A local mother who lost their only son in Iraq recently didn't believe that Iraq was a threat to the US, and still doesn't believe they are a threat today. So why are we spending so many of our sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters in Iraq? She said her son was the most precious thing she had in this life, and she no longer has any reason to live. Those compassionate conservatives sure knows how to sell lies to the citizens of this country.
Because the Iraqi moms also love their children and were not strong enough to displace the evil that ruled their country. Now it is to keep a new evil from taking over.
McGentrix wrote:Because the Iraqi moms also love their children and were not strong enough to displace the evil that ruled their country. Now it is to keep a new evil from taking over.
Which new evil? the "new evil" of American imperialism seems to be taking over quite well.
Or did you mean the evil of Iraqi self rule?
I would far rather be ignorant than wise in the foreboding of evil."
-- Æschylus
hobitbob wrote:McGentrix wrote:Because the Iraqi moms also love their children and were not strong enough to displace the evil that ruled their country. Now it is to keep a new evil from taking over.
Which new evil? the "new evil" of American imperialism seems to be taking over quite well.
Or did you mean the evil of Iraqi self rule?
No, the "new evil" of religeous repression, restrictions of rights and the fear of continued aggression from terrorists. "American Imperialism" is nothing more than a figment of a fevered imagination, but coming from the left, I am used that kind of thinking from them.
Paul O'Neill did nothing wrong; admitted by his successor
Documents given to O'Neill for book included classified information, Snow says
JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writer
Friday, February 6, 2004
©2004 Associated Press
URL: sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/02/06/financial1747EST0323.DTL
(02-06) 16:35 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
Documents given to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill for an insider book on his two years in President Bush's Cabinet contained classified information, successor John Snow told Congress in a letter on Friday.
Snow's letter, obtained by The Associated Press, said that a preliminary investigation conducted by the Treasury Department's inspector general found that sensitive information was released in the documents given to O'Neill after he was ousted in late 2002.
The "documents were not properly reviewed before their release," said the letter.
Treasury began an inquiry into the documents last month after a TV segment on CBS' "60 Minutes" during which O'Neill was promoting the book "The Price of Loyalty" showed a document marked "secret."
O'Neill provided some 19,000 documents to former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind for the book, an account of O'Neill's two years in the Bush Cabinet. The former secretary said he basically passed along documents the department sent him after he left. Suskind has posted many of the documents on the Internet.
A memo, also obtained by the AP, from Treasury Inspector General Jeffrey Rush to Snow and dated Feb. 3, said that "at least three documents containing information that should have been classified were released to former secretary O'Neill. None of the documents were properly annotated with the required markings for classified information."
The memo also said that "none of the records" on the two computer discs given to O'Neill "were reviewed by the department to determine whether the information was releasable."
Treasury officials in the Office of Executive Secretary and the Office of General Counsel "failed to follow Treasury's procedures for the release of information to a former Treasury official or the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act," Rush's memo to Snow said.
Neither Snow's letter nor Rush's memo suggests that O'Neill acted improperly.
O'Neill, in previous interviews, denied allegations that classified material had been used in the book and that he received documents that we has legally entitled to have.
Suskind, in an interview Friday, said his lawyers have been in contact with government attorneys to try to understand their concerns.
He declined to describe the documents in question or whether he had been asked to return them. He did say, however, that none of the documents with classified material was "released or revealed in the book or on my Web site."
Suskind said the root of the problem was in the government's release of the documents and not O'Neill.
"Paul O'Neill is not involved in this," he said. "He got the documents in good faith and he turned them over to me. it is very important that people understand that."
Administration officials have expressed strong disagreement with parts of the book, in which O'Neill characterizes Bush as a disengaged chief executive.
In one passage that has received much attention, O'Neill says that from the earliest days of Bush's new administration, the president was planning on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.
O'Neill was fired in a shake-up of Bush's economic team in December 2002.
Snow's letter said, "We have identified a number of documents that contain classified information and we are taking corrective action concerning those documents."
The investigation is still under way, a spokeswoman said.
Snow also said the department was taking steps to prevent sensitive, classified information from being released in the future. He said the department is beginning to provide additional security training, including focusing on the handling of such documents.
The department also is looking into using a third party to review Treasury's policies for handling sensitive information.
The letter was sent to lawmakers, including top members of the appropriations committees in the House and Senate as well as the Senate Banking Committee and committees on government affairs and intelligence.
