Levin is after Feith for his contributions to Faith Based intelligence

[Rose Siding]

Levin's report
http://www.levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2004/102104inquiryreport.pdf

from Laura Rosen's blog:

Congressional oversight makes a valiant comeback. Sen. Carl Levin, a ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence releases a report on the role of the office of the Pentagon's number three official Douglas Feith in alleged extracurricular intelligence analysis and advocacy. Here's the IHT/NYT's Douglas Jehl's take. And here are some highlights from Levin's report:

...B. INFLUENCING THE IC’S REPORT ON “IRAQI SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM”

In addition to developing their own alternative intelligence analysis, Under Secretary Feith’s office was also attempting to convince the IC to incorporate into a major finished report some of the raw intelligence reports the Feith office believed had been undervalued or ignored by the IC, and to change how the intelligence was characterized . . .

Feith’s staff also pressed dubious information, including criticizing the draft IC report for omitting reference to the “key issue of Atta.” . . .

Documents provided to the SASC indicate that Feith’s staff requested, both verbally and in written form, at least 32 changes to the draft, including inserting raw intelligence reports that had previously been omitted, deleting others, and altering the characterization of certain issues and raw reporting . . .

C. PRESENTING AN “ALTERNATIVE” VIEW DIRECTLY TO POLICYMAKERS
Feith’s staff went beyond interacting with the IC in an attempt to change an IC-issued product. They were also taking their view of the Iraq-al Qaeda relationship directly to senior officials in the Executive branch . . .

Under Secretary Feith’s second charge . . . was that the IC undervalued the importance that both Iraq and al Qaeda would place on concealing a relationship, and therefore that the absence of evidence of such a relationship did not necessarily mean that such a relationship did not exist. Taken to its logical extreme, this argument implies that absence of evidence may in fact be evidence itself – that the fact that no evidence can be found is an indication that evidence exists but is being hidden. But, in fact, the IC’s reluctance to assert an Iraq-al Qaeda relationship was based on the information it possessed, not on hypotheticals, and the IC acknowledged lack of evidence as a factor limiting the strength of their conclusions. . . The reasonableness of the IC’s approach has subsequently been endorsed by the SSCI the 9/11 Commission . . .


Score one or two for the battered and beleaguered but still fighting Reality-Based Community.

http://www.warandpiece.com/

She's also listed documents at the link which Congress has requested from Feith, but which have not been produced.

[Rose Siding]

1. Here's the NYT piece on Levin's rpt

Pentagon Reportedly Skewed C.I.A.'s View of Qaeda Tie

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 - As recently as January 2004, a top Defense Department official misrepresented to Congress the view of American intelligence agencies about the relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda, according to a new report by a Senate Democrat.

The report said a classified document prepared by Douglas J. Feith, the under secretary of defense for policy, not only asserted that there were ties between the Baghdad government and the terrorist network, but also did not reflect accurately the intelligence agencies' assessment - even while claiming that it did.

In issuing the report, the senator, Carl M. Levin, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said he would ask the panel to take "appropriate action'' against Mr. Feith. Senator Levin said Mr. Feith had repeatedly described the ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda as far more significant and extensive than the intelligence agencies had.

http://nytimes.com/2004/10/22/politics/22intel.html

[Swamp Rat]

2. I just saw him on CSPAN.

Carl Levin just had Feith flavored lizard burger. I hope we hear more about Wolfie, Kristol and the other alien lizards.

[Eloriel]

3. OH, man

This needs a

:kick:

I'll swear, GD reminds me of the Lounge more and more these days. All silliness, not very much interest in substance.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. A kick for ya!

This is important. This is getting to the HEART of just who pushed for the Iraq invasion.

The recent report that SH didn't have WMD or the capability to make them is only half the story -- the other part is this administration damn well KNEW it and fabricated evidence to get us in.

The other shoe is dangling and ready to drop....

[Rose Siding]

4. Feith (and Ledeen) 's other congressional investigation is on hold

It concern's DoD involvement in the recent and UNDERblown spy-in-the-Pentagon episode, involving intelligence about Iran. Maybe Feith's a one trick pony?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.marshall.html
snip>
Over the last year, the Senate Intelligence Committee has conducted limited inquiry into the meetings, including interviews with Feith and Ledeen. But under terms of a compromise agreed to by both parties, a full investigation into the matter was put off until after the November election. Republicans on the committee, many of whom sympathize with the "regime change" agenda at DoD, have been resistant to such investigations, calling them an election-year fishing expedition. Democrats, by contrast, see such investigations as vital to understanding the central role Feith's office may have played in a range of a dubious intelligence enterprises, from pushing claims about a supposed Saddam-al Qaeda partnership and overblown estimates of alleged Iraqi stocks of WMD to what the committee's ranking minority member Sen. Jay Rockerfeller (D-WV) calls "the Chalabi factor" (Rhode and others in Feith's office have been major sponsors of the Iraqi exile leader, who is now under investigation for passing U.S. intelligence to Iran). With the FBI adding potential espionage charges to the mix the long-simmering questions about the activities of Feith's operation now seem certain to come under renewed scrutiny.

[realFedUp]

5. lllliiiiiiiiaaaaarrrrrrrrr

gee, it takes this long to know what many
here did two years ago....that the Office
of Special Plans was cooking the intel.

France, will you take me in please.

[leftchick]

7. nifty graphic as to who drives the policy....

[JNelson6563]

8. I talked to him the other day

and he said he had to get back and finish this report. He'll be back Tuesday. I'll tell him of DU's rave reviews.

Levin kicks ass. Seriously. :toast:

Julie