* ray mcgovern had some harsh words for Rummy today. BritHume called him an 'audience member who claimed to work for the CIA'
* arkin :
"Though I think the THREAT of al Qaeda is a myth and I worry about the unshakeable national security habits in this country of needing to find an "ism" to crusade against, I think the central premise of "(The Power of) Nightmares" is utterly false.arkin writes some truly schizo posts.
Worse, it is politically disempowering.
The central argument put forth in "The Power of Nightmares" is that al Qaeda as an organization does not really exist. Like the fake Soviet threat during the Cold War that preceded it, the myth allows "politicians" to ensure that the masses are constantly frightened and immobilized."
* emptywheel:
"It has now been verified, twice, that Valerie Plame was working on non-proliferation issues specifically dealing with Iran. Part of me says "kudos, Larisa, for your scoop." Another part of me says, "WTF were the rest of you thinking? Where do you think we're spending our counter-proliferation energies? Canada?" But a final part of me says, "Valerie was not the only one.""she then goes on to explain who else got the same treatment - go read. Jane follows up with a post on the same topic.
* miguel writes: "If Jason Leopold doesn't come through, he'll be seen as the next Wayne Madsen"
let's hope - for jason's sake - that if he's correct about everything, except the timing, that he doesn't get tarred for being wrong with the timing.
* tristero:
"And if it frightens you to think that the fate of your country, if not the world, rests on the outcome of a desperate power struggle between a goddammed malicious idiot, the Joint Chiefs, the calculations of corrupt Republican politicians and no one else in the world, then... Welcome to the 21st Century, my friends. This ain't your father's Missile Crisis."
3 comments:
This ain't your father's Missile Crisis
Oh but it was. It was GHWB's missile crisis when Saddam started lobbing Scuds into Saudi and Israel in '91. Some (9?) had chemical warheads. Saddam never admitted to this and the missiles became permanently 'missing'. Read Scott Ritter's Iraq Confidential, he hardly talks about anything else in terms of real weapons. The entire UNSCOM/UNMOVIC process arose because of the use of these missiles. The sanctions regime (which began as chemical and biological warfare sanctions) also arose because of the use of these missiles. One of the main reasons why Richard Butler had lost co-operation with the Iraqis in '98 was because he was insisting on receiving the arming records of the Scud force (Missile Unit 223). Saddam had known what he had done and some at DoD/CIA knew too but they never brought it into the public domain. Saddam also knew that the US held this over him (Gulf War Syndrome etc) and feared censure under the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Also see Patrick (ex-CIA) Eddington's Gassed in the Gulf. The circumstances surrounding what happened to him (and his wife Robin) are extremely similar to the case of Mr. Wilson.
thnx simon - wow!
are you really arguing that saddam caused GWS? from 9 scuds?
i'll try to take a look at the Eddington story - i dont know of him
FYI - Butler took a govt job here in australia and murdoch hounded him out of office for some reason. i've never been able to work out why
lukery,
I wouldn't argue that the Scuds (and anything else chemical for that matter) are the whole reason behind the Syndrome issue, but they may be a valid cause for some of it. Virtually everyone took NAPS tablets, Nerve Agent PRE-TREATMENT Sets, i.e. you should take them BEFORE a chemical attack. No-one ever admitted to a chemical attack so it is also likely that some people took them after an 'event'. Hearsay arising from the Porton Down testing volunteers indicates that those involved in testing NAPS dosage remain the most badly affected today. I don't want to dismiss the possible effects of the various jabs that people were given or the effects of depleted uranium, but no work has ever been done to isolate people who were close to Scud landing sites and investigate any symptoms they may have.
It's worth noting that whilst the 'Vietnam Syndrome' concerned the national effects of a country losing a war, Gulf War Syndrome remains a personal condition. Even if two-thirds of those who went to the Gulf in '90/'91 are now permanently medically disabled.
Post a Comment