meme orandum
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This is one armchair warmonger still fighting By / Telegraph — Permalink After a couple of weeks away, I return to spend a lonely evening talking to myself at the eerily deserted Armchair Warmongers Club (Fleet Street Branch). Where'd everybody go? | |
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Ezra Klein: The Lies, The Lies — Behold the lies, the aspersions cast, the projections thrown, the rationalizations of the wrong... Emperor Darth Misha I: Thanks to a link to one of Steyn's always excellent columns that we picked up at Sir George's, we bring you this excerpt: [snipped quote] He's absolutely right, you know. Glenn Reynolds: MARK STEYN: "It is already worth it for Iraq. There are more than 8,000 towns and villages in the country. |
Michael DeBow: Must reading on Iraq: Mark Steyn today, and this post on Instapundit (where I saw the Steyn article in the first place). Jan Haugland: "Now listen here, you chicken fairweather armchair warriors...." Read Mark Steyn Now! Yeah, what he said. Tim Blair: HAWK-DOVE CONVERSIONS CONTINUE APACE — Noting a reversal of opinion among the previously hawkish, Mark Steyn writes:... |
A Saddam Souvenir By / Time — Permalink When Saddam Hussein was rousted from his spider hole in Dawr, a town near Tikrit, by U.S. soldiers last December, Iraq's fallen dictator was clutching a pistol. He is now in detention at an undisclosed location, being questioned by American authorities and awaiting charges for war atrocities and crimes against humanity. | |
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Mathew Gross: Memorial Day — He gets a pistol; we get 810 dead. And increasingly, they're from the Reserves and National Guard. KJL: SADDAM'S PISTOL IS AT 1600 PENN. AVE. |
David Allan Pell: The Gunfighter — One presumes that special visitors who are connected enough can hear the whistling theme song to Clint... |
America, Recuse Thyself! Opinion Journal — Permalink John Kerry says America shouldn't cut and run. George Bush says America mustn't. But we don't have to retreat ignominiously from the war on terrorism and from our other international responsibilities and commitments; we can recuse ourselves. | |
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Michael DeBow: Oh, and P.J. O'Rourke considers isolationism as an option. Vanderleun: The Benefits of Staying Home — P. J. O'ROURKE LOOKS AT THE BENEFITS of going home: America, Recuse Thyself! |
Deacon: Scalia wouldn't do it, but America should — P.J. O'Rourke in a must-read column, explains why America should "recuse"... |
Clerical error By / US News — Permalink NAJAF—In the moments before Moqtada al-Sadr cut a deal to withdraw from this holy city, his Mahdi Army fighters were up in arms. Hundreds of bedraggled men circled the holy shrine of Imam Ali in a beelike swarm, heads swathed in black bandanas, hands clutching beat-up Kalashnikovs. | |
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Andrew Olmsted: US News notes that Sadr overestimated his own support, and so had to back down rather than press the issue. (Hat tip: Instapundit.) Glenn Reynolds: U.S. NEWS: [snipped quote] Read the whole thing, especially the final paragraph. |
Smash: Sadr Capitulates — US NEWS reports on the last days of Sadr's Mahdi Army in Najaf. [snipped quote] Read the rest. |
. . . Or Proving His Resilience? By / WaPo — Permalink It's the summer right before the presidential election. The president's approval numbers have sunk, and he finds himself in the midst of a dangerous international crisis. Many pundits have written him and his policies off, when he says with the straight talk that has become his trademark, "We will stay in Berlin." | |
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Jack Balkin: Just Wild About Harry — Billmon notes this Washington Post essay suggesting that George W. Bush will beat John Kerry in... |
Billmon: We're at phase one: "It was June 1948 and the president was Harry S. Truman, who bucked conventional wisdom, the... |
The Paper Trail Time — Permalink Vice President Dick Cheney was a guest on NBC's Meet the Press last September when host Tim Russert brought up Halliburton. Citing the company's role in rebuilding Iraq as well as Cheney's prior service as Halliburton's CEO, Russert asked, "Were you involved in any way in the awarding of those contracts?" | |
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Max B. Sawicky: Did I think the Veep connived in this deal, I was asked. Oliver Willis: Profiteering Watch — Dick Cheney strikes again Cheney's relationship with Halliburton has been nothing but trouble since he left the company in 2000. |
Atrios: Cheneyburton — Link: Vice President Dick Cheney was a guest on NBC's Meet the Press last September when host Tim Russert brought up Halliburton. |
Arab militia use 'rape camps' for ethnic cleansing of Sudan By / Telegraph — Permalink "In the evening, the Janjaweed attacked. The area was full of crying from every direction, and shooting," says Ilham Isaak Abakker Abdullah. Aged 13, and light-voiced, she wears a pink dress and scarf and hasn't shown her face in weeks. | |
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Michael DeBow: "Arab militia use 'rape camps' for ethnic cleansing of Sudan" From the Telegraph: "After 50 years of conflict that... |
