Ouch, Kucinich...calls Dem candidates’ judgment into question

http://www.dennis4president.com/go/newsroom/new-intelligence-debunks-bush-arguments-on-iran-threat,-calls-dem-candidates%92-judgment-into-question/

"Today’s report by U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran – contrary to previous claims – ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003 “is proof positive that this pro-war administration has been manipulating intelligence and that the Presidential candidates’ all-options-are-on-the-table posture with respect to Iran reflects their inability to recognize when they’re being duped -- again.”

So said Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, the only Democratic candidate who voted against the Iraq war authorization in 2002 and the only candidate who voted against every supplemental appropriation since. Kucinich is also the only candidate who has warned, for months, that the President has been setting the stage for a possible war with Iran, facilitated by the approval and acquiescence of the Democrat-controlled Congress.

“The President and Vice President have been beating the war drums, and the House and the Senate have been dancing to that beat,” Kucinich said. “Iran is a war crime in motion, and the Congress and the Presidential candidates either can’t or won’t recognize that.”

And, “whatever feeble fall-back statements that the top-polling Democratic Presidential candidates – Clinton, Obama, and Edwards – make today, all three have repeatedly said that all options are on the table with respect to Iran,” Kucinich pointed out.

“All options,” Kucinich said, “include everything from tactical nukes to air strikes to incursions and invasion by U.S. ground troops who are already over-stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We’ve already lost almost 4,000 brave men and women to a war they should never have been sent to, and now, the White House, with the collaboration of the Congress, is preparing to open a new front based on intelligence that has been proven wrong.”


“The threat to peace and the facilitation of another war rests with those who bow to the President’s personal and political agenda for an expanded war. They allowed themselves to be deceived and fooled five years ago, and they have fallen into that same foolish trap today. The people of this nation deserve better than pawns of George Bush.”


In view of the new U.S. intelligence report, Kucinich said he would demand that the other candidates explain their susceptibility to Bush’s claims of Iranian nuclear threats. “They were wrong five years ago on Iraq. They were wrong this year and Iran, and, heaven help us if they reach the Oval Office and they’re wrong again,” Kucinich said.


He said that his own intelligence analysis in 2002 clearly refuted the Administration’s claims about the threat that Iraq posed and its alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Kucinich’s analysis of recent independent reports, including those from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) led him to the conclusion that Iran is no more a threat to U.S. national security than Iraq was. “Why can’t Senators Clinton, Obama, and Edwards recognize that their threatening statements and actions against Iran are not only naïve and foolhardy, they are also diplomatically and militarily provocative? Our own intelligence reports have proven them wrong.”


“Whatever those candidates say today, remember what they said before: Iran must be stopped at all cost. The fact that Iran stopped pursuing nuclear weaponry four years ago is more than an inconvenient revelation for those candidates. It’s an indictment of their judgment and their qualifications to lead this nation.”

Yes, he was a Democrat. That's irrelevant to Ron Paul.

much money?

And besides, RP is against the war. So even if the hoax was true, it would not contradict the values of the posted article.

whenever Kucinich kicks big donkey ass.

There's a difference I believe. I listened to the occasion cited to show that DK wanted RP as his VP and I didn't hear VP. I only heard an affirmative answer to a question about RP as being in his administration. And why not? RP is for peace and peaceful trade between countries. He could serve honorably in many departments in a DK administration I think.

You sure you heard this right? If so, I'd have to hear it for myself.

When asked about VP and cabinet, Kucinich said "one person" he was "thinking of" - he didn't specify office or rank - was Ron Paul. Considering that Edwards, and I think, Richardson, have also stated that they would have Republicans in their cabinets, what's the big deal? Edwards doesn't even want to mention names out of deference to the feelings of those he hasn't chosen. At least DK offered - for good or bad -- a name.

the contents of the IE were known to bush, but not available to the "top three" - nor to DK.

That DK said "he's a liar" and they said "keep options open" means he is willing to bet on his gut feel as to what the facts are, and they are unwilling to make a commitment one way or another without facts.

Of COURSE "all options" should be "on the table." That does not have to mean you are going to exercise those options willfully, without just cause.

I have to go with the folks who keep the options open. That DK's gut feel appears to be right (I have believed the same way all along, as have many) doesn't make him any smarter or more presidential. He gives the impression he would make decisions based on the way he wants the facts to be, rather than on the actual facts. That sounds all too familiar, and is as dangerous an attitude in a dove as it is in a hawk.

which Kucinich cited, it was more than just a gut feel.

