Guest blogged by David Edwards
Crooks and Liars first posted a MSNBC Countdown clip last night which exposed Bush’s LA terror speech as a load of bullshit.
MSNBC Security Expert Gerald Posner made some important points that are worth highlighting:
POSNER: …it wasn’t a plot that all of the sudden, like in [the Fox TV Series] “24”, that they stopped on the eve of the execution taking place. It just happened to unravel and the people were eventually arrested.
…
OLBERMANN: …why did this speech occur? What was accomplished by it?
POSNER: …they’re really trying to get [support] built up for The Patriot Act. They are trying to pass The Patriot Act. At the same time, I think they are looking at getting this scandal off of them – which is the NSA hearing scandal – something they are having trouble with.
…
OLBERMANN: The White House is also saying that it was able to disclose these plot details today because they no longer had intelligence value. Do you concur with that assessment?
POSNER: Boy, not at all. As a matter of fact, I’ll tell you I’ve seen this game played by Democratic and Republican administrations. The Bush Administration plays hardball with it all the time and when they decide something doesn’t have intelligence value they release it for political purposes as they did today. They want to get The Patriot Act through and they want to make sure they quell all this furor taking place over the NSA Domestic Spying routine.
So I’ll tell you, they say it has no value at all but everything else… they are still holding on to information from World War II. We can’t get documents released on the Kennedy assassination yet here’s the President disclosing details on what happened on 911 just a few years ago.
OLBERMANN: We have talked before with deep sadness about the politicizing of counter-terror measures here. You have just put this into a political context. My stomach is queasy as I ask this. In the context of this today and what you have seen, are we far enough removed from that component of the [Orwell] novel “1984” – the part where the government turns a kind of terror faucet on and off to scare the public in to acquiescing to whatever [the government] wants to do?
POSNER: I’m afraid that we are unfortunately at that point. …the government is also very effective, the Bush Administration, at using terror as a political weapon an making sure it can turn on the “fear spigot” when it wants to and turn it off at other times.
Video in Streaming Flash format…
Crooks and Liars has this video in additional formats.
My reaction precisely when I heard this yesterday.
"We’re looking bad George – time to terrorize the folks again so we can put on our shining armor and ride to the rescue!"
Oh really ?, I wouldn’t think a pat-riot like that would do anything to fool americans…. pffft
How can ANYONE WITH A BRAIN NOT SEE THROUGH BUSH’S LIES AND MANIPULATIONS??BUT MOST OF HIS BRAINDEAD FOLLOWERS WHO THINK HE WAS SENT BY GOD ARE BEYOND HELP ANYWAY!!BUSH IS HITLER,ALL OVER AGAIN,AND THE PEOPLE ARE TOO STUPID TO EVEN CARE!!
So, the bush regime supposedly thwarted a terror attack several years ago! It’s all over the news!
Where’s the MSM story, on how Bush/Cheney were the president/VP when the worst terror attack ever on American soil killed 3,000 people? Rightwingers and the MSM think "some other party" was in power when 9/11 happened. Bush/Cheney were in power when 9/11 happened, did everyone forget? The biggest "fuck-up" of all time, in which they were not held accountable?
NO! The big story in the MSM is how they "supposedly" stopped a terror attack several years ago. It’s all over the news!
Great job, Bush/Cheney, if you really did stop it. But if you are accountable for stopping an attack, are you accountable for not stopping THE WORST attack in American history? NOPE! Not accountable for fuck-ups…someone else was in charge when that happened.
Jeannie,
The flock only sees what their preacher tells them
The rest of the week they run around with the blinders on, thinking everythings OK
Didn’t all of Hitlers soldiers have fancy belt buckles with the saying "gott mit uns" (God is with us) on them?
Gives new meaning to Cheney’s "we have all the power we need" retort when asked if he would be glad to see congress modify FISA to suit the "needs" of the prez.
Officials in and out of government are starting to finger Cheney for much of it (link here).
Why would anyone want to use secrets to slander a faithful diplomat who was trying to spare us from escalations of terror? Wilson prophesied:
"The underlying objective, as I see it, the more I look at this, is less and less disarmament, and it really has little to do with terrorism, because everybody knows that a war to invade and conquer and occupy Iraq is going to spawn a new generation of terrorists," Wilson said in a March 2, 2003, interview with CNN (see link above, quoting Ambassador Wilson, Valarie "Plame" Wilson’s husband).
Note that the patriotic ambassador made this statement before the invasion began, and that now, some three years later we know that the prez increased terrorism a thousand fold.
I guess, hand-in-hand with the uproar over the cartoons, we are to develop both fear and hatred and be reinforced for these feelings by being fed a positive as a cherry on top.
We may call this Pavlovian Operant Conditioning.
I heard somewhere that we didn’t even have a hand in stopping it. The "terrorists" couldn’t communicate well because they couldn’t use their satellite phones while the war in Afghanistan was going on and the local authorities in Pakistan caught them.
We were just told after it was all over.
heckuva job Bushie!
This story hits real close to home for me. I live twenty minutes away from downtown Los Angeles, and I’m very irate about this B.S. crap that Bush co is trying to pull off. It’s so easy to see how phony this man is.
