October 2003: The director of a top American spy agency said Tuesday that he believed > that material from Iraq's illicit weapons program had been transported into > Syria and perhaps other countries as part of an effort by the Iraqis to > disperse and destroy evidence immediately before the recent war. > The official, James R. Clapper Jr., a retired lieutenant general, said > satellite imagery showing a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria, > just before the American invasion in March, led him to believe that illicit > weapons material ''unquestionably'' had been moved out of Iraq. > ''I think people below the Saddam Hussein-and-his-sons level saw what was > coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse,'' > General Clapper, who leads the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said at > a breakfast with reporters. > He said he was providing a personal assessment. But he said ''the obvious > conclusion one draws'' was that there ''may have been people leaving the > scene, fleeing Iraq, and unquestionably, I am sure, material.'' A spokesman > for General Clapper's agency, David Burpee, said he could not provide > further evidence to support the general's statement.
Fast forward to 2013: James Clapper: "And this has to do with of course somewhat of a semantic, perhaps some would say too -- too cute by half. But it is-- there are honest differences on the semantics of what -- when someone says "collection" to me, that has a specific meaning, which may have a different meaning to him." President Obama (2010): "He possesses a quality that I value in all my advisers: a willingness to tell leaders what we need to know even if it's not what we want to hear." Senator Wyden: "One of the most important responsibilities a Senator has is oversight of the intelligence community. This job cannot be done responsibly if Senators aren't getting straight answers to direct questions." White House spokesman Jay Carney said Clapper has been “straight and direct in the answers he’s given," On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 11:19 AM, c b <[email protected]> wrote: > http://peoplesworld.org/the-left-needs-to-stop-self-marginalizing/ > > The left needs to stop self-marginalizing > > by: Sam Webb > June 10 2013 > > > * A notion that differences within elite circles on foreign and > domestic policies is of no strategic or tactical significance. A > recent example was the sweepingly negative reaction of too many on the > left to President Obama's speech on the "war on terrorism," a speech > which in my view - and that of other sober-minded progressives - > showed some retreat from past policies and provided some openings for > mass struggle that were not formerly there. > -- Cheers, Tom Walker (Sandwichman)
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