PERRspectives: Terrorism Archives

Terrorism Archives

	The Bizarro World of the Bush Torture Apologists With each passing day, the apologists for the Bush administration's regime of detainee torture resemble more and more characters from an episode of Seinfeld. After narrowly escaping a recommendation of disbarment last month, its legal architect John Yoo offered what might be deemed the George Costanza defense: it's not a war crime if you believe it. Now, conservatives on both sides of the Liz Cheney "Al Qaeda 7" smear of the Obama Justice Department have entered Seinfeld's Bizarro World where... more Posted on March 13, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Liz Cheney Fails David Rivkin's Crazy Test That former Clinton inquisitor Ken Starr admonished Liz Cheney for her stunning and shameless attack on the Obama Justice Department tells you all you need to know about her "Al Qaeda 7" and "Department of Jihad" slanders. But to truly appreciate the depth of Cheney's descent into the political gutter, consider the rebuke of David Rivkin. Rivkin, a former Reagan and Bush 41 administration official, isn't merely another of the signatories to the bipartisan letter criticizing her group, Keep America... more Posted on March 9, 2010 \| Comments (0)

	National Shame Yoo's "Gift to the Obama Presidency" As the Scooter Libby affair showed, no one circles the wagons like the Republican Party and its conservative allies. Now that Bush torture architects John Yoo and Jay Bybee barely escaped disbarment in the final version of the report from the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, the right-wing counterattack and near orgasmic celebration is well underway. Leading the clarion call is none other than John Yoo himself, who in his Wall Street Journal op-ed today proclaimed his legacy of... more Posted on February 24, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Crushed Testicles, Civilian Massacres, Nuclear Blasts and Yoo The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility final conclusion that Bush torture team lawyers should not face misconduct penalties has triggered triumphant celebrations in right-wing circles. The Wall Street Journal rejoiced in "Vindicating John Yoo" that the "Bush lawyers are found to have acted ethically, unlike their accusers." In the National Review, former Bush press secretary Dana Perino of all people claimed "partisan politics are alive and well at the Justice Department." For his part, Glenn Greenwald demolished their arguments... more Posted on February 23, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	On Taxes, Heroes and Patriots On Monday, the daughter of Austin IRS suicide pilot Joseph Stack proclaimed her father a "hero." By joining the anti-government agitators, white supremacists, militia groups and other right-wing extremists in lauding him for standing up to the "injustice" of "the system," she like them dishonored true heroes like Vietnam veteran Vernon Hunter killed in Stack's terror attack. And they stand in sharp contrast to Joe Biden's fitting if widely mocked 2008 pronouncement that it's "patriotic" for wealthier Americans to pay... more Posted on February 22, 2010 \| Comments (2)

	Austin Attack Highlights Dangerous Anti-IRS Rhetoric Thursday's suicide airplane attack on the Austin office of the Internal Revenue Service by a disgruntled tax protester has once again focused attention on dangerously inflammatory anti-IRS rhetoric. To be sure, the language was threatening. "Gestapo-like tactics." "The IRS is out of control!" "Which would you prefer: having your wallet or purse stolen or being audited by the IRS?" "You don't need to send in armed personnel in flak jackets." "Well Mr. Big Brother IRS Man, let's try something different,... more Posted on February 18, 2010 \| Comments (4)

	Capture of Taliban Leader Destroys Latest GOP Talking Point Last week, former Bush speechwriter and full-time torture apologist Marc Thiessen introduced perhaps the most comically hypocritical talking point in the perpetual Republican jihad against the Obama administration's war policies. In "Dead Terrorists Tell No Tales," Thiessen fretted that under President Obama, the United States is killing its enemies before getting a chance to torture them first. Six days later, the Washington Post amplified that line, warning "under Obama, more targeted killings than captures in counterterrorism efforts." But the revelation... more Posted on February 16, 2010 \| Comments (1)

	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)

	On Terror, GOP Goes from Oprah to Donald Trump Witnessing the Republican reaction to the Obama administration's handling of the failed Christmas bombing is like watching reruns of The Apprentice. Like Donald Trump, each conservative talking head proclaims "You're Fired!" to members of the Obama team. Of course, when President Bush presided over the 9/11 catastrophe, Osama Bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora, the baseless claims about Saddam's WMD, the disastrous invasion of Iraq and myriad other intelligence and national security debacles, Republicans instead played the role of Oprah.... more Posted on January 8, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	10 Moments in GOP Terrorism Accountability On Tuesday, President Obama described the failed Christmas airliner attack as a "potentially disastrous" failure of the system, one "that's not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it." Unsurprisingly, the usual mouthpieces of the right like Peter King and Ron Christie have fanned out to demand "someone will have to go" and that Obama "fire those staff members who have failed their president and failed their nation." Even more predictable, of course, is that those same Republican voices were silent... more Posted on January 6, 2010 \| Comments (3)

	Shoes vs. Underwear: The GOP's Terror Distinction The similarities between failed airplane bombers Richard Reid and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab are striking. Each Al Qaeda convert was radicalized in London. Reid and Abdulmutallab were each subdued by fellow passengers after their explosive devices failed to detonate. The two men struck just as the President of the United States was starting his vacation for the Christmas holiday. In each case, the President spoke publicly about the incident only days later. And the Nigerian, just like Reid before him, will... more Posted on December 30, 2009 \| 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 (13)

	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)

	Michael Moore's Afghanistan Letter Rewrites History of Obama Campaign Promoting his latest film earlier this year, Michael Moore ignored the achievements of the Progressive movement and the New Deal when he declared, "capitalism is evil and you can't regulate evil." Now on the eve of President Obama's address to the nation on his Afghanistan strategy, Moore is rewriting the history of the campaign that put Obama in the Oval Office. In an open letter to President Obama, Moore on Monday seems to have forgotten candidate Obama's aggressive stance towards... more Posted on November 30, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	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 (1)

	Keeping Extremisms Out of the U.S. Military Revelations that the FBI, the Pentagon and even his medical colleagues were aware of Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Malik Hasan's extremist ideology have raised serious questions about the U.S. military's ability to screen, monitor and remove dangerous personnel from its ranks. But far from justifying the discrimination against patriotic American Muslims predictably called for by the usual suspects, the Fort Hood bloodbath should remind Americans that extremisms of all stripes have no place in the armed forces of the... more Posted on November 10, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	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)

	Forgetting Right-Wing Terrorism at the Atlanta Olympics Conservatives may be having a blast now celebrating America's loss of the 2016 Olympics, but during the 1996 Atlanta games the explosion was literal. Right-wing terrorist Eric Rudolph detonated a bomb that killed one and injured over 100 people at the Atlanta Olympic Park. But while the Republican echo chamber never forgave Barack Obama for winning the presidency, Rudolph's extremist violence they seem only too eager to forget. That selective amnesia was on full display during Fox News' bashing of... more Posted on October 6, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	WaPo Cites Blackwater's Krongard on Low CIA Morale One day after Newt Gingrich, no friend of the CIA, called on Attorney General Eric Holder to resign over his plan to investigate the agency, former Vice President Dick Cheney pronounced he was "offended as hell" by the probe. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported "Ex-Intelligence Officials Cite Low Spirits at CIA." To make its case, the Post turned to one A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard. That would be the same Buzzy Krongard who until recently sat on the advisory board of Blackwater.... more Posted on August 30, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	In New Book, Tom Ridge Decries Politicized Bush Terror Alerts "In his new book, former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge confirms what most long suspected: the Bush administration manipulated the terror threat level for the President's political advantage. But while his long overdue admission is welcome, his suggestion that he resigned over the matter is laughable. As ThinkProgress and others have passed along, US News reported that: Among the headlines promoted by publisher Thomas Dunne Books: Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was "blindsided"... more Posted on August 20, 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 (0)

