Jay Haynes

Ashcroft Recusal: Bush Administration Guilty?

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall

It's always been more or less an open secret who the perps are in this case. And they're very high-level folks -- people with deep influence of the formulation and implementation of policy. And the wrong-doing here is directly related to the execution of policy. So if a crime was committed, and if an indictment is forthcoming, it will bring under scrutiny a whole complex range of wrong-doing (though not necessarily criminal wrongdoing) relating to administration war policy and intelligence manipulation and other stuff we can go into at a later date.

The Washington Post this evening has an articlequoting "Republican legal sources who have discussed the case with the White House and the Justice Department" who say that this will give the administration cover and 'depoliticize' the case.

Not likely.

If the real perps are indicted, the political implications will be obvious and undeniable. And the fall-out will be rapid.

George Will: Seriously Now...

Salon.com | Joe Conason's Journal

Twenty years of declining standards

How many free passes does George Will get? The conservative pundit tends to wax cranky about the declining standards of modern civilization, but he doesn't seem to believe that old-fashioned journalistic standards apply to him -- and his timid overseers at the Washington Post Co. apparently agree.

Today's Post relegated the latest news of conservative publisher and Will benefactor Conrad Black to an inside business page. It seems that Black cited his Fifth Amendment privilege when called to testify before the Securities and Exchange Commission about dodgy financial practices at Hollinger Corp., the newspaper company that forced him to step down as CEO last month.

The Post published a short AP dispatch on Black's SEC episode. The AP story neglected to list the various right-wing eminences who received questionable payments from Hollinger during Black's heyday. Yesterday I mentioned that the supercilious Will is among those pundits and pols whose names have turned up on the ledgers of Conrad Black's beleaguered Hollinger Corp. Along with William F. Buckley Jr., Margaret Thatcher and Henry Kissinger, Will was paid up to $25,000 per session to attend meetings of Hollinger's "international advisory board." His informal duties included attending dinner parties with Black and the publisher's wife, Barbara Amiel. Then Will praised Black in his column, which is syndicated by the Post and also appears in Newsweek.

Asked by the New York Times how much he has been paid by Black, Will offered this immortal, "Sopranos"-style response: "My business is my business. Got it?" (Joe Pantoliano must be giving him lessons.)

In other words, the business of journalism is business, and no nosy inquiries will be tolerated. But exactly what business is Will transacting, and with whom? The sentinels of corporate standards at the Post might well ask, particularly because Will is at least a three-time loser where ethics are concerned.

In 1980 Will secretly helped prepare Ronald Reagan for a debate with President Carter, using a purloined Carter briefing book. As a commentator on ABC that same evening, Will praised Reagan's performance without revealing his role in the Republican campaign -- which only emerged later during an investigation of the briefing-book theft. Not only did he fail to disclose his conflict of interest, but he also participated in the theft's coverup by keeping silent. Although other journalists berated him for his outrageous misconduct, Will brushed off the scandal -- and, amazingly, escaped any discipline by his employers.

Will likewise skated past other conflicts of interest involving his wife, Mari Maseng Will, a Republican consultant. In 1995 she flacked for Japanese automakers, and Will blasted Clinton for seeking higher tariffs on her employer's cars, without mentioning the relationship. In 1996 she worked for Bob Dole, and Will praised the hapless Republican presidential candidate on ABC News, again without mentioning the relationship.

Twenty years after the briefing book scandal, Will admitted that he had given George W. Bush a preview of questions that would be asked on ABC's "This Week," because he didn't want to "ambush" the GOP candidate with unfamiliar material. He even handed Bush a note card to help him remember what was coming. By then, perhaps, everyone was accustomed to Will's cheating ways. Little was said -– and nothing was done –- about that incident.

So what will the Post do this time, now that Will has popped up in yet another scandal? As Paul Krugman wrote today, there used to be rules about this kind of thing for journalists: They're not supposed to take compromising payments and they are supposed to disclose conflicts when writing about any person or institution with whom they have a financial relationship. But two decades of declining standards have taken their toll. George Will understandably assumes that he can get away with anything -- and sneers at any real journalists who dare to ask questions.

