Rumsfeld Sued; Chalabi Arrest Rumors; Republican Dictionary; Not in Our Name Pledge of Resistance
In what could prove to become a public relations fiasco for the Bush Administration, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been accused of war crimes in Germany. There has to be at least some substance to this story - Rumsfeld has withdrawn from the Munich Security Conference, which was to be held in Munich, Germany, this February. Immediately after the complaint was filed, Rumsfeld withdrew because of the possibility of being arrested if he were to step foot in Germany. I have not seen or heard much coverage of this story in the mainstream media, but this could prove to be a costly blow to the already ailing public opinion of the Bush Administration.
On Day 1 of the new presidential term, the Bush administration has an approval rating of 49%, the majority of Americans now believe the increasingly unpopular war in was a mistake, and the secretary of defense is being charged with committing war crimes. Do these guys honestly think they have a mandate. President Bush had to wear a kevlar vest, and spend over twelve million dollars on security for one day in order to make a public appearance -- We have a president that is so frightened of the threat imposed by his own people that they ordered all workers at the event that they were not allowed to look at the president, and that they would be individually escorted by security to the restroom facilities.
Here are some sources on the Rumsfeld War Crimes Story: Rumsfeld Scraps Munich Visit over War Probe (Expatica.com), Rumsfeld Avoids Munich Trip Fearing War Crimes (The Left Coaster), Rumsfeld Cancels Trip to Germany (Daily Kos), Rumsfeld Cancels Visit After War Crimes Accusations (Al-Jazeera). See also Center for constitutional Rights.
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Ahmed Chalabi, one of the key articles of intelligence used by the Bush Administration in their argument for the war, has been involved in rumors swirling this weekend stating that he will be arrested at some point in the imminent future. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC) was responsible for feeding the CIA hundreds of pages of false intelligence in the lead up to the war. The Pentagon was paying the INC approximately $335 per month for this false intelligence. One of Chalabi's top officials, a defector codenamed "Curveball" was one of the chief sources of intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
In addition, Chalabi was later found to be leaking US intelligence secrets to Iraq, including the fact that the United States had cracked a Iranian Code, which was a major source of intelligence for the United States.
For a refresher course on the history of Chalabi's involvement with the United States, I recommend John Dizard's article, How Ahmed Chalabi conned the Neocons, from Salon.com
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The past couple days, I have been blogging about the subject of media bias, talking points, and the effect that right wing think tanks and constant accusations of "liberal media bias" have had on our media, and the unfair playing field that this has created in the American political environment. Today, I happened to stumble across a Daily Kos blog entry, entitled Republican Dictionary, which does a great job of highlighting some of the talking points and jingoisms produced by the Republican Noise Machine. The original source of this project is actually The Nation, which started in the Editor's Cut, and continued into the GOP Dictionary Project.
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If you have an extra minute, I recommend taking a look at the Not In Our Name Pledge of Resistance.
On Day 1 of the new presidential term, the Bush administration has an approval rating of 49%, the majority of Americans now believe the increasingly unpopular war in was a mistake, and the secretary of defense is being charged with committing war crimes. Do these guys honestly think they have a mandate. President Bush had to wear a kevlar vest, and spend over twelve million dollars on security for one day in order to make a public appearance -- We have a president that is so frightened of the threat imposed by his own people that they ordered all workers at the event that they were not allowed to look at the president, and that they would be individually escorted by security to the restroom facilities.
Here are some sources on the Rumsfeld War Crimes Story: Rumsfeld Scraps Munich Visit over War Probe (Expatica.com), Rumsfeld Avoids Munich Trip Fearing War Crimes (The Left Coaster), Rumsfeld Cancels Trip to Germany (Daily Kos), Rumsfeld Cancels Visit After War Crimes Accusations (Al-Jazeera). See also Center for constitutional Rights.
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Ahmed Chalabi, one of the key articles of intelligence used by the Bush Administration in their argument for the war, has been involved in rumors swirling this weekend stating that he will be arrested at some point in the imminent future. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC) was responsible for feeding the CIA hundreds of pages of false intelligence in the lead up to the war. The Pentagon was paying the INC approximately $335 per month for this false intelligence. One of Chalabi's top officials, a defector codenamed "Curveball" was one of the chief sources of intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
In addition, Chalabi was later found to be leaking US intelligence secrets to Iraq, including the fact that the United States had cracked a Iranian Code, which was a major source of intelligence for the United States.
For a refresher course on the history of Chalabi's involvement with the United States, I recommend John Dizard's article, How Ahmed Chalabi conned the Neocons, from Salon.com
----------------------
The past couple days, I have been blogging about the subject of media bias, talking points, and the effect that right wing think tanks and constant accusations of "liberal media bias" have had on our media, and the unfair playing field that this has created in the American political environment. Today, I happened to stumble across a Daily Kos blog entry, entitled Republican Dictionary, which does a great job of highlighting some of the talking points and jingoisms produced by the Republican Noise Machine. The original source of this project is actually The Nation, which started in the Editor's Cut, and continued into the GOP Dictionary Project.
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If you have an extra minute, I recommend taking a look at the Not In Our Name Pledge of Resistance.
posted by markh100 at
7:02 PM
