PERRspectives: 9/11 Archives

9/11 Archives

	Infallible Bush Team Accuses Obama of Playing Bin Laden Blame Game Desperate to deny President Obama any credit for the daring Bin Laden operation in Pakistan that George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney were on record as having opposed, veterans of Dubya's administration and their right-wing water carriers are trying a new and similarly despicable tactic. Obama, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Romney stenographer Jennifer Rubin among others insist, was prepared to blame the U.S. military if the Bin Laden raid failed. That's more than a little ironic... more Posted on May 5, 2012 \| Comments (3)

	Republicans Wouldn't, Couldn't, Shouldn't Get Bin Laden Here are two helpful reminders for apoplectic conservatives. Until Barack Obama shows up on a U.S. aircraft carrier in a flight suit and an over-sized cod piece, no GOP loyalist can criticize him for boasting about the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden. And no Republican can claim that "other presidents and candidates like myself" would have ordered that high-risk mission in Pakistan. After all, in 2008 John McCain said he wouldn't. Mitt Romney said we shouldn't. And despite his... more Posted on April 30, 2012 \| Comments (2)

	Romney Needs Big Shovel to Bury Bin Laden, Iraq Flip-Flops Echoing Teddy Roosevelt's famous line, Vice President Joe Biden used a major address on foreign policy Thursday to "promise you the President has a big stick." That provides a sharp contrast to the big shovel Republican nominee Mitt Romney will need to bury the embarrassing flip-flops in his foreign policy past. After all, the same Mitt Romney who in 2007 declared his full-throated support for the invasion of Iraq as "the right decision" four years later said "of course not."... more Posted on April 27, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Memo Exposes Condi Rice's Torture Problem For years, the Bush torture team and its ardent supporters have depended on what might be called the Seinfeld defense of its regime of detainee interrogation: it's not a lie, if you believe it. But with the release of this week Philip Zelikow's 2006 memo warning the Bush administration about its illegal detainee interrogation techniques, that fraud is now much more difficult to sustain. That may not matter much to those unpunished and unrepentant waterboarding enthusiasts George W. Bush and... more Posted on April 7, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Rove's Failed Rewrite: Bush, Romney Opposed Bin Laden Strike This week, Karl Rove took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal in the feeble attempt to undermine of one of President Obama's signature achievements, the killing of Osama Bin Laden. "Mr. Obama did," Rove sniffed, "what virtually any commander in chief would have done in the same situation." Well, not quite every commander-in-chief. As it turns out, back in 2008 both President Bush and would-be President Romney ridiculed then candidate Obama's pledge that "that if Pakistan cannot or... more Posted on March 23, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Memo to GOP: To Avoid New Defense Cuts, Pay for Old Wars Last summer, Congress ended the debt ceiling hostage-taking drama by agreeing to $1.2 trillion in automatic budgets cuts, half of them from the Pentagon, if a so-called "super committee" failed to come up with a plan to do so. Of course, now that the Republican refusal to raise even a dime in new tax revenue has scuttled that debt panel, GOP leaders are predictably reneging on their deal. But rather than freezing the pay and eliminating the positions of federal... more Posted on February 2, 2012 \| Comments (0)

	Job One for Debt Panel? Pay for America's 9/11 Wars Three stories will dominate American politics over the next week. As it turns out, they are very much related. On Thursday, President Obama will unveil his jobs plan which will invariably be opposed by Republicans claiming "America is broke." That same day, Congress' debt "super committee" will begin its work to slash $1.5 trillion from federal deficits over the next decade. And all of this will take place against the backdrop of the tenth anniversary of the attacks of September... more Posted on September 4, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	This Memorial Day, Let's Pay for Our Wars On Memorial Day, Americans in big cities, small towns and rural communities commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. As President Obama spoke at a solemn ceremony of remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery, blogs left and right fittingly asked their readers to send care packages to support our troops in harm's way in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world. But largely lost in today's reflections of American military heroes past and present is the one debt we... more Posted on May 30, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	The Return of the "Nobody Could Have Predicted" President In the least surprising political development in recent years, the leading lights of the Bush administration fanned out across Americans' TV screens to give their old boss credit for the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Ex-chief of staff Andy Card, who famously dressed up George W. Bush in a flight suit to announce "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq eight years ago, protested that President Obama "has pounded his chest a little too much." While Dick Cheney suggested that the Bush regime... more Posted on May 9, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	It's Time to Pay the Bin Laden Tax While all eyes this week were focused on the killing of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, back in Washington Vice President Biden met with Democratic and Republican budget negotiators in search of a compromise to reduce the U.S. national debt. As it turns out, the two events are related. Because almost 10 years after President Bush vowed to get Bin Laden "dead or alive," the $3 trillion tab for that now completed quest remains unpaid. As it turns out, real... more Posted on May 7, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	For GOP, It's Rice to the Rescue on Bin Laden As their massive mobilization in response to the killing of Osama Bin Laden shows, nobody circles the wagons like the Republican Party. And that goes double for Team Bush. Confronting President Obama's success where George W. Bush failed to deliver Bin Laden either dead or alive, torture architect John Yoo and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey quickly penned op-eds proclaiming "the waterboarding trail to Bin Laden." But with President Obama in the spotlight at Ground Zero on Thursday, Republicans turned... more Posted on May 6, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Bin Laden Killing Showcases Republicans' Magic Calendar In a nationally televised address to the American people on March 4, 1987, President Ronald Reagan admitted he had traded arms for hostages in the Iran-Contra scandal and declared, "This happened on my watch." Sadly, that may have been the last time a Republican leader took ownership of a disaster by simply acknowledging the calendar. After all, according to the Republicans' ever-malleable timelines, the Clinton economic boom came thanks to Ronald Reagan, President Bush inherited a recession and 9/11 from... more Posted on May 3, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Rush to Rewrite History of Bush and Bin Laden The only thing more predictable than Americans' jubilation over the killing of Osama Bin Laden is the Republican campaign to give George W. Bush credit for it. Sadly for the right-wing propaganda machine, as Stephen Colbert warned President Bush five years ago, "reality has a well-known liberal bias." Bush, after all, shrugged off Bin Laden's escape after the U.S. failure at Tora Bora by proclaiming, "I truly am not that concerned about him." And it was President Obama who as... more Posted on May 2, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Obama Proves Critics Wrong, Keeps Bin Laden Campaign Promise Announcing the U.S. operation that killed Osama Bin Laden, President Obama reminded Americans and the world, "Over the years, I've repeatedly made clear that we would take action within Pakistan if we knew where bin Laden was." But when candidate Barack Obama declared in 2007 "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will," he was blasted by Republicans and their amen corner in the media. Now with Obama's campaign promise kept, an... more Posted on May 2, 2011 \| Comments (0)

