The WMD Commission
Fred Henning as found out who bush will appoint to the independent commission to investigate white house misuse of intelligence information on WMDs.
US Foreign Policy
Uhhh, when will the bs stop?
From the Guardian:
Intelligence sources, policy makers and weapons inspectors familiar with the details of the hunt for WMD told The Observer it was widely known that Iraq had no WMD within three weeks of Baghdad falling, despite the assertions of senior Bush administration figures and the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
As Jim Henley notes:
The official hawks, like bad dope dealers, got too fond of their own product. They wanted it to be true and convinced themselves of their desires.
Most of us have been taught that honesty is a good thing and will bring good results in life. The republicans still have time to nominate a candidate who has learned this lesson.
History according to w
Both Tim Dunlop and Atrios point to this article (click through the free pass) where Joe Conason talks about w’s apparent confusion about Iraq inspections:
The president was fantasizing again this afternoon about the circumstances that led to war — and if his remarks at his press conference with the Polish president are to be taken seriously, he also seems badly confused about his Iraqi timeline.
Surely no one who has listened to bush for the last 3 years is surprised when he says stuff like this. He might even really believe he is telling the truth….
What is the Fiscal 2004 Defense Budget?
If you were paying attention back in November you answered $401 billion as approved in the Defense Authorization Bill.
Robert Higgs would like us to think a little more inclusively. He argues that the true cost for fiscal year 2004 is closer to $754 billion.
Via Damn Foreigner.
Extraordinary Rendition
No matter your politics you should be outraged by this:
That’s all they had: guilt by the most remote of computer- generated associations. But, according to Attorney General John Ashcroft, that was more than enough to justify Arar’s delivery to Syria’s torturers.
Besides, Ashcroft added, the torturers had expressly promised that they would not torture him.
Our intelligence agencies have a name for this torture-by-proxy. They call it “extraordinary rendition.” As one intelligence official explained: “We don’t kick the s — out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the s — out of them.”
This secret program for torturing suspects has been authorized, if that is the right word for it, by a secret presidential finding. Where the president gets the authority to have anyone tortured has never been explained.
Read Maher Arar’s story here.
Brad Delong thinks this is worth an impeachment and Brian Weatherson wonders how many conservative bloggers will condone this behavior and thinks that the perps should at minimum spend time in jail.
I’ll go along with Brad on the impeachment idea.