Wolf Blitzer looks back at 10 years of Iraq War Bush lies
By SilentPatriot Saturday Jul 05, 2008 5:30pm
During a 10 year tribute to his show "Late Edition" this morning, Wolf Blitzer opened up the CNN vaults to revisit some of the most deceptive things Bush administration officials have said to him throughout the years about Iraq and the reasons for the invasion. Oh, memories...
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Cheney in Jan 2007: You can go back and argue the whole thing all over again, Wolf, but what we did in Iraq in taking down Saddam Hussein was exactly the right thing to do.
Full transcript below the fold:
Over the past decade, the 09/11 terror attacks and the war in Iraq have certainly dominated the news. From thousands killed and wounded to tremendous and often unexpected changes in the balance of power in the Middle East, Iraq has been a central topic of many of this program's most significant interviews.
The subject of Iraq even came up in my first interview with then- Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush when I caught up with him on the campaign trail in Iowa in January 2000, a year before he entered the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: It's almost exactly nine years since your dad, the president of the United States, accepted a cease-fire with Saddam Hussein in Iraq in exchange for full Iraqi agreement to comply with U.N. weapons inspectors, but for the last year there have been no weapons inspection teams in Iraq at all.
If you were president today, what would you do about that?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I would continue to keep the pressure on the Iraqi government. I would continue to insist that inspectors be left and allowed into the country. I would continue to insist that Iraq complied with the cease-fire arrangement.
BLITZER: But they are in violation of the agreement.
BUSH: Absolutely, and we shouldn't be sending mixed signals, and if any time I found the Iraqis were developing weapons of mass destruction, they wouldn't exist anymore.
BLITZER: Who wouldn't exist anymore?
BUSH: The weapons of mass destruction, yes. I'm not -- they need to hear that from a potential president, that if we catch them in violation of the agreement, if we in any way, shape or form find out that they are developing weapons of mass destruction, that there will be action taken, and they can just guess what that action might.
BLITZER: And you're not going to spell it out here today.
BUSH: No, sir.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And he didn't spell out his plans back in 2000, but as the years went by his administration made it clear its fears of what Saddam Hussein could do were growing amid what appeared at the time, officials said, to be solid evidence of a hidden Iraqi nuclear weapons program.
President Bush's National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and I spoke about that in September 2002.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: How close is Saddam Hussein's government, how close is that government to developing a nuclear capability?
SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE: You will get different estimates about precisely how close he is. We do know that he is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon. We do know that there have been shipments going into Iran, for instance -- into Iraq, for instance, of aluminum tubes that really are only suited to -- high-quality aluminum tubes that are only really sorted for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs. We know that he has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists, to make a nuclear weapon, and we know that when the inspectors assessed this after the Gulf War he was far, far closer to a crude nuclear device than anybody thought, maybe six months from a crude nuclear device. The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons, but we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Tensions with Saddam Hussein continued to grow until march 2003 when the U.S. and a coalition of allies invaded Iraq and toppled his regime in a matter of only a few weeks, but no weapons of mass destruction were found.
Also cast into doubt was another reason given for the invasion, possible evidence of cooperation between the Iraqi government and the terrorists of Al Qaida.
I pressed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on this when we spoke almost two years after the invasion.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Listen to what you said on September 26th, 2002, several months before the war: Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD RUMSFELD: We do have solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al Qaeda members, including some that have been in Baghdad. We have what we consider to be very reliable reporting of senior-level contacts going back a decade, and of possible chemical and biological agent training, and when I say contacts I mean between Iraq and al Qaeda.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: That was a mistake?
RUMSFELD: No, Zarqawi was in there. It was clearly -- there clearly were al Qaeda in and around Iraq.
BLITZER: You believe that to this day?
RUMSFELD: Zarqawi was physically in Baghdad. They were operating.
BLITZER: But was he then, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, associated directly with Al Qaida?
RUMSFELD: No, probably not.
BLITZER: Why would you say there was a connection between Iraq and Al Qaida?
