Think Progress

Michael Ledeen, another prominent neoconservative

By Judd Legum on Nov 5th, 2006 at 6:12 pm

Michael Ledeen, another prominent neoconservative

quoted in the Vanity Fair article, now claims he “opposed the military invasion of Iraq before it took place.” He’s lying. More here.

Comments
71

71 Responses to “Michael Ledeen, another prominent neoconservative”

CoffinsDrapedWithFlags says:

He was for it before he was against. Just can’t trust those neocons. They are constantly flip-flopping. I bet they would sell their own kin to save their dirty butts.
November 5th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Zooey says:

Mr Ledeen, it’s my duty to inform you — your pants are on fire.

-The Great Jon Stewart
November 5th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
bye bye GOP says:

James Wolcott ought to love that flip-flop. Do these people do anythingbut lie?
November 5th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Jay Randal says:

I thought Ledeen was a Neocon? Him and Perle are just trying to cover-up their involvement in the Iraq fiasco, but the still want war on Iran, so they are two-faced jerks!
November 5th, 2006 at 6:27 pm
Jay Randal says:

I thought Ledeen was a Neocon? Him and Perle are just trying to cover-up their involvement in the Iraq fiasco, but they still want war on Iran, so they are two-faced jerks!
November 5th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
klyde says:

Leeden knows that the bush worshippers and our military industrial complex centirc media can be sold anything even this lie.
November 5th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
s says:

Check out Glenn Greenwald’s blog on this….excelllent take on Leeden
November 5th, 2006 at 6:34 pm
Cheney/Voldemort 2008 Campaign HQ says:

All you neocon bastards thought your shit didn’t stink.

Well, compared with the rest of you, your insane opinions, and your ridiculous world domination through bullshit theories, of course it doesn’t!
November 5th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
Jay Randal says:

Sen. Joe Biden wanted to harm his fellow Democrats, like Sen Kerry did the other day saying something dumb, so Joe said “a special place in Hell awaits Saddam” > Joe and John: Can you two idiots keep your mouths shut until Wednesday? Please try or go out yourselves as Gay!
November 5th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
RealityCheck says:

Poor Michael Ledeen. His reputation in history was already trashed. Now, by trying to re-write it, he’s only thrown more garbage in on top of it.

Another person whose only reason to exist is as a cautionary tale for the rest of us – an example of who not to be and what not to do.

R.I.P.
November 5th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
pot laced banana says:

yeah, if it weren’t for Bush listening to all those women who love him, we would have gone into Iran, too, and then the strategy would have worked… right Michael?
November 5th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Dog_named_Boo says:

In 2003, the Washington Post alleged that he was consulted by Karl Rove, George W. Bush’s closest advisor, as his main international affairs adviser.

huh.

I do not feel “remorseful,” since I had and have no involvement with our Iraq policy.

Yah, and AEI is not the Cadillac of Government Panels and Boards
November 5th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Marie says:

What – Do these lying rats think their previous statements and comments are not on record? In their rush to jump ship their lies are more bold and outrageous than ever.
Ledeen, Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, Kristol have already distanced themselves from their past, and in the weeks to come, there will be no one left on Bush’s sinking ship but Cheney.
November 5th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Marie says:

Is there a single one of them who is not a lying Sack of Sh**?
November 5th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
muzzle toff says:

As I read this article and check iinto Mr Ledeen’s history,Rove’s name comes up alot. I’m thinking that this story and others(Perle,Pelossi)
are intended to clog up the news cycle,fill the space that might be used to talk about the election and real issues. Expect more tfor the next 2 days.
Sure they are all liars,that’s the thing they’re good at. I think they’ve begun lying just to take up airtime/print space.
November 5th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Hemlock for Gadflies says:

At the “more here” link, I posted some of Ledeen’s greatest oppositions to the invasion of Iraq.

My favorite is his quite unambiguous opposition to the ideas of ousting Saddam published in the American Spectator for Feburary 1992 —

“Because unless we remove Saddam, a frightening time bomb will tick away in Baghdad.”

Michael Ledeen — there’s a man you can trust.
November 5th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
NewNameAcquired says:

There seem to be three kinds of Republicans:

1) The kind that have no understanding of ‘recording,’ be it video, audio, or on paper.

2) The kind who beleive that as long as they claim one thing, the people around them will just believe them, without fact checking.

