Free Republic

A CIA official who had a top role during the run-up to the Iraqi war charges the White House with ignoring intelligence that said there were no weapons of mass destruction or an active nuclear program in Iraq. The former highest ranking CIA officer in Europe, Tyler Drumheller, also says that while the intelligence community did give the White House some bad intelligence, it also gave the White House good intelligence — which the administration chose to ignore

Ex-CIA Accuse Bush of Manipulating Iraq Evidence Monday, March 17, 2003 WASHINGTON — Invoking the name of a Pentagon whistle-blower, a small group of retired, anti-war CIA officers are accusing the Bush administration of manipulating evidence against Iraq in order to push war while burying evidence that could show Iraq's compliance with U.N demands for disarmament. The 25-member group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, composed mostly of former CIA analysts along with a few operational agents, is urging employees inside the intelligence agency to break the law and leak any information they have that could show the Bush administration is engineering the...

Robyn Gritz spent 16 years at the FBI, where she investigated a series of major national security threats. But she says she got crosswise with her supervisors, who pushed her out and yanked her security clearance. For the first time, she's speaking out about her situation, warning about how the bureau treats women and the effects of a decade of fighting terrorism. --SNIP-- Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency, worked closely with Gritz to find terrorists overseas. He says it's a shame the FBI let go of someone with years of top national security experience.

"The Pentagon has released new color photos as proof that Iran was behind last week's attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman," ABC News reported. Hours before that attack, Iranians launched surface-to-air missile at a U.S. drone monitoring the tankers. The missile missed. In response, 1,000 American troops are being dispatched to the region for the declared purpose of defending American forces already there. Reacting to these charges and U.S. military moves and threats, Iran has said it will resume (did it ever stop?) the enrichment of uranium by next week, which it had pledged not to...

President Trump on Monday signed an executive clemency granting a full pardon to a former Army first lieutenant convicted of murdering an Iraqi prisoner. The White House released a statement announcing Trump's decision to pardon Michael Behenna, who was sentenced in 2009 to 15 years for shooting and killing Ali Mansur Mohamed. The move comes after repeated requests from Oklahoma's attorney general for Trump to pardon Behenna. "Mr. Behenna’s case has attracted broad support from the military, Oklahoma elected officials, and the public," the White House said, noting that more than two-dozen generals and admirals, as well as numerous Oklahoma...

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has portrayed himself as a champion of a free press, but the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to charge him with conspiring to hack government computers limits his ability to mount a vigorous free speech defense, some legal experts said.The charge unsealed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia on Thursday said that in 2010 Assange agreed to help Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst then known as Bradley Manning, crack a password to a U.S. government network. At the time, Manning had already given WikiLeaks classified information about U.S. war activities in both Afghanistan...

When Edward Snowden decided he wanted to release details about the NSA's intelligence operations to the public, he reached out to Laura Poitras, a 49-year-old film maker and political activist opposed to the war on terror. As the Washington Post noted on Monday, Poitras had "the odd distinction of sharing a byline in The Washington Post and in London’s Guardian newspaper last week on two blockbuster stories." snip But perhaps it isn't such a mystery why the U.S. government might want to question Poitras if you simply crack open John R. Bruning's 2006 book, The Devil's Sandbox: With the 2nd...

The US Army has concluded that Iran was the only victor of the eight-year US campaign to remove Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and replace him with a democratic regime. That’s one of the findings of a massive historical study released Jan. 17, the first major military review of the Iraq war’s lessons. Commissioned in 2013 by General Ray Odierno, then the Army’s top commander, it was conducted by half a dozen field grade officers at the US Army War College.

I received my Academy screener of "Vice" -- Adam McKay's intermittently black comic biopic of Dick Cheney --- just a few days before its Christmas opening and watched it almost immediately, even though I knew I would hate it. I did. It had exactly the retrograde, conformist Hollywood politics I expected. What I didn't expect was that it would be an aesthetic jumble and quite boring. Nevertheless, "Vice" led the pack of Golden Globe nominations with six and is an early favorite for the Best Picture Oscar. So unfortunately, due to the biased state of our educational system, this could...

IT WAS the stench that hit us first, gusting like a chemical cloud across the prison courtyard. The smell, unmistakable to anyone who has scented it, of human flesh slowly decomposing just under the surface of the earth. One by one, the grave diggers, toiling in a dust storm under a blazing sky, lifted the crumbling bodies from the clay-lined mass grave stretching along the prison lawn, in the shadow of an empty watchtower on top of the sprawling prison block. Each of the 13 corpses pulled from the ground was still dressed in his blue-and-white-striped prison pyjamas, his hands...

