Director of National Intelligence Lied To Congress

He the Director of National Intelligence, but I don't think that lying to Congress is a very intelligent idea. Plus, it's against the law.

Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report wrote about it:

When the Director of National Intelligence lies to the Senate

On Monday, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on recent changes to the FISA law, which the Bush administration has insisted were necessary to keep Americans safe. In defending the law, McConnell seems to have lied to the Senate. Badly.

Steve Benen links to the Newsweek article about McConnell's violation of the law and public trust:

Spy Master Admits Error

In a new embarrassment for the Bush administration top spymaster, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is withdrawing an assertion he made to Congress this week that a recently passed electronic-surveillance law helped U.S. authorities foil a major terror plot in Germany.

Benen also asks some good questions:

[...]At this point, I have a few questions. First, how does anyone expect lawmakers to negotiate policy matters with the White House in good faith when administration officials lie with impunity? Second, will there be any consequences for McConnell in light of these revelations?

And third, isn’t it against the law to lie to Congress?

To answer his last question, yes, it is against the law to lie to Congress. However, there never seems to be any consequences for breaking that law. So there seems to be no reason to stop lying to Congress.

Alberto Gonzales lied just about everytime he spoke before Congress. Gen. Petraeus lied to Congress earlier this week. Karl Rove just skips the whole process by refusing to go in the first place. It doesn't make a difference. The results are the same: no consequences.

Congress needs to start acting like an equal branch of government and put a stop to this. I know it's a cliche, but the Democrats need to grow a spine. (At least, more of them need to grow a spine. There are some tough Democrats like Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), et cetera. We need more like them.) Democrats need to stop giving their milk money to the White House bullies, and stand up for our country, our Constitution, and all Americans. That's why we voted them into power. Now, it's time for them to keep their end of the bargain and use that power.

Bush Lies, Petraeus Lies, Traditional Media Doesn't Care

I talked a little about this last week in a post called "Did Bush Escalate So That He Could De-escalate?", and it seems like my theory might prove to be correct (or at least close).

Gen. Petraeus talked about bringing troops home next year when he gave his white-wash of a report to Congress this week. Today, news reports are claiming that Bush will soon announce that he will bring troops home next year per Petraeus's suggestions.

This appears to be all a charade because our military will be stretched to its limits by next year, and Bush will be forced to reduce troop numbers in Iraq regardless.

The clueless traditional media seems so eager to report the future troop reductions that they are overlooking the fact that such reductions will occur not by Bush's choice but because Bush has no other options. In overlooking that fact and not reporting on it, the TM is making it seem like Bush IS choosing to bring troops home because he and Petraeus are claiming that the surge escalation has worked and conditions are improving in Iraq.

Of course they're not improving, the surge escalation hasn't worked, and Bush and Petraeus are lying, but the TM is too lazy or too foolish to report that either. Thank goodness we have Media Matters for America to correct the TM:

Myths and falsehoods about progress in Iraq

Summary: Supporters of the Iraq war -- rather than waiting for testimony by Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker on the effect of President Bush's troop increase in Iraq -- have engaged in a campaign to convince the media and public that progress is being made in Iraq and that the "surge" is "working." Media Matters has compiled some of the most pervasive myths and falsehoods advanced by opponents of withdrawal in service of the "surge is working" message, which many in the media have been complicit in perpetuating.

[...]On the August 20 edition of Fox News' Special Report, host Brit Hume said that "evidence mounts that the troop surge is working as planned." An August 16 editorial in Investor's Business Daily was headlined, "A Surge of Success." And on the August 21 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, U.S. News & World Report editor-in-chief Mortimer B. Zuckerman asserted: "[T]he fact is that, by far, the consensus is that the surge is working." However, by the administration's own standards, the national political reconciliation that the Bush administration identified as essential for the success of its escalation strategy has not occurred.

[...]an August 25 Associated Press article reported that while violence is down in Baghdad "from peak levels ... the death toll from sectarian attacks around the country is running nearly double the pace from a year ago." Moreover, McClatchy Newspapers reported on August 15 that while U.S. officials have said civilian casualties have decreased in Baghdad, they have "declined to provide specific numbers, and statistics gathered by McClatchy Newspapers don't support the claim."

