Kerry people: What is Kerry going to say about Office of Special Plans/WMD

[arendt]

I spent several hours researching and writing this. I have posted
details taken from the Kerry website. My intention was to give Kerry
a fair chance to make a good impression in his supposed strong area.
I tried to like Kerry, but there is nothing there to like, and a lot to dislike.

If you can put something as detailed up in rebuttal, I will listen.
But, this is a substantive post, and I expect substantive answers.
One-liners about "sour grapes" or "attacking the winner" or not being
on the "bandwagon" will be instantly dismissed. Kerry is just beginning
to have his record and positions examined in depth. And this is part
of it. The man gets no free pass from me. Clear?

Let's get to work.

------------------------------------

Kerry people: What is Kerry going to say about Office of Special Plans (WMD)?

The scariest thing about the Bush administration is its across the
board implementation of a police state. At DU, we worry about Ashcroft,
Patriot Acts, Police Goon Squads as in Miami FTAA, uncaught Anthrax
bombers, First Amendment Zones, and many other accouterments of
secrecy not for legitimate defense, but for authoritarian domination.

At the moment, the WMD fiasco has exposed them to attack on that front.
Recognizing the danger, the Bush handlers have decided to blame this
ALL on the CIA. The media whores are going along with this, even as
the media itself is now being blamed for its craven war cheerleading.

The corporate media doesn't want to mention yet another embarrasment
to the Bush Cabal, the OSP. Everyone at DU, if they do not know, can
easily find out about the infamous Office of Special Plans. For example:

http://cooperativeresearch.org/wot/iraq/office_of_special_plans.html

DUers want the OSP to be part of the investigation because it is
the OSP who "stovepiped" phony intelligence cooked up by their
tiny team of PNAC Likudniks straight into the White House, because
OSP is Rumsfeld's bastard child, because Cheney's dirty fingerprints
are all over OSP, because convicted felon Eliot Abrams was appointed
to this little shop of horrors, etc.

--------

So, since I keep being told how strong John Kerry is on investigating
CIA corruption and knowing his way around the intelligence community,
and since I further keep hearing about how one Rand Beers (formerly
the Bush Jr guy in charge of South American Anti-terrorism) has joined
the Kerry Campaign, I expected to find Kerry blasting away at the OSP.

After all, Kerry has the experience, the expertise, and the team to do
it. So I am told.

Therefore I went to the Kerry website to see what John has to say about
OSP. To avoid suspense, the answer is NADA, ZILCH, ZERO.

At the website, I looked under "John Kerry on the Issues". Two topics
seemed relevant to this: "Foreign Policy" and "Homeland Security".

Here are the least vague of his proposals. They say nothing about stopping
TAMPERING with the intelligence process. They pretend its all just
a bureaucracy problem. Then Kerry proceeds to propose to put the
CIA in charge of DOMESTIC intelligence (how else can one read the
following direct quote?

....o Reform Domestic Intelligence: As President, John Kerry will begin
....to fix this problem immediately by making the Director of the CIA the
....true Director of National Intelligence with real control of national
....intelligence personnel and budgets.  John Kerry will also undertake
....and complete a national intelligence review immediately

Reading further, we find more creepy ideas, like:

1) turning the Americorps teaching program into the junior spy brigade:

* Expanding Americorps to Make Homeland Security a Core Mission.
....Since 9/11, applications to Americorps have increased by 50 percent
....and applications to Teach for America have tripled.

2) turning the National Guard into yet another SWAT-style paramilitary police force:

* Enlisting the National Guard in Homeland Security.
....Homeland security should be a central mission of the National Guard.

3) advocating the same kind of spy-on-your-neighbor TIPS program that
Ashcroft did:

* Creating a New Community Defense Service. This service would be
....comprised of hundreds of thousands of Americans in neighborhoods all over
....the country. Volunteer Service Captains would receive training and education
....to assist their communities in the event of an attack  Like the Civil Defense
....Program that existed during World War II, service captains would act as a
....21st century Neighborhood Watch.
....^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ (emphasis mine)

----------------

My first challenge to Kerry supporters is:

Do you support all these reactionary increases in domestic security
BEFORE we investigate just exactly WHO is responsible for all the
so-called terrorist activity in this country? I mean, if it weren't for Federalist
Society-packed Federal Courts, the laughably inept prosecution of
many innocent Arab-Americans would have been tossed out long
ago. I repeat: What GENUINE terrorist threat justifies the programs
Kerry is pushing on his web page?

My second challenge is:

Why isn't Kerry shouting OSP from the rooftops? This is perfect positioning
for him.

----------------------

Now, let me turn to Mr. Rand Beers, who was touted as a guy who
could expose the Bush lies because he was an insider on the Bush
team until last summer.

