Thread: Bob Woodward's "The War Within"...

#4 in his series will be out Monday, but some things are leaking now;

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Everyt...n_of_0904.html

'Everything is f*cking spin,' McCain said of WH

Bob Woodward, the journalist partly responsible for bringing about President Nixon's resignation during the Watergate scandal, will see his new book on the Bush Administration published Monday. And while the volume is a lengthy study of the administration's failures, even Sen. John McCain, now the GOP nominee to the presidency, does not escape the light of his pen.

"Everything is f*cking spin," says McCain in the new book, "The War Within," of the Bush Administration.

Fox News, which secured a copy of Woodward\\\'s book ahead of its release, brought the details to light in a Thursday report. Coming on the eve of McCain's acceptance speech to the GOP, the report appears as little more than spin itself. Fox reported the quote without context.

And spin or none, it will be difficult for the administration to step back from some of Woodward's other revelations.

"Groundbreaking" new covert techniques, and not the troop "surge," was behind the drop in violence in Iraq, he writes. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, along with his staff, were these techniques' guinea pigs, and were wrapped tightly in a web of next-generation spying.

Employing these unspecified techniques against Maliki and aides allowed US forces to "hear every word he says," states a Thursday night report from the Washington Post.

"Overall, Woodward writes, four factors combined to reduce the violence: the covert operations; the influx of troops; the agreement by militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to rein in his powerful Mahdi Army; and the so-called Anbar Awakening, in which tens of thousands of Sunnis turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and allied with U.S. forces," reports the Post.

"The War Within" is Woodward's fourth book on the Bush Administration, but only the second to veer into criticism of the president.

"The book portrays an administration riven by dissension, either unwilling or slow to confront the deterioration of its strategy in Iraq during the summer and early fall of 2006," says the Post. "Publicly, Bush maintained that U.S. forces were 'winning'; privately, he came to believe that the military's long-term strategy of training Iraq security forces and handing over responsibility to the new Iraqi government was failing. Eventually, Woodward writes, the president lost confidence in the two military commanders overseeing the war: Gen. George W. Casey Jr., then commander of coalition forces in Iraq, and Gen. John P. Abizaid, then head of U.S. Central Command."

"Calling Bush 'the nation’s most divisive figure,' Woodward criticized the president for failing to fulfill what some might view as impossible expectations.

"'He had not rooted out terror wherever it existed,' Woodward scolded," said Fox. "'He had not achieved world peace. He had not attained victory in his two wars.'"

...

Yeah, you are ignoring this thread now... but I "see" the media swell a coming. Instead of "bumping" it, I'll be content to edit the news of the day... for now.

Edit: 9/5/2008 @ 11:51 PM...
White House Disputes Bob Woodward\\\'s New Book
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The White House on Friday disputed an assertion in a new book by Bob Woodward that President Bush was slow to react to escalating attacks in Iraq, forcefully arguing that Bush's military buildup was responsible for a sharp drop in the violence.

Edit: 9/9/2008 @ 3:39 AM...
Bloomberg critic: Woodward\\\'s lips attached to Bush\\\'s backside in new book
Woodward writes of 'Doubt, Distrust, Delay' in lead-up to the surge

Edit: 9/9/2008 @ 12:29 PM...
Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says
The dramatic drop in violence in Iraq is due in large part to a secret program the U.S. military has used to kill terrorists, according to a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward.

Edit: 9/9/2008 @ 10:21 PM...
Woodward: Bin Laden capture could be ‘the September or the October surprise.’
In his new book “The War Within,” Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward disclosed “the existence of secret operational capabilities developed by the military to locate, target and kill leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent leaders.” Asked by a caller on Larry King Live last night if the capabilities could be used “to catch bin Laden,” Woodward replied that “maybe they can use it on bin Laden.” He then mused that it’s possible that “the September or the October surprise is going to be the apprehension or the death of bin Laden.”

Edit: 9/13/2008 @ 2:35 AM...
What Is Woodward\\\'s \\\'Secret Weapon\\\' in Iraq?
Everyone's buzzing about the "sophisticated and lethal special operations program" that Bob Woodward alluded to in his recent 60 Minutes interview. An important question is: what in the heck was Woodward talking about? Secret death rays? The Voice of God weapon? It's enough to make me break from my current coffee shop lounging existence to chime in with some thoughts on the subject... I'm going to make a wager about what I think Woodward is talking about, and I'll be curious to see what Danger Room readers have to say. I believe he is talking about the much ballyhooed (in defense geek circles) "Tagging, Tracking and Locating" program; here's a briefing on it from Special Operations Command. These are newfangled technologies designed to track people from long distances, without the targeted people realizing they are being tracked. That can theoretically include thermal signatures, or some sort of "taggant" placed on a person. Think Will Smith in Enemy of the State. Well, not so many cameras, maybe.

Edit: 9/15/2008 @ 2:25 AM... Krikey!!! I've run out of 10,000 characters for my "under the radar updates on this"

I'll start a new post and hope to God everyone (who cares about any current event) ignores it since this is clearly "nothing"... Please move along, nothing to see here...

I guess it is coincidence that this gets major air time right after the GOP convention.

60 Minutes and US Magazine should merge into one slimy televised muckfest.

I'm gonna ignore this...... for now.

Again... unless you care about America or it's military or political objective you should bypass this thread update and pretend you didn't see it. MUCH more betta to admit later "I had no idea"... Liberty and Freedom can be messy, shut yer eyes!!!