RUMSFELD: Because the intelligence reported that there were al Qaeda that moved in and out of Iraq and had some connection with the Saddam Hussein regime. BLITZER: That was on September 26th, 2002. The intelligence, your intelligence in February 2002 said exactly the opposite. There was a DIA intelligence estimate that's now been declassified, Senator Levin released it, that said this: "It's possible he does not know any further details. It's more likely this individual is intentionally misleading the debriefers. Ibn al-Shaykh has been undergoing debriefs for several weeks and may be describing scenarios to the debriefers that he knows will retain their interest.
In effect, the DIA concluded that this source, which alleged this Iraq/Al Qaida connection, was a fabricator.
RUMSFELD: There is no question but that there are fabricators that operate in the intelligence world, and that there's also no question, but you can find intelligence reports on every side of every issue. When you look at the reams of intelligence information that the United States develops from different agencies, they gather from other foreign, friendly foreign liaison services, you can find in any given week intelligence that conflicts with each other. The implication that there's something amazing about that is just ridiculous. We know intelligence is imperfect.
BLITZER: But the basis of the intelligence, that's why the U.S. went to war: The WMD and the Iraq/Al Qaida connection that you alleged?
RUMSFELD: The reason the United States went to war, the president has announced and said it repeatedly: There were 17 resolutions in the U.N. that were ignored by Saddam Hussein. Our planes were being shot at on a regular basis in the Operation Southern Watch and Operation Northern Watch. Saddam Hussein was giving $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers. Iraq was on the terrorist list.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: By January of last year, after a four-year battle with insurgents, many Americans were seriously questioning the wisdom of the invasion, but the vice president, Dick Cheney, had no doubt it was the right course of action.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHENEY: Saddam Hussein would still be in power. He would, at this point, be engaged in a nuclear arms race with Ahmadinejad, his blood enemy next door in Iran.
BLITZER: But he was being contained, as you well know, by the no-fly zones in the north and in the south.
CHENEY: He was not being contained, Wolf. Wolf, the entire sanctions regime had been undermined by Saddam Hussein.
BLITZER: But he didn't have stockpiles.
CHENEY: He had corrupted the entire effort to try to keep him contained. He was bribing senior officials of other governments. The oil-for-food program had been totally undermined, and he had in fact produced and used weapons of mass destruction previously, and he retained the capability to produce that kind of stuff in the future.
BLITZER: But that was in the '80s.
CHENEY: You can go back and argue the whole thing all over again, Wolf. But what we did in Iraq in taking down Saddam Hussein was exactly the right thing to do. The world is much safer today because of it.
There have been three national elections in Iraq. There's a democracy established there, a constitution, a new democratically- elected government. Saddam has been brought to justice and executed. His sons are dead. His government is gone and the world is better off for it.
You can argue about that all you want. That's history. That's what we did and you and I can have this debate. We've had it before.
But the fact of the matter is, in terms of threats to the United States from al-Qaida, for example, attacks on the United States, they didn't need an excuse.
We weren't in Iraq when they hit us on 9/11. The fact of the matter was...
BLITZER: But the current situation there is...
CHENEY: The fact of the matter was that al Qaeda was out to kill Americans before we ever went into Iraq.
BLITZER: The current situation there is very unstable. The president himself speaks about a nightmare scenario right now. He was contained, as you repeatedly said throughout the '90s after the first Gulf War, in a box, Saddam Hussein.
CHENEY: He was, after the first Gulf War, had managed to kick out all the inspectors. He was providing payments to the families of suicide bombers.
He was a safe haven for terrorism, one of the prime state sponsors of terrorism, designated by our State Department for a long time. He'd started two wars. He had violated 16 U.N. Security Council resolutions. If he were still there today, we'd have a terrible situation.
Today, instead...
BLITZER: But there is a terrible situation there.
CHENEY: No, there is not. There is not. There's problems -- ongoing problems -- but we have, in fact, accomplished our objectives of getting rid of the old regime...
BLITZER: And... CHENEY: ... and there is a new regime in place that's been there for less than a year, far too soon for you guys to write them off. They have got a democratically written constitution, the first ever in that part of the world. They've had three national elections. So there's been a lot of success.