	CBS News Features Bin Laden Attack Fan Scheuer On Sunday, CBS Evening News featured a segment discussing the twin controversies surrounding the secret CIA program Dick Cheney ordered withheld from Congress and new rumors Attorney General Holder may yet seek a special counsel to investigate some aspects of the Bush administration regime of detainee torture. As its expert on the American intelligence community, CBS trotted former CIA operative Michael Scheuer. That would be the same Michael Scheuer who just two weeks ago proclaimed President Obama doesn't care "about... more Posted on July 13, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	John Yoo, the Right Man for the Job Among the least surprising revelations in the shocking Inspectors General report on President Bush's domestic surveillance programs are those concerning John Yoo. As it turns out, in justifying the NSA's warrantless wiretapping of Americans beginning in 2001 the Bush administration relied solely on the same legal architect behnid the President's regime of detainee torture. And in Yoo, the White House found the one man willing to claim publicly that the FISA law governing such electronic surveillance was an unconstitutional infringement... more Posted on July 11, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Republicans Again Turn to Intel Leaks They Once Decried When the New York Times in December 2005 revealed President Bush's program of illegal domestic surveillance by the NSA, reaction from the White House and its Republican allies was swift - and furious. "These politically motivated leaks," Pete Hoekstra declared, "must stop." But now desperate to defend at any cost Bush's regime of detainee torture, Capitol Hill Republicans have learned to love leaking classified national security information. As The Hill reported Thursday, Hoekstra and his allies on the House Intelligence... more Posted on June 5, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	After Failing Islam 101, Romney Blasts Obama Egypt Speech If Barack Obama's speech in Egypt is being criticized by both Osama Bin Laden and Mitt Romney, the President must be doing something right. After all, as Mitt's rich history of jaw-dropping mistakes and demeaning statements about Islam suggests, Governor Romney is perhaps the person least qualified to pontificate on American outreach to the Muslim world. Consider, for example, Mitt's November 2007 revelation that Muslims need not apply for positions a future Romney cabinet. Mansoor Ijaz related his exchange with... more Posted on June 4, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Ashcroft Called Clinic Bomber Rudolph a "Terrorist" Coming just weeks after DHS issued its supposedly controversial warning over the growing right-wing terror threat in the United States, the assassination of Dr. George Tiller has reignited the now white-hot debate regarding anti-abortion terrorism. While the American Prospect's Adam Serwer concluded, "the murder of George Tiller is undoubtedly terrorism," Michelle Malkin predictably rolled her eyes. But for one leading conservative, there was little doubt. In 2003, then Attorney General John Ashcroft branded clinic bomber Eric Rudolph a "terrorist" and... more Posted on June 1, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Before Tiller Murder, Palin Refused to Condemn Anti-Abortion Terrorism As I've noted before, the distance between the incendiary rhetoric of the Republican Party and anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-government and above all anti-abortion extremism is a growing ever shorter. With Sunday's murder of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, that disturbing dynamic deserves deeper examination. After all, while even arch-conservative Attorney General John Ashcroft once deemed such anti-abortion violence "terrorist," Alaska Governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin refused to "use the word there." In May 2003, the FBI finally captured... more Posted on May 31, 2009 \| Comments (9)

	Did Alberto Gonzales Lie to Congress over Torture? "Senator, that I don't recall remembering." With those six words uttered during the furor over his purge of U.S. prosecutors, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales likely etched his epitaph. But as it turns out, "hypothetical" may be the most important word Gonzales ever spoke to Congress. New revelations this week suggest that in the spring of 2002 then-White House Counsel Gonzales personally approved the use of waterboarding, months before the Justice Department's infamous Bybee memo blessed the practice. By labeling... more Posted on May 23, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Obama Repudiates Bush Doctrine in Annapolis Speech On Friday, President Obama addressed the graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy. In promising to "maintain America's military dominance," Obama also signaled a clear break with his predecessor's Manichean worldview and the Bush doctrine of preemptive war. As it turns out, George W. Bush debuted those discredited concepts seven years ago during a service academy commencement address of his own, his speech to the West Point class of 2002. Obama's repudiation of Bush's aggressive unilateralism was evident in a pledge... more Posted on May 22, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	John Ensign Praises Club Gitmo, Slams U.S. Health Care Nothing, it would seem, pleases the Republican mind more than regurgitating demonstrably false and shockingly mean-spirited talking points. So Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign must been ecstatic to score a twofer last week. In a single sentence, Ensign not only faithfully reproduced the GOP's "Club Gitmo" talking point, but resuscitated the old Republican claim that there is no health care crisis. Ensign's back-handed jab at the American health care system came even as he was insisting the Guantanamo Bay detention... more Posted on May 19, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Sessions Resuscitates GOP's "Club Gitmo" Talking Point If nothing else, Alabama Senator and ranking Judiciary Committee Republican Jeff Sessions can be counted on to faithfully regurgitate his party's talking points. In February 2006, Sessions joined John Cornyn (R-TX) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) in propagating the "give me death" defense of President Bush's regime of illegal domestic surveillance, proclaiming, "Over 3,000 Americans have no civil rights because they are no longer with us." Now, as the Obama administration wrestles with the fate of Guantanamo Bay terror detainees, Senator... more Posted on May 14, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Lindsey Graham: Waterboarding Illegal, But It Works During his spirited defense today of the Bush administration's so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tortured logic itself. Graham not only cited former CIA agent John Kiriakou's discredited account of waterboarding's success, he went on to claim "one of the reasons these techniques have survived for about 500 years is apparently they work." During the same hearings, he dropped jaws by concluding that the Bush White House "saw the law as a nicety we could not afford." As... more Posted on May 13, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Cheney's MAD Dick Cheney's MAD, just not in the way you think. As Time, the AP and virtually every pundit across the political spectrum debate the meaning of Cheney's ubiquity on your television screen, it may be an old Cold War theory which best explains his strategy. The former vice president isn't merely trying to rewrite history or work the jury with his repeated claims that torture "saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives" and that "nothing devious or deceitful or... more Posted on May 13, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	Cohen, Ford and the 1-2-3 Torture Test At the end of the day, evaluating the Bush administration's program of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques is like a three-part exam. Was it legal? Was it moral? Was it uniquely effective? If the answer isn't "yes" to each and every one of those three questions, the Bush regime of detainee torture cannot be justified. Sadly for its defenders, this test isn't graded on a curve and there is no partial credit. And that, in a nutshell, explains why the policy... more Posted on May 12, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	20 Years After Iran-Contra, Cheney Defends Torture's "Little Guys" Announcing his Christmas 1992 pardons of Caspar Weinberger and five other Iran-Contra figures, President George H.W. Bush introduced a time honored Republican scandal evasion by decrying "the criminalization of policy differences." Now 22 years after his own role in a Congressional minority report which blasted the allegations of Reagan administration abuses of power as "hysterical," Dick Cheney is back to defend the "little guys" now at the center of the Bush 43 administration's regime of detainee torture. In an interview... more Posted on May 6, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Mormons Engulfed by Marriage, Baptism, Torture Controversies While President Obama's looming commencement address at Notre Dame sadly remains controversial among a vocal minority of Catholics, it is one of America's fastest growing faiths which is at the center of three political storms this week. On Tuesday, ABC confirmed AmericaBlog's reporting that a Provo LDS member posthumously baptized Obama's late mother. Continuing his church's active role in opposing marriage equality, a Utah Congressman moved to block Washington DC's plans to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. And... more Posted on May 6, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Hunting People for Jesus: Growing Fundamentalism in the U.S. Military After revelations that some American soldiers were given Bibles and encouraged to "hunt people for Jesus," the Pentagon on Monday denied allegations that the U.S. military allows its personnel to seek the conversion of Afghans to Christianity. But while the copies of the New Testament translated into Pashtun and jaw-dropping video from Bagram may seem like exceptions that prove the rule of American prohibition on proselytizing by the military, they are just the latest episodes in the disturbing rise in... more Posted on May 4, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Bybee Latest Proposed GOP Medal Recipient This week, Judge Jay Bybee broke his silence regarding his infamous August 2002 torture memo, calmly declaring "the conclusions were legally correct." But while some Democrats want the 9th Circuit Appeals Court judge impeached or at least to testify before Congress, New York Rep. Peter King believes Bybee should be "given a medal." As it turns out, King's is just the latest conservative voice calling for a GOPy medal for perpetrators of Republican wrongdoing, a list that also includes the... more Posted on May 3, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	One Psychiatrist, Two Psychologists and Torture This was not a proud week for the American mental health profession. On Thursday, ABC News documented the essential role of two $1,000 a day psychologists contracted by the CIA to architect its detainee waterboarding program. And on Friday, Harvard-trained psychiatrist turned right-wing water carrier Charles Krauthammer rationalized the Bush torture regime for his readers in the Washington Post. In the same article in which ABC briefly acknowledged its role in propagating former CIA agent John Kiriakou's misinformation about the... more Posted on May 2, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	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)

