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Monday, October 11, 2004 |
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From the War and Peace Watch Newsletter Bush Loyalists Pack Iraq Press Office Iraq is in danger of costing George Bush his presidency, and the Coalition Provisional Authority's media staff are determined to see that does not happen. Inside the palace hall that serves as the press office of the US-led coalition, Republican Party operatives lead a team of Americans who promote mostly good news about Iraq, striving to ensure that Americans receive a positive spin on the administration's invasion, occupation, and reconstruction of Iraq. The office is packed with former Bush campaign workers, political appointees, and ex-Capitol Hill staffers, with one-third of the US civilian workers in the press office having GOP ties. So much for "fair and balanced." Associated Press AP: Bush Loyalists Pack Iraq Press Office Baghdad, Iraq (AP) - Inside the marble-floored palace hall that serves as the press office of the U.S.-led coalition, Republican Party operatives lead a team of Americans who promote mostly good news about Iraq. Dan Senor, a former press secretary for Spencer Abraham, the Michigan Republican who's now Energy Secretary, heads the office packed with former Bush campaign workers, political appointees and ex-Capitol Hill staffers. One-third of the U.S. civilian workers in the press office have GOP ties, running an enterprise that critics see as an outpost of Bush's re-election effort with Iraq a top concern. Senor and others inside the coalition say they follow strict guidelines that steer clear of politics. ``Beautification Plan for Baghdad Ready to Begin,'' one press release in late March said in its headline. Another statement last month cautioned, ``The Reality is Nothing Like What You See on Television.'' Senor, spokesman for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, said his office is guided by ethical ``red lines'' that prevent it from crossing into the Bush campaign. ``We have an obligation to communicate with the U.S. Congress and the American people, given that they're spending almost $20 billion in Iraq and have committed over 100,000 U.S. troops here,'' Senor said in an interview with The Associated Press. Earlier in his career, after Hebrew University and Harvard Business School, Senor was with the Carlyle Group, an investment firm with Bush family ties and big defense industry holdings. Senor jogged in a Thanksgiving Day race here wearing a ``Bush-Cheney 2004'' T-shirt. Known as the Green Room, the press office is inside coalition headquarters in the Republican Palace that used to belong to Saddam Hussein. The palace is in central Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The office counts 21 Republicans - 11 of whom have worked inside the Bush administration before their Iraq posting - among its 58 U.S. civilian staffers, according to figures Senor provided. More than half a dozen CPA officials in the press office worked on Bush's 2000 presidential campaign or are related to Bush campaign workers, according to payroll records filed with the Federal Elections Commission. Republican figures also permeate the wider CPA staff, including top advisers to U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer and the Iraqi ministries. The U.S. team stands in deep contrast to the British team that works alongside it, almost all of whom are civil or foreign service employees, not political appointees. Many of the British in Iraq display regional knowledge or language skills that most of the Americans lack. The drive to re-elect Bush is a sensitive topic. Several coalition officials angered by what they see as CPA politicking - with U.S. accomplishments in Iraq being trumpeted to help Bush - grumbled privately, but would not go on record with complaints. But Gordon Robison, a former CPA contractor who helped build the Pentagon-funded Al-Iraqiya television station in Baghdad, said Republicans in the press room intensely followed the Democratic presidential primaries as John Kerry emerged as the presumed nominee. ``Iraq is in danger of costing George W. Bush his presidency and the CPA's media staff are determined to see that does not happen,'' Robison said. ``I had the impression in dealing with the civilians in the Green Room that they viewed their job as essentially political, promoting what the Coalition Provisional Authority is doing in Iraq as a political arm of the Bush administration,'' he added. Robison, a journalist who said his political affiliation is a private matter, left Baghdad in March after finishing his contract with U.S. defense contractor Science Applications International Corp. A new U.S. contractor, Harris Corp., has taken over the Al-Iraqiya operations. One CPA staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity said the press office had sent targeted ``good news'' releases to American television, radio and newspaper outlets that were timed to deflect criticism of Bush during the Democratic primaries. Stratcom's schedule of news releases shows that stories were sent to media outlets in Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee and Virginia and other states in the days before their Democratic primaries. But the schedule also shows releases sent to Virginia, Ohio and Florida after the primaries were over. Senor said any correlation to the vote was a coincidence. Rich Galen, 57, a well-known Republican strategist, oversees the daily news releases sent directly to media outlets in the United States. Before joining the CPA press operation late last year, Galen wrote a GOP insider column and appeared on Fox News to harpoon liberal critics of Bush. Now, he's still writing an Internet column, but he's turned it into what he calls a travelogue about Iraq. And he still appears on Fox - but long-distance via satellite and as a CPA spokesman. Galen has been press secretary for both former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Vice President Dan Quayle during their careers. Galen's 27-year-old son, Reed, is involved in the Bush re-election effort. Since arriving in Iraq, Galen said he has made sure not to veer into politics in his work in the Green Room, in his column or during his television appearances. ``I understand when the game clock is on and when the game clock is off,'' Galen said. ``The clock is off.'' Were he to get directly involved in the Bush campaign, Galen said he'd be far more effective working at an office in Virginia outside of Washington D.C. than from the Iraqi capital. ``It's as inefficient a way to run a campaign as I can imagine,'' he said of being in Baghdad. Outside political analysts, however, said Galen's vast expertise lies in political campaigning, not shipping radio and TV spots to local audiences. Putting a sharp strategist like him in the press room is a campaign masterstroke, said Bob Boorstin of the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan political think-tank in Washington. ``You know they're in trouble if they shipped Rich Galen over there,'' said Boorstin, who worked on four presidential campaigns, all Democratic. ``They're desperate to control the story over there. It's a very smart thing on their part. He knows what he's doing.'' Still, Boorstin said the shaping of the American message out of Iraq should come as no surprise. The rigors of election year politics demand the best possible portrayal of key policies, and Bush has staked his presidency on the notion that he's a war president. ``There's some deep questions about whether (the U.S. invasion) was a good idea. Wherever and whenever they can, Bush's political people are manipulating whatever they can,'' he said. ``Is that a surprise? No. Would Democrats do it? Yes. But it's particularly noxious because people's lives are on the line.'' Associated Press Writer Aparna H. Kumar contributed to this report from Washington. © Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) 4:03:18 PM 
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Monday, July 21, 2003 |
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Re: 16 Little Words Dear Friends: It's more than Bush's 16 words that are the problem--it's a whole pattern of corruption that we are dealing with. Paul Krugman queries how we got into this mess. The case of the bogus uranium purchases wasn't an isolated instance. It was part of a broad pattern of politicized, corrupted intelligence. So far, George Tenet, director of the CIA,has been ordered to fall upon his sword in protection of his boss. Bush can throw officials to the lions all he wants, but that's not going to make the problem go away. If you truly desire regime change at home, and an outing of the truth, keep asking questions and keep the pressure on. ________________________ The New York Times July 15, 2003 Pattern of Corruption by Paul Krugman More than half of the U.S. Army's combat strength is now bogged down in Iraq, which didn't have significant weapons of mass destruction and wasn't supporting Al Qaeda. We have lost all credibility with allies who might have provided meaningful support; Tony Blair is still with us, but has lost the trust of his public. All this puts us in a very weak position for dealing with real threats. Did I mention that North Korea has been extracting fissionable material from its fuel rods? How did we get into this mess? The case of the bogus uranium purchases wasn't an isolated instance. It was part of a broad pattern of politicized, corrupted intelligence. Literally before the dust had settled, Bush administration officials began trying to use 9/11 to justify an attack on Iraq. Gen. Wesley Clark says that he received calls on Sept. 11 from "people around the White House" urging him to link that assault to Saddam Hussein. His account seems to back up a CBS.com report last September, headlined "Plans for Iraq Attack Began on 9/11," which quoted notes taken by aides to Donald Rumsfeld on the day of the attack: "Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not." But an honest intelligence assessment would have raised questions about why we were going after a country that hadn't attacked us. It would also have suggested the strong possibility that an invasion of Iraq would hurt, not help, U.S. security. So the Iraq hawks set out to corrupt the process of intelligence assessment. On one side, nobody was held accountable for the failure to predict or prevent 9/11; on the other side, top intelligence officials were expected to support the case for an Iraq war. The story of how the threat from Iraq's alleged W.M.D.'s was hyped is now, finally, coming out. But let's not forget the persistent claim that Saddam was allied with Al Qaeda, which allowed the hawks to pretend that the Iraq war had something to do with fighting terrorism. As Greg Thielmann, a former State Department intelligence official, said last week, U.S. intelligence analysts have consistently agreed that Saddam did not have a "meaningful