Jon Stewart Hammers Douglas Feith Over Pre-War Propaganda
By SilentPatriot Monday May 12, 2008 1:30pm
Douglas Feith is a fascinating character. Dubbed by General Tommy Franks as the "stupidest f*cking guy on the planet," he is one of the neocons who still goes on TV like he did nothing wrong, when he should be hiding under a rock and having trouble sleeping at night. On Monday, Feith stammered and stuttered his way through the widely discredited laundry list of reasons why -- despite conventional wisdom and reality -- the administration's case for war was completely honest and forthright.
Here is just a small taste of Feith's deceit and the money quote from Stewart:
Download | play 
Download | play (click here for the full 22-minute, unedited interview)
"You removed the ability for the American public to make an informed decision. Once you have removed that, then you no longer have the authority. You told us what part of the argument is appropriate to know about."
Although Stewart did a solid job of holding Feith's feet to the fire, I think he missed a couple of opportunities to really nail him. Rumsfeld's flunky maintains that everyone involved really did weigh the pros and con, and that they frankly conveyed both sides of the argument to the public.
Well, I would love to hear his predictably laughable response to any one of these:
The reinsertion of the infamous sixteen words into the SoTU.
The Downing Street Memo that confirmed "facts were being fixed around the policy" to remove Saddam Hussein.
Why was Powell's entire UN speech based on the claims of someone named Curveball -- an informant who the CIA repeatedly warned was entirely unreliable and a drunk.
Why was the opinion of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, who unequivocally concluded the aluminum tube and centrifuge angle was bogus, suppressed?
Why weren't we told that Iraq's Foreign Minister, Naji Sabri, reached out to the CIA and debunked every myth about their non-existent weapons programs.
And on and on and on...
Feel free to add your own examples in the comment section.
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...he should be hiding under a rock and having trouble sleeping at night.
No, he should be [do not advocate violence] at the Hague (after a fair trial, of course).
I liked where Jon was heading, just wish he'd gone further faster.
But then again, is it really Comedy Central's job to cover the fourth estate?
Saw this interview, Stewart crushed him.
well at least JS had SOME teeth in this interview. the question that begs to asked is where were they for the mccain interview?
I love that point about momentum from the second part. There was no momentum for a new war until they up and created it (and we all remember the members of the administration on talk show after talk show until they finally convinced the majority that it needed to be done).
RoscoPeeholePain @ 4:
I agree!
And your handle is funny as hell!
Feith has a perfectly logical theory for the Saddam-Al Qaeda link: Six Degrees of Separation!
Why? Oil. The newly commissioned and-based CVA Iraq. Launching point for coloniztion of Arab states and theft of their national resources. Profits for the Carlisle Group. Profiteering for Haliburton. Wealth beyond dreams of avarice for defense contractors. Cover for dismantling the Constitution. Further cover for perpetrating the overthrow of the American government while replacing it with a totalitarian police state. By their reckoning, it's mission accomplished....they've done very well for themselves.
stupidest fucking guy on the planet
SEC. RUMSFELD (August 03, 2004): But Doug Feith, of course, is without question, one of the most brilliant individuals in government. He is – he’s just a rare talent. And from my standpoint, working with him is always interesting. He’s been one of the really the intellectual leaders in the administration in defense policy aspects of our work here.
in 2004 that might have been a compliment (to some), but today that quote is damning.
call me vindictive, but for the rest of feith's sad miserable existence i think he should have to wake, drink, sleep, eat, shit, etc. the nightmare he helped spurn. he should be followed, mocked and ridiculed every day he has left in his slug-spittle life. at his house, at georgetown, when he goes out to restaurants, etc., everywhere he goes, there should be a group of people holding up the images of the mutilated bodies, the dead children, the dead american soldiers/marines, taunting him, making him dread living.
that would be my wish for the stupidest fucking guy on the planet. his actions and lies helped kill hundreds of thousands, and if he doesn't go before a war crimes tribunal his life should still be one long, waterboard-like, torturous existence.
SEC. RUMSFELD (August 03, 2004): [inaudible] remember Doug and others here as well as people outside of government urging that Iraqis be trained and given an opportunity to participate in the liberation of the country. And Doug unquestionably was in the forefront of that. You can imagine that a group of professional uniformed military personnel preparing for a major conflict and recognizing the difficulties of it, he [Feith] focused on their piece of it, which is the piece of getting that job done and getting it done in the fastest way that saved the most lives and the military and civilian as well. So that interest that Doug and others had, I think, was a valid one.
it is easy to let rummy hang feith.
Five years later, and there are still plenty of shitheads who actually believe they can make a legit argument for defending the Iraq invasion.
Just shows how stubborn and blind the GOP can be. They'll say the sky is green....then keep repeating it over and over until they simply wear down the opposition.
Bottom line: this country is in some very serious trouble. And don't expect the rest of the world to lend a helping hand. It's time for the bully to get its payback.
Why don't you admit that you took a huge gamble with American lives and treasure and lost.
Jon really hit it out of the park last night. It was not funny, not fake news, but considered non-revisionist evaluation.
In the end, it makes the dirty little chimp seem dumber than before and darth dick all that more paranoid and evil.
If incompetence is next to Godliness, their places are assured. If not, well then history's judgement will be harsher than anything we can write here.
I believe in the Military draft for at least one person. Go directly to the front lines in Iraq, do not pass go, do NOT collect $200. (Actually, the draft is good for all their children as well).
I don;t watch, nor care to watch, Jon (I'm MSM now too!) Stewart any longer. He's had McSame on numerous times, including recently - and never gets down to brass tacks with these guys. Always lets them off the hook with a guffaw here or an aw shucks there. He had his chances (plural) but is now relegated to the dustbin of MSM papparazzi.
They lied America into endless war and he has the chutzpah to go on a book flogging tour.
Hey,that rhymes.
When Feith started to go down the path saying something about "If Saddam Hussein had just been honest about his WMD", that nailed it right there. The Iraqis said they had no WMD, the search teams in Iraq before the war found no WMD, and no WMD have been found since the war. Before the invasion many people said "Give the weapons inspectors more time", but they were pulled out before the invasion. The emperor (Bush) has no clothes. It was all an illusion designed to get us into this crazy war, for deeper motives.
when do WE send them to prison...can't we make citizen arrests???
As long as people like Feith remain on the street and not in prison America is doomed.
The meek shall inherit the earth
But only after the powerful have blasted it.
