Ledeen "I had and have no involvement with our Iraq policy. I opposed the military invasion of Iraq"

[seemslikeadream]

:wtf:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjQ0OTQyNTdhNWE0NzAxNGMxYWQ2ODAxOTNjNWM4M2E=

The Latest Disinformation from Vanity Fair

My experience with Vanity Fair is even more extensive than David Frum 's, having been the subject of a 30,000 word screed that ends with the author's bland confession "there is no evidence for any of this." So I am not at all surprised to see the editors yank words from me, David, and others out of context and totally misdescribe what we think, do and feel. I do not feel "remorseful," since I had and have no involvement with our Iraq policy. I opposed the military invasion of Iraq before it took place and I advocated—as I still do—support for political revolution in Iran as the logical and necessary first step in the war against the terror masters.

[seemslikeadream]

1. One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron,

http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen080602a.asp

It's always reassuring to hear Brent Scowcroft attack one's cherished convictions; it makes one cherish them all the more. . . .So it's good news when Scowcroft comes out against the desperately-needed and long overdue war against Saddam Hussein and the rest of the terror masters.

...
However, nobody is perfect, and Scowcroft has managed to get one thing half right, even though he misdescribes it. He fears that if we attack Iraq "I think we could have an explosion in the Middle East. It could turn the whole region into a caldron and destroy the War on Terror."

One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today. If we wage the war effectively, we will bring down the terror regimes in Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and either bring down the Saudi monarchy or force it to abandon its global assembly line to indoctrinate young terrorists.

That's our mission in the war against terror.

The most dangerous course of action is Scowcroft's: Finesse Iraq, and squander our energies fecklessly trying to broker peace between Israel and the terrorists.

[yurbud]

22. he is a truly creepy fuck. Looks like a dickwad, then you read his

resume and he's out there with Oliver North in black bag territory.

[AntiFascist]

2. I agree, what the fuck?!

He's been calling for MILITARY ACTION against Iran for years in his National Review column. Setting up base in Iraq was part of the neocon plan for preparing for an attack on Iran. Hasn't his motto been "faster, please"? Hoping for political revolution in Iran after we attack sounds oddly similar to hoping the Iraqis would greet us with sweets and flowers. Some did greet us that way initially, after they were paid for a staged show by the media.

[Ecumenist]

3. Sure, you didn't. I believe ya, Ledeen, you can

count on me..:evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[Old and In the Way]

4. Interesting....Perle yesterday, Ladeen today. I wonder why?

Are they trying to get their houses in order in anticipation of the Democrats taking over? Methinks these tough guys are going to be dropping dimes and quarters all over the place on their fellow PNACer's. Who'll be the 1st to cut a deal?

[seemslikeadream]

10. Fitzgerald found an Italian tie

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_10_30.php

QUESTION: Thank you. Any more explanation of the Berlusconi-President discussion about Italian intelligence on Iraq -- is this to say that Mr. Fitzgerald's finding that the Niger claim had its genesis in Italian intelligence was wrong?
SCOTT McCLELLAN: Mr. Fitzgerald's -- I'll have to look back at what his finding was. I don't recall the specifics of that.

QUESTION: Fitzgerald found that what we had been calling British intelligence, the document -- the forged document --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Maybe I missed that. I don't think so. I don't think so.

QUESTION: -- alleging an Iraq --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Okay, I don't think he did.

QUESTION: I'm wrong on this?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Maybe I'm wrong. But I don't think he --

QUESTION: That's not ringing any bells.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Yes.

QUESTION: It's not ringing any bells with other people either.

QUESTION: No, it is, it is. And I can't remember if it's Fitzgerald or somebody else, but there's this is the central issue is --

QUESTION: The central issue was --

QUESTION: -- the source of the --

QUESTION: The source of the forged document was Italy, who handed it to --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: No, the -- we actually briefed on the source of the information back in July of 2003, and the source was the National Intelligence Estimate and British Intelligence. That was the basis for the reference in the President's State of the Union address.

