Dick Cheney Prepares to Fearmonger Again on Aluminum Tube Day

Richard_Cheney_2005_official_portraitOn September 8, 2002, the paper copy of the NYT published this story:

More than a decade after Saddam Hussein agreed to give up weapons of mass destruction, Iraq has stepped up its quest for nuclear weapons and has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb, Bush administration officials said today.

In the last 14 months, Iraq has sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes, which American officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium. American officials said several efforts to arrange the shipment of the aluminum tubes were blocked or intercepted but declined to say, citing the sensitivity of the intelligence, where they came from or how they were stopped.

The diameter, thickness and other technical specifications of the aluminum tubes had persuaded American intelligence experts that they were meant for Iraq’s nuclear program, officials said, and that the latest attempt to ship the material had taken place in recent months.

Scooter Libby’s grand jury testimony strongly suggested Condi Rice was one source for the article. On the 8th, Rice and Dick Cheney took to the Sunday shows to fearmonger in support of war on Iraq, citing back to the NYT article.

”From a marketing point of view,” Andy Card boasted of his PR approach once, ”you don’t introduce new products in August.”

Which is why Aluminum Tube Day is such a wonderful time to roll out a war: one of the first days in September after everyone has returned from their Labor Day holidays.

Admittedly, the fearmongers are already heavily pushing propaganda, using some of the same tired tactics. They’re even getting National Defense University professors to attack the experts supporting — or even just demanding necessary underlying details before condemning — the Iran deal. With more and more Democratic senators announcing support for the Iran deal, Aluminum Tube Day may well be too late to fearmonger this deal.

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But that won’t stop Dick Cheney (and his fellow Iraq War shill Danielle Pletka) from celebrating Aluminum Tube Day by fearmongering again at American Enterprise Institute.

How will you celebrate the 13th anniversary of the kick-off of Iraq War fearmongering?

 

 

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14 replies
  1. orionATL says:

    aliminum tube day ?

    well then we’re going to also have to have a national flag-draped coffin day,
    .
    also in memory of vice-president cheney and henchmen scooter libby and david addington,
    .
    in memory as well,
    .
    of donnyboy rumsfeld and hencemen stephen cambone, doug feith, paul wolfowitz, et al.

  2. orionATL says:

    the nytimes story is by star reporters michael gordon and judith miller.

    those were heady times.

    oh, the memories.

  3. P J Evans says:

    I’m going to wish that Cheney be returned to his earth-filled coffin and left there for eternity.

    Srsly, they know he lied us into two wars we’re going to be paying for, for decades, in money and broken lives: they have no excuse for giving him any position to speak.

    • orionATL says:

      lied and lied !

      (and plotted and plotted )

      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3249.htm – re: the pnac document “rebuilding america’s defenses”

      – sourcewatch commentary on this key pnac document: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Project_for_the_New_American_Century
      .
      .
      [… Among the key conclusions of PNAC’s defense strategy document (Rebuilding America’s Defenses) were the following [4]:

      – “Develop and deploy global missile defenses to defend the American homeland and American allies, and to provide a secure basis for U.S. power projection around the world.”
      .
      – “Control the new ‘international commons’ of space and ‘cyberspace,’ and pave the way for the creation of a new military service–U.S. Space Forces–with the mission of space control.”
      .

      – “Increase defense spending, adding $15 billion to $20 billion to total defense spending annually.”
      .

      – “Exploit the ‘revolution in military affairs’ [transformation to high-tech, unmanned weaponry] to insure the long-term superiority of U.S. conventional forces.”
      .

      – “Need to develop a new family of nuclear weapons designed to address new sets of military requirements” complaining that the U.S. has “virtually ceased development of safer and more effective nuclear weapons.”
      .

      – “Facing up to the realities of multiple constabulary missions that will require a permanent allocation of U.S. forces.”
      .

      – “America must defend its homeland” by “reconfiguring its nuclear force” and by missile defense systems that “counteract the effects of the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction.”
      .

