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<P><EM>Friends, this information came out yesterday. I am simply nauseated
by this news and take absolutely no comfort in knowing that we who have been
trying to end this war for so long were right. Somewhere in my heart and
soul I wanted to know that so many had not died for nothing and had hoped that
somehow we were wrong. These monsters will never witness or experience the
death, destruction and horror they have brought about. They will never
know what hell on earth really is because they sit safe in their ivory towers
looking out over the world. You can't tell me what they did was not
illegal. We must continue our push for TRUTH and find out who was behind
all of this (we already know. We must bring these criminals out into the
light of day).</EM></P>
<P><EM>Peace,</EM></P>
<P><EM>Amy</EM></P>
<P>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</P>
<P>By Larry C Johnson, <A href="http://www.noquarter.typepad.com/"><STRONG><FONT
color=#336699>www.NoQuarter.typepad.com</FONT></STRONG></A></P>
<P>Douglas Feith, the former number three man at Rummy's Department of Defense
and co-author of the debacle in Iraq, proved Tommy Franks right. <A
href="http://www.slate.com/id/2100899/" rel=nofollow><STRONG><FONT
color=#3399cc>General Franks described Feith</FONT></STRONG></A> to author Bob
Woodward as:</P>
<P>"the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth."</P>
<P>Yes. Amen!! Feith displayed his utter cluelessness today during his
appearance on the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and cemented his status as
the King of Stupidity. Feith continued to insist that Saddam was in league with
Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Here's a portion of the <A
href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0702/09/sitroom.03.html"
rel=nofollow><STRONG><FONT color=#3399cc>transcript of the
interview</FONT></STRONG></A>:</P>
<P>FEITH: On the al Qaeda connection, George Tenet on October 7, 2002, wrote an
unclassified letter to the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee laying
out the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. </P>
<P>BLITZER: So you believe there was a connection going in to the war?</P>
<P>FEITH: I believed George Tenet.</P>
<P>BLITZER: But now you know that was false?</P>
<P>FEITH: No, it wasn't -- I've never heard that that was false. That's what
the...</P>
<P>BLITZER: To this day you believe Saddam was working with al Qaeda?</P>
<P>FEITH: I believe -- I believe that what George Tenet published in October of
2002 was the best information on the subject, and as far as I know, that is
largely -- I mean, there may be -- there may be -- look, I've not been in the
government for the last year and a half. There may be some more intelligence on
that subject.</P>
<P>I'm telling you from the time George Tenet published his findings on the
Iraq-al Qaeda relationship, which is that they had a relationship for 10 years
and they talked about various things, bomb- making and safe haven and other
issues, that -- that that was the U.S.government's best understanding of the
subject. I never criticized that in public or in private.</P>
<P>"May be some more intelligence"? You betcha there is Dougie.</P>
<P>How about the <A href="http://intelligence.senate.gov/phaseiiaccuracy.pdf"
rel=nofollow><STRONG><FONT color=#3399cc>Phase II report from the Senate
Intelligence Committee</FONT></STRONG></A> (still under Republican leadership at
that time)? The Senate Committee reported that on the issue of Al Qaeda and
Iraq, the intelligence community--CIA and DIA in particular--had it right, even
before the war. When the report came out I posted this <A
href="http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/09/senate_intel_co.html"
rel=nofollow><STRONG><FONT color=#3399cc>summary at
NoQuarter</FONT></STRONG></A>:</P>
<P>1. Postwar findings indicate that Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qa'ida
and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests
from al-Aq'ida to provide material or operationa support. </P>
<P>2. Postwar findings have identified only one meeting between representatives
of al-Qa'ida and saddam Hussein's regime reported in prewar intelligence
assessments. Postwar findings have identified two occasions, not reported prior
to the war, in which Saddam Hussein rebuffed meeting requests from an al-Qa'ida
operative. </P>
<P>3. . . .Postwar findings support the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
February 2002 assessment that Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was likely intentionally
misleading his debriefers when he said that Iraq provded two al-Qa'ida
associates with chemical and biological weapons (CBW) training in 2000. . . .No
postwar information has been found that indicates CBW training occurred and the
detainee who provided the key prewar reporting about this training recanted his
claims after the war. </P>
<P>4. Postwar findings support the April 2002 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
assessment that there was no credible reporting on al-Qa'ida training at Salman
Pak or anywhere else in Iraq. </P>
<P>5. . . . .Postwar information indicates that Saddam Hussein attempted,
unsuccessfully to locate and capture al-Zarqawi and that the regime did not have
a relationship with, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi. </P>
<P>6. Postwar information indicates that the Intelligence Community accurately
assessed that al-Qa'ida affiliate group Ansar al-Islam operated in
Kurdish-controlled northeastern Ira, an area that Baghdad had not controlled
since 1991. </P>
<P>7. Postwar information supports prewar Intelligence Community assessments
that there was no credible information that Iraq was complicit in or had
foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks or any other al-Qa'ida strike. . .
