Curveball has finally admitted that he made the entire thing up. If you recall, we went to war in Iraq based on the claim that Saddam Hussein had developed biological weapons. That account was based on the statements of Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, who our foreign allies warned was unreliable and clearly lying. However, President Bush and his aides were set upon invading Iraqi and relied on Curveball before the United Nations. He has now come out publicly to admit he fabricated the entire thing and could not believe the Americans relied upon his stories to launch a major war.
The interview was published on the eighth anniversary of Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations
He says that foreign intelligence officials were so keen on confirming biological weapons that they gave him a copy of Perry’s Chemical Engineering Handbook to help communicate. He still has the book, which he used to fabricate the stories. However, he admitted to making up the stories in mid-2000.
Of course, President Obama has continued to expend treasure and lives in Iraq in the ultimate example of the economic theory of “path dependence.” We continue to fight a war based on a fabricated story because our leaders cannot risk the political repercussions to pulling out from that country. There is also no known punishment for the officials, including high-ranking CIA and Administration officials, who perpetuated this lie. At best this was an act of willful blindness and at worst knowing falsification to justify going to war.
Our intelligence officials appear to continue to accept a good fabricated story over bad facts. Recently, they paid an enormous amount of money to an imposter who pretended to be the head of Taliban in Afghanistan, here. American officials even flew the imposter to meet with Karzai before finding out that he was lying.
Source: Guardian
Jill:
I come at it from a different perspective but the end result is the same. What is happening now is the result of, at least in my opinion, the collusion of big business with big government. What we disagree on is the mechanism. You think it to be capitalism but I think it is socialism that is causing it. Or if you prefer fascism although I see very little distinction between the 2. Since both link government and business together at the hip.
KC,
Most of our govt. is totalitarian. That is what is so scary. The courts, the Congress, the Executive branch–they all work in concert towards a repressive corporate state. We aren’t a democracy. We have only a few people in power left who try to uphold shreds of democracy. The rest are happy to do the bidding of the oligarchy. We are in a lot of trouble.
Yes, this is the America of Bush and Obama. And it is decidedly not liberal. Although liberal doesn’t mean what it used to.
Scratch a liberal like Clinton and you find a totalitarian personality bent on subjugation.
To your point KC: “As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave her speech at George Washington University yesterday condemning governments that arrest protestors and do not allow free expression, 71-year-old Ray McGovern was grabbed from the audience in plain view of her by police and an unidentified official in plain clothes, brutalized and left bleeding in jail. She never paused speaking. When Secretary Clinton began her speech, Mr. McGovern remained standing silently in the audience and turned his back. Mr. McGovern, a veteran Army officer who also worked as a C.I.A. analyst for 27 years, was wearing a Veterans for Peace t-shirt.
Blind-sided by security officers who pounced upon him, Mr. McGovern remarked, as he was hauled out the door, “So this is America?” Mr. McGovern is covered with bruises, lacerations and contusions inflicted in the assault.
Mr. McGovern is being represented by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF). “It is the ultimate definition of lip service that Secretary of State Clinton would be trumpeting the U.S. government’s supposed concerns for free speech rights and this man would be simultaneously brutalized and arrested for engaging in a peaceful act of dissent at her speech,” stated attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the PCJF.” (common dreams)
“The political rape-room mentality is all about power and taking control through violence or the threat of violence … words can be very violent entities”
I am glad that you see power and control through threat of violence a bad thing. Now what about the power the federal government has to control our lives through the threat of force?
HenMan
1, February 17, 2011 at 12:34 am
Blouise-
Totie Fields was a fun lady. It’s a shame her last few years were so difficult.
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Yes, she was one brave woman.
Buddha and HenMan,
It’s a mindset … we also just experienced it from Debbie Schlussel … I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of it in the coming months … I call it “the rape-room mentality” …
Rape is about power, not sex. A rapist uses actual force or violence — or the threat of it — to take control over another human being. The political rape-room mentality is all about power and taking control through violence or the threat of violence … words can be very violent entities … given the circumstances of Lara Logan injuries, the words Debbie Schlussel used at the end of her article are a perfect illustration : “Hope you’re enjoying the revolution, Lara! Alhamdilllullah [praise allah].”
