… Christmas, of course. You can’t miss it … it’s everywhere — newspaper and TV ads … holiday decorations, both public and residential … your own to-do list, likely, and your dwindling budget.
If I were being Politically Correct, I would say “holiday” instead of “Christmas.” PC’ness has never been my style, however … and an astute e-mail from a relative gave me a crackerjack definition of PC the other day — trying to pick up a piece of poop by the “clean” end.
The Religious Right, and FOX News in particular, assure us that the Christmas Wars are still on … that the secular and liberal Left wants to pound Christmas into the mud, that the ACLU seeks to make everything so “fair” and “acceptable to everyone” that it will erase the quintessential Christian celebration and make us a nation of gray and soul-less disbelievers. Bill O’Reilly is the champion of Christian thought again this year … he is the keeper of the Christmas rules, and he’s doing his usual WWF smackdown with those of us who don’t go the jot and tittle with him.
Me? I think the whole conversation is a load of Bah Humbug.
This season, which we reference as Christmas because that is the long-standing tradition of the nation, is the period in which many MANY religious celebrations dove-tail. The trees we decorate are pagan, as are the [yule] logs we burn … the candles we light were established in the Jewish tradition … the family and community connections we turn our attention to are celebrated in Kwanza[a] … the tenderness we muster is part of the story of Joseph and Mary … the “merry” in “merry little Christmas” is no doubt the province of Santa mythology. Most every religious tradition hearkens to this time frame … and I think every single one of them is due a display on the Courthouse lawn. O’Reilly’s argument breaks down, like most right-wing pap, when he stumps for only HIS belief system — and the nation has become so contracted, so paranoid that it overreacts to the possibility of criticism, like the incident at Sea-Tac [below.]
If we would actually take a moment to get past the “rules” of this ridiculous game and bask in the inclusive, expansive energy that such a holiday season offers us … remember the fellowship and cooperation that can happen between diverse peoples when we focus on the spiritual aspects of this period rather than the religious … those stiff necks of ours might take a more comfortable position for a change. It’s enough to have to dig through commercialism and consumerism and the baggage of social graces during this season — to “war” over who has the right icon on their lawn or in their town square, and if it should be allowed, is in direct violation of the spiritual truth I learned as a child.
When we love one another … and take opportunity to show it … something Majikal happens. During the last month of our calendar year … EVERY year … we offer ourselves a chance to experience that. It’s a fitting way to close a year and open another … who knows how much hatefulness and havoc we’ve spared ourselves over the decades by giving ourselves a “grace period” in December!
This PC nonsense needs to be reexamined looking at that first word — political. I’d just as soon poke an ice-pick in my eye as invite a political definition into a celebration of the Heart. The notion that you can “war on Christmas” isn’t any more true than the pretense that you can take prayer out of school — it’s there and it’s not going anywhere … it’s IN us. The political want formalization — in my opinion, the season is big enough to be open-ended and Love is inclusive enough to allow all expressions.
I’ll be doing a number of Christmas posts this year — holiday posts, if you like. The things we celebrate define us … and it’s no surprise that this is a topic being sniffed around by the PC — but I dare them to find the clean end.
The Onion first, ‘cuz they always nail it … and then a look at Seattle and O’Reilly and the [let's hope temporarily] confused.
Jude
Christmas Brought To Iraq By Force
The Onion Issue 39•49
[open link for pic's]
BAGHDAD, IRAQ—On almost every corner in Iraq’s capital city, carolers are singing, trees are being trimmed, and shoppers are rushing home with their packages—all under the watchful eye of U.S. troops dedicated to bringing the magic of Christmas to Iraq by force.
“It’s important that life in liberated Iraq get back to normal as soon as possible,” said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz at a press conference Monday. “That’s why we’re making sure that Iraqis have the best Christmas ever—something they certainly wouldn’t have had under Saddam Hussein’s regime.”
To that end, 25,000 troops from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and 82nd Airborne Division have been deployed. Their missions include the distribution of cookies and eggnog at major Iraqi city centers, the conscription of bell-ringers from among the Iraqi citizenry, and the enforcement of a new policy in which every man, woman, and child in Baghdad pays at least one visit to ‘Twas The Night… On Ice.
Immediately following the press conference, high-altitude bombers began to string Christmas lights throughout the greater-Baghdad area, and Wild Weasel electronic-warfare fighter jets initiated 24-hour air patrols to broadcast Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” over the nation.
