Anti-War
WASHINGTON, D.C--A Pentagon committee led by Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, advised
President Bush to include a reference in his January State of the Union address about Iraq trying to
purchase 500 tons of uranium from Niger to bolster the case for war in Iraq, despite the fact that the
CIA warned Wolfowitz's committee that the information was unreliable, according to a CIA intelligence
official and four members of the Senate's intelligence committee who have been investigating the issue.
The Senators and the CIA official said they could be forced out of government and brought up on criminal charges for leaking the information to this reporter and as a result requested anonymity. The Senators said they plan to question CIA Director George Tenet Wednesday morning in a closed-door hearing to find out whether Wolfowitz and members of a committee he headed misled Bush and if the President knew about the erroneous information prior to his State of the Union address.
The Senators and the CIA official said they could be forced out of government and brought up on criminal charges for leaking the information to this reporter and as a result requested anonymity. The Senators said they plan to question CIA Director George Tenet Wednesday morning in a closed-door hearing to find out whether Wolfowitz and members of a committee he headed misled Bush and if the President knew about the erroneous information prior to his State of the Union address.
In the coming election George W. Bush will be billed as the national security candidate. His image in a jumpsuit on the Lincoln will be burned in America's retinas. Polls have consistently shown that much of the public has already accepted this characterization, and many have argued that this will be an insurmountable problem for any Democrat, perhaps with the exception of General Wesley Clark. However, the test run of the Bush Doctrine is only now unfolding in its vast implications and consequences, and a handful of extremely significant problems remain with little hint of how they will be resolved. Several of these problems have gone largely unmentioned in both the media and on the Hill, but they may arise as serious questions if Americans are forced to decide whether the Bush Doctrine is a tenable and effective national security strategy.
Wasington Post writer Howard Kurtz says, "But in the bluest of blue-state precincts, it's hard to tell which emotion is stronger: disgust with Dubya or anger at the American public for failing to share their outrage."
I am outraged. I know, because I hear from my readers that there are many more people who are outraged with the lying in the Whitehouse. It's a full-fledged, sloppy, incompetent cover-up and it's only a matter of time before the liars get their due comeuppance. One thing we know is that the CIA told the White house not to use the Nigerian Uranium claims of nuclear threat months before the State of the Union address. Condoleeza Rice already knew. You don't blame someone for not telling you twice.
I am outraged. I know, because I hear from my readers that there are many more people who are outraged with the lying in the Whitehouse. It's a full-fledged, sloppy, incompetent cover-up and it's only a matter of time before the liars get their due comeuppance. One thing we know is that the CIA told the White house not to use the Nigerian Uranium claims of nuclear threat months before the State of the Union address. Condoleeza Rice already knew. You don't blame someone for not telling you twice.
Since the start of the war in Iraq four months ago, 212 American soldiers have been killed, including 79 who have died since May 1, when President George Bush declared an end to major hostilities in Iraq. It's unclear how many Iraqi civilians perished during major combat, but estimates say it is "several thousand."
The Iraqis did not welcome U.S. soldiers with bouquets of flowers, as the hawks in the White House suggested. Instead, they are begging us to leave and are engaging soldiers in guerrilla warfare. Iraq is in such disarray that experts predict it will take at least 10 years to rebuild the country's infrastructure at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. More importantly though, to date, no weapons of mass destruction have been found and there isn't a shred of proof that Iraq was building a nuclear weapons arsenal.
Still, Bush said Iraq was an imminent threat to its neighbors in the Middle East and to the United States. But how can that be if the evidence of its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons program are nowhere to be found? How then can these casualties be justified?
The Iraqis did not welcome U.S. soldiers with bouquets of flowers, as the hawks in the White House suggested. Instead, they are begging us to leave and are engaging soldiers in guerrilla warfare. Iraq is in such disarray that experts predict it will take at least 10 years to rebuild the country's infrastructure at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. More importantly though, to date, no weapons of mass destruction have been found and there isn't a shred of proof that Iraq was building a nuclear weapons arsenal.
Still, Bush said Iraq was an imminent threat to its neighbors in the Middle East and to the United States. But how can that be if the evidence of its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons program are nowhere to be found? How then can these casualties be justified?
Last night before I went to bed I heard the news that CIA Director George Tenet had taken the fall for the Niger uranium debacle. I figured it was coming since Bush and Condoleeza Rice had proclaimed earlier in the day that Tenet had cleared the State of the Union Address which absolved Bush from all blame from making the case that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa.
At around 2:30 AM this morning, I awoke drenched in a cold sweat from one of my dreaded premonition fever dreams and it all began to make sense. The Niger story was simply a dry run by the White House that set the stage for Bush to wiggle his way out of taking any responsibility for the tragedy that occurred on 9-11!
Hear me out here.
At around 2:30 AM this morning, I awoke drenched in a cold sweat from one of my dreaded premonition fever dreams and it all began to make sense. The Niger story was simply a dry run by the White House that set the stage for Bush to wiggle his way out of taking any responsibility for the tragedy that occurred on 9-11!
Hear me out here.
They say that history repeats itself. And so it does.
Two years ago the Central Intelligence Agency released reams of intelligence documents on the former Soviet Union that had been classified for nearly 30 years. The findings were damning: the CIA for more than 10 years greatly exaggerated the nuclear threat the communist country posed to the world.
The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Raymond Garthoff, a longtime C.I.A. military analyst, admitted in 2001 "there were consistent overestimates of the threat every year from 1978 to 1985."
Fast forward to 2003 and the CIA finds itself in a similar pickle. This time it's intelligence on Iraq's alleged stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and the country's nuclear ambitions appear to be in doubt. Two months have passed since major combat in Iraq has ended and those weapons of mass destruction, the reasons the U.S. launched a preemptive strike against Iraq, are nowhere to be found.