QUESTION: Fitzgerald found an Italian tie, and I presume this is what the discussion between the President and Berlusconi was about.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Yes, they -- like I said they -- Prime Minister Berlusconi brought it up, and as they indicated, that there wasn't any documents that were provided to us on Niger and uranium by --

QUESTION: Wait, no documents or no intelligence?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: The press report out of Italy is a transcription -- it's a transcription of the forged documents, not the actual documents themselves. But Berlusconi said yesterday was, no information passed from Italy to the United States.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Yes, I think he was accurately reflecting what he indicated in the meeting.

QUESTION: So that accurately characterizes the President's position, that the United States never received any intelligence --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Well, Prime Minister Berlusconi was reflecting that within the meeting, and we've previously said in regards to a question that came up about a meeting here at the White House that no one here has any recollection of Niger and uranium being discussed at that meeting, much less any documents being provided.

[Old and In the Way]

11. With Berlusconi under indictment, you have to wonder if he's dropping dimes, too.

Ledeen is in the forged document story very deep, IMHO. This will, of course, show that the entire basis for this war was manufactured by this administration. Then the fun begins.

[seemslikeadream]

19. Berlusconi's Halloween Visit - The Plame Affair Leads to Rome

http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp11012005.html

Berlusconi's Halloween Visit
The Plame Affair Leads to Rome
By GARY LEUPP

"All roads lead to Rome," and it seems that Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the Plame Affair, and more broadly the lies used to hoodwink the American people into supporting a criminal war on Iraq, will also trudge down the Appian Way lined this Halloween with the ghosts of crucified Iraqis.

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica has recently published an exposé alleging in essence that the Italian military intelligence agency SISMI (Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare) at the specific behest of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi provided bogus intelligence to the Bush neocons in order to curry favor with the U.S. and to abet the relentless drive for war between 9-11 and the March 2003 invasion. This follows an Italian parliamentary report released in part to the public in July concerning the forged Niger uranium documents at the heart of the Plame Affair. These, which purport to show a deal between Baghdad and Niger for the purchase of huge quantities of yellowcake, were it seems produced in the Italian capital.

The report names four men as the likely forgers of the documents (Michael Ledeen, Dewey Clarridge, Ahmed Chalabi and Francis Brookes) and suggests that the forgeries may have been planned at December 2001 gathering in Rome involving Ledeen and SISMI chief Nicolò Pollari. Also in attendance at that meeting: Larry Franklin, Harold Rhode, Manucher Ghorbanifar, Antonio Martino and others including a former senior official of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran. Here is a true rogues' gallery.

Michael Ledeen: neocon columnist, National Review Online contributing editor, specialist on the thought of Machiavelli and on Italian fascism, former employee of the Pentagon, the State Department and the National Security Council, was involved in the transfer of arms to Iran during the Iran-Contra affair. Active in the American Enterprise Institute, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), and Center for Democracy in Iran (CDI). Advocates regime change by force in Iran and Syria.

Nicolò Pollari: Author of many publications on legal and economic matters, investigation techniques and intelligence. Tax law Professor at the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria. SISMI head since October 2001.

Dewey Clarridge: former CIA operative, famous in mid-1980s for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair. Head of CIA's Latin America division 1981-84, directed the mining of Nicaragua's harbors and helped organize the Contras. Indicted in November 1991 on seven counts of perjury and false statements, pardoned by first president Bush Christmas Eve 1992.

Ahmad Chalabi: convicted swindler, leader of U.S.-funded Iraqi National Congress, neocon ally, presently one of two deputy prime ministers in Iraqi government.

Francis Brookes: member of the "Rendon Group," a "public relations" body formed by the Pentagon engaged to promote Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress.

Larry Franklin: colonel in USAF reserve, subordinate to Douglas Feith in Defense Department, Middle East specialist, under arrest for espionage for Israel.

