Ex-spy (Richard Steele) raps Bush, intelligence

[Sticky]

By TOM MORTON
Star-Tribune staff writer Sunday, January 18, 2004

snip

Before 9-11, there were 15 books published that detailed the serious deficiencies in U.S. intelligence, but the Bush administration in particular didn't pay attention, Steele said. "Nobody wanted to do intelligence reform."
snip

Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11, and for a tenth of the approximately $400 billion the United States has spent on the war in Iraq, it could have caught Osama bin Laden, he said. "We're pretending to be at war with terrorism, but what this is really about is electing George Bush on an Iraq plank."

The United States is not investing in state, local and clandestine intelligence, Steele said. "We are being bamboozled by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and all of the Arab countries and African countries. Many African Muslim countries are killing their own people, and we're accepting that because they're pretending to help us."

Steele predicts that the United States will endure another series of terrorist attacks. "There will be another 5,000 body bags. There is nothing in the President's budget that makes America any safer; all of the money is being spent on first responders who do things after we've been killed."

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/01/18/news/casper/97df93ff8ed581e587256e1d0065ee33.txt

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Moderates allowed their party to be hijacked for the sake of winning

the same way Dems allowed our party to be hijacked by corporate interests and laissez faire trade and economic policy for the sake of winning

[lovedems]

2. It looks as if we are going to have to count on our local news

to get the truth rather than the national news who are just puppets of the administration. I can say that our local paper always had a conservative spin on the news and current events. I see that shifting everyday. They are reporting stories that aren't touched by the national media. It is a nice change of pace for this liberal.

Edit: good article and I am glad * and his administration are getting more exposure for their ridiculous policies and plans.

[Sticky]

3. "We're pretending to be at war with terrorism"

That's a pretty strong statement and I believe most CIA people are in agreement with it. Since the Valerie Plame incident it seems the gloves are off.....bush broke the trust and loyalty commandment.

[Grins]

4. Clinton?

I liked the article, until I say this little blurb: "Steele doesn't let President Clinton off the hook, either. "It was the Clinton administration that allowed bin Laden to happen; in fact, it was the Clinton administration that trained bin Laden."

Man, that's news to me! In fact, it should be news to almost every Republican. The consensus was that bin Laden learned his "skills" in Afghanistan during it's CIA supported war against the Soviets - that makes it the Carter and Reagan administrations!

Bin Laden was supposed to hate the US because we "infidels" were in his homeland, Saudi Arabia, by establishing a military base there during the Reagan administration, and fought a war against other Arabs (Iraq) from there. That's adds Poppy Bush to the list.

From Richard Minter, author of "Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror" <http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/23/1258253>, "The Bin Laden threat really emerged on Bill Clinton's watch. December 29, 1992, was the first time in which Bin Laden targeted Americans. That was while George Bush was still president but after Clinton had won the election and just shortly before he was going to be sworn in as president. In two towering hotels in Yemen, 100 U.S. Marines were stationed and Bin Laden's plan was to blow up both of those towers and he nearly succeeded but was spoiled by a sharp eyed security guard and so no one was injured. Everyone has sort of forgotten about this 1992 incident in Yemen. But that was the first time the CIA learned of Bin Laden and was the first time also that Clinton or any president was briefed on Bin Laden."

Another comment from Peter Lance in his debate with Minter (same source): "This idea that we need all these Draconian civil libertarian intrusions today to fight the war on terror is absurd. All the tools to have stopped Ramsey Yusef, therefore to stop the original bombing and 9/11 were there during the presidency of George Herbert Walker Bush."

The first hit on US soil was the WTC in February of 1993, only 37 days after Clinton was inaugurated (i.e., it was planned during the Bush I administration). Osama must be a fast learner!

This guy was an "intelligence" officer?