Financial Times: Whispers Of A Watergate For Bush

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/56e59704-66e7-11dd-808f-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1

Whispers of a Watergate for Bush
By Clive Crook
Published: August 10 2008 19:53 | Last updated: August 10 2008 19:53

The response in the US to startling new allegations that the White House directed the forgery of evidence to support its case for the war in Iraq has been surprisingly muted so far. The charges may be false, of course, but if they are seriously examined and turn out to be true, this is – or ought to be – a Watergate-sized scandal.

Ron Suskind is a heavyweight: a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and the author of a well-regarded book on the administration’s security policies, The One Per Cent Doctrine. His new book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism, which was published last week, contains the extraordinary new charge. It says that late in 2003 the White House ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to forge a memo dated July 2001 from Tahir Jalil Habbush, Saddam Hussein’s intelligence chief, to Saddam himself, affirming that Mohammed Atta, the September 11 2001 bomber, had contacts with the regime and that Iraq had an ongoing weapons of mass destruction programme.

This document has long been known about. It was splashed in the British press in December 2003, when The Sunday Telegraph reported on it. That story briefly entertained the possibility that the memo was phoney but insisted it was well vouched for by Iraqi sources. Reports in the US subsequently cast further doubt on it and the memo came to be seen as a fake. But up to now there has been no supported allegation from a reputable author that the White House and the CIA were behind it. That is what Mr Suskind alleges.

He says he has two senior CIA agents on tape confirming the story. They are now denying it. George Tenet, then head of the CIA, has denied the story as well: “There was no such order from the White House to me nor, to the best of my knowledge, was anyone from the CIA ever involved in any such effort.” The White House has denied it too, in effect: “The idea that the White House had anything to do with a forged letter purportedly from Habbush to Saddam is absurd.” But parts of the White House statement seemed, to me at any rate, a little hesitant and evasive.

In an interview, Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, twice seemed to correct herself, saying that the White House could not have been involved after first referring to “the government” or “the United States”. And it was perhaps less than reassuring to hear her say this: “Look, the United States . . . the White House was not going to ask somebody to forge a letter on something of this importance.” On matters of less importance, it seems, greater vigilance might be warranted.

If Mr Suskind is correct, laws have been broken and President George W. Bush and/or Dick Cheney, his deputy, are implicated. And yet, as I say, the outcry is not exactly deafening. Mr Suskind did his tour of the television studios, repeating and even sharpening his attacks on the administration – and, so far, that is about it.

Washington goes to sleep in August. Congress is out of town. Time is running down on this administration, and the focus of political attention is on Barack Obama and John McCain. Most Americans divide into two camps: those who believe that the Bush White House cannot speak without lying, and who thus regard this new charge as no surprise; and those who are contemptuous of the administration’s critics and stopped listening way back. Yes, but still: an order not merely to spin evidence, or suppress evidence, but to manufacture it tout court?

To those who see this administration as misguided and incompetent, but who retain a residue of belief in its integrity and good faith, this charge is grave and shocking. Despite the distractions of the presidential campaigns and the pressures of being on vacation, Congress ought to look into it urgently, with witnesses on oath.

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... mention it much if at all.

I wouldn't trust most of them to speak up if a child were assaulted and murdered by Bush** on the floor of Congress.

oil companies were gouging Americans at the pump, and after said big oil companies were bragging about their record profits, and Congress came up with NOTHING, I doubt that members of Congress could find their butt with both hands, and if they did they wouldn't know a butthole when they saw one.

Congress should get their shit together and start Impeachment Proceedings!

:kick:

I concur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87yq372R4Ts

decided that just splitting the US into three, four, or more separate country/states much like the European Union, would be better. Each area could have it's own constitution and bill of rights, one area could be set aside for Native Americans (IF they chose) and one for African Americans (IF they chose). One area for us progressives (hopefully the largest area and very rainbow) one for the far right (hopefully the smallest area) and it could all be done with a vote, IE, without violence. The state would have to provide some (a ton) money for resettlement and development and in the case of NAs and AAs reparations of some sort would be in order.

