It’s after Labor Day, the fifth anniversary of 9/11 is around the corner, and the Bush White House is in the midst of its third “major public relations offensive” on Iraq and the president’s vision of a war on terror. Given the speeches, legislative proposals, and debates, this was supposed to be a successful week […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * Don’t look now, but Tennessee’s Senate race is becoming a key Democratic pick-up opportunity. In a new Rasmussen poll released this morning, Rep. [tag]Harold Ford[/tag] (D), trailing [tag]Bob Corker[/tag] (R) by 12 […]
Shortly after Osama [tag]bin Laden[/tag] was identified as having orchestrated the attacks of 9/11, [tag]Bush[/tag] pledged to get the terrorist “dead or alive.” Six months later, after bin Laden proved to be elusive, the president said, “I truly am not that concerned about him.” With this in mind, it was hardly a shock when we […]
As you’ve probably heard by now, Al-Jazeera TV obtained and began broadcasting a new video yesterday afternoon with previously unseen footage of Osama bin Laden meeting with the top planners of the Sept. 11 attacks. It prompted similar responses from some of my favorite writers. For example, The New Republic’s Michael Crowley wrote, “Given the […]
What a surprise, despite all of the president’s rhetoric about humane treatment of detainees, Bush’s actual proposal would allow — you guessed it — the same abusive techniques the administration has been using for years. Many of the harsh interrogation techniques repudiated by the Pentagon on Wednesday would be made lawful by legislation put forward […]
ABC is on the defensive, and the network is taking steps that look like backpedaling, but “[tag]The Path to 9/11[/tag]” docudrama remains a political problem. Under growing pressure from Democrats and aides to former President Bill Clinton, ABC is re-evaluating and in some cases re-editing crucial scenes in its new [tag]mini-series[/tag] “The Path to 9/11” […]
The more I think about ABC/Disney’s official statement in response to “The Path to 9/11” controversy, the less sense I think it makes. Here’s the statement in its entirety: “The Path to 9/11” is not a documentary of the events leading to 9/11. It is a dramatization, drawn from a variety of sources including the […]
The president spoke with new CBS News anchor Katie [tag]Couric[/tag] yesterday and acknowledged a point a lot of us have been talking about for years. “One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.” So true, so true. And speaking of the Couric Q&A, it’s generally difficult […]
Given that the war in Iraq offers precious little to be encouraged about, news that the death toll in August was down considerably was welcome. Whereas in July the Baghdad morgue received more than 1,800 bodies, U.S. and Iraqi officials boasted a little over a week ago that the death toll was reduced dramatically in […]
And the ABC docudrama hits just keep on coming. James Bamford, an author and journalist who has written about security issues, appeared on MSNBC to discuss “The Path to 9/11.” Bamford revealed that an FBI agent who worked as a consultant to the film quit halfway through production of the mini-series because he believed the […]