Some history lessons: The Downing Street Memo (July 23, 2002); The White House Iraq Group/WHIG, etc.

[bobthedrummer]

Add your own links and comments to what no one has been held accountable for. I, for one, refuse to "forget about it". Ignorance is NOT strength...This is the worst part of the inheritance left to all of US by the BFEE imho.

July 23, 2002: The Secret Downing Street Memo (The National Security Archive) pdf
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB328/II-Doc14.pdf

August 2002: The White House Iraq Group/WHIG (The Center for Media and Democracy/Sourcewatch)
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=White_House_Iraq_Group

Add to this thread DU.

[bobthedrummer]

1. Here's some current context to consider: "Mitt Romney's Neocon War Cabinet" (Ari Berman 5-2-12 The

Nation)
http://www.thenation.com/article/167683/mitt-romneys-neocon-war-cabinet#

[Octafish]

2. In opposing the immortal words of Cass Sunstein, it is not time to ''move on.''

Gee, bobthedrummer. I'm so old, I still remember when being a United States citizen meant being in favor of jailing crooks and traitors.

Government Nanny Censoring "Conspiracy Theories" is Also Responsible for Letting Bush Era Torture and Spying Conspiracies Go Unpunished

Washington's Blog
Thursday, October 7, 2010

Cass Sunstein was the main adviser to the Obama White House advocating against prosecuting Bush administration officials for torture, illegal spying, and other crimes. As constitutional expert professor Jonathan Turley wrote in 2008:

Close Obama adviser (and University of Chicago Law Professor) Cass Sunstein recently rejected the notion of prosecuting Bush officials for crimes such as torture and unlawful surveillance.

The exchange with Sunstein was detailed by The Nation’s Ari Melber. Melber wrote that Sunstein rejected any such prosecution:

Prosecuting government officials risks a “cycle” of criminalizing public service, argued, and Democrats should avoid replicating retributive efforts like the impeachment of President Clinton — or even the “slight appearance” of it.

Sunstein did add that “egregious crimes should not be ignored,” according to one site, click here. It is entirely unclear what that means since some of us take the views that any crimes committed by the government are egregious. Those non-egregious crimes are precisely what worries many lawyers who were looking for a simple commitment to prosecute crimes committed by the government.

CONTINUED w links...

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2010/10/main-obama-adviser-blocking-prosecution.html

I know you're too young to remember, but don't take my word for it. Look areound and see what happens when we don't remember.

[Octafish]

3. About that WHIG, did anyone in authority ever follow up on what Congress found?

I don't think so, but I'd like to learn otherwise.

Records Could Shed Light on Iraq Group

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post
Monday, June 9, 2008

EXCERPT...

One obvious target for such an expanded inquiry would have been the records of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), a group set up in August 2002 by then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.

The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants (many have since left or changed jobs) were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy aides led by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, as well as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.

As former White House press secretary Scott McClellan wrote in his recently released book, "What Happened," the Iraq Group "had been set up in the summer of 2002 to coordinate the marketing of the war to the public."

"The script had been finalized with great care over the summer," McClellan wrote, for a "campaign to convince Americans that war with Iraq was inevitable and necessary."

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060801819.html

So.

[bobthedrummer]

4. Aside from the "collateral damage" to Mr. Libby (aka the rule of law) most of them stayed with

their culture of death and destruction programs and pimped themselves as "national security/counter-terror" experts. I'm so old (62) I can remember some of the national security experts that were, in fact, PAPERCLIP Nazis. Imo fascism was well represented in the foundation of National Security community in 1947-two years before my birth.

Fwiw, below is a profile of a key RMONEY foreign policy/intelligence "adviser" who reminds me of people like REINHARD HEYDRICH

COFER BLACK
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/black_cofer

Another bit of forgotten history: I remember the only member of Congress that actually brought Articles of Impeachment against RICHARD BRUCE CHENEY was KUCINICH (attacked here often at the level of NADER).

[Octafish]

5. Leveymg has made outstanding posts about Mr. Black...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/337

Kucinich will be missed by few officials in Washington DC: those who have Integrity.

[bobthedrummer]

6. Thanks for the link-Leveymg is one fine historian indeed. n/t

[bobthedrummer]

7. So Mitt Rmoney Is Talking About His Meeting With The Head Of MI6-that's worth a kick!