Included in Stephen Payne’s ( the lobbyist and all around GOP water carrier who was selling Whitehouse access for cash payments) web of friends includes Randy Scheunemann. Scheunemann is chief foreign policy and national security adviser to John McCain. President Bush lobbyist Stephen Payne in ‘bribes’ row quits
In a further link, Randy Scheunemann, chief foreign policy and national security adviser to John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, was listed in the WSE brochure as part of its executive team. Scheunemann and Associates, his lobbying firm, is reported as having represented the Caspian Alliance in 2005.
At the undercover meeting last week, Payne said Scheunemann had been “working with me on my payroll for five of the last eight years”. When confronted over the link to KMG, Payne declined to comment.
McCain multiple ties with powerful lobbyist, besides making his claims of being a maverick look sillier by the day also give another black eye to Republican brain trust and New York Times columnist Bill Kristol another notch on his Kristol Ball – Bill has previously suggested that McCain run as a “reformist” for “the whole U.S. government.“ Difficult to run as a reformer when you’re running around with the same cronies that America is fed up with. More here on Randy Scheunemann and McCain, McCain’s senior foreign policy advisor tied to global petro-influence peddling
Just to briefly revisit this, Iraqi Prime Minister Backs Obama Troop Exit Plan
A number of media outlets likewise professed to being confused by the statement from Maliki’s office. The New York Times pointed out that al-Dabbagh’s statement “did not address a specific error.” CBS likewise expressed disbelief pointing out that Maliki mentions a timeframe for withdrawal three times in the interview and then asks, “how likely is it that SPIEGEL mistranslated three separate comments? Matthew Yglesias, a blogger for the Atlantic Monthly, was astonished by “how little effort was made” to make the Baghdad denial convincing. And the influential blog IraqSlogger also pointed out the lack of specifics in the government statement.
SPIEGEL sticks to its version of the conversation.
Is it likely that Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki might be playing politics, playing Senator Obama’s remarks off Bush’s attempt to have an ill defined permanent military presence in Iraq. I’m not sure that matters as much as the substance of the implication that Iraqs want us out. They don’t see the American military in its current deployment status as necessary for Iraqi security. British Prime Minister Brown seems to agree, Brown plans to withdraw troops as he backs Obama over ‘war on terror’
Gordon Brown prepared the ground for a historic realignment in the “war on terror” yesterday by setting out a four-point plan for withdrawal of British troops from Iraq by the end of next year.
Although he is refusing to set a detailed timetable for withdrawal, it is clear Mr Brown is in agreement with the US presidential candidate Barack Obama on the need for military action in Afghanistan to take priority. Both appear to be working to a 16-month timetable.
McCain was on all three network news programs this morning trying desparety to have something relevant to say about Iraq and Afghanistan. I almost felt sorry for him.
What A Difference A Day Makes, neocon grand chef of hypocrisy Jennifer Rubin states on 07-18-2008 that Senator Obama should make his trip to the Middle-East with an open mind and ask questions. On 07-19-2008 says that Senator Obama is asking too many questions on his trip.
Victor David Hanson is another Conservative brain trust. An historian and intellectual. More Iraqi Ironies
Our short memories.
We were paralyzed for a year over Ambassador Joe Wilson’s carnival-like mission, in part due to the prompt of his wife at the CIA Valerie Plame, to find out whether Niger sold, or tried to sell, yellowcake to Saddam. Meanwhile unmentioned is the fact that all the time 1.2 million pounds of yellowcake continued to sit in a warehouse in pre- and postwar Iraq. We chose a special prosecutor to find the culprit who, in some sort of supposed conspiratorial retaliation to Wilson’s flamboyant but erroneous claims, divulged the employment status of his wife. The result is that the special prosecutor found the culpable party, but ensured that he is free from indictment, and indicted and convicted the person who, we know, did not first divulge Ms. Plame’s identity — the object of the original inquiry
Sloppy work for a historian. Dick Cheney was the one that asked the CIA to send someone to Niger. The same Dick Cheney who was SOD during Bush One’s administartion and knew that Saddam already had that yellowcake in country. He had a say in leaving it there. Knowing that Iraq had yellowcake in country what did it matter whether they had made recent attempts to purchase more. There are a couple of choices to explain Cheney’s move. One he conviently forgot what he did as Secretary of Defense in 1991. The other is that he planned to distort anything the CIA found to his own purposes. Bush ended up using the infamous 16 words. Very clever wording, laying the claim that Saddam had recently tried to acquire yellowcake at the door step of the British giving himself some plausible deniability. Bush accomplished his goal of planting in the mind of the American people that Saddam was actively restarting his nuclear program, which was known then and remains a lie. As Bush made that speech Dick Cheney and Bush had to know that Saddam had tons of yellowcake under IAEA seal for years. The administartion lied and made selective leaks to the press. The object of the original inquiry was to find the leaker/s. Scooter was in the loop with Dick Cheney. That is why Scooter Libby was convicted of lying and obstructing justice – he lied to protect his masters. Yes Victor there is some irony here. That a historian and intellectual would be so blinded by partisan loyality that he’d sell his integrity for a little nod of approval from his fellow zealots.
The Long Goodbye 