The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.
4:00 pm - Go home. Sit down. Eat. Sleep.
The prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are going to be able to challenge their detainment in a courtroom."As a Texas loyalist who followed Bush to Washington with great hope and personal affection and as a proud member of his administration, I was all too ready to give him and his highly experienced foreign policy advisers the benefit of the doubt on Iraq," McClellan wrote. "Unfortunately, subsequent events have showed that our willingness to trust the judgment of Bush and his team was misplaced."Misplaced? Alright, but just how misplaced was it?
In Iraq, McClellan added, Bush saw "his opportunity to create a legacy of greatness," something McClellan said Bush has said he believes is only available to wartime presidents.
The president's real motivation for the war, he said, was to transform the Middle East to ensure an enduring peace in the region. But the White House effort to sell the war as necessary due to the stated threat posed by Saddam Hussein was needed because "Bush and his advisers knew that the American people would almost certainly not support a war launched primarily for the ambitions purpose of transforming the Middle East," McClellan wrote.
"Rather than open this Pandora's Box, the administration chose a different path — not employing out-and-out deception, but shading the truth," he wrote of the effort to convince the world that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, an effort he said used "innuendo and implication" and "intentional ignoring of intelligence to the contrary."
"President Bush managed the crisis in a way that almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option," McClellan concluded, noting, "The lack of candor underlying the campaign for war would severely undermine the president's entire second term in office."
To quote Trotsky, "Dang...so....wait....you mean this guy, who was the spokesman for the Bush White House for all that time, is coming out and basically saying what we all already knew? That we knew those WMDs were imaginary, and it was all a huge lie? Well...that's just embarrassing."
Not that it makes that big of a difference now. Those who are interested in what is true regarding the War in Iraq succumbed to the evidence long ago (Indeed, some of us have been shouting it from the rooftops since day 1). For the rest of the loyal Conservatives who believe that changing their opinion is matter of defeat rather than enlightenment, anything short of a confession from Bush's very lips wouldn't be enough. So yet another confession from a man who was once a faithful employee of Bush, and who remains a supporter, will be unlikely to change anything aside from making those of us who are sick of this situation and the loss of life attached to it shake our heads a little harder.
And our soldiers continue to die. How can we not hold the man who sent them there accountable?
Teh Juggernauts are a pretty diverse group of kids, in some ways. I feel safe saying that we all strive towards the goal of a world where reason trumps blind faith, and where the definition of morality has become the alleviation of human suffering. The way that we attempt to embody that goal, however, varies greatly from pirate to pirate.Paul Carroll was riding his bike when his cell phone vibrated.
Once he arrived home from the Hennepin County Courthouse, where he'd been served a gross misdemeanor for spray-painting the interior of a campus elevator, the lanky, wavy-haired University of Minnesota sophomore flipped open his phone and checked his messages. He was greeted by a voice he recognized immediately. It belonged to U of M Police Sgt. Erik Swanson, the officer to whom Carroll had turned himself in just three weeks earlier. When Carroll called back, Swanson asked him to meet at a coffee shop later that day, going on to assure a wary Carroll that he wasn't in trouble.
Carroll, who requested that his real name not be used, showed up early and waited anxiously for Swanson's arrival. Ten minutes later, he says, a casually dressed Swanson showed up, flanked by a woman whom he introduced as FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola. For the next 20 minutes, Mazzola would do most of the talking.
"She told me that I had the perfect 'look,'" recalls Carroll. "And that I had the perfect personality—they kept saying I was friendly and personable—for what they were looking for."
What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at "vegan potlucks" throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort's primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division's website, is to "investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines."
Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.
"I'll pass," said Carroll.
For 10 more minutes, Mazzola and Swanson tried to sway him. He remained obstinate.
"Well, if you change your mind, call this number," said Mazzola, handing him her card with her cell phone number scribbled on the back.