BLITZER: How worried are you, Mr. Vice President...
CHENEY: We still have more work to do to get a handle on the security situation...
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Wolfes world view is blocked by his beard and the sheep bell bush hung around his neck
"Cheney in Jan 2007: You can go back and argue the whole thing all over again, Wolf, but what we did in Iraq in taking down Saddam Hussein was exactly the right thing to do."
yea screw the millions of life destroyed here and there.
One wonders if Blitzer is capable of self-reflecting on the free passes he gave to all these Bush regime clowns by failing to ask them hard questions?
I guess I know the answer: Probably not. He seems to be repeating the same pattern.
same same same same same same same same same that's what Wolf gets paid for and he's only too happy to be a well-paid accessory after the fact to grotesque crimes against humanity. good for him. hope it gets him an Emmy.
The embedded Congress and the embedded Media aided and abetted these lies and it is painful for US Sovereigns to see them all grouped together while for Iraqi men, women, children and babies it continues to be a death sentence.
How Congress can fund a War it never declared while US Sovereigns pretend yet another election is gonna change things is ridiculous.
Remember the 22nd of November 1963 America !!!!!
This is wierd....but if you freeze frame at the 1:47 mark what are you seeing behind Blitzter?
It is probably my screen but it it looks wierd at this end.
sovereignjohn @ 5:
I still remember where and what I was doing that day. So sad.
"You can go back and argue this all you want Wolf, the fact of the matter is I don't give a good God damn what anyone thinks . I'll send as many young soldiers as necessary to their deaths in order to make me and my cronies richer and more powerful than we already are . Now fuck off ."
I cannot stomach the words this "dictator" constantly spews at all.
He has weakened this country to the point that it is almost completely dead and severely hated everywhere.
What he's done is beyond simple IMPEACHMENT!
What a recipe for apocalypse. Hopefully we won't make it again.
liars
wolff is phull of schitt too!
he's actually serving up policy to this guy. already we see the commander codpiece setup, with wolff reciting the neocon agenda. wolff already knows what's coming.
this whole bunch of reichwingneocon conservative bastards and bitches
should have to pay for their crimes. they want to push the f'ing christian bible on everyone,then let them be tried the old fashioned way the bibile teaches.
we should just take them out to a publice wall and stone every last one of them.
and if that does not jive with you, then let blackwater do it.
after all, bush has granted them immunity from EVERYTHING they do.
The timing of this video very convenient, and very suspicious; and the source is CNN. What is the motive behind this video, and its timing? They all knew that it was a war crime before it took place.
Trial. Conviction (piece of cake...), and Punishment. Gitmo for the lot of them? Or Abu Ghraib? Hmmmmm...
What an embarrassing moment in U.S. history.
impeach the lot of them. the likes of wolff will always be lapdogs.
I thought Wolf Blitzer died a couple of weeks ago. This breaking news must make his dad, Big Wolf, happy.
Wolf Blitzer actually sounds a bit defensive in this bit. I suspect this was produced in response to the accusations that the media did not do its job and did not ask the tough questions
the neorumberg trials will soon be starting. it's time for jimmy stewart to take out the bad guys.
All those young lives lost to take down one man!!! Three if you count the sons. What vision!
Why no covert operation to do it vs. armies and years and years of this.
I can almost hardly wait for 30 or 50 years to pass so we can see history consider Bush a hero, bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha ahahah aaa ha ahaaah oh that's almost going to happen. The show they make then about this period of time will no doubt stun as all again at the stupidity.
I'm gonna get drunk and watch Wire reruns. F the world!
When you listen to what Bush says & how he says it, almost a year before he was appointed president by the Supreme court, (thus validating a stolen election) about Iraq, and WMD, and weapons inspectors, you have to come to the conclusion that the Big Fix was on and HE KNEW IT!!!! The PNAC plan was in the works and the oil grab was going to happen come hell or high water. Everything was set. All they needed was"A New Pearl Harbor"
And what do you know?
Along comes 9/11.
