Speaking before the American Bar Association, former Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, went against most of his fellow Republican politicians, at least on the subject of torture: “And I believe, unlike others in the administration, that waterboarding was, is, and will always be torture. That’s a simple statement.”
Valerie Plame Wilson Describes Sibel Edmonds Disclosures as ‘Stunning’
What disclosures are those? Treason.
Sunday Times 1,2,3. Philip Giraldi 1,2,3.
Now BradBlog reports to us an interview from Tuesday, February 12th 2008, in which “outed” CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson discusses (at 39:00) the allegation that former State Department official Marc Grossman tipped off the Turks and Pakistanis to her nuclear black market-monitoring CIA front company years before we ever heard of her. From Bradblog:
[Plame] says she has been following recent blockbuster series in British paper concerning U.S. nuclear secrets espionage, allegations that her [CIA] cover company, Brewster Jennings, was exposed by a former high-ranking State Department official as long ago as 2001.
Former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson says the recent disclosures in the UK’s Sunday Times concerning the sale of U.S. nuclear secrets to the foreign black market, as aided by high-ranking government officials, are “stunning.”
The previously covert agent, who had worked in the agency’s counter-proliferation division for years, monitoring traffic in the nuclear black market under the guise of a cover company named Brewster Jennings until being outed by Administration officials, was asked about the recent series of explosive stories in the British paper during an interview this morning with Florida radio host Henry Raines of American AM.
Those disclosures include allegations that Brewster Jennings was outed to Turkish officials as a CIA front, by State Department official Marc Grossman, as early as 2001.
That would be as opposed to by Robert Novak in July of 2003.
Plame says that she can’t confirm it, but she sure doesn’t sound doubtful of Edmonds’ story.
Read the transcript of the interview at Bradblog. Listen to it here.
Several Tries Too Far, Mr Miliband
I know that if at first you don’t succeed, you’re supposed to try, try again. But I think that phrase needs an exception: do not keep trying the same thing over and over again, especially after you fail 100 times in as many years.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband should take this to heart, given his country’s embarrassing failure in exporting democracy through colonization and occupation — not to mention the planned starvation of sanctions and the mass murder of war. But no, he stands defiant in the face of reality, insisting that the debacle in Afghanistan and the horror show in Iraq is just another flawless intervention that just went a little wrong because of a few “mistakes.”
He makes a case for endless interventions around the globe for various foreign offenses — and then unwittingly shows himself up by bringing up the miracle of China. Commerce brought wealth and power to the masses of China, not “humanitarian intervention.” The state has done nothing but fight, tooth and nail, the advances of peaceful humanity on every front. The 20th Century was its last great push. It is finally losing, and the tide of prosperity and cooperation is shifting to overtake misery, poverty, and war. If the power-hungry, bloodthirsty, warmongering — or if you prefer, downright stupid — likes of Miliband would just step aside and allow people to decide for themselves what they want, we’d get there a lot faster.
Dhimmitude, You Got Some #%$@ing Dhimmitude
In a post sure to infuriate cons and libs, neos and paleos, progs and trogs alike, IOZ seconds the archbishop of Canterbury. Agree or disagree, it’s worth a read.
Is the US Getting Ready to Strike Pakistan?
Reuters reports:
“Pakistan rejected on Saturday a U.S. official’s assertion that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar are operating from Pakistani territory.“A senior U.S. administration official told reporters in Washington Bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and others were operating out of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan.
“Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders were directing insurgency operations in Afghanistan from the Pakistani city of Quetta, said the U.S. official who declined to be identified.”
If the US has information as to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, why are they going to the media with it — unless it’s to ready the American public for a strike at Pakistan?
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiqsaid had the only possible response:
“If there is any actionable intelligence it should be shared with the government of Pakistan so that they can be neutralized. You don’t talk to the media if you have information like this.”
No, you don’t. But if you don’t really have such information, and merely want to appear as if you do in order to pursue your own warmongering agenda –Â well, then, you talk to the media anonymously ….
Monday Afternoon Web Stroll
I’ve been busy over at Taki’s Top Drawer, blogging up a storm on libertarianism, orthodox and otherwise; the politics of promiscuity, or — who’s the Paris Hilton of the Beltway pundits?; why mockery is the best weapon against the McCainiac; and the economics of doom.
Oh, and don’t miss the first installment of a series on the Ron Paul Revolution: John Derbyshire’s “Only A Revolution Will Do.”