connection" to Al Qaeda. Yet administration officials continually asserted such a connection, even as they suppressed evidence showing real links between Al Qaeda and Saudi Arabia. And during the run-up to war, George Tenet, the C.I.A. director, was willing to provide cover for his bosses--just as he did last weekend. In an October 2002 letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee, he made what looked like an assertion that there really were meaningful connections between Saddam and Osama. Read closely, the letter is evasive, but it served the administration's purpose. What about the risk that an invasion of Iraq would weaken America's security? Warnings from military experts that an extended postwar occupation might severely strain U.S. forces have proved precisely on the mark. But the hawks prevented any consideration of this possibility. Before the war, one official told Newsweek that the occupation might last no more than 30 to 60 days. It gets worse. Knight Ridder newspapers report that a "small circle of senior civilians in the Defense Department" were sure that their favorite, Ahmad Chalabi, could easily be installed in power. They were able to prevent skeptics from getting a hearing and they had no backup plan when efforts to anoint Mr. Chalabi, a millionaire businessman, degenerated into farce. So who will be held accountable? Mr. Tenet betrayed his office by tailoring statements to reflect the interests of his political masters, rather than the assessments of his staff--but that's not why he may soon be fired. Yesterday USA Today reported that "some in the Bush administration are arguing privately for a C.I.A. director who will be unquestioningly loyal to the White House as committees demand documents and call witnesses." Not that the committees are likely to press very hard: Senator Pat Roberts, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, seems more concerned about protecting his party's leader than protecting the country. "What concerns me most," he says, is "what appears to be a campaign of press leaks by the C.I.A. in an effort to discredit the president." In short, those who politicized intelligence in order to lead us into war, at the expense of national security, hope to cover their tracks by corrupting the system even further. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company ________________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) ============================================================ 5:16:34 PM
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Re: Weaponsgate Has Begun Dear Friends: The momentum regarding the untruths told about the weapons of mass destruction is growing daily. It's important that we keep our eye on the prize, and that we keep the pressure on the administration to come clean about what they knew and when they knew it. What has been done in America's name will not easily be forgotten by the world, and a regime change will not be enough to win back our self respect. Dues must be paid. _______________________________ United for Peace and Justice July 15, 2003 Demand That Bush Come Clean on Weaponsgate The Bush Administration is desperately trying to contain the brewing controversy about its false statements regarding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. They lied to drive us into a war against a country that posed no threat, a war which has so far killed over 6000 Iraqi civilians (http://www.iraqbodycount.net) and over 200 American soldiers. Speak out now! Help keep this issue in the public spotlight. Take Action: Call You Elected Representatives. Contact your Senators and Representatives and urge them to push for an independent investigation into whether the Bush Administration misled the public with claims that Iraq was an imminent threat to the U.S. and its neighbors. Tell them the American public deserves answers to the tough questions. We want open, thorough, timely televised public hearings and an investigation with a broad mandate. We need the truth. Both Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) have introduced legislation (H.R. 2625 and H. Res. 307 resp.) that addresses some of these concerns. Each has supported the others bill, although Tauschers is stronger in several regards--it calls for a House Select Committee rather than an independent commission and it calls for reporting before the election. The Capitol Switchboard is (202) 224-3121. Write a Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed. Keep this issue in the public spotlight by writing a letter to the editor or opinion piece for your local newspaper. Letters to the editor should be less than 200 words, opinion pieces about 600 words. Most newspapers post specific guidelines on their websites, which also have information about where to send your piece. An excellent resource on lies about the war can be found at http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=424008 Distribute Flyers. Educate people about how the Bush Administrations claims compare to the facts. Good places to hand out flyers include bus stops, subway stations, grocery stores, college campuses, libraries, and churches, among other sites. Downloadable flyers will soon be available at www.unitedforpeace.org. List Your Group's Peace and Justice Events on the UFPJ website: http://unitedforpeace.org/calendar_gxinput.php Background: Eight days ago, former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson revealed that he had been charged by the Bush administration with investigating claims that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Niger and that the Bush administration had ignored his report that these claims were false. Building on earlier reports that the claim was based on crudely forged documents, this has set off a chain of events that could turn Weaponsgate into a major scandal. (New York Times, July 6) Another insider, recently retired State Department intelligence official Greg Thielmann, has disclosed that intelligence agencies agreed that there was no meaningful connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda. He confirmed other allegations that the administration has systematically distorted and misused intelligence in order to justify the war on Iraq. (USA Today, July 13) The Bush administration has moved swiftly to try to contain the brewing controversy. It has so far succeeded in blocking attempts to have open congressional hearings on the question. On Friday it pinned the blame for the Niger claims on the CIA, with director George Tenet taking full responsibility for their inclusion in Bush's State of the Union address. On Sunday it stepped back from its earlier admission that the claims were based on bogus information, saying that the statement in the address was, in Donald Rumsfeld's words, "technically correct." (New York Times, July 13) The attempts to pass the buck don't hold water. Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst, says that administration claims about their ignorance are "stretching the truth beyond the breaking point." And in Australia, where similar revelations have been made (the Defense Intelligence Organization admits it had information on the Niger forgeries but says it didn't tell the Defense Minister), ex-intelligence analyst Andrew Wilkie points out, "You've got three intelligence organizations in Australia, the intelligence organizations in the US, and every one is saying they knew this was bad information, but not one political leader reckons they were told" It is unbelievable to the point of fantasy." (Truthout, July 13) More important, restricting attention to the Niger claims keeps attention away from all the other information about a systematic pattern of deceit and denial by the Bush administration. (See "20 Lies About the War") It includes deception about the link with al-Qaeda, about the alleged massive stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons, about the "unmanned aerial vehicles" that George W. Bush once claimed could be used to attack the United States, and about Iraq's level of cooperation with weapons inspections, and much more. Furthermore, the administrations extreme dishonesty over the Niger claims should lead people to question all of its assertions, including the repeated statements that the war on Iraq and the current occupation is about liberating Iraq. Instead of democracy, Iraq is getting a council of political figures hand-picked by L. Paul Bremer, the U.S.-appointed ruler of Iraq. Instead of having Iraq's oil used for the benefit of the Iraqi people, Bremer plans to privatize the state oil companies as part of privatizing over 40 government-owned companies. (New York Times, June 23) Instead of bringing a new prosperity to the Iraqi people, Bremer has fired over 500,000 government employees. And, of course, U.S. plans to use Iraq as a military staging-area for regional "force projection" are openly admitted. (Reuters, April 28) At the same time, we have been deceived about how easy and cheap the occupation would be. The American death toll has mounted to well over 200, including over 30 killed by hostile action since May 1, the declared end of the war. The costs of the occupation are double what was projected -- $3.9 billion per month. (New York Times, July 11) And Donald Rumsfeld announced recently that additional troops would likely be needed in Iraq. (New York Times, July 14) Its important to keep the Bush administrations deception over weapons of mass destruction in the public eye and also to connect that to the larger deception in the drive to war and to deception over its aims for Iraq. For Background Info, See These Sources: -- "What I didn't find in Africa," New York Times, July 6, 2003. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/opinion/06WILS.html or www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm -- "Bush overstated Iraq links to al-Qaeda, former intelligence officials say," USA Today, July 13, 2003. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-07-13-bush-alqaeda_x.htm -- "Bush Aides Now Say Claim on Uranium Was Accurate," New York Times, July 13, 2003. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/14/international/worldspecial/14INTE.html -- William Rivers Pitt, "The Dubious Suicide of George Tenet," Truthout, July 13, 2003. http://truthout.org/docs_03/071403A.shtml -- "20 Lies About the War," The Independent, July 13, 2003. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=424008 -- "Overseer in Iraq Plans to Sell off Government-Owned Companies, New York Times, June 23. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D1EF93F5F0C708EDDAF0894DB 404482 -- "Pentagon Expects Long-Term Access to Four Key Bases in Iraq," New York Times, April 20. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0811F9395E0C738EDDAD0894DB 404482 -- "Israeli Ambassador to U.S. calls for Regime Change in Iran, Syria," Reuters, April 28. -- "Wars Cost Brings Democratic Anger," New York Times, July 11, 2003. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/11/international/worldspecial/11COST.html -- "Rumsfeld Says Iraq May Need a Larger Force," New York Times, July 14, 2003. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/14/international/worldspecial/14TROO.html --United for Peace and Justice http://www.unitedforpeace.org 212-603-3700 _______________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) ============================================================ 5:15:42 PM