	Federalist Society Tries - and Fails - to Defend Bush Torture Team Not content with its past role in screening candidates for positions in the Bush judiciary and Justice Department, the conservative Federalist Society is back to defend the Bush torture team it helped create. Ironically, the Federalists' conference call today came just three days after McClatchy reported that Steven Bradbury - one of its members and a figure at the center of the storm over the release of the OLC torture members - refuted their claim that the military's SERE training... more Posted on April 27, 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)

	The GOP's Seinfeld Defense of Torture During one of the more memorable episodes of Seinfeld, George Costanza helps Jerry prepare for a lie detector test by advising, "it's not a lie if you believe it." And so it is with Republican defenders of the Bush administration's regime of detainee torture. As it turns out, Marc Thiessen, David Rivkin, Peggy Noonan, Michael Hayden, Michael Mukasey and Dick Cheney are just some of the cavalcade of conservatives whose tortured defenses of the indefensible sound like catch-phrases from the... more Posted on April 21, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	Mukasey Defends Bush's "Hypothetical" Torture As the latest from the Wall Street Journal and Politico reveal, the apologists for George W. Bush's regime of detainee torture are circling the wagons. While one anonymous Bush official claimed the Obama's release of the torture memos "laid it all out for our enemies," former Attorney General Michael Mukasey in an op-ed written with his CIA counterpart Michael Hayden proclaimed, "The President has tied his own hand on terror." Of course, in his 1700 word screed, Mukasey never acknowledges... more Posted on April 17, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Obama Adopts GOP's "Criminalizing Politics" Defense on Torture During his confirmation hearings in January, Attorney General Eric Holder declared "waterboarding is torture." But in language eerily reminiscent of the administration Barack Obama was to replace, Holder assured Republican advocates of torture, "we don't want to criminalize policy differences that might exist" with the outgoing Bush White House. Now with word that the Justice Department will not prosecute CIA personnel who used the brutal interrogation techniques he immediately banned upon taking office, President Obama is sounding like the man... more Posted on April 16, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	NSA Surveillance Illegally Targets Americans. Again. Back in February 2006, Texas Senator John Cornyn led Congressional Republicans with his famous defense of President Bush's regime of illicit NSA domestic surveillance, "None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead." Now, as the New York Times revealed today, one of those illegal targeted was apparently one of Cornyn's Capitol Hill colleagues. And as it turns out, this is the second time in six months the National Security Agency's lawless fishing expeditions have come to light. As... more Posted on April 16, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	The Circle of Strife: Right-Wing Furious over DHS Terror Warning The conservative blogosphere is apoplectic over news that the Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning over the growing threat of right-wing terror in the United States. Coming as it does just after bloody episodes including the politically-motivated slaughter of policemen in Pittsburgh and Unitarian church-goers in Tennessee, the vaguely worded statement seems to have struck a nerve among the raging right. Of course, given the increasingly incendiary rhetoric from leading Republicans and their amen corner in the conservative... more Posted on April 14, 2009 \| Comments (3)

	From Republican Rhetoric to Right-Wing Terror The slaughter of three Pittsburgh policemen by an assailant who "didn't like our [gun] rights being infringed upon" has again highlighted the growing danger from incendiary Republican rhetoric spawning right-wing terror. After all, just days ago, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announced, "I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous." Fox News host Glenn Beck warned of a "Constitution under attack" and predicted a coming "civil war" while featuring guests like NRA chief Wayne Lapierre whose group spent millions in 2008... more Posted on April 5, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	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)

	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 (2)

	After Death Threats, O'Connor Responds to GOP Attacks on Judges On Tuesday, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote OurCourts.org, her new online civics education project. But while O'Connor's goal is to counter alarming statistics including "only a third of Americans can name the three branches of government," her understandable motivation was the growing right-wing war on American judges. After all, amidst the incendiary rhetoric of John Cornyn, Tom Delay and other conservative leaders, Justice O'Connor was among those receiving... more Posted on March 6, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	Does CIA Still Deserve a Medal for Destroying 100 Interrogation Tapes? Back in December 2007, Americans learned that then-head of the CIA's clandestine service Jose Rodriguez two years earlier ordered the destruction of at least two videotapes of detainee interrogations. Today, government lawyers revealed the number of tapes destroyed was much higher, totaling almost 100. That shocking revelation prompts two questions. First is the issue of whether the videos might have revealed enhanced interrogation techniques constituting torture, actions which might have both jeopardized detainee prosecutions and led to legal action against... more Posted on March 2, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	The GOP and the Growing Right-Wing Terror Threat As the beaten and battered conservative faithful gather at the CPAC event in Washington, casual incitements to violence against the President, Democratic leaders and liberal Americans once again are filling the air. While former UN ambassador John Bolton produced guffaws with the specter of Obama's hometown being destroyed in a terrorist attack, Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher earnestly suggested some members of Congress should be shot. Meanwhile readers of the web site of Fox News host Sean Hannity voted on "what... more Posted on February 27, 2009 \| Comments (8)

	Boehner Recycles GOP's "Club Gitmo" Talking Point On the very day President Obama signed an executive order calling for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center within one year, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) regurgitated one of the GOP's tried and untrue talking points in its defense. Claiming the facility "has more comforts than a lot of Americans get," Boehner is just the latest Republican to present that blight on America's international standing as "Club Gitmo." At a press conference today, Boehner rejected the notion... more Posted on January 22, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	Cornyn Blesses Detainee Torture, Threats to Judges Among the lowlights of the confirmation hearings for Eric Holder this week was a jaw-dropping endorsement of torture by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX). Having watched one too many "ticking time bomb" scenarios on the Fox series 24, Cornyn asked the would-be Attorney General if he "would still refuse to condone aggressive interrogation techniques like waterboarding to get that information." But as the record shows, John Cornyn is an aggressive advocate of illicit violence not just against terrorism suspects, but towards... more Posted on January 17, 2009 \| Comments (4)

	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 (3)

	DOJ to Prosecute New York Times over NSA Story? In a Newsweek exclusive three week ago, former Justice Department official Thomas Tamm revealed his role in helping the New York Times make public President Bush's program of illegal domestic surveillance. Now Salon's Glenn Greenwald has details on the DOJ's efforts to punish the whistleblower. And as it turns out (and as I suggested back in 2007), the Bush administration's ultimate target may be the New York Times itself. As Greenwald spells out today, the Justice Department investigation is not... more Posted on January 7, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Yoo, Bolton and Saltsman Lead GOP Irony Machine Beaten and battered, the Republican Party long ago was reduced to an irony-producing machine. But for sheer productivity, Monday's hypocrisy generation by leading lights of the conservative movement was impressive. In the span of 24 hours, would-be RNC chairman and distributor of "Barack the Magic Negro" Chip Saltsman announced his party needed to improve its outreach to minority communities. Meanwhile, John Yoo and John Bolton, two men who helped gut the Geneva Conventions, called for Congress to uphold its role... more Posted on January 6, 2009 \| Comments (1)

	NSA Domestic Surveillance Whistleblower Comes Forward Three years after the New York Times first revealed the Bush administration's program of illegal domestic surveillance by the NSA, whistleblower Thomas Tamm has acknowledged his role in making public the President's lawbreaking. In its expose Sunday, Newsweek details how the former Justice Department official came to discover the White House's violations of the FISA law and reluctantly decided to turn to the Times. Whether or not Tamm is ultimately arrested for his revelations, the same voices in President Bush's... more Posted on December 14, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	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 (0)