Bye Bye Democracy,
Bye Bye Bill of Rights,
Hello war, Fascism, Torture,
Illegal spying on US citizens,
A compliant media &
A cowardly Congress.
And here we jolly well are....
aren't we?
...and wait for the returns from my bros an my sis's getting arrested protesting the G8 robbers summit.
listen, ya gotta give wolf some credit; he WAS asking tough questions of cheney and rumsfield, they simply talked him down, talked over him etc. (i do wonder if 'tough talk' was agreed to beforehand to 'satisfy the critics' though...).
i'm gonna agree that this piece was produced to answer the 'soft media' criticisms.
oh and, i was born on nov. 22, 1963 so it wasn't a completely tragic day ;)
.
"Impeachment is off the table."
I'm moving to Canada so i can laugh at this from afar instead of crying in the middle of it.
Here is Gore Vidal.
We no longer have a country. We have mafioso in charge of the executive and their henchmen in charge of congress. With a very few brave exceptions, it is all corrupt.
This week the Senate, in probably its most corrupt act to date, will cut the FISA lawsuits off at the knees, thus emasculating the judiciary.
They will then proceed to make the law conform to past illegal practice.
It is a criminals dream come true.
Tin plated despots the world over understand this kind of government.
We have have fallen into wreckage.
Fuck CNN.
Really.
This was corporate porn...self-serving auto-gesticulation on Wolfee's wet beardlette.
(And fuck Howie and his media-reviewing programme, Stupid Ass Sources, or something as lame...him and Alfred E. Newman, er, Teddyboy Kopple think the medias have been soooooooooooooo nice to Obama. Save me the post, later, if C&L puts that up. And fuck Tweety, cause I am in a mood.)
They just interviewed Douglas Feith on 60 Minutes, and this self-declared pseudo-intellectual reminded me of the chess master on From Russia With Love. My plan was perfect. If everybody followed my plan, everything would've worked.
Then Blofeld's goon kicked him (Khromsky?) in the shin with a poisoned shiv shoe.
Again, I ask, is it a coincidence that all of these thieving bastards have that same sh!t-eating-grin on their ugly mugs?
It's the same one they wear when they are on the way to the bank!
Butterfly effect my ass! This administration’s recklessness will be looked upon 30 years from now as the pivotal sledge hammer that lead to a series of the most terrible world events the world has yet see, I hope we survive them.
Anyone want to take bets? The loser has to buy dinner at a fine restaurant in Napoli Italy, assuming it’s still there and I’m still alive, I’ll be 71 and I would SO love to be proven wrong.
Will Wolf Blitzer show a 10-year retrospective on his verbatim repetition of Iraq War Bush Lies?
I am not holding my breath.
So, uh....Wolfman Blitzkrieg decided to spend a show toasting himself for doing interviews with important people? Too bad he didn't actually do any important interviews.
During a 10 year tribute to his show “Late Edition” this morning, Wolf Blitzer opened up the CNN vaults to revisit some of the most deceptive things he recklessly decided not to investigate or follow up on.
There, fixed it.
Oh, and I noticed that in the first featured interview, the soon-to-be Oval Office Oragutan said:
That doesn't seem so misleading. He did "find" that they had WMD. In the way a tribunal "finds" facts -- it decides that they are true based on whatever it looks at, in Bush's case, whether it served his purposes to "find" that they had WMD. Moreover, it seems like he's doing his best now to ensure that the Iraqis no longer exist.
Godless SOB @ 15:
Darn right, Godless Son Of a Bitch.
MyGodBeatsYourGod @ 28:
iraqhusseinconcilable @ 8:
Aren't these people in jail yet?
Robin @ 6:
My ass
In 2000, he's already talking about "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and "how he'd deal with Saddam Hussein".
Here's a more damning video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se2mlKTHdUk
Robin @ 6:
looks like porn...or just someone's a**
Alice X (Chomsky Nader) @ 27:
Well said.
McCain:
"I believe there have been times where I have probably been influenced because the big donor had - buys access to my office, and we know that access is influence. And honestly, that taints us all. It taints me."
It taints them all.