Blouise-
Totie Fields was a fun lady. It’s a shame her last few years were so difficult.
HenMan,
Totie Fields … I haven’t thought of her in years … she was a special lady and a damn fine comedian.
Blouise,
I think you are on to something there. You are also not alone in noticing the shift in the patterns of the poster known as Tootie. Mike S. and others have noted the change as well. We know we have one professional shop with multiple posters trolling these waters. To their credit, they have even stepped from behind the curtain at times in a curious – but professional – display of respect for the opposition. We also have known past amateur trolls who have frequently been busted assuming multiple identities including those of other regular posters.
These known facts lend credence to your observation.
Blouise-
I find your post of Feb.16, 9:12 pm exceedingly interesting. In the days of the “I’m just a poor working mother shopping at Wal-Mart Tootie”, I used to visualize her as Totie Fields (a terrible insult to the late Totie). Recently with the coming of the venomous lightning-fast typist/researcher/polemicist quoting great volumes of Bible quotes, racism, and right-wing malarkey, I have been visualizing her in an orange jumpsuit receiving her meals through a slot in the metal door. I wonder if she speaks with a Scottish accent and hates Dwight D. Eisenhower. I think you (and others) may have solved the Jekyll and Hyde transformation of Tootie.
Elaine,
Thanks for the info about the interview. I will look it up!
Although none of you probably need to be reminded … we will be seeing more and more of these kinds of postings as the election year approaches especially on threads dealing with politics, issues, candidates.
HenMan
1, February 16, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Tootie-
Go to hell. No particular reason this time. Just go to hell.
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He/she is pretty revolting sometimes and tends to hijack the thread away from its original point … especially threads that are similar to this one in subject matter. Gee, I wonder why …
Buddha,
When I tell you of my suspicions, they are based on posts like the following:
“Tootie
1, February 16, 2011 at 4:44 pm
Buddha:
You could breed with Stam. The off-scouring of it wouldn’t be human. Then a human could breed with it and not be breeding with a relative.
Gosh. Problem solved.”
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There is a baseness to that kind of thinking in the first place … to actually write it sinks beneath the low point. We saw it in the incarnation of the “Mercenaries” and the “Prison Boys” last summer/fall. And it was very evident in Tautology’s script … especially when he was addressing you. In essence, it is a pattern I detect and it happens often enough to bolster my suspicions. It is an ugly mind that concocts such thoughts and an even uglier hand that commits them to “paper”.
Gyges:
are you pissing on Tootie again? I would think it would get tiring after awhile.
All that logic and shit you whip out on her all the time.
Tootie:
damn your eyes, cant you see they hate you? But hate is just another side of the coin. Love is on the Obverse, hate is on the reverse because it is reversing love. And you know that love is the coin of all of us liberals.
So Tootie, in all sincerity I love you and I hold no animosity for your bellicosity. Your hyperbole has transcended earthly ruminations and has achieved stratospheric proportions. That you are maligned and not aligned with the denizens of this electronic medium is a cause for great sorrow. I implore you, no I beg of you to adopt a less malignant form of communication so that both sides may adequately be represented in the windmills of your mind.
Bob,Esq: “Gematria”
If one accepts that Ghod is teh beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, and checks the chart one finds 1-800. Someone really needs to find the rest of that phone number.
I did a lookup of 1-800-888-8880 and 1-800-888-0888 and there doesn’t seem to be anything assigned except “New York-Palo Alto” as a location, no business name or anything. There’s gotta’ be a way to use that number to make some money off the Gematriasts, there’s just gotta’ be.
Tootie,
Like I said, we don’t agree. The last issue I expect for you to have any sort of open mind about is your religion, and I doubt you’ve any new or interesting evidence for the existence of a singular Jesus, that I haven’t heard before.
So there’s really no reason for us to discus this issue. Which was my point to begin with.
HenMan
Tootie-
Go to hell. No particular reason this time. Just go to hell.
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Short, sweet, right to the point – Rotflmao!
HenMan:
You are mad because you have exhausted your store of illogical or irrational arguments.
Poor baby.