Two years ago the Central Intelligence Agency released reams of intelligence documents on the former Soviet Union that had been classified for nearly 30 years. The findings were damning: the CIA for more than 10 years greatly exaggerated the nuclear threat the communist country posed to the world.
The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Raymond Garthoff, a longtime C.I.A. military analyst, admitted in 2001 "there were consistent overestimates of the threat every year from 1978 to 1985."
Fast forward to 2003 and the CIA finds itself in a similar pickle. This time it's intelligence on Iraq's alleged stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and the country's nuclear ambitions appear to be in doubt. Two months have passed since major combat in Iraq has ended and those weapons of mass destruction, the reasons the U.S. launched a preemptive strike against Iraq, are nowhere to be found.
Seven months before two-dozen or so al-Qaida terrorists hijacked three commercial airplanes and flew two of the aircrafts directly into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, killing 3,000 innocent civilians, CIA Director George Tenet, testified before Congress that Iraq posed no immediate threat to the United States or to other countries in the Middle East.
But immediately after the terrorist attacks on 9-11, which the Bush administration claims Iraq is partially responsible for, the President and his advisers were already making a case for war against Iraq without so much as providing a shred of evidence to back up the allegations that Iraq and its former President, Saddam Hussein, was aware of the attacks or helped the al-Qaida hijackers plan the catastrophe.
But immediately after the terrorist attacks on 9-11, which the Bush administration claims Iraq is partially responsible for, the President and his advisers were already making a case for war against Iraq without so much as providing a shred of evidence to back up the allegations that Iraq and its former President, Saddam Hussein, was aware of the attacks or helped the al-Qaida hijackers plan the catastrophe.
CPT team members Peggy Gish, Maureen Jack and Anne Montgomery travelled an
hour north of Baghdad on the road to Tikrit to visit the uncle of a friend of the team who had recently been imprisoned.
At 6.00 am one morning he, his wife and five young children were awakened from sleep by a megaphone. Their house was surrounded by a number of army vehicles and two helicopters. The soldiers said that they were looking for a senior member of Saddam's regime, who they had been told was hiding there. The children saw them as they pointed their weapons; they were frightened and crying. The soldiers found and removed a significant sum of money. They handcuffed the owner of the house and two memb! ers of his extended family. They said that they would hold them for an hour and then release them; about a kilometer along the road they freed the other two, but they took the owner of the house to prison and held him there for twelve days.
At 6.00 am one morning he, his wife and five young children were awakened from sleep by a megaphone. Their house was surrounded by a number of army vehicles and two helicopters. The soldiers said that they were looking for a senior member of Saddam's regime, who they had been told was hiding there. The children saw them as they pointed their weapons; they were frightened and crying. The soldiers found and removed a significant sum of money. They handcuffed the owner of the house and two memb! ers of his extended family. They said that they would hold them for an hour and then release them; about a kilometer along the road they freed the other two, but they took the owner of the house to prison and held him there for twelve days.
Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, was so eager to see the United States launch a preemptive strike against Iraq in early 2002, that he ordered the CIA to investigate the past work of Hans Blix, the chief United Nations weapons inspector, who in February 2002, was asked to lead a team of U.N. weapons inspectors into Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction, in an attempt to undermine the scientist.
The unusual move by Wolfowitz underscores the steps the Bush administration was willing to take a year before the U.S. invaded Iraq to manipulate and or exaggerate intelligence information to support it's claims that Iraq posed an immediate threat to the United States and that the only solution to quell the problem was the use of military force.
The unusual move by Wolfowitz underscores the steps the Bush administration was willing to take a year before the U.S. invaded Iraq to manipulate and or exaggerate intelligence information to support it's claims that Iraq posed an immediate threat to the United States and that the only solution to quell the problem was the use of military force.
CPT Iraq Team Report, June 17, 2003
The CPT delegation arrived back in Baghdad after spending 2 days in Basrah, southern Iraq. Team members who had been in Basrah before the recent war were shocked by the extent of the damage caused by U.S./UK bombing of the city.
Many commercial buildings, hotels, and residential areas had been heavily hit. However, they also noted that there were far fewer troops on the streets than in Baghdad and that the soldiers and civilians were more relaxed. On the way back to Baghdad, the delegation attempted to visit Ur, the birthplace of Abraham. However they were denied entry as the site has now been taken over for a U.S. military base. They could see that the famous ziggurat at the site has been defaced. The delegation also stopped at the place on the highway where CPTer George Weber was killed in a road accident on Jan. 6, 2003. Team members Anne Montgomery and Peggy Gish, and Iraqi drivers Sattar and Ismail, who had been with George at the time of the accident, led in a joint service of remembrance.
The CPT delegation arrived back in Baghdad after spending 2 days in Basrah, southern Iraq. Team members who had been in Basrah before the recent war were shocked by the extent of the damage caused by U.S./UK bombing of the city.
Many commercial buildings, hotels, and residential areas had been heavily hit. However, they also noted that there were far fewer troops on the streets than in Baghdad and that the soldiers and civilians were more relaxed. On the way back to Baghdad, the delegation attempted to visit Ur, the birthplace of Abraham. However they were denied entry as the site has now been taken over for a U.S. military base. They could see that the famous ziggurat at the site has been defaced. The delegation also stopped at the place on the highway where CPTer George Weber was killed in a road accident on Jan. 6, 2003. Team members Anne Montgomery and Peggy Gish, and Iraqi drivers Sattar and Ismail, who had been with George at the time of the accident, led in a joint service of remembrance.