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Re: Group Demands Cheney's Resignation Dear Friends: A group of senior former intelligence officials have written an open letter to George Bush, demanding the resignation of Vice-President Dick Cheney. In the letter they accuse him of using his office to insist that a false claim about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium from Africa to restart its nuclear program be included in Bush's State of the Union address---ignoring the concerns of CIA director George Tenet. Cheney was also accused of knowingly misleading Congress when the administration sought its authorization for the use of force to oust Saddam Hussein. The former intelligence officials believe that information from the intelligence community was selectively used to support a war fought for political reasons. The chickens are coming home to roost. ____________________________ The Independent (UK) July 16, 2003 Cheney Under Pressure to Quit Over False War Evidence Anger grows on both sides of Atlantic at misleading claims on eve of Iraq conflict by Andrew Buncombe in Washington and Marie Woolf Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President and the administration's most outspoken hawk over Iraq, faced demands for his resignation last night as he was accused of using false evidence to build the case for war. He was accused of using his office to insist that a false claim about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium from Africa to restart its nuclear programme be included in George Bush's State of the Union address - overriding the concerns of the CIA director, George Tenet. Mr Cheney was also accused of knowingly misleading Congress when the administration sought its authorisation for the use of force to oust Saddam Hussein. The allegations against Mr Cheney have come most vocally from a group of senior former intelligence officials who believe that information from the intelligence community was selectively used to support a war fought for political reasons. In an open letter to President George Bush, the group have asked that he demand Mr Cheney's resignation. As the clamour for a full inquest into the African uranium claims grew on both sides of the Atlantic, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, was accused by MPs of lacking "credibility" after he admitted knowing a month before the war that documents making the assertion were forgeries. Mr Straw said in a statement he had known that letters given to the UN nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, about the Niger claim were fake as early as February. Mr Straw also claimed that the Government's case for military action was not based on "intelligence reports". Labour MPs, including Tam Dalyell, the father of the House, asked why Mr Straw had not told MPs that the documents were fake in advance of the vote to approve military action on 18 March. "He now says the Government knew it was a forgery in February. Why didn't he tell us before Parliament voted for war?" he said. "Also if the case for war is not based on intelligence, what is it based on?" Last night the Labour-dominated Foreign Affairs Committee asked Mr Straw to reveal what he knew about the Niger claim. Donald Anderson, the committee's chairman, wrote to Mr Straw asking him when the CIA first questioned the Niger connection, and why ministers had not admitted earlier that there were doubts about the claims. The committee also asked whether the CIA had questioned any other claims in the September dossier on Iraq's weapons. The letter, signed by 11 MPs of all parties, called on Mr Straw to confirm The Independent's report that technical documents and centrifuge parts found at the home of an Iraqi nuclear scientist in Baghdad had lain buried for 12 years. The letter also asked Mr Straw to reveal when he knew that the former US ambassador Joseph Wilson had found claims about Niger-Iraq links to be false. Last week the White House admitted that the claim that Iraq was seeking "significant quantities of uranium from Africa" - based on faked documents provided by the Italian intelligence services - should not have been included in President Bush's speech of 28 January. In Washington there is no conclusive proof that Mr Cheney was responsible for insisting that the claim be made in the speech. But there is clear evidence of Mr Cheney's interest in the alleged Niger deal. Joseph Wilson, a former US ambassador, said he was asked by the CIA to go to Niger and investigate the claim in a request from the Vice-President's office. Mr Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, has admitted that during a briefing from the CIA "the Vice-President asked a question about the implication of the report". There have been reports from CIA officials that in the months before the war Mr Cheney made a "multiple number" of personal visits to its headquarters in Virginia to meet officials analysing intelligence relating to Iraq. "[He] sent signals, intended or otherwise, that a certain output was desired from here," one senior CIA official told reporters. The CIA director, Mr Tenet, said he accepted responsibility for approving the speech but said his officers had only "concurred" with White House officials that by naming the British Government as the source of the Niger claim it was "factually correct". Britain has stood by the claim, saying it has evidence in addition to the Italian documents. © 2001 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd ________________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) ============================================================ 5:15:15 PM
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Re: Intelligence Professionals Blast Cheney Dear Friends: In a blistering memo to George Bush, the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) demand that Cheney be fired for his role in manipulating evidence to support the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. The VIPS state that, "There is just too much evidence that Ambassador Wilson was sent to Niger at the behest of Vice President Cheney's office, and that Wilson's findings were duly reported not only to that office but to others as well. Equally important, it was Cheney who launched (in a major speech on August 26, 2002) the concerted campaign to persuade Congress and the American people that Saddam Hussein was about to get his hands on nuclear weapons--a campaign that mushroomed, literally, in early October with you and your senior advisers raising the specter of a 'mushroom cloud' being the first 'smoking gun' we might observe... We strongly recommend that you ask for Cheney's immediate resignation." Ray McGovern is a 27-year veteran of the CIA and a member of the steering committee of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. The VIPS is a group of 30 retired senior intelligence officers formed in January of 2003 to keep watch on the use/abuse of intelligence, primarily regarding Iraq. Most of them are from the analytic ranks of the CIA, but they have strong representation from the operations officers as well. Their ranks include retired officers from State Department Intelligence, Defense Intelligence, Army Intelligence, and the FBI. __________________________________________ Memo to the President from the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity July 14, 2003 MEMORANDUM FOR: The President FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity SUBJECT: Intelligence Unglued The glue that holds the Intelligence Community together is melting under the hot lights of an awakened press. If you do not act quickly, your intelligence capability will fall apart -- with grave consequences for the nation. The Forgery Flap By now you are all too familiar with the play-by-play. The Iraq-seeking-uranium-in-Niger forgery is a microcosm of a mischievous nexus of overarching problems. Instead of addressing these problems, your senior staff is alternately covering up for one another and gently stabbing one another in the back. CIA Director George Tenet's extracted, unapologetic apology on July 11 was classic -- I confess; she did it. It is now dawning on our until-now somnolent press that your national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, shepherds the foreign affairs sections of your state-of-the-union address and that she, not Tenet, is responsible for the forged information getting into the speech. But the disingenuousness persists. Surely Dr. Rice cannot persist in her insistence that she learned only on June 8, 2003 about former ambassador Joseph Wilson's mission to Niger in February 2002, when he determined that the Iraq-Niger report was a con-job. Wilson's findings were duly reported to all concerned in early March 2002. And, if she somehow missed that report, the New York Times' Nicholas Kristoff on May 6 recounted chapter and verse on Wilson's mission, and the story remained the talk of the town in the weeks that followed. Rice's denials are reminiscent of her claim in spring 2002 that there was no reporting suggesting that terrorists were planning to hijack planes and slam them into buildings. In September, the joint congressional committee on 9/11 came up with a dozen such reports. Secretary of State Colin Powell's credibility, too, has taken serious hits as continued non-discoveries of weapons in Iraq heap doubt on his confident assertions to the UN. Although he was undoubtedly trying to be helpful in trying to contain the Iraq-Niger forgery affair, his recent description of your state-of-the-union words as "not totally outrageous" was faint praise indeed. And his explanations as to why he made a point to avoid using the forgery in the way you did was equally unhelpful. Whatever Rice's or Powell's credibility, it is yours that matters. And, in our view, the credibility of the intelligence community is an inseparably close second. Attempts to dismiss or cover up the cynical use to which the known forgery was put have been -- well, incredible. The British have a word for it: "dodgy." You need to put a quick end to the dodginess, if the country is to have a functioning intelligence community. The Vice President's Role Attempts at cover up could easily be seen as comical, were the issue not so serious. Highly revealing were Ari Fleisher's remarks early last week, which set the tone for what followed. When asked about the forgery, he noted tellingly -- as if drawing on well memorized talking points -- that the Vice President was not guilty of anything. The disingenuousness