Head Of CIA's WMD Division-Told Underlings To GIVE BUSH -The Intelligence To ALLOW Him To Go To War

[kpete]

May 26th, 2007
Jonathan Schwarz:

Head of CIA’s WMD division believed Iraq had nothing, told underlings to give Bush “the intelligence to allow him to go war”

...................

Here’s what Foley believed before the war (p. 125):

There were strong indications that Foley all along was toeing a line he did not believe. Several days after Bush’s State of the Union speech, Foley briefed student officers at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, DC. After the briefing, Melvin Goodman, who had retired from the CIA and was then on the university’s faculty, brought Foley into the secure communications area of the Fort McNair compound. Goodman thanked Foley for addressing the students and asked him what weapons of mass destruction he believed would be found after the invasion. “Not much, if anything,” Goodman recalled that Foley responded. Foley declined to be interviewed for this book.

So why, then, would WINPAC report that Iraq had WMD? Here’s the answer (p. 119):

One day in December 2002, Foley called his senior production managers to his office. He had a clear message for the men and women who controlled the output of the center’s analysts: “If the president wants to go to war, our job is to find the intelligence to allow him to do so.” The directive was not quite an order to cook the books, but it was a strong suggestion that cherry-picking and slanting not only would be tolerated, but might even be rewarded.

.......................

Interestingly, this event has appeared in other books, although not with Foley’s name attached. Details are here.
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/001517.html

http://thismodernworld.com/3771

[bananarepublican]

1. This kind of "intelligence" more than likely drove the Cold War too! n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Icluding Kennedy's infamous and nonexistent "Missile Gap."

[Julius Civitatus]

21. Intelligence "at the pleasure of the president"

So basically Foley is saying that his job is to fudge facts and make up shit to justify the warmongering ambitions of the President.

[klyon]

26. sounds criminal to me

special prosecutor anyone?

[L. Coyote]

2. Duplicate thread here

babylonsister - Sun May-27-07 05:45 AM - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x980056
Original message
Senior CIA Analyst Believed Iraq Had No WMD
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/22977

I've been reading The Italian Letter by Peter Eiser and Knut Royce. There's some amazing stuff in it about Alan Foley, the head of the CIA's Weapons Intelligence Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Center (WINPAC). WINPAC led the CIA's analysis of Iraq's purported WMD, and so Foley is at the very center of what happened.

But what's even more amazing is how little attention the material about Foley has gotten. The book came out several months ago, but according to Google, this is the first time the below sections have appeared online.

Here's what Foley believed before the war (p. 125):

There were strong indications that Foley all along was toeing a line he did not believe. ......

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Jesus Christ. Is it really that simple? Are our agencies now on beck and

call to the President of the United States like he's an emperor? What the hell happened to process?

You know, if that's the case, everything and I mean EVERYTHING is Bush's fault.

[MissWaverly]

13. hey, whatever happened to fbi investigations the last 6 years

they kinda thought something was up with those flight school folks but 9-11 happened anyway.
they were called in to look at numerous complaints regarding election fraud but never found anything, despite the fact that
it is now proven that in Katherine Harris old district, the voting machines were infected with a virus

[Demeter]

27. It Was Always Like That: Except for Clinton

Somehow, he didn't rate that kind of respect. Maybe because he was actually elected by popular vote?

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. Well, they killed JFK, so I guess Clinton faired better.

[formercia]

4. Here's where it gets really interesting:

http://neveryetmelted.com/?cat=624

In the infamous Vanity Fair article on Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame (the one with a photo spread of them in their Jaguar convertible), an article obviously sourced by them, Alan Foley is described as Plame’s boss:

Cheney and his chief of staff, Lewis Libby, visited the C.I.A. several times at Langley and told the staff to make more of an effort to find evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and to uncover Iraqi attempts to acquire nuclear capabilities. One of the people who objected most fervently to what he saw as “intimidation,” according to one former C.I.A. case officer, was Alan Foley, then the head of the Weapons Intelligence, Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Center. He was Valerie Plame’s boss. (Foley could not be reached for comment.)

--snip--

Clarice Feldman wrote to Foley asking some questions, and he replied:

"I didn’t know that Valerie Plame or Joseph Wilson existed until after the Novak article. I have never met nor communicated with either of them. Nor did I have any responsibility or authority relating to them, the reported trip to Niger, or the subsequent leak investigation. As for Ray McGovern, I don’t believe that I have either seen or talked to him since before his retirement from the Agency. That was many years ago; probably sometime in the late 1990’s. Please do not contact me again."

[leveymg]

7. No. WINPAC is DI (analysis), Plame worked for CIA-CPD, which is on the DO (covert) side.

Foley was not Val's boss. Plame worked for CIA-CPD on Iran issues from 1997-2001, and then with the Iraq Issues Task Force. See, http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/006336.php

[formercia]

8. That explains a lot

Thanks for the correction. Having been there, I can understand why Foley wouldn't know about Plame.

Projects can be so compartmentalized that people working in the same Office might not be aware of another Officer working in the same area.

My work was so secret, even I didn't know what I was doing.

