Senate Intelligence Committee Report White-Washes Bad Intelligence Story

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Senate Intelligence Committee " Report " White-Washes

" Bad Intelligence " Story for White House

By Mike Hersh, Jul 12, 2004

 

The Senate Intelligence Committee " Report " that

white-washes the " Bad Intelligence " story for the

White House is quickly becoming the only accepted

version of reality. The media rush to rubberstamp this

story - " Report: War Rationale Based on CIA Error " -

while ignoring the Office of Special Plans and its

role producing " bad intelligence. "

 

The Senate Intelligence Report's 500+ pages lack any

mention of the Office of Special Plans. That's the

Neo-con Chicken Hawk Pentagon panel Bush/Cheney set up

to cherry pick through rumors and lies from suspected

spy Chalabi for bits and pieces to bolster the bogus

case for war. How can any legitimate report on

intelligence failures omit the OSP?

 

The Senate, the media and of course the Bush/Cheney

team blame the CIA. What error did the CIA make? The

AP tells us, " In the unanimously approved report,

senators concluded that the CIA kept key information

from its own and other agencies' analysts; engaged in

" group think " by failing to challenge the assumption

that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction; and allowed

President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to

make false statements. "

 

From this, it seems the CIA schemed to trick the Bush

and his administration into misleading Americans and

the world in order to scare us into attacking Iraq. Is

this true? Of course not. Bush, Cheney and other top

Bush officials planned to attack Iraq early in 2001,

long before the 9/11 attacks. Before we debunk this

facile cover story, let's consider the other key

Senate Intelligence verdict, from the same AP story:

 

Following release of the 511-page review Friday,

the panel's top Democrat, West Virginia Sen. Jay

Rockefeller, said three-quarters of senators would not

have voted to authorize the invasion if they had known

how weak the intelligence was. " See: " Report blames

'group think' for CIA failures on Iraq, " Associated

Press, July 10, 2004:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/09/senate.intel.ap/.

 

Bush, Cheney and others evaluated the " bad "

intelligence, which supposedly came from the CIA.

Then, these two and the entire Bush national security

rushed us in to war. Didn't the Bush team seek a

second opinion or even a third before claiming they

knew Iraq had weapons of mass destruction? Of course

they did. But they ignored the warnings from the CIA

and others.

 

They ignored Joe Wilson - the former Bush I Ambassador

to Iraq - who told them their " intelligence " claiming

Iraq sought " yellow cake " uranium from Africa was

wrong. Even Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice

concluded Iraq represented no threat to the USA. How

is the CIA to blame for this or for buffaloing a

purportedly reluctant warrior Bush and the ostensibly

peaceful Cheney into this rash and tragic mistake? The

CIA isn't responsible, so who is? Consider this report

from Mother Jones magazine:

 

The reports, virtually all false, of Iraqi weapons

and terrorism ties emanated from an apparatus that

began to gestate almost as soon as the Bush

administration took power. In the very first meeting

of the Bush national-security team, one day after

President Bush took the oath of office in January

2001, the issue of invading Iraq was raised, according

to one of the participants in the meeting -- and

officials all the way down the line started to get the

message, long before 9/11.

 

Indeed, the Bush team at the Pentagon hadn't even

been formally installed before Paul Wolfowitz, the

deputy secretary of Defense, and Douglas J. Feith,

undersecretary of Defense for policy, began putting

together what would become the vanguard for regime

change in Iraq. "

 

See: " The Lie Factory " by Robert Dreyfuss and

Jason Vest in which " Late last year, a special Mother

Jones investigation detailed how, only weeks after

9/11, the Bush administration set up a secret Pentagon

unit to create the case for invading Iraq [for] the

inside story of how they pushed disinformation and

bogus intelligence and led the nation to war. Mother

Jones magazine, Jan. - Feb. 2004 -

http://www.mojones.com/news/feature/2004/01/12_405.html

 

The entire public-relations basis for Bush's rush to

war came not from the CIA, but from a hand-picked

flock of Neo-Con chicken hawks. If the media were

left-leaning, they would have picked over the

Bush/Cheney rationale leading up to war rather than

stepped into formation to cheerlead for war.