Harold Rhode: Pentagon official, Middle East specialist, Ledeen protégé, American Enterprise Institute, heavy neocon.

Manucher Ghorbanifar: Iranian exile, arms dealer, one-time CIA operative distrusted by CIA since 1980s. Key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Antonio Martino: Founding member of Forza Italiano (Berlusconi's political party), Professor of Economics, adjunct scholar with the Heritage Foundation, Italian Defense Minister.

Let's add to the list Rocco Martino, a former intelligence officer and carabinieri, who has admitted (in interviews with the Sunday Times and Financial Times in August 2004) to involvement in the break-in into the Niger Embassy in Rome in January 2001 which procured the letterhead stationary used for the forgeries. He also acknowledges a role in circulating the fake documents, which he first passed to French intelligence, the French being sensitive to any possibility of yellowcake uranium from the French-owned mines in Niger. His motive was apparently mercenary. The French quickly realized the material was bogus, but SISMI, either in possession of the documents or aware of their content, elected to share them with Washington after 9-11.

[seemslikeadream]

21. ROME MEETING IN DECEMBER 2001 - Larry Franklin, a busy, busy man

Michael Ledeen organized a meeting in Rome to gather evidence to support the planned war. Present were:

1. Michael Ledeen, Karl Rove’s foreign policy advisor and organizer of the meeting
2. Nicolo Pollari, head of the the Italian equivalent of the CIA, the SISMI
3. Italy’s Minister of Defense, Antonio Martino (no relation apparently to the spy Rocco Martino), Pollari’s boss
4. Larry Franklin,an American who presently is being prosecuted in the US for giving classified information to an Israeli front group, AIPC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) -- which some would call "spying," even though he has not been charged with espionage
5. Harold Rhode: member of Dick Cheney’s Office of Special Plans, protege of Ledeen, go-between with Iraqi exile and CIA asset (at the time) Ahmed Chalabi.




Analyst Charged With Passing Iran Info: Franklin Turned Self InTo FBI
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1444053
Fieth resigns from Pentagon today
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1186412
Former CIA official looks to leak the truth
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=886884
New Israeli spy probe has a 30-year history, insiders say
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=852863
Israel's Mole Inside the Pentagon
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=783161
FBI probes Jewish sway on Bush government
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=802725
Money from Iran Fuels Iraq Insurgency -Rumsfeld
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=810129
Israeli spy nest in the U.S. - Ashcroft says: ’Don’t arrest them!’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=802249
FBI probes DOD office (spy probe widens)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=784155
F.B.I said to reach official suspected of passing secrets ....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=786361
Analyst Who Is Target of Probe Went to Israel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=784792
Knight Ridder:FBI espionage probe goes beyond Israeli allegations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=784274
Pentagon Analyst Was Cooperating When Israel Spy Case Became Public
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=786505
Iran-Contra II? Fresh scrutiny on rogue Pentagon operation -Josh Marshall
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=784906
AIPAC's Overt and Covert Ops
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=788267
UK Express: (Perle) Faces (FBI) Quiz Over Links to Israeli Spy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=785131
Israel Says It Has No Need to Spy on U.S.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=787437
F.B.I. Is Said to Brief Pentagon Bosses on Spy Case; Charges Are Possible
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=788936
LAT: FBI Questions Israeli Lobbyists (AIPAC) in Spying Probe ((Gilon mentioned)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=789576
FBI briefs Wolfowitz on Israeli spy claim
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=790076
F.B.I. Interviews 2 Suspected of Passing Secrets to Israel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=792950
FBI seizes computer from AIPAC offices
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=791564
Pentagon Office in Spying Case Was Focus of Iran Debate
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=795432
Leak Probe More Than 2 Years Old (AIPAC)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=795905
AIPAC hires lawyers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=794332
Spy probe scans neo-cons' Israel ties (long article from Asia Times)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=794029
FBI Informed White House of AIPAC Probe Two Years Ago
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=797181
Alleged Pentagon Leak to Iraqi Is Under Investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=798060
Serving Two Flags The Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=799167
Israeli political advisor may have received U.S. secrets
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=795817
Wider FBI Probe Of Pentagon Leaks Includes Chalabi - WaPo
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=798333
LAT: Israel Has Long Spied on US,Say Officials(but CIA, Mossad "intimate")
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=798631
Defense, Cheney Iran Specialists Questioned in (Israeli Spy) Probe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=801031
Leak Inquiry Includes Iran Experts in Administration (WaPo)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=801678
A Web Of Intrigue Inside the Israel espionage investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=803022
Pro-Israel Lobby Has Strong VoiceAIPAC Is Embroiled in Investigation of Pe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=803035
Israel's Mole Inside the Pentagon
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=783161
FBI probes possible Pentagon leak to Iraqi exiles
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=805885
Reporters' Files Subpoenaed
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=815381
Secrets: Classified Info: Springing a Leak
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x803017