3) The kind who are at the point of fooling even themselves into believing the lies they spit out.
November 5th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
Badmoodman says:

Let’s not call Ledeen a liar until after Nov. 7th, cuz technically we weren’t supposed to have this info ’til then.
November 5th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Zooey says:

Letâ€™s not call Ledeen a liar until after Nov. 7th, cuz technically we werenâ€™t supposed to have this info â€™til then.
Comment by Badmoodman

Laughed out loud at that one!
November 5th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Clif says:

The real problem with all the neo-con revision that is going on at this point is not the fact that they were wrong. We always knew that.

In fact tens of millions of people knew in 2003 before the war, the neo-cons just would not listen. The real problem is that they are trying to resurrect their reputations, for next time.

Well if they really want to resurrect their reputations, I would suggest they start with all the DEAD. Try explaining how their asking forgiveness for their mistake is justified with all those humans who no longer walk among us. Then explain to the tens of thousands who still do, but horribly wounded, maimed and disfigured will carry their scars and nightmares for the rest of their lives. How do they expect to just say they had an intellectual brainfart, and expect to WALK away from the inferno on earth they created?

It does give a small amount of satisfaction that they can admit they did not have it right, but with all the death and destruction they wrought with their arrogance and dishonesty, they need to DO much more than say they were mistaken to have trusted Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. After all their devious work behind the scene to fix the Intel and stifle the opposition enabled the very people they now decry for failing. They never saw the inept planning or delusional expectations in 2003? They never considered the Iraqiâ€™s would not act on script, but might have other ideas once the balloon went up. They never considered what could happen if their plans went a little wrong let alone A LOT WRONG.

They need to find some way to undo the damage they have done. To this country, it’s military, people and budget. Undo the damage they have wrought in the Middle East, and its people. Undo the damage so many families in Iraq, Lebanon, and the USA will carry for the rest of their lives.

The rest of humanity will move on after the war is over but to the families who lost a loved one the war is NEVER over. To most of us it will be a very bad memory of a time when a child pretending to be an adult was used by some very greedy and arrogant people to try and grab a nation for their benefit. But to those who will have to live with the loss of their loved ones it will become an empty hole which can NEVER get filled. Children with out a parent, wives and husbands left alone, parents who bury a child far too soon.

No Mr. Perle, Mr Ledeen, ET Al you should not get off as easy as you try with your revisionist history in Vanity Fair, crimes of the soul DEMAND penitence, and you all have a lot of penitence to do.
November 5th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
unbelievable says:

He doesn’t know that we can read, does he?

Sheesh.
November 5th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
james risser says:

from 3.23.03….

For months Americans have been told that the United States is going to war against Iraq in order to disarm Saddam Hussein, remove him from power, eliminate Iraq’s alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, and prevent Baghdad from blackmailing its neighbors or aiding terrorist groups. But the Bush administration’s hawks, especially the neoconservatives who provide the driving force for war, see the conflict with Iraq as much more than that. It is a signal event, designed to create cataclysmic shock waves throughout the region and around the world, ushering in a new era of American imperial power.

It is also likely to bring the United States into conflict with several states in the Middle East. Those who think that U.S. armed forces can complete a tidy war in Iraq, without the battle spreading beyond Iraq’s borders, are likely to be mistaken.

“I think we’re going to be obliged to fight a regional war, whether we want to or not,” says Michael Ledeen, a former U.S. national-security official and a key strategist among the ascendant flock of neoconservative hawks, many of whom have taken up perches inside the U.S. government.

Asserting that the war against Iraq can’t be contained, Ledeen says that the very logic of the global war on terrorism will drive the United States to confront an expanding network of enemies in the region. “As soon as we land in Iraq, we’re going to face the whole terrorist network,” he says, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and a collection of militant splinter groups backed by nations — Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia — that he calls “the terror masters.”

“It may turn out to be a war to remake the world,” says Ledeen.

10.16.2003

But until yesterday, it was hard to find a supporter of the war who explained America’s failure to find weapons of mass destruction by suggesting that the CIA is intentionally botching the search.

“They were never willing to look,” Mr. Ledeen told The New York Sun. “They don’t want to find this stuff. It’ll drive policy in the direction that they don’t want.”

A CIA spokesman disputed that. “We aggressively pursue all legitimate leads on weapons of mass destruction issues,” said the spokesman, Bill Harlow. But he added that the CIA had no interest in meeting with one of the people providing the information to Mr. Ledeen, Manucher Ghorbanifar.

