Bush Knew Before Invasion That Saddam Had No WMD

Two former CIA officers have confirmed to Salon that President Bush was told in Sept. 2002 that Saddam Hussein did not possess any weapons of mass destruction. According to the officer, CIA director George Tenet provided Bush with top-secret information that "detailed that Saddam may have wished to have a program, that his engineers had told him they could build a nuclear weapon within two years if they had fissible material, which they didn't, and that they had no chemical or biological weapons." Bush reportedly dismissed the warning immediately. According to one of the officers, "Bush didn't give a f*ck about the intelligence. He had his mind made up." Tenet never brought up the information again; in fact, only a few months later he infamously referred to the case that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction as a "slam dunk." The intelligence about the lack of weapons of mass destruction was never provided to Congress before their vote to authorize military operations in March 2003, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair depended on this faulty information to make his decision to support the Iraq war. "Blair was duped," said one of the CIA officers. "He was shown the altered report." Even though Bush finally publicly admitted in 2004 that "Iraq did not have the weapons that our intelligence believed were there," he continued to believe that they were. In his new book on Bush, Robert Draper writes that the President repeated conviction that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction "to Andy Card all the way up until Card's departure in April 2006."

News Of Interest

"Odds are that I will."

-- Al Gore, quoted by 02138 Magazine, on whether he will endorse a candidate in the Democratic presidential primary, though he had yet to decide whom he would back.

What's Next for Bush?

A New York Times review of Dead Certain by Robert Draper includes a revealing tidbit about President Bush's plans after leaving office.

"Mr. Draper quotes him saying that he plans to build a 'Freedom Institute,' a sort of think tank where young leaders from abroad can learn about democracy. Mr. Bush, who has a net worth estimated at $8 million to $21 million, also said he would like to make some money -- 'replenish the ol’ coffers,' as he put it."

"He said he could make 'ridiculous' money out on the lecture circuit: 'I don’t know what my dad gets. But it’s more than fifty, seventy-five' thousand dollars a speech."

Doolittle Aides Subpoenaed

Adding to his recent political woes, Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA)'s two top aides "have been subpoenaed and are scheduled to testify this week before a federal grand jury in connection with the ongoing investigation into the congressman's relationship with jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff," the Sacramento Bee reports.

Republican Brand Suffers

According to the Wall Street Journal, private polling done by Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio suggests a broad erosion of the Republican Party's appeal to three key groups: younger voters, Hispanics and independents.

"Younger voters represent necessary new blood. Hispanics are the nation's fastest-growing demographic group, and are concentrated in big states such as Florida and California that are keys to presidential victories. Independents' ranks fluctuate but are expanding amid voters' disgust with partisanship. Each party needs them to win elections."

"The reasons include the Iraq war, conservatives' emphasis on social issues such as gay marriage, abortion and stem-cell research, and a party-led backlash against illegal immigrants that has left many Hispanic and Asian-American citizens feeling unwelcome. The upshot is that Republicans face structural problems that stem from generational, demographic and societal changes and aren't easily overcome without changing fundamental party positions."

Wash. Post's Solomon blamed editor for deletion about GOP fundraiser

During his September 5 washingtonpost.com "Post Politics" discussion, Washington Post money and politics reporter John Solomon was asked why a September 3 Post article he co-wrote with staff writer Matthew Mosk -- which discussed "a growing number of fundraisers in the 2008 presidential campaign whose backgrounds have prompted questions" -- did not mention that "[Republican presidential candidate] Mitt Romney's national finance co-chairman, Alan B. Fabian, recently was indicted on 23 counts of money laundering, fraud, perjury, and obstruction of justice, among other crimes." The version of the article published by the Post mentioned only scandals involving supporters of Democratic candidates. Solomon responded by claiming that "my colleague Matt Mosk and I reported on the Romney matter." But rather than discuss Fabian, Solomon proceeded to claim that they had included a paragraph about another Romney fundraiser in their draft of the article: "Likewise, Republican Mitt Romney faced questions about one of his Utah finance chairmen, Robert Lichfield, because of lawsuits he is facing alleging abusive treatment at boarding schools he founded to handle troubled youths." Solomon added: "Unfortunately, it was edited out. That sometimes happen when stories get trimmed to make room for late-breaking news."

Solomon did not specify what late-breaking news caused the 33-word passage's deletion from an article totaling 1,364 words as published, nor did he indicate which editor excised it.

While Solomon did not discuss Fabian in his response, washingtonpost.com provided a link to an August 14 "Annapolis Notebook" brief by Post staff writer John Wagner, who reported that Fabian "was a leading fundraiser for former [Maryland] lieutenant governor [and 2006 Senate candidate] Michael S. Steele (R)" and "has also been a prolific donor to Republicans nationally," but did not note Fabian's ties to Romney. Indeed, a Media Matters for America search of the Nexis database for "Mitt Romney" and "Alan Fabian" or "Alan B. Fabian" found no articles published in the Post mentioning the two in the same story. Moreover, a Nexis search for "Alan Fabian" or "Alan B. Fabian" and either "Mosk" or "Solomon" also yielded zero results.

