insights from the digital future
Adam Liptak writes in the December 3 New York Times:
There are eight blank pages in the public version of a decision the federal appeals court in Washington issued in February…. What is in those pages is one of the enduring mysteries in the investigation.
Meanwhile, reports abound that Time’s Viveca Novak and Karl Rove’s attorney Robert Luskin may have to face up to Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald within days regarding their roles in the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame…
Washington Post 1 Dec:
“For more than four hours, the insurgents were in a show of strength reminiscent of the power displays of the Saddam regime.”
— Reported today via Mohammad Hamed, deputy governor for administrative affairs of Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital, 40 miles east of Fallujah.
al-Qaeda in Iraq reportedly dropped leaflets throughout the Ramadi today in advance of a meeting between U.S. military officials and anti-occupation tribal leaders.
“The Americans found it sufficient to keep their planes flying overhead, whose roars we heard very clearly,” said Hamed according to the Post.
Stay tuned… as The Plan continues….
Bring on the rollerderby. Old girl is definitely bouncing off the ropes and in serious need of a clothesline. Great example of the British media once again out-tooling the Amuricans…
BBC’s newsnight expunges an upheaval of half-truths from the effective expectorant that is Judy Miller. You’ve gotta see her swimmingly lose her dignity and look like a psychobitch in the process.
Watch and writhe by clicking here Miller comes on aroundn 35:00 and the piece runs about 10 minutes. Real player required).
summary – from BBCNews.com:
She said: “I’m deeply sorry our intelligence community got it wrong.
“I am deeply sorry that the President was given a national intelligence estimate which concluded that Saddam Hussein had biological and chemical weapons and a active weapons programme.”
(Pre-speech photo via Wonkette).
Tom Raum, who has covered Washington for AP through five presidents and over 30 years writes:
President Bush came as close as he ever has to admitting mistakes on Iraq Wednesday, acknowledging setbacks and uneven results in the training of Iraqi troops in his latest defense of the war 2 1/2 years after he first declared victory.
George W. Bush finally did what he always feared doing: he announced how we would win the war, at the risk of threatening the troops by spreading formerly classified information to the public today at the US Naval Academy (transcript).
Not really. The National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, as its written, was composed earlier this month according to its datestamp, despite White House claims to have been operating according to the plan since 2003.
Listen to the November 30 Talk of the Nation from NPR for a great conversation on this speech featuring James Fallows and Michael Rubin.
A couple insights from across the blogosphere:
Marc Cooper took the wayback machine and found that the “old Nixon game plan seems tailor-cut for Bush.” Seems text of the speech may have been leaked to Cooper as he vowed to sleep through the president’s “major” announcement.
Cafe Politico says there was hardly any evidence of a plan being revealed, suggesting the title: “Lots of Testosterone-Inspired Soundbites Minus Any Specifics.”
David Corn bites his lip and delivers an insightful analysis of the speech at his blog.
Sens. Kerry and Reid released statements to the effect of: “yo, I don’t think so.”
The Left Coaster says that in addition to the typical rhetoric, Bush “retreated back to his strategy of 2000. It?s him and the people of America against the entrenched political forces in DC.”
————————————————————–
Tuesday, Donald Rumsfeld had an “epiphany,” and like all of his previous epiphanies, this one resonated very little with the actual military players don’t come across like Rummy, who speaks as if he is “merely observing the Iraq war on television,”Dana Milbank wrote in the Post. Here is some of the exchange he had with his new Joint Chief of Staff:
[A]sked about torture by Iraqi authorities, Rumsfeld replied that “obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility” other than to voice disapproval.
But [Gen. Peter] Pace had a different view. “It is the absolute responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, to stop it,” the general said.
Rumsfeld interjected: “I don’t think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it’s to report it.”
But Pace meant what he said. “If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it,” he said, firmly.
I’m glad we cleared that up. Rumsfeld should have begun the press conference with the anecdote he used to close it:
“I just don’t know…. I can only talk about what I know.” [exaggerated shrug] “That’s life.”
Finally, earlier today AP released a list of about 40 international civilians believed to still be kidnapped throughout Iraq.