(German citizen Khaled El-Masri who was a victim of mistaken identity and kidnapped and ‘rendered’ by American intelligent agents to a foreign secret interrrogation and detention center) TWN had a productive adventure in London, where I had been asked to give a talk and then invited to participate in meetings with a number of Arab…
The Washington Note just arrived in London a short while ago and will be connecting with Al Jazeera London Bureau Chief and senior terrorism investigative correspondent Yosri Fouda tonight.
My colleagues Nir Rosen and Peter Bergen — both fellows in foreign policy at the New America Foundation (where I also work) — are leading American interpreters and chroniclers of the world’s two most dangerous and intriguing personalities — Osama bin Laden in Bergen’s case and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Rosen’s.
Though he has low favorability ratings and an increasingly large chorus of critics, President Bush has established a template for bold and decisive executive power that seems monarchially ill-disposed to the checks-and-balances of a healthy democracy.
TWN has just been sent some very interesting material posted at OutragedModerates.org. A blogger’s FOIA request has yielded Steven Cambone’s handwritten notes of Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld’s instructions to General Myers at 2:40 pm on September 11, 2001. Some of the lines are fascinating: “Go massive. . .Sweep it all up.
I had to pause between a set of non-stop meetings today after briefly seeing an email from the Council on Foreign Relations highlighting Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s complaint about the “globally hostile media environment.” He lamented that today’s terrorist arsenal includes “e-mail, Blackberries, instant messaging, digital cameras and Web logs, or blogs.
I’ve seen Mary Matalin in a photo on the cover of the Washington Post walking with Cheney the day after news hit that the Vice President shot his hunting acquaintance. Matalin’s even been out in the press taking a few shots for Cheney. Karl Rove is in the Cheney shooting stories.
In my view, the law says “No”. . .but I have little doubt Alberto Gonzales and his minions will construct a rationale that says otherwise. But I have run across some interesting information — and have some questions that we should all pose to those at the helm in the White House.
First of all, congratulations to Fox News’ Brit Hume on this super, hard-hitting, ground-breaking interview with Vice President Cheney (not). Just for fun, imagine Hume interviewing Al Gore if Gore had shot someone and hidden the news for a day — and stuck in the material that he could unilaterally declassify information.
I’ve been totally socked in because of a line of non-stop meetings, but big stuff is up. Cheney talks about his shooting shame. However, More Abu Ghraib photos punctuate our national shame. In its exclusive interview with Cheney on the hungting accident, Fox News should have asked Cheney what torture looks like to him.
