Bush administration

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Report: Psych Group Helped Bush Justify Torture

APA propped up Bush administration's interrogation program, critics say

(Newser) - The Senate Intelligence Committee's report on CIA prisoner torture caused a massive stir in December, and now that pot is boiling over once more. A report by a group of what the New York Times calls "dissident health professionals and human rights activists" claims that the American Psychological...

Planned Homeland Security HQ a Total Fiasco

It's running a decade behind schedule, $1.5B over budget

(Newser) - What America was supposed to have as soon as this year, at a cost of $3 billion: a sprawling headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security, a complex of more than 50 buildings that would allow easier coordination of the department's agencies. The plan, announced by former DHS Secretary...

Inside Ethanol's Quiet, Dirty Toll on Environment

Industry fumes over AP report

(Newser) - President Obama, and President Bush before him, fought hard to make ethanol a central part of American energy. But an AP investigation finds that the program as it stands may be doing far more environmental harm than good. The effort to grow corn for fuel has meant the destruction of...

Obama to Nominate Top Bush Official for FBI Chief

James Comey was key to warrantless wiretapping program

(Newser) - President Obama today plans to nominate George W. Bush's former No. 2 at the Justice Department, James Comey , to lead the FBI as the agency grapples with privacy debates over a host of recently exposed investigative tactics. Comey is perhaps best known for a remarkable 2004 standoff over a...

NSA Is Seizing Millions of Verizon Phone Records

White House defends 'ongoing, daily' surveillance as a 'critical tool'

(Newser) - A new report in the Guardian suggests the Obama administration isn't so different from its predecessor when it comes to domestic phone surveillance: The National Security Agency has been gathering the phone records of millions of US Verizon users thanks to a secret court order . The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance...

Benghazi Witch Hunt Just Like Bush '16 Words' Fiasco

Jackson Diehl sees an uncomfortable parallel between the non-scandals

(Newser) - The Benghazi scandal feels awfully familiar to Jackson Diehl; it's a mirror image of the "16 words" fracas that dogged the George W. Bush administration, he writes in the Washington Post . To recap: In 2003, ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson accused Bush of, among other things, knowingly including a 16-word-long...

US Torture After 9/11 'Indisputable': Nonpartisan Probe

Top officials to blame, says panel

(Newser) - The news cycle might be focusing elsewhere , but a nonpartisan report out today offers a clear conclusion on US interrogation techniques following 9/11: "It is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture," the report says. What's more, the highest officials are to blame...

What Have We Learned from Iraq?
 What Have 
 We Learned 
 from Iraq? 
OPINION ROUNDUP
Mar 19, 2013 1:15 PM CDT

What Have We Learned from Iraq?

Pundits reflect on invasion's 10th anniversary

(Newser) - It's the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, and news sources are taking a moment to reflect on what we have—or haven't—learned. What pundits are saying:
  • What if we'd been told the costs from the start? "It will take eight years, cost
...

Bush Dismissed a Raft of 9/11 Warnings

It wasn't just the Aug. 6 briefing

(Newser) - Most of us are familiar with the White House briefing from August 2001 labeled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US." What's not so well known is the host of briefs that the Bush administration received beforehand. Those memos reveal "significantly more negligence than has been...

Drudge: Condi Tops Mitt's VP List

Despite Rice saying no, speculation swirls about her candidacy

(Newser) - She's given some pretty emphatic denials , but Condoleezza Rice has still emerged as Mitt Romney's No. 1 choice for vice president, according to the Drudge Report . Despite her repeated statements that elected office is not for her, Rice wowed the conservative establishment with her speech at a Romney...

Why Mitt Should Avoid Condi as VP

 Why Mitt Should  
 Avoid Condi as VP 
OPINION
May 1, 2012 1:59 PM CDT

Why Mitt Should Avoid Condi as VP

Rice's lousy record should keep her off Romney ticket: Bret Stephens

(Newser) - Did you like the Bush administration? No? Then why the heck would you want Condoleezza Rice to be Mitt Romney's running mate, asks Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal . A recent poll had Rice as Republican voters' top choice for the ticket, and it's easy to see...

Karl Rove: I Didn't Want Dick Cheney

 Karl Rove: 
 I Didn't Want 
 Dick Cheney 
OPINION
Apr 26, 2012 12:46 PM CDT

Karl Rove: I Didn't Want Dick Cheney

Bush strategist says to ignore politics when picking a VP

(Newser) - From now until August, pundits will be speculating about Mitt Romney's VP choice, and poring over the political benefits of each candidate. Karl Rove thinks Romney should ignore all of that and choose, as George W. Bush did, the "best partner in the White House and a person...

Bush's CIA Chief: We Ruled Out Iran Strike

Michael Hayden says it would have backfired then, and would now, too

(Newser) - George W. Bush's administration pondered an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and ultimately rejected it, says former CIA and NSA chief Gen. Michael Hayden. He and others concluded that an attack on Iran's nuke factories "would guarantee that which we are trying to prevent—an Iran...

Condi Rice Disses Cheney 'Cheap Shots': I Never Cried

Former secretary of state says she never 'tearfully admitted' anything

(Newser) - Add Condoleezza Rice to the list of people torqued by Dick Cheney's opus: The former secretary of state is taking umbrage to Cheney's assertion that she "tearfully admitted I had been right" that the administration shouldn't apologize over a claim in George W Bush's 2003...

Powell Aide: Cheney Fears War Crime Trial

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson slams 'vindictive' memoir

(Newser) - It doesn't look as if the Colin Powell-Dick Cheney feud is going to end any time soon. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Powell's longtime chief of staff, says that Cheney—whose new memoir is sharply critical of Powell—"fears being tried as a war criminal" and "was president...

What We've Learned From Robert Gates
 What We've 
 Learned From 
 Robert Gates 
analysis
Jun 28, 2011 7:20 AM CDT

What We've Learned From Robert Gates

A look back at the retiring defense secretary's career

(Newser) - With Robert Gates, who has served eight presidents over four decades, about to retire, the Washington Post looks back at how Gates operated in the Pentagon. He’s been “careful, conservative, and consensus-oriented,” writes Greg Jaffe, and he’s “earned a reputation as the most ruthlessly efficient...

Happy Birthday, Bush Tax Cuts: You're a Total Failure

By every metric, the cuts delivered less than promised

(Newser) - This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Bush tax cuts, and Annie Lowrey of Slate is looking for reasons to celebrate. Unfortunately, she can’t find any. They’re “a failure in every conceivable way,” she writes. In 2001, Bush promised the cuts would create jobs, generate...

Rumsfeld: We Woulda Hit bin Laden Same Way

Praises intel, SEALs, says hit was years in the making

(Newser) - Add Donald Rumsfeld to the list of Republicans heaping praise for Osama bin Laden's killing on anyone but the Obama administration: "The capabilities to do it were developed over time by previous administrations, and they benefit the country, and the intelligence had been gathered over a long period...

US Saw Chance at bin Laden in 2007

Osama was expected at Taliban, al-Qaeda rally in Afghanistan

(Newser) - Four years ago, the US believed it had a chance to capture or kill Osama bin Laden: Militants would be gathering in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan for suicide attack training, and there were whispers that bin Laden would attend. A secret raid on the site resulted in the...

Rush Limbaugh: Obama Owes Us an Osama Apology

It's Bush's policies that led us to bin Laden, says radio host

(Newser) - The Obama administration shouldn’t be patting itself on the back for finding Osama bin Laden—it should be apologizing, says Rush Limbaugh. And so should the entire “American Left” for "taking every opportunity to undermine" the Bush-era policies that ultimately led to bin Laden's death. “...

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