	Three Trillion and One Reasons for a War Tax Three trillion dollars. Once all the costs of the actual fighting, veterans care, expanded baseline defense spending and extra interest on the national debt are factored in, that's the price tag for the still-unfunded American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But there's one more reason to institute a post-recession war tax to pay for the U.S. conflicts abroad. As the nation's military leadership suggested last week, the American people are becoming increasingly disconnected from the troops they claim to support.... more Posted on February 23, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Introducing the Bipartisan War Tax Act of 2013 George W. Bush was the first modern president to cut taxes during wartime. Now, the unpaid $2 trillion bill for the wars he fought - and chose to fight - is long overdue. While President Obama and the Republican leadership in Congress jockey to position their budget cutting plans, it's time for both parties - and all Americans - to pay the price we claim liberty demands. Here, then, is the Bipartisan War Tax Act of 2013. 2013, that is,... more Posted on February 14, 2011 \| Comments (1)

	Respect, Not a Veto, for 9/11 Families For the families who lost loved ones in the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, the anguish and suffering must be incomprehensible - and never ending. But the compassion, sympathy and respect Americans rightly feel for them cannot obscure the fact that 9/11 was an attack on the United States and all Americans. And the shared national purpose in response to that attack - that in the face of terrorist threats Americans will lead their lives undeterred and unafraid -... more Posted on September 9, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Palin Demands Honesty from Obama, Not Bush, on Iraq In her predictable Facebook pre-buttal to the President's primetime speech on Iraq, Sarah Palin demanded that Barack Obama "admit you were wrong about the surge." But in insisting that "the more honest you are about the past, the more likely it is you will gain the support of the American people," Palin exempted President Bush - and herself - from the lies that were used to sell and perpetuate the war in Iraq. After all, the Bush administration and its... more Posted on August 31, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	Bush Speechwriters Back Obama on Mosque Addressing Congress on September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush reminded the American people that in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, "We're in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them," adding, "No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith." So, it is only fitting that Michael Gerson and David Frum - the men who wrote those and other words for... more Posted on August 16, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Who Owns Ground Zero? On Sunday, Republican Senator John Cornyn promised to make opposition to the so-called Ground Zero mosque a campaign issue, proclaiming, "This is not about freedom of religion." No, it's about much more than that. It is, as President Obama explained Friday, "essential to who we are." Because Ground Zero does not just belong to the families who lost loved ones at the World Trade Center or even to the people of New York City. The 9/11 tragedy and its legacy... more Posted on August 15, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Tea Party Woodstock Slated for 9/11 Anniversary This September 11th, Tea Party organizers will commemorate that American tragedy not with a plea for shared sacrifice and national unity, but with a partisan shindig. But what they are calling the "Woodstock of tea parties" has only one thing in common with the legendary 1969 gathering in upstate New York. Like the throngs at Yasgur's farm, the Tea Baggers are hallucinating, just without the acid. From the Des Moines Register comes the latest word from the Tea Parties who... more Posted on May 7, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	Thiessen Laments Dead Terrorists Can't Be Tortured In the wake of the September 11 attacks, President Bush famously announced his plans for Osama Bin Laden, "There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" Bush, of course, failed to deliver Bin Laden in either state. But now that President Obama is killing large numbers of Al Qaeda members in the Pakistani safe haven his predecessor failed to dismantle, former chief Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen worries that "dead terrorists tell no tales."... more Posted on February 9, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	For GOP, Short Memories on Terror Plots and Presidential Vacations That Republicans would try to politicize the failed Christmas terror attack was about as predictable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. Even less surprising is the utter falsehood and sheer hypocrisy of their ham-handed charges. For example, on Sunday Senator Jim Demint (R-SC) blasted the administration for not "connecting dots" despite having placed a hold on President Obama's TSA nominee and joining other Republicans in blocking new TSA funding. That came after Michigan Rep.... more Posted on December 28, 2009 \| Comments (18)