was capped on Friday, when George Tenet did his awkward best to absolve the Vice President from responsibility. To those of us who experienced Watergate, these comments had an eerie ring. That affair and others since have proven that cover-up can assume proportions overshadowing the crime itself. All the more reason to take early action to get the truth up and out. There is just too much evidence that Ambassador Wilson was sent to Niger at the behest of Vice President Cheney's office, and that Wilson's findings were duly reported not only to that office but to others as well. Equally important, it was Cheney who launched (in a major speech on August 26, 2002) the concerted campaign to persuade Congress and the American people that Saddam Hussein was about to get his hands on nuclear weapons -- a campaign that mushroomed, literally, in early October with you and your senior advisers raising the specter of a "mushroom cloud" being the first "smoking gun" we might observe. That this campaign was based largely on information known to be forged and that the campaign was used successfully to frighten our elected representatives in Congress into voting for war is clear from the bitter protestations of Rep. Henry Waxman and others. The politically aware recognize that the same information was used, also successfully, in the campaign leading up to the mid-term elections -- a reality that breeds a cynicism highly corrosive to our political process. The fact that the forgery also crept into your state-of-the-union address pales in significance in comparison with how it was used to deceive Congress into voting on October 11 to authorize you to make war on Iraq. It was a deep insult to the integrity of the intelligence process that, after the Vice President declared on August 26, 2002 that "we know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons," the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) produced during the critical month of September featured a fraudulent conclusion that "most analysts" agreed with Cheney's assertion. This may help explain the anomaly of Cheney's unprecedented "multiple visits" to CIA headquarters at the time, as well as the many reports that CIA and other intelligence analysts were feeling extraordinarily great pressure, accompanied by all manner of intimidation tactics, to concur in that conclusion. As a coda to his nuclear argument, Cheney told NBC's Meet the Press three days before US/UK forces invaded Iraq: "we believe he (Saddam Hussein) has reconstituted nuclear weapons." Mr. Russert: ...the International Atomic Energy Agency said he does not have a nuclear program; we disagree? Vice President Cheney: I disagree, yes. And you'll find the CIA, for example, and other key parts of the intelligence community disagree...we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. I think Mr. ElBaradei (Director of the IAEA) frankly is wrong. Contrary to what Cheney and the NIE said, the most knowledgeable analysts -- those who know Iraq and nuclear weapons -- judged that the evidence did not support that conclusion. They now have been proven right. Adding insult to injury, those chairing the NIE succumbed to the pressure to adduce the known forgery as evidence to support the Cheney line, and relegated the strong dissent of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (and the nuclear engineers in the Department of Energy) to an inconspicuous footnote. It is a curious turn of events. The drafters of the offending sentence on the forgery in president's state-of-the-union speech say they were working from the NIE. In ordinary circumstances an NIE would be the preeminently authoritative source to rely upon; but in this case the NIE itself had already been cooked to the recipe of high policy. Joseph Wilson, the former US ambassador who visited Niger at Cheney's request, enjoys wide respect (including, like several VIPS members, warm encomia from your father). He is the consummate diplomat. So highly disturbed is he, however, at the chicanery he has witnessed that he allowed himself a very undiplomatic comment to a reporter last week, wondering aloud "what else they are lying about." Clearly, Wilson has concluded that the time for diplomatic language has passed. It is clear that lies were told. Sad to say, it is equally clear that your vice president led this campaign of deceit. This was no case of petty corruption of the kind that forced Vice President Spiro Agnew's resignation. This was a matter of war and peace. Thousands have died. There is no end in sight. Recommendation #1 We recommend that you call an abrupt halt to attempts to prove Vice President Cheney "not guilty." His role has been so transparent that such attempts will only erode further your own credibility. Equally pernicious, from our perspective, is the likelihood that intelligence analysts will conclude that the way to success is to acquiesce in the cooking of their judgments, since those above them will not be held accountable. We strongly recommend that you ask for Cheney's immediate resignation. The Games Congress Plays The unedifying dance by the various oversight committees of the Congress over recent weeks offers proof, if further proof were needed, that reliance on Congress to investigate in a non-partisan way is pie in the sky. One need only to recall that Sen. Pat Roberts, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has refused to agree to ask the FBI to investigate the known forgery. Despite repeated attempts by others on his committee to get him to bring in the FBI, Roberts has branded such a move "inappropriate," without spelling out why. Rep. Porter Goss, head of the House Intelligence Committee, is a CIA alumnus and a passionate Republican and agency partisan. Goss was largely responsible for the failure of the joint congressional committee on 9/11, which he co-chaired last year. An unusually clear indication of where Goss' loyalties lie can be seen is his admission that after a leak to the press last spring he bowed to Cheney's insistence that the FBI be sent to the Hill to investigate members and staff of the joint committee -- an unprecedented move reflecting blithe disregard for the separation of powers and a blatant attempt at intimidation. (Congress has its own capability to investigate such leaks.) Henry Waxman's recent proposal to create yet another congressional investigatory committee, patterned on the latest commission looking into 9/11, likewise holds little promise. To state the obvious about Congress, politics is the nature of the beast. We have seen enough congressional inquiries into the performance of intelligence to conclude that they are usually as feckless as they are prolonged. And time cannot wait. As you are aware, Gen. Brent Scowcroft performed yeoman's service as National Security Adviser to your father and enjoys very wide respect. There are few, if any, with his breadth of experience with the issues and the institutions involved. In addition, he has avoided blind parroting of the positions of your administration and thus would be seen as relatively nonpartisan, even though serving at your pleasure. It seems a stroke of good luck that he now chairs your President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Recommendation #2 We repeat, with an additional sense of urgency, the recommendation in our last memorandum to you (May 1) that you appoint Gen. Brent Scowcroft, Chair of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board to head up an independent investigation into the use/abuse of intelligence on Iraq. UN Inspectors Your refusal to allow UN inspectors back into Iraq has left the international community befuddled. Worse, it has fed suspicions that the US does not want UN inspectors in country lest they impede efforts to "plant" some "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, should efforts to find them continue to fall short. The conventional wisdom is less conspiratorial but equally unsatisfying. The cognoscenti in Washington think tanks, for example, attribute your attitude to "pique." We find neither the conspiracy nor the "pique" rationale persuasive. As we have admitted before, we are at a loss to explain the barring of UN inspectors. Barring the very people with the international mandate, the unique experience, and the credibility to undertake a serious search for such weapons defies logic. UN inspectors know Iraq, know the weaponry in question, know the Iraqi scientists/engineers who have been involved, know how the necessary materials are procured and processed; in short, have precisely the expertise required. The challenge is as daunting as it is immediate; and, clearly, the US needs all the help it can get. The lead Wall Street Journal article of April 8 had it right: "If the US doesn't make any undisputed discoveries of forbidden weapons, the failure will feed already-widespread skepticism abroad about the motives for going to war." As the events of last week show, that skepticism has now mushroomed here at home as well. Recommendation #3 We recommend that you immediately invite the UN inspectors back into Iraq. This would go a long way toward refurbishing your credibility. Equally important, it would help sort out the lessons learned for the intelligence community and be an invaluable help to an investigation of the kind we have suggested you direct Gen. Scowcroft to lead. If Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity can be of any further help to you in the days ahead, you need only ask. /s/ Ray Close, Princeton, NJ David MacMichael, Linden, VA Raymond McGovern, Arlington, VA Steering Committee Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity ©2003 Veterans for Common Sense Veterans for Common Sense is an organization of Gulf War veterans working to ensure the debate over war considers all necessary issues. ________________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) ============================================================ 5:14:14 PM
