Rove-gate: America, you've been "Punked"!
Rovegate...
Retired CIA officer Larry Johnson has written one of those rare editorials so packed with information, where when you try to excerpt the 3 or 4 most vital words, phrases, or sentences, you end up lifting whole paragraphs!
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051019/dick_cheneys_covert_action.php
Because the "major media", and especially the hard-copy "news content leaders" (i.e. the Washington Post and New York Times) have ABROGATED their responsibility to advise the public and provide vital information necessary for an informed public to demand accountability from its elected officials, we must instead get our "HARD INFORMATION" from editorial sources such as this. Fortunately, the flood-gates of free and open discourse are opening, and excellent editorial and policy articles such as this example by Mr. Johnson are appearing everywhere, not just on the internet(s), but slowly filtering back to the "hard copy" print media (i.e. newspapers and magazines, which have always had the space to cover a story in more detail and depth than a 2-minute, 5 minute, or even one-hour media broadcast show).
Here is my attempt to edit and amplify the key phrases from Mr. Johnson's article.
The basic premise is nothing short of stunning: that in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, where the Bush White House PURPOSELY (or incompetently) IGNORED a CIA briefing entitled "bin Laden DETERMINED TO ATTACK IN AMERICA," the White House repeated its 9-11 failure, by refusing to heed new CIA warnings that the Intel used to justify American's war of choice against Iraq was "FABRICATED" and FRAUDULENT."
Regarding the 9-11 attacks, the White House did not so much as put out a single "Traveller's Alert" or "General Airline Advisory." This in and of itself was a criminal failure, and gross case of dereliction of duty, because as we now know, such alerts and advisories are temporary in nature, and after an initial cost (of travel delays and security inspections), there is no lasting damage from such a security alert should nothing come of it. While REPEATED security alerts may lead to a "boy who cried wolf" syndrome, in the summer of 2001, the Bush administration, White House, and senior levels of government REFUSED to so much as put out ONE SINGLE hijacking or terrorist alert or advisory. A SINGLE SUCH ALERT would have made the hijacker's execution of their murderous plot much more difficult: in November or December of 2001, the MILLENIUM BOMB PLOT (to bomb Los Angeles airport) was thwarted when a SINGLE lone customs official at a remote Canadian border post insisted on a more thorough search of a suspect's auto. Regarding the 9-11 hijackers, there are even rumors that an American celebrity was so concerned to be aboard a "PRACTICE flight" by the hijackers, that when the plane landed (and up to three potential hijack suspects disembarked from scattered seats in the first-class section of a cross-country flight), he went to authorities and complained, and his warnings were ignored or buried under a mountain of files.
_____________________________________
America has been victimized, our citizens have been "Punked" by a CIA-style "COVERT ACTION Campaign" - usually synonymous with a military coup sponsored by the CIA against an overseas government - but in this case a classic DISINFORMATON CAMPAIGN conducted by the Cheney-Bush White House, AGAINST THE ADVICE and protests of both mid-level AND SENIOR CIA authorities.
<< The agency TRIED TO REJECT 'BOGUS INTEL REPORTS' and 'FABRICATED DOCUMENTS' [alleging Iraq WMD efforts], BUT Bush Admin SENIOR OFFICIALS * IGNORED the INTEL Community" * and * "PERSISTED IN TRYING TO MAKE THE FRAUDULENT CASE' against Iraq. * >>
<<
Yet the Bush administration ignored the intelligence community on these questions, and SENIOR POLICYMAKERS—like VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY—PERSISTED IN TRYING TO MAKE THE **FRAUDULENT** CASE.
>>
<<
We learned last May that in the summer of 2002, the Bush administration told our British allies that they would "fix the facts" around the intelligence. In other words, the United States SOUGHT TO MANUFACTURE A CASE that Iraq was trying to build a nuclear capability. Note, not only did BOGUS intelligence REPORTS and FABRICATED DOCUMENTS surface, but SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS—Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Cheney—WENT TO GREAT LENGTHS to try to convince Americans that the United States would soon face the wrath of Iraqi attacks. Remember the smoking mushroom cloud?
Despite repeated attempts by the Italian intelligence service to help us cook the books, the senior CIA intelligence analysts resisted the administration’s effort to sell the bogus notion that Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Niger. Even in the much-maligned October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, the entire intelligence community remained split on the reliability of the Iraq/Niger claim. During briefings subsequent to the publication of the NIE, ** SENIOR CIA officials REPEATEDLY DEBUNKED THE CLAIM that Iraq was trying to buy uranium. They also dismissed as unreliable reports from Great Britain, which also were derived from the faulty Italian intelligence reports.
