December 5th, 2006

Chris Keeley

the troubling behavior of a president who isn’t merely in a state of denial but is completely unteth

the troubling behavior of a president who isn’t merely in a state of denial but is completely untethered from reality.

December 3, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist

Has He Started Talking to the Walls?

By FRANK RICH

IT turns out we’ve been reading the wrong Bob Woodward book to understand what’s going on with President Bush. The text we should be consulting instead is “The Final Days,” the Woodward-Bernstein account of Richard Nixon talking to the portraits on the White House walls while Watergate demolished his presidency. As Mr. Bush has ricocheted from Vietnam to Latvia to Jordan in recent weeks, we’ve witnessed the troubling behavior of a president who isn’t merely in a state of denial but is completely untethered from reality. It’s not that he can’t handle the truth about Iraq. He doesn’t know what the truth is.

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Chris Keeley

very tightly closed circle around the President, which in intelligence parlance is called a “self-li

Robert Gates' Former CIA Branch Chief and a CIA Analyst Who Testified Against Him on the Politicization of Intel During Iran-Contra

Tuesday, December 5th, 2006

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/05/1452228

Robert Gates, President Bush's nominee to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense is facing his Senate confirmation hearings today. We speak with two former CIA analysts who worked with Gates at the Agency. Ray McGovern was Gates' CIA branch chief in the early 1970s and Jennifer Glaudemans is a former CIA analyst who was asked to testify at the 1991 confirmation hearings for Gates when he had been nominated to be CIA Director. [includes rush transcript]

 

John Bolton is the second high-profile member of Bush's national security team to announce his departure since the November 7th elections. Defense Secretary Donald Rumseld resigned last month. Bush's nominee to replace him, Robert Gates, faces his confirmation hearings today in the Senate.

Gates served as CIA Director during the Bush Senior Administration. He was first nominated to serve under President Reagan but the nomination had to be withdrawn because of stiff opposition in the Senate.

Observers are predicting a swift confirmation, with little opposition expected from Democrats. But Gates is not without controversy -- questions have swirled around his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal and his role in the US government's arming of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s. He was also accused of skewing intelligence to suit the Reagan administration's anti-Soviet views. Newly declassified government documents also reveal Gates advocated for President Reagan to bomb Nicaragua in 1984 in an effort to topple the Sandinista government. At the time Gates was deputy director of the CIA.

Today we are joined by two former CIA analysts who worked with Robert Gates at the agency. Ray McGovern served in the CIA for 27 years and was Gates' branch chief at the CIA in the early 1970s. Jennifer Glaudemans is a former CIA analyst who was asked to testify at the 1991 confirmation hearings for Gates when he had been nominated to be CIA Director. She worked in the CIA's office of Soviet analysis back when Gates was the agency's deputy director for intelligence and chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

 

  • Ray McGovern, 27-year career analyst with the CIA. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Read OpEd in the Miami Herald.
  • Jennifer Glaudemans, former CIA analyst and an attorney. Read OpEd in the Los Angeles Times.


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Chris Keeley

A CIA insider's take on Gates

A CIA insider's take on Gates

in the Miami Herald.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
A CIA insider's take on Gates

BY RAY MCGOVERN
rrmcgovern@aol.com

The lame-duck Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee seems determined to force through confirmation of Robert Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense. The hurry is synthetic -- and totally unnecessary.

I know, I know -- everyone but Barney the dog wants Rumsfeld out of the Pentagon tout suite. According to a Pentagon spokesman, however, Gates has commitments that would preclude his taking the reins at the Pentagon until January. So, senators, relax already. Let Rumsfeld spend December at one of his houses in Taos, while you do your homework. There is no exaggerating the importance of the Gates candidacy.

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Chris Keeley

Desperate for drugs, Ms. Breidor began trading her body for cocaine along Black Horse Pike, where ev

their drug-fueled descent landed them on the lowest rung in Atlantic City’s social order, a strip of rundown motels just outside of town where prostitutes are so desperate to feed their habits that rocks of crack cocaine are the preferred method of payment.



Desperate for drugs, Ms. Breidor began trading her body for cocaine along Black Horse Pike, where even many of Atlantic City’s hardened prostitutes are reluctant to tread.

In Glittery Atlantic City, 4 Walked Deadly Path
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI and SERGE F. KOVALESKI

ATLANTIC CITY, Dec. 3 — In this seaside resort town where vice has long been a lucrative commodity, there was nothing particularly noteworthy about four crack-addled prostitutes who lost the struggle to survive in the underground economy that flourishes alongside the shimmering casinos.
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Chris Keeley

Margarita Papandreou's letter on Iraq in the International Herald Tribune--12/05/06

Margarita Papandreou's letter on Iraq in the International Herald Tribune--12/05/06

The author of this letter, who lives in Greece, was the American-born
wife of the late Prime Minister of Greece, Andreas Papandreou, and is
the mother of George Papandreou, the leader of the opposition socialist
party of Greece (PASOK), who is also currently the president of the
Socialist International organization.

Begin text:

Iraqi Solution

Americans have been so traumatized by the issue of terrorism and
politicians so scared of being thought to be "soft on terrorism" that no
really serious proposals on the “in or out” issue can be put forward.
Most of the debate is in military terms.

The women’s organization I belong to in Greece – Center for Research and
Action on Peace – has had a long time connection with Iraqi women,
working together since l978 on topics concerning equality and peace. As
an organization that promotes the concept of resolving conflict without
the use of force, we have been devastated by the developments in that
country since the US declared war on it, watching as we did the downward
spiral into confusion, chaos and total destruction.

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Chris Keeley

Cheer for Ears

Cheer for Ears

Cheer for Ears


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/style/tmagazine/03tplaylist.html

Cheer for Ears

By ANNE CHRISTENSEN AND MELISSA VENTOSA

Moved by the spirit of the season, people who know a stylish soundtrack when they hear it share their iPod holiday playlists — tracks guaranteed to transform even the dreariest family get-together into an A-list happening.

D.J. Felix Cutillo

Something’s Gotta Give Robin McKelle

C’est si bon (D.J. Cam remix)

Arielle Dombasle

Go to Mexico Cassandra Wilson

Tell Me Jimmy Cobb

Anna (El Negro Zumbon) Pink Martini

One Evening (VV Mix) Feist

Bittersweet Samba (Mocean Worker remix) Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

Happy Feet Paolo Conte

Comment Te Dire Adieu? Françoise Hardy


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