Sabre Rattling, Texas Style
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Sunday May 4, 2008
The disclosure last week of both video tape and photographs of a purported Syrian nuclear reactor —which was later destroyed by an Israeli air strike — are now being used by the Smirking POTUS as a warning to those who dare challenge the will of the Bush Doctrine.
Speaking at the White House this past Tuesday, Mr. Bush made it clear in no uncertain terms that both Iran and North Korea face the same threat of an air strike within their sovereign borders if they choose not to cooperate with the UN Security Council and come clean about their own respective nuclear programs.
The mysterious destruction of the nuclear facility, which, according to intelligence materials, appeared to be of a North Korean design, had not been officially confirmed by either side until last week.
Syria, which has continually denied that anything at all had occurred last September in the desert south-west of its Damascus capital, later scrubbed the site clean. Israel, for its part, while trying to contain its glee, was nevertheless forced to deal with Benjamin Netanyahu’s unguarded statements that it was, indeed, the Israeli air force that had done the deed. He later retracted his statement.
Now, with the United States coming forward with what it knows — ostensibly because the environment in the Middle East is currently less volatile — the whole bloody mess is being turned into a propaganda campaign, with the Bush Administration attempting to use the disclosure to try and get North Korea to live up to is obligations and sign some kind of agreement about limiting its own nuclear ambitions, while at the same time saving face with the right wing of the Republican Party.
Ladies and gentlemen, this Leftwing Nutjob wonders whether or not the Smirking POUTS “sprint to the finish” mentality regarding his few remaining months in office is now forcing him to accept any kind of foreign policy accomplishment, however limiting, even if it compromises the now flawed neo-conservative world view. And as it currently stands, North Korea may end up signing an agreement that is less stringent, less forthcoming than what President Bill Clinton secured nearly a decade ago, an agreement that was derided as nothing short of worthless by the current administration only two years ago.
I wouldn’t call President Bush’s foreign policy accomplishments over the past eight years a complete failure — after all, there is Poland — but its pretty darn close.
Bush defends Syria reactor claim — BBC News
Retirement
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Friday April 25, 2008
Michael Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, announced on Wednesday that he was giving up his day job as an Air Force Four Star General and will henceforth be devoting his full attention to running the ‘The Company’ after his retirement party this July.
Mr. Hayden, who has served in the USAF for 39 years, will enjoy a comfy pension of $204,000 a year after he hangs up his stars later this summer. That tidy sum will be in addition to the $172,000 salary that he will be bringing home to the wife and kids as the director of the all things clandestine at Langley, Virginia.
Mr. Hayden’s doppelgänger, actor Kurtwood Smith, was unavailable for comment.
Sources:
CIA director retiring from the Air Force — Air Force Times
GENERAL MICHAEL V. HAYDEN — Airforce.mil
Gone Baby Gone
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Sunday April 6, 2008
Another day, another cabinet resignation for the Bush Administration.
Last week, Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson resigned amid calls from both Republicans and Democrats alike due to the ongoing “distraction” of an F.B.I. investigation into cronyism involving lucrative housing contracts.
Mr. Jackson, who is a longtime friend of the Smirking POTUS, lived a rags-to-riches story, rising out of poverty as one of 12 children, working his way up the ranks of local municipal housing authorities to eventually heading the $37 billion government agency that is the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
But accusations of misconduct and wrongdoing dogged the secretary, with friends admitting that Mr. Jackson’s fervent loyalty to the president and as well as his famous short temper didn’t do him many favors, especially when it came to defending his questionable actions about preferential treatment given to some of his close associates.
Mr. Jackson’s last day on the job is April 18. I wonder if there will be a party?
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson steps down — Los Angeles Times
One Step Forward...Two Steps Back
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Sunday April 6, 2008
In yet another example of the schizophrenic thought process employed by the Bush Administration when it comes to foreign policy, the Smirking POTUS this past week came out and endorsed the idea of allowing Ukraine and Georgia — two former eastern-bloc countries — to join NATO; a move that Russia vehemently opposed and by all accounts a majority of NATO countries were against.
