by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 5, 2008
ll Rights Reserved.

till waging a propaganda war on Iraq, Senate Republicans denounced a new Intelligence Committee report suggesting that the administration played fast and loose with the facts before going to war. That same report also indicated that the Pentagon withheld from U.S. intelligence agencies critical intel about covert Iranian military operations in Afghanistan following Sept. 11. Senate Republicans questioned the source, a former gun dealer seeking to topple the Ayatollah's regime. After Sept. 11, Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld distrusted civilian intelligence, especially the Central Intelligence Agency, concluding officials were asleep at the switch. Watching the Twin Towers and Pentagon hit gave White House officials reason to doubt civilian intelligence, whether sourced domestically or foreign.

      While dismissed as “partisan,” a second Senate Intelligence Committee report indicated that the White House made numerous factually inaccurate statements in the run-up to the Iraq War. Conservative talk radio and cable shows routinely paraded ex-Iraqi officials and scientists making wild claims about Saddam's alleged arsenal of deadly weapons. Iraqi exiles, notably the former head of the Iraqi National Congress Ahmed Chalabi, hyped claims about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. His brother-in-law, a mentally ill alcoholic codenamed “Curveball,” fabricated claims about mobile germ factories. Vice President Dick Cheney and the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans Douglas J. Feith insisted that Saddam's bioweapons' programs threatened U.S. national security, despite knowing firsthand that Curveball's fantastic stories were discredited by German intelligence.

      White House officials hasten to point out that all the faulty reasons for going to war are no longer relevant. They insist that we must deal with the current threats to Iraq's internal and regional stability. Presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) insists that if the U.S. leaves Iraq all hell will break loose, including an al-Qaida takeover. When U.S. Commander David Petreus testified April 8 before the Senate Armed Service Committee, he fingered Iran's meddling in Shiite militias, especially Muqtada al-Sadr's al-Mahdi army, as Iraq's biggest threat. Before the Iraq War, the White House warned about “gathering threats” that couldn't be tolerated in a post-Sept. 11 world. White House and McCain now warn about an al-Qaida takeover and bloodbath should the U.S. exercise, as suggested by Democratic presumptive nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.), an orderly withdrawal.

      White House officials frequently cite the Clinton administration's statements about Saddam Hussein, the official policy of “regime change” as proof that “everyone” got the intelligence wrong. There was nothing “wrong” about Cheney, Rumsfeld and Feith getting their intel from “Curveball.” White House officials bypassed the CIA and took “intel” from Feith's office from which to sell the war. “These reports are about holding the government accountable and making sure that these mistakes never happen again,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va), mislabeling White House actions as a “mistake.” There's no “mistake” when inel is cherry-picked from dubious sources to bolster a case for war. “We had the intelligence that we had, fully vetted but it was wrong. And we certainly regret that, “ said White spokeswoman Dana Perino.

      Perino continues to blow smoke about the White House receiving faulty intelligence. White House officials received “vetted” intelligence not from the CIA or any other reputable source but from Feith's Office of Special Plans, specifically prohibited from dealing in intelligence. Feith argues his office had the right to critically evaluate intelligence. Accepting “Curveball's” outrageous stories as gospel hardly sounds like responsible “vetting.” “We might have avoided this catastrophe,” said Rockefeller, had the administration shared with the public the grave doubts about Feith's intelligence. Rockefeller wants to prevent future generations from manipulating intelligence for the purpose of selling a war. One of Feith's employees went to Rome to meet with Iranian agents. An Iranian, named Manucher Ghorbanifar, wrote up a plan to topple the Ayatollah on a napkin and asked for $9 million.

      Partisan Republicans don't want the Senate's recent reports to further discredit the White House and GOP nominee Sen. John McCain. Former CIA director George J. Tenet was criticized for not informing the White House about its so-called faulty intelligence. In reality, the White House didn't want Tenet to rain on their parade and preferred to cherry-pick intelligence to sell the war. “Any time the CIA want to find out what was going on all they had to do was ask,” said form Defense Department official Michael Ledeen, now an analyst with the conservative Washington think tank American Enterprise Institute. Ledeen was frequently seen on conservative talk shows before the war hyping Saddam's arsenal of WMD. White House officials must own up to how they bypassed the CIA, cherry-picked intelligence, stifled dissent and sold the public on going to war.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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