Fury over Pentagon cell that briefed on Iraq's 'imaginary' al-Qaeda links

[muriel_volestrangler]

Full title: Fury over Pentagon cell that briefed White House on Iraq's 'imaginary' al-Qaeda links

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/11/wsept11.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/11/ixnewstop.html

According to dramatic testimony contained in the annexe, Mr Feith's cell undermined the credibility of CIA judgments on Iraq's alleged al-Qa'eda links within the highest levels of the Bush administration.

The cell appears to have been set up by Mr Feith as an adjunct to the Office of Special Plans, a Pentagon intelligence-gathering operation established in the wake of 9/11 with the authority of Paul Wolfowitz. Its focus quickly became the al-Qa'eda-Saddam link.

On occasion, without informing the then head of the CIA, George Tenet, the group gave counter-briefings in the White House. Sen Jay Rockefeller, the most senior Democrat on the committee, said that Mr Feith's cell may even have undertaken "unlawful" intelligence-gathering initiatives.
...
After the publication in June 2002 of a cautious report by the CIA entitled Iraq and al-Qa'eda: A Murky Relationship, Mr Feith passed on a written verdict to the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, that the report should be read "for content only - and CIA's interpretation should be ignored".

Is this annexe, written by Democratic senators, publicly available anywhere?

[NMDemDist2]

1. once again we have to go overseas to get the truth from the news n/t

[Nlighten1]

3. Have you seen the documentary "Tell the truth and run"?

It has been playing on Free Speech TV the last couple of weeks. The problem of a "free" press has been around for a loooong time. And it isn't getting better.

[NMDemDist2]

10. i caught the last 20 minutes last night, I'll set up my PVR to

record the whole thing

doncha just love FSTV??

www.freespeech.org

[Nlighten1]

30. Yes.

FSTV is the best thing around.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. The LA Times has something on this too

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-na-intel11jul11,1,7340348.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Another key front for investigators is the role of an analytic unit set up at the Pentagon by Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary of Defense for policy. Feith has defended the work of the unit, saying it was intended to help policymakers better understand state sponsorship of terrorist groups. But in supplementary documents attached to last week's Senate report, Democrats portrayed it as an effort to undermine the CIA.
...
Rockefeller on Friday questioned whether Feith's office was involved in illegal intelligence activities. Rockefeller said the committee was examining Feith's "relationship with the INC and Chalabi," and seeking to determine whether he was "running a private intelligence , which is not lawful."

Rockefeller appeared to be referring to a 2002 meeting between two Feith aides and Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian businessman who was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Rumsfeld has confirmed the meeting, saying officials had held discussions with Ghorbanifar, who apparently was offering information on Iran, but that the talks "went nowhere."

[murielm99]

2. Rockfeller was on MTP this morning.

He could have expanded on the "unlawful" statement, but he did not.

Coward.

[joanski01]

18. That's not fair.

Rockefeller tried to talk about it, but Pat Roberts kept interrupting and Tim Russert cut him off. I was very disappointed, because I wanted to hear what he had to say about Feith.

[BeyondGeography]

4. Franks on Feith: "The dumbest asshole on the planet."

That's a quote from Tommy Franks in Woodward's "Path to War." Franks had to deal with Feith on a daily basis for the Iraqi war preparations (a war he was not enthusiastic about at all).

Meantime, when are we going to get an investigation of Feith, Wolfowitz and Perle, and how they drove Iraq policy? If not an investigation, then at least a book. In James Banford's book, he reveals the same crew tried to sell an invasion of Iraq to Netanyahu when he was PM of Israel in 1996. More needs to be told about these fanatical neocons.

[leesa]

13. Franks...can't wait until he's on the dock for war crimes.

[calimary]

15. What struck me about Tommy Franks was HOW FAST he

skeedaddled outta there when his tour of duty was over. He was out of there faster than Paul Bremer. Never looked back, came home and disappeared. You did not see him taking a high profile position like Schwarzkopf did - no talk shows, no morning news shows, no Meet the Press, no nothing. If this war were so glorious, you'd think he'd be sticking around to do the "media darling" thing.

[sniffa]

5. but, but, it's the CIA's fauLt

[ewagner]

6. Very disturbing....

This annex has to be made public....SOON!

It also raises some interesting questions.

For instance: In Woodward's book he described the scene where Tenet gave a briefing to the President and the President asked "Is that all you've got?" Reportedly, Tenet said that the information he provided on WMDs was a "slam dunk". But look at that in a different context. When Dubya asked "Is that all you've got?" Was that a criticism of the CIA because that report didnt' match what Feith had already briefed him on? And, if so, does that make Tenets comment more of a defensive statement rather than an assertion?

Discussion?

[enough]

8. You are right on. (nt)

[Media_Lies_Daily]

25. Better yet, did that conversation even take place?....

Remember, Woodward's source(s) for that quote had to have been NeoCons out to distance themselves from the "Iraqi-WMD" claims, and to cast suspicion on Tenet and the CIA.

Questions have been raised in the past about Woodward's veracity...most notably with Watergate and Iran-Contra.

[ewagner]

29. Good point

It's interesting to note that Tenet has NOT confirmed that conversation ever took place.

[billybob537]

7. This is what happens in a dictatorship.

you have no rights, you can be imprisoned forever with no reason given. You can be sentenced to death without access to counsel.
Something is very wrong when this can happen in America.
Yes Guantanamo bay Is American territory and yes all federal laws apply.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. Interesting the Telegraph is reporting this

I guess Richard Perle isn't on their Board of Directors anymore?

[Merlin]

12. This is HUGE. A state of War exists between the CIA and the Neocons.

We learn from this piece that the blast at CIA this past week was part of a Republican strategy to take the heat off of Bush.