The Washington Post blames Charles Krauthammer for the Iraq war in the opening line of his obituary.

Sen. John McCain in his new memoir makes the confession that the Iraq War was a "mistake" and says he shoulders part of the blame, Vox reported Friday. He explained the Iraq War "can't be judged as anything other than a mistake, a very serious one, and I have to accept my share of the blame for it." McCain was a steadfast supporter of the initiative to go to war with Iraq during the administration of former President George W. Bush. "I came out of the Vietnam War convinced that frankly we could have won, and we had it won,"...

Meanwhile, There's A War On by John HinderakerWe noted here the mysteriously under-covered story of the three would-be terrorists who were arrested in Italy after vowing to launch an attack on America that would dwarf September 11. A reader sent us a link to this article, which has more: The mainstream U.S. media outlets have failed to report a major terrorist plot against the U.S. - because it would tend to support President Bush's use of NSA domestic surveillance, according to media watchdog groups. News of a planned attack masterminded by three Algerians operating out of Italy was widely...

President Donald Trump is poised to pardon Scooter J. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, according to sources familiar with the president’s thinking. The president has already signed off on the pardon, which is something he has been considering for several months, sources told ABC News. The move would mark another controversial pardon for Trump and could raise questions as an increasing number of the president’s political allies have landed themselves in legal jeopardy. The White House has repeatedly said that no pardons are currently on the table for people caught up in the Russia...

"It's been an authentic genocide, according to the definition in international law." “For me, it has been a very intense experience to be in those towns, which have been destroyed, laid waste by persecution. It’s been an authentic genocide, according to the definition in international law.” These are Fernando de Haro’s words to Aleteia, after spending the past several days “overwhelmed by news of 850 families who had returned to their towns after the defeat of Daesh, and that had to flee once more due to the confrontation between Kurds and Iraqis.” De Haro is the director of a new...

Iraq War - Part 1 - Bombing Baghdad - 30 Mar 2003 6pm ET Several fires in center of city those show secondary explosions; capture terror camp in northern Iraq; Senator Frisk talks to soldier families; troops haven't yet reached banned weapons areas; fiercest fighting awaits us; aghast at Peter Arnett interview on Iraqi TV Iraq War - Part 2 - Bombing Baghdad - 30 Mar 2003 7pm ET Suicide attacks on troops; troops 50 miles from Baghdad; Marine Huey accident; Peter Arnett says invasion failed; training center with nuclear suits and antidotes; Secret police hq hit in Mosul; Mosul...

I've also uploaded the Leadin to the Speech from the various news channels.

Iraq War - Part 1 - Tape 21 - White House News Conference - 9 Apr 2003 2:30pm ET Ari Fleischer News Conference - press trying to get Bush to say when war will be over; celebration in street; press following Iraqi ambassador (the game is over - we hope peace will prevail); compares this to Baghdad Bob saying corner of airport left so that the US could run in during bombing pauses to take pictures Iraq War - Part 2 - Tape 21 - Baghdad Celebrating - 9 Apr 2003 3:30pm ET - MSNBC Quiet after nightfall; Col. Jack...

Iraq War - Part 1 - Tape 15 - Saddam and Sons Escaped Bombs - 8 Apr 2003 - 10:45pm ET Rodgers with 3-7th Cavalry; North with 1st Marine Exped Force - stiff resistance, fedayeen in black turning out to be mostly foreigners, not Iraqis; Saddam's torture; capturing ammo; Iraqi soldiers taking off uniforms, air supremacy; bulk of intense fighting Iraq War - Part 2 - Tape 15 - Saddam and Sons Escaped Bombs - 8 Apr 2003 - 11:45pm ET Saddam's torture; US arming Iraqi opposition; locking down the city; F-15E crashed in hostile territory; British intel says Saddam...

Iraq War - Part 1 - Tape 14 - Baghdad Bob - Iraqi Militias - 8 Apr 2003 - 3pm ET Won't go into urban areas where militias are located; Baghdad Bob; Marines going after artillery; Pat Buchanan - civilian casualties talked about by Al Jazeera; Saddam dead or alive; Bin Laden tape asking for jihad; Mansour district; Winston S. Churchill Iraq War - Part 2 - Tape 14 Basrah - 8 Apr 2003 - 4pm ET Newt Gingrich; Blair & Bush; if Saddam dead, what then; coalition exerting pressure; unconventional warfare continues; sign of quick end to war; snipers;...