Sachem @ 13:
bush and cheney are not incompetent. they were not put into power not by us but by the military industrial mediatainment complex and they are doing what is right for the people that put them and kept them in power.
we know there was malfeasance
in both the 2000 and 2004 elections....yet people like you think it's incompetence that drives their policies
wake the fuck up
Feith continues to repeat lies
A real problem is that we have yet to witness the completion of Phase II of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence which was supposedly investigating all of the pre-war intelligence. Republican Senator Pat Roberts did everything in his power when he headed this committee to divert, dilute and delay the findings of Phase II. I believe there are two parts to this investigation that are still not completed. One of the sections has to do with the Office of Special Plans which Feith, Ledeen, Rhode, Wurmser and others operated out of. Where they "allegedly" created, cherry picked and dessiminated the false pre-war intelligence out of.
Will Democratic Senator Rockefeller complete this investigation.
Will the American public witness anyone held ACCOUNTABLE for the false pre-war intelligence and the stovepiping of this intelligence into the White House. Holding these people accountable is the very least THE VERY LEAST that our reps can do for those who have been killed, injured or displaced by this immoral and unnecessary war.
Hold those responsible for an INTELLIGENCE SNOWJOB accountable!
The Republicans seems to be great at holding a President for lies under oath having to do with BLOWJOB!
Think Progress has a great deal at their site about Phase II
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS): Chairman of the Senate Cover-up Committee
http://thinkprogress.org/roberts-coverup/
SSCI report (the part that has been finished)
http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:ELVyo1QHyXwJ:web.mit.edu/simsong/ww...
THE WAY I UNDERSTAND IT THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL PLANS WAS "OFF LIMITS" TO THE INVESTIGATION FOR A LONG TIME
Stewart does a great job while conducting an extremely difficult balancing act. First, he has a limited amount of time to work with. Second, if he totally hammers conservative guests he won't get others to appear on the show in the future. If you're like me, there are times when I'm thinking, "interrupt this idiot regarding the lie that they just spouted"...but Jon has to give them a chance to speak, otherwise he's no better than O'Reilly. Jon is so successful because of these abilities.
marko @ 18:
fEITH SHOULD BE IN PRISON
[I'm going to let this slide, But in future Please don't post in all Caps. Thank You. Site Monitor]
Idiot.
It sounds like Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose character trying to defend Nixon ...
Stephen Johnson @ 14:
Draft their children first.
That way they can personally experience the results and cost of their arrogance and dishonesty.
Man. Fuck you, Feith, you fucking Fucktard.
That's what Stewart should have said right at the end of the interview.
I have not watched this how in a while because it seems to me that Stewart is ALWAYS hosting Republicans who are crminals. He never gives McCain a hard time, and I don't believe he has ever had John Edwards on his show. As an Edwards supporter I was disappointed with how the corporate media (including Jon Stewart)suppressed Edwards' exposure to the voting public. I don't think Stewart is sincerely in the corner of the average American.
Does NORML put out propaganga?
Does anybody put out anymore?
colon powell and the fingerpaintings of wmd at the UN.
i wish stewart (or somebody) would ask mr. feith about his relationship with the likud party in israel. it’s a very important topic and it’s hardly ever addressed.
You can scroll through Think Progress to find out more about Phase I and Phase II of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Phase II has yet to be completed. (this is the investigation that was looking into Feith's Office of Special Plans
There are many articles here about Phase II
http://thinkprogress.org/roberts-coverup/
Here is an article worth reading by Stephen Green which includes info about Feith
February 28 / 29, 2004
A CounterPunch Special Report
Serving Two Flags
Neo-Cons, Israel and the Bush Administration
By STEPHEN GREEN
Douglas Feith: Hardliner, Security Risk
"Bush's appointment of Douglas Feith as DoD Undersecretary for Policy in early 2001 must have come as a surprise, and a harbinger, even to conservative veterans of the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administration. Like Michael Ledeen, Feith is a prolific writer and well-known radical conservative. Moreover, he was not being hired as a DoD consultant, like Ledeen, but as the third most senior United States Defense Department official. Feith was certainly the first, and probably the last high Pentagon official to have publicly opposed the Biological Weapons Convention (in 1986), the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (in 1988), the Chemical Weapons Convention (in 1997), the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (in 2000), and all of the various Middle East Peace agreements, including Oslo (in 2000).
Even more revealing perhaps, had the transition team known of it, was Feith's view of "technology cooperation," as expressed in a 1992 Commentary article: "It is in the interest of U.S. and Israel to remove needless impediments to technological cooperation between them. Technologies in the hands of responsible, friendly countries facing military threats, countries like Israel, serve to deter aggression, enhance regional stability and promote peace thereby."
What Douglas Feith had neglected to say, in this last article, was that he thought that individuals could decide on their own whether the sharing of classified information was "technical cooperation," an unauthorized disclosure, or a violation of U.S. Code 794c, the "Espionage Act."
Ten years prior to writing the Commentary piece, Feith had made such a decision on his own. At the time, March of 1972, Feith was a Middle East analyst in the Near East and South Asian Affairs section of the National Security Council. Two months before, in January, Judge William Clark had replaced Richard Allen as National Security Advisor, with the intention to clean house. A total of nine NSC staff members were fired, including Feith, who'd only been with the NSC for a year. But Feith was fired because he'd been the object of an inquiry into whether he'd provided classified material to an official of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. The FBI had opened the inquiry. And Clark, who had served in U.S. Army counterintelligence in the 1950's, took such matters very seriously.....more seriously, apparently, than had Richard Allen.
Feith did not remain unemployed for long, however. Richard Perle, who was in 1982 serving in the Pentagon as Assistant secretary for International Security Policy, hired him on the spot as his "Special Counsel," and then as his Deputy. Feith worked at ISP until 1986, when he left government service to form a small but influential law firm, then based in Israel.
In 2001, Douglas Feith returned to DoD as Donald Rumsfeld's Undersecretary for Policy, and it was in his office that "OSP", the Office of Special Plans, was created. It was OSP that originated--some say from whole cloth--much of the intelligence that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have used to justify the attack on Iraq, to miss-plan the post-war reconstruction there, and then to point an accusing finger at Iran and Syria.....all to the absolute delight of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon."
ysbaddaden @ 29:
who? abbey norml?
AND we are very concerned about all the Iran propaganda.
Live blogging the Chicago Iran hearings...
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/33398
Talking points article about Feith and his shamelessness
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/07/the_shamelessness_of_dou...
The Shamelessness of Doug Feith and the Neocons
By M.J. Rosenberg - April 7, 2008, 5:09PM
How amazing is it that Doug Feith has the audacity to go on Sixty Minutes to essentially brag about the war he and his fellow neocons tricked America into?
4000 Americans dead. Iraq destroyed. Thousands of dead Iraqi children.
And this war criminal goes on television to hawk his book. Watch this portion of the interview. To his credit, interviewer Steve Kroft looks like he wants to vomit.
But why belabor Feith. Any administration that would give this guy a security clearance, let alone make him #2 at the Pentagon, clearly knew what it was doing. Feith is an idiot but he is what Bush and Cheney wanted.
Neocons like Feith have no conscience. They see the death and destruction that they caused in Iraq and think, "Hey, that will make an interesting chapter in my memoir." And how does America respond to this immorality? We buy their books, hire them to work at our best universities, and seat them on the boards of wealthy corporations.
Ignorant, weak, pathetic, accessory to mass murder and genocide. Where ever this goof goes in life, anyone he runs into who was against this immoral oil grab/war should be allowed to kick him up the ass.
Feith brought a knife to a gun fight.
Gotta give Stewart some credit. It would be very challenging for me to shake the hands of some of those he has shook. A true professional this Stewart. You know he must wash over and over once off camera.
Maybe he can move his show to Vermont or Europe so their will be some arrests when they finish taping.
What does these prisoners of their war/crony crimes know about freedom anyway?
Where would the news media be without Comedy Central? At least someone is asking the tough questions. Too bad it's a comedian that has to do it instead of "journalists."
Add to the list:
1. Rumsfeld knew the weapons were, north, south, east and west of Baghdad.
2. Iraq's non-existent WMD were sent to Syria
3. Hussein was involved with al Qaeda and plotting 9/11
4. Hussein could attack us with nukes within 6 months
5. The US wants democracy in Iraq and the Middle East
6. The US is waging a war against terror
7. Bush had a plan for post-war Iraq
8. Iraq's oil would pay for
warliberation and reconstruction9. Hussein had bio-weapons labs
10. Hussein could launch a biological or chemical attack within 45 minutes
11. Saddam would give WMD to terrorists
12. Iraqis would greet us as liberators
The person who has covered the subject of torture in Guantanamo Bay and its main players extensively and comprehensively, and that would include Douglas Feith, is Philippe Sands. He has written a book on the subject [ which, I believe, is entitled Torture Team] and an article on this topic in the May issue of Vanity Fair. In the article, Feith claimed that he had no knowledge of torture taking place in that prison location in Cuba. When Sands showed Feith a memo written by Pentagon general counsel William J. Haynes II, which stated that "I have discussed this [torture] with the Deputy [that would be Donald Rumsfeld], Doug Feith and General Myers", and asked Feith to comment on the memo, all Feith could say to Sands was that he had mispronounced his name. The last thing that these miscreants will ever do is admit that they are wrong, as they seem to believe that their hubris will forever go unpublished. Unfortunately, since Nancy Pelosi has declared impeachment to be off the table, they are probably right to think this.
BaScOmBe against Bitter Elitist Bullshit @ 33:
Y B Normal?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0izPsLSm-zM
i thought stewart did a great job...he just let feith talk
and the more he spoke, the more idiocy spewed out of that asshats mouth
It's amazing how these guys want to rewrite history and the facts. Goldberg wanting ideas on the legacy of Bush. Doesn't he know that Glen Greenwald alredy wrote that book? He must not have read it. They only want to write about how they didn't f**k it up.
This is why people get confused about Stewart. Pundit or comedian?
What he was right there was a damn fine interviewer. For either pundit or comedian, not to mention journalist.
jeanruss @ 28:
First, you're wrong. Stewart has has Edwards on his show. In fact, he announced his candidacy in 2004 on TDS.
Second of all, Stewart might not be your perfect Edward R. Murrow, but at this point, I'll take him over any other MSM journalist, including KO. I know he lobs softballs at guys who've been on his show a bunch, like McCain and Kristol. I'd love to see him whoop their ass just as much as you. But just because he doesn't isn't some proof of his siding with the MSM or the DLC or even the Repugs. He's just a comedian who's spoken his mind and taken some chances to be truly patriotic when others wouldn't. Don't put him up too high on a pedestal, he's just doing his thing.
And by the way, I completely do agree with you about Edwards and the rest of the MSM. And Edwards was my top pick til he dropped out.
If there were any accountability, Feith would be seeking sanctuary in some South American country instead of blathering on tv.
Rick Mack @ 15:
What do you freaking want? Jon is under no obligation to drill every single guest on his show and to "nail" them for their misspeaks and policies. (Remember when Jon interviewed Dick's wife?)
It's Jon's show, and he likes to have fun, and if that means he tip-toes around McCain, so be it. You or anyone else don't like what Jon does, you have a couple of choices... don't watch it OR get your own show and have these guests on there to interview.
Sadly, some guests only show up if the host (may it be TDS, Pravda, Corporate Media, Talk Radio) sticks to a certain line of questioning. That may explain as to why Jon skirts some issues and why others on other networks look like complete idiots. If you want the guest... you may have to play ball. I guess TDS could balk, but no one wins, really, in that situation.
More Feith info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Feith
"Feith began his career as an attorney in private practice, and first entered government as a Middle East specialist on the National Security Council (NSC) under Ronald Reagan in 1981. He transferred from the NSC Staff to Pentagon in 1982 to work as Special Counsel for Richard Perle, who was then serving as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger promoted Feith in 1984 to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy and, when Feith left the Pentagon in 1986, Weinberger gave him the highest Defense Department civilian award, the Distinguished Public Service medal.
During his time in the Pentagon in the Reagan administration, Feith was instrumental in getting the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Weinberger and Shultz all to recommend (successfully) to the President not to ratify changes to the Geneva Conventions. The changes, known as Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, would have allowed non-state militants to be treated as combatants and prisoners of war even if they had engaged in practices that endangered non-combatants or otherwise violated the laws of war. Reagan informed the Senate in 1987 that he would not ratify Protocol I. At the time, both the Washington Post and the New York Times editorialized in favor of Reagan's decision to reject Protocol I as a revision of humanitarian law that protected terrorists.[citation needed]
Upon leaving the Pentagon, Feith established the Washington, DC law firm of Feith & Zell. His law firm colleague, Marc Zell, was resident in Israel. Three years later, Feith was retained as a lobbyist by the Turkish government. Among other clients, his firm represented defense corporations Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Feith left the firm in 2001, precipitated by his nomination as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy."