Blitzer should be one of the first up against the wall right after the likes of Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, O'Reilly, Limbaugh and Faux News executives and owner (no blindfolds either). Close behind them, and sentenced to daily waterboarding should be the likes of Michelle Malkin and Charles Johnson (LGF).
When my friends and I watched the run up to the war up here, we had the bad luck of watching it on CNN. We came up with a nickname for giant cheerleader without makeup Blitzer.
Wolf "Mother of All" Blitzers
It was so obvious the excitement in his voice reporting this wonderful news of a US invasion. The only one that topped him, was that reporter on the deck of the US carrier cheering on the jets as they lifted off. Screaming. "Woooooohooooo!!" Ah yes, the days of unbiased reporting.
Vernon Twinburger @ 37:
no they arent and nobdys even after them , kiss your money and your country good by, after obamer takes over thier will be kisses hugs and lighting up thier cigars with hundread dollar bills, happy days are here again , time for the new dictator to elevate!
Condi's eyes move weird like a lizard's.
Just before she tells a whopper her right eye rolls back in her head.
And in between whoppers it's dancing back and forth .. left and right.
I'd noticed it before, but in that interview it was the worst I can remember.
Anybody else?
I couldn't watch it. Both of them make me sick!
45 MountainMan23 Says: Condi’s eyes move weird like a lizard’s.
Just before she tells a whopper her right eye rolls back in her head.
And in between whoppers it’s dancing back and forth .. left and right.
I’d noticed it before, but in that interview it was the worst I can remember.
Anybody else?
____________________________________________________________
I think Homer Simpson's does too.
MountainMan23 @ 45:
Reading the talking points off the teleprompter.
getalife @ 41:
I think the Constitution states that one of the DUTIES of government is to "regulate commerce."
I don't remember any mention of corporations having the rights of citizens.
Quite the opposite. In a democracy - government of the people, by the people, for the people - it is the DUTY of government to regulate the corporations for the benefit of the people.
That all went out the window in the late 1800's when the Robber Barons got their way with a compliant Supreme Court that declared corporations to have the same rights as citizens.
The Bush Crime Family began in the late 1800's when Samuel Prescott Bush made his fortune selling railroad parts to EH Harrington's Union Pacific Railroad. Their sons - Prescott & Averell - handled Hitler's finances and supplied much of his propaganda.
Tigerwong @ 26:
Except we're not really laughing up here. We're waiting for the annexation.
On January 16, 2000, Bush didn't have much a a Texas twang. Funny how he picked it up in Washington.
Despite Wolf's softball pedalling the few times he got them on, I wanted to slap Rumsfeld in the face really hard. He had the gall to call other people fabricators when he himself was the hugest fabricator of all.
And Cheney himself is a huge fabricator given his own reasons why the US didn't move into Baghdad during his own stint as defense secretary.
Think how bigger this country would be if all that money borrowed from the Chinese were used to fix our roads and bridges. God I hate Republicans.
Republicans only want to help people like themselves who don't need help.
No blue collar worker ever ought to vote Republican, imo.
MountainMan23 @ 49
Actually, Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce. Unfortunately, that clause has been interpreted so broadly, that Congress now has the power to outlaw all sorts of activities if they have some sort of effect on interstate commerce. I do wish the federal government would actually get back to doing what the clause empowers it to do, ensure that these multinational or multi-state corporations follow basic regulations so as not to screw the people.
Pretty much, though not quite all the rights, privileges and immunities of citizens. Corporations have a kind of "personhood" that entitles them to rights they really shouldn't have.
Easily discoverable facts destined to be disbelieved by Bush's blind supporters.
One of the things that clip established without a shadow of a doubt is that Cheney is a contemptuous and contemptible SOB. That man deserves to spend the rest of his miserable life in jail and then in the fiery pit of hell.
Even by the way Wold introduces these segments IN RETROSPECT... he STILL is giving bush, Rummy, and Dead-Eye-Dick the benefit of doubt in his white-washed historical scenario.
oops... meant to say "... the way Wolf introduces..." sorry... must type slower, engage brain faster.
Hey Wolfy, don't try to make yourself legitimate now. If you and your news brethren had done your job seven years ago we might not be in this mess.
