LA Times: "The White House cabal"

[understandinglife]

The White House cabal

By Lawrence B. Wilkerson, LAWRENCE B. WILKERSON served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 2002 to 2005.

IN PRESIDENT BUSH'S first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security — including vital decisions about postwar Iraq — < >were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

When I first discussed this group in a speech last week at the New American Foundation in Washington, my comments caused a significant stir because I had been chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell between 2002 and 2005.

But it's absolutely true. I believe that the decisions of this cabal were sometimes made with the full and witting support of the president and sometimes with something less. More often than not, then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice was simply steamrolled by this cabal.

<clip>

Today, we have a president whose approval rating is 38% and a vice president who speaks only to Rush Limbaugh and assembled military forces. We have a secretary of Defense presiding over the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of our overstretched armed forces (no surprise to ignored dissenters such as former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki or former Army Secretary Thomas White). It's a disaster. Given the choice, I'd choose a frustrating bureaucracy over an efficient cabal every time.

Link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-wilkerson25oct25,0,7455395.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

No comment required.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

1. Steve Clemons: "I have just been tipped off that the Los Angeles Times ...

... plans to run a rip-the-veneer-off the White House cabal op-ed by Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former State Department Chief of Staff, in the morning.

I have read it...It's 998 words of honest patriotism that Americans need to hear -- and 998 tons of dynamite on the Executive Office of the President.

<clip>

President Bush and Cheney have deceived the American public about Valerie Plame Wilson and her covert role on behalf of the national security interests of this nation -- and they did this during a time of war. Their words.

Link:

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001027.html

georgie and dickie are going to do some hard time, if they are lucky.


Peace.

[Nikki Stone 1]

2. The war in Iraq is lost; Wall Street is disenchanted; Wilkerson speaks for

Powell and others.

I am a very cynical person. I think that Bush was actually cut loose this summer. Maybe a little before.

[understandinglife]

4. What we are witnessing from Wilkerson and Scowcroft is the ...

... Bush 1 crowd driving a stake into the neoconsters and they seem quite willing for that stake to pierce both W and Cheney as it targets Rumsfeld, Feith, Perle, Bolton, Ledeen, all the WHIGers, Franklin and his AIPAC cronies, and more.

The Beltway will have never witnessed such a purge. Lived there and watched "Watergate" and "Pentagon Papers" up close; this is so very much worse.


Peace.

[mod mom]

33. I agree. I have to think that the handling of NO as well as the recent

teleconference with the troops was perhaps a set-up to dispose of this cabal. I don't believe we can sit back and rejoice however, I believe that there will be an effort to re-install Poppy, Baker and others. Don't think for a moment that the Repugs will just fade away. They will not relinquish the power they worked so hard at securing. Everyone is dispensible, including Rove, Cheney, W or any others. Watch for others with ties to the Cabal (maybe not so overtly) fill in their shoes. We must keep Baker, Poppy and other BFEE types from stepping in. The weak leadershiip by the Dems leaves room for those in the shadows to step in.

Celebrate when the indictments come, but our work is no where close to over!

[JDPriestly]

3. This is the management model, the management style of our time.

Decision making from the top down in a system that rewards those who kiss up and do not criticize results in failure. This is the model that has been adopted in American business from the airlines to GM to our schools and universities, and that is the reason our businesses are failing and we are not competitive.

[understandinglife]

5. No argument from me. And, we are about to see what happens when ..

.. folk who do not subscribe to that model kick butt.


Peace.

[crispini]

20. Well, except that every manager worth their salt--

at least, every MIDDLE manager, because that's the only kind I work with -- realizes that if you don't pay attention to the reality checks from the people on the ground who are really doing the work, you may get your own ass hung out to dry when your actual delivery doesn't match your timetables and estimates which you told your boss and your own people look at you and go, "What did you expect, we told you no way in hell that was getting done in less than two months."

George Bush's problem is that he spent NO time whatsoever in middle management.

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. That needs to be chiseled on a high mountain.

Running government like a business was a formula for disaster.

