Another Leak Probe? Josh Marshall notes that a Newsday article about Chalabi contains this very pregnant sentence: An intelligence source confirmed to Newsday reports in Time and Newsweek that the FBI had launched an investigation into who in the administration had passed the classified material to [Chalabi’s] Iraqi National Congress. Marshall notes, correctly, that the […]

Oil Prices and Saudi Promises Last Friday Saudi Arabia promised to increase oil output by about 2 million barrels per day. Nevertheless, after a temporary blip downward, oil prices have continued their climb, today reaching nearly $42 per barrel. Why does the price of oil keep marching higher, even in the face of gestures from […]

Abu Ghraib: Problem Solved Susan explains, by way of Digby. AB

Chalabi Update Update Kevin’s drafted an excellent run down of Chalabi’s career, 1969-present. The whole thing is well worth reading, but here’s the exciting conclusion: Bottom line: practically every group that has ever worked with Chalabi has eventually felt betrayed by him. This includes, at a minimum: (1) the Jordanian government, (2) the CIA, (3) […]

Chalabi Update It’s all CIA Director George Tenet’s fault: (CNN) — Ahmed Chalabi, the former Iraqi exile who worked closely with the White House before the Iraq war, blamed CIA Director George Tenet Sunday for recent allegations that have apparently caused his standing with the Bush administration to plummet. … “We never provided any classified […]

Has Bush Been Working for Iran? The LA Times offers this explanation for the US’s raid of Chalabi’s headquarters the other day: WASHINGTON — Ahmad Chalabi, the onetime White House favorite who has been implicated in an alleged Iranian spy operation, sent Iraqi defectors to at least eight Western spy services before the war in […]

A Blight on My Country It’s a festering tumor wrapped in onion. Peel away another layer and get closer to putrid center. AB

Another on the DisgruntledTM List? Now it’s former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Central Command from 1997 to 2000, Anthony Zinni, who may have to join the ranks of the DisgruntledTM. Okay, maybe he doesn’t really qualify, since he never formally worked for George Bush, but he still has a credible perspective on things and seems […]

Bush and the Financial Press An interesting tidbit: Bush won’t take questions from his fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill, but he did meet yesterday with selected members of the financial press “for a half-hour chat.” One possible interpretation: he’s going to be trying to change his campaign from running on Iraq and terrorism to running […]

The Budget Battle The Bush budget, which would make some of the expiring 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that are set to expire next year, has been put on hold for a while because of the stubbornness of a few moderate Senate Republicans – Collins, Snowe, Chafee, and McCain. Whether the rest of the Bush […]