Bush Suffers Senate Defeat, Criticized by Lawmakers

April 2, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Politics

Washington is a new kind of place for Bush now, meaner, with less slack being cut. It's the kind of place where the merest hint of blood in the water alerts the sharks.
Last week, the same week he was grilled by lawmakers on the $75 billion (U.S.) in supplemental spending the administration needs for the first phase of the war, his $726 billion tax cut plan was chopped in half by a Senate in which Republicans hold a 51 to 49 majority.
"Even appeals to Republicans' patriotism have failed to win backing for the president,'' noted the Washington Post.
The Senate also defeated his controversial plan to open up the Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil and gas drilling.
And, in the coup de grace, lawmakers gutted his faith-based proposal to pump money into church-supported social agencies, such as drug-counselling centres.
These are serious portents. And Bush still has to go back to Congress for more money if the war drags on.
To make matters worse, a member of his own party, Republican Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, criticized Bush last week for not using "strong-arm tactics'' to bring rebel Republicans in to line on the defeated legislation.

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Bush approves use of tear gas in battlefield

April 2, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Politics

President George W. Bush has authorized American military forces to use tear gas in Iraq, the Pentagon says, a development that some weapons experts said could set up a conflict between American and international law.

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Honesty: The Worst Policy

April 1, 2003 D. H. McKee
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When NBC -- which is owned by General Electric, a prime military-industrial complex contractor -- decided to fire Peter Arnett for the thought crime of plain speaking, it was undoubtedly responding both to pressure from the White House (which accused Arnett of "pandering" to the Iraqis) and to the imperatives of its MSNBC ratings chase against the gung-ho, pro-war frothers of Fox News.
What provoked Arnett's defenestration? In an interview he accorded on Sunday to Iraqi television (which an MSNBC spokesperson initially described as a "professional courtesy"), Arnett allowed as how media reports of civilian casualties in Iraq "help" the "growing challenge to President Bush about the conduct of the war and also opposition to the war. The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another plan."

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Atrocities Perpetuated by U.S. Veto

April 1, 2003 D. H. McKee
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The Bush administration and British government have repeatedly blamed France's threatened veto for the failure to secure a second UN resolution authorising military action against Iraq.
What Washington has failed to mention is its own veto over many years to block initiatives such as opposition to apartheid South Africa, and even the prohibition of chemical weapons. Below is a partial list of UN resolutions vetoed by the US since 1972.

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Slovenia turns down US$4.5 million bribe

April 1, 2003 D. H. McKee
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The United States has mistakenly named Slovenia as a partner in its war against Iraq - and even offered it a share of the money budgeted for the conflict.

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The Propaganda Remix Project

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Politics

Counter-Propoganda Posters in full color, perfect for protest signs or mass photocopying.
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The Flaw in Shock and Awe

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Officials from President Bush on down are scrambling to say they never claimed the war would be won quickly. But this was precisely the message from officers involved in planning the war. It was, in fact, the premise underlying the whole war plan.
On March 19, the day the airstrikes got under way, U.S. Air Force Col. Gary L. Crowder, chief of strategy, concepts, and doctrine for the Air Combat Command, told reporters that the war would be an "effects-based" campaign. "The effects that we are trying to create," he explained, will be "to make it so apparent and so overwhelming at the very outset of potential military operations that the adversary quickly realizes that there is no real alternative here other than to fight and die or to give up." Once the Iraqis realize this, Crowder added, "[T]here will be a greater likelihood that they might choose not to fight for the regime." (Italics added.)

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Follow That Story: The Nuclear Whodunit (Part 3)

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Politics

The CIA covers its ass today in both the Washington Post and the New York Times, further distancing itself from the forged documents the Bush administration forwarded to the United Nations to support its case that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium. News that the documents were forged has given succor to Bush administration critics, who accuse the government of ginning up evidence against Iraq to justify war.
The story behind the forged documents and how they made their way from the United States to U.N. inspectors is important because it suggests the Bush administration is 1) incompetent; 2) stupid; 3) corrupt; or 4) all of the above.

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Follow That Story: The Nuclear Whodunit (Part 2)

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Three days ago, this column asked: Who forged the documents the United States and Britain submitted to U.N. inspectors as proof that Iraq had purchased tons of uranium.presumably for nuclear weapons.from Niger? And what were the forger's motives?
The "Press Box" directive to his press corps colleagues to smoke out the forgers and their designs was prompted by a March 13 Washington Post article, "FBI Probes Fake Evidence of Iraqi Nuclear Plans." The story, which was underplayed on Page A-17, indicated that the U.S. government knew who had forged the Niger documents but wasn't telling. The Post also reported that the United States and Britain received the documents from a third country's intelligence agency, adding, "The FBI is looking into the forgery of a key piece of evidence linking Iraq to a nuclear weapons program, including the possibility that a foreign government is using a deception campaign to foster support for military action against Iraq." [Emphasis added.] The third country in the handoff was not Israel, CNN reported on March 14.

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Follow That Story: The Nuclear Whodunit (Part 1)

March 28, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Politics

The Bush administration could bake an omelet large enough to feed a small city with the egg deposited on its face in the last week.specifically, news that the United States was duped by poorly forged documents that allegedly proved Iraq's nuclear ambitions. The administration and the British government presented the documents to U.N. inspectors as proof that Iraq shopped in Niger for uranium, presumably for a bomb. The inspectors noisily dismissed the docs as crude forgeries.
Forged by whom? And for what reason? That's the story I'd like to see the pack chase.

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