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Tenet: ‘I Will Never Give That Medal Back’

By Faiz Shakir on May 1, 2007 at 2:56 pm

tenetOn December 14, 2004, President Bush awarded George Tenet — along with Paul Bremer and Tommy Franks — the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In his remarks, Bush said of these individuals:

Today this honor goes to three men who have played pivotal roles in great events, and whose efforts have made our country more secure and advanced the cause of human liberty.

A group of former CIA intelligence officials recently wrote a letter to Tenet, saying, “The reality of Iraq, however, has not made our nation more secure nor has the cause of human liberty been advanced. In fact, your tenure as head of the CIA has helped create a world that is more dangerous.” The officials then called on Tenet to give back his medal. “We believe you have a moral obligation to return the Medal of Freedom you received from President George Bush,” they wrote.

Last night on Larry King Live, Tenet obstinately rejected the call to return the medal:

I would never give thought to giving back the Medal of Freedom. … I accepted the award on their behalf [the men and women of the CIA] and I will never give that medal back.

Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/05/tenetmedal.320.240.flv]

Tenet also said of President Bush, “I like the president. I respect the president. … He’s the commander-in-chief. He’s never shied away from — from responsibility.” Noting that his book does not criticize Bush, Tenet explained, “It’s not my intention to hurt people. … It’s not my intention to point fingers at people. I’m trying to tell a story.”

Transcript: Read more

Yglesias

Take That Anti-War Liberals!

By Matthew Yglesias on May 1, 2007 at 2:53 pm

Jamie Kirchik offers up what’s got to be the least convincing attack on non-neoconservatives ever:

The Mauritanians’ success–notably, on their own terms and with little foreign intervention–at establishing the basis of a democratic society
in a country that formally outlawed slavery only in 1980, should serve as a challenge to those who claim that democracy is bound to fail in the Arab and Muslim world. Now Iraqis and others can look to the west coast of Africa for an example of Arab liberalism in action.

Where to start? Well, for one thing, it’s always great to see a promising election in a troubled developing country. But, obviously, a lot of troubled developing countries have held promising elections over the decades, and there’s hardly any guarantee here that Mauritania is now on a glide path to liberty. Beyond that, we’re really taking the essentialism of the “Arab liberalism” concept to extreme examples here. Why, exactly, would events in Mauritania prove anything to Iraqis given that the two countries are thousands of miles apart and feature unrelated social conditions?

Also, I don’t know how many times this needs to be repeated, but absolutely nobody opposed the invasion of Iraq on the grounds that it’s intrinsically impossible for Arabs or Muslims to hold elections. That Arabs are capable of doing so, and that in all likelihood at some point we’ll see genuine stable democracies in the Arab world, says really nothing at all about the wisdom of efforts to use military coercion to transform totalitarian states into democratic ones.

State Dept: Iraq Has Been ‘Good For The Effort To Reduce Terrorism’

By Amanda Terkel on May 1, 2007 at 2:05 pm

Yesterday, the State Department released its annual terrorism report, showing that the number of terrorist attacks worldwide rose by 20,000 (40 percent) last year. Iraq accounted for nearly two-thirds of last year’s terrorism-related deaths. The number of terrorism “incidents in Iraq rose 91 percent, from 3,468 in 2005 to 6,630 in 2006.”

At yesterday’s briefing on the report, a reporter asked whether, in light of the skyrocketing death count in Iraq, the Iraq war has “been good for the effort to reduce terrorism generally.” Frank C. Urbancic, the State Department’s Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism, agreed and defended the war, stating that “if the battle against terrorism isn’t in Iraq, it’s going to be somewhere else.”

He then added, “I mean, Iraq is at least a relatively friendly place. The people of Iraq are deserving people and they deserve better and it’s good for us to help them”:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/05/urbancicstate.320.240.flv]

The rapid rise of worldwide terrorist attacks was not inevitable. It is a direct result of the Iraq war, as the new State Department report proves. Last year’s National Intelligence estimate also concluded, “The Iraq conflict has become the “cause celebre” for jihadists, … cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement.” In a recent survey of foreign policy experts, 81 percent said they believe that the world is becoming less safe.

But according to Urbancic’s logic, it is good that the terrorists are in Iraq — rather than in another country — because it is a “relatively friendly place” and the “people of Iraq are deserving people.”

Digg It!