To me he gives the impression that he reads other sources as well as those from our own government but that he approaches information from this administration with healthy skepticism, and with good reason IMO.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2402461&mesg_id=2402461

And Dennis, as I have said, many times, lacks Temperance; successful mixing and blending of opposites, compromise and cooperation.

your sig again. Because the truth is Dennis was right the first time again!

Go Dennis! :woohoo:
http://dennis4president.com
Choose Peace!

There is no reasonable compromise with those whose agenda is GLOBAL FASCISM. None.

And then looked into the facts, of course.

Voting for the IWR wasn't just "waiting for the facts," it was bending over backwards to lend credibility to Bush/Cheney lies about the need for war in order to avoid looking weak on defense.

The fact remains that DK was right all along.

but I'd rather the President be right before deciding whether to go to war or not, even if it is based on a gut feeling. Dennis, once again, was right the first time.

Go Dennis! :woohoo:
http://dennis4president.com
Choose Peace!

Go, DENNIS!!!

the letter from the IAEA that refuted information contained in the House report.


U.N. Inspectors Dispute Iran Report By House Panel
Paper on Nuclear Aims Called Dishonest

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/13/AR2006091302052.html

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 14, 2006; Page A17

"U.N. inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran's capabilities, calling parts of the document "outrageous and dishonest" and offering evidence to refute its central claims.

Officials of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said in a letter that the report contained some "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated statements." The letter, signed by a senior director at the agency, was addressed to Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, which issued the report. A copy was hand-delivered to Gregory L. Schulte, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA in Vienna...


...Yesterday's letter, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post, was the first time the IAEA has publicly disputed U.S. allegations about its Iran investigation. The agency noted five major errors in the committee's 29-page report, which said Iran's nuclear capabilities are more advanced than either the IAEA or U.S. intelligence has shown.

Among the committee's assertions is that Iran is producing weapons-grade uranium at its facility in the town of Natanz. The IAEA called that "incorrect..."



http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/2006/iaea_hpsci-iran_12sep06.htm

The Honourable Peter Hoekstra
Chairman
U.S. House of Representatives
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405 The Caitol
Washington, DC 20515
U.S.A.

2006-09-12

Sir,

"I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Staff Report of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Subcommittee on Intelligence Policy, date 23 August 2006, entitled “Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States”, contains some erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information.

The caption under the photograph of the Natanz site on page 9 of the report states that “ Iran is currently enriching uranium to weapons grade using a 164-machine centrifuge cascade”. In this regard, please be informed that information about the uranium enrichment work being carried out at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP_ at Natanz, including the 3.6% enrichment level that had been achieved by Iran, was provided to the IAEA Board of Governors by the Director General in April 2006 (see GOV/2006/27. paragraph 31). The description of this enrichment level as “weapons grade” is incorrect..."

It certainly is.

:applause:

we could achieve!

We could have the end of corporate rule.

What a different nation we would be!

some bold move, hope I'm wrong.

and, frankly, watching us grow to accept what we've got now as "normal" under a Democrat is worse than expecting the worse, and fighting it, under a republican.

he answered it by telling the truth. No triangulating! Such a strange idea, telling the truth!

Go Dennis! :woohoo:
http://dennis4president.com
Choose Peace!

be identified when asked a direct question on the issue is poor judgement?

Not seeking out updated intelligence and not reading and questioning it is somehow better judgement?

A little perspective is needed I do believe :)

"Kucinich’s analysis of recent independent reports, including those from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) led him to the conclusion that Iran is no more a threat to U.S. national security than Iraq was."

That ain't gut. That's research.

And as to Kooch's lack of 'temperance': playing nice is not always the right thing to do. When you're being bullied, being nice just gets you beaten for longer. Kicking the motherfucker in the balls stops the bullying.

In ordinary circumstances, I'd favor a more nuanced approach. These are not ordinary circumstances. Hey, Dennis, go with steel toes. To paraphrase a character in "French Twist", they bruise better.

is that they don't challenge or question the status quo. DK does not believe touted "facts" just because some reputed expert says it's true. This questioning quality is something I admire and I wish we would have in our next President, but, alas, it isn't going to happen.

past year and we need more elected officials with this quality and conviction.

No Democrat should ever have said the words "I trust pResident Bush". And if they did, or even voted as if they did, then their judgment SHOULD be called into question.

I knew that monkey faced son of a bitch was a liar from the day he launched his campaign in 1999.

How did I know that?

BECAUSE HIS FUCKING NAME IS GEORGE BUSH. It runs in the family. No other evidence was needed.

And no excuses for siding with him are valid.

there is one main reason we have Jr. aside from the elections.

Because the Dems did not pursue impeachment and dropped other investigations, I did not know until last week that impeachment articles had been introduced against Bush Sr.

And here we are again not holding people accountable :(