If everyone met with open hand instead of clenched fists this could be done, peacefully. Of course, if everyone met with open hands this might not be necessary.

before the conservative area was trying to invade the others. :rofl:

Take pity on us leftists who live in places like Oklahoma. I can't leave until my dissertation is written. Right now my poor husband is there, alone, with our dogs. I'm out of the country. What would I do?????

any better motivation to finishing your diss. ( this from one who took over seven years to finish writing mine).

i should be in the archives right now. but, as is the case every time i travel to mexico, i'm bedridden with some nasty stomach ailment. at least i have my books with me and i can handle reading without getting sick. i should be done in a year and a half though.

i should just buy a condo here and cook my own darn food.

stomach ailment. But have fun in the archives when you recover. Getting lost in the archives of the National Library of Wales was why I spent so much time on my diss. They are fascinating and addictive places. In fact, I just came back from a conference on archives. To a year and half from now :toast:

...so it's good they're outside the beltway bunker of delusions for a while.

But we all still need to keep talking impeachment.

This forgery could break the dike. Conyers could realize he's been duped into trashing his own legacy by a complicit Pelosi. Nadler may have already realized he's been sounding like an idiot -- expecting anything like accountability later, without impeachment first.

Even some more Repubs could finally say "enough" and decide they will no longer cover up war crimes, abide permanent damage to our national security, and defend those who terrorized the American People with chicken-little-lies about "mushroom clouds."

Impeachment remains our ONLY moral, patriotic option.

If you are wasting effort on anything else -- including (genuflect) The Sacred National Election Horserace -- then you (yes, you personally) are part of the problem, not the solution.

--

is now all over M$M. That's what matters.

IMPEACH!

You won't get any help from any of THEM.

Tenet says "There was no such order from the White House to me nor, to the best of my knowledge, was anyone from the CIA ever involved in any such effort."

He qualifies his denial with "to the best of my knowledge."

Sounds like he's got Gonz-heimers,

And what about Suskind's charge that the WH ignored Habbush's info on the total lack of any WMD? The WH says his intelligence was "inmaterial to the decision to go to war."

Well, of course it was, because WMD was never the reationale for invading, but you wouldn't expect them to come right out and say that, like appearantly they did in that quote.

Weird.

I think there are a lot of very nervous administration officals wondering about future congressional hearings, subpoenas, their post-administration futures without a Bush DoJ to keep them out of jail etc. Sometimes all it takes is to pull a few threads, here and there, for the whole tapestry of lies to come apart in shreads. At this point, the tapestry is looking really weak, who can say when the final thread causes the tipping point?

If and when it does, you'll see all the rats fleeing the sinking ship, ready to canary the drop of the hat to save their own worthless asses.

.. this goes no where until the next president and congress is seated. IF we win, there is a chance, the chance is zero with the current batch of pathetic losers.

Not likely. Even if Obama is "allowed" to win, he'll make excuses not to investigate the Bush/Cheney Crime Syndicate. We must use the last power we have -- our pocketbooks. On September 11, join the National Strike. Don't go to work. Don't go to the mall. Stay home or participate in protests against the loss of jobs overseas, the loss of our civil liberties, the war crimes, and the theft of our national treasury.

I came across this site and a few others: http://www.votestrike.org/

:rofl:

a keeper, and oh so perfect!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

*Actual accountability in government would be real change.


*Actual accountability - isn't the Lee Hamilton, moving on, heal (heel) the nation bullshit accountability that allows the guilty to go free and the complicit to feel good about themselves while (falsely) claiming they "did something". You know, more of the same.

Actual accountability means criminal prosecution for any and all crimes, in addition to any political consequences.

