Saturday, July 26, 2008

Bush's Mass Pardons Predicted

By Brent Budowsky
July 26, 2008

Bush will pardon himself, Vice President Cheney, and a long list of officials involved in torture, eavesdropping, destruction of evidence, the CIA leak case, and a range of other potential crimes.

Read on.

The Endless Smearing of Joe Wilson

By Robert Parry
July 26, 2008

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee reminded everyone that rules barred personal attacks on George W. Bush during Friday’s hearing on his presidential abuses, but they didn’t feel obliged to forego the lashing of a favorite whipping boy, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

In a continuation of what has amounted to a five-year campaign to destroy Wilson’s reputation, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, flourished two pieces of evidence that supposedly showed that Wilson was a perjurer and that President Bush was right all along when he accused Iraq of seeking yellowcake uranium from Niger.

Read on.

Friday, July 25, 2008

The Torturing Company We Keep

By Michael Winship
July 25, 2008

At one point during the five and a half years John McCain spent as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, he was tortured and beaten so badly he tried to kill himself.

After four days of this brutality, he gave in and agreed to make a false confession, telling lies to end the unbearable pain.

Read on.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Bush's 'Surge' Gets Mixed Reviews

By Jason Leopold
July 24, 2008

The Government Accountability Office reported that violence in Iraq has dropped over the past year, but that the training of Iraqi security forces still lags, Sunni insurgents have not been defeated, cease-fires with Shiite militias are fragile, and political reconciliation has not been achieved.

Read on.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Rove End-Runs House Democrats

By Jason Leopold
July 24, 2008

Former White House political adviser Karl Rove, who has refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, ran an end-around against Democratic leaders by having his denial of sponsoring a political prosecution inserted into the Congressional Record by a senior Republican.

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the committee’s ranking Republican, submitted a written question-and-answer exchange with Rove in which the political strategist said he played no role in the controversial prosecution of Alabama’s former Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman.

Read on.

Protecting McCain; Pounding Obama

By Brent Budowsky
July 23, 2008

This is a defamation; this is a slander; this is a lie. McCain should apologize to Obama.

Read on.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Exaggeration of Terror

By Ivan Eland
July 23, 2008

Although TSA insists Griffin’s name is not on the list and pooh-poohs any possibility of retaliation for Griffin’s negative reporting, the reporter has been hassled by various airlines on 11 flights since May. The airlines insist that Griffin’s name is on the list.

Read on.

Little Progress Seen in Iran-Nuke Talks

By TheRealNews.com
July 22, 2008

U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns left Geneva without making a public comment on the talks he witnessed between Iran and European negotiators about Iran’s nuclear program.

Read on.

McCain's Afghan Strategic Blunder

By Robert Parry
July 22, 2008

John McCain has denounced Barack Obama as being “completely wrong” on Iraq, but it was McCain who advocated what turned out to be the fundamental strategic blunder in the post-9/11 conflicts, the hasty – and premature – pivot from Afghanistan to Iraq.

Only weeks after the Taliban were routed from Kabul and the remnants of al-Qaeda had fled from bases in Tora Bora, McCain took the lead in urging the Bush administration to turn its attention toward Iraq.

Read on.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Iraqi Resistance to US Bases Grows

By TheRealNews.com
July 21, 2008

Iraqi political resistance to the indefinite presence of U.S. troops is growing, limiting what the Maliki government can do and what the Bush administration can expect.

Read on.

Obama's National Security Challenge

By TheRealNews.com
July 20, 2008

What kind of movement and leader would it take to really try to change America’s very rigid national security state – and how might Barack Obama measure up to that challenge?

Read on.

Gitmo 'Justice' for US Citizens?

By Robert Parry
July 21, 2008

A conservative-dominated U.S. Appeals Court has opened the door for President George W. Bush or a successor to throw American citizens – as well as non-citizens – into a legal black hole by designating them “enemy combatants,” even if they have engaged in no violent act and are living on U.S. soil.

The federal Appeals Court in Richmond, Virginia, ruled 5-4 on July 15 that Bush had the right, while prosecuting the “war on terror,” to hold Qatari citizen (and Peoria, Illinois, resident) Ali al-Marri indefinitely as an “enemy combatant.”

Read on.