Scary News

On Iran: I’m watching Seymour Hersh, investigative reporter from the New Yorker, telling Wolf Blitzer that his sources in the Pentagon are working with Bush to develop a plan to take military action against Iran. Hersh says that Bush believes that he’s the only one who will do anything against Iran. Plans are focused and operational. They’re beyond contingency planning. Hersh has gone as far as to suggest that the White House has given the option of using a tactical nuclear weapon against Iran to the Joint Chiefs. Some senior Pentagon officials want to take it out as an option, but the White House has refused and insists on keeping it on the table. The option is so controversial that some senior Pentagon officials are apparently considering resigning if the option remains on the table. Hersh emphasizes that this doesn’t suggest the nuclear option is inevitable, but it that the White House insists on keeping it as an option. He also says that regular military forces are already in Iran and that the Iranian government already knows this.

On naming sources, Hersh says that many in the military are really getting “edgy” about Bush and Cheney, and for that reason he will not reveal sources in fear of Bush’s “punitive government”. Here’s Hersh’s article. Bottom line is that Bush is not asking for bilateral talks with Iran and keeping nuclear weapons as an option only inflames the situation. Watch for the White House’s attacks on Hersh for revealing the information and blaming him for inflaming the situation.

On the NSA: On other scary news, I think we’ve only scratched the surface in terms of the reach of the NSA surveillance program. Check out this article about AT&T’s involvement:

"AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers' phone calls, and shunted its customers' internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center, according to a former AT&T worker cooperating in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit against the company."

On the CIA Leak: Finally, this morning I read what I think is the most accessible and well-written article on the CIA leak case and the revelation that Bush and Cheney were in fact actively involved in leaking. The problem here is clearly stated by the article: Bush and Cheney selectively authorized the release of information from the National Intelligence Estimate to credit evidence about Iraq that had been discredited by the intelligence community months before. If true, and to date no evidence has been presented to the contrary, this shows that Bush and Co. are in the business of grossly misleading Americans in order to get what they want, which is what many of us have been saying all along.

I’m disappointed that much of the TV news coverage has focused on Bush’s hypocrisy. That sounds way too benign. The focus should not be on his insistence that his government prevent leaks while he was clearly engaging in leaking. Like many have pointed out already (especially Bob Woodward), this administration has leaked like no other since coming into power. I wish instead they would focus on the deliberate use of bad intelligence. This aspect of the story is far more important. It isn’t a partisan issue; it’s an issue about the role of honest government in public debate.