[...]Statistics compiled by the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count on its website iCasualties.org, which publishes death count totals provided by the Department of Defense, show that more U.S. troops have died in Iraq during June, July, and August this year than the same three-month period in 2003, 2004, 2005, or 2006. The website currently lists the total U.S. death count for this period at 264.

Read the whole article for MMfA's list of myths and their debunking of those myths.

The ONLY way to support the troops, at this point, is to bring them home. Period. Not one more should die for Bush's lies.

The Occupation Of Iraq Getting Worse, Not Better

Every day we get more and more bad news about the situation in Iraq, and everyday we get someone from the White House (or McCain or Lieberman) to say how great things are in Iraq. So who are we going to believe, them or our own eyes?

Well, let's see, in my almost thirty years of life my eyes have never lied to me. Politicians, on the other hand, do not have such a trustworthy reputation.

I think I am going to go with what my own eyes are telling me, and from what the polls are showing, around 70% (give or take) of Americans also are believing their eyes rather than the White House's lies.

As for the other 30%, well, they might be a lost cause, but that does not mean we should give up hope. We must continue to speak out against politicians like Senator John McCain everytime he lies about Iraq like this:

McCain firm on Iraq war

WASHINGTON -- Attempting to restart his flagging presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain delivered a dark and detailed portrait of the situation in Iraq as he assailed Democratic opponents of the war in an address at the Virginia Military Institute on Wednesday.

He maintained that the military has made "measurable progress" in securing Baghdad and fighting insurgents in Anbar province, an assertion that has drawn ridicule from war opponents. At the same time, the Arizona Republican said, "to deny the difficulties and uncertainties ahead is an egregious disservice to the public."

[...]"Will this nation's elected leaders make the politically hard but strategically vital decision to give Gen. Petraeus our full support and do what is necessary to succeed in Iraq?" McCain said. "Or will we decide to take advantage of the public's frustration, accept defeat and hope that, whatever the cost to our security, the politics of defeat will work out better for us than our opponents? For my part, I would rather lose a campaign than a war."

Politics of defeat? How about the politics of delusion, McCain?

Everything McCain and Bush and their ilk are saying about Iraq is based on lies. Every argument for invading Iraq was a lie, and the lies continue. Bush did not begin a "surge" in Iraq; he started an escalation. The situation in Iraq is not getting better; it is getting worse. This is not a "war"; this is an occupation. The war was over when four years ago when Baghdad fell. This is an occupation that Bush has escalated because things were getting worse, and that has not changed despite the escalation:

Red Cross: Iraqi Situation Getting Worse

GENEVA (AP) - Millions of Iraqis are in a ``disastrous'' situation that is getting worse, with mothers appealing for someone to pick up the bodies on the street so their children will be spared the horror of looking at them on their way to school, the international Red Cross said Wednesday.

[...]Medical professionals also have been fleeing the country after cases where their colleagues were killed or abducted, the group said in a 13-page report. ``Hospitals and other key services are desperately short of staff,'' Kraehenbuehl said. ``According to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, more than half the doctors are said to have already left the country.''

The report, ``Civilians without Protection: The Ever-Worsening Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq,'' was produced over the past two to three weeks, a spokesman said - well after the stepped-up American-led military operations in the capital began Feb. 14.

[...]``Once I was called to an explosion site,'' it quoted a young Baghdad humanitarian worker named Saad as saying. ``There I saw a 4-year-old boy sitting beside his mother's body, which had been decapitated by the explosion. He was talking to her, asking her what had happened.''

That news is horrible enough, but today, insurgents were able to attack members of the Iraqi parliament within the Green Zone, the most heavily protected area in all of Iraq. This is solid proof that things are getting worse:

Explosion hits Iraqi parliament; 2 dead

BAGHDAD (AP) — A bomb exploded in the Iraqi parliament's cafeteria in a stunning assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, U.S.-protected Green Zone Thursday, killing at least two lawmakers and wounding 10 other people.

The blast in the parliament building came hours after a suicide truck bomb blew up a major bridge in Baghdad, collapsing the steel structure and sending cars tumbling into the Tigris River, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed.

