Cursor's Media Patrol - 11/01/05

Democrats force Senate into closed session, "questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq and accusing Republicans of ignoring the issue," reports the AP. It followed Minority Leader Harry Reid making what Sen. Trent Lott called "some sort of stink about Scooter Libby and the CIA leak."

Following a White House 'Personnel Announcement,' Knight Ridder finds 'Cheney's new security adviser linked to bogus information on Iraq,' and his new chief of staff was "a principal author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects."

"'Regime change' in Syria is proceeding along lines suggested by the Iraqi template," writes Justin Raimondo, following Seymour Hersh's claim that the Mehlis Report on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, is "built on the same anemic foundations" as Colin Powell's U.N. presentation.

U.S. planning for 'Cuba without Castro' has "entered a new stage," reports the Financial Times, with the Office for Reconstruction and Stabilization leading an "inter-agency effort" which "recognises that the Cuba transition may not go peacefully and that the U.S. may have to launch a nation-building exercise."

'The Real Reason' why "the strategic decision by the United States to nuke Iran was probably made long ago," is "just to demonstrate that it can do it," writes Jorge Hirsch, who earlier suggested that "The stage is set for a chain of events that could lead to nuclear war over chemical weapons in the immediate future."