Why hasn't the Office of Special Plans (OSP) been NAILED over Iraq?!?!?!?!

[jackstraw45]

What kind of f-ed up corporate media do we have?!?! How is the OSP not a household name?

OSP is the LINK between the CIA and Defense department and Bushco.

From July 2003:

"The agency, called the Office of Special Plans (OSP), was set up by the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to second-guess CIA information and operated under the patronage of hardline conservatives in the top rungs of the administration, the Pentagon and at the White House, including Vice-President Dick Cheney."

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

Why hasn't the OSP been outed and nailed for this?!?!?

(Yes, I know this is more of a rhetorical question in the age of the Corporate Media.)

More links:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030512fa_fact
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/govt/osp.php
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/iraq/1448.html

[grytpype]

1. See my diary here:

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

http://grytpype.dailykos.com/story/2004/7/11/12413/0426

[jackstraw45]

2. Thanks for the link!

NT

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Feithwatch: Fury over Pentagon cell that briefed White House on Iraq's 'im

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

Anyone remember the "imaginary" Iraqi battalions ready at the Saudi border?? Keywords... Powell.... Satellite.... Doctored.... St. Petersberg Times.... unbelievable.

Rock the vote!!

[Caution]

3. They are getting there

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/11/senate.pentagon/index.html

is a good start. Give it time. Things are really starting to steamroll

Plame
The war is now known to have been fought over nothing
no osama but the media is calling them on an october surprise
media covering potential cancelling of election
Delay going down big time
Enron/Ken Lay
etc etc

things are not looking good for the administration and their cronies. This crooked bunch are all going down

[jackstraw45]

5. The CIA report last week got SO much press

Where was the mention of the OSP which is really the source of the pressure for cooked intelligence?

OSP shouldn't be this tough to "get there" IMO.

[maggrwaggr]

6. shit, the media doesn't even inform about PNAC

Nobody knows what the hell PNAC is, even though PNAC is running the executive branch of the goddamn country.

The corporate media needs to be fired, arrested, or at the very least hit with some kind of massive class-action malpractice lawsuit.

[lostnfound]

7. The Democrats gave them a free pass until after election.

A deal was worked to focus on the 'CIA intelligence failures' and to postpone inquiry into OSP etc. until after the election.

[shraby]

8. Maybe the Karen Kwiatowski (sp?)

article should be sent to Diane Feinstein.

[shraby]

9. I sent the New Yorker article by

Sy Hersh to Diane Feinstein and asked her to press for part two of the CIA report.

[Disturbed]

10. Are Dems just wimps?

What is wrong with most Dems that they just allow BushCo and the Media to piss all over them all the time?

[redqueen]

19. Would you take that treatment?

Letting someone unfairly impugn your character, your performance, your very motivation for doing whatever you do?

I woulnd't... but many might, if there was some kind of large reward for doing so.

:tinfoilhat:

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. The comments by Rockefeller and others in the Senate report

are available at the Senate Intelligence committee site - http://intelligence.senate.gov/ - but only by downloading the full report (which is a series of images, because it's been redacted) - 24MB. The page numbers are 449 through 464 (pages 459-474 of the pdf file, since the cover and contents take up a few pages).

A few highlights:

It is no coincidence that the analytical errors in the Estimate all broke in one direction. The Estimate and related analytical papers assessing Iraqi links to terrorism were produced by the Intelligence Community in a highly-pressurized climate wherein senior Administration officials were making the case for military action against Iraq through public and often definitive pronouncements.
...
In the months before the production of the Intelligence Community's October 2002 Estimate, Administration officials undertook a relentless campaign which repeatedly characterized the Iraq weapons of mass destruction program in more ominous and threatening terms than the Intelligence Community analysis substantiated. Similarly, public statements of senior officials on Iraqi links to terrorism generally, and al-Qaeda specifically, were often based on a selective release of intelligence information that implied a cooperative, operational relationship that the Intelligence Community did not believe existed.

The Bush Administration's case against Iraq was largely based on the argument that we knew with certainty that Iraq possessed large quantities of chemical and biological weapons, was aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons, and that an established relationship between Baghdad and al-Qaeda would allow for the transfer of these weapons for use against the United States. This national security rationale being put forth publicly by senior Administration officials in support of regime change in Iraq was simple, direct and often fundamentally misleading.

The rhetorical drumbeat for war in the months leading up to the Intelligence Community's October estimate, sounded from the highest levels of the government, repeatedly overstated what the Intelligence Community assessed at the time.

They refer to the Kerr Report (July 2003):

Requests fro reporting and analysis of (Iraq's links to al Qaeda} were steady and heavy in the period leading up to war, creating significant pressure on the Intelligence Community to find evidence that supported a connection.

And then, they go into detail how Feith and his 'cell' distorted the reports given to the White House:

The Intelligence Community's findings did not support the link between Iraq and the 9/11 plot Administration policy officials wanted to help galvanize public support for military action in Iraq. As a result, officials under the direction of Under Secretary Feith tool it upon themselves to push for a change in the intelligence analysis so that it bolstered Administration policy and goals.

But the Intelligence Community analysts did not buckle under the pressure brought to bear by Pentagon policy officials on August 20th. While some changes were made to the "Iraq Support for Terrorism" report, published in September 2002, the efforts of the Pentagon staffers did not convince the analysts to change their analytical judgments.

