Playing the Clock
/in Bush Administration, War /by emptywheelI’ve been reviewing the events of Fall 2002 closely lately. And I gotta say, even four years later, I still get furious at the way the Bush Administration sprang the Iraq war "product" on Congress just before mid-term elections. Look at the way Wolf Blitzer responds, for example, when Condi tells him BushCo will push for an Iraq war vote before Congress goes home for the election.
BLITZER:Â When will you ask Congress for a resolution endorsing potential use of military force?
RICE: We’ll want to have discussions with the congressional leadershipand with others about the timing of this. But I believe that thepresident thinks it’s best to do this sooner rather than later and inthis session of Congress. This is a problem…
BLITZER:Â Excuse me for interrupting.Â
RICE:Â Yes?
BLITZER:Â You mean before the congressional recess in advance of the elections, within the next month or so.
RICE: Yes, that’s right, before the congressional recess, before thecongressional recess. I think the president has made clear that hewould like to have a full debate and a resolution, but we’re going todiscuss this with the members of Congress.
BLITZER:Â There’s a lot of explaining that members of Congress insist you still need to do.
If your cynicism is shocking Blitzer, you’re engaging in truly cynical behavior.
Which is why it gives me a sick pleasure to watch BushCo try to save their own arses from war crime prosecution push through their wiretapping and torture bills before the mid-terms.
Lying Us into War
/in War /by emptywheelNow THIS Is a Scoop
/in Press and Media, War /by emptywheelDavid Corn has posted the scoop that should have been the first teaser from his and Isikoff’s Hubris–a post detailing Valerie Plame’s role in the CIA. It turns out Plame managed the group tasked with studying Iraq’s WMDs, the Joint Iraq Task Force.
Though Cheney was already looking toward war, the officers of theagency’s Joint Task Force on Iraq–part of the CounterproliferationDivision of the agency’s clandestine Directorate of Operations–werefrantically toiling away in the basement, mounting espionage operationsto gather information on the WMD programs Iraq might have. The JTFI wastrying to find evidence that would back up the White House’s assertionthat Iraq was a WMD danger. Its chief of operations was a careerundercover officer named Valerie Wilson.
[snip]
In 1997 she returned to CIA headquarters and joined theCounterproliferation Division. (About this time, she moved in withJoseph Wilson; they later married.) She was eventually given a choice:North Korea or Iraq. She selected the latter. Come the spring of 2001,she was in the CPD’s modest Iraq branch. But that summer–before9/11–word came down from the brass: We’re ramping up on Iraq. Her unitwas expanded and renamed the Joint Task Force on Iraq. Within months of9/11, the JTFI grew to fifty or so employees. Valerie Wilson was placedin charge of its operations group.
Valerie Plame, Corn says, was in charge of the group that tried to develop assets who could tell them about Saddam’s WMD program.
What Tipped the Balance?
/8 Comments/in Foreign Policy, War /by emptywheelJohn Amato provides some perspective on the most ominous development of the week, when Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani announced that he can no longer restrain his followers. Sistani announced this in the last few days. But, as one of Amato’s readers pointed out, David Ignatius reported that Sistani was worried about this back in July.
David:.. the most important and powerful personality in Iraq issignaling the Bush administration this week that he is worried that thesituation in Iraq is spinning out of control. He is the crucial person.If he gives up on this effort-this effort is over…
So what happened in the interim? What tipped the balance?
Clearing the Air on Iran: Ledeen v. Cirincione
/in War /by emptywheelI’d like to recommend Teri Gross’ Fresh Air (Part One Part Two). She juxtaposed the Neocon crazyman Michael Ledeen with the sane Joseph Cirincione to show both sides in the battle over our next war, with Iran. But rather than simply expose Ledeen’s nuttiness, the juxtaposition served to show the holes in both the Neocon exhortations and the pragmatists’ rationality.
I knew it was going to be an intriguing program when I found myself almost immediately agreeing with Ledeen. He admitted that the tensions with Iran are not really about nuclear weapons. (Geez, I thought to myself, do you think maybe he could tell Bolton and the rest of the UN?) But then, predictably, I disagreed, this time when he explained we had been at war with Iran for 27 years. Ledeen, who calls himself a revolutionary, dates the start of our "war" with Iran to the moment when a bunch of revolutionaries overthrew an oppressive regime. Our oppressive regime.
When Teri challenged Ledeen to prove that we had been in a war with Iran for almost three decades, Ledeen at first named only four attacks (the hostage crisis in Iran, the Lebanese embassy bombing, the Marine barrack bombing, and the Khobar towers attack)–all but the one least verifiably tied to Iran occurring back when Ledeen was getting into trouble with Iran-Contra. Teri pointed out that was only four attacks, far in the past, so Ledeen grasped onto the insurgency in Iraq (including the largely discredited accusation that Iran is supplying the insurgents with IEDs) and the discredited claim that Iranian advisers were sitting besides the Hezbollah fighters as they shot rockets into Israel (thereby, betraying Ledeen’s belief that he sees Israel and the US as one and the same).
Who Decides If We Go to War?
/in Bush Administration, War /by emptywheelIn my post on Fred Fleitz’ Iran propaganda the other day, merciless asked how we can stop the Iran War. Which got me thinking of a different question–who decides if we go to war? There are a couple of factors playing into this that I think we’d all do well to suss out–because if we’re going to prevent this, we need to start working.
Chief among the factors is one I’ve been thinking about–and that Glenn Greenwald raises today. Does Bush believe he needs Congress’ agreement to go to war?
A somewhat overlooked part of President Bush’s Press Conferencethis week was his comments strongly suggesting that he believes only he– and not the Congress — has the power to decide when the war in Iraqends, as well as whether we will begin a new war with Iran. All of thedebates we are having about what to do about Iran and Iraq aremeaningless if the President believes (as he seems to) that all powerto decide these matters rests with him.
I agree with Greenwald. The Cheney Administration has probably already worked out the logic by which they go to war under the AUMF voted for Afghanistan. After all, going to war in Iran is just connecting the dots between war in Afghanistan and war in Iraq.
I’ve got a sliver of hope that Congress would take proactive action if they foresaw Bush doing this. Just a sliver, mind you. But if John Warner, Chair of the Armed Services Committee in the Senate, starts pushing the notion that we need a new authorization to use force if our troops are to stay in Iraq in the middle of civil war, then it’s clear they have at least begun thinking about these things.
Jim Marcinkowski on the Latest Iran Propaganda
/in War /by emptywheelMany of you will recognize the name of Jim Marcinkowski. He’s Valerie Plame’s classmate from the CIA–the guy who reported she was the best shot in their class with an AK-47. Well, he’s running against Mike Rogers in MI-8. Rogers is the head of the House Intell Subcommittee that produced the Iran propaganda we’ve all been talking about–the one John Bolton’s buddy Fred Fleitz fluffed together?
Well, as you can imagine, Jim has a few things to say about Rogers’ commitment to keeping our country safe.