Blowing Cheney's Cover

11 April 2006

By Ray Mcgovern

A nice rundown of the Niger Uranium bogus intelligence: where it came from, who pushed it and why.

No Breach Seen in Work in Iraq on Propaganda

22 March 2006

By Thom Shanker

More on how the US has hired a PR firm to plant propaganda in Iraqi papers and

pay reporters for the "right" kind of story.

Clarke's Take on Terror

    After the president returned to the White House on Sept. 11, he and his top advisers, including

Clarke, began holding meetings about how to respond and retaliate. As Clarke writes in his book,

he expected the administration to focus its military response on Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

He says he was surprised that the talk quickly turned to Iraq.

    "Rumsfeld was saying that we needed to bomb Iraq," Clarke said to Stahl. "And we all said ... no, no.

Al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan. We need to bomb Afghanistan. And Rumsfeld said there aren't any good targets

in Afghanistan. And there are lots of good targets in Iraq. I said, 'Well, there are lots of good

targets in lots of places, but Iraq had nothing to do with it.

    "Initially, I thought when he said, 'There aren't enough targets in-- in Afghanistan,' I thought he was joking.

    "I think they wanted to believe that there was a connection, but the CIA was sitting there, the FBI was sitting

there, I was sitting there saying we've looked at this issue for years. For years we've looked and there's just

no connection."

Downing Street Memos

Downing Street Memos

White House Questioning

Q: Thank you, sir. On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street memo from July

2002 says intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam

through military action. Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of

you respond?

PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: Well, I can respond to that very easily. No, the facts were

not being fixed in any shape or form at all. And let me remind you that that memorandum

was written before we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately

the discussions that we were conducting as two countries at the time than me. And the

fact is we decided to go to the United Nations and went through that process, which

resulted in the November 2002 United Nations resolution, to give a final chance to Saddam

Hussein to comply with international law. He didn't do so. And that was the reason why we

had to take military action.

But all the way through that period of time, we were trying to look for a way of managing

to resolve this without conflict. As it happened, we weren't able to do that because -- as

I think was very clear -- there was no way that Saddam Hussein was ever going to change the

way that he worked, or the way that he acted.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I -- you know, I read kind of the characterizations of the memo,

particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his race. I'm not sure who "they

dropped it out" is, but -- I'm not suggesting that you all dropped it out there. (Laughter.)

And somebody said, well, you know, we had made up our mind to go to use military force to deal

with Saddam. There's nothing farther from the truth.

My conversation with the Prime Minister was, how could we do this peacefully, what could we do.

And this meeting, evidently, that took place in London happened before we even went to the

United Nations -- or I went to the United Nations. And so it's -- look, both us of didn't want

to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option. The

consequences of committing the military are -- are very difficult. The hardest things I do as

the President is to try to comfort families who've lost a loved one in combat. It's the last

option that the President must have -- and it's the last option I know my friend had, as well.

And so we worked hard to see if we could figure out how to do this peacefully, take a -- put a

united front up to Saddam Hussein, and say, the world speaks, and he ignored the world. Remember,

1441 passed the Security Council unanimously. He made the decision. And the world is better off

without Saddam Hussein in power.

Note: The referenced UN resolution, 1441, does not in any way support a unilateral invasion

of the country. To somehow connect the resolution which vested the outcome in the UN with Bush's

own decision seems misleading, to say the least.

Guardian Unlimited

Iraq timeline: July 16 1979 to January 31 2004

BBC Online

 Iraq intelligence: New questions?

In These Times

Iraq Intelligence Timeline

Al-Jazeera

Changing Face of Iraq

US statements made as the war began.

Iraq's Real WMD Crime

Concerning the effects of depleted Uranium used by the US.

Battle for Hearts and Minds: Timeline

Online News Hour

Investigating Prewar Intelligence

Be sure to read the very fine analysis from Judith Miller, professional shill/mouthpiece without an ounce of

credibility in this oh-so-jaded postwar world.

And then go here to read how she was full of shit.

Wikipedia

Senate Report of Pre-War Intelligence on Iraq

Approximately Perfect

Iraqi Report Roundup

Frontline

Interview with James Fallows

This concerns the postwar policies and how Rumsfeld failed on so many levels.

60 Minutes

A Spy Speaks Out

21 April 2006