Idrees Ahmad points out to me that there's an American Enterprise Institute connection in Bob Woodward's new book:
Last night I finished Woodward's new book, The War Within.
Unlike some of his past works this one has little that is of any value. Filled with mundane and insignificant details about people in and
around the US government, the book's few revelations don't arrive until
379 pages in. Most interesting for me was how much
influence AEI still exerts over the administration.
According to
Woodward, Bush's national security policy is completely dominated by Stephen Hadley,
which really means Cheney. And in the face of resistance from the
military, Defense, State and Intelligence, Hadley has been employing a
back channel through AEI's Jack Keane (former general) to push for the surge. They circumvented the chain of command
to push the surge in the face of the military's opposition by
establishing a direct line from Cheney>Keane>Petraeus, bypassing
the Joint Chiefs and Gates. Despite repeated warnings from generals, Keane keeps visiting Iraq and returns with rosy pictures that he relays directly to Cheney-Bush. Woodward makes no comment on the fact that what Keane is relaying has little resemblance to actual developments in Iraq.
The other revelation is that apparently on his return from that
famous walk in the Baghdad market, McCain told Rice in private the war
was a disaster and that the US was losing.
Finally, on
Woodward's journalistic practices: when he gets a chance to interview
Bush, he uses part of the time to ask such questions as 'Do you pray
for your policies', 'do you speak to your pastor'. In another place he
reveals that US has been using special ops death squads
to target resistance leaders. However, he says his sources told him
that revealing details would jeopardize these operations. And Woodward
is certainly not one to do that.
The totality of the book's revelations are between page 375-382. The rest one can safely skip!
"According to Woodward, Bush's national security policy is completely dominated by Stephen Hadley, which really means Cheney."
Woodward's assertions are corroborated by Barton Gellman's article in the WaPo, which describes Cheney running the illegal domestic telecoms surveillance out of his office, without Bush even knowing about it.
http://tinyurl.com/5rdgoc
"Woodward makes no comment on the fact that what Keane is relaying has little resemblance to actual developments in Iraq."
Nor does Gellman, in describing a last-minute compromise by Bush on the surveillance program to avoid mass resignations, mention that all the heroic internal resistance was for naught. Last year, Congress endorsed the program and voted retroactive immunity for the multiple felony offenses of all concerned.
"In another place [Woodward] reveals that US has been using special ops death squads to target resistance leaders. However, he says his sources told him that revealing details would jeopardize these operations."
Ditto for Gellman, who says that the surveillance program was modified to make it "legal," but supplies no details. How can we know that his assertion is not just a self-serving fairy tale spun by one of the accomplices?
The difference between 1970s journalism (Pentagon Papers, et al) and today's is that then, journalists and their employers risked ruin to dump the raw facts and secret memos into the public domain … and Congress recoiled in horror by holding hearings and taking action against the malefactors.
By contrast, today's "democracy" is anesthetized under the "unitary executive" and the neutralized, corporatist press. Bush's (and Israel's) targeted assassinations differ only in scope from Joe Stalin handing marked-up execution lists at 3 a.m. to his secret police. We are under de facto martial law, in that the constitution is effectively suspended. I do not believe either of the candidates plans (or is even able) to change this situation.
thats what they look for eh?
"One ex-White House aide at American Enterprise Institute, asked by Tim Shipman of the Daily Telegraph if AEI sees Palin as a “project,” replied: “Your word, not mine. … But I wouldn’t disagree with the sentiment. … She’s bright, and she’s a blank page. She’s going places, and it’s worth going there with her.”
In fairness to Palin, on issues like NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, her answers reflect the views of the man who chose her. She has no option at present but to follow the line laid down by Scheunemann."
Concerning Gellman see Jack Lang's, Sic Semper Tyrannis
In the Washington Post today, Fred Hiatt, the neocon editor of the Post's editorial page is busy trying to make a case for the unique brilliance of the "surge." I suppose that is an effort to counteract Woodward's latest book "The War Within" and Gellman's expose of Cheney's efforts to destroy the Constitution of the United States. Both of those were serialized in the Post. Hiatt must feel a bit put upon some days. No matter. He manages to pack the editorial page of the Post with his neocon brethren, Dennis Ross, Dr. Krauthammer, etc.
Make sure you take a closer look Jim. More ahead. Won't be easy to get out of that.
General Keane has been associated with the JINSA/PNAC/AEI Neocon crowd as conveyed via the youtube linked at the following URL:
link to neoconzionistthreat.blogspot.com
General Keane and the JINSA crowd:
http://neoconzionistthreat.blogspot.com/2007/09/keane-and-jinsa-crowd.html
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http://NEOCONZIONISTTHREAT.COM