	McChrystal vs. Bush on Bin Laden Ever since the leaking of his confidential Afghanistan report in August, conservatives have used General Stanley McChrystal as a bludgeon against President Obama. Conveniently ignoring President Bush's repeated refusals to "listen to the commanders on the ground," GOP leaders in Congress continue to blast Obama for "dithering" in response to McChrystal's request for more troops. But lost in the predictable Beltway narrative about Obama and the generals in the wake of last week's escalation was a stern rebuke of Bush's... more Posted on December 11, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Republicans Give Thanks for Short Memories Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino's jaw-dropping statement Wednesday that "we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term" didn't merely serve to confirm President Obama's terrible judgment in appointing her to the Broadcasting Board of Governors. As it turns out, Perino's clumsy whitewashing of the 9/11 attacks is just the latest (if most pathetic) installment of the ongoing GOP project to selectively erase history. From their disaster in Iraq and neglect of Afghanistan to... more Posted on November 26, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Bush's Iron Law of Bin Laden Still Holds Like a broken clock, even George W. Bush can be right twice a day. And so it was with his pronouncement on the fate of Obama Bin Laden before a weekend conference of business leaders in New Delhi, "I guess he is not dead." But the 43rd president wasn't merely stating the obvious regarding the Al Qaeda chieftain who escaped his under-resourced effort in Afghanistan. As it turns out, Dubya even out of office is following the same playbook he... more Posted on November 2, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	The False Equivalence of the Birther vs. Truther Poll Among the most discussed if least enlightening polls in recent months is the PPP survey revealing that Republican "birthers" far outnumber Democratic "truthers." That is, there are many more delusional right-wingers who doubt President Obama was born in the United States than confused left-wingers who believe President Bush allowed the 9/11 attacks to happen. But that predictable finding largely misses the point. As the endless media coverage of the legions of Republicans politicians endorsing the birther fraud shows, the supposed... more Posted on September 25, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The Republicans' Zombie Myth of 9/11 and Iraq Among the most disturbing legacies of the horrific Al Qaeda attacks on the United States 8 years ago has been the appropriation of September 11 by Republicans as just another arrow in their quiver of partisan warfare. Former New York Governor George Pataki used the anniversary to attack the Justice Department's limited probe of CIA detainee abuse by warning, "It jeopardizes our ability to continue to effectively protect our country against those who hate us and want to attack us... more Posted on September 11, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Sotomayor v. the GOP's Post-9/11 Constitution As the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor predictably devolved into mindless Republican regurgitation about wise Latinas, empathy, judicial activism and New Haven firefighters, one revealing exchange about the impact of the September 11 attacks was largely overlooked. The 9/11 tragedy, Sotomayor insisted, "doesn't change" the Constitution. As it turns out, her claim that "the Constitution is a timeless document" is a far cry from the philosophy of Jeff Sessions, John Cornyn and other Republicans who brushed off... more Posted on July 16, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Cheney: "Never Any Evidence" for 9/11-Iraq Link We Made Repeatedly Former Vice President Dick Cheney's acknowledgement yesterday that there was "never any evidence" that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks on the United States was doubly surprising. The first shock was that for one of the few times during his legacy reclamation project, Cheney told the truth. And second, the leading members of Team Bush, including the President and Cheney himself, have continued to propagate the myth of the bogus Saddam-9/11 link they first introduced in 2002. Appearing on... more Posted on June 3, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Condi Rice Butchers American History. Again. Much has been made of Condoleezza Rice's use Monday of the bogus Nixon tautology in defense of torture. Falling back on Tricky Dick's infamous statement that "when the President does it, that means it's not illegal," Rice told a group of students that "by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture." But perhaps overlooked in Rice's banality of evil is her latest misuse of history. Having previously appropriated... more Posted on May 1, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Bush Team Peddles 9/11-Iraq Link Torture Failed to Produce Coming just days after the Obama administration released the OLC memos which justified the Bush administration's regime of detainee torture, a 200 page Senate Armed Services Committee report is producing a new wave of shocking revelations. As it turns out, intelligence and military officials were preparing the brutal interrogation program eight months before its approval by the Bush Justice Department. And in trying to sell the invasion of Iraq, the Bush torture team ordered the abuse of detainees to manufacture... more Posted on April 22, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Before 9/11, Rumsfeld Almost Gutted the U.S. Military Despite the Obama administration's 4% increase in the Pentagon budget, Republican leaders and their conservative echo chamber are predictably issuing dire warnings about draconian cuts in defense spending and "disarming America." Of course, critics of Secretary Gates' strategic shift of resources to boost the nation's ability to fight current wars and future counterinsurgencies neglect to mention the Department's proposed budget (excluding funds for Iraq and Afghanistan) jumps next year to $534 billion, a $21 billion increase. And as it turns... more Posted on April 8, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Growing Blowback for Bush Torture Team The past 48 hours have not been kind to the architects of the Bush administration's regime of detainee torture. In the UK, British police are investigating whether its MI5 intelligence service was complicit in the torture of former Guantanamo prisoner Binyam Mohammed. Meanhile, a Spanish court is poised to launch a criminal probe of Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo and four other Bush administration officials over their roles in crafting the legal framework condoning U.S. torture. And in a devastating piece... more Posted on March 29, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Rice Denies Bush Pushed Bogus Saddam - 9/11 Link On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war, Condoleezza Rice joined the long list of Bush White House figures taking to the airwaves to rewrite their boss' tragic legacy. "No one," she told Charlie Rose last night, "was arguing that Saddam Hussein somehow had something to do with 9/11." Of course, Rice was just one of many Bush administration officials making that claim before and after the invasion. And as it turns out, Ari Fleischer and George... more Posted on March 19, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Cheney's "Stuff Happens" Defense of Republican Failure Just days after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pooh-poohed the escalating chaos in the streets of Baghdad, saying with a shrug, "stuff happens." Now six years later, former Vice President Dick Cheney has elevated Rumsfeld's flip response to the level of theory in defending the Bush administration's eight-year record of failure. Of course, whether it was 9/11, sectarian conflict in Iraq, the rise of Hamas, the Bush recession or Hurricane Katrina, Cheney and the leading lights... more Posted on March 15, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The Distracted President: Bush, Stem Cells and 9/11 Within minutes of President Obama's reversal of George W. Bush's strict limits on federal support for embryonic stem cell research, the Republican noise machine was reliably regurgitating its "distracted president" talking point. But while House Minority Whip Eric Cantor's sound bite was faithfully repeated by Time's Mark Halperin, apparently lost in the phony debate which followed was history's most recent - and tragic - example of presidential distraction. That is, while George W. Bush was single-mindedly focused on stem cells... more Posted on March 9, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Bush's Farewell Conflation of 9/11 and Iraq In his predictably self-absorbed farewell address to the nation, President George W. Bush grudgingly acknowledged, "There are things I would do differently if given the chance." But as he demonstrated last night, rejecting his repeated linkage of the 9/11 attacks to his war on Iraq is not among them. Even as Bush and Vice President Cheney prepare to slink off into the sunset, their duplicitous conflation of Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein is destined to outlive their... more Posted on January 16, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	George W. Bush, the "Nobody Could've Predicted" President In an interview Thursday with the AP, Vice President Cheney neatly summarized the failed Bush presidency. Comparing the financial meltdown and implosion of the American economy with the 9/11 attacks, Cheney insisted, "I don't think anybody saw it coming." As it turns out, from 9/11, sectarian conflict in Iraq and the election of Hamas to the Bush recession and the drowning of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, the leading lights of the Bush administration claimed they never saw it coming.... more Posted on January 12, 2009 \| Comments (5)