Here is a link to the document that Doug Feith, Liv and David Wurmser put together called "The Clean Break:A New Strategy for Securing the Realm"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clean_Break:_A_New_Strategy_for_Securing_...
Another important article written by Lt Col Karen Kwiatowski who worked in the Pentagon at the same time as Feith. This is a must read
http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/feature/2004/03/10/osp_moveon/index.html
The new Pentagon papers
A high-ranking military officer reveals how Defense Department extremists suppressed information and twisted the truth to drive the country to war.
By Karen Kwiatkowski
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Mar 10, 2004 | In July of last year, after just over 20 years of service, I retired as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. I had served as a communications officer in the field and in acquisition programs, as a speechwriter for the National Security Agency director, and on the Headquarters Air Force and the office of the secretary of defense staffs covering African affairs. I had completed Air Command and Staff College and Navy War College seminar programs, two master's degrees, and everything but my Ph.D. dissertation in world politics at Catholic University. I regarded my military vocation as interesting, rewarding and apolitical. My career started in 1978 with the smooth seduction of a full four-year ROTC scholarship. It ended with 10 months of duty in a strange new country, observing up close and personal a process of decision making for war not sanctioned by the Constitution we had all sworn to uphold. Ben Franklin's comment that the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia had delivered "a republic, madam, if you can keep it" would come to have special meaning.
In the spring of 2002, I was a cynical but willing staff officer, almost two years into my three-year tour at the office of the secretary of defense, undersecretary for policy, sub-Saharan Africa. In April, a call for volunteers went out for the Near East South Asia directorate (NESA). None materialized. By May, the call transmogrified into a posthaste demand for any staff officer, and I was "volunteered" to enter what would be a well-appointed den of iniquity.
The education I would receive there was like an M. Night Shyamalan movie -- intense, fascinating and frightening. While the people were very much alive, I saw a dead philosophy -- Cold War anti-communism and neo-imperialism -- walking the corridors of the Pentagon. It wore the clothing of counterterrorism and spoke the language of a holy war between good and evil. The evil was recognized by the leadership to be resident mainly in the Middle East and articulated by Islamic clerics and radicals. But there were other enemies within, anyone who dared voice any skepticism about their grand plans, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and Gen. Anthony Zinni.
From May 2002 until February 2003, I observed firsthand the formation of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans and watched the latter stages of the neoconservative capture of the policy-intelligence nexus in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. This seizure of the reins of U.S. Middle East policy was directly visible to many of us working in the Near East South Asia policy office, and yet there seemed to be little any of us could do about it."
KWIATOWSKI WRITES ABOUT THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL PLANS IN THIS ARTICLE
THERE ARE LOTS OF INTERVIEWS WITH LT.COL KAREN KWIATOWSKI ABOUT THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL PLANS. HERE IS ONE OF THOSE INTERVIEWS
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2007/02/12/karen-kwiatkowski/
#####Wonder if Jon Stewart has had Kwiatowski on his program. This would be a great follow up after Feith.
moniker @ 47:
You can say that again. "Accountability" Justice or shame. We are morally bankrupt in this country and the whole world knows it. Feith, Cheney, Wurmser, Rhode, Ledeen, Bush, etc all need to be tried at the Hague
Rhl @ 36:
Feith is a very sick man..but our Reps are much sicker if they do not take these psychopaths to task. Hold Feith, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Bolton all of these Iraqi bloodsucking warmongers ACCOUNTABLE
Also, keep in mind that by letting his guests talk - and talk - and talk, Jon Stewart is just giving them more metaphorical rope to verbally hang themselves with. Some of the quotes must be good to use later against some of these people who said them in a campaign - especially any big gaffs.
Like a velvet fist in a velvet glove.
Geraldo @ 53:
Wrapped around a velvet penis.
seth @ 38:
Fixed it for you.
marko @ 21:
I agree. Only incompetence I see is in us. We, as americans, allowed this to happen and let it continue unabated to this day. I wonder if how many of us delude ourselves that blood of countless iraqis are on someone else's hands just because we didn't actually pull the trigger. I do hope we can somehow make amends to the world.
ysbaddaden @ 54:
I do not think we needed that particular image at this particular time.
New article at Think Progress about the Feith visit on the Daily Show
http://thinkprogress.org/
Last night, Iraq war architect Douglas Feith appeared on The Daily Show to discuss his war apologia, War and Decision. When Stewart said that many Americans feel the Bush administration misled them into war, Feith replied, “Errors are not lies. I think a lot of what the Administration said was correct.”
Feith insisted that the entire administration conducted a “serious consideration of the very great risks of war.” When Stewart reminded Feith that those risks were never presented to the public, Feith said he was wrong, and that people who felt that way simply “misremembered” the run-up to war:
What was said in the run up to the invasion
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.iraq/index.html
FEITH IS A LIAR PLAIN AND SIMPLE
Call write, e-mail your Reps demand that PHASE II OF THE SSCI (SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE) is completed.
Demand that Feith and anyone else involved with the creation, manipulation and dessimination of the false pre-war intelligence be held accountable!
Kathleen @ 58:
As my comment states at #41, Feith also lied when he claimed that he was unaware that torture was being committed at Guantanamo Bay.
napu @ 56:
I absolutely will not except any responsibility. I said from the very beginning that it was lies and all about oil. If you were sold on their claim that Iraq had wmds, fine, you can shoulder part of the blame, but don't even begin to think all of us were part of it. The problem was and still is, we that did voice our opinions, were shouted down.
Christy Who's Sane Hannity @ 12:
They knew. Most Iraqi people believe that those who lied our nation into war knew that the invasion would be disastrous. Too few troops, protect the oil but not the Iraqi historic museums, allow looting, disband the Iraqi army, torture, create an environment where deep divisions can be fueled, millions of Iraqi people dead, thousands injured, millions displaced. etc etc.
Mistakes? Or Mission Accomplished?
Kathleen @ 58
” When Stewart reminded Feith that those risks were never presented to the public, Feith said he was wrong, and that people who felt that way simply “misremembered” the run-up to war:
I wanted to reach through my teevee and strangle that lying fascist Feith!!!
That jacknut has total contempt for the American Public. I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire.
Ron @ 61:
Testify Brother!
