So the Bush Administration is supporting an "independent" probe into the "intelligence failures" about Iraqi WMDs. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) summed up what the scope of this probe should be in the Washington Post yesterday: "The panel, Roberts said, would have to be bipartisan and include only recognized experts whose recommendations could "leapfrog" over the current debate and quickly tackle the issue of how to fix intelligence deficiencies. "It would be helpful not only politically, but also for the nation," Roberts said." (
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1723-2004Jan31.html?nav=hptop_tb )
That's right, the commission will leapfrog right over the truth...right over the most critical questions.
Am I an idiot or does something not add up here:
1. UN Weapons inspectors in Iraq last year -- did not find any WMDs. Complained about some Iraqi obstruction to certain areas -- but ultimately always gained access. At the time Bush ordered them out so that the war could commence, they said they were making progress but needed more time.
2. CIA sent numerous reports to Bush Administration. Any positive evidence of WMDs was almost invariably accompanied by a cautious caveat. But more importantly, the CIA told the Bush Administration that it's three major pillars in the case for war were simply not true or not substantiated. To wit: The CIA told Bush's people that the aluminum tubes that Bush claimed were designed for nuclear subterfuges were not designed for that (which is also what State Department experts said, as well as the IAEA); the CIA told Condi Rice and her underling that the yellowcake Niger documents were forgeries or otherwise unreliable; and the CIA told the Bush people that there was no credible evidence of a Saddam and Al Qaeda connection.
3. The Bush Administration was so frustrated by the CIA's cautionary tone on WMD evidence as well as what it perceived to be CIA mis-underestimating of the existing threat, that the Pentagon -- led by Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz -- set up its own "Office of Special Plans" -- to conduct its own evaluation of intelligence. This office ultimately read all intelligence to indicate a WMD threat. It also politicized the evidence. Its mission was to help build the case for war. The "Office of Special Plans," for instance, leaked the phony story about the aluminum tubes to the NY Times.
4. Now, we know there are no WMDs -- at least none posing any threat (if any at all).
5. The Bush Administration is under pressure to agree to an independent inquiry into the matter.
6. To control and define the inquiry, the Bush Administration is supporting it.
7. Cheney is calling key lawmakers to discuss the scope of the commission. Why the hell would a man who SHOULD BE ONE OF THE KEY PEOPLE BEING INVESTIGATED be calling up the people who would be designing the investigation???
8. The commission now, according to Pat Roberts, is going to focus on how to fix the CIA.
How to fix the CIA?
Condi Rice has told us we need to let the "Iraq Survey Group" finish its job. This is the new name for the US weapons inspectors in Iraq. This has cost us millions of dollars. A new report in the Guardian newspaper in London says that the US knew for sure there were no WMDs back in May, within weeks of the fall of Baghdad. But to cover the Bush Administration's lies, we have to keep looking for them. To cover their lies further, we now have to have a charade of a commission look at every question except the most critical one: Did the Bush Administration politicize or otherwise lie about intelligence?
Don't we remember how all the Administration's supporters were criticizing the CIA before the war? They said the CIA was not doing a good enough job back then -- because the CIA wasn't blindly supporting the evidence that the Administration claimed it had -- the CIA was so bad back then, in fact, that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz set up their own freakin agency to trumpet the case for war.
Now the same people are saying the CIA had the intelligence all wrong to begin with. The CIA led the innocent Bush Administration to believe there was an imminent threat from Iraq's WMDs. Bad CIA! Bad!
Excuse me, that's now "Weapons of Mass Destruction Related Program Activities."
With the new Leapfrog Commission, get ready for some "Serious Bullshit to Protect Our Asses Related Program Activities."
How stupid do they think we are??? Am I in Wonderland? Is black white? Up down?
This is the growing subtext which will soon overshadow the other important investigation which is moving at a snail's pace -- the Plame Affair. In that case, the Bush Administration, for reasons of sheer political vengeance against the guy who called them on the yellowcake lie, blew the cover of a CIA agent who specialized in...WMD! Bush said he would bring honor and integrity back to the White House. But when this story broke he said, sadly, that we may never know who leaked Plame's identity to Robert Novak. If I was the president, I'd find out pretty damn quick. You call everyone into the Oval Office and tell them that you want to know now, that the person who did it better fess up, etc. He never did that.
To make matters in the Plame affair even worse, the Attorney General sent a memo to White House Counsel Gonzales on a Friday explaining that, on Monday, he would be receiving a subpoena for records relating to the leak and that, on Monday, White House staff should begin preserving those records.
I find this a bit odd. NEVER NEVER NEVER do you warn the other side that a subpoena is on its way. This warning gave the White House time to destroy any damaging records before the subpoena arrived. This is NEVER the way you practice discovery or a criminal investigation. But this is precisely the way you help the other side get rid of incriminating evidence.
These are the kinds of lies and coverups that should bring down a Presidency -- Bush, Ashcroft, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice. Clinton was almost brought down for having affairs and lying about it. He went through an impeachment.
But Bush faces no such inquiry. There's no independent counsel. There's no impeachment. Yet the consequences of his lies dwarf the consequences of Clinton's.
US casualties in Iraq in January alone: 45 dead, 120 wounded.
From the new biography of fmr Sec of Treas Paul O'Neill:
After a moment, O'Neill interjected, "I've seen a lot of factories around the world that look a lot like this one. What makes us suspect that this one is producing chemical or biological agents for weapons?"
Tenet mentioned a few items of circumstantial evidence -- such as the round-the-clock rhythm of shipments in and out of the plant -- but said there was "no confirming intelligence" as to the materials being produced.
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