Because I hadn't heard much from Mr. Beers, I Googled:

campaign + "John Kerry" + "Rand Beers"

I got a grand total of 769 hits. A mere handful.

And what I found was not flattering. Apparently, he hasn't done much
since joining. And, when he joined, he was roundly criticized for his
behavior within the Bush Administration.

Hit # 3 on Google was the admittedly controversial CounterPunch site:
http://www.counterpunch.org/donahue01262004.html
January 26, 2004
The Toxic Career of Rand Beers
Kerry's Drug War Zealot
By SEAN DONAHUE

--------

Hit #6 was from Al Giordano's new website (He used to do Narco News.)
www.bigleftoutside.com/archives/000025.php

(This Al is for real; not to be confused with crypto-spook Al Martin.)

....June 16, 2003
....What Did Rand Beers Know and When Did He Know It?

....The front page of the Washington Post today has a shocker: State Department
....fixer Rand Beers jumped ship days prior to Gulf War II and has now signed up
....with the Kerry campaign as a foreign policy advisor.

....Beers was the administration’s point man in the post-9/11 efforts to confuse
....national liberation movements (that don’t attack targets in other countries) with
....“international terrorists." See Narco News, March 1, 2002: Beers Fumigated in
....Deposition.

....See also Narco News, September 10, 2002, in which Beers had to file
....an affidavit to correct a dangerously false claim that he made under
....oath:

....I made the following statement: "It is believed that FARC terrorists have
....received training at Al Qaida terrorist camps in Afghanistan." I wish to
....strike this sentence.

....It’s all well and good that Beers had what the Post today portrays as an attack of
....conscience, but he has to come clean on what really happened with the lies that –
....in at least one instance – he admitted that he told under oath to frighten the ....American public into supporting un-American policies in Latin America.

....Otherwise, Randall Beers will soon become a deserved millstone around John
....Kerry’s neck. Memo to Beers: go have a heart to heart with Dan Ellsberg, ....then do the right thing and come 100-percent clean. Memo to Kerry:
....Caveat Emptor.

Just great, the man lied under oath and had to retract it. And we are supposed to applaud
Kerry for having this guy on board? Only if he does something to show he has really
changed sides - something like blasting the OSP.

----

Challenge number three:

Where, oh where, is Rand Beers? What does he know about the fraudulent
cooking of intelligence?

----

arendt

[arendt]

1. Kick it back to page 1 (shortened by all the Skinner threads) n/t

n/t

[WilliamPitt]

2. He should ask Dennis

http://kucinich.us/DennisKucinichWasRight.pdf

[arendt]

3. Great links, I'm filing it. Thanks.

I had heard that you were in the DK camp.
Very interesting development.

Where can I read more? TruthOut?

Keep up the good work.

arendt

[DrFunkenstein]

4. You're Kind Of, You Know, Stretching Things A Bit

Let me touch on a couple things:

"Making the Director of the CIA the true Director of National Intelligence with real control of national intelligence personnel and budgets."

This is about intelligence sharing. That's a good thing (wait).

"1) turning the Americorps teaching program into the junior spy brigade"

Because the will educate about disaster preparedness, they become a spy brigade?

"2) turning the National Guard into yet another SWAT-style paramilitary police force"

Again, the National Guard SHOULD be involved in protecting people and infrastructure. Where does the "paramilitary" part come in?

"3) advocating the same kind of spy-on-your-neighbor TIPS program that
Ashcroft did"

Let me just quote the rationale you used for the "spy-on-your-neighbor" line:

"Volunteer Service Captains would receive training and education to assist their communities in the event of an attack."

These people would be trained and certified volunteers, not neighborhood spies.

You seem to look for the worst possible reason for each quote you find. Try to be a little more open minded before you start looking for worst-case scenarios.

Here's a speech that I think will clear up alot for you:

"Ending the Era of John Ashcroft"

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2003_1201.html

[arendt]

5. Good speech. Why isn't it more prominent than the boilerplate I read?

Yes, the speech puts some of the quotes in context.

Why do I only find the scary stuff I quoted in the issues list,
instead of finding the positive stuff in the speech, like ending
sneak and peak searches, protecting constitutional rights,
ending spying on churches and political groups.

Those are good things. The website does your candidate
a disservice in that area (domestic intelligence).

BUT, you have completely avoided my MAJOR point:
where is the attack on the Office of Special Plans?This
is supposed to be Kerry's strong point.

----

Minor issue:

> Again, the National Guard SHOULD be involved in protecting people and
> infrastructure. Where does the "paramilitary" part come in?

Well, the only use of the National Guard that anyone has seen is
to put them in the streets of NYC to send out a chilling message.
The NG is a military force, and should be kept to military purposes.
I don't see any details, hence my natural suspicion. Where are the
details?

Thanks for your PARTIAL response

arendt