Andrew Stuttaford: SUDAN — I wonder how this story is being covered in the Arab press, so conscious now of human rights in the wake of Abu Ghraib. |
Weapons of Mass Destruction? Or Mass Distraction? By / NYT — Permalink FROM the moment this office opened for business last December, I felt I could not write about what had been published in the paper before my arrival. Once I stepped into the past, I reasoned, I might never find my way back to the present. | |
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Jeff Jarvis: But post mortems are better than coverups and it is a new Times that has Dan Okrent dissecting the corpus journalism of... Jim Henley: Obudsman Daniel Okrent of the New York Times offers his own retrospective on the paper's prewar coverage of Iraq's WSD capability. Digby: All The News The GOP Sees Fit To Print — Daniel Okrent says the paper failed in its WMD coverage prior to the war. |
Dan Gillmor: NY Times' WMD Credibility Gap — The NY Times' ombudsman, Daniel Okrent, has written an appropriately scathing... The Ombudsgod: Today the New York Times Public Editor, Daniel Okrent, calls on the Times to reveal confidential sources in another story. Billmon: Daniel Okrent, the Times' "public editor" - what the rest of the profession calls an omsbudsman - has published his much... |
Turn off Rush, turn on Salon By / Salon — Permalink Do America's servicemen and -women get the full story from American Forces Radio and Television? Not according to Eric Boehlert's Salon cover story on Wednesday. | |
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Tom Schaller: All they need do is send an email to: militaryoffer@salon.com. For more info, click here. |
The Poor Man: Memorial Day Offer — Salon has a pretty cool offer for active-duty soldiers, where they give you a free subscription to Salon Premium just for being you. |
Cool gunmen hunted down Christians By / Reuters — Permalink Hell's gates . . . a Saudi official inspects a bullet-riddled car at Khobar after the attacks. Gunmen apparently scaled an unguarded gate to gain access. Photo: AFP/Saudi Television "Are you Muslim or Christian? We don't want to kill Muslims. | |
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Arthur Chrenkoff: Al Quaeda associates have just slaughtered 22 people, including 19 foreigners, in Saudi Arabia (being particularly careful this time to only kill infidels, and not Muslims). |
Tim Blair: AL-QAEDA QUESTIONNAIRE — Suspected al-Qaeda "militants" — such a useful word — have killed 25 people in Khobar,... |
D-Day 1899 and President Denzel Washington is leading liberation of New Zealand from the Nazi's Telegraph — Permalink It is 1899 and Denzel Washington, the American president, orders Anne Frank and her troops to storm the beaches of Nazi-occupied New Zealand. This may not be how you remember D-Day but for a worrying number of Britain's children this is the confused scenario they associate with the events of June 6, 1944. | |
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Betsy Newmark: A depressing, but predictable, survey of British elementary and secondary schoolchildren finds them appallingly ignorant about D-Day. |
Andrew Stuttaford: Given that, it's depressing to read that, sixty years after D-Day, disturbingly large numbers of British children have little idea of what happened on June 6th, 1944. |
Deferred but Lasting Gratitude By / WaPo — Permalink The sun shone on a generation yesterday, as the largest gathering of World War II veterans since 1945 assembled on the Mall to see their long-awaited memorial assume its place in the center of Washington's defining landmarks. | |
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David Adesnik: THE GREATEST GENERATION — OR THE MOST LASCIVIOUS? [snipped quote] Hey, I hope I'm that energetic at 85. James Joyner: Other links: WaPo — Deferred but Lasting Gratitude (The above-the-fold story on A1 of the print edition) WaPo — World... |
Cori Dauber: OH, ADMIT IT — YOU CRIED TOO — None of the speeches were all that good — and some of them were way, way, too long —... |
Kerry Says Security Comes First By / WaPo — Permalink Sen. John F. Kerry indicated that as president he would play down the promotion of democracy as a leading goal in dealing with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Russia, instead focusing on other objectives that he said are more central to the United States' security. | |
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The Poor Man: From Kerry's interview with the Washington Post, which you can listen to here. |
Tacitus: With the twin publications of interviews by NYT and WaPo on that subject, that moment has passed. |
Saudi Commandos Free Hostages, Ending Standoff With Militants By / NYT — Permalink CAIRO, May 30 — Saudi commandos stormed a residential compound in the oil-producing region of eastern Saudi Arabia today, freeing dozens of Westerners and other foreigners held hostage for 24 hours by armed militants. | |
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Dan Darling: The terrorists also tried to distinguish between Christians and Muslims when going about their bloody work, even to the point of ignoring an Iraqi American because of his religion. |
Jan Haugland: The total death toll is at least 19, but most of those died before the commandos attacked. |
