Fred Hiatt: Dangerously Irresponsible

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Thursday April 13, 2006 · 12:02 PM PDT

2006/04/13 · 12:02

[front-paged at Booman Tribune]

Why do I keep going back to the 1970's? Why do I keep bringing up the Church Committee and thirty year-old articles like Carl Bernstein's classic CIA and the Media? It's because America seems to have forgotten the lessons of Vietnam and the Nixon era. This is especially true of journalists that cover journalism. Greg Sargent, over at the American Prospect is a case in point. He seems mystified that Fred Hiatt, the head of the Washington Post's editorial board, still refuses to apologize for the Post's pre-war reporting on Iraq.

BooMan23

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Wednesday April 12, 2006 · 2:12 PM PDT

2006/04/12 · 14:12

[front-paged at Booman Tribune]

When, little more than one year into its term, the stalwart Washington Post editorial board begins asking if the Presidency can be saved, you know something is desperately wrong. But it's even worse when their recommendations involve: embracing the evidence of global warming, leadership on immigration reform, addressing poverty on the Gulf Coast, and putting an end to the practice of torturing detainees to death.

That's a far cry from the advice they were giving Clinton: come clean on the blow job and do something about entitlement reform. Read More

Clifford May: Journalistic Asset of the OVP

BooMan23

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Tuesday April 11, 2006 · 9:29 AM PDT

2006/04/11 · 09:29

[front paged at Booman Tribune]

I thought I'd keep going with my theme of journalists that do the bidding of our intelligence agencies. But, it does get a little complicated when the government begins to war with itself. In the lead up to and aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, the State Department and CIA were in a battle with the Pentagon and the Office of the Vice-President (OVP). And, even that is oversimplifying matters. For example, the OVP had people like John Bolton at State, while George Tenet was a largely compliant partner with the OVP, even as his agency kicked and screamed beneath him. Each of these factions had and has their own journalistic assets.

One journalist whose first allegiance was clearly to the OVP is PNAC signatory Clifford D. May. Joseph Wilson wrote his famous editorial on July 6, 2003. On July 8, 2003 Scooter Libby met with Judy Miller at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C. On July 11, 2003, Clifford May published a scathing attack on Joseph Wilson in the National Review. Tell me if you think May's talking points were faxed or dictated over the phone by one I. Scooter Libby? Read More

The Myth of Zarqawi Confirmed

BooMan23

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Monday April 10, 2006 · 11:25 AM PDT

2006/04/10 · 11:25

[front-paged at Booman Tribune]

Back on November 11, 2005, I wrote an article that asked:

Are you craving more proclamations from the administration based on forged documents (quite possibly) of their own making? Are you having withdrawals from the Niger document fiasco? Never fear. Today the President cited another forged document, a document probably thought up by some half-ass Arabist in some latter day Office of Special Plans. We already know that the myth of Zarqawi is being used to personalize every attack of every civilian target on more than one continent. The myth of Zawahiri's letter to Zarqawi is now being cited as the main justification for staying the course in Iraq. From the President's Veteran's Day speech today:

Now, I am not an intelligence analyst. But, I've known that the Myth of Zarqawi was a fraud for a long time. Now we have confirmation that Zarqawi was largely (or entirely) a psychological operation aimed at deflecting criticism against the conduct of the war and the state of the insurgency.

BooMan23

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Friday April 07, 2006 · 10:54 AM PDT

2006/04/07 · 10:54

In my previous posting, I referred to the fact that Judith Miller anticipated, by a month, all the key judgments of the intelligence agencies about Iraq's nuclear program that went into the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate. But, I left it to the reader to go to the sources and compare them. This led to some confusion. So, let me lay it out for you all again, and then put the two documents side by side.

On September 8, 2002, Judith Miller and Michael Gordon published an article entitled U.S. Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts. In the first week of October, the intelligence community produced the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate. It was a report that was requested from Congress and it was used to justify their vote for the authorization of force. As you will see, it used almost the same language, and drew the same conclusions, to describe the state of Iraq's nuclear capabilities as Miller's article had used. In other words, Judith Miller had seen all the facts that went into this highly classified report a month before Congress did. Read More

Declassification: Libby, Miller, Cheney, Bush

BooMan23

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Thursday April 06, 2006 · 1:01 PM PDT

2006/04/06 · 13:01

[front-paged at Booman Tribune]

On July 18, 2003, the administration declassified the Key Findings from the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate. Presumably, this is the information that Scooter Libby claims that President Bush authorized him to leak to Judith Miller on July 8, 2003. But, the relationship of Judy Miller to these findings goes all the way back to September 2002.

Let's revisit Judith Miller and Michael Gordon's infamous September 8, 2002 aluminum tube column. Who were the sources?

BooMan23

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Wednesday April 05, 2006 · 9:43 AM PDT

2006/04/05 · 09:43

[front-paged at Booman Tribune]

Last night I attended an event hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Democrats. The speakers included my friends Duncan Black, aka Atrios, and Chris Bowers of MyDD, Michael Nutter, a probable mayoral candidate in 2007, Joe Hoeffel (Arlen Specter's opponent in 2004), congressional candidates Lois Murphy, Patrick Murphy and Dennis Spivack (for Delaware), and State Senate candidate, Paul Lang.