	Palin, Abortion and the Right-Wing Terror Threat Just one week after John McCain stunned Americans with his sneering contempt for the "health of the mother" needing an abortion, his running mate Sarah Palin refused to condemn anti-abortion terrorists as terrorists. By giving a pass to convicted killers like Eric Rudolph and James Kopp, Palin is just the latest in a long line of leading conservatives to provide the kindling for far right domestic terrorism. As recent history shows, when it comes to abortion, gay Americans, immigration or... more Posted on October 24, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain's Al Qaeda Endorsement Back in April, John McCain taunted Barack Obama as the choice of Hamas in the wake of remarks by a spokesman for that organization. Now with the news that Al Qaeda web sites are seemingly backing McCain for President, the Republican might want to reconsider that line of attack. And to be sure, John McCain should steer clear of touting "Osama the Terrorist" at his rallies. As the Washington Post detailed Wednesday, Al Qaeda cadres see a McCain as the... more Posted on October 22, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	ABC Exposes GOP's "Give Me Death" Defense of NSA Spying Back in December 2005, Texas Senator John Cornyn pioneered what became the Republican Party's "give me death" defense of President Bush's program of illegal NSA domestic surveillance. "None of your civil liberties matter much," Cornyn announced, "after you're dead." As ABC revealed in its shocking expose of NSA personnel monitoring the private phone calls of Americans abroad, your civil liberties don't matter much while you're living, either. Despite President Bush's repeated assurances that "I'm mindful of your civil liberties," NSA... more Posted on October 9, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	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 (3)

	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)

	Pentagon Backs Obama Again with More Troops for Afghanistan The announcement today that the United States will deploy up to 15,000 more troops to Afghanistan is just the latest signal of the Pentagon's seeming support for Barack Obama's strategy to fight Al Qaeda in the region. Following by just weeks Obama's latest call to send at least two more brigades of American troops there, the request by U.S. commanders again confirmed Obama's assertion, one denied by John McCain, that Iraq represents a "zero sum game" for scarce American military... more Posted on August 20, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	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 Week in War Crimes It's been a very busy week for war crimes and war criminals. In some good news for the cause of justice and the upholding of international law, Bosnian Serb mass murder Radavan Karadzic was finally captured in Belgrade, just days after the International Criminal Court charged Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with crimes against humanity in Darfur. But for Americans, those positive developments were offset by news that the Bush administration's own war crimes trials - and potential pre-emptive pardons -... more Posted on July 23, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Between Iraq and a Hard Place on Afghanistan Neocon godfather Irving Kristol once famously said that "a neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality." By that standard, the political right will need to coin an altogether new term to describe John McCain in the wake of the beating he has taken over the past several days. In the span of just two weeks, McCain has seen Barack Obama's call for a strategic refocus from Iraq to Afghanistan validated by the Pentagon and in Baghdad. And now,... more Posted on July 19, 2008 \| Comments (4)

	Issa Adds to Hall of Shame with Torture Defense Just one month after he took to the floor of the House to appropriate the memory of the late Tim Russert to push for offshore drilling, California Rep. Darrell Issa is at again. Rushing to defend former Attorney General John Ashcroft over charges that the Bush administration's practice of waterboarding detainees was tantamount to torture, Issa told the House Judiciary Committee that "we treated our hospital patients at times worse than al Qaeda." Coming from the man who reduced the... more Posted on July 18, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain Mimics Bush with Iran Jokes, Bin Laden Boasts Just one month after airing an ad declaring "only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war," John McCain once again joked about creating carnage in Iran. On the stump Tuesday, McCain added killing Iranians with cigarette addiction to last year's musing about "bomb bomb Iran." Whether he's yukking it up over conflict with Tehran, following Osama Bin Laden to the "gates of hell" or just being the "worst nightmare" of Al Qaeda and Hamas, John McCain... more Posted on July 9, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	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's "Bring 'Em On" Election Strategy While a terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland would be a tragedy for the American people, it would apparently be viewed as a blessing by the campaign of John McCain. On the same day that USA Today reported that terrorism is the only issue on which Americans clearly prefer John McCain to Barack Obama, McCain senior strategist Charlie Black admitted of another terror strike here, "certainly it would be a big advantage to him." As it turns out, John McCain... more Posted on June 24, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	New Report Demolishes "Gitmo 30" Talking Point Used by Scalia and McCain Earlier this week, I detailed how John McCain, John Yoo and Justice Antonin Scalia in the wake of the Court's Boumediene decision all continued to peddle the discredited Republican talking point about "30 former Guantanamo detainees" who had "returned to the fight." Now a devastating new report released Tuesday from Seton Hall professor Mark Denbeaux puts to rest the Scalia's "urban legend." That figure of 30 terror recidivists unleashing a bloodbath had been debunked by earlier studies from Denbeaux's team... more Posted on June 21, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain, Scalia and Yoo Peddle Discredited "Gitmo 30" Sound Bite In a Wall Street Journal op-ed today, Bush administration torture architect John Yoo thundered against the Supreme Court's restoration of habeas corpus rights for Guantanamo detainees. Branding the Boumediene decision "judicial imperialism of the highest order," Yoo like Justice Scalia and John McCain raised the specter of those 30 released Gitmo terrorists as a warning of the carnage the Court's ruling is certain to produce. Alas, as with so much else passing over John Yoo's lips, it simply isn't true.... more Posted on June 17, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	GOPers Claim Court's Gitmo Decision "Worse Than Dred Scott" Just in case Republicans still wonder why the GOP routinely garners less than 10% of the African-American vote, the reactions of some of their leading lights to the Supreme Court's Guantanamo detainee decision should provide a quick reminder. While John McCain Friday simply called the Court's Boumediene ruling "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country," right-wing legal analyst David Rivkin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were much more specific. The Court's restoration of habeas corpus,... more Posted on June 16, 2008 \| Comments (3)

	Studies Refute McCain's 30 Gitmo Recidivists Talking Point In the wake of the Supreme Court's restoration of habeas corpus rights in its Boumediene decision Friday, John McCain and his allies on the right have predictably forecast an American bloodbath at the hands of terrorists unleashed from Guantanamo. While Justice Antonin Scalia claimed the ruling would "almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed," Newt Gingrich contended the Supreme Court "could cost us a city." As for McCain, he simply regurgitated a soon-to-be familiar GOP talking point, "30 of... more Posted on June 16, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	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)

	McCain to Call for New Gitmo Courts as McClatchy Documents Errors On the same day the McClatchy papers released the results of a devastating investigation into dozens of terrorism detainees wrongly imprisoned by the United States, Republican water carrier Bill Kristol reported that Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are planning to double-down on Gitmo. In the wake of Friday's Supreme Court ruling McCain branded "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country," the Republican presidential nominee is planning to introduce legislation creating new "national security courts" designed... more Posted on June 15, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain's Sins of Military Commission On the stump in New Jersey today, John McCain launched a thundering two-pronged assault on yesterday's Supreme Court decision on habeas corpus rights for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Again raising the specter of "unaccountable judges," McCain picked up on his earlier, right-wing handbook assault against so-called judicial activism. Then turning to fear-mongering, McCain proclaimed "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country" will lead to more attacks against the American people. But lost in McCain's red-faced... more Posted on June 13, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Two New Reports Slam Bush on Iraq, Afghanistan Two new reports released Thursday offer a devastating assessment of President Bush's leadership as commander-in-chief. First, the GAO concluded that "al-Qaeda had regenerated its ability to attack the United States and had succeeded in establishing a safe haven in Pakistan's border area." Then just hours later, a study from the National Defense University proclaimed the Iraq war "a major debacle" whose outcome was "in doubt." Together, they paint a damning portrait of Bush's failures in the global war on terror.... more Posted on April 18, 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)

	John McCain: Unfit for Command Over the past week, Democrat Hillary Clinton has proclaimed her potential Republican rival John McCain to be the gold standard of wartime presidents. But lost in Clinton's fierce barrage against Barack Obama's national security experience is the inescapable conclusion about John McCain's own suitability as Commander-in-Chief. McCain's mistake-filled record, questionable judgment, calamitous misreading of history, nonchalance about American casualties and notorious short fuse all combine to make him a dangerous choice to lead an America at war. Simply put, John... more Posted on March 10, 2008 \| Comments (7)