It is now clear that Italy’s intelligence service, SISME, had a hand in producing the FORGED DOCUMENTS delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Rome in early October 2003 that purported to show a deal with Niger to buy uranium. Many in the intelligence community are convinced that a PROMINENT NEOCON with longstanding ties to SISME played a role in the forgery. The truth of that proposition remains to be proven. This much is certain: Either SISME or someone with ties to SISME helped forge and circulate those documents, which some tried to use to bolster the case to go to war with Iraq.
Although some in the intelligence community, specifically analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Energy, believed the report, ** THE INTEL COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE DID **NOT** PUT MUCH STOCK IN THE REPORTS and FORGED DOCUMENTS, and REPEATEDLY TOLD POLICY MAKERS that these reports were NOT reliable. **
Yet the Bush administration ignored the intelligence community on these questions, and SENIOR POLICYMAKERS—like VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY—PERSISTED IN TRYING TO MAKE THE **fraudulent** CASE.
>>
<< Two weeks before President Bush spoke the infamous 16 words in the January 2003 State of the Union speech, the Department of Defense was fanning the flames about Iraq’s alleged Nigerien uranium shopping trip. Starting in late 2001, senior Department of Defense officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Doug Feith, provided favored military talking heads with talking points and briefings to reinforce messages the administration wanted the public to remember.
One of those who frequently attended these affairs, Robert Maginnis, a former Army officer and now a commentator for Fox News and the Washington Times , published an op-ed on January 15, 2003, for United Press International, subsequent to one of the briefings. In writing about the case for attacking Iraq, Maginnis affirmed that Saddam, “failed to explain why Iraq manufactures fuels suited only for a class of missile that it does not admit to having and why it sought to procure uranium from the African nation of Niger.”
Notwithstanding repeated efforts by intelligence analysts to downplay these intelligence reports as unreliable, DOD officials fanned the flames. This, my friends, is one example of “cooking intelligence.” These facts further expose as farce the Bush administration’s effort to blame the CIA for the misadventure in Iraq. We did not go to war in Iraq primarily because of bad intelligence and bad analysis by the CIA. The Bush administration started a war of choice.
>>
Return to: Opinions
Dick Cheney's Covert Action
Larry C. Johnson
October 19, 2005
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051019/dick_cheneys_covert_action.php
Larry Johnson worked as a CIA intelligence analyst and State Department counter-terrorism official. He is a member of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Face it, America. You’ve been punk'd.
Retired CIA officer Larry Johnson has written one of those rare editorials so packed with information, where when you try to excerpt the 3 or 4 most vital words, phrases, or sentences, you end up lifting whole paragraphs!
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051019/dick_cheneys_covert_action.php
Because the "major media", and especially the hard-copy "news content leaders" (i.e. the Washington Post and New York Times) have ABROGATED their responsibility to advise the public and provide vital information necessary for an informed public to demand accountability from its elected officials, we must instead get our "HARD INFORMATION" from editorial sources such as this. Fortunately, the flood-gates of free and open discourse are opening, and excellent editorial and policy articles such as this example by Mr. Johnson are appearing everywhere, not just on the internet(s), but slowly filtering back to the "hard copy" print media (i.e. newspapers and magazines, which have always had the space to cover a story in more detail and depth than a 2-minute, 5 minute, or even one-hour media broadcast show).
Here is my attempt to edit and amplify the key phrases from Mr. Johnson's article.
The basic premise is nothing short of stunning: that in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, where the Bush White House PURPOSELY (or incompetently) IGNORED a CIA briefing entitled "bin Laden DETERMINED TO ATTACK IN AMERICA," the White House repeated its 9-11 failure, by refusing to heed new CIA warnings that the Intel used to justify American's war of choice against Iraq was "FABRICATED" and FRAUDULENT."
Regarding the 9-11 attacks, the White House did not so much as put out a single "Traveller's Alert" or "General Airline Advisory." This in and of itself was a criminal failure, and gross case of dereliction of duty, because as we now know, such alerts and advisories are temporary in nature, and after an initial cost (of travel delays and security inspections), there is no lasting damage from such a security alert should nothing come of it. While REPEATED security alerts may lead to a "boy who cried wolf" syndrome, in the summer of 2001, the Bush administration, White House, and senior levels of government REFUSED to so much as put out ONE SINGLE hijacking or terrorist alert or advisory. A SINGLE SUCH ALERT would have made the hijacker's execution of their murderous plot much more difficult: in November or December of 2001, the MILLENIUM BOMB PLOT (to bomb Los Angeles airport) was thwarted when a SINGLE lone customs official at a remote Canadian border post insisted on a more thorough search of a suspect's auto. Regarding the 9-11 hijackers, there are even rumors that an American celebrity was so concerned to be aboard a "PRACTICE flight" by the hijackers, that when the plane landed (and up to three potential hijack suspects disembarked from scattered seats in the first-class section of a cross-country flight), he went to authorities and complained, and his warnings were ignored or buried under a mountain of files.
