Saturday, September 01, 2007

Warner for 'Caretaker' President?

By Robert Parry
September 2, 2007

A political system that was right-side up – rather than upside down – would be debating the need for a “caretaker” U.S. president, not the identity of the likely “caretaker” senator from Idaho.

While few tears will be shed over the resignation of Larry Craig – for allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover policeman in an airport men’s room – there’s a far stronger case for sequenced resignations from Dick Cheney and George W. Bush over a host of misjudgments and misdeeds.

Read on.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Iraq's Endless 'False Hopes'

By Robert Parry
September 1, 2007

Two-and-a-half years ago at another “turning point” in the Iraq War, columnists at the Washington Post and other leading American newspapers were ecstatic over how the Iraqi national election was finally fulfilling the neoconservative dream of remaking the Muslim world.

Now, however, some of the same columnists who praised the Jan. 30, 2005, election are denouncing it as a failure that must be undone so George W. Bush’s newest “turning point” – the American troop “surge” – can achieve its fullest potential.

Read on.

Last Call: Battle for Empire or Republic

By Robert Parry
August 31, 2007

This fall could be a make-or-break moment for the American Republic: Will the powerful forces that favor an empire abroad and an authoritarian state at home prevail?

Or will the country turn away from George W. Bush’s dark vision and insist instead on a revival of the constitutional Republic that the Founders built for “posterity,” for ours and future generations?

Read on.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Bush Puts Iran in Crosshairs

By Ray McGovern
August 30, 2007

Not another warning about war with Iran! Well, suck it up. President George W. Bush’s speech Tuesday makes clear his plan to attack Iran, and how the intelligence, as was the case before the attack on Iraq, is being “fixed around the policy.”

It’s not about putative Iranian “weapons of mass destruction” — not even ostensibly. It is about the requirement for a scapegoat for U.S. reverses in Iraq, and the felt need to create a casus belli by provoking Iran in such a way as to “justify” armed retaliation — perhaps extending to an attempt to destroy its nuclear-related facilities.

Read on.

Bush and the Carnage in Iraq

By Robert Higgs
August 30, 2007

The headline of an Aug. 22, 2007, article in the New York Times reads, “Citing Vietnam, Bush Warns of Carnage if U.S. Leaves Iraq.” Readers with live brain cells must be stunned by such a warning.

What, exactly, does President Bush imagine is happening every day in Iraq now? Does he envision scenes of social tranquility and cooperative harmony amid the peaceful palms of Mesopotamia?

Read on.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Neck Deep: Drowning Accountability

By Robert, Sam and Nat Parry
August 29, 2007

On Aug. 27, 2005, as a powerful hurricane named Katrina surged through the Gulf of Mexico and took aim at New Orleans, most Americans still had confidence in their government’s ability to respond to crises and natural disasters with efficiency and speed.

The country prided itself on its ability to rescue people in danger, to dispatch resources, to rebuild after the worst was over.

Read on.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Favorite Memory: Gonzo on Habeas

By Robert Parry
August 28, 2007

Everyone has their favorite memory of departing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: his endless “do not recalls”; his quibbling definitions of torture; his dismissive attitude toward the “quaint” and “obsolete” Geneva Conventions.

But my personal favorite was his insistence that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t expressly recognize habeas corpus, the great fair-trial legal principle of English law that dates back to the Magna Carta in 1215.

Read on.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Army Adds Farce to Abu Ghraib Shame

By Sam Provance (NCO at Abu Ghraib from 9/03 to 2/04)
August 27, 2007

Breaking News: The Army officer in charge of the interrogation/torture operation at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 is being court-martialed. My first thought was: Finally an officer is being held accountable. In view of the repeated rebuff to my own attempts to stop the torture and identify those responsible, however, you will perhaps excuse my skepticism that justice will be done.

An Army intelligence analyst, my job at Abu Ghraib was systems administrator (“the computer guy”). But I had the bad luck to be on the 2000 to 0800 night shift. And so I saw the detainees dragged in for interrogation, heard the screams, and saw many of them dragged out.

Read on.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Neck Deep Secret: Gore Was Right

By Robert Parry
August 27, 2007

Having written several books that span periods of years, I’m often surprised how patterns emerge that aren’t apparent to me in day-to-day news coverage. In Neck Deep, our new book about George W. Bush’s presidency, one of those surprises was how often former Vice President Al Gore turned up making tragically prescient comments.

Gore, whose admirers sometimes call him “the Goracle,” comes across more as a Cassandra, warning the nation of looming disasters and finding himself either ignored or mocked by the dominant politicians and media pundits.

Read on.