Reply #161: Secret Rumsfeld meetings of 9/19-20/01 [View All]

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The Defense Policy Board (DPB) meets in secrecy in Rumsfeld's Pentagon conference room on September 19 and 20 for nineteen hours to discuss the option of taking military action against Iraq. This is reported in detail by the New York Times three weeks later on October 12. {New York Times, 10/12/01} Among those attending the meeting are the 18 members of the Defense Policy Board, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld, Ahmed Chalabi, and Bernard Lewis. {New York Times 10/12/01; Vanity Fair, 5/2004, pg 236} Secretary of State Colin Powell and other State Department officials in charge of US policy toward Iraq are not invited and are not informed of the meeting. A source will later tell the New York Times that Powell was irritated about not being briefed on the meeting. {New York Times 10/12/01} During the seminar, two of Richard Perle's invited guests, Princeton professor Bernard Lewis and Ahmed Chalabi, the president of the Iraqi National Congress, are given the opportunity to speak. Lewis says that the US must encourage democratic reformers in the Middle East, “such as my friend here, Ahmed Chalbi.” Chalabi argues that Iraq is a breeding ground for terrorists and asserts that Saddam's regime has weapons of mass destruction. {Vanity Fair, 5/2004, pg 232} During another part of the meeting, the attendees write a letter to President Bush calling for the removal of Saddam Hussein. “{E}ven if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the attack, any strategy aiming at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Failure to undertake such an effort will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism,” the letter reads. The letter is published in The Washington Times on September 20 in the name of The Project for a New American Century (PNAC), a conservative think tank that believes the US needs to shoulder the responsibility for maintaining “peace” and “security” in the world by strengthening its global hegemony. {Project for a New American Century, 9/20/01; Manila Times, 7/19/03} They also discuss how to overcome some of the obvious diplomatic and political pressures that will impede a policy of regime change in Iraq. {New York Times 10/12/01} Bush reportedly rejects the proposal, as both Cheney and Powell agree that there is no evidence implicating Saddam Hussein in the attacks. {New York Times 10/12/01 Sources: Unnamed senior administration officials and defense experts}

The link should be http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=complete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq_62 but that's not coming up. Google cache is http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:hz749LyBXjQJ:www.cooperativeresearch.org/item.jsp%3Fitem%3Dcomplete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq_60+chalabi+september+11+discussions&hl=en