Armored columns struck out from all major allied firebases to erect a Christmas tree in the town square of every city, while foot soldiers placed fully lit, heavily guarded nativity scenes in front of every Iraqi mosque.
“Thus far, Operation Desert Santa has gone off without a hitch,” said Gen. Stanley Kimmet, commander of U.S. armed reconnaissance-and-mistletoe operations in the volatile Tikrit region of central Iraq. “There has been sporadic house-to-house fighting during our door-to-door caroling, but that’s to be expected in a Christmas season of this magnitude.”
According to Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top American military commander in Iraq, every precaution is being taken to ensure the peaceful enforcement of the Christmas season in occupied Iraq.
“All American military personnel have been instructed that the observation of Christmas should be carried out efficiently and tastefully, with minimal emphasis on the season’s commercial aspects,” said Sanchez, who addressed reporters while a decorations division strung wreaths and garlands outside his headquarters. “We must keep in mind that the reason for the season-oriented campaign is for Iraq to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
An aide for Sanchez later explained that, in order to ensure a meaningful holiday season for all Iraqis, provisions were made for those Iraqis who elected to observe Hanukkah.
Like many U.S. operations in Iraq, Operation Desert Santa has met with some resistance. A convoy transporting fruitcake and gingerbread came under rocket attack Sunday night just outside Checkpoint Noël in Basra, and unidentified bands of Iraqis exchanged gunfire with Marines operating an armored Humvee simulated sleigh ride in a Baghdad suburb. In spite of these troubles, regional commanders report progress, with only eight U.S. casualties resulting from the operation.
Still, Iraqis report that they are unable to get into the Christmas spirit.
“Why am I supposed to feel joy for the world?” said 34-year-old Baghdad mechanic Hassan al-Ajili as he stood in line for his mandatory visit with Santa. “My country is still at war. I need an American identification card to get anywhere in my own city. Now, for some reason, men with machine guns have placed two rows of jingling antlered pigs on the roof of our house. This is insane.”
Bush, speaking from his Crawford ranch, praised the brave men and women of Operation Desert Santa and asked for the understanding of all Americans.
“We must be patient with the Iraqis,” said Bush, seated before a Christmas tree dotted with Scottish terrier ornaments. “The holidays can be a very stressful time, especially for people not yet used to the customs. I’m sure Iraq will enjoy the happiest of holiday seasons if we show resolve and commit to making sure that they do.”
President Bush then called for 30,000 new troops to be deployed in the next week to ensure an effective and precise enforcement of Christmas throughout the region. Salvation and Eighth Army detachments will be stationed on every corner by Christmas Eve to make sure that every last Iraqi citizen spends the holiday at home, with family.
Sanchez said he is confident that he can meet that deadline.
“A merry Christmas in Iraq means peace in the Middle East has finally been achieved,” Sanchez said. “God bless us, every one.”++
Christians’ war on Christmas
Geov Parrish
Dec 15 2006
Seems up here in the dark, rainy Pacific Northwest, we’ve got a little stink on our hands that’s making national news, especially among those phony “War On Christmas” types who can never keep their facts, or religions, straight.
You see, over at Sea-Tac International Hyphenated Airport, they put up the usual, you know, Christmas trees. And some rabbi threatened to sue if they didn’t also put up a display of a Menorah to commemorate Hanukkah. Just like they do at the City of Seattle and any number of other government-owned properties in the region. So what did the Hyphenated Airport brain trust do? Against the pleadings of the rabbi and his lawyer, the airport took the trees down instead.
And then, if you’ll pardon the Satanic reference, all Hell broke loose. That includes Bill O’Reilly, pronged tail and all.
The upshot now is that the airport is redecking its halls with trees, the rabbi says the whole thing has been blown way out of proportion (and he won’t sue), and some panel will meet — after the holidays, naturally –- to discussion among themselves how to be more inclusive.
And the Hell of it is (there’s that word again), the Christmas tree is not a Christian symbol. It predates the birth of Christ by a couple thousand years. As does the yule log, mistletoe, gift giving, the works. That whole just-after-the-longest-night rebirth of life thing. I’m even betting the fat guy with the reindeer and sleigh didn’t come from old Judea, either.
Most of what we know as Christmas, in other words, originated with the pagans (and, in some cases, the Romans), and was appropriated by Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ at the one time of year He couldn’t possibly have been born. The Bible is imprecise on this point, but we do know the shepherds were out tending their flocks — which doesn’t happen in the dead of winter. Desert winter nights are cc-c-o-l-d.
