Tag: George W. Bush

Time Finally Ran Out for ‘Atiyah’

Exclusive: President George W. Bush’s post-9/11 pivot from targeting al-Qaeda to invading Iraq left behind two open-ended wars and bought al-Qaeda’s leaders time to regroup and recuperate, a reality recognized by one named “Atiyah,” whose fate turned as President Barack Obama shifted…

Rise of Another CIA Yes Man

Exclusive: The gross manipulation of CIA analysis under George W. Bush pushed a new generation of “yes men” into the agency’s top ranks. Now one of those aspiring bureaucrats will be Gen. David Petraeus’s right-hand man, writes ex-CIA analyst Ray…

New War Rationale: ‘Protect Civilians’

Exclusive: The United Nations Security Council authorized NATO’s air campaign in Libya “to protect civilians.” But that rationale has been stretched by President Barack Obama and other NATO leaders to justify a war for “regime change” that actually is putting…

Orange Jumpsuits / Double Standards

Exclusive: The U.S. news media regularly rallies the American public to outrage when a U.S. adversary or some unpopular group is linked to a heinous crime. But a different standard applies to U.S. allies even when there is strong evidence of…

Did Tenet Hide Key 9/11 Info?

Exclusive: With few exceptions like some salacious rumor about the Kennedy family  the mainstream U.S. news media has little interest in historical stories. Such was the case when an ex-White House terrorism official accused a former CIA director of withholding…

The Dangerous Reagan Cult

Exclusive: Ronald Reagan’s anti-government philosophy inspires Tea Party extremists to oppose any revenue increase, even from closing loopholes on corporate jets. Democrats try the spin that “even Reagan” showed flexibility on debt and taxes. But Robert Parry says it is the “Reagan…

The Big Fat GOP Budget Lie

Exclusive: At every turn of the debt-ceiling battle, Republicans repeat the talking point that Washington doesn’t have a “revenue problem,” but a “spending problem” as if saying so makes it true. But the reality is that today’s debt crisis is…

Not Looking in the Mirror

Americans generally see their country as a great moral force in the world and thus reject evidence of U.S. crimes, even when they’re obvious, like George W. Bush’s Iraq invasion or his use of torture. This delusional self-righteousness often leaves the United States at…

Time to Leave Iraq

Arguably, the Iraq War has been headed for defeat from its earliest days, when it became clear the Iraqis would resist a U.S. occupation, but President George W. Bush didn’t want the blame, thus the “surge.” Now, President Barack Obama…

Putting Torturers Above the Law

In another example of how Democrats deal timidly with Republican crimes, the Obama administration has closed the book on the vast majority of George W. Bush’s torture scandals, including high-level approval of waterboarding and other forms of physical coercion. Only two…