Bush administration – News Stories About Bush administration - Page 4

Ethics Report Clears Bush Lawyers in Torture Memo

Jan 30, 2010 1:54 PM CST

Ethics Report Clears Bush Lawyers in Torture Memo

John Yoo and Jay Bybee accused only of 'poor judgment'

(Newser) - Good news for the Bush lawyers who provided the legal rationale for waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics: An upcoming Justice Department report clears them of serious misconduct charges, reports Newsweek . The report's final reviewer softened an earlier version that accused John Yoo, now a law professor, and Jay Bybee,...

Blair Tells Iraq Inquiry
He'd Do It Again

Jan 29, 2010 9:36 AM CST

Blair Tells Iraq Inquiry He'd Do It Again

At the time, existence of WMDs in Iraq was 'beyond doubt'

(Newser) - Tony Blair mounted a spirited defense of Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war today, telling the Chilcot inquiry he would make the same choices now, based on the information he had then. “The crucial thing after Sept. 11 is that the calculus of risk changed,” the former...

'Shameless'
Karl Rove
Wrong on Budget

DAVID AXELROD

Jan 15, 2010 11:07 AM CST

'Shameless' Karl Rove Wrong on Budget

White House honcho blasts defense of Bush

(Newser) - David Axelrod is amazed by the “sheer audacity and shamelessness” of Karl Rove’s claims about rampant spending under the Obama administration. The former Bush aide predicted last week that congressional Democrats “will run up more debt by October than Bush did in 8 years.” That would...

Giuliani Forgets
When 9/11 Happened

'NO DOMESTIC ATTACKS UNDER BUSH'

Jan 8, 2010 11:52 AM CST

Giuliani Forgets When 9/11 Happened

'We had no domestic attacks under Bush,' Giuliani says. Except...

(Newser) - Rudy Giuliani has some advice about terrorism for President Obama: Follow George W. Bush's example, because “we had no domestic attacks under Bush.” Dubbing American's Mayor "Mr. 9/11," Talking Points Memo points out that Sept. 11, 2001 was well into Bush’s tenure. As was shoe...

Obama on Terror:
New Style, Same Strategy

Jan 4, 2010 12:14 PM CST

Obama on Terror: New Style, Same Strategy

Bush insiders approve of new prez; stay mum to avoid Cheney

(Newser) - Barack Obama faced his first terror threat before he was even sworn in. There was strong evidence suggesting that a terror cell intended to attack his inauguration, so Obama and his team worked tirelessly on the issue with George W. Bush’s outgoing team. It was a surprisingly smooth collaboration,...

Shut It, Cheney: White House

UPDATED

Dec 31, 2009 11:17 AM CST

Shut It, Cheney: White House

'Bellicose rhetoric' about war failed before, fails now: Pfeiffer

(Newser) - Dick Cheney’s “bellicose rhetoric” and “clearly untrue” claims following the Christmas terror attempt aren't sitting well at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, and the new administration isn't shy about telling the ex-veep off. Echoing the sentiment—and the words, even—of a “senior Democrat” yesterday in Politico , Communications...

Army Historians Fault
Early Afghan War Strategy

Dec 30, 2009 5:51 PM CST

Army Historians Fault Early Afghan War Strategy

Forces were undermanned, and planning was shoddy

(Newser) - The US missed out on chances to stabilize Afghanistan early in the war because it devoted too few troops and too little planning to the conflict, write Army historians in an official chronicle of the conflict. "It should have become clear” in late 2003 “that the coalition presence...

Lawyers for Yemeni
Detainees at Gitmo
Doubt Release

FLIGHT 253 FALLOUT

Dec 30, 2009 2:08 PM CST

Lawyers for Yemeni Detainees at Gitmo Doubt Release

Recent terror activity, GOP outrage may complicate closure

(Newser) - Strong talk from GOP leaders and former Bush officials, and the emergence of al-Qaeda links in Yemen have lawyers for Yemeni detainees at Gitmo pessimistic about releases that seemed certain just recently. “I feel like my two clients who left in mid-December have gotten the last train out,”...

Cheney: Obama 'Won't
Admit We're at War'

TERROR-ISMS

Dec 30, 2009 1:37 PM CST

Cheney: Obama 'Won't Admit We're at War'

President is too soft on terrorism, says former VP

(Newser) - Dick Cheney is steamed at what he perceives as President Obama’s downplaying of the Christmas air terrorism attempt. The US is “at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe,” he tells Politico , becoming the latest Republican to take up the...

The Lowest Points of the 'Decade of the Oligarchs'

aughts in Review

Dec 24, 2009 2:50 PM CST

The Lowest Points of the 'Decade of the Oligarchs'

Bush put US on path to banana republic status

(Newser) - The 2000s were dominated by George W. Bush and the new American oligarchy he represents, writes Juan Cole. He lists hit 10 lowest points of an awful decade:

“The constitutional coup of 2000,” in which “ugly racial and other low tricks” and a “far right-wing Supreme

...