	The Growing Canadian Sacrifice in Afghanistan Over the past several days, a wave of stories has highlighted the deepening crisis in Afghanistan. One day after the New York Times detailed American plans to deploy thousands of new troops just to secure the capital Kabul came word that a U.S. resupply convoy in Pakistan was destroyed by Taliban insurgents. But largely overlooked in the discussion of American casualties and a looming overhaul of U.S. strategy under President Obama is the growing sacrifice of our Canadian allies in... more Posted on December 7, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bush Defends Use of Bogus Saddam Link to 9/11 In the waning days of his failed presidency, George W. Bush has launched a quixotic reclamation project to salvage his irreparably tarnished reputation. Sadly, that effort stumbled out of the gate earlier this week when the President and Karl Rove couldn't get their stories straight as to whether Bush would have launched his war on Iraq had he known with certainty that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. But when it comes to his repeated use of... more Posted on December 5, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	New WMD Report Echoes 2001 Panel's Warnings on Terrorism Even as Barack Obama was introducing his national security team to the nation Monday, Americans learned of a chilling new report detailing the scope of the global threat of weapons of mass destruction. Dramatically titled "World at Risk," the study led by former Senators Bob Graham (D-FL) and Jim Talent (R-MO) predicted a better than even chance that the world would experience a WMD attack within the next five years. As if President-Elect Obama didn't already have enough to worry... more Posted on December 2, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Said It "Out Loud" in 2002: "Next Up, Baghdad!" On Saturday night Sarah Palin once again put John McCain in a tough spot, this time on the subject of Pakistan. Just hours after McCain blasted Barack Obama for saying "out loud" that the U.S. should - if necessary - unilaterally strike at Al Qaeda targets along Pakistan's western border, Palin in essence agreed with the Illinois Democrat. Of course, McCain himself never followed his rule that you don't announce possible American military action "ahead of time." As it turns... more Posted on September 28, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	The Bush Doctrine for Dummies, Sarah Palin Edition No safe havens for terrorists. Preventive war. Democracy expansion. Those are the three central tenets of the Bush Doctrine, the guiding theory of unilateral American foreign and national security policy since 9/11. And today, on the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin revealed she never heard of it. Emerging Thursday from her undisclosed location for her first encounter with the press, John McCain's stealth running mate displayed a shocking... more Posted on September 11, 2008 \| Comments (5)

