Staging Nukes for Iran?

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Wednesday September 05, 2007 · 1:41 PM PDT

2007/09/05 · 13:41

By Larry Johnson (bio/blog)

Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That’s like getting excited if you see postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.

So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he told me offers one compelling case of circumstantial evidence. My buddy, let’s call him Jack D. Ripper, reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.

Then he told me something I had not heard before.

L C Johnson

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Tuesday August 21, 2007 · 6:29 PM PDT

2007/08/21 · 18:29

by
Larry C Johnson (bio/blog)

Wow and wow! Today's release of the 2005 report by the CIA's Inspector General is a damning indictment of senior CIA officials, including George Tenet, his deputy John McLaughlin, and Cofer Black, head of the Counter Terrorism Center, for their collective failure to properly organize intelligence community resources and establish priorities to deal with the threat posed by Al Qaeda prior to 9-11.

And yes, before the trolls get rolling, I acknowledge that I wrote an op-ed in July 2001 complaining about our inordinate fear of terrorism. However, my article did not say we should ignore Al Qaeda or that Al Qaeda was not a threat. To the contrary, Milt Bearden and I wrote a piece in November 2000 that very clearly identified Bin Laden as one of the central threats the next President would have to and should confront. So for those who want to argue that I'm somehow responsible for the CIA failures in 2000-2001, it is not true and it is an irrelevant point.

L C Johnson

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Monday August 13, 2007 · 10:46 AM PDT

2007/08/13 · 10:46

by
Larry C Johnson (bio/blog)

So Karl wants to spend more time with his family? Maybe folks ought to ask whether the family wants to spend time with him. Josh Marshall at Talkinpointsmemo.com correctly notes:

Of course, if there's more to this resignation, it's not necessarily that easy to narrow down the list of possibilities since Rove is connected to pretty much every instance of high-level wrongdoing. And then there's the extra added wrinkle that if anything the White House's ability to keep Rove off the witness stand is decreased, if only marginally, by his leaving the White House. With the recent news of cutbacks on funding of human intelligence in the intel budget, there's the possibility that there were no more CIA agents whose cover could be blown and he decided to move on to greener pastures.

Jack Abramoff has been telling friends and family in the last few months that Karl Rove was going down because he is implicated in the bribery investigations.

L C Johnson

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Friday August 03, 2007 · 8:12 AM PDT

2007/08/03 · 08:12

by
Larry C Johnson (bio/blog)

We are now officially in crazyland. Alice's rabbit hole is open and we are in freefall. There is no other explanation for the illogical, bizarre decision issued today by Judge Barbara Jones of the Southern District of New York, whose opinion divorced facts from the law. Her decision upholds the Bush Administration's plea for a summary judgment denying Valerie the right to write in her forthcoming book that she worked at the CIA in a sensitive undercover position from 1985 until outed by the same Bush Administration in July of 2003.

Here are the facts of the case as laid out in a motion filed by Valerie's lawyers requesting summary judgment:

Valerie Wilson's Request for Summary Judgment

L C Johnson

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Tuesday July 17, 2007 · 9:20 AM PDT

2007/07/17 · 09:20

by
Larry C Johnson
(blog/bio - PLEASE NOTE NEW BLOG ADDRESS for No Quarter & PLEASE UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS)

The ethnic cleansing of Baghdad is well advanced and the United States does not have the military force in place to alter the course of these events without engaging in a full scale war against the militias of Moqtada al Sadr and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. By the end of September the various Shia militias will control close to 90% of the city.

So what? For starters it is no coincidence that the Green Zone has sustained multiple mortar bombardments in the last couple of weeks. The bombardment comes in the wake of stepped up U.S. military assaults against Shia targets in eastern Baghdad. The simple fact that the mortars can be fired seemingly at will into the Green Zone without effective counter battery highlights the limited operational capability of the U.S. forces that have "surged" into Baghdad.

L C Johnson

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Thursday July 12, 2007 · 4:23 PM PDT

2007/07/12 · 16:23

by L C Johnson (bio/blog)

I WILL BE A GUEST on Paula Zahn's show at approximately 8:15 pm tonight.

.....................

Imagine it is October 27, 1947. Why October 27, 1947? Because that date is 2128 days from December 7, 1941 and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. So what? Today, 12 July 2007, marks 2128 days since Al Qaeda attacked us on 11 September 2001.

Can we envision President Harry Truman holding a press conference to discuss trumpet the progress in the war against Japan while the leaders of Japan remained untouched? Would Truman offer an upbeat presentation if the United States is unable to quell the violence wracking Japan?

