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Senator Alleges White House Wrote Allawi's Speech

Jeremiah Cornelius writes "In a letter to the White House, a leading US Senate Democrat, Diane Feinstein, expressed 'profound dismay' that the White House allegedly wrote a large portion of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's speech to Congress last week. 'His speech gave me hope that reconstruction efforts were proceeding in most of the country and that elections could be held on schedule. To learn that this was not an independent view, but one that was massaged by your campaign operatives, jaundices the speech and reduces the credibility of his remarks.'"

29 of 1,281 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Debate by DAldredge · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    And Kerry is a self admited war criminal, does that make what he says any less true or false?

  2. Re:Who's alleging this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Flamebait my ass! Check this out, I allege that the White House didn't write that speech. Are the editors going to post an article about that?

  3. Re:Bush's Votes by aled · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Very funny. He lied to his country people, started a war, destroyed his country economy and is still first in polls. Who will care about this?

    --

    "I think this line is mostly filler"
  4. Good timing by ryen · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Good timing by one of the senate's most liberal politicians. Dan Rather could make great use of this.

  5. Diane Feinstein said it, so it must be true.... by ShamusYoung · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    This is one of Bush's most strident foes, making an announcement that puts him in a negative light in the run-up to the election. But, since it just reinforces what we already want to think, we can just embrace it as truth, right?

    Sure, Saddam Hussein is in jail, the torture chambers are empty, the children are out of prison, the flow of money to suicide bombers from Saddam is stopped, Lybia has folded, and the mass graves are no longer being filled... But hey let's keep some perspective and remember that Allawi might not have written the speech!

    If Bush had walked accros a river on his way to a children's hospital and then healed all of the children, I'm sure we would be having this little flame war under the heading of:

    Bush evades bridge toll on way to photo-op

    --
    --This sig is in beta. Please let us know abut any errors you find.
  6. Kerry Agrees with the Senator!!! by CodePyro · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    John kerry agrees with the Senator that the speech was doctored...


    **NEWS FLASH**

    do {
    This just in...John Kerry belives that Allawi's speech was infact authentic....(few minutes later)...John Kerry agrees with the senator that the speech was doctored...
    } while(kerry == "confused")

  7. Re:Bush's Votes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    This is not flamebait.

  8. Re:Debate by DAldredge · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    First, if you want people to support you don't be a dumb ass and do not insult people. You come off sounding like a 3 year old. Hiding behind the AC UID doesn't help your standing much either.

    Second, Kerry's statements before congress (Which I have both read and heard before your post) contain the word WE a lot, do they not? Face it, the person the DNC selected to run for the white house is a war criminal.

  9. Re:Ahh by mattOzan · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    "America, I've seen you at the Olympics. You stand there, hand on the hearts... You and the Roman Empire are the only people who've ever done that, so be very careful! 'Cause you're the new Roman Empire, you realize that? There's no one else going!"

    -Eddie Izzard, "Dress To Kill"

  10. And this is... by T3kno · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    News for nerds? How? I come to /. to get away from the idiocy of the rest of the world and I'm greeted with an obviously left leaning article quoting one of the worst of the worst when it comes to politicians. Before the flames begin, I have not, nor will I vote for Bush. I will not be voting for Kerry either. This is bullcrap, it's worse than the tech support articles and the hey look it's a new geek store that OSDN has some interest in selling articles combined.

    rm -Rf politics.slashdot.org

    Thanks.

    --
    (B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
  11. Re:Is this news? by jd · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Easy. G. W. Bush.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  12. Re:Debate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    How did Kerry win the debate? All I saw were allusions to a nebulous plan for success, numerous insistances that his position is consistant, and a lot of personal attacks on Bush. Oh, I almost forgot. Anytime Bush said something that sounded like a good position to have, you could bank on Kerry saying he held the same opinion; followed by more Bush bashing.

    I was underwhelmed by the whole experience. I thought the debate was a farce. Neither candidate debated well in my opinion, but if I were going to declare a winner, it certainly wouldn't be Kerry.

    If tonight is any indicator of what Kerry has to offer me then I might as well vote for a bag of multi-colored marshmallows.

    On another note, I'm glad we went to Iraq. I think if you aren't, you would be the sort to stand by a watch while somebody was being mugged, raped, assaulted, etc. But that's my opinion.