Transcript for May 30 MSNBC — Permalink PLEASE CREDIT ANY QUOTES OR EXCERPTS FROM THIS NBC TELEVISION PROGRAM TO "NBC NEWS' MEET THE PRESS." Guests: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, (D-Calif.), on the Democrats' view of Iraq, former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) , World War II veteran on the WWII Memorial, plus a political roundtable. | |
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Kos: Andrea Mitchel's turn — I'm sick and tired of lying media. So I'm going to crib from Atrios again to help get the word out: [snipped quote] No letup against the liars. |
Atrios: Liars — Andrea Mitchell today on Meet the Press: But I think what's most unhelpful to John Kerry in this regard is Al Gore. |
Hostages Freed After Deadly Attack By / AP — Permalink KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia — Saudi commandos in helicopters stormed an expatriate resort early Sunday to free hostages seized by suspected al-Qaida gunmen in an attack on the kingdom's vital oil industry that killed 22 people — mostly foreigners including one American. | |
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KJL: KSA HOSTAGE SITUATION OVER |
Cori Dauber: But that didn't stop the AP from describing these terrorists as gunmen in the opening graf. |
Gunmen hunted "infidel" Westerners By / Reuters — Permalink KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - "Are you Muslim or Christian? We don't want to kill Muslims. Show us where the Americans and Westerners live," Islamic militants told an Arab after launching a shooting spree on Westerners in Saudi Arabia. | |
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Charles Johnson: Islamic supremacist bloodlust on full display: Gunmen hunted "infidel" Westerners. (Hat tip: Colt.) |
Tacitus: Update [2004-5-30 11:59:3 by tacitus]: Still more on the motivation. |
Self-Rule Is Test of Nerves on Local Iraq Councils By / NYT — Permalink BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 29 — At a recent local government meeting in the Rashid neighborhood of south Baghdad, the first item on the agenda was a moment of silence for council members in other districts who had been assassinated. | |
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Andrew Olmsted: Getting involved in Iraqi politics is a dangerous career choice at the moment, but it's one that is crucial if Iraq is to have some form of representative government. |
Cori Dauber: Thus although the CPA has been mentioning for some time that there are literally hundreds of local councils, freely... |
A Trial Balloon Made of Lead? By / NYT — Permalink Made of Lead? Senator John Kerry has just been through one of the most important tests of presidential leadership: leak management. The trial began last weekend, after The Associated Press quoted "campaign officials" saying that Mr. Kerry might delay... | |
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Betsy Newmark: John Tierney has two entries in his political notes in the New YOrk TImes. |
Captain Ed: John Tierney Attempts Spin Control — The New York Times' John Tierney reviews the John Kerry nomination two-step in his... |
Hamas leader killed in Israeli helicopter strike CNN — Permalink GAZA CITY (CNN) — An Israeli Apache helicopter fired two rockets at a motorcycle in Gaza City Saturday, killing a civilian and two Hamas militants, one of them a senior leader of the military wing of the group, according to Palestinian sources. | |
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Pejman Yousefzadeh: ANYONE ELSE WANT TO FILL THIS JOB? Being a leader of Hamas continues to be a hazardous experience. Bo Cowgill: ANOTHER HAMAS LEADER HAS BEEN KILLED by the Israeli military. |
Patrick Belton: AND DÉJÀ VU ALL-OVER-AGAIN HEADLINE OF THE DAY: 'Hamas leader killed in Israeli helicopter strike.' From CNN. |
Internet Upstart Turns Insider By / LAT — Permalink When lawyers for George W. Bush's first presidential campaign filed a federal complaint against the operator of a satirical website called GWBush.com, they did more than violate the Internet commandment to ignore obscure critics. | |
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Jeralyn Merritt: The LA Times profiles him today. "Exley's unlikely rise from union organizer and small-time software programmer to top... |
Taegan Goddard: Internet Upstart Turns Insider — The Los Angeles Times profiles Zack Exley, who "has gone from running a website... |
Mr. Kerry on Security WaPo — Permalink SEN. JOHN F. KERRY'S 11-day mini-campaign on the theme of national security appears unlikely to produce sensational headlines or seize the country's attention — which is, on balance, to his credit. | |
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Blackfive: Mr. Kerry on Security ...The emerging Kerry platform suggests that ultimately he would adopt many of the same goals as Mr. Bush. |
Dean Esmay: Kerry v. Bush — The Washington Post notes that John Kerry's war position is sober and responsible and not, on substance, much of any different from Bush's position. |
Saudi troops rescue oil hostages BBC — Permalink Dozens of foreign hostages have been freed after Saudi commandos stormed the oil worker's compound where they were being held, Saudi officials have said. About 40 commandos jumped from helicopters onto the roof of the building in the eastern city of Khobar. | |