[spooky3]

34. disagree--run IN SOME WAYS like a competently run business

would be good.

The main problem here is that you have evil and incompetent people running the show. They failed in business, and where they succeeded in prior ventures, they probably committed crimes and weren't caught.

[The Backlash Cometh]

38. Business is all about gaining advantage over your competition.

And politics is all about having advantage over your competition. It's a bad mix.

The answer is not to respond with business practices, but to acknowledge that a special kind of worker and personality is needed for public service work. We had them once before. They were called civil servants. They knew they weren't going to make a lot of money, they traded that off for job security and they loved their country above all else. You partner them with a military-efficiently run organization, back when the military was efficent and relied on integrity. THAT's the way to rebuild this country's public infra-structure.

[spooky3]

48. Business is about much more than that. It's about producing

goods and services that people need and want. It's about selecting and promoting people based on merit, not based on cronyism. People work for a variety of rewards. Civil servants, like private sector employees, should not be exploited based on their love of what they do or anything else, but should be paid fairly for their work and treated with justice. As a former civil servant and someone who's worked for other types of organizations, I can assure you that a special type of personality is not needed.

[The Backlash Cometh]

52. Except that...

Since jobs that produce goods are being outsourced, business is less about producing goods, isn't it? So the number of craftsmen in this country has drastically been reduced, yes? So how is business making money these days? It's about cutting overhead, cutting jobs, cutting medical insurance.

Another popular way to make money in this country is to a broker between buyers and sellers. Where was the big money being made up to ten years ago? People who brokered resources like energy. ENRON, for example, was all about brokering energy deals between those that had the oil and energy, and those who didn't. How does merit fit into that formula? Do you reward people who bring in more money into the company? What if the people who are bringing in more money are the very ones who are bringing down the level of ethics?

Put those two trends together and you have jobs that required people who had less real manual skill and less scruples.

So how do you determine merit for a government job? Loyalty is everything in these days when there is so much job dissatisfaction. And it DOES require a special personality to do a civil servant job. It takes pride in your country, it takes someone who is efficient at what they do, it takes someone who is willing to make less than what they could possibly get in the private sector. Because, if you don't have someone with that special combination of qualities, you have someone who might be willing to sell information to the wrong people.

[understandinglife]

6. Larry Johnson: Who Told Dick Cheney?

Thanks to the NY Times one more piece of the tangled web woven by White House operatives has unraveled and we now know that Vice President Cheney told Scooter Libby that Joe Wilson's wife worked at the CIA. It also seems pretty clear that the notes show that Libby lied to the Grand Jury when he claimed he learned the name from reporters. Libby faces big trouble. Although the NY Times story reports that Libby's notes indicate that George Tenet told Cheney about Plame, there are some intriguing unanswered questions. For starters it is highly unlikely that George Tenet showed up at the White House and just happened to know the name of Valerie Plame. Someone at the White House asked for it first. Tenet clearly came prepared to respond to a White House request. I'm sure the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, knows who called CIA to ask the question.

More at the link:

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/10/who_told_dick_c.html

"See Dick run."


Peace.

[Nothing Without Hope]

10. Here's a thread asking that question. Most posters there are voting for

BOLTON:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5158687
thread title: Who Told Dick Cheney?

[understandinglife]

12. Correct. It's either Bolton or/and Fleitz.

Peace.

[Nothing Without Hope]

14. Bolton was a very hands-on manager and Fleitz was tightly joined to him

as his tool. I'm betting Fleitz got the info and passed it to Bolton. Either Bolton or Fleitz passed it to Libby/Cheney, but whichever one it was, Bolton would have known and approved the step. Fleitz wouldn't have done something like that otherwise.

[understandinglife]

27. Solid. I agree.

Peace.