[bloom]

34. Jon Stewart could do a segment on it. Then and now.

I saw Rubin doing a spin job about the Vanity Fair piece this am on CNN.


For Ledeen and all of those nuts - the Machiavellian thing is to lie, anyway. He's the master.

[bemildred]

5. Right. And Haggard threw the crack away and didn't have sex.

And Clinton didn't inhale. What a lying, dishonest, irresponsible sack of shit.

[stillcool]

6. yeah right....

It is an echo of the one-two punch secretly planned by the pro-Likud faction in the Department of Defense. First, Iraq would be taken out by the United States, and then Iran. David Wurmser, a key member of the group, also wanted Syria included. These pro-Likud intellectuals concluded that 9/11 would give them carte blanche to use the Pentagon as Israel's Gurkha regiment, fighting elective wars on behalf of Tel Aviv (not wars that really needed to be fought, but wars that the Likud coalition thought it would be nice to see fought so as to increase Israel's ability to annex land and act aggressively, especially if someone else's boys did the dying).
http://www.juancole.com/2004_08_01_juancole_archive.html#109376785516786360

3) Ghorbanifar told me he has had fifty meetings with Michael Ledeen since September 11th, and that he has given Ledeen "4,000 to 5,000 pages of sensitive documents" concerning Iran, Iraq and the Middle East, “material no one else has received.” Ghorbanifar, speaking with me by telephone from France, says those meetings took place abroad because he has been refused a US visa the last two times he has applied.
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/001070.html

[seemslikeadream]

8. Italian military intervention in Iraq begins when the resident scholar

at the American Enterprise Institute, Michael Ledeen, sponsored by Defense Minister Antonio Martino, debarks in Rome with Pentagon men in tow to meet a handful of “Iranian exiles.”


http://nuralcubicle.blogspot.com/2005/10/sismis-war-in-iraq-iranian-connection.html

Monday, October 31, 2005
SISMI's War in Iraq: The Iranian Connection

Carlo Bonini and Giuseppi d'Avanzo are at it again. Another three-part blockbuster exposé on the involvement of Italian Military intelligence inside Iraq.

Part I: From Chelabi to Iranian Agents--SISMI's War in Iraq
A strategic summit in Rome with the Pentagon.

ROME: He’s another politico-military intelligence chief. He’s a SISMI man. He makes his way slowly down the narrow hallway of the bar at the Hotel Eden in via Ludovisi. He stops to admire the sky and the attractive skyline of Rome in the April sun (it is 22 April 2003) through the hotel’s large windows. He looks elegant in his Chairman's Committee grisaille. . He selects a table at the center of the terrace. The waiter walks over and solicitously takes his order. The gentleman orders a freshly-squeezed orange juice and a double espresso. The Anglo-American invasion of Iraq began on the night of 19-20 March, thirty-three days earlier.

