Enough Spin Already: Bush and Cheney Lied, Iran Didn't

Here's the New York Times frontpage left-hand hed from this morning: "Assessment Jars a Foreign Policy Debate About Iran." Assessment? Jars? Debate? Excuse me?

Here's Gramma Pelosi this morning: "The NIE illustrates the effectiveness of international monitoring and targeted sanctions to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." Effectiveness? Targeted? Proliferation? Excuse me?

There were many other - oh I don't know what's a judicious word - deranged? duplicitous? drugged? - reactions this morning to yesterday's devastating NIE - even to my chagrin in these august columns - spinning as no big deal a watershed moment in the so far wretched history of the 21st century America. Not one of them seemed willing to grasp a very large nettle: the axis of evil that has this great nation in its paws, has been lying about Iran at least since August and probably far longer. Has been lying to us, to our allies, to the world. Again. And not just lying but striving with all their might to nuke - or allow an ally to nuke - innocent people who posed no threat to us.

Here are the salient points from the NIE:

We judge with high confidence that the halt (in trying to develop nuclear weapons, not producing them) has lasted at least several years. (Four to be exact, a lifetime in war and politics).

We continue to assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapon. (Or has ever had one).

We judge with high confidence that Iran will not be capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 2015. (Which Bush - and for that matter Gates - flatly lied about this morning implying that the NIE said they could re-up anytime).

Let's be quite clear how far the men in the White House were willing to go. In the lethal linguistic fog these warmongers and the rightwing quislings who enable them, have plunged us, reasonable people seem to have lost sight of what we're talking about. Nuclear weapons aren't a bigger better version of Daisy Cutters. Nuclear weapons aren't just more bang for the buck. Nuclear weapons are the most cowardly killing devices ever devised by our benighted species. Nuclear weapons are instant genocide. Nuclear weapons are designed to murder as many unarmed noncombatants as possible, by the hundreds of thousands if not millions. Using nuclear weapons - even throwing around the threat to use them - was is and always should be unthinkable. Yet the monsters, yes monsters in the White House were willing to lie through their teeth - again - to get the chance to use them. On innocent people who posed no threat to us.

You say they didn't lie because they didn't have the current NIE? Bullshit. They said they knew that Iran had nuclear weapons, that Iran was about to start World War III. At the barest minimum they knew that was a lie. At the barest minimum they had no evidence to back that up - just as they had no evidence to back up their assertion that Saddam had nukes - yet they said that they did. They said they knew. That's called lying. And they were willing to murder on a monumental scale - again - based on those lies.

In reality - not the barest minimum - it's inconceivable that this intelligence has not been available to them since August, that some of it has not been known far longer. It's inconceivable that Israel which has the most reliable intelligence services in the Mid-East did not develop some intelligence in four long years, that Iran had no nuclear weapons and was no longer even trying to acquire them. It's inconceivable - surely - that if Israel had such intelligence, it would not pass it along. At some point in four long years. To someone in the US power structure.

Waking in New York this morning and reading the responses to this Force Nine news story, I felt as if I should try again to wake myself up. I don't mean that as a figure of speech: it was one of those experiences where you wake up in a dream and then try to really wake yourself up. Reading the New York Times was truly like being a character in a Kafka short story. For a while the world was making no sense. The acceptance of this shattering exposure of duplicity, appeared totally impossible for even well-informed, responsible journalists.

It's plausible that we've reached the point where we just cannot face that Americans, elected Americans, who talk in familiar accents, who grew up in familiar places, who wear familiar clothes and look not terribly unlike us, could be as evil as it increasingly appears George Bush and Richard Cheney really are. Americans simply aren't that evil, are they? They can't be. There must be some good intentions somewhere. But there aren't and there never have been.

And we cannot face the fact that the threat to our security and integrity as a people, is not in Tehran despite the blatherings of its ludicrous (and largely powerless) President, anymore than it was in Baghdad. Nor is it in the gullies, caves, hilltops and villages of the North-West Frontier. Threats from there - hot air and light weaponry - are nugatory compared to one we must now confront.