This did not dissuade the Pentagon policy shop, however. They simply took their case direct to the White House. On September 16, 2002, two days before the Intelligence Community disseminated its terrorism assessment, Pentagon policy officials presented their alternative analysis to the Deputy National Security Adviser and the Vice President's Chief of Staff. This time the staffers re-inserted the slide critical of the Intelligence Community's analytical approach to the issue and included additional information on the alleged meeting in Prague between Atta and the Iraqi intelligence service not in the version briefed to Director Tenet. Furthermore, the CIA was kept in the dark about the Pentagon's intentions. Director Tenet was not told by the Pentagon that this alternative analysis would be subsequently briefed to the White House and remained ignorant of that fact until March 4, 2004, when it was revealed to him at an Intelligence Committee hearing.

[Ernesto]

18. Says who?

[lostnfound]

25. Here's one link

I heard it on the BBC, but here is an article that mentions it:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/08/MNGNF7I9231.DTL

Senate report to skip Bush war claims
Intelligence units to be initial focus, according to deal

Under a deal reached this year between Republicans and Democrats, the Bush administration's role will not be addressed until the Senate Intelligence Committee completes a further stage of its inquiry, but probably not until after the November election. As a result, the officials said, the committee's initial, unanimous report will focus solely on misjudgments by intelligence agencies, not the White House, in the assessments about Iraq, illicit weapons and al Qaeda that the administration used as a rationale for the war.

[jackstraw45]

12. Kick...still don't understand why it's not ALL about OSP these days

This was a unit SET UP to push the CIA towards customized intel that met a set criteria.

How are they not the startying point of an inquiry?

Aren't they, essentially, the Watergate burglers of this mess? Why aren't they being forced to sing for a Grand Jury?

[redqueen]

13. Doggone it... I searched for this

and it didn't come up! Oddly enough, I chose similar wording for my subject.

:shrug:

As for why it's not in the media, my guess it's because we haven't rubbed anyone's nose in it long enough.

[jackstraw45]

14. It still doesn't make sense....

Like the cover-up of 1000 images of torture by the Washington Post makes no sense...

Like the lack of mainstream coverage about the Plame affer makes no sense...

Like the shallow coverage by the US Corporate media of the war in Iraq makes no sense....

Like the theft of the 2000 election makes no sense where two companies, Enron and Halliburton, provided corporate jets to the Bush campaign....

It's not our job to report and investigate these issues but in this crazy world, it has become our patriotic duty when criminals are running our country.

[redqueen]

15. Got news for ya

the criminals are running the media, too. I guess you could be nice and call them 'accomplices', but it changes nothing.

If we bombard them with outrage, then maybe it will get some traction eventually, e.g. BBV... but ONLY if enough of us hit them hard and continuously.

[liveoaktx]

16. According to Karen K, the investigation DID NOT INCLUDE OSP

so how could this investigation get at the truth when from the beginning it didn't include the OSP?????
<snip>
President Bush has now appointed a commission to look at American intelligence capabilities and will report after the election. It will "examine intelligence on weapons of mass destruction and related 21st century threats ... compare what the Iraq Survey Group learns with the information we had prior..." The commission, aside from being modeled on failed rubber stamp commissions of the past and consisting entirely of those selected by the executive branch, specifically excludes an examination of the role of the Office of Special Plans and other executive advisory bodies. If the president or vice president were seriously interested in "getting the truth," they might consider asking for evidence on how intelligence was politicized, misused and manipulated, and whether information from the intelligence community was distorted in order to sway Congress and public opinion in a narrowly conceived neoconservative push for war. Bush says he wants the truth, but it is clear he is no more interested in it today than he was two years ago
****
From her salon article- http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/03/10/osp/index4.html

[tom_paine]

17. Because characters would be assainated, careeres ended, and lives

maybe, too.

ANYTHING that could blow the lid off the obviuous corruption, fraud, theft, and treason of the Imperials is NEVER examined.

I believe our elected representatves are simply too afraid to restor the Old Republic.

But that's the way it always is. Rome, Germany, etc.

[librechik]

20. because the democrats on the committee were forced into silence

I witnessed a spat between Rockefeller and Roberts yesterday, where Rockefeller was complaining about getting blocked on calling Doug Feith again to clarify this OSP issue--they started bitchslapping each other for a second or two, and it came out that the Dems had to be satisfied with this "second part" of the investigation (I.e. the role of the WH in the policy created by the "bad info") which won't be done until after the election! And that's a victory because the Republicans didn't want to include the WH in the investigation at all!

Can you imagine the late night donnybrook that little decision came out of?

Anyway the Dems on the committee got outvoted, so there was nothing they couold do about it.

You're right, it's up to the media, but who is going to do it? The
big news orgs don't do investigative journalism anymore. It is driving me nuts! The information is just sitting there for somebody to pick up and run with. They know about it, the ones who could do something.

Seymour Hersh where are you?

Can we dream of a 60 minutes piece? Let's hope so!

[jackstraw45]

21. There IS no good answer to this question...that's what is so frustrating

Blame it on lazy dems, lazy media, corrupt pols...

What it comes down to is NO excuse for DU to know about OSP, what it was set up for and what it has done to this country, and the rest of America to be left in the dark.

NO GOOD ANSWER.

[redqueen]

24. No, no good answer

But lots of sad ones: a lazy populace that prefers ignorance to being 'stressed' for one.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

22. Don't worry...their time will come soon enough.

[indepat]

23. Politics?