What was Desert Badger?

[soup]

Can someone help me here? This is from the transcript of *jr and President Fox's news brief this afternoon. This is part of his non-answer to the direct question about O'Neil:

>
Like the previous administration, we were for regime change. And in the initial stage of the administration, as you might remember, we were dealing with Desert Badger or fly-overs and fly-betweens and looks. And so we were fashioning policy along those lines. And then all of a sudden, September the 11th hit.<

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_FOX_TEXT?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

I searched Google for desert badger, looking for anything that would link it with Iraq, and came up empty.

Is *he just making this stuff up as *he goes along? Does *he even know what's coming out of *his mouth when *he opens it? Does anyone? Fashioning policy along WHAT lines?

[brainshrub]

1. This movie explains who the Desert Badger was:

Excellent political expose:

http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/

[soup]

2. But of course. How could I possibly have overlooked that?

Duly noted and bookmarked for future reference.







note to self: never, ever ask the desert badger question again.







Excuse me a moment while I go change. I just wet my pants.

[Fleshdancer]

3. AAAHHH!

ROFLMAO! that was funny

[brainshrub]

4. Take some mushrooms for that pant-wetting problem

or maybe a snake! A snake!

[mouse7]

19. Hell, Bush is the mushroom in that

Kept in the dark and fed a pile of shit.

[gbwarming]

6. “Um, look, if we built this large, wooden badger...”

http://www.wavsite.com/sounds/62369/grail47.wav

[KissMyAsscroft]

10. Pfffffftt!!!! LOL!!

I am crying right now!!!!!! lOL!

I was not expecting that!!!! Holy Shit that is funny!!!

[Judi Lynn]

21. You, too! Tears, tears. n/t

[htuttle]

11. Great. Thanks...

Now THAT is stuck going through my head....

I bet I'm going to dream about that tonight.

[brainshrub]

12. Yes, you will.

For at least 24 hours. It's worse than herpies.

[mrdmk]

14. Thank you

I lost 10 lbs watch that!:bounce:

[0rganism]

17. I think that explains pretty well what I'd imagine bush* thinks it was

I'm sure he got really excited about the mushrooms...

[Robb]

5. I gotta tell ya

Usually I can find things like this, but I've got nothing. couple of options:

1. He... made it up.
2. He got the name of a real operation... wrong.
3. He blurted out the name of a secret operation.
4. AP goofed because * was too drunk to understand.

"3" is pretty interesting to think about; for the name of an operation to be unknown, it's pretty up there in secret-land. Even budgeted "special access" programs have public names -- usually names so obscure, googling them is probably ill-advised. :tinfoilhat: At any rate, those SAPs will have a name, and no description in budgets....often the cause of much speculation in the planespotting community.

Were I to rank them in order of likelihood, I'd go 4, 2, 1, 3.

[baldguy]

7. They don't tell any SECRETS to W!

Are you kidding?

[soup]

8. I think #4. can be eliminated from the short list.

I watched the news briefing and heard him say it. - not saying he wasn't drunk, just saying I heard him say it - He was fumbling all over the place trying Not to answer the question. Could well be it just fell out of his mouth in his scramble to say something, say anything, just throw some words out there to avoid the question.

Don't know if the bombing of Baghdad in February 2001 had a code name. If it did, it's not mentioned anywhere I can find.

*jr was in Mexico then, too. Maybe he was having a flashback?

Given your options, I'd say 1, a very close 2, and a distant 3

Not sure why I latched onto this tiny thing, but it's bugging me.

Thanks for the response.

[Robb]

9. Heck, I live for a puzzle.

I've got a bunch of feelers out. :)

[gauguin57]

13. this all sounds like ...

"Brian Fellow's ... Brian Fellow's ... Brian Fellow's ... Safari Planet!"

Dubya is talking to a badger in his head while everyone else is discussing another topic!

"That's CRAZY!"

[Cat Atomic]

15. Maybe it was a dyslexic reference to Operation Desert Fox?

He does have a weird habit of transposing one word for another, similar one. Maybe he used the wrong small, furry animal.

[SoCalDem]

16. What he meant was the elusive....Martian Badger

[0rganism]

18. Well, no wonder we need to invade Mars!

Or are we still calling it a "liberation"?

[mouse7]

20. Badgers... we don't need no steenk-ing badgers.

[soup]

23. This thread is turning into an excellent testing tool.

Snorting coffee out of nose function check. still active

That was Good, mouse7! :D

[mouse7]

22. bump n/t

[nomatrix]

24. Underground mole

Recent video release
Code name: "Osambadger"



Signal: "High Five"

[Jeffrey_Lewis]

25. Desert Badger likely February 2001 Airstrike

The name "Desert Badger" had not previously appeared in any print sources. (Al Kamen in the Post asked the same question: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14540-2004Jan13.html)

My guess: A February 2001 strike on five Iraqi anti-aircraft radar control sites around Baghdad and 20 other radar installations with 24 aircraft that was described as the first strike against targets outside the southern no fly zone in two years (http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/02/16/pentagon.strike/).

At the time, the Administration claimed that the attacks did not indicate an escalation and called the attacks "a routine mission to enforce the no-fly zone." The President implied that ground commanders had called in the strikes, although he had approved them: "Commanders on the ground rightly make the decision how to enforce the no-fly zone. Some of the missions require the commander in chief to be informed. This was one of them." At the same time, however, there were indications that the operation had been in the works "for some time."

My sense is that the name of the operation was with-held to allow the President to paint the strikes as routine. This was the reason some Republican congressional sources offered for why the White House did not consult Congress on the airstrikes: "Some congressional sources theorized the White House did not consult Congress in order to reinforce the appearance that the airstrikes were 'routine' and unworthy of the type of congressional notification that would suggest a change of policy."

Apart from being amused at the minute attention to detail in the spin, the petty deceptions (not consulting Congress, not mentioning the name of the operation) also seem--to me at least--to reinforce the view that the debate really was, in O'Neill's words, "all about finding a way to do it."

Jeffrey

[newyawker99]

27. Hi Jeffrey_Lewis!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[truth2power]

26. Aside from that...

"And so we were fashioning policy along those lines. And then all of a sudden, September the 11th hit.<"

Isn't he, again, connecting 9/11 with Saddam? I thought the maladministration had repudiated that. Can't keep up anymore. :eyes: