Latest of the Suskind story, it wasn't the CIA, Cheney asked Feith to do it.

[Hamlette]

An extremely reliable and well placed source in the intelligence community has informed me that Ron Suskind’s revelation that the White House ordered the preparation of a forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda and also to attempts made to obtain yellowcake uranium is correct but that a number of details are wrong.

The Suskind account states that two senior CIA officers Robert Richer and John Maguire supervised the preparation of the document under direct orders coming from Director George Tenet. Not so, says my source. Tenet is for once telling the truth when he states that he would not have undermined himself by preparing such a document while at the same time insisting publicly that there was no connection between Saddam and al-Qaeda. Richer and Maguire have both denied that they were involved with the forgery and it should also be noted that preparation of such a document to mislead the media is illegal and they could have wound up in jail.

My source also notes that Dick Cheney, who was behind the forgery, hated and mistrusted the Agency and would not have used it for such a sensitive assignment. Instead, he went to Doug Feith’s Office of Special Plans and asked them to do the job. The Pentagon has its own false documents center, primarily used to produce fake papers for Delta Force and other special ops officers traveling under cover as businessmen. It was Feith’s office that produced the letter and then surfaced it to the media in Iraq. Unlike the Agency, the Pentagon had no restrictions on it regarding the production of false information to mislead the public. Indeed, one might argue that Doug Feith’s office specialized in such activity.

http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2008/08/07/suskind-revisited/

This sounds more believable to me. I don't see Bush et al asking Tenent who they didn't trust. Feith however, is rotten tot he core. He'd NEVER tell. Also note, it is against the law for the CIA to have done it but not the Pentagon. There's your loop hole that makes what they did legal.

Waterboard them all.

[Coexist]

1. I ordered the book - can't wait to read it

and this addition to the story will make it an even more interesting read.

[global1]

2. So It Starts - Let's Distort This Story So That Nothing Becomes Believable And.....

we'll be left with just a conspiracy theory.

Susskind says he has Robert Richer and John Maguire on tape. Now because of pressure they are backing off their story and we are seeing other conflicting stories appear so as to confuse and distort.

One question - why did Tenet receive the Medal of Honor from Bush?

[Jackpine Radical]

3. This confuses the hell out of me.

Isn't Suskind supposed to have these guys on tape? If Tenet, Richer & Maguire didn't do it, then what gives? How did a Cheney/Feith operation get misattributed so badly?

[Hamlette]

4. two words: Dan Rather

if they would forge a letter to get us into war, they would forge lots of stuff to discredit the ppl in the media who are trying to find the truth.

maybe.

[Gabi Hayes]

5. yep...one of those guys is CEO of Blackwater!

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Suskind was played, which would make me very sad, as he's been shown to be an almost error free reporter of some of the most egregious depredations committed in OUR name.

I'd like to hear what James Risen has to say about this, as the CIA/DOD conflict was a centerpiece of his most excellent State of War

[Jackpine Radical]

7. After a moment's reflection, that's pretty much where I got to.

My bet, though, is that the later story is the disinfo. They're trying to muddy the waters so that the whole business gets discredited. Like when Brisard & Dasquie came out with The Forbidden Truth recounting the problems with the official 9/11 story, and almost immediately there was another French book out touting some totally crackpot theories, and they used the latter to discredit the former. Pure Rove.

[H2O Man]

6. Right.

Also consider the forged Niger yellow cake document.

[Overseas]

8. Disinformation? What of CIA reports that Cheney visited far more often

than any other White House had, to put pressure on officers to produce reports to his liking? Just because Cheney was suspicious of the CIA does not mean he didn't exert a lot of pressure on them by visiting frequently to make sure they were doing his bidding.

I think the objective now is to muddy the waters with contradictory statements so all the corporate media pundits can wipe their brows in confusion and give up the story-- "Too many conflicting statements! We'll never learn the truth. Oh well!"

[seafan]

9. Feith's office: Franklin, Ledeen, Rhode/forged yellowcake documents/a forged Saddam set-up.....

IMHO, we don't know even 5% of the nefarious activity Feith's office in the Pentagon was carrying out.


Suskind's newly revealed story of this forgery to link Saddam with al Qaeda and yellowcake is morphing into the forged yellowcake documents that came out of Italy, and a secret meeting in Rome in December, 2001, starring Ledeen, Rhode, Franklin (all three based in Feith's office at the time), Italian military intelligence chief Pollari and Italian Minister of Defense Martino, and Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar...


Here's a good recap of that buried story:

Fresh scrutiny on a rogue Pentagon operation



Keep on connecting the dots.


Cheney is the largest, brightest dot.