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Jan Haugland: Commando raid end Saudi hostage crisis — Saudi helicopter drops commandosThe hostage situation in eastern Saudi town... |
Kieran Healy: Reading reports about the hostage crisis in Khobar, I wonder why the terrorists went after the oil workers rather than the refineries they work at. |
Recalling a time when setbacks didn't deter us By / Chicago Sun Times — Permalink Memorial Day in my corner of New Hampshire is always the same. A clutch of veterans from the Second World War to the Gulf march round the common, followed by the town band, and the scouts, and the fifth-graders. | |
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Charles Johnson: When Setbacks Didn't Deter Us — Mark Steyn evokes an earlier era, when the cult of victimhood had not yet gotten a grip on America: Recalling a time when setbacks didn't deter us. |
Betsy Newmark: Mark Steyn has been having those same thoughts as he visited a cemetery of Civil War dead in New Hampshire. |
Scant Evidence Cited in Long Detention of Iraqis By / NYT — Permalink WASHINGTON, May 29 — Hundreds of Iraqi prisoners were held in Abu Ghraib prison for prolonged periods despite a lack of evidence that they posed a security threat to American forces, according to an Army report completed last fall. | |
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Andrew Olmsted: The U.S. Army reports that hundreds of Iraqi prisoners were held at Abu Ghraib despite there being no evidence they posed a security threat. Bob Harris: So let's look closely at two other stories that came out today: The U.S. Army determined that [snipped quote] — last November 5th. |
TChris: Maj. Gen. John Ryder recognized that problem last fall, when he completed a report concluding that hundreds of Iraqi... |
SF gallery owner becomes target after showcasing painting of Iraqi prisoner abuse San Francisco Chronicle — Permalink (05-29) 17:10 PDT SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After displaying a painting of U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners, a San Francisco gallery owner bears a painful reminder of the nation's unresolved anguish over the incidents at Abu Ghraib — a black eye and bloodied brow delivered by an unknown assailant who apparently objected to the art work. | |
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Ampersand @Amptoons: Gallery owner becomes target after showcasing painting of Iraqi prisoner abuse — From the San Francisco Chronicle:... |
Oliver Willis: Sigh — The patriotic correctness brigade is is in full effect nowadays. (as dumb as you think a particular piece of art... |
Tilting the Playing Field By / NYT — Permalink The American public has been treated to such a festival of mea, wea and hea culpas on Iraq lately it could be forgiven for feeling utterly lost. Americans are caught between a president who continues to wax utopian about Iraq and an analytical community that has become consumed by despair. | |
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Roger L. Simon: Today's column on democracy-building in Iraq is a good example. He writes: Democracy-building is always a work in progress — two steps forward, one step back. |
Belle Waring: Lowering the Bar — Thomas "Airmiles" Friedman, has had enough of pie-in-the-sky democracy-promotion, and is ready for some bracing realism: We need to rebalance our policy. |
Kerry Says Focus on Iraq Endangers U.S. NYT — Permalink WASHINGTON, May 29 — Issuing a new broadside against President Bush's national security policy, Senator John Kerry said that Mr. Bush's "almost myopic" focus on Iraq had made Americans "less safe" by giving North Korea and Iran the time and opportunity to speed toward the construction of nuclear weapons. | |
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David Adesnik: On the NYT homepage, the third bullet point beneath a story about Iraq has a link entitled "Kerry Faults Bush on Security Issues". Jeff Goldstein: And John Kerry is an ass. update: Still. |
Steve Soto: Both the New York Times story of their interview, and the Washington Post story of their interview reflected how easily Kerry dealt with a wide range of foreign policy subjects. |
Kerry Says Global Democracy Is Not His Top Issue By / WaPo — Permalink Sen. John F. Kerry indicated that as president he would downplay the promotion of democracy as a leading goal in dealing with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Russia, instead focusing on other objectives that he said are more central to the nation's security. | |
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Pejman Yousefzadeh: JOHN KERRY AND DEMOCRACY PROMOTION — The soon-to-be Democratic nominee has come out with his position on democracy... David Adesnik: Since noon, the top story on the WaPo website has been "Kerry: Security Trumps Promoting Democracy". Ezra Klein: Kerry Talks the Walk — I'm not sure this is good politics, but maybe it's time we had a foreign-policy realist who knows his s**t. |
Bo Cowgill: INTERESTING MOVE BY KERRY: Kerry says that promoting global democracy will not be his top foreign policy priority:... Captain Ed: Kerry: Democracy Not Important — In words that echo his 1971 Senate testimony on the Vietnam war, John Kerry told the... Atrios: Inverse Judo Flip — Interesting. |