So, speaking on behalf of all Neo-Pagan and Wiccan types out there, perhaps I should threaten to sue Sea-Tac to include our religion, too –- but that’s no good, because they’re already using our symbol! Christians attacked us! (And isn’t that the way of the world?) More precisely, Christians attacked Christmas. But they were just the first of a long list.
Yeah, Christians have attacked Christmas. So have capitalist greed, insane consumerism, and the seeming lack of familiarity of many Christians with the basic tenets of their namesake, aka The Prince of Peace. Don’t believe me? Try combining, with a straight face, Bill O’Reilly’s name with any of the following phrases: Forgiveness. Turning the Other Cheek. The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth. Go ahead. I double-dare you. Lose and you have to watch his show, and vice versa: if you have to watch his show, you lose.
Or, as Gandhi said, “The only people in the world who don’t know Christ was a pacifist are Christians.”
(I should add that some of my best friends are Christians, and the ones I know that do try to follow their faith are wonderful, inspiring people. And, in my experience, a minority.)
And so we get tempests in treepots like this year’s airport fiasco. The reports are already swirling wildly that the rabbi demanded the trees be removed (he didn’t), that the Jews and the godless secularists at the ACLU are in cahoots (we should be so lucky), and that the liberals in Hollywood, hearing the word “war,” are scouting for a movie treatment (probably true). This preposterous nonsense is sort of like the run-up to the Iraq War, and, oddly enough, is being propagated by many of the same people. It’s fiction, based sorta loosely on what might once have been a fact, being harnessed in the service of a preordained and flatly ridiculous conclusion.
It’s a bunch of rich white guys, the folks screwing 90 percent of America, trying to create a fake controversy so they can stand with (as opposed to on) the little folks. What war on a holiday? By whom? How can the 80 percent of this country that calls itself Christian be under serious attack, let alone the threat of annihilation, by anyone, unless it’s some idiot who talks to and hears from God constantly and has his finger on the nuclear button?
Oh.
Seriously, Christianity under attack by Jews, the ACLU, secular humanists and godless atheists? That’s like saying Burkina Faso is about to wipe out every member of the U.N. Security Council.
And, granted, such an attack would be the religious equivalent of Gallipoli. Where do I sign up? I want my trees back. While you’re at it, stop using the maypole, too. Go make your own springtime life-is-never-ending holiday. Call it “Easter.” ++
What’s right and good doesn’t come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of Democracy will never go out as long as there’s one candle in your hand.
~ Bill Moyers
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
December 15th, 2006
I know you’ll all be relieved to hear that Dubby is sleeping well at night — he told us so, which should inform an anxious and distraught America that the man they elected … mmmmm … president is not only a narcissistic sociopath but also a guy who blabs his inner workings without thought to their implication. Compare him to Abraham Lincoln who paced the corridors of the White House in agony during the bloody years of the Civil War, and what you’re looking at is neither a canny politician nor a man of conscience.
Condi Rice, meanwhile, reveals less about herself than about her ideology and loyalty to the Boss and his NeoCon friends when she tells us there will be no talks with Iran or Syria — they might want something in return … like … cooperation. And Saint John [the McCain] seems to have the Dubby’s blessing as he calls for more troops, lectures the Iraqi prime minister and, as Huffy suggests, “plays president,” a warm-up for his run.
Add that Bushs top general is still planning the Loooooong War by suggesting the Army is tapped out and needs more fighting power in Iraq … several thousand men PER YEAR and you’ve got a picture of the day.
WaDC is still down the rabbit hole, while the rest of us [a solid 70%, according to new polls] have come to our senses … and NOT sleeping well, thank you. But our well-rested Decider won’t decide to fess up until January … and, because we’ve learned how to anticipate him, we all know he’s less a Decider than a Liar. He’s already determined his course … he’ll “stay” it. And, as Dick Cheney told us a few weeks ago, public opinion doesn’t matter a whit when you’re the guy with the signing statements.
In a reasonable nation … the one we inhabited a few years ago … the following articles about Dub and his poodle, Tony, and their Rush To [illegal, immoral] War would have mattered. Would have caused an uprising. Would have been noted with Congressional hearings and television coverage. Would have been met with ringing outrage and news bulletins.