“He long ago was proven to be a fabricator and someone who sought to peddle false information for financial gain,” Mr. Harlow said.

November 5th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
EconAtheist says:

#14 -

Nobody has been able to find one. I’d have to go with “no” on that.
November 5th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
Zooey says:

j,

I think Mr Ledeen’s toes must be getting a little hot, being so close to that fire…
November 5th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
WaltTheMan says:

#23 – james risser,
I would guess that you and are on the same wavelength I was a Radio Engineer in one of my prior lives.
November 5th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
WaltTheMan says:

Oop’s, my #22 went into the bit bucket!
November 5th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
RUCerious says:

Ledeen must have a difficult time typing, as his Pinnocciose is about 18″ long. ;}
November 5th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
james risser says:

4.9.03

/one has to love the first paragraph/

With the events in Iraq storming toward a conclusion, the Bush administration is contemplating its next step in reshaping the political map of the Middle East.

Advisers are urging President Bush to use diplomatic and, if necessary, military might to bring democracy into a region where it is little more than a theory. With Saddam Hussein out of the picture and Baghdad in hand, they argue that Iran and Syria should not be far behind.

The enunciation last year of the “Bush Doctrine,” which dedicates the United States to act in pre-emptive fashion if it fears national security is imperiled, provides sufficient cover, these advisers insist, to usurp regimes, like those in Damascus and Tehran, that endanger American interests.

“This is a battle in a longer war,” said Michael Ledeen, who was a special adviser to Secretary of State Alexander Haig during the Reagan administration. “Iraq is not the war. And the war is a regional war and we cannot be successful in Iraq if we only do Iraq alone. And I think that the terror countries bordering Iraq – namely, Iran and Syria – know that.”

November 5th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
james risser says:

hi, z! do you mean the flames of hell, or just the ones coming from the vat of burning babies at the american enterprise instittute?

i don’t get the ‘radio engineer’ reference above…

anyway, this ledeen guy is truly bad news and i am amazed that he is trying to re-write his own history… he would have better luck changing his name and growing a beard…

peace, all.
November 5th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
Zooey says:

hi, z! do you mean the flames of hell, or just the ones coming from the vat of burning babies at the american enterprise instittute?
Comment by james risser

Yes.

:-)
November 5th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Goodscarrier says:

HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 10, 2003

Neo CONNED !

[snip]

Ledeen believes man is basically evil and cannot be left to his own desires. Therefore, he must have proper and strong leadership, just as Machiavelli argued.

Only then can man achieve good, as Ledeen explains: In order to achieve the most noble accomplishments, the leader may have to enter into evil.

This is the chilling insight that has made Machiavelli so feared, admired and challenging we are rotten, argues Ledeen.

Its true that we can achieve greatness if, and only if, we are properly led.

In other words, man is so depraved that individuals are incapable of moral, ethical and spiritual greatness, and achieving excellence and virtue can only come from a powerful authoritarian leader.
November 5th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
james risser says:

//this is my last long quote regarding this gentleman…but, i think it is interesting to the thread… and the entire ‘the lodge’ thing has me personally sharpening my tin-foil conspiracty/skull and bones hat :)

6.14.03 by jim lobe:

Ledeen’s right-wing Italian connections — including alleged ties to the mysterious P-2 Masonic Lodge, whose scandal that rocked Italy in the early 1980s — have long been a source of speculation and intrigue, but he returned to Washington in 1981 as “anti-terrorism” adviser to the new secretary of state, Al Haig. The Lodge, long veiled in secrecy, was said to have had ties to the Italian government, the Mafia, the Vatican and the KGB.

…

In the mid-1980s, when Ledeen was working for the National Security Council, he tangled with the CIA again over his efforts with Israeli spy David Kimche to gain the release of U.S. hostages in Beirut through an Iranian arms dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar, in the opening stages of what would become the Iran-Contra affair.

But Ghorbanifar did not come through. Despite Ledeen’s assessment of the middleman as “one of the most honest, educated, honorable men I have ever known”, he flunked four lie detector tests administered by the CIA, which had long warned that the Iranian “should be regarded as an intelligence fabricator and a nuisance”.