When Bush, Cheney, Runsfield and Rice are hanging from a rope after being convicted of war crimes, will it be televised like Saddams execution?
Just wondering.
pissedcanuck @ 57:
We can only hope.
I watch Wolf Blitzer because I like my news with a bit of that old neocon bias, yeah that's the ticket.
Wolfie is a former spin doctor for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Wolfie answers to Likud, to Benjamin What A Yahoo, and, most important, to Shelly Alderson and his Vegas-Asia gambling billions.
Wolfie, like Howie Kurtz at WaPo, has his offshore bank accounts established and does only what Shelly, Benny What A Yahoo, Likud, and the Neoconservative cabal, all of which represent neither Israel nor Judaism, tell him to do.
The Real Wolfie:
Blitzer began his career in journalism in the early 1970s in the Tel Aviv bureau of the Reuters news agency. In 1973 he caught the eye of Jerusalem Post editor Ari Rath, who hired Blitzer as a Washington correspondent for the English language Israeli newspaper. Blitzer would remain with the Post until 1990, covering both American politics and developments in the Middle East.
Sometime in the mid-1970s, Blitzer also worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as the editor of their monthly in house publication, the Near East Report. While at AIPAC, Blitzer's journalism focused on Middle East affairs as it relates to United States foreign policy.
+++++++++
The New York Review of Books
Volume 37, Number 1 · February 1, 1990
'Territory of Lies'
Robert I. Friedman
Senior Israeli Defense Department officials are understandably pleased with Blitzer's book about Pollard. First, Blitzer serves up the fiction that Israel's running of Pollard in America was the exception, not the rule. Second, Blitzer covers for senior Israeli officials who approved the Pollard mission by making a scapegoat of Rafi Eytan, who he suggests was largely responsible for the "rogue operation."
Blitzer misrepresents my views in a number of ways. I did not criticize him for failing to refer to Pollard's prison letters. However, Pollard's prison letters to friends and family members are far more revealing than the two self-serving and manipulative interviews he accorded Blitzer. Nowhere in his book does Blitzer reveal Pollard's affinity for the right-wing extremist views of Gush Emunim and Greater Israel, though those ideas are expressed in great detail in his letters.
I'm not the only reviewer who has commented on Blitzer's lack of analytical perspective. "I wish Blitzer had spent more time interpreting some of Pollard's views," wrote Steven Luxenberg, the deputy editor of the investigative staff of The Washington Post in his review of Blitzer's book. "He says that he was reluctant to introduce his own opinions into the narrative; he also seems reluctant to include much analysis until the epilogue…."
In the final analysis Blitzer fails to make sense of the bizarre and contradictory aspects of Pollard's life, diluting to blandness whatever superficial comments he does offer about the spy. While it's true that Blitzer quotes a number of Jewish establishment figures about the extent to which Pollard's kind of Zionism is an aberration among Jews, Blitzer himself neatly sidesteps the issue—once again declining to express a clear view.
Blitzer plays down the damage caused by Pollard, although he says he has not read the full unedited version of Weinberger's classified damage assessment, and although Israeli intelligence sources told him than at a minimum the take from the operation was "breathtaking." Nothing Blitzer has to say refutes this.
Finally, I never accused Blitzer of writing that everything Pollard stole related directly to Israeli security. I even pointed out that Pollard stole information to impress friends and to help his wife win a PR contract. I would add that this fact contradicts another of Blitzer's themes that Pollard was motivated by love of Israel and not, as the US government contended, by greed. What I did write was that Blitzer claims that everything Israel "tasked" Pollard to steal was needed for the security of the Jewish State. But according to court documents and interviews with US government sources, Pollard stole a great quantity of information, such as US ship movements in the Mediterranean and top secret US code books that had nothing to do with legitimate Israeli security needs. Apparently Blitzer, like Pollard and his handlers, believes that everything available in the CIA computer banks is of utmost importance to Israel's security.
