult to speculate on Tenet's motives

He did ask for the 16 words to be removed from the State of the Union and he did demand the investigation into the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity, which threatens to deal the death blow to this administration.

On the other hand, he also went along with a lot of shit and ultimately took responsiblity for the supposed "intelligence failures" on WMD.

I think the guy was put in a very difficult position. He had to know, of course, that the Iraq War was bogus. But he probably also knew the Bush Administration was going to do it anyway, and that to seriously undermine the credibility of the war could damage the U.S.'s strategic capabilities. Also, lets not forget that former CIA directors have a tendency to end up dying in strange circustmances, and perhaps Tenet wanted to avoid such a fate by directly confronting the Bush cabal.

[hang a left]

27. If Tenet wasn't one of "them" he would have been replaced in 01

he was a holdover from the Clinton administration.

IMO the bush thugs went too far and Tenet bailed.

Tenet didn't resign until the shite hit the fan over Plame investigation after ** and Cheney were questioned by the feds. Remember the rumored argument that took place at the WH and Tenet's middle of the night resignation. IMO Tenet is cooperating with Fitzgerald now.

[jazzjunkysue]

30. Right. If Tennet were a true neocon he'd still be on payroll.

I say they fired him because he yelled fire in the theater. He insisted they listen to him, and they refused, so he was resigned.

I just wish he'd start speaking out. Let's hope he is talking to Fitz.

[leftchick]

42. Tenet has a book coming out in October!

I am betting it will be an October Surprise!

:)

[bklyncowgirl]

20. More confirmation for what we already knew.

The fact is that the various congressional committees that investigated this have had as their primary mission not uncovering the truth but covering Bush's and their own ample rumps.

[leftchick]

23. OBL OBL OBL OBL OBL OBL OBL OBL OBL OBL OBL!!!!!!!!!

zero zip nada on the 60 minutes report this AM! It is OBL all the time on all of the channels. Pretty timely audio release by OBL isn't it?

[vogonity]

24. What did *Bushco think was going to happen with no WMDs?

Did they just not care? Were they so hot fot Iraq that they just decided they'd figure out what to do about it after they got there? Jeebus, even O'Lielly said there had better be WMD there. WTF were they thinking?

[mnmoderatedem]

28. Simple really.

Sadaam was a brutal evil dictator. 9/11 happenned. This gave the administration a lot of leeway from the sheeple do do whatever they wanted regardless of evidence or lack of it. Indeed, public sentiment against the war really did not wane after no WMDs were found. The sheeple really only turned against the war when - surprise! - it turned out to be a long, dragged out affair that was not worth it in terms of blood or money.

Day late and a dollar short....

[oc2002]

25. Wow, 60 min actualy did some real investigative, no bs reporting..!!

Nice change for a network news show. Keep it up!

[peacetalksforall]

31. We have to re-target. and come up from behind.

There are entities that are equally responsible.

WE must pour our attention and activism towards making these people co-responsible for death and dismemberment and ruined infrastructure and heritage and the debt of our nation.

We must target:
Congress
Corporate networks and internet and paper media executives.
Stockholders of the war corporations.

We have to show and prove that the Congress KNOWINGLY facilitated the war by not questioning and not investigating.

We have to show and prove that the networks and media KNOWINGLY facilitated the war.

This assumes that certain people in Congress, the media, and the corporations knew and aided and abetted the politicians and barons.

Stockholders may not have known, but they must feel the heat for all the deaths and dismemberments and the death and dismemberment to come from the knowledge that this was WAR of LIES, MANIPULATION, REPRESSION, and OMISSION. And they must participate in removing all who knew from executive and leadership positions.

As someone above said - if we knew, why wasn't this blown open?

Three years later. Three years later. And all that some say is that it is going to be a long war and 1.x trillion more is needed now.

[CatWoman]

34. kick

for later reading

:kick:

[Roland99]

35. Phase II of the report is due rather soon.

Wonder how much whitewashing Roberts did with it?

[Ganja Ninja]

36. This is what happens when you try to do anything bipartisan ...

with the Republican's. They are corrupt through and through. We would have been better off not investigating 9/11 or pre-war intelligence or anything else with them. From now on the term "bipartisan investigation" can be defined as a cover up.

[Jack Rabbit]

39. The bi-partisan reports are looking more like bi-partisan whitewashes

Will Mr. Robb please explain how this happened? How about the Democrats on the Intelligence Committee? That Senator Roberts would go to the mat for the fibber-in-chief is no surprise, but the Democrats on these committees were supposed to prevent this kind of whitewash.

I'm waiting for an explanation.

[Broken Top]

44. The bi-partisan reports are looking more like....whitewashes.

Of course they're whitewashes. These commissions and
committees are chaired and manipulated by Republicans. A
blatant example was the 9/11 Commission Report. The
Commission's executive director was Philip Zelikow, a
Republican who served on the National Security Council of Bush
I, and is a close friend of Condolezza Rice. In David Ray
Griffin's book, "The 9/11 Commission Report" Mr.
Griffin writes: "..Zelikow was in charge of overseeing
the writing of the staff reports, many of which went virtually
unchanged into the final report." "....A Republican,
therefore, oversaw both the investigative work and the writing
of the final report."  The public will never know how
many people with critical information and factual evidence
were never called to testify or if potentionally damaging
testimony was omitted from that Commission's report.
The Bush II regime is one rotten regime aided by countless
rotten individuals and a compliant mainstream media. It will
be many years before the putrid truth about this foul gang is
known, if ever.

[in_cog_ni_to]

41. I know what I learned! I learned WE WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG!

I learned these bastards are just as conniving and evil as I always thought they were. The show just confirmed everything I had ever learned/thought/knew about the illegal invasion of Iraq.

[Imagevision]

43. If 60 minutes segment was repeated under oath, Bush should be impeached

Why should there be a problem with this? -- the attorney general needs to recuse himself and like Ashcroft did when it came to investigating Rove, he recused himself and Fitzgerald was assigned the case.