	WaPo Praises McCain on Signing Statements, Ignores Bush Betrayal Today's Washington Post praised John McCain's "ironclad refusal to issue signing statements." While his Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton defended using "signing statements in very rare instances," the Post lauded McCain's "sharp break" from the unprecedented practice of the Bush administration. But what the Washington Post neglected to mention was why John McCain has such a visceral dislike for presidential signing statements. The answer, as it turns out, dates back to December 30, 2005, when President Bush betrayed... more Posted on February 25, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Blasts Obama for Bush's Attacks in Pakistan In his Wisconsin victory speech this evening, John McCain wasted no time in firing shots across Barack Obama's bow. Hoping to highlight the Democratic frontrunner's inexperience, McCain to partisan cheers ridiculed Obama's promises as "eloquent but empty." But in a preview of Republican duplicity to come, McCain blasted Obama's past advocacy of unilateral American attacks against Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan, attacks the Bush administration itself is now finally carrying out. In August, as you'll recall, Barack received a hellstorm... more Posted on February 19, 2008 \| Comments (23)

	McCain Backs Bush on Torture Despite '05 Betrayal With his "no" vote yesterday on the Senate bill to ban waterboarding by the CIA, John McCain caved in the face of yet another betrayal by George W. Bush. President Bush, after all, stabbed McCain in the back with a 2005 signing statement that defanged the Detainee Treatment Act the now-presumptive GOP presidential nominee championed in the Senate. But in his never-ending quest to appease his party's conservative base, McCain revealed that no humiliation at the hands of George Bush... more Posted on February 14, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	WSJ Extends GOP "Criminalizing Politics" Defense to CIA Tapes It was only a matter of time before the conservative chattering classes extended the Republicans' perpetual "criminalization of politics" defense to the exploding CIA tapes scandal. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal obliged, claiming the Justice Department's probe into the spy agency's destruction of detainee interrogation videos was the equivalent of "criminalizing the CIA." Following the script from the Tom Delay, Valerie Plame outing, U.S. attorneys purge and other Republicans scandals, the Journal's contortion is just the latest right-wing effort... more Posted on January 6, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	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)

	Huckabee: Bhutto Did Not Graciously Submit to Woman's Role The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has given the White House hopefuls of both parties ample opportunities for grandstanding. While Hillary Clinton predictably played up her past relationship with Bhutto, John McCain touted his foreign policy experience. The co-chair of New Hampshire's Veterans for Rudy Giuliani declared his candidate would chase Muslims "back to their caves." But for the most disturbing - and ironic - reaction, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is in a class by himself. Bhutto was killed, Huckabee... more Posted on December 28, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Romney Adopts GOP "Give Me Death" Line on Civil Liberties In an unprecedented and blistering "undorsement" on Saturday, the Concord Monitor implored New Hampshire voters not to support GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney under any circumstances. Labeling Romney "a disquieting figure" who "most surely must be stopped," the Monitor profiled the serial flip-flopper whose pronouncements on national security and civil liberties issues "are often chilling." Just how chilling, it turns out, Salon's Glenn Greenwald detailed the very next day. While Americans by now have grown accustomed to Romney's tough... more Posted on December 24, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Groundhog Day for Bush on CIA Tapes, Iran NIE Americans watching President Bush on Thursday could be forgiven for confusing his press conference with the movie Groundhog Day. In the 1993 film, Bill Murray wakes each morning only to realize he's reliving the previous day. Discussing the mushrooming CIA tapes scandal yesterday, President Bush claimed he had no recollection of knowing about the tapes' destruction in 2005 until briefed by CIA director Michael Hayden last month. Of course, that's virtually the same line he offered regarding the controversial Iran... more Posted on December 21, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Bush to Add Veto to Torture Signing Statement When it comes to the debate over Congressional legislation to ban waterboarding of detainees by the CIA, President Bush is proving Marx's dictum that historical events occur twice, the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. After all, while the White House is threatening to veto the new interrogation restrictions passed this week by the House, President Bush happily issued a signing statement to the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act letting him alone judge what constitutes "cruel, inhuman,... more Posted on December 16, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	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)

	The Party of Hate In Washington, House Minority Leader John Boehner is struggling to rebrand a downtrodden and disheartened Republican Party in time for the 2008 elections. It's no wonder. Its agenda stymied and burdened by an unpopular war and an even less popular President, the GOP is being pulverized in the polls. And with its evangelical base splintered and big business supporters jumping ship, the only message seemingly uniting Republicans is disdain - of immigrants, of blacks, of gay Americans and above all,... more Posted on November 12, 2007 \| Comments (20)

	Yahoo, Communist China and Bush's America In Washington Tuesday, members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee savaged Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan for the company's involvement in the 2005 jailing of a Chinese dissident. But if their bipartisan criticism of Yahoo's behavior - cooperating with a Chinese government "subpoena-like document" to supply information about journalist accused of the "illegal provision of state secrets" - sounds disingenuous, it should. After all, those are trademark tactics of the Bush administration and its Republican amen... more Posted on November 7, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Pakistan Irony Watch No doubt, these have been among the darkest days in the global war on terror. The president of one of the key powers in the fight against Al Qaeda terrorism has in essence suspended his nation's constitution and rendered its democratic institutions unrecognizable. Its citizens can be detained and held indefinitely without habeas corpus protections. Their electronic communications are now subject to interception without warrants. Suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban members can be denied access to the protections of the... more Posted on November 4, 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)

	Giuliani Flip-Flops on Waterboarding, Jokes About Torture In Iowa yesterday, GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani followed Bush Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey in playing dumb on the subject of torture. It should come as no surprise that Giuliani would argue that whether waterboarding violates the Geneva Convention depends on what the definition of "torture" is. Even less surprising is that the same man who in May endorsed "every method they could think of" would now jokingly claim that he was a victim of torture himself. Asked in Davenport,... more Posted on October 25, 2007 \| Comments (9)