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Re: CIA Left Out of the Loop Dear Friends: Lack of communication has been rife between the White House, the State Department, and the CIA. Although the CIA vetoed certain documents as inadequate or unsubstantial for action, the administration continued to override this guidance if it did not support the picture they wanted to present. Such cherry-picking is risky, and has resulted in the shameless dissemination of a country, its economy, and its people. We've now begun to reap the whirlwind. ___________________________ Associated Press July 18, 2003 Analysts Reportedly Missed Faked Documents by John J. Lumpkin WASHINGTON (AP) - Documents alleging Iraq sought uranium from Africa were obtained months before President Bush cited them in making his case for war, but intelligence analysts did not look at them closely enough to know they were forgeries until after Bush had made the claim, U.S. officials say. U.S. officials offered new information Thursday on the trail of the documents, which purported to show Iraq tried to obtain uranium from the African country of Niger for its weapons programs. Their account suggested a disconnect between the CIA and the State Department over the handling of what turned out to be a crucial but faulty piece of intelligence used to make the Bush administration's case for war. Officials acknowledged that had U.S. intelligence analyzed the documents sooner, they could have discovered the forgeries before the information was used as fodder for Bush administration statements vilifying Iraq. The State Department said Thursday it obtained the documents in the fall of 2002, but intelligence officials said the CIA didn't get them until the following February. The State Department said it made them available to other agencies in the government shortly after acquiring them; officials could not explain why the CIA did not get copies of them sooner. The U.S. Embassy in Rome obtained the documents, which purported to show contacts between officials in Iraq and Niger over the transfer of uranium, from a journalist there in October 2002, officials said. They were shown to CIA personnel in Rome and sent to State Department headquarters in Washington. But the CIA's station in Rome did not forward them to CIA headquarters outside Washington, where they would have been analyzed. ``We acquired the documents in October 2002 and they were shared widely within the U.S. government, with all the appropriate agencies,'' said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. Those agencies included the CIA, another U.S. official said. But an intelligence official said the CIA didn't obtain the documents from the State Department until February 2003. The official suggested analyzing the documents was not a top priority at the time because the CIA had already investigated their substance. The CIA only got the documents to respond to a request from the United Nations, the intelligence official said. U.N. officials, trying to run a weapons inspections regime in Iraq, asked for evidence behind the allegation in Bush's Jan. 28 speech that ``the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.'' The CIA provided them to the United Nations. U.N. officials announced in early March the documents were fakes, and the CIA concurred, the intelligence official said. The Italian government, which also obtained a copy of the documents, had passed on their contents - but not their source - to the CIA several months earlier. The CIA had sent a retired diplomat to Africa to investigate but found little to substantiate the claim that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger. Still, the CIA included the claim, with a note that it was unconfirmed, in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, the classified document that summarized information on Iraq's weapons programs. he estimate also noted the U.S. government had other, ``fragmentary'' intelligence suggesting that Iraq sought uranium for its nuclear weapons program in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite the uncertainties, Bush administration officials tried repeatedly to use this information in speeches and statements. The CIA protested several times as the statements were being prepared, but the Niger claim made it into a State Department fact sheet in December, and the more general Africa claim was used in the president's State of the Union address. The controversy over Bush's claim in his address has raised further questions about the administration's assertions that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, a nuclear weapons program, and ties to al-Qaida. None of those assertions, which the administration said were backed up by solid intelligence, have been validated by discoveries in postwar Iraq. --Associated Press writer Harry Dunphy in Washington contributed to this report. © Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ________________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) ======================= 5:02:18 PM
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Re: The Peace From Hell Dear Friends: That the occupation is not going well is apparent to everyone but Donald Rumsfeld. Now is not the time to stand back timidly hoping it will work out well in the end. ________________________ AlterNet July 15, 2003 The Peace from Hell by Molly Ivins, AlterNet July 15, 2003 I opposed the war in Iraq because I thought it would lead to the peace from hell, but I'd rather not see my prediction come true and I don't think we have much time left to avert it. That the occupation is not going well is apparent to everyone but Donald Rumsfeld. If this thing turns into Vietnam simply because that man is too vain and arrogant to admit that Gen. Eric Shinseki was right when he said we would need "several hundred thousand soldiers" over there, I hope Rumsfeld rots in a hell worse than the one he's making. Now is not the time to stand back timidly hoping it will work out well in the end. The population of Baghdad is broiling through the 115-degree summer without electricity or water for much of the time. Given the background poverty and generally hideous conditions, the place is a major riot waiting to happen. As we have known ever since the Kerner Commission Report, all it takes is a couple of bad policing incidents to set one off. It is more than painfully apparent that the Pentagon did somewhere between inadequate to zero planning for the occupation, despite the equally apparent fact that this war was settled on more than a year in advance and then intelligence was bent to support it. Hugh Parmer (formerly of Fort Worth), head of the American Refugee Committee (ARC), was in Iran and Iraq at the beginning of the summer, the first NGO (non-governmental organization) to go in because ARC had privately funded relief supplies. He was fairly shaken by what he found. Among other things, the crack disaster-relief team he had created while he was with USAID under President Clinton was sitting around filing their fingernails because the military was rejecting all advice from civilians in favor of doing it their way. Since the military is in this mess precisely because it is not well-trained at peacekeeping, you'd think it would have enough sense to ask people who've been there and done that. That would include the United Nations and NATO. Parmer was there while Gen. Jay Garner, Rumfeld's choice, was still in charge. Clearly that was a mistake, but Paul Bremer, the current viceroy, also seems to have thin credentials. He is described as a diplomat, but he's actually a counterterrorism expert with business ties to many major corporations. We don't need people with credentials as right-wing ideologues and corporate privatizers -- we need people who know how to fix water and power plants. The late Fred Cuny of Dallas, who was killed in Chechnya, is exactly the kind of person now needed in Baghdad. Cuny was an engineer and a sort of Milo Minderbinder who could find anything, fix anything and finagle anything no matter how disastrous the war zone. He was chiefly famous for his work in Sarajevo during the siege there. He ran a small, private company out of Dallas and always said the only reason he charged for his services was that governments don't listen to advice unless they pay for it. I don't know whose idea it was to cancel municipal elections in Iraq, but it looked awful. We fought the war to bring democracy to Iraq, remember? Anyone there with any sense of public relations? Setting up an "advisory council" in Baghdad isn't going to cut it. Maj. Gen. Carl Strock said Monday electricity and water in Baghdad are still below prewar levels. The New York Times noted, in its Timesly way, "The assessment appeared to run counter to earlier assurances by the Pentagon ..." Rumsfeld, with his usual cocksure breeziness, said on May 15: "A few areas have challenges, to be sure. But most areas are progressing and a growing number actually have conditions that are today estimated to be better than prior to the recent war." What number, from what to what? Out of how many? When is the Washington press corps going to figure out that's precisely the kind of statement by Rumsfeld that needs extensive deconstruction? The New Republic's ruthless dissection of the administration's lies, deceptions and flimflam in its June 30 issue (don't miss it) is a stinging rebuke to the disgraceful level of journalism we are now getting in this country. Have you ever read anything as tortured and ridiculous as Ari Fleischer's non-admission admission that Bush lied about the supposed Iraq-Niger uranium deal? Not even Clinton at his most "depends on what the definition of is is" could top that one. Do look it up. Ol' "Bring 'em on" Bush talks tough and can't even figure out how to find the right stick. © 2003 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved. ________________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) ================================== 5:01:36 PM
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Re: Gag Rule for Soldiers? Dear Friends: Not all the US soldiers that are stationed in Iraq are happy about it. Many feel abandoned and let down. And no, it's not because of our protests against this hellish war, it's because they have been repeatedly told one thing, only to have it change in the blink of an eye. Remember those distasteful "Iraqi playing cards?" The circle has now come full circle, with some disgruntled soldiers creating their own "most wanted lists." The prime suspects are the gang of 4 responsible for US policy in Iraq--Rumsfeld, Bremer, Bush, and Wolfowitz. ______________________ ABC News July 16, 2003 General Unrest New U.S. Commander Upset by Comments From Troops in Iraq The new U.S. war commander today took exception with American soldiers who, angry over extended tours of duty in Iraq, criticized Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in televised interviews on ABCNEWS. "None of us that wear this uniform are free to say anything disparaging about the secretary of defense, or the president of the United States," said Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command. But several of the wives of soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division who talked to ABCNEWS said today that their husbands spoke the truth and they wanted those views heard. "They feel that their mission is completed. They feel that they came, did what they went over there to do. And, I mean, they're done," said Rhonda Vega, whose husband is Sgt. Felipe Vega. Sgt. Vega, in the interview with ABCNEWS' Jeffrey Kofman, said it was not easy to maintain morale in his platoon when the Army keeps changing the orders. "They turn around and slap you in the face," he said. When asked if that's the way it feels, he said, "Yeah, kicked in the guts, slapped in the face." Another soldier who was interviewed, Spc. Clinton Deitz, said he had a message for the defense secretary. "If Donald Rumsfeld