Former CIA Manager of U.S. Secret Intelligence Assessments on Iraq
Says the Bush Administration Chose War First and Then Cooked the Data
As we saw, in last week's edition of Celebrating Courage, we have to keep our wits about us to honor bravery effectively. Unless we examine precisely what's now going on, it might appear that we have a genuine anti-cabal
"whistleblower," when in actuality all that's happening is a turf war.
Paul Pillar, the CIA's national intelligence officer for the Middle East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, says the Bush administration played on the nation's fears after 9/11, falsely linking Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein's regime even though intelligence agencies had not produced a single analysis supporting "the notion of an alliance" between the two.
Pillar appears to be leveling a vicious blow, saying that the Bush White House made connections between the terrorists and Iraq because "the administration wanted to hitch the Iraq expedition to the 'war on terror' and the threat the American public feared most, thereby capitalizing on the country's militant post-9/11 mood." As we read that report, we're tempted to think that Mr. Pillar has sustained a political conversion experience and now sees what an evil administration he had been working for. We might indeed, commend him as a whistleblower--if we didn't look carefully at precisely what he's saying--and where he's saying it.
Mr. Pillar's supposed critique is really old news--if we examine it carefully. We all know that Bush and Cheney ramped up the fear factor after 9/11 and made a false connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam as part of their plan to start an unprovoked, preemptive war on Iraq. So none of what he's saying--if we look at it critically--is astounding or even surprising. So what are we to make of all this?
We can get some idea of what's likely going on if we look at precisely where Mr. Pillar is going to publish his "whistleblowing" expose? In the Nation, the New York Times, or Salon on the Internet? To what liberal audience is Pillar directing his diatribe against Bush and his administration? Hold your breath, the answer is coming up, and it might give the whole game away. Paul Pillar is publishing his seemingly devastating critique in the upcoming issue of Foreign Affairs!
Notes:
1 The current turf war is between some Council on Foreign Relations insiders, who control the publication of the Foreign Affairs journal, and that bastion of the Neocons, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Some ex-intelligence officers from the CIA and other agencies resent Cheney and Rumsfeld usurping their power and want their independent strength restored. One of the first returning salvos against the ex-spooks has been fired by Danielle Pletka, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the AEI in her article in the Los Angeles Times on February 21, 2006, entitled "It's no secret: the CIA plays politics," in which she takes Pillar to task for saying that Iraq will have no value as a "democratic exemplar." In other words, there's a turf war going on between one group of cabal thugs and another, though neither group disagrees whatsoever with the militaristic, imperialistic policies of the cabal.
On December 19, 2005, U.S. District Judge James Robertson resigned from the FISA court, sending a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation. Two associates familiar with Robertson said that he had privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable.