	9/11 and Bush's Law of Bin Laden With the anniversary of the September 11 attacks once again upon us, Bush's Law of Bin Laden is also again on display. That is, in the Bush playbook, the threat posed by Osama Bin Laden is directly proportional to the threat to the President's own political standing. At the White House on Wednesday, press secretary Dana Perino played down the Bin Laden danger to her lame-duck boss' flatline political standing, if not to the American people: Q: But Osama bin... more Posted on September 11, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain: I Know How to Capture Bin Laden As developments on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to undermine his campaign, Republican John McCain tried to play the Bin Laden card on Friday. Repeating his claim "I know how to win wars," McCain told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that "I know how" to capture Osama Bin Laden. Apparently, the McCain strategy, as he never tires of telling voters, is to follow Bin Laden to "the gates of hell." Appearing on the Situation Room, John McCain suggested that his... more Posted on July 28, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	This Just In From Afghanistan: Bush Doctrine Still Dead. The steady stream of bad news about Afghanistan this week served to highlight two inescapable truths regarding the conflict against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. First, Barack Obama was right that the ongoing commitment of American forces in Iraq is preventing the United States from successfully pursuing Al Qaeda along the Pakistan frontier. Second, the Bush Doctrine - with its tenet of no safe havens for terrorists - is still dead. In Washington, President Bush acknowledged that June, which saw... more Posted on July 4, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain to Swim to the Gates of Hell to Catch Bin Laden During a town hall meeting in New Jersey on Friday, Republican presidential nominee John McCain reiterated his pledge to "get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice." Amazingly, McCain was able to make his promise without his signature line about following Bin Laden to "the gates of hell." Even more amazing, McCain cited swimming as the skill American intelligence operatives will need to help him do it. McCain promised his Garden State audience that he, unlike George W. Bush,... more Posted on June 15, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	NYT's Lichtblau Details White House Effort to Block NSA Story In December 2005, New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau broke the shocking story of the Bush administration's program of illegal domestic surveillance by the NSA. Now, in a new book due out next week, Lichtblau details the White House's 13-month effort to block the Times' revelations of its lawlessness. And to be sure, that deceitful stonewalling and the threats of retribution that followed show a Bush administration determined to conceal its criminality at any cost. In excerpts... more Posted on March 28, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	Three Iraq Stories, More Conservative Exploding Heads The life of the American conservative is a perpetual crisis of cognitive dissonance, especially when it comes to the run-up to the Iraq war. So three new stories this week are certain to cause right-wing minds to explode, or at least to seek the safe harbor of denial. First came word of a new book from Rumsfeld aide Douglas Feith revealing that President Bush declared "war is inevitable" in December 2002, months before UN weapons inspectors produced their report on... more Posted on March 11, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	Romney Follows Bush's Iron Law of Bin Laden As the New Hampshire primary approaches, a desperate Mitt Romney has emerged as a vocal defender of the foreign policy of George W. Bush. On Sunday, Romney developed a full-blown case of Bush envy, echoing the President's 2001 spaghetti western threat by saying, "I want to get Osama bin Laden dead or alive." To be sure, by alternately downplaying or emphasizing the importance of capturing Bin Laden as political circumstances require, Romney has indeed taken a page straight from the... more Posted on January 7, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Bush Stonewalled 9/11 Commission from the Beginning In a devastating New York Times op-ed today, 9/11 Commission leaders Tom Keane and Lee Hamilton accused the CIA of stonewalling their panel. The chairman and co-chairman alleged that those in the Bush administration who knew about videotapes of CIA detainee interrogations but failed to inform the 9/11 panel "obstructed our investigation." But lost in their historical record is one other inconvenient truth: President Bush tried to stonewall the 9/11 Commission from the very beginning. In their op-ed, Keane and... more Posted on January 2, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	Bush Dishonors the Legacy of Pearl Harbor The anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor gives us an opportunity to remember our tragic loss that day, and reflect on the almost unimaginable sacrifices that generation of Americans made to protect the liberty of all who followed. But as I first suggested in 2005, our observance now includes a new ritual. With each passing year President Bush dishonors the memory of Pearl Harbor, misappropriating its meaning and lessons to support his partisan political purposes and his war in... more Posted on December 7, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Madrid Bombing Case to Fuel Bush Fears of Terror Trials For supporters of the Bush administration's crusade against civil liberties in its war on terror, today's rulings in the 2004 Madrid bombing case will no doubt provide more justification for detainee torture, the suspension of habeas corpus, military commissions and other clearly extra-constitutional measures. In Madrid today as in so many terrorism prosecution trials in the U.S., sometimes the suspects are not found guilty. In Spain, the rule of law would appear to be alive and well. 21 of 28... more Posted on October 31, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	9/11, the Politics of Fear and the Culture of Grief On this sixth anniversary of the Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 9/11 has come to symbolize two uniquely American political failings. First, in ritualistic observances around the nation, Americans will come together not in common resolve for shared sacrifice, but to perpetuate a culture of grief. Worse still, secure in his Pakistani safe haven, Osama Bin Laden even at large continues to serve the political purposes of the current and prospective occupants of the... more Posted on September 11, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	"Virtually Impotent": Bin Laden or Bush? In the wake of the newest video from Osama Bin Laden, Bush homeland security adviser Fran Townsend feebly attempted to discount the importance of the still at-large Al Qaeda leader. Trapped in his mountain redoubt, she said, Bin Laden is "virtually impotent." But with the man he wanted "dead or alive" securely ensconced in his Pakistani safe haven and directing a reconstituted Al Qaeda network, it is President Bush who is looking impotent indeed. To be sure, the American intelligence... more Posted on September 9, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Bush Admits Failure of "No Safe Havens" Policy Three weeks ago, news of an aborted 2005 U.S. raid against Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan confirmed the failure of a key tenet of the Bush Doctrine, "no safe havens for terrorists." Now, it would appear, President Bush himself agrees with that assessment. In his Saturday radio address, President Bush tried to spin the new National Intelligence Estimate and its warnings regarding a dangerously resurgent Al Qaeda in Pakistan. But buried among cherry-picked quotes about successes against Bin Laden's organization... more Posted on July 23, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Little Mosque on the Prairie Life imitates art, or so it would seem when it comes to religious intolerance in the North American heartland. In January, the Canadian Broadcasting Company began airing Little Mosque on the Prairie, an upbeat comedy about a small Muslim community making its way in a rural Saskatchewan town. But in Harris County, Texas, the culture clash is no joke, as outraged residents hope to block the Katy Islamic Association from building its house of worship. North of the border, the... more Posted on March 4, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Bush's Bin Laden Fantasy I have long argued that for conservative Republicans, the only impeachable offense George W. Bush could ever commit would involve video evidence of him and Dick Cheney engaged in the throes of neo-con love-making. Now, just two days after his major address on the deteriorating situation against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, there are new revelations of a different Bush homo-erotic fantasy, this time with Osama Bin Laden. In a review of a new biography of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli paper... more Posted on February 19, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	SOTU Preview: 10 Things to Watch Tuesday's State of the Union Address should offer Americans compelling viewing. After the GOP's electoral disaster in November and the resounding thud that greeted the "surge" in Iraq, the 2007 SOTU can be said to officially mark the last throes of the Bush presidency. In anticipation of tomorrow night's presidential flight of fantasy, here are 10 things to look for in the 2007 State of the Union: 1. An Unhealthy Vision As his Saturday radio address made clear, President Bush... more Posted on January 22, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Republican Quotes Du Jour The fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and primary politics have helped to once again bring out the worst from the mouths of the right. Featuring fear-mongering, the politics of the pulpit and outright racism, here are the latest mantras from the leading lights of the Republican Party. "I wonder if [Democrats] they're more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people." House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), September 12, 2006. "I know Iraq is a mess... more Posted on September 13, 2006 \| Comments (6)