was here," he said, "I'd ask him for his resignation." Asked about the comments made to him by the soldiers, Kofman said he did not pre-interview any of them to find soldiers who were critical of the situation in Iraq before they spoke on camera. "They just spoke. I simply asked questions. I was utterly astonished by their candor. They let their guard down and they said what was on their mind," said Kofman, who is reporting from Baghdad. Unfortunate Comments Today, Abizaid said he had seen the interviews and was not happy. "It's very unfortunate that soldiers, professional soldiers, made comments like that," he said in his inaugural briefing at the Pentagon after taking control of Central Command from Gen. Tommy Franks, who retired. "Whatever action may be taken, whether it's a verbal reprimand or something more stringent, is up to the commanders on the scene." Officially, a soldier could be court-martialed for making such comments, although it is rare and is at the discretion of a commanding officer. Abizaid said the United States was still, in effect, at war in Iraq as anti-American fighters are waging a "classical guerrilla-type campaign against us." The general also said U.S. troops may have to stay for yearlong tours to meet the threat. "It's war, however you describe it," Abizaid said. Abizaid did say definitively that the 3rd Infantry Division would be out of Iraq by September. But he also made clear that the current troop strength of 160,000 will be needed for the foreseeable future. "If the situation gets worse, I won't hesitate to ask for more," he said. Anxious for Spouses to Return The delays in getting their spouses home clearly has upset some Army family members at home. "This saying one thing and backing out of it, all it does is breed distrust," said Michelle Brock, wife of a 3rd Infantry soldier based at Fort Stewart in Georgia. "It's going to be really hard to trust anything that the military tells us again." Brock and others had been led to believe that Fort Stewart's soldiers, some of the first into Baghdad and the ones who saw some of the fiercest fighting, would be relieved quickly. "In the beginning, they told us they'd be the first ones back," said Army wife Stacey Gilmore. But Gilmore's husband, Sgt. Terry Gilmore, remains in Iraq almost a year after he was deployed. Sgt. Gilmore was one of the soldiers who spoke to ABCNEWS. Sgt. Gilmore had to call his wife this week to her that he wouldn't be home in a few weeks to see her and their two little children after all. He said he was upset by the repeated delays and the constantly changing orders. "We couldn't figure out why they do it. Why they can keep us over here right after they told us we were coming home," he said. Stacey Gilmore is upset over Abizaid's harsh criticism of her husband and his colleagues. She said her husband's comments spoke volumes because he is not one to complain. "It takes a lot for Terry to get upset and he's been through a lot. He has the right to complain. I think anybody would," she said. But there are wives who are willing to be patient, given the uncertainties in Iraq. "They're doing their jobs and if our government says they have to stay and do the job longer, that's what they have to do," said Army wife Mychelle Ostrow. Abizaid said he understood some of the frustrations. "It's very, very important to all of us to make sure that our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines know when they're coming home," he said. "Every now and then we've got to look at our young people and understand why they said what they said, and then do something about it." ABCNEWS' Martha Raddatz and Erin Hayes contributed to this report. Copyright ABCNEWS ________________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) ============================= 5:01:01 PM
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Re: Attempt to Discredit Whistleblower Dear Friends: Another intelligence analyst has come forward to speak out against the United States' plans to manipulate prewar intelligence in their favor. Australian Andrew Wilkie has been enlisted by the Democrats to help campaign for a full, open inquiry into whether Washington--and, by association, Canberra--manipulated or ignored prewar intelligence on Iraq. Already there have been attempts to discredit him, implying that he is unstable and is having family problems. To this he commented, "It doesn't surprise me. It's understandable that the Government has decided to try to discredit me. I don't like it, but I understand what they are trying to do." _______________________________ The Sydney Morning Herald July 17, 2003 Australian Analyst Joins US Push for Weapons Inquiry by Caroline Overington, Herald Correspondent in Washington The Australian former intelligence analyst Andrew Wilkie has been enlisted by Democrats in the United States to help campaign for a full, open inquiry into whether Washington - and, by association, Canberra - manipulated or ignored prewar intelligence on Iraq. Mr Wilkie, who was invited to Washington DC by one of the nine Democratic candidates for president, said there was "no doubt that [George] Bush, [John] Howard and [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair exaggerated the threat from Iraq, to justify a war." But he said the truth was being kept from the public, because inquiries into the matter were being held in secret or, in the case of a British inquiry last month, "they are just a whitewash". "I don't hold much hope for the Australian inquiry, behind closed doors," he said. "I wait to see what the US inquiry can do." Mr Wilkie, who resigned from the Office of National Assessments (ONA) in protest over the war on Iraq in March, has not been invited to testify at US hearings into the use of prewar intelligence. "I'm not surprised," he said. "I was probably invited to the British inquiry [only] in their hope to discredit me. These inquiries really don't want to hear what I have to say because I'm threatening to spoil their war." Mr Wilkie said the Howard Government had tried to discredit him by saying that his job with ONA did not include studying the prewar intelligence on Iraq, and that "I'm mentally unstable, that I'm having family problems". "It's been hard," he said, of his campaign against governments that supported the war. "The Government has taken a number of opportunities to say I wasn't involved in the Iraq issue. They sent a detailed submission to Britain, and the first 10 minutes [of his testimony there] was them going through this submission, trying to discredit me. It's also had some ugly dimensions. "It doesn't surprise me. It's understandable that the Government has decided to try to discredit me. I don't like it, but I understand what they are trying to do." Mr Wilkie's appearance in Washington on Tuesday was one of a series of events organised by Democrats, who have been emboldened in their campaign against the Bush Administration by the continuing attacks on US soldiers in Iraq, and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction or Saddam Hussein. Senator Ted Kennedy told an audience at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies that the Bush Administration's handling of prewar intelligence was a "disgrace". "The case for war seems to have been based on shoddy intelligence, hyped intelligence, and even false intelligence," he said. "They put a spin on the intelligence and a spin on the truth." Mr Wilkie's host, Dennis Kucinich, a 2004 presidential hopeful, said the apparent manipulation of prewar intelligence was "profoundly embarrassing to this nation". Mr Wilkie criticised Mr Howard for saying that Australians had "moved on" and were no longer interested in the arguments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. "I find statements like that incredibly arrogant," he said. Copyright © 2003. The Sydney Morning Herald. ________________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) ============================================================ 5:00:31 PM
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Re: A Call for Impeachment Dear Friends: Several years ago, Bill Clinton was charged with lying under oath and betraying the public trust. In the end, the attempt to convict and remove Mr. Clinton from office failed. Today we have a person occupying the office of president who has consistently betrayed the public trust, abused the power of his office, and contributed to the mental stress, anguish, and death of thousands of innocent people. And yet, there has been no serious attempt to impeach Bush. The mere electing of another to fill this office will not excuse the damage that has been done. The seriousness of what has been done cannot be glossed over; Americans, and the world, must not forget what can happen when a country abdicates its will and judgment to another. The move to impeach is the first step towards regaining our moral compass. _______________________ Tom Paine July 4, 2003 Published July 15, 2003 Turning Back Progress by Thomas Paine Cronin This address was given at a July 4th demonstration near Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Thomas Paine Cronin is president of AFSCME (American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees) in Philadelphia, District Council 47. A few years ago, the president of the United States got caught having an affair with a White House intern. The media were all over the story. You couldn't open a newspaper or turn on the TV without seeing Monica Lewinsky. Monica Lewinsky recently said that even she was sick of seeing Monica Lewinsky. So the House of Representatives voted to impeach. The charge: lying under oath, also called perjury. In the end, the attempt to convict and remove Mr. Clinton from office failed, because if indiscretion were an impeachable offense, there wouldn't be many legislators left in the hallowed halls of Congress. Today, we have a president who is, in effect, squatting in the White House. That is, illegally occupying it. His opponent in the election got a half million more votes than he did. He seized power by using the state government of Florida, commanded by his brother, and the Supreme Court, several members of which were appointed by his father. This same president has dragged this country into war so far with two other nations. I believe this president directed the Armed Forces to attack Iraq knowing that there were no weapons of mass destruction there and that Iraq had nothing to do with the September 11th attacks. This president is still lying about that and many other things. This president's biggest corporate campaign contributor was Enron. And yet the media passes over all this in silence. And no one, in the press or Congress, utters the word: impeachment. In the three years since he seized power, Mr. Bush has done many things, two of which are of particular concern. First, he's created a foreign policy based on endless, and now pre-emptive, war. Terror is the rationale and the means to intimidate. We