The bomb in parliament went off in a cafeteria while several lawmakers were eating lunch, media reports said. In addition to the two dead, state television said at least 10 people were wounded.

If that does not convince the other 30% of the populace that still believes the Bush administration that they are being lied to, then I do not know what will. Maybe this:

Army Extends Iraq Tours to 15 Months

WASHINGTON (AP) - Stretched thin by four years of war, the Army is adding three months to the standard yearlong tour for all active-duty soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, an extraordinary step aimed at maintaining the troop buildup in Baghdad.

The change, announced Wednesday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, is the latest blow to an all-volunteer Army that has been given ever-shorter periods of rest and retraining at home between overseas deployments.

Or this:

Report: Claims Reveal Toll of U.S. Wars

NEW YORK (AP) - Iraqi and Afghan civilians have received more than $32 million in compensation from the Army for noncombat-related killings, injuries and property damage, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The details of hundreds of the claims, obtained from the Army by the American Civil Liberties Union through a Freedom of Information Act request, offer a glimpse into the daily violence that has marred the lives of civilians in both war zones.

And these are just the stories from today.

The ratio of these reports on the worsening situation in Iraq per day are horrifying. I am amazed that anyone still supports this war, but 30%?! That is beyond absurd.

Our military occupation of Iraq must end now.

The White House likes to call us defeatists, but they have already been defeated in the public's perception here and abroad. The majorities of both Americans and Iraqis want our troops out of Iraq.

The White House likes to question our patriotism. Well, I question theirs with their insulting and immoral penchant to lie daily to the American people, sacrifice our soldiers for Bush's "glory", waste our hard-earned money, risk our economic stability, exploit Iraq for greed, and destroy the Iraqi people.

This is an escalation of conflict, not a surge. The situation in Iraq is getting worse, not better. This is an occupation, not a war. Occupations cannot be won or lost, but they do end. Occupations end when the occupiers decide to leave or when the occupiers eliminate everyone who wants them to leave.

I would prefer it if we just leave.

Tillman Death And The Web Of Lies

Oh, what a tangled web Bush weaves.

Honestly, this may have no direct connection to Bush, but Bush has created and supported a system of deceit and lies. This merely follows along with the narrative of mendacity for the most dishonest White House since Nixon:

Officer probe demanded in Tillman case

Anger in Congress over possibility of cover-up in death

(03-28) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Members of Congress from both parties, angered by findings of an Army investigation into the 2004 friendly fire death of football star and Army ranger Pat Tillman, called on Tuesday for hearings to explore if top officers covered up the circumstances of his death.

The quick congressional reaction followed the release Monday of a Pentagon probe into Tillman's death and its aftermath that showed repeated bungling during initial military investigations and a pattern of keeping his family in the dark about how the 27-year-old Bay Area native died April 22, 2004, in Afghanistan at the hands of fellow American soldiers.

"I am disgusted, and that's the word I would use, that officers would try to cover up the truth,'' said Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., a House Armed Services Committee member. "Anyone in a leadership position in the military who would cover up the truth should resign. I cannot imagine how the family would feel.''

Tillman was a true patriot, and he did not deserve this deceitful treatment by false patriots.

I do not care whether the Bush administration was directly involved in this or not because ultimately it was the Bush administration's policies of pathological lying, systematic propaganda, and covering-up the truth that set the stage for this and countless other scandals and disgraceful acts from the outing of a CIA operative to Abu Ghraib to Mark Foley to the political firings of US Attorneys.

I and many others have pointed out the many lies of the Bush administration many times, so I am not going to write another list right now. I think it is sufficient to mention that I would have a hard time coming up with a list of things that they have been right about or told the truth about.

Remember in 2000 when Bush said he was going to "clean up the White House". Well, when does he plan on starting that "clean up"? Because after spending all his time in office on making a mess out of... well, everything and bringing unprecedented digrace upon the White House (yes, even more disgrace than Monicagate), I imagine his "clean up" pledge is going to take a lot more time than he has left in his term. Or did he not mean for us to take "clean up the White House" figuratively?