    Nevertheless, I am not going to base my vote on each candidate's views on Iraq. I don't live in Iraq. I live in the US. I think our work in Iraq is a plus for humanity and an excellent military strategy, but there are more important things in my life.

    I want to know what each candidates position is on things that are pertinent to me. I want to know each candidate's views on guns. I want to know each candidate's views on gay marriage. I want to know each candidates views on abortion, illegal immigration, patents, copyrights, taxes, our economy, healthcare, and so on. Once I know that, I'll vote for the candidate I like best.

    Maybe the next two debates will be better; otherwise I'm voting for Jet Puffed.

    On a final note, Kerry made a comment during the debate suggesting the soldiers in Iraq are upset with Bush. I believe he followed that up with "help is on the way".

    I have a lot of family, friends and friends of friends who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Every single one of them support our being in both places and say we are doing a lot of good there.

    I can't wait to ask them what they think of Kerry's comment. Most of them already think Kerry is a dork, and after tonight, I'd tend to agree with them.

  13. November's Headline: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    "Public's Wariness Of Liberal Bias Pushes Bush To Easy Victory"

  14. Re:Is this news? by VoiceOfRaisin · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    These days, it's not the Iraqi government that's kidnapping, torturing, and murdering people, but a group of loosely-affiliated amateurs. I haven't seen any figures on how Al Queda's numbers compare to Saddam's, but I'm pretty sure they're doing much less volume.

    I think youve read and believed a bit too much propaganda. do you honestly think saddam had this ongoing killing of people every day or something? he isnt mad or a madman. he was corrupt and all that but he wasnt the monster the propaganda media and government tried to make him out to be. and if youre talking about killing and torture in iraq, theres a HUGE monopoly on that by the us military. they are killing thousands of innocents. but you never hear about that do ya.

  15. Appeal to Authority by Inthewire · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Mod all Wikipedia posts down.
    Wikipedia is often a synonym for "uninformed shithead"

    --


    Writers imply. Readers infer.
  16. What kind of crack are you smoking? by raehl · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Iraq is not a US, EU or UN state; it is a soverign country.

    Iraq is a US territory.

  17. Re:Is this news? by jcr · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Well, it's pretty hard to quantify these things. When Jimmy Carter leaked the story of the Stealth technology to get the heat off for cancelling the B1, he probably should have done time. Likewise, when Nixon and Clinton went riffling through their political opponent's FBI files, they should have been locked up, too.

    What truly astounds me about this election season is how so many people swallow the utterly unfounded assertion that Kerry will be any better w/r/t our civil rights than the republicans. He had the chance to stand up and do the right thing against the "patriot" act, and he voted for it!

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  18. Re:Does it matter? by killjoe · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I suspect they already have him. That explains why you only get audio tapes once in a while. He is probably sitting at guantanamo with his head and beard shaved.

    They'll parade him out just before the election for sure.

    --
    evil is as evil does
  19. Re:Is this news? by jcr · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Fuck you.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  20. Re:Al Lorentz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Really? Funny, I can't seem to find any information about his so-called persecution anywhere except on left-wing news sites.

    So maybe you could provide some concrete evidence of this? If it's not too much trouble, that is...

  21. Re:Mod parent down for telling the truth! by orpx · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Yep, do what you do and run away when you seem to be an 'intellgent' person, but apparently not enough to realize noone is getting anywhere without your honest help. So keep sounding smart for yourself and pleasing yourself in every and other way you see fit, conform to the enforced standard of only caring for yourself, if that's the most intellegent choice you can make.

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

  22. Why we went there... by Che+Guevarra · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/Bx27.htm

    THE SECURITY COUNCIL, 27 JANUARY 2003:
    AN UPDATE ON INSPECTION

    "The nerve agent VX is one of the most toxic ever developed.

    Iraq has declared that it only produced VX on a pilot scale, just a few tonnes and that the quality was poor and the product unstable. Consequently, it was said, that the agent was never weaponised. Iraq said that the small quantity of agent remaining after the Gulf War was unilaterally destroyed in the summer of 1991.

    (2003 report)
    UNMOVIC, however, has information that conflicts with this account. There are indications that Iraq had worked on the problem of purity and stabilization and that more had been achieved than has been declared. Indeed, even one of the documents provided by Iraq indicates that the purity of the agent, at least in laboratory production, was higher than declared.