…

Ledeen has been no less prolific in his organizational work. Besides the AEI — where he works with fellow neo-cons Perle, former United Nations Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Joshua Muravchik, and Reuel Marc Gerecht — his main institutional forum over the past 25 years has been the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs (JINSA), a low-profile activist group that promotes the strategic alliance between the United States and Israel.

…

He is also close to key figures in the administration, particularly Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Douglas Feith, whose pro-Likud politics he largely shares; Vice President Dick Cheney’s powerful chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby; and scandal-tarred Elliott Abrams, director for the Near East on the National Security Council. To that list can now apparently be added Rove.

November 5th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
WaltTheMan says:

#29(or whatever new number shows up) – james risser,
The posts are wandering from thread to thread and disappearing like budget surpluses..
November 5th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
Zooey says:

james,

After reading #32, I’m thinking this:

Don Corleone: Someday – and that day may never come – I’ll call upon you to do a service for me….
November 5th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
james risser says:

z z zz…i cannot believe what i am reading at the moment… having adjusted firmly my tin-foil hat, i googled the P-2 Masonic Lodge, and came upon this page…

i suggest you read it immediately! it has everything: jodi foster, hinckley, reagan, bush daddy, neil bush, shooting the frigging pope, and, finally, P-2 near the bottom of the page…

i am tempted to quote liberally from it and cut=and=paste, but, i shan’t…

good stuff, no???

well, just one short one:

Brennecke added that U.S. intelligence agencies provided the P-2 Lodge with funding in the amount of $10 million per month for gun-running, drug-running, and destabilization. In the wake of this telecast, President Francesco Cossiga, the psychologically unstable Italian chief of state, demanded that Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti investigate these charges. Cossiga was indignant that both the U.S. government and George Bush had been accused of these heinous crimes. Andreotti’s investigation was a superficial one and certainly did not disprove any of the charges, leaving the matter hanging.

NEW RULE you can’t have a secret society that is evil without having a bush as a member…
November 5th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
Dog_named_Boo says:

Ledeen believes man is basically evil and cannot be left to his own desires. Therefore, he must have proper and strong leadership, just as Machiavelli argued.

If this is true wouldn’t mankind have destroyed itself long ago?

Me thinks Machiavelli is wacko. The Earth has been orbiting the sun for a very long time. We are going nowhere. We don’t need empires or authoritarians, we need the people of the world to realize that we are only on this merry go round for a short while.
Listening to idiots like Machiavelli and Ledeen solves nothing because war creates more evil!!

Jesus, somedays I feel like I am stuck on a planet where the occupants intentionally repeat the old words and ther old wars and the old religious battle in some kind of cruel screwed up time/space matrix!!
November 5th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
PLEASE VOTE says:

The new Mason/Dixon poll shows the House race tightening. Please get out and vote. We need the house as well.
November 5th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
Goodscarrier says:

American who advised Pentagon says he wrote for magazine that found forged Niger documents
Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: January 17, 2006

A controversial neoconservative who occasionally consulted for the Bush Defense Department has confirmed that he was a contributor to the Italian magazine Panorama, whose reporter first came across forged documents which purported that Iraq was seeking to obtain uranium from Niger.

The bogus documents became the basis for the infamous sixteen words in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union Address, in which he detailed his case for war. Their origin has been one of the most persistent mysteries in how American intelligence on Iraq was so wrong.

[snip]

While most Americans have yet to hear of Ledeen or Panorama, the confirmation of his work with the publication adds yet another dimension to the Niger forgeries scandal and possible U.S. government involvement in pre-war intelligence manipulation.

Ledeen denies that he was involved in the Niger forgeries. He says he has no knowledge of the documents or how they came to be provided to the U.S. government.

“I’ve said repeatedly, I have no involvement of any sort with the Niger story, and I have no knowledge of it aside from what has appeared in the press,” Ledeen said in an email. “I have not discussed it with any government person in any country.”

But Ledeen confirmed that he wrote for Panorama and worked with the publication’s Editor-in-Chief, Carlo Rossella.

“I have no current relationship with Panorama,” Ledeen said. “For a year or two I wrote an occasional column for Panorama, I would guess on average twice a month.”

“That ended when the editor, Carlo Rossella, became a TV star,” he added.

A closer look at the series of overlapping relationships and events, however, suggests that Ledeen may have been connected, even if inadvertently, to the Niger forgeries.
November 5th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
trueblue says:

Hey Goods,
Ready to apologize to Zooey yet?

‘Cause you’ll pretty much be persona non grata around here until you do.

