Daniel Senor, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s (CPA’s) public relations office, said, in a press conference on May 24, 2004: ” ‘The majority of Iraqis…do they want the coalition forces to leave? They say no.’ …The CPA’s own polls suggested just the opposite.” – Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Page 129 […]
5/24/2004
“On May 24 [2004], [FBI Director Robert] Mueller…mentioned the CIA’s [torture] videotapes and said the Agency [CIA] wanted to destroy them. According to CIA notes taken at the time, the consensus of the group was that the CIA should not destroy the tapes.” – Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Page 292 […]
5/24/2004
According to The New Yorker on May 24, 2004, Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld expanded a ‘Special Access Program’ that “authorized commando teams composed of combat-hardened soldiers from the elite Special Forces–the Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and the Army’s Delta Force–to work closely with the CIA’s paramilitary operatives in hunting, killing, or capturing and interrogating […]
5/24/2004
“…a troubling internal report commissioned by the military and obtained by…correspondent Seymour Hersh [and covered in his May 24, 2004 article in The New Yorker], traced the insurgency to deep-seated political problems in Iraq. In particular, it blamed the dysfunctional occupation authority set up by the Bush Administration. …The report made clear that the military’s […]
5/23/2004
“Empty flatbed trucks crisscrossed Iraq more than 100 times as their drivers and the soldiers who guarded them dodged bullets, bricks and homemade bombs. Twelve current and former truckers who regularly made the 300-mile resupply run from Camp Cedar in southern Iraq to Camp Anaconda near Baghdad told Knight Ridder they risked their lives driving […]
5/23/2004
An interview with 60 Minutes on May 23, 2004, revealed the U.S. Marine Corps general in charge of Central Command, Anthony Zinni’s assessment of the Iraq war: ” ‘In the lead-up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility; at worse, lying, incompetence and corruption; […]
5/21/2004
Regarding the torture of al Qaeda terrorist suspects: “White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales said in a May 21 [2004] interview with The Washington Post: ‘Anytime a discussion came up about interrogations with the president [Bush]…the directive was, *Make sure it is lawful. Make sure it meets all of our obligations under the Constitution, U.S. […]
5/21/2004
According to The Washington Post on May 21, 2004: “Many [Muslim] prisoners testified that guards forced them, under pain of torture, to curse their religion, eat pork and drink alcohol in violation of the rules of their faith. One of them told a newspaper reporter that he was first ordered to denounce Islam, and then, […]
5/20/2004
On May 20, 2004, “U.S. and Iraqi forces raid the Baghdad headquarters of former Bush administration favorite [Iraqi National Congress leader] Ahmad Chalabi, who is accused of having betrayed American intelligence secrets to foreign governments, Iran among them.” – Todd S. Purdum and The New York Times Staff, A Time of Our Choosing, Page 300 […]
5/20/2004
“Iran was a particularly important target for NSA [National Security Agency] after the fall of Baghdad. According to a former NSA official, the agency was able to read much of the sensitive communications traffic of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), which gave U.S. intelligence analysts some vivid insights into Iranian policy on Iraq, […]