    There are also indications that the agent was weaponised. In addition, there are questions to be answered concerning the fate of the VX precursor chemicals, which Iraq states were lost during bombing in the Gulf War or were unilaterally destroyed by Iraq.

    I would now like to turn to the so-called "Air Force document" that I have discussed with the Council before. This document was originally found by an UNSCOM inspector in a safe in Iraqi Air Force Headquarters in 1998 and taken from her by Iraqi minders. It gives an account of the expenditure of bombs, including chemical bombs, by Iraq in the Iraq-Iran War. I am encouraged by the fact that Iraq has now provided this document to UNMOVIC.

    The document indicates that 13,000 chemical bombs were dropped by the Iraqi Air Force between 1983 and 1988, while Iraq has declared that 19,500 bombs were consumed during this period. Thus, there is a discrepancy of 6,500 bombs. The amount of chemical agent in these bombs would be in the order of about 1,000 tonnes. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we must assume that these quantities are now unaccounted for.

    The discovery of a number of 122 mm chemical rocket warheads in a bunker at a storage depot 170 km southwest of Baghdad was much publicized. This was a relatively new bunker and therefore the rockets must have been moved there in the past few years, at a time when Iraq should not have had such munitions.

    The investigation of these rockets is still proceeding. Iraq states that they were overlooked from 1991 from a batch of some 2,000 that were stored there during the Gulf War. This could be the case. They could also be the tip of a submerged iceberg. The discovery of a few rockets does not resolve but rather points to the issue of several thousands of chemical rockets that are unaccounted for.

    The finding of the rockets shows that Iraq needs to make more effort to ensure that its declaration is currently accurate. During my recent discussions in Baghdad, Iraq declared that it would make new efforts in this regard and had set up a committee of investigation. Since then it has reported that it has found a further 4 chemical rockets at a storage depot in Al Taji.

    I might further mention that inspectors have found at another site a laboratory quantity of thiodiglycol, a mustard gas precursor.

    Whilst I am addressing chemical issues, I should mention a matter, which I reported on 19 December 2002, concerning equipment at a civilian chemical plant at Al Fallujah. Iraq has declared that it had repaired chemical processing equipment previously destroyed under UNSCOM supervision, and had installed it at Fallujah for the production of chlorine and phenols. We have inspected this equipment and are conducting a detailed technical evaluation of it. On completion, we will decide whether this and other equipment that has been recovered by Iraq should be destroyed.

    Biological weapons

    I have mentioned the issue of anthrax to the Council on previous occasions and I come back to it as it is an important one.

    Iraq has declared that it produced about 8,50

  23. You people make me sick by minion · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Practically every posting under this article is bashing Bush one way or another. We finally get a president in the white house that isn't getting his wang sucked off by an intern, and is actually DOING something to make our world safer, and we sound like whinny babies. Disagree with the way he got rid of Saddam. Poke fun at him for not being a great public speaker (are you any better?). Disagree with his stance towards the UN's gun control agenda. But you know what? I'd rather have a president who's honest, rather than one who lies about infidelity. One who's trying to make our world SAFER for us to live in. One who isn't changing his mind every minute on where we should be. Who can read the reports from Flordia, Ohio, and other states that actually bothered to track their crime rates before and after they inacted a concealled weapons permit law, and were able to statistically show that an armed city is a safer city. Not one who wants nothing more than to bow to UN pressure to restrict our right to defend our lives.

    You don't close your eyes, put your hands behind your back and let a bully take a swing at you. Will you be the one cowering and whimpering in isle 11 as another madman with a gun bought illegally causually kills innocent after innocent, while someone else in the store capable of killing him could, if only his right to defend his life and others wasn't denied him by corrupt and misguided politicians!

    WE (Americans) are the most greedy, selfish people people in the world. Everyone is bitching about our gas prices, our taxes, how the world views us... How many lives did we save by getting rid of Saddam? How many people weren't forced to drink gasoline and then get shot for amusement? How many didn't have electrical wires fry off their genitals? How many didn't end up in a mass grave after being tourtured and raped repeatedly? Oh, wait, you're an American and your gas prices are higher - so you don't give a shit. You people make me sick.