Today, as Silvio Berlusconi reveals that he never supported the military intervention in Iraq, it is fitting to tell the story of how our country, Italy, although allegedly opposed to war as our Premier now claims, was an active protagonist in war preparations and operations.

We will reveal the different arrangements and plans of action, as well as who planned them and with whom they were planned.

For us Italians, recounts the high-ranking SISMI official to La Repubblica, the war on Iraq was already underway in the days before Christmans, 2002. He smiles. He is animated with a glint of excitement in his eyes and for once seems seems to have no qualms about letting his personal satisfaction slip from behind a frozen mask.

Our man is too disciplined to crow about his successes and too stubborn to be discouraged by defeat. He tells us: It was a novelty, a revolution for our intelligence services. Never before in its history has SISMI been so prominently involved in military ground operations and a major role in planning a war campaign, to boot. The Italian Government? Of course our work was authorized by the Italian Government—are you joking? It was real war, not an exercise! The twenty men we sent to Iraq were risking their lives. He pauses. The espresso arrives. He sips it slowly, his eyes half-closed with satisfaction.

He continues. Twenty men from three SISMI departments were involved: Intelligence, Operations and Counterterrorism. They were divided into small groups which were to operate in and around the areas of Kirkuk, Baghdad and Basrah using outlandish disguises. Each unit was unaware of the identities and the mission of the others. Each unit was ordered to operate within a sector of territory and to work with intelligence “assets” who had already been selected and trained. The objectives were twofold: To identify Iraqi defenses and to evaluate the readiness of the Iraqi armed forces.

If combat was less intense than expected, it is due to the job we did—and we didn’t do it alone. If we won the war before firing a shot, it was due to our successes at infiltration and intelligence-gathering.

The story of Italian military intervention in Iraq begins when the resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Michael Ledeen, sponsored by Defense Minister Antonio Martino, debarks in Rome with Pentagon men in tow to meet a handful of “Iranian exiles.” The meeting is organized by SISMI. In an Agency “safe house” near Piazza di Spagna (however, other sources have told us it was a reserved room in the Parco dei Principi Hotel).

[stillcool]

12. and...why do they always get their wives involved?

TheIndependent Women’s Forum (IWF), originally an ad hoc organization called Women for Clarence Thomas, was founded in 1991. Barbara Ledeen, wife of Michael Ledeen, was its first executive director. The IWF is the neoconservative counterweight to the progressive National Organization for Women (NOW). IWF is fighting the culture war against the inroads of the women’s liberation movement by challenging efforts to establish women’s equity in sports and by opposing the Violence Against Women Act and the Women’s Educational Equity Act. Its mission statement states that the IWF “is dedicated to advancing the spirit of enterprise and self-reliance among women, and supporting the principles of political freedom, economic liberty, and personal responsibility.” (1) (2)
The IWF is well connected to the Bush administration through various public figures, such as Elaine Chao, labor secretary, former Heritage Foundation fellow, and wife of Christian right leader Rep. Mitch O’Connell (R-KY). Lynne Cheney, who was until recently an IWF board member, is wife of Bush’s vice president; Paula Dobriansky was a board member before joining the administration as undersecretary of state for global affairs; and IWF member Lynne Munson is deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Among the many other administration connections include Gayle Wilson, wife of Defense Policy Board member Pete Wilson; Wade Horn, an IWF adviser who directs the National Fatherhood Initiative joined the administration in the Department of Health and Human Services; Barbara Olson, a founding member, is the wife of Solicitor General Theodore Olson; and Michael Ledeen, husband of Barbara Ledeen, is a close adviser to Karl Rove among others in the administration. (2)http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1485

Barbara J. Ledeen is executive director for policy and liaison of the Independent Woman's Forum (IWF). A founder of the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in 1992 as a countervoice to traditional feminist organizations,
Prior to cofounding the IWF, Ledeen was director of the Second Thoughts Project with David Horowitz and Peter Collier now of the Los Angeles-based Center for the Study of Popular Culture. During the Reagan administration, Ledeen was director of communications for the Defense Technology Security Administration, which was responsible for stopping the flow of technology to the Soviet empire, China, Iraq, and Iran.