Ron @ 61:
Millions of Americans marched against the illegal invasion of Iraq in the fall of 2002 in Washington, in New York in Feb of 2003. Families pushing baby carriages and grandparents in wheelchairs, WWII (I had the privilige of marching with these guys some of them in their 80's and 90's) Korean, Vietnam, Desert Storm VETS, students, lawyers, plumbers, teamsters etc etc. The MSM would air some footage of the 20 people with black hoods over their heads one hundred times in the evenings instead of showing the rest of the American public who was against the invasion and questioning the validity of the intelligence.
Hell over 30 million people world wide marched before the invasion.
WE WERE IGNORED BY THE MEDIA, BY OUR REPS AND CERTAINLY BY THIS ADMINISTRATION.
Will these blood thirsty warmongers ignite another confrontation with Iran? Who can stop them?
liberalHUSSEINmoderation @ 63:
will go on later to listen to Feith and his endless lies and spin. He and his comrades have been everywhere trying to respin the spin. If there is a hell Feith the devil is building a new wing for these fascist.
Kathleen @ 62:
I think you are giving these monkeys too much credit.
Kathleen @ 65:
I believe that I saw some footage on Google videos, but I don't recall anything in the MSM.
The Truth Hurts @ 11:
I'm sorry. Stewart is just as guilty for giving these assholes a forum to STILL try to make a retroactive case for this illegal war.
This subject was off the table at least 4 years ago, and both the Administration and (horrifyingly) the MSM are STILL in denial.
jeanruss @ 28:
Did you see Edwards on Larry King last night? Edwards was a whole hell of a lot nicer in regards to McCain that Jon Stewart was. Edwards wouldn't even draw a hard line in the sand between McCain and either of the Dems. FWIW my full support went from Kucinich to Edwards and now to Obama, but to be honest, Edwards is starting to look a bit too opportunist for my liking. I suspect there is far more irony in your post than you are aware.
As far as Stewart going after McCain- you have to admit that he was better in this latest interview compared to past ones. But it is still early, I mean we haven't even officially started the general election. Unless Jon scares him off, McCain will be on the show again. Politicians need the Daily Show now. Have patience and watch Stewart bite McCain just at the right time and to the greatest effect.
I am having a hard time watching these interviews. I love Stewart and his show but if he is going to allow these war mongers on tv, then he needs to have the balls to call bullshit on all of their bullshit. One thing in particular that really bothered me was Stewart's claim that our bombing and invasion of Afghanistan was justified. This myth is unchallenged by every single media outlet not too mention by a majority of Americans. Fact: the Taliban never attacked America. No matter what you feel about their draconian theocratic society, they never flew planes into the WTC. So many things wrong with this poor excuse for an interview.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Stewart said he hoped the entire interview -- 22 minutes long -- would be posted on the show's website.
Layne @ 69:
Bullshit. You rather they are able to write their books and there by re-write history, not get called on anything, and sail off into retirement? I don't understand why people want Stewart to sink to Rush Hannity levels and just yell at their guest the whole time. What Stewart does perfectly is draws out and exposes the stupidest shit from these people wrapped in their non-existent robes and then just lets them sit there naked in their own feces for the world(and the future)to see judge fittingly.
Ron @ 68:
Exactly. Even NPR did not cover the first marches. The "groupthink" hysteria. The msm (including NPR rolled over) did not cover these marches very well. Part of the plan. Hell 50% of the crowds were over 40. Talked to hundreds of people in their 70,s and 80's. As I said I marched with some old WWII chaps in their 90's. Did you hear or see, Matthews, Stephanpoulous, Russert, NPR interview these folks before the invasion? Hell No!
It was a myth that Americans were not against that invasion...in the millions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_2003_Iraq_war
FOLKS MIGHT WANT TO CONTACT THE DAILY SHOW AND ASK THEM TO HAVE LT COL KWIATOWSKI ON TO COUNTER SOME OF FEITH's LIES. THIS WOULD BE A GREAT FOLLOW UP TO THE FEITH INTERVIEW.
Karen Kwiatowski worked with Feith in the Pentagon
http://www.amconmag.com/12_1_03/feature.html
Don't see a way to contact the show but you could put your comments and request to have Kwiatowski on the Daily shows blog
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Christy Who's Sane Hannity @ 67:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0FUvLfxyp0&feature=related
I wanna have a million of Jon Stewarts babies.
Feith also brought up the failure by Saddam to produce proof that he had no WMD with the Iraqi Weapons Declaration. It's interesting that he would use this since 8,000 of the 12,000 pages were redacted by the White House so who knows what was declared and what was not. Besides, how do you prove a negative.
The whole neocon agenda depends on machivellian/straussian/orwellian deception.
sam @ 71:
Sam
Stewart actually tried to claim that the bombing and invasion of Afghanistan was justified? If he did, then any shred of credibility that he had before that interview has now evaporated. As you correctly note, no Afghan flew a hijacked plane on 09/11/01. Jon Stewart, that media star whom liberals love to swoon over, may wish to ask Afghans whose villages and houses have been blown apart by American bombs if they believe that the illegal invasion and occupation of their country by imperialist America was justified.
It is long past the point that someone should inform the idealistic Mr. Stewart that the reason that Afghanistan was invaded by the militaristic United States was to protect an oil pipeline that runs from Central Asia to the Caspian sea. Someone should also ask Stewart how he would feel if a five hundred pound bomb was dropped on his house, resulting in his family being horribly burned, maimed and crippled, if not wiped out. But for flag waving liberals like Jon Stewart, it would seem that the rule of American Exceptionalism must always prevail.
Why was Powell’s entire UN speech based on the claims of someone named Curveball — an informant who the CIA repeatedly warned was entirely unreliable and a drunk.
Were they not even allowed by the Germans to actually interview this guy at the time or even know his true identitity? I may be wrong, not sure.
Erroll @ 79:
When over 40% of our population still think that Iraq was involved, it is not surprising that Stewart would be totally informed on Afghanistan. Steart is not a reporter, he is a comedian who uses satire to expose the stupid remarks of others.
Douglas Feith is one of the Pentagon officials subpoenead in the U.S. Vs. Rosen espionage trial. You know the investigation and trial that dare not speak its name by the MSM or the so-called "progressive" blogosphere.
Indictment
http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/reports/2005/franklin_indic...
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:7-mMAxMAFTEJ:fas.org/sgp/jud/aipac/...
I have called the Alexandria division several times. There are private hearings going on after the April 29th trial date came and went for the fifth time. According to the folks I have spoken with these hearings are going through all of the classified documents having to do with Iran that Rosen and Weissman "allegedly" passed onto Israeli officials. There are two dates in May that are supposedly open to the public May 20th and May 29th.