The schizophrenia part comes into play when it was just two weeks ago that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates went to Moscow and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Mini Me, Dmitry Medvedev. The U.S. delegation, with hat in hand, was widely viewed as being somewhat contrite when compared to the confrontational rhetoric that has often flowed from the White House over the past few years. The results of those talks triggered what appeared to be a thaw in the ongoing stalemate between the two countries as to whether or not a missile defense shield may end up being deployed in eastern Europe, as Mr.Putin, who in the past has made no bones about his opposition to the plan, appeared more open to talking about the measure when he met with both Rice and Gates.
But Russia had also strongly opposed having any former members of the Soviet Union joining NATO, and after Mr. Bush’s heavy public lobbying for Georgia and Ukraine before the official vote — which, in the end, denied, for the time being, the two countries from gaining membership in the organization, it appears that the United States may be back to square one with its on-going chilly relations with Russia.
Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know why I’m surprised — diplomatic subtly has never been one of this administration’s strong points.
Putin warns NATO expansion ‘is direct threat’ — The Australian
Lip Service
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Monday July 23, 2007
This past week’s admonition by our nation’s intelligence services that al Qaeda remains determined to strike against American interests should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the recently underreported news that the Bush Administration aborted a mission against top al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan back in 2005 — a mission that was deemed “too dangerous” and one that might damage our relationship with President Pervez Musharraf
Details of the aborted “snatch and grab” operation were revealed by the New York Times earlier this month, and involved elements of several special operations forces, including Navy Seals, as well as members of the CIA and other intelligence services.
Porter Goss, then director of the Central Intelligence Agency, learned of a window of opportunity to possibly grab Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qaeda’s number-two man, as well as several other top members of the terrorist organization, as they met in territorial regions of northern Pakistan. However, according to sources, it was eventually scuttled literally on the runway by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld after he was informed of the plans by the CIA director.
Mr. Goss resigned his post some months later. He official reasons for doing so may now be viewed in a somewhat different light…
However, the actions by the Bush Administration are eerily similar to those taken by the Clinton Administration with regards to its failure to undergo a similar raid against Usama bin Laden in the late 1990s — a fact the Administration sycophants and other Bush apologists used to smear the former president’s record of terrorism in the years following the events of September 11, 2001.
So it comes as no surprise that this past week US intelligence services, perhaps in an effort to get out ahead of any possible blow-back from a terrorist attack by al Qaeda over the upcoming months, chose to strongly and in no uncertain terms, warn the president and the country of the continued dangers of what some analysts are calling a reconstituted al Qaeda; one that has benefited from being effectively left alone by the political maneuvering of President Musharaff and the hands-off policy of the United States government.
Years ago, this Leftwing Nutjob asserted that the Bush Administration let Usama bin Laden go at the battle of Tora Bora, realizing that a quick and decisive end to the War on Terror only some three months after 9/11 would effectively pull the plug on their plans to flex their military muscle around the globe, to say nothing of using the memories of that day as a crutch for removing Saddam Hussein from power.
Now, in light of recent revelations, this Leftwing Nutjob would like to amend my previous accusations and add that not only do I believe the administration to be incompetent, bumbling, and sophomoric, but that it also lacks the strength of its convictions and that it is putting calculated political considerations ahead of the safety of the citizens of the United States of America. And if those accusations seem familiar to the more seasoned political observers reading this blog, that’s because they are essentially the same charges leveled against President Bill Clinton by Vice President Dick Cheney.
History is often cyclical in nature. Let us hope that the next president our of country learns from the mistakes of their predecessors and has the will to eliminate the threat of Islamic fascism once and for all.
Battle of Tora Bora — Wikipedia
U.S. missiles pound targets in Afghanistan, Sudan — CNN.com
U.S. Aborted Raid on Qaeda Chiefs in Pakistan in ’05 — New York Times
Intelligence Report Reasserts Al-Qaida Threat — National Public Radio
Podcast #117
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Tuesday April 15, 2008
Leftwing Nutjob Podcast, Episode 117, for Sunday, April 13, 2008
Penn hits the bricks, Iran in the spotlight again, the Obama money machine, al Qaeda’s rising star and more!