Matt Lauer's Interview of Condi re: WMD

[linazelle]

Matt asked a great question: If what David Kay says is true--that intelligence officials let Bush* down by giving him bad information--then why isn't Bush* advocating some sort of inquiry or a special investigation to get behind this?

Of course we all know why. They'd have to start talking about the Office of Special Plans.

Condi skated all around the question, by the way, veering off into never-never land with the "12 years" crap about Saddam. As I watched her spin, I was once again consumed by the thought that she would make the best bobble-head doll...

[Loonman]

1. Condi is such a bald faced liar

How can she sleep at night?

[Skittles]

2. why do they keep interviewing that Bush whore ???

they could just show a recording of the same spin she gives every freaking time.

[spotbird]

7. My 12 year old was in the room when the interview was on this am.

He asked the same question, "Why don't they just put her answers on a loop? She just keeps saying the same thing."

And that was just about the single interview, over all she never wavers from her spin to answer a question. It just isn't going to fly as well anymore.

[Skittles]

18. that's a smart boy you've got there, spotbird

we need to make a journalist out of him

[KG]

3. she's an embarrassingly bad liar.

not nearly the professional lying polish that cheney, rumfeld and the others exhibit.

[underpants]

4. I watched it-She just kept talking and talking

I don't think Lauer was able to ask more than 4 or 5 questions. First, Condi don't wear a green suit people do believe people wearing green suits and when you know you are going to be lying anyway don't wear a green suit.

Second, she just went on and on about letting them do their job blah blah blah "Saddam was a growing threat" blah blah blah "Growing threat" blah blah

Lauer actually had to interrupt her to ask her the same question in a different way and off she went blah blah blah.

[myrna minx]

19. I didn't see the show...did her green suit have question marks

all over it? :shrug:

[Loonman]

5. She talks and talks and talks about NOTHING!

What a waste of a payroll cabinet position.

Totally useless.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. Condi has always lied through her effing teeth for master bush*

[NicoleM]

8. Saw her on ABC.

She did the same dance there. Diane sort of tried to get her to answer the questions, but she should have asked why they WOULDN'T want an inquiry rather than whether they wanted one.

[truthspeaker]

9. the "12 years" bullshit

It's true, Saddam defied the inspectors and the UN for several years.

What got him to let the inspectors back in? The threat of force from the US. I have no problem admitting that.

But once the threat of force worked, why go on with the war anyway?

It reminded me of something a political science professor said in class my freshman year at Macalester:

"The threat of force is a use of power. The use of force is not."

With threats you can sometimes get people to do what you want. That's power. If you use force you are admitting you are powerless over your target and have to eliminate it. Or, in this case, too damn stupid to realize that the threats were accomplishing your objective.

[NewJeffCT]

11. Didn't she say

Didn't Rice say back in 2001 that Saddam was not a threat? I know Colin Powell and Dick Cheney both said that.

[DrBB]

14. Yup--Powell and Rice, February 2001

I don't think Cheney ever did--he's the prime motivator of the Get Saddam obsession from before 9/11.

But both Condi and Colin said it, quite unequivocally, in February 2001. There's actually a video of it kicking around--Google on "John Pilger" (the director of a killer documentary on this stuff) and you'll find it.

[linazelle]

17. Yup...link: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/23/1064082978207.html

Pilger claims White House knew Saddam was no threat
September 23, 2003 - 2:33PM


Australian investigative journalist John Pilger says he has evidence the war against Iraq was based on a lie which could cost George W Bush and Tony Blair their jobs and bring Prime Minister John Howard down with them.

A television report by Pilger aired on British screens last night said US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice confirmed in early 2001 that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been disarmed and was no threat.

But after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 that year, Pilger claimed Rice said the US "must move to take advantage of these new opportunities" to attack Iraq and claim control of its oil.

Pilger uncovered video footage of Powell in Cairo on February 24, 2001 saying, "He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours."

Two months later, Rice reportedly said, "We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."

[spanone]

10. Matts best question of the year deserves an honest answer

something you won't get out of these thugs

[SpiralHawk]

12. Condi's face and body language are screaming: uncomfortable

It's tough to lie and lie and lie, and not squirm. She is a big squirmer and a lip biter. She inspires Zero Confidence.

[underpants]

16. Near the end she must have thought she was doing a great job

He head tilited back and leaned to the right. I agree that most of the time she was very uncomfortable and was speaking as fast as possible to try to control the discussion and not let Lauer ask another question. The part at the end almost made me laugh, she thought she was doing SOoooooooooo well. I would have laughed if the whole thing weren't so sad.

[DrBB]

13. How many times is it now?

How many times have we seen this exact pattern? At least four I can think of: 9/11 itself, Niger Yellowcake, Plame, and now the Kay report. Probably more if I put my mind to it.

The pattern being this thing of Blame the CIA, We Had an Intelligence Failure, A Security Leak, Woops!

....and then no consequences. No one gets fired. I mean, no INTERNAL consequences, you know? I mean, how transparent does it have to get before the media whores stop pretending this is all somehow normal?

Look, guys--Jennings, Rather, Blitzer, whoever: if they weren't LYING, they would actually CARE that these "Intelligence Failures" or whatever occured, wouldn't they? I mean, the presumption you keep extending to them is, Well, of course they care about national security and reality and wanting to have effective policies 'n' stuff. But if that presumption were true, THEY would have looked into it themselves, and SOMEBODY WOULD HAVE GOTTEN FIRED for it.

Instead, look--just look at what's right in front of your overpaid, made-up and photogenic noses. This isn't investigative journalism, it's simple observation and everyday common-sense:

No one lost their job for 9/11. Not one single person. In fact, some who should have been held accountable have been given awards and promoted.

No one lost their job for those 16 words in the SOTU either. Condi said, Oh, the Wilson report, just lost in the bureaucracy somewhere, yadda yadda yadda, whaddya gonna do. But the fact that the Yellow Cake story was bogus was crucial national security information. It is NOT OKAY for it to get lost in the bureaucracy somewhere. That is NOT an acceptable excuse, even if it were true, in any administration that actually cares about doing the job it was elected to do. Or in this case of course, not elected. And NOBODY was fired. In any rational, honest administration, Condi would have HAD to RESIGN. And that's assuming her excuse is TRUE.

Same goes for Plame of course. And same for this Kay report. If Bush really cared, he would WANT TO KNOW, and somebody would have gotten canned.

The only explanation--it is so ridiculously transparently obvious that only an extreme effort at willful blindness could prevent a rational adult from seeing it--is that a) Bush doesn't care, because b) Bush already knows.

</rant>

[underpants]

15. They blamed the 16 words on Steven Hadley

but he is still working there.

[mike1963]

20. And nobody from FAA, DOT or NORAD ever got nailed either, as far as I

Know...

Bottom line (9/11) is either complicity or incompetence. There are no other possibilities. (And now we can apply the same formula to the Iraq invasion...)

There is no emoticon for what I want...and if there were, it'd get me sent to Gitmo.