Quotes of the Morning: Ode to Rummy
“Ah yes… The Rummy. One of my favorite members of the Administration. The Thing to this administration’s Fantastic Four. The man who brought us gems like these..”
-Skippy
"We know where [the WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat."
-Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003
"QUESTION: Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?
RUMSFELD: There is no question but that they would be welcomed. Go back to Afghanistan, the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda would not let them do."
-PBS News Hour, February 20, 2003
“Still, he has the full support of the rest of the rest of the White House super-team: Condi ‘The Invisible Woman’ Rice, Dick ‘Hothead’ Cheney, and Dubya ‘the Decider’ Bush.”
-Skippy
“With less than a week before the election, President George W. Bush sought to rally Republican voters on Wednesday with a vigorous defense of the war in Iraq and a vow to keep Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in office until the end of Bush's term.”
-New York Times, November 2, 2006
“Nothing new here. We all know how much The Decider loves his Rummy.”
-Skippy
"I hear the voices. And I read the front page. And I know the speculation. But I'm the decider. And I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, April 18, 2006
“Yep. We’re keeping the Rummy for at least another two years…”
-Skippy
“Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down as defense secretary on Wednesday, one day after midterm elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses.
President Bush said he would nominate Robert Gates, a former CIA director, to replace Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.”
-MSNBC, November 8, 2006
“…Or at least until after the election less than a week later. You’d have thought that Bush must have somehow been aware that the Rummy was looking to step down, especially since he apparently already had someone waiting in the wings for the Rummy’s job, but that would mean that Bush, you know, LIED a week ago, and since we know that that never happens I am only left with the premise that ‘The Decider’ made up his mind quickly to nominate Robert Gates.”
-Skippy
“Asked about that comment, Bush said he made it because ‘I didn't want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign,’ Bush said. He appeared to acknowledge having misled reporters, saying, ‘And so the only way to answer that question and to get you onto another question was to give you that answer.’
He added later, ‘Win or lose, Bob Gates was going to become the nominee.’"
-Washington Post, November 9, 2006
“Or maybe he did lie… Man, this is just not Fearless Leader’s week. But who is Mr. Gates, the man whom apparently Fearless Leader had at his fingertips for just such an occasion?..”
-Skippy
“Gates became the 22nd President of Texas A&M University on August 1, 2002 following a tenure as Interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M from 1999 to 2001. He has served as a member of the board of trustees of The Fidelity Funds, and on the board of directors of NACCO Industries, Inc., Brinker International, Inc. and Parker Drilling Company, Inc.”
-Wikipedia
“Wow.. Someone from Texas A&M. I did not expect that. And he headed the ‘George Bush School of Government and Public Service’ too. How surprising. He was also on the board of an oil company. Huh. Go figure. Well, he looks like a family loyalist, but at least we won’t have to worry about Rummy slanting intelligence reports to make the Administration policy look good.”
-Skippy
“The Senate Intelligence Committee last week voted to more or less forgive and forget charges that Robert M. Gates, as a top Central Intelligence official in the 1980's, slanted intelligence reports and failed to take notice as the Iran-contra affair blossomed in his backyard.”
-New York Times, October 20, 1991
“Ok, so there may have been a small amount of intelligence slanting going on (it seems so ironic to discuss ‘intelligence’ in the context of this Administration), but still, they voted to forgive and forget, so it couldn’t have been all that bad.”
-Skippy
“The dust from Iran-Contra had settled sufficiently by 1991, when President George H. W. Bush nominated Gates to head the CIA. Then all hell broke loose. Playing the role discharged so well earlier this month by former INR director Carl Ford in critiquing Bolton, a former senior Soviet analyst and CIA division chief, Mel Goodman, stepped forward and gave the Senate intelligence committee chapter and verse on how Gates had shaped intelligence analysis to suit his masters and his career. Goodman was joined at once by several other analysts who put their own careers at risk by testifying against Gates’ nomination. They were so many and so persuasive that, for a time, it appeared they had won the day. But the fix was in.
With a powerful assist from George Tenet, then staff director of the senate intelligence committee, members approved the nomination. In his memoir Gates makes a point of thanking Tenet for greasing the skids. Even so, 31 Senators found the evidence against Gates so persuasive that, in an unprecedented move, they voted against him when the nomination came to the floor.
[…]
The result? Many bright analysts quit rather than take part in cooking intelligence-to-go. In contrast, those inspired by Gates’ example followed suit and saw their careers flourish. So much so that when in September 2002 Tenet asked his senior managers to prepare a National Intelligence Estimate parroting what Cheney had been saying about the weapons-of-mass-destruction threat from Iraq, they saluted and fell to the task. Several of them traced their career advancement to Robert Gates.
[…]
When Gates became CIA director, the honest analysts who left were replaced by more inexperienced, pliable ones. It is no exaggeration to say that recent intelligence fiascos can be traced directly to the kinds of people Gates created in his image and promoted to managerial positions.”
-Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst, April 27, 2005
“Also, Mr. Gates is apparently on the board of VoteHere, a group that does ‘Independent audit solutions for validation and verification of election results’. Nothing to worry about. Just an ex-head of the CIA, once accused of slanting intelligence information during Iran-Contra and on the board of a company that validates elections, being nominated the day after the midterm elections to head the military. Nothing to see here.”