    --

    -- If we don't stand up for our rights, now, there will be no right to stand up for them later.
  24. Re:Letters from Iraq by FatAlb3rt · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    3 words: terms of surrender

    does anyone disagree that iraq repeatedly violated their terms of surrender? then what's the f'n problem? the debate should've ended there. instead, all the bleeding hearts press for a 'better' reason to go to war - terrorism, WMDs. then when they don't pan out as 'expected', we must've rushed to war or lied.

    you violate your terms of surrender, you get thumped. too bad more people won't stand behind their convictions.

  25. Mr. Lorentz is exactly right by HangingChad · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Beyond that when did our military become the great spreaders of democracy around the world? Our soldiers are killers. That's what they do, that's what we need them to do. Break things and kill people. And if they're not doing that, what the hell are they doing over there? They're not the world's policemen, they're sure as hell not prison guards, they're killers.

    I've got no problem with some craphole little country at the ass end of the world needing their ass kicked. Fine. We've got the tools and we've got the people to get it done. War is about killing people. If it's bad enough to start a war, then go in and kill people. Lots of them. Forget precision munitions, carpet bomb them back to the stone age, then send the Army in to pave what's left and go home.

    When did we get to be such pussies about inflicting casualties? I don't care of other countries are dictatorships, socialist, democratic or are ruled by a giant 8 Ball as long as they don't let terrorists train and operate in their crapass little country.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
  26. Re:Allawi by halivar · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Did you ever think that maybe Allawi's not towing the Republican party line because he's been bought off, but rather because he thinks it's in the best interest of his country?

    Allawi and the other Iraqi's here Kerry saying he'll pull out of Iraq ASAP (nevermind that this is pure BS; Nixon said the same about Vietnam). In Allawi's eyes, a Kerry election means that pretty much the only remaining stabilizing force (granted, originally the destabilizing force) is going to go away. When that happens, local warlords and clerics become the rulers. Bye bye, any chance for democracy.

    But then, no one at /. cares anything about that. It seems like the main theme of this whole globally-conscious philosophy of the American left smacks of the same selfish, self-serving isolationism (under the guise of compassionate and conscientious non-intervention) that rules the day in France, Germany, and Russia. Me first! To heck with Iraq; let them figure out their own damned problems!

    If I were Allawi, I'd say, "Ok, tell me what the American need to hear from me." And then I'd say it.

  27. A BUNCH of Liberals by hecklin · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    I never cease to be amazed at how far the Lieberal leaning Citizens will go to express their Opiniion and then when someone with an OPPOSING VIEW comes along the denegrate them. I bet you guys will blast me here but Oh Well here we go!

    First, We are at WAR with the Peaceful Religion of ISLAM. Not a Nation, Not a single people but a Religious Ideology. One based on Fear and Hate , not Love and Hope.

    Second, The Islamic religion has used the Sword to spread and every couple hundred years it raises it's Ugly Head and tries to move WEST. Each time (starting with the first Crusades) it gets crushed.

    Thrid, We can not win a war of Idea's. These people not only Hate Republicans they Hate DemoCrats too! and If you dont think so you had better freshen up on your recent history. COLE, the Twin Towers first Bombing!

    President Carter FAILED in IRAN and since that Time the "FAITH" has gotten the Believe that we can be BEAT. Why just look at MOGADISHU (sp) and see how we cut and run. Why wouldnt they believe they could win.

    IF we do not have the intestinal fortitude to take the fight to them NOW! Then it will just be a matter of time before we are in a ful on fight here in our own Country.

    I personally DO NOT give a shit how we got in IRAQ. It may be unfortunate that we are there. BUT WE CAN UNDER NO MEANS LEAVE NOW. We must stay and crush the fundamentalist. We must establish a Democracy and TEACH the people what one is. It is Bigoted and Racist of anyone to think that only USE enlighted EUROPEAN BASED Countrys of the West are capable of Democray.

    It is disgusting to see you guys DROOL over articles that say as much.

    OH HAIL! The Great and Benevolent Americans and the GREAT WHITE WEST, You are soo gracious and Powerful in your intellectual capacity to understand the beauty Democracy. Other just pail in there capactiy to understand and can only be ruled by a tyranical regieme to keep the natives in check.

  28. Re:Allawi is NOT the prime minister. by Tassach · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    [Allawi] is a selected official, not an elected one
    Just like "president" Bush.
    --
    Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
  29. Re:daily show by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Fucking god! What the fuck is your problem? How can anyone make such an intelligent post, and yet not understand the fucking difference between "loose" and "lose"? Are you some kind of idiot savant? Fuck!