I apologize for bestowing Israeli citizenship on Mr. Blitzer. Before, moving to The Jerusalem Post he worked for AIPAC where he wrote for their propaganda sheet, The Near East Report. Currently, he travels the American TV talk show circuit as the "voice of Israel." Territory of Lies is a slick piece of damage control that would make his former employers at AIPAC (not to mention Israel's Defense Ministry) proud.
Wolfie, The Tim Russert of CNN, a reporter of, by, and for Likud, AIPAC, Heritage, AEI, Benjamin What A Yahoo, Shelly Alderson, and all Neoconservatives and opposed to the long-term interests of the United States, Israel, and Judaism.
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 2007, page 16
Outside the Beltway
Wolf Blitzer, AIPAC, and the Saudi Peace Initiative
By James Abourezk
Wolf Blitzer around 1989, defending Israel at a Penn State University panel. Blitzer was challenged by fellow panelist Norman Finkelstein.
THE FIRST TRIP I took through the Middle East started in 1973, a few months after my election as a U.S. senator from South Dakota. I met with every Arab leader in the heart of the Arab world, including Yasser Arafat and Anwar Sadat, and to a person, each one told me that he was willing to sign a peace treaty with Israel and to recognize it as a country, provided that Israel withdraw back to the 1967 borders.
Voilà—that offer then was exactly what constitutes King Abdullah’s peace initiative today.
When I returned from that trip in early 1974, I made a speech at the Federal Press Club in Washington, DC, telling the audience of reporters what I had learned from my meetings with Arab leaders.
After I finished with my statement a rather short person, who identified himself as Wolf Blitzer, who was then writing for the newsletter of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), rose to ask three or four hostile questions, after which he left. (As we all know, AIPAC is the umbrella group for the domestic lobby for Israel.) The next issue of the AIPAC newsletter that came out had a story headlined, “Abourezk Sells Out to the Arabs.”
I had been naive enough to think that such an offer from the Arab world would be happily accepted by Israel and by the United States, which had been financing Israel for a number of years by then. My naivete was short-lived, however, as the war the Israeli Lobby declared on me that day required a response from me, and the battle was on, continuing ever since then.
There's more and more evidence on the table that the decision to invade Iraq was made before 2001: See former treasury secretary Paul O'Neil's (that wacky conspiracy theorist) admission that it was approved as WH policy as early as -January- 2001.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml
weird that, in 2000, bush could actually string complete sentences together . . . what's up with that? booze . . . drugs . . . a brain tumor?
Wolf, Wolf, Wolf, heard from the dog at the park, as his owner tries to quiet his dog down.
No doggie, no..don't bark no more..or there will be tragic consequences.
Hussein was giving money to the families of those who had their homes bulldozed by the Israelis. The Israelis had absolutely no right -- legal, moral, or ethical -- to impose collective punishment on those families.
yeah, really, not to give bush a pass, but to be fair, will he be allowed to have a show about 10 years of wolf blitzer's lies?
Thanks Mark for the info.
So the big question is how to get rid of Wolf the Whore. If everyone on the the C&L blogroll got together surely a way could be found. Something focused to get rid of the little worm. He's the worst because he's 'respected'. The rest may fall if Wolf can be taken out with great humiliation. All the owners of these great blogs should be able to come up with something. For my own little part whenever he is on TV I speak up and tell everyone that he's a whore.
Is Wolf Blitzer trying to salvage his OWN legacy with this piece?
I tried to watch the whole clip, but since it features all the people I dislike the very worst, I had to bail. I made it through bush somehow, but when condi came on and started squeaking and quavering, I just couldn't take it. I can't look at or listen to these people for longer than a few seconds without getting madder than I want to be to start my new week.
Everything Wolf Blitzer does has an underlying motive to advance the republican party. I stopped watching him a long time ago. As much as I like Jack I will no longer watch the Blitzer republican biased (so-called) new broadcast...even to see Jack. I am a republican who is disgusted with the twisted truths, lies, decit of the Bush/Cheney/Rove/Gang-of-Nine/republican party. One of the most difficult things in my life was to honesty, truthfull admit that the American people have been lied into 3 trillion in debt, 34,000 dead or wounded in a war based on lies, Katrina disaster, mortgage melt down, gas at $4.10 gallon, record profits for (conflict of interest) oil companies, daily increaseing cost of goods and services, a dark furture for my children and grandchildren. I AM SICK THAT I HELPED PUT THEM IN OFFICE....NEVER AGAIN! Wolf is buddies with Lynn Cheney...he will use his venue to advance the republican party.
