TEAM ESCHATON IS KICKING ASS AND TAKING NAMES
Damning Bush and His Masters: Lots 'o Links

Bush Knew Iraq Info Was False

CIA officials warned members of the President’s National Security Council staff the intelligence was not good enough to make the flat statement Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa.

The White House officials responded that a paper issued by the British government contained the unequivocal assertion: “Iraq has ... sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” As long as the statement was attributed to British Intelligence, the White House officials argued, it would be factually accurate. The CIA officials dropped their objections and that’s how it was delivered.

Here.

Franks Tells Congress He Is Unsure How Long Troops Will Be in Iraq

In his testimony, Franks warned that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq probably won't decline significantly from the current 148,000 until sometime next year and that the kinds of hit-and-run attacks that killed two American soldiers Wednesday will continue.

"We need to not develop an expectation that all of these difficulties will go away in one month or two months or three months,'' Franks told the House Armed Services Committee.

"I anticipate we'll be involved in Iraq in the future,'' Franks added later. "Whether that means two years or four years, I don't know.''

Here (NY Times registration procedure, grumble grumble...).

US Soldier Suicides in Iraq

The military also reported that a soldier died Wednesday in what it described as a non-hostile gunshot incident. The military gave no more details. The names of the dead and wounded were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

An American soldier attached to the 101st Airborne Division died Monday in another non-hostile gunshot incident near Balad, 55 miles north of the capital. Soldiers at an air base near Balad said on condition of anonymity that the soldier had taken his own life.

"Non-hostile gunshot incident." That's a chilling euphemism. The above quote is buried in this article.

Poll: U.S. Losing Control in Iraq

With U.S. troops continuing to take casualties in Iraq, less than half of Americans now believe the U.S. is in control of the situation there -- a dramatic decline from April, when 71 percent thought it was.

Less than half now say Iraq was a threat that required immediate action. And while 54 percent still believe that removing Saddam Hussein from power was worth the costs of war, that figure, too, has declined from 65 percent in May.

A majority still believes the U.S. will eventually turn up weapons of mass destruction, but fewer are confident of this today than they were last month, and the public divides on whether the war will have been worth it if no weapons of mass destruction are found. For the first time a majority now says the Bush administration overestimated the extent of the Iraqis’ weapons.

Here.

U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'

John Lehman, a member of the independent commission, said at a hearing Wednesday: "There's little doubt that much of the funding of terrorist groups -- whether intentional or unintentional -- is coming from Saudi sources.''

And

The report will show that top Bush administration officials were warned in the summer of 2001 that the al Qaeda terrorist network had plans to hijack aircraft and launch a "spectacular attack.''

Click here.

All links courtesy of Eschaton, of course.

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