Among the new revelations in tonight's documentary about how the Bush administration convinced the American people to go to war in Iraq are newly declassified talking points and handwritten notes from November, 2001 in which can be seen then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's team trying to find the most compelling reason to justify war.
Hubris co-author Michael Isikoff explains:
By late November, Rumsfeld was meeting with Gen. Tommy Franks, Centcom commander, to plot the “decapitation” of the Iraqi government, according to the now declassified talking points agenda from the sessions (shown on television for the first time in the documentary). The talking points suggest that Rumsfeld and his team were grappling with a tricky issue: “How [to] start?” the war. In other words, what would the pretext be? Various scenarios were outlined: “US discovers Saddam connection to Sept. 11 attack or to anthrax attacks?” reads one of them. “Dispute over WMD inspections?” reads another. “Start now thinking about inspection demands.”
See the documents yourself after the jump.
Leave a Comment:
Has anyone ever issued an apology to The Dixie Chicks, IMO the truest of patriots and real heroes?
I love the show and found the program to be very detailed until the end, where the last min and half gave the results. I wish there was to the conclusion. It seemed rushed or possibly edited for censorship or time? hummm
Love the introduction of the resolution to go to war that turned out to be misleading, but I can think of another time the United States has done this before. President Polk, and look up "Spotty Lincoln Resolutions" where Lincoln questioned the spot where American Marines were killed by Spanish soldiers and which launched a war on Mexico. It seems very clear that there is a strong pattern to what the US does to go to war. I hope Maddow would look into this topic further.
I thought it was great. However, I was waiting to hear more about Cheney and Halliburton. I think that had a lot to do with us going over there as well.
I am sure they have a different take on it from Dr. Maddow's
Hey Lawyers are doctor to you know!!
In fact anyone with a PHD is a doctor.....
They did have us all swooned and believing in the beginning - but , we all began to realize that they had spoken-out a bunch of mis-leading BS and LIED Straight to the Entire World and then we realized that they were merely doing this for their own personal profit at the expense of thousands of American and Iraqi LIVES ! WHY Aren't they in Prison YET ?
The one comment that I will make is this....all of us, all Americans must cut through the clutter of propaganda that is being fed to us. Twisted words, presentations and stories all have two sides. WE need to ask more questions, not the talking heads or media puppets. THe news media over the last 40 years have reduced our grasp of facts to the :20 second sound bite. The most sophisticated and brightest marketers are being hired by the politicians...experts on the manipulation of the minds...do not think for one second that every word and story is carefully selected by people to get the most impact for their side...I am not saying this is not factual, just make up your own mind and dig a little deeper before jumping in with both feet....
Thank you Rachel for revisiting this crime. It won't put anyone in jail but does point out not only the "hubris" but a question republicans should be asking themselves... "I voted for these bastards?"
What I would like to see in this series is the Minot incident. This happened in 2007 where 6 cruise missiles with nuclear warheads were flown by B52 from Minot to Barksdale and presumably to bomb Iran according to some. Oops was the word from the Air Force. It has been illegal to fly nukes across US soil since that one was accidently droped off the coast of Savannah, GA. years ago. Yea, it's still there.
2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident
Six soldiers involved in Minot AFB Nuclear incident have died mysteriously
The Iraq war, "Too big to fail", Social Security, its always about the MONEY. I can hear Cheney. Hey George, two out of three ain't bad!
I think the important takeaway lesson is: Don't let warmongers get into power in the first place. Once they do, they have access to all the propaganda levers inside and outside government (e.g. slipping a bogus story to the NY Times, then quoting it), and will eventually convince enough people that there is some sort of urgent threat.
How do you tell they're warmongers before they get into power? For starters, look at who they're taking advice from (foreign policy teams full of neocons is a dead giveaway), and are they willing to acknowledge that some past military adventures were mistakes? Also, anyone who romanticizes some self-styled exile leader or group who clearly would like to get rid of a current leader and take power back home is someone likely to drag the U.S. into a war not necessarily in our interest.
Bottom line is, once you put someone like a Bush or a McCain in the white house, the probability is very high that we'll be going to war somewhere, no matter how carefully we try to parse the claims coming out of the propaganda machine. We dodged the bullet in 2008 (and probably 2012, considering Romney's foreign policy advisers), but there are still powerful interests agitating for war with Iran, and I have no doubt that they will be influential in choosing the 2016 nominees. Heads up!
