“In his [January 23] 2007 State of the Union address, [President] Bush explained, ‘For too long, our nation has been dependent on foreign oil. And this dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes and to terrorists who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments and raise the price of oil and do great harm […]
1/22/2007
The ‘Iraqi hydrocarbon law’ “grants foreign oil companies ‘national treatment,’ which means that the Iraqi government cannot give preference to Iraqi oil companies (whether public or privately owned) over foreign-owned companies when it chooses contractors. This provision alone will severely cripple the government’s ability to ensure that Iraqis gain as much economic benefit as possible […]
1/17/2007
“On January 17 [2007], Attorney General [Alberto] Gonzales announced that the warrantless eavesdropping program was coming to an end and the NSA’s [National Security Agency’s] eavesdropping activities from then on would once again come under the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] court. ‘All surveillance previously occurring under the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) would now be […]
1/17/2007
Though a U.S. District Court ruled the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program was unconstitutional on August 17, 2006, “on January 10, 2007, they [the Justice Department] got one of the eleven [rotating] judges on the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] court…to interpret as permissible a key aspect of the warrantless program. This involved working […]
1/17/2007
According to The New York Times on January 17, 2007: “We were told also that our allies would join in a massive coalition [in Iraq] so that we would not bear the burden alone. …we are now bearing that burden almost entirely alone. More than 90 percent of the non-Iraqi soldiers are American, and the […]
1/16/2007
“President Bush said that his Iraq policy was headed to ‘a slow failure’ until he changed course last week with the announcement that he was sending more than 21,000 additional U.S. troops to bolster flagging security in Baghdad. The comment, perhaps the president’s frankest admission that the previous strategy was not working, came during an […]
1/16/2007
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy staff member Christina Shelton uncovered a CIA assessment relating to the activities of the Iraqi intelligence service, which included reports (dating back to 1996) of links between al Qaida and Iraq. When she asked why this information was not included in new intelligence assessments, “One official told her that citing […]
1/15/2007
Political Advisor Richard Perle was quoted in the January 2007 issue of Vanity Fair: ” ‘Huge mistakes were made [in Iraq], and I want to be very clear on this: They were not made by neoconservatives, who had almost no voice in what happened after the downfall of the regime in Baghdad. I’m getting damn […]
1/15/2007
“A key judgment of the [January 2007] NIE [National Intelligence Estimate] was that ‘Iraqi society’s growing polarization, the persistent weakness of the security forces and the state in general, and all sides’ ready recourse to violence are collectively driving an increase in communal and insurgent violence and political extremism.’ The NIE further judged that ‘the […]
1/11/2007
“…John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, gave a startling assessment in January [11] 2007 to the Senate, stating that al Qaeda ‘are cultivating stronger operational connections and relationships that radiate outward from their leaders’ secure hideout in Pakistan, to affiliates in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.’ Whereas previously U.S. intelligence officials spoke […]