      – “Need for a larger U.S. security perimeter” and the U.S. “should seek to establish a network of ‘deployment bases’ or ‘forward operating bases’ to increase the reach of current and future forces,” citing the need to move beyond Western Europe and Northeast Asia to increased permanent military presence in Southeast Asia and “other regions of East Asia.” Necessary “to cope with the rise of China to great-power status.”
      .

      – Redirecting the U.S. Air Force to move “toward a global first-strike force.”
      .

      – End the Clinton administration’s “devotion” to the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.
      .

      – “North Korea, Iran, Iraq, or similar states [should not be allowed] to undermine American leadership, intimidate American allies, or threaten the American homeland itself.”
      .

      – “Main military missions” necessary to “preserve Pax Americana” and a “unipolar 21st century” are the following: “secure and expand zones of democratic peace, deter rise of new great-power competitor, defend key regions (Europe, East Asia, Middle East), and exploit transformation of war.”
      .
      .
      According to the PNAC report, “The American peace has proven itself peaceful, stable, and durable. Yet no moment in international politics can be frozen in time: even a global Pax Americana will not preserve itself.” To preserve this “American peace” through the 21st century, the PNAC report concludes that the global order “must have a secure foundation on unquestioned U.S. military preeminence.” The report struck a prescient note when it observed that “the process of transformation is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event–like a new Pearl Harbor.”
      .
      .
      Many of PNAC’s conclusions and recommendations were reflected in the White House’s National Security Strategy document of September 2002, which reflects the “peace through strength” credo that shapes PNAC strategic thinking.…]

      presidential candidate jeb bush was a signatory to the original pnac (project for the new american century) document.

      as part of his 2015 presidential campaign, jeb bush has started up this entire “america is now so unprepared, weak, and unsafe” pnac argument all over again.

      2002 here we come.

      • orionATL says:

        i don’t know if i’m being unfair or not, but i’d swear at least some of this pnac stuff sounds like a barack obama foreign policy menu.

  4. orionATL says:

    e.w. –

    evesdropping.

    get a food mill. parboil all small tomatos. make tomato juice with the mill. cook fresh juice if your tastes require or it’s too watety. a garden cayenne or a couple of jalapenos a nice addition to the cooking pot if you lean that way.

    lots of salt required.

    delicious.

    o.k., worchestershire if you must. and/or vodka (bmaz probably would use tequilla) in the a.m.

  5. Person1597 says:

    Celebrate counterfactual day! Ken Lay beats the short list for sec’y of energy…

    The DOE therefore concludes that “while the gas centrifuge application cannot be ruled out, we assess that the procurement activity more likely supports a different application, such as conventional ordnance production approximately $12.6 billion in conventional fossil fuel tax benefits for the five year period 1998-2002…. In comparison, prosecuting a very short oil war would only cost the treasury $134 Million.”

  6. wallace says:

    quote”How will you celebrate the 13th anniversary of the kick-off of Iraq War fearmongering?”unquote

    First, after hanging a full size effigy of Cheney to the closest point of virtual death, I’ll lower the body to the drawing and quartering table. After cutting out the donated heart, and throwing it in the boiling hot cauldron of Bushes blood, I’ll quarter it, and send each quarter to the furthest reaches of the homeland, where each quarter will rest on a pike, until the stench refutes even the rats. All the while consuming the best Michigan cult beer, laughing and dancing around the fire of Murikan exceptionalism.

  7. wallace says:

    ps.. for every innocent human being on this planet who has died in horrendous death, from Cheney’s, Bush’s, Obama’s and every other psychopathic tyrants wrath, who’s insidious, depraved and psychopathic worship of power and legal imperialism continues to reap horror and death across this planet, I, at the end of my life, can only pray that Revelations will reap upon them and their progeny, the most unrelenting pain and suffering the human body has ever known. So be it.

  8. Peterr says:

    How will you celebrate the 13th anniversary of the kick-off of Iraq War fearmongering?

    .
    I think I’ll bake a yellow cake.

Comments are closed.