The people at the time of this invasion that said at the time of the invasion that it was a lie should be given a medal for not being sheeple like the evangelicals that stood there foaming at the mouth to kill muslems. I remember being ostrasized and shunned from the church for not being a patriot. Now I'm glad and proud to stand up for my god because I realized at the time that their so called god would never approve of the behavior of the Bush Admin. Where was their discernment of spirit gifts?? The first time I saw Bush's face on TV my god told me that these men were evil and mean harm to our country. By the way the same people from the church that called me un-patriotic never realized I served in the US Navy. Most of them didn't! Especially the ones who called me un-patriotic. I left the church and never went back and to this day they still believe in the GOP!! These people are America's Taliban. The church wonders why their congregations are shrinking. Could it be because everyone knows 911 and the war on Iraq is a lie and they don't? Wouldn't want to admit your wrong would you? I believe you call that repenting. Yes, pride does kill and the church is bleeding. They supported murderers and liars in the name of god. Some know it! Now I know how Paul felt when he was trying to tell the churches the truth!!
I think MSNBC's ratings are going to go through the rook over this one. I never pay attention to MSNBC because I believe they lean a little too far to the left, however, any media that is bringing this truth to light deserves and ear and some respect. Thank You MSNBC. Please follow up to this story as you can trace this back all the way to 911.
Like lambs to the slaughter, countless young men and women of all nationalities have met their fate beneath the mantra of "national security" and "patriotism" throughout history. While the opening comparison of the sham(s) behind the intiation of military engagement in Vietnam and Iraq, George Bush and company were astute enough to not invoke the selective service. If there had been an effort to invoke the draft for Iraq, social unrest undoubtedly would have been troublesome, and the history of American life over the past 10 years would be very different.
If you find the actions of the Bush/Cheney administration concerning the Iraq War to be unacceptable and that it should be investigated and prosecuted, sign the White House petition here: http://wh.gov/vaW0
Watched show last eve. It was great. My only wish is more MSM reports the truth about our invading Iraq. Since Obama refuses to have true congressional hearings, I think it is up to journalist's to do more reporting. Are the all bought and paid for too?
Yes.
Saw your show last night and was very impressed with your coverage. However, the one question that has been on my mind and and i'm sure many other minds is Why? Why did they do such a vigorous selling job. What were the gains? They could have gotten to Saddam Hussein whenever they wanted and yet we were stuck with a nine year war. Everyone knew that Ben Ladden was not in bed with Hussein. They hated each other. Does the word Greed have anything to do with it? Why were so many intelligent people duped? We paid the price with our children and they (Cheney and Bush) collected the spoils. This war had nothing to do with 9/11 it was only an excuse to gain our sympathy for their "product" and buy into it. Please let us know why? We deserve to know!
My opinion is they wanted to gain control of Iraqi oil and increase American influence in the Middle East. I don't know if they're still building it, but they had started building the largest embassy in the world in Iraq, using forced labor-they hoodwinked laborers into agreeing to a work project without telling them where it was, and then flew them to Iraq.
Massive U.S. Embassy In Iraq Will Expand Further As Soldiers Leave
First Posted: 09/16/11 04:43 PM ET Updated: 11/16/11 05:12 AM ET
WASHINGTON -- American combat troops in Iraq may be heading to the exits -- or not -- but the U.S. government's enormously expensive intervention there is hardly coming to an end.
In a telling sign of how dangerous and chaotic Iraq remains more than eight years after President George W. Bush launched the war against Saddam Hussein, U.S. diplomats, military advisers and other officials are planning to fall back to the gargantuan embassy in Baghdad -- a heavily fortified, self-contained compound the size of Vatican City.
The embassy compound is by far the largest the world has ever seen, at one and a half square miles, big enough for 94 football fields. It cost three quarters of a billion dollars to build (coming in about $150 million over budget). Inside its high walls, guard towers and machine-gun emplacements lie not just the embassy itself, but more than 20 other buildings, including residential quarters, a gym and swimming pool, commercial facilities, a power station and a water-treatment plant.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/16/us-embassy-iraq-state-department-plan_n_965945.html
#5 Human Traffic Builds US Embassy in Iraq
Source:
CorpWatch, October 17, 2007
Title: “A US Fortress Rises in Baghdad: Asian Workers Trafficked to Build World’s Largest Embassy”
Author: David Phinney
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14173
Student Researcher: Kristen Kebler and Angela Purcaro
Faculty Evaluator: Andrew Roth, Ph.D.