-Skippy
“Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss”
-The Who, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
-Skippy
"We know where [the WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat."
-Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003
"QUESTION: Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?
RUMSFELD: There is no question but that they would be welcomed. Go back to Afghanistan, the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda would not let them do."
-PBS News Hour, February 20, 2003
“Still, he has the full support of the rest of the rest of the White House super-team: Condi ‘The Invisible Woman’ Rice, Dick ‘Hothead’ Cheney, and Dubya ‘the Decider’ Bush.”
-Skippy
“With less than a week before the election, President George W. Bush sought to rally Republican voters on Wednesday with a vigorous defense of the war in Iraq and a vow to keep Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in office until the end of Bush's term.”
-New York Times, November 2, 2006
“Nothing new here. We all know how much The Decider loves his Rummy.”
-Skippy
"I hear the voices. And I read the front page. And I know the speculation. But I'm the decider. And I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, April 18, 2006
“Yep. We’re keeping the Rummy for at least another two years…”
-Skippy
“Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down as defense secretary on Wednesday, one day after midterm elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses.
President Bush said he would nominate Robert Gates, a former CIA director, to replace Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.”
-MSNBC, November 8, 2006
“…Or at least until after the election less than a week later. You’d have thought that Bush must have somehow been aware that the Rummy was looking to step down, especially since he apparently already had someone waiting in the wings for the Rummy’s job, but that would mean that Bush, you know, LIED a week ago, and since we know that that never happens I am only left with the premise that ‘The Decider’ made up his mind quickly to nominate Robert Gates.”
-Skippy
“Asked about that comment, Bush said he made it because ‘I didn't want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign,’ Bush said. He appeared to acknowledge having misled reporters, saying, ‘And so the only way to answer that question and to get you onto another question was to give you that answer.’
He added later, ‘Win or lose, Bob Gates was going to become the nominee.’"
-Washington Post, November 9, 2006
“Or maybe he did lie… Man, this is just not Fearless Leader’s week. But who is Mr. Gates, the man whom apparently Fearless Leader had at his fingertips for just such an occasion?..”
-Skippy
“Gates became the 22nd President of Texas A&M University on August 1, 2002 following a tenure as Interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M from 1999 to 2001. He has served as a member of the board of trustees of The Fidelity Funds, and on the board of directors of NACCO Industries, Inc., Brinker International, Inc. and Parker Drilling Company, Inc.”
-Wikipedia
“Wow.. Someone from Texas A&M. I did not expect that. And he headed the ‘George Bush School of Government and Public Service’ too. How surprising. He was also on the board of an oil company. Huh. Go figure. Well, he looks like a family loyalist, but at least we won’t have to worry about Rummy slanting intelligence reports to make the Administration policy look good.”
-Skippy
“The Senate Intelligence Committee last week voted to more or less forgive and forget charges that Robert M. Gates, as a top Central Intelligence official in the 1980's, slanted intelligence reports and failed to take notice as the Iran-contra affair blossomed in his backyard.”
-New York Times, October 20, 1991
“Ok, so there may have been a small amount of intelligence slanting going on (it seems so ironic to discuss ‘intelligence’ in the context of this Administration), but still, they voted to forgive and forget, so it couldn’t have been all that bad.”
-Skippy
“The dust from Iran-Contra had settled sufficiently by 1991, when President George H. W. Bush nominated Gates to head the CIA. Then all hell broke loose. Playing the role discharged so well earlier this month by former INR director Carl Ford in critiquing Bolton, a former senior Soviet analyst and CIA division chief, Mel Goodman, stepped forward and gave the Senate intelligence committee chapter and verse on how Gates had shaped intelligence analysis to suit his masters and his career. Goodman was joined at once by several other analysts who put their own careers at risk by testifying against Gates’ nomination. They were so many and so persuasive that, for a time, it appeared they had won the day. But the fix was in.
With a powerful assist from George Tenet, then staff director of the senate intelligence committee, members approved the nomination. In his memoir Gates makes a point of thanking Tenet for greasing the skids. Even so, 31 Senators found the evidence against Gates so persuasive that, in an unprecedented move, they voted against him when the nomination came to the floor.
[…]
The result? Many bright analysts quit rather than take part in cooking intelligence-to-go. In contrast, those inspired by Gates’ example followed suit and saw their careers flourish. So much so that when in September 2002 Tenet asked his senior managers to prepare a National Intelligence Estimate parroting what Cheney had been saying about the weapons-of-mass-destruction threat from Iraq, they saluted and fell to the task. Several of them traced their career advancement to Robert Gates.
[…]
When Gates became CIA director, the honest analysts who left were replaced by more inexperienced, pliable ones. It is no exaggeration to say that recent intelligence fiascos can be traced directly to the kinds of people Gates created in his image and promoted to managerial positions.”
-Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst, April 27, 2005
“Also, Mr. Gates is apparently on the board of VoteHere, a group that does ‘Independent audit solutions for validation and verification of election results’. Nothing to worry about. Just an ex-head of the CIA, once accused of slanting intelligence information during Iran-Contra and on the board of a company that validates elections, being nominated the day after the midterm elections to head the military. Nothing to see here.”
-Skippy
“Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss”
-The Who, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
posted by Pope Impious XXIII | 4:10 AM
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