 

Now that even the Republicans on the Senate

Intelligence Committee agree Bush rushed to war

without justification, this information should get at

least as much attention as Monica Lewinsky. It didn't

and still hasn't. On the day the Senate Intelligence

Committee issued a white-washed " report " blaming the

CIA for " bad intelligence, " the media leave

unmentioned the " Office of Special Plans. "

 

The mass media won't tell us about this Pentagon panel

established specifically to concoct marketable bases

for an Iraq War Bush/Cheney planned long before

9/11/01. The OSP bypassed the CIA and helped plot the

war in earnest while the WTC wreckage still smoldered.

 

The Bush administration rushed into war killing nearly

1000 Americans in uniform (and counting), wounding

1000s more (and counting), costing 100s of $BILLIONS

(again, and counting) based on their own made-to-order

" intelligence " not on any " bad intelligence " from

others. This is not just according to Mother Jones or

the (majority Republican) Senate Intelligence

Committee. Bush's Secretary of State Colin Powell, the

same once-trusted official designated to make the

fabricated case to the UN and the world, admitted

information he used was " inaccurate. "

 

This is one of the stories of the century. Yet all of

the networks - broadcast and cable news alike - ignore

the real culprits. Why would a " liberal media " help

the Bush team place all blame on the outgoing CIA and not even mention the OSP? It's not like

no one reported on the OSP. In addition to Mother

Jones, Seymour Hersh (no relation) reported about this

in-house White House " bad intelligence " factory in

detail:

 

[A]ccording to former and present Bush

Administration officials, their operation, which was

conceived by Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of

Defense, has brought about a crucial change of

direction in the American intelligence community.

 

These advisers and analysts, who began their work

in the days after September 11, 2001, have produced a

skein of intelligence reviews that have helped to

shape public opinion and American policy toward Iraq.

They relied on data gathered by other intelligence

agencies and also on information provided by the Iraqi

National Congress, or I.N.C., the exile group headed

by Ahmad Chalabi.

 

By last fall, the operation rivaled both the

C.I.A. and the Pentagon's own Defense Intelligence

Agency, the D.I.A., as President Bush's main source of

intelligence regarding Iraq's possible possession of

weapons of mass destruction and connection with Al

Qaeda.

 

As of last week, no such weapons had been found.

And although many people, within the Administration

and outside it, profess confidence that something will

turn up, the integrity of much of that intelligence is

now in question. See: " SELECTIVE INTELLIGENCE " by

SEYMOUR M. HERSH, Donald Rumsfeld has his own special

sources. Are they reliable? The New Yorker Magazine,

2003-05-12,

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030512fa_fact.

 

Yes, " experienced expert " Richard Cheney and all the

other top Bush national security officials relied on

Ahmad Chalabi for " intelligence. " The same convicted

felon Chalabi (Jordanian law) currently suspected of

spying against America for Iran. Bush/Cheney not only

undermine our safety by " outing " our own agents, they

actually pay enemy agents and invite them to the White

House to undermine our national security!

 

The Bush team welcomed suspected spy Chalabi into

their inner circle and shared with him our most

sensitive national security secrets. Not because he

offered any real or plausible information about Iraq.

Just because he eagerly told the Bush team the lies

they wanted to hear and needed to scare America into

war. Cheney and the rest even sought to install

Chalabi as the new President of Iraq! And they brag of

their superior judgment and experience?

 

Who in the corporate media reports this " intelligence

failure " which had nothing to do with the CIA and

everything to do with lacking leadership by the Bush

White House, Pentagon and State Department? No one.

How is any of this the CIA's fault? This is the fault

of Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, and Rumsfeld - the

leaders entrusted with making sound, valid decisions

and who knew or should have known the difference

between " intelligence " - which can be nothing more

than rumor - and evidence.