We’re not quite there yet, although we’re sobering up some … the dry drunk in the White House has taken us with him on a bender but too many of us have awakened from the stupor to find ourselves in a back alley with him pissing on our shoes. 70 percent of us are not pleased, and accountability lies ahead.
Honest — it does … I know you’re worried about that. The last bit here is from Christy Hardin Smith regarding Rummy. I’ll remind you that we never thought he’d be axed … and he was, in less than 24 hours … tossed right out the door; a cautionary tale for anyone in this administration — including George Bush. If he keeps this up, impeachment will begin to look like the ONLY option to contain him … and we have more than enough proof, when the public becomes insistent. A more potent read, Thompson’s daily rant, can be found here: The War Criminal.
George recently noted that he’d be dead long before history “got it right” about his years of leadership. Beg to differ, Dubster … we’ve got a pretty clear picture right now.
Jude
‘Curveball’ and A Slam Dunk
[a book review]
By James Bamford, the author of “A Pretext For War: 9/11, Iraq and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies” and “Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency”
Washington Post
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
ON THE BRINK
An Insider’s Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence
Tyler Drumheller with Elaine Monaghan
Carroll & Graf. 296 pp. $26.95
On Dec. 14, 2004, a suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, killing seven people and wounding at least 13 others. Further north, in Mosul, insurgents shot dead a provincial council member, and soldiers discovered the bloody corpses of eight more murdered Iraqis. Meanwhile, two Marines were reported killed by roadside bombs, bringing the total service members killed in the conflict to more than 1,100.
Half a world away, in a glittery White House ceremony, President Bush hung the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, around the neck of George J. Tenet. The president had been determined to launch a war against Iraq, and his loyal director of central intelligence had come through with the casus belli.
“The whole scene stank of hypocrisy,” recalls Tyler Drumheller, the CIA’s former chief spy for Europe. In “On the Brink,” written with Elaine Monaghan, Drumheller describes his frustrating — and ultimately unsuccessful — efforts to warn senior CIA and White House officials that they were on the road to disaster. Their key source on Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, Drumheller knew, was a fraudster. As Tenet smiled his thanks in the East Room, he probably should have offered to share the award with a former Baghdad taxi driver and con man code-named Curveball, without whom the invasion might never have taken place.
For years, the CIA had zero intelligence on Iraq — until reports from this Iraqi source began coming in from the German spy organization BND. A defector seeking political asylum in Germany, Curveball told BND officers that he had been an engineer in Iraq and personally knew about Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons program — in particular, a mobile bioweapons van. As Tenet and the White House began building their case for war, which rested heavily on Curveball’s claims, Drumheller’s German counterpart told him to watch out. “I personally think he could be a fabricator,” the German spy said. “He’s a very erratic character.”
Around the same time, Drumheller began getting far more credible intelligence from a high-level informant within the Iraqi regime’s inner circle. Although for security reasons he doesn’t mention it in his book, the official — as revealed by CBS News’s “60 Minutes” — was Naji Sabri, Iraq’s foreign minister. “He was the closest thing anyone had to a solid source in Baghdad,” Drumheller notes. Sabri made a convincing case that Hussein had destroyed all of his weapons of mass destruction years before.
Taking the intelligence together — Curveball’s lies and Sabri’s inside information — Drumheller was convinced that the fast-approaching war was a disastrous mistake.
Like Paul Revere in a trench coat, he began racing through the CIA attempting to spread the warning. But it was too late; war fever had gripped Tenet and his top aides, as well as the CIA’s weapons analysts. “The White House took our work and twisted it for its own ends,” Drumheller writes, “and Tenet set a tone whereby people knew what he and the White House wanted to hear. We all felt under pressure,” and war seemed “inevitable.” The Bush administration, he adds, “has compromised the work of this nation’s intelligence community like none before.”
Later, as the war turned into a debacle, many of those same officials denied having heard the warnings that Iraq might not have doomsday weapons programs. But Drumheller has the evidence in the form of paper trails. Nevertheless, in Republican-dominated Washington, no one wanted to point fingers, and most of those responsible for the screw-ups either retired with golden parachutes or were promoted.
Although a great deal has been written about Curveball, this is the first time the CIA official at the center of the controversy has told his story. Nevertheless, the book has some flaws. Because Drumheller had to submit his manuscript to the CIA for a pre-publication review, he was sometimes forced to tell the story in an awkward style to avoid breaching security. Many references to Germany, for example, had to be removed (it is sometimes referred to as “our European ally”), and many of the key CIA people involved are referred to simply by their titles. Also, while most of the story is told in the first person, other parts are told by his co-author.