| Also: Patrick Belton, James Joyner | |
Remarks by the President at National World War II Memorial Dedication White House — Permalink Washington, D.C. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. I'm honored to join with President Clinton, President Bush, Senator Dole and other distinguished guests on this day of remembrance and celebration. | |
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KJL: PRESIDENT'S REMARKS TODAY AT WWII MEMORIAL DEDICATION The Big Trunk: Below is a photo of the three presidents. three.jpg In his dedication speech, President Bush paid tribute not only to... |
James Joyner: Remarks by the President at National World War II Memorial Dedication "Raising up this memorial took skill and vision and patience. |
Man's flag flies in face of apartment policy AP — Permalink Every morning since 9/11, Donald Lamp has hung his American flag from the balcony of his Omaha apartment. Management of the retirement community where he and his wife live - citing policy about maintaining the appearance of the building's exterior - wants him to lower the flag for good. | |
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Betsy Newmark: What makes this story news is that the 89-year old World War II veteran is also the father-in-law of Clarence Thomas. Libertarian: WHEN PRIVATE PROPERTY TRUMPS "FREE SPEECH" The father-in-law to Clarence Thomas can't fly his flag due to apartment restrictions. |
KJL: A WORLD WAR II VET VS. APARTMENT COMPLEX — Clarence Thomas's father-in-law defiantly flies his flag. |
Conservative Allies Take Chalabi Case to the White House By / NYT — Permalink WASHINGTON, May 28 — Influential outside advisers to the Bush administration who support the Iraqi exile leader Ahmad Chalabi are pressing the White House to stop what one has called a "smear campaign" against Mr. Chalabi, whose Baghdad home and offices were ransacked last week in an American-supported raid. | |
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Jan Haugland: A group of "influental outside advisers" (nudge, wink), most prominent of them Richard N. Perle ("prince of darkness")... Kevin Drum: CHALABI WATCH....Ahmed Chalabi's supporters are pissed, and they're letting the Bush administration know it: [snipped quote] Now that sounds like a charming scene, doesn't it? David Adesnik: DEVIL'S ADVOCATES: The NYT reports that Richard Perle & Co. stormed into Condi Rice's office to demand that Jerry Bremer stop beating up on Ahmad Chalabi. |
Josh Marshall: Also note this article in Saturday's Times on the Iraq-hawk delegation which visited Condi Rice a week earlier (May... Steve Soto: First, take a look at this New York Times piece this morning where the PNAC crowd is now whining to the White House... Digby: So, up to the White House march the perennially wrong Richard Perle, James Woolsey and Newt Gingrich to convince Condi Rice that poor Ahmad is the victim of a smear campaign. |
| Also: Kos | |
Hospital bans free burgers for children By / Telegraph — Permalink A hospital has banned McDonald's from sending staff to hand out free burgers and fries on a children's ward after parents complained. The fast food chain had previously been encouraged by Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to make the weekly trips in which vouchers for the food were distributed along with balloons, toys and promotional leaflets. | |
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Radley Balko: The latest such moment of perspective comes from this Telegraph story. Relevant snippets: [snipped quote] This is no-bones Puritanism, folks. |
Andrew Stuttaford: GRINCH WATCH — [snipped quote] The sad thing about this was that it was some parents and one obnoxious-sounding... |
Army: Friendly Fire Likely Killed Tillman By / AP — Permalink FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Former pro football player Pat Tillman was "probably" killed by friendly fire as he led his team of Army Rangers up a hill during a firefight in Afghanistan last month, the U.S. Army said Saturday. | |
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James Joyner: Tillman's Death Likely Friendly Fire — WaPo/AP — Army: Friendly Fire Likely Killed Tillman [snipped quote] While... |
KJL: PAT TILLMAN WAS PROBABLY KILLED BY FRIENDLY FIRE |
THE MANIPULATOR By / New Yorker — Permalink Ahmad Chalabi, the wealthy Iraqi Shiite who spent more than a decade working for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, prides himself on his understanding of the United States and its history. "I know quite a lot about it," he told me not long ago. | |
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Jeralyn Merritt: Chalabi as Master Manipulator — Don't miss Jane Mayer's article, The Manipulator, in the New Yorker. Steve Soto: Second, take a long read of Jane Mayer's boffo piece in the upcoming New Yorker, where she charts the rise and fall of Chalabi. Atrios: The Manipulator — A lovely little story from the latest New Yorker. |
Billmon: This from Jane Mayer's long look at the Chalabi sting operation in the current New Yorker: "In an unusual arrangement,... Digby: Meanwhile, in Jane Meyer's new piece in the best investigative magazine in America, The New Yorker, she relates the inside story of the rise of Chalabi in Washington. |
