The NYT reports that the prisoners of the Gitmo Gulag are at best small potatoes — most having nothing to do with Al Qaeda at all — and that the Pentagon and Dubya administration have continually overstated the detainees’ level of knowledge about Al Qaeda in order to justify the continued existence of the Guantanamo camp. “‘It’s like going to a prison in upstate to find out what’s happening on the streets of New York,’ a counterterrorism official with knowledge of Guantanamo intelligence said. ‘The guys in there might know some stuff. But they haven’t been part of what’s going on for a few years.’” When it comes to the War on Terror, is there anything the Bush administration doesn’t lie about anymore?
Category: The Dubya Era
Bouncetime for Bonzo.
Dubya jumps in the polls after Reagan’s photo-op funeral, and decides to celebrate by lying about Iraq and 9/11 all over again. C’mon, y’all Republican moralists out there…Where’s the outrage? Clinton was impeached for far less, and we already know the Baptists won’t put up much of a fuss.
More trouble for Dubya.
The 9/11 commission concludes that Iraq had nothing to do with Al Qaeda and the planning of the September 11 attacks. Wow, are you serious? Who knew?
He just doesn’t get it.
“Never in the two and a quarter centuries of our history has the United States been so isolated among the nations, so broadly feared and distrusted.” A bipartisan group of 26 diplomats and military men call out Dubya Diplomacy for causing irreparable harm to the republic, and the statement is heady stuff. “The Bush Administration has shown that it does not grasp these circumstances of the new era, and is not able to rise to the responsibilities of world leadership in either style or substance. It is time for a change.“
Mars, Inc.
A White House Commission on NASA will recommend increased privatization as part of the space agency’s upcoming redesign. At first glance, this sounds like Dubya kicking more money back to his favorite companies. That being said, my lefty-leaning friends who work in the aerospace industry have told me that NASA’s current culture is far too risk-averse and bureaucratic to ever be very efficient, and that privatization may be the only way to make continued space exploration feasible. If so, I guess I’m for it.
Flattering 42.
“‘Bill Clinton could always see a better day ahead and Americans knew he was working hard to bring that day closer,’ Bush said. ‘Over eight years it was clear that Bill Clinton loved the job of the presidency. He filled this house with energy and joy. He’s a man of enthusiasm and warmth, who could make a compelling case and effectively advance the causes that drew him to public service.’” At the unveiling of the Clinton presidential portraits, Bush effusively praises his predecessor. Very nice of ya, Dubya, but you’re still not getting my Bud Light…or my vote. Nor do I expect such flattery to defang Clinton on his forthcoming book tour.
The Art of the Kickback.
Meanwhile, Dubya has less to say about a sweetheart corporate tax package being pushed through Congress by the GOP, one that offers ridiculous handouts to various Republican-leaning business special interests. “[W]hat started as an effort to repeal a $5 billion-a-year subsidy has grown into one of the most significant corporate tax measures in years. The Senate bill, 980 pages long, includes more than $167 billion in business tax cuts over 10 years, handing out favors to NASCAR racetracks, foreign dog-race gamblers, Oldsmobile dealers and bow-and-arrow makers, to name a few.” Hmmm…might be time to invest in bow-and-arrow futures. Update: The bill passes the House.
Dubya to the Dogs.
While authorization for attack dog intimidation techniques implicate intelligence higher-ups in the horrors of Abu Ghraib, Bush gets legalistic to (not) explain the pro-torture policies emanating from his administration. Hmmm. I bet the White House is wishing Reagan could die every week right now.
Breaking Away.
John Kerry pulls ahead by 11 over Dubya nationwide (although it’s only 6 if you throw in Nader, and the math gets more dicey in swing states.) Still, once Reagan Week draws to a close, Dubya and his neocon minions will have nowhere to hide.
1600 Pennsylvania’s Room 101.
I missed most of the recent discoveries about Dubya’s pro-torture policy changes during my cable outage, but Value Judgment has birddogged a nice Washington Post editorial that sums up the story so far. “There is no justification, legal or moral, for the judgments made by Mr. Bush’s political appointees at the Justice and Defense departments. Theirs is the logic of criminal regimes, of dictatorships around the world that sanction torture on grounds of ‘national security.’“