27 September 2006
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It’s hard to think of a president and an administration more devoted to secrecy than President Bush and his team. Except, that is, when it suits Mr. Bush politically to give the public a glimpse of the secrets. And so, yesterday, he ordered the declassification of a fraction of a report by United States intelligence agencies on the global terrorist threat.
It's hard to to think of a newspaper more devoted to anonymous leaks of secure documents. Except, that is, when it suits this newspaper politically to complain about the leaks. And so last weekend we printed masses and masses of highly selectively quoted leaks from a report by United States intelligence agencies on the global terrorist threat.Mr. Bush said he wanted to release the document so voters would not be confused about terrorism or the war when they voted for Congressional candidates in November. But the three declassified pages from what is certainly a voluminous report told us what any American with a newspaper, television or Internet connection should already know. The invasion of Iraq was a cataclysmic disaster. The current situation will get worse if American forces leave. Unfortunately, neither the report nor the president provide even a glimmer of a suggestion about how to avoid that inevitable disaster.
We said that we wanted to release the leaked snippets so voters would be thoroughly misled about progress on the war and terrorism when the voted for Congressional candidates in November and we are seriously hacked off that the President and his team decided to show the world just how untrue our portrayal of the invasion of Iraq being a cataclysmic disaster has been. The curret situation will get worse if American forces leave so we want them to run away immediately and therefore cause the inevitable disaster that, with luck, should convince the American voters to vote Dhimmocrat in November and again in 2008Despite what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, have tried to make everyone believe, one of the key findings of the National Intelligence Estimate, which represents the consensus of the 16 intelligence agencies, was indeed that the war in Iraq has greatly increased the threat from terrorism by “shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives.”
Despite what we, the LA Times and other parts of the MSM have tried to make everyone believe, one of the key findings of the NIE, which represents the consensus of the 16 intelligence agencies, was indeed that quitting Iraq would greatly increased the threat from terrorism because "perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere."It said Iraq has become “the cause célèbre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement.” It listed the war in Iraq as the second most important factor in the spread of terrorism — after “entrenched grievances such as corruption, injustice and fear of Western domination.” And that was before April, when the report was completed. Since then, things have got much worse. (The report was written before the killing in June of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The authors thought such an event would diminish the danger in Iraq. It has not.)
It should have said that Iraq had become “the cause célèbre for liberal MSM jihadjournalists, breeding a deep resentment of republican success in winning elections based on the threat of the global jihadist movement.” The report listed the war as being the second best excuse peddled by the jihadists after the usual excuses of Arab incompetance and inability to compete with an educated, liberal democratic state like Israel but we tried to state that in a different way to make it seem bad. (That was before the oil price fell and Bush's approval ratings started climbing again despite everything we've been doing to keep them low. Our editors thought that our leaks would diminish Bush's popularity but actually they haven't.)Mr. Bush decided to release this small, selected chunk of the report in reaction to an article on the intelligence assessment that appeared in The Times over the weekend. As a defense of his policies, it serves only to highlight the maddening circular logic that passes for a White House rationale. It goes like this: The invasion of Iraq has created an entire new army of terrorists who will be emboldened by an American withdrawal. Therefore, the United States has to stay indefinitely and keep fighting those terrorists.
We decided to print the small misleading selectively quoted parts of the report in our article on the intelligence assessment that we printed last weekend. As an attack on his policies it served merely to highlight how completely unable we in the MSM and Dhimmocrat party are to come up with a sane and convincing alternative. Our plan goes like this: we quit Iraq and Afghanistan and leave the people there under Jihadist domination, we say we are vewwy vewwy sowwy and we won't do it again and promise to pay a large sum of money, make our women wear burqas and build a bunch of Mosques. Oh and we get the lube out, bend over, pull our pants down and... The voters seem to think it might be better to stick with the current plan of killing the nasty Jihadists instead until it is they that give up.By that logic, the more the United States fights, the longer the war stretches on.
By our logic the sooner we start learning Arabic and studying the Qu'ran the better.It’s obvious why Mr. Bush did not want this report out, and why it is taking so long for the intelligence agencies to complete another report, solely on Iraq, that was requested by Congress in late July. It’s not credible that more time is needed to do the job. In 2002, the intelligence agencies completed a report on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction in less time. Mr. Bush also made selected passages of that report public to buttress his arguments for war with Iraq, most of which proved to be based on fairy tales.
It's obvious why we leaked the bits of the report we did and why we are so hacked off at having our tacky article shown up as the blatent Dhimocrat propaganda it is. It's not fair that people should see through the supposed neutrality of out hit pieces. In 2003 we printed a thoroughly misleading OpEd by Joe Wilson and it was seriously irritating to discover that our attempts to misdirect the public away from his lies and inventions has not worked. We quoted selected statements from Mr Wilson to buttress our attempts at misdirection, most of which proved to be based on fairy tales.Then, Mr. Bush wanted Americans to focus on how dangerous Saddam Hussein was, and not on the obvious consequences of starting a war in the Middle East. Now, he wants voters to focus on how dangerous the world is, and not on his utter lack of ideas for what to do about it.
Then we wanted Americans to focus on the complete lack of WMDs that had been found. Now the evidence is clear that Iraq was indeed seeking to restart its WMD program so we are switching emphasis to focus on the ass-covering of the CIA and other intelligence agencies in the hope that no one will notice our utter lack of ideas for what to do about anything.Update: Wecome Pyjamas Media visitors - you may also enjoy my other two posts today as well