Update from 9/15/2008 continued from first post of this thread...

One of my political/vote blogs has reference to THIS???
Link here.

Woodward: Stability in Iraq Is Due to New Top Secret U.S. Weapon
Weapon May 'Tag' Suspects, So There Is No Escape
Surge Played Only a Minor Role

In an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air" about his new book, The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008, Bob Woodward said that his reporting had uncovered a top-secret new weapon introduced by U.S forces into Iraq that is primarily responsible for the current period of stability there.

The Bush/McCain Surge is just one of four factors that have tamped down violence, according to Woodward. The other factors include the Anbar Awakening, in which the Sunnis rejected Al Qaeda's extremism; the stand-down of Muqtada al Sadr's Shiite militia; and this new top secret weapon:

BOB WOODWARD: The fourth [element] is very top secret. And that is a series of operations that have been developed that allow U.S. forces to locate targets and kill extremists, al Qaeda members and members of the insurgency.

On Friday [Sept. 5, 2008], the White House in responding to the book for the first time confirmed that there were "newly developed techniques and operations which helped the situation stabilize in Iraq."

TERRY GROSS: At the request of the military and the White House, you're not revealing any of the details you found about what these top-secret operations are. What can you tell us?

BW: That it's like any war. There's always something --- there's a game-changer, a new development. In the early 20th century, it was the tank or the airplane. World War II, the Manhattan Project and the development of the Atomic Bomb. These [new] operations and techniques are not something where you're going to see an explosion like an Atomic Bomb but they are incredibly effective. They are something that --- as Pres. Bush said to people that I quote in the book, "We are killing them all. We are killing all of the people who are the leaders." Now, it's not literally "all," but they are killing hundreds and hundreds of key people on the other side in this conflict.

So what could this new weapon be? Sharon Weinberger at Wired.com has a guess:

I believe he is talking about the much ballyhooed (in defense geek circles) "Tagging, Tracking and Locating" [TTL] program... These are newfangled technologies designed to track people from long distances, without the targeted people realizing they are being tracked. That can theoretically include thermal signatures, or some sort of "taggant" placed on a person. Think Will Smith in Enemy of the State. Well, not so many cameras, maybe.

Why do I think this is the technology Woodward is referring to? Well, first, because it pretty much fits the bill, in terms of the type of capability he appears to be talking about. It has involvement from a number of players, including the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency and Special Operations Command. Also, the Defense Science Board has talked about this capability in similar terms, saying "the global war on terrorism cannot be won without a ‘Manhattan Project’-like TTL ... program."

Here's how an "unclassified military document" describes the weapon system:

* The Ability to Locate, Track, and Identify Human Beings and Other Important Targets
* Directly Supports DoD’s Ability to Prosecute the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT)
* Forces Require an Ability to Apply and Monitor Tags
* Detect and Identify Targets Based on Their Unique Observable Characteristics Without Undue Exposure of Personnel to Risks and With Devices That are Sufficiently Clandestine to be Effective

And:

* Objective: Conduct a Collaborative Effort to Develop New Capabilities for Clandestine Tagging, Tracking, and Locating in Response to Priorities Established in a Quick-look Capability-based Assessment Conducted in Response to the Findings of the QDR
* Approach: Transition Existing State-of-the-Art Technologies in Nanotechnology, Chemistry, and Biology to Operational Systems Through the USSOCOM Acquisition Process and Conduct RDT&E From Basic Research Through Prototyping to Provide Continuous Improvements in the CTTL Technology Available for Transition to the Operators. Specific Capability Projections Are Classified.

Sounds pretty effective, but there's a downside that ought to make every red-blooded American's blood run cold, and that is the thought of a weapon like this in the hands of crypto-fascists like George Bush and Dick Cheney, and their ideological clones, John McCain and Sarah Palin.

I still say I think it involves robotic insects... BWCWIT (But Who Cares What I Think!)

RESERVED 10K CHARACTERS TO UPDATE ON THE PROGRESS OF FREEDOM WITH NO ONE KNOWING...

RESERVED ANOTHER 10K CHARACTERS TO UPDATE ON THE PROGRESS OF FREEDOM WITH NO ONE KNOWING...

RESERVED EVEN ANOTHER 10K CHARACTERS TO UPDATE ON THE PROGRESS OF FREEDOM WITH NO ONE KNOWING...

Thank God the public doesn't ever have to deal with this issue...

RESERVED YET EVEN ANOTHER 10K CHARACTERS TO UPDATE ON THE PROGRESS OF FREEDOM WITH NO ONE KNOWING...

Well... other than "tag" you're it!!!

Tim, chill out a little! Some of us are reading these. Just keep posting as if it were your own blog. If you "disappear" suddenly, we'll know you were on to something.

Tim - I see many words, many colors, many posts.

Show me the money!
^^ Clicken Sie hier bitte!

They are something that --- as Pres. Bush said to people that I quote in the book, "We are killing them all. We are killing all of the people who are the leaders." Now, it's not literally "all," but they are killing hundreds and hundreds of key people on the other side in this conflict.

You do realize this is a good thing, right?

Not sure if I get your point this go round.

Oh, now I get it. McCain and Obama were both wrong when they credited the surge with the drop in violence in Iraq.

And McCain called bush out for his spin, and is now engaged in much worse spin.

Cool.