[leveymg]

9. Left hand fighting with the right?

;-) B-) :+

Sounds like you fit right in.

[formercia]

19. actually

In my 3 year review, a former supervisor noted that I wasn't a 'Team Player', but then, he was a former Marine.

[leftofthedial]

5. our national "intelligence" services

are actually the PR department for War, Inc.

[leveymg]

6. This all ties in with the Plame and MZM-Cunningham cases

The October 2002 Iraq WMD NIE and the eventual outing of Valerie Plame have a tie-in with the MZM scandal. They present strong circumstantial evidence that the reason that Valerie Plame was "outed" by WHIG was to shut down CIA-Counter Proliferation Division (CPD), where Plame worked, in favor of CIA WINPAC, which had been tamed and harnessed by the neocons.

As this tale makes clear WINPAC was delivering the goods, falsified Iraq WMD reports, in large part because of the leadership of Mr. Foley, and also because WINPAC had outsourced much of its analysis work to private contractor MZM, which was stovepiping bad intel through the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) at Ft. Belvoir. See, http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/11455

Analysts Behind Iraq Intelligence Were Rewarded
By Walter Pincus
The Washington Post

Saturday 28 May 2005

Two Army analysts whose work has been cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq - the claim that aluminum tubes sought by the Baghdad government were most likely meant for a nuclear weapons program rather than for rockets - have received job performance awards in each of the past three years, officials said.

The civilian analysts, former military men considered experts on foreign and US weaponry, work at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC), one of three US agencies singled out for particular criticism by President Bush's commission that investigated US intelligence.

The Army analysts concluded that it was highly unlikely that the tubes were for use in Iraq's rocket arsenal, a finding that bolstered a CIA contention that they were destined for nuclear centrifuges, which was in turn cited by the Bush administration as proof that Saddam Hussein was reconstituting Iraq's nuclear weapons program.

The problem, according to the commission, which cited the two analysts' work, is that they did not seek or obtain information available from the Energy Department and elsewhere showing that the tubes were indeed the type used for years as rocket-motor cases by Iraq's military. The panel said the finding represented a "serious lapse in analytic tradecraft" because the center's personnel "could and should have conducted a more exhaustive examination of the question."

Pentagon spokesmen said the awards for the analysts were to recognize their overall contributions on the job over the course of each year. But some current and former officials, including those who called attention to the awards, said the episode shows how the administration has failed to hold people accountable for mistakes on prewar intelligence.

Despite sharp critiques from the president's commission and the Senate intelligence committee, no major reprimand or penalty has been announced publicly in connection with the intelligence failures, though investigations are still underway at the CIA. George J. Tenet resigned as CIA director but was later awarded the Medal of Freedom by Bush.

The president's commission urged the Bush administration to consider taking action against the agencies, and perhaps the individuals, responsible for the most serious errors in assessing Iraq's weapons program.

Also, see, http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/001517.html

[EVDebs]

16. Leveymg, this deserves a Greatest Page thread all on its own. Thanks ! nt

[Old and In the Way]

23. Interesting pattern - this administration's reward for failure

IIRC, a few key people in the FBI who went out of their way to avoid connecting dots before 9/11 were also rewarded with job promotions.

Incompetence by design.

[bobthedrummer]

34. Yep.

[bobthedrummer]

36. It is part of a pattern that some of us saw years ago-here's a crosspost of one of your threads

that does a good job demonstrating that interconnectedness

"Larger CIA and DoD Privatization Scandal Emerging from Walter Reed Story and US Attorney Firing" archived leveymg thread started 3-9-2007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x377023

For those that care here is a thread that is still valuable for the connected dots contained in it as well as the pointers to other paths that need to be mapped.

"International American Products Inc./IAP: A DU investigation thread" started 3-7-2007 by bobthedrummer
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x360539

[bobthedrummer]

42. Kick

[HCE SuiGeneris]

10. "our job is to find the intelligence to allow him to do so"

This is treason against the people of the U.S.A. How is this man not in jail for these comments?

[L. Coyote]

11. Taxpayer $millions$ buying LIES = Pentagon aimed to control Iraqi media during war

Parallel theme: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x980430

[L. Coyote]

12. Next STOP Iran? More BUSH LIES and Surging Toward War With Iran

Will the Liar, Liar Saga continue: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x980363L

[bobthedrummer]

14. Consider the following articles, interviews and a statement read into the Congressional Record

by Senator Durbin, all published within the historical period of the summer of 2003, before assuming anything about anyone.

These links are more or less centered on the entire false Niger docs, the "16 words", and the Valerie Plame Wilson outing in the context of information warfare.