	Deja Vu: Mukasey Channels Gonzales' 2005 Testimony By most accounts, Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey is not the intellectually stunted, duplicitous partisan hatchet man and unabashed Bush loyalist that was his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales. But in his testimony this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, Mukasey followed almost the same script on Bush administration torture policy as Gonzales during his own confirmation hearings in January 2005. As it turns out, both men disavowed the infamous 2002 Bybee memo and brushed aside questions about ongoing torture... more Posted on October 21, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Who's Counting? Bush and Giuliani on the Next World War President Bush's disturbingly flip comment Wednesday about Iran and World War III not only revealed his apparent comfort when discussing global conflagration. Bush's gaffe also showed the common vision between himself, the man most likely to succeed him as head of the Republican Party and those who advise them both. For George Bush, Rudy Giuliani and the likes of Norman Podhoretz, the only dispute about "world war" is whether we're already fighting it and what number we're on. For President... more Posted on October 18, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Cheney's Law and the Constitutionality of FISA Last night's airing of the PBS Frontline documentary "Cheney's Law" could not have come at a more fitting time. As Congress begins debate on a new FISA bill and the issue of immunity for telecommunications firms, Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey begins confirmation hearings in the Senate. But as Frontline reminded us last night, the architects of the Bush administration's NSA domestic surveillance program believe FISA itself is unconstitutional. First, a little background. Cheney's Law describes the Vice President's decades-long... more Posted on October 17, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Romney Conflates All Muslims in New Ad Just days after his comical "sit down with your attorneys" gaffe over military action against Iran, Mitt Romney has unveiled a new tough-on-terrorism ad. But taking a tough line against Iran's development of nuclear technology, Romney once again returned to his tried and untrue formula of conflating all Muslims into a single unified threat to the United States. The new "Jihad" spot depict a determined Romney outside his tony Belmont, Massachusetts home. Calling for a 100,000 more troops for the... more Posted on October 12, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Payback Time: CIA Director Investigates His Inspector General Just one week after the New York Times revealed the existence of secret Bush administration memos condoning an uninterrupted policy of detainee torture by the CIA, it appears to be payback time. In a highly unusual move, CIA Director Michael Hayden has ordered an investigation into the agency's watchdog office itself, led by Inspector General John L. Helgerson. According to the New York Times, Hayden and Helgerson have clashed over a number of issues, including the IG's scathing assessment of... more Posted on October 12, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	The Price of Bush's Military Transformation Over just the past 24 hours, a flurry of stories have highlighted the growing and evolving burden facing the overstretched United States military. In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates stressed the need to transform the American military to address the "fundamentally political nature" of its current and future conflicts. While the Marine Corps has proposed shifting its forces from Iraq to take over frontline duties in Afghanistan, the Army is offering bonuses of up to $35,000 to retain specialists from... more Posted on October 11, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Right-Wing Blogs Downplay Bin Laden Tape Damage, Probe Just one day after revelations by the private security firm SITE Institute that a U.S. government leak of its clandestinely obtained Osama Bin Laden video compromised its penetration of Al Qaeda's global computing network, U.S. intelligence officials announced a probe of the damaging episode. But in the Animal Farm world of the right-wing blogosphere where some national security leaks are more equal than others, the Bush administration's latest fear-mongering or perhaps just potential incompetence is hardly cause for concern. No... more Posted on October 10, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Leaked Bin Laden Tape Shows GOP Double Standard Today's revelations in the Washington Post regarding the Bush administration's September 7th leaking of an Osama Bin Laden videotape served to once again highlight the hypocritical Republican double-standard when it comes to the publication of classified national security information. As the CIA black sites and illegal NSA domestic surveillance stories all show, the President and his amen corner are quick to call for the prosecution of those who reveal White House criminality. But when Bush and his GOP allies through... more Posted on October 9, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Laughing at Torture The revelations last week concerning secret memos authorizing an uninterrupted policy of detainee torture by the Bush administration added a new chapter to the President's book of unchecked power, unbridled lawlessness and deceit. But even from national disgrace can come humor. Don Davis over at Satirical Political Report shows even torture can be laughed at. The Torture Advice Column by Devil's Advocate cheerfully helps guide would-be Gitmo interrogators and fans of the unitary executive up to the fine line of... more Posted on October 8, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Bush Signing Statement, Gonzales Perjury Concealed Torture Policy Thursday's devastating New York Times expose of the Bush administration's secret endorsement of torture by the CIA only served to confirm the worst what most Americans already suspected. First, Alberto Gonzales lied to Congress regarding the administration's policy on torture of detainees during his 2005 confirmation hearings. Second, President Bush's December 2005 signing statement accompanying the Detainee Treatment Act was expressly designed to exempt the lawbreaking he had already approved. As Perrspectives has detailed here and here, former White House... more Posted on October 4, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Blackwater, Habeas Corpus and the Global Muslim Backlash Seldom do disparate breakings news stories converge to paint a larger picture. Even as news of atrocities by American military contractor Blackwater rocked Baghdad, Republicans in the Senate blocked the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act, ensuring that the most draconian features of the Bush administration's detainee policies remain in place. Meanwhile, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) lamented the presence of "too many mosques in this country." It's no wonder a recent Pew Research Center poll revealed plummeting approval ratings for the United... more Posted on September 19, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Romney Attacks Dem Foes' Foreign Policy Experience If nothing else, Mitt Romney is a perpetual irony machine. Yesterday, Romney added to his legend by proclaiming that his three leading Democratic opponents - all U.S. Senators - lack his foreign policy experience. More ironic still, the one-term governor and international affairs neophyte leveled the charge while speaking in Midland, Texas, home of one George W. Bush. Speaking to the Midland Republican Women's Club, Romney attacked Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards for supposed ivory tower inexperience:... more Posted on September 13, 2007 \| Comments (9)

	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)

	Alberto Gonzales' Greatest Hits Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may have his announced his resignation, but his wrongdoing - and his words - live on. Alternately comically feeble and hilariously ham-handed, Gonzales' pathetic attempts to deceive, dissemble and literally forget his way out of the U.S. attorneys scandal, the NSA domestic surveillance imbroglio, the White House war on habeas corpus and even the outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame approached Bush-level rhetorical incontinence. Here, then, are the greatest hits of Alberto Gonzales: "Mr. Comey's... more Posted on August 27, 2007 \| Comments (5)

	Rove, Cheney and the Death of the Bush Doctrine Among the more tragi-comic aspects of the departure of Karl Rove is the media's renewed interest in the Bush Doctrine and its three tenets of no safe havens for terrorists, preventive war and democracy promotion. Last Monday, Rove claimed that the Bush Doctrine would live on and be the President's legacy. And this morning, the Washington Post described a frustrated President Bush stymied by what it portrayed as bureaucratic stonewalling of his ailing global democracy project. Lost in this flurry... more Posted on August 20, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Giuliani Telling Tales on Terrorism Record Self-proclaimed terrorist fighter Rudy Giuliani is telling tall tales again. Just days after the Village Voice thoroughly refuted Giuliani's claims about his supposedly central role prosecuting the 1985 murder case of Leon Klinghoffer by PLO terrorists aboard the cruise ship Achille Lauro, the GOP presidential front-runner is at it again. In Ohio on Thursday, the former New York mayor favorably compared himself to World Trade Center rescue workers on and after 9/11: "I was at ground zero as often, if... more Posted on August 10, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Democrats Snatch Defeat from Jaws of Victory on FISA With their shocking surrender over President Bush's draconian new FISA law this weekend, Congressional Democrats snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. They not only had the votes to safeguard American civil liberties and prevent the legalization of past Bush White House criminality. On FISA as we knew it before August 5, 2007, Democrats had the law - and public opinion - on their side. Until President Bush signed the so-called Protect America Act, his regime of warrantless NSA domestic... more Posted on August 7, 2007 \| Comments (6)

	Payback Time: FBI Raids Home of Suspected NSA Leaker This past week, the Bush administration added insult to injury over its illegal program of NSA domestic surveillance. During the very time Congress was debating codifying President Bush's lawbreaking by revising the FISA law many of his allies had been afraid to publicly challenge as unconstitutional, Alberto Gonzales' DOJ was raiding the home of a former Justice official to identify the person who first brought the illicit program to light. As Michael Isikoff details in Newsweek, a team of FBI... more Posted on August 5, 2007 \| Comments (31)

	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)

	CIA: Resurgent Al Qaeda Now at Pre-9/11 Capability On Saturday, Americans learned that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2005 cancelled a major U.S. raid into Pakistan designed to decapitate much of Al Qaeda's senior leadership. Now, a new CIA assessment details the steep price the U.S. is paying for President Bush's failure to enforce his mantra of "no safe havens." U.S. intelligence analysts, the AP reports, have concluded Al Qaeda has "rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the 2001 terrorist attacks." This... more Posted on July 11, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Tony Blair's Undiplomatic Outburst Just days after leaving 10 Downing Street for his new role as Middle East envoy, former Prime Minister Tony Blair gave vent to his frustration over the festering threat of homegrown terrorism in the U.K. In his remarks, recorded before both his departure from office and the latest terror episodes in London and Glasgow, Blair characterized British Islamist radicals as "absurd" and opponents of his extensive domestic surveillance programs as "loopy loo." Blair's public angst, while perhaps understandable, doesn't bode... more Posted on July 1, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Romney Flip-Flops on Bin Laden In last night's Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library, former Massachusetts Mitt Romney added Osama Bin Laden to his rapidly growing list of flip-flops. By alternately downplaying or emphasizing the importance of capturing Bin Laden as political circumstances require, Romney finds himself in good company - with President Bush. On Thursday, Romney-turned-Rambo declared that his presidency would signal that the end is nigh for Bin Laden. "He's going to pay, and he will die," a determined Romney said. Sadly,... more Posted on May 4, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Two Cheers for Tony Blair British Prime Minister Tony Blair may have fatally undermined his legacy and the prospects for his Labor Party with his slavish devotion to George W. Bush and his calamitous project in Iraq. But on one small matter of rhetoric at least, the UK government may have seen the light. As the BBC reports today, Blair's International Development Secretary Tony Benn declared that British government does not use the term "global war on terror" to describe either the current conflict against... more Posted on April 16, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Michael Chertoff on Clean Skin and Homegrown Terrorism Among the loyal hacks who permeate the Bush administration, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has been one of the most reliably banal. So when Chertoff described the threat to the United States from so-called "clean skin" terrorists, most liberal bloggers understandably assumed this was just the latest example of that brand of casual conservative racism that brought us the "tar baby" slur from Tony Snow, Mitt Romney and John McCain. But, for once, Chertoff might deserve slightly more credit than... more Posted on April 4, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Corporate Treason: Halliburton, Dubai and Iran With Sunday's announcement of its headquarters relocation to Dubai, Halliburton completed its transformation from mere war-profiteer to corporate traitor. The motivations for the move are simple: death and taxes. Shifting its corporate headquarters not only allows Halliburton to shaft American taxpayers. It enables Dick Cheney's old firm to comfortably expand its large and growing business with Iran and other declared terrorist enemies of the United States. The company, which raked in $2.3 billion in profits on revenue of $22.6 billion... more Posted on March 12, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Bush Denies GOP Treason Label for Democrats A chastened President Bush ventured into enemy territory on Saturday to address the annual gathering of House Democrats. Obliterated in the November elections and facing both abysmal poll numbers and open rebellion over Iraq within his own party, the formerly fierce Bush with tail between his legs feigned a spirit of bipartisan cooperation: "I welcome debate at a time of war and I hope you know that. Nor do I consider a belief that if you don't happen to agree... more Posted on February 4, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	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)