Voluntary No More?

Center for American Progress - Voluntary No More? - Page

The war against Iraq will cause several long-term problems for the nation. Some of these problems are obvious, a growing budget deficit and lasting damage to such long-standing international organizations like the UN and traditional alliances like NATO.

But often overlooked is the damage that the Bush administration's approach to the war has caused to the all-volunteer military (AVF).

The military that the Bush administration inherited and that performed so well in Afghanistan and in major combat in Iraq was the highest-quality, best-trained, and most professional military that this nation has ever fielded.

But creating this military on an all volunteer basis did not happen overnight, nor did it happen by accident. Over the past three decades, since the war in Vietnam forced an end to the draft, civilian and military leaders have sent forces into combat with the best training and equipment and clear objectives.  They applied overwhelming force and had clear exit strategies.  When reserves had to be activated they were given adequate notice and were not called up more than once every five or six years. Finally, and most importantly, when an administration used the military improperly, as the Reagan administration did in Lebanon and the Clinton administration did in Somalia, the Presidents admitted their mistakes and withdrew the military before more problems were created for the military and the country.

As a recent survey of U.S. troops in Stars and Stripes, the Pentagon-funded newspaper, Iraq makes clear, the Bush administration's approach to waging war in Iraq risks severe damage to the all volunteer military. In the survey of nearly 2,000 troops, approximately one-third complained that the war in Iraq was of little or no value and that their mission lacked clear definition. And 40 percent said that their goals had little or nothing to do with their training.

Most ominously, about half of the soldiers indicated they would not re-enlist when their tours end and the Pentagon lifts the "stop loss order" which prevents them from getting out any earlier. If that occurs it will take at least a decade to bring the military back to its prewar readiness standards.

These findings should not come as a surprise to anyone who is familiar with the administration's handling of the military during this war. Despite warnings to the contrary from the then-Army Chief of Staff, General Eric Shinseki, the administration argued that it could stabilize post-invasion Iraq with 30,000 American troops rather than the 160,000 which remain in Iraq and Kuwait today.

Babes Against Bush!

Babes Against Bush!

Complete with 99 reasons Bush sucks:

