RE: "Creating a war on false information" - July 12, 2004 - James O. Goldsborough
At the press conference announcing the release of the Pre-War Intelligence
Assessments, Sen. Jay Rockefeller revealed that the ideologues in the Bush
Administration had "a predetermination" going back to 1998 that they were going to
go to war with Iraq. (1)(2)
When Phase Two of the report is completed the public will finally learn about the
"Office of Special Plans" (OSP). The OSP was a secret group of analysts and policy
advisors with no status in the intelligence community. Nevertheless they reported
directly to the White House and National Security office with cherry-picked
intelligence from questionable sources to support the case for invading Iraq. The
OSP circumvented formal, well-established oversight procedures, ignored
intelligence that didn't further their agenda, expanded the intelligence on weapons
beyond what was justified and over-emphasized the national security risk. They
became more influential than the C.I.A. or the Defense Intelligence Agency who
didn't even know the ultra-secret OSP existed for at least a year.
Because they were based in the Pentagon, it was assumed that the OSP was an
intelligence-gathering agency that was second-guessing the C.I.A. but in actuality
it was the White House Military Marketing Machine charged with the task of writing
the "Get Saddam" sales pitch for the public. Shading and bending reality to suit
their own purpose, it wasn't important for the OSP's stories about Saddam to be
factual, only that the average American believed them to be - in true Hollywood
fashion. (3)
There can be no doubt that the Bush Administration intentionally deceived and
manipulated the public to further their own agenda. History will remember them as
the most corrupt and evil group ever to occupy the White House.
1 -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38650-2004Jul9?language=printer2 -
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm3 -
http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/030512fa_fact