	A Look Back: 9/11 and the Culture of Grief On this the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Department of Defense once again organized the "Freedom Walk" 9/11 commemorative march to the Pentagon. But as I wrote last year in "9/11 and the Culture of Grief," this and other ritualistic displays of grief and remembrance reflect the new mass cultural experience of participatory mourning in the United States. And for a nation engaged in a global war with Al Qaeda, the American culture of grief is not... more Posted on September 10, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	ABC Slams New Iraq Documentary, Ignores Own 9/11 Right-Wing Fantasy With this weekend's upcoming mockumentary "The Path to 9/11," Disney and ABC are breaking dangerous new ground in the conservative propaganda war. Even as the ABC network follows in the footsteps of Mel Gibson and The Passion of the Christ in "mobilizing the base," ABC News on Sunday declared Robert Greenwald's new documentary "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers" a left-wing hatchet job "produced like a political campaign." A pre-election salvo designed to pin the blame for the September 11... more Posted on September 5, 2006 \| Comments (5)

	Homegrown Terrorism in the U.S. and Europe This week's revelations surrounding the UK terror plot targeting U.S. bound airliners once again focused attention on the phenomenon of "homegrown terrorism." As with last year's 7/7 "Underground Bombers," the Heathrow suspects are virtually all British residents, with most UK citizens and many second-generation Pakistani immigrants. And just as in the aftermath of last November's street riots in France, a flood of analysis seeks to explain the threat of radical Islamic extremism in Europe and its relative absence in the... more Posted on August 13, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	CIA Shutters Bin Laden Unit The New York Times reported Tuesday that the CIA has shut down its Bin Laden unit late last year. The unit, called "Alec Station," had been in place for over a decade to hunt down Osama Bin Laden and his leading Al Qaeda lieutenants. As I wrote in January, President Bush's on-again, off-again emphasis on catching Bin Laden is tied to the shfting political winds at home. In the four years plus since the 9/11 attacks, the simplest way to... more Posted on July 4, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bush's Premature Emancipation Problem This weekend, the United States launched "Operation Mountain Thrust" in Afghanistan. Featuring 10,000 U.S. troops and American aircraft targeting the peaks along the border with Pakistan, the spring offensive seeks to decimate a resurgent and emboldened Taliban. Sadly, that would be the same Taliban President Bush declared non-existent two years ago. This weekend's fighting in eastern Afghanistan may have killed 90 guerillas, but it also served to highlight President Bush's penchant for prematurely declaring victory in his wars fought on... more Posted on June 19, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	The GOP's "Give Me Death" Defense on Domestic Spying During a break in the Senate testimony by Attorney General Gonzales this morning, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions resorted to the now standard Republican defense of President Bush's illegal domestic spying program. Call it the "Give Me Death" strategy. During brief comments to the press, Sessions referring to the rightness of Bush's domestic spying after 9/11 declared melodramatically: "Over 3,000 Americans have no civil rights because they are no longer with us." The Republican leadership is singing from the same Karl... more Posted on February 6, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	The Top 10 State of the Union Highlights Faced with negative polls and a pessimistic American nation, President Bush's just completed 2006 State of the Union Address naturally focused on the theme of "the Hopeful Society." But like the stillborn "Ownership Society" vision before it, Bush's 2006 SOTU will be remembered not for its policy program, but for its partisan political purposes. The top 10 highlights: 1. Demonize the Democrats The President continued Karl Rove's 2006 electoral strategy to once again run on national security and brand the... more Posted on January 31, 2006 \| Comments (6)

	Bush Flip-Flops on Bin Laden In the four years plus since the 9/11 attacks, the simplest way to gauge President Bush's changing political fortunes has been his changing attitude towards Osama Bin Laden. In the Bush playbook, the threat posed by Bin Laden is directly proportional to the threat to the President's political standing. Trying to fight back the growing public outcry over his illegal domestic wiretapping program, President Bush used the Bin Laden bogeyman once again during his remarks Wednesday at the National Security... more Posted on January 25, 2006 \| Comments (6)

	The NSA Scandal Resource Center The Perrspectives Resource Center has just been expanded to include a new document library for the exploding Bush-NSA Spying Scandal. The NSA Scandal Document Library includes the latest Bush spying scandal news, essential Department of Justice memos and key laws such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the War Powers Resolution, the 2001 Authorization of Military Force (AUMF) and more. Key Supreme Court decisions involving presidential war powers, such as the 1952 Youngstown v. Sawyer and 2004's Hamdi v.... more Posted on January 1, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Yoo Da Man Karl Rove is widely credited with being "Bush's brain." But when it comes to the administration's dangerous and unprecedented expansion of presidential war powers, John Yoo is the President's mouthpiece. Only 34, Yoo, formerly of the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel and now a professor at the University of California Boalt Hall School of Law, joins Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney as one of the preeminent if unlikely policy architects in the Bush pantheon. Wolfowitz, the former Defense Undersecretary, was... more Posted on December 23, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	Dishonoring Pearl Harbor President Bush used this 64th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to continue his faltering effort to drum up support for his Iraq policy. Only days after unveiling his supposed "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" to an incredulous American public, Bush sought once again to draw parallels with a different, "good war" against fascism: The strike on Pearl Harbor was the start of a long war for America -- a massive struggle against those who attacked us,... more Posted on December 7, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Roberts' Iraq Stonewall Crumbles Over the past week, Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas chose to ignore the old dictum, "when in a hole, stop digging." As I wrote last week, Roberts has been a key leader of an elaborate GOP effort to stonewall investigation into the Bush administration's uses and misuses of pre-Iraq war intelligence. Stung by the closed Senate session in which Democrats savaged his obvious obstructionist tactics, Roberts came out swinging. Now, Roberts is insisting that there is no evidence of... more Posted on November 7, 2005 \| Comments (9)

