Gates called for direct talks with Iran.
Gates called for direct talks with Iran.
President Bush has nominated former CIA Director Robert Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld. WSJ reports, “In the summer of 2004, Gates and former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski co-chaired a task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations that argued for opening a dialogue with Iran. The task force’s report ["Iran: Time for a New Approach"] contended that the lack of American engagement with Iran had harmed American interests, and advocated direct talks with the Iranians.”
UPDATE: The Federation of American Scientists notes Gates’ Iran/Contra ties: “Owing to his senior status in the CIA, Gates was close to many figures who played significant roles in the Iran/contra affair and was in a position to have known of their activities.”
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Never trust a former GOP affiliated CIA director! They tend to like covert military operations, so unwise for Senate to confirm him, but Joe Lieberman will claim he is the best man for the job, just like he said for Michael Brown running FEMA > lol.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:05 pmSo many “new” ideas suddenly from the “stay the course” administration.
Only goes to show how OFF TRACK they’ve been for some time now.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:06 pmWell, we’ll just see how long he keeps that job with this kind of talk.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:07 pmTime for a new approach…
The one that occasionally dips its toes into reality?
Time to act like professionals now, 6 years later?
Time to be competent now, 6 years later?
Time for an adult to have the job, 6 years later?
Time to get over yourself, 6 years later?
Time to have some humility, 6 years later?
F*cking morons.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:08 pmLooks like that good ol’ talking-it-out-thing might still be the best route to deal with “evil doers”.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:09 pm….Condi rising…..
November 8th, 2006 at 3:10 pmAccording to an interview I just read, Zbigniew and Casey were instrumental in arming the Afghanis, to draw the Soviet Union into a “Vietnam-like” conflict. I wonder if the Iranians think Zbig’s an honest actor on this issue.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:12 pmJust so you know the last time the CIA ran the US military the “Bay of Pigs fiasco” took place! Remember that silly invasion of Cuba, that went badly, so Gates could do a fiasco invasion of Iran! Best for him NOT to be confirmed, but like I said Joe Lieberman will vote for him!
November 8th, 2006 at 3:13 pmOf course he wants to talk to Iran! Their his old buddies back in the Iran – Contra days. Maybe he can get Iran to let Osama out in public so Bush can kill him and be a hero again. Of course we still get Iraq’s oil…. But hey, we won!
Peace!
November 8th, 2006 at 3:15 pmDoes Bush know that Gates wants open communication/dialogue/talks with Iran? Bush may be withdrawing his name later on today.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:15 pmGates mmmm why does that name sound familiar?
http://billmon.org/archives/002945.html
November 8th, 2006 at 3:15 pmIsn’t direct talks a Dem idea?
November 8th, 2006 at 3:15 pmThe latest Christian butcher
So another Christian terrorist steps up to replace the previous mass murdering Christian butcher. And this monster wants to reiterate his Christanic threats against another innocent country — a country that _NEEDS_ nuclear weapons to defend themselves against Christian terrorists.
Amazing.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:16 pmI am gonna speculate Rummy wants to resign more than Bush want’s him to be replaced.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:16 pmBush Snr has taken over. Shrub can go play with Barney for the next two years because Poppy’s not gonna let him or his bunch Neocon tools make another meaningful policy decision.
And its fair to say that the Dems should take a lot of credit for ensuring that, finally, America is adapting to win.
Take a bow Jack Murtha. You led the way.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:20 pmThe problem with naming yourself after a particular emotional state, is that you have to always be in that emotional state, or you are not genuine.
What do you think Happy Guy? Still happy today?
November 8th, 2006 at 3:23 pmWhat about this comment?
> With Republican Sen. Conrad Burns’ loss in Montana, the Democrats
> would gain control of the Senate if Webb’s lead holds.
I had thought that the number of Senate seats were split evenly now and that an even split was the newly established state. Isn’t it 48 seats to 48 seats?
November 8th, 2006 at 3:25 pmNot surprising from a guy who was embroiled in the Iran/Contra affair.
He likes talking to Iran.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:26 pmThe latest Christian butcher
So another Christian terrorist steps up to replace the previous mass murdering Christian butcher.
What has the senile madman ever said or done that makes you call him a Xtian?
Gotta love Nice Polite Republicans, Neil Cohen vigorously defending the shrubs lies
November 8th, 2006 at 3:27 pmBush is announcing Gates and in his opening remarks, he again conflates 9/11 with the war in Iraq.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:31 pmRumsfeld probably did want to resign more than Bush wanted him to, but this is the first time he accepted. It’s almost as if politics were more important to him than the good of the troops!
November 8th, 2006 at 3:37 pmI think Gates will be confirmed easily, because people know that if he doesn’t get it Bush will insist on Harriet Meyers.
Rice the Senate stands at 49 Democrats and 49 Republicans and 2 Independents. Bernie Sanders will vote with Democrats, but Joe Lieberman is the wild card who could become a full fledged Repub to undue Dem control of the Senate. Stay tuned to see what Joe does!