My childish view of a nasty America is still popular By / Telegraph — Permalink As with most British people, my first impressions of America were formed by television. For my family in the 1960s, this meant the BBC alone. We had one of those "snobbish" televisions, not unusual at that time, that could not get the only other channel, ITV. | |
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Jan Haugland: "Nasty America" — Charles Moore recalls how the BBC in particular has presented a consistent narrative of anti-Americanism to its British audience. Damian Penny: Good question — Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph: Suppose that the reports accusing UN officials of corruption in the oil-for-food programme had been made against America. Betsy Newmark: Here's a great column by Charles Moore in the British paper, The Telegraph, about how the British are being brainwashed in their views on America. |
Donald Sensing: Yep, this Telegraph piece about sums up the anti-American, ignorant prejudice that pervades the Isles and the continent today. Andrew Stuttaford: NARRATIVES — Interesting article in the Daily Telegraph by Charles Moore looking at the basis of the (hopelessly... |
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Official Threatens Suicide Operations: 'Our Missiles Are Ready to Strike at Anglo-Saxon Culture... There Are 29 Sensitive Sites in the U.S. and the West...' MEMRI — Permalink "A source close to [Revolutionary Guards] intelligence confirmed that P.R. has been appointed secretary-general of a new office that has begun registering the names of suicide volunteers to be sent to Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon. | |
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Jan Haugland: Iran ready to strike Britain, US Here is a MEMRI translation of a deeply disturbing report from Iran. Captain Ed: According to translations of Iranian speeches and documents provided by MEMRI, the Iranians have announced to their... Clayton Cramer: When I read their summary of an Arabic language newspaper account I was a little skeptical: [quote] "[The newspaper reported...[end quote] |
Pejman Yousefzadeh: WHY REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN IS A NECESSITY — If the thought of freeing an oppressed people who would likely become some... Patrick Belton: IRANIAN PLANS TO 'TAKE OVER' BRITAIN: This from segments of Iran's Revolutionary Guards opposed to President Khatami's... |
The Achilles' Heel of Fingerprints By / WaPo — Permalink Three highly skilled FBI fingerprint experts declared this year that Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield's fingerprint matched a partial print found on a bag in Madrid that contained explosive detonators. U.S. officials called it "absolutely incontrovertible" and a "bingo match." | |
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TChris: Defense lawyers may find jurors more receptive to attacks on the accuracy of fingerprint identifications after the FBI... James Joyner: Fingerprint Fallability — Law professor Jennifer Mnookin argues that, as our database of fingerprints grows, we're... |
Jack Balkin: The Method Formerly Known as Prints — Jennifer Mnookin explains why it was possible for three professional FBI... |
Cuba Base Sent Its Interrogators to Iraqi Prison NYT — Permalink WASHINGTON, May 28 — Interrogation experts from the American detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, were sent to Iraq last fall and played a major role in training American military intelligence teams at Abu Ghraib prison there, senior military officials said Friday. | |
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Digby: Cuba Base Sent Its Interrogators to Iraqi Prison "Interrogation experts from the American detention camp at... Cori Dauber: But today's front page article on the scandal in the Times trumpets, "Cuba Base Sent Its Interrogators to Iraqi Prison." |
Steve M.: Interrogators sent from Guantanamo to Iraq? Just another Friday afternoon embarrassing news dump.... |
Bush Points the Way By / NYT — Permalink I doff my hat, briefly, to President Bush. Sudanese peasants will be naming their sons "George Bush" because he scored a humanitarian victory this week that could be a momentous event around the globe — although almost nobody noticed. | |
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Pejman Yousefzadeh: BET YOU HAVEN'T HEARD MUCH . . . About the subject of this column: "I doff my hat, briefly, to President Bush. Glenn Reynolds: NICHOLAS KRISTOF WRITES: [snipped quote] Indeed. William Sjostrom has some thoughts on why few people have noticed, or care. |
Fred Lapides: Read This David Adesnik: TYPICAL NEO-CON BULLSH**: [snipped quote] Not exactly what you expect from Nick Kristof, is it? |
Terror threat source called into question By / MSNBC — Permalink WASHINGTON - Earlier this week Attorney General John Ashcroft warned of an attack planned on America for sometime in the coming months. That may happen, but NBC News has learned one of Ashcroft's sources is highly suspect. | |