XuYu @ 69:
This is like a selective greatest hits of individual instances where Wolf's words give the impression that he is a journalist pressing these leaders with the type of critical questioning we expect from a real journalist, no matter who the leader is being questioned. This segment is no different from the host of Republicans that have gotten up in front of a mic recently to distance themselves from the neocon regime as they depart. He's being coy and trying to salvage his legacy...
I'll bet that when Blitzer goes home at night, he stands in front of a mirror and tells himself (very loudly)how really terrific he is, watches reruns of himself, hangs on a stretch bar trying to get taller, and dreams of actually being a journalist with some cojones.
In the meantime, CNN continues its slide into the pits of mediocrity. Are we ever going to hold the MSM accountable for the crap they pass of as news or decent journalism?
Watching the facial expressions, eye movements and body language of these liars as they speak, I have always found it pretty easy to tell they were in-fact lying - esp Rumsfeld and Cheney, and it just boggles my mind people can fall for it and that they haven't been called on it straight up, face-to-face as it happened. So f-in obvious a child could see it...
Wolf is one of the sheep.
It was all in the eyes. Look at the glee in the man's face as he gets a chance to "be the man" who lays down the law.
The opportunity to be a war president is what he has been hoping for all his life. NO MATTER WHAT ELSE HAPPENED George W. Bush was going to find a way to "fulfill his destiny".
This man is and was INSANE and you can see it in his face and mannerisms as he speaks. He doesn't view these issues of war and peace as the gravely important and meaningful ones sane people do. Instead he's gleeful at the prospect (which he will guarantee comes about, one way or another) that he will eventually get a reason to start a war and be the hero his dad never had a chance to be, thereby saving the Bush name and legacy for generations to come.
After all, in George's eyes his Dad was a failure, partly because of his father's own fault, but you can be damn sure that Bush mostly blamed the American people for not "getting it" in 1992. So his cynicism runs in all directions. I don't blame him for being cynical. I too think most people are stupid, but I'm under no illusions that I can make them see the light by lying them into a war. George was under that illusion.
So it really was all about Daddy issues and the arrogance of a silver-spooner of below average intellect and capability, overcompensating for his personal inadequacies and attempting to settle old scores.
It's that fucking simple, and it's been obvious from day one.
It's all about the motivations.
Blitzer disses Bush???
Who was holding the gun on him? Maybe they waterboarded him 'til he agreed to do it?
So this little piece is supposed to make up for all the times Wolfy and the so-called "liberal" media gave Bush and Co. a free pass.
Give me a break. Wolfy go back to doing what you have done best during this administration and that is shoveling Bush and Co's shit.
DannyEastVillage @ 4:
Excellent point! Bravo! Well spoken!
Curtsie!
wow. Glad to see Blitzer is doing his job...10 years later. Asswipe.
Iraq was the right thing to do. This will ensure cheep oil for American SUV drivers for 5-10 years after we finally get those oil fields pumping again.
I watched this segment, and of course it was meant as an attempt to give Wolfie and the rest of the Corporate media cover for doing their job up to and after the illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq-which of course they failed miserably to do. The only truth teller on Blitzer's show is Cafferty...I don't always agree with his assessments but when he's on, he's Right ON!
At least Blitzer tries to give the appearance of neutrality, even though he's just as much of a corporate shill as anyone on cable news...
LOL. Wolf Blitzer exposing the Bush lies he helped orchestrate and sell! What next Tucker Carlson exposing Dick Cheney's lies?
Why haven't the networks flushed this guy?
dallas @ 81:
So typically Dallas (the city). Transient elite. Shallow. Self-Absorbed. Self-Rightous. Spell check challenged. And...the future home of George and Laura Bush. 'Nuff said.
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