The threat to America is right here at home, sitting in two chairs in Washington right now, not faces on a screen, not characters in the tawdry television drama we call politics, but two actual human beings, their buttocks warming the leather of their seats, plotting how to cover up their crimes - the ones we don't know about yet - plotting how to avoid accountability for the crimes they can no longer conceal, plotting even now in the fading twilight of their reign of lies, theft and murder, how by any means necessary, they can get still their hands on most of the world's oil and pass the proceeds along to their cronies.

If you won't impeach now Gramma, you're on your way to being as guilty as they. Those who enable high crimes and misdemeanors - including never let us forget, treason - become as culpable as the perpetrators. If you don't impeach now, you will be an accomplice as will be all the others who stand with you - those who voted to declare the nuclear-free armed forces of a sovereign nation 'terrorists' for example, or one of your leading candidates for President who refused to take 'off the table' the 'option' of nuking innocent people who posed no threat to us, just so that she could look as tough as war-criminals.

Enough. This is the moment of enough. This is the moment where we lose or win back what was once and still can be again a great nation. Use the Constitution or lose the Constitution.

Comments

[dunlow]

Bush became a war criminal when the first civilian was murdered. He needs to brought
to justice no matter how long it takes.

[vet64]

Same old Neo Cons.. Same old cooked books.. Just a different day.
The reason(s) Pelosi and hoyer will not bring IMPEACHMENT to the table vary.
- They state that Congress will end up stalemated with IMPEACHMENT Hearings.
- It will divide the country.
- We must bring the country together.

- Could it be the Dmocratic Leadership received some campaign contributions from the Neo Con owned Conglomerates making a profit off the Iraqi Civil War Quagmire?
- Could it be the Democratic Leadership has financial holdings in any company or conglomerate making a profit off the Iraqi civil War Debacle?
We know that the Republicans and Democrats are easily morally and legally corrupted. When they hold their hands out for a couple thousand dollars in campaign contributions, you know they are prepared to vote and pass laws to give Tax Breaks and Contracts worth millions, billions and tens of billions of American Taxpayer dollars to their financial benefactors.
It's called "Conflict of Interest" and "Collusion" and it's rampant in the Neo Con infested Executive Branch with the Neo con Lawyers, Judges, and Prosecutors who replaced the politically fired Non Partisan Lawyers, Judges and Prosecutors aiding and abetting the Slimey Neo Cons. This culture of corruption goes all the way up to the Neo Con U.S. Supreme Court Justices who themselves are Morally and Legally Bankrupt as well as "Conflict of Interest" and "Collusion" challenged.
Conglomerates. Remember Ma Bell? The only way to get our country back is to break up every one of the Conglomerates into small companies. Hell.. How many foreign governments own part of America through these TREASONOUS Neo Con Parasites?

[Ravenlea]

Wonderfully spoken! I cannot endure that we have not impeached these criminals. Any chance we have of redeeming ourselves in the eyes of the world, any chance we have of saving our own national soul lies in impeachment. I don't know what more Bush and Cheney can do to. It's like they are begging for impeachment, daring Congress to do it. God, I hope this time somebody acts.

Thanks to Dennis Kucinich, HR333 is ready and waiting and Congress only needs to take action and do what it should have done long ago.

We, as citizens, can do our part by making our voices heard. We need to let our reps and senators know that we want impeachment. The more of us who take action, the more likely we are to succeed. If we fail, we fail, but at least we will have tried.

Write/Call the Judiciary committee and tell them you support HR333 and impeachment. http://judiciary.house.gov/CommitteeMembership.aspx

Write/Call Congress http://www.congress.org

Sign on with the folks at Impeach Bush: http://www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer

[rockymountainhigh]

Wait a minute....how can you say Iran didn't lie? They have claimed from the beginning that they were interested only in peaceful power generation with nuclear technology. They have always said they had no weapons program, and they had no interest in a weapons program. The moment their nuclear program was discovered, the weapons side of it went underground. To think otherwise is naive at best. Ask yourself these questions.....do you truse Iran to be truthful? Do you trust Iran to only use nuclear techniology to generate electricity? If you answereed no to either one, then we must continue to view Iran as a threat until they are 100% transparent with their nuclear program, and they prove to the world they have no intentions of making weapons.....don't let the nuke warhead blueprints that they "accidentally" got from Pakistan fool you.....

