Month: June 2006

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Dick: The Dark Side

PBS Frontline aired Dick Cheney: “The Dark Side” on Tuesday and it can now be viewed in its entirety on their Web site. Frontline cemented itself as THE premiere newsmagazine, imo, with 2004’s Rumsfeld’s War. Only a matter of time before we hear the d-word — that is if we even get to know ahead of time. I just wonder how long until we realize that we’re the butt of all the jokes and lies. It is, as Marty Kaplan writes, like George W. mocking Jon Stewart’s imitation of George W’s heartless chuckle. anyway, the Dark Side – with an all-star cast including Tenet, Libby, and of course, Darth Cheney himself, how can you skip it?

RJ Matson for the St. Louis Dispatch, 062206

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A Snapshot of Life as a U.S. Embassy Staffer in Baghdad

The Washington Post has posted a .pdf of a cable, “obtained” by the paper and “marked ‘sensitive.'” The name at the bottom is simply “Khalilzad,” from which one could deduce that the letter at the very least passed by the eyes of U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the man charged with implementing the administration’s “policy” in Iraq.

This account of the atmosphere inside and around the Embassy workplace cuts through all of the other noise being debated and pumped out in the media and blogosphere, it is matter-of-fact. Read it.

Below is a snippet describing the difficulty one employee is having in keeping her cover in front of her family:

At the very least, the Pentagon will now allow them to “use deadly force.” And if it’s any consolation, the Chicago Tribune reported a few weeks ago of a new “giant U.S. Embassy” being constructed to the dismay of Iraqis, on the perimeter of the Green Zone.

Although the president has been known to openly brag about not reading newspapers, if the Post is bold enough to print this in black & white, I applaud them.