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Latest News
- The second wave against Mearsheimer and Walt: A well-tempered smother-out as a new war looms
The Last Ditch, May 25, 2006 - Bush, Blair admit mistakes in Iraq
Washington Post, May 25, 2006 - Iran color-coded religious badges story 'untrue'
Csmonitor.com, May 25, 2006 - Joe Galloway, Nearing Retirement, Hits Rumsfeld in E-mails
Editor & Publisher, May 24, 2006 - Fairy Tales
Harper's, May 18, 2006
Recent Articles
False Pretenses
Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
By Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith ( The six retired generals who stepped forward last spring to publicly attack Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the Iraq war had to overcome a culture of reticence based on civilian control of the military.... more Neo-CONNED News recently conducted an interview with Ibrahim Ebeid, an Editor with the Arab website, Al-Moharer.net. The interesting site has frequently been the primary source of statements from leading Iraqi government... more This Thursday,... more In a short but important introduction to Chapter 25 of Neo-CONNED! Again, the editors... moreNight of the Generals
An Interview with Ibrahim Ebeid
The People (via McGovern) v. Rumsfeld
The sad, lawless saga continues: GTMO detainees remain in legal black hole.
False Pretenses
Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
By Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith (www.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/)
President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11,... more
Night of the Generals
The six retired generals who stepped forward last spring to publicly attack Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the Iraq war had to overcome a culture of reticence based on civilian control of the military. But while each man acted separately, all shared one experience: a growing outrage over the administration's incompetence, leading some of the nation's finest soldiers to risk their reputations and cross a time-honored line.
An Interview with Ibrahim Ebeid
Neo-CONNED News recently conducted an interview with Ibrahim Ebeid, an Editor with the Arab website, Al-Moharer.net. The interesting site has frequently been the primary source of statements from leading Iraqi government figures such as Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz, and Taha Ramadan since their imprisonment. We took the opportunity to seek his opinion on matters rarely discussed in the mainstream media, whatever its political color, and to get his thoughts as someone who speaks with some authority from the "other side of the fence."
Ibrahim Ebeid,... more
The People (via McGovern) v. Rumsfeld
This Thursday, Ray McGovern, a 27-year veteran of the CIA, former briefer of President George H. W. Bush, and author of one of the featured essays in Neo-CONNED! Again, asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld why he "lied" to get us into a war in Iraq.
Though Rumsfeld asserted that he "did not lie," McGovern insisted that... more
The sad, lawless saga continues: GTMO detainees remain in legal black hole.
In a short but important introduction to Chapter 25 of Neo-CONNED! Again, the editors relate how Judge Robertson of Washington, DC, put a stop to the Bush administration's military commissions due to numerous legal problems with them -- problems which arise both from the Constitution and from international humanitarian law, as enshrined in the Geneva conventions ratified by the U.S. Senate.
With little public notice or fanfare,... more
Sorting out the mosque-bombing mess.
Without overselling the unique value of the essays contained in the Neo-CONNED! volumes, it is probably not an overstatement to say that it is only in light of the candid and accurate assessment of the current Iraqi political landscape contained in chapters 38 & 39 of Neo-CONNED! Again (and elsewhere) that the Samarra bombing, and the ensuing violence, can be understood.
As usual with the media... more
Better late than never?
An article discussing the essay in Foreign Affairs by Paul R. Pillar noted the comment -- on a recent "Meet the Press" -- of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, (R-Mich.): "Where was he before we went to war?"
That's not a bad question, to which a somewhat unsatisfying answer might be, "Better late than never." That said, 2300 Americans and untold thousands of Iraqis are dead because the men who were in positions of power -- who could have done something about it -- didn't. God knows what their burdens and limitations were,... more
'Communications' is hardly the problem.
An interesting post on NewsMax.com from last Friday -- headlined "Extremists Winning Media War" -- witnessed our Secretary of Defense lamenting, during a presetation to the CFR, that "Al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups have poisoned the Muslim public's view of the United States through deft use of the Internet and other modern communications methods...."
What is absent from this discussion is the way in... more
American Global Democracy vs.
Self-Determination
Karen Hughes of the U.S. State Department sure has her work cut out for her, fixing America's image in the Arab world. It's not that what we preach is all that bad; it's the practice that leaves so much to be desired.
We protest that there are no plans to meddle with Palestine's government (witness yesterday's New York Times, in which a State Department spokesman insisted that there is no "plan,... more
Insurgency's 'root causes'? How about the Iranian terrorists in charge of Iraq.
In a recent article looking at the potential duration of the American occupation of Iraq, General Casey, the U.S. on-scene commander, made the following typical but revealing remark: 'It's also going to take time for (the Iraqis) to address the root causes of the insurgency and the long-term political and economic development problems they have.' And, by the way, 'it's not going to happen overnight.'
As with a high-school essay that starts off so poorly that it would take paragraphs to... more
Insurgents 'cooperating' with U.S. occupying forces in Iraq?
Why is it that we repeatedly get stories like this one from the Dallas Morning News that seem to authoritatively state that discussions with Iraqi "insurgents" are underway, but the pieces themselves say nothing of substance?
The meetings are said to be in their "initial stages," but this was the case 6 months ago (Chapter 38 of Neo-CONNED! Again covered these so-called developments in detail). The meetings are... more
Larry Wilkerson's 'hoax' and Alberto Gonzales's 'law'
In an explosive interview that aired last Friday (February 3, 2006), the former Chief of Staff of the Department of State, and long-time military assistant (since 1989) to General Colin Powell, Col. Larry Wilkerson, USA (ret.), relieved his conscience about the part he played in assisting the former Secretary of State with preparation of a speech before the UN that the colonel calls, now, a hoax.
Meanwhile, Alberto Gonzales more
What would withdrawl from Iraq accomplish?
In an interesting piece in Christian Science Monitor, Philip Gold argues that the Americans can force upon the Iraqi people an ultimatum of sorts by making them "defeat the insurgency":
This strange double helix of insurgency and incipient civil war will not be won by us. It will be won if, and only if, the Iraqi government and the scores of (illegal) militias that suffuse the country can find ways to defeat... more
Date Added: Tuesday, November 29, 2005English World Exclusive: Open Letter to Tariq Aziz
To: Vice Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq
From: Fr. Jean-Marie Benjamin, contributor to Neo-CONNED! AgainIn the light of the painful events that strike the Iraqi population every day, events of which you have no knowledge since in your Baghdad prison you are not permitted to read newspapers, to watch television or to listen to the radio, I am addressing this letter to you.
It is a paradox of Western democratic societies and Constitutional States, yet unfortunately this is the way it is: those who spoke the truth are imprisoned... moreDate Added: Saturday, September 24, 2005It Will Only Get Worse
Despite flurries of promises that the so-called "insurgency" is "just about out of steam," "nearly nailed," "pressing for a political solution," and "finally ready to 'deal,'" our boys and girls continue to spill their blood in the occupation phase of a blatantly unjust, unquestionably illegal, and patently imprudent war of aggression. But how to express--intelligently--the... more
Date Added: Tuesday, June 14, 2005Where’s the outrage?
Some years ago, President Bill Clinton got in trouble for fooling around in the White House with a member of his staff. There was a general hue and cry, and then he was impeached.
No doubt he shouldn’t have disgraced the office of President, and its White House, by playing hanky-panky with an intern. That was tacky, to put it mildly. Some would even call it immoral. And... more
Date Added: Wednesday, April 27, 2005