Despite the censors, “On the Brink” provides a critical piece of the puzzle — a piece that shows how easy it was for a small cadre of senior intelligence officials, intent on war, to send the country into a bloody quagmire. As a CIA official told one of Drumheller’s colleagues: “It’s time you learned it’s not about intelligence anymore. It’s about regime change.” Added Drumheller: “The books had been cooked, the bets placed. It was insane. I had joined the CIA to stop wars — but not a needless one launched by my very own government.” ++
Diplomat’s suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war
Colin Brown and Andy McSmith, Independent UK
15 December 2006
The Government’s case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
A devastating attack on Mr Blair’s justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain’s key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.
In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, “at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq’s WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests.”
Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been “effectively contained”.
He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed. “I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed),” he said.
“At the same time, we would frequently argue when the US raised the subject, that ‘regime change’ was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos.”
He claims “inertia” in the Foreign Office and the “inattention of key ministers” combined to stop the UK carrying out any co-ordinated and sustained attempt to address sanction-busting by Iraq, an approach which could have provided an alternative to war.
Mr Ross delivered the evidence to the Butler inquiry which investigated intelligence blunders in the run-up to the conflict.
The Foreign Office had attempted to prevent the evidence being made public, but it has now been published by the Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs after MPs sought assurances from the Foreign Office that it would not breach the Official Secrets Act.
It shows Mr Ross told the inquiry, chaired by Lord Butler, “there was no intelligence evidence of significant holdings of CW [chemical warfare], BW [biological warfare] or nuclear material” held by the Iraqi dictator before the invasion. “There was, moreover, no intelligence or assessment during my time in the job that Iraq had any intention to launch an attack against its neighbours or the UK or the US,” he added.
Mr Ross’s evidence directly challenges the assertions by the Prime Minster that the war was legally justified because Saddam possessed WMDs which could be “activated” within 45 minutes and posed a threat to British interests. These claims were also made in two dossiers, subsequently discredited, in spite of the advice by Mr Ross.
His hitherto secret evidence threatens to reopen the row over the legality of the conflict, under which Mr Blair has sought to draw a line as the internecine bloodshed in Iraq has worsened.
Mr Ross says he questioned colleagues at the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence working on Iraq and none said that any new evidence had emerged to change their assessment.
“What had changed was the Government’s determination to present available evidence in a different light,” he added.
Mr Ross said in late 2002 that he “discussed this at some length with David Kelly”, the weapons expert who a year later committed suicide when he was named as the source of a BBC report saying Downing Street had “sexed up” the WMD claims in a dossier. The Butler inquiry cleared Mr Blair and Downing Street of “sexing up” the dossier, but the publication of the Carne Ross evidence will cast fresh doubts on its findings.
Mr Ross, 40, was a highly rated diplomat but he resigned because of his misgivings about the legality of the war. He still fears the threat of action under the Official Secrets Act.
“Mr Ross hasn’t had any approach to tell him that he is still not liable to be prosecuted,” said one ally. But he has told friends that he is “glad it is out in the open” and he told MPs it had been “on my conscience for years”.
One member of the Foreign Affairs committee said: “There was blood on the carpet over this. I think it’s pretty clear the Foreign Office used the Official Secrets Act to suppress this evidence, by hanging it like a Sword of Damacles over Mr Ross, but we have called their bluff.”
Yesterday, Jack Straw, the Leader of the Commons who was Foreign Secretary during the war - Mr Ross’s boss - announced the Commons will have a debate on the possible change of strategy heralded by the Iraqi Study Group report in the new year.
The Government’s case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
A devastating attack on Mr Blair’s justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain’s key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.
In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, “at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq’s WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests.”
Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been “effectively contained”.
He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed. “I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed),” he said.
“At the same time, we would frequently argue when the US raised the subject, that ‘regime change’ was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos.”
He claims “inertia” in the Foreign Office and the “inattention of key ministers” combined to stop the UK carrying out any co-ordinated and sustained attempt to address sanction-busting by Iraq, an approach which could have provided an alternative to war.
Mr Ross delivered the evidence to the Butler inquiry which investigated intelligence blunders in the run-up to the conflict.
The Foreign Office had attempted to prevent the evidence being made public, but it has now been published by the Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs after MPs sought assurances from the Foreign Office that it would not breach the Official Secrets Act.
