Italy/US propaganda project prior to invasion of IRAQ

[Geggy]

Its becoming widely known that Bush admin lied about Iraq's WMD...

http://www.vanityfair.com/features/g...s/060606fege02

[ItalianStereotype]

Geggy, just...Geggy.

Vanity Fair?

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Damnit, Eye Tie. I mean damnit.

EDIT: Actually, Vanity Fair does some good work. And compared to some of Geggy's other sources, they're pretty good.

[mburbank]

Thank you Kev. Vanity fair is not the magazine it was a few decades ago, and the article is well researched and excellent.

One should no more assume that just because Geggy posted it it's ridiculous than one would assume that an article by... Tony Blankney.

Seriously, the artcile is about the origin of the poorly forged nigerian documents on yellowcake that made their way into W's state of the Union speech, the infamous 16 words. Aren't you even curious about where they came from? I know they are the sort of thing that make conspiracy theorists drool, but they do exist, they did come from somewhere.

Besides, they have a feature which actually makes them register for me. They sucked. They were shitty forgeries. Conspiracies are almost always of little interet to me becuae they require a level of competance only found in spy novels. This has the watergate burglarly factor. It was an inept, shitty, fuck up. That kind of amateur shit seems FAR more plausible to me than the diea that we bombed the penatgon and then made a plane disappear.

[ItalianStereotype]

what makes things like Vanity Fair or GQ any better than sources like newsmax? max, I seem to recall you attacked Ronnie more than once for citing newsmax.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Does VF have some kind of slant? I honestly wouldn't know, but Christopher Hitchens writes for them. Although he annoys the hell out of me, he's pretty well regarded, and certainly not a knee-jerk liberal.

Newsmax to me is more like Common Dreams. They accumulate slanted editorials and articles that fit their agenda. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but I don't know that VF fits in that category.

But again, I really don't read it enough to know for certain.

[mburbank]

I think you should buy an issue of Vanity Fair. They run articles by all sorts of reputable journalists these days.

I haven't been to Newsmax in quite some time. Perhaps they've changed.

Carl Bernstein
David Halbertsam
Gail Sheehy
James Wolcott
Christopher Hitchens (whom I personally believe has gone barking mad, but has a resume you wouldn't sneeze at)

have all written for VF in the past few years.

[ItalianStereotype]

I'd assume it has a slant, since the following are the only political articles I saw on the site:


PATRIOTISM IN A TIME OF WAR In April, 35 years after calling for a withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, Senator John Kerry delivered a new appeal at Boston’s Faneuil Hall: support the troops by telling the truth and righting wrongs. Read the speech.

SENATE HEARINGS ON BUSH, NOW Watergate veteran and Vanity Fair contributing editor Carl Bernstein calls for bipartisan hearings investigating the Bush presidency. Should Republicans on the Hill take the high road and save themselves come November? Read the VF.com exclusive article.

A FACE ONLY A PRESIDENT COULD LOVE Thirty years ago Dick Cheney was the likable young star of the moderate Ford administration. Today he's a snarling caricature of White House extremism and incompetence. Is his heart condition to blame? The shock of 9/11? The fortune he made at Halliburton? In exclusive interviews with the V.P., his wife, and longtime friends and colleagues, Todd Purdum explores the disconnect between Cheney past and Cheney present. Photographs by David Hume Kennerly.

HOW NEW ORLEANS DROWNED As Katrina bore down on New Orleans, the city's survival lay in the hands of a showboating mayor, an ill-prepared governor, a miscast Bush crony at FEMA, and a clueless White House. In an excerpt from The Great Deluge, historian Douglas Brinkley follows the key players through the fateful first week to show that, thanks to meltdowns, infighting, and miscalculations, the Big Easy never had a chance. Portraits by Harry Benson. Read the article.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

But still, I'd say it's no worse than posting something from like Slate or something. Still pretty good for the Gegmeister.

This is a dumb conversation.

[Emu]

I'd like to talk more about Newsmax.

I remember a few years ago they posted a picture of some young German protesters who had gathered concerning the Iraq war and posted the caption "HITLER'S CHILDREN" underneath it.

[Courage the Cowardly Dog]

that's extra odd considering Hitler's Children was an antinazi propoganda Disney made during WW2. (It's pretty cool if you ever seen it)

Honestly I think it's obvious WMD or not, Saddm had a history of extreme violence, attempted genocide, torture, and if he didn't have WMDs he sure was being pissy about inspectors.

In hindsight it wasn't the right choice to go in but the man was an obvious threat to millions of lives be they american or not. I'm glad he's facing trial but it's a pretty big cost. But now all we can do is look forward, get the iraqi government strong enough to allow us to get out and watch from afar.