[understandinglife]

40. ReddHedd at firedoglake: "Oh! So That's Why Judy Went to Jail!"

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005/10/oh-so-thats-why-judy-went-to-jail.html

Good read, as always.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

7. Boston Globe:

Notes contradict Libby testimony

Report: Cheney told him about CIA agent

By Globe Staff | October 25, 2005

Vice President Dick Cheney first told his chief of staff about a CIA agent who is at the heart of a leak investigation weeks before the covert operative's name and occupation appeared in a syndicated column, The New York Times reported today.

<clip>

The paper said neither the White House nor Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, would comment on Libby's legal status.

Link:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/10/25/notes_contradict_libby_testimony?mode=PF

Spreading.


Peace.

[TahitiNut]

8. Many of us have been saying this since 2002.

I've used the term 'cabal' repeatedly to refer to Cheney, Rumsfeld, Feith, Wolfie, and lesser demons. I've argued repeatedly that Cheney and Rumsfeld are running the show and Junior is 'handled.' They're like an evil TV broadcast - they have on-screen 'talent' (often without any) and then they have the writers, producers, and editors (who do the work).

[understandinglife]

13. And, you've been bang on correct. Slow learners will soon be catching ...

... up to you. And, we need to do all we can to help them get a clue.


Peace.

[Stephanie]

36. I know! DU knew this then but everyone's acting like it's a great surprise

What's up with that?

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. He makes Colin Powell out to be a hero; seems rather self-serving

Wilkerson praises Colin Powell as doing everything he could and making the best of an impossible situation: "At least once a week, it seemed, Powell trooped over to the Oval Office and cleaned all the dog poop off the carpet. He held a youthful, inexperienced president's hand. He told him everything would be all right because he, the secretary of State, would fix it." Condi Rice is portrayed as simply being steamrolled by the Cheney/Rumsfeld cabal.

This is saying in essence "it's a mess now and it's all THEIR fault. MY office was the good guys." It does admit that Bush knowingly and willingly allowed others to make the decisions that should have been his, but he is pointing the finger at Cheney and Rumsfeld. And he's pointing it NOW, when it's too late to prevent so much damage and he can safely blame them because they are facing other criticisms.

I recommend reading the American Prospect article, "Well, Colin?" in which Colin Powell is invited to come clean, and also the two short but incisive paragraphs posted by Matt Yglesias, "The Back Stabbers." Richard Holbrooke's Sunday op/ed is to the point as well. These are all posted in the following thread on Wilkerson's and Scowcroft's exposés.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5152016
thread title: New Yorker/ Goldberger: "Breaking Ranks" - SCOWCROFT's BLAST OF BUSH 43

The American Prospect article ("Well, Colin?") is posted in Reply #24, here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5152016&mesg_id=5156056

The Matt Yglesias post is here (posted in Reply #30, link posted in #40):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5152016#5158397

And Richard Holbrooke's Oct 23 WaPo article (Reply #41) is here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5152016&mesg_id=5159627

The full VIDEO and TRANSCRIPT from Wilkerson's Oct 19 talk are posted there as well:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5152016#5152252

[understandinglife]

11. Certainly, he's transparent to those of us who have a clue. To the Rs ...

... and the freepers, he's driving a stake through all of their cold-blooded hearts.

As I've told several colleagues, step back and just watch, these folk are going to do devestating damage to one another as they all scramble to avoid being convicted of treason (for starters).


Peace.

[mucifer]

16. I hate to say it but, how many people read these articles?

oy vey Im such a pessimist.

[aquart]

19. They don't have to. After Fitzmas .......

Well, I don't know what I'm getting for Fitzmas. But, like every other boy and girl, I have my hopes.

And, if I get my wishes........it'll be the headline all over the world.

[Hubert Flottz]

26. And... WE have been good little boys and girls.

The mean assed bullies ain't gettin' nutin' but the shafting, which they so richly deserve for Fitzmas.

We tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried, to tell the 'Brats for Bushco' over at Freak Republic,(morans-r-us)didn't we?1?1?1?11??

The ass biter is on the loose in freeperland and they're ALL ASS over there! Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaa!1!1!11!1!!!!1!1!!

:popcorn:

Edit: HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Ho Ho Ho HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Ho Ho Ho He He!

