Target Centermass

Author: Gunner

  • Senator Says Pentagon Office Massaged Iraq Data

    Creating an opportunity for political gain was apparently too tempting to resist, even if it has the potential side effect of undermining our troops on the ground.

    A Democratic U.S. Senator on Thursday accused a senior Pentagon official of distorting intelligence information to back claims of links between Iraq and al Qaeda in the run-up to last year’s U.S.-led invasion.

    A report issued by Sen. Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, also questioned assertions of pre-war links between Baghdad and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who since the invasion has emerged as a leader in the anti-U.S. insurgency.

    The report, compiled by the committee’s Democratic staff, criticized the Office of Special Plans, which operated under the auspices of Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy.

    It was released less than two weeks before the U.S. presidential election, in which President Bush’s handling of Iraq is a major issue.

    The report said Feith’s office looked at evidence “through a different lens, one that was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.”

    Democrats have frequently accused Feith and other hawks in the Bush administration of manipulating data supplied by the CIA and other sources to bolster the case for invading Iraq.

    The 46-page report argued that Pentagon assertions of a link between al Qaeda and Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein were not supported by intelligence reports on which they were purportedly based.

    Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, a Virginia Republican, said it was too early to draw conclusions on these issues because the Senate Intelligence Committee was looking into these issues and its work was not complete.

    Levin said he released the report shortly before the presidential election because Congress was working on drafting an intelligence reform bill.

    Hmmm, let’s see. Two weeks before the election. A report compiled by Democratic committee staffers without the review of their GOP counterparts. Not political, my ass! The timing stinks all to Hell for the election and for the public support of our troops’ efforts in Iraq.

  • Come on, ‘Stros!

    Tied game in the bottom of the sixth. I shouldn’t be watching.

    EDIT: Okay, now they’re losing. I definitely shouldn’t be watching.

    EDIT 2: Well, that’s just craptastic! Still, it was a Hell of a ride from August to October. Also good that the franchise got that monkey off its back by finally winning a playoff series. Thanks for the year, boys.

  • A Simple Request for Patience

    Please bear with me, TCm readers, as I’m still trying to get my blogging sealegs under me again. I have been treading water of late, for obvious reasons, and am now trying to settle back into a steady state in my life.

    For myself, I will return to work tomorrow, a step back towards stability. I anticipate a post about my father soon, probably over the weekend.

    In the meantime, I’ve added a few new blogs to the blogroll. Please give them a gander.

  • Kerry Team Slams Reports Cheney Had Flu Shot

    Okay, now the Kerry camp is just pathetic.

    Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign slammed Vice President Dick Cheney, a heart patient, over reports he had a flu shot, despite a shortage of the vaccine.

    The campaign complained that Treasury Secretary John Snow and Senate Majority leader Bill Frist also had jabs, despite Bush’s advice that the young and healthy did not need to get an injection.

    “Once again, the Bush administration proves that it is the ‘do as we say, not as we do’ White House,” the campaign said in a statement issued in Pittsburgh where Kerry was campaigning.

    “The very week that (health) secretary (Tommy) Thompson is telling Americans to keep calm, Dick Cheney, John Snow and Bill Frist are getting flu shots.”

    “It is unfortunate that the Bush administration failed to do the work necessary to ensure that all Americans, including those most at risk, had been able to get shots as well.”

    Cheney would fit into the government’s definition of those most vulnerable to a looming influenza epidemic as he has a long history of heart disease.

    John Kerry may become our president. It would be a travesty if it comes to fruition, as it would be the based on the sleaziest campaign I can remember, a campaign of lies, innuendo and defeatism, seemingly sanctioned and propped up by the mainstream media. Now, are they actually trying to garner political gain from a flu vaccination administered to a 63-year-old key government official with a history of heart ailments? I repeat, pathetic.

  • Taliban Riven by Dissent

    Those pesky Taliban types, driven from their brutal reign, are now at odds with each other over their inability to hamper the recent Afghan elections.

    Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has had a serious falling-out with some of his lieutenants, who blame him for the rebels’ failure to launch a major assault during landmark Afghan presidential elections, the US military said today.

    The October 9 poll was largely peaceful, and US military spokesman Major Scott Nelson claimed that intelligence reports from Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan showed this had demoralised the Taliban militia.

    “There’s been serious disagreements between Mullah Omar and some of his lower commanders on the strategy for the follow-up after the election,” Major Nelson said. “There’s a lot of frustration with his lack of effectiveness in disrupting the election.”

    Omar, whose hardline Islamic regime harboured Osama bin Laden, has been at large since US-led forces ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001. The rebels have repeatedly mounted attacks in the past year on government and coalition targets.

    Major Nelson said he still saw “indications the man (Omar) is involved in planning Taliban operations” in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, but conceded the military didn’t know in which of the two countries the one-eyed rebel leader was hiding.

    The US military, which has 18,000 forces hunting al-Qaeda and Taliban holdouts in Afghanistan, has hailed the election as a body blow to the rebels because their threats to sabotage it failed to come true.

    An estimated 8 million Afghans turned out to vote, and US-backed interim leader Hamid Karzai appears set to become the country’s first directly elected leader after a quarter-century of conflict.

    This is the effect of the continuing and relatively unsung pressure that has been placed on the bad guys in Afghanistan. The Taliban militia is essentially castrated, hoping for terrorism while unable to take the field in any significant manner for fear of being shredded. They cannot even pretend to keep up a sustained guerilla campaign, as the Afghan national army continues to train and grow.

    It must suck for Omar to be stuck on the mountainous sidelines, watching the freedom he despises beginning to take root. Afghanistan, and indeed the whole world, will be better off with death of the last Taliban scum.

  • Back in Texas

    My father is buried and missed.

    I want to thank the many in the real world who have been and, I am quite certain, will continue to be so supportive. I would also want to send a special thanks to three bloggers for their kind words: Scott at The Fat Guy, Ben at Ben’s World (who will be on my blogroll with my next update), and especially Phil at Shades of Gray (Umbrae Canarum).

    I am humbled.

  • Quote of the Week, 19 OCT 04

    Strike the tent.

    —Last words of Robert E. Lee

  • Goodbye, Dad

    Thank you. Sleep well.

    How strange, so close to the same occurence to one of the first bloggers do me the honor of his attention. I wished well for him then and still do.

    In a way, I’m lucky. We all saw it coming, and I had my chance to say goodbye, spending the good part of a week at his bedside. I will post more about the man that was such a big part of my life later but, for now, please read my thoughts I wrote from our last visit together.

    I have no idea what my blogging status will be, indefinitely. I may need the outlet, I may need the time away.

  • Blog-Debate Post Three

    Debate over, spin begins.

    If you score this as anything other than a push or slight win either way, you’re probably a little too partisan. The question is, though, which of these two men do you believe in your heart has any sincerity. Kerry said a lot, and I believed little or nothing of it except that he married up (repeatedly). Also, this is the first debate where I thought the questions were an obvious case of softballs to the left, curves and sliders and fastballs (oh my!) to the right.

    I call it even, but I may change my own opinion after looking at the transcript. It should be remembered that the typical voter is not going to look at the transcript but is going to let the post-debate spin and spammed internet polls guide their opinion. Call me a cynic. I thought the first debate even and the second a blowout for Bush, so I feel my cynicism is justified.

    Oh, and the Astros are now down 10-4, still struggling to get out of the sixth. I had hoped for another strong showing from the young Backe but expected a loss tonight. The important game in the early part of this series is game two.

  • Blog-Debate Post Two

    Damn debate is almost over, which is good. Astros are tied 4-4, bottom of the sixth, but they’re in trouble and the recent strain on their pitching staff is showing.

    Make that 5-4 bad guys.