According to National Security Agency historian Robert Hanyok, his recent work outlining a deliberate NSA cover-up following the Gulf of Tonkin incident has been suppressed by the agency since 2001, in part because of Weaponsgate. “He said N.S.A. historians began pushing for public release in 2002, after Mr. Hanyok included his Tonkin Gulf findings in a 400-page, in-house history of the agency and Vietnam called ‘Spartans in Darkness.’ Though superiors initially expressed support for releasing it, the idea lost momentum as Iraq intelligence was being called into question, the official said.“
Category: The Dubya Era
“Scalito”‘s Way.
Dubya kicks off his first post-indictment week by throwing chum to the right-wing fundies and nominating Samuel A. Alito, Jr. to the Supreme Court. So far, he sounds more John Roberts than Harriet Miers, but “[u]nlike Roberts, he has opined from the bench on abortion rights, church-state separation and gender discrimination to the pleasure of conservatives and displeasure of liberals.” Well, if the White House wants a battle to shore up its right flank, it looks like they’re going to get it.
The aspens have turned.
But how deep go the roots? As you know by now, Vice-Presidential Chief of Staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby (a.k.a. “Cheney’s Cheney“) has been indicted on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements. (So much for “restoring honor and dignity to the White House.”) As for the other rumored indictment, it seems Karl Rove has slipped off the hook for the time being, but the investigation continues…
Tehran talks terror.
As if the revelations of Syria’s role in the Hariri assassination weren’t disturbing enough, now the recently-elected president of Iran, a state with nuclear ambitions, is making nightmarish and freakshow statements reasserting the goal of Israel’s destruction. With rhetoric escalating and five years of Dubya’s “with-us-or-against-us” diplomacy helping to shore up hardliners across the Middle East, it seems Iraq may soon be the least of our problems in the region.
A Slight DeLay.
In something of a preemptive strike, Boss DeLay admits he underreported contributions to his legal defense fund in 2000. “It was not an ethical lapse, it was a bookkeeping lapse. I did not review the reports thoroughly enough,” says Brent Perry, trustee of the fund. Too little, too late, Boss Delay. This piddling and delinquent admission won’t help you in Texas, or dissuade the Abramoff investigation at your door.
Fitz of Impatience.
For Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, the White House, and all of Washington, the waiting is the hardest part. But, word is we’ll know the results of Fitzgerald’s Plamegate inquiry tomorrow, and not a moment too soon.
Miers gets the hook.
Rather lamely citing a potential dispute over executive privilege (a.k.a. the Krauthammer option), the White House removes Harriet Miers from Court consideration. Obviously, this isn’t a big surprise after the recent right-wing uprising, but it does mean that Dubya’s next choice will undoubtedly veer closer to the fundie side of the fence. With that in mind, who’s next? Update: Washington reacts.
Dubious Milestones in Baghdad.
As Iraq announces the approval of its draft constitution (which passed in a manner Slate‘s Fred Kaplan has deemed “the worst of both worlds“), the war claims its 2000th US military casualty. (Of these, 357 were under 21, 487 were National Guard, and 1863 — over 9 in 10 — have died since Dubya’s “Mission Accomplished” fiasco.) We’re still well under the casualty rate for Vietnam, true, but what comfort is that to the families of the fallen? Two thousand US men and women have been killed in the line of duty, and this blatantly amateurish administration still has no plan either to win or to disengage from a conflict they orchestrated, other than “stay the course.” As with so much else under this president, the conduct of this war from its inception has been shameful and unacceptable — in short, a national embarrassment.
First Blood for Fitzgerald?
As breaking everywhere this morning, it seems Scooter Libby, for one, has clearly perjured himself in the Plamegate investigation. Whatsmore, his boss, “Big Time” Dick Cheney, may well have initiated the smear campaign against Valerie Plame, in order to promote the administration’s push for war in Iraq. What else has Fitzgerald uncovered? We should know within 72 hours.
Bernanke to the Banke.
So, as of yesterday, Ben Bernanke is replacing Alan Greenspan at the Fed. (“If Miers’s defenders have dismissed her critics as elitists, they showed no reticence yesterday in extolling Bernanke’s elite credentials.”) His conservatism notwithstanding, it sounds as if the choice was a solid one.