Restoring Trust in America : Zbigniew Brzezinski (WPost)

[jbfam4]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4334-2004Feb1.html?nav=hptoc_eo


Restoring Trust in America

By Zbigniew Brzezinski
Monday, February 2, 2004; Page A17



There is no excuse for the inadequacy of the intelligence that provided the background for the decision-making and the articulation of U.S. policy. Though an autocracy, Iraq was a much more porous state than the totalitarian Soviet Union had been. It was certainly much more porous than contemporary North Korea. The misjudgments made and the imprecision of the information provided, based (we now know) largely on extrapolations and hypothetical conclusions, are just not acceptable. The evident shortcomings of U.S. intelligence, if allowed to persist, pose too many risks for the future.

Today, in the more diffused post-Cold War circumstances, access to reliable political intelligence derived from high-level human penetration of potential adversaries is the essential requirement of responsible and globally credible strategic policymaking. It is therefore a matter of high national urgency that several steps be promptly taken to give our national decision makers a more reliable basis for shaping policies that command international support:

• The administration should candidly acknowledge that the United States was misinformed about the state and level of Iraqi armaments, a fact already quite evident to much of the world. Continued evasion on this subject is a disservice to America.

• A shake-up of leadership in the intelligence community is needed and appropriate; measures to that end should be promptly taken. Accountability is needed to restore credibility.

• A small committee of experienced individuals trusted by the administration (hence not including its critics, such as the undersigned) should be tasked on a short deadline to present the president a plan for changing the priorities and the modus operandi of the intelligence community, with high emphasis on the development of an effective clandestine service.


The writer was national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter. His latest book, "The Choice: Domination or Leadership," is to be published this month.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. And 4) Vote out this administration.

Where is a corporation CEO allowed to be this wrong about something, and still allowed to keep his job? Only in a Republican America.

[el_gato]

2. total bullcrap!

what a diversion from the facts, the "intelligence" was there
people like us were screaming at the top of our lungs that they
were lying to justify this invasion.

INTELLIGENCE FAILURE MY ASS!

but I would expect this from Zbig anyway.

[rog]

3. OK ... here's what I don't understand.

Perhaps someone could explain why NONE of these people ... Brzezinski, news reporters, commentators, you name it ... who certainly know what's going on, mentions the fact that the "official" intel agencies were pretty consistent in their message: "Saddam's got nothing." As a matter of fact, the OSP (Office Of Special Plans) was set up specifically to circumvent the CIA, the DIA, etc.

Isn't this public knowledge by now? The info is certainly out there for anyone who cares to pay attention.

How can they possibly expect to pin this on the CIA?

.rog.

A chronology of how the Bush Administration repeatedly and deliberately refused to listen to intelligence agencies that said its case for war was weak
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=24889

The timeline runs from 1997 to the present. Here's one entry from 2001.

SEPTEMBER 2001 – WHITE HOUSE CREATES OFFICE TO CIRCUMVENT INTEL AGENCIES: The Pentagon creates the Office of Special Plans "in order to find evidence of what Wolfowitz and his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, believed to be true-that Saddam Hussein had close ties to Al Qaeda, and that Iraq had an enormous arsenal of chemical, biological, and possibly even nuclear weapons that threatened the region and, potentially, the United States…The rising influence of the Office of Special Plans was accompanied by a decline in the influence of the C.I.A. and the D.I.A. bringing about a crucial change of direction in the American intelligence community." The office, hand-picked by the Administration, specifically "cherry-picked intelligence that supported its pre-existing position and ignoring all the rest" while officials deliberately "bypassed the government's customary procedures for vetting intelligence."

2002: Intel Agencies Repeatedly Warn White House of Its Weak WMD Case

Throughout 2002, the CIA, DIA, Department of Energy and United Nations all warned the Bush Administration that its selective use of intelligence was painting a weak WMD case. Those warnings were repeatedly ignored.

[Martin Eden]

10. Thanks for the link!

Excellent sources!

[9215]

4. What Bushboy was really depending on

was the political support from the US public, I mean you, me and everybody, from the "Perle Harbor" like attack Brez said was neccessary for a resource grab. It was Brez's subtle, subtle by today's standards, arrogance in his book "The Grand Chessboard" that cultivates this kind of fascist warmongering. PNAC was, in all probablility, inspired by Brezizinski's take.

Brezizinski is not any different than the Bush cabal. He sees nothing wrong with "realpoliticks". What is so pathetic about his ramblings here is that if the truth of the matter was ever made public it would show most of what happened as stemming from his philosphy. His is very similar to Kissinger's worldview and other Cold-War Repugs.

[glitch]

5. What's the matter zbiggie? Folks playing on your grand chessboard

not quite as competent as you envisioned? Or perhaps it's the concept itself. God forbid you should examine that.

[9215]

6. I wonder if ziggy

knows how his crap inspires the kind of idiotic resource grabs we are now witnessing?

But I guess some people will make alot of money on all of this no matter how things pan out.


Another thing. Ziggy never discusses the option of using alternatives to oil. His entire case for making moves on the Grand Chessboard is hinged on our dependence on fossil fuels. Why is that?

For somebody who is so knowledgeable why does he artificially restrict the scope of debate--the basis of US power--to acquiring fossil fuels. If he was really interested in seeing the US grow and prosper he would have paid some attention to the prospect of energy independence.

Very weird stuff going on with his ideas. My hunch is he is part of the energy cabal that wants to run the world their way.

[Demeter]

7. Funniest Title for a Thread I've Ever Read

Talk about IRONY!

[9215]

8. Repugs don't have any vision

no alternatives to the status quo. Brezizinski is one of their top thinkers and he can't think out of the box to save his life.

[9215]

11. kick

I'd like to hear others views on this.

[reprehensor]

9. The Intelligence Community was asked to...

Come up with that BS intel, and when that wasn't good enough, the Administration set up the Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon.

Perhaps Zbig is repaying a favor to Wolfowitz for his blurb on the back of the dust-jacket for 'the Grand Chessboard'.

[9215]

12. Wonder where Zbig gets his marching orders from?

He is the co-founder of the Trilateral Commission. His role as Carter's Sect. of State gives him a phony nonpartisan image. If he read what he wrote he would also be aware that Bush needs to build up public support. No amount of patching up the intelligence community is going to solve the prob in Iraq.

Sometimes I think he is just playing games with everybody. I'd like to see his investment portfolio.