As Iraq struggles, critics zero in on Pentagon aide

[seemslikeadream]

.....

Gen. Tommy Franks, field commander, and his deputy, Gen. Michael DeLong, opposed the idea. "A waste of time and energy for us," DeLong said of the plan in his book, Inside CentCom.

A halfhearted effort ensued, and by the start of the war, only 70 Iraqis had been trained.

Franks, now retired, described Feith both in his own book and in one written by the Washington Post's Bob Woodward as the "stupidest guy on the face of the Earth."

This took Feith by surprise.

.....

Dalck Feith, now 90, owned a sheet-metal business that supplied parts for Jerrold Electronics, a firm founded by former Gov. Milton J. Shapp that made set-top boxes for cable TV. Through this connection, Dalck Feith got to know Ralph Roberts, founder of Comcast. Today, the Feith family is one of Comcast's largest private shareholders.

Douglas Feith's brother, Donald, runs Feith Systems & Software in Fort Washington, which sells computer programs that store huge numbers of documents. It has contracts with the Defense and Commerce Departments and other government agencies, as well as Comcast, AT&T, Toll Bros. and others. In the last two years, Feith family members have contributed at least $14,500 to President Bush, the Republican Party, and Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.), according to campaign records.

The family also has strong ties to Israel. Feith's former law partner, Marc Zell, lives and works near Jerusalem.

This month the FBI began investigating Pentagon employee Larry Franklin, who works in Feith's organization, for allegedly passing memos to Israel. Feith has declined to discuss the probe.

James Zogby, head of the Arab-American Institute, a Middle East lobbying group, said Feith was too close to Israel's right-wing Likud Party.
more
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/special_packages/election2004/9776454.htm


Is Iran Next?
By Tom Barry
Sep 28, 2004, 21:09

.......

Dual agendas
The Israeli government and AIPAC have denied that they engaged in any criminal operations involving classified Pentagon documents about Iran. Sharansky said, “There are absolutely no attempts to involve any member of the Jewish community and any general American citizens to spy for Israel against the United States.” He observed that the investigation of the Pentagon’s Office of Policy staff most likely stemmed from an inter-agency rivalry within the U.S. government.

For his part, Ledeen told Newsweek that the espionage allegations against Franklin, his close friend, were “nonsensical.” Ledeen and other neoconservatives see the investigations as instigated by the State Department and the CIA to undermine the credibility of neoconservatives and to obstruct their Middle East restructuring agenda, particularly regime change in Iran.

Given the depth of congressional bipartisan support for Israel and close ties with right-wing Israeli lobbying groups like AIPAC, it’s unlikely that the investigations will provide the much-needed public scrutiny of the dual and complementary agendas that unite U.S. and Israeli hardliners. Feith’s policymaking fiefdom inside and outside of government continues to drive U.S. policy in the Middle East with no evidence that these radical policies are increasing the national security and welfare of either the United States or Israel.

Iran rumbles
Meanwhile tensions with Iran deepen—which suits the Iran war party just fine. “Stability,” Michael Ledeen once said, “gives me the heebee jeebies.”

On September 21, Iran’s President Mohammed Khatami warned that Iran may withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if Washington and the International Atomic Energy Commission demand that the country desist from plans to enrich uranium. The Iranian government says that it has no plans to develop nuclear weapons, and international inspectors have not determined otherwise. However, if Iran does proceed with its plans to enrich nearly 40 tons of uranium, which it says will be used to generate electricity, it is commonly acknowledged that in a few years it could produce several nuclear bombs.

But it’s not only the possibility that Iran could emerge as the Middle East’s second nuclear power that worries the United States and Israel. At the same time that Washington was demanding that the Iranian case be sent to the Security Council, the Iranian army was test-firing its long-range (810 miles) missile—a demonstration of its commitment to an effective deterrent capacity.

more
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_12195.shtml

[roguevalley]

1. Even seeing Ladeen's name in print makes my skin crawl. An anonymous

general in the pentagon was asked about Feith and he said if the country was being overrun and he had one bullet left in his gun, he would shoot
feith.

[KoKo]

2. Both of these articles are better written and more revealing than anything

I've seen in either WaPo or NYT's. Thanks for the post. I've bookmarked them in my personal files under the title "Spygate." Just in case...