The enduring monument to US liberation and democracy in Iraq will be the most expensive and heavily fortified embassy in the world—and is being built by a Kuwait contractor repeatedly accused of using forced labor trafficked from South Asia under US contracts. The $592 million, 104-acre fortress equal in size to the Vatican City is scheduled to open in September 2007. With a highly secretive contract awarded by the US State Department, First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting has joined the ranks of Halliburton/KBR in Iraq by using bait-and-switch recruiting practices. Thousands of citizens from countries that have banned travel or work in Iraq are being tricked, smuggled into brutal and inhumane labor camps, and subjected to months of forced servitude—all in the middle of the US-controlled Green Zone, “right under the nose of the US State Department.”
Though Associated Press reports that, “The 5,500 Americans and Iraqis working at the embassy are far more numerous than at any other US mission worldwide,”1 there is no mention in corporate media of the 3,000 South Asian laborers working for contractors in dangerous and abysmal living and working conditions.
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/5-human-traffic-builds-us-embassy-in-iraq/
My personal "WHY" is oil and Halliburton sharing profits with "you know who"! All this is in the court of public opinion. I would like to see it go to the Supreme Court.
Never happen. If they leave the country, they'll be arrested for war crimes and tried in the Hague. That's why neither Bush nor Cheney travel anywhere. There are war crimes charges filed against them in Canada and elsewhere.
It's amazing the stupid comments you read on a liberal website. Sure, the WTC didn't fall because of AN AIRPLANE HITTING THE BUILDING and the resulting fire. Sure, Bush and Cheney "lied and people died". Hey, what about Clinton, Gore, Albright and everyone in the Clinton administration telling the American people that..........Saddam has WMD's!! Gee, I wonder if Rachel covered that on her show. But no, let's slam Bush and Cheney and conveniently forget about Clinton and Gore. By the way, is anyone wondering why Rachel "Totally Unbiased" Maddow is doing a special on the Iraq War? Did anyone mention to her that the media has been bashing Bush and Cheney for YEARS on this? So why is she doing it now? Isn't this old news? Hey Rachel, maybe a "Special" on the Benghazi cover-up may have been a bit more timely, don't you think? But no, Rachel (and every single other host on MSNBC) is a far-left liberal who tells only one side of the story and the only thing she tries to do night after night is bash Republicans and protect Democrats! I thought the role of the media was to hold accountable those people in power, investigate any and every story and tell the unvarnished truth. Rachel and her MSNBC cohorts are unable to do that. Does anyone ever notice that Maddow, Schultz, Matthews, Bashir and O'Donnell NEVER have conservative guests on their shows. Do you know why? Because they know they are full of it and they are afraid to 1- debate people with different viewpoints and 2- let their audience hear a different viewpoint than they offer. Face it liberals, Rachel and other liberals like her are gutless liars. People who watch their shows and don't question what they hear are missing the truth and want to be lied to.
Unbiased Clear Thinker #124
The fact that Sadaam Hussein used WMDs against Iraqi Kurds would be evidence that he had WMDs at some point. The Clinton Administration did not see that as reason enough to go to war, the Bush Administration did and 4,200+ Americans and 100,000+ Iraqi deaths later we found out that those WMDs were gone long before we went to war to find them and we found Al Qaeda everywhere BUT Iraq. Americans fought in Iraq because of a lie and that lie was promoted by the Bush Administration to continue a war for 10 years. That is as morally reprehensible today as it was 10 years ago, but no one has faced the consequences yet. Contrast that to the Benghazi episode where any 'coverup' would have been exposed by sending the same emails that terrorists sent to the State Department to Al Jazeera or other Arab media.
If memory serves there was plenty of bashing of the Obama Administration from this network and the left for 'caving' on taxes during and after the fiscal cliff deal.
If memory serves Michael Steele and the man who ran John McCain's presidential campaign are regular guests on Hardball representing the conservative point of view. I do not hear of anyone who appears for the progressives on Fox News. I guess it is because Fox News knows they are morally bankrupt and do not want to be exposed. You can tell Fox News for me that they have already been exposed as morally bankrupt, so they can stop pretending.