[Dandy12]

I'm much more afraid of the "enemy within" than the external ones combined. Our home grown/picked guys have surely destroyed more than any terrorist could have in their wildest dreams.

Isn't it a bit ironic that these "enemies" in general tend to be more honest in what they do and say.

Who are we anyway to believe that it is possible to contain a technology over 60 years old? It (an ultimate supression of a technology or denial) has never occurred in the history of mankind. Doesn't this make us appear a bit absurd!

[lgillooly]

You are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.Impeachment is the ONLY tool we have to end this reign of terror.I have lost all respect for Pelosi.Either they have something on her or her family (maybe from illegal wiretapping that started 7 months before 9/11)or she is afraid of their power and the talk radio echo chamber(91 percent= right wing)or she is in on it. Resign and let a real leader do the right thing...Impeach now!!

[nobozos]

Oh yes, they have been lying to us before August! Try since DAY ONE. Read the story of two very brave high ranking Bush Administration employees who have come forth with the truth....just too bad Americans are so fucking stupid they'd rather read about Brittany's lack of underware.

http://www.esquire.com/features/iranbriefing1107

For gawd sake, EDUCATE YOURSELVES and stop this evil administration from another mass murder.

[mbafromharvard]

The NIE states very clearly the imminent threat posed by a nuclear Iran. The NIE could not verify with complete confidence that Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapon. Additionally, the NIE judged with high confidence that Iran will be capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon in less than 10 years. These assessments are reason enough to stop the partisan bickering and get behind the President. Disarming Iran now is the only safe option for the US, lest we allow Iran to become fully nuclear (as it intends) at which point it is too late. The US has a sovereign right to protect its citizens against those that would do use harm. The NIW has confirmed that Iran needs to be disarmed now.

[BobLablah]

Uhh, sorry to blow away your hypothesis (US bad, Iran good) but Iran said they were only developing nuclear for power. If you belive this report than Iran did indeed lie.

[ATLiberal]

It is truly astounding that this regime has been allowed to go on this long with only token resistance.

But what really boggles the mind is that you can still find plenty of people who are intellectually lazy enough to buy everything Bu$hco spews.

At a recent Thanksgiving get together in PA at my partner's parents' place, her brother shocked all of the rest of us by declaring he likes W and believes he is doing the right thing in Iraq. That he is a man of his word and is being highly succesful in the "war on terror". And the man is not suffering from mental illness, as far as I can tell.

[briloker]

Bush isn't evil per se, he just knows how to use politics to advance what he believes to be right and just. His view is that the US version of democratic government should prevail throughout the world. Some regimes are oppressing to their citizens and it should be corrected. He knows that politically he can do nothing about it if he admits as much, so he uses whatever sleazy lies he can to promote what he perceives as just goals.

For instance, Iraq wasn't about weapons of mass destruction, or even oil profits (that ridiculous war cry from the left), but was more about promoting democratic values throughout the middle east. A huge neo-con ideal. He argued 2 or 3 different reasons for attacking Iraq in late 2002 before settling on the WMD issue that unted enough people politically to give him authorization to do it. If he could, he would attack Iran and North Korea immediately to promote his goals as he believes that the world would be a better place and the Israeli-Palestinian issue would largely disappear if the Middle East and Asia were overtaken by democratic governments and his legacy would be preserved.

Just my thoughts...

[jhNY]

It's really making me uneasy, as an American citizen, waking up day after day under a government composed of war criminals and their slippery enablers. But the sleeping pills help, and I need more. I'm pretty sure there were at least a couple of Germans who suspected Hitler was no good back in the day, but between all the meetings they attended and the bills they worked at the munitions factory to pay, they, like myself, had little time or energy left over to do anything whatsoever about it. But what about those darn Pats? They could go all the way!!!

[jesusquintana]

Excellent, well stated. Thank you.

[westwind]

Thank you for cutting through the BS. I have always felt that taking away the possibility of impeachment was tantamount to telling them they could do what they want, and not be held accountable. Use the Constitution or lose it says it all.

[snaggster]

The moment of enough was passed long ago.
I believe you are correct that it is inconceivable that this is "news". Not just to Bushco. Are there no Dims getting intelligence briefings? They are all guilty.