Walter C Uhler » Entries tagged with "al Qaeda"
Why Bush, Cheney and the Neocons Failed to Protect America from al-Qaeda’s Vicious Attacks
Today is 9/11. After I read Kurt Eichenwald’s New York Times Op-ed, “The Deafness Before the Storm” ( http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/the-bush-white-house-was-deaf-to-9-11-warnings.html?ref=opinion ), all the memories came back. Also coming back were all the infuriating memories suggesting that the Bush administration’s obsession with removing Saddam Hussein from power created a national security black hole into which sank all the bubbling intelligence about the increasing threat posed by al-Qaeda. Mr. Eichenwald’s Op-ed is an eye-opener. Although everyone capable of steaming up a mirror (when placed under his nose) knows about the August 6th daily brief titled, “bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.,” Eichenwald demonstrates that President Bush received more daily briefings about the threat posed by al-Qaeda than previously imagined. “The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in the spring … Read entire article »
Filed under: American History, Bush Administration, Current Events
Were Baghdad’s Female Suicide Bombers Mentally Retarded?
On February 1, 2008, two female suicide bombers killed some 91 people and wounded another 150 at Baghdad pet markets. The two coordinated explosions marked the bloodiest day in the Iraqi capital during the past six months. Coming on the heels of increased U.S. military deaths in Iraq in January, after four months of declines, the bombings raised new doubts about the wild-eyed claims made by President Bush and Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, that the surge is working and the U.S. is winning in Iraq. But, almost immediately, Iraq’s chief military spokesman in Baghdad claimed that the female bombers appeared to be mentally retarded. Allegedly, an examination of the severed head of one of the bombers led to the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Iraq War
Earth to Bush: “The Chaos in Iraq You Now Decry was Caused By You!”
Having watched our pathetic president’s July 12th news conference concerning the “Initial Benchmark Assessment Report,” I felt the urge to applaud Helen Thomas for verbally assaulting George W. Bush for the war criminal and mass murderer that he is. God bless her for asking: “Mr. President, you started this war, this war of your choosing, and you can end it alone, today, at this point…Don’t you accept – don’t you understand, we brought the Al Qaida into Iraq?” Bush, of course, lied to Ms. Thomas when he claimed Saddam Hussein “chose the course” compelling Bush’s invasion by ignoring the warning from the UN Security Council: “Disclose, disarm or face serious consequences.” But, “disclose, disarm” what? As virtually every individual on planet … Read entire article »
Filed under: Bush Administration, Iraq War
Confronting the “Cut and Run” Slander of Bush’s Praetorian Guard
With elections but little more than a month away, President Bush’s do-nothing Republican majority in both houses of Congress is up for grabs. And, thus, so is a genuine investigation into the Bush administration’s lies, deceit and crimes concerning Iraq — especially its “Chicken Little” clamoring about weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda that, as we would learn later, didn’t actually exist. Also requiring investigation, however, is the extraordinary military incompetence at the strategic level – at the Rumsfeld level — that allowed an illusory “Mission Accomplished” to degenerate into: (1) widespread looting and infrastructure destruction, (2) an ever- flourishing and now unbeatable insurgency, (3) torture by American soldiers in violation of the Geneva Conventions, (4) tens … Read entire article »
Filed under: Bush Administration, Iraq War, Politics
Deceit About Iraq: “Things Related and Not”
Hitting First: Preventive Force in U.S. Security Policy Ed. by William W. Keller and Gordon R. Mitchell University of Pittsburg Press, September 2006, 368 pp., $27.95 As they did during the mid-term congressional election campaign of 2002 and the presidential election campaign of 2004, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld are once again attempting to scare Americans into voting for Republicans in November. They certainly should, because their very political lives depend upon November’s outcome. But, what’s astounding — given their massive campaign of deceit about Iraq — is the thought that they still possess even an ounce of residual credibility with either the news media or the electorate. After all, Mr. Bush trumpeted false claims about Iraq’s possession of weapons … Read entire article »
Filed under: Book Reviews, Bush Administration, Foreign Policy, Iraq War
“Fixed” Intelligence from Feith’s “Gestapo Office,” the CIA and the Bush Administration’s Impeachable Lies about Iraq’s Prewar Links to al Qaeda
Except in the cynical, zealous or spiritually clouded minds of his right wing devotees, it’s become a well-established (if under reported) fact that President George W. Bush is a serial liar, if not a congenital liar.1 For example, after The New York Times very belatedly leaked Mr. Bush’s unconstitutional order permitting the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens without obtaining the required court-approved warrants, Bush defended his directive as a “vital tool” in the war against terrorism. But, as liars commonly do, Bush seems to have forgotten that in April 2004 he told an audience in Buffalo, New York: “When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so.” He also … Read entire article »
Filed under: Bush Administration, Iraq War
Podhoretz’s Bad Faith Distorts Iraq’s Prewar al Qaeda Links
For nearly two decades, from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, I purchased annual subscriptions to Commentary magazine, edited by Norman Podhoretz. Not that I fell for Podhoretz’s neoconservative ideology, his inveterate anti-Sovietism, Israeli chauvinism or incessant rants about the “present danger.” Indeed, five of my numerous scathing letters of dissent to the periodical were published (Feb. 1978, Dec. 1990, Dec.1993, Oct.1994 and Aug. 1996). No, although I almost always could predict Podhoretz’s (and Commentary’s) line of argumentation before I read his (and its) articles, I read the magazine for the sake of my own intellectual integrity. And I only ceased subscribing and reading when I came to doubt the intellectual integrity of its editor and many of its writers. Nudging … Read entire article »
Filed under: Bush Administration, Foreign Policy, Iraq War
The Nation: Editor's Picks
- Why Investors Must Do More Than Divest From Fossil Fuels June 17, 2013 Dan Apfel
- The Making of a Global Security State June 17, 2013 Tom Engelhardt
- Will Obama Blow His Chance With Iran's New President? June 17, 2013 Bob Dreyfuss