Somebody please give me the lowdown on the Susskind book.

cantstandbush

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Tue Jun-20-06 05:51 PM
Original message

Somebody please give me the lowdown on the Susskind book.

Is he a Bushbot? From where did he get his information and how reliable is it?

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Joanne98

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Tue Jun-20-06 05:55 PM
Response to Original message

1. I was wondering the same thing. FOX keeps quoting it........

But I thought he was a Dem.

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grytpype

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Tue Jun-20-06 05:58 PM
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2. Read Froomkin today, he discusses it.

It sounds very damning of the Bush administration. The facts keep trickling out and they make Bush and Cheney look like the worst co-presidents we have ever had.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/administration/whbriefing/

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leftchick

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Tue Jun-20-06 06:31 PM
Response to Reply #2

7. woo boy! Thank you for the link...

it looks pretty bad all right....

<snip>

And yet somehow, in a speech delivered two weeks later, President Bush portrayed Abu Zubaydah as 'one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States.' And over the months to come, under White House and Justice Department direction, the CIA would make him its first test subject for harsh interrogation techniques. . . .

" 'I said he was important,' Bush reportedly told Tenet at one of their daily meetings. 'You're not going to let me lose face on this, are you?' 'No sir, Mr. President,' Tenet replied. Bush 'was fixated on how to get Zubaydah to tell us the truth,' Suskind writes, and he asked one briefer, 'Do some of these harsh methods really work?' Interrogators did their best to find out, Suskind reports. They strapped Abu Zubaydah to a water-board, which reproduces the agony of drowning. They threatened him with certain death. They withheld medication. They bombarded him with deafening noise and harsh lights, depriving him of sleep. Under that duress, he began to speak of plots of every variety -- against shopping malls, banks, supermarkets, water systems, nuclear plants, apartment buildings, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty. With each new tale, 'thousands of uniformed men and women raced in a panic to each . . . target.' And so, Suskind writes, 'the United States would torture a mentally disturbed man and then leap, screaming, at every word he uttered.' "

Gelman asks the right question: "How could this have happened? Why are we learning about it only now?"

Here's another telling tale: "The book's opening anecdote tells of an unnamed CIA briefer who flew to Bush's Texas ranch during the scary summer of 2001, amid a flurry of reports of a pending al-Qaeda attack, to call the president's attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled 'Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.' Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied: 'All right. You've covered your ass, now.' "

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rzemanfl

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Tue Jun-20-06 05:58 PM
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3. Just saw him on TV a while ago. Claims that Bin Laden helped

Bush get re-elected, that U.S. deliberately bombed Al Jazera in Kabul. That the "War on Terror" is based on "suspicion" without proof. That U.S. captured and and tortured a nutcase and acted on everything he said. That the guy who turned in the Al Queada biggie, Kahlid Shiek Mohammed is living in luxury somewhere in the U.S. with free insurance, free education for his family and $25 million. None of this sounds BushBot to me.

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blm

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Wed Jun-21-06 01:11 PM
Response to Reply #3

12. He interviewed CIA who were close to what was happening at the time, and

some were even part of it. The Frontline program has some of these same people interviewed for their documentary last night.

Think about it - some of the people telling the truth were actually WITNESSES to the deceit at the time.

I believe it was Mike Scheuer who did say back in 2004 that the NEWSMEDIA was withholding the info throughout the fall that the Muslim religious figures would NOT condone any major attack on Americans so they can have the chance to get rid of Bush at the ballot box - but if they chose to keep Bush then any attack on Americans would have their blessing.

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rodeodance

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Tue Jun-20-06 06:05 PM
Response to Original message

4. He is coming up on wolf blitzer-cnn this hour.

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msongs

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Tue Jun-20-06 06:25 PM
Response to Original message

5. review in today LA Times calendar section gives it a big thumbs up nt

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johnfunk

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Tue Jun-20-06 06:28 PM
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6. Suskind reportedly vindicates the CIA on Iraq's non-WMDs

Ron got a lot of face time in CNN's "Blitzeration Room"--Leslie Blitzer was notoceably knocked off balance by many od Ron's assertions.

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blm

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Wed Jun-21-06 10:30 PM
Response to Reply #6

13. Blitzer doesn't like hearing how his boss Bush has been deceitful.

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Jazz2006

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Tue Jun-20-06 06:52 PM
Response to Original message

8. Thanks ~ I was wondering, too.

And thanks to the other posters who posted links and info, too.

:toast:

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Avalux

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Tue Jun-20-06 06:56 PM
Response to Original message

9. The 1% "Cheney Doctrine" -

Edited on Tue Jun-20-06 06:56 PM by sparosnare

Basically, if there's a 1% chance of a someone being a terrorist or a 1% chance of a terrorist plot, they treat it as true, as a definite. All of it's based on suspicion, the opposite of how our country is supposed to operate. Imprisoning 99 innocent men is justified if it means getting one bad guy.

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DesertRat

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Wed Jun-21-06 01:05 PM
Response to Original message

10. It's #1 on Amazon today! n/t

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AlCzervik

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Wed Jun-21-06 01:07 PM
Response to Original message

11. as far as i know he's no Bushbot, i read "The Price of loyalty" when it

came out and it's a fascinating read about Paul O'Neil
http://thepriceofloyalty.ronsuskind.com/

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Swede

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Wed Jun-21-06 10:38 PM
Response to Original message

14. Susskind said the CIA reported Saddam would only cooperate with

terrorists if he gets backed into a corner. It fell on deaf ears.

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