Margolis: The era of strategic deception

[Sticky]

Sun, July 18, 2004
The era of strategic deception

By Eric Margolis --


HAVING PRESIDED over the two worst intelligence disasters since Pearl Harbor -- 9/11 and the misbegotten invasion of Iraq -- the Bush Administration and its apologists are now whining, "Okay, we were wrong about Iraq's weapons and supposed threat, but so was everybody else. Besides, it was all the CIA's fault."

No way. The Iraq weapons fiasco was absolutely not caused by an "intelligence failure," as the White House and the recent Senate whitewash claim.

-snip-

This column has long reported smouldering anger among veteran CIA officers over Bush's deeply flawed policies towards Iraq and the Muslim world.

In late 2001, I was shocked and horrified to hear a distinguished member of the CIA's founding families actually claim a "fifth column" had taken control of Iraq policy and was driving the U.S. to war.

But even the compliant CIA failed to satisfy Bush and Cheney's growing demands for more damning "evidence".

Cheney and Defence Secretary Don Rumsfeld created two independent intelligence units, Office for Special Plans, and "Team B." Their mission: Find the smoking guns to justify immediate war against Iraq. These two units became the main conduits for disinformation about Iraq, promoting every rumour the White House and media wanted to believe, no matter how absurd.

-snip-

They and Britain's Tony Blair must not be allowed to escape full blame and retribution by hiding behind the sophistry that everyone -- and thus no one -- was responsible.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Eric_Margolis/2004/07/18/547035.html

[wolfgirl]

1. kick n/t

:kick:

[indepat]

2. The two worst intelligence disasters since Pearl Harbor not to mention

environmental, fiscal and foreign-relations disasters, disasters of a magnitude not likely to ever be able to be rectified.

[Sticky]

3. "Fifth Column"

....does he mean The Office of Special Plans?

[no_hypocrisy]

4. "Disception" is too nice a word. LIES!!!! LIES!!!!! LIES!!!!!!!

[Bonhomme Richard]

5. "Fifth Column" defined................

"clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation's solidarity by any means at their disposal."

[Sticky]

7. That pretty much sums up bushco...n/t

[acmavm]

6. Why, if the truth be told, does it come from a media outlet outside of

this country? I thought the New York Times apologized for their unquestioning pandering for the bush* administration before the 'shock and awe' slaughter.

Whereas the intelligence that led up to the war was faulty no one is connecting it to the absolute fiasco of the fifty bombing attacks on high value targets that were a complete failure. No targets were struck because that info was blatantly false as well. In fact, what we have are lies before, during, and after the fact. When the story is told, it needs to be told in the context of all three time frames, not broken up into little bitty bites that idiots and escapists can swallow in one gulp. It's all one big, ugly, criminal action. The build-up, the attacks, the torture of prisoners, the continuing lies for justification, the appointment of the fake government at the 'handover', as well as the delusional behavior of Bush, Blair, and Howard today when confronted with their crime today. This is too big to be called a fraud, because fraud is not a term that does this horrible mess justice.

Another term that really makes me angry is the word 'mislead' or any variation of that word. That's how they are getting away with all this, because the words used to describe what they've done are terms that would generally be used in regard to some victimless crime, or petty theft, not the murder of thousand of innocent civilians or almost 900 Americans men and women, or the physical maiming and psychological damage cause to tens of thousands of American troops. Nobody was 'misled'. They lied.

This is how it should always be stated:

<snip>
This was no intelligence failure. This was strategic deception, a combination the Soviet KGB called "disinformatzia" and "maskirovka." This was facilitated by an ideologically and religiously extreme president; a Dr. Strangelovian vice-president lusting for war and oil; neocon ideologues and a cowardly Congress that violated its most basic responsibility to the nation.

All that, plus a national security establishment that lacked the cojones to tell superiors or Americans the truth.

Purging the CIA is not the answer. If anyone should be purged, it is the politicians and neocons in the Pentagon and media, who misled the U.S. into a catastrophic war that has so far cost the lives of more than 880 Americans, 13,000 Iraqi civilians, $200 billion US, and ruined the good name of the United States around the world.

They and Britain's Tony Blair must not be allowed to escape full blame and retribution by hiding behind the sophistry that everyone -- and thus no one -- was responsible.

<snip>

Hooray for the press of other countries, shame on ours.

[Moderator]

8. Kick

:kick:

[enough]

9. Great essay.

Short and TO THE POINT. Required reading.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

10. No American outlet ever talks about PNAC or OSP, with the exception

of Jay Bookman in the Atlanata Journal-Constitution in the pre-invasion days and Mother Jones, and Frontline on PBS. You'd think there would be a market for the Washington Post or NYT or LA Times, or 60 Minutes, to scoop each other by being the first to do an in depth story on this. Yet they are silent, as if by agreement.