links for 2006-09-22

• Lie By Lie: Chronicle of a War Foretold: August 1990 to March 2003

  The first drafts of history are fragmentary. Important revelations arrive late, and out of order. In this timeline, we’ve assembled the history of the Iraq War to create a resource we hope will help resolve open questions of the Bush era.

  (tags: politics terrorism war journalism al-qaeda 9-11 history timelines)

• The Bushes and the Truth About Iran

  Republican contacts with Iran’s Islamic regime more than a quarter century ago are relevant today because an underlying theme in Bush’s rationale for war is that direct negotiations with Iran are pointless. But Bush’s own father may know otherwise.

  (tags: politics george-w-bush george-h-w-bush iran republicans history)

• Return of the Iran-Contra Crew: George W Bush appointing Iran-Contra felons

  Today, a half-dozen alumni of that episode have found prominent jobs in the Bush administration.

  (tags: politics iran iran-contra history cronyism george-w-bush ronald-reagan john-poindexter eliott-abrams otto-reich richard-armitage john-negroponte mitch-daniels michael-ledeen richard-perle republicans)

• Iraq war intelligence linked to coercion

  The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment…

  (tags: iraq-war intelligence torture interrogations al-qaeda ibn-al-shaykh-al-libi dia cia)

• Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence Doubts in 2002

  Administration officials repeatedly cited al-Libi’s information obtained under torture as “credible’’ evidence that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons.

  (tags: politics intelligence torture ibn-al-shaykh-al-libi iraq-war)

• Prewar claims ’sourced from rendition detainee’

  Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a Libyan, made his most specific claims after the US handed him over to interrogators from a third country.

  (tags: politics torture iraq-war ibn-al-shaykh-al-libi rendition interrogations cia)

• Bush Administration’s Use of Pre-War Intelligence Was Misleading

  Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) said that newly declassified information indicates the Bush Administration’s use of pre-war intelligence was misleading.

  (tags: politics iraq-war intelligence interrogations torture dia al-qaeda carl-levin)

• David Corn: Cheney, 9/11 and the Truth about Iraq

  Dick Cheney commemorated the fifth anniversary of 9/11 by sticking to the MO that he and his running-mate used to lead the nation into the current mess in Iraq.

  (tags: politics iraq-war dick-cheney intelligence 9-11 saddam-hussein al-qaeda)

• Lying with Intelligence

  Who in the White House knew about DITSUM No. 044-02 and when did they know it?

  (tags: politics intelligence torture iraq-war al-qaeda colin-powell dick-cheney condoleezza-rice douglas-feith george-w-bush)

• Coleen Rowley: It’s Time to Get Serious

  This administration’s approach toward terrorism could hardly be less serious.

  (tags: politics terrorism al-qaeda osama-bin-laden fbi cia scotus john-murtha)

• Interrogation: A Tortured Debate

  Amid feuding and turf battles, lawyers in the White House discussed specific terror-interrogation techniques like ‘water-boarding’ and ‘mock burials’.

  (tags: politics torture interrogations ibn-al-shaykh-al-libi al-qaeda fbi cia detainees terrorism)

• Newly Released Data Undercut Prewar Claims

  All government intelligence on whether Iraq pursued or possessed weapons of mass destruction has proved faulty.

  (tags: politics iraq-war intelligence torture dia carl-levin)

• Bush Administration v. Intelligence Community : Statements on Pre-War Intelligence

  A collection of statements made by Administration officials before the war regarding Iraq, contrasted with what the Intelligence Community believed to be true at the time.

  (tags: carl-levin intelligence politics iraq-war quotations george-w-bush colin-powell dick-cheney condoleezza-rice donald-rumsfeld)

• Senate: Saddam spurned al-Qaida

  Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein rejected pleas for assistance from Osama bin Laden and tried to capture terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi when he was in Iraq.

  (tags: politics saddam-hussein al-qaeda abu-musab-al-zarqawi iraq-war ahmed-chalabi ibn-al-shaykh-al-libi)

• Prewar report cast doubt on Iraq-Al Qaeda connection (Feb 2002)

  Also, British newspaper says Blair’s “reliable source” on Niger connection was probably a discredited Italian spy.

  (tags: intelligence terrorism iraq-war al-qaeda ibn-al-shaykh-al-libi saddam-hussein carl-levin)

• Willem Marx: I Was A PR Intern in Iraq

  In this astonishing confessional by an Oxford graduate who worked in the green zone of Baghdad, we see the perversity of the American version of a ‘free press’ in Iraq.

  (tags: iraq-war public-relations press propaganda journalism kbr halliburton lincoln-group military)

• Iran/Contra Rehab

  The Bush Administration is turning into one big rehab center for the Iran/contra schemers of the Reagan/Bush White House.

  (tags: politics republicans george-w-bush iran-contra cronyism)

• New Browser Lets Web Surfers Hide Online

  Hacktivismo has modified Mozilla’s open source Portable Firefox browser to run through the TOR (The Onion Router) network and make an anonymous connection between the user and the Web site being visited.

  (tags: technology browser privacy-anonymity tor hacktivismo torpark)

• Does Torture Really Work?

  Most intelligence experts say no. US intelligence officers say they have little—if any—evidence that useful intelligence has been obtained using techniques generally understood to be torture.

  (tags: politics torture interrogations intelligence)