Sunday, February 01, 2004
Two Fun Quotes from the NYT This Weekend
From the this-guy-better-watch-his-back file, a senior CIA analyst said
They took every piece of information that proved their point and listed it. They would disregard or make fun of any contrary evidence. They forgot they were making mere guesses, and even guesses have to be taken with caution. They didn't hedge or caveat. Instead they would say we're right and you're wrong and it's a matter of national security.*
I like the part about Wolfowitz and Perle "making fun of" contrary evidence. What jerks. Poor little analysts just trying to do their jobs...
From the but-what-about-when-we-handed-out-candy file, a prominent Shiite cleric said
The Americans say they're sorry about 1991 [when Bush I failed to support the uprisings militarily after encouraging them], and that now they're liberators. At the beginning, in early April, that was very good. But when they declared an occupation, everything changed in our minds. Why should we believe the Americans have changed since 1991, when they showed no concern over our fate, when, after tantalizing us, they stood by as we were tortured? It is the same people, Cheney, Bush's son, the Zionist Wolfowitz, It is not our liberation they want; it is to strengthen Israel and to fight Islam everywhere in the world. We think you are crusaders, not liberators. If you were liberators, you would give us free elections, not the fake ones to put Ahmad Chalabi in power that the Americans want. That is what Moqtadah al-Sadr told Sergio Vieira de Mello [the UN diplomat killed in the Baghdad headquarters bombing] when he came to Najaf. And that is what we believe.*
