Bush

The American Surveillance State

by News Sources 12.21.2010

Glenn Greenwald writes: One of the hallmarks of an authoritarian government is its fixation on hiding everything it does behind a wall of secrecy while simultaneously monitoring, invading and collecting files on everything its citizenry does. Based on the Francis Bacon aphorism that “knowledge is power,” this is the extreme imbalance that renders the ruling [...]

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George Bush gets some advice from the Conservative Mayor of London

by News Sources 11.22.2010

Borris Johnson writes: It is not yet clear whether George W Bush is planning to cross the Atlantic to flog us his memoirs, but if I were his PR people I would urge caution. As book tours go, this one would be an absolute corker. It is not just that every European capital would be [...]

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Bush’s Decision Points is a terrifying journey into the authoritarian mind

by News Sources 11.14.2010

Anis Shivani writes: This would be less grim to talk about if Bush weren’t still with us. But he is, in every way that matters. The Bush Doctrine lives. No leading American politician can disavow the two key aspects of the Bush Doctrine: that we cannot distinguish terrorists from the countries where they live, and [...]

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British deny George Bush’s claims that torture helped foil terror plots

by News Sources 11.10.2010

The Guardian reports: British officials said today there was no evidence to support claims by George Bush, the former US president, that information extracted by “waterboarding” saved British lives by foiling attacks on Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf. In his memoirs, Bush said the practice – condemned by Downing Street as torture – was used [...]

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America and Iran: strikes, sanctions and scapegoats

by News Sources 08.12.2010

Gary Sick writes: For the pundits, there are only two questions about U.S.-Iran relations that are of any importance: (1) Will Israel and/or the United States attack Iran? and (2) will the new sanctions have enough bite to persuade Iran to change its nuclear policy? Despite all the printers ink spilled on these two issues, [...]

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Me talk presidential one day

by Paul Woodward 09.16.2009

Me talk presidential one day By Matt Latimer, GQ, October, 2009 If my colleagues at the White House were even momentarily scared straight about McCain over the convention fracas, the clarity wore off just as quickly as it came when the very conservative governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, was picked as McCain’s running mate. I [...]

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Cheney uncloaks his frustration with Bush

by Paul Woodward 08.13.2009

Cheney uncloaks his frustration with Bush By Barton Gellman, Washington Post, August 13, 2009 In his first few months after leaving office, former vice president Richard B. Cheney threw himself into public combat against the “far left” agenda of the new commander in chief. More private reflections, as his memoir takes shape in slashing longhand [...]

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NEWS & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Muntader al-Zaidi

by Paul Woodward 12.16.2008

When the shoe fits By Paul Woodward, The National, December 16, 2008 In a war that has been punctuated by iconic moments, the shoe will be the symbol that most likely endures longest in connecting George Bush to Iraq. In 2003, the sight of a statue of Saddam Hussein being assaulted with footwear highlighted the [...]

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NEWS, ANALYSIS & EDITOR’S COMMENT: A structure for dealing with Iran

by Paul Woodward 07.17.2008

Why John Bolton is right on Iran By Gary Sick, Rootless Cosmopolitan, July 16, 2008 As usual, John Bolton is absolutely right. His policy prescriptions may be reckless to the point of foolishness (”When in doubt, bomb!”), but his understanding of what is happening in Washington policy (as outlined in his op-ed in the Wall [...]

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EDITORIAL: Talking to Hamas

by Paul Woodward 05.15.2008

Talking to Hamas By Paul Woodward, War in Context, May 16, 2008 Exchange from a Sky News interview, Davos, Switzerland, January 2006, soon after Hamas had won free and fair democratic elections in the West Bank and Gaza: James Rubin: Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the [...]

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EDITORIAL: Bush’s bullshit

by Paul Woodward 05.15.2008

Bush’s bullshit By Paul Woodward, War in Context, May 15, 2008 In his eighth year as president, George Bush still lacks the courage to address anyone but an overly sympathetic audience. Indicative of his plummeting approval rating, he now has to travel six thousand miles to find such company. Should we be surprised that in [...]

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GUEST CONTRIBUTOR – John Robertson: Mr Bush and his “legacy”

by Paul Woodward 04.06.2008

Mr Bush and his “legacy” By John Robertson, War in Context, April 6, 2008 According to Britain’s Daily Telegraph our war-hero “Decider” president has decided that he will pull no more troops out of Iraq. According to the report, which cites Pentagon sources, he feels that showing such “resolve” will cement his legacy – which, [...]

