S. Blumenthal: Condi's trail of lies

[kskiska]

The metamorphosis of Condoleezza Rice from the chrysalis of the protégé into the butterfly of the State Department has not been a natural evolution but has demanded self-discipline. She has burnished an image of the ultimate loyalist, yet betrayed her mentor, George H.W. Bush's national security advisor Brent Scowcroft. She is the team player, yet carefully inserted knives in the back of her predecessor, Colin Powell, climbing up them like a ladder of success. She is the person most trusted on foreign policy by the president, yet was an enabler for Vice President Cheney and the neoconservatives. Now her public relations team at the State Department depicts her as a restorer of realism, builder of alliances and maker of peace.

On her first trip to Europe early this year she left the sensation of being fresh by listening rather than lecturing. The flirtation of power appeared to have a more seductive effect than arrogance. So the old face became a new face. But on this week's trip the iron butterfly emerged.

Rice arrived as the enforcer of the Bush administration's torture policy. She reminded the queasy Europeans that their intelligence services, one way or another, are involved in the rendition of hundreds of suspected terrorists transported through their airports for harsh interrogation in countries like Jordan and Egypt or secret CIA prisons known as "black sites." With her warnings, Rice recast the Western alliance as a partnership in complicity. In her attempt to impose silence, she spread guilt. Everybody is unclean in the dirty war and nobody has any right to complain. "What I would hope that our allies would acknowledge," she said, "is that we are all in this together."

(snip)

Since 2003, Rice has repeatedly told representatives of Human Rights Watch and other similar organizations that the U.S. does not torture. There is no trail of memos tracing her involvement in the titanic struggle over U.S. torture policy between Powell and the senior military on one side and Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft's Justice Department on the other. Was the national security advisor completely out of the loop? On Nov. 19., ABC News reported, "Current and former CIA officers tell ABC News there is a presidential finding, signed in 2002, by President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, approving the techniques, including waterboarding."

more…
http://salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/12/08/condi/

[rodeodance]

1. she follows in the footsteps of Karen Huges.

[goclark]

2. Rice is one steel heartless woman nt

[flordehinojos]

3. God, Cond.Rice"restorer of realism, builder of alliances, maker of peace"?

Dear God, Rice's realism may be an euphemism to contradict or balance bush's well known delusional view. Rice's realism is made with bombs, tnt, coercions, lies and threats. It is dictatorial and filled with the same delusions that abound in bush's head. She distorts reality.

Builder of allinaces? Dear God, whoever is allied to her is allied only because she has threatened or coerced them in some way. She sees herself as pure as a virgin bride ... she is a whore in disguise.

Maker of peace? Perhaps the peace that comes from keeping someone in chains, stepped on, and otherwise restricted, or constricted, from expressing real thoughts, opinion, or views.

Dear God, if this sounds like a complaint, it is, of the worst kind.

[enough]

4. kick

[Hissyspit]

5. kick

[Cha]

6. We don't call her

"condiliar" for nothing.