	GOP Flashback: "No Civil Liberties When You're Dead" What a difference a year - and electoral disaster - makes. As Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the Bush administration's illegal NSA domestic spying last February, Republicans Senators rushed to the defense of the President and his program. Fast forward to yesterday's announcement by Gonzales that the White House was backing away from wiretapping without FISA court warrants and the GOP's histrionics seem all the more comical. As Perrspectives detailed last year, President Bush's amen corner on Capitol Hill offered... more Posted on January 18, 2007 \| Comments (3)

	Gonzales: New FISA Role for Domestic Spying In what may be a major reversal of course, the Bush administration may yet submit to the rule of law regarding its illegal NSA domestic spying program. The AP is reporting that Attorney General Gonzales notified Senate Judiciary Committee leaders Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) that the Justice Department will once again submit wiretap requests to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Courts. "As a result of these orders, any electronic surveillance that was occurring as part of the... more Posted on January 17, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Richard Clarke's Security Challenges for 2007 In the Washington Post this New Year's Day, former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke has a compelling op-ed piece ("While You Were At War...") on the dangerous and rising opportunity costs of the Bush administration's Iraq fixation. In a nutshell, Clarke argues that while President Bush and the U.S. national security apparatus have been focused like a laser beam on "grave and deteriorating" war in Iraq, other mounting security challenges have fallen off the radar. While the emphasis may differ, Clarke's... more Posted on January 1, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Reyes Joins Bush in Failing Foreign Affairs 101 On Monday, Democrats began to pay the price for the ongoing feud between Californians Nancy Pelosi and Jane Harman. In one of the first tests of her leadership, Speaker Pelosi bypassed Harman in favor of Texan Silvestre Reyes to head the House Intelligence Committee. Sadly Reyes, like candidate George W. Bush before him, failed his first test on foreign affairs. In an interview in CQ on Friday, Reyes displayed staggering ignorance of the environment in the Middle East and across... more Posted on December 11, 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)

	Hoekstra's War on the CIA For most watchers of the CIA, the return of Steven Kappes to Langley as the agency's number 2 man is a welcome development. Fluent in Farsi and Russian, the 23-year veteran of the clandestine service can bring a renewed focus on the CIA's core intelligence-gathering mission. Unfortunately, Kappes' return almost certainly signals the resumption of Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra's partisan war on the CIA. Hoekstra (R-MI), the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, was a strong supporter of Porter Goss, his former... more Posted on July 26, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Specter's Op-Ed: Cowardice He Can Live With In a bizarre Washington Post op-ed ("Surveillance We Can Live With") pitching his ill-conceived NSA eavesdropping compromise, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) shows all of the hallmarks of a man in the throes of severe cognitive dissonance. While essentially pronouncing the illegality of George Bush's illegal domestic surveillance program, he cannot bring himself to harm his President or his party. As we've come to expect, the battle between Specter's inner demons yields only frustration and cowardice. Specter gets... more Posted on July 23, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Gonzales: Bush Blocked NSA Probe Back in May, Perrspectives described how inquiries by both the FCC and the DOJ into illegal domestic surveillance by the Bush NSA had been blocked. With Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, we have a much clearer picture as to why. In a nutshell, President Bush personally insisted that the probes be stonewalled. The following exchange between Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Gonzales shows President Bush's iron hand at work in blocking the needed... more Posted on July 18, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	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)

	Hamdan Deals Blow to Bush Domestic Spying The Supreme Court's ruling today in the Hamdan case wasn't merely a defeat for the Bush administration's system of military tribunals for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. As ThinkProgress describes, the majority's explicit rejection of broad presidential powers claimed by the White House to be inherent in the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) also imperils Bush's dubious arguments for the illegal NSA domestic spying program. The challenge for President Bush and his allies is clear. As... more Posted on June 29, 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)

	Pat Roberts on Civil Liberties: Drop Dead During his opening comments in the CIA confirmation hearings of General Michael Hayden, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) returned to a favorite Republican sound bite in defense of illegal domestic surveiilance by the NSA. Roberts proclaimed: "I am a strong supporter of the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment and civil liberties. But you have no civil liberties if you are dead." On February 3rd, Roberts, who has stonewalled the Phase II investigation into the misuses of pre-Iraq war... more Posted on May 18, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Hayden Learns the 4th Amendment The CIA confirmation hearings for General Michael are underway and the Bush administration is pulling out all the stops for their man. Yesterday, the White House flip-flopped and provided briefings on its illegal NSA domestic surveillance programs to the full Senate and House intelligence committees. And today, General Hayden showed he did his homework and finally learned the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. As the AP reported, Hayden today sought to defend the legality of the NSA domestic... more Posted on May 18, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	The Question for Hayden: Is FISA Unconstitutional? With the confirmation hearings for his CIA director nomination set to begin on Thursday, General Michael Hayden will no doubt be grilled on the broadening scope and dubious legality of the domestic surveillance programs during his tenure at the NSA. As we learned last week, Hayden's NSA not only conducted warrantless electronic eavesdropping on Americans, but clandestinely built a massive database of their phone records as well. And just today, Brian Ross of ABC News revealed that he had been... more Posted on May 15, 2006 \| Comments (3)

	Poll: Double Win for Bush on NSA Phone Records A new poll from the Washington Post suggests that the President Bush may be winning a double victory with his illegal NSA domestic surveillance programs. Americans seem willing to buy the White House's "tough on terrorism" hype at the expense of the law and their own civil liberties. And as an added ironic bonus, the President gets another opportunity to decry leaks that supposedly jeopardize national security. Surprisingly, the poll data show Americans even more content with revelations over government... more Posted on May 12, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	Bush Picking a Fight Over Hayden As predicted, President Bush nominated Air Force General Michael V. Hayden to replace Porter Goss as head of the CIA. And while the Hayden nomination brings with it a growing laundry list of problems, that's just fine with President Bush. After all, a fight is exactly what the Bush White House wants right now. The smallest stumbling block comes from the President's own allies. House Intel chief Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) expressed concerns over putting a military person in charge of... more Posted on May 8, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Goss Goes Down Over HookerGate? In a surprising and welcome announcement today, CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly tendered his resignation to President Bush. Effective immediately, Goss' quick exit was unusual, to say the least. But not necessarily totally unexpected. Since the story broke about Republican congressmen involved in the Hookergate scandal of Duke Cunningham moneymen Mitchell Wade and Brent Wilkes, rumors have swirled around not-so-clandestine rendezvous involving top CIA figures. Goss' #3 at the agency, Kyle Foggo, admitted to playing poker during the Watergate sessions,... more Posted on May 5, 2006 \| Comments (5)

	Senate Intel Committee Caves on NSA Inquiry As predicted yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee today confirmed its status as a rubber stamp for the White House. The Committee, led by staunch Bush ally Pat Roberts (R-KS), rejected vice-chairman Jay Rockefeller's call for an investigation of the President's illegal NSA domestic spying program. Bowing to pressure from the White House, Majority Leader Frist and its chairman, the Intelligence Committee agreed only to institute a seven-member subcommittee, which along with staff, would receive full briefings on the program. Rockefeller... more Posted on March 7, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Senate Showdown Tuesday on Domestic Spying Tomorrow is shaping as "Showdown Tuesday" for the Senate Intelligence Committee. On Tuesday, the Intelligence Committee led by Kansas Senator Pat Roberts will decide whether to investigate President Bush's illegal NSA domestic wiretapping. At this point, the vote could go either way. Whether Roberts' committee once again abdicates its oversight role likely comes to down the votes of three Republican members previously critical of the NSA program: Mike DeWine of Ohio, Maine's Olympia Snowe and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. DeWine,... more Posted on March 6, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bush, Dubai and the Ties That Bind I tend to agree with Kevin Drum over at the Washington Monthly that the Dubai port deal is not necessarily the grave and gathering security risk its opponents decry. (The shocking political tone-deafness is another matter altogether.) But it certainly smells bad, in no small part because of the cronyism and close ties the Bush White House - and family -have to Dubai Ports World and the government of the UAE. As has been reported previously, the Bush team is... more Posted on February 28, 2006 \| Comments (4)