Face it, Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Beck, Mr. Hannity, et. al., are gutless liars and those who watch them are missing the truth and want to be lied to. We progressives know better.
Hubris was excellent. We can never forget the Iraq war. We lost so much from it. But I’m sure the Republicans will say it was worth it. They’ll say it worth killing a lying, killing, slime bag like Suddam Hussein regardless of what the cost. It was worth the death of 112,000 people, 2 trillion dollars, and the loss of this country’s name like never before.
I just can’t believe it happened here. We deliberately bull sh*ted the world to unilaterally start a war. Never in my life time had our country started a war. We finished them. We were the good guys. We were the heroes.
Until W came along.
In the show Tom Daschle said W flipped off Suddam Hussein at a pre-war meeting.
So it was all over a personal vendetta.
112,000 people and 2 trillion dollars lost attacking a guy who had nothing to do with 9/11.
They never found any WMD. And the British report was received six months before Joe Wilson went to South Africa. When Wilson told the administration the story was false the administration just discounted him entirely. Then when he Wilson told the truth in a New York Times op-ed, Carl Rove outed Wilson’s wife as a spy.
The yellow cake story was bull sh*t. It was bull sh*t right along with the aluminum tubes, the Mohamed Atta meeting with an Iraqi Intelligence officer in Prague, the story from the detainee Al –Libby that Suddam Hussein trained Al Queda in chemical weapons, a story Al-Libby gave under intense Egyptian interrogation tatics which he later recanted, the story that Iraq had mobile WMD units from a guy named Curveball who no one from the CIA believed.
But it passed the senate 77 – 23. Hillary voted for it. John Kerry voted for it. Tom Daschle voted for it. A lot of solid democrats voted for it including Ried, Biden, Edwards, and Feinstein. Even Chuck Shumer. (Kennedy, Byrd, Boxer, Feingold, Wellstone, Leahy, Grahm, Durbin, and Mikluski did not.) Daschle said “no wants to be viewed as weak on national security in an election year.”
Chicken sh*t!
Every democrat who voted for the war are, as Lawrence describes it, “blood drenched.” Even more are the Republicans whose idea this war was and who engaged in unprecedented and systematic lying.
This was the worst moment in the history of our country’s foreign policy.
It’s crap like this that make me hate politicians.
All of them who supported this war. On both sides of the isle.
I cannot believe it happened here.
It just goes to show me, that this country, depending on who is in the White House, can be stupidly murderous or boldy productive.
Just a note to say that lying has become the standard practice of the GOP, if only they (the GOP) would go back to the principles the Grand Old Party once stood for but the radical element has taken firm controll and no changes are coming from them just more lies.
To Rachel Maddow:
I just watched your special presentation, "Hubris: Selling the War in Iraq." It was very helpful in explaining how and why we invaded Iraq.
However, it presented only the official, inside-Washington story of events leading up to the invasion. It fails to tell a historically significant part of the story from that period, leaving an incomplete and therefore incorrect picture of that period.
I'm referring to the worldwide citizen movement against invading Iraq, culminating in the Feb. 15, 2003 global demonstrations in which many millions of people took to the streets for peace.
I was in Baghdad on that day, representing Veterans For Peace. We felt a palpable sense of hope and empowerment as we joined with millions around the world. I'd be glad to tell you about it.
Here is an email I sent to VFP members to mark the 10th anniversary of 2.15.03. At the end is a link to many photos from that day.
Thank you for the public service you provide.
Mike Ferner, former president
Veterans For Peace
*********
Where were you on 2.15.03?
On that day, for the first time in human history, people of every nation on earth said “NO” to a war before it began.
By the 10’s of millions, starting in New Zealand and Australia and sweeping westward over the globe for 24 hours, people poured into streets and public places to shout with one voice, “NO WAR ON IRAQ!”
In the face of this overwhelming, universal cry for peace, the US and UK repeatedly lied and invaded Iraq, which says all that needs saying about the supposed “democracies” we live in. Even the staid New York Times was moved to admit that “there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion.”
If you were part of that earth-shaking cry for peace, you can remember the exquisite, breathtaking feeling of being part of something our species had never done before.
As long as we remember the power we exercised on that day it will be ours to use whenever we call it forward, as the Occupy movement did most recently.