Why?
Because we’ll keep bringing it up…….
November 5th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Zooey says:

j,

That’s some bizarre shit. I’m gonna get me one of those tin foil hats…
November 5th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
james risser says:

well, that is interesting about the niger stuff, goodscarrier, especially since on 10.15.03 ledeen was saying that ‘that $150 million in enriched uranium was smuggled from Iraq into Iran five years ago and some may remain hidden in Iraq.’

in his blood-lust to attack iran *first* he was telling the bushies that iraq had shipped the stuff to iran; but, then when bush decided to occupy iraq *first*, is it possible that ledeen had to come up with a NEW lie and say it was going from niger to iraq.

also, if ledeen was not lying in 2003, why didn’t bush just say ‘iraq is exporting uranium to its neighbors…’ instead of telling a second lie about niger????

oh well. i think i am boring the people here and i don’t want to ‘take over this thread’

i’ll shut up now…
November 5th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Dog_named_Boo says:

Ledeen also came up with a theory that France and Germany teamed up with the extremist Arabs and the radical Islamacists to keep America from becoming an Empire.
November 5th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
james risser says:

hi, trueblue,

i didn’t know about the non grata status…no one should do anything ‘apologable’ to zooey…that’s a fact!
November 5th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
Dog_named_Boo says:

A closer look at the series of overlapping relationships and events, however, suggests that Ledeen may have been connected, even if inadvertently, to the Niger forgeries.

Comment by Goodscarrier

Even if he was, they would sweep it under the rug and give him a medal of freedom
November 5th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
RUCerious says:

James R – keep up the blogging. It’s informative, and your attitude is commendable. Thanks for thinking about hogging the post, it shows you are at least polite!~
Cheers, let’s get out the vote…
November 5th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Zooey says:

true,

Oy, ihk fli krank…
November 5th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
trueblue says:

Hi James!
Nice to have you back.
Did I spell it wrong to “Goods”
I’m typing by screen light, so I may have misspelled.
Fact is, he (she?) was very disrespecful to our Zooey the other night.

I just want to make sure it gets resolved – apologize, that is, before anything else happens.
November 5th, 2006 at 11:20 pm
james risser says:

if ledeen had the italians ‘leak’ the niger fake documents, and knew about the sale of uranium in 1998 from iraq to iran, the question becomes why did bush want to bring niger into the equation at all?

a possible answer would be that daddy bush ‘okayed’ the sale of the uranium from iraq to iran as part of iran-contra, and the son wanted to protect the father by creating this NEW source of uranium???

++++++

oh, this is slightly off thread, but did everyone here know that the usa is transferring about thirty pounds of uranium to canada???

any idea what that is about?
November 5th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
trueblue says:

true,

Oy, ihk fli krankâ€¦

Comment by Zooey â€” November 5, 2006 @ 11:19 pm

Huh?
November 5th, 2006 at 11:24 pm
Dog_named_Boo says:

oh, this is slightly off thread, but did everyone here know that the usa is transferring about thirty pounds of uranium to canada???

any idea what that is about?

Comment by james risser

November 5th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
Yenta says:

true,

She says, “Oy, I feel sick.”

It’s a new day! Bygones…
November 5th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
Dog_named_Boo says:

maybe this James..[speculating]

To assist the U.S., Russia, and
Canada in considering this option the three countries are jointly conducting an experiment which will
involve irradiating MOX fuel pins that have been fabricated from U.S. and Russian surplus weapons
plutonium in a Canadian research reactor.â€
In June 2000 the United States and Russia issued a press release on their agreement to dispose of a total
of 68 metric tons (tonne) of surplus weapons plutonium (See Appendix 2). The United States intends to
use 25.5 tons as fuel and to immobilize 8.5 tons; the Russian Federation intends to use 34 tons as fuel.
Monitoring of the disposition by each party is part of the agreement.

