Soldier for the Truth - Exposing Bush's talking-points war

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/vv/20040220/lo_laweekly/51202&cid=891&ncid=1501

After two decades in the U.S. Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, now 43, knew her career as a regional analyst was coming to an end when in the months leading up to the war in Iraq (news - web sites) she felt she was being propagandized by her own bosses.


With masters degrees from Harvard in government and zoology and two books on Saharan Africa to her credit, she found herself transferred in the spring of 2002 to a post as a political/military desk officer at the Defense Departments office for Near East South Asia (NESA), a policy arm of the Pentagon (news - web sites).


Kwiatkowski got there just as war fever was spreading, or being spread as she would later argue, through the halls of Washington. Indeed, shortly after her arrival, a piece of NESA was broken off, expanded and re-dubbed with the Orwellian name of the Office of Special Plans. The OSPs task was, ostensibly, to help the Pentagon develop policy around the Iraq crisis.


She would soon conclude that the OSP a pet project of Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) and Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld was more akin to a nerve center for what she now calls a neoconservative coup, a hijacking of the Pentagon.


Though a lifelong conservative, Kwiatkowski found herself appalled as the radical wing of the Bush administration, including her superiors in the Pentagon planning department, bulldozed internal dissent, overlooked its own intelligence and relentlessly pushed for confrontation with Iraq.

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[welshTerrier2]

1. devastating article ... a must read !!!

someone posted this a few days ago ... it's an incredible article that has gotten zero coverage in the mainstream media ... why haven't the democrats picked up on this ??? nothing says "bush lied, soldiers died" clearer than this ...

for those not planning to read the whole article, at least read this extract:

So if, as you argue, they knew there werent any of these WMD, then what exactly drove the neoconservatives to war? The neoconservatives pride themselves on having a global vision, a long-term strategic perspective. And there were three reasons why they felt the U.S. needed to topple Saddam, put in a friendly government and occupy Iraq.

One of those reasons is that sanctions and containment were working and everybody pretty much knew it. Many companies around the world were preparing to do business with Iraq in anticipation of a lifting of sanctions. But the U.S. and the U.K. had been bombing northern and southern Iraq since 1991. So it was very unlikely that we would be in any kind of position to gain significant contracts in any post-sanctions Iraq. And those sanctions were going to be lifted soon, Saddam would still be in place, and we would get no financial benefit.

The second reason has to do with our military-basing posture in the region. We had been very dissatisfied with our relations with Saudi Arabia, particularly the restrictions on our basing. And also there was dissatisfaction from the people of Saudi Arabia. So we were looking for alternate strategic locations beyond Kuwait, beyond Qatar, to secure something we had been searching for since the days of Carter to secure the energy lines of communication in the region. Bases in Iraq, then, were very important that is, if you hold that is Americas role in the world. Saddam Hussein was not about to invite us in.

The last reason is the conversion, the switch Saddam Hussein made in the Food for Oil program, from the dollar to the euro. He did this, by the way, long before 9/11, in November 2000 selling his oil for euros. The oil sales permitted in that program arent very much. But when the sanctions would be lifted, the sales from the country with the second largest oil reserves on the planet would have been moving to the euro.

[maggrwaggr]

2. YEAH BABY!!! It's showing up on YAHOO!!

the rest of the media is HOPEFULLY not far behind.

I e-mailed more people about this than anything in my life.

If this story gets out, if this woman is interviewed in front of Congress, BushCo will go to JAIL.

YEAAHHHH!!

[maggrwaggr]

3. Rate this story folks!

Send it to everybody you can think of and tell them to rate it!

This could be where the drip-drip turns into a goddamn flood!

[Sugarbleus]

4. This was such a dynamite article that

I printed it out to keep. However, I posted this same article several days ago, even gave it a kick but no one reponded.

KGO's Ray Tal had Perle on one night so I quickly shot him the link to this article...they were talking about office of special plans etc.

[maggrwaggr]

5. Here's how you can write Yahoo and tell them to put this on National News

I just figured out that this story is listed in "local Los Angeles" news.

WTF?

I wrote them and told them this is a huge national story and they really need to put it on national news.

Here's where you can write them:

http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/news/cgi_feedback

Pile on, everybody! This is the woman who can put Bushco in jail!

[maggrwaggr]

6. kick

:kick:

[maggrwaggr]

7. 217 votes so far. Let's give 'em more.

:kick:

[barbaraann]

8. This should be showing up on Yahoo's Top Reader Rated Stories

and it isn't.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index&cid=1760

[maggrwaggr]

13. write to Yahoo. See message #5 for the link.

Tell them to take it out of "local LA" news (WTF?) and put it on their national.

That's why we need votes, if it gets thousands of votes, even if they're not good, it will stand out.

[Must_B_Free]

9. I hope she's the Fat Lady

cause she sure is singin'...

[Karenina]

10. Sol-Mi Do Mi Sol Doooo

:kick:

[JohnOneillsMemory]

11. Surfacing because the Senate Intel Com is actually looking at OSP!! n/t

[maggrwaggr]

12. a kick for Saturday afternoon

Vote in the story, let's get those numbers up there, so it will appear on the main news section.