I caught a little of Night Talk last night. In the first segment, prior to a surprisingly entertaining taped interview with Peter Tork of the Monkees, Pintek interviewed Ron Kessler, author of the new book The Terrorist Watch.
Kessler described the 8-month long interrogation/debriefing of the captured Saddam Hussein by FBI special agent George Piro and this, Pintek fans, is where the fun began.
Kessler said that Saddam admitted to Piro that he had no WMD before the 2003 invasion. He faked having the weapons because he wanted Iran to think he had them.
At that point, if you looked hard enough, you would've seen Pintek's brain going into overdrive (what-do I-do-now-what-do I-do-now-what-do I-do-now?). Dancing quickly, he was able to establish that Saddam must've had lied to absolutely everyone about the non-existent WMD. And then by a few short steps of conservative illogic, he was able to imply that the Bush administration was merely wrong (that is, not dishonest) about Saddam's WMD - carefully letting George W. Bush off the hook for lying to us about Saddam's WMD.
Nice try, Mike. Didn't work and it made you look desperate, but a nice try nonetheless.
Here's Kessler in his own words. From Newsmax.com:
It's a mystery to me why Newsmax is allowing this on its site. But that is neither here nor there.Saddam confided to Piro why he had no weapons of mass destruction but pretended he did. Saddam said that because of the war of attrition he had with Iran, Iran always remained a threat to him. And if Iran thought he had serious WMD, it would be reluctant to engage him again. On the other hand, if he said he had them, Iran would never listen. But if the U.S. said that he had them, Iran would believe it.
So every time inspectors came, Saddam gave them the runaround, reinforcing for Iran’s consumption the notion that he had WMD. And that explains why, if there were no WMD, he acted as if he did have them.
The point is, here's an FBI agent telling a experinced author who's written a number of books on the US intelligence services (the CIA, FBI and so on) as well as a book called "A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush" that one of the main reasons for the war in Iraq is wrong.
And Pintek spun it the best he could - into Dubya's incompetence.
Good going Mike. Yer doin a hekuva job.
Of all my philosophy classes in college, the one most relevant to this concept is when we reviewed Hobbes and his concept of a state of nature. His state of nature was pure war and chaos because everyone was acting on pre emptive notioned to avoid others from attacking them first. The whole WMD theory, and striking them so they do not strike us, will elad us down the exact road Hobbes warned against. I understand the need for security, but there has to be other methods.
ReplyDeleteMy Best,
Mike Grant
www.yawzer.com – where people give and get career info
Fascinating stuff. I especially like the part about Saddam using the United States and the UN as pawns to support the notion that he had WMD when he did not. I've always thought that his WMD story was as much for Iranian consumption as for our own. But I hadn't considered that he was very shrewdly playing the US and the UN so that we could confirm his story and the Iranians would buy it.
ReplyDeletePretty damn cunning, really. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!
Guys, you have just made the case that Bush DIDN’T lie. In the United States if you sell your neighbor a bag of oregano and tell him it is marijuana, you are going to prison for selling recreational drugs. You tell a flight attendant that you have a bomb, you will go to prison as a hijacker (even if you don’t have a bomb), and if you tell a bank teller you have a gun (even when you don’t) you will be charged with armed robbery. Saddam in his attempt to be something more than a petty venal dictator got himself, his family, and a whole bunch of other people killed, justifiably under United States and World law. That he confessed to striving to make it appear that he had WMD’s completely exonerates the Bush administration in their rush to war. If you guys are really interested in replacing Law and Order with Truth and Justice I am with you, but think about what it will mean, especially in light of the lies, distortions, and fabrications you delight in perpetuating.
ReplyDeleteJohn K. says: Saw same interview did not see Mike Pintek exhibit any of the features you just described. You are lying to support your agenda. By the way, Murtha now says the surge is working. LOL LOL LMAO I win again!
ReplyDeleteIf I were going to post a load of poppycock like that, I'd want to be anonymous, too.
ReplyDeleteIn the first place, I'd need a bunch of convincing before I'd belive that a person can be convicted of dealing for selling oregano as dope -- although I can't see what this has do with anything else except to emphasize the inanity of the post. The other two examples are correct, but also completely beside the point.
More to the point: The CIA was very busy telling the administration that the whole WMD thing was questionable. Is anyone going to believe that Bush took the word of Saddam over his own professional intelligence agency? Yeah, sure he did.
I guess while he was at it, Saddam told Rumsfeld where the alleged weapons were hidden, since ol' Donny claimed publicly that we even knew where they were. And Cheney claimed there was "no doubt" that Saddam had WMDs.
Don't kid yourself or try to kid us -- it was all lies. These are the kind of people who lie when they don't even have to lie. It's their MO.
Thanks, John, for giving me the excuse to post this. Murtha said:
ReplyDelete"I think the surge is working but that's only one element. It's working because of the increase in troops but the thing that has to happen is that the Iraqis have to do this themselves..." and Bush's government in Iraq is dysfunctional.
"I keep stressing we can no longer afford to spend 14 billion a month on the war and let our readiness slip in other parts of the country."
So you (actually it was probably Glenn Beck) took four words out of context that completely distorted what Murtha said. You lose again. Sad for you. Fun for us.
John Schmuck/K, are you talking to yourself again?
ReplyDeleteFiendishly clever...
John Schmuck/K, are you talking to yourself again? Fiendishly clever...
ReplyDelete... and he would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!
John K. says: So a book was written that explains why the war is going wrong and it is all the fault of Bush? Was this book written before or after Murtha endorsed the surge and said it worked? You lefties need to get on board quick. We have an election coming and you don't want to be on the side of the Bin laden (D-Pakistan). LMAO I am the man!
ReplyDeleteX and Admiral: I am particularly proud of my last post as John K. I have a knack for completely ignoring the facts, even when I point them out to myself!
ReplyDeleteCan we just accept that getting rid of Saddam was absolutely necessary? Yes, the war was poorly planned, but Saddam was a genocidal maniac and the world is better off without him. Not to mention, he armed and supported terrorists in the Palestinian terrorists. Since his removal, suicide bombings have fallen in Israel. If you want to see just how evil he was, visit my blog, www.excerciseyourright.blogspot.com. I bring it up all the time.
ReplyDeleteCan we just accept that getting rid of Saddam was absolutely necessary?
ReplyDeleteNo.