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David Adesnik: TERRORISTS UNLEASH PLAGUE OF CICADAS: MSNBC reports that John Ashcroft will believe anything. Oliver Willis: Terror threat source called into question In warning Americans to brace for a possible attack, Ashcroft cited what he... Steve Soto: But now it appears that Ashcroft rushed out to make his big announcement not only for political reasons, but also on highly suspect information. |
Jan Haugland: FBI source called into question — John Ashcroft is being criticised for repeating claims from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades in his recent terrorist warning. David Neiwert: NBC News is reporting that Ashcroft depended on threats from a group that no one believes is a serious terror threat:... Brian Linse: Scare Tactics and More Lies From Ashcroft — I'm sure this surprises no one: [snipped quote] THREAT LEVEL = Bulls**t... |
| Also: Jeralyn Merritt, Cori Dauber, David Allan Pell | |
Pick Appears to Catch Bush Administration Off Guard WaPo — Permalink The Bush administration appeared to be caught off guard and somewhat confused yesterday after the Iraqi Governing Council nominated a physician with longtime CIA ties as the post-occupation prime minister. | |
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Daniel Drezner: The first comes from Mike Allen and Robin Wright's Washington Post story about the selection. Atrios: FUBAR — Jeebus, this WaPo article makes it clear that no one's in charge. Lovely. Can't our media comprehend that this stuff matters? |
Tim Dunlop: Then you read stuff like this from this morning's Washington Post: "The Bush administration appeared to be caught off... Arthur Chrenkoff: The new Iraqi PM a man for all seasons — Gosh, you allow those Iraqis to make decisions for themselves and see what... |
The Connection By / Weekly Standard — Permalink "THE PRESIDENT CONVINCED THE COUNTRY with a mixture of documents that turned out to be forged and blatantly false assertions that Saddam was in league with al Qaeda," claimed former Vice President Al Gore last Wednesday. | |
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Steven Taylor: Saddam and al Qaeda, II — This Weekly Standard piece, PREVIEW: The Connection, is also worth a read. Deacon: They were right the first time — Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard has more on the new evidence of a substantial connection between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda. Cori Dauber: Because of the new information about this man who may have been both Saddam Fedayeen and at the Malaysia meeting of al... |
Captain Ed: The Weekly Standard features an excerpt from the Hayes book in its latest online edition which discusses the curious and... Damian Penny: "The Connection" — The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes has been reporting on possible links between Saddam Hussein and... Betsy Newmark: Stephen Hayes offers a preview of his new book, The Connection : How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America, in the Weekly Standard. |
| Also: Clayton Cramer, Roger L. Simon | |
Some Find Ties to CIA, Baath Party Worrisome By / LAT — Permalink WASHINGTON — As leader of Iraq's interim government, Iyad Allawi will have to convince his countrymen that neither his long-ago membership in the Baath Party nor his longtime CIA connections will keep him from leading Iraq in just seven months to its first free elections. | |
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Bob Harris: A well-known Baathist and CIA tool, so the Shiite majority is obviously gonna just adore him. |
Cori Dauber: The LA Times goes for a twofer, working in both the CIA and the Ba'ath into their headline. AP goes with the simple, "Long time Exile." |
Surprising Choice for Premier of Iraq Reflects U.S. Influence NYT — Permalink UNITED NATIONS, May 28 — After turning to the United Nations to shore up its failing effort to fashion a new government in Baghdad, the United States ended up Friday with a choice for prime minister certain to be seen more as an American candidate than one of the United Nations or the Iraqis themselves. | |
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Billmon: Iraqi National Discord — Although the decision to turn exile leader Iyad Allawi into Iraq's new figurehead prime... David Adesnik: (Unless he did something really stupid like spying for the Iranian government...) UPDATE: The NYT tells quite a different story. |
Cori Dauber: It's not the online headline for the Times, but their hard copy headline is "Exile with Ties to CIA is Named Premier of Iraq." |
Keeping Kerry at a Distance By / WaPo — Permalink COLUMBIA, S.C. , May 28 — Some Democratic candidates might feel sheepish about distancing themselves from their party's presidential candidate. Not Inez Tenenbaum, who Democrats desperately hope can win the open U.S. Senate seat in Republican-leaning South Carolina this fall. | |
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QD @SouthernAppeal: At Arm's Length: The Washington Post has an interesting article on how southern Democrats running for Senate seats are... |
Betsy Newmark: The Washington Post looks at how Democratic candidates in the South are eager to portray themselves as different from... |
Washington Intrigue By / MSNBC — Permalink May 28 - What was the subliminal message of John Ashcroft's stepped-up terror warning earlier this week? It's that if the terrorists want to disrupt the presidential election, that must mean they're for Democratic candidate John Kerry. Think Madrid. | |