	The Republicans' Constitutional Crisis When it comes to President Bush's illegal domestic spying program, his Republican allies over the last several days have shown that discretion is indeed the better part of valor. From the beginning, the administration's amen corner has aggressive claimed that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) and the wartime Commander-in-Chief powers give President Bush the statutory and constitutional basis for sidestepping the FISA process for domestic electronic surveillance. But most in the GOP are downright sheepish... more Posted on February 20, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	The White House Flip-Flops on NSA Program Oversight President Bush has flip-flopped once again. Just 24 hours after Vice President Cheney firmly declared the administration would not more broadly share information with key Congressional committee members regarding Bush's NSA domestic spying program, the White House reversed course - sort of. The seeds of the turnabout were sown with yesterday's challenge from House Intelligence Committee member, Republican Heather Wilson of New Mexico. Wilson, who is also one of the few House GOP members to return contributions from Tom Delay's... more Posted on February 8, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	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)

	Branding the NSA Domestic Spying Scandal As part of its all-out campaign to defend its indefensible illegal domestic wiretapping program, the Bush administration is turning to one of its tried and true marketing techniques - branding. The product? The "Terrorist Surveillance Program." In speeches this week, President Bush, former NSA program manager Air Force General Michael Hayden and other White House surrogates will toe the party line and refer to the "terrorist surveillance program." To support the new GOP talking points, the White House web site... more Posted on January 24, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	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)

	Foreign Aid, Self-Help Marx once remarked that historical events occur twice, the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. In the wake of the devastating earthquake that killed at least 35,000 in Pakistan and India, the United States is once again being penny wise and pound foolish. Repeating the administration's initial "stingy" response to the December Asian tsunami, Secretary of State Rice in Islamabad offered $50 million in American emergency aid. If ever the United States had an opportunity to... more Posted on October 13, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	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)

	What Is To Be Done: A 10-Point Plan for Iraq The debate over the American debacle in Iraq sounds more and more like the Fram oil filter ads from the 1970's. In those spots, a hard-nosed mechanic tells consumers, "you can pay me now or pay me later." The inevitable result of the current political dialogue over Iraq will be the "Fram choice" for Americans: the United States can lose now or lose later. On the right, President Bush and his fellow travelers refuse to accept accountability for selling a... more Posted on August 20, 2005 \| Comments (13)

	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)

	The Coming Draft Debate In "Getting Drafty", I argued that current and emerging American national security challenges require the reinstatement of the draft and a new "hybrid model" of national service. Developments over the just the past two weeks reflect just how rapidly the pressure is building to bolster American military force levels. London Terror Attacks and the Need for Expanded Homeland Defense. Timed to coincide with the opening of the G-8 summit in Edinburgh and only one day after London won the competition... more Posted on July 7, 2005 \| Comments (4)

	Markets, Public Goods and Military Recruiting During Thursday's hearings of the Armed Services Committee, several Republican Senators blamed the usual suspects for the shortfalls in Army and Marine recruiting. James Inhofe (R-OK) lambasted unnamed Senate colleagues, adding the potential recruits are being discouraged "because of all the negative media that's out there." Kansan Pat Roberts chimed in, "with the deluge of negative news that we get daily, it's just amazing to me that anybody would want to sign up." But while these conservative Senators predictably pointed... more Posted on June 30, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	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)

	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)

	Bush's British Invasion On the heels of Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to the U.S. and the growing furor over the Downing Street Memo, a new British document promises to further highlight the Bush administration's deception and incompetence in preparing for the Iraq war. The Washington Post reports that just two days before the Downing Street meeting, a July 21, 2002 intelligence briefing ("Iraq: Conditions for Military Action") showed British officials incredulous with the lack of planning for post-war Iraq by the Bush... more Posted on June 12, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	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)

	Iraq WMD Commission Whitewash As expected, the President's commission on pre-war intelligence regarding Iraqi's weapons of mass destruction offers a scathing critique of the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. (The full report and other commission background can be found here; other Iraq/WMD documents are also available in the Perrspectives Document Library.) Also as expected, the report essentially absolved the Bush administration of any blame for its policies. The mandate of the panel, led by Oliver North's appellate liberator Judge Lawrence Silberman, did not... more Posted on March 31, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	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)

	Better Lucky Than Good Sometimes you just have to give credit where credit is due. Like Chauncey Gardner in Being There, right now everything in the Middle East seems to be coming up roses for George W. Bush - and the United States. But like Chauncey, Bush the born-again democratic idealist has a series of happy accidents to thank for his success. The combination of the death of Arafat, Viktor Yushchenko's dioxin-tainted soup, bungling Syrian intelligence agents, and an all-powerful Shi'ite cleric may have... more Posted on March 4, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	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)

	On the Wrong Side of History Once in a rare while, tectonic historical change occurs with the span of only few days. The dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall heralding the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, was one of those watershed moments. And for many Americans, the events of the last 10 days of January, with the Rice confirmation, the Bush second inaugural, and the Iraqi elections, represent a democratic tide sweeping the Middle East, a sea change the whole world is watching. Sometimes, though,... more Posted on February 1, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	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)

	Doing Well by Doing Good: The American Opportunity in Global Tragedy In the wake of the devastating tsunami that killed thousands and threatens hundreds of thousands more across Asia, much of the coverage and debate in the United States has centered around whether or not the initial U.S. $35 million aid package is, in the words of U.N emergency coordinator Jan Egeland, "stingy." Lost in the petty bickering and wounded American pride is a unique opportunity for the United States to change its badly weakened global image by leading and funding... more Posted on December 30, 2004 \| 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)

	Bush's Foreign Endorsements Back in the spring, conservatives thundered against John Kerry when he mentioned in passing that many foreign leaders had confided to him that they wanted to see him replace George Bush as President. Now, those same conservatives have remained silent as Russian president Vladimir Putin endorsed Bush's reelection this week. Putin, the one-time KGB chief and budding Russion autocrat, stated that a Bush defeat would be a victory for the terrorists: "Any unbiased observer understands that attacks of international terrorist... more Posted on October 20, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Bush's Foreign Endorsements Back in the spring, conservatives thundered against John Kerry when he mentioned in passing that many foreign leaders had confided to him that they wanted to see him replace George Bush as President. Now, those same conservatives have remained silent as Russian president Vladimir Putin endorsed Bush's reelection this week. Putin, the one-time KGB chief and budding Russion autocrat, stated that a Bush defeat would be a victory for the terrorists: "Any unbiased observer understands that attacks of international terrorist... more Posted on October 20, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Three Strikes and You're Out The last presidential debate is over and the results are in. It is a clear three-peat for John Kerry. Unfortunately for Furious George, his most memorable line of the night ("Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden.") was also a blatant lie. Nothing unusual there, of course. Expect President Bush to be on his feet for the rest of campaign, as his backside is no doubt too sore after the ass-kicking John... more Posted on October 14, 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)

	Five Global Challenges for a New American Internationalism That giant sucking sound you may have heard last week was the last vestiges of American unilateralism spinning down the drain. Perhaps barely noticed in the din and drumbeat of the Reagan commemoration, the short and unhappy life of President Bush�s policy of �America Alone� mercifully came to an abrupt halt. In securing passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution recognizing the new Iraqi Interim Government, the Bush administration unwittingly pronounced the death of an idea whose time had never... more Posted on June 18, 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 War President? Now there�s a surprise. President Bush is going to base his reelection on the claim of being �a war president.� (His �Ownership Society� vision, which he delivered stillborn during his State of the Union address, has apparently been put on the backburner.) As he told Tim Russert on �Meet the Press� and repeated to National Guard troops in Louisiana on February 17th: "I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war... more Posted on February 20, 2004 \| Comments (0)