WOODWARDGATE?
WASH POST REPORTER HELD IN CONTEMPT
“DEATH OF MEDIA” OUT TODAY

I never trusted Bob Wooodward the former Navy intelligence man who went from a beat reporter on the Washington Post to an editor with ongoing access into the inner sanctum of the Bush Administration. He has admitted in the past holding back news he learned so that he could exploit his findings in a books he could profit from. Many of those used fictional techniques to disguise sources and promote his own aura as the ultimate insider.

As he surfaces in the Plamegate scandal, some of his sources may now come to light. Alternet is already labeling these new disclosures: “Woodwardgate.”

WOODWARD QUESTIONS MULTIPLY

The New York Times reports today: “ The emergence of a new source hinted that the special counsel had failed to learn a significant fact after his two-year inquiry.” Dick Cheney’s name is now out—as a possible leak source. For more analytical pieces, see Rory O’Connor’s blog on Media channel and Americblog:

Writes: Arianna Huffington:

”Bob Woodward. What a career arc. From exposing a presidential cover-up in Watergate to covering up his role in Plamegate. And being forced to apologize to his own paper. And asking a colleague, Walter Pincus, not to mention Woodward’s role in the story. And failing to tell his editor that he had vital information about a major story. And, to bottom it out, doing the TV and radio rounds, minimizing the scandal as “laughable,” “an accident”, “nothing to it” and denigrating Fitzgerald as “disgraceful” and “a junkyard dog” without ever once divulging that he was not just an observer of theCIA leak case but a recipient — perhaps the first — of the leak.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20051117/cm_huffpost/010773;_ylt=A86.I1dKMnxD0HgAKg_9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA–

ANONYMOUS SOURCING QUESTIONED

The Miami Herald carries an AP story pointing to how the media was part of this scandal:

”Some three decades after Watergate, the outing of Woodward in the CIA leak investigation underscores the change in anonymous sourcing and revives the criticism of the media’s use of unnamed officials to curry favor.”

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13189237.htm

PATRIOTS UNITE

The Washington Post reports today that Congress has made a “deal” on the renewal of the Patriot Act:

”House and Senate negotiators reached a tentative agreement yesterday on revisions to the USA
Patriot Act that would limit some of the government’s powers while requiring the Justice Departmentto provide a better accounting of its secret requests for information on ordinary citizens.”

http://letters.washingtonpost.com/WART034A2C0C31484F27F3D0A9C470

BILL CLINTON CALLS WAR “BIG MISTAKE”

Perhaps sensing that the tide of public opinion has shifted and there is “blood in the water,” former President Clinton, a war booster is slowly becoming a war critic:

Former President Clinton told Arab students on Wednesday that the United States made a “big mistake” when it invaded Iraq, further stoking the partisan debate back home over the war.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111605Q.shtml

ON THE US AND JORDAN
Read Bill Arkin’s latest
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2005/11/keeping_secrets.html


OPEN THE PRISON DOORS

South Africa News 24 reports:

”Washington - The United States has refused a demand from United Nations human rights monitors for unconditional inspection of its military prison at Guantanamo, saying Washington has co-operated.

On Tuesday, UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, warned the United States that UN inspectors would not visit the base in December as scheduled, unless Washington agreed to unrestricted access without conditions.

“The situation is very clear: if the US does not accept an unconditional inspection, we will not go,” said Nowak.”

See Sarah Meyer on CIA Prisons in Afghanistan.
“
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20051116&articleId=1265



THERE IS NO VIETNAM PARALLEL, REPEAT AFTER ME

We all have seen the continuing assertions on the lack of parallels between the war in Iraq and Vietnam. It is a form of calculated amnesia. New documemts released yesterday suggest that they are more lies as well, according to today’s New York Times:

”WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 - White House advisers convene secret sessions on the political dangers of revelations that American troops committed atrocities in the war zone, and whether the president can delicately intervene in the investigation. In the face of an increasingly unpopular war, they wonder at the impact on support at home. The best way out of the war, they agree, is propping up a new government that can attract feuding elements across a fractured foreign land.

“With an obvious resonance to current events, the National Archives and Records Administration released 50,000 pages of previously classified documents from the Nixon administration today that reveal how all that president’s men wrestled with issues that eerily parallel problems facing the Bush administration…”

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/16/politics/16cnd-nixon.html?ex=1289797200&en=2fba10f844a35a92&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

CIA CLAIMS FIDEL HAS PARKINSONS..IS IT DISINFORMATION?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The CIA has concluded that Cuban President Fidel Castro suffers from Parkinson’s disease and could have difficulty coping with the duties of office as his condition worsens, an official said Wednesday.

“The assessment, completed in recent months, suggests the nonfatal but debilitating disease has progressed far enough to warrant questions among U.S. policymakers about the communist country’s future in the next several years.

“The assessment is that he has the disease and that his condition has progressed. There appear to be more outward signs,” said an official who is familiar with the assessment.

WHAT IS THE CIA DOING IN VENEZUELA?

Former CIA agent Phillip Agee believes he knows.

http://venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1548