The MSM has not touched this investigation or trial. If this trial is dismissed which we know the Israeli lobby will be delighted about most Americans will not even blink an eye since they have been kept in the dark by our media about this investigation and trial.
Doug Feith is intimately involved with this classified intelligence that was passed on having to do with Iran.
Here is the U.S. Vs Rosen
This prevaricator needs money so he goes on The Daily Show. He just lost his job at Georgetown Univ. He has to sell books.
I dont give a rat's ass how he claims the admin acted, as if their assumptions are above reproach and exist in the ionosphere like stars or bacterium. He's culpable. He has the hands on the power levers, not us. He did what he did. He advanced what he advanced. He has accountability.
Ron @ 81:
Wouldn't.
stewart pussed out -- why didn't he ask how the fuck we're supposed to believe this murdering, war criminal hawk's (no credibility) book when ALL of the fucking emails and text messages leading up to the war mysteriously disappeared with the fucking US attorney emails and text messages -- FUCK HIM AND FUCK THEM -- THEY LIED AND THEY KNEW IT -- this is nothing more than an attempt to make a case for defense when (and if) they are tried for the war crimes they are guilty of and should be sentenced for.
2fargone @ 85:
When over 40% of our population still think that Iraq was involved, it is not surprising that Stewart wouldn't be totally informed on Afghanistan. Steart is not a reporter, he is a comedian who uses satire to expose the stupid remarks of others.
Why blame Stewart? He's got a 1/2 hour show and after commercials he has 22 minutes. Some of you have to wake up to reality.
Christy Who's Sane Hannity @ 67:
I have a dear friend Peggy Gish who was in Iraq both before the invasion and after with the Christian Peace Maker Team. She has spent four years accumulatively there living with and interviewing the Iraqi people. Her group was interviewing the detainees and family member of detainees from Abu Gharib the summer after the invasion. Seymour Hersch has used some of Christian Peace Maker Teams report about detainees for his articles.
Peggy and other people who have been in Iraq have shared that many of the Iraqi people firmly believe that chaos is exactly what these "monkeys" wanted. Douglas Feith, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Wurmsers, etc are not stupid people. The sending in too few troops, protecting the oil and not the Iraqi historic museums, disbanding their army, torture, etc etc were not mistakes...this was the agenda. I firmly believe this.
go watch the film "No end in Sight" which confirms what Peggy has heard many of the Iraqi people say. Death and destruction is what the right wing radicals wanted in Iraq
Film "No end in Sight"
http://www.noendinsightmovie.com/
Peggy Gish and other members of her group CPT are willing to come share their experiences and insights with anyone or any group.
A video about Peggy Gish being kidnapped in Iraq (they were able to keep this out of the MSM at the time of the kidnapping)
Peggy speaking
http://bop.nppa.org/2008/web_sites/winners/index.php?cat=DWV&smc=INDE&pl...
a bit about Peggy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4066835.stm
A bit about the work of CPT
http://www.cpt.org/
Funniest interview I've seen in a long time
5+ years later, and the neocons are STILL trying to justify the invasion and occupation of an innocent and sovereign nation with no ties whatsoever to 9-11, Al-Queda or WMD's.
Why these arrogant war criminals are not yet hanging from noose's is beyond comprehension.
Douglas Feith is a fascinating character. Dubbed by General Tommy Franks as the “stupidest f*cking guy on the planet".
That's funny, I thought General Franks had met Busholini.
Kathleen @ 87:
So I guess eventually the fruit of these cynical plans and their underlying brilliance will be revealed to us. Because things don't appear to be going their way right now.
How truly "in the bag" and irresponsible is journalism in this country today? Take a minute to re-watch the puffball Steve Kroft interview with Feith shown on 60 Minutes and covered by this very website (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/07/60-minutes-doug-feith-once-agai...) and compare and contrast them both. Jon Stewart is professional but tenacious in making his points and polite but strategic in his questioning. Kroft, on the other hand, is hardly up to the task and almost disinterested in bringing the conversation to any sort of "gotcha" level. What the holy hell is wrong with our media? I know they're dickless hacks and corporate toadies but seriously, is this what things have come to, a media completely unwilling to hold government responsible and represent the interests of the taxpayer?
Let's trade a criminal investigation of Feith & Co. for a spanking on hip TV show.
The John Stewart Show. Part of the problem.
C. Montgomery Burns @ 72:
Yeah...gonna check it out as soon as I get home.
though I WAS disappointed with TDS' interview of McBain...he is after all a comedian, though he has better interviewing skills than most MSM hacks..I mean "reporters"...I still love the man, and will continue watching his show.
And the american people lap it up and never question it ......... till now .......... how many more need to die before you actually do something about it ?
napu @ 56:
There are two problems in this country: the people who voted for Bush and Cheney, and the people who allowed them to get away with the past eight years.
The punchline might actually be that we are all getting exactly what we deserve.
Is it even possible to make a guy who's nick name is "doughy pantload" and who's name is synonymous with the phrase "stupidest fucking guy on the planet" look any worse? LOL!!! Speaking of which he's incredibly unattractive to boot so he's also got that going for him. He's a real catch by reslug standards.
Ron @ 86:
I find it simply stunning that you are somehow trying to justify that Stewart believes that the illegal invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was the correct thing for the United States to do. Your claim that because 40 per cent of the population still believes that Iraq was involved [I assume you mean involved in the 9/11 terrorists attacks] that this is somehow supposed to get Stewart off the hook for that idiotic statement that he made about the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Do not Americans believe that Stewart and his crew are the ones who are exposing the lies that this administration have been telling the American people and the rest of the world? Jon Stewart is supposed to be the hip comedian who tells the truth about what is going on in this country. After trying to claim that the U.S. was right in invading Afghanistan, it appears that Stewart is not so hip after all.
Since he had on Douglas Feith, one of the top officials of the Bush administration, one would have expected Stewart to do his homework before claiming that the Afghanistan invasion was justified. Instead he bizarrely takes the position that the U.S. was right in causing the needless deaths of Afghans, who never threatened anyone in these United States. Apparently the Bush administration does not have to look far in attempting to locate someone who will shill for them, as it appears that Jon Stewart should fill that position quite nicely.
It pains me to say that Stewart, a comedien, conducted a more forthright and incisive interview with this nimcontard than any journalist I have ever seen.
How long have we been hearing that GOP incompetence and unwarranted optimism in addition to slanting the intelligence to the extreme in order to favor the action they decided to take ahead of time is not the same thing as lying and deceitfulness?
