‘Intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made’

Nearly three years after the start of the war in Iraq, the notion that the White House cherry-picked intelligence and made up their minds about an invasion regardless of what the facts warranted is no longer new. It’s not even controversial. And yet, there’s still something uniquely powerful about the top CIA official in charge […]

Friday’s political round-up

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: * A new Keystone Poll, conducted by Franklin & Marshall University, was published this morning, and shows Dems leading in both of this year’s major statewide races. In Pennsylvania’s Senate race, Bob Casey […]

Goss might want to chat with his boss about this

CIA Director Porter Goss has a passionate, well-written op-ed in the New York Times today, emphasizing the significance of keeping classified information secret. Poor Porter; his timing couldn’t be worse. After all, on the same day the Director of Central Intelligence wrote this… At the Central Intelligence Agency, we are more than holding our own […]

Steele’s stem-cell stupidity

Opposing stem-cell research is odd, and comparing stem-cell research to Nazi experiments is ridiculous, but it takes a special kind of stupid for a statewide political candidate to compare stem-cell research to Nazi experiments in front of a group of Jewish leaders. Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele infuriated some participants at a Baltimore Jewish […]

Maybe the bust could come with an asterisk

Before the president delivered remarks on the war on terror in the National Guard Building in DC, Bush received a nice bronze gift. Presidents are often memorialized in their most famous moments — George Washington crossing the Delaware, Theodore Roosevelt at San Juan Hill. Now President Bush’s time in the Texas Air National Guard has […]

Brownie may have some news to share

Yesterday, Mike Brown, the former head of FEMA, indicated that he is ready to reveal his correspondence with President Bush and other officials during Hurricane Katrina unless the White House forbids it and offers legal support. The White House said no and now good ol’ Brownie appears ready to dish some dirt. And, apparently, there […]

About that disrupted attack… Part II

Yesterday, the White House made major headlines and received blanket coverage on the news networks by repeating a four-month-old claim about a “serious al Qaeda terrorist plot” that his administration helped thwart. Today, it’s worth taking a moment to consider just how “serious” the threat was — and whether it qualifies as an “al Qaeda […]

Deutsch doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone

It seemed like we’d heard the last of former NASA public affairs officer George Deutsch earlier this week, after he tendered his resignation. Apparently, however, the guy wants to expound on his 15 minutes of infamy. Given the circumstances, Deutsch seems like the type who’d want to quietly go away for a while, avoiding public […]

About that disrupted attack…

Before we get into the big news story of the day — Bush’s comments today about a thwarted terrorist attack in Los Angeles in 2002 — let’s consider a brief step back to last October. About four months ago, the president claimed, for the first time, that his administration had disrupted “at least ten serious […]

Did Cheney give Libby the green-light to start leaking?

According to a very interesting new report by Murray Waas for National Journal, Scooter Libby was sharing all kinds of classified information with reporters — but only because Dick Cheney told him to. Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been […]