	Freeh at Last: Revenge and Revisionism at the FBI On Sunday night, former FBI head Louis Freeh introduced his salacious new Clinton tell-all book, My FBI, on CBS 60 Minutes. For Freeh, the book is an opportunity not only to cash in, but to lash out. Scolded by the 9/11 Commission and savaged by the critics of his tenure at FBI, Freeh is now getting a chance to tell his side of the story. It's too bad he doesn't seem to be telling the truth. Even in advance of... more Posted on October 9, 2005 \| Comments (11)

	George Bush, Security Risk In a short statement on Tuesday, George W. Bush completely undermined the entire premise for his second term as President. With plummeting polls in the wake of his administration's bungling of the New Orleans disaster, Bush sought the appearance of accountability. He said tersely, "to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility." But in so doing, President Bush demolished his national security credentials. The same man who campaigned for reelection in 2004 as... more Posted on September 13, 2005 \| Comments (7)

	9/11 and the Culture of Grief This fourth anniversary of the devastating September 11 Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington were marked with the usual ritualistic displays of grief and remembrance. Some, like the World Trade Center ceremony in New York were heartfelt and moving. Others, like the Bush administration�s so-called "Freedom Walk" in Washington DC appropriated (or perhaps more accurately, misappropriated) the symbols of 9/11 for partisan political ends. And some, like the Nick Lachey/Jessica Simpson pop rendition of "America the Beautiful" simulcast... more Posted on September 11, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	The Global War on Error In a rhetorical shift last week, the Bush administration unveiled a new name for its worldwide war against an abstraction. The old moniker "Global War on Terror" (or GWOT) has been exchanged for the new label, the "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism" (or G-SAVE). The results for America and the world, sadly, will be the same. This is not a case, as Shakespeare might have said, of a rose by any other name smelling as sweet. The United States is... more Posted on August 1, 2005 \| Comments (6)

	Bush's Iraq Report Card President Bush delivered his much awaited speech on Iraq to an audience of soldiers assembled at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. As theater, the President's was a confident rhetorical performance. But if the intent was to rebuild American support for the Iraq war by showing accountability for the missteps to date, providing a plan for success and asking for needed sacrifices, George W. Bush failed miserably: Bush's half-hour address showed the same story-telling and disingenuousness that has characterized his presidency and... more Posted on June 29, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	Bush Iraq Speech Sneak Peak Yesterday, I offered a lengthy preview of tonight's nationally televised address on Iraq by President Bush. In the Perrspectives Guide to the Bush Address, I highlighted the Five Things Bush Must Do to rebuild public support for the conflict in Iraq. In that Guide, I also pointed out the rhetorical warning signs that Bush's rhetoric is unchanged, his plans unaltered and the prospects for American victory dimmed. Sadly, a preview of the Bush speech seems to contain them the most... more Posted on June 28, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	A Guide to the Bush Address on Iraq On Tuesday night, President Bush will take to the stage at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in a nationally televised address aimed at rebuilding public support for the war in Iraq. And well he should. Recent polls (from Gallup and Rasmussen, respectively) show that only 39% of Americans approve of the war in Iraq and that more people in the United States blame Bush (49%) than Saddam (44%) for the conflict. The torrent of revelations in 2002 pre-war British documents confirm... more Posted on June 27, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Getting Drafty: The Hybrid Model of National Service Ronald Reagan once famously said that presidents should "never say never" But when it comes to the reinstatement of the military draft, recent public opinion polls seem to suggest that the American people think "never" would be a fine idea, indeed. A recent AP/Ipsos poll showed only 27% of Americans favored conscription, with a whopping 70% opposed. As the casualties mount and recruiting woes build from the Iraq crisis, both political parties continue to make this issue moot for the... more Posted on June 26, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	DC Dick and Baghdad Bob While President Bush's statements on Iraq have entered the realm of the hallucinatory, Vice President Dick Cheney's chutzpah and mendacity in the just the last few weeks hasn't gone unnoticed, either. Cheney, the same man said who instructed Senator Pat Leahy "go f**k yourself" on the Senate floor, criticized Illinois Senator Dick Durbin for his Gitmo comments. "For him to make those comparisons was one of the most egregious things I'd ever heard on the floor of the United States... more Posted on June 20, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	Bush on Iraq: That Was Then, This Is Now The Downing Street Memo and a host of new British documents are increasingly focusing national attention on the duplicity and incompetence of President Bush�s Iraq war planning. With criticism building, poll numbers plummeting and facing defections from his own party, the President used today�s weekly radio address to begin a new PR offensive to bolster support for Iraq policies. If that performance is any indication, George Bush has moved from profound deception and deep denial to outright fantasy. In one... more Posted on June 19, 2005 \| Comments (16)