[JDPriestly]

43. Colin Powell and his staff knew the truth and did not go to the

American people. They were enablers. They did just as much harm as those who perpetrated these crimes. Don't put them on pedestals. They are just as guilty as everyone else in the Bush administration.

[Nothing Without Hope]

44. I agree. And unlike some of these other nutcases, he knew perfectly well

what was being done to the nation and the world and he STILL went along with it. As the American Prospect article says:

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10493

Has anyone in this town embarrassed himself in the last five years more than Powell? At least George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld believe this toxic gimcrackery they’ve been peddling to us. Powell never believed it, and he still peddled it. There’s a word for that, and it isn’t “honor.”

[psychopomp]

15. Holy ****!!

So true! Speak out!

[longship]

17. K&R Holy Shit is correct

nt

[longship]

18. K&R Holy Shit is correct

nt

[crispini]

21. Wow!

But it's absolutely true. I believe that the decisions of this cabal were sometimes made with the full and witting support of the president and sometimes with something less. More often than not, then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice was simply steamrolled by this cabal.

Its insular and secret workings were efficient and swift — not unlike the decision-making one would associate more with a dictatorship than a democracy. This furtive process was camouflaged neatly by the dysfunction and inefficiency of the formal decision-making process, where decisions, if they were reached at all, had to wend their way through the bureaucracy, with its dissenters, obstructionists and "guardians of the turf."

But the secret process was ultimately a failure. It produced a series of disastrous decisions and virtually ensured that the agencies charged with implementing them would not or could not execute them well.

[crispini]

23. This whole phenomenon is fascinating to me.

It speaks volumes about human nature.

It suggests that people will very naturally build processes and structures that slow down decisionmaking.

I have a great interest in the "karma" and the "collective intelligence" of organziations. I spend much of my working life consulting with individual companies and have seen a lot of different ones from the inside. And it's true, they are like people-- they each have their own corporate temperament and styles. Interestingly enough, while changes in top management DO affect the corporate temperament, they do so less than you might think.

It seems that although the go-getter startup model (i.e. shortcuts by the "cabal") is good for making fast decisions, a great deal rides on the quality of the people making decisions. Whereas with a larger bureacracy, the slower work of decisionmaking produces better - or at least safer? decisions.

[understandinglife]

46. "the slower work of decisionmaking produces better - or at least safer?...

... decisions."

Yes, and I think the framers of our Constitution felt similarly. And, as Kagro X notes today, they even wrote it down. Here's a link to the segment I quoted in another thread and the link to the full blog at The Next Hurrah:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5158095&mesg_id=5166999

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2005/10/just_how_big_is.html


Peace.

[Just Me]

22. I do believe we have turned the corner!!!

:bounce: The corral of witnesses seems to be growing exponentially, huh?!?!?! :bounce:

[Im with Rosey]

31. I agree, turning the corner

and ready to go after the "evil-doers". Didn't we learn as little kids that ultimately, bullies get their due?

[DemReadingDU]

24. Recommended!

great thread of articles

[NoBushSpokenHere]

25. Recommended Great Article n/t

[rndmprsn]

28. bravo, great read...recommended

[Judi Lynn]

29. So glad to see this. I hope he will not be martyred by the scums

who seized the White House. It's very decent of him to have written this excellent article.

[mod mom]

32. I watched Wilkerson's speech last week and the one thing he said that

confused me was his admiration for H. W. Bush. I realize that "H" and Scrowcroft were critical of Iraq and in fact refrained from regime change during the first gulf war, yet his connections to the CIA (including various historical events against former presidents), military industrial complex, and the 2000 theft certainly don't inspire admiration.

My fear in over-emphasizing Mr Wilkerson is that the need for Republicans to replace the Cheney Cabal and the Rove faction will re-introduce Poppy, James Baker and others to take over. I think this revisionist history is dangerous. We need to remove any trace of the BFEE from a leadership role. While they appear to be not as dangerous as the PNAC Neocons, they too have tarnished our democracy.

