Domine, fac me vitrum ut tibi incendam
Dec. 6th, 2005 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat1138This is really more the sort of thing ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bellatrys does, but since I haven't seen this particular bit on her LJ, I guess it's about time that I did my part.
This past weekend's episode of This American Life was show #303, "David and Goliath", whose main segments were about sibling rivalry, the Cambodian garment industry, and scatological vandalism. However, at the very end (~54:45), there was a brief coda by the host, Ira Glass. My transcript thereof is below.
Okay, one final "David and Goliath" thing before we go today. The president and the vice-president keep saying certain things over and over recently. And although other people refuted these things already, and although we are but a weekend program here on public radio-- we're not even on in drive-time, we're not even a news show-- because the Goliath of this administration keeps stomping around shouting this nonsense, I want to add our voices to those saying that it is, in fact, nonsense. Here is the vice-president, in the middle of last month:
Cheney tape: "The suggestion that's been made by some US Senators, that the President of the United States, or any member of this administration, purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city. (applause)"
And here he is a week ago:
Cheney tape: "Flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight, but any suggestion that pre-war information was distorted, hyped, or fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly(?) false."
As many, many places have reported now, here are some facts:
Ten days after 9/11, the president's daily security briefing said that there were few credible links between Iraq and al-Qaeda; their(?) CIA report said the same thing. But for three years after getting that information, administration officials continued to say that there were important connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda, to the point where nearly half the country believed it.
The vice-president went around claiming that 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta met with Iraq officials, even after the CIA and FBI both informed him that the meeting almost certainly did not take place-- the meeting was supposed to've happened in Prague; Atta was in Virginia Beach at the time.
The president and vice-president claimed Saddam Hussein was importing nuclear material from Africa for more than a year after Ambassador Joseph Wilson proved that it was untrue-- what's so crazy about this one is that it was the vice-president's office that originally asked the CIA to check the whole thing out; they sent Wilson to Africa; he reported back that it was absolutely untrue, provably so, and then the administration still claimed it was true in tv appearances and speeches, including the State of the Union.
The administration continued to assert that the Iraqis had mobile factories that could make biological weapons, long after the source for the claim, an Iraqi defector code-named "Curveball", had been discredited; they continued to say that Iraq had provided al-Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training, even after the defense intelligence agencies concluded that the source for this information was probably lying.
I'm saying this here-- other people have said it elsewhere-- but still, somehow, the administration's claim that they did not mislead anyone keeps lumbering the earth. Their version of history is like this giant that would just not fall to the ground. It just keeps shouting; it just won't shut up. Some slingshots do nothing.
[The Latin header was gleaned from one of Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels; she translates it as "Lord, make me a glass (lens) that I might burn for thee." The lack of Google hits probably means that it's not from the Vulgate, though I'm not sure what its ultimate source is. Possibly Kurtz wrote it herself, having been a SCAdian from way back.]
bellatrys does, but since I haven't seen this particular bit on her LJ, I guess it's about time that I did my part.This past weekend's episode of This American Life was show #303, "David and Goliath", whose main segments were about sibling rivalry, the Cambodian garment industry, and scatological vandalism. However, at the very end (~54:45), there was a brief coda by the host, Ira Glass. My transcript thereof is below.
Okay, one final "David and Goliath" thing before we go today. The president and the vice-president keep saying certain things over and over recently. And although other people refuted these things already, and although we are but a weekend program here on public radio-- we're not even on in drive-time, we're not even a news show-- because the Goliath of this administration keeps stomping around shouting this nonsense, I want to add our voices to those saying that it is, in fact, nonsense. Here is the vice-president, in the middle of last month:
Cheney tape: "The suggestion that's been made by some US Senators, that the President of the United States, or any member of this administration, purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city. (applause)"
And here he is a week ago:
Cheney tape: "Flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight, but any suggestion that pre-war information was distorted, hyped, or fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly(?) false."
As many, many places have reported now, here are some facts:
Ten days after 9/11, the president's daily security briefing said that there were few credible links between Iraq and al-Qaeda; their(?) CIA report said the same thing. But for three years after getting that information, administration officials continued to say that there were important connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda, to the point where nearly half the country believed it.
The vice-president went around claiming that 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta met with Iraq officials, even after the CIA and FBI both informed him that the meeting almost certainly did not take place-- the meeting was supposed to've happened in Prague; Atta was in Virginia Beach at the time.
The president and vice-president claimed Saddam Hussein was importing nuclear material from Africa for more than a year after Ambassador Joseph Wilson proved that it was untrue-- what's so crazy about this one is that it was the vice-president's office that originally asked the CIA to check the whole thing out; they sent Wilson to Africa; he reported back that it was absolutely untrue, provably so, and then the administration still claimed it was true in tv appearances and speeches, including the State of the Union.
The administration continued to assert that the Iraqis had mobile factories that could make biological weapons, long after the source for the claim, an Iraqi defector code-named "Curveball", had been discredited; they continued to say that Iraq had provided al-Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training, even after the defense intelligence agencies concluded that the source for this information was probably lying.
I'm saying this here-- other people have said it elsewhere-- but still, somehow, the administration's claim that they did not mislead anyone keeps lumbering the earth. Their version of history is like this giant that would just not fall to the ground. It just keeps shouting; it just won't shut up. Some slingshots do nothing.
[The Latin header was gleaned from one of Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels; she translates it as "Lord, make me a glass (lens) that I might burn for thee." The lack of Google hits probably means that it's not from the Vulgate, though I'm not sure what its ultimate source is. Possibly Kurtz wrote it herself, having been a SCAdian from way back.]