Looks like we'll keep hearing it for some time to come from people that should in all honesty be brought up on criminal charges.
"The reinsertion of the infamous sixteen words into the SoTU."
I have only 4 LETTERS for Douglas Feith...STFU.
All this makes me wonder about crazy ol' Dan Rather's lawsuit. Might be time to do a little follow-up on that.
A man can be crazy and still tell the truth about something.
Military analysts named in Times exposé appeared or were quoted more than 4,500 times on broadcast nets, cables, NPR
Summary: A New York Times article detailed the connection between numerous media military analysts and the Pentagon and defense industries, reporting that "the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform" media military analysts "into a kind of media Trojan horse -- an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks." A Media Matters review found that since January 1, 2002, the analysts named in the Times article -- many identified as having ties to the defense industry -- collectively appeared or were quoted as experts more than 4,500 times on ABC, ABC News Now, CBS, CBS Radio Network, NBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200805130001?f=h_top#
"Stupidest guy on the planet".
That's quite a commentary, particularly when your boss is George W. Bush.
Samson- @ 9:
Kathleen @ 87:
I agree. Why else after the initial invasion would we not guard those munition stockpiles? How about those 180,000 missing arms? Pallets of billions in cash just disappearing?
Arms, munitions and money. What more do you need to start an insurgency?
I think the idea was to let the Iraqis fight/kill themselves while our contractors were making billions.
I always hated this guy. Why are most of the male Bushies fatassed, pasty and wear glasses with round frames (e.g. Rove, FCC bitch Kevin Martin ,etc) ?
Those round glasses don't fool me. Feithers, you're still a dumb fuck and a failure.
Constitution who needs a Constitution?
it still bugs the hell out of me that the liberals fell for the Downing Street "Memo" framing.
there was no memo, it was:
THE DOWNING STREET MINUTES
The actual RECORD of what was said. Not a memo (which, if anyone was even slightly awake the last eight years would know that the wingnuts had besmirched the term "memo" well before the minutes came to light).
napu @ 56:
Amends. A word.
That will teach him not to try and sell his book anywhere except FOX noise.
He hemmed and hawwed so much I swore he must have felt he was doing a jig in his seat. Even a worm doesnt wiggle as much as he did last night.
Good going Jon. Show these fools that most Americans dont have blinders on.
Pete @ 109:
If ever there was a reason to impeach this impeachment, the Downing Street Minutes should provide that reason. The Minutes said that the U.S. and the UK agreed in the summer of '02 to invade Iraq and that the facts were fixed around the policy. It did not matter if those mythical WMD were never found, the U.S. was hell bent upon invading and occupying Iraq. Despite this proof, Nancy Pelosi still insists that impeachment is off the table. How convenient that the U.S. has elected not to belong to the International Criminal Court, where charges could be brought against the U.S. government for war crimes in violation of the Geneva Convention and the Nuremberg Principles.
Feith: "The diplomacy failed when Saddam Hussein didn't make an honest declaration on his chemical & biological weapons." Stewart should have hammered him with, "How can you say that Mr. Feith? How would you know what an honest declaration would be? There turned out to be ZERO chemical & biological weapons there, so Saddam's declaration WAS 100% accurate!"
Otherwise, Stewart did a rather good job. Feith & his bosses should be placed in stocks for display in the DC mall!
Even the Neocons so-called rationale for the war paints them as a bunch of incompetent idiots. Most of us here know that their motives for the invasion had nothing to do with fighting Al Qaeda. It was something else, which I don't want to get into in length in this post, but Israel's interests as well as big oil's interests were at play.
Now, Feith argues that they invaded Iraq to prevent another attack. That tells us one thing: it says that they had no idea as to who was against us and who was with us, so they basically decided to bomb whomever they came across. Don't they realize that argument alone paints them as a bunch of incompetent idiots? Couldn't they come up with a more intelligent excuse, one that actually holds water?
His whole point was deception is not lying it is just errors. Someday when he is off the drugs or booze someone replays his interview with him. Show him what an asshole lying piece of sh*t he was/is.
Dual citizen Feith and the others weren't really concerned at the time about the pre-war hype because they truly thought that Iraq would be a cake-walk war that would be over in 6 months that the public would soon forget about, like Grenada or Panama. Abu Ghraib was essentially Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz's hissy fit and attempt to short-cut to an end of the war once the cake-walk dream was dashed. Dual citizen Pearl at the time Iraq started was advocating a simultaneous attack on Syria. Essential a "spare no expense" Middle East makeover policy.
I think that once Iraq, and perhaps Syria was over, all sights could train on Iran. That's the part that has been nagging me. Stupid as the Bush administration may be, they had to know that by taking out Saddam and Iraq, that they would be removing a threat to Iran and would enhance Iran's influence in the area. So, given the mindset of these individuals, remembering that along with Iraq, they labeled Iran as part of the axis of evil, they have to be privately considering this matter a great fiasco unless Iran is attacked. Probably the original plan was ground war, but now with the troops bogged down in Iraq, they'll probably settle for air war. I don't think for a second that these people considered Iraq in isolation, without considering Iran. I suspect the original list price was about $1 trillion to conquer all countries, but like the Big Dig, we're running into some overruns.
McCain's program "rouge state rollback" has the neocons slobbering over him, especially Lieberman. Since McCain wants 100 years in Iraq, and says there will be more wars, I'm interesting in his being asked how he intends to pay for it.
Stewart handed him his
assheadass-head.Plus Stewart insults the idiot's book at the end of the show, to his face.
Not enough for you? Take it up with the gutless fuck of a fifth estate, America. None of these crooks give a damn if they get beat up on Comedy Central.
Let's get something clear once and for all: Americans were not "decieved" into war!
Jon spends a good deal of time talking about the bush administration "deception" and how we were lied to.
Folks, anyone who was reading a newspaper or watching tv in late 2002 and 2003 heard or read the words "PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE."
These words are exactly what they sound like: that America has the "right" to invade any country it perceives to be a "threat." This is the "new approach" that feith was talking about in the interview, and he's right on that point, that "new approach" was not hidden from the public!
We all knew EXACTLY what the bush administration was doing, and if we had any brains we knew it was illegal.
So the blood is on all of our hands in that sense. The majority of Americans because they thought it would be an "easy" pre-emptive strike, and most of the minority who were against the war because we didn't do enough to call out the illegality of pre-emptive strike. For myself that's a hard truth to face.
Reminds me of when David Frost nailed Nixon in his interviews.
