A Washington Post article exposing the specific details of several pre-war doubts by Bush Administration aides and anlaysts in the lead-up to war ran on page A1 in the early Saturday editions of WaPo's Sunday paper. By Sunday morning, however, the story had its headlined softened and was subsequently buried on page A26.

The story, by WaPo staff writer Walter Pincus, details the doubts of the administration's own intelligence analysts concerning WMD, Munitions Plants and Saddam Hussein's Unmanned Aerial Vehicles program, all of which were widely trumpeted as justifications for going to war by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and others within the administration during the build-up to the War on Iraq.

Pincus' Page 1 item, which originally ran in Saturday afternoon editions of the Sunday paper and on the front page of the WaPo website was headlined "More Evidence of Bush Aide's Doubts on Iraq --- Analysts Questioned Most Intelligence".

By Sunday, however, the article had been pushed back to page 26 with the softer headline, "Prewar Findings Worried Analysts".

The Washington Post has come under fire lately by critics decrying the lack of news coverage critical to the Bush Administraton. It was nearly two weeks before WaPo even mentioned the appearance of the "Downing Street Memo" which some have cited as a "smoking gun" demonstrating that George W. Bush lied to the American People and Congress during the build-up to war in Iraq. Several sources have called the information included in the memo as evidence of "an impeachable offense".

That memo, written in July 2002 --- a full eight months before going to war --- describes the Administration as already having decided to topple Hussein through military means and that the intelligence was being "fixed around the policy". Several days after 89 U.S. Congressmen sent an inquiry to Bush asking about the information in the memo, WaPo finally ran their first news item to mention the memo. On page 18.

A source at the Washington Post has commented that it's not unusual for stories to move off of page 1 between the Saturday and Sunday editions of the Sunday paper. Yet the move all the way back to page 26 and the softened headline certainly raises questions.

The Page 1 version of the story, originally linked to by the Internet news site RAW STORY early Saturday evening, retained the same URL on the WaPo website as the move was made and the headline and page number changed. The bulk of the article was unchanged as the move was made, though there were a couple of minor changes made to the text with little effect on the story itself.

The BRAD BLOG has contacted both Walter Pincus and his WaPo editor, Scott Vance, for comment and/or explanation for the move. We will update this item with additional information if and when we hear back from them.

(Thanks to Emailer David Griscom for the tip on this story!)

UPDATE: Looks like our friend Jesselee over at The Stakeholder was getting a similar scent on this story last night as we were looking into it as well. He has additional information on WaPo's burying of various Pincus articles as well as an admission/apology for same by WaPo editors last summer. Despite that self-flagellation nearly a year ago, it would seem that WaPo is still in the business of going easy on the Bush Administration.

In a Page 1 Washington Post article this morning (one that seems to be staying on Page 1 versus another story from over the weekend which we will be reporting on shortly!), the parents of Pro Footbal Player turned U.S. Army Soldier, Pat Tillman, have blasted both the Army and George W. Bush for their "lies" concerning the death of their son via "friendly fire" in Afghanistan in 2004.

Some of the extraordinary details from the WaPo story which likely won't make it onto the Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly programs, unless the plan to call Tillman's parents America Haters as well (wouldn't be a surprise at this point)...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

The Brad Show returns this week with an excellent guest list --- and it promises to be a great show, if the mysterious Radio Gods will permit it.

Brad's guests will include:
Larisa Alexandrovna of The Raw Story on the judges at the heart of the so-called "nuclear option"
Dave Astor, Senior Editor of Editor & Publisher, on the state of the mainstream media
Andrew Borene of Operation Truth speaking about Friday's stand-down of military recruitment
John Byrne of The Raw Story to share and discuss his recent interview with Senator Dick Durbin
Jim Lampley, HBO/NBC sportscaster and Huffington Post blogger

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The stunning testimony given by British MP George Galloway before the U.S. Senate subcommittee on Investigations is apparently so hot that it seems to have "gone AWOL" from the subcommittee's website according to the British newsite VNU Network.

The BRAD BLOG can confirm that all witness testimony --- except that of Galloway's --- from last Tuesday's extraordinary hearings is available in PDF format on the subcommittee's webpage on the hearings.

At those hearings, Galloway blasted subcommittee Chairman Sen Norm Coleman's (R-MN) investigation into the U.N. Oil-for-Food "scandal" which Galloway referred to as "the mother of all smokescreens".

That testimony can be read and/or viewed here.

We have been unable to receive a statement from Senate spokesmen as yet as to why Galloway's testimony is now unavailable on the website.

A staffer in Coleman's office referred us to the subcommittee staff when we asked for the reasons for "the removal of the testimony". Her reply: "That's a question for the subcommittee. Senator Coleman is the chairman, but the committee makes their own decisions about what goes on the website."