This "Annexe" (quaint Brit spelling) was produced by 3 Dem Senators as a DISSENT from that blast.

In reality the cause of "faulty intelligence" on Iraq WMDs and AQ Links was the Neocon's own contraption, Feith's OSP (Office of Special Plans) in the DOD. We now learn the OSP had it's own little "Intelligence Agency" set up which REPORTED DIRECTLY TO THE WHITE HOUSE! CIA knew nothing about their "Briefings" of the POTUS!

This seems to me to be criminal activity.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

26. Evidently, the CIA is not alone in going after the NeoCons....

...joining the fun are the DIA, senior military officers that have been politically critical of Rummy, a faction of the non-NeoCon civilians in the Pentagon, a large segment of the FBI/DoJ, a good-sized faction of the mainstream media (think Operation Mockingbird), as well as some of the troops in the Middle East.

Even some old-line conservatives are beginning to openly question the NeoCons.

[bobthedrummer]

14. Complete timeline of the 2003 invasion of Iraq: Douglas Feith's Pentagon

offices by The Center for Cooperative Research
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq&iraq_themes=officeOfSpecialPlans

Iraq Survey Group: Donald Rumsfeld's al Qaeda by John Stanton and Wayne Madsen
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/070904Stanton-Madsen/070904stanton-madsen.html

Selective Intelligence by Seymour Hersh
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030512fa_fact

The Pentagon Muzzles the CIA by Robert Dreyfuss
http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/22/dreyfuss-r.html

This must be publicized to every voter, every American-despite the "official" reports--or we will be the Fourth Reich imo.

[NMDemDist2]

22. thanks bob, noted and bookmarked for future ammo ;-)

[bobthedrummer]

23. I've got many DU threads saved from others-I usually make them

available offline too. We have a lot of the TRUTH here-a precious commodity.
Thank you for your many informative posts too, AZDemDist6:hi:

[NMDemDist2]

24. awww, shucks

tanks :smoke:

[bobthedrummer]

16. "The Bush Intelligence Manipulation Scandal-documented" by DUer

TruthIsAll.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1256201

[jpak]

17. Feith is a chump

Here are the REAL criminals...

Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz who authorized the DOD to set up this "cell" in the OSP.

Powell, who made a numerous trips to Langley to "vet" CIA inel before his UN Liefest.

Cheney, who made numerous unprecedented trips to Langley to "personally supervise" the development of CIA intel on I-raqi WMD.

and

The Chimp, who repeatedly LIED about uranium shipments from Niger and the "dreaded aluminum tubes " even though he was told by the CIA this info was bogus.

When are these assholes going to be exposed????

[bobthedrummer]

20. jpak, I agree about the criminals in this administration-but Feith is no

small "chump"-he is a major player in many areas, even Abu Ghraib. All of these monsters have names and connections which should be repeatedly publicized imo that's how they get exposed.

Pentagon's Feith Again at Center of Disaster from CommonDreams
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0520-02.htm

[jpak]

21. You're right - maybe "small potatoes" would be a better description.

eom

[Auntie Bush]

32. Not until after the election!

[liveoaktx]

19. Redux on "The Spies Who Pushed for War" - OSP

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,999737,00.html

As the CIA director, George Tenet, arrived at the Senate yesterday to give secret testimony on the Niger uranium affair, it was becoming increasingly clear in Washington that the scandal was only a small, well-documented symptom of a complete breakdown in US intelligence that helped steer America into war.
It represents the Bush administration's second catastrophic intelligence failure. But the CIA and FBI's inability to prevent the September 11 attacks was largely due to internal institutional weaknesses.

This time the implications are far more damaging for the White House, which stands accused of politicising and contaminating its own source of intelligence.

According to former Bush officials, all defence and intelligence sources, senior administration figures created a shadow agency of Pentagon analysts staffed mainly by ideological amateurs to compete with the CIA and its military counterpart, the Defence Intelligence Agency.

[Disturbed]

27. Feith> Rumsfailed

The OSP was started by Rumsfailed. Shrub said Rumsfailed was a superb Sec. of Defense. BushCo is a criminal Admin. guilty of many crimes, War Crimes is on top of that list.

If Amerika was under the stranglehold of the Plutocracy that supports the Right Wing domination of all branches of Govt. plus the Mass Media, BushCo would have been impeached and found guilty of numerous crimes.

[pinto]

28. ideological amateurs - (spot on phrase) - are running our foreign policy.

into the ground, literally and figuratively.

This is one point the Democratic party has got to be blunt about...

[Hoping4Change]

35. Thanx to everybody for posting all these great links on this thread

[The Stranger]

31. Very interesting seeing some of the press awaken.

But does the story have legs?

[Merlin]

33. Damn shame if it doesn't. n/t

.

[Norquist Nemesis]

34. Let's not forget Perle!

Perle was part of OSP under Feith. Where's that bastard been, anyway? For a short time after he 'resigned' (which is probably just a temporary leave without pay), he was all over the media giving interviews.

[JoFerret]

36. Good post Rabbit-Vacuum

.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

37. OSP wasn't interested in connecting any dots they were interested only

in fabricating dots (collecting them)

[bobthedrummer]

38. Butler Report kick.

So, MI6's HUMINT was just as worthless as US SIGINT, right? Why?
:dem:

[donkeyotay]

39. Golly, do you think it's unlawful to start your own intell agency?

Sure, Congress had to legislate and fund our official intell agencies. But, if they won't play ball, you just start your own! Start your own army, too! In fact, let's just privatize the government.

Republican politicians are ok with all this crime. Why, they're even helping to obstruct justice and cover it up.

How many times can you use crime, Republican and cover-up in the same sentence?