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FEATURE: Why Bush should reflect on Pinochet

by Paul Woodward 04.02.2008

The green light By Philippe Sands, Vanity Fair, May, 2008 The abuse, rising to the level of torture, of those captured and detained in the war on terror is a defining feature of the presidency of George W. Bush. Its military beginnings, however, lie not in Abu Ghraib, as is commonly thought, or in the [...]

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OPINION & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Prankster president

by Paul Woodward 03.16.2008

Soft shoe in hard times By Maureen Dowd, New York Times, March 16, 2008 Everyone here is flummoxed about why the president is in such a fine mood. The dollar’s crumpling, the recession’s thundering, the Dow’s bungee-jumping and the world’s disapproving, yet George Bush has turned into Gene Kelly, tap dancing and singing in a [...]

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OPINION: Terrorism, Iraq, and the facts on the ground

by Paul Woodward 01.30.2008

Normalizing air war from Guernica to Arab Jabour By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch, January 29, 2008 For those who know something about the history of air power, which, since World War II, has been lodged at the heart of the American Way of War, that 100,000 figure [-- the quantity of explosives dropped on Arab Jabour [...]

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NEWS & OPINION: Signing statements

by Paul Woodward 01.30.2008

The fine print Editorial, New York Times, January 30, 2008 With President Bush, you always have to read the footnotes. Just before Monday night’s State of the Union speech, in which Mr. Bush extolled bipartisanship, railed against government excesses and promised to bring the troops home as soon as it’s safe to withdraw, the White [...]

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NEWS, ANALYSIS & OPINION: A deadbeat’s peace process

by Paul Woodward 01.20.2008

Gaza City plunged into darkness BBC News, January 20, 2008 The only power plant in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has shut down because of a lack of fuel, Palestinian officials say, blaming Israeli restrictions. Gaza City was plunged into darkness after the plant’s turbines stopped. Israel’s closure of border crossings amid continued rocket fire from [...]

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NEWS: Bush coddles tyrants

by Paul Woodward 01.19.2008

Bush lauds Egypt leader, avoiding record on dissent By Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, January 17, 2008 President Bush lavished praise on President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt on Wednesday, emphasizing the country’s role in regional security and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process while publicly avoiding mention of the government’s actions in jailing or exiling opposition [...]

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NEWS & OPINION: Bush’s effort to undermine the NIE

by Paul Woodward 01.15.2008

Artificial intelligence By Fred Kaplan, Slate, January 14, 2008 President George W. Bush hasn’t accomplished much on his voyage to the Middle East, but he did take the time to inflict another wound on the entire U.S. intelligence community—and on the credibility of anything he might ever again say about the world. In the latest [...]

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NEWS: Lebanon

by Paul Woodward 01.15.2008

Beirut bomb hits U.S. embassy car By Tom Perry, Reuters, January 15, 2008 A car bomb damaged a U.S. diplomatic car in Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding 16, and the U.S. State Department said no Americans died in the blast. The bomb sent a column of smoke into the sky, [...]

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NEWS ROUNDUP: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Israel, Gaza, Syria

by Paul Woodward 01.15.2008

Bush prods Saudi Arabia on high oil prices By Stephen Lee Myers, New York Times, January 16, 2008 President Bush urged the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Tuesday to take into account the toll that high oil prices are having on the American economy, gingerly touching on an issue that has begun to [...]

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EDITORIAL: It’s not the end of times – just the end of Bush

by Paul Woodward 01.14.2008

It’s too late, baby By Paul Woodward, War in Context, January 14, 2008 Yesterday, in an address to government and business leaders in Abu Dhabi, President Bush said, “Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere. So the United States is strengthening our longstanding security commitments with our friends in the Gulf — and rallying [...]

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OPINION: It’s not about Iran

by Paul Woodward 01.14.2008

It’s not about Iran By Shibley Telhami, Washington Post, January 14, 2008 As President Bush travels through the Middle East, the prevailing assumption is that Arab states are primarily focused on the rising Iranian threat and that their attendance at the Annapolis conference with Israel in November was motivated by this threat. This assumption, reflected [...]

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NEWS: Bush promotes hypocrisy

by Paul Woodward 01.14.2008

“Nobody believes anymore what Mr. Bush is saying” By Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post, January 14, 2008 Shortly before President Bush showed up in the region last week, human rights activist Abduljalil Alsingace tried to deliver a petition to the U.S. Embassy complaining about the lack of democracy in his native Bahrain. He thought he might [...]

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