We were forwarded to the subcommittee's voice mail where we left a message. If we receive a call back, we will let you know.

A screenshot just taken from the subcommittee's website showing the missing Galloway testimony is below.

UPDATE: As of 2:30pm PT, the subcommittee's webpage has now been updated to include, "Mr Galloway did not submit a statement" underneath his missing testimony.

As a Capitol Hill source familiar with such testimony emailed us moments ago: "I'd find it strange if they simply published the prepared remarks of these other people as submitted instead of transcribing them especially since nowehere does it say 'as prepared.' That might be a good question to ask them if you call back."

We have still been unable to reach anybody at the subcommittee willing to give comment on the matter as of this time.

UPDATE 5/23/05 4:40pm PT: The subcommittee has again edited their website, this time to say "Mr Galloway did not submit a written statement". We suppose they were unable to copy and paste from the widely circulated written statement posted by London Times nearly a week ago!

It's official. Just in from the folks at Conyer's office...Fighting on every front...God bless him...In the DC area next week? Go help 'em make some noise!

Better yet, write to C-SPAN today and ask them to cover this event!!! We spoke with Conyers' office earlier this morning, and they made it clear they would appreciate any help that "6 or 7" of you might be able to provide in encouraging C-SPAN to be there!

In regards to our earlier article today covering IntellectualConservative.com's Aaron Goldstein in his humiliating attempt to bring a dull knife to Jim Lampley's Election Reform gunfight...This just in via Email from Lampley:

Consider it done, Lamps.

Lamps also promises more on Election 2004 in the coming week via Huffington Post. We'll let you know when that happens.

And BRAD SHOW promises (presuming we can get over the technical problems that plagued us last week!) to air the entire Jim Lampley interview on this week's Saturday show! Hope you'll join us! (And feel free to help us defray the cost!)

RAW STORY has the full quote.

Shadow TV has the video.

Atrios has the context (MoveOn.org has been under fire by the wingnuts for hosting an ad submitted by someone else to their "Bush In 60 Seconds" which compared Bush to Hitler, and which MoveOn.org immediately removed. The RNC has been hosting it and using it for months since then).

Atrios also points out this recent quote from Santorum:

Would you like some crow with that hubris, Senator?

Finally (though we suspect we'll be hearing more about all of this soon!), Blogenlust has still more on Republicans and their phony Hitler Outrage.

Before we point out what a classic phony "conservative" Aaron Goldstein --- of the site which (apparently without irony) calls itself IntellectualConservative.com --- actually is, we must point out still more apparent lack of irony from the site which gives Goldstein a reason to feel as if he is part of the human race.

Proudly tagged on each article page on the site, in the top-left hottest piece of real estate, is this humble self-description:

An example of that "intellectual conservatism" on one page, we suppose, would be this item and graphic currently on their front page:

Okay. So now you know what kind of site we're dealing with here, and have a small idea of the "intellectually conservative" geniuses who publish there.

With that in mind, one of those geniuses is Aaron Goldstein, who seems to have drawn the short neo-con straw this week and so must put in his sad, all-too-tired duty into the Defending the Indefensible on Behalf of The Powers-That-Be beat.

Goldstein has apparently been assigned (why else would he show up with such a small dull knife to such a big boy's gunfight?) to try and knock HBO/NBC's Jim Lampley down a few pegs. He fails. Miserably. But he doesn't fail to retread every lame, fake conservative line, apology, distraction, distortion, misdirection, justification and deflection in the Karl Rove playbook! Attaboy, Aaron! Fox News should be calling any day now!

In truth, Goldstein's sad little shot at Lampley --- he of the mighty Election 2004 as "the biggest crime in the history of the nation" statement last week --- likely deserves to be ignored. But it's so much fun laughing at these Democracy Hating Conspiracy Theorists like Goldstein that sometimes we just can't help ourselves...Even if we must stoop to their lowered level of discourse in order to do it...

According to the Grand Rapids Press, nearly 1000 students and professors from the conservative Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI are taking out a full-page ad to protest George W. Bush's commencement address appearance this Saturday.

The speaking engagement was requested and arranged by Bush's top political advisor Karl Rove who, according to NEWSWEEK, informed a College employee at a "Presidential" event back in March that "Bush was hoping to deliver a graduation speech in Michigan this year and asked if Calvin College, a small Christian school in Grand Rapids, might be a willing venue."

Ironically enough, The Press quotes the chair of the college's communcation arts and science department who gave his approval for the event as accusing the objecting students and professors of turning the appearance into a "political event."

The fact that the appearance was arranged by Bush's top political advisor, who was specifically looking for a venue in swing-state Michigan for Bush to speak at is apparently to be ignored.

Yesterday's Press described tomorrow's stinging full-page ad:

And in reply, The Press quotes the professor who defends the Bush appearance...

