As I noted in this post, the front page NYT story putting Petraeus in charge of the paramilitary groups I will call “JUnc-WTF,” which are deployed in allied countries, reminded me of Eric Massa’s allegations that Dick Cheney and Petraeus were plotting a coup (though, as Massa describes it, it sounds more like an “election [...]

On September 30, 2009–according to a big new story from Mark Mazzetti–David Petraeus signed a directive approving the deployment of small special operations teams to go into friendly (Saudi Arabia and Yemen) and unfriendly (Iran and Somalia) countries to collect intelligence. Interestingly, Mazzetti makes it clear that he’s not covering this because CIA’s pissed about [...]

Thomas Ricks tells a tale of how Ray Odierno is the father of the surge. Problem is, Ricks’ story still has obvious holes, leaving open the question of who actually birthed the plan.

Gareth Porter wrote an important article calling out retired General Jack Keane for his attempt to sabotage Obama’s withdrawal plans from Iraq. But the article raises an important, unaddressed question: is Cheney’s behind Keane’s sabotage?

Thoughts from the morning testimony of Petraeus and Crocker.3

The NYT had a story yesterday reporting that the Iraqis just can’t seem to spend its aide money as quickly as it’s supposed to be spending it.What the NYT doesn’t say, though, is that the GAO itself also reported on how much money Iraq had spent, in its report issued just before Petraeus’ dog and pony show. In fact, the benchmark of whether Iraq was spending its money as quickly it was supposed to was one of the ones on which the GAO and the Administration disagreed. Whereas the GAO declared that Iraq had “partially met” its goal to spend $10 billion on reconstruction, the Administration declared Iraq’s progress “satisfactory.”

In addition to trying to start a war based on the blatherings of Filipino Monkey, the Administration has reverted to its claims that the hammered ashtrays it is finding in Iraq are a sign that Iran is supplying insurgents.