Since Frost was most often a comedian, Nixon thought Frost would be easily deceived, but Frost did his homework ahead of time.
Joe Tseng @ 118:
'Cuse me - weren't we hearing something about how we can't wait for the final proof, which could come in the form of a mushroom cloud? Seems they outed a CIA agent in the course of dealing with that deception. We were hearing about biological weapons, mobile labs. We heard that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons materials sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax and materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin.
They made a case that would cause a reasonable person to believe that Iraq posed an imminent threat. They had a lot of help from the media. I don't think that in 2003, people identified the FCC regulated media as a government propaganda apparatus like people are beginning to do now. The media, of course, didn't want to ask the question I wanted asked, namely if there was this myriad of WMD, why was it that the weapons inspectors couldn't be pointed to an instance of this. The media misrepresented the French position, which was that France was quite willing to support the war, if WMD was found, or the weapons inspectors were impeded in searching for WMD. That would have paved the way for U.N. funding. We know now why there was no point in seeking UN funding (because there was no WMD). In my opinion, the American people were lied to, and media consolidation has been approved by the government with the specific intent of seeing that the American people will be continued to be lied to. In my opinion, if it was not for the internet to hold somewhat the media's feet to the fire, we'd still be hearing of the latest escapades of the runaway bride as our top story, along with Britney and so forth.
Jon should have asked about the message multipliers. That is going to be the next big story whether the MSM wants to raise it or keep it under the rug.
I would like to make a correction to what I wrote in comment 118, to say the blood is on all our hands is wrong. My hat's off to all those willing to get out and protest in 2002 and 2003, I will always consider the Michael Moores and Cindy Sheehans to be the heroes of the protest movement.
But in response to nobuddy says @ 120, I stick by my words. I was never fooled by this administration and I'm sure you weren't either. Anyone with half a brain knew back in 2003 that the Iraq invasion was illegal; illegal by international standards and illegal by constitutional standards. The words "pre-emptive strike" is the smoking gun, and we heard these words a lot in 2002 and 2003.
At that time I kept looking around (right and left) asking my friends and family "isn't anyone going to question the legality of pre-emptive strike?" Bush is essentially saying America has the right to invade a country FIRST, before the 'terraists' come to us.
No folks, we weren't "decieved". We knew exactly what was happening. It's just that many people thought it was going to be easy and successful.
He has to be the stupidest fucking guy I have ever heard!
Joe Tseng @ 122:
You contradict your own statement. You say we were NOT decieved, and then you state that people THOUGHT it was going to be easy. Why did they THINK it was going to be easy? Were they decieved about the missions difficulty?
I don't get why some folks are unhappy with Jon Stewart's questioning -- sure there's so much more he could have dealt with, but keep in mind that he hosts a satirical news show on Comedy Central. He's not a real journalist, he's not on a real news channel... the fact he asked some good questions and called Feith on his B.S puts him light years of most journalists. That he was able to do what he did is great. It was a great interview and it's satisfying to see those criminals called on their lies and deception. If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at the reporters that haven't done half of what Stewart's been able to do with his comedy program.
I think Jon Stewart does a great job of interviewing these guys, considering what he has to work with. He hosts a 22 minute comedy show, and the interview segment is only six minutes. If he challenges every statement, they won't be able to broadcast anything coherent (remember the mess that was the Jonah Goldberg interview?). And when it's so spectacularly obvious to anyone watching that the guy's lying, what's the use of hammering him on it anyway? It would just seem infantile ("You're lying!", "No, you're misremembering!").
I'm just not sure how asking the questions listed above would accomplish anything, either. Isn't Colbert's stated goal of "nailing" every interviewee part of the joke? It seems better to me to allow Feith to be obviously wrong on a whole host of very basic things and thereby skewer his own credibility, rather than to steer the conversation towards details that can be more easily lied about. If Stewart had raised Curveball in this interview (someone that probably 95% of his viewers have never heard of), Feith would have just said "Our office found him trustworthy." And who's to argue with that? At that point it becomes Jon Stewart's secondhand knowledge of what the CIA thought about the man versus the head of the Office of Special Plans' firsthand knowledge on what the Office of Special Plans thought about the man. And, as mind-numbingly stupid as it is, Feith has the upper hand in that argument.
Douglas Feith should have a starring role at the Hague.
NoGWBpolicyleftinplace Says@124
Deceived into believing we had a right to invade, deceived into believing America was not starting an illegal war that much of the world rallied against.
Deceived into believing that Iraq was truly an "immediate" threat to America's security and way of life.
Or the big one: That there was NO INFORMATION out there to refute bush's preemptive doctrine, showing it for the falacy it was.
All these points and deceptions (and I have many more) should have been brushed away as lies by a thinking person. I did exactly that in 2002/2003, refusing to be persuaded by the media and Americans around me who said "well...it's what we have to do to stop terrorism..." But you miss my point entirely. For the "easy" part I'm not contradicting myself, I'm saying it was AFTER the war turned sour and no WMDs were found that many Americans changed their minds and decided they were "deceived".
Feith isn't stupid, he's dishonest to the core. Everything he has done, including his book and this interview is to cover up his real agendas.
Iraq is all about power and oil. Period. They could have had Mahatma Ghandi as president and the Bushies would have fabricated a story about him being a terrorist and needing to be removed.
"Sir"? Douglas Filth doesn't deserve that respect. "Chump" is more respect than Filth deserves.
The only thing that bastard deserves is a cell in the Hague and waterboarding...after all, George Putz says waterboarding isn't torture or illegal.
BaScOmBe against Bitter Elitist Bullshit @ 30:
Colon Bowel farted a lot, but he didn't produce shit.
NoBuddy @ 120:
Well, that says a lot about you. Us, dirty, pink commie, elitist (a new addition) hippies, who actually knew some shit about the world (and could find Iraq on a map), so we poor souls saw through the propaganda. Along with the rest of the world. Maybe there's something in the water in the US that makes 99% of the population braindead zombies?
I wrote about this once before, and got an angry reply telling me, in effect, that the English language didn't really matter; it was the message that counted. Our language, really, is all we have; it's how we communicate. Bad grammar and typos are signs of carelessness, negligence, and all to often, ignorance. I like your message, but there have been times when, because of typos and bad grammar and unintelligable syntax, I haven't been sure just what your message was.
YOU NEED A PROOFREADER FOR YOUR BLOG!
Have you spotted the mistake in this message. If not, that alone should prove my point.
Another neocon traitor criminal scumbag who should be breaking rocks after about six months of daily public waterboarding on national tv.
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