Courtesy of Salon:
On Tuesday night, former CIA Deputy Director and Bush’s intelligence briefer Michael Morell appeared on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” where he, under an amount of good cable news duress, admitted that the administration intentionally misrepresented intelligence.
The show played a clip of Cheney saying, “We know [Saddam Hussein] has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.”
“Was that true or not,” host Chris Matthews asked.
“We were saying–”
“Can you answer that question? Was that true?”
“No, that was not true,” he finally said.
Okay as all of you know I often find Matthew's interview style irritating because he will never let anybody finish their answer, but in this case it was EXACTLY what was needed to get the truth out of this guy.
And like Matthews I am amazed that this guy has allowed his intelligence to be mischaracterized for all of these years as faulty, and has essentially unfairly taken the blame for the purposeful lies that the Bush administration told to convince Americans to support this unnecessary war.
What I want from this moment forward is for reporters to start every interview with the GOP presidential wannabes with a showing of this clip, followed up by the question "Now do you think President Bush was right to send troops into Iraq?"
Because let me tell you I would be eating popcorn by the fistful while gleefully watching their responses to that!
I saw this, and all I could think of was Dick Cheney cringing in his bunker.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote, "I am amazed that this guy has allowed his intelligence to be mischaracterized for all of these years as faulty, and has essentially unfairly taken the blame for the purposeful lies that the Bush administration told to convince Americans to support this unnecessary war."
ReplyDeleteHe had no choice, was threatened... having a family to lose... or ...
Seems to me The Cabal running the world and uncovered by Elizabeth Keen and Red Reddington on The Blacklist (TV series) is far from fiction.
Reporters pressing this question will be blackballed for further
ReplyDeleteaccess and will lose their jobs.
I saw this and my jaw fell to the floor. Finally, we are seeing the end of the GOP. I just hope it isn’t replaced with the conspiracy nuts, but I fear it may. The Repubs have never recovered from the downfall of Richard Nixon, the loss of the Vietnam War or been able to generate an intelligent base.
ReplyDeleteSure sound like to me that video is enough evidence to open a criminal case against Cheney doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteIf only.
DeleteOff Track:
ReplyDeleteWe may be spared Scotty Walker joining the clown car. He's got more scandal setting fire to his pants:
www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-bottari/privatization-fail-scott_b_7339010.html
Wasn't this the guy who had the nerve to say he was the most qualified because he had his passport stamped a few times?
Presidential material he is not.
"Okay as all of you know I often find Matthew's interview style irritating because he will never let anybody finish their answer..."
ReplyDeleteI respectfully disagree, Gryph: Matthews's style of interviewing is the only language Republicans understand and they need to be subjected to it early and often. Jesus Christ, Bildo interrupted the President of the United States constantly without any regard for the office they proclaim to want to protect and have respect for.
I say take everyone of these right-wing motherfuckers and put them through a journalistic meat grinder: It's all they're good for anyways.
I’ve always contended that the only reason Bush ll wanted to attack Iraq and capture Hussein was for his father since he had allowed him to run free after the first Iraq war.
ReplyDeleteThanks for adding this clip. I also can't stand watching Chris Matthews and it's not just the constant interrupting his guests, but something about his style rubs me the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteI remember the intel reports that Condi was grilled on, and the phrase "We can't allow the next strike on our land to leave a mushroom cloud". And she hemmed and hawed her way around the bush trying not to answer the question "What does the heading say on this intel report?" over and over again, until she finally gave the response this guy fed her. "I don't recall" about ten times, then a " proof of al quiaida planning to strike again". And she was asked again to read it.
If this guy was involved in intel, then we were screwed before the planes hit the towers. Why did he wait so long to write a book and what kept him from doing it before the first Election our President won?
What sealed it for me was watching Colin Powell squirm and lie for Bush.
It is time to press these guys with exactly this type of interview. We need to get to the truth about 9/11 and this can be one path there. We know they had war plans ready to go.... all they needed was a pretext... Once MSNBC, Paul Krugman, etc. and others can demolish the pre-war prevarication campaign, it becomes more and more obvious... time to WAKE UP folks...
ReplyDeleteThis is not going to get the attention it deserves from the excuses that pass for media so we should all post this interview to our social media accounts and request that our friends and their friends do the same
ReplyDelete