November 5th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
Rover Rove says:

NEW RULE you canâ€™t have a secret society that is evil without having a bush as a memberâ€¦

Comment by james risser

I thought I saw Barney at the last Skull and Milk-Bones meeting . . .
November 5th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
wisedup says:

LeDeen,you get LIER OF THE DAY!….beating out falwell with “Ted Who”?
November 5th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
james risser says:

DnB,

so, they throw a whole bunch of old nukes in a bowl, mix in some enriched uranium, and out comes plutonium that can used to fuel reactors? cool…

‘duck and cover…duck and cover’…
November 5th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
james risser says:

wisedup, did you happen to catch this attack at jerry ‘ted who’ falwell:

Americans United for Separation of Church and State issued the following statement regarding today’s revelations about the conduct of the Rev. Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

“It’s been a really tough year for the Religious Right,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “Their great moral champion Tom DeLay left Congress in disgrace. Their ‘family values’ allies in the House were caught covering up the Mark Foley scandal. Then they learned that Karl Rove’s office thinks they’re nuts. And, now, one of their most influential leaders is mired in scandal.

“It’s interesting to see that Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are abandoning the sinking ship of their erstwhile colleague by trying to minimize his stature. In fact, Haggard represented far more people than both of those two combined.

“It looks as though Religious Right leaders ought to focus on their own family before they try to fix everybody else’s.”

November 6th, 2006 at 12:04 am
Dog_named_Boo says:

DnB,

so, they throw a whole bunch of old nukes in a bowl, mix in some enriched uranium, and out comes plutonium that can used to fuel reactors? coolâ€¦

Naw, the highly enriched uranium is used to create MOX pellets that you can pick up (PU oxide 3%) thats used in the CANDU reactors.

The only other use I can think of is medical Isotopes;

applications for export of highly enriched uranium â€“ for use as fuel in Belgiumâ€™s BR-2 reactor (XSNM-03427, Federal
Register, December 29, 2005), and as targets for the production of medical isotopes in Canadaâ€™s NRU reactor (XSNM-03404, Federal Register, June 28, 2005).

http://www.nci.org/06nci/02/13/NRC-HEU-export-licenses-2006-Feb-Final.pdf.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:04 am
Dog_named_Boo says:

â€œIt looks as though Religious Right leaders ought to focus on their own family before they try to fix everybody elseâ€™s.â€

Comment by james risser

Lay? I don’t know any Ken Lay….
November 6th, 2006 at 12:07 am
jurassicpork says:

Paul Krugman writes about the elections the day after tomorrow.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:12 am
Dog_named_Boo says:

â€œItâ€™s been a really tough year for the Religious Right,â€ said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. â€œTheir great moral champion Tom DeLay left Congress in disgrace. Their â€˜family valuesâ€™ allies in the House were caught covering up the Mark Foley scandal. Then they learned that Karl Roveâ€™s office thinks theyâ€™re nuts. And, now, one of their most influential leaders is mired in scandal.

[singin]
Tempted by the fruit of another!
Tempted but the fruit was discovered!
November 6th, 2006 at 12:13 am
Briseadh na Faire says:

REALITY CHECK

Bush has just shown that someone can be sentenced to be hanged for ordering the death of 148 people. AND his cohorts can be sentenced to be hanged as well!

Bush’s War has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. If he and his cohorts were held to the same standard as Saddam Hussein, they would all face the gallows.

Now does it make sense that the war hawks are squawking a different tune?

I continue to pray that those who know of the crimes of this Administration continue to come forward with evidence and testimony of wrongdoing.
November 6th, 2006 at 1:17 am
Briseadh na Faire says:

DognamedBoo

I would recommend against picking up any MOX pellets. When I was on the international law competition team a couple of years ago the problem dealt with a shipwrecked shipment of MOX. Ugly stuff.
November 6th, 2006 at 1:25 am
pnac says:

More quotes

â€œStability is an unworthy American mission, and a misleading concept to boot. We do not want stability in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and even Saudi Arabia; we want things to change. The real issue is not whether, but how to destabilize.â€ [Wall Street Journal, 9/4/2002]

â€œNo stages. This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq … this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we donâ€™t try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war … our children will sing great songs about us years from now.â€

Through http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/ (use the search)
November 6th, 2006 at 1:51 am
Dumb_Fox says:

This is too funny. Here’s Michael Ledeen in 2002:

http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen080602a.asp

[...] So it’s good news when Scowcroft comes out against the desperately-needed and long overdue war against Saddam Hussein and the rest of the terror masters. As usual, Scowcroft has it backwards: He’s still pushing Saudi Arabia’s Prince Abdullah’s line that you’ve just got to deal with the Palestinian question. Blessedly, President Bush knows by now that the Palestinian question can only be addressed effectively once the war against Saddam and his ilk has been won. And then Scowcroft says “Saddam is a problem, but he’s not a problem because of terrorism.”

