“Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors.”

- George H.W. Bush at the CIA, 26 April 1999

“I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news," the president said. "And the best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world.”

Oh, dear.

Saw an interesting regulation on the CPA website today:

“Media organizations are prohibited from broadcasting or publishing original, rebroadcast, reprinted or syndicated material that:

… e) advocates the return to power of the Iraqi Ba’ath Party or makes statements that purport to be on behalf of the Iraqi Ba’ath Party.”

“The Administrator may authorize on-site inspections of Iraqi media organizations, without notice, in order to ascertain compliance with this Order and to seize any prohibited materials and production equipment and seal off any operating premises. No compensation will be allowed for any such material or equipment seized, or premises closed.” In addition, violators are subject to up to a year in prison.

This would mean that any editor who quoted or broadcast excerpts of Saddam's occasional audiotapes -- as every major news organization in the United States has done -- would have their organization gutted and would face a year in prison. Hmm.

I just discovered two quotes that would have been wonderful for my These Experts Agree t-shirts, had I known about them at the time:

“Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome.”

- George H.W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed (1998), pp. 489-90


“If you're going to go in and try to topple Saddam Hussein,you have to go to Baghdad. Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime or a Kurdish regime? Or one that tilts toward the Baathists, or one that tilts toward the Islamic fundamentalists? How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the United States military when it's there? How long does the United States military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for that government, and what happens to it once we leave?”

- Dick Cheney in April 1991

While the shirts aren't much good to anyone now, some of the quotes on them -- and the two above -- seem even more dead-on than they did in January.