1. His stupid war in Iraq.
2. Halliburton.
3. Cheney.
4. $87 Billion.
5. Medicare "reform."
6. Where's Osama?
7. About those weapons of mass destruction...
8. Donald Rumsfeld.
9. Richard Perle.
10. Paul Wolfowitz.
11. "Bring it on."
12. "Mission Accomplished."
13. 400 billion dollar defense budget.
14. Four dollar social services budget.
15. Tax "reform" benefitting the top 2% income bracket.
16. Karl Rove.
17. Didn't win the popular vote.
18. Didn't really win the electoral vote. Thanks, U.S. Supreme Court.
19. Hundreds of dead U.S. troops since the "end of combat operations" in Iraq.
20. $180+ million campaign war chest, all the better to buy the next election with.
21. Professed support for constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
22. Didn't bother to renew unemployment benefits in time for thousands of American families, December 2002.
23. Fox News.
24. FCC attempts to deregulate broadcast ownership regulations.
25. Repeated attempts to legalize oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
26. Son of George Bush, Sr.
27. Brother of Jeb.
28. Pushes "free trade" agreements enabling loss of U.S. jobs, exploitation of third world workers.
29. "Operation Iron Hammer."
30. Guantanemo Bay human rights abuses.
31. "Collateral damage."
32. The Patriot Act.
33. Patriot Act II.
34. Misuse of FBI to harass peace activists.
35. Elevation of minor offenses to federal crimes under the guise of fighting "terrorism."
36. Opposition to national health care.
37. Opposition to University of Michigan's attempts to retain affirmative action in admissions policies.
38. Bechtel.
39. Undermining of Freedom of Information Act.
40. Massive unemployment.
41. Tax breaks for companies moving facilities offshore.
42. Reactionary judicial appointees.
43. Attempts to "reform" 75-year-old fair labor practices regulations by eliminating legal requirement to pay millions of Americans overtime.
44. Copped out on the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
45. Lied to American public about reasons for war.
46. Lied to the United Nations about reasons for war.
47. Prohibited filming or broadcast of coffins of slain service personnel returning to Andrews Air Force Base.
48. Lied about Jessica Lynch's "heroism."
49. Ignored the heroism of less-photogenic/non-white combat personnel who perished in action.
50. Lied that Saddam Hussein and Al Quaeda had something to do with one another.
51. "Axis of Evil."
52. Executed 152 prisoners, including the mentally disabled, as Governor of Texas.
53. Publicly mocked Karla Faye Tucker prior to her execution - "Please don't kill me."
54. Ignores Chinese abuses in Tibet.
55. Tony Blair/George Dubya: best pals.
56. Administration doctored CIA intelligence reports to make case for war, then tried to blame the agency.
57. Opposition to minimum wage increases.
58. "Shock and Awe."
59. Attempts to distract public from failed policies through use of gay marriage as a campaign "wedge" issue.
60. Willingly accepts support of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson.
61. Gave convicted Iran-Contra criminal John Poindexter a job.
62. "Total Information Awareness."
63. Administration has reserved right to preemptively use nuclear weapons for "defense" purposes.
64. Went to England to get his picture taken with the queen in order to appear more presidential during 2004 campaign.
65. Protectionist policies for big-bucks buddies in agricultural, steel, and textile industries.
66. Opposition to living wage ordinances.
67. Best pals with Ken Lay of Enron, massive gubernatorial and presidential campaign contributor.
68. Refusal to condemn Israel's murder of American peace activist Rachel Corrie.
69. Refusal to negotiate with Yasser Arafat, elected leader of the Palestinian people.
70. Support for development of "non-lethal" weapons systems.
71. Support for "Star Wars II" missile defense system.
72. Flew to Iraq to eat turkey on Thanksgiving.
73. Didn't bother to visit wounded soldiers in hospitals on Thanksgiving.
74. Thanksgiving visit forced soldiers to eat turkey "dinner" at 7:00 am local time.
75. Didn't bother to visit the families of slain soldiers.
76. Hasn't attended any soldiers' funerals.
77. Taxpayers' tab for 2-hour Baghdad visit: $1 million.
78. Using FBI to spy on domestic protest groups - just like Nixon - in new COINTELPRO campaign.
79. Brother Neil paid $60,000 per year as consultant by company seeking government contracts.
80. Republican filibuster for Bush judicial nominees.
81. General Tommy Franks: "Martial law could be declared" if there's another 9/11 style attack in U.S.
82. Special favors for broadcast buddies courtesy FCC: Repeal of regulations limiting broadcast ownership.
83. Ignored warnings from outgoing Clinton administration officials about threats posed by Al Queda.
84. Project for a New American Century: Group planned Iraq attack before Bush was even elected.
85. Support for limitations on pain and suffering, medical malpractice damage awards by courts.
86. Changed headline on White House website to rewrite history: "End of combat operations" became "end of major combat operations."
87. Modified White House website to prevent indexing/archiving of such future revisions.
88. Rush Limbaugh likes him.
89. Supports nuclear power.
90. Refuses to fund renewable/eco-friendly energy research and programs.
91. Blocking congressional investigation into 9/11.
92. His "forest preservation" initiatives were the opposite.
93. Oil drilling in the Great Lakes.
94. Can't drive a Segway.
95. Thought milk cost $5 a gallon. Totally out of touch.
96. Tried to make the queen wear an ID in her own palace - AND screwed up her TV reception.
97. None of the Babes, though employed, can afford health care.
98. Pledged billions for AIDS research in Africa; forgot to pay up once the cameras were off.
99. Forced troops in Baghdad to eat Thanksgiving "dinner" at 6:00 a.m.

Bush Should Own Up to 9-11

General Wesley Clark for President

The Bush Administration is once again trying to stonewall the 9-11 Commission. Government sources told TIME Magazine today that National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice does not want to testify under oath or in public about the tragedy.

Wes Clark criticized Ms. Rice's stance:

"There is no excuse for failing to fully cooperate with this independent, bipartisan commission. We need open government and new leadership that holds itself accountable for whatever goes wrong on its watch--especially when it involves a national tragedy like 9-11. The Bush Administration should be taking the lead in cooperating--not dragging its feet.