now live in a world of yellow alerts, orange alerts, bridge and subway closings, attack rehearsals, the airport shakedowns, the national equivalent of weekly panic attacks, where library records can be investigated and non-citizens arrested and held indefinitely without charge. And guess what? It costs money. The Homeland Security department has a $35 billion budget. We've paid $80 billion for the Iraq debacle so far. The second thing Mr. Bush has done is ram his tax cuts through Congress. Under Bush, every day is Christmas, if you're wealthy in America. That's who gets the money back. Bush says his tax cuts are about stimulating the economy. If you believe that, I have some weapons of mass destruction I'd like to sell you. Under Bush, every day is Christmas, if you're wealthy in America. And now that the rich are several hundred billion dollars richer, the results speak for themselves: economic growth, flat. Unemployment, 6.4 percent: the highest it's been in nine years. And don't spend your hundred dollar tax refund too soon. State governments are $75 billion in the red, at least, and forced to cut costs any way they can, meaning they'll have no choice but to raise property and other taxes to make up for revenue shortfalls. Mr. Bush is a man with a mission, and the mission is to return this country to a time when privilege went unchallenged, when wealth was untaxed, business unrestricted, and the workforce unorganized, those halcyon days before Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the EPA, OSHA, Head Start, all the programs government uses to ameliorate poverty and regulate powerful interests. In other words, Bush wants to go back to the days before social justice. He knows he can't openly eliminate programs like Medicare and Social Security, so he uses war and terror to run up huge deficits, deficits intended to make these programs unaffordable and unsustainable. The majority of people in this country who are too old to work rely on Social Security. Imagine a future without it. Imagine a future without Medicare. Imagine millions living in the street, or thrown back on the charity of relatives. Imagine a president, who, steeped in arrogance, bungles and blunders his way into nuclear war. It's time we stopped allowing ourselves to be intimidated by the Ashcrofts and the Rush Limbaughs out there. It's time we blew the dust off the Constitution. It's going to take millions of marching feet -- marching in the street and, next year, to the polls -- to put Mr. Bush and his dog-eat-dog vision of America where they belong. In the dog house. This is Thomas Paine Cronin for TomPaine.com. --Sharon Basco produced this piece. ________________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) =================================== 4:59:06 PM
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Dear Friends: With great respect, we publish the obituary of Dr. David Kelly. May his next lifetime be a kinder and gentler one for him. __________________________ The Guardian July 19, 2003 Obituary by Nigel Fountain and Sarah A Smith Obituary David Kelly Biological weapons expert with a reputation for thoroughness Before this year's Iraq war, the microbiologist David Kelly, who has died aged 59, would recall that, with Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the pattern of his life for the ensuing decade had been set. Ironically, his spectacularly professional work in Iraq in the 1990s, was to suck him towards a media and political quagmire. Kelly was the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific officer and senior adviser to the proliferation and arms control secretariat, and to the Foreign Office's non-proliferation department. The senior adviser on biological weapons to the UN biological weapons inspections teams (Unscom) from 1994 to 1999, he was also, in the opinion of his peers, pre-eminent in his field, not only in this country, but in the world. After the eviction of the Iraqis from Kuwait in 1991, the UN invited Kelly to join Unscom to force Saddam into compliance with the peace agreements. Kelly made 36 visits to Iraq, and, from New York, continued his work into the late 1990s. What made him the obvious candidate for such work was his earlier, and continuing, experience in Russia. In autumn 1989, he had been called in to assist MI6 in debriefing Vladimir Pasechnik, a leading Soviet biochemist and defector. Eighteen months later, armed with Pasechnik's evidence of a gross violation of the 1972 biological weapons convention, Kelly co-led the US/British delegation to inspect suspect Russian sites. His sympathetic manner was an asset: at Vektor laboratories in Novosibirsk, Siberia, a researcher mentioned that the lab was studying the smallpox virus - in contravention of WHO regulations and the biological weapons convention. This was a major discovery, which revealed the seriousness of the Soviet undertaking. Later, he was an observer on the reciprocal trip the Russians made to the US. More revelations were to come when Kelly co-led the team sent to examine Russian production and weapons-filling capabilities in October 1993, the first time the west had been granted such access. Evidence suggested the potential to grow smallpox in massive quantities, and pointed to a continuation of an offensive capacity under Boris Yeltsin's supposedly more friendly, post-Soviet regime. A second visit led by Kelly in January 1994 discovered that Russian work was dormant, rather than halted. The son of an RAF officer and school teacher, Kelly was born in the Rhondda Valley, but raised in Tunbridge Wells. His early interests were in agriculture - and in Oxford, he was an expert on biological pesticides. In 1984, he was appointed head of microbiology at the chemical and biological defence establishment, Porton Down. Thus would academics introduce doctoral students to a man who was endlessly accommodating. He was also, as colleagues emphasise, a scientist who, completely straight and honest, knew the laboratory bench work, but, unlike a lot of his fellows, went beyond it. His virtues included a willingness to share his expertise - though not his secrets - within that world where non-governmental organisations, academia and public and private institutions met. He is survived by his wife Janice and three daughters. Professor Alastair Hay writes: As an environmental toxologist, I have covered chemical and biological warfare issues since the 1970s and met David Kelly at many conferences; notably the Pugwash gatherings, which brought together scientists from many countries to talk issues through as professionals, not bound by national or political rivalries. Pugwash, and those other meetings, simply relied on people like David. There is no Pugwash party line, it is simply a place where expertise is paramount. Meetings aside, when I needed to talk to somebody on a key issue of the moment - like the anthrax-in-the-post scare following 9/11 - David was there. There was no other person I would have gone to as such a source of unvarnished truth - and of such funny asides. The two key areas where his insights were invaluable were around the biological weapons inspections in Russia in the 1980s, and in Iraq in the 1990s, where, in both cases, he had an central role. He would have absolutely ensured that the weapons, and the weapons material, were dismantled. The complete professional, he had such an eye for detail that nothing got past him. Such talents served him less well when sucked into the controversies of the last few months. I dread to think of the pressures he must have been under within the MoD. To see him on television, before that parliamentary committee, almost inaudible, was to see him involved in a quite different process, over which he did not have control. A week ago, I spent 40 minutes trying to get through to him at the MoD, to wish him well; they would not put me through to any of his numbers. After I finally got through by email, telling him to take care, he replied that he wanted to get back to Baghdad, and some real work. --David Christopher Kelly, microbiologist, born May 17 1944; died July 18 2003 Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003 ________________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) ============================================================ 4:58:28 PM
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Re: A Moment of Silence for Dr. Kelly Dear Friends: The tragedy of Dr. David Kelly should not be taken lightly. We ask that you take a moment of silence in his honor. Dr. Kelly, a Defense Ministry adviser on Iraqi arms, had recently been named as the possible "mole" for a BBC report claiming that the government had "sexed" up its reports about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction to make a more convincing case for military action. Clearly overwhelmed by the harshness of the inquiry and by being thrust unwillingly into the glaring spotlight, he look his life. For more on this story, please see "Another Tragedy of the War," from the July 19, 2003 issue of the War and Peace Watch newsletter. _________________________ The Guardian July 19, 2003 The Vendetta's Victim Crisis for the Blair government by Michael White, Richard Norton-Taylor, Steven Morris and Matt Wells Tony Blair's government was last night shaken to its foundations by the apparent suicide of Dr David Kelly, the backroom Whitehall scientist caught in the lethal crossfire over weapons of mass destruction between Downing Street and the BBC. Though No 10 moved quickly to concede a judicial inquiry, chaired by Lord Hutton, into the official handling of Dr Kelly during the last week of his life, the latest tragedy arising from the Iraq war looked set to cast an ever-longer shadow over Mr Blair's already troubled second administration. The prime minister's Boeing 777 was high over the Pacific en route to Tokyo from his triumphant address to a joint session of Congress in Washington when news emerged at breakfast time of Dr Kelly's disappearance from his Oxfordshire home. The timing evoked Greek tragedy: triumph followed by disaster. Within hours a body, still officially unidentified, was found shortly before Mr Blair's flight landed in the Japanese capital on what was meant to be routine trade and political business. Alastair Campbell, the No 10 communications director, who is the main target of opposition and media attacks, had earlier flown home from the US and was busy last night organising the government's defence. Mr Campbell has no intention of resigning over the tragedy. And some senior and well-informed backbench MPs believe that the report of the intelligence and security committee (ISC), expected in September around the same time as Lord Hutton's narrower investigation is published, will exonerate him from the BBC-promulgated charge of "sexing up" the key Iraq intelligence dossier. Far from home, on the kind of week-long foreign trip which many voters mistrust, Mr Blair was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, his "history will forgive us" claim for the invasion of Iraq instantly overshadowed by the body discovered on Harrowdown Hill, near Abingdon. The muted reaction to the tragedy of politicians on all sides is unlikely to last and there was immediate criticism of the way No 10 and the Ministry of Defence had, in the view of some MPs, allowed Dr Kelly to become the "fall guy" in the affair. A Labour MP, Donald Anderson, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee (FAC), was also forced to defend his panel's conduct, despite concluding that Dr Kelly was "most unlikely" to be the BBC's mole and complaining in writing to Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, that the contract scientist had been "poorly treated by the government" since voluntarily admitting an "unauthorised" media contact. The FAC interrogated the soft-spoken Dr Kelly on Tuesday, six days after he was outed as Whitehall's most likely source for the BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan. It was a rough session. Next day he endured a gentler grilling by the more senior intelligence and security committee of MPs and peers, who extracted "nothing new" from him. Amid genuine distress expressed by Mr Blair and echoed by Iain Duncan Smith and Charles Kennedy, some MPs backed complaints that Dr Kelly was unfairly roughed up - a complaint Gilligan also made on his own behalf after a second FAC grilling on Thursday. The FAC has already reported, though it has belatedly concluded Mr Gilligan is an "unsatisfactory witness". The reporter is unlikely to face ISC interrogation, though the committee will see transcripts of his and Dr Kelly's private testimony. So will Lord Hutton if he so wishes. A key question facing the judicial inquiry is the pressure put on Dr Kelly by the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, in the attempt to flush out the BBC's source. Mr Hoon is potentially as much in the frame as Mr Campbell. He and his senior officials will be crucial witnesses at the inquiry. Crucial to the inquiry will be the circumstances surrounding Dr Kelly's admission to senior MoD officials that he might have been a source for Gilligan's claim that No 10 had inserted, against intelligence advice, the claim that Iraq could ready its banned weapons in 45 minutes. The MoD says Dr Kelly volunteered that he had met Gilligan after reading the reporter's evidence to the FAC, as he later told MPs himself. Five days later, the MoD issued a carefully worded statement, agreed with Dr Kelly but drafted in a way that made it relatively easy for him to be identified. Mr Hoon, like Mr Campbell, was convinced Dr Kelly was the BBC's source and relentlessly pursued the corporation in an effort to expose him. The corporation defied calls to confirm or deny that claim, insisting on protecting its source. Both sides dug in, leaving Dr Kelly in no-man's-land. No 10 is adamant that it played no part in the process, but confirms he was warned that his agreed anonymity might not last. He was even offered secure accommodation and faced no disciplinary action other than a mild reprimand, officials said last night. Dr Kelly left home, a three-storey 18th-century farmhouse in the south Oxfordshire village of Southmoor, at around 3pm on Thursday. When he failed to return after a few hours, friends and neighbours began to hunt for him. They called the police at 11.45pm. The force helicopter was scrambled and sniffer dogs were brought in. By morning more than 70 officers were involved and a body was found at about 9.30am in a wood on Harrowdown Hill, about two miles from Dr Kelly's home. Though the body will not be formally identified until today, police are certain it is that of Dr Kelly. Clothes on the body matched those the scientist had been wearing. The manner of his death remained unknown last night but it is understood investigators quickly ruled out natural causes. Suggestions that Dr Kelly, a father of three daughters, suffered shotgun injuries or that a rope was found at the scene were discounted by police sources. No suicide note has been found at the scene or at Dr Kelly's home. Police sources said the family did not report the disappearance more quickly because they were so sure that, despite the pressure he was under, he would not be driven to take his own life. However, when Dr Kelly's wife, Janice, spoke to a close friend of her husband's, the television journalist and author Tom Mangold, before the body was found she conceded that her husband had been furious at how he had been treated over the last two weeks. Mangold said: "She said he was very stressed and unhappy about what had happened. This was really not the kind of world he wanted to live in." She told Mangold her husband had felt physically sick after he left the foreign affairs committee. The BBC was reeling from the news, appearing unsure how to react. It put out a short statement, which said: "We are shocked and saddened to hear what has happened and we extend our deepest sympathies to Dr Kelly's family and friends." Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003 ________________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) ============================================================ 4:57:38 PM
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Re: More Cultural Vulgarity From Bush Dear Friends: In its latest insult to Iraq and the Middle East, the Bush administration has begun publishing and propagating a glossy new magazine dedicated to teaching Middle Eastern youth to love America. How can these youths even bear to utter America's name after what we've done to their countries? We've insulted their culture, rounded up their people living in America and called them terrorists, and had the audacity to send missionaries to "save" those who choose to profess the Muslim faith. The magazine even has a feature on life in American universities, containing interviews with Arab students "enjoying the freedom of thought" in the US. I wonder if this publication will ever discuss Kent State and what happened there while students enjoyed this "freedom of thought?" One would hope that the targeted market is more savvy towards the ways of Bush and his cronies than are most Americans seem to be. ________________________ The Independent July 18, 2003 Bush Launches Magazine to Teach Young Arabs to Love America by Andrew Buncombe in Washington So what if George Bush is threatening to invade your country? At least the kids in America have nice, white teeth and listen to the same music as you. Isn't that enough for you to love the good 'ol US of A? That, at least, appears to be the message of a glossy new magazine published by the Bush administration and going on sale across the Middle East this week, targeting young people with a mix of features, celebrity profiles and music. The Arabic-language Hi magazine is US propaganda 2003-style. "We're fighting a war of ideas as much as a war on terror," said Tucker Eskew, director of the White House's Office of Global Communications. Hi, a monthly, will be available for the equivalent of around $2 (£1.25) in Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, Algeria, Egypt, Cyprus and several Gulf states. Saudi Arabia - home to 15 of the 19 hijackers on 11 September and where drug dealers are publicly beheaded - has not yet been deemed ready to get Hi. The first issue of the magazine, published by the State Department, contains features on the jazz musician Norah Jones, sandboarding, an apparent resurgence of interest in Arabic poetry in the US, and yoga. There is also a section on relationships entitled "Making Marriage Work". A feature on life in American universities has interviews with Arab students "enjoying the freedom of thought" in the US. The administration claims the magazine is designed to show a positive image of America and highlight the similarities between young people in the US and the Middle East. The articles have been written by Arab Americans in Washington and stringers in the Middle East. "There is an editorial board which reviews all the articles," said a State Department spokeswoman. While it has an annual budget of $4.2m (£2.6m), the magazine is just part of a broader media attack on the Middle East. In a speech to the Southern Centre for International Studies in Atlanta this week, Mr Eskew cited plans to spend $62m developing an Arabic language television network. Not everyone is convinced the magazine and the network will succeed. Rani al-Hajjar, an Atlanta student and co-ordinator for Palestinian Media Watch, said: "I think if it's coming from a cultural superiority complex, saying that we are infallible and saying that our policies are best, then I think it is liable to fail." © 2001 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd ________________________________ In peace, Otoño ________________________________ Read all about it and get the news that matters by receiving the War and Peace Watch. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Reikiworks@compuserve.com Thank you for your support, The War and Peace Watch publisher. contact: Otoño Johnston ============================================================ (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment for research and educational purposes only.) ============================================================ 4:56:45 PM
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Tuesday, July 08, 2003 |
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Re: Gore Vidal Interview With Democracy Now! Dear Friends: I'll be travelling on business through next Tuesday the 15th, and will not be publishing the newsletter during that time. So here' s a treat for you, in my absence. Should you choose a more leisurely read, you can visit The War and Peace Watch web site at warandpeacewatch.com and go to the "Newsletter section." See you next week - Otoño Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, recently interviewed Gore Vidal, during which they spoke about September 11, the 2000 Election, and the War on Iraq. Gore Vidal is one of America's most prolific and best-known writers, and has written more than 22 books and more than 200 essays. Vidal is the author most recently of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace and Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Bush-Cheney Junta. Writing in the Scotsman, critic Gavin Esler called Perpetual War "the finest serious critique of America's use and abuse of power in the 21st century that I have read." __________________________________ Democracy Now! May 13, 2003 Gore Vidal on the "United States of Amnesia," 9/11, the 2000 Election and the War in Iraq An Interview with Gore Vidal by Amy Goodman Gore Vidal is one of America's most prolific and best-known writers. He has written more than 22 books and more than 200 essays -- a collection of his essays won the National Book Award in 1993. Vidal is the author most recently of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peac |