As Media Matters has noted, several networks have devoted extensive coverage to Norman Hsu, who The Wall Street Journal suggested may have funneled illegal campaign contributions to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), while ignoring Fabian's indictment and connection to Romney. Fabian resigned from Romney's finance committee shortly after he was indicted, and the Romney campaign said it would return his $2,300 contribution, but not, however, "contributions from donors who were recruited by or have ties to Fabian," according to The Boston Globe.

InfoCision Watch

A Wealth of Advice

Nearly $2 billion flowed through consultants in 2003-2004 federal elections

Since publishing this story Sept. 26, 2006, the Center For Public Integrity updated the total figure paid to consultants from $1.78 billion to $1.85 billion. This reflects an additional consultant, InfoCision Management Corporation, paid $62 million for phone banks and fundraising services. The Center also identified additional payments to a media and a phone consultant. The additions changed the percentage of the total paid to phone consultants, (from 3 percent to 7 percent), to media consultants (from 67 percent to 65 percent), and to direct mail consultants (from 17 percent to 16 percent). www.publicintegrity.org/consultants/report.aspx?aid=533

Newt and InfoCision: A Winning Solution for Newt

So the election season is up and running. More and More Shadowy 527s are coming out of the bush to use InfoCision with it's vast army of Christian Republican Extremists to hunt and destroy the Clinton's. And bring theocracy to America. It almost seems like the 1990's again. One can almost see the InfoCision script writers searching their archives for a smear that raised $50 or more in 1994 to recycle and try to get the poor donor to give $75 this time- Because we have to Stop Her Now!. Why even Newt is back on the scene- but then he never went away- He just formed a 527. He and InfoCision have a new 527- It is called American Solutions for Winning the Future :www.americansolutions.com

It claims to offer much the same as his GOPAC and that solution seems to be, Hillary Clinton is bad for American. And Don't you believe Newt will make a good president? It seems a very good question any potential donor may have for the InfoCision telemarketer is: Are all these political action committees really doing anything? Or is Newt just fattening his pockets while getting back at his old adversaries? The answer would be yes. For a better understanding of the Newt and InfoCisions newest client is to look at Linda Chavez:

Back in 2001, Republican activist Linda Chavez was Bush’s first choice to serve as Secretary of Labor, looking out for the interests of working people nationwide. She ran into a little trouble when the White House learned that Chavez failed tell the Bush gang about housing a Guatemalan woman whom she hired illegally to clean her house, and then encouraged a neighbor not to talk about the cleaning woman to the FBI when agents asked questions during her background check. Oops.

But never fear, this was a temporary setback for Chavez, who has built a successful network of political action committees. The problem, as the WaPo reported in a fascinating front-page expose, is that Chavez’s PACs don’t appear to do anything — except raise money.

In the years since she was forced to pull her nomination as Bush’s labor secretary after admitting payments to an illegal immigrant, Chavez and her immediate family members have used phone banks and direct-mail solicitations to raise tens of millions of dollars, founding several political action committees with bankable names: the Republican Issues Committee, the Latino Alliance, Stop Union Political Abuse and the Pro-Life Campaign Committee. Their solicitations promise direct action in the “fight to save unborn lives,” a vigorous struggle against “big labor bosses” and a crippling of “liberal politics in the country.”

That’s not where the bulk of the money wound up being spent, however.

Josh Marshall has more. Maybe all maybe money Newt is paying InfoCision will go towards the new stadium...But there is serious doubt about that. One can hardly wait to see what 527 comes out next...

Springfield duo face harassment charges

A Springfield Township couple have been charged with harassing a registered sex offender living in their neighborhood.

James Z. Cody and Sharon L. Hall erected large signs on their Gregory Drive property warning passers-by about neighbor Michael Harig, who spent nearly a year in prison for fondling three boys, ages 12, 13 and 14.

Cody and Hall have accused police of not fully investigating an incident involving a 16-year-old boy visiting Harig's home. Meanwhile, Harig has claimed that he has been harassed, spotlights have been pointed into his bedroom window and physical threats have been made against him.

Township police have said they found no crimes committed by Harig, and warned Cody and Hall about their actions.

The story was in the Beacon Journal in late July.

Since then, police have charged Hall, 45, with criminal trespass. Cody, 50, has been charged with violating a temporary protection order, resisting arrest, aggravated trespass, aggravated menacing and a noise nuisance violation.

The charges are pending in Akron Municipal Court.

White House ‘e-mail mystery deepens.’

ABC’s The Blotter reports:

The White House will not identify a private company which appears to be involved in the disappearance of millions of White House e-mails.

The company was responsible for reviewing and archiving White House e-mails, a White House official told congressional staff in May, according to a letter yesterday from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Congressional investigators asked then for the name of the company and “have repeatedly requested” the information since then, according to Waxman. […]

According to the White House, at least five million e-mails were not properly archived and may be lost forever, in apparent violation of the Presidential Records Act. The post-Watergate law states that communications relating to official activity in the offices of the president and vice president are owned by the American public and cannot be destroyed.