Truth - Al Franken [133]
The text of the Downing Street Memo can be found on-line at www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html.
Other leaked British memos, including David Manning’s report, appear at the excellent downingstreetmemo.com.
The Washington Post reported on the memo revealing the lack of thought regarding postwar plans in a June 12, 2005, article, “Memo: U.S. Lacked Full Postwar Iraq Plan.”
James Fallows’s article, “Blind into Baghdad,” appeared in the January 1, 2004, issue of The Atlantic Monthly.
Bob Woodward’s book Plan of Attack is still available in stores.
General Shinseki testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 25, 2003.
Donald Rumsfeld disagreed with Shinseki’s assertion at a press availability with reporters on February 27, 2003.
Paul Wolfowitz testified before the House Budget Committee on February 27, 2003. He testified before the House Appropriations Committee on March 27, 2003.
Andrew Natsios appeared on Nightline on April 23, 2003.
For an estimate of the cost of the Iraq War as of your reading of this sentence, visit costofwar.com.
Donald Rumsfeld made his “six days, six weeks” estimate in a speech to troops stationed at Aviano Air Base in Italy on February 7, 2003. He made his “five, six, eight, ten, twelve years” estimate on Fox News Sunday on June 26, 2005.
I highly recommend David Phillips’s book Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco.
President Bush spoke of responsibility in his acceptance speech at the RNC in Philadelphia on August 3, 2000.
Richard Clarke commented on the President’s style in The Choice 2004, which aired on PBS on October 12, 2004.
General Zinni’s comments came as part of a May 21, 2004, broadcast on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
Chapter 13: Mission Redacted
Donald Rumsfeld discussed looting and freedom at a Pentagon briefing on April 11, 2003.
Robert Perito, James Conway, Thomas White, and Jay Garner were interviewed for a Frontline report, “Truth, War, and Consequences,” which aired on PBS on October 9, 2003.
The 3rd Infantry Division’s after-action report can be found on-line at www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2003/3id-aar-jul03.pdf.
Thomas White was interviewed for James Fallows’s “Blind into Baghdad” article in The Atlantic Monthly.
Many, many thanks to George Packer. He’s incredibly insightful. If you liked this chapter, you’ll love his new book, The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the looting of the al Qaqaa ammunition dump on November 4, 2004, in an article titled “U.S. Troops Tell of Watching Iraqis Loot Ammo Dump.”
Weapons expert Gary Milhollin was quoted in an October 26, 2004, Boston Globe article titled “Explosives Were Looted after Iraq Invasion.”
The October 25, 2004, New York Times article about al Qaqaa was titled “Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished from Site in Iraq.”
Rudy Giuliani tried to blame the al Qaqaa Qatastrophe on the troops on The Today Show on October 28, 2004.
The antics of Scott Erwin and the rest of the “Brat Pack” were chronicled in a May 23, 2004, Washington Post article titled “In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime.” Erwin spoke to his university’s newsletter in an article posted online at oncampus.richmond.edu/news/ricmat/volume6/607b.html. He was also the subject of a June 3, 2004, Richmond Times-Dispatch article titled “A Most Unusual Semester.”
The Congressional Research Service document regarding the nature of the CPA is available on-line at www.fas.org/man/crs/RL32370.pdf.
The results of Stuart Bowen’s audit are available on-line at www.contractwatch.org/datavault/performancedocs/cpaig_control_of_materiel_assets_iraq_7-26-04.pdf.
For more on Custer Battles, see “Follow the Money” in the April 4, 2005, Newsweek. You can read transcripts of the former employees blowing the whistle at hearings convened by Senator Byron Dorgan at democrats.senate.gov/dpc/.
Read the results of Henry Waxman’s inquiry on-line