Saturday, October 25, 2003
Just a Painterly 'Difference of Opinion,' Part MCXLVIII
So this is the latest tactic to avoid the obvious and inevitable.
Ha ha...HA. "Trying" to "paint" the Republican White House "as possibly distorting intelligence..."? Man--I didn't even get to the end of that sentence and already I'm having to use a two-ply paper towel to wipe away the smear of excrement around my mouth.
The world of politics has become so aesthetic! No need to worry about facts--about who said what, wrote what, did what, when--since it's all a question of, oh, a shade of "possible distortion" here, Chuck, and Bob, could you mix me up a dab of "just-a-small-outside-chance-it-might-have-been-not-entirely-accurate," that would go nicely right over here....
If anyone needs a refresher course on why this attempt blame the CIA (again) for "bad intelligence" is almost incomprehensibly dishonest and laughable, check out the absolutely-must-read Seymour Hersh article, "The Stovepipe," from last week's New Yorker, which gives a comprehensive story-line of the deliberate, methodical manipulation of intelligence by the White House in the run-up to the war and after. First of all there's just a whole array of fact that I didn't know about; second, Hersh's hypothesis about who forged the Niger documents and why--and what might still come of it--is pretty mind-blowing.
posted by Blicero : 10/25/2003 03:54:00 PM
Senate Intelligence Leaders at Odds on Iraq
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Friday the Republican chairman was trying to lay all the blame for flaws in pre-war intelligence about Iraq solely on the doorstep of U.S. spy agencies without looking at any White House role.
The push by the senior Democrat, Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, for a broader inquiry has been rebuffed by the Republican chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas.
"It is my belief ... that what he wants to do is to put all of this, lay all of this off on the intelligence community and never get to any other branches of government, in particular the White House and associated high and visible government agencies," Rockefeller told reporters.
Pre-war intelligence on Iraq has become a highly charged political issue leading up to next year's presidential elections, with Democrats trying to paint the Republican White House as possibly distorting intelligence in its eagerness to gather support for the war against Iraq.
Ha ha...HA. "Trying" to "paint" the Republican White House "as possibly distorting intelligence..."? Man--I didn't even get to the end of that sentence and already I'm having to use a two-ply paper towel to wipe away the smear of excrement around my mouth.
The world of politics has become so aesthetic! No need to worry about facts--about who said what, wrote what, did what, when--since it's all a question of, oh, a shade of "possible distortion" here, Chuck, and Bob, could you mix me up a dab of "just-a-small-outside-chance-it-might-have-been-not-entirely-accurate," that would go nicely right over here....
If anyone needs a refresher course on why this attempt blame the CIA (again) for "bad intelligence" is almost incomprehensibly dishonest and laughable, check out the absolutely-must-read Seymour Hersh article, "The Stovepipe," from last week's New Yorker, which gives a comprehensive story-line of the deliberate, methodical manipulation of intelligence by the White House in the run-up to the war and after. First of all there's just a whole array of fact that I didn't know about; second, Hersh's hypothesis about who forged the Niger documents and why--and what might still come of it--is pretty mind-blowing.
posted by Blicero : 10/25/2003 03:54:00 PM