</P>
<P>8. No postwar information indicates that Iraq intended to use al-Qa'ida or
any other terrorist group to strike the United States homeland before or during
Operation Iraqi Freedom.</P>
<P>Now, unless you are what Tommy Franks considers to be "a stupid fucker", this
is all pretty straightforward. Unfortunately, this is not just about words. </P>
<P>I tried to warn folks about Feith and the OSP back in June of 2003. I was
interviewed on National Public Radio and provided these quotes to <A
href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0608-06.htm"
rel=nofollow><STRONG><FONT color=#3399cc>journalist Neil
Mackay</FONT></STRONG></A>:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>The OSP was set up by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to gather
intelligence which would prove the case for war. In a staggering attack on the
OSP, former CIA officer Larry Johnson told the Sunday Herald the OSP was
'dangerous for US national security and a threat to world peace', adding that
it 'lied and manipulated intelligence to further its agenda of removing
Saddam'. </P>
<P>He added: 'It's a group of ideologues with pre-determined notions of truth
and reality. They take bits of intelligence to support their agenda and ignore
anything contrary. They should be eliminated.' Johnson said that to describe
Saddam as an 'imminent threat' to the West was 'laughable and idiotic'. He
said many CIA officers were in 'great distress' over the way intelligence had
been treated. 'We've entered the world of George Orwell,' Johnson added. 'I'm
disgusted. The truth has to be told. We can't allow our leaders to use bogus
information to justify war.'</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>But Feith was a symptom of a much deeper sickness. Feith did not do it alone.
George Bush, emboldened by the hack work of Feith and his minions, went to
Cincinnati, Ohio in March 2002 and used his best fearmongering to persuade
Americans that Saddam was in league with the terrorists who attacked us on 9-11.
Bush said: </P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>And that is the source of our urgent concern about Saddam Hussein’s links
to international terrorist groups. Over the years, Iraq has provided safe
haven to terrorists such as Abu Nidal, whose terror organization carried out
more than 90 terrorist attacks in 20 countries that killed or injured nearly
900 people, including 12 Americans. Iraq has also provided safe haven to Abu
Abbas, who was responsible for seizing the Achille Lauro and killing an
American passenger. </P>
<P>And we know that Iraq is continuing to finance terror and gives assistance
to groups that use terrorism to undermine Middle East peace. We know that Iraq
and the al Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy—the United States of
America. We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go
back a decade. Some al Qaeda leaders who fl ed Afghanistan went to Iraq. These
include one very senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in
Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and
biological attacks. We’ve learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in
bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases. </P>
<P>And we know that after September the 11th, Saddam Hussein’s regime
gleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America. Iraq could decide on
any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group
or individual terrorists. Alliance with terrorists could allow the Iraqi
regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>And who can forget delusional Dick Cheney? When he wasn't busy sending
Scooter Libby on errands to trash Joe Wilson and out covert CIA officer Valerie
Plame, he insisted repeatedly that Saddam and Bin Laden were doing everything
together but have sex. Just two short years ago <A
href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/18/cheney.iraq.al.qaeda/"
rel=nofollow><STRONG><FONT color=#3399cc>Cheney was beating this
drum</FONT></STRONG></A>: </P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday the evidence is "overwhelming"
that al Qaeda had a relationship with Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, and he
said media reports suggesting that the 9/11 commission has reached a
contradictory conclusion were "irresponsible." "There clearly was a
relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming," Cheney
said in an interview with CNBC's "Capitol Report." "It goes back to the early
'90s. It involves a whole series of contacts, high-level contacts with Osama
bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence officials." "The press, with all due respect,
(is) often times lazy, often times simply reports what somebody else in the
press said without doing their homework."</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>By now I guess we should be accustomed to the ability of Bush, Cheney,
Rumsfeld, Rice, and Feith to deny the obvious and to try to recreate the past.
But as Stephanie Miller says (one of my favorite talk radio personalities)
someone ought to tell these guys about video cameras and tape recorders. You
see, we don't have to take their word for something. We can go back and listen.
We can read. And we better learn--these are really stupid fuckers and they are
dangerous. Why an inept clown like Dougals Feith is allowed to hold faculty
position at the University of Georgetown makes one wonder if the Jesuits have
been infected by mass hysteria. Feith is a stain on that institution and we only
need take account of the blood of more than 3000 American soldiers to begin to
gauge the monstrosity of Feith's stupidity.</P></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>