Comments on: Wilkerson: ‘I’ve Come to the Conclusion That Cheney is Just Crazy’ http://pubrecord.org/nation/4936/wilkerson-ive-conclusion-cheney/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wilkerson-ive-conclusion-cheney Intrepid New Journalism Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:10:08 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Dave "knowbuddhau" Parker http://pubrecord.org/nation/4936/wilkerson-ive-conclusion-cheney/comment-page-1/#comment-593 Dave "knowbuddhau" Parker Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:38:14 +0000 http://pubrecord.org/?p=4936#comment-593 Lawrence Wilkerson: Another part of this that I discovered — it shouldn’t have shocked me, but it did surprise me — was that when 9/11 went down there was no interrogation capability in the United States, other than in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There was none. Everything the military had was geared still to the Cold War, everything the CIA had had been dismantled, and the FBI had maybe — the best figures I’ve been able to get my hands on of people who were fluent in Arabic or Farsi or maybe both, and they also were culturally sensitive, knew something about the region from which the detainee might come, knew something about his tribal affiliations and so forth — there were maybe two dozen. Here we have this attack, and then we captured people, and we had no interrogation capability other than a small contingent in the Bureau. Andy Worthington: And they were sidelined … Lawrence Wilkerson: Yes, after they proved their worth, they were sidelined. Andy Worthington: To me that’s still the biggest shock about the whole story, and it’s the clearest example of why disregarding that experience in the FBI was such a disaster. Lawrence Wilkerson: But it was something this administration almost made a cult of doing — not just on interrogation, but on almost everything, whether it was Iraq, whether it was the Middle East in general, whether it was North Korea. The attitude was: Don’t talk to me from a position of expertise, talk to me from a position of fixed religious adamancy, you know. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-18-2002/don-t-ask--don-t-translate November 18, 2002 Don't Ask, Don't Translate Firing gay linguists from the Army is something that Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush can agree on. Tags: Arabic, war on terror, intelligence, gay/homosexual, military, translations, Whaaaa? Lawrence Wilkerson: Another part of this that I discovered — it shouldn’t have shocked me, but it did surprise me — was that when 9/11 went down there was no interrogation capability in the United States, other than in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There was none. Everything the military had was geared still to the Cold War, everything the CIA had had been dismantled, and the FBI had maybe — the best figures I’ve been able to get my hands on of people who were fluent in Arabic or Farsi or maybe both, and they also were culturally sensitive, knew something about the region from which the detainee might come, knew something about his tribal affiliations and so forth — there were maybe two dozen. Here we have this attack, and then we captured people, and we had no interrogation capability other than a small contingent in the Bureau.

Andy Worthington: And they were sidelined …

Lawrence Wilkerson: Yes, after they proved their worth, they were sidelined.

Andy Worthington: To me that’s still the biggest shock about the whole story, and it’s the clearest example of why disregarding that experience in the FBI was such a disaster.

Lawrence Wilkerson: But it was something this administration almost made a cult of doing — not just on interrogation, but on almost everything, whether it was Iraq, whether it was the Middle East in general, whether it was North Korea. The attitude was: Don’t talk to me from a position of expertise, talk to me from a position of fixed religious adamancy, you know.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-18-2002/don-t-ask–don-t-translate

November 18, 2002
Don’t Ask, Don’t Translate
Firing gay linguists from the Army is something that Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush can agree on.

Tags: Arabic, war on terror, intelligence, gay/homosexual, military, translations, Whaaaa?

]]> By: GREYDOG http://pubrecord.org/nation/4936/wilkerson-ive-conclusion-cheney/comment-page-1/#comment-576 GREYDOG Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:33:57 +0000 http://pubrecord.org/?p=4936#comment-576 Torture is a WAR CRIME. Anyone authorizing it, doing it, or refusing to prosecute it is a WAR CRIMINAL. Torture is a WAR CRIME. Anyone authorizing it, doing it, or refusing to prosecute it is a WAR CRIMINAL.

]]> By: ASB http://pubrecord.org/nation/4936/wilkerson-ive-conclusion-cheney/comment-page-1/#comment-575 ASB Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:24:58 +0000 http://pubrecord.org/?p=4936#comment-575 Cheney was at the center of the energy policy discussion that preceded the events of 2001-2008, and it is hard to avoid the impression that he considered himself executor of an unspoken program to secure US control over the world's remaining energy resources, directly or indirectly -- in other words, to control the future of mankind. This is indeed insane but if you look at the historical profile of man's fossil fuel binge (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil for a number of starting points; also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney on his heart problems -- which began in 1978) there is an aspect of inevitability to it -- and he might consider himself a humble agent of his conception of historical destiny. The real question is who might share that conception, and could have participated, in the 20th century, in constructing the events of this decade. That too could reach quite far back -- M.King Hubbert's article in Science appeared in 1949. (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/pdf_extract/109/2823/103) Cheney was at the center of the energy policy discussion that preceded the events of 2001-2008, and it is hard to avoid the impression that he considered himself executor of an unspoken program to secure US control over the world’s remaining energy resources, directly or indirectly — in other words, to control the future of mankind. This is indeed insane but if you look at the historical profile of man’s fossil fuel binge (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil for a number of starting points; also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney on his heart problems — which began in 1978) there is an aspect of inevitability to it — and he might consider himself a humble agent of his conception of historical destiny. The real question is who might share that conception, and could have participated, in the 20th century, in constructing the events of this decade. That too could reach quite far back — M.King Hubbert’s article in Science appeared in 1949. (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/pdf_extract/109/2823/103)

]]> By: larry, dfh http://pubrecord.org/nation/4936/wilkerson-ive-conclusion-cheney/comment-page-1/#comment-572 larry, dfh Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:05:59 +0000 http://pubrecord.org/?p=4936#comment-572 Relaying a conversation my brother had: He works contracturally for a large multinational, whose former CEO is a big time republican; there are pictures of him at the corporate hqts. shaking hands with nixon, reagan, breznev, ford, bush I, etc. He knows cheney personally, so when my brother asks him "what happened to cheney?" the guy answers "I think it was the heart attack". Relaying a conversation my brother had:
He works contracturally for a large multinational, whose former CEO is a big time republican; there are pictures of him at the corporate hqts. shaking hands with nixon, reagan, breznev, ford, bush I, etc. He knows cheney personally, so when my brother asks him “what happened to cheney?” the guy answers “I think it was the heart attack”.

]]> By: Eric M http://pubrecord.org/nation/4936/wilkerson-ive-conclusion-cheney/comment-page-1/#comment-567 Eric M Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:46:29 +0000 http://pubrecord.org/?p=4936#comment-567 Has anyone heard about some kind of investigation regarding Cheney in London? A former coworker there tells me he has heard that Cheney, through operatives, has been passing info to Al Quida which compromises US safety. The thought is that he is trying to get another terrorist attack on US soil to bolster his practives and benenfit his political allies. I hope this isn't covered up in the US. Has anyone heard about some kind of investigation regarding Cheney in London? A former coworker there tells me he has heard that Cheney, through operatives, has been passing info to Al Quida which compromises US safety. The thought is that he is trying to get another terrorist attack on US soil to bolster his practives and benenfit his political allies. I hope this isn’t covered up in the US.

]]>