I'm betting America goes for more of the same. It's got a long precedent...and it doesn't require anyone to do anything of substance....but people feel better - and for far too many that's enough.

congress' ought' to look into it.....bwahahahahahahaaaaa

For someone who lost a loved one in this war for profit, impeachment is little solace for what they've had to endure. These are WAR CRIMES...the purposeful cooking of intel to launch of war of unprovoked aggression. And there's more...IRC, this regime also wiretapped the phones of several UN delegations...intimidating our "friends" into voting to give boooshie his war. There's a lot of accountabliity here that makes Watergate look like small change....and doesn't even pale compared to lying about a blowjob.

What's real scary is this is stuff that has taken 6 years to reach the light of day...and it took some incredible reporting by Mr. Suskind. I suspect there's a lot more dirt under this slime.

and therein lies the cruel joke of our diminishing democracy.

I hope they all lose their seats and get replaced by people who care about our Constitution and the rule of law in our country.

and that would be far, far worse if true.

The stone in my gut says it probably is.

Bush would take both down with him.

...putting out all the bonfires around the White House/Executive Office bldgs.

"Just a marshmallow roast, folks. Move along. Nothing to see here...."

My local newspaper (the Sacramento Bee) allows readers to comment on stories on its website. When the "Edwards Lied About His Mistress!" story broke, I attempted to point out in one comment that the mainstream media are covering the wrong lies, that they should forget the Edwards story, and focus on the Ron Suskind allegations instead. The message was soon flagged by someone as "abusive", and upon review by the website admin, the comment was flushed down the memory hole. I tried again, wording my comment differently so as to attempt to be less "abusive", but again, the comment was flagged and subsequently flushed. Since one can not post comments on the site without registering one's email address, I addressed the moderator directly in my next comment, asking for an explanation to me privately via email as to why my comments were seen as abusive, and (of course) I received no response.

The initial story on Suskind's allegations did not appear in the Bee, and a site search for "Ron Suskind" only gets two hits, both on the AP story in which the White House denied Suskind's allegations.

Seems like the Suskind story has hit a nerve, and some papers don't want to cover it at all.

If hundreds of DUers went to that forum and posted similar comments (re: Suskind and the White House order to forge documents), I wonder how they would respond -- if nothing else it'd keep their 1984'ish administrator very busy, perhaps so busy at least some people would get to see the "forgery" comments.

The Orlando Slantinel has mentioned nary a word about Suskind's accusations. They never reported the documented 935 Iraqi lies of the Bush Administration either. Water-carrying bastards. :mad:

We ARE talking about war crimes, here, and Bush ain't the only one who should be charged.

How much you want to bet GWB will "try" to pardon for future charges? I bet he will 'cause he knows damn well the crimes involved!

It's hard to maintain confidence in this country when the institutions created to ensure the rule of law (hence, "justice") are either broken, ignored or manipulated.

*sigh*

Oh, Nancy Disaster,
Just when we think you cannot do worse,
You surprise us,
How could you cover for the criminals unless you are one too?
Oh, our Nancy Disaster,
History will not be so kind.

patience.

n the late 60's and early 70's, the Viet-Nam war ( misnamed, I know) and Watergate was viewed as an aberration of what government was supposed to be.
Since the 80's, people seem to have accepted the government as greedy. war mongering, thirsty for blood, oil, money, and not at all caring about people.

We grew up, saw reality.

This does not mean we should blindly accept what is going on..but I do think more and more of us boomers have realized it was all bullshit from the get go way back then.

Bush and Co. have helped force us into reality because they have neglected to even pretend they give a damn about anyone or anything.
Nixon at least tried to pretend Congress was powerful enough to impeach him. Maybe it was then.
Even Congress critters have stopped pretending.

....is that crime does pay. I'm drumming that into the heads of my grandkids at every opportunity. Fortunately, I've got lots of proof so I defy anybody to prove me wrong. Oh, BTW, lots of that proof is most certainly "bipartisan". I do hope my grand kids spend their ill gained wealth keeping me in the lifestyle I've always dreamed about. Living just like most rethugs; fat, dumb, happy and not giving a flying fuck about anybody but themselves. Sure works for me. Yep, crime sure does pay. Just ask any rethuglican, (and a few democrats).