While Bytwerk may like to believe that this weekend's political event "was not a political event", a report in this week's NEWSWEEK on Rove's political "thank you" tour would seem to suggest otherwise...

Nope. It's not a political event at all. And the "Clear Skies Initiative" will clear the air. And "No Child Left Behind" won't leave any children behind. And when the "Mission Accomplished" banner goes up, the mission will have been completely accomplished.

George W. Bush's Bizzarro World continues. We just have to live in it.

Yet even the good conservative Calvinist Christians of Grand Rapids are beginning to understand what an embarrassing figure this country currently has occupying the White House and misrepresenting our country to the world.

UPDATE: A number of Calvin students have set up a Google discussion forum called "Our Commencement Is Not Your Platform", described as "A place to dialogue and organize for those opposed to George W. Bush commandeering Calvin's 2005 Commencement."

(In case you missed it, the U.S. Army missed its recruitment goal in April by 42%. Third straight month of missed recruitment goals. Have a feeling they may be lowering those goals soon.)

According to the LA Times...

Imagine that.

Not since attorney Joseph Welch confronted the soon-to-fall Anti-Communist Crusader/Idealogue, Joseph McCarthy in 1954 with his now famous "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" testimony can we recall such a direct shaming of a Congressional Committee as that which took place earlier today in a Senate Subcommittee Hearing on the trumped-up U.N. Oil-for-Food "scandal". It's the scandal which Bush Lackeys and Fox & Friends have been flogging ever since it became apparent that there were no WMD in Iraq, and thus, no justification for this trumped-up war.

Also mirroring McCarthy's shameless use of the Senate for his Anti-Communist Witchhunts is the cavalier way by which the NeoCons and their sycophantic supporters are all-too-willing to destroy innocent lives with the stroke of an irresponsible pen or an out-and-out fallacious public statement in complete disregard for those whose lives and reputations they are smearing and defaming under false pretenses.

The hearings today, by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigation subcommittee, shamefully led by Democrat-turned-Republican Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, turned into a stunning embarrassment when British MP George Galloway gave his remarkable rebuttal to the unsubstantiated charges made against him by the Committee "investigating" the Oil-for-Food "scandal" which Galloway appropriately described as "the mother of all smoke-screens".

A video of a portion of the testimony is here (Streaming RealPlayer Broadband, Dial-up or Audio Only MP3). The full transcript (and we strongly recommend you read the entire thing to get the full impact of Galloway's statement!) is available via The Times of London.... Let me repeat the full transcript of George Galloway's statement to the U.S. Senate is here! Please read it!

For the attention-span impaired, however, here is Galloway's extraordinary closing statements:

Galloway didn't say the precise words, so we will...

To Senator Norm Coleman, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Rupert Murdoch, George W. Bush and All the Rest of you evil-doers:

You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

Almost a full three weeks after the Chicago Tribune allowed their Public Editor, Don Wycliff, to write a foolish rebuttal to Robert Koehler's watershed column --- in which he said "the 2004 election was stolen, will someone please tell the media?" --- they have finally allowed Koehler a response by way of a letter in their hallowed pages.

It should be noted that the Trib never ran Koehler's original column, nor its followup, nor the original direct reply which Koehler wrote in response to Wycliff. In fact, the Tribune Media Services, in an unprecedented example of censorship at the organization, refused to allow Koehler's response to be published at all via the syndication service where Koehler has worked and published as editor and columnist for nearly a decade. A hastily compiled column crafted of letters that Koehler's received since the brouhaha began took its last minute place.

(We interviewed Koehler on our radio show a couple of weeks back discussing the spiking of that column. Here's the .MP3 archive of the interview, the Koehler interview begins at the :22 minute mark or so.)

In regards to the Trib finally allowing a response to Wycliff's article by anyone (they received hundreds of letters, only a single one of them was published, and that one didn't even speak to the 2004 election mess), Koehler wrote to us yesterday...

You can read Koehler's letter in the Trib here.

We should also note that Don Wycliff finally answered our calls inviting him to give his side of the story on our radio show with a call from his secretary who informed us that "Don does not do radio."

We have no reason to doubt that's the truth. Nonetheless, if any of you good folks out there in Chicagoland happen to hear Mr. Wycliff on the radio, please do let us know won't you?

...CONTACTS...
Tribune Media Services Contact Page
Robert Koehler, Editor/Columnist/American Hero

Chicago Tribune Contact Page
Ann Marie Lipinski, Editor
R. Bruce Dold, Editorial Page Editor
James O'Shea, Managing Editor
N. Don Wycliff, Public Editor

UPDATE 5/18/05: Editor & Publisher, who has been doing a fine job of following the Koehler story, picks up on the latest story as well.