It shows Mr Ross told the inquiry, chaired by Lord Butler, “there was no intelligence evidence of significant holdings of CW [chemical warfare], BW [biological warfare] or nuclear material” held by the Iraqi dictator before the invasion. “There was, moreover, no intelligence or assessment during my time in the job that Iraq had any intention to launch an attack against its neighbours or the UK or the US,” he added.
Mr Ross’s evidence directly challenges the assertions by the Prime Minster that the war was legally justified because Saddam possessed WMDs which could be “activated” within 45 minutes and posed a threat to British interests. These claims were also made in two dossiers, subsequently discredited, in spite of the advice by Mr Ross.
His hitherto secret evidence threatens to reopen the row over the legality of the conflict, under which Mr Blair has sought to draw a line as the internecine bloodshed in Iraq has worsened.
Mr Ross says he questioned colleagues at the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence working on Iraq and none said that any new evidence had emerged to change their assessment.
“What had changed was the Government’s determination to present available evidence in a different light,” he added.
Mr Ross said in late 2002 that he “discussed this at some length with David Kelly”, the weapons expert who a year later committed suicide when he was named as the source of a BBC report saying Downing Street had “sexed up” the WMD claims in a dossier. The Butler inquiry cleared Mr Blair and Downing Street of “sexing up” the dossier, but the publication of the Carne Ross evidence will cast fresh doubts on its findings.
Mr Ross, 40, was a highly rated diplomat but he resigned because of his misgivings about the legality of the war. He still fears the threat of action under the Official Secrets Act.
“Mr Ross hasn’t had any approach to tell him that he is still not liable to be prosecuted,” said one ally. But he has told friends that he is “glad it is out in the open” and he told MPs it had been “on my conscience for years”.
One member of the Foreign Affairs committee said: “There was blood on the carpet over this. I think it’s pretty clear the Foreign Office used the Official Secrets Act to suppress this evidence, by hanging it like a Sword of Damacles over Mr Ross, but we have called their bluff.”
Yesterday, Jack Straw, the Leader of the Commons who was Foreign Secretary during the war - Mr Ross’s boss - announced the Commons will have a debate on the possible change of strategy heralded by the Iraqi Study Group report in the new year. ++
Accountability Matters
Christy Hardin Smith, firedoglake
Today is Donald Rumsfeld’s last day at the Pentagon. They will be giving him the full military party circuit to say goodbye, spending a whole lot of taxpayer moolah so that Rummy can save face with a full dance card. But where is the accountability with regard to disastrous decisions, piss poor planning, and the failures that have led the United States to be mired in a mess that has only gotten worse and worse as the months of Rumsfeld’s tenure at DoD ticked by — where is the accountability?
“Why do we have to keep going through this?” he declared with exasperation on Oct. 11 when asked if he took responsibility for what had gone wrong in Iraq.
“Of course I bear responsibility. My lord, I’m secretary of defense. Write it down. Quote it. You can bank it.”
When history records the lessons from the tenure of George Bush and his malignant pack of cronies in this Administration, hubris, ego, and disdain for the rights of the American public to the answers to every difficult question they might ask will be at the top of the list of failures. I hope Rummy enjoys being the Shrub scapegoat of the day.
Lesson learned from this: you do not own the White House or the Department of Defense or the Congress or any aspect of government. The American people do. You are running them on loaner from us — and if you fail to run them with the proper amount of care and concern for those persons placed under your supervision, or without an eye to the WHOLE of your job, then we will toss you out on your behind.
No one is irreplaceable — but the public’s need for real leadership and not just some faux sloganeering and PR hooey? It’s growing. And you will be held to account — by history and by the members of your own little cabal of sycophants and party loyalists for them losing their seat at the trough — because no one likes a loser.
I would like my accountability with a side of lessons learned by greedy, egomaniacal idiots who get other people’s children killed, please. Because it is well past time for that to happen.
Don’t know about you guys, but I am looking forward to the day when Rummy and his pal Dead-Eye Dick, rumble around their adjacent summer home properties in Maryland, whining about how no one ever understood the magnitude of what they were trying to do for the American public. Because I, for one, do not ever expect either man to have the epiphany that they were just plain wrong. ++
What’s right and good doesn’t come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of Democracy will never go out as long as there’s one candle in your hand.
~ Bill Moyers
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
December 15th, 2006