----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Mensah" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 11:15 AM
Subject: [unioNews] Invoking ghosts of Nixon


Feb. 5, 2004. 01:00 AM
<H3>Invoking ghosts of Nixon</H3>
<B><i>Memories of Watergate come to mind as Bush team is caught out
over tales about non-existent Iraqi weapons</i></B>


HAROON SIDDIQUI

Britons and Americans want to know why their leaders lied to them to
wage war on Iraq. Tony Blair and George W. Bush have instead ordered
inquiries into the known shortcomings of their intelligence agencies.

Both hope to get the issue out of the headlines long enough to get
past the next elections.

Or, Blair may just be buying the respite he needs to bow out on a
relatively high note, rather than submit himself to the verdict of
the electorate.

Bush has tailored the timetable of the American probe to run well
past the fall presidential election. He has further insulated himself
from political accountability by diluting the mandate of his Iraq
inquiry. He has ordered it to examine the weapons programs in Iran,
Libya and North Korea as well.

The probe will be less about the president misleading the nation and
the world, but more about the misdeeds of the same set of foreign
evildoers whom he regularly demonizes to great political advantage at
home.

But the Bush-Blair tactics may backfire. The issue of trust that is
at the core of the controversy is too fundamental to be manipulated
away. There are signs that it can't be.

Britons have reacted with derision to last week's whitewash by Lord
Hutton, who placed the blame entirely on the BBC but skipped right
over the more central issue of whether Blair exaggerated the threat
posed by Iraq to justify war.

Similarly, Bush's announcement is being seen for what it is, a
cynical ploy in keeping with his instincts to dodge and duck, rather
than be forthcoming.

Those traits have been on ample display in his resistance to the
demands of another commission, the one probing the security and
intelligence failures surrounding 9/11. He has been reluctant to
share documents or heed its call to testify.

His approval rating is down below 50 per cent for the first time.
More so than usual, the administration is speaking in multiple
voices.

While Bush and Dick Cheney are adjusting their rationale for the war
day by day, neo-con believers like Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
are still keeping the faith.

In an appearance before a Senate committee yesterday, the defence
secretary offered eight self-serving explanations as to why no
weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq - every
conceivable answer except that he may have been wrong, if not
outright dishonest.

Even Secretary of State Colin Powell, the administration's most
respected member, is having trouble keeping his credibility intact.

It was a year ago today that he made his infamous presentation to the
Security Council, in which he made wild claims that have since been
totally discredited: that Iraq still had an active nuclear program;
that it had mobile biological labs; that it had "between 500 and
1,000 tonnes" of chemical weapons; that it had long-range missiles
capable of hitting neighbours; that Saddam Hussein was in cahoots
with Osama bin Laden, whose operatives were running a poison factory
in Iraq.

"What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid
intelligence," he told the Security Council. Not so. His assertions
were no more backed by facts than those of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and
others.

Powell's charge that Iraq was using aluminum tubes for centrifuges
had already been disputed by his own state department as well as by
the energy department.

And the accusation of an Iraq-Al Qaeda connection had been
discredited, based as it was on an uncorroborated report.

But an administration hell-bent on going to war was not going to be
deterred. It leaned enough on Central Intelligence Agency director
George Tenet for him to change his tune and say what his bosses
wanted to hear.

As early as the summer of 2002, Bush had reportedly told King
Abdullah of Jordan that his mind was made up about invading Iraq.
Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, is also
on record as saying the same thing.

Powell chose to remain the loyal soldier: a former chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff carrying out the orders of his commander-in-
chief.

Yet with an eye on the history books, the consummate Washington
insider also let it be known within days of his shameful performance
at the U.N., he had, in fact, edited out some of the more fanciful
assertions fed to him.

He is still trying to leave the impression that he stands apart from
the rest of the Bush crowd.

When asked this week by the Washington Post if he would have agreed
to an invasion knowing Iraq had no prohibited weapons, he replied:

"I don't know, because it was the stockpile that presented the final
little piece that made it more of a real and present danger and
threat to the region and to the world ... (The) absence of a
stockpile changes the political calculus; it changes the answer you
get."

Yet within hours of the publication of that interview, he was also
telling reporters that "the president made the right decision" in
going to war.

Instead of trying to have it both ways, Powell should have resigned
then and should resign now. Or, he should learn to live with the
taint of being associated with the company he has chosen to keep.

As for the rest of his colleagues, they are beginning to sound and
look like the cast of characters around Richard Nixon in his final
days.

***
Haroon Siddiqui is The Star's editorial page editor emeritus. His
column appears Thursday and Sunday.
eMail: [log in to unmask]


Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved.





lllll
QUOTATION:

"All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishments of an African
empire, so strong and powerful as to compel the respect of mankind, but we
in our lifetime can so work and act as to make the dream a possibility
within another generation"
-<html><A HREF="http://members.aol.com/GhanaUnion/afrohero.html">Ancestor
Marcus Mosiah Garvey <i>(1887 - 1940)</i></A></html>

llllllllll
 *  //\\//\\ unioNews Newsgroup //\\//\\   *
 * http://members.aol.com/GhanaUnion *
 *          We're One People         *
 *          Join the Chorus          *
 -    African Union Shall Succeed    -
 =====================================
A luta Continua!

To subscribe to this group, send an eMail to:
[log in to unmask]
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unioNews/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     [log in to unmask]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~