Oh What a Malleable War: FRANK RICH - Bush Adminstration Lies by FRANK RICH - The New York Times Sunday Feb 18th, 2007 RICH: The team that once sold the country smoking guns in the shape of mushroom clouds has completely lost its mojo.
THE COMPLETE ARTICLE WITH ALL HYPERLINKS --> OP-ED COLUMNIST Oh What a Malleable War By FRANK RICH Published: February 18, 2007 MAYBE the Bush White House cant conduct a war, but no one has ever impugned its ability to lie about its conduct of a war. Now even that well-earned reputation for flawless fictionalizing is coming undone. Watching the administration try to get its story straight about Irans role in Iraq last week was like watching third graders try to sidestep blame for misbehaving while the substitute teacher was on a bathroom break. The team that once sold the country smoking guns in the shape of mushroom clouds has completely lost its mojo. Surely these guys can do better than this. No sooner did unnamed military officials unveil their melodramatically secretive briefing in Baghdad last Sunday than Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, blew the whole charade. General Pace said he didnt know about the briefing and couldnt endorse its contention that the Iranian governments highest echelons were complicit in anti-American hostilities in Iraq. Public-relations pandemonium ensued as Tony Snow, the State Department and finally the president tried to revise the story line on the fly. Back when Karl Rove ruled, everyone read verbatim from the same script. Last weeks frantic improvisations were vintage Scooter Libby, at best the ur-text for a future perjury trial. Yet for all the sloppy internal contradictions, the most incriminating indictment of the new White House disinformation campaign is to be found in official assertions made more than a year ago. The press and everyone else seems to have forgotten that the administration has twice sounded the same alarms about Iranian weaponry in Iraq that it did last week. In August 2005, NBC News, CBS News and The Times cited unnamed military and intelligence officials when reporting, as CBS put it, that U.S. forces intercepted a shipment from Iran containing professionally made explosive devices specifically designed to penetrate the armor which protects American vehicles. Then, as now, those devices were the devastating roadside bombs currently called E.F.P.s (explosively formed penetrators). Then, as now, they were thought to have been brought into Iraq by members of Irans Revolutionary Guard. Then, as now, there was no evidence that the Iranian government was directly involved. In February 2006, administration officials delivered the same warning yet again, before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Timing is everything in propaganda, as in all showmanship. So why would the White House pick this particular moment to mount such an extravagant rerun of old news, complete with photos and props reminiscent of Colin Powells infamous presentation of prewar intelligence? *** Even if the White House still had its touch for spinning fiction, its hard to imagine how it could create new lies brilliant enough to top the sorry truth. When you have a president making a big show of berating Iran while simultaneously empowering it, youve got another remake of The Manchurian Candidate, this time played for keeps. --MORE-- http://mparent7777.blogspot.com/2007/02/oh-what-malleable-war-frank-rich-bush.html Labels: Big Media, Bush, Bush Administration, Feith, FRANK RICH, ieds, Intelligence, Iran, Iraq, lies, News, Politics, The New York Times A Giant Doom Magnet: MAUREEN DOWD http://mparent7777.blogspot.com/2007/02/giant-doom-magnet-maureen-dowd.html 8 U.S. Troops Die in Afghan Copter Crash http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Helicopter-Crash.html 2 Baghdad car bombs kill 56, injure 127 http://www.yahoo.com/s/135781/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070218/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq Israel, U.S. may shun Palestinian gov't http://www.yahoo.com/s/135783/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070218/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians_us OMG, Like, Go Levantine High! http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2007/02/15/omg-like-go-levantine-high/ And More http://mparent7777.blogspot.com/ http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/ --------------------------------- Make free worldwide PC-to-PC calls. Try the new Yahoo! Canada Messenger with Voice
