Zakaraya's ship of knaves, liars and buffoons - 25 October 2015

OK I saw it too today and thought of all the people like these knaves who heaped merde on the truth tellers.   Pile on! 

Oh!  I would except Bernanke  from the passenger list.  IMO he just happened to be on the manifest yesterday.  pl

 

http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/10/24/exp-gps-9-11-wolfowitz-web-extra.cnn

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/25/europe/tony-blair-iraq-war/index.html

 

Comments

[walrus]

Probably similar to the junk I watched on the Government ABC channel Sunday night. "The Russians aren't' fighting ISIS at all, they are instead killing our friendly god fearing warm fuzzy moderate rebels who just want to see Assad gone."

No talk of Putin and Assads meeting or offer of elections and negotiations at all.

The overall impression is of a media outlet purporting to be "fair and balanced" without being anything of the sort.

[Bandolero]

PL,

I was stunned to learn that there was recently a voice on CNN regarding Syria I find quite sensibe.

If you don't know it yet, please have a look what Major Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawai) told CNN's Wolf Blitzer and CNN's audience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Q8X60KQ9Q

Btw, here is another picture of her:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2LT_Tulsi_Gabbard_Tamayo.jpg

(Just in case you'ld like to make an article here out of her interview on CNN)

[Fred]

Tony Blair didn't see dissenting intelligence reports nor of course any of the anti war marches being done across the planet? He's a liar.

[Will]

The transcript is not yet available.

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/fzgps.html

[oofda]

And Paul "Wildly off the wall" Wolfowitz was again his usual dissembling self, trying to put himself in good graces. He was one of those who pushed, and pushed hard to invade Iraq. Zakaraya should have pushed him more on why he did so. Wolfowitz is 'advising' R candidates for the Presidency..whomsoever he is advising, we should all avoid. At all costs, whether he is incompetent or malevolent.

[Larry Kart]

Missed the broadcast -- in attempt to preserve my sanity I haven't watched any political talk shows since 2008, relying instead on SST and other places that I find reliable to keep me informed. So who was on Fareed's ship, and what did they say?

[Ryan]

I'm glad you watched this, colonel.

Leaving out Bernanke, who do you think did the best with this troika of liars? For me, and I know this will upset the most "patriotic" among us, but I have to give it to "Phony" Tony Blair. What cinched it for me was his "apology" over misreading the "intelligence", the "dodgy dossier" and the other stuff that came out notwithstanding. Blair's "apology" is as sincere as that of people who say "thank you" and "please" without meaning it. This is to say these words and expressions have been rendered meaningless.

Watching this reminded me of a woman in Britain who interrupted Blair at some public event. She said to him "if you support the troops so much you'd stop trying to get them killed all the time."

It's funny. In the vast majority of cases a person who is considered a conservative (another word that has become increasingly meaningless) is the one who makes an apology. When this happens it usually signals the beginning of a rout of that person by the Cultural Marxists and their myrmidons. It has been only recently I've seen people thought of to be "liberals" who have started doing this, Hillary being the latest example here and someone who means it as much as Blair did.

Still, the home team did what it could. Wolfie and Zelikow were a pair of bald face liars as one could find. I'm still marveling on Wolfowitz's statement that we were on a peacetime footing as verses a wartime footing when 9/11 occurred. I never considered such a thing when a cav troop I was assign to was patrolling along the Czechoslovakia border in 1978. It was always my impression that intelligence gathering, whether done at the strategic level of the tactical level was done at a consistent level of excellence.

The only real value in watching these Sunday talking head shows is to see what the party line is and to see how many lies you can catch the guests and hosts telling. The only person missing from the line up was Richard Perle. Then you would have had a full house.

An aside on Fareed Zakaria. He isn't stupid but damn if he isn't an arrogant snotnose. His opening statement had one big glaring error. Those "nativists" he holds in such disdain did win elections that had positive consequences, the 1924 election of Calvin Coolidge and the passing of the 1924 immigration act serving as two examples. Indeed, Zakaria's snobby elitism is a damn good argument for repealing the 1965 immigration act. We have enough home grown people of this ilk without importing more of them.

From Wikipedia:

"Zakaria self-identifies as a "centrist",[8] though he has been described variously as a political liberal,[9] a conservative,[10] a moderate,[11] or a radical centrist.[12] George Stephanopoulos said of him in 2003, 'He's so well versed in politics, and he can't be pigeonholed. I can't be sure whenever I turn to him where he's going to be coming from or what he's going to say.'"

Try globalist and a propagandist for the new world order, George, like you are.

For those who didn't see this show here's a link to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5VMIejO4R4

[oofda]

Tony Blair admitted on CNN that without the Iraq War, there would be no ISIS.

From the article

Sunni jihadis said the prison system was their most effective organising tool. Also Camp Bucca was the main recruiting tool for ISIS.

A senior Isis commander has told the Guardian that without the Camp Bucca facility in southern Iraq, in which he and most of the senior leadership were at one point detained, there would be no Isis today. “It made it all, it built our ideology,” he told the Guardian last December, “We could never have all got together like this in Baghdad, or anywhere else,” he said. “It would have been impossibly dangerous. Here, we were not only safe, but we were only a few hundred metres away from the entire al-Qaida leadership.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/25/tony-blair-is-right-without-the-iraq-war-there-would-be-no-isis

[Christopher Fay]

Centrist, as in he's centered in the central government and couldn't exist outside of it.