L C Johnson

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Wednesday July 11, 2007 · 12:48 PM PDT

2007/07/11 · 12:48

by
Larry C Johnson (bio/blog)

Where is Paul Revere when you need him? Surely someone should ride and alert the neighbors. AL QAEDA IS COMING!! AL QAEDA IS COMING!! Apparently not content to let the Brits have all the fear factor fun, the Bush Administration is jumping on board the scary train. Booooooo, Al Qaeda. Sure glad that no matter what we do to fight the terrorists (you know, fight them over there . . .) those tenacious bastards make zombies look lazy and unfocused. No matter how many we kill they keep coming and keep organizing.

So here is the story courtesy of ABC's Brian Ross:

Senior U.S. intelligence officials tell ABC News new intelligence suggests a small al Qaeda cell is on its way to the United States, or may already be here.

But, according to the White House, there is no credible evidence of an imminent threat.

L C Johnson

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Tuesday July 10, 2007 · 3:25 PM PDT

2007/07/10 · 15:25

by
Larry Johnson (blog/bio)

The devil is in the details and the details look bad. Despite the sunny optimism of delusional Senators like John McCain and Joe Lieberman, the ground truth in Iraq gritty, grim, and trending toward disaster. Consider these two items:

07/09/07 usatoday: Attacks rise on supply convoys
Attacks on supply convoys protected by private security companies in Iraq have more than tripled as the U.S. government depends more on armed civilian guards to secure reconstruction and other missions. There were 869 such attacks from...

L C Johnson

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Saturday July 07, 2007 · 11:23 AM PDT

2007/07/07 · 11:23

by
Larry C Johnson (bio/blog)

David Brooks' appearance last night on the Jim Lehrer Newshour dashed all hope that the man would recover his integrity. As some may recall I sent Mr. Brooks a letter on Wednesday chiding him for intellectual dishonesty for insisting there was no harm and no issue with respect to the outing of CIA covert officer, Valerie Plame Wilson. Since Mr. Brooks lives just around the corner it was a snap to deliver the letter.

Well, here is what he said tonight on the Jim Lehrer Newshour:

L C Johnson

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Thursday July 05, 2007 · 8:43 AM PDT

2007/07/05 · 08:43

by
Larry C Johnson (bio/blog)

Received a copy of David Corn's latest brilliance. He takes NY Times columnist David Brooks to task and schools him.

What David Corn did not know is that Mr. Brooks lives about 250 feet from my front door. So I took the opportunity to pen the following note, welcoming him to the neighborhood, and giving him a copy of Mr. Corn's excellent work. Here is my letter, which I dropped off yesterday:

3 July 2007
Larry Johnson
Bethesda, MD 20817

David (Brooks),

Read your NY Times piece today and felt compelled to comment a little more in depth. You are correct in one respect, Plamegate is farce, but not in the way you imagine. The farce is that folks like you are making farfetched excuses for perjury and obstruction of justice. You piece today is dishonest on so many levels. Fortunately, David Corn’s wit and imagination provide the appropriate skewering of your nonsense. I’ve attached a copy.

L C Johnson

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Monday July 02, 2007 · 8:48 AM PDT

2007/07/02 · 08:48

by
Larry C Johnson (bio/blog)

NOTE: THIS IS TWO POSTS IN ONE.

Boy howdy, did we open up some troll bait or what? [See comments in my NoQuarter post, "Glasgow's Burning--Run For Your Lives."] I apologize for not responding in a more timely manner to the flood of comments but I was in Williamsburg, Virginia attending the wedding of a CIA colleague's daughter. Great wedding and terrific barbecue. But I digress.

So where do we stand? Maybe it is time to give Tony Blair and George Bush some credit for a solid achievement in the war on terror--the current lot of muslim extremists in the UK had major problems building a reliable, effective incendiary device. Is Al Qaeda on the decline? Remember when they could do a simultaneous bomb attack in Kenya and Tanzania? And now? They could only torch one Land Rover and part of the overhang at Glasgow's International Airport.

L C Johnson

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Friday June 29, 2007 · 8:31 AM PDT

2007/06/29 · 08:31

by
Larry C Johnson (bio/blog)

Update [2007-6-29 17:42:38 by L C Johnson]: I will be on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight, probably in the fourth segment.

[ADDITIONAL UPDATE BELOW.]

So I turn on the telly this morning and find breathless CNN anchors hyperventilating over the nuclear suicide car weapon of mass destruction discovered smoldering outside of a London nightclub. One report from the scene notes that:

London police were contacted when witnesses saw a Mercedes being driven erratically near London West End night club Tiger Tiger, and the driver jumped out of the automobile and ran away. The car was reported to have two gasoline canisters and be full of nails.

CNN adds:

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