[understandinglife]

39. I agree with you. Nothing Wilkerson can say will atone for Powell's ...

... cooperation with the neoconsters and his willful lying to the UN.

We must adopt the -- "never again" approach to the neoconsters and never relent in ensuring that message persists for decades.


Peace.

[glitch]

42. and that goes for poppy's criminal cabal as well.

never again for any of them: neoconsters, bfees, and any of their enablers.

[BamaBecky]

35. kick

[RedEarth]

37. Does anyone have links to the articles of Shinseki and White?

Thanks for your help.....

[understandinglife]

47. These links contain references to White and Shinseki's critical comments:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-06-02-white-usat_x.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-04-25-white-resigns_x.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/25/international/middleeast/25CND-MILI.html?ex=1130385600&en=26e0a80b67f5622b&ei=5070

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,925140,00.html

And, Drum has this item in the Washington Monthly from October, 2004:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_10/004888.php


Peace.

[RedEarth]

53. Thanks for the links, I appreciate your help...

[MinneapolisMatt]

41. Too bad...

...the jerk didn't speak up last year. Ugh.

But I am glad he is speaking now.

Matt

[understandinglife]

45. NYT/AP: "White House Sidesteps Cheney Questions"

White House Sidesteps Cheney Questions

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:44 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House on Tuesday sidestepped questions about whether Vice President Dick Cheney passed on to his top aide the identity of a CIA officer central to a federal grand jury probe.

Notes in the hands of a federal prosecutor suggest that Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby, first heard of the CIA officer from Cheney himself, The New York Times reported in Tuesday's editions.

<clip>

At the time of the Cheney-Libby conversation, Wilson had been referred to -- but not by name -- in the Times and on the morning of June 12, 2003 on the front page of The Washington Post.

<clip>

The Cheney-Libby conversation occurred the same day that The Washington Post published a front-page story about the CIA sending a retired diplomat to Africa, where he was unable to corroborate intelligence that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger. The diplomat was Wilson.

<clip>

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-CIA-Leak-Investigation.html?pagewanted=print

"Dodge" ... nope. They're already part of the pavement and the Fitzgerald steamroller is far from finished.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

49. Dowd: " all sulfurous strands lead back to the man W. aptly nicknamed Vice

If W. wants to show people now where the White House has been dishonored in far more astounding and deadly ways, he'll have to haul them around every nook and cranny of his vice president's office, then go across the river for a walk of shame through the Rummy empire at the Pentagon.

The shocking thing about the trellis of revelations showing Dick Cheney, the self-styled Mr. Strong America, as the central figure in dark conspiracies to juice up a case for war and demonize those who tried to tell the public the truth is how unshocking it all is.

It's exactly what we thought was going on, but we never thought we'd actually hear the lurid details: Cheney and Rummy, the two old compadres from the Nixon and Ford days, in a cabal running the country and the world into the ground, driven by their poisonous obsession with Iraq, while Junior is out of the loop, playing in the gym or on his mountain bike.

Mr. Cheney has been so well protected by his Praetorian guard all these years that it's been hard for the public to see his dastardly deeds and petty schemes. But now, because of Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation and candid talk from Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Wilkerson, he's been flushed out as the heart of darkness: all sulfurous strands lead back to the man W. aptly nicknamed Vice.

<clip>

From Dick at the Heart of Darkness by Maureen Dowd on October 26, 2005

Link:

http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/opinion/26dowd.html?hp

A more fitting close to this thread would be hard to imagine.

Thank you Ms Dowd.

Good night DU. Oh, and it's not going to be a party if Mr Fitzgerald brings the hammer to these traitors. In fact, it may be an unleashing of responses from vastly evil folk who realize they have only one option besides going to jail ....


Peace.

[oasis]

50. A must read. Kick

[flyarm]

51. wow ..i love this man!!

but i sure wish to hell he had spoken up before the election!!

i wish vindication felt better...but there are too many graves to feel good about this now!

and too many wounded innocent humans!

i want these bastards held on murder charges!! nothing less will do!

fly