[...] Scowcroft has managed to get one thing half right, even though he misdescribes it. He fears that if we attack Iraq “I think we could have an explosion in the Middle East. It could turn the whole region into a caldron and destroy the War on Terror.”

One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today.

Mike Ledeen, screwed by the truth.
November 6th, 2006 at 8:46 am
aguafiero says:

From the last paragraph of post #64…. the words of Leeden……..
“Cauldronized”……..????
There’s a scary word perhaps we can bring into more common usage; to describe the overall state of right wing neo-con thinking…
November 6th, 2006 at 8:56 am
goodscarrier says:

#39, trueblue: Hey Goods, Ready to apologize to Zooey yet? â€˜Cause youâ€™ll pretty much be persona non grata around here until you do. Why? Because weâ€™ll keep bringing it upâ€¦â€¦.

trueblue,

I could not care at all whether or not I am a persona non grata around here.

You people mean absolutely nothing to me: I have friends, loved ones, etc outside the virtual world.

You guys act like being included into the fold is a real honor.

Why you would think I would I care what you think is really weird, and perhaps even treatable with psychiatric medicine.

Clearly, your suffering from a serious case of overt self-importance.

Bring up my lack of an apology all you want. Waste your time and energy even more than you already are: I don’t care. ROTFLAMOL!!

I do not owe Zooey an apology.

As Juan C noted, I was not attacking Zooey.

Just bc she sits around and chats personally on TP day after day, it does not mean her words which are occasionaly on topic are beyond scrutiny and unworthy of questioning.

Responding to post is part of the process.

If you do not like it, too bad.

REMEMBER: I do not care what you think.

In closing, good luck with your posts. I hope we find some common ground at some point.
November 6th, 2006 at 11:55 am
goodscarrier says:

#47, trueblue: Did I spell it wrong to â€œGoodsâ€ Iâ€™m typing by screen light, so I may have misspelled. Fact is, he (she?) was very disrespecful to our Zooey the other night. I just want to make sure it gets resolved – apologize, that is, before anything else happens.

Again, trueblue, I do not care at all what you think, and would sure as hell not act upon what you think.

Disrepectful?

Again, what Zooey posts is not beyond scrutiny or questioning just bc she has spent an exorbitant amount of time on TP.

Perhaps Zooey should moderate her own blog. She and fold could control all what is posted. For a model, I’d suggest study the Bush presidency. They are great at eliminating questions, controlling situations, etc.

Perhaps you should unplug for a bit too?

Perhaps you are merging with the machine and the web?

Perhaps you should go dig a hole, smell the earth, and ground yourself?

I am done with you trueblue.

Good luck to you!

I mean that.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Jeanne says:

Not only is Ledeen lying but his family profitted on the war. Guttless and evil human being.

http://www.doublestandards.org/giraldi1.html

Whole article is telling but here’s
One paragraph…

Some of the corruption grew out of the misguided neoconservative agenda for Iraq, which meant that a serious reconstruction effort came second to doling out the spoils to the warâ€™s most fervent supporters. The CPA brought in scores of bright, young true believers who were nearly universally unqualified. Many were recruited through the Heritage Foundation website, where they had posted their rÃ©sumÃ©s. They were paid six-figure salaries out of Iraqi funds, and most served in 90-day rotations before returning home with their war stories. One such volunteer was Simone Ledeen, daughter of leading neoconservative Michael Ledeen. Unable to communicate in Arabic and with no relevant experience or appropriate educational training, she nevertheless became a senior advisor for northern Iraq at the Ministry of Finance in Baghdad. Another was former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischerâ€™s older brother Michael who, though utterly unqualified, was named director of private-sector development for all of Iraq.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
goodscarrier says:

#68, Jeanne: Not only is Ledeen lying but his family profitted on the war

In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime
Managing a $13 Billion Budget With No Experience
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 23, 2004; Page A01
November 6th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
devin says:

Michael Ledeen is a MAJOR LIAR. It is so typical for these spineless neocons to be quoted making these ‘after the fact’ debacle in Iraq statements, NOW that they are ALL GOING UNDER-one way or another!
November 6th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
JPark says:

Goods, shut the hell up already. Better yet, grow a personality.
November 6th, 2006 at 9:17 pm

Michael Ledeen, another prominent neoconservative

Michael Ledeen, another prominent neoconservative

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