If this story were true, woul’nt Bush have used it for reelection purposes? Why does he feel the need to wait four years to let us know about it? Don’t we have the right to know of thwarted attacks?After all, we all know how much he likes to brag about his supposed accomplishments. And if anyone beleives this nonsense about throwing shoe bombs at cock pit doors, then I feel pity for your ignorance. Bush could’nt even get the name of the building right. This fool insults our intelligence, and the right wonders why he’s so disliked.
Although in this case, the analysis is very likely correct, I think people should take whatever Gerald Posner says with a giant grain of salt. He has also been the chief apologist for the Warren Commission report on the assassination of JFK. He is regarded as a disinformation specialist by more discerning people who have researched the subject more extensively. Part of what makes disinformation credible is that it is usually a mixture of truth and falsehoods.
This really scares me. They’ve been just plain caught out on this one, it was such a feeble and transparent attempt at diversion and disinformation. Since this gambit has so clearly fallen flat, I fear they’ll feel they have to go to Plan B, probably a glob of Semtex stuck to a full LNG supertanker in Beantown’s harbor, laced with a bunch of radioactive waste. What the hey? Get rid of a few very pesky blue states and loads of subhuman "libruls" and drop the fallout on those effete Europeans to boot. Another "trifecta" for the murder monkey. These guys are finally beginning to really worry me. They have to be stopped now, right now, for they have amply demonstrated that they will stop at nothing of their own volition. To the barricades! Now! At least send Brad some bucks for Impeachmobile gas if you can.
I don’t drink from the "terror faucet". However, I heard it taste yummy, like kool aid.
They have become so predictable. Just wait. Leading up to the election there will be another terror attack, they’ll let a few thousand people bake in the sun with no food and water for a few days then will try and ride in like the whit knight to save the day. It’s too bad there are not more people in the know about these Neo-Nazis.
Nothing to see here, just move along, eh, 12 and 13? "Just wait."??? Let’s roll, for cryin’ out loud!
Clinton was president during 9/11.
signed Ricky/Paul/MediumRight/TrueGayConservative
gwb: How do I Lie to thee? . . . Let me count the ways . . . . . On my fingers, toes, arms, legs, penii . . .
#16 But if they have none you can’t count the Penii, right?
#13 Nothing neo about these guys. They are Nazis. NO was genocide. Invaded a sovereign country, kidnapped a democratically elected president(Aristide)don’t have free elections or MSM. The states need to remove the cabal from office as well as many in the house and senate. Well over 100,000 have been killed in I raq, their only offense , having oil in the ground. We have to worry that our own govt. will bomb us. Why are we paying taxes. NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION
Senator Rockefeller got it right. He said Bush must have gotten tired about talking about how he saved the Brooklyn Bridge.
Bush can make up anything he wants. If somebody says, "Show me the proof that you saved Los Angeles," he can say, "That’s classified information. We’re not going to show the terrorists how we stopped them." In other words, "Trust me."
But he did get the mainstream media to cover this crap, so he achieved his purpose of distracting people from NSA spying, the Katrina fraud, and the letter from Fitzgerald to Libby’s lawyers.
gw, prove it! I agree with Swaggs, if it were true, he would have flaunted it during the election, along with his impersonation of a pilot on a carrier. He is a loser any way you look at it!
Someone should get a statement from khalid shaikh Mohammed . . . . .
AKA Ron Jeremy (The Hedgehog) and get to BOTTOM of this matter, right away!
Is there a reported in the house ? . . . . The story may Die!
How about this. "His private statements were basically no different from what he’s said in public." Right. he "accidently" left the mike on. Sure.
Oops! – Bush Unaware Mikes Were Still On
By Associated Press
2 hours ago
CAMBRIDGE, Md. – The eavesdropping tables were turned on President Bush on Friday. The president apparently believed he was speaking privately when he talked about listening in without a warrant on domestic communications with suspected al-Qaida terrorists overseas. But reporters were the ones doing the listening in this time.
The incident happened at a House Republican retreat. After six minutes of public remarks by the president, reporters were ushered out. "I support the free press, let’s just get them out of the room," Bush said, intending to speak behind closed doors with fellow Republicans and take lawmakers’ questions.
When reporters left, Bush spoke about the National Security Agency program that he authorized four years ago and which has drawn criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.
However, the microphones stayed on for a few minutes. That allowed journalists back at the White House to eavesdrop on Bush’s defense of the eavesdropping. His private statements were basically no different from what he’s said in public.
"I want to share some thoughts with you before I answer your questions," Bush began. "First of all, I expect this conversation we’re about to have to stay in the room. I know that’s impossible in Washington."
He was right.
It’t Not the Lie, . . . It’s the Quality of the LIE, . . .We deserve better quality Lying from our "leaders" (F. U. bush)
Don’t know if guys have heard but a big story is just breaking in the UK, British soldiers caught on camera kicking the crap out of Iraqi teenagers,,,wonder what bush will think of that….
I want to thank MSNBC for letting Keith O. do his job, keep it up and say more truths!
PS…What kills me about the LA attack revelation is bush’s switching the bad guy from Osama Bin-Forgotten to Kalid Mohanmad…trying to make himself the hero since he’s caught already. Osama isn’t caught because he’s the chosen deversion so the NCAP can pull off it’s destructive treasonous plans.