...now there's a laugh...
http://www.cire.org/commission/barbara_ledeen.html

Barbara J Ledeen
Office Start date End date Position Amount Notes
Majority Conference Committee (R) 10/01/05 03/31/06 Coalitions Director $42,333.40
Majority Conference Committee (R) 06/16/05 09/30/05 Coalitions Director $43,343.90
http://www.legistorm.com/person/Ledeen_Barbara_J/328.html

Barbara Ledeen, one of Santorum’s Senate staffers, forwarded Hecht’s appeal to Jewish contacts early Monday evening, using her personal e-mail account. Within hours, she sent a follow-up disclaimer.
http://www.forward.com/articles/rabbi-issues-appeal-for-santorum/

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_25_56/ai_n13619686
When Theobald and the patients ran into political problems-red tape and some institutional roadblocks--Theobald called Barbara Ledeen, an aide to Rick Santorum at the Senate Republican Conference who has a large circle of activist friends. Ledeen started coming to the Saturday parties, and before long she was acting as a one-woman switchboard, connecting veterans and families to their senators and congressmen, working to secure help and money, and leaning on uncooperative bureaucrats. In September 2003, Ledeen began sending out mass e-mails to all the Hill's Republican staffers, urging them and their bosses to appear at the Saturday parties. Staffers from Tom DeLay's office, for example, began to appear every month. Senators Ted Stevens, John Cornyn, and Jeff Sessions came, and spent hours visiting patients in wards.

[seemslikeadream]

14. wifes and daughters

Simone Ledeen at Bagdad airport trying out here new MBA working for the CPA



Thanks stillcool47 :hi:

[stillcool]

15. hey...right back atcha...

Iran/Contra is my favorite scandal...so far!:toast:

[bobthedrummer]

25. Family and their social networks, where and how they met, etc.

this is important when researching corruption.

[seemslikeadream]

28. say hello to the family

http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2005/08/faster_please.php

[seemslikeadream]

7. man behind forging of Niger docs that convinced America to launch preemptive strike against Iraq?

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/MichaelLedeen.html

It would be foolish for America’s political strategists and congressional leaders to ignore Michael Ledeen and his interpretation of Machiavelli. Mr. Ledeen speaks from the cutting edge of a group of men and women who desire nothing more than to reconstruct America in their own image. This nation is in grave danger. Ledeen belongs to a group of men, including Harry Jaffa, Pat Robertson, Willmoore Kendall to Allan Bloom, who, according to Shadia Drury, scholar and author of Leo Strauss and the American Right, share “the view that America is too liberal and pluralistic and that what it needs is a single orthodoxy that governs the public and private lives of its citizens.”<1>



The belief in a single voice that governs the public should cause all Americans to understand these men want to convert this nation to a permanent dictatorship. Their inspirer was Leo Strauss, a professor who taught Machiavellian methods to many of them at the University of Chicago. In fact, Paul Wolfovitz earned his doctorate under Strauss and many of the neo-cons in the White House studied under him. Strauss believed every society needs a “single public orthodoxy.” As Drury put it, “a set of ideas that defines what is true and false, right and wrong, noble and base.” Strauss believed that the role of religion was indispensable to the political success of a nation. For a political society had to hold together and act as a unit in lock step with the leader. Strauss believed that religion was the means to inculcate the desired ideas into the minds of the masses. He didn’t care what religion—just as long as it was a religion that could link itself to the political order.

[annabanana]

9. If there is a hell. . . this guy will be near the front of the line... . n/t

[Gabi Hayes]

13. why only 2 recommends for this most excellent thread?

does Ledeen think he can get away with one of the more transparently obvious lies I've seen in quite some time?

and that's SAYing something with this crowd

when's Fitzgerald going to put him in the hot seat, btw?

great work SLD!

