Comments on Informed Comment: Bush, Abu Zubayda and the End of Trust Bush has ...

Read you daily- just playing devil's advocate here...

2006-09-11T01:44:00.000-04:00

Read you daily- just playing devil's advocate here. The sources you cite claim Zubayda also provided:

"accurate and highly actionable intelligence" that led to the capture of Binalshibh.

Was this trivial intel?

Haven't read the Suskind book yet, but no one else in the MSM corroborates the MPD of Zubayda. Just today the NY Times published a story on Zubayda's interrogation that made him out to be a sane terrorist full of useful information. Do you have another reference?

Finally, thanks for compiling all this info day in, day out. Your blog is a must-read.

The WSJ, which is a staunch defender of due proces...

2006-09-08T08:59:00.000-04:00

The WSJ, which is a staunch defender of due process or even a blind eye towards insider trading or executive self-dealing, defends secret detentions and torture of Muslim males (aka terrorists). Evil thoughts or "plans" extracted by waterboards and electrodes count as attacks prevented. The WSJ affirms that interrogation of Abu Zubaydah pre-empted repeats of 9/11.

WSJ's "Opinion Journal" website tends to purge postings by readers who do not concur with its columns. The WJS "Letters to the Editor," on the other hand, occasionally does. Anyone with credentials or expertise on post-9/11 anti-terror investigations or the validity of testimony obtained through torture might wish to address the WSJ's boasts. Its readers, after all, do own and run the country.

I was so "happy" to see you telling it like it is ...

2006-09-08T06:56:00.000-04:00

I was so "happy" to see you telling it like it is about the outright lies the "Bush" administration has been telling since day one, if "happy"'s the word to to use to describe reading the truth when that truth describes the utter collapse of our national government, that I neglected to thank you for your penetrating analysis of the "importance" of Abu Zubayda.

And while I am at it, thank you for all the good work you do, every day, from someone who has come to rely upon you for news of the Middle East. You are to the MSM what an amateur Greco-Roman wrestling athelete is to the professional "wrestlers" on the tube.

I said it before, but I can think of no more apt comparison, I'm reminded of Tiger Woods' initial stride down the links, playing a game that no one else dreamed of, leaving the professionals of that time whining and crying in his dust.

It is a fantastic statement that a one man, amateur operation shows up the so called "news media", both on the tube and printed on dead trees, as the dangerous buffoons they have become.

Funny how Bush and the rest keep using the fascism...

2006-09-07T16:44:00.000-04:00

Funny how Bush and the rest keep using the fascism analogy but don't seem too no or remember that of course they were tried in open court with access to defense attorneys and the evidence against them. Some even were found not guilty from what I read the Soviet prosecutor had fits because he was used to the purge trials of the thirties where confessions had already been tortured out of the victims.

Dr. Cole,You don't trust Bush anymore? It took yo...

2006-09-07T15:40:00.000-04:00

Dr. Cole,
You don't trust Bush anymore? It took you this long? The guy has lied repeatedly and continuously, even before 9/11. You really give people the benefit of the doubt.

I comment on Suskind and his factual rebuttal pres...

2006-09-07T15:13:00.000-04:00

I comment on Suskind and his factual rebuttal presented in his book on my own blog. The "suspect" Bush mentions is Jose Padilla, who was brought to trial last month after it was clear the US govt. would lose in the SCOTUS on the merits of his case. So he was brought to federal trial in Miami, where a judge last month scolded the govt. for basically having no case, but gave them more time to provide details (conveniently, after the election). It is also clear that KSM was treated pretty roughly, one can only imagine, in Thailand, while Bush claims this is entirely legal because Gonzalez told him it was. Whatever.

Anyone who has read Suskind knew was crap Bush's speech was.

Why We IRAQ : "Asked in a recent survey to explain...

2006-09-07T14:03:00.000-04:00

Why We IRAQ : "Asked in a recent survey to explain their presence in Iraq, 85 per cent of American soldiers said that the “main mission” was “to retaliate for Saddam’s role” in the September 11 attacks. About two thirds of American civilians, it’s true, share that misapprehension..."

on the other hand, Why They Fight AngloAmerican and Israeli Occupation forces is plain enough to the peoples of IRAQ and ISRAEL, respectively; though, according to polling data The Insurgency = resistance Casus belli remains foggy in the minds of most Americans, and indeed ~ who "they" are (ie., the enemy) has NEVER been established: only their mode d'emploi behaviour = "terrorism".

To most Informed Commenters here, the question is not, "is George W. Bush lying?" Rather, in my opinion the question is: to what extent is the American leader aware that he is mis-leading?"

in other words, is there any evidence precedent of Machiavellian intelligence, or is the President of the United States delusional?

...that is The Question. For, if the Americans and their soldiers, sailors and airmen are being merely manipulated, then there must exist some cause célèbre, somewhere ~ however selfish or evil it may be. But, if the reality of George W. Bush and the Americans who enable or follow his lead is a Folie à deux, then we are all in this world of hurt for no reason :-/

>>>Bush has lied so often, and about absolutely cr...

2006-09-07T13:26:00.000-04:00

>>>Bush has lied so often, and about absolutely crucial matters of national security, that I do not trust him any more.

And you just now came to this conclusion? You yourself have assembled enough proof of it years ago.

When the WaPo first revealed the secret CIA prison...