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Cori Dauber: The ever-cranky Eleanor Clift had this to say: What was the subliminal message of John Ashcroft's stepped-up terror warning earlier this week? Joe Gandelman: The surprise was such that it set off a mini-firestorm in Washington today, leading to the inevitable denial of any... |
David Neiwert: At least one pundit — Newsweek's Eleanor Clift — was astute enough to pick up on the warning's real purpose: What was... |
Tet 2004? By / Washington Times — Permalink By all objective criteria, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, from Jan. 31, 1968, to April 6, 1968, was a smashing loss for the North Vietnamese, and a major victory for the United States and its South Vietnamese allies. The North lost some 40,000 Viet Cong and regular troops in just a few weeks. | |
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Betsy Newmark: Powerline highlights a funny copy editing error from the Washington Times. |
Hindrocket: Bob Barr in the Washington Times: [snipped quote] Well, it's happened to all of us. |
Exiled Allawi was responsible for 45-minute WMD claim By / Independent — Permalink The choice of Iyad Allawi, closely linked to the CIA and formerly to MI6, as the Prime Minister of Iraq from 30 June will make it difficult for the US and Britain to persuade the rest of the world that he is capable of leading an independent government. | |
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Cori Dauber: If you trust the Independent's reporter, he may already have a reputation of working with foreign intelligence. Atrios: Allawi — One of their own: The choice of Iyad Allawi, closely linked to the CIA and formerly to MI6, as the Prime... |
Arthur Chrenkoff: Allawi is a Shia, but too secular; a well connected political player rather than a "seasoned technocrat"; an... |
Rogue Statesman By / OC Weekly — Permalink "[Rohrabacher] says the Taliban are devout traditionalists—not terrorists or revolutionaries. He believes a Taliban takeover [of Afghanistan] would be a positive development." | |
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Atrios: But, given that no journalist ever bothers to point it out it really doesn't. |
Digby: Ooops, He Did It Again — I am reliably informed that Dana Rohrabacher is once more blaming the Clinton administration for the Taliban and al Qaeda, this time on Crossfire. |
Keep our slaves safe By / Denver Post — Permalink Our military is one of the last bastions of slavery in the United States. At the moment, our slaves are stuck in a combat zone, getting killed and maimed, and there's nothing they can do about it except hunker down and pray. | |
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Blackfive: Courtesy of the Denver Post (sent by Dan F.) comes the most assinine column that I've ever read: Keep our slaves safe By... Jan Haugland: Then I either have to forget about most of them, or do like this: Columnist Reggie Rivers in The Denver Post writes a... Baldilocks: Another One — After reading this column, I'm tempted to speculate on how the IQ of the average GI compares to that of... |
Libertarian: One man's take: "And I don't think "slave" is too strong a word to describe someone who is not permitted to quit his job... Captain Ed: The entire conversation got me thinking about Reggie Rivers' op-ed piece in yesterday's Denver Post on how he feels that... TChris: Former Denver Bronco Reggie Rivers argues that many U.S. soldiers never would have enlisted had they known that they would be sent to war under false pretenses. |
| Also: Cori Dauber, Dale Franks, John Derbyshire, Jonah Goldberg | |
Bad Taste By / Reason — Permalink Clove cigarettes have long been a prop of self-styled bohemians, favored by neo-hippies, artists, drama students, and goths. By transforming the sweet, fragrant Indonesian smokes into contraband, the recently introduced Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act would make them even cooler. | |
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Andrew Stuttaford: The whys and wherefores of this latest piece of legislative excess are discussed by Jacob Sullum in an excellent piece... |
Radley Balko: And whines. 2) Jacob Sullum has a suggestion to end childhood obesity. It is a humorous, hyperbolic-for-effect suggestion. |
2 suspected al-Qaeda agents dropped in for meal, says Denny's manager in Avon By / Denver Post — Permalink The FBI office in Denver has received "numerous" calls about the seven people believed to be associated with al-Qaeda pictured Wednesday in newspapers. Monique Kelso, spokeswoman for the Denver office, wouldn't characterize the calls as "sightings," but at least one was reported as such. | |
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Jeralyn Merritt: Sightings of the Seven Most Wanted — The manager of Denny's Restaurant in Avon, Colorado (on I-70, past Vail, just... Joe Gandelman: Choose your theory according to your world belief... UPDATE II: Real headline in the Denver Post:"2 suspected al-Qaeda agents dropped in for meal, says Denny's manager in Avon." |
Clayton Cramer: I Guess Al-Qaeda May Be Headed My Direction — This news report indicates that a Denny's manager spotted two of the... |