November 8th, 2006 at 3:40 pmGates’ nemisis Daniel Ortega was elected president of Nicaragua on Monday. You may remember Ortega as the Sandinista leader who fought off the Contras in a long bloody “civil war†in large part engineered by … Oliver North, William Casey and deputy CIA director Robert M. Gates, among others. North, a convicted felon and official fall guy for Iran-Contra, was in Nicaragua last week campaigning against Ortega.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:43 pmLast night before the returns started coming inI told my wife that Election Day 2006 could be the beginning of the end of the Iraq War. I think that’s been borne out.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:43 pmGates would never have been appointed were he not “on the team”. Only hayseeds are going to believe that this change represents any meaningful reconsideration of things. Gates is Reaganaut lickspittle, which is not a step up from Nixon lickspittle.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:47 pmIf Democrats rush to confirm Gates, then they might get burned because Robert is not a dove of peace! He believes in nasty covert operations, like the Iran-Contra deal that went badly! Gates is known to be reckless, so best he NOT be confirmed, but Lieberman will vote for him!
November 8th, 2006 at 3:47 pmThanks, Jay
I was wondering why various news articles are claiming that there is still one seat up for grabs.
Lieberman is the clown — bet you he’ll vote 100% Republiscum from now on, just for spite.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:48 pmRice > Lieberman is the wild card now! He might try to blackmail Sen. Harry Reid or he might flat out join the Republicans or he could just be a daily asshole. Virginia race eventually will go to the Democrat, because Allen is a vile bigot. That is why I already list the seat as part of the 49 for Democrats.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:55 pmDear Exley, please post your political prophecy on Iran/Gates now, umm K you sweet little stormfronter?
November 8th, 2006 at 3:55 pmwe all knew that bush would appoint another criminal.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:55 pmNaw he will flip flop faster than a fascist fundie feck on fire
November 8th, 2006 at 3:57 pmLieberman also backed Rumsfeld, and well, you see where that got him.
Ennyhoo the Congress holds the purse strings to the war and thats a pretty big lever to wield.
November 8th, 2006 at 4:00 pmBush initially wanted to announce his own resignation but Cheney wouldn’t let him. I love the way the corporate-owned news is tripping over themselves in praise of Bush and how this announcement “takes the news cycle away from the broad-based repudiation of Bush that was the election. Uh, the results will still be the same tomorrow. What a bunch of self-absorbed idiots!
November 8th, 2006 at 4:05 pmI think Gates will be confirmed easily, because people know that if he doesn’t get it Bush will insist on Harriet Meyers.
Comment by DanielK
Sadly, I think Harriet would have done a better job than Rummy has done. =P
November 8th, 2006 at 4:05 pmwhere’s condiliesalot at. shopping for shoes
November 8th, 2006 at 4:05 pmhttp://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/publications/irancontra/irancon.html
For those interested in Iran Contra docs, memos, etc etc..
November 8th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
Investigate
Impeach
Incarcerate
Impound
November 8th, 2006 at 4:11 pm“President Bush today introduced Robert Gates, his nomination for Defense Secretary, as a man who will “provide the department with a fresh perspective and new ideas” for the Iraq war. ” – CNN
Bush was against a fresh perspective and new ideas before he was for it.
November 8th, 2006 at 4:12 pmATTENTION inbred Bushites:
That Patriot Act you were ALL so fond of?
…is now controlled by the those you’ve dissed for the past six years…
…ain’t life a bi*ch…
November 8th, 2006 at 4:15 pm#17,
The two independent seats (Lieberman and Sanders) have announced that they will caucus with the Democrats; hence, the claim that the Dems have fifty seats.
November 8th, 2006 at 4:17 pmwe do not trade arms for hostages… The Senate rejected Gates years ago… it’s time to get off the damned Dulles banana republic school of CIA foreign policy and I am sure the dems will agree
November 8th, 2006 at 4:17 pmWhose the republican slacker who forgot to pay off Diebold this month?
November 8th, 2006 at 4:24 pmYES!!!
November 8th, 2006 at 4:33 pmSomebody with brains. The Iranians have always been willing to talk to the US. They have been willing to work toward peace in the middle east. We should at least open dialogue.
