A New York Times Magazine article in July 2020 focused on then Secretary of State Powell and his U.N. speech of Feb. 5, 2003 and the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) upon which it is largely based. A lot of the detail in the article may have been new to many readers, but not to Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, which had been established a month before. VIPS watched the speech, dissected it, and sent their verdict to President George W. Bush before close of business that same afternoon
We gave Powell a charitable grade of “C”, faulting him for, inter alia, not providing needed context and perspective. We should have flunked him outright.
Robert Draper’s article describes how, despite C.I.A.’s strong effort to please, the “case” the agency made for war on Iraq, using such evidence as there was on weapons of mass destruction, was deemed not alarmist enough for Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration hawks.
Specifically, the hawks were dissatisfied with the evidence-light, but-alarmist (term of art used was “leaning forward”) Pentagon and White House briefings by CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin in late Dec. 2002 on WMD in Iraq. The hawks started to look elsewhere, since not all senior officials (including Powell) appeared to be “with the program.”
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“It’s moving. It’s alive. It’s alive . . . it’s moving . . . IT’S ALIVE!”
The scene from the 1931 movie “Frankenstein” came to mind this week as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg prepared an indictment of former President Donald Trump.
It is the ultimate gravedigger charge, where Bragg unearthed a case from 2016 and, through a series of novel steps, is seeking to bring it back to life.
Of course, like the good doctor, Bragg shows little concern over what he has created in his Frankenstein indictment.
Bragg is combining parts from both state and federal codes.
He is reportedly going to convert a misdemeanor for falsifying financial records into a prosecution of a federal crime.
The federal crime is reportedly the failure to report a payment of $130,000 to former porn star Stormy Daniels to hush up an affair.
That was just before the presidential election and Bragg is alleging that it was an effective campaign donation.
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The War on Marijuana is Hitting American Trucking
Marijuana is legal for medical or general (recreational) use by adults in most American states, but a truck driver can still lose his job because a United States government mandated routine drug test indicates he used marijuana.
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About Oklahoma Voters Rejecting the Recreational Marijuana Legalization Initiative
In a Tuesday statewide Oklahoma election, State Question 820 that would have legalized recreational marijuana in Oklahoma was rejected when 62 percent of votes were cast against it.
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Donald Trump in New Campaign Video is Following Through on Running as the Peace Candidate
On February 8, I wrote about indications that Donald Trump may run as the peace candidate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Concluding, I commented, “We’ll see if Trump follows through with this campaign strategy.” This week, the Trump campaign released a new video of Trump speaking about matters related to war and peace. The video indicates that Trump is indeed following through on that peace candidate campaign strategy.
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When President Grover Cleveland Rejected Congressional Pressure for War against Spain
During the Tuesday episode of the Ron Paul Liberty Report, host Ron Paul answered questions that viewers had submitted. In the process of answering one of the questions, Paul mentioned that there was an instance in which President Grover Cleveland, who Paul has praised before, stood up against congressional pressure for the United States to go to war.
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Speeches from the Sunday Rally in Washington, DC Opposing US Involvement in the Ukraine War
On Sunday, a collection of opponents of the United States government’s involvement in the Ukraine War spoke at a rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
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