and walter pincus. you covered the fight over who screwed up the iraq war. you got the fight that was going on for months, all that issue. what is cheney up to in that regard? he is trying to blame the intelligence community. they were trying to blame him for all the lousy information we're getting about the wmd over there. >> right. and he was the force who was always taking things one step further, who was saying that these people in iraq are the ones who attacked us on 9/11. he is saying we believe that iraq has reconstituted a nuclear weapon. so he wasn't operating even by bush standards he wasn't operating in the same realm of fact. and eventually, you saw in the second term, bush finally said look, i've had enough of this. cheney became more marginalized and the big rift. >> that was very important. even the president, who he was supposedly serving realized he had been misserved. >> and he was also saying at that same time that the cia was too soft. that only -- >> they set up the special unit. >> that only cheney himself and a few acolytes had the tru

and walter pincus. you covered the fight over who screwed up the iraq war.u got the fight that was going on for months, all that issue. what is cheney up to in that regard? he is trying to blame the intelligence community. they were trying to blame him for all the lousy information we're getting about the wmd over there. >> right. and he was the force who was always taking things one step further, who was saying that these people in iraq are the ones who attacked us on 9/11. he is saying we believe that iraq has reconstituted a nuclear weapon. so he wasn't operating even by bush standards he wasn't operating in the same realm of fact. and eventually, you saw in the second term, bush finally said look, i've had enough of this. cheney became more marginalized and the big rift. >> that was very important. even the president, who he was supposedly serving realized he had been misserved. >> and he was also saying at that same time that the cia was too soft. that only -- >> they set up the special unit. >> that only cheney himself and a few acolytes had the true w

walter pincus reports on intelligence defense and foreign policy for the "washington post" tackled thismally unmentionable subject the days after israel's cabinet cut nearly 2 million from israel's own defense budget on october 18, 2011, pincus pointed out if israel to reduce its defense spending because of domestic economic problems, shouldn't the united states, which must count military calls because of its major military deficit consider reducing its aid to israel? i'd like to conclude by stating the obvious. the u.s. president and congress give aid to israel for domestic reasons. in order to please jewish and evangelical christian voters who are often more pro-israeli than israelis. it is mind-boggling that when it comes to israel, u.s. taxpayers has no preconditions. israel has a green light to use american tax revenue for military operations, which destroyed palestinian or lebanese roads, water tanks, sewage lines, electrical power plants and police stations, not to mention shops, homes, schools, orchards and lives. sometimes israel demolishes projects like parks, playgrounds, por

founder mark pincus step down from role -- the role last july. we are watching walterrgy, shares down sharply. it is a metallurgical coal producer. bank of america says fundamentals for the commodity will be depressed over the next couple of years because of excessive supply and the use of substitute commodities. we will have more "on the markets" in 30 minutes. more "bottom line" next. ♪ >> welcome back to bloomberg "bottom line." i am alix steel in for mark crumpton. let's check some of the top stories we are following for you. president obama has expanded u.s. economic sanctions against 20 individualsng inside and outside of the government, as well as a russian bank. the president signed an executive order that would allow the u.s. to penalize key sectors of the russian economy. --ntime, as in be has meantime, s&p has lowered its outlook for russia. investigators are focusing on part of the indian ocean west of australia. that is after satellite images showed two large objects in the water. that search will resume tomorrow. the federal reserve will release the resul