After brief R&R on the West Coast -- land of the never-ending governor's election -- I'm back; mad as ever.
I suggest you watch this, before you read this.
"I share your shock at this kind of program," Mr. Wolfowitz told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We'll find out about it, but it is being terminated."
Wait a second. You mean that a program as bizarre as this gets all the way to appropriations and this is the first the deputy defense secretary is hearing about it? As I recall, didn't Rumsfeld express the same kind of shock at "learning" about Total Information Awareness?
It's pretty clear that "Accountability" is a foreign concept to the Bush administration. Exaggerated intelligence gets into the State of the Union? George Tenet gets the blame. He shifts the blame to some deputy to Condi. Bush announces he has full confidence in the guy. Missile defense tests fail? Announce you're skipping further tests. Bush, of course, has full confidence that the system will work. It's learned that Moe, Larry, and Curly are in charge of the EPA? Bush announces he's got darned good environmental protection policies.
To mix my Shakespeare, there's something rotten in the District of Columbia. Methinks they protest too much.
Why do I feel like I'm being duped? The 9-11 investigation finally gets to the Saudi connection and, at the request of the administration, every word but "and" and "but" is blacked-out. The Saudis protest, claiming their honor is being impugned, and rush to the Oval Office to complain. Bush rejects their fervent "pleas" to declassify the information. The Saudi foreign minister goes on CNN to say what an ally the kingdom is to this country. The 27 Magic Marker pages remain inky. The Saudi connection to 9-11 -- and the Bush administration -- remain "classified."
It stinks alright.
Fred Kaplan dissects the report -- and its typical Washington proscription to simply build a bigger bureaucracy -- on Slate. Also on Slate, Timothy Noah asks why Louis Freeh hasn't been sent to Guantanamo Bay for his role in failing to prevent the attacks. Well, maybe he doesn't go that far.
I suggest you watch this, before you read this.
"I share your shock at this kind of program," Mr. Wolfowitz told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We'll find out about it, but it is being terminated."
Wait a second. You mean that a program as bizarre as this gets all the way to appropriations and this is the first the deputy defense secretary is hearing about it? As I recall, didn't Rumsfeld express the same kind of shock at "learning" about Total Information Awareness?
It's pretty clear that "Accountability" is a foreign concept to the Bush administration. Exaggerated intelligence gets into the State of the Union? George Tenet gets the blame. He shifts the blame to some deputy to Condi. Bush announces he has full confidence in the guy. Missile defense tests fail? Announce you're skipping further tests. Bush, of course, has full confidence that the system will work. It's learned that Moe, Larry, and Curly are in charge of the EPA? Bush announces he's got darned good environmental protection policies.
To mix my Shakespeare, there's something rotten in the District of Columbia. Methinks they protest too much.
Why do I feel like I'm being duped? The 9-11 investigation finally gets to the Saudi connection and, at the request of the administration, every word but "and" and "but" is blacked-out. The Saudis protest, claiming their honor is being impugned, and rush to the Oval Office to complain. Bush rejects their fervent "pleas" to declassify the information. The Saudi foreign minister goes on CNN to say what an ally the kingdom is to this country. The 27 Magic Marker pages remain inky. The Saudi connection to 9-11 -- and the Bush administration -- remain "classified."
It stinks alright.
Fred Kaplan dissects the report -- and its typical Washington proscription to simply build a bigger bureaucracy -- on Slate. Also on Slate, Timothy Noah asks why Louis Freeh hasn't been sent to Guantanamo Bay for his role in failing to prevent the attacks. Well, maybe he doesn't go that far.
posted by John at 6:18 PM
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