Bush brought in the "B-Team" (SF Chronicle) (OfNeocons )

[Wordie]

Although they call themselves "Team B," DUers will recognize the group discussed in this interesting article as the neocons.

From the SF Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/26/MNG62FDUGL1.DTL
<snip>
Bush team sought to snuff CIA doubts
Differences over Iraq WMD latest attempt to override agency

Jeff Stein, Special to The San Francisco Chronicle

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Washington -- Whether or not Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald decides to bring indictments in the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative -- and whether or not any crimes were actually committed -- one element of the case is central to an understanding of what happened and why: At the time of the leak, administration supporters of the Iraq war were determined to neutralize the CIA's doubts about the White House case that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, most notably nuclear weapons.

...In the 1970s, when President Richard Nixon's policy of detente was under attack by some former military officials and conservative policy intellectuals, Ford administration officials Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were among those challenging as too soft the CIA's estimate of Moscow's military power.

Rumsfeld and Cheney wanted to create a "Team B," which would have access to the CIA's data on the Soviets and issue its own conclusions. Cheney, as White House chief of staff, and Rumsfeld, as secretary of Defense, championed Team B, whose members included the young defense strategist Paul Wolfowitz, who a quarter-century later would be one of the chief architects of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

CIA Director William Colby rejected the Team B idea and was fired. Colby's successor as head of the spy agency, George H.W. Bush, the current president's father, accepted it.

[MI Cherie]

1. Then GHW Bush ...

... was fired, too.

Rejects, one and all.

Too many people forget recent history.

[Wordie]

4. Hate to say it, but this kinda stuff is what explains the popularity

of someone like Scarborough.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying I like Scarborough! LOL...only that this is why campaigning and positioning yourself as a "Washington outsider" works so well.

[AX10]

5. That makes no sense whatsoever.

What does this have to do with LACKY Scarbourough?

[Wordie]

6. Scarborough's claim to fame is that he is the outsider, who rode into D.C.

to straighten out those inside-the-beltway types.

Not saying that I agree! But everytime there is a scandal of any sort, these guys come crawling out of the woodwork.

[pinto]

2. Great article. These guys have been there all along. And the agenda has

always been the same - stifle internal dissent, stifle external review, centralize power. GHWB's long, vindictive memory has always had a hand in this administration, from staff recruitment through electoral "selection".

His son has always been a tool and was drafted (odd phrase, I know) to provide the religious cover and those votes his daddy's group couldn't muster.

We'll see what happens next, I guess, seeing as how Busboy has overreached his grasp.

All in all, it's a chilling example of the use and abuse of power.

[Wordie]

3. ...and how many of the "B-Team" are also signatories to PNAC?

I'm concerned though, that the article doesn't identify these guys as neocons.

[pinto]

7. kick, worth a read.