[turcopolier]

Larry Kart

I have added two link for your edification and changed the title slightly. Maybe "traitor" was a bit harsh? IMO Blair fits the "buffoon" category exactly. Between Zellicow and Wolfie there is little to choose. ok

[MartinJ]

Tony Blair actually managed to make headlines with a non-apology for the invasion of Iraq. He blames the intelligence community (not clear if he is accusing the UK or the US as well) for not being able to prove a negative about the non-existent WMD.

It seems that he only asked the intelligence agencies about the WMD presence, confident that it was a self-evident truth that Iraq under Saddam was a threat to British interests and no need to ask such uncomfortable questions of either security or defence establishments.

More insidious is that he says that ISIS was created in Syria, a country that the West had not intervened in. While interventions in Iraq and Libya had not produced the desired stability, somehow these interventions were less bad than the situation in Syria where there has been no attempt to topple Assad.

He seemed to suggest that supporting intervention in Syria may not be such a bad thing after all.

Tis a pity that such leaders can not be tried for endangering the very state that they are entrusted to protect.

[William R. Cumming]

IMO Blair set the stage for Britain's sunset on the world stage and now in a last desperate throw of the dice the U.K. hopes China will play nice in return for a fairly efficient and effective rule of Hong Kong. That won't happen!

[MartinJ]

I think Britain's sunset on the world stage was 1956 and Suez. Ever since Britain has struggled to find some kind of psychological reconciliation between end of empire and a new role. Of course the inherent problem with that national reduction is that there is no new role that Britain can play on the world stage because its too small, economically and militarily.

Instead successive governments pretend that Britain is still powerful by clinging on to its P5 seat at the UN, and joining in anything that the US does, no matter if its good for the nation or not.

Other than that foreign policy is subjected to economic policy as can be best demonstrated by relations with the House of Saud.

[Babak Makkinejad]

All:

From Haaretz:

"Netanyahu: I Don't Want a Binational State, but We Need to Control All of the Territory for the Foreseeable Future"

'I'm asked if we will forever live by the sword – yes,' says prime minister.

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.682374

[LeaNder]

Ryan, I cannot figure out why I don't get an audio on your link. Is there a new technique in place to block out non-American IP's based on copyright?

[Larry Kart]

Thank you for the links. Blair's "the intelligence WE received" (my emphasis) perhaps takes the cake. Wolfowitz reminds me of Milady in "The Three Musketeers."

[LeaNder]

"words and expressions have been rendered meaningless."

Much has been rendered worthless, words, expressions, ideas, once it has been discovered how useful it may be in arguments. Maybe it always was thus. There has been another important thing under assault post 911: "objectivity". What is it? Who of us could seriously claim he is?

As already noted, I don't get the audio of your link. copyright laws? Well usually I get alerted to this.

But obviously I "googled", and thus got glimpses, I guess I could even buy Fareed Zakarias complete show--but when exactly?--it has been put up for sale for I understand $ 1.99. ...

Maybe they should get up to the world out there, and the idea that news lose interest after some time, except maybe to the experts among us, that may not have the methods to deal with what objectivity really could mean?

[Will]

the utube is silent, ie: no audio. but the transcript is there now. Zelikow is a cow and an Israeli Firster from hell. was suprised Zakaria (who is not za-key [smart]) did not mention Richard A. Clarke, who clearly blamed Dumbya.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYoMsSzCMaw

[Valissa]

Thanks for that interview link. She did a great job of presenting a sane view of the Syria situation. Very impressive. Interesting that she specifically called out the CIA. Good to know she's in Congress telling the other representatives the truth of the situation. Although Wolfie kept reiterating the Syrian war propaganda points, she kept to her talking point that Isis and Al-Qaeda and the other related groups were the enemy and we should not be supporting them in any way.

[The Beaver]

Good Morning Colonel,

A bit OT but one wonders - is Israel the 51st state?:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natasha-srdoc/firstever-us-presidential_b_8367160.html

"US presidential candidates have been invited to participate in the first-ever US Presidential Candidates' Forum held abroad, focusing on foreign and defense policy issues. From Jerusalem, Israel, each presidential candidate will have an opportunity to present their views on U.S. foreign policy, US-Israel relations, threats affecting US allies in Europe and Asia, the instability in the Middle East, terrorism, and solutions to increase the economic well-being and security of Americans in the US and abroad"

[BostonB]

Scott Horton has an interesting radio interview 10/20/15 with Jim Lobe on "What ever happened to Richard "Prince of Darkness" Pearle?" Gaffney and Wolfowitz are mentioned.

http://scotthorton.org/interviews/2015/10/20/102015-jim-lobe/

[bell]

blair, bush and a number of others responsible for the destruction of iraq need to go to the hague for war crimes... doesn't really matter what verbs one wants to use to describe any of these political leaders.. the real work has yet to be done to them..

[rjj]

why exempt Bernanke?

http://fortune.com/2015/10/21/bernanke-negative-rates/

[bell]

well said martinj.. i totally agree.

[doug]

Lost in all the noise about WMD intelligence is Blair's statement that he most regretted getting wrong what would happen subsequent to removal of the Iraqi regime. In that he was telling the cold, hard truth. The notion that Iraq without Saddam would become another shining light unto the nations of the ME was simply such a compelling notion that it became a fixed belief amongst most, if not all policymakers. The true intelligence failure was is understanding and predicting future events post Saddam and communicating that to policymakers. What I would hope happened is that the analysts that were most accurate in that regard were promoted and are now more listened to. If not don't expect better results in the future. Policymakers have the prime responsibility for ensuring this. Human nature works against it happening so it is always a work in progress.