BooMan23

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Tuesday April 04, 2006 · 9:53 AM PDT

2006/04/04 · 09:53

Jesus helped DeLay take a good mugshot.

"I said a little prayer before I actually did the fingerprint thing, and the picture," he said. "My prayer was basically: 'Let people see Christ through me. And let me smile.' Now, when they took the shot, from my side, I thought it was fakiest smile I'd ever given. But through the camera, it was glowing. I mean, it had the right impact. Poor old left couldn't use it at all."

DeLay wouldn't change a thing.

I'm not ashamed of anything I've done.

Asked if he had done anything illegal or unethical in public office, DeLay replied curtly, "No." Asked if he'd done anything immoral, he said with a laugh, "We're all sinners." Asked what he would do differently, he said, "Nothing."

I have no regrets today and no doubts,"..."I can continue to be a leader of the conservative cause," he said

More from Tom DeLay's quotable Hall of Shame, below the fold. Read More

Booman Tribune and Other Blogging Communities

BooMan23

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Monday April 03, 2006 · 2:21 PM PDT

2006/04/03 · 14:21

Why join Booman Tribune? Why cross-post your diaries there? I could say the same thing for other sites, too. Notably, community sites like Maryscott O'Connor's My Left Wing, or Dem Bloggers. At first blush, it might seem like Daily Kos is the only place to be. It's got the biggest readership. It has a former President posting, a former Democratic nominee postng, it has sitting Senators and members of the House posting. It has some of the best political analysis anywhere. It is great for catching breaking news. It's orange. I've been a member of Daily Kos for a long time, and I still consider myself a Kossack. I visit the site everyday for all the reasons that make it great and indispensible. But there are good reasons to visit and support some of the smaller online communities. Read More

Latest Waas on Plame: Aluminum Tubes

BooMan23

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Thursday March 30, 2006 · 2:40 PM PST

2006/03/30 · 14:40

[front-paged at Booman Tribune]

Sometimes an article comes along that is so good and so comprehensive and so...well...perfect...that there is no way for a blogger to whittle it down and pull out the salient points and provide commentary.

Murray Waas has just published the magnum opus on the Plame Affair. It's long, but everyone should read it.

Waas reveals the basic outlines of a much larger conspiracy. A conspiracy within which Valerie Plame played a relatively minor part.

And it all goes back to the those dreaded aluminum tubes. Let's get in our time machines and go back in time to September of 2002. The decision to invade in Iraq was probably made in April of 2002, but it was in August that the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) was formed. And they formulated the public relations strategy that would set the nation on a course for preemptive war. The media campaign began immediately after Labor Day. When Matt Miller, of the New York Times, asked chief-of-staff Andrew Card why they had waited until after Labor Day, Card responded with his infamous:

BooMan23

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Wednesday March 29, 2006 · 7:42 AM PST

2006/03/29 · 07:42

There is nothing I dislike more than our current crop of Republican leaders. But a close second are the Washington Elite Punditry. Whether it is Peggy Noonan or Maureen Dowd, Brit Hume or Alan Colmes, Paul Begala or Mary Matalin...I can't stand any of them. And I don't think I am alone in feeling this way. How can anybody like Cokie Roberts, for example? Or George Will? Wolf Blitzer is the biggest tool I've ever seen. Chris Matthews is the worst kind of suck-up. Donna Brazile? James Carville? Pat Buchanan? What's to like?

That's why I find articles like Jim VandeHei's today so distasteful.

VandeHei sees everything through the eyes of a Washington insider. And he sees the resignation of Andy Card as some kind of victory for the elite snobs that make it their job to advise Bush how to best implement his torture, his rendition, his crackdown on civil liberties, and his unholy war in a more palatable form.

Look at this crap: Read More

Thoughts on Iraq

BooMan23

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Monday March 27, 2006 · 7:48 AM PST

2006/03/27 · 07:48

[front-paged at Booman Tribune]

The President went to war in Iraq (according to the notes of David Manning, Tony Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time) because we could not allow Saddam to go on playing with us.

We can try to parse that turn of phrase as much as want, but Manning's five-page memo makes one thing clear:

The memo indicates the two leaders envisioned a quick victory and a transition to a new Iraqi government that would be complicated, but manageable. Mr. Bush predicted that it was "unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups." Mr. Blair agreed with that assessment.
The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Mr. Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein.

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Fred Hiatt: Dangerously Irresponsible

Saving the Presidency

Clifford May: Journalistic Asset of the OVP

The Myth of Zarqawi Confirmed

Judy Miller and the 2002 NIE

Declassification: Libby, Miller, Cheney, Bush

The Class of 2006

The Quotable Tom DeLay

Booman Tribune and Other Blogging Communities

Latest Waas on Plame: Aluminum Tubes

VandeHei: Bush and Pundits

Thoughts on Iraq