Here are some images to remind us of what we accomplished on February 15, 2003.
http://warisacrime.org/content/where-were-you-21503
Congratulations Rachel, your documentary about Hubris was exactly what most Americans need to know. It's also great to know that now, main stream media is finally catching up to what many of us have known for years and years.
Here in Texas, we have Alex Jones in Austin that has kept us up on these issues. While main stream media was off in lala land along with the rest of the aloof Americans, Alex Jones was right on top of things.
Of course, if you listened to Alex Jones you were pegged "a conspiracy theorist weirdo", but he was reporting reality, and backing it up with interviews and facts. Others news agencies were apparently either afraid to report what needed to be known, or were obviously (like Fox) promoting their agenda and propaganda that a lot of Americans were buying into.
Thank you for your wonderful and tedious work. I am sure you must be exhausted, but when I watch your show I get the gut feeling that you are putting your heart and soul into your job and that you really and truly care.
I set my alarm every day to watch your show. The truth hurts sometimes, but it needs to be put out there.
Again, thank you for all your hard work and hopefully the enlightening of those that are still off in lala land.
These are criminal, horrible people. What is so sad to me is that all you have to do is look at them and you can see them lying. How can people be so brainwashed to allow these people to feed them lies? I truly pray that they be tried and held accountable - imprisoned. Our judicial system is a joke when white collar criminals are allowed to roam free committing more and more crimes against humanity and their own people. What a circus! What a joke!!
The fall of WTC7 during 9/11 is a confusing event. The traces of thermite are not in themselves conclusive, and thermite is a commonly used substance, such as in the fireworks shot from the tops of skyscrapers. Steel structures do not at all need to reach steel-melting temperatures to collapse: as the strength of steel is lost way before it melts and the weight above is then sufficient to level a tower. Those arguing the case that the US government itself destroyed the towers and or WTC7 are mainly those biased against any rule by government (a bias understandable when politicians commonly lie in every nation). But it means that objectivity can easily be lost in alarmism. Emotional heat can easily melt Reason. Thermite could have been used in the welding of the steel structure when it was made, so traces left behind. As thermite commonly forms from mixing Iron oxide and Aluminium it is also a likely possibility that the traces came from a blending of the common ingredients during the Towers' fall. As these ordinary possibilities exist there is little to support a US government conspiracy theory.
Also:
The towers were, as Al Qaeda later admitted, targeted in order to cause economic chaos in America, and in that they succeeded beyond their dreams. There did happen to be evidence on the Al Qaeda attack network in the WTC7 at the time, but as this was definitely not known to Al Qaeda: they had no extra reason to level WTC7; and the fact is that they did not assign a plane to target it. So the WTC7 probably fell due to damage from the falling towers.
@Balan Okenring: I recently watched a documentary called "Explosive Evidence: Experts Speak Out" on PBS online through Colorado Public television. It's still available: you can google it. I learned that it's not "thermite" but "nano-thermite" that was found in the dust samples. (Some thermate, with elemental sulfur added, too, which lowers the melting point of steel.) Nanothermite is made from elemental aluminum in nano-size, which isn't found in ordinary rubble. Apparently, according to the doc, in 2001 it had only been manufactured by the military. I'm no expert, but the documentary does cite evidence, if you're interested. Also I don't think anyone has ever argued that the steel had to melt for the damaged part of the buildings to fall. It's just that there was molten steel found and shown in videos; so that needs to be explained. Clearly it was not molten silver-colored aluminum from the planes. Also NIST only investigated why the severely damaged upper stories collapsed: They concluded that they started to topple over because they were damaged by planes and fire. But the real question is: How can 15 damaged stories of WTC north tower totally pulverize the 95 or so stories below it? No one, not even NIST, has been able to explain that yet. I read the NIST report. Look on page 146 and you'll see that they stopped their investigation at the point that the upper stories started to topple over. I can't imagine why they stopped at that point. Can you? Here's the PBS link http://video.cpt12.org/video/2270078138/
I don't see any mention of the 82 democratic house members or the 29 democratic senators who voted to invade Iraq. BTW, Hillary was one of the senators who voted yes.
Shame on you Chuck Todd. "It is obvious now", 10 years later, that we were lied to?? It was obvious then. You are just a part of the lazy, unethical, media machine that presented information as the White House dictated. I had great respect for you at the beginning of your career on MSNBC. But since I heard your ridiculous questions at a presidential debate, I perceive you as just one more who sold out.