	Single Sorcerers The ongoing Newsweek saga has given the Bush White House and its right wing jihadists what they see as a golden opportunity. Their simple goal is to use the Newsweek case and the Rathergate episode before it to wage a full scale assault on the credibility and objectivity of "mainstream press." In its place, they seek to substitute their own manufactured, alternate reality. Central to this campaign is the assault on media reliance on anonymous, single-sources. As Scott McClellan put... more Posted on May 19, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	Martin Peretz: The New Republican In the April 11th issue of The New Republic, Martin Peretz (�The Politics of Churlishness�) takes liberals to task for what he sees as their inability to show even grudging respect for President Bush�s recent successes in the Middle East. Sadly, Peretz reads too much into the supposed triumph of the Bush Doctrine, while not reading enough into the liberal critique of it. For starters, most liberals, like most Americans, are genuinely pleased with the turn of events in Iraq,... more Posted on April 8, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	The Myth of the Bush Doctrine These are pretty heady days for the White House and its fellow travelers. In Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Ukraine, Egypt and even Saudi Arabia, movements for popular, democratic change seem to rule the day. The wisdom, rightness and prescience of the Bush Doctrine, they say, have been vindicated. In triumphant and self-congratulatory tones, the President and his allies are taking credit for the sweeping reform throughout the Middle East. President Bush proclaimed, "Freedom is on the march." The National Review's Rich... more Posted on March 9, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Fried Rice: Condi's Coming 9/11 Firestorm On the same day that the North Korean announcement of its nuclear weaponry put the Bush administration on the defensive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice got a double-dose of blowback from her 9/11 dissembling. First, the release of a previously classified report by the National Archives shows that the FAA had been warned repeatedly of the threat of terrorist hijackings between April and September, 2001. Even a slew of redactions, the Auugust 2004 report (which the administration held up) details... more Posted on February 11, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	George Bush: Making the World Safe for Democracy? In the aftermath of President Bush' second inauguration, there is a widespread consensus that taken literally, his address would commit the United States to a global campaign of democratic proselytization. American friends and foes, puppets and pawns, the wistful and the wary, all are understandably concerned. Before starting a panic over the President's apparent Wilsonian idealism on steroids, it is worth remembering that Bush has not always been the outspoken proponent of democracy, individual liberty and human freedom: "So it... more Posted on January 22, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Mind Games: Intelligence Reform and the Next 9/11 After much grandstanding by members of its Republican majority, the House of Representatives passed the intelligence reform bill on Tuesday. The Senate's OK and President Bush's signature should be forthcoming in short order. With many of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations soon to be law, Americans will now rightly ask if reform will really help prevent another major terrorist attack here at home. The short answer is "yes, but only if." The long answer is that the revamped National Intelligence Directorate... more Posted on December 7, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Pearl Harbor, 9/11 and Wartime Leadership On this, the 63rd anniversary of the devastating Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, comparisons with 9/11 and its aftermath are inescapable. From the nature of the war itself to the identity of the attacks' casualties, the differences are stark. The contrast between Pearl Harbor and 9/11 could not be greater when it comes to presidential wartime leadership. President Bush has tried to claim FDR's mantle of "war president": "I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office... more Posted on December 7, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Trifecta: Fiascos and Frauds in Iraq and Afghanistan Even in Iraq, when it rains, it pours. Examples of the Bush administration's staggering blunders and clumsy cover-ups are coming fast and furious as election day approaches. Each new revelation only serves to highlight the administration's incompetence, denial and deceit: 1. The Missed Zarqawi Opportunity As The American Prospect details, the Bush White House rejected Pentagon plans to destroy Zarqawi and his Ansar al-Islam camp in Northern Iraq in June 2002. The same people who lambasted President Clinton for merely... more Posted on October 26, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Bush Top 10 Flip Flop List Four years ago, George W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination for President, and famously set the moral tone - and expectations for his presidency: "So when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God." It has not, of course, worked out that way. As we pointed out... more Posted on October 1, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	W's Failed Wartime Leadership During the first night of the Republican Convention in New York, John McCain and Rudy Guiliani were effusive in the their praise of President Bush's war-time leadership. They are dead wrong. As the current situation on the ground and history alike show, Bush's conduct of the war has been misguided, ineffective and yes, cowardly. As Perrspectives detailed back in February ("The War President?"), Bush has failed because he has ignored the four real requirements of American wartime leadership: 1. Call... more Posted on August 31, 2004 \| Comments (1)

	9/11: A Collective Failure of Imagination The 9/11 Commission issued its final report on Thursday, July 22. (Visit the Perrspectives Document Library to access the final report and related documents.) The report highlights 10 missed opportunities by which the U.S. national security community could have (though not should have) prevented the devastating attacks in New York and Washington. The 9/11 panel report also describes crippling organizational shortcomings of and bureaucratic miscommunications between the CIA and FBI. Among its key recommendations is the creation of a unified,... more Posted on July 30, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Cognitive Dissonance, Terrorism and 9/11 The Richard Clarke firestorm and the public sessions of the 9/11 commission have gripped the nation, redefined the presidential campaign, and left the American people continuing to search for the truth behind the September 11 disaster. The families of the 9/11 victims in particular are looking for answers: how did the United States fail to anticipate and prevent Al Qaeda�s September 11 attacks and who is responsible for those failures? The work of the 9/11 commission suggests that conclusive answers... more Posted on March 30, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	The Smallness of King George Robert F. Kennedy once said, "Richard Nixon represents the dark side of the American spirit." Well, RFK never met George W. Bush. Not since the days of Tricky Dick has the White House seen such a secretive, paranoid and vengeance-filled occupant. President Bush may not have the Plumbers, CREEP (the Committee to Re-elect the President), or the "Enemies List", but in its essence his administration has all the same hallmarks as the Nixon team. The politics of retribution, secrecy, and... more Posted on February 9, 2004 \| Comments (0)