While the accusations and denials over the dodgy dossier and Niger forgeries fly, it is hard to believe US apologists all over are still trying to shore up this shoddy deception. NZ Pundit blames the French. It was some sort of Gallic setup, they imply.
The British say they have an independent source on Niger but can’t say who it is, ergo it must be French intelligence.
Wanton disregard for the facts watch: it doesn’t matter whether there was another source or whether it was a setup. Here’s a reminder of the quality of the documents US intelligence had in its possession:
“It took Baute’s [International Atomic Energy Agency] team only a few hours to determine that the documents were fake. The agency had been given about a half-dozen letters and other communications between officials in Niger and Iraq, many of them written on letterheads of the Niger government. The problems were glaring. One letter, dated October 10, 2000, was signed with the name of Allele Habibou, a Niger Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, who had been out of office since 1989. Another letter, allegedly from Tandja Mamadou, the President of Niger, had a signature that had obviously been faked and a text with inaccuracies so egregious, the senior I.A.E.A. official said, that ‘they could be spotted by someone using Google on the Internet.’ ”
But why would anyone want to check the facts? Since when was propaganda supposed to be accurate?
Seymour Hersh goes on:
“One senior I.A.E.A. official went further. He told me, ‘These documents are so bad that I cannot imagine that they came from a serious intelligence agency. It depresses me, given the low quality of the documents, that it was not stopped. At the level it reached, I would have expected more checking.’ ”
Maybe it was all some sort of Gallic practical joke. They have a funny sense of humour, the French. It wouldn’t surprise if the letters were dated April 1.
Clutching at straws watch: NZ Pundit argues that just because the dodgy dossier was plagiarized doesn’t mean the information was incorrect. Agreed, but it does mean the information was 12 YEARS OLD!
Never mind, it’s all history now.
Meanwhile, the disgrace of John Howard continues. Here is a Prime Minister that accepts that Australian citizens do not have equal rights with Americans. Not only that, he accepts that a trial process with no right of appeal, no right of disclosure and no attorney-client confidentiality among other failures is “fair”.
He fails in perhaps the most fundamental duty of any elected leader: to protect the rights of his citizens.
From the US perspective the entire Guantanamo Bay setup is a travesty of the country’s own founding principles.
NZ Pundit recently quoted Thomas Jefferson’s immortal words from the Declaration of Independence (apparently the document also owes a bit to Ben Franklin): “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Tell that to David Hicks.
Republican ideology holds that the greatest threat to liberty is the corruption of the “virtuous republic”. In the 18th and early 19th centuries the term “corruption” was broadly defined. It included any form of dependency by citizens on government, for instance. It included any form of party system. It included keeping standing armies without the consent of citizens. It included any dependence of elected leaders on special interests. It included all sorts of things that are today accepted in the US as normal.
Let us just remind ourselves of some of the causes for which the US claimed its own independence:
“He [the King] has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” (Office of Homeland Security, Patriot Act)
“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.” (Guantanamo)
“For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:” (Iraq)
“For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:” (Guantanamo)
“For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences” (Guantanamo)
“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.” (Guantanamo)
Everywhere you look you see this creeping corruption. Whether it is the oil money donations that Bush is repaying with political favours, the fact a court recently upheld the writing of a cheque to a politician as a form of free speech or the way special interest provisions are buried deep within totally unrelated legislation.
Much of what the Founding Fathers feared most has come to pass. The US is even becoming a colonial power.
The United States is a corrupt republic. It desperately needs to reconnect with the founding principles that made it great in terms far more important than mere military power.