Transcript: Read more

Yglesias

The McCain League

By Matthew Yglesias on May 1, 2007 at 12:05 pm

I’ve noted this before, but the mostly very sound Princeton Project on National Security engages in this one unfortunate foray into the notion of creating a new international institution called the “Concert of Democracies.” Creating such an institution isn’t, I think, a bad idea per se but at least some of its proponents have developed what is, I think, the radically unsound view that such a Concert should arrogate to itself the authority to mount military interventions around the world without regard to the UN Security Council. Previous efforts to persuade some of the backers of this idea that it’s an essentially neocon concept have tended to fail, but perhaps John McCain’s endorsement of the “strong” version of the Concert (he wants to call it a League of Democracies) will convince them.

It’s worth saying that along with being a bad idea, this is a somewhat silly proposal since the notion that countries like Brazil, India, South Africa, Indonesia, etc. are clamoring to provide a patina of legitimacy for future American miltiary operations is obviously absurd. I doubt you’d be able to get any substantial European support for this idea, much less backing from the traditional anti-colonial powers of the developing world.

ABC: Reports Of Masris Death False, ˜Part Of A Misinformation Campaign

By ThinkProgress on May 1, 2007 at 11:16 am

masriAccording to ABC News, reports that al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri has been killed are “unconfirmed and part of a misinformation campaign.” ABC has not posted its full story yet, and details are unclear, but it’s worth reviewing the last time the media reported major news about al-Masri.

On February 15, CNN reported al-Masri had been injured in a clash with Iraqi forces:

The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq has been wounded and his top aide killed in a clash with police, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman told CNN Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf said Iraqi police got into a firefight with insurgents on the road between Falluja, west of Baghdad, and Samarra, north of Baghdad, and wounded Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

Every major media outlet picked up on the news. The next day, however, the U.S. military announced that the report was false. No such event occurred.

Nevertheless, the false report came at an opportune time for the President Bush and his congressional allies.

– February 15 was the day before the House of Representatives voted on its resolution opposing Bush’s Iraq escalation strategy, marking the first time in four years that Congress voted decisively against Bush’s Iraq policy.

– Also that week, the Bush administration was aggressively attempting to contain the fall-out from its botched intelligence briefing in Baghdad, which attempted to link the deadly explosives in Iraq to senior Iranian officials. After repeatedly defending the accuracy of the intelligence, the Bush administration chose February 15 to quietly acknowledge that their intelligence was wrong.

Today’s news converage of Masri’s death may shift attention away from stories that are damaging to Bush: the four year anniversary of “Mission Accomplished,” and the official signing of Congress’s Iraq timeline legislation.

Digg It!

UPDATE: A screen shot of ABC’s breaking news:

abc

UPDATE II: Evan Kohlmann writes at the Counterterrorism blog:

Al-Qaida’s “Islamic State of Iraq” has now issued a formal statement denying the death of Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who they describe as the Islamic State’s “Minister of War.” Elsewhere, Al-Qaida supporters have suggested that the initial report of his demise was part of a desperate scheme concocted by the Iraq government aimed at forcing al-Muhajir to surface and identify himself.

Yglesias

Ignorance is Bliss

By Matthew Yglesias on May 1, 2007 at 11:10 am

Lawrence Kaplan (with Bill Kristol) February, 2003:

The United States may need to occupy Iraq for some time. Though the UN, European and Arab forces will, as in Afghanistan, contribute troops, the principal responsibility will doubtless fall to the country that liberates Baghdad. According to one estimate, initially as many as 75,000 US troops may be required to police the war’s aftermath, at a cost of $16 billion a year. As other countries’ forces arrive, and as Iraq rebuilds its economy and political system, that force could probably be drawn to several thousand soldiers after a year or two. After Saddam Hussein has been defeated and Iraq occupied installing a decent democratic government in Baghdad should be a manageable task for the United States.

Now here’s Kaplan in March 2006:

The administration intends to draw down troop levels to 100,000 by the end of the year, with the pullback already well underway as U.S. forces surrender large swaths of the countryside and hunker down in their bases. The plan infuriates many officers, who can only say privately what noncommissioned officers say openly. “In order to fix the situation here,” Sabre Squadron’s Sergeant José Chavez says, “we need at least 180,000 troops.” Iraq, however, will soon have about half that. An effective counterinsurgency strategy may require time and patience. But the war’s architects have run out of both.

And now, naturally, in May 2007 he says congressional liberals are ignorant about Iraq.

UPDATE: It should be said, though, that if you want bad Iraq commentary, accept no substitutes for Martin Peretz’s article.

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