Sen. Levin investigating Pentagons "Office of Special Plans"...Fieth

[ElsewheresDaughter]

Senator Says Pentagon Unit Hyped Terror Tie
by Bryan Bender

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1022-02.htm

WASHINGTON -- A small Pentagon unit set up after Sept. 11, 2001, to review raw intelligence later exaggerated the relationship between Al Qaeda and Iraq, leading White House officials to make overblown or inaccurate comments in the run-up to the Iraq war, according to the Democratic staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Also See:

Pentagon's Feith Again at Center of Disaster
Pentagon Office Home to Neo-Con Network
FBI Espionage Probe Goes Beyond Israeli Allegations, Sources Say


The staff's report, based on a 15-month investigation and released yesterday by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee's top Democrat, accused the office of Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith of compiling "selective reinterpretations of intelligence" that went beyond the views of American spy agencies in order to help make the case for an invasion of Iraq.

The 46-page report concluded that Feith and his staff were convinced that a significant relationship existed between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, and that the office had advanced that perspective by trying to change the intelligence community's views and "by taking its interpretation straight to policymakers."

In response, the Defense Department cited other investigations by the Senate Intelligence Committee and the 9/11 commission that have found relationships did exist between Al Qaeda and the former government of Iraq. The department said in a statement it has cooperated with the Senate investigation, but did not directly address the allegations.

Levin said he is still seeking documents from the Pentagon, including those related to intelligence that may have been provided by Iraqi exile groups. Feith declined to comment on the report.

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[Trajan]

1. GEEEZUS ! ....

WTF took so damned long ? ...

That should have been the FIRST place to investigate: not the LAST ! ...

[JolietDem]

2. Tommy Franks on Douglas Feith

I hate Tommy Franks for being a GOP shill, but his opinion of Feith is incredibly pithy and relevant--

"the stupidest fucking person on the face of the earth."
"the stupidest fucking person on the face of the earth."
"the stupidest fucking person on the face of the earth."
"the stupidest fucking person on the face of the earth."
"the stupidest fucking person on the face of the earth."
"the stupidest fucking person on the face of the earth."
"the stupidest fucking person on the face of the earth."
"the stupidest fucking person on the face of the earth."
"the stupidest fucking person on the face of the earth."
"the stupidest fucking person on the face of the earth."
"the stupidest fucking person on the face of the earth."

...not to mention the source of almost every possible disaster in this war to date, from pushing for it to planning it to torturing people in it.

But Shrub won't fire him. Guess America will have to on November 2nd.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. INDEED!!!

[shraby]

4. They all should have known

and done something before this. Sy Hersh wrote about the Office of Special Plans in 2003.

[H2O Man]

6. and as all Plame Thread participants know .....

the Office of Special Plans, reportedly now disbanded, was one of a few "cells" in the executive branch -- along with a similar one is the State Dept managed by John Bolton, and the one from the VP's office. Joseph Wilson writes about OSP on pages 432-434 in his book.

[Nordic]

9. Levin must have finally found this under a stack of papers

or something.

Good GRIEF.

We've known about this here at DU for .... how long?

[anarchy1999]

5. I'd like to know, why did "they" wait so long? This is BS! Why?

We've all been out here for 4 years, why now, 8 days before the "selection", gets to happen again? WHY? I want to know!

[annabanana]

11. maybe, (mr gloom & doom),

The powers that be are aware that bushco ISN'T going to be able to pull it off, and the walls are beginning to cave as other institutions save face.

[Warpy]

7. High time

Of course, I imagine all those poll internals are known to Congressmen as well as the Bush gang, and they know Bush is on his way back to Crawford. They're getting braver, thinking the anthrax won't make a repeat appearance.

What he should be investigating is how much input that Israeli spy, Franklin, had. It appears pretty clear that Israel was the main beneficiary of Bush's war and that the "intelligence" came from them as well as from Iraqi expats with grudges, like Chalabi and Allawi.

This is the second time a gang of ideologically blind nutcases in the Pentagon have lied us into a war. The first was Vietnam. Now it's Iraq. It seems the Pentagon is the building in DC most desperately in need of a housecleaning.

[Blue Wally]

8. You had better read......

David Halberstams "The Best and Brightest" which has recently been released in paperback after being out of print for a while. The "gang" that got us into Vietnam were primarily out of the State Department (Rusk and the Bundy's) together with a guy on the outs from the Pentagon (Gen Maxwell Taylor) and a guy who was trying to cvhange the pentagon (McNamara).

[ElsewheresDaughter]

10. OSP kick