NEW RULE any bush 41 black-shirt was involved in iran-contra.
in my opinion, and what i have not been hearing today, is that the shift towards a bush 41 black-shirt shows that bush 43 is fearful of oversight, and, shows a paradigm shift towards the war-criminal negroponte and his covert activities–inciting domestic violence in iraq, the bombing of the mosque in samara, the attempted assasination of chalabi, the torture, the secret sites.
a completely over-looked article shows that days prior to the end of october, the bush crime family investigated the subject of shifting military actions to the cia.
this is classic bush 41, kissinger, negroponte stuff here…
the end of rumsfeld and the insertion of the black-shirt simply means that the oversight committess will focus on the miltary all the time the cia covert operations do the dirty work…without ANY oversight.
if you have a moment and are interested in this, i suggest you take a look at the document linked in the article above. here is a link to it directly.
please don’t believe the bush spin and the ‘kumbyahs’ lets do this together nonsense. it is still ‘full speed ahead’–
expect many dead bodies, and perhaps an anti-maliki, cia-assisted coup…
November 8th, 2006 at 4:41 pm#24 Marie and #15 Dumb Fox
Each of you has a piece of the puzzle:
I read this as Ollie was renewing his ties with the Contras
Indeed he has; here is the player list
Robert Gates was the CIA underboss during Iran/Contra and now sits on the Iraq Group headed by
James Baker, who was daddy’s Sec of State.
Prince of Darkness Cheney is there; he was Daddy’s Chief of Staff
Condi “Chevron/Union Oil” Rice was Undersecretary of State in daddy’s administration
Ollie “The Fixer” North is in Nicaragua talking to the Contras
I guess this makes Junior the patsy that Reagan was. I wonder if Shrub will begin to invoke “plausible deniability” where he knows nothing.
November 8th, 2006 at 4:48 pm#46 pissed off
November 8th, 2006 at 5:13 pmYou’ve summed it up very neatly!
How does that old song go? Hail, hail, the gang’s all here.
“Owing to his senior status in the CIA, Gates was close to many figures who played significant roles in the Iran/contra affair and was in a position to have known of their activities.â€
Gates was not director, but assistant director. After Michael Ledeen was sent (by Poindexter) to Israel to pave the way, the CIA produced a new SNIE on Iran, which opened the way for Iran/Contra. Part of the justification was CIA/Casey’s concerns for retrieving William Buckley, the CIA station chief who had been kidnapped in Beirut (and who had the names of all the operatives in the ME). Part was Casey’s desire to sell weapons to Iran, in order to forge ties in case Khomeini could be removed.
However, the CIA also labeled Ghorbanifar, the key go-between, as a liar. When CIA requested Buckley be the first arms-for-hostages trade, Ghorbanifar said he was too ill to travel (he was actually dead). Benjamin Weir was traded for 400 TOW missiles, a trade that Reagan personally authorized, while telling the public that he would never trade arms for hostages.
Ledeen apparently wanted to drop the hostage exchange part (which never worked again) and just sell arms to Iran. At that point, he was taken out of the circuit, and replaced with North, who would go on to trade another 2,600 TOW missiles to fund his Contra deathsquads.
Did Gates know? Certainly. Was it a CIA mission? Not so far as the documentary evidence I’ve seen suggests, with the exception of the SNIE. If it was their program, it seems unlikely they would have trashed Ghorbanifar. They wanted to sell weapons to Iran — that in itself was illegal. But it doesn’t seem they were supportive of the profiteering North (and Ghorbanifar) was engaged in.
I’m not a scholar in this area, so that’s just my recollection of what I’ve read.
November 8th, 2006 at 8:39 pmIn a column from Oct. 24, Thomas Sowell compared Democrats — and anyone who voted for them — to “ostriches who hide their heads in the sand” when it comes to dealing with Iran.
I wonder what Thomas thinks of his hero George Bush now that he has named one of those very ostriches to be his new Defense Secretary.
November 8th, 2006 at 10:36 pmThe Thursday morning blend…
Lose an election … become the chairman of the RNC… is that the formula?…
November 9th, 2006 at 8:46 amAnother cabal appointment. George simply can’t get away from daddy’s strings. At fifty some years of age still a failure. Always a failure.
November 9th, 2006 at 8:48 amAside from George I, is there any one person more responsible for the blowback America faces today?
I’m afraid while the Dems were celebrating their election, Rumsfeld’s dismissal and Bush’s new era of bipartisanship they forgot to notice they were getting bitchslapped with Gates.
Iran Contra was just a arms for hostages deal compared to everything else. From arming bin Laden and the USSR fighting Afghanis to greatly assisting Pakistan and the ISI to Iraqgate to missing Saddam’s pre-Gulf nuke program to missing Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait to missing the formation of al Qaeda to failing to stop the first World Trade Center bombing… this guy was neck deep in it all.
Read more.
November 9th, 2006 at 10:12 amWOW. I can’t believe the stupidity in this place. Did you guys ever stop and wonder why Tehran is developing nuclear weapons and is such an avid supporter of every single terrorist group on the planet? Do you realize that we are fighting a regional war to create the conditions of change within Islam, and that we may be succeeding? Why the hell do you think dialogue with Iran, who is spending millions to kill our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with terrorist support and improved IEDs would want to see us succeed over there? The mullahs are scared of their own people, they know success in Iraq will be their end. Why the hell would you waste breath talking to such people? We need to engage the Iranians themselves, not their regime.
November 10th, 2006 at 9:59 am