The lead story on most major media websites this morning is the announcement that Joe Biden has been chosen as Barack Obama’s running mate. Buried in the back pages is a story of much greater significance, and one that ties in with my last entry. From The Raw Story… “New documents from within the Bush administration and US intelligence community during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq reveal that the White House began assembling a case for war before it had compiled the intel that ...More »

Like it or not, Dennis Kucinich is one of the most intelligent and courageous members of Congress… More »

If anything should adorn the front of President George W. Bush’s Presidential Library is should be - got away with it… “Claims by U.S. President George W. Bush and other top administration officials before the 2003 invasion of Iraq regarding Baghdad’s ties to al Qaeda and its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes were generally not supported by the evidence that the U.S. intelligence community had at the time, according to a major new report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released Thursday. The long-awaited report, the last ...More »

With help from readers I’ve been able to track down what was said by John Lehman, Senator McCain’s foreign policy advisor, to Wolf Blitzer during a recent interview on CNN with regards to Iran… “They trained some of the 9/11 conspirators. They gave them free passage to al Qaeda.” Rather than simply discarding this for the nonsense that it is, let’s examine two fundamental questions regarding this statement. First, where did Lehman get his information? Obviously it’s not something that the current administration is willing to promote, which ...More »

If you’re labouring under the misconception that the Bush Administration is going to leave office without first confronting the Iranians, it’s time to start paying serious attention. The propaganda machine is in full swing, led by a new report by the State Department that labels Iran the most active sponsor of terrorism. If you can believe it, the Sudanese government actually ranked lower despite the fact that it has been complicit in supporting the Janjiweed who have been responsible for a genocidal campaign in Darfur. ...More »

One has to ask the question – what would be the reaction of the Canadian people were they to discover that the United States was fed classified Canadian military information by a mole within our military establishment? Would Canadians be outraged? Would it consume national headlines? Would it lead to a significant policy shift with regards to the United States? Or, after the grumblings of a few, would it simply be forgotten? One would hope, were it to occur, that public outrage would be so palpable that ...More »

Yesterday’s Congressional testimony by FBI Director Robert Mueller was one of the most blatant examples of doubletalk that you will ever come across. During his testimony, Mueller verified that numerous FBI agents had complained about the conduct of CIA interrogators and their use of harsh techniques. Given that, according to Mueller’s testimony, when questioned by Rep. Robert Wexler… “Robert Mueller: I can go so far sir as to tell you that a protocol in the FBI is not to use coercion in any of our interrogations ...More »

Given my last entry, and an email I received from an Israeli in which I was attacked for being purposely hateful, I thought that this development might be of interest… “A former U.S. Army mechanical engineer was arrested Tuesday on charges he slipped classified documents about nuclear weapons to an employee of the Israeli Consulate who also received information from convicted Pentagon spy Jonathan Pollard, authorities announced. Ben-ami Kadish faces four counts of conspiracy, including allegations that he conspired to disclose U.S. national defense documents to Israel ...More »

Over at Tom Dispatch, Tom Engelhardt runs through 12 Answers To Questions No One Is Bothering To Ask About Iraq… “1. Yes, the war has morphed into the U.S. military's worst Iraq nightmare: Few now remember, but before George W. Bush launched the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, top administration and Pentagon officials had a single overriding nightmare -- not chemical, but urban, warfare. Saddam Hussein, they feared, would lure American forces into "Fortress Baghdad," as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld labeled it. There, they would ...More »

Yesterday, the Iranian government conceded the fact that it played a role in mediating the ceasefire between Iraqi forces and Shi’ite militias, that has, given events yesterday, seemingly crumbled. Despite this, US General David Patraeus is expected to include in his upcoming testimony before Congress that Iranian forces were directly involved in the recent unrest in Basra, operating at a tactical command level. The presentation of such information will, without question, be used to argue that US troop levels in Iraq remain at current strength, ...More »