Here are two articles that mention Alan A. Foley and others in differing contexts from Truthout.org's archives-one is from the WP and one is from the NYT both published 7-18-2003
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/18/1372

Here is an archived Commondreams.org reposted 10-3-2003 article by Ray McGovern regarding the "retirement" of Alan A. Foley, again a different perspective is present
http://www.commondreams.org/scriptfiles/views03/1003-11.htm

A Talkingpointsmemo.com entry from the July 13-19 2003 time-frame also mentions Alan A. Foley and others in yet another way
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_07_13.php

Here is an Amy Goodman 9-17-2003 interview with former CIA analysts Ray McGovern and David MacMichael that is perhaps even more informative today
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/17/1543215

And, finally, Senator Durbin had these critical statements put into the Congressional Record July 22, 2003 when he was falsely accused of revealing classified information-including the name of Alan A. Foley
"Misleading The American People"
http://ftp.fas.org/irp/congress/2003_cr/s072203.html
(some readers may recall that Senator Durbin was threatened by AGAG with the "Be careful when you criticize the Department..." line a few weeks ago-the tactics that have been a trademark of this criminal administration since its installation)

[bobthedrummer]

44. KICK

[grasswire]

15. kick to read later

[Rosa Luxemburg]

17. The impeachment sentence "If the president wants to go to war, our job is to find........"

Quote "If the president wants to go to war, our job is to find the intelligence to allow him to do so" this is concrete grounds for impeachment. Who gave this order was it the POTUS or the VPOTUS?

When do the hearings start?

[stlsaxman]

20. Thanks kpete! good stuff! lately you've been a modern day Kephra in GD...

like he was in LBN. hope you know how appreciated your due diligence is!

[Initech]

22. So if this isn't impeachment material, what is?

:shrug:

[Locrian]

28. how much?

How much more FUCKING information do we need to impeach?
I am so pissed that we are not past impeachment and into criminal punishment for TREASON.

[bobthedrummer]

41. Ever read Sinclair Lewis's "It Can't Happen Here"-it happened in December 2000

[bobthedrummer]

46. Time to kick this up and add an Octafish compendium of Know your BFEE links

for those of US that know our BFEE, btw Alan Foley was more than likely set-up by folks from the BFEE's alternative intelligence Politburo/Gestapo that were promoted by the likes of Feith, Rumsfeld, Cheney et al.--he may have said something to the effect of what is attributed for any number of reasons, taken out of context, which is another MO of the BFEE traitors.

"more BFEE" posted by Octafish 9-9-2006 (it is post #28 in this archived thread-a collection of hyperlinks from one of our finest members)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2082945#2089110

on edit:
"Network Hosting Attorney Scandal E-Mails Also Hosted Ohio's 2004 Election Results" started by Octafish 4-23-2007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x735051

[bjobotts]

24. The Senate committee has decided not to investigate

The senate committee charged with pursuing the lies and liars that misled us into a war with Iraq has decided just to issue a summary of the information that has been discovered. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the committee, has decided not to hold hearings or investigate any further in spite of having promised to do so during the elections. He has chosen not to hold these people accountable for lying to America almost as if it's not worth the effort. I guess he feels it is enough just to recognize that we now know they lied. Some oversight huh? I've written and emailed Rockefeller demanding accountability and I encourage you to do so also so that something will be done to hold these people accountable for causing the deaths of tens of thousands not even counting the wounded.

[CGowen]

25. It started with the National Security Act in 1947 and a guy named Eisenhower warned us. n/t

[mod mom]

31. I agree, that is the date & legislation I use as well.

[bobthedrummer]

35. The original "intelligence failure" was having real NAZIS incorporated in the foundation

of our national security community in 1947, NAZIS that were given jobs and identities as Americans working in "national security", NAZIS that found a political home in the RW of The Republican Party.

Yep, that was the original intelligence failure.

[librechik]

38. that is why I have no qualms about calling the likes of Cheney a Nazi

it's simply the truth, not an exaggeration.

[bobthedrummer]

40. Fascists are fascists, Cheney and some of his family are fascists

war criminals, war profiteers and traitors-like Elizabeth and her hubby Philip Perry et al.

They have truly been influenced by real NAZIS, they admire them and have the same core values-an evil culture of death.

I despise them all too, librechik.

[kineneb]

39. yes, and book recommendation on this subject

The Beast Reawakens: Fascism's Resurgence from Hitler's Spymasters to Today's Neo-Nazi Groups and Right-Wing Extremists

By Martin A. Lee,
original copyright:1997

The information has been out there for some time, but no one wants to see it.

[whistle]

29. Foley refers to Alan Foley...

...."Alan Foley (was) the head of the CIA's Weapons Intelligence Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Center (WINPAC)."

That guy needs to be brought before the Senate Intelligence oversight committee and be required to testify under oath as to who ordered him to instruct his staff in that way, namely to say: "If the president wants to go to war, our job is to find the intelligence to allow him to do so."

My guess would be it was Dick Cheney that made this a requirement and the orders like shit rolled downhill from there!

[bobthedrummer]

32. Kick

[bobthedrummer]

33. Kick

[EstimatedProphet]

37. What is the deal with idiots in our government?

Why do we have so many government officials who now think that thier ultimate duty is to be yes-men to Bush? Did he somehow manage to appoint EVERYONE in a government position?

[Supersedeas]

43. Whoa...does that mean their are bots there who will justify ANY and ALL presidential decisions

[libodem]

45. man, oh, man

I godda hold onto my hat 'cuz my head is spinnin'. whhhoo

[bobthedrummer]

47. Does anyone else believe "intelligence failure"=covering up treason?

[bobthedrummer]

48. .