To build a stronger and better America, we must find out what more could have and should have been done to prevent 9-11. The Bush Administration owes us the full truth and nothing but the truth. Unfortunately, they seem to be giving the Commission nothing but a stonewall."

"Goofed"? Who Are They Kidding? It Was A Lie.

Fact-checkers blamed for Bush's uranium 'goof'

President Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board has concluded that his 2003 State of the Union address included information about Iraq's weapons program that wasn't checked carefully, a source involved in the investigation and findings said Wednesday.

CIA Director George Tenet took responsibility this summer for allowing the information to make it into the presidential address, but the new report suggests the White House bears responsibility too.

"No one checked their facts carefully," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It was a mistake that propagated itself. They should have known better to check and ask more questions about the information."

In an effort to draw support for waging war with Iraq, Bush told the nation in his January speech: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

The source said the report concludes there was no intention to deceive; instead it was "a goof" as the administration searched for examples to share with the public of why the United States believed Iraq was attempting to build a nuclear program.

The Bush administration initially defended the inclusion of the sentence under pressure to explain how the speech was written based on information that was known to be unreliable.

After Ambassador Joe Wilson, who had been sent on mission to Niger to investigate the claim, said publicly it was false, the White House acknowledged in July that the line should not have been included in Bush's speech.

Evidence of Bush's Lack of War Planning: Desert Crossing

For Vietnam Vet Anthony Zinni, Another War on Shaky Territory

Zinni's concern deepened at a Senate hearing in February, just six weeks before the war began. As he awaited his turn to testify, he listened to Pentagon and State Department officials talk vaguely about the "uncertainties" of a postwar Iraq. He began to think they were doing the wrong thing the wrong way. "I was listening to the panel, and I realized, 'These guys don't have a clue.' "

That wasn't a casual judgment. Zinni had started thinking about how the United States might handle Iraq if Hussein's government collapsed after Operation Desert Fox, the four days of airstrikes that he oversaw in December 1998, in which he targeted presidential palaces, Baath Party headquarters, intelligence facilities, military command posts and barracks, and factories that might build missiles that could deliver weapons of mass destruction.

In the wake of those attacks on about 100 major targets, intelligence reports came in that Hussein's government had been shaken by the short campaign. "After the strike, we heard from countries with diplomatic missions in there [Baghdad] that the regime was paralyzed, and that there was a kind of defiance in the streets," he recalls.

So early in 1999 he ordered that plans be devised for the possibility of the U.S. military having to occupy Iraq. Under the code name "Desert Crossing," the resulting document called for a nationwide civilian occupation authority, with offices in each of Iraq's 18 provinces. That plan contrasts sharply, he notes, with the reality of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. occupation power, which for months this year had almost no presence outside Baghdad -- an absence that some Army generals say has increased their burden in Iraq.

Listening to the administration officials testify that day, Zinni began to suspect that his careful plans had been disregarded. Concerned, he later called a general at Central Command's headquarters in Tampa and asked, "Are you guys looking at Desert Crossing?" The answer, he recalls, was, "What's that?"

The more he listened to Wolfowitz and other administration officials talk about Iraq, the more Zinni became convinced that interventionist "neoconservative" ideologues were plunging the nation into a war in a part of the world they didn't understand. "The more I saw, the more I thought that this was the product of the neocons who didn't understand the region and were going to create havoc there. These were dilettantes from Washington think tanks who never had an idea that worked on the ground."

Evidence of Cheney Lies About War

For Vietnam Vet Anthony Zinni, Another War on Shaky Territory (washingtonpost.com)

Anthony Zinni's passage from obedient general to outspoken opponent began in earnest in the unlikeliest of locations, the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He was there in Nashville in August 2002 to receive the group's Dwight D. Eisenhower Distinguished Service Award, recognition for his 35 years in the Marine Corps.

Vice President Cheney was also there, delivering a speech on foreign policy. Sitting on the stage behind the vice president, Zinni grew increasingly puzzled. He had endorsed Bush and Cheney two years earlier, just after he retired from his last military post, as chief of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in Iraq.

