Personal About Politics: Suskind Bombshell and McCain's Stupid Ads

août 07, 2008 01:39 AM EDT (Updated: août 07, 2008 03:04 AM EDT)

 

Pulitzer Prize winning author, Ron Suskind's new book "The Way of the World," claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

Politico's Mike Allen picked up a copy of the book the night before it was to be on bookshelves. According to his report, Suskind writes that the alleged forgery was designed to portray a false link between Hussein's regime and al Qaeda as justification for the Iraq war.

"The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official "that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion."


The letter's existence has been reported before, and it had been written about as if it were genuine. It was "leaked" to a reporter for the London Sunday Telegraph in Baghdad who wrote about it on the front page of the Dec. 14, 2003 paper. Interestingly enough, it ran on the day Hussein was captured in his "spider hole." (Politico)

Sounds a bit staged, don't you think?

"The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001," Suskind writes. "It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq – thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice President's Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link." Suskind continued.

Suskind also writes in his new book that the order to create the letter was written on "creamy White House stationery." The book suggests that the letter was subsequently created by the CIA and delivered to Iraq, but does not say how. 



The author claims that such an operation, part of "false pretenses" for war, would apparently constitute illegal White House use of the CIA to influence a domestic audience, an arguably impeachable offense.

"They secretly resettled him (Habbush) in Jordan, paid him $5 million – which one could argue was hush money – and then used his captive status to help deceive the world about one of the era's most crushing truths: that America had gone to war under false pretenses," the book says.

Also in the book, John Maguire, one of two men who oversaw the CIA's Iraq Operations Group, was frustrated by what Suskind describes as the "tendency of the White House to ignore advice it didn't want to hear – advice that contradicted its willed certainty, political judgments, or rigid message strategies."


Suskind writes in the acknowledgments that his research assistant, Greg Jackson, "was sent to New York on a project for the book" in September 2007 and was "detained by federal agents in Manhattan. He was interrogated and his notes were confiscated, violations of his First and Fourth Amendment rights." The author provides no further detail. (Politico)

The White House, of course is vehemently denying any such letter or deception. It is unlikely, given the attitude and secrecy always surrounding the WH and Bush & Co. that they are suddenly going to change their tune and say, "O.K." You caught us. We lied. We didn't have to go to war, we wanted to. So what?"

Think it's unlikely the CIA did the bidding of the WH? Think about the Justice Department.

This will most certainly stir up a hornet's nest, and in my opinion, it's long overdue. It has long been known that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; it was just not known when it was known.

If these allegations are true, Bush is guilty of abuse of power and crimes against humanity. He would be well to take note of a report released yesterday in which Rwanda's government accuses senior French political and military officials of involvement in mass murder in the 1994 genocide in that country.

Those named by the report include former French Prime Minister Dominque de Villepin and late President Francois Mitterand.

According to a report from Reuters, "The French support was of a political, military, diplomatic and logistic nature. The commission named 33 French political and military officials. Considering the gravity of the alleged facts, the Rwandan government asks competent authorities to undertake all necessary actions to bring the accused French political and military leaders to answer for their acts before justice."

Isn't that sort of like making them answer for killing a lot of people for no reason?

 
McCain's Stupid Ads

For someone who professed to run a positive campaign, McCain has managed to slide rather quickly down the slippery slope to negative ads and false accusations. Considering his campaign manager is Steve Schmidt, a Rove protégé, it's not really surprising.

The most scurrilous attack came after Obama canceled a pre-planned visit with wounded soldiers in Germany after being told by the Pentagon that the trip would violate Pentagon policy prohibiting campaign stops on military installations.

"Barack Obama is wrong," McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers said in a statement. "It is never 'inappropriate' to visit our men and women in the military."
 
The problem here is that the McCain campaign was denied a visit to a military base under the same policy back in April.  Of course, there was no outcry or false outrage from Brian Rogers at that time. (VET Voice)

"We follow the rules," said senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt.

 That's interesting. Isn't that exactly what Obama did - follow the rules?

Silliness ruled the day with air pressure tire gauges handed out by McCain's campaign as "Obama's Energy Plan."

This as a result of Obama's answer to the question "what can we do as individuals" to conserve energy. Obama stated, "There are things that you can do individually though to save energy; making sure your tires are properly inflated, simple thing, but we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling, if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tune-ups. You could actually save just as much."

Funny thing, even though McCain's camp ridiculed the idea of inflating tires correctly, NASCAR, the American Automobile Association, Bush's Energy Commission, those silly GOP governors Schwarzenegger and Crist, as well as your dad, have all endorsed proper air pressure in your tires.

So, while the Republicans were making fun of Obama with tire gauges, he was making fun of them with this statement:

"Now two points, one, they know they're lying about what my energy plan is, but the other thing is they're making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent. It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."

However, there was a new development. Yesterday, in a telephone town hall meeting McCain held with Pennsylvania voters he said, "Obama said a couple of days ago we all should inflate our tires. I don't disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it."

 Oops…that kind of deflated the air pressure tire gauge thingy. But then, I forgot, McCain doesn't speak for the McCain Campaign.

So, now what to do with all the tire gauges the GOP was tying to sell for a $25 donation?

(psst….you can get one for 89 cents at K-mart)

Of course the prize for most ridiculous goes to the Paris/Britney ad. McCain tried say it was "humorous" however, it was anything but. It was juvenile, petty and pointless. In the words of his own mother, "kinda stupid."

It also seemed desperate.

Paris' mother Kathy Hilton, a donor to McCain's campaign, was not amused. She responded by saying, "It is a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs."

Others also checked in with a response to McCain's so-called humor.
Time's Joe Klein, who conceded last week that he was wrong to believe McCain is an 'honorable man' under the title 'The Scum Also Rises'."

And Newsweek's Jonathan Alter had these scathing remarks: "For a man who will turn 72 this month, he's a surprisingly immature politician — erratic, impulsive and subject to peer pressure from the last knucklehead who offers him advice." (Crooks and Liars)
 
Instead of listening to knuckleheads, McCain needs to listen to his mother.
Don't be stupid.

Not one to miss an opportunity to be in the spotlight, Paris fired back at "that wrinkly white-haired guy" with her own video, announcing she would also be running for President. If elected she will paint the White House pink (would it then be the Pink House?) offer an energy plan and she would be like "totally hot."





"You can't fix stupid."
Ron White, comedian
 


                                                  
Cheri Cabot, Politics Correspondent
Cheri's column, "Personal About Politics," published every week, will reflect on how the life of a 58 year-old, middle class woman is affected by politics, policy and the current state of the nation - a look at the personal aspects of politics. The articles will be posted to Politics.gather.com as part of Gather Essentials.

Cheri is a freelance writer, living in Southern California.  She has two grown children, one in Iowa and one at Columbia University, and is the proud grandmother of two. Cheri is also a purveyor of fine coffee, warm chatter and dry wit.





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