news on the march

leading senator assails bush over iran stance
from new york times: The new chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday sharply criticized the Bush administration’s increasingly combative stance toward Iran, saying that White House efforts to portray it as a growing threat are uncomfortably reminiscent of rhetoric about Iraq before the American invasion of 2003... “To be quite honest, I’m a little concerned that it’s Iraq again,” Senator Rockefeller said during an interview in his office. “This whole concept of moving against Iran is bizarre.”

'NY money people’ pushing war with iran
from jewish daily forward: Retired general Wesley Clark drew harsh criticism this week after reportedly saying that “New York money people” are pushing America into a war against Iran. By Tuesday, Clark, a past and likely future Democratic candidate for president, was working to assure Jewish groups that he was in no way attempting to advance an antisemitic conspiracy theory. But the controversy still had Jewish organizations bracing for a new wave of claims that they are the driving force behind any future military strikes against Tehran.

bush orders more cia activity in venezuela
from venezuelanalysis: During a briefing before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Intelligence, current CIA chief General Michael V. Hayden revealed President George W. Bush had requested his agency “pay more attention” to the activities of President Hugo Chávez and his government in Venezuela.

lying like it's 2003
from new york times: Those who forget history may be doomed to repeat it, but who could imagine we'd already be in danger of replaying that rotten year 2003? ... This time we must do what too few did the first time: call the White House on its lies. Lies should not be confused with euphemisms like 'incompetence' and 'denial.'

canadian spy coins never existed
from seattle times: Reversing itself, the Defense Department says an espionage report it produced that warned about Canadian coins with tiny radio-frequency transmitters was not true. The Defense Security Service said it never could substantiate its own published claims about the mysterious coins. It has begun an internal review to determine how the false information was included in a 29-page report about espionage concerns.

failure is not an option
from larry beinhart/op-ed news: Failure is not an option. It's standard! On every policy we make! Name a policy, and it's got failure! Guaranteed! Or your government back! ... Another way to look at it, is that the phrase "Failure is not an option" is very clever. It creates the illusion that failure has not already happened.