 

Top Bush officials rejected sound evidence and advice

that did not fit their required template by supporting

their rush to war against Iraq. As Richard Clarke

testified under oath, he told Bush and Rumsfeld where

to attack the al Qaeda enemies who attacked us, but

they were intent on attacking Iraq.

 

Even if the CIA intelligence reports contained errors

- and this isn't yet certain - the men and women Bush

entrusted to keep us safe did not make sound or

sensible decisions. Their prejudice, failure and

ambition exacerbated any intelligence errors. Worst of

all, and they lied when they assured us they knew

exactly where Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were

when they knew nothing of the kind.

 

Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, and Rumsfeld all lied to

us about what they knew as opposed to what they

suspected. It worked well at first as part of Karl

Rove's public relations blitz to help Republicans win

seats in Congress. Then the invasion began and

Americans started dying. 100s of our troops died due

to Bush/Cheney lies and errors. Americans are still

dying and top Bush/Cheney officials are still lying.

Where is the accountability? Nowhere. Not from the

Congress, the 9/11 Commission or the mass media.

 

It's no mystery how all this happened. Former Bush

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill confirms the Bush

administration planned to attack Iraq long before

9/11/01. Greg Palast uncovered evidence of detailed

plans to seize and sell Iraqi assets to Washington

insiders and Bush campaign contributors drafted mere

weeks after Bush's tainted inauguration.

 

All these plans were in the works, and Former Bush

Anti-Terror Czar Richard Clarke testified under oath

that Bush, Rumsfeld and others pressed him to blame

Iraq and Saddam for the 9/11 attacks even though

Clarke told them repeatedly al Qaeda was to blame. So

Bush fired Clarke, made a half-hearted stab at Osama

bin Laden with 11,000 troops in Afghanistan, and sent

nearly 200,000 American to kill and die in Iraq.

 

This is especially damning: " According to the Pentagon

adviser, Special Plans was created 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. " According

to the Senate Committee, none of that was true. Again

see: " SELECTIVE INTELLIGENCE "

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030512fa_fact.

 

Unfortunately the Senate Committee chose to blame the

CIA and ignore the Bush administration's hand-picked

intelligence mini-agency, the Office of Special Plans'

active participation in this willful deception - at

least until after the November 2 election. How

convenient. Now reconsider the Senate " report " and the

eager beaver media cover-up in lieu of real coverage.

 

Bush and most of his top-level national security team

are guilty of manufacturing lies about Iraqi nuclear

and other weapons programs to frighten Americans into

backing his war. Bush himself certified dishonest

" intelligence " under oath in his presentation to the

Congress.

 

This remains largely unreported, left to small

magazines and muckraking books. Not even Michael

Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11 mentioned these facts, and of

course they have never seen the light of a cathode ray

tube. ABC, CBS, NBC and the " Clinton News Network "

just blithely blame the CIA and sit back as Bush and

Cheney question others' national security credentials.

 

After 1000 Americans died, 1000s more were wounded,

and $billions of tax dollars wasted, the Senate, Colin

Powell, Bush's weapons inspector David Kay and others

admit we went to war on " bad intelligence. " Who should

take the blame for this botch job? The CIA? No, they -

unlike the OSP - reported the lack of certainty Bush

and Cheney ignored.

 

Anyone who considers the media " liberal " is raving.

Bush is in office now - after getting away with his

selection rather than election and not impeached for

high crimes before and after seizing office - only

because the corporate media protect the corrupt, inept

and failed Bush/Cheney administration. All while the

mass media prevent the public from knowing the truth.

That's how the press betrays the people.

 

Enough excuses, finger-pointing and double-talk from

W. Bush and Dick Cheney. The buck stops with them.

They blew it leading up to 9/11 and by misleading us

into war. Enough Bush/Cheney failure! They can't lead

or keep us safe. We need qualified leadership. That

means Bush and Cheney must go.

 

 

 

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