Can the UN get involved? What would it take? If "we" can't or won't do the right thing.

We the People are screaming for justice and our government fails to do its job. Gitmo should be emptied and prepared for each and every one of them.

I'm sick of listening to Pelosi enabling and protecting these war criminals and it seems the only one who's making an attempt is Dennis Kucinich.

Under the Clinton doctrine that if a bad leader incites his country to cause massive loss of lives, there is the possibility that we might see ourselves under attack by bombers in the sky.

If the Serbs could be attacked with missiles for their refusing to take to the streets and get rid of Milosevic, then I don't see why the same thing couldn't be applied to us for our allowing Bush to stay in Power, and for the loss of life in Iraq.

NO PARDONS

if the crimes are committed primarily against people in other countries and against soldiers and average American citizens. Nixon broke countless laws re; Laos and Cambodia and no one did shit about it.

This will not even merit a raised eyebrow in Congress.

About that goddamn table, Ms. leader of the MAJORITY party in the House. At first it was kind of morbidly funny to watch her squirm and recite all those lame reasons why impeachment was a bad idea. But that got old quickly as each week brought new evidence of the Bushies' unrestrained criminality and blatant violations of US and international law. All unreported in US mass media, of course, but still...

She seems less concerned that this gang of violent madmen will drag the country into WW III than she is about offending her pals in the White House. I guess it would be impolite to bust people of your own class and social circle.

But there are no more excuses. For years, there's been more than enough evidence of high crimes out there, rising to treason in many cases, to rid the world of these criminal bastards for good. If this latest outrage -- which exceeds the standard for high treason by several orders of magnitude -- isn't enough to light a fire under her collaborating ass, the people need to declare war.

She needs to be surrounded by thousands of furious screaming protesters every time she leaves her house or her DC condo. She needs to see, hear and feel the outrage everywhere she tries to con people into buying her irrelevant ghost-written book. San Francisco has made certain that every time she thinks she's safely holed up in that Pacific Heights mansion, she hears and sees the fury of her constituents. That needs to happen nationwide and continuously.

Even if it doesn't result in impeachment, it's a signal to the security state that things aren't going to be quite as easy for them going forward and that, when pushed, some people will push back. That's been missing for way too long.


wp

or how many more lies can these parasites tell themselves before they realize the Americans aren't buying their lame excuses?

Irrational numbers for irrational behavior. Last I heard, they were considered competent by a lofty 9 percent of respondents in a poll taken last month.

So only 91 percent thinks they suck. That's not so bad. I can see why they're so obsessed with "staying the course."

Gawd, I'm sick of these craven androids. It's pretty sobering when you consider that dems used to have serious ass kickers like LB Johnson, Tip O'Neill, Sam Rayburn and other legendary GOP tormentors running the show.

And now, when faced with the worst and most dangerous pack of murderous, lying thieves, when we needed people who know how to fight back, we get these miserable excuses for an opposition party leadership who have completely redefined the term "candy ass." It used to be just a sorta funny slur; now it's shorthand for "treasonous incompetent collaborating accomplices."

I sincerely hope Pelosi gets her ass handed to her in November by the "unelectable" Ms. Sheehan. Unlikely, but if enough San Franciscans are pissed off enough at her outrageous refusal to honor her oath of office, maybe the unlikely will happen.


wp

I could even see the GOP helping her out...

Sadly, I think I just took more action on this than Pelosi will.


:banghead:

Interesting that he wrote this. :)

Like the Edwards story. I mean, who really cares, he isn't running for anything. I hope he is also not nominated for any Cabinet post so this story just goes away.

But we know the press won't really focus on the important stuff though.

but that seems to be the only size that the MSM can wrap their minds around.