2006-09-07T12:56:00.000-04:00

When the WaPo first revealed the secret CIA prisons on Nov. 2, 2005, all the usual Bushiites lined up to roundly condemn the report of the existence of the prisons, and then gave us the usual run around about how there is no torture in any US run facility...

Now the Pentagon, just yesterday, has announced that it is banning several interrogation methods - methods that all human rights group have long agreed amount to torture... So, until yesterday, the US DOD was allowing such methods of torture, but we are told now it is allowed no more...

But wait, the new rules do not apply to the CIA or any of the private contractors regularly hired by the US gov to carry out interrogations...

While the Bushiites wax on about the intel they are getting from keeping suspects in black prisons and not torturing them, the fact is that the ability of the US, and of this president, to instill any trust in the global community is now effectively bupkis... Zero.

The number one priority in fighting terrorism is to show to the target audience that the terrorists are savages while we are civilized and uphold the highest human ideals of liberty and human rights… That is the only way to keep people waiting patiently to receive a redress of their political grievances in a civilized manner and not join in with the terrorist’s cause…

The US has effectively become a savage nation, despised by all those who value liberty and human rights... Thank you El Presidente Arbusto.

Juan... this loss of trust in government has likew...

2006-09-07T12:32:00.000-04:00

Juan... this loss of trust in government has likewise been what I have come to hate the most about this administration. (Okay, it comes in a close second behind the fact that they're responsible for so much death and destruction in Iraq). I cannot turn on news on the television and expect that anything he or his band of thieving, murdering liars might say has anything remotely to do with the truth.

If this administration is going to serve as a model for subsequent administrations, then I really fear for the citizens of this country and for the rest of the world. Nothing that this administration has done has been for the purpose of improving the lives of American citizens, yet somehow nobody seems to have noticed.

And it makes me sick, and it often brings me to the verge of tears.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,18...

2006-09-07T11:54:00.000-04:00

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1854346,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11

Hi. I ran across this story yesterday. I think it's odd that no US media covered it except one Washington Times story that is no longer available. Could this nut be an Islamofascist story in the making?

It all makes me wonder if the war on terror is eve...

2006-09-07T11:19:00.000-04:00

It all makes me wonder if the war on terror is even real. Terrorists are real and a threat, but all the lies thrown out for WOT makes me feel like I live in Disneyland. Every terrorists is pure evil and a high ranking member or QA. Last I checked, Naxi Germany and Japan, had nearly a million troups. How many real QA types are there, 1000 at most. As Elvis C. sings, where are the strong, and who are the trusted....?

The stories about Abu This and Abu That are not fo...

2006-09-07T09:41:00.000-04:00

The stories about Abu This and Abu That are not for the likes of you sir. They are for people who speak in tongues and play with snakes ..etc.

Here is a little quote from:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14714800/

"There are some people, and I'm one of them, that believe George Bush was placed where he is by the Lord," Tomanio said. "I don't care how he governs, I will support him. I'm a Republican through and through."

But I saw our president taking unseemly advantage ...

2006-09-07T05:36:00.000-04:00

But I saw our president taking unseemly advantage of the terror threat. I saw him take short cuts in the law. I saw him repeatedly mischaracterize the facts. I saw him hang pre-existing projects on this new peg. I saw him try to make Americans-- always before a proud, free people--live in fear, so as to aggrandize his own power and prevent criticism of his policies. Now members of his cabinet have been so emboldened by their megalomania that they are likening critics of the Iraq War to Hitler-lovers.

"How can you tell when a politician is lying, check to see if his lips are moving."

I first heard that old saw in TX. I can't imagine that there is anyone left in the USA who doesn't know by now that Bush and everyone in "his" administration are outright liars.

And they ought by now to have followed through and admitted to themselves that the lies they've told us and the world have made the members of this regime murderers and war criminals as well.

I'm getting punchy from all this war. Abu-Zubaydah...

2006-09-07T03:29:00.000-04:00

I'm getting punchy from all this war. Abu-Zubaydah seems like a character from a joke or an Arabic tale. Like somebody who weighs his cat, or stews his guests' shoes, or finds a dirty brass lantern and polishes it up, with enormous consequences.

Or perhaps Abu-Zubaydah is a clownish fellow who clears brush on his farm, falls off his bicycle, chokes on pretzels, suffers strange scratches and facial injuries, goes to bed early no matter what the crisis, and gives neck massages to the prime minister of Germany.

For fiction workshop next week at Mills, we are reading the Haddawy translation of the 1,001 Nights. Our assignment is to write fiction as a "creative response." Perhaps I can write a story about a foolish president named Abu-Zabeeb, who tells tall tales and squanders the wealth and prestige of a great empire. I could fashion a happy ending in which an enormous jinn sits upon Abu-Zabeeb and all of his fawning incompetent courtiers, squashing them flat beneath his mighty, jinni buttocks. A good jinn appears to institute single payer health care, an aggressive anti-global-warming energy initiative, and a revitalized national rail system. The empire regains its prosperity and redoubles its efforts to right wrongs and lift up the oppressed. Etc.

Fairy tales and women's gossip, the lot of it...

Your insight into ME politics and history provide ...

2006-09-07T03:05:00.000-04:00

Your insight into ME politics and history provide us with many tools to better understand the intricacies of a part of the world that our US government portrays as hostile, savage, and the "enemy". We need you to help the present US administration understand which side benefits and which side loses in the divisive rhetoric we continue to be "tortured" with. Is there a compassionate, concientious approach to a humane, dignified resolution to the "injustice outcries" of the few discontented?