_____________________________________
America has been victimized, our citizens have been "Punked" by a CIA-style "COVERT ACTION Campaign" - usually synonymous with a military coup sponsored by the CIA against an overseas government - but in this case a classic DISINFORMATON CAMPAIGN conducted by the Cheney-Bush White House, AGAINST THE ADVICE and protests of both mid-level AND SENIOR CIA authorities.
<< The agency TRIED TO REJECT 'BOGUS INTEL REPORTS' and 'FABRICATED DOCUMENTS' [alleging Iraq WMD efforts], BUT Bush Admin SENIOR OFFICIALS * IGNORED the INTEL Community" * and * "PERSISTED IN TRYING TO MAKE THE FRAUDULENT CASE' against Iraq. * >>
<<
Yet the Bush administration ignored the intelligence community on these questions, and SENIOR POLICYMAKERS—like VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY—PERSISTED IN TRYING TO MAKE THE **FRAUDULENT** CASE.
>>
<<
We learned last May that in the summer of 2002, the Bush administration told our British allies that they would "fix the facts" around the intelligence. In other words, the United States SOUGHT TO MANUFACTURE A CASE that Iraq was trying to build a nuclear capability. Note, not only did BOGUS intelligence REPORTS and FABRICATED DOCUMENTS surface, but SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS—Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Cheney—WENT TO GREAT LENGTHS to try to convince Americans that the United States would soon face the wrath of Iraqi attacks. Remember the smoking mushroom cloud?
Despite repeated attempts by the Italian intelligence service to help us cook the books, the senior CIA intelligence analysts resisted the administration’s effort to sell the bogus notion that Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Niger. Even in the much-maligned October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, the entire intelligence community remained split on the reliability of the Iraq/Niger claim. During briefings subsequent to the publication of the NIE, ** SENIOR CIA officials REPEATEDLY DEBUNKED THE CLAIM that Iraq was trying to buy uranium. They also dismissed as unreliable reports from Great Britain, which also were derived from the faulty Italian intelligence reports.
It is now clear that Italy’s intelligence service, SISME, had a hand in producing the FORGED DOCUMENTS delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Rome in early October 2003 that purported to show a deal with Niger to buy uranium. Many in the intelligence community are convinced that a PROMINENT NEOCON with longstanding ties to SISME played a role in the forgery. The truth of that proposition remains to be proven. This much is certain: Either SISME or someone with ties to SISME helped forge and circulate those documents, which some tried to use to bolster the case to go to war with Iraq.
Although some in the intelligence community, specifically analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Energy, believed the report, ** THE INTEL COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE DID **NOT** PUT MUCH STOCK IN THE REPORTS and FORGED DOCUMENTS, and REPEATEDLY TOLD POLICY MAKERS that these reports were NOT reliable. **
Yet the Bush administration ignored the intelligence community on these questions, and SENIOR POLICYMAKERS—like VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY—PERSISTED IN TRYING TO MAKE THE **fraudulent** CASE.
>>
<< Two weeks before President Bush spoke the infamous 16 words in the January 2003 State of the Union speech, the Department of Defense was fanning the flames about Iraq’s alleged Nigerien uranium shopping trip. Starting in late 2001, senior Department of Defense officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Doug Feith, provided favored military talking heads with talking points and briefings to reinforce messages the administration wanted the public to remember.
One of those who frequently attended these affairs, Robert Maginnis, a former Army officer and now a commentator for Fox News and the Washington Times , published an op-ed on January 15, 2003, for United Press International, subsequent to one of the briefings. In writing about the case for attacking Iraq, Maginnis affirmed that Saddam, “failed to explain why Iraq manufactures fuels suited only for a class of missile that it does not admit to having and why it sought to procure uranium from the African nation of Niger.”
Notwithstanding repeated efforts by intelligence analysts to downplay these intelligence reports as unreliable, DOD officials fanned the flames. This, my friends, is one example of “cooking intelligence.” These facts further expose as farce the Bush administration’s effort to blame the CIA for the misadventure in Iraq. We did not go to war in Iraq primarily because of bad intelligence and bad analysis by the CIA. The Bush administration started a war of choice.
>>
Return to: Opinions
Dick Cheney's Covert Action
Larry C. Johnson
October 19, 2005
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051019/dick_cheneys_covert_action.php
Larry Johnson worked as a CIA intelligence analyst and State Department counter-terrorism official. He is a member of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Face it, America. You’ve been punk'd.
posted by verifi at 8:58 AM
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