"I think he ran on a moderate ticket, and that's my leaning -- I'm kind of a Lugar-Hagel-Powell guy," he says, listing three Republicans associated with centrist foreign policy positions.

He was alarmed that day to hear Cheney make the argument for attacking Iraq on grounds that Zinni found questionable at best:

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," Cheney said. "There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."

Cheney's certitude bewildered Zinni. As chief of the Central Command, Zinni had been immersed in U.S. intelligence about Iraq. He was all too familiar with the intelligence analysts' doubts about Iraq's programs to acquire weapons of mass destruction, or WMD. "In my time at Centcom, I watched the intelligence, and never -- not once -- did it say, 'He has WMD.' "

Though retired for nearly two years, Zinni says, he remained current on the intelligence through his consulting with the CIA and the military. "I did consulting work for the agency, right up to the beginning of the war. I never saw anything. I'd say to analysts, 'Where's the threat?' " Their response, he recalls, was, "Silence."

Court Blocks Clean-Air Change

Court Blocks Clean-Air Change

A federal appeals court yesterday blocked the Bush administration from implementing a major environmental rule change this week that would allow thousands of coal plants and refineries to upgrade their facilities without installing expensive anti-pollution equipment.

In temporarily halting the change, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit wrote that a dozen state attorneys general and others who sued in November to stop the administration "have demonstrated the irreparable harm [of the rule] and likelihood of success on the merits" of their case.

Coffee, Tea or Handcuffs?

LA Weekly: Columns: Open City: Coffee, Tea or Handcuffs?

Sue Smethurst enjoys traveling. “It’s one of the things about my job that I absolutely love,” says the 30-year-old Australian, who works as an associate editor for the women’s magazine New Idea. She doesn’t even mind flying. “It’s one of the great pleasures of the world to be able to turn off your cell phone and be where no one can annoy you.”

But when her Qantas flight from Melbourne, Australia, touched down at LAX around 8 a.m. on Friday, November 14, Smethurst found herself nightmarishly annoyed — by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Smethurst was supposed to continue to New York and on Monday interview singer Olivia Newton-John. Smethurst had honeymooned in Manhattan last year and was looking forward to a long, free weekend “having a good walk through Central Park, getting a decent bowl of chicken soup and going Christmas shopping — all those gorgeous New York things.” Better still, her six-hour layover in L.A. would allow her to have lunch with her American literary agent.

“I had a room booked at the Airport Hilton, where I was going to my leave bags, shower and get a cup of coffee.”

But first she had to clear LAX’s immigration check-in, which she reached after 20 minutes in line. An officer from the DHS’s newly minted Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bureau studied the traveler’s declaration form Smethurst had filled out on the plane.

“Oh, you’re a journalist,” he noted. “What are you here for?”

“I’m interviewing Olivia Newton-John,” Smethurst replied.

“That’s nice,” the official said, impressed. “What’s the article about?”

“Breast cancer.”

When Smethurst tells me this, she pauses and adds, “I thought that last question was a little odd, but figured everything’s different now in America and it was fine.” What she didn’t know was that her assignment and travel plans, along with the chicken soup and stroll through Central Park, had been terminated the moment she confirmed she was a journalist. Fourteen hours later, she was escorted by three armed guards onto the 11 p.m. Qantas flight home.

“I want to say right off that I adore America and love Americans,” Smethurst says. Still, she remains perplexed and emotionally bruised by what followed in Terminal Four. The CBP agent who read Smethurst’s traveler’s questionnaire took her to a secondary inspection area 30 feet away and told her to wait, then left for half an hour. He returned with additional uniformed staff who, professionally and pleasantly enough, asked more questions.

What sort of stories did she write? What kind of magazine was New Idea?

Where was it published? What was its circulation? Does it print politically sensitive articles? When would her interview appear? Who would be reading it?

“I laughed,” Smethurst recalls, “because we’re a cross betweenGood Housekeeping and People magazine. The most political thing we’d likely print was Laura Bush’s horoscope.”