Tora Bora Among
'Greatest Military
Blunders'

How bin laden escaped

Dec 22, 2009 11:51 AM CST

Tora Bora Among 'Greatest Military Blunders'

US had him pinned but held back on troops

(Newser) - Peter Berg has assembled what he calls the “definitive account” of "one of the greatest military blunders in recent US history"—the failure to capture or kill Osama bin Laden in 2001 at Tora Bora in Afghanistan. The operation started out well enough, he writes in the...

B+? Obama
Must Be
Joking

KARL ROVE

Dec 17, 2009 5:33 AM CST

B+? Obama Must Be Joking

Prez deserves his failing grade from the public, writes Karl Rove

(Newser) - President Obama has the lowest approval ratings of any postwar president at the end of year one, and he's done plenty to earn them, writes Karl Rove. Poor policies at home and abroad have helped send his ratings downward, as has the increasingly blatant slipperiness of the president's words. These...

22M 'Missing' Bush-Era Emails Reappear

Dec 14, 2009 4:22 PM CST

22M 'Missing' Bush-Era Emails Reappear

Data won't be public for years, but may shed light on Iraq, Plame

(Newser) - Twenty-two million emails that the Bush administration had given up as lost have been found. Computer experts working for two advocacy groups that sued the executive branch in 2007 for not properly archiving its emails announced the messages were in fact mislabeled. The messages must be vetted before they can...

White House Piles on Rummy Over Afghan Troop Gripe

Dec 3, 2009 10:01 AM CST

White House Piles on Rummy Over Afghan Troop Gripe

'You go to war with the defense sec you have'

(Newser) - Donald Rumsfeld would prefer President Obama not disparage the previous administration by suggesting it ignored troop requests by US commanders in Afghanistan, as he did in Tuesday’s speech. That’s a “bald misstatement,” the former defense secretary says in a statement. “At least as it pertains...

Give Thanks We're Not Thanking Wall St.

THOMAS FRANK

Nov 25, 2009 8:04 AM CST

Give Thanks We're Not Thanking Wall St.

Be grateful for new skepticism on financial industry

(Newser) - There won't be a lot of people thanking the financial industry this Thanksgiving, and that in and of itself may be cause to be thankful, writes Thomas Frank. There's been a shift in thinking and newly skeptical Americans no longer believe that the market is omniscient or that colossal Wall...

Help! We're Being
Killed by Cuteness

OPINION

Nov 14, 2009 6:17 AM CST

Help! We're Being Killed by Cuteness

This is what happened to Japan after WWII, and it's terrible

(Newser) - There is an epidemic of cuteness in the country, Jim Windolf writes, symptomatic of our national desire to be loved and taken care of after 8 years of George W. Bush and a much-diminished standing in the world. The signs are everywhere: giggling babies, LOLcats, cupcakes, “cutegasms,” the...

Cheney: Wilson
Mission Was CIA
'Amateur Hour'

VALERIE PLAME LEAK

Oct 31, 2009 2:00 PM CDT

Cheney: Wilson Mission Was CIA 'Amateur Hour'

New docs show former veep thought ill of Plame husband's Nigeria trip

(Newser) - Dick Cheney's memory may have been a little iffy about the Valerie Plame leak, but Politico reports that the former veep left no room for doubt about his opinion of her husband's trip to Niger to investigate an Iraqi purchase of plutonium. "It was amateur hour out at the...

Cheney on Plame Leak:
I Can't Recall

Oct 30, 2009 6:02 PM CDT

Cheney on Plame Leak: I Can't Recall

VP comes up blank on specifics in newly released interview

(Newser) - After years of effort by the Bush and Obama administrations to keep documents related to the CIA leak case secret, redacted portions of the special prosecutor’s 2004 interview with Dick Cheney released today show plenty of nothing. The then-VP apparently suffered acute memory loss: Cheney told Patrick Fitzgerald he...

Obama Lifts HIV+ Travel Ban

Oct 30, 2009 1:25 PM CDT

Obama Lifts HIV+ Travel Ban

President extends bill funding care for low-income HIV/AIDS patients

(Newser) - HIV-positive individuals will no longer be banned from visiting or immigrating to the US, President Obama announced today. The president discussed the revocation of the ban, which has stood since 1987, at today's signing of an extension of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS bill. That bill provides funding for HIV/AIDS testing...

Time to Act Presidential on Afghanistan

Charles Krauthammer

Oct 30, 2009 11:40 AM CDT

Time to Act Presidential on Afghanistan

After 'yearlong drift,' Obama can't keep passing buck to Bush

(Newser) - President Obama loves to blame things on George W. Bush, and on Monday he did it again, referring to the “long years of drift in Afghanistan.” He must be trying to “explain away his own, well, yearlong drift on Afghanistan,” writes Charles Krauthammer . In March, Obama...