[seemslikeadream]

17. Thanks Gabi

Well he thought he would get away with a little forgery too!

[bleever]

16. "Faster, please" was his quip about regional regime changes.

Though at this point, with the movement he belongs to having reached full completeness and thus ready to calve off the glacier and join the sea, I'm not sure what he say now really matters.

[grasswire]

18. yeah, but your daughter made out like a bandit, right?

Simone Ledeen, sent to Baghdad with billions of American taxpayer dollars to disperse, to throw at anything she wished to throw money at. Where did it all go? Where? Simone is a bona fide freeper, by the way. A posting member of freerepublic.com.

[seemslikeadream]

29. 'The Brat Pack' Abercrombie & Fitch camouflage and digital cameras

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48543-2004May22?language=printer

Some also grumbled about the new staffers' political ties. Retired U.S. Army Col. Charles Krohn said many in the CPA regard the occupation "as a political event," always looking for a way to make the president look good.

[mom cat]

20. Those splahing sounds you hear are the rats jumping ship!

[struggle4progress]

24. Ledeen's been a principal theoretician for The Crap; he's not just ..

.. an opportunistic rat jumping ship; and his next moves are predictable: he will emphasize his interest in a war in IraN and will attempt to downplay his role in trying to engineer a broader regional war. Whether Ledeen would have been happier if his WW III started in IraN rather than IraQ, the record of course shows that he was willing to play along with an IraQ start, since long-term it mattered less to him where the war started than that the war be extended to a multinational free-for-all.

[Karenina]

26. True, that!

K&R!!! :kick:

[struggle4progress]

23. Ledeen, admiring student of Italian fascism, critical contact for the Iran-contra scandal,

glorious-culture-of-war-enthusiast who believes that our children will sing songs about us if only we are unrestrained enough in our military adventures, liar who has tried at every stage to broaden the Iraq war (Has Saddam escaped to Iran? New evidence Iraq exported uranium to Iran! &c&c) ... now says he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning.

Of course, he didn't: from the earliest days he pushed the BushCo line that the war in Iraq was part of a broader war, and he made every effort to generate public support for a more general conflagration in the Middle East.

[leesa]

27. This is so exciting! Who's on board for disavowing the Iraq War tomorrow?

Rumsfeld? Do we need to start a lottery?

[chill_wind]

30. eerie Ledeen quote (Iran)

Michael Ledeen, the neoconservative point man on regime change in Iran (and in Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia), is apparently capable of viewing diplomacy only through the barrel of a gun. In a November 2003 article for the National Review Online, Ledeen argued that the “appeasers” in Congress and the State Department “don't want to know about Iran, because if they did, they would be driven to take actions that they do not want to take. They would have to support democratic revolution in Iran.” Ledeen concludes, “I guess some top official will have to die at the hands of (obviously) Iranian-supported terrorists before the Pentagon is permitted to work on the subject.” 13

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/barry-tom3.html



Reminds me more than a little of another specific PNAC musing that "short of another Pearl Harbor...."

Very interesting thread. K&r.

[AntiFascist]

31. Wow, I wonder if they're busily trying to achieve that scenario....

"some top official will have to die." And about that "obviously" thing, haven't we been supporting a terrorist group in Iran, the MEK? I sense another false-flag operation in the works.

[understandinglife]

32. Leeden is scum of the first order ...

Never Forget: George W. Bush willfully violated National Security to cover-up his willful launch of a war of aggression and illegal occupation of Iraq .... and, now he willfully provided nuke-making instructions to terrorists -- if you doubt it, just check 'the google' ...

[Roland99]

33. Ledeen is the most insane